Social Games

Microsoft has finally released Windows Live Essentials 2011, their suite of consumer applications designed to compliment Windows and compete against Apple's iLife software. Windows Live Essentials 2011 is only available for Windows Vista and Windows 7 and can be downloaded fro ...more

University video game design programs have been spreading like wildfire around the world over the last ten years. They allow students, researchers and game developers to work on their craft in an academic environment away from the harsh realities of the market, and have led to ...more

The United Kingdom has long been known as an international hub of yellow tabloid journalism. The News Of The World, one of the nation's largest tabloids, is famously in court right now because of the deplorable methods it used to acquire salacious information about interesting ...more

We've all seen FOX News commentators get worked up about silly non-issues. It occurs more than we'd like, but what happened last week on popular morning show FOX and Friends was not only a misleading and pointless attack on video games, it was an unintelligible attack on a med ...more

For as much money as they've made from North American video game audiences over the years, Japanese game developers don't seem to have very much faith in them. Dozens of great titles from their 40 years in the industry have appeared in Japan and across Europe, oftentimes even ...more

This week, we saw the implementation of collapsed comments, Google+ games were rolled out to everyone, and yesterday, there were several more announcements of enhanced features and tweaks. The Google+ Navigation Bar is Now Sticky As revealed by +Andy Hertzfeld, the gray Goog ...more

Many gamers see the film industry as the premier model that video games should follow, and it's no surprise. Movies are seen as the most legitimate and profitable of all artistic visual mediums, which is certainly qualities practitioners of any new medium would desire. Big bud ...more

It's been a great year for video games, kind of. Sure, the AAA release lineup has been a trainwreck and hacking has been a bigger problem than ever. But two things have happened involving the federal government that have made video games more legitimate in the United States th ...more

PopSci has compiled an amazing list of 30 college labs that would tempt anybody to re-enroll. If you know any high school juniors or prospective grad students, pass this along. They just might reconsider their initial choices. 30 courses are pictured below, click through to P ...more

Microsoft Ribbon hero is an application that turns the office into game. It is designed to boost skill and knowledge in Microsoft Office’s latest version. It is released with office 2007 as a social game for increases productivity in office applications. It is compatible with ...more

Dating sites are getting more and more culture specific, and this week's brand new girl + guy site offers a very specific service. Cute girls are paid to play video games. Gamer dudes pay to play with them. GameCrush is already so popular, the server is currently down due to ...more

Hello, fellow Null Byters. Today, with mixed feelings, I want to let you know that this is my last official post as the admin of Null Byte. I've come to the decision that I need to spend more time focusing on my studies. Over the past 5 months, I have enjoyed building this co ...more

Laptops are almost a necessity in today's society. It doesn't help that a laptop that can actually increase your work productivity will put at least a $1,500 dent in your wallet. I'm sure you have searched around to try to find factory direct deals, or (shiver) even looked at ...more

There are a lot of fantastic video games out there. Indie Games Ichiban's bread and butter is making sure that you steer clear of the bad ones and embrace the good. But really, the biggest goal here is to help everyone have more fun. To that end, today a game is not recommende ...more

The UK print media has been yellower than the middle traffic light for a long time now. The News of the World scandal has cast that into particularly sharp relief of late. The Sun, one of the biggest newspapers in the United Kingdom, demonstrated it again last week when they r ...more

Minecraft is the most basic and barren open sandbox building game. There are a limited number of materials and recipes to craft. But with these few building blocks, people have been able to creatively build some amazing structures and cities. There is a physical limitation, bu ...more

When you grab a video game off the shelves, finding love is probably not your end goal. Most games focus on letting the player shoot guys, order other guys to shoot guys, or build houses. Mass Effect 2 comes closer than most titles to offering virtual romance, but the relation ...more

There are endless possibilities for eReaders, and lots of amazing things are already happening. But wow-worthy visual tricks aside, how can technology really change the way we consume books? In the video below design company IDEO presents three separate concepts for virtual co ...more

There is an abstinence game being created by the University of Central Florida with $400k+ of taxpayer money. The game is directed at middle school girls to help them handle and cope with sexual advances. From the article: Fox News Orlando reports that the University of Cent ...more

There is a wonderful site that just launched with the youth sports community in mind. The site is http://YouthSportTravel.com , a collaboration of youth sports coaches and a major online travel brand. They offer arguably the best prices on hotel and motel rooms anywhere. For p ...more

WonderHowTo is made up niche communities called Worlds. If you've yet to join one (or create your own), get a taste below of what's going on in the community. Check in every Wednesday for a roundup of new activities and projects. This week: A double exposure cell phone photog ...more

Both Google+ and Facebook are competing for your time and space, and your commitment to one social network. To make their spaces more attractive to you, they've both made it easier for you to deal with people you don't like or don't care for. Ignore People on Google+ In Goog ...more

BioShock is one of the best games of all time. It combines FPS gameplay with RPG storytelling and supports multiple systems better than any other game, that much is for sure. And the setting of its amazing story is a place called Rapture, a high-tech libertarian colony at the ...more

Facebook games are ostensibly all about connecting their players. Yet, in many ways they exist on an isolated island. That's one of the reasons traditional gamers and game franchises have avoided Facebook in the past. And all of the breakout hits so far on Facebook have been c ...more

Minecraft was first released just a few years ago, but when a paradigm-shifting piece of media comes along the rest of the world is quick to take inspiration from it. The absolutely terrible XBLA knock-off FortressCraft was the first, and last month a much more interesting gam ...more

What happens when a person who has never played a building sandbox game tries it for the first time? Reality happens. The harsh reality of human nature. You would think playing with friends in a creation game would be utopia, but in truth it's more like being stuck with people ...more

So what's all the fuss about World of Warcraft? I guess the first question would be 'is there a fuss?' and the simple answer is Yes there is, very much so. World of Warcraft now has over 12 million subscribers, it is by far the most popular MMORPG (massively multiplayer onli ...more

Final Fantasy 14 the MMO is now live. The special edition priced at $75 enables people to play eight days earlier than people getting the regular edition, which comes out on September 30th. Mine arrived yesterday and here are some pictures of what's inside the special edition ...more

What separates Metro 2033 from other FPS games? Life. There are underground towns, markets, children, music, and so much background chatter than sometimes you can't single out a particular conversation. Most FPS, especially American shooters, are streamlined for Adventure and ...more

Innovative or downright frightening? Popsci examines five of the world's scariest science experiments-in-progress. Suitcase Nukes "Scientists are trying to develop pure-fusion reactions—bursts that don’t require uranium or plutonium to ignite—for clean energy. But they could ...more

Today, we're pleased to announce that WonderHowTo is getting a major site-wide update to make it easier to follow the subjects you're passionate about and to share your creations with people who will give you the kudos you deserve! We Built You a New WonderHowTo! In preparat ...more

Three years ago, Scrabble was one of the very first 500 mobile applications to appear on the new iTunes App Store, allowing iPhone users the chance to kill their Scrabble cravings on the go. It was a smart move for Hasbro and Electronic Arts (EA), but it's been two years and e ...more

Spam is everywhere and Facebook is no exception. In fact, spammers are constantly stepping up their game by tricking unsuspecting Facebook users to participate in quizzes, games, apps, or "new features" that are actually dangerous computer viruses, spyware, or other trojan hor ...more

Making your way into an online community can be really exciting. Some life-long friendships and lasting romances begin in humble chat rooms and message boards. But for the novice internet user, one of the biggest hurdles can be trying to figure out just what people are saying ...more

What happened to please and thank you? When did asking someone to come look at your build degenerate into COME NOW or FOLLOW or sending out teleport requests to any and all currently on the server without asking? Phillip Chan, a yahoo network contributor wrote this back in 20 ...more

Law enforcement can make a lot of folks cringe. Too often do we hear on the news, and even experience in our own lives, the unjust way that an unacceptable portion of law enforcement treat the very citizens they are supposed to protect. People's rights are violate each and eve ...more

+Tom Anderson of MySpace has been very active on Google+ over the first week, and he's not shy with his thoughts on the evolution of the industry he once owned. Here's his take on this morning's Facebook announcement and Mark Zuckerberg's response when asked about Google+. To ...more

Social network fatigue sets in when it starts to feel impossible to keep up with all that new content from your friends, followers, and acquaintances on a daily basis. You lose track of stuff you wanted to read more about, and you miss important news from your friends, but are ...more

+Nik Cubrilovic discovered last week that Facebook could track your web activities even after you logged out of your Facebook account. After some blatant denials from Facebook spokespeople, Facebook decided to fix the logout issue, but not before +Michael Arrington, on his new ...more

Now that it's been a week since Google+ rolled out pages, we've gotten over our euphoria at finally getting the feature after a long wait, and reality is starting to sink it. It's not as flexible as a Facebook page, it seems to be time consuming, and you can't even get a uniqu ...more

I want to write this article because in my childhood, I had experienced internet stalking which ultimately ended in physical stalking which then lead to several attempted abductions. I have now learned how to use the internet safely, who to communicate with and I've learned ho ...more

Feeling comfortable or at home means living in an atmosphere where you are accepted. Some people moving abroad worry about getting adjusted to the new social environment or the western culture. You may have left your home to make big business, excel in your career, get married ...more

Obesity has ballooned into a worldwide epidemic. The World Health Organization estimates that 2.3 billion adults will be overweight and 700 million will be obese by 2015. Over 20 million children are overweight today. The reasons for these distressing figures are common knowle ...more

While there aren't as many ways to customize your iPhone like there is on Android, there are still a lot of apps out there that can help streamline and enhance your experience beyond Apple's own default options — and we've hand-picked over 100 essentials. No matter if you've ...more

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus has practically guaranteed that the virus, along with the phrases "social distancing" and "flattening the curve," will rank among the top search terms of 2020. USA Today combined the phrases in its latest augm ...more

A side effect of the COVID-19 pandemic is that small businesses are suffering from forced closures and social distancing, but game developer Niantic has a solution. In addition to donating proceeds from Pokémon GO Fest ticket sales (at least $5 million) to fund projects from ...more

Despite the fact that over 600,000 Snap Lens filters have been created since Lens Studio debuted in 2017, and Facebook is reporting that more than a billion users have interacted with its Spark AR filters across Facebook properties, social augmented reality filters get a bad r ...more

Ever since the planet went crazy trying to find augmented reality creatures in Pokémon GO, we've been waiting for the next virtual object game capable of delivering a similar hit. And now, we might finally have one coming, direct from the magical world of Harry Potter. The ne ...more

There is no shortage of games for your iPhone, and I'm sure you and your friends are probably sick to death of playing Candy Crush Saga by now. To spice things up, instead of waiting for cool new addicting games to come out, take control and make your own, then share them with ...more

It's almost here. Another year has come and gone, and it's time to watch the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers battle it out in New Orleans for Super Bowl XLVII. For the truly football-obsessed, this Sunday is a day almost as exciting as Christmas. Personally, I jus ...more

Your childhood "social networking" may have been to go outdoors to the neighbor's — and outdoors is a great place for kids to be. But these days, the terms educational, digital media, entertainment, and toddlers don't have to be mutually exclusive. Like most things in life, it ...more

When it's hard to hear what's being said, subtitles give you clarity where audio falls short. Thanks to Android 10, your Galaxy S20 now lets you enable a live transcription of your phone's internal audio stream, meaning you can get closed captions in virtually any app — even i ...more