Author: Josh Wolford

People on YouTube are calling this clip racist. It’s not. But I can see how one might think that if they just kind of watched the first few seconds and didn’t really think about it.

Depressing is really the right word here. Watching people in a poor, developing country read the meaningless, inane bullsh*t spewed out by first-world celebrities is sad. I don’t know any of these Kenyans, but I think I’m safe in assuming that the woman reading Paris Hilton’s tweet about swimming, jet skiing, and working on her tan in St. Tropez doesn’t know much about swimming, jet skiing, and tanning in St. Tropez.

Remember that campaign that saw Haitians reading #FirstWorldProblems? Yeah, it kind of feels like that.

It’s kind of funny sometimes, I guess. But it mostly serves as a stark comparison between the first and third world. I don’t know if Jimmy Kimmel meant for it to come off like that, but it does.

If you want something with more funny and less sad but in the same spirit, check out Nick Offerman reading inane celeb tweets and celebs reading mean tweets about themselves.

As many Xbox LIVE users know, and Xbox LIVe Gold membership is required to utilize the Netflix app on the Xbox 360. Stupid or not, that’s how it is.

That’s all going to change this weekend – but for this weekend only. Microsoft is unlocking the Netflix app and making it available for all Xbox LIVE users, no matter their metallic status.

“Access to the Netflix app is unlocked this weekend on Xbox! Watch every episode of the new Netflix original series “House of Cards” premiering Feb. 1. Xbox will unlock the Netflix app, so all LIVE users with a Netflix subscription can watch all weekend long. (All Netflix regions),” says Major Nelson.

So it looks like a promotional thing for the new David Fincher/Kevin spacey political drama House of Cards, which premieres on February 1st. All 13 episodes of the new series will be available to stream at once – so you better be prepared for a marathon.

Here’s what you can expect from House of Cards:

Based on the British miniseries, ruthless and cunning, Congressman Francis Underwood (Oscar® winner Kevin Spacey) and his wife Claire (Robin Wright) stop at nothing to conquer everything. This wicked political drama penetrates the shadowy world of greed, sex, and corruption in modern D.C. Kate Mara (“American Horror Story”) and Corey Stoll (“Midnight in Paris”) costar in the first original series from David Fincher (“The Social Network”) and Beau Willimon (“The Ides of March”).

In other news, it’s seriously time for Microsoft to rethink the whole Xbox LIVE Gold requirement thing for apps like Netflix. Seriously.

Today, at Macworld / iWorld 2013, Ashton Kutcher talked playing the role of Steve Jobs in the upcoming film jOBS. In 1999, Noah Wyle (who played Jobs in Pirates of Silicon Valley) impersonated the iconic Apple co-founder at that year’s Macworld show.

The video quality is bad, but it’s worth a watch. As a bonus, Jobs himself comes out and tells him he’s doing it all wrong.

Starting soon, you’ll be able to give and receive an all-purpose, reusable Facebook Gift Card through Facebook’s Gifts platform. This physical gift card will be able to store gift amounts from various businesses, including Target, Jamba Juice, Olive Garden, and Sephora.

This “new type of gift card” is simply called the Facebook Card. It’s an actual gift card that you’ll get in the mail, pre-loaded with an amount from one of the retailers mentioned above.

The Facebook Card is part of Facebook Gifts, and that’s where you head if you want to give it to one of your friends. Once you open up Facebook Gifts, simply choose the “Gift Cards & Digital” category. Up until now, that category only offered iTunes gift cards and then various types of digital subscriptions – Hulu, Rdio, magazines, etc. When the ability to send a Facebook Card gift rolls out to you, you’ll see the aforementioned retailers listed in the category.

Once you select a gift card amount, let’s say $50 to Target, that amount will be loaded onto the Facebook Card and shipped to the recipient.

“Facebook Cards are reusable. After you’ve received a card, the next time you get a Facebook Card gift, it will instantly be added to your existing card. Your card can hold multiple gift balances, and each balance is dedicated to the retailer associated with the gift. For example, you might have gift balances of $100 at Sephora, $75 at Target, $50 at Olive Garden, and $8.25 at Jamba Juice,” says Facebook.

So the Facebook Card is like a giant, overarching gift card for your gift cards. At least, that’s what it could become once Facebook gets more retail partners. Let’s say you wanted to give someone a $25 gift card to Sephora for their birthday. Instead of going to the mall and picking up a specific Sephora gift card, all you’d have to do is give them the $25 gift via Facebook Gifts and it will pop up as an available balance on their Facebook Card.

Once this feature rolls out, users with Facebook Cards will be able to check their balances at various retailers in their Facebook account settings. You can also receive notifications whenever the balance on your Facebook Card changes.

So, Bill Gates was on The Colbert Report for the first time Wednesday night, presumably to promote the works of his massive philanthropic organization the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the recent release of his annual status letter. Colbert asked him if he was still the richest guy in the world (he’s not), why he’s not focusing his attention on ‘murica first (he is, with education), and whether or not he misses the day-to-day activities at Microsoft.

He also ended the interview asking Gates about Steve Jobs.

“I was lucky enough to meet Steve Jobs a few times,” said Colbert. “People always say ‘what a cool guy’ Steve Jobs was. And you’re out there saving the world, and yet, you don’t have the cool factor.”

“He was always cooler than me,” said Gates.

“Maybe saving the world will get cool,” said Colbert.

“It’s okay,” said Gates. “He was brilliant, he had his own style, he had his own approach. And mine is just a little geekier than his was.”

Check out the full interview below:

Some Twitter users may be having some trouble accessing the site. For others, the site is running but experiencing quickness issues.

Once again, Twitter has suffered a noteworthy outage.

Here’s what Twitter had to say on their Status blog:

Some users may be experiencing issues accessing Twitter. Our engineers are currently working to resolve the issue.

This is the third time this month that Twitter has had an outage serious enough to warrant posting about it on their Status blog. The first instance, on January 16th, was a pretty significant outage. Last Monday, the 21st, Twitter once again went down.

We now know the official release date of the highly-anticipated Grand Theft Auto V.

Rockstar has just announced that it will arrive in stores on September 17th, which I’m sure you know is a little bit later than originally thought.

Here’s what Rockstar had to say about the date:

We know this is about four months later than originally planned and we know that this short delay will come as a disappointment to many of you, but, trust us, it will be worth the extra time. GTAV is a massively ambitious and complex game and it simply needs a little more polish to be of the standard we and, more importantly, you require.

To all Grand Theft Auto fans, please accept our apologies for the delay, and our promise that the entire team here is working very hard to make the game all it can be. We are doing all we can to help ensure it will meet if not exceed your expectations come September – we thank you for your support and patience.

Here’s to the hoping the so-called “biggest open-world game to date” is worth the little extra waiting time.

Los Santos: a sprawling sun-soaked metropolis full of self-help gurus, starlets and fading celebrities, once the envy of the Western world, now struggling to stay afloat in an era of economic uncertainty and cheap reality TV. Amidst the turmoil, three very different criminals plot their own chances of survival and success: Franklin, a former street gangster, now looking for real opportunities and serious money; Michael, a professional ex-con whose retirement is a lot less rosy than he hoped it would be; and Trevor, a violent maniac driven by the chance of a cheap high and the next big score. Running out of options, the crew risks everything in a series of daring and dangerous heists that could set them up for life.

The September 17th release date is worldwide, and for the Xbox360 and PS3.

Jackie Robinson was a great baseball player, ending his career with a .311 battling average, 1,518 hits and 137 home runs. For that alone he would have been remembered. But as we all know, Jackie Robinson had a much more important role in history than simply good MLB player.

In 1947, Robinson debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in a move that people call “breaking the color line.” When Robinson stepped onto the diamond, he was the first black player to do so in the modern era. Not only was his inclusion seen as a step to ending racial segregation in Major League Baseball, but also as an important moment in Civil Rights history. In 1947, another black player in the American League named Larry Doby helped to break the color line as well.

In his impressive career, #42 played in six World Series, winning one in 1955. He was also a part of six straight All-Star games, from 1949-1954. Robinson won the National League MVP award in 1949 – the same year he won the NL batting title. On two separate occasions, Robinson had the most steals in a season. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962 on his first attempt.

Today’s Google Doodle is a classic tribute to one of the most important figures of the 20th century. Today is Robinson’s birthday, as he was born on January 31st, 1919.

Robinson died in 1972 of a heart attack at the age of 53.

I f-ing love Stratego. Let’s get that out of the way. When I think of Stratego, I remember childhood nights spent beating my grandfather in the classic game of capture the flag. HOW DID YOU NOT REMEMBER I HAD A BOMB THERE, PAPA? Of course, he totally remembered and he let me win every time. Still, my memories of Stratego are not adversely affected by that realization.

Well, Stratego fans: you can now play the game on your iPad (multiplayer and single player).

Keesing Games has just released the Official Stratego app for iPad. Yes, it’s just for iPad – not your iPhone or iPod touch. That’s probably for the best, considering there’s about 80 pieces on the board at the onset.

Stratego fans have been able to play on the Web and on Facebook for some time now, and the good news is that you’ll be able to cross-platform play with them on your iPad.

You’ll also have the ability to save your battle setups for quick play, and you can customize your pieces as well.

Unfortunately, I’ve not yet had the chance to play it. CNET calls the game “impressive, if imperfect” and has this to say:

“I…found Stratego to be pretty buggy, alternately crashing, producing error messages, or having trouble signing into Facebook. Plus, the AI is what I’d call overly aggressive, as it never forgets the location of your pieces (once revealed) the way a human would. I won’t say beating the AI is impossible, but at the very least the game should offer a choice of skill levels.”

But against real players, the game is much better.

The game costs $6.99, which is a little steep. But the multiplayer aspect and the ability to save loadouts, along with added achievements and customizable pieces should make it worth it for a hardcore fan of the game. Although, they may considering waiting a little bit to download the game – bugs could be fixed and that price could drop.

Twitter has begun to roll out some nice changes to profile pages that have to deal with the media they contain.

First off, Twitter is no longer making you leave the page to view photos when you click them from inside a profile page. Now, these photos should pop up in a lightbox. Another bonus to the new and improved photo-viewing experience is that the photos will also be bigger.

You’ll also see more video content inside the media galleries on the left-hand side of users’ profiles.

“Media galleries now include videos from Vine, YouTube, Vimeo, and other partners whose videos appear in expanded Tweets,” says Twitter.

Twitter also announced another cool update today. They’ve expanded individual tweet pages to allow users to scroll through all the replies – not just a handful. This is a long time coming and allows users to better explore the conversation stemming from popular tweets from popular users.

Twitter has just made an improvement to individual tweet pages that, to be honest, has been a long time coming. Now, users can scroll thorough every single reply made to a tweet, even if that tweet garnered dozens and dozens of replies.

Before, any single tweet page would only contain a handful of replies – even if the tweet received tons more. Starting today, you can simply keep scrolling down to see all replies.

Not only that, but you can also click each reply to see the replies to those original replies.

As Twitter points out, this functionality is especially useful when a popular user with tons of followers posts a tweets that asks for replies. Take for instance this tweet from Jimmy Fallon, who asked users to tweet embarrassing admissions with a particular hashtag.

You can now keep scrolling down to see more replies that you could before:

It seems like everything is getting the retro treatment these days – popular TV shows included. Today’s latest 16-bit-it project is Showtime’s hit drama Homeland.

The concept RPG, courtesy of CollegeHumor, starts off my letting you pump up your favorite characters’ attributes. Saul Berenson: Wisdom +10, Beard +10. Carrie Mathison: Sanity +1 (should probably be a bit lower).

From there we take an entertaining journey through Claire Danes’ cry face, PTSD rage punches, awkward car sex, and much much more. Spoilers lurk, if you haven’t ever seen an episode of the show.

[via College Humor]

Foursquare has just launched a new “Best of” page that makes use of nearly 3 billion check-ins from over 30 million users worldwide. The Best of Foursquare page breaks down the top food, nightlife, and entertainment across 30 major American cities.

Foursquare used a ton of data to compile these lists – tips, likes, dislikes, popularity, local expertise, etc. What they’ve come up with is an incredibly useful set of top-10 lists spanning tons of different venue categories.

You can start browsing the Best of Foursquare today.

Let’s say that I’m traveling to Houston, TX, for instance. Once I click on Houston, I’m presented with top-10 lists for food, nightlife, “things to do,” and steakhouses (each city has a different overarching set of lists). Each entry displays a photo, number rating (out of 10), and additional info like how many people are currently there or whether or not you or a friend has checked-in there.

I can see that the top bar in the city, based on all the Foursquare data points, is the Flying Saucer Draught Emporium. I can either click on the venue to go to its details page or I can quick-save the place to my to-do list.

If I choose, I can also narrow the list to “Best of” nightlife: beer or “Best of” nightlife: music venues. Same goes for food, which I can narrow down to view the top 10 Asian restaurants or Mexican restaurants in each city.

“One of the things our data shows is how each city is unique: Bostonians love seafood, Portland is a veggie paradise, and Philly may be the city of brotherly love, but what they really love is a good sandwich. Since no two cities are the same, each page is customized to help you get a feel for the local flavor,” says Foursquare.

If your business made it onto one of Foursquare’s various “Best of” lists, congrats! You can download a badge to show of your status as a Foursquare elite here.

The modern LEGO brick, as in the type of brick that will attach to any brick you buy in stores nowadays, was first patented 55 years ago this week. In celebration of this 55-year anniversary, design agency Brad has created 55 different pop culture posters that reference films, books, songs, and more using LEGO bricks.

The awesome minimalistic posters are featured in a new Tumblr blog called 55 years of the brick.

Each image features only a few lines and LEGO bricks to recreate famous cultural items. Take for instance this poster, which references The Matrix:

Get it? Red pill, blue pill.

Here are some more of my favorites. I’ll let you figure them out if you can. Some of them are pretty tough to solve.

[via PSFK]

Vimeo allows non-sexual nudity (anything expect explicit porn). Everybody knows that. It’s one of the things that sets it apart from other video streaming sites like YouTube.

Vimeo says that it’s a testament to their “unflinching belief in the integrity of visual storytelling,” because “one cannot ignore the naked, the violent, and the swearing when striving to capture the breadth of the human condition.” Amen to that.

But not all video ares suitable for all audiences, even if they do accurately depict the human condition. With that in mind, Vimeo is introducing new content ratings.

Starting today, you’ll see a new badge next to the title/artist info on all videos on the site. It will either read “mature,” “all audiences,” or “not yet rated.”

“This means we’ll ask creators to tell us if there’s nudity, violence, or illegal substances (e.g., plutonium) in their videos, which can still be uploaded to Vimeo as long as they comply with our Guidelines. For those who never upload videos with mature content, it’s easy to mark everything as appropriate for all audiences in your global video settings,” says Vimeo.

YouTube, for instance, has featured warnings on some videos that they have been restricted due to age guidelines and that they may contain mature content. Vimeo, who has always been known for allowing a little more artistic freedom should we say, isn’t limiting any of that. They’re just giving people an additional heads-up.

Since two of the best shows on TV (Game of Thrones and Downton Abbey) also have two of the best theme songs around, it only makes sense that someone would mash them up into one supersong.

Today is that day, and Sagar Jethani is your man.

The accompanying voice you’ll hear is Duncan, Mr. Jethani’s direwolf.

[h/t BuzzFeed]

According to the #1 NFL video game on the market, Ray Lewis, Joe Flacco, and the Baltimore Ravens will be the ones popping the champagne this Sunday.

This year’s Madden Super Bowl prediction sees the Baltimore Ravens edging out the San Francisco 49ers in a very tight game – 27 to 24. According to the simulation, the game comes down to a Justin tucker field goal. In this hypothetical game, Kaepernick mounts a final drive, but is ultimately foiled by an Ed Reed interception.

EA’s Madden has been predicting the outcomes of Super Bowls since 2004. In that time, they are 7 for 9. The only two predictions they got wrong were the Super Bowls won by Wild Card teams (Packers in 2011 and Giants in 2008). Last year, Madden correctly predicted that the Giants would beat the Patriots, though they didn’t get the score quite right (27-24 vs. reality’s 21-17).

And about the MVP? Flacco, all the way:

“Joe Flacco took home MVP honors completing 19 of 27 passes for 260 yards and two touchdowns. Flacco capped off an incredible postseason run that saw him defeat Andrew Luck, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Colin Kaepernick on the way to sending Ray Lewis out of the NFL with style,” says EA Sports.

Facebook is taking a step to better promote events and to help users make events more successful.

Some users have seen Facebook make an automatic suggestion for users to invite more friends to events, as soon as they RSVP to said event.

Upon RSVPing, a box will pop up telling users that “events are more fun with your friends. Invite people you know to come along.” Below that message, Facebook will suggest three guests based on the users’ friends. Clicking on the “invite” button will invite them immediately.

Users can also click “see more suggestions” to bring up three new friends to possibly invite.

This is currently just a test feature, as not all users are seeing to box when RSVPing.

This looks like Facebook has taken their “Suggested Guests” feature, first seen nearly a year ago, one step further. The Suggested Guests feature appears at the top right-hand corner of event pages and suggests friends to invite to the event. The Suggested Guests box will show up to anyone and everyone, as long as the event is open.

[via AllFacebook]

For the third year, Google is holding an international science fair for teens.

The Google Science Fair is a partnership between Google, CERN, LEGO, National Geographic, and Scientific American.

“For the past two years, thousands of students from more than 90 countries have submitted research projects that address some of the most challenging problems we face today. Previous winners tackled issues such as the early diagnosis of breast cancer, improving the experience of listening to music for people with hearing loss and cataloguing the ecosystem found in water. This year we hope to once again inspire scientific exploration among young people and receive even more entries for our third competition,” says Google.

It’s all about “finding the next generation of scientists and engineers.” And a chance for teens to compete for pretty sweet prizes, too, like a $50,000 scholarship, a trip to the Galapagos, hands-on experiences with CERN, $10,000 cash grant to the winnner’s school, and more.

The Google Science Fair will be accepting submissions from students aged 13 to 18 until April 30th. In June, Google will select 90 regional finalists (30 from North and South America, 30 from Asia, and 30 from Europe/Africa). Out of those 90, 15 will emerge as finalists and will be jetted to Google HQ in Mountain View.

On September 23rd, a panel of judges will pick the winners – one in each age category and an overall Grand Prize winner

You can check out slideshows from all the past winners here.

If you’re interested, you can head to the Google Science Fair hub to start your project.

I don’t know if Gangnam Style is completely dead yet. I’m not even going to comment on whether or not it should be. I don’t care if PSY said some anti-American crap one time. I also don’t care that this song is going to be stuck in my head for a day or two now.

Basically, this is really cool and probably took forever to construct – so it deserves a look. It’s multiple flip books, strung together to recreate the video for Gangnam Style, frame by frame. Creator of the video, YouTube user etoilec1, suggests that you watch the original video first so that you’ll have some reference. I don’t think that’s necessary. Everyone’s seen that video enough to know that this flip book nailed it.