The service is simply amazing, and so very easy to use. Simply create an account at their website, then download the iPhone app from the App Store (free). You can then create simple voice recordings using your iPhone or iPod Touch and upload them to AudioBoo. The quality and clarity of the recordings is stunningly good. You can even have AudioBoo automatically post a link to your recordings via Twitter or Facebook.

I just signed up today for AudioBoo, and I’ve made my first recording. You can hear all of my boos on my AudioBoo page.

In the big picture of life, this game is meaningless, and really serves no purpose whatsoever. But it is quite fun to check in on, and can become quite addicting. If you use Facebook, try adding this app. Mouse Hunt was rated 4.9 out of 5 stars after over 1000 votes on Facebook. That makes a pretty good case for giving it a try.

Fast-forward to today, and I’m hooked on Facebook! I prefer it to MySpace by about 10-to-1. I’ve become addicted all all of the apps you can add to Facebook. I’ve come to enjoy apps like: Word Challenge, Pieces of Flair, The Hatchery, Super Wall, Battle Masters, SimmBook, and so on. I find myself signing in several times a day to check up on things and to boost my standings.

The recent addition of integrated instant messaging in Facebook has only sweetened the deal. It works very well. I like being able to see at a single glance if I have any friends online, regardless of what page I’m viewing on the site.

While MySpace has grown stale to me, Facebook is evolving. I’ve read a few articles predicting a type of “Facebook fatigue” would eventually set in for most users. So far, for me, this has not been the case.

Once you enable page themes, you are able to preview and choose themes from a cool AJAX-style slider. Of course, you can go with no theme, while still using the new layout. This new layout reminds me a lot of Facebook, especially after MySpace added friend updates, and other such goodies which I have been accustomed to with Facebook. Spaces are organized neatly, and the ads seem to be a little more tame. I really can’t say if the ads are calmer in their content, but their placement feels less intrusive than previously. I think MySpace has finally evolved into something actually usable.

I often log on to IM services (usually with AOL and Yahoo). I don’t use the native software for any of them. I don’t need to, but keep in mind that in order to do some advanced features, you may need to use the actual native programs. Ads, feature bloat, and memory hogging are the mean reasons why I don’t download a one of them. I usually use an all-in-one chat program, such as Trillian (Win), Adium (Mac), and Gaim (now called Pidgin), which lets me log on to most any network there is today. But you really don’t need to install any of these programs. You can chat with all of your buddies on any service via Meebo. I used it exclusively when I first bought my Mac. I found that I really didn’t need anything more.

It has all the features you need and it works fantastically. You’ll soon forget you are using a website at all. You can sign on to any single chat service outright, but if you use more than one, I recommend creating a Meebo username so you can store all of your accounts under one roof. That way you need only sign on to their site with a single username and password.

I hear they have a sweet new mobile version of the site as well, for phone users. I have no interest in that, but if you want to sign on to your account from anyone’s computer, or your own at home without all the feature bloat, try Meebo. You won’t be disappointed. It finally does for instant messaging what webmail has done for email. All of your friends and contacts are automatically pulled from the server for each service, so absolutely no effort is required. Let’s hope this service is around for years to come.

Second Life is more sophisticated than There. Not only are the graphics better, the application itself is a lot more grown up. It loads and responds quickly, despite its very advanced features. A plethora of options are available, detailing every aspect of your Second Life experience. The interface and controls are less cartoonish than There’s offering. The software feels tighter, more responsive, and runs smoother with less system resources. At least that is my experience. Controlling the software’s use of resources, graphics detail, and networking are all easy to change in the preferences. Updates come out regularly, some of which are optional, and some of which are required in order to log in. I have had the application crash once (on my Mac). This was unsettling, but the program generated an error report which was immediately sent to the creators to help identify software bugs.

Second Life uses Linden dollars, which are purchased using real life money. There are ways to earn Linden dollars, but that is beyond the scope of this post. To date, I have not had any need for any currency. In contrast to There, where you have to pay a one-time membership fee to utilize advanced features (such as voice, setting landmarks, etc.), with Second Life, most of this is available at no cost. You can customize your head, body, and clothing in stunning detail. There is no need to purchase anything unless you want to acquire some new items and fabrics beyond your original set. You can buy and sell land, and rent space for online business. Why anyone would need to do any of that is beyond me. For example, I have read you can rent an apartment and things like that. I do not understand what that is for. Why would one need a residence when you can do anywhere you want? Not to mention that a lot of the space in Second Life is deserted.

Flying is incredible in Second Life. There is no need to buy a jetpack or take out a machine. Simply tapping the Home key on your keyboard makes you soar up into the air, where you can then fly around Superman-style. Flying around is my favorite aspect of the entire Second Life experience. Everyone can do this in an instant. I love it! It far surpasses the way you have to get around in There. Your avatar flies around fast, but often travels more quickly than the graphics are able to fill in around you. It is not uncommon to be flying through the air, only to smack into a wall that hasn’t yet loaded. While that can be frustrating, it just comes with the territory.

As with There, this 3D world leans heavily on your Internet connection, as all graphics, sounds, communications, and worldly details must be transferred to your computer as you travel. No matter how powerful your PC or connection, you’ll never experience the same performance as you would playing a 3D game that is installed locally. That is just the way it is. You can help matters by turning off music or video streaming, or limiting their bandwidth.

There are a lot of places to go in Second Life, and many things to see. The landscape is ever expanding and changing. A few major companies are setting up virtual shops in Second Life. Dell is one of these companies. I went to their online store. You can sit down at a workstation and customize a PC to purchase in the real world. While this is really, really cool, I have doubts that I’d purchase a product this way. It simply isn’t as informative or reliable as a traditional two dimensional web page. Still, I applaud the effort by Dell and others.

I think Second Life is the best 3D virtual world available today. If you are interested, try this one out. Chatting, traveling, teleporting, and gesturing are all much easier than what There has to offer, in my opinion. And you can enjoy yourself without spending a single cent. Still, the fun wears off after a while. Besides exploring and occasionally chatting with strangers, I am not sure what you are supposed to do. After the initial trials, it is fun now and again, but unless there are more users logged in and more events, you’ll find yourself bored sooner or later. It will be interesting to see how the new “3D Internet” (as I have heard it called) will pan out in the future. Second Life already has a great foundation for this already in place. People all over the world are scheduling meetings and training classes using it. While this type of thing has a niche market, I doubt that the average computer user will want to interact with the world in this way. Time will tell.

My biggest irk with the website is that I have an old email account listed as my address and it is a mailbox that I disabled and cannot access anymore. In order to change my email with MySpace, they send me a permission request message to my current address that must be verified before I can change my address. Well, this does not work for me. I can’t access that account, you dummies! They used to have a link next to that information saying that if you couldn’t access that account, to click to write customer service. I did that at least twice over a period of two months and never got a single response. Astonishingly, they even ask you to include your MySpace password when writing customer service! What?! That is not cool. Against my better judgment, I did just that (just to try to get the job done), but still I never heard a word from them or ever got my address changed. Therefore, I don’t get any notifications via email from MySpace, so I have to log in from time to time to find out for myself.

I don’t really use MySpace much at all. I don’t know how it is so popular and remains one of the most visited sites on the web. I am a little surprised. Granted, I don’t use every nook and cranny of the site, but there isn’t much to do when I’m on there. Apart from it being easy to find my old friends on the site, if I want to correspond with them, I’ll send a regular email. I don’t want to use the half-assed MySpace mail, which is crummy and where old messages are automatically purged. Posting comments is a nice gesture now and again, but you can’t easily communicate two ways doing that. I guess I don’t use most of their offerings because I have better ones elsewhere.

There are a lot of other things that annoy me, too. Creating and choosing a theme for your page has never improved, and is as difficult as ever. The service should not rely on third party sites to provide HTML code for you to copy and paste in order to change your page’s appearance. That is ridiculous. Also, the video ads I see plastered all over the site are very annoying, and are just a waste of my time and resources. Seriously, the number, size, and frequency of the ads on the MySpace site are enough to turn me off after just minutes of being signed in. They are flashy and cheesy like the ones back in the day when Internet ads first got started, like “punch the monkey” and stupid junk like that.

All in all, the service doesn’t feel very polished. It feels like a work in progress, and that progress is slow moving. I think the website needs a total overhaul, personally.

To enhance There, pay a visit to the Thumdar website. On this site, you can download add-ons and make use of scripts to alter the There environment. So far, I have only tried the sound replacements, but the amount of stuff to tinker with is intriguing. Also on their site, they have a complete list of all the emotes that can be used in There. Not all of them work for me, leading me to believe that I need to use a Thumdar add-on to enable the entire list. I don’t yet know how easy it is to uninstall these add-ons.

If you want to ratchet up your skill levels, search the Groups for “Whippaa’s Hillside Mansion.” Once you are invited in, it keeps your avatar from going to an away status when you are not using the computer. While in the mansion, jump on your board, backpack, or bike and walk away from the computer. When you come back later, the game will have raised your skill rating on that particular item, thinking you were really using it the whole time. As you raise your skill rating, you are awarded more freebies, and ultimately increase your There FunPass. The other day I earned a silver FunPass! For more for tips and tricks, visit Therefan.com.

In fact, I like it more now than when I first began. It takes some getting used to. You learn shortcuts after a while. One worth mentioning is that to make a gesture in chat, such as a laugh or a wave, simply type the command ‘wave or ‘smile. It’s easier than using the mouse if you are already typing.

There.com is an incredibly easy way to meet people. Everyone I have met has been very positive and helpful with my learning how to use it and offering ideas. Unlike old-school chat rooms, this 3-D world has hoards of people standing or walking around. People freely walk up and exchange words all the time. You can join games and competitions, too. My only problem is that I have found that most everyone I meet is a lot younger than I am. At 30, I guess I am in the older bracket of users who try this kind of stuff out.

Last week, I bit the bullet and upgraded my free account to become a premium member. It is well worth it. It is only a one-time fee of $9.95. With that you get a lot, including favorites, a compass, and voice chat. I was stunned when the voice chat first turned on. I could hear people talking into their headsets who were standing nearby. You can’t get this in the free version. It takes it to a whole new level. Since you only pay that one time, I would suggest doing it. Also, as a free member, I used to be locked out of half of the places on the map. No longer. I can own property, attend auctions, and go anywhere I want now.

I also picked up a hover bike which has been wonderful. It helps me get around everywhere much faster and also rides uphill, nearly in a vertical state if you are on a steep slope. One frustrating feature of There is that some areas are designated “No Dropping Zone”. Which means you cannot pull out your hoverboard, buggy, or whatever. Sometimes this is not clearly indicated.

I installed There on my Dell notebook computer, which is faster than my older desktop PC. It ran great, but I noticed that the computer was getting very hot from the constant activity. I eventually decided to use my desktop computer when I want to log on. It takes a lot out of the computer and I notice that the hard drive is usually very busy. I thought that over time, I may wear out the small drive that is in my notebook. Also, I’ll mention that it would probably be wise to have a 7200 RPM speed drive to keep things smooth.

See you There.

There.com requires you to download the software before you sign-in. From what I understand, the software is based on ActiveX (which explains why Internet Explorer is the only browser supported) and naturally, you must be connected to the Internet at all times to use it. The initial download will be around 60 MB in size, but it ultimately consumes nearly 400 MB once installed on the computer. There is so much to the service that it isn’t surprising that it takes so much space and computer resources.

There are many things to do in There.com, from chatting with friends and strangers, to games, puzzles, paintball, driving, flying, and so on. You personalize your online character with hair styles, clothes, accessories, and more. Everything you do in the game involves moving around in the virtual world. For example, when editing your body characteristics, you must first walk or teleport to a spa.

The game has a wealth of items and surroundings to experiment with. Some items are not free and must be purchased using ThereBucks, the money system in the There.com world. You can earn ThereBucks by participating in events, trading with others, or adding them using real cash. One real world dollar buys you 1,900 Therebucks. The game developers have even provided users with a developer program, used to create new items and material for the game. If your creations meet their standard of quality, they will buy it from you and pay you in ThereBucks.

The concept behind this whole thing is absolutely amazing. It is very creative and turns the idea of two dimensional text chat into a thing of the past. I don’t know how long the fun of There.com will last, but for now, I am having a great time. Try it yourself. The basic membership is free. Just be prepared to lose a whole lot of your free time.

]]> http://www.blitzcraig.com/blog/85/feed 0 http://www.blitzcraig.com/blog/67 http://www.blitzcraig.com/blog/67#comments Sun, 13 Aug 2006 14:40:40 +0000 Craig http://www.blitzcraig.org/blog/2006/08/13/myspace/ My jury is still out on my feelings about MySpace. By now, I assume you know what MySpace is. I like the idea behind it. Everybody can post pictures and info about themselves and find info on others. I have found a few old friends by using MySpace. The good thing about it is that since it is by far the most popular social networking site, pretty much anyone who uses such a thing would have a profile on MySpace. The bad thing is that the service needs a lot of work.

The problem is that the service is slow, and so full of ads and clutter, it gets bogged down. Creating graphics and styled pages for your profile is unexplained and difficult work. Too many profiles have audio and video files that play automatically when you view the page. In a short while, all of its bells and whistles become overpowering and obnoxious. Searching for people, the whole point of the site, is usually slow and cumbersome.

Beyond finding friends, I am not sure what else to do with it. Once I finally figured out how to spruce up my profile, and had added most my friends, there isn’t anything else to do. The mail and instant messaging features leave a lot to be desired. I just want to find people on the service and then use regular email and IM software to communicate. Browsing random profiles is somewhat fun, but the site is mostly filled with teenagers who post the stupidest crap.

I don’t know if MySpace will survive ultimately. I want a better, sleeker service to come along and take over. MySpace is too junk-filled to actually be useful. Of course, the more social networking sites that crop up, the more spread out everyone is. I like that there is one big game in town, but MySpace needs an overhaul.

Link: My profile on MySpace.