Anthony Augustine

April 26th - Winnipeg Free Press

Comedian to Watch 250 Netflix Movies This Month, Wants Your Picks

Comedian Mark Malkoff has made a name for himself doing weird, attention grabbing stunts on the Internet. You may remember him from his YouTube videos, his Celebrity Sleepovers project (where he spent the night in various Hollywood stars’ homes), or from the time he moved into Ikea. Malkoff, a former writer for The Colbert Report, has a new project where he will try to get the most out of his Netflix account over the next month. “I’m curious to see how many films a Netflix subscriber can watch in a month,” he said. “Even more I want to see the best value I can get for my $7.99. If I watch 250 films, that works out to about 2.9 cents per film.” With over 400 hours of streaming video to watch during the project, Malkoff is taking suggestions through his Twitter and Facebook account and will be documenting the project on his blog. He is also trying to get some actors to watch some of their films with him, so don’t be surprised if he has some company over the next month.

Don’t Buy This Stuff Right Now

Buying new electronics can be a tricky task. When is the right time to upgrade that old TV that is taking up half your living room, that cellphone that can barely surf the Internet or that laptop that you have been wanting to get rid of for the last three years? You may not care about getting the latest, greatest gadgets, but there is value in knowing when the best time to buy certain electronics is. You could go out and blow your hard-earned cash, only to find out you could have got a thinner, faster, cheaper version of the TV, phone, laptop or digital camera if you had only waited a bit longer. Technology moves very quickly these days, but that doesn’t mean you have to get stuck into a cycle of overpaying for devices just because you didn’t do a bit of research beforehand. The person in the store or the website you are buying from only has one goal — to make sure you go home with something. Gizmodo quick breaks down when the best time to purchase electronics. This is the type of information the salesperson in the store isn’t going to offer to you on your shopping trip.

Pinvolve and Pinview

Whenever social media giant Facebook rolls out a new design, there is the inevitable backlash. The recent switch to Timeline’s incorporate features and design is no different. Users looking to have something unique, especially those that are addicted to the new web phenomenon, Pinterest, may want to try out two new web apps that allow you to view your Facebook page in a Pinterest board style view. Both Pinvolve and Pinview offer a unique ways to interact and view content on Facebook and might be a good alternative for those users who can’t get used to the Timeline design, but want something different from their social networking experiences.

Uptown Magazine - March 22nd

Netflix, Please Fix Your User Interface On… Everything
  For eight bucks a month, it’s easily to forgive Netflix’s faults. Sure, you wish there was better selection, but Canadians have somehow gotten used to having inferior products on the web and mobile devices. We always seem to get the watered-down version — that is, if we get a version at all (See: Hulu or Spotify). Netflix’s biggest issue in Canada might be lack of content, but the way the interfaces work across most platforms has been a problem, too. Even on the same device — a PS3, for instance — two separate users might have different features enabled. The experience is not consistent and it frustrates users who wonder why their friends have features they don’t. The interface for the XBox 360 is a nightmare, too. Because the video-streaming service is available on so many devices, it’s naturally going to be more difficult to keep everything uniform — but somehow Netflix has also managed to screw it up on individual platforms, too. 

Itchy & Scratchy
 Not sure why this supercut of all the Itchy & Scratchy segments from The Simpsons hasn’t been pulled from YouTube, but fire up this nearly 50 minutes of cartoon glory before the suits at Fox get worked up about it.

Hoopism
 Hoopism doesn’t crank out a lot of content, but its unique mix of data, analysis, visualization and insight is a refreshing change from all the other basketball sites out there. Whether you’re looking for information on how the public is betting in March Madness or how the rookies are stacking up against the stats of the past few years, or for an infographic of the condensed NBA season, Hoopism is worth a visit.

MP3 of the Week: Pezzner – Music for Dentistry Mix
 West Coast house producer Pezzner dials it down a few notches and gets weird and trippy on this new ambient mix, recently released on Soundcloud. A departure from his carefully crafted house vibe, Music for Dentistry features artists such as Pan Sonic, Laurent Garnier, Swod and Steve Reich. More DJs need to do this type of outside-the-box mix. 

Video of the Week:  Dinosaur Jr. Live (1991)
— The wall-of-sound freaks in Dinosaur Jr. shred through a quick set at the Monsters of Spex Festival on Aug. 24, 1991 in Koln, Germany. The tour was showcased in the documentary 1991: The Year Punk Broke and featured a Lou Barlow-less version of the guitar-worshipping band. 

Year in Review: December 29th - Uptown Magazine

Site of the Year: Dear Photograph 

dearphotograph.com — Dear Photograph pulls at the heart strings in just the right way. 
    
Runners up: Grantland.com, Longform.org 

Best Tumblr: Feminist Ryan Gosling

Feministryangosling.tumblr.com — With a cool Tumblr being created every few minutes it seems, this was a tough category to nail down, but Feminist Ryan Gosling was a big viral sensation in 2011.
    
Runner up: Awesome People Hanging Out Together

Best Meme: Tebowing 

tebowing.com — Tim Tebow has been the talk of the sports world lately, not just for his performance on the field for the Denver Broncos, but for always referencing God and openly praying in a way that has become known as Tebowing. Forget planking — it’s all about the big T. This crowdsourced site has examples of people Tebowing in some great locations, including all seven wonders of the world.
    
Runners up: Pepper Spraying Cop, Kim Jong-Il Dropping the Bass

Best Music Site: Soundcloud.com
    
Soundcloud has been described as a YouTube for music and, in many ways, that’s accurate. It has a very active community of users and, although it started out as a way for DJs and people in the industry to share music, it has become so much more. With streaming, embedding and downloading capabilities — and an effective mobile app that also allows listeners to record using their phone and instantly upload to the site — Soundcloud is on track to become one of the major players in the online music world.
    
Runner up: Last.fm 

Best Sports Site: Grantland.com
    
Backed by ESPN’s cash and stocked with  a crew of hip writers hand-picked by Bill Simmons, Grantland’s in-depth style may may not appeal to everyone, but it’s the No. 1 destination for discerning sports fans and pop culture junkies. The Fake Grantland Twitter feed is pretty awesome, too.
   
Runners up: Sportsfeat.org & Fiftymissioncap.ca

Most Useful Site: Lifehacker.com
    
If you’re a curious keener, do-it-yourself-er or someone like me who is constantly reading about how to get things done but never actually doing them, Lifehacker will be your new favourite site. From tech tips and DIY projects to personal improvement and a range of endlessly helpful lists, Lifehacker is a daily destination for all the right reasons.
    
Runner up: Howcast.com

Best Photo App: Instagram
    
You could say that camera apps such as Instagram are ruining photography (and that may be true), but you can’t deny the ubiquity of the photo-sharing community in 2011. 

Best Mobile Application: Flipboard
    
Cancel your magazine subscriptions and fire up Flipboard for your iOS device. This may be the first app that makes you think twice about spending all that cash every month on glossies — especially since you spend all your time reading stuff on your tablet or phone anyway.
    
Runner up: Instapaper

Most Improved Site: Netflix.ca
    
For $8 a month, it’s hard to complain about Netflix, but its selection definitely got better in 2011. New content providers and a wider selection means more customers — which will hopefully continue to translate into more even more partners coming on board the Canadian version. If you don’t think Netflix and streaming content is a big deal, try telling that to anyone with Blockbuster stock right now.

Biggest Tech Blunders: BlackBerry & Sony 
    
Between the mega flop that the BlackBerry Playbook has become, uninspiring phones and poorly timed network outages, Canada’s Research in Motion (RIM) had a tough year, followed closely by Sony. After a breach forced the company to shut down the Playstation network for an extended period, customers who use the PS3 as a way to purchase digital content were left wondering how long the service would be down and how safe their information was. Gamers were stuck in isolation or were firing up their Xbox to play online.
   
Runner-up: Netflix and its aborted Qwikster plan

Best Twitter Feed That Should Be a Reality Show: Paulina Gretzky

www.twitter.rs/PaulinaGretzky — Forget Shit My Dad Says, how has some TV producer not given Paulina Gretzky a reality show yet? Can you imagine how huge that would be? We already know she could provide some of the songs for the soundtrack. I suspect the Great One probably won’t allow it, but if I was a producer with CBC or MTV Canada, this would be my No. 1 priority in 2012.

Best Site Canadians Can’t Access: Turntable.fm
    
Social listening on sites such as Turntable.fm was a big trend in 2011, but you wouldn’t know it if you lived in Canada. Users north of the border are locked out of the collaborative, crowd-driven, Turntable.fm and have to use workarounds and pay-as-you-go-credit-cards to have access to some online streaming services such as Spotify.
    
Runner up: Spotify.com

Underachiever of the Year: Google+
    
With Facebook in a transition period and the fact that Google+ has some cool features, it’s too bad more users haven’t migrated to the latest social network in any serious way. Sure, people have signed up — but until a good chunk of their friends start to post and interact through the site, it’s going to remain a wasteland for tech geeks and early adopters. It’s currently the world’s biggest sausage party, but there is still hope it will turn around.