HDR of some “castles”.

A couple recent shots of bridges on the way to Okemo Mountain in Ludlow, VT.

Being a web developer I am forced to download every available browser possible in order to make sure all my sites are working properly. This is usually not a good thing, there’s almost nothing worse than finding out some of your coding doesn’t work properly in a browser you never want to use anyways. However, after downloading Flock I almost choked on my own saliva out of surprise. After regaining my composure I quickly set this new amazing piece of software as my default browser, here’s why:

1. Social Networking
Flock is exactly what it has labeled itself as: The Social Networking Browser. There are two unique toolbars to this browser. The first, located vertically along the right side allows the user to log into several different social networking sites and control them via the toolbar. These sites include, but are not limited to, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Delicious, Digg and much much more. What does this mean? Well now you can instantly see your friends status updates, save your delicious bookmarks, etc etc without ever visiting the corresponding websites. It brings social networking to the next level.

2. Photostreams
The second nifty toolbar unique to Flock is the media stream located horizontally along the top of the browser. Like the sidebar, this one can be easily opened and closed so it is only available when you want it to be. The media bar allows you to instantly subscribe to your friends photostreams from multiple sources such as Flickr, Facebook, Photobucket, MySpace and much more. Now you can instantly see updated photos from all your favorite galleries without ever having to navigate to another website. Not only that, but you can hover the image for a larger view with comments, or click the image to go directly to the URL.

3. Feeds
Flock has made it even easier to subscribe to your favorite feeds, as if it was not easy enough. Their nifty feed section allows you to subscribe, categorize and view all the feeds you want. Staying updated has never been so much fun.

4. Photo’s
Once you are logged into your Flickr, Photobucket, Picasa, Myspace, Facebook, etc accounts, You can open the built in photo uploader and literally drag and drop your photos to the designated window. Once you have them selected Flock allows you to select which social network you would like to upload your photos to.

5. Sharing
While your out browsing your favorite sites, if you stumble upon something great that must be shared with your friends there is no reason to wait with Flock. You can easily drag and drop photos and links directly onto your friends icons located on the sidebar and have the content instantly sent to them through whichever social network you choose. No more copy and pasting, no more saving and resizing, just drag, drop and send.

Those are my top 5 reasons for defaulting Flock as MY browser. While it is still in its beginning stages, and does have a few quirks here and there, I still highly recommend trying it out for yourself.

Go Flock Yourself!

This is a small vector illustration of a thumbtack. Crazy, I know!! Go ahead, use it for a website and be trendy, I dare you.

Click Here to Download the Zip

There are no Terms of Use, its Free.. USE IT!

I was a bit late jumping onto the Fable 2 bandwagon because of lack of funds among other things. Also, I was never truly impressed by the debut of the original Fable after it’s long awaited arrival. However, after playing the sequel for a few days I am becoming more and more impressed with Lionheads work of art.

Fable 2 is set in the lands of Albion. A beautiful and creative land with unique characteristics around every turn. The detail put into the landscape is truly remarkable. Everything is animated and stylized in this beautiful fantasy land. The trees sway, the birds chirp and the sun gleams off of the river water. I could spend hours just wandering the lands of Albion, but they make it impossible to do so because of so many fun temptations in the game.

I could go on an on about the characters built into Fable 2. While you may hear similar voices around town, and yes, some NPC models do look a bit similar to each other, the NPC AI is remarkable. Why, just the other day I was purchasing something to drink from the barkeep and from the corner of my eye I noticed another customer wander in, pull out a chair, sit down, pull the chair forward and have a drink. There were no flaws or quirks in his movement, it was almost as if he were really alive.

Aside from the enormous lands to explore, quests to follow, ladies (or men) to entice, enemies to fight, houses to buy, shops to own, clothing to dye, etc, etc etc… Fable 2 also offers much more! Custom games are offered at various game masters around the world. Hidden treasure lies within reach of your shovel and you pet dogs keen ability to sniff it out. Chickens wander the streets just waiting to be kicked! There really is too much to talk about in one review of this game, the fact of the matter is, you must play it for yourself. There are even screenshots up already for the first DLC waiting to be released.

I give this game 5 out of 5 stars. Two thumbs up and a big slap on the back.

The other day after driving 4 hours in a horrible blizzard, I came to the quick realization that I must have dropped my phone into the snow upon exiting my car. Needless to say the plow came by and.. well.. I needed a new phone.

I visited my local Verizon store and picked up my very own new Motorola Z6tv. I had recently been using the Chocolate for the past 2 years, and while I was never very fond of the touch screen and quirkiness of the phone, I really loved the slider style.

The Z6tv is a great slider phone. It has much more weight to it than the Chocolate, which makes holding this puppy in your hand feel really good. Its packed full of goodies, including a fully functional TV service if your willing to pay for it. I for one will never use the TV, because the thought of watching a 2×3″ screen for over 30 minutes gives me a headache. However.. the fact that its available is a nice thought.

There are a couple other features that really shine on this piece of hardware though. The 2 megapixel camera can function on both landscape and portrait mode. Meaning you can flip the phone on its side and it comes close to feeling like a real camera. The quick shutter makes this a great camera phone for any photo geek.

The Z6tv also has a fully functional music player. Taking advantage of the mini SD cards, you can pack this baby full of all your favorite tunes. Slap on a pair of 2mm headphones, or purchase the 3.5mm adapter and you’ve got yourself a personal MP3 player. Also, the external speaker on the phone gets surprisingly loud and clear so you can share your favorite songs with the entire room!

For anyone out there looking for a good phone with camera and music capability, and love the sleek slider style, the Motorola Z6tv is the phone for you.