Google doodles are great, aren’t they?

Back in June, I wrote a feature for PC Pro detailing – in my opinion – the ten most iconic Google doodles to date. But after today’s effort, I think we may have a new contender for the coveted #1 position.

Visitors to Google on the 23^rd November will no doubt have noticed the robot-themed interactive epic that replaced the traditional multi-coloured company logo. And, intended to mark the 60^th anniversary of the first publication by sci-fi author Stanislaw Lem, today’s doodle is most certainly the most elaborate yet.

Through the doodle, users accompany an oddly dressed character (presumably Lem) as they come face to face with a giant robot. There’s a challenge in the style of a broken calculator that needs to be completed before Lem can continue. Other puzzles also feature.

After a lengthy but enjoyable visual story, this particular Google doodle reveals a message indicating that the art work on display was inspired by Daniel Mroz’s illustrations for a series of short stories published by Lem – The Cyberiad.

Updates are pushed in real-time, users can ping messages back and forth through the use of mentions (or @ replies, as they’re known) and Twitter even accommodates sensitive communication, through the use of direct messages.

It could be argued that Twitter is overly saturated with conversational tools, but Bonfire.IM would disagree.

A multi-browser web plugin, Bonfire.IM cleverly adds an instant messaging element to the Twitter service, as an alternative to direct messages. The IM service operates in a very similar fashion, requiring both users to be following one another, but once that’s out the way, Bonfire.IM closely resembles the Facebook Chat that we’ve grown to love.

If a mutually following Twitter user is online, they’ll show a green light next to their name. Clicking on said name will then initiate a conversation tab on the bottom of the browser, akin to the Facebook style, with no need to navigate away from the Twitter web page.

There’s no hiding the fact that Bonfire.IM closely resembles Facebook Chat, but Bonfire.IM’s Founder Josh Russell happily embraces this fact, even describing the service as “Facebook chat for Twitter”.

The introduction of this service will certainly help to eliminate some of the ‘chat clutter’ that affects the social network, evident when two people you follow are having a long-winded public conversation together through the use of @ mentions. This would be reliant on both individuals adopting the service, though.

There has also been much speculation about the value this service could provide for social networking accounts maintained by businesses, who could offer customer service support directly through Twitter; privately, and in real-time.

“We’re building Bonfire to service as many people as possible, and we have that in mind when considering every feature,” said Josh Russell.

The launch of Bonfire.IM comes at a time when Twitter are in the midst of rolling out their new ‘Activity Feed’ – a real-time update service that allows you to follow the actions of your fellow users, including a list of people that they’ve recently followed and any tweets that they’ve added to their favourite lists.

Again, this feature appears to be very similar (at first glance) to Facebook’s news feed. As such, Twitter, through corporate development and third-party plug-ins, looks set to tackle the social networking giant head on, in the war of functionality and features. As for how successful they’ll be, only time will tell.

Faerber and Oberdorster – the pair behind 4S is 4Steve

Apple fan or not, there’s no denying that Steve Jobs was an innovator when it came to technology. Described by many as a ‘visionary’, Jobs was largely responsible for the success of the Apple brand and the development of the multimedia tools that we take for granted today; the iMac, iTunes, iPod, iPad and, of course, the iPhone.

In memory of the man, his vision, and to help promote the discovery of a cure for the pancreatic cancer that ultimately led to his death, a tribute website has been setup cleverly titled 4S is 4Steve.

Selling t-shirts embroidered with the ‘4S is 4Steve’ slogan, in a variety of colours, all proceeds are split between two relevant charities; firstly for the ongoing research, patient support and advocacy for a Cure for Pancreatic Cancer, and secondly to promote children’s education through exploration and discovery in the soon to be opened Golisano Children’s Museum of Naples, Florida.

Since its launch on the 14^th October, a day before the global release of the iPhone 4S, 4S is 4Steve has received much attention. And following demand, there are currently four t-shirt variations available for purchase, each also sporting a different quote from Jobs. Orders placed within the US cost $22 and international orders ring in at $30.

Amicably, 100% of the proceeds gained through the sale of t-shirts will be donated to charity, making 4S is 4Steve an entirely not-for-profit venture. And with “paying tribute and giving back” as the website motto, it’s easy to see why.

The pair behind the creation of the website, Shayne Faerber and George Oberdorster, are both iOS app developers. Faerber launched “Mall Maps” developed by MEDL Mobile back in 2009, whereas Oberdorster is the founder and CEO of UnstoppableApps.com and hopes to release his first app concept onto the store early next year. The issue of pancreatic cancer is also particularly relevant for Oberdorster, as his father was diagnosed with the same disease only five months ago.

The initial aim of the pair is to raise enough money to purchase eight iPad 2’s for the children’s museum, set to open in February 2012. After this, any further funds can be donated to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.

Search through iTunes, and you’ll find a handful of previously paid-for MEDL apps now sporting a ‘free’ price-tag, such as the widely recognised Problem Halved app, that helped launch Rob Shoesmith’s PR career, Fruit Blast, a first-person shoot ‘em up developed by a father and son team, and also Ghost Recorder, a tool designed to help you locate supernatural noises within your home, that are beyond the level of recognition by the human ear.

And with the iPhone 5 keynote speech only a few days away, currently scheduled for the 4^th October, you would be wise to act fast, and grab as many free applications as you can, before they return to the previous list price.

Happy hunting!

DRM has never been a popular concept, but gamers often ‘put up’ with it on the grounds that it’s a once-only affair; by which a retail game is ‘activated’ upon its first launch, via the internet, and then remains active indefinitely. After all, the majority of gamers are connected to the internet 24/7, and no-one wants to be branded a pirate, especially when proving otherwise by a one-time activation process is such a simple thing to do.

Many customers bought From Dust on the basis of this one-time activation concept. However, in this instance, they were misled. The game actually requires an active internet connection (to check the game copy is legitimate) each and every time it’s launched. A far cry from the concept of a single, initial registration.

To say that unwitting players were less than impressed by this would be an understatement of gigantic proportions, and rightly so. There’s an age-old argument that legitimate consumers often fare far worse than pirates when it comes to issues of piracy, and DRM is often held up as a shining example of such unbalance.

Although Valve has promised the imminent release of a patch removing the offending DRM code, Ubisoft has still instructed the digital distribution giant to offer refunds through their Steam service, as can be seen from the screenshot below – courtesy of RockPaperShotgun.

It’s all a bit bizarre, and even goes some way towards promoting piracy, in a round-about way. Here, Ubisoft are (inadvertently) offering a new gaming release for free, as there will undoubtedly be a few unscrupulous individuals who, having already played From Dust to death, will request a refund so that they can purchase another title, having already had their fill.

Nonetheless, this is a bold move for Ubisoft to make, particularly as they’ve received similar complaints in the past spanning all manner of other titles. Hopefully future Ubisoft games will launch entirely DRM free as a result, doing away with the seemingly unwritten company policy of launching a game with crippling DRM, only to remove it later following internet-based nerd rage.

Well, we can but hope.

Those who follow MEDL Mobile developments may recognise an application called Problem Halved, which featured in the Coventry Telegraph last year, as a direct result of Rob’s substantial success marketing it. The story was also aided by the considerable human interest element: Rob’s progression to a full-time, paid role, with MEDL Mobile, allowing him to leave his bin-man days behind him.

Following the initial interview with the Coventry Telegraph, the original story, over a year ago, was picked up by national news, and before long soon spread overseas. And given the considerable buzz surrounding the experiment already; it’s quite likely that Rob will experience the same press coverage for a second time round.

Again, this harps back to something that I mentioned previously, regarding the importance of marketing, and a unique concept, when attempting anything new. Rob is certainly not the first person to have camped outside the Apple Store prior to the launch of an iPhone, and he most definitely won’t be the last, but I’m willing to bet that he’ll be the most memorable.

His experiment is really beginning to pick up pace, too. I spoke to him briefly, and he informed me that he has now secured live bands to come and perform, more food than he could possibly eat, and also a handful of t-shirts to wear during his stay.

His new website is due to launch by the end of the week, which will provide an increasingly important public-facing aspect to his experiment. It’ll also include full details of how people can get involved. Given the rate at which this PR experiment is morphing into a PR extravaganza, it’s likely that Rob will need a couple of dedicated volunteers to help him out – an ideal role for students, and one that’ll pad out that CV.

As for the man himself, accommodation is sorted in the form a tent; he’s clothed, fed and watered too, now Rob just needs a little help to keep him online during his stay. When I spoke to him, he informed me that he’s focusing his efforts on sourcing pre-paid data cards, so that he can access the 3G network, and also some form of solar charging system, to keep him and his gadgets powered-up for the duration of his London visit.

Rob is hoping to generate a considerable buzz whilst in London through popular social networking portals, Facebook and Twitter, and he also intends to live stream the event through UStream. As a result, a constant supply of electricity is vastly important.

The iPhone 5 marketing experiment is now so large, and so very widely known, that companies are contacting Rob (not the other way around!) offering their support. And given the substantial interest in his activities, and the remarkable pull of Apple’s products, I reckon that it won’t be too long before Rob has everything that he needs.

Of course, the real beneficiaries of today’s press coverage are the companies that have donated to the cause. Each company is mentioned on Rob’s blog, which, thanks to the power of the internet, is certain to be viewed by thousands after today – providing priceless exposure and advertising. And, of course, this is only the beginning.

Rob’s not even in London yet, and with the launch of the iPhone 5 predicted for September, one cannot even begin to imagine how large this experiment will be by then.

I’m sure most of you are aware of Rob’s iPhone 5 experiment by now, but for those who aren’t: Rob is planning to travel down to London and camp outside the Covent Garden Apple Store, prior to the launch of the iPhone 5. In doing so, part of the challenge is that he cannot spend a single penny, meaning that he is reliant on donations from various companies to provide him with food, warmth and shelter.

Of course, no sensible company director would provide goods or services for free without benefitting themselves, and thus Rob has a deal breaker. He’s spent a great deal of time promoting the event, to the stage where it has received modest press coverage and broad recognition across the internet. Now Rob has something very valuable to offer – exposure.

Companies who contribute to Rob’s cause feature on his blog (which is soon to be redesigned, thanks to the donation of a brand new website!) and will receive constant promotion throughout the event. And with the substantial buzz that’s surrounding this venture, it’s almost certain that the national press will pick up on it once Rob makes it to London – he’s just waiting on the launch date.

As I’ve mentioned previously, Rob has already received a plethora of donations, varying from food and drink to be delivered to his tent, to a Chevrolet Captiva 4×4 to transport him from Coventry to London. Rather than stopping there, though, Rob has continued to expand the experiment, and has introduced his second competitive edge: Gnomes.

As bizarre as it sounds, it’s actually quite a good idea. Rob has been able to source a dozen garden gnomes from The Glow Company, each of which he has assigned a style, internet presence and a clever moniker.

The first of these is ‘Mr Boink Gnome’, which is modelled on an existing MEDL Mobile application, Boink. With the aid of some clever marketing, Rob plans for these Gnomes to travel the country on request, in the hope that those who borrow them will take photographs with the gnomes, and promote them online by uploading the photos to Facebook.

It’s a stunning clever concept, and if it works – which it inevitably will, due to Rob’s sheer determination if nothing else – it will generate a great deal of publicity for both his cause, and also his company.

In the world of digital marketing, the emphasis really is on separating yourself from the heavily saturated, over-crowded field of competition. Rob’s efforts just go to show that, with a little clever advertising and a unique concept, even the seemingly impossible is achievable.

The database search system that Daniel Grzelak introduced

With the spate of recent hacking attempts making the news, it’s difficult to know whether your accounts have been compromised.

Thankfully, many organised hacking groups, such as LulzSec or Anonymous, release their ill-gotten account information online. This is a legal grey area, though, and as such it’s best not to download it yourself – especially as there’s another way.

An Australian info security technologist, Daniel Grzelak, has collated the leaked account information and uploaded it to a server, combining it with a database search function. Users who navigate to his website – http://www.shouldichangemypassword.com/ – will be able to input their email address, and quickly check it against the list of compromised accounts that have been made available.

More than 800,000 records feature on the website, providing a pretty accurate reading. However, as expected, the website is only able to check your details against those accounts publicly compromised, and thus more recent hacking attempts (that LulzSec have denied: such as Travelodge) are not included.

“I wanted to give them [friends and family] A, an easy way to check if they were affected and B, some simple advice on what to do if they were.” said Grzelak, but he was also keen to point out that the system wasn’t 100% accurate. A green ‘safe’ reading from the database doesn’t guarantee a clean bill of health, and users should, ideally, return to check their accounts after each new security breach.

Grzelak intends to update his site as and when more databases are leaked. He’s also announced that he is working on a simple mechanism to check whether company e-mail accounts have been affected, and an alert-system to warn potential victims as soon as their accounts are compromised.

Online poker fans got a bit of good news this week, with the announcement that PokerTracker 4 will be released in 2011. A beta version is also available now, for some users.

Online poker has proven to be a very popular alternative to visiting US casinos in Vegas or Atlantic City, as it enables poker fans to enjoy their favourite game any time of the day or night without the usual hassle, or expense, of travelling to and playing at a traditional poker room.

PokerTracker is celebrating its ten-year anniversary and it’s a must-have for many online poker players, as it enables them to analyzing both their own play and that of their opponents at the virtual tables. It was the first software of its kind when released in 2001, collecting and recording data from each hand that an online poker player completed and making it available later for review.

PokerTracker organizes the data in a variety of ways, letting players see how successful they are from various positions at the table as well as which hands cause them the most trouble, as far as which they lose the most money when playing.

PokerTracker also lets users keep tabs on their opponents, not only showing how aggressively or passively they play, or how often they bluff, but enabling users to pull that data directly to the online tables when they play online, with the stats super-imposed on the table via a heads-up display (HUD). This is an area where PokerTracker 4 will provide a big improvement, as the HUD engine has been rebuilt for smoother performance, as well as adding new options to display and use stats in a variety of ways.

PokerTracker works with both download and no download casinos, with most major online poker sites supported. While it won’t magically improve your poker game by itself, it does give players the tools they need to analyze how they’re playing and make any changes necessary to boost their profitability.

At nearly $90 (approx. £55) for the full version, it’s not the cheapest piece of software on the market, but it can pay for itself in just a few big pots at the poker tables that you might win because of it, making it a necessary tool for many online poker players.

But it’s not quite as bad as it sounds. Of course, theft is a big issue, and $500,000 is a lot of money, but Bitcoins are not your traditional form of legal tender.

The peer-to-peer currency operates without the use of banks, meaning transactions move between users without a middle-man. This has numerous benefits, such as low transaction fees and the fact that you’ll always be in charge of your wealth, as there’s no centralised bank – just an ‘accounts’ file on your PC.

Yet herein lies the first issue. At present, your BitCoin account file (dubbed ‘wallet.dat’) isn’t encrypted. You could go to the effort of encrypting it yourself, but many won’t bother, or know how to do so.

It’s for this reason that Bitcoins graced the news this week, because the unfortunate user who lost $500,000 worth of the currency was hacked by a knowledgeable individual, and one who targeted this file specifically. With little in the way of encryption, and evidently no user attempt to protect the crucial data file, you could argue that this theft was inevitable.

Investing in Bitcoins - Any different to burning your money?

The second issue associated with Bitcoins is that it’s a fiat currency – it only possesses a value because people, worldwide, believe Bitcoins to have purchasing power.

While the pound coin or the five-pound note have recognised worth, and precious metals such as gold or silver equally hold their weight, how can a virtual currency – particularly one that’s not controlled by a central organisation – hold a value?

It would be foolish not to recognise that Sterling, alongside most major worldwide currencies, must have begun as a fiat currency, yet due to the centralised value held in banks, it’s not quite the same as the humble BitCoin. Furthermore, most major currencies are material, whereas Bitcoins are entirely virtual. You won’t be able shop using a 20-bitcoin note, because no such physical form of the currency is ever likely to exist.

This appropriately leads us to the third potential flaw: although the 25,000 Bitcoins that were stolen may have a technical retail value of $500,000, who’s going to pay such a vast sum of money for a figure on a screen, particularly when there’s a very large risk of theft, highlighted by the news coverage this week.

The decentralised nature of the BitCoin concept is also partly responsible for these three large flaws. Without a middle-man through which to process transfers, transactions that utilise Bitcoins are truly anonymous; i.e. there’s next to no chance of catching the guy who did steal the $500,000. Of course, this is part of the design concept, and so Bitcoins are not entirely to blame. The system operates as intended. However, you can’t help but feel that this is a hefty design flaw in a system where the potential for theft is rife.

A decentralised currency is also likely to be a hotbed for illegal transactions, assuming the fiat currency becomes large enough, and respected enough, to warrant sizable financial investment. This may happen eventually, then, by design, as it’s only until 2040 that you can farm Bitcoins for free in a similar style to folding@home. And so, presumably, once the ability to literally ‘grow your own money’ dissipates, the virtual currency will begin to hold more value.

Assuming the currency is still in use by this point, it may become a globally recognised alternative. Unfortunately, the pitfalls are likely to remain.