Luke Shepherd

With new ideas coming to life on the internet, every day, it can be hard to remember the good from the bad. These next items are some of the ideas that I have been playing around with right now.

• Spotify:  Spotify is a music streaming service that pools all your music into one easy to navigate screen. The simplicity beats Zune and iTunes by far. Another nice feature is the sharing capability. I can make playlists public as well as share them via Facebook, Twitter, or with other Spotify friends.
  
  Spotify has three versions to choose from each with their Pros and Cons. As of now I use the free version. There is an unlimited version for $4.99/month and a premium version at $9.99/month. With the free version I can still listen to full length tracks with an ad in the window and a 30 second ad here and there.

  I am really enjoying my experience with Spotify and will upgrade my plan very soon. Highly recommended for those that are tired of the terrible service provided by other music apps.

• MightyText: MightyText has made me one happy man. You download the extension for your Chrome browser and app for your Android smartphone. Now, while on the computer you can receive and send text messages through the Chrome notifications.
  
  Last night I had multiple text conversations with a few friends that went on for hours. MightyText allowed me to stay on the computer and work while still being able to communicate efficiently. I would easily pay for this service.
• Google+: Google’s attempt to grab a slice of social networking pie. With obvious ties from Facebook and Twitter, it is still a breath of fresh air in this society that is addicted to social networks.
  
  I haven’t used it a lot besides to follow more interest related people. For me, this is how Twitter is. None of my friends really used Twitter so I really just used it as a rss feed for those I was interested in. Facebook, on the other hand, is where I follow my friends.

  Right now I am excited to see what Google+ has in store for the future. However, it will be that link I click on after I get done with all the other sites first.

• Glitch: Glitch is a fun web/browser-based massively-multiplayer game for free. The game is set in the minds of eleven Giants who have imagined you into existence. You are then able to shape the world around you how you please.
  
  The designers are aiming for more of a collaborative experience. With the game being in beta right now I see more people on their own than helping out one another. Though, the global chat is a great place to talk, make friends, and ask for help.

  Glitch has your typical game experience of grinding and collecting but they spice things up with their  skills. You learn a skill by waiting. Actually you can do whatever you want either it be milking butterflies or going to a movie in real life. The skills have a set time that it takes to learn. Early on skills usually take 15 minutes to learn with higher skills taking longer to learn. I especially like when to learn a new skill that it can sometimes take getting an achievement to allow you to learn it.

  With the game in beta the servers are up for a couple days before being taken down to evaluate the data they have collected. In between these breaks I cannot help but think about how much I want to get a little more playing time in.

• League of Legends: League of Legends (LoL) is a free to play action RTS. The sheer amount of possibilities in this game still boggles my mind. Customization ranges from skill trees, to rune pages, to your choice of champion. The strategy is there to be acted upon. If learning how to control your champion to the T then have the bots to play against. The bots can sometimes be squishy yet still play to the extent of an average human opponent.
  
  There are ten games being started every second so there are always someone to play with. With that amount of people playing you are bound to have your typical cry babies. LoL has a nice feature where your account will be banned if you quit a game in progress too many times.

  I enjoy playing with the bots more than anything as I don’t have much experience with RTS games. With every game I play against bots I still earn in-game money that I can put towards purchasing powerful runes or new champions. The fact that they don’t isolate just the PvP players is a great plus in my eyes.