Google Shared Stuff is a social bookmarking service similar to Delicious.  It never actually launched, but either way it will no longer be available starting at the end of March.  Google Shared Stuff is a way to share Google Videos and Knol articles.  But the web app was too buggy and underdeveloped according to Google Operating System.

Google Shared Stuff combined several ways to share the pages through e-mail, social sites, or by adding the articles to public pages.  ShareThis was slightly integrated in the service.

“If you want another way to share videos, you can use the ‘Share’ link below each YouTube video. You can also create a public Google Site if you want to share websites and links with friends,” wrote a Google representative.

Fortunately for those that actually use Shared Stuff, there is a way to share any website on Google Reader using the social bookmarklet tool.

Fourteen million pageviews in one day is an amazing accomplishment.  One man show, Perez Hilton was able to gather enough of an audience to hit this landmark for Oscar coverage. Perez Hilton’s traffic is very comparable to WordPress.com’s traffic.  And keep in mind, WordPress.com hosts a ton of blogs.

Perez Hilton’s website gets more U.S. unique visitors than WordPress.com and he receives more pageviews than the HuffingtonPost.  HuffPo has hundreds of writers and millions in funding too.  Congratulations to Hilton for the achievement.

[via Ryan Spoon]

Active users on Twitter are taking it upon themselves to report events as they happen in real time.  Guests in a hotel being attacked by terrorists in Mumbai reported what was happening.   Janis Krums first reported the Hudson River plane crash and sent a Twitpic of the plane in the water.  Earlier today Jonathan Nipp of Amsterdam first reported an accident that took place at the Schipol Airport.

Within a couple of hours of reporting “Airplane crash @ Schipol Airport Amsterdamn!!” many news outlets were contacting him.  He was interviewed by CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, and 3fm.

“This is a story that broke on Twitter first and continued to unfold from there. Eyewitnesses were posting comments about the shock of seeing the plane ‘dive’ and amazement of passengers walking out of the wreckage,” stated iReport international correspondent Errol Barnett.

The first dramatic image of the crash appeared on Twitter  It was sent by an eyewitness driving by the A-9 highway.

“This proves that social networking sites can be a real asset in covering breaking news and gathering eyewitness accounts but the web should always be treated with extreme caution,” added Barnett.  “We make a concerted effort to reach out to people posting on the Internet to verify what they say matches up with official accounts.”

[via CNN]

There is games on the Apple iPhone that I find are extremely addictive.  It is called Labyrinth 3D. In this game, you control a metallic ball and roll it around a wooden board using the iPhone’s accelerometer.  You have to make sure that the ball makes it to the right hole and doesn’t fall in the trap holes.

The Lite versions of the game is free. This is the perfect time pass when riding on a train or plane.  I found myself even getting bored during the commercials for the Oscars and played it.

To find the games search for “Labyrinth 3D” on iTunes or on your iPhone/iPod Touch.  Wooden Labyrinth 3D is currently $2.99.  

I noticed that the name behind the game on iTunes is Elias Pietilä so I reached out to him to find out what the story behind the game is.  Elias was kind enough to give me an interview with him.

Amit: What is the story behind the game?
Elias: The beginning of Wooden Labyrinth 3D was actually a combination of four separate factors. Firstly, I had just finished my first iPhone game, Pajatzo, which quickly dominated the Finnish App Store as the best selling App. It’s actually still doing well over here, months later, but I realized then and there that there was no money in the domestic market. I needed a game that was universally recognizable. Well, I had been wowed by other labyrinth games before, but also been disappointed that their walls weren’t rendered based on the tilt. I mean, after seeing the famous “Wii head-tracking” videos, I felt the labyrinth titles fell short of their potential. However, I had no clue how to achieve an effect like that in practice, as I had almost no experience with OpenGL. Then I happened to bump into Pangea Software’s “Ultimate Game Programming Guide for Mac OS X”. There was plenty of interesting material in the guide, but what really struck my eye was the code that allowed them to make stereo games (the types you play with glasses). I figured the effect was close enough for what I wanted in my labyrinth, and decided to give it a go. A month later, the game was finished.

Amit: You have a team of people all working on the application, how did you bring this team together to all work on this project?
Elias: The team was assembled quite ad hoc. I needed sounds and my friend at the university – Tapani – works in the audio lab. It was pretty much a no brainer to ask for his assistance, especially after he provided the sounds for Pajatzo. Later he contributed to the level making as well, and commissioned the music from his friends. My other level designer lives quite far away from my humble home in Finland. I bumped into him on youtube, after he reviewed Pajatzo. I asked him whether he would like to give a hand with the next game – he then agreed to make some levels and market the game.

Amit: How well is the game selling on iTunes?

Elias: I quit my day job, to pursue iPhone development. At my age (22), I feel it’s a risk worth taking. The App is generating a fair bit of income. It’s selling a couple of hundred copies daily, but who knows how long that will last. It hasn’t gotten a feature in the App Store unlike many games selling worse/ having worse reviews, and I fear it is because of the saturated genre. Wooden Labyrinth 3D was extremely close to breaking top 100 games in the USA and it has done that at least in UK, France, Italy, Finland, Austria, Poland and Argentina. There is always hope however. (the lite shipped over 5800 copies on its first full day online… that’s a nice chunk!)

Amit: Thank you for the interview and I wish you the best of luck!

Shepard Fairey, the 38 year old artist from the streets saw one of his paintings of Obama become very mainstream.  It was actually used throughout Obama’s campaign.  The painting is shown in the above right.  You will notice that I used my Facebook profile picture with custom text.

The website is called Obamaicon.me.  It is a web application that turns a picture that you take from your webcam or a picture that you upload into a painting that is similar to Shepard’s.

When you select a picture, you can change the saturation around of the four colors used.  You can zoom in and out of your picture and rotate it around.  If you like the results, then you can save it.  Try it for yourself and let us know what you think about it in the comments.

The Samsung Memoir (SGH-T929) is a 3G touch-screen phone with an 8 megapixel camera built-in.  There is a Xenon flash built into the camera to ensure that your pictures are looking sharp.  The Memoir uses Samsung’s TouchWiz interface to control the programs for the device.  Based on what I’ve seen, the device works very similarly to the Samsung Behold (SGH-t919).  The main difference between the Behold and the Memoir is that the megapixel difference.  The behold runs on 5 megapixels.

To open programs or settings you have to press down on the device when you want to click on things.  This differs from the iPhone where you can just tap on a program lightly and it automatically opens.  There isn’t a QWERTY keyboard, everything is touch-based.  Fortunately there is a .com button on the touchscreen to make web browsing as fast as the iPhone.

Widgets on the sidebar can be dragged onto the desktop.  These widgets include weather, alarm clock, stocks, and TeleNav GPS.  The price of the device is about $250 with a 2 year contract and $50 rebate.

Evan Booth has created a gaping hole Halloween costume using a travel DVD player, video feed from a digital camera, 5V voltage regulator, a 6V Power Source, shoulder straps, cardboard, and duct tape.  He created this costume for Halloween 2006.

[via Unique Daily]

The Crystal Ergoripado vacuum costs about €15,000 (over $19,200).  Electrolux Floorcare, the makers of the Crystal Ergoripado vacuum was approached by the Guinness Book of World Records that believe it is the most expensive.  The Crystal Ergoripado was made from recycled parts by Polish fashion designer ?ukasz Jemio?.  ?ukasz designed it with 3,730 Swarovski crystals.

“No surprise, that inspired by its beautiful form we decided to create something extraordinary – a unique Ergorapido decorated with crystals from CRYSTALLIZED – Swarovski Elements collection. To make it even more special, we have chosen black Ergorapido from limited Black&White edition. We established cooperation with ?ukasz Jemio?, a young polish fashion designer who is the author of the decoration conception, and Gronowalski Crystal Fashion, the company that carried out the project.”

The vacuum will be on display at the Good Housekeeping Institute in London on March 17.

[via BBG]