If you’re looking for an excellent time-waster, look no further than this little flash game based on the hilarious TV show The IT Crowd, currently in its fourth series (what the UK call seasons) on channel 4 in the UK. If you’re a fan of the series, you’ll absolutely adore the game – if you’ve never watched it before, head over to Amazon and buy The IT Crowd: The Complete Series (Seasons 1, 2 & 3) immediately.

If you’re already a fan, the game should be amazing for you – it puts you in the shoes of a new IT temp working with Roy, Moss, and Jen, keeping a watchful eye on the network, zapping spam and viruses as they appear, whether from the Internet or wireless access points, responding to complaints from users, and making sure the network stays free and clear for the flow of information. As the game proceeds, you can upgrade your network with spam slurpers or antivirus injectors to lend you a hand when you’re not looking – all you have to do is make it through your shift to get through the level and to the next day.

Head over and give it a try!

[ Channel 4 :: The IT Crowd Game ]

The long-predicted subscription offering from Hulu has arrived, and while it’s not the service changer I think we all feared or expected, depending on how the private beta goes, it could define the future direction for the service.

It’s called Hulu Plus, and as expected, will run you $9.99 USD per month, and give you access to entire seasons of popular series, and will extend to other devices for which Hulu is making streaming video apps like the iPad and iPhone.

From PCMag:

When they are available, the Apple apps will run over 3G or Wi-Fi, Hulu said.
Shows will play in high-definition 720p resolution and content will also sync between devices.

“You can start watching a show on your HDTV one night, pick up where you left off on your laptop at lunch, watch another chunk on the bus ride home on your iPhone, and finish watching in bed on your iPad. The time to watch your favorite shows is any time you want,” [Hulu chief executive Jason] Kilar wrote.

Kilar said Hulu Plus will not replace the original Hulu, but will instead provide access to an extended library of content. At this point, Hulu users typically have access to the five or so most recent episodes of a given TV series. With Hulu Plus, subscribers will have access to every episode of the current season.

Hulu will also add back seasons or full runs of certain TV shows, including The X-Files, Arrested Development, Law & Order: SVU, Ally McBeal, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Roswell, Grey’s Anatomy, and Desperate Housewives. The company will also make available skits from the first five and most recent seasons of Saturday Night Live.

“This is all on top of hundreds of shows already on Hulu.com today,” Kilar wrote. “It’s a treasure chest in the cloud for TV lovers.”

It makes sense that Hulu is looking for some way to broaden its reach and make a little money in the process. A number of people have complained that any subscription Hulu service should come ad-free, but it’s not clear whether or not Hulu Plus will be – the service is still in private beta and was only released this week, so more details are sure to follow.

[ PC Mag :: Hulu Announces Subscription-Based 'Hulu Plus', iPad App ]

The photo you see above (glorious or terrifying, depending on how you feel about all things anime and about figures and ball-jointed dolls) is from the desk of one Danny Choo, a man who has made a life out of his passions: technology and Japanese culture. Recently, on one of his sites, figure.fm, he held a call for submissions for the newest Otacool magazine.

His call for submissions is much like the call for workstation submissions over at The Classy Geek except I’ll be giving away prizes there, and Danny is highlighting the best workstations in the magazine.

That being said though, I’m always a huge fan of workstation photos, and because I’m into anime and manga and such I get special joy out of seeing all of the photos in this thread and bouncing around to some of the linked threads to see more of how people have their home, office, or home office workstations all set up and put together. Best of all, I get some inspiration on how I’d love to have mine set up!

[ DannyChoo.com :: Worldwide Workspaces ]

The court presiding over the $1 Billion lawsuit Viacom levied against YouTube has finally ruled…in YouTube and Google’s favor, dismissing the case.

In a post at the YouTube blog, Kent Walker, Vice President and General Counsel at Google, had this to say:

Today, the court granted our motion for summary judgment in Viacom’s lawsuit with YouTube. This means that the court has decided that YouTube is protected by the safe harbor of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) against claims of copyright infringement. The decision follows established judicial consensus that online services like YouTube are protected when they work cooperatively with copyright holders to help them manage their rights online.

This is an important victory not just for us, but also for the billions of people around the world who use the web to communicate and share experiences with each other. We’re excited about this decision and look forward to renewing our focus on supporting the incredible variety of ideas and expression that billions of people post and watch on YouTube every day around the world.

Obviously Viacom could very well appeal the decision, and it’s likely that they will if Viacom and Google lawyers can’t come out of this with some kind of mutual agreement, but even if Viacom does appeal, that just means the standard of proof is going to be that much higher for them in an appeals court, which would have to determine if there’s some new evidence or specific reason why the lawsuit wasn’t handled properly or the correct decision was made in the first place.

Only time will tell, and this certainly isn’t the last volley in this battle, but here’s hoping both parties can settle out of court – clearly this hasn’t put much of a dent in either of their businesses, aside from the legal fees both sides must have incurred.

(thanks to Mashable for the tip!)

[ The Official YouTube Blog ::YouTube Wins Case Against Viacom ]

A fun little Web app that’s been making waves on the Web is an avatar creator for the upcoming movie Scott Pilgrim v. The World, featuring the art of Bryan Lee O’Malley himself (the author and artist behind the Scott Pilgrim comics) – and I can personally testify to how glorious it is.

See? That’s me up there. And I promise you he looks exactly like me. Yup. Exactly. Down to the green scarf and the flaming sword (with the heart on the hilt.) Flaming sword of love. That’s me.

Seriously though, head over and make your own!

[ Scott Pilgrim vs. The World Avatar Creator ]

In a press conference today, Motorola and Verizon, along with special guest, Google’s Eric Schmidt, announced the newest member of Verizon’s Droid family, the Droid X – Motorola’s next generation Droid handset, which by the looks of it will be leaps and bounds past the current Droid by Motorola.

There have been rumors abound about the Droid X and the Droid 2 (they’re two different phones), and which one we would see today – turns out the Droid X is a new slab-phone with physical keys at the bottom, a bigger, higher-resolution screen, a 1GHz processor, 720p video recording, an 8-megapixel camera, 24GB of storage (8GB on-board and a 16GB SD card, upgradable to a 32GB SD card), and 3 microphones for superior call and recording quality. The Droid X will be available July 15th for $199.99 after a $100 rebate for new contracts or – thanks to Verizon – any Droid owner with a “new every two” upgrade coming in 2010.

The Droid X will also serve as a Wi-Fi hotspot for an extra $20 per month, which is a huge feature, and will support Android 2.2 “Froyo” and Adobe’s Flash 10.1 when they’re both made available later this summer (but not at launch.)

The Droid 2 continues to be un-announced phone, and although a few blogs claim to have had their hands on it, nothing official from Motorola or Verizon has been announced. The Droid 2 appears to be more of a direct upgrade to the existing Droid by Motorola – with a slide-out physical keyboard and a faster processor than the existing Droid but not as powerful as the one coming in the Droid X. The Droid 2 will retain most of the features of the original Droid by Motorola, and it looks like Motorola is positioning it as an upgrade and an additional device in the market as opposed to positioning it against some of the kings of Android phone performance like the Droid Incredible and the Droid X.

Regardless, if you’re looking for an upgrade to your Droid (although not many original Droid owners will have an upgrade coming this year) or want your hands on the most powerful smartphone on the market, you may consider the Droid X. Still, it was just announced today, so the reviews have yet to roll in.

UPDATE: PC Mag has some first impressions and video, live from the unveiling event!

[ Verizon Wireless :: Droid Does ]

In the same vein as The Fastest Mobile Networks 2010, PC Mag has now tested the fastest Internet Service Providers around the country to come up with a list of ISPs give you the most bandwidth and the most speed regardless of where in the United States you live.

The lowdown and the straight answer is clear and should be obvious to everyone who’s paid any attention to ISPs in the past several years – the fastest national ISP is Verizon FIOS. Not their DSL service, which I think everyone understands is universally awful, but FIOS. Cable providers took the number two and three spots, but Comcast didn’t make an appearance until number four.

The picture definitely changes though depend on where in the United States that you live – the survey breaks down the country into regions and includes some regional ISPs as well as national ones, and depending on where you live the results might be a little surprising. Again, keep in mind that the PC Mag crew was testing for speed, not necessarily availability, price/performance (bang-for-your-buck), or reliability – just who you should sign up with if they’re available where you are for the fastest possible connection you can get. They also list some average connection prices in the story as well, so you can see how much you should be spending on your ISP on average.

[ PC Mag :: The Fastest ISPs in the US 2010 ]

Apple surprised everyone yesterday and announced a sweeping update to the Mac Mini, one of its most dejected and neglected platforms, adding an SD slot, HDMI ports, an easy-open bottom, and updated graphics and processors to the mini desktop, making it more and more a perfect candidate for an HTPC that slides well into your entertainment center or a small-but-powerful desktop that’s perfect for general use or if you’re just looking for a compact desktop PC that’s affordable with decent features.

Among the upgrades? The new aluminum body design, the addition of the SD card, the HDMI port, super-low power usage, and a built-in power supply (so it doesn’t have a massive brick hanging out the back of it), all of which are impressive for a machine its size and in its category. The folks at PC Mag loved it so much they gave it 4/5 stars and the Editor’s Choice award for its class of desktop computer.

Only down-side? No Blu-Ray drive in the box, or support for one in Mac OS, which is unfortunate. Still, we all know Apple hasn’t embraced Blu-Ray yet, although it’s just a matter of time.

[ PC Mag :: Apple Mac Mini Review ]

I actually have a Pogo iPhone Stylus that I got with my last ThinkGeek purchase (yay Geek Points!) and I adore it – I use it on my iPod Touch and my Motorola Droid, since I don’t have an iPhone, and it’s great for cold weather when I don’t want to take off my gloves to use my phone, or when I just want more precision with my device than my fingertip offers.

The trick now is that it’s really only a matter of time before I get an iPad and I can see how useful it would be on a nice large touch screen like the one the iPad has. Pogo already makes the Pogo Sketch iPhone/MacBook Stylus, a larger version of the Pogo for larger screens, but the company just unveiled some new colors of the Pogo Sketch, including hot pink, “cactus,” and “burnt orange” to go along with their black and silver options.

This way if you’re looking for an attractive case for your iPad, now you have the option of picking up a Pogo that matches your case – even if that case is some crazy color!

I recently got turned on to a company called Quirky, which makes interesting community-designed products and gear via press release, and found a couple of gadgets that I thought were interesting enough to highlight.

First, the PowerCurl (shown above) designed to keep your laptop power cable (or really, just about any other peripheral’s cable) neatly corded and in brick form instead of strewn across your floor.

The PowerCurl retails from Quirky’s site for $14.99 USD, and is designed specifically for power brick that ships with a Macbook or Macbook Pro, but it can be adapted to just about any device with a long power cord. If you do have a Macbook or Macbok Pro, you get the benefit of being able to slip your power brick into the center of the PowerCurl to keep it elevated from the surface of your desk or the floor, and then to curl the cable around the outside, leaving exposed only the amount of cable you need to plug in your Mac on either end, keeping the rest neatly bundled.

For those of you looking for less of a power-based solution and just a way to keep your cables from sliding off or around your desk, or for a way to keep your cables all in the same place instead of sliding through that annoying slot between the back of your desk and the wall, Cordies may do the trick.

They’re a bit more affordable, only $9.99 USD, but they still serve an important purpose, and that’s keeping your cables where you want them, instead of wherever they naturally think they want to go. Works just as well for a charging station where you want your cables at the ready for when you need them, or the back of a desk to keep all of your cables funneled through a single point.

The really great think about Quirky’s gear is that it’s all community driven and suggested – you give them an idea of an interesting or unique product that’s just begging to be made, and they’ll make it…and they even share some of the revenue with you.