friends

I don't mean to sound all crotchety and old, but back when I was a kid, our Legos didn't have genders. All Legos were for everybody.

My brother and I shared the same pile of bricks and Lego figures. I didn't feel slighted that our little yellow people were missing pink skirts and sassy ponytails.

Lego recently debuted a new line of toys for girls. The Lego Friends wear skirts, have puppies, play dress-up, and hang out in a candy-colored cafe. Meanwhile, the boys' Lego characters are fighting space battles, capturing dinosaurs, and sailing pirate ships.

The HTML5 Gendered Lego Advertising Remixer shines a light on the gender divide in toy advertising. There's one world for girls and an entirely different world for boys.… Read more

Russ Frushtick is truly the Steve Martin of The 404 co-hosts, but we keep asking him back because well, someone has to talk about video games with Jeff, and it's not me. Speaking of, don't forget to wish Mubakalar a happy 30th birthday tomorrow, because this one's going to hurt.

There's lots to talk about with Russ, and first in the rundown is the ending to Mass Effect 3 and the secrets revealed this week about who signed off on it.

We'll also get Russ's take on ethics in gaming journalism and the future of the industry with regard to the new Apple iPad.… Read more

Just to show you that the boffins at Facebook aren't totally consumed by the approach of a certain impending IPO, the company's lab rats have come up with a feature that lets you demote folks from "friend" to acquaintance without them ever being the wiser.

This is one of those "why didn't they do this earlier?" moments, but let's not look the proverbial gift horse in the (cyber) mouth. For anyone stuck with a distant Facebook "friend" whose news feed is a veritable nonstop, play-by-play of their lives -- yes, … Read more

When Facebook tells you it has "notifications," it can be troubling. What must Facebook notify you of? It sounds so official.

However, when Facebook recommends a new friend, surely the machines know that this is someone with whom you will have a riotous old time.

And yet a woman in Pierce County, Wa., received a Facebook friending suggestion that recommended someone she felt certain was a stranger. Yet she allegedly discovered it was her husband's wife. Yes, his other wife.

The way the News Tribune splices it, Alan L. O'Neill, 41, is a corrections officer who … Read more

If you haven't guessed already, I'm a big fan of platform games. Maybe it's my background of playing games from both the Mario and Sonic franchises or the sheer number of solid platformers in the iTunes App Store, but I simply can't get enough of them. There's just something charming to me about exploring a level, making all the right jumps, and trying to collect all the items to go on to next level.

There have been several popular platform games to come through the iTunes App Store, but as time goes on, I've noticed the genre evolving in interesting ways. Particularly with a few of the newer games, I'm seeing unique types of challenges being added that take the genre to places it hasn't been before.

This week's collected iOS apps are all platformers with something extra. The first uses an interesting foreground/background playing dynamic that adds to the action. The second is a continuous climber with added bonuses that keep trying to get higher and higher. The third offers tons of side challenges and secret areas for those who like to explore.… Read more

According to a patent application filed by Apple (found by AppleInsider), the Find My Friends app for iOS devices may soon be getting new features that allow users to create custom settings for the amount of information friends can find about their location by adjusting the precision of the GPS locator.

Find My Friends was launched alongside the iPhone 4S in October and features the ability for users to share their location with friends and family who they approve. While the feature is a great solution for many, some prefer a little more privacy control.

Enter the "Variable Precision … Read more

Twitter has again tweaked its iPhone and Android apps, reviving a few "high-demand" features that were jettisoned from the previous versions, as described yesterday in Twitter's official blog.

Both apps have brought back the swipe shortcut. Swiping a tweet in your timeline now displays the toolbar of icons that let you reply to, retweet, share, or view the tweeter's profile all without having to exit the timeline.

And both versions have added a new alert to the "Find Friends" feature. Now when you tap on the feature at the bottom of the Discover tab, … Read more

Facebook is expected to launch an upgrade next week to its premium ads program that will target the friends of advertisers' fans.

The new ads, which will launch February 29, will be created from content posted organically to pages, according to a purportedly leaked document (see below) obtained by GigaOm.

"Anything you can post to on your page, you can turn into an ad," the document says. "Upgraded ads can be targeted to anyone you want."

When the users seeing the ad are friends with fans of the page, Facebook will automatically expand the ad and … Read more

During an investor assembly this week, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata announced the Nintendo Network, marking the first time the company has attempted to streamline its online gaming effort in a way that promises a consistent and reliable experience across all platforms, all while delivering the content and features that gamers have grown to expect.

It's no secret that Nintendo has struggled with its online presence and follow-through since the launch of the Wii and DSi, attempting to navigate the fragile balance of a younger-skewing demographic and the inherent dangers of online gaming and interaction.

Unfortunately these real-world issues mean nothing to the average gamer, who has had to deal with 16-digit friend codes, access limitations, and shoddy presentation, not to mention several name iterations that include almost every combination of the words "Wii," "DSi," "Shop," "Store," and "Channel."… Read more