Trivia and electronic games naturally go together. The question-and-answer format of trivia questions works perfectly in electronic form, where a computer or other device displays a question while keeping the answer completely hidden from view of the players. The device can then show the answer when the players are ready to see it. With today’s computer and device gaming market, it’s no wonder that a large number of electronic trivia games are available. Here are some of our favorites.

Trivial Pursuit Digital Choice
No list of trivia games would be complete without a contribution from Trivial Pursuit. Trivial Pursuit Digital Choice comes complete with the board and game pieces you’ve always used, but there is a twist: the questions are on a battery-powered electronic device instead of traditional card decks. The device comes preloaded with 600 questions, and you can purchase and download more at the website. The unit keeps track of the questions asked, so you won’t have to use the same question twice.

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
Games based on this popular television game show are available for video gaming and computer platforms, as well as for download on mobile devices. The current iOS version is based on the current format of the show, so fans of the original show may find it a bit unfamiliar. Sounds and animations are just like those on the show. The game boasts almost 1000 general knowledge trivia questions for you to answer on your road to winning $1,000,000. (Sorry, monetary payoffs not included.)

Smarty Pants
Several games are available for the Wii and other gaming platforms. Smarty Pants, a trivia game for the Wii, allows people of all ages to compete together by tailoring trivia questions to each player. The game asks younger children questions on their level, while giving more complicated questions to older players. Spin the wheel to choose your category by making a spinning motion with your Wii remote. Wii remote capabilities are incorporated into other gameplay features as well.

Jitterz
Recommended for ages 7 to 12, Jitterz is a self-contained electronic trivia game composed of a central box surrounded by a hand pad on each of the four sides, allowing up to four players at once. Although the questions may be simple enough for school-age children, there’s a speed element as well. So even adults can enjoy playing this game with their kids—or with each other. Through the speaker in the central box, the game announces a question, accompanied quickly by several possible answers. When you hear the correct answer, simply lift your hand up from the hand pad. The game also has other formats, allowing for versatility and greater challenges.

Twenty Questions
Handheld battery-powered Twenty Questions games come in several versions, but the gist is the same for all of them. You, the player, think of something within the category of the game’s sphere of knowledge—maybe NFL football, or The Simpsons. Then answer the questions that the device has for you. The devices are surprisingly effective at deducing what you’re thinking of.

Would You Enjoy an Electronic Trivia Game . . . or two?  Electronic trivia games have some advantages over card-based or book-based games. They allow everyone to compete together, rather than requiring one player to leave the action, read the questions, and checks the answers. Electronic trivia games also enable one person to play alone. Plus they have some pretty nifty features, like sound effects and timers that non-electronic games don’t usually have. If you’re into trivia, electronic trivia games may be the answer you’re looking for.

Author John Fisher is an avid fan of trivia quiz questions, games and activities, such as general knowledge quizzes.

 A Recognisable Face

This is a new development which you might not fully appreciate if you don’t know how it works. It is facial recognition technology and it is currently used on the Oasis of the Seas vessel. When you check in to the ship you get your photo taken. This isn’t just a holiday snap though, as the picture is then used for security purposes and is linked to your cabin key.

Where are the Queues?              

Here’s a little question for you to ponder the next time you are on a Royal Caribbean ship; where are the queues of passengers waiting to get served their food? With thousands of other holidaymakers on board you would expect to bump into big lines of hungry people at least every now and then. Instead, this is cleverly avoided through the use of shape recognition cameras. These are used to let the staff see the movement of passengers around the ship and tailor the services accordingly.

3D Movies

You probably know that cruise lines offer a lot of entertainment options on then, but did you realise that you can now see the very latest 3D movies while you are at sea? If you prefer watching something in your cabin than in one of the movie theatres then you can pick from a list of selected films.

Track the Kids

Did you know that the biggest cruise ship around right now is the Allure of the Seas from the Royal Caribbean line? It measures up at well over 1,000 ft and can hold over 6,000 passengers. If the scale of the vessel makes you think twice about sailing on it then you will be pleased to see that the firm has come up with an application which lets you keep an eye on where your children are and also plan what you want to do while you are sailing.

Surfing at Sea

Have you ever fancied surfing in the middle of the ocean? The FlowRider machines onboard Royal Caribbean ships let you do just this. It is a surf simulator which gives an incredibly accurate experience and is a lot of fun. If you thought that your cruise trip would be about sitting around, eating lots of food and putting on weight then this machine could really change your mind. Maybe it will even persuade you to try out the sport for real during one of your land excursions.

Every website speaks to its visitors and the web typography is the language that communicates the ideas. A designer can broadcast his message to the masses with the help of the design. A well-developed website will give the potential clients and the inspired readers a good feeling of the website.

If you want to get your creative juices flowing, then you must look at the top web designs and get the ideas from them to continue to evolve as a designer.  Just by knowing the styles of their websites and understanding the overall designing processes, you can generate a masterpiece of your own.

Top Most Inspirational Website Designs:

Check out a number of inspirational concepts below, which are available online, and apply best web design to your own website.

• Media Queries Website:

Media Queries is a documented website, which is available for the readers. The style sheets available at the forefront of the website are well tailored for different media types. The web design of this web portal is an outstanding source of inspiration for those who need to create responsive web designs.

• The Favorite Website Awards

Favorite Website Awards, or FWA, is among the most visited website award program, which has been recognized by the industry. The website has been around since the year 2000 and has received multiple hits since that time. It is a big inspiration for mobile web designers and developers in particular.

A number of features on the website attract global audience including web enthusiasts, web news editors, flash masters, and graphic designers, among others to get muse.

• Design Shack:

It is a showcase website, which has inspired many web designers. From logos, resources and tutorials to a simplified user interface, the Design Shack web gallery will provide you with the specified knowledge of fantastic designing to get you back on track.

• Dribbble:

As unique as its name, this website is a show and tell for the website designers. People upload shots of their screens to share with others. It functions like twitter, except instead of tweets, the users share their screenshots of designs and applications.

• Abduzeedo:

Abduzeedo is an open channel for the designer community that requires inspiration. It is a blog site providing web designing, illustrator, Photoshop, Pixelmator, and other software tutorials. You can also get the biggest designing stories here.

• Build Internet:

It is a website, which centers on information relating to web development, design, and business. It is an all in all nugget for designing insight and practical developmental techniques. In addition, the jQuery plugins are free for public use.

• Think Vitamin:

It is another great gift for the designers, which promotes the concepts of designing.

• Web Designer Notebook:

Yet another web designer’s blog, this website offers front-end development techniques and is a member of the Smashing Network.

• Best Web Gallery:

Another great inspirational site, Best Web Gallery displays additional styles of designs on other websites.

• Theme Forest:

It is a theme site, which offers great inspirational design sites to the visitors

Conclusion:

Visit all the above-mentioned most famed websites to get unique ideas. With motivational designing tips and tutorials, you can find what you need to know about creative designing for your website.

Hard rock and early metal bands, especially those towards the more, uh, “psychedelic” end of the spectrum, have been marvelling at the pretty colours since at least the ‘60s.

As for who has control of the lights themselves – that’s a story that takes us all the way from progressive rock to The Prodigy, and maybe back again.

Photo by Claus Ableiter, under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike License 3.0

In the early days of big festivals and tours, the band itself was the overwhelmingly dominant force. Fireworks, light shows, anything to do with the performance were exclusively reserved for the big progressive and hard rock monoliths, who were revered as great all-round artists and geniuses.

The heyday of this sort of monumental pyrotechnic and light extravaganza was probably the ‘70s, when bands like Genesis, Yes and Rush pushed progressives self-indulgent tendencies to breaking point – but put on some pretty amazing shows in the process!

From there, it became a rock cliché, parodied by bands like Spinal Tap and GWAR, and taken to ridiculous extremes by mainstream rock groups such as KISS, with fire bursting from all sorts of unlikely places.

It also became somewhat tamer, an expected part of a festival rather than something with a hint of danger to it, and the idea that you’d experience a concert as some sort of massive synaesthetic love-in-cum-artwork gave way to an experience that was easier to enjoy and participate in.

Photo by Flickr user “Jamiecat” under a Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0

It’s probably partially because of the decreasingly elitist atmosphere in popular music that rave took off when it did, and when rave took off, so did light in music. Larger acts have always been able to provide a decent show, and new nightclubs spent thousands of pounds on lighting and so on, but the place that most of the lights at a rave came from was dramatically different from where lights at rock concerts and festivals traditionally came from.

Photo by Kyle McCluer under a Creative Commons Attribution No Derivatives License 2.0

Thanks to radical advances in the fields of glow stick technology and shiny jumpers, rave saw a huge transition in how lights were used to create a spectacle. Instead of one guy planning out and committing to his own personal vision, you got a massive collaboration and celebration.

The music started to become, with the exception of a few huge names, an interchangeable backdrop. People weren’t out to recognise an artist’s genius, they were out to have a good time and express themselves with dancing, weird and wonderful clothes, and flashing lights everywhere.

This huge change in how we interact with music soon spread to other genres, first by genre-crossing bands such as Enter Shikari bringing a touch of rave to metal, and later just because people realised it was really fun to use colourful lights at a concert – any concert. The sight of someone draped in glow sticks, portable fairy lights and neon glow-in-the dark clothing is now common at most major festivals, and can even be sighted on occasion at serious business fests such as Download and Trondheim.

Thanks to rave, the festival light show can now belong to everyone, and it’s more brilliant and bizarre than it has ever been in the past.

Patrick Robson is a writer for LDJ Lights, who sell party lights and fairy lights, and also an old school prog rock fan who doesn’t understand all you young ravers with your hippity-hop and double-step.

The retail industry in the UK has been going through something of a slump in recent times, but it’s thought that 2012 will bring a much-needed boost thanks to the staging of the London Olympics. The sporting fiesta will run from late July through to mid-August, and it promises to be an event which Londoners in particular and Britons in general will be proud of.

Tickets for almost all of the sports have sold in vast numbers, and there have been millions of disappointed fans who have been unable to get them. However, all is not lost, because the television companies are planning almost blanket coverage of everything from athletics to Greco-Roman wrestling.

Electrical stores are gearing up to offer special prices on the latest LED TV, digital radio and DVD player, in a bid to cash in on the build-up to the Olympics. In small family-run shops, large out-of-town retail units and even on the Internet, it’s relatively easy for the average consumer to find rock bottom prices without having to search too hard.

For the consumer, this would have been a lot more difficult a few years ago, but the rise in importance and popularity of the comparison website has made the quest far easier. These days, it’s so easy to find the lowest prices on the best LED TV or recordable DVD player without even having to go out of the front door.

Legendary Olympic Moments

Over the years, the Olympic Games have provided us with so many unforgettable moments, and 2012 will almost certainly add to that list. Iconic images of the past include Cathy Freeman surging to victory in Sydney, Muhammad Ali lighting the Olympic flame in Atlanta and Nadia Comaneci achieving perfection in Montreal.

The advantage for the modern television viewer nowadays is the quality of the viewing experience itself. With crystal clear images and wonderfully rich sound, it can almost feel as though you are in the stadium with the competitors. In many ways, it can be better than actually being there for real.

Needless to say, much of the action will be taking place when a significant proportion of the population will be out of the home, whether at work or visiting friends or family members. All is not lost, however, because a Freeview HD recorder can be used to record all the action in order to watch it at a later time. With one of these machines, there’s no need to miss any race, any throw or any jump.

While most of the sports are taking place in and around the Olympic Park in London, there are several more venues which are hosting specific sports. The sailing, for example, will be taking place off the coast of Weymouth in Dorset, and the rowing and canoeing will be held at Dorney Lake in Buckinghamshire. With a good TV and recorder, however, every single event will be taking place in your own living room.

Jack Ryman is a technology enthusiast from the UK who is gearing up to enjoy the Olympics in style on his LED TV. That is, until the beer kicks in…

The new Windows 8 download has many features that will make us want to use more cloud computing. There are elements of the operating system that make it appear as if it is cloud-based. This is not completely true. Cloud computing is a very broad term, and in actual fact, it is not a very good description at all. Here is a look at cloud computing, the new Installation of Windows 8, and the issues related to cloud computing, online computer support, for the operating system.

Understanding cloud computing. The term used to describe what is going on when we use files and applications not stored on our computer is not a very good one. Cloud computing implies we do not know where those applications and files are. This is not the case. Take the case of Facebook, for example. Facebook is more than a website, it is an online application we access through our browser. Our files are not stored on our computer, and they are stored on the Facebook servers. We know where they are, or at least who has the responsibility to look after them. This is the same with our personal banking and email. Essentially, cloud computing is server-based computing.

Online applications and more power. We will install Windows 8 from the Internet. It is a download with a load of computer support. Applications are already available online, but what makes Windows different is the fact that it will integrate those web-based applications directly into the operating system. Facebook is already making an application for the new operating system. It uses the same language as the applications that run in our browsers, without needing the browser. This means those applications will use more power from the computer instead of what is limited to the browser.

More devices. The new operating system will be the same on any device that can run Windows. This means we can use a Windows Smartphone with the same operating system as the one on our desktop or laptop at home or in the office. It makes sense to use cloud-based computing services. Change one file when you are using your Smartphone, and it will be updated on the server you are using. When you access that file on your laptop it will be the latest version. No need to keep copying files to yourself.

System update. The new operating system will not need updating as it did in the past. This does not mean the operating system will not improve. It will automatically update each time you turn it on. The operating system is still stored on your personal device.

What does all this mean? Summing up, the operating system will encourage and take advantage of ‘cloud’ computing, and yet it is not a cloud-based operating system because it is stored on your computer. At the same time, it will fix itself, and update all the time online, meaning less need for computer repairs. We all know that means it will be easier to use.

Apple’s argument is that Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus, which uses the latest version of Android, is the most threatening competitor to Apple’s iPhone market. They say that the Galaxy Nexus poses a serious threat to Apple’s market share. The suit filed by Apple alleges that Samsung has knowingly added features to the Galaxy Nexus that are exclusive property of Apple.

This suit is different than the one filed almost a year ago by Apple against Samsung. This previous suit focuses on technical patents. However, the current claim made by Apple pertains solely to design patents. For instance, one of the patents in question centers on a feature dubbed slide to unlock. This allows users to slide a button across the screen in order to unlock the phone. A second patents deals with technology that allows the device to search many different sources of information simultaneously. This feature was needed to operate the voice assistant feature called Siri. Apple claims that the Galaxy Nexus handles searches in the same manner. Another reported patent violation was for information detection. This made it possible for the phone to recognize certain types of information. For instance, if the phone recognized that a piece of information was a phone number, users could simply click on the number and that call could be placed.

In response to these allegations, Samsung continued to assure customers that it would defend their technology against the claims made by Apple. Some analysts believe Apple’s actions are their way to deal with the increasing success of Google’s Android operating system. Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus was the first phone designed by a handset developer (Samsung) and Google. With the newest version of the Android operating system, the Galaxy Nexus has become quite popular as both a pay as you go model and as one of their range of contract phones.

This infographic was designed on behalf of HotelClub;a hotel booking company.

[ Click on the Image for a Larger version ]

• Blogosphere Gluttony: Blogs offer a crowded space where there are way too many writer ramblings, giveaways, interviews linked from one wall to the other.  Beyond a few clicks, all of it seems like a re-run. Unless it’s a very striking headline from twitter, you won’t even bother going through its contents.
• The audience: Most of the times a blogger gets visited and engaged by other bloggers or writers. The outreach of blogging can be questioned in this context. It is just reaching a niche group and that’s it. Rather, it is more of an inter-dependent blogging atmosphere wherein the blogger community lends a helping hand to its constituents in promoting the content. With such limitations, the authenticity of a blog is always questionable.
• Alternatives: Social media seems to be a better tool to reach for the right people. Social media makes sure there isn’t just a niche cluster that knows about your recent activities. Social media has taken over the blogging concept with its unfenced discussions, propagation and recommendations. The Facebook link would be able to fetch you more comments and related activity than the real blog itself. As a result, actual blogging is awfully impacted.
• Facts in favor: Though social media and the re-shares offered by it has brought a revolution in visibility of information, yet bloggers have something to cheer about. Albeit blogging is surely on a decline, it isn’t all dead and there are some factors that still keep it in the game:
  • Search-ability: It’s tough to track and search information on social networks and contrarily, it’s pretty easy in case of blogs. You get easily search for news and posts owing to subscriptions and structured classification of blogs.
  • Longevity: The longevity of information remains a question in case of social networking platforms as information gets outdated in a jiffy. When you enter a discussion, it is likely to lead into another interesting subject and the former one fading away.
  • Google indexing: Blogs get the support of Google indexing but if the profile of a person is private, then there is no scope for its information to get indexed on Google. Thus, blogs edge forward in getting a visible ranking.

Hence, there are still some pros to root for, and blogging would certainly not become extinct. The group of bloggers and their readers are a firm community that has a relationship with sensible information sharing unlike the aimless and random posts on a social medium. Blogging makes social posts far sensible and to make it work, you should stuff your blog with apt information and then make social mediums point towards the same.

Author info

Cynthia Reese is a freelance writer who likes writing on social media trends, Business strategy and Business communication. Currently she is involved in writing for www.lahondaworld.com.