His name is Rio - The England team has been announced and while it may well be the most uninspiring line-up of humans since the reforming of Steps, the one bit of interest is a lack of Rio Ferdinand. If Hodgson had done his homework – and by homework, we mean contacting EA Sports and stealing its Player Performance Index (PPI) – then he would have kept Ferdinand in the squad and also called up the likes of Ryan Shawcross and Michael Carrick.
Unfortunately for us, he's a PES fan so all our players are from the likes of Man Blue, Man Red, Northluck City and Merseyside Red. [Mirror]
Max power - We have some good news if your name is Max or Maxine and like a bit of Payne. Videogame comparison site Playr2.com is offering you a chance to win Max Payne 3 – all you have to do is go to its Facebook page this Friday and write 'I am Max Payne' on their wall. You could probably try this on the high-street too but there's a massive chance you will get carted away to the funny farm. [Facebook]
Troll with it - A Brighton woman has decided to get her own back on internet trolls by going to the High Court to force Facebook to unmask the blighters that are sullying her name online. We are guessing this isn't going to be done in a Blind Date style scenario – which is a shame as we would pay good money to see a troll unmasked in this way, maybe under a bridge or something. [BBC]
Wee Jobby - A book on Steve Jobs has arrived which is meant to teach kids all about the history of Apple and explain just who the computing CEO was. We're not sure many will get past the front cover, though, as one look at that forehead and you are forever transfixed. But if you do, it's ready to buy on Amazon. [9to5Mac]
Toon town - If cartoon Jobs hasn't scared your children off tech forever, then they may want to take a look at MagicTown.com - a new destination for interactive picture books for kids that also doubles up as a virtual world.
The car's not the star - In what has got to be one of the most short-sighted moves ever in the history of online, General Motors has decided to pull its advertising on Facebook due to low sales. Now, advertising a car on Facebook may not offer a click to buy opportunity but just because you don't see immediate sales doesn't mean the idea of buying a GM car hasn't been baked into a user's conscience. Facebook will be hoping this isn't a trend, given its imminent IPO. [Telegraph]
Dino-sore - Dinosaurs, according to Stephen Spielberg, are a pesky bunch of beggars that will eat you up even when you are relaxing on the toilet. But the truth about these majestic animals is a little more sad: some dinos suffered from a form of arthritis – yes, the same as the condition your gran has and they didn't even have zimmerframes or copious amounts of tea to help them cope. [Telegraph]
3G gets a speed boost - We may not have 4G in the UK yet – and for your information Apple, we don't use the word cellular either – but O2 is hoping to combat this problem by introducing 3G plus wings, or DC-HSPA (dual-cell high speed packet access) to give it its hip-hop name. This does boost speed apparently and O2 reckons you may well be able to get 42Mbps out of the new service. But this could be akin to putting go-faster stripes on a Mini, depending on what your O2 coverage is like. [CNET UK]
Code to nowhere - The first-ever QR World Expo is set to take place at the Royal Horticultural Halls in London and will bring togm;M;M; #GE;RK – er, sorry, we fell asleep on our keyboard writing that. But if QR codes are your thing, then you may want to head over to www.qrworldexpo.com for more info. Yawn.
Tiger, Tiger, burning bright - Intel has posted the strangest video ever on its site. We are guessing it is there to promote the Ultrabook brand but we have no idea what a dancing tiger has to do with superslim laptops. Bizarre but worth a watch. [YouTube]
