The trailer for the new Prince of Persia movie is now out. Check it out below.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time in HD

Trailer Park | MySpace Video

are pretty amazing actually.

via TUAW

In case you haven’t heard yet Geocities is closing down. This is of course heart breaking for those of us who built our first shitty web pages through the service. I tried to find some of my masterpieces but alas, ye ol’ Google yielded no results.

I did however want to do my part to preserve the Geocities legacy. So I’ve gone around and captured some of the all time greatest Geocities animated GIFs and saved them here.

Please do enjoy, Oh and tap the visitor counter on the way out.

clicky click to enlarge

I’ve always been a big fan of the designs and layouts used by Gawker blogs throughout the years. They seem to always been trying something new and they iterate often. While some blogs push the same tired look from years ago, Gawker continues to innovate.

Since they just pushed some new features last week I thought I’d take you through them.

Tips Share Bar:

In the header of the Gawker sites you’ll now find a share bar for sending in tips. Since many blogs like Gawker live off these tips lowering the entry bar is a great idea. Readers can now easily submit their tips and include media like photos and YouTube videos as well.

Hashtag Headings:

In addition to the article title, Gawker always included a snappy heading to accompany each post. This has now been replaced with a hashtag that links to a related tag page.

While these hashtags still include some of their famous snarky wit, the focus is more on usability now, less on editorial. It’s also interesting to see the hashtag take on a life outside of Twitter, in this case replacing all tags on the site.

New Tag Pages:

Personally I’ve always thought tag pages were a horrible experience for the reader and bad for SEO. Gawker has shuffled their tag page layout around and I have to say, it’s not horrible. You get your standard listing of any related posts under this tag and recent related comments. Readers can also add their own content to these pages under what Gawker is calling their Open Forum. That’s either a recipe for disaster or a brilliant way to make these pages more compelling.

The big question is what is planned for all that wonderful white space in the header? Always looking for ways to crank out more page views per session I’d imagine they’ll include yet more related thumbnails here. However this spot could also be great for SEO. Simply include a small write up about this tag and you’d have a better experiance for both readers and the google bots alike.

Comments are Now Sharing

Borrowing from Facebook, posting a comment is now all about the share. Like the new tips share box this makes it even easier to add content to an article. Instead of being faced with multiple text fields (name, email, website, comment) the reader gets a simpler UI they’re already very familiar with.

Just drop your text comment or related media and off you go. Additionally comment replies can be formated with a Twitter like @reply as seen above. This is something Gawker was doing even before this latest redesign.

This latest batch of tweaks is meant to work together in concert to support the new Gawker Open Forum. Evil genius Nick Denton had this to say about it:

With the launch of Gawker Open Forums, we’re allowing readers to post tips, sightings, game cheats, amateur pap shots and spy photos directly from a form on the front page. Readers can also initiate discussions on any topic they choose simply by including a Twitter-style hashtag in their post. And commenters can expand on a story, or rebut a post, just as now.

This bold initiative is similar to what BuzzFeed does. Allowing readers to add their own objects to an article (or create a new one). On Gawker approved commenters can have their submission included on the tag pages right away. Other comments will be reviewed by staff before made live on the page.

It’ll probably take some time to flush this out and find the best mix of user gen and editorial. It should be interesting to see where this goes, and if more user generated content finds its way to homepage.

What do you think of these changes? Has Denton once again helped online published evolve beyond the standard blog or simply started to outsource some content to you, the reader?

(click to enlarge)

Twitter lists are nice.

More on TechCrunch.

If you’ve been following along (which isn’t always easy with me) you’ll already know I’ve taken some consulting gigs here in lalaland. One is with a small website called MySpace. The other is with the iPhone app developer MobileRoadie.

Basically they allow you quickly roll your own iPhone app based off their flexible framework. It literally takes an hour, is all done through the web but wait there’s more (RIP Billy Mays). It’s also super affordable.

The inappropriately talented Co-Founder Brock Batten put together a commercial that goes through the process. Check it out below.

Looking do build an iPhone app like this? Let me know.

Yesterday Laurie and I just celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary, yes somehow she’s managed to put up with me that long. We spent the day in typical Percival fashion, attending tech conferences and flirting over Twitter. This is our life. I assume we should have some complaints about being such a hyper-connected couple but we’re just too busy loving every minute of it.

We ended our day speaking on a panel at UCLA. For the first time Laurie was up on stage with me and it I couldn’t help but feel it served as a perfect analogy for our love. There she sat, nervous as all hell but always ready to support me, to support us. Honestly I’ve put her through a lot. Lots of crazy ideas and career changes. Some huge successes and of course massive failures. Through it all she has always been right there, ready for any challenge.

As we pass into our fourth year of marriage we’re at the highest point of both our lives. We have no shortage of money and happiness, two things that certainly help a marriage.  But we know life is much like a roller coaster, things can only get worse or better from here. Either way, I know she’ll always be right there with me.

If you haven’t heard yet, we recently released the official lalawag iPhone app. We used MobileRoadie to quickly build and customize the app (Disclosure: I have an active consulting agreement with them). If you’re looking to build an iPhone app for your website please let me know.

You can download the app here to get a closer look.

Hits at about 49 second in.