This week on Supercharged we’re talking about building your own Super Mario game, how much physical activity you need every day to live longer, and Amazon’s new Prime Music streaming service. We’re also answering your questions about streaming the World Cup, budgeting as a couple, and learning Mac keyboard shortcuts.
Links for this episode:
Nintendo will let you build your own Super Mario Bros. game
If you’ve ever wanted to make your own Super Mario Bros. course, you can sometime in the indefinite future. Probably sometime in 2015. Nintendo announced Mario Maker for the Wii U and it looks pretty cool. You can build courses in both the retro and new style of the game, but it's apparently pretty tough to master. Whether or not this will actually get anyone to buy a Wii U remains to be seen, but it certainly is nice for those of us who still struggle with the choice of having sunk $300 into the system back when it was released.
Sony Announces Playstation TV
Sony decided to enter the set top box market and charge a bit more than everyone else. For $139, you get a streaming box that lets you stream PS4 games if you have a PS4, PS3 games from the cloud, and play downloadable titles for PSOne, PS Vita, and PSP. (What about PS2??) It’s unclear what streaming services will be available when it launches in Fall 2014, but they seem to be hinting at Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and maybe even HBO Go.
How Much Physical Activity Do You Really Need?
A study from Taiwan's National Health Research Institutes found that those who performed moderate levels of exercise for a total of just 15 minutes per day were 14% less likely to die in the follow-up period than those who were inactive, and had a life expectancy on average three years longer. The study also found that additional exercise brought additional benefits, but with diminishing returns.
Facebook Is Now Sharing Your Browsing History With Advertisers
Facebook is just doing more of what you probably already thought it was doing anyway: sharing your browsing history with advertisers. This will give advertisers more control over those targeted ads. You can opt out of this when it rolls out in a couple of weeks via Facebook, but you can’t opt out via the Do Not Track setting on your browser. One of the major upsides is that you will be able to remove brands from your “ad interests,” via a new drop down menu, if you don’t want to see them. (As an aside, Microsoft promises they’re not going to do anything like this.) If you need help turning it off, Gizmodo has a guide.
Amazon Prime Music
Amazon launched its music streaming service today, adding a catalog of one million songs to any Prime subscriber’s library. Most songs are over six months old, but you can stream them from Android, iOS, and obviously Amazon’s Kindle platform. The notable missing label from Prime Music is Universal. Lots of indie labels signed on, along with Warner and Sony. If there’s a song you’re missing and you really want, you can, of course, just buy it from Amazon.
Keyboard Shortcuts for Mac Desktop
Flash cards to help you learn shortcuts on the Mac.
Shortcuts for Mac
Mac shortcut reference, but no teaching mechanism.
Lifehacker's Mac Shortcut Tag Page
Lots of articles and videos demonstrating the best shortcuts in OS X.
TunnelBear
A very simple proxy to access content restricted to the UK or the US.
You Need a Budget (YNAB)
A simple budgeting tool that many prefer to Mint.
Lifehacker's Five Best Personal Finance Tools
The hive five roundup of the reader favorites.
Apple Refurbished and Clearance Store
The place to go to get a good deal on a 2013 MacBook Air (among other things).
ASUS VivoBook V400CA-DB31T 14-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook
Larger, cheaper MacBook Air alternative that's also a bit slower and offers less battery life.
ASUS VivoBook X202E-DH31T 11.6-Inch Touchscreen Laptop
The 11.6" version of Asus' VivoBook, with the same pros and cons as the 14" version.
The Always Up-to-Date Guide to Streaming Blocked Content Overseas
Regardless of which end of whatever pond you're on, region blocked content is annoying. Whether you're an ex-pat looking to watch reruns of The Wonder Years, or you're hankering for a dose of Dr. Who, here's the best (and easiest) way to get that content.
Unblock Us
Stop Facebook and Other Companies from Using Your Web History for Ads
We already knew that Facebook is tracking our every move on the web, just like everyone else is, but now the social network says it's going to use data from the other sites we visit and the apps we use to deliver more relevant ads. If you want to opt out of this enhanced behavioral targeting, there's a form for that.
Today's episode is sponsored by the wonderful people at Codeship.