Fox Orders 'Voice'-Like Dating Series 'The Choice'

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Milken Confab: Sumner Redstone Says He and Tom Cruise Are 'Best Friends' Now

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May 2nd, 2012Top Story Take Your Ideas from Start to Finish with Wunderkit By Alan Henry Click to view Ideas aren't tasks, but for some reason, many of us manage our ideas alongside our to-do lists. Wunderkit, on the other hand, gives you a platform specifically for managing your ideas. It's a great idea bank—or a place for all of your projects, goals, and the things that come out of your brainstorming sessions that you catch yourself wishing you could remember later. Wunderkit is made by the same people who built Wunderlist, our pick for best to do app for OS X, Windows, and Linux. If you're familiar with Wunderlist, Wunderkit will feel very similar. If not, don't worry—it's very intuitive. The service gives you a workspace to arrange your ideas and projects into separate projects, tag them, assign due dates to them, and even bring in other people to help you. I have a few gripes (we'll get to those later), I trust it as my brainstorming tool and my personal well of ideas, and I think you should too. Why Wunderkit? I tried getting into Wunderlist to manage my to-dos, but I never really found myself really using it every day. I already had a great to-do tool. I didn't need an app to remind me to remind me to file a TPS report every Monday; I needed something to hold all of my ideas: Future Lifehacker posts, my bucket list, and all of my personal projects and goals. Here's why Wunderkit is a fantastic tool for this: It keeps your ideas neatly organized. Part of what sets Wunderkit aside from other to-do apps is the fact that you can have different boards for different projects, each with their own sets of tags, due dates, and ideas, and none of them intrude on the other (unless you want them to.) For example, I have boards for "big brainstorm" ideas for large projects, article ideas, household projects, tech projects, and so on. Inside each of those boards, I have individual lists, ideas, and to-dos, all tagged and organized even further. From there, you can filter them so you only see the ones you're interested in at any time. It's fast. Wunderkit is primarily a webapp, but it's also available as a standalone app for iOS and OS X. The tool itself is fast enough, but what we really mean is that adding ideas and tagging them is as easy as typing a few words. It has tons of keyboard shortcuts, and almost every action is a keystroke away. It keeps your ideas in sync. If you use the OS X app (which is essentially a container for the web site), the iOS app, or the webapp, you'll notice they're always in sync. Your to-dos, tags, notes, even any custom icons or wallpapers for your workspaces are synchronized in the background, and available on any device with a web browser. It's free. Wunderkit is free—and always will be, according to the developers. The Wunderkit team will eventually offer premium features in the future, but everything here now will always be available for free. The mobile apps are also free, with no in-app purchases or other "pay more to get this tool that actually makes it useful" tricks up their sleeve. Part of the reason Wunderkit works so well may be because it's not trying to replace your standard to-do app. It's smooth and easy to use, but it's not a calendar or reminder app, and it doesn't want to be. Some people will just consider it another app they have to have open to stay organized, but if you're using Wunderkit as a place to store your ideas—not your to-dos—you only have to look at it when you're ready to take those ideas and start working on them. Organize Your Ideas and Projects with Wunderkit Getting started with Wunderkit is easy. Sign up for an account (or link your Facebook or Twitter account) and you'll land on your dashboard. The dashboard gives you an overall picture of what to-dos you have in-progress and which ones you've completed, along with any other recent activity, like freshly added notes or tag changes. Let's say you want to plant a garden, now that the weather is turning warm. Create a new workspace for your garden by clicking "create new workspace" in the left sidebar. You can even upload and assign a photo of a plant or flower to your workspace so you can tell at a glance what it's for. From there, you can dive right in and start adding the to-dos required to get your garden up and running. For example, you'll probably want to research what grows well in your area, make your shopping list, and then shop around at different nurseries to get the best prices on what you want to grow. Add each of these as to-dos for your project. Since your shopping list might get long, you may want to tag that to-do with "shopping," and then use the Notes section to build your shopping list out and include things like soil, fertilizer, pesticides, some fencing to keep the dogs out, and of course, the plants or seeds themselves. Tag your note with "shopping," and both the note and your to-do will appear if you do a search or filter for shopping tags later. If you want to organize ideas or to-dos even more discretely, you can star them to mark their importance, heart them to indicate favorites, and sort them into individual lists inside of a workspace. I've found that tags and stars are sufficient, but it's nice to have the option. You can also assign due-dates to any of your ideas, and when it's time to work on them, they'll appear in the "What To Do" panel at the bottom left of the screen (indicated by a check-mark.) Wunderkit doesn't have all of the bells and whistles that some to-do apps have, but it shouldn't be judged based on a checklist of features that you may or may not use. What makes Wunderkit really useful, in this writer's opinion, is how easy it is to add and organize your ideas, retrieve them when you want to review a specific tag or project, and how good you feel when you click that checkbox and see your idea join the others you've completed at the bottom of the screen. You don't spend a lot of time digging through ideas and adding new projects in Wunderkit—you dive in for a little brainstorming or something to do, mark them complete, and feel good about doing your work. That's a wonderful thing. Use Wunderkit to Collaborate and Share with Others Up to this point, we've discussed how easy it is to organize your thoughts in Wunderkit, and that's by far its strongest suit. However, the app has a collaborative dimension that's useful if you work on projects with groups, especially if you can convince them to sign up. If you want to bring in someone else on a workspace, you can invite them via email, or select from your Facebook friends or Twitter followers (if you've linked your account with one of those services.) As soon as they sign up and you grant them access, you can assign them to-dos, get their feedback on your ideas or get them to help you organize, and you can see their activity on your dashboard. For example, one of my workspaces is exclusively ideas for articles and features to write here at Lifehacker. When Adam Pash comes calling, asking if I have ideas for a feature next week or a post tomorrow, instead of trying to brainstorm on the spot, or pull specific ideas out of my list that I think he might support, I can invite him to view my workspace and weigh in on the ideas he thinks has legs. Similarly, if I need help researching some of those ideas, I can invite one of our interns to my workspace and assign one of my ideas to him so he it appears on his dashboard. When he's finished, he can update the task, I'll see it on my dashboard, and I can start writing. This is especially useful if you're collaborating on the same ideas with someone else, or if you have someone who needs to see what's on your plate, like a manager or supervisor who can help you prioritize all of those ideas you've added to your workspaces. Wunderkit's real power is in helping you organize your own activities, but it's really nice to give someone else a window to what you're working on and get their feedback from time to time. Not a To-Do List, an Idea Well Wunderkit is a platform, and the developers behind it say more tools and built-in "apps" like the dashboard, tasks, and notes are on the way soon. Even without them, it's a powerful tool for organizing your ideas and creating a constantly growing well of creative ideas. It's not perfect; you can't link notes with to-dos (but you can tag them so a quick search will pull up any relevant notes as well as to-dos you want to see), and I wish it could sync with my calendar for alerts or reminders. Even so, it still complements the to-do app I already use, and I think it'll work well with yours, too. If you need a to-do app that will pop up a reminder that you have to do a certain thing at a certain time, Wunderkit isn't that app right now—it may develop some of those features in the future, but its real strength is in how it complements those traditional tools as an bank or well of ideas that's quick and easy to update as soon as a new one pops into your head. Do you use Wunderkit? What do you think of it, and what do you use it for? Share your experiences in the comments below.

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May 2nd, 2012Top Story 48 Things That You Should Know About Call of Duty: Black Ops II By Kirk Hamilton Last week, I headed down to visit with Treyarch in Santa Monica to get an extended look at Call of Duty: Black Ops II. Our visit was entirely hands-off, and consisted mostly of a series of in-game demos of missions from the single-player campaign, as well as a new open-ended single-player mode called "Strike Force." The in-game missions were mostly set during a drone attack of Los Angeles, but we caught a few glimpses of other sections, as well. Rather than write a huge narrative preview, I thought I'd just cut right to the chase and list as many facts about the game as I could. I almost hit Stephen's standing record of 50, but fell just short. Oh well! There's a reason he's the boss. Here now, 48 facts about Call of Duty: Black Ops II. From single-player to Strike Force all the way to Multiplayer and Zombies. (Less info on those last two, unfortunately.) Buckle up. Let's start with... The Story The game's story will jump between two timelines, with the primary one set in 2025. "Most" of the game will be set in 2025. It is a direct sequel to Black Ops. We will find out definitively what happened at the end of Black Ops—presumably, Mason didn't actually kill JFK, given that he's out in the field in Black Ops II. But who knows? The second timeline will be set in the late 80's near the end of the Cold War. The story will be narrated by Black Ops character Frank Woods, now an old man. Apparently he didn't die at the end of Black Ops after all. In the 80's timeline, players will take on the role of Black Ops protagonist Alex Mason. In 2025, players will take on the role of David Mason, who is the son of Alex Mason. The father/son relationship will play a part in the story. Hello daddening of video games! In the game's fiction, there is a second Cold War happening between China and the US due to the scarcity of Rare Earth Elements used to make tech devices and military weapons. The story is based on a real-world possibility, as China (according to the folks at Treyarch) currently controls 95% of the rare earth elements in the world. Topical! Many of the real-world hooks are inspired by P.W. Singer's Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century. A good deal of the 1980's action will take place during proxy wars in Central America. Tropical! Game Director Dave Anthony hinted that we may find out more about "imaginary" Viktor Reznov. "He was essentially a figment of the player's imagination," Anthony said. "Or was he?" Studio Director Mark Lamia chimed in, playfully. "Will we find out more about that?" asked Anthony with a smirk. David Mason (the son)'s callsign is "Section." Which is kind of a cool callsign. The villain will be a man named Raul Menendez, who in 2025 is pitting the Chinese and US governments against each other by hacking into their drones and other robotic weapons. The 1980's missions will chronicle what started Menendez on setting his current-day plans in motion. The story is was written from the ground up by Dark Knight and Batman Begins co-writer David Goyer. Goyer joined the first Black Ops part of the way through. He wanted to "create a memorable villain" with Menendez. Menendez has hacked into the US's unmanned drones and unleashed an attack on Los Angeles. In the mission we saw, a fleet of drones were destroying buildings in downtown LA. There will be at least one female soldier in the game, a pilot named Anderson. She laid quite a bit of waste during the entire LA mission. The president in 2025 is also a woman, and appeared in the LA mission. David Mason's sidekick is a soldier named Nelson who appears to be played by Michael Rooker of Mallrats and The Walking Dead fame. The game will be using full-body performance capture to place its actors in the game; the tech demo I saw demonstrated both male and female actors captured with the sort of clarity we've come to expect from games using full-performance capture. James Burns will be reprising his role as Frank Woods, of course. The Gameplay From what I saw in several demo sections set in a burning, futuristic LA, drones are controllable in combat and will play a large part in the game. Players have a drone-controller on their wrist in the game, and can use it to assign targets and waypoints. There will be horses, and horseback-riding, during at least one sequence in the 1980's. They even went so far as to bring a horse into the motion capture studio. At one point in the demo, the player jumped into a futuristic anti-aircraft gun and shot down enemy drones. Vehicle segments will be back, including one piloting a futuristic VTOL airship. Part of the VTOL mission was mostly on-rails, but the second part involved free-flying and dogfighting with drones. The Black Ops II story will be branching—it will feature choices and variable outcomes. Wait, what? Yep. At one point, players had an option to either grab a sniper rifle and cover their squad, or rappel down to join up with them. Presumably that choice leads to a slightly different gameplay experience—this looks like one of the smaller of the choices offered in the game. A large part of the branching will be due to Strike Force, which is a brand-new game mode featuring tactical, open-ended gameplay in sandbox-style levels. The New Game Mode: "Strike Force" An in-depth look at Strike Force can be found here. Strike Force missions will be woven into the core single-player campaign, and will present themselves as various black ops missions available around the globe. Players won't be able to play all of the strike force missions in a single playthrough. Strike Force is currently only included in the campaign and isn't a separate mode. It won't allow for multiplayer but, at some point down the road, could be fleshed out. "Things like Zombies originally started as unlocks," said an Activision representative after we followed up to make sure. "We're not taking the option off the table." Depending on the outcome of a given strike force mission, the story will change. "You're going to choose a mission," said Lamia, "and that's a branch for the story. Say there's three missions out there—you're not going to go back and play all of them; the story goes on. If you die on a strike force mission, you die in the story." Going on that, it would seem that the playable characters don't feature in the Strike Force missions. Strike Force allows players to control squads of troops, giving follow/hold commands with the shoulder buttons. Strike Force also allows a zoomed-out command view via an unmanned aerial drone that lets you to set waypoints for your units to achieve shifting goals. Strike Force will allow you to control (at the very least) armed aerial drones, armed land-drones, and unarmed aerial drones in addition to being able to hop to the viewpoint of any of the soldiers in your squad. The strike force missions will unfold organically but will be written into the story—in that way, they'll function somewhat like a single-player version of the multiplayer in Mass Effect 3. I think I heard Kiefer Sutherland voicing one of the squad members in Strike Force, but I'm not sure. Consider this a Kiefer! Rumor! Multiplayer Multiplayer director David Vonderhaar relayed that the new approach they are taking is "One size does not fit all." That means, he said, that there is no one way to play a Call of Duty game. So, they're pulling back features like create-a-class, killstreaks, and other features and reexamining them, challenging their assumptions of "what cows are sacred." Multiplayer will take place entirely in the year 2025—there will be no multiplayer missions set in the 80's. They are taking the E-sports community very seriously. In part, that means that they're focusing on making the game more fun to watch as a spectator. Hopefully that means super cute, colorful uniforms! Online Director Dan Bunting took us through a tech demo of the upgraded graphics; while lighting upgrades and tech aren't usually the most interesting topics, what they were showing looked great. As they put it, they are aiming for "PC quality graphics running at 60 FPS on a console." The illusion was quite convincing. We saw two unpopulated multiplayer maps: The first map we saw was a naturalistic map located in a village in Yemen. The second map was called "Aftermath" and was set in a ruined downtown LA, presumably after the drone-attack that we saw in the demo. Zombies Zombies will definitely be back in Black Ops II, and will feature all new modes that are more fleshed-out than ever. "There will be more zombies and more modes; just more." The zombies are "In the multiplayer engine." "If you think about all of the things we can do with our multiplayer engine," Lamia said, "You can start to think about how we might be looking at this." Okay then! Zombies are the only confirmed co-op aspect of Black Ops II. The campaign and strike-force modes do not appear to feature co-op. And that's that. 48 facts about Call of Duty: Black Ops II. The final two facts will be made available as DLC. (Just kidding.) Everything We Know About Call of Duty: Black Ops II We've seen the amazing new Call of Duty, and we can't wait to play it on November 13. Today, we're telling you all about it...

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