We've noticed that more and more lucky iPad owners are throwing caution (and their cases) to the wind and using only a smart cover, screen protector or NOTHING to protect their lovely tablets. This kind of behaviour may be a little risky, but it's totally understandable. Why wrap a gadget designed to be super slim in layers of bulky protection?

But, you'll still need a way to keep your iPad safe when you're carrying it around all day before you get it out and use it nakey the rest of the time, so we've collected together our top 8 ways to keep your gadget safe in style.

There are oh so many photo apps out there for editing your mobile snaps, but there's definitely a trend amongst avid Instagrammers at the moment to not just be content with the one, but to combine lots and lots of photos in a quirky way.

The most popular photo-combining-cute-border app is Diptic, but there are a few more available that allow you to stitch everything together, change the shape of the snippets, add different kinds of borders and even create cool reflective effects.

Related: 10 Ways to make your Instagram photos more awesome

As we're sat writing this article a brain surgery is being live tweeted for all the world to follow over @houstonhospital. Yes it's fascinating and awesome if you're a medical geek, but aren't there just some things that we should stop sharing already?

Ahh Twitter, haven't you enabled us to do a range of lovely, selfless and life-changing things over the years? You've brought people together, spread the word about important issues, enabled us to make valuable connections and allowed us all to bond by ranting and swearing at each other. But at the same time you've effectively given a very public voice to people who insist on confusing, offending and annoying us on a daily basis and most of the time that's because very private, inappropriate or downright weird thoughts and events are being shared that we have no desire to read. EVER.

Now technically all tweeting is "live", but you'll often see the phrase live tweet being used when users have an incessant desire to share whatever crazy stuff is happening to them at that very moment in a really haphazard way that leaves everyone else disgusted and/or irritated. Well at least that's the "official" definition.

Yes some of these live tweeting stunts have been interesting, informative or just downright entertaining, but on the whole we'd like to put a stop to the kind of over-sharing that makes us want to hit things, set the internet on fire or cringe into the palms of our hands.

1. Surgery

Today @houstonhospital decided to live-tweet brain surgery and it's pretty fascinating if you're a medical geek or into cutting things up, but if you're a bit squeamish then steer clear.

2. Marriage proposals and weddings

Last month Mike Duerksen (@mikeduersken) proposed to his girlfriend over a TWELVE HOUR date and live-tweeted the whole thing using the hash tag #MikeProposes. She (luckily) said yes, but doesn't use Twitter, so commented that she was confused why he was spending a lot of time on his phone during the night. Now if that isn't romantic I don't know what is.

3. Random stuff when you're meant to be a top celebrity on a popular TV show

According to Digital Spy, Black Eyed Peas singer Will.I.am got in a lot of trouble this week when he insisted on tweeting throughout The Voice. It's great to see him multi-task and tweet whilst also being on a TV show, but that kind of behaviour also makes it look like he doesn't take the role very seriously.

4. Conferences

Yes it's considerate that you share your cool, insightful new findings with your followers, but 99% of us really couldn't care less and in future would love for you to unfollow us a good 30 minutes before you attend your next innovative and ground-breaking industry event.

5. Sex and touching yourself

Yes, this happens. For instance, oxygen thief Heidi Montag (@heidimontag) tweeted that she was massaging her big fake breasts a few years ago, a fashion blogger tweeted the details of a threesome (as well as what they were all wearing, how considerate) and Donald Glover thought we'd all love to know two random people were doing it near a bank.

6. Every random thought you've EVER had

We know for a fact that Kanye West isn't the only Twitter user guilty of this crime against social media, but wow does he do it the best. Back in January he spent hours (yes HOURS) sharing pretty much every thought he's ever had, from clothing to fur and music to education. This week he's also started to lay into the world of fashion, tweeting:

Just driving through the city and I see a few things I hate...
I hate button up shirts with hoods.
I hate hoods with sport coats.
I hate sport coats with button up shirts, jeans and dress shoes.
I hate khaki trench coats with jeans and off brand work out sneakers.
I hate khaki cargo shorts. I hate big ass striped scarves.
I hate long ass sideburns with line up RnB beard.

You get the idea...

7. The birth of your child

It's one of the most important, special and potentially painful moments of your life, so why not share it with your followers like this couple?

8. Silly lies about events/incidents/emergencies you're nowhere near

As soon as news breaks online that there's an incident or accident or emergency some Twitter users take it upon themselves to make up random rubbish about what might be happening, which then causes others to take what they say seriously and sooner or later MASS HYSTERIA follows and it's like a scene from 28 Days Later.

If you feel that your snaps of cakes and cats just don't look as good as they used to, try following some of our simple tips to make your Instagram photos a little bit more awesome.

When we all first started using Instagram last year, like crazed, filter-obsessed zombies, uploading photos of trees and tea and cats before choosing a simple effect with a cheesy border was totally acceptable. However, over the past few months we've all started taking our Instagram activity a little more seriously, whether it's making basic edits before uploading, adding filters from another app or combining lots of photos into one messy collage. We're onto you all.

So to help you out, here are our top ten tips to make your Instagram photos look even better, whether it's a basic photography lesson or apps to enhance the way your photos look before you go on to share them with your followers.

Samsung's new Galaxy S3 handset is here and we went along to the official launch event with Tech Digest to get some hands-on time with the fancy new smartphone.

Here's our quick demo video, which shows off the Galaxy S3's 4.8 inch HD Super AMOLED display, ridiculously clever (and slightly creepy) facial recognition picture tagging system, powerful 1.4GHz Exynos quad-core processor backed up by 1GB RAM, and picture-in-picture Pop Up Player multitasking feature and much more.

Related: Samsung Galaxy S3 official specs revealed / 5 Reasons the Samsung Galaxy S3 could be our new favourite smartphone

[Via Tech Digest]

This evening Shiny Shiny went along to Earl's Court in London for the launch of Samsung's new smartphone, the Galaxy S3. After a presentation from the team, plenty of demonstrations and some fun hands-on time with the new handset we think we may be in love.

So, here are five (of many) reasons why the Samsung Galaxy S3 could soon be our new favourite smartphone:

1. The big screen

We're used to Samsung pushing the boundaries when it comes to size, just take a look at the hefty Galaxy Note and its 5.3 inch screen, but the Galaxy S3 manages to impress us without making our hands ache quite so much at a large yet manageable 4.8 inches.

The screen itself has a Super AMOLED HD display, so combine that with the impressive size and you've got a device perfect for watching all kinds of media content, which obviously makes everyday tasks much easier and the key features really stand out.

2. Both voice and face recognition

Although there are plenty of new features to shout about under the hood of the new Galaxy S3, it's both the voice and face recognition that seem the most impressive at first.

S Voice is a Siri-like feature that allows you to search the web, set calendar reminders and check info on things like the weather, just by talking to the phone. It's hard to say whether S Voice will be a match for Siri, or if we're even THAT blown away by voice recognition anymore, but it'll be interesting to see how S Voice fares, particularly as Siri has faced some problems over here in the UK.

The handset has an advanced facial recognition feature, which means once you've taken a photo of someone the clever camera will recognise them again in the future, allowing you to automatically tag them on social networks.

3. Its "pebble-like" shape

Throughout the presentation many members of the Samsung team stressed that the Galaxy S3 has been "inspired by nature", and although it sounded strange to hear JK Shin reel off the random flora and fauna that influenced the design of the device it does just feel like a big, smooth pebble.

The new smartphone may not look that different from its predecessor, but although it's a tad bigger than the Galaxy S2 it's been made with curved edges and feels natural to hold in your hand or slip into a pocket (plz keep this one away from your bra though).

4. The camera

The camera isn't just good at recognising faces, it has an 8 Megapixel sensor along with zero shutter lag and the ability to fire off 3.3 photos a second. There's also the Best Shot feature, which takes eight photos and then picks the best one.

5. Pop Up Play

It may seem like a fairly minor feature, but we can't get enough of Pop Up Play, which allows you to multi-task while you're watching a video. You simply start watching, hit a button to minimise the content and it then plays while being overlayed on the top of whatever else you're doing. Neat, huh?

The Samsung Galaxy S3 will be launching in 145 countries with 296 mobile operators and the 3G handset will be launched on the 29th of May in Europe, the 30th of May in the UK, and the 4G will hit North America, Japan and Korea in June. We'll get you details about pricing and network providers ASAP.

Related: Tech Digest - HANDS-ON: Samsung Galaxy S3 preview

Today Shiny Shiny and Tech Digest went along to Earl's Court in London for the highly anticipated launch of Samsung's new handset, the Galaxy S3. After a few loud and dramatic videos and a real life orchestra (fancy, huh?) the Samsung team took to the stage to introduce us to the slick new handset.

Throughout the launch Samsung was really keen to play up just how much the Galaxy S3 is based on nature (JK Shin even went as far as to say it's "inspired by water, wind, leaves and pebbles") and designed to work "seamlessly" with our day to day lives and from what we've seen so far these aren't just fluffy buzzwords...

Let's start by talking about the handset's impressive screen, the Samsung Galaxy S3 boasts a 4.8" HD super AMOLED 1280x720 display with a super slim bezel, which means the unit itself isn't much bigger than its predecessor, despite the huge screen. It has 8.6 mm thickness and weighs only 133g with a smooth, sleek shape, which the team were keen to stress is based on "a minimal, organic design."

The handset boasts a 8 Megapixel Auto Focus Camera with a range of in-built features like burst shot, buddy photo share and best photo, which is our favourite, as it automatically selects the best photo out of a series of eight. The camera itself has zero shutter lag, which means it takes the photo as soon as you press the button and then spends less than one second getting you back into camera mode. The rear facing camera can also capture full HD 1080 videos and there's a front facing 1.9 Megapixel camera too.

Samsung has packed a whole load of cool new features into its new handset, including a Siri-like S Voice recognition feature, which understands eight different languages and can search for information, show you the weather forecast, organise your schedules and much more. There's also Social Tag, which keeps track of the people close to you and recognises the faces of your friends in your photos, this means when you take a photo it'll recognise who it is, so you can hit a Facebook button and it'll take you straight to their wall to upload. Voila!

The Samsung Galaxy S3 is running on Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 with a powerful 1.4GHz quad-core processor backed up by 1GB RAM. There's a 16 or 32GB of memory, with a 64GB option available soon, as well as expandable memory, which sets it apart from the iPhone. The handset also boasts a 2,100 mAh battery, which is pretty impressive too.

The Samsung Galaxy S3 will be launching in 145 countries with 296 mobile operators and the 3G handset will be launched on the 29th of May in Europe, the 30th of May in the UK, and the 4G will hit North America, Japan and Korea in June.

You can get the handset in a choice of two colours, blue and white.

Here's our hands-on with the Samsung Galaxy S3 from later in the night...

Where can you get manicure tips from Zooey Deschanel, photos of Snopp Dogg posing with his new sneakers and cheesy snaps of Jamie Oliver's crazy-named kids?

Instagram has gone from strength to strength since it was first launched back in 2012 (yeah it's only two, what a bright little toddler it is) with all kinds of different people and organisations signing up for a piece of the photo pie, including brands, news organisations, fashion houses, sports stars and obviously celebrities.

The great thing about celebrities being on Instagram is that we feel like we're REALLY getting a sneak peek into their fancy showbiz lives, which is much more appealing than reading unsubstantiated gossip. Well, sometimes.

There are a LOT of cool celebrities using Instagram right now, but here's our pick of the top 10. Oh and feel free to add your favourites in the comments:

The new iPad/iPad 3/third generation iPad has been with us for more than a month now, but we STILL don't really care what it's officially called, we just want to know what to do on it to please our eyes.

The new tablet from Apple boasts a 2048 x 1536 Retina Display, and last month we collected together 10 of the best Retina Display apps that had been given a super high resolution update to coincide with the shiny new launch. So now, a month on, we've collected together 10 more including a few quirky games, news applications and some that are oh so sensible and make us more productive too.

A new project on Kickstarter is looking for funding to create a bra that stores your mobile phone and all your random stuff neatly under your arm. Right now we can't tell whether this is plain ridiculous or a genius idea...

There are plenty of amazing projects on Kickstarter and plenty that make us question how some people manage to get through life on a daily basis. The JoeyBra sits somewhere in the middle of these two, it's a bra that has a special pocket to store things, like credit cards, keys and your gadgets. In theory it makes sense. You're a young, free woman with breasts, why would you carry your stuff around in your bag when you could strap it to your body?

The first thing we have an issue with here is obviously the fact it'd be pretty darn uncomfortable. I'm not the skinniest gal out there, but my iPhone is definitely longer than the little piece of bra at my side, so not only would it be annoying to swing my arms around with glee, but it'd create a pretty unsightly bulge, even if I was wearing something baggy. So let's not even get started on how deformed you'd look if you had a Samsung Galaxy Note...

This also brings us onto the issue of getting the phone out, would you have to choose between exposing your breasts or your stomach every time you got a text? There are enough sleazy weirdos in the world without us flashing a bit of flesh every ten minutes.

Now moving on to our second issue, the JoeyBra is described as a "sexy yet functional" way for women to carry around their gadgets. We get it. Bras carry breasts. Breasts are sexy to some people. But why should women want to carry their rubbish around in a way that's 'sexy' as apposed to say, oh I don't know, comfortable? And will there soon be a way for men to carry their gadgets round in a 'sexy' way?

We don't doubt a lot of thought, effort and research has gone into the JoeyBra, and we can certainly see the benefits of having somewhere to store smaller things, like money and credit cards, on a night out. However, the bulges, issues with getting your phone out to actually use it and promise that it's a 'sexy' way to store your bits and pieces makes us feel a little uneasy.

Check out the JoeyBra on Kickstarter.

Yes we know, we know, humour can be incredibly subjective, but we've decided to share our top sites with you that we bet, scrap that GUARANTEE will have at least 99% of you smiling this miserable and rainy afternoon.

Ahh the internet, it's good for so many things, like news, educational resources, social media, porn and Bieber-related content, but you know what we think it's BEST for? Drum roll please... HUMOUR and making us all laugh and smile and giggle and forget about the fact the world is mean and rubbish.

So we've collected together our top blogs for geeky LOLZ that we PROMISE will put a smile on that pretty little face of yours.

Although Tumblogs have always had a rather unique default layout, the growing popularity of Pinterest has made everyone crazy for the grid-like look, which ensures your photos REALLY pop. So, here are our top ten Pinterest-style themes for Tumblr lovers.

Whether you love it, hate it or used to love it and now just get a bit bored by it, you can't deny Pinterest is pretty awesome and one of the main reasons for that is it looks SO darn good. The grid-like layout ensures your photos stand out and displays content in a way that makes you want to scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll for hours. It's also an interesting way to publish photos that are linked in some way, because you can see certain styles or designs or scenery side-by-side.

If you love the layout but want something with a little more freedom, then sign yourself up to Tumblr or just change your current Tumblr theme so it's a little more contemporary and... well... Pinterest-y.

A lot of people hate the way they look so much they're willing to have their faces slashed open and moved around, but is Skype and video chat really to blame for our self-loathing?

As we all happily bumble through life many of us are all far too familiar with the tragic moment when we catch sight of our stupid laughing faces in the mirror or see a photo that shows just how hideous our teeth REALLY are. Your poor bruised little subconscious whispers to itself, "Ohhh so that's how my face ACTUALLY looks?!" and for the rest of the day you feel a bit like Quasimodo. Or maybe that's just us, you beautiful, beautiful Shiny Shiny readers.

Obviously the fact we take 3,253,475 photos for Facebook/Instagram/Hipstamatic/Path now makes us well aware of our quirky and endearing (see:gross) little traits, but some are suggesting the biggest culprit for making us all feel rubbish about our faces could well be Skype.

According to stats published over on io9, there's been a big, scrap that HUGE rise in the number of people deciding to have chin implants over in the US. The American Association of Plastic Surgeons has said that there was a 71% increase in the surgery (known as a mentoplasty because they shove mentos in there) last year, which is nearly 21,000 chin hating people over in the states alone.

Wait, so what the hell has Skype got to do with this we hear you say. Well, when these fancy plastic surgery experts were asked why there's been such a meteoric rise in the number of surgeries they began to attack the world of tech.

According to the Wall Street Journal:

"The procedures were about evenly divided between men and women, with the largest increase in patients 40 and older.

The group's president, Malcolm Z. Roth, suggests one reason may be the fact that more people see themselves on video-chat technology. "They may notice that their jaw line is not as sharp as they want to be."

Now we can see how this makes sense. We're not psychologists here, but we'd assume that the more you see your imperfections the chances are you'll either learn to accept them more and more (that's the grounded, positive ones amongst us) or instead you'll just loathe your face more and more. However, if it makes anyone feel better we're convinced no one looks good that moment they accidentally turn on their web cam and see their NINE chins staring back at them.

We've got some answers to this problem, because we're concerned this fact-hating, chin-implanting trend will spread like some kind of plague across the globe. Firstly, Skype and other video chat tools could introduce lovely filters to tone down our ugly, isn't that why Instagram is so damn popular?! Secondly, we could all just go tweak our Skype settings so we only see the face of the person we're talking to, not our own ugly mug. Thirdly, we could just all learn to love our quirks and weird traits. OK scrap that we want vintage, blurry filters EVERYWHERE and we want them NOW.

[Via io9 Via WSJ]

Ahh, another day another Twitter controversy. So are there really any clear cut rules when it comes to what we can and can't say on Twitter? Or are we all still pretty clueless?

I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd say something more risky on Twitter than I ever would in a blog post. As tweets are published in real-time the highly addictive micro-blogging platform seems more like a stream of consciousness than anywhere else online, so thoughts about that celebrity's stupid hair or what you're craving for lunch may be ridiculously irritating, but also just seem like natural observations you'd share with your followers.

However, Twitter's instantaneous and arguably more honest nature means that there have been countless occasions over the past few years when users have tweeted things they really shouldn't have done, which has led to rather serious consequences.

Just a few of those who've got into big boy trouble recently include...

Liam Stacey, who was jailed for 56 days after tweeting racially abusive messages about footballer Fabrice Muamba.

Jordan Blackshaw, who was jailed for four years after creating a Facebook event during the London riots.

Paul Chambers, who was fined after tweeting about blowing up Robin Hood airport.

Peter Copeland, who received a four month suspended jail sentence after posting racially abusive messages about Newcastle United fans.

Oh and there was also the chance that EVERY user who mentioned details of Ryan Giggs' super-injunction could be arrested too. But obviously that didn't happen.

From the examples above you can tell it's not really rocket science. If you say something racially offensive or threaten to blow something up and start a riot chances are you might get in trouble. If you started shouting those kinds of things at people in the street you'd face the same kinds of consequences. Or just be written off as an insane shouting person who everyone scuttles past as fast as they can.

However, there are much more specific cases that have caused problems too that don't seem as clear cut. Today you may have seen the drama between Grace Dent and a PR executive who likened her to an "abhorrent horse" in a tweet. Granted if he was just a regular guy there'd be no harm in it, but he actually works for a PR company that somehow works with Dent too (we don't know the exact details, sorry). Of course what he said wasn't nice, but then Dent replied saying he'd be unemployed today, which seems a little like primary school tactics. Shame on them both. In this case his position changes things, obviously there are no legal implications for calling someone a horse, but it depends what his employers think of his public ranting.

Interestingly this case proves there's a very grey area when it comes to offensive comments online. Of course celebrities and those in the public eye have to accept that they'll get a LOT of criticism in the street, at a bar and on Twitter, but where's the line between criticism and comments that cause genuine offence? Maybe that's a question for Frankie Boyle or Ricky Gervais, whose jokes raise a lot of interesting issues about what's humour, what's bad taste or what could get them in serious trouble.

So who needs to take responsibility for what's said online?

Well many have called for more visible guidelines on social networks that may help users understand what they can and can't say. However, should these platforms really take responsibility for what some silly people end up saying? That's like falling over a book and suing the author (yes, we're aware that some waste of life somewhere has probably done this at some point).

The answer really is pretty simple, users need to be more aware of what they're saying, regardless of where they're saying (or typing) it. Only last week Noel Edmonds called for people to be more responsible for their online activities. Despite admitting he's ABSOLUTELY CLUELESS when it comes to social media, he does raise a good (if blindingly obvious) point in that we have to take responsibility for what we're doing all the time.

But again that doesn't answer the question: WHAT CAN WE ACTUALLY SAY?

We're sorry. There's no clear cut answer. But basically just think about what you'd say in public and anything obviously racially abusive, offensive or threatening could well get you in trouble no matter who you are.

When it comes to criticising certain people or expressing controversial opinions it's a much more grey area and would depend on the circumstances. For example, if a 14 year old with 50 followers tweeted something about hating someone in the public eye it probably wouldn't cause any harm, but if a politician with hundreds of thousands of followers laid into someone for no apparent reason then it could have more serious consequences. Granted they may not be arrested, but a tweet could well snowball into a pretty serious PR blunder.

We've all seen Bambi, right? Maybe we could learn a thing or two from that lovable little bunny Thumper when he (it's a he, right?) said, "If you can't say something nice... Don't say nothing at all." But where does that leave us when we're watching a reality show and want to bitch about that silly man's beard? We imagine Twitter would be a very different place if we eradicated ALL sarcasm and mild abuse. And we're not sure we'd like that place much at all.

Although we don't really understand why people are getting quite SO angry about Facebook's acquisition of Instagram, we do get that a few of you will be shopping around for alternatives this morning. So here's our selection, depending on what it is you loved so much about the popular app before it was gobbled up by Facebook...

Unless you've been living under a rock this morning (or maybe you're just not a huge app geek, in which case WHY NOT?!), you'll know that Facebook has bought Instagram. It's pretty big and unexpected news, but now we're all left wondering whether we actually care and whether it'll have an impact on the way we use the photo app in the future. Either way, you might want to start looking for something that allows you to edit, or share, or blur your photos in a similar way, so we've collected together a few of our favourite alternatives.

If you'd rather edit your stuff online...

If you enjoy editing your photos but you often sit at your desk fooling around with Instagram, then try a web-based editing tool instead.

We like Picplz for simple filters and sharing across your networks (and it IS a mobile app too if that's your thing), Pixlr-o-matic for a big range of different effects and Instant Retro for adding filters then tweaking different elements, like saturation and lightness.

GALLERY: 5 Online Instagram alternatives

If you like the filters but want something a little bit different...

If you enjoy making photos of your face/flat/cat look better with the help of lots of lovely filters but you're getting a bit bored, then try Cinemagram, it's packed full of vintage effects but allows you to animate certain parts of your image too.

There are also lots of video editing apps that give your creations a vintage look, our favourites are Viddy and iSupr8. Why be constrained by a static photography anyway?!

If you want an app just like Instagram that hasn't had Zuckerberg's grubby mits on it...

If you're a big fan of everything Instagram has to offer but you don't like the fact it's now in bed with Facebook, then there are plenty of alternatives that provide you with the same kind of dedicated community (even if it's smaller), editing tools, sharing options and simple interface, like newcomers deja mi and Via.me, or our old favourite Hipstamatic.

If you're into fun filters...

If messing around with filters and editing tools makes you happy but you'd rather fool around and share your photos elsewhere, then we highly recommend the very comprehensive Camera+, Picplz has plenty of choice and Streamzoo is rather fun for Android users.

The internet imploded yesterday when news broke that Facebook has bought popular retro photo sharing and editing app Instagram. But does anyone REALLY care or are you all just jumping on the "THIS IS TERRIBLE. I AM OUTRAGED" bandwagon?

Last night news broke that Facebook bought Instagram for a reported $1 billion in cash and shares (£629 million), which is a pretty huge figure considering Instagram is only two years old and at the moment pretty profitless.

As you'd expect, EVERYONE decided to take to Twitter and discuss how outraged they are. Talk about #firstworldproblems. But in all seriousness, we're sure Mark Zuckerberg is shaking in his flip flops right now after threats that you'll no longer be sharing anymore blurred, vintage photos of your cat.

First Draw Something, now Pinterest, it seems we're starting to bore of our favourite forms of procrastination here at Shiny Shiny. But do not fear, it seems that everyday a new Pinterest competitor is launched to excite us.

Whether you're looking for a site that isn't as popular, you feel a little wary about Pinterest's Terms of Service or you just fancy trying something new, then here's our most recent round-up of grid-like alternatives and other cool visual inspiration sites.

The Pictionary / Words With Friends hybrid Draw Something has exploded over the past few months with sources predicting it will now have amassed more than 50 million (yes, million) downloads in a matter of weeks. But are we all still as excited to use our chubby little fingers to scribble rubbish pictures of Bieber, dandruff and a boat?

Whether you're a huge fan or already a bit sick of the hype, you can't deny that Draw Something has achieved great things recently. A few weeks ago the company behind the app, OMGPOP, was allegedly bought by Zynga for a cool $180 million and now, according to Business Insider, Draw Something will have most likely surpassed 50 million downloads today, making it the fastest growing app EVER.

Over the past few weeks we've witnessed (first hand) the excitement, and to a certain extent madness, Draw Something can bring into our lives. Endless hours are spent analysing how we portray the most basic of objects, we all feel compelled to buy more colours so Shrek is more accurate and we admit we've even considered splashing out on an iPad JUST so our drawings look a little more detailed. Think of it as some kind of fast-moving, life consuming virus that slowly chips away at your sanity one coin at a time.

But even though everyone we know is hooked, are some of us slowly realising we're immune to the Draw Something virus?

Let's clear something up. We're not denying Draw Something is an awesome, addictive and extremely popular mobile game. However, we do think an app that grew SO quickly does have the potential to fall out of favour just as fast.

Yes, we know in many ways they're not comparable, but it makes us think a little of Chat Roulette, a strange concept that had everyone hooked for about 14 days before the exhibitionists and crazies took over. Now we're not telling you to expect 5,678,884 drawings of penises from random people on Draw Something, but we do suspect it may die out as quickly as it appeared on our radars, just like Chat Roulette did.

But then again maybe we're just a little bitter that our fingers are far too chubby to make anything look good...

Although individuals have had the chance to access the Facebook timeline for some time now, it's only in the past few days that brands and pages have been forced to make the switch to the new layout. So who's rocking the new timeline in style?

We've been hearing about "timeline this" and "timeline that" since Mark Zuckerberg first outlined plans for the new layout back at the f8 developers conference, but at the time no one was certain whether cover photos and Tumblr-style boxes would be making their way to brand pages too. Well now that's all changed and every page, from your local yoga club to Coca Cola is trying to make it work for them.

There are lots of great examples of brands using the timeline, whether they've added a great cover and more photos that make the page look awesome, or they've filled in information dating way back to tell you more about their history.

So here are a few of the coolest, from fashion brands to bakeries to football clubs, and don't forget to let us know which is your favourite too.

UK audiences will finally get a chance to catch up with hit US TV show Breaking Bad when it's launched on Netflix over the weekend. So to celebrate Shiny Shiny was invited to an exclusive preview of the new episodes along with the chance to interview the show's creator, the awesome Vince Gilligan.

For those of you who aren't obsessed with Breaking Bad already (why not, huh?), we'll give you the skinny, it's an American TV show that follows the dark and tense story of Walter White, a high school teacher who turns to a life of crime after being diagnosed with lung cancer.

The show has won a whole host of awards across the pond and has become a cult series, garnering a very passionate fan base all over the world. However, UK fans still haven't had a chance to catch up on the third and fourth seasons. Well, until now. Luckily, the third season (and the first two) will be available on Netflix from the 1st of April. That's our Sunday sorted then.

Breaking Bad is a Sony Pictures Television production, so to celebrate, we were invited by the Netflix team to the Sony offices in the heart of London for an exclusive sneak peek (at least for UK audiences) at the first two episodes of the third season, followed by a Q&A session with the show's creator, Vince Gilligan. Yes, REALLY.

We don't want to spoil the first two episodes for UK audiences that haven't seen them yet, but be prepared for an eerie start to the season and some incredible new characters. OK, OK, we'll be quiet now.

Now onto the Q&A with Vince Gilligan, which as fans of the show was a BIG DEAL...

Walter White

Although the whole Breaking Bad cast is outstanding, a large part of our conversation with Gilligan was about Walter White, a truly fascinating character played by the very talented Bryan Cranston.

Gilligan explained that from the start Breaking Bad has been "a story about both change and transformation" and how Walt's moral dilemmas and decisions shape the character he becomes.

One of the main things we wanted to know about Walt is whether Gilligan feels the audience will still be able to identify with him as he gradually becomes darker and darker. Gilligan said, "Oh, he's definitely a Jekyll and Hyde kind of character." However, he believes that because the audience has empathised with him so much from the start, they're now being taken along on his journey and continue to root for him as his choices become even more questionable. He doesn't think there's a problem with that though, "as long as he remains interesting and his decision making process remains relatable" he said.

The Cast

Gilligan spoke in great depth about the supporting characters too and admitted that he LOVES Saul Goodman because he finds he's one of the most genuine characters on the show, "he's the only one who has made peace with who he is [...] I'd love to see a spin-off, the Saul Goodman show!" He also said that Gustavo Fring is "one of the most interesting bad guys" he's ever come across and there's some fascinating Fring back story to come...

When asked what it's like to work with such a talented and varied cast, he hilariously said, "all of the actors are a pleasure to work with, none of them are a pain in the butt!" It seems like working with the cast is a very organic process, Gilligan admits he finds Anna Gunn (who plays Skyler White) really talented, so tries to write her into the action more and more.

It's interestingly the same story with one of the main characters, Aaron Paul (who plays Jesse Pinkman). Gilligan even admitted that he really wanted to kill off Jesse quite sensationally in the first few episodes, but he's obviously very glad he took the other writers' advice and didn't! Apparently it's now a running joke among everyone behind the show that when the actors get the scripts for the next episode, they all joke that Paul has been written out.

Too dark and too tense?

There's no denying that Breaking Bad is a pretty dark show, Gilligan said, "Oh it IS. A middle-aged man is dying of cancer before the first ad break."

He said that to try and lighten the mood a little and make it more authenticate, the supporting characters are often used to add humour, "we try to milk as much humour as we can and look for humour wherever we can find it."

He admitted that at the start he was worried today's modern day audience wouldn't find Breaking Bad crazy and interesting enough. Although there are a lot of edge-of-your-seat, dark moments, there are a lot of vital yet slow-paced scenes too.

However, Gilligan doesn't feel pressured to add in action just for the hell of it, "we include as little as possible, while keeping the audience interested."

The Ending

Unfortunately all good things must come to an end, and although we'll be sad when it does, we'd hate to see Breaking Bad just fizzle out slowly.

When asked about the ending of the show, Gilligan admitted he's got a lot of ideas floating around and has some "big hopes and dreams for the main characters".

According to Gilligan, the writers have been toying with ideas about how the show will end for months now. Although they all have a "pretty good idea" about what'll happen, it's still not set in stone despite the fact season 5 has begun filming, which is pretty exciting if you ask us.

TV

Gilligan was keen to talk about his love for TV, particularly the talent over here in the UK, "there's so much British television I love", he admitted, "The Office is one of the best pieces of television ever made."

Needless to say yesterday was brilliant, a chance to see a sneak peek of what will be available to everyone on Netflix over the next few days, and of course chat directly with Vince Gilligan. He's further proved that there's some incredible talent behind the show and we loved getting an exclusive insight into the interesting synergy between the writers, actors and crew. There's no surprise Breaking Bad has become such a cult hit, we just can't wait to see the next few seasons now.

Season 3 of Breaking Bad will be launching exclusively on Netflix from the 1st of April and the first two seasons will also be available for those looking to catch up.

[Image via Press Association]