One More Thing: The emoticon is old

One More Thing: The emoticon is old
And the award for the world's worst image goes to...

Emoticons have no feelings - It's been 30 years since internet dwellers stopped bothering to communicate like adults and started relying on pictorial representations of emotions instead of using language properly. Er, :-) [BBC]

Picture this – A fictional tech billionaire with fictional terminal cancer decides to use his fictional billions to build a mega-hospital staffed by the world's best doctors (Greene, Sloan, Kennedy, Evil) in an effort to save his fictional self. And cue the violins as he decides he should probably also save others and thus his own soul or whatever. No wonder they're describing this as-yet-untitled CBS medical drama as 'Jobsian'. [Deadline]

Name game - Google, Amazon, eBay, Facebook and some other companies have formed a lobbying group called The Internet Association. There are definitely better names out there so we've brainstormed some for them: The Internet Alliance. The League of Extraordinary Websites. The Fantastic Certain Number of Companies. The Web Men. The WWW Team. The Superhighway League. Don't worry Google et al, we'll invoice you. [Fudzilla]

Plus points – Vita, the handheld that truly wants to be loved by the world but can't seem to get a break because everyone is too engrossed in their mobile phones, is about to get the added bonus of PlayStation Plus integration. Which means you will get access to a tonne of free games and all that jazz. Those who already have an account with their PS3 will get Plus access on the Vita for free. [PocketGamer]

Pick of the flix – Netflix has been given an iOS update which adds a bevy of new features… well, if you count an updated browser menu with genre galleries, title recommendations and the like as a 'bevy'. We do, as we are geeky like that. [PR]

How Lego can you go? – If, like us, you were impressed when you managed to build a house out of Lego that had a window and even a tree in a garden, then your jaw will drop when you see the Lego Great Ball Contraption. This Lego-based behemoth may well be the best thing made out of plastic bricks ever. Amazing. [Gizmodo]

Potting the Brown – Wherever Chris Brown goes, controversy seems to follow so wouldn't it be good if somehow he just disappeared? Well, that's what can happen – all you need is Chrome and the Brownout app that erases any mention of Brown from the web. [NME]

It's a shoe-in – GPS + LEDs + shoes = one masterful way of getting home from the pub without losing your way. Excellent stuff. [Mashable]

Game over – Hit the source link for a fascinating long read about the phenomenon of hardcore gamers keeling over after long sessions at the control pad – and a cautionary tale. [Eurogamer]

Stranger than e-fiction – Digital fiction sales shot up by 188% in value in the first half of 2012 (compared to the first half of 2011) – and given that children's digital book sales were up by a similar amount, it can't all be down to 50 Shades of Grey. [The Bookseller]

Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.