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Express yourself after dying, reveal secrets and truths.Create messages for world as it might end in 2012.

DeadSocial is a free tool that allows us to create scheduled messages. These are only distributed across our social networks after we die.

This allows us all to say our final goodbyes on our own terms and for us to extend our digital legacy using the social web.

"The concept, though a bit shocking, makes sense for many people who wish to share their final thoughts post-mortem". (The Next Web)

"A message from a loved one after a fatal accident could help in the grieving process" (Forbes)

"DeadSocial helps you contact friends and family from beyond the grave" (Huffington Post)

"A way to tweet from beyond the grave" (The Wall Street Journal)

The website invokes the spirits of Amy Winehouse and Steve Jobs.


Would Jobs have revealed more about Apple TV? Tim Cook sure didn't say much this week. Of course, there's already a Facebook page purporting to represent Steve Jobs, though its latest entry is a Portuguese language video against a Brazilian hydroelectric plant. Siri, is this really what Steve cares about? Actually, I would prefer to hear Jobs' thoughts on those awkward Zooey Deschanel-Siri ads. #Fail

But I digress...

“Why should we stop creating content when we die?” Dead Social creator James Norris tells Forbes.Maybe because we're dead?

For the moment, Dead Social is free. Each new user has to designate someone to notify the site once the user dies. This will activate all those posthumous messages. The site is hoping to sign on a few celebrities to give it a higher profile.

So let's think about this. Sending your spouse regular messages like, "I love you" after you die sounds like a sweet idea. Is it? Long term? What if he or she moves on and remarries? Do you really want to constantly remind loved ones about the past?

Perhaps a better use for Dead Social is to use it as the Zombie weapon it is. Haunt everyone who ever wronged you, owes you money, or called you fat. Tell them, finally, how you really feel.

Just think .... "John, you were a cheap turd who still owes me $50." Look, you can even make stuff up. "OJ killed me." What's he gonna do...sue you? Though there may be hell to pay when you both meet up on the other side.

At its press event in L.A. today, amongst other trailers and announcements, Microsoft previewed Halo 4, the latest entry in the sci-fi action series starring military superhero Master Chief.

Leading into the gameplay demo of Master Chief coming to aid a downed spacecraft, the company screened a live action trailer that focused on the ship and the marines aboard. "We begin like the story of the Titanic, a very uplifting commissioning of this new starship the UNSC Infinity," says Xbox Global Group MarCom Manager Ryan Cameron. "We then juxtapose that hope and promise with the terror of it being ripped out of the sky by the new threat that is in Halo 4."

The two-and-a-half-minute trailer is titled "The Commissioning" and was created out of McCann Erickson agency twofifteenmccann and 343 Industries, the Microsoft group behind the Halo franchise. The spot was filmed in Bucharest, Romania by director Nicolai Fuglsig, known for his award-winning Bravia commerical featuring balls bouncing down the streets of San Francisco. The trailer was scored by Neil Davidge, of the band Massive Attack, who also created the music for the Halo 4 game. Even Mark Rolston, the actor who does the voice of Captain Del Rio in the game, actually gets a turn in front of a camera for the trailer. "Everything is completely seamless between the live action work and the gameplay," says Cameron.

This live action trailer is just the start. In October, leading up to the November 6 release of the game, Microsoft will also launch Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn, a live action web series of five 15-minute episodes focusing on the Marines of UNSC Infinity. Though today’s short and the web series share common elements, different teams worked on the films. "Because it’s a world that people always want to see more of, Halo lends itself to live action execution," says Halo 4's executive producer Kiki Wolfkill.

Microsoft has used live action trailers in the past for the Halo series, from a veteran talking about the war in Halo 3, to a commercial directed by Rupert Sanders (Snow White and the Huntsman) showing the life of a Spartan supersoldier for Halo 3: ODST, to the short film from director Neill Blomkamp (District 9 and the upcoming Elysium) as a test for a Halomovie that never made it past planning. So how did the XBox team approach this latest live-action short to differentiate it? Wolfkill says, "It’s less a conscious decision of 'What are the things we need to do better?' so much as 'What is really the exact story that we want to tell?' "

Using a live-action short that leads directly into an action-packed sequence in the game does seem to ramp up the visceral quality of theHalo 4 portion of Microsoft’s event. Wolfkill says, "[Viewers] will experience the same confusion, shock, and awe that the characters in the live action trailer, and as well as the gameplay, are going to experience."

Below is the Halo 4 game play sequence also released at E3.