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(Editor’s Note: Welcome our new intern, Natalie Burch, to Denuology!  She’ll be checking in each week with a post on digital culture, her time here, and the thrill of getting our lunch orders in working at Denuo.)

This is a bittersweet post to write, because my two favorite teams, the United States and South Korea were both ousted in the Round of 16, but the World Cup is still awesome. Like many Americans, I don’t follow soccer year round, but, every four years, I live and breathe the World Cup. This year’s tournament has been especially exciting, mostly because my seven roommates and I collectively decided to take our World Cup enthusiasm to the next level. For example, I don’t want to take all of the credit for South Korea’s opening win against Greece, but my friends (one is from Seoul) and I did wake up at 5:30 AM on the day of the game to put Korean flags around my college campus, sing the Korean national anthem, and eat kimchi. So, I’d say around 50% credit is appropriate. Despite these losses, however, I remain committed to the tournament, in part because, I still have about 10 of the World Cup iPhone Apps on my phone, and some of them are really cool. Lest they go to waste, I have redirected my allegiance to Germany (I’m of German descent?) and the Netherlands (I like their orange jerseys.) So even though my excitement for the World Cup is, sadly, a bit on the downswing, I have a reason to use some great apps. Here are my five favorites (in descending order):

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Sorry about that.  This week’s issue was taken over by the World Cup’s digital vuvuzela, found inside, along with a whole bunch of other digital extensions to the planet’s favorite sporting event.  Also, we watch a digital behavior go analog as “Liking” something creeps into the real world, a classically-trained violinist playing the first level of Super Mario Bros. (not how you think), and the technology of today getting a decidedly-retro graphic design makeover.  Finally, New @ Denuo  recaps our involvement with The Betacup and how changing our coffee-drinking habits could save the planet from environmental destruction.

Download the issue here!

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Resident gaming guru and LA foursquare mayor Matt Story was in Las Vegas this week to moderate a discussion on gaming at the 2010 Interactive Sports Conference. He was joined by panelists from video game and virtual world publisher Six Degrees Games, game developer Quick Hit and social game developer Watercooler.

After being presented with the opportunity to take a trip to Las Vegas to talk with fantasy sports experts, I realized life can truly be too good at times. I had no idea this “fantasy” trip would also give me insight into the future of fantasy sports. Those same experts showed me that the industry 27 million consumers spend countless hours enjoying is preparing to go into many interesting directions in the future. Because of this fact, I recommend marketers get in the game (poor pun intended) sooner than later.

I had the pleasure of speaking at Fantasy Sports Trade Association’s 2010 Winter Business Conference last week. For those not familiar, the FSTA provides a forum for interaction between the hundreds of existing and emerging companies across the fantasy sports industry. My specific discussion revolved around the opportunity for advertising in the fantasy sports industry but the true insight for advertisers came from the many conversations held following the panel.

The title of this post doesn’t mean I am going to pontificate on my addiction to college football, but rather I have figured out a way to solve the controversy that annually seems to plague the NCAA Football Championship: I am proposing that we eliminate the National Championship from college football.