Think we’re being brainwashed???
Do you think this campaign has degenerated into an orgy of talking points, hyperbole, and empty rhetoric? This video montage of the three debates will leave your head spinning and perhaps coming to the conclusion that it’s all about the campaign operatives, pollsters, and speechwriters. Maybe Palin has a future after all…
The 12 Best iPhone Apps in the World
Things are rough out there with stock markets crashing, banks imploding, and politicians arguing about lipsticks and pigs and 60’s radicals. It’s time for a break. And what better distraction is there than the awesome iPhone?
The iPhone 3G, the most recent iteration of the revolutionary device, has seen it’s previously closed system opened to 3rd party developers. The change enabled users to download apps from Apple’s app store and load them onto the phone. Where the original iPhone offered only a handful of applications– Google Maps, You Tube, a weather forecaster, and one or two other programs– the app choices on the 3G are in the thousands.
A perusal of the App store will display both several categories of programs and multiple takes on the same program. For example, there are at least twelve different programs to track your golf score, six programs that access the social network site Digg!, seven incarnations of Sudoku, twenty-two personal information managers, and the list goes on.
With memory precious and many of the programs costing between $.99 and $10.00, how is one to know which programs to choose? Squirmelicious has solved this problem for you by choosing the 12 best Applications for the iPhone.
There are a lot of great ones, but here are the 12 best in no particular order:
- Facebook - Addiction to the world’s most popular social network is widespread and adding this wonderful client to your iPhone will only exacerbate the problem, but how else are you going to announce to the world that you are waiting at a red light?
- AIM - You can finally chat on your iPhone with this client that offers all the same chat capabilities as Apple’s ichat.
- Pandora – This phenomenal program will literally change the way you listen to music. Pandora, along with Last/FM allow you to create your own custom radio stations as well as access the stations created by those in your network. You might want to grab this one fast as it’s not clear how much longer they will be around.
- Yelp – I use this one constantly. Yelp offers user submitted reviews of restaurants, bars, and retail outlets and by utilizing the iphones built in GPS system, the reviews are for places right where you are at the moment.
- Flipbook – this polished program lets you create frame-by-frame animations. Pointless, but oh so fun.
- Labyrinth – using the devices accelerometer, this game allows you to roll balls through a maze avoiding holes and other obstacles by tilting your phone in various directions.
- Net News Wire – This rss reader uses your news gator account. Simple and effective.
- Missile Command – My favorite game from junior high school now on the iPhone.
- Traffic - Real time traffic reports utilizing the iPhone’s built in GPS chip.
- My Delicious – Access your delicious bookmarks right from your iPhone.
- AirMe – Share Geo-Tagged photos with many different photo sites from flickr to picassa.
- Remote – Control iTunes from your iPhone.
8 Best Web Apps for Iphone
With apples latest upgrade to the iphone firmware bringing web clips (the ability to bookmark websites to the iphone webpage) to the user, third party web apps for the iphone have finally come of age. Prior to release 1.13 of the iphone firmware getting to a specific web app was a bit of a pain, the process serving as a deterrrant to those without broadband access. Â Jailbreaking the software had gotten so simple (a 1 touch web app itself) that it became the preferred method for adding apps to the iphone, much to Apple’s dismay. Â With Web Clips this has changed. Â Users can access their favorite web apps, blogs, portals, etc. off an icon on the iphones home page, significantly improving the user experience. Read more
Apple TV Take 2 - This time Apple Means Business
The initial incarnation of Apple TV was a monumental dud and when Apple creates a dud they are quite adept at it. (see Apple Newton).  There were so many things wrong with the system  - no HD, didn’t truely link online content to television - that it make you wonder what Apple was thinking.  So big was the failure that Steve Jobs had to humbly suggest that the system was nothing more than an Apple “hobby” at current.  Well it seem that all that has changed with the newest version of the Apple TV, the Take 2.With a vastly improved software interface and an impressive featureset including the ability to purchase media right off the device without a computer, HD playback, interactive slideshows through .mac and flickr, and support for Dolby Digiital 5.1, Apple certainly seems to mean business this time around.  The most significant of these features are the inbuilt movie rentals and with all the major movie studios on board this could truly prove to make this a transformative device.  The plan is to charge $3.99 for new releases (offered at 720p) and the ability to view them within 30 seconds of purchase over broadband.  With Netflix having announced days ago that they would be offering unlimited online movies as part of their $16.99 plan and Vudu offering a similar type set top box, the online movie category appears to be the setting for a major battle in 2008.The Apple TV Take 2 is also quite affordable with the price having been dropped to $229 for the 40 GB model and $329 for the 160 GB version.  It remains to be seen whether 160 GB is sufficient considering this is designed to be an HD device.  Other criticisms include no DVR features, and the lack of VLC compatibility, although with the latter it is just a matter of time before hackers fix that. I haven’t tested the unit personally yet, but you can be assurred that I will have one in hand within the next few weeks and will aprise you immediately of my thoughts. Â
Apple announces upgrades to Iphone, IPod Touch, and Itunes Movie Rentals.
Apple this morning announced a new feature for the iphone called webclips, which will allow users to place website bookmarks on the home screen.  The clips will remember where you zoomed to.  The user can create up to 9 of these.  The feature will be available for free begining today to all existing iphone users.  Apple also announced 5 new apps for the ipod touch:  Mail, stocks, notes, maps, and weather.  This upgrade will be available for $20. Apple also announced Itunes Movie Rentals.  Of major significance, it appears that all the major studios are onboard including Touchstone, Miramax, MGM Lionsgate, Newline, Fox, Warner, Disney, Paramount, Universal, and Sony.  The user will have 30 days from the time of purchase to start watching and 24 hours to finish.  Library titles will be $2.99 and New Releases $3.99
Apple announces new Airport Extreme with Server Grade Hard Drive
At this mornings keynote address in San Francisco, Apple made a series of announcements, both software and hardware related. Â One of the new products mentioned was a new version of Airport Extreme base station with a server grade internal hard drive. Â The system will come in two versions: Â 500 GB for $299 and 1TB for $499. Â information on other announcements will be forthcoming….
