The Most Useless Machine

In the coming days you are going to hear a lot about the latest "must-have" technology. That's because of the big Consumer Electronic Show in Vegas. That's where all the tech companies unveil their newest "revolutionary" devices. You'll be hearing about everything from Google's new smart phone, to 3D TV, to Apple's tablet.
This is one machine that won't change the world. In fact it is more useless than the old Commadore 64 you have sitting in a closet somewhere. It comes form a company called SaskView, and yes it looks like a wooden box, and is a little creepy. Because as Arthur C. Clarke said, "there is something unspeakably sinister about a machine that does nothing -- absolutely nothing -- except turn itself off."
That's right, once you turn this on all it does is turn itself off. Just watch the video below.

Too Drunk? There's an App for that

Just in time for anyone who plans on throwing a few back to ring in the New Year. In Today's USA TODAY there is an article about an iPhone app that reads your blood alcohol level. "R-U-Buzzed" is a free app. And get this, it was created by the Colorado Department of Transportation (tax dollars going to something useful for a change.)

Stacey Stegman, spokeswoman for the Colorado DOT says, "We just wanted this to be used as a guide because most people don't realize that with just a few drinks your ability to drive may be hampered."

Of course, MADD has to weigh in. "We are not against the application but we believe it should be stressed that people should determine, before they start drinking, a sober, safe ride home," says CEO Charles Hurley

A Better Mouse

Many inventors dream of building a better mousetrap.

Apple thinks they've built a better mouse.

The "Magic Mouse" is, in Apple's words, the world's first "multi-touch" mouse. According to PCMag.com, "The mouse doesn't feature physical buttons, instead relying on touch, taps, and swipes. As Apple puts it, "the mouse itself is the button." Users can scroll, flip through Web pages and photos, and can click or double-click anywhere on the mouse's surface." Mark Kellner at the Washington Times said that the mouse "truly is magic." I don't know... kind of sounds like the touchpad on my aging Dell XPS to me... I guess it's time to go to an Apple store and test drive one to see if Apple really did build a better mouse.

Pepsi's Pick-up Problem

Here is blogger Patrick Baldwin

Need to pick up a chick? There's an app for that. At least for now.

Pepsi is facing growing criticism for an iPhone application that promises to help men "score" with two dozen stereotypes of women by giving users pickup lines and a scoreboard to keep track of their conquests.

It was all part of a promotion for its Amp Energy Drink.

The free app is still up.

By the way, some of the stereotypes include "foreign exchange student,nerd or cougar."

You then get possible pickup lines like, "Wasn't I in Space Academy with you?" for the nerd.

Take THAT, iFart!

iFart is an application that generates different fart noises which you can download to your iPhone.

Now the competition gets even dirtier with Pee Now, an application which... well, let's let the developer's own words do the describing:

"This application is true urinary fun. The application allows you to play pranks on friends or foes. Use Pee Now to shock your friends and embarrass your enemies in public. Mark your territory as you choose your peeing terrain. If you are in a class room with tile floors just click"Pee on Tile". If you are standing next to someone in your driveway just click"Pee on Gravel" Dont worry, if your driveway is paved, just click on "Pee on cement" Have you ever been the butt of a joke? We all have trouble trying to express ourselves sometimes,we use our hind site and wish we had thought of a witty come back line. No need to panic while coming up with a great comeback line any longer. PeeNow includes Pee related comebacks at the touch of a finger. You dont even have to open your mouth. Your iphone will do the talking for you. The creators of PeeNow say why spend time laughing at passing gas, when you can laugh so hard you will pee your pants. "

See? Sex Sells.

Hot on the heels of the MyVibe app is the "Hottest Girls" app. It delivers a picture of a woman to users' iPhones.

Starting June 24, it delivered a picture of a nude woman to users' iPhones, making it the first app with nudity.

Within just a few hours, the resultant surge in user demand crashed the service's servers.

Apple has not allowed these kinds of "adult content" apps before, but the iPhone 3.0 OS added an age verification feature, opening the door to a whole new world of iPhone apps.

image: not from Hottest Girls. http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1316/1393028700_01c997a73d.jpg

Good Vibrations?

Many iPhone apps are downloaded once and never used again.

But what about the myVibe application? It's an application that controls the vibration feature of the iPhone for... Well, you can read about it here.

Dear Leader's Health

It has been said that the two public leaders with the most scrutinized health in the world are Kim Jong Il and Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs was expected to make an appearance at WWDC, the big Apple conference, but did not. Now the reason has been reported: he had a liver transplant two months ago.

Now... Where Did I Put My...

It has been said that the term "smartphone" is really something of a misnomer for the little computers that we carry around in our pockets (which also happen to be able to make and receive calls).

With more and more information and data being stored on these little devices, the stakes are becoming higher and higher if you are prone to losing or misplacing them.

This week at WWDC, the Apple Developer's Conference, Apple introduced a new app that's an almost-perfect solution for those who lose their iPhones (if they run iPhone 3.0 OS and subscribe to MobileMe). It's called "Find My iPhone" and allows you, from your computer, to locate your iPhone on a map like a GPS target, make it ring, or wipe all data from it.

Of course, if your iPhone was stolen, you could just wait for the thief to take a picture of himself and use your account to send it. Then you'd have a photo of the thief which you could give to the police, as one woman in New York did.

image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26532187@N00/1844560026

App-solute waste?

With an average of about 53 apps downloaded per iPhone, here's an interesting figure: after downloading a paid app, only 5% of people were still using it 20 days later -- and that percentage was even lower for free apps.

image: blogs.reuters.com

iRipoff

You don't mind paying .99 cents for an iTunes song. It seemed like a reasonable price. There is a new number to get used to. Try $1.29. That's a 30% increase!

I am sure Apple spent a lot of money on market research to come up with the new number. Apple hasn't announced the April 7 date for the price hike, but it has been telling record labels about the change.

Let the outrage begin. One blog suggested you can find better deals on amazon.com. Like this 5 MP3 Albums for $5 each.