Apple Adds App Approval Status Tracker

Apple now allows app developers the peace of mind of at least knowing what stage of the approval process their app is in. A new feature added by Apple gives the status of apps as they go through the approval process.

You and I might not think much of it but this translates to a bit more clarity for the developers. They have always complained about how tough it is to communicate to the iPhone app reviewers. So instead of leaving them in the dark, this tracking feature tells them how tantalizingly close they are to approval. Hopefully, Apple is feeling the pressure to streamline and organize the process now that the app count has reached 100,000. As more developers race to get a piece of the action, Apple will be forced to make the process easier on them to and that means having to handle less complaints and queries and clarifications. [read]

Punch Him In The Face With Your iPhone

We all have that annoying friend who we would love to haul over and roundly beat up. But you obviously cannot do that in real life without falling out with your friend and/or getting thoroughly beaten up yourself in the process. The answer is in a new stress/anger/frustration management iPhone app called FaceFighter.

The app lets you kick, punch and block your opponent, all the while seeing bruises and bandages appear on his face. You can also knock out his teeth. To get started, you have to take a picture or choose one from your camera roll. Then you follow the app’s instructions to line up the face with the cut out, zoom in, zoom out and all that. Then you are ready to knock the living day lights out of that guy, virtually of course.

This is not much of a game although it is not as simplistic as that app that lets you shoot things that your camera is seeing. Still, if you do not want to spend $0.99 for the paid version, you can download Face Fighter Lite, which is free. [read]

Universal Studios Can Has iPhone App Too

Universal Studios Home Entertainment is the latest big name to have released its own iPhone app. This is not a stand-alone app that lets you borrow their titles online but it will enhance your Blu-ray movie viewing experience.

The latest group of Blu-ray releases from the company – American Pie Presents, 9, Inglorious Basterds, etc. are going to come with two BLU apps. These BLU apps can be used by iPhone and iPod touch users in conjunction with certain Blu-ray players.

The pocket BLU app allows you to remotely interact with your Blu-ray player through a sleek iPhone interface. It features advanced remote control features, a pop-up keyboard and more. Social BLU allows you interact with Facebook and Twitter if your Blu-ray player is connected to the Internet.

Premiere League On iPhone Via Sky TV

You can now watch the Premier League and more on your iPhone through the newly launched Sky TV app for the iPhone. For £6 per month, users will be able to access live TV channels that are part of the Sky Sports bundle including Sky News, Sky Sports channels and ESPN channels.

The app currently works only over WiFi and not 3G and that is because O2 forbids its customers from using any such app in its T&C. That’s because the carrier has their own similar services to protect. Existing Sky subscribers will have to pay separately for this service and new customers will have to apply for a Sky customer ID. [read]

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First iPhone Worm Rickrolls Jailbroken iPhones

This has been the main worry about everything Mac, They do not have viruses now, true but as they start to get more popular they will attract the attention of malware creators. So in that vein of paranoia, we have news of the first ever worm for the iPhone.

You can cut out the screaming and the deep breathing exercises because it is a) completely harmless and b) only effective on jailbroken iPhones. It does things like change the wallpaper and rickrolling users, so it is not exactly destroying your iPhone yet. A worm on a jailbroken phone is a worm on a device that has already been tampered with. So you can wait for the first ever worm on legit iPhones before you hit the panic button. [read]

Complete Car Control Via iPhone

Okay, this is certifiably crazy. In fact, we should probably start a ‘gHacks Certifiably Nuts’ award just for these fellas. But I must admit that what they are is doing is pretty cool. We know that the iPhone can already be used to start your car remotely but fully driving with the iPhone kinda takes the cake.

So what you do is you take some electronic control circuits, hook them up to control your steering, acceleration and brakes and then control them wirelessly. If you want a less vague and more accurate description, check out the videos. It is quite nicely done and I especially love the fact that they are using the accelerometer to control the steering.

The result is pretty 007-ish — that you can drive your car through your iPhone. Look M(a), no hands! [read]

HD Radio Comes To The iPhone Via Gigaware

Now that the Zune HD is out, your least favorite co-worker who loves to make fun of your liking for Apple has probably been going on and on about how his Zune HD does HD radio and your iPod Touch does not. Setting aside the all important the question of how many good HD radio stations are there near you, you can now get back at him saying “there’s an app for that!”

But that would be kinda half true because even though iBiquity has made an app that plays HD radio on your iPhone, you still have to get an additional hardware for accomplishing the feat. The device is called Gigaware Navigation Controller and is essentially an HD tuner with iPhone integration. It allows you to seek and auto tune as well. Plus there is Facebook tagging and iTunes tagging.

Works with the latest iPhone and the iPod Touch. Available on RadioShack. [read]

Sparkz Projector For Your iPhone

Do you want to spend a lot of money on a pico projector that will work with your iPhone/ iPod Touch/iPod Video? If you do, you can now have the Sparkz dock that lets you connect any of those devices and more to it so that you can project your favorites onto a nearby screen. It will support a/v and VGA inputs too.

Other than this extended support for inputs, it has a resolution of 640×480, stereo speakers and a 60-inch viewing area. It charges your docked device while it is projecting and it comes with its own tripod. The price so much goodness? A mere $495. Hey, I did say a lot of money. [read]

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piZap is an online photo editor that offers something more. To be more specific, piZap lets you have fun with images. The flash-based application is ideal for people who love to manipulate their pictures and make them goofy. You can upload a file from your computer or play with one of the demo images on the site.

How do you make pictures funny? piZap allows you to add text via thought bubbles, put in stickers like emoticons or different parts of a face from the available options. You can also add effects to the picture or just paint over whatever you want. The options are endless. Here’s a photo I played around with.

Okay, it’s not great but don’t let my lack of creativity stop you. If you’re happy with how your picture looks, click ‘save’. The site then allows you to download the file, embed it on a website, and lets you post the image directly to most of the social networking sites around like Facebook, Twitter and the like.

One additional advantage to piZap is that you can have your picture printed on products like mouse pads, mugs, posters, tee shirts, calendars, etc. and then purchase them off the site. Of course, if you’d rather have someone else print the photo for you, you’re welcome to do that.

I quite like the site. It offers something different and is totally free. No registration required as well. Plus the site is really easy to use. I’d say the site is definitely worth a visit. How do you like piZap?  Do you find it interesting? Let me know in the comments.

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Website owners can leave it at that or create their own custom 404 error page to provide the user with solutions or to further humiliate him. Really depends on the type of site that you are visiting. Long time reader Daniel collected four interesting best of 404 error lists on the Internet on his (Swedish) Bloggliv blog. He is also giving away three Hypersnap 6 licenses if you are keen to win that software.

The four best of lists that he links to contain a total of 245 404 error pages. Many pretty funny, some stylish and more than a few plain evil. Want some examples? Here we go:

To view them all follow this, this, that or this link.

That reminds me that I have to create a custom 404 error page for Ghacks..

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The channel currently hosts 23 video clips of which 21 are from Monty Python shows and movies. It is not an immense collection at the moment but it looks as like new videos will be uploaded regularly to Youtube.

Some famous scenes from their movies are already available like the fight with the black knight in the Holy Grail movie or the Biggus Dickus scene in the Life of Brian. So, if you are a Monty Python fan head over to their official Youtube channel to watch the videos there.

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This year the Elf Yourself website has been redesigned. There is a bit more of advertisement on the website but also additional content to make up for it. Don’t worry! There is still the classic elves dance for those who might have missed it last year or cannot get enough of it.

In addition though you can now see them dance Disco, Country or Charleston as well each with a unique stage and effects. The music is obviously also different on every stage.

The developers have added possibilities to download the videos to the desktop or post them on various social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook. Expect a huge increase in Elf Yourself appearances on those sites.

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I have spotted a Pepsi advertisement on Youtube that is airing in South-America only which has all the traits of an interesting fun to watch ad. Honestly, what can go wrong if you combine Kung Fu Fighting, Mini Me and Godzilla in an ad?

Interestingly enough that’s not all there is to be seen and done for the viewer. They did release a free browser widget for Nokia Mobile phones built by interactive design & marketing group AgencyNet that can be downloaded free of charge from a newly created website. Supported languages are Spanish, Portuguese and English. The Pepsimundo website itself is only in Spanish but easy enough to navigate.

How does this ad compare to the ads you usually see when turning on the television?

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The process reminds of the Mii creation on the Nintendo Wii. The user picks a gender for his avatar and can then customize various facial features like the hair, eyes and nose. Nintendo Wii users should experience no difficulties creating the avatars and everyone else won’t run into a lot either.

It’s pretty much about picking the right facial feature and color to go along with the avatar. Face, Eyes, Nose, Mouth, Ears and Hairs are the six main parts of the face that can be changed. Most containing subcategories; Eyes are for instance further divided into Shape and Eyebrows.

Add clothes, stuff and background to that and the opportunity to add makeup to the avatar. Want your avatar to wear a tie, a peace logo, tattoo and piercing? No problem. The avatars are send to an email address that has to be entered with some additional data. It’s probably a way of collecting emails and I would advise to use an email account that does not receive private emails for that. It has to be able to receive attachments so most disposable email services are out of the question.

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The prices for the watches start by roughly 8900 Yen which is about 80 US Dollars to more than 99000 Yen which would be more than 900 US Dollars. Most watches on the other hand are sold for $80-160 which is quite reasonable in my opinion.

It definitely takes some time to get accustomed to this new way of reading the time especially if you purchase one of the crazy blinking models that do not resemble a watch at all. Take a look at a few models to get a feeling for what they have on offer:

I guess people would have a hard time figuring out the exact time on any of the above watches.Would you get one of those?

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The update applies to all editions of Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. Probably even better than having to download a 56 Megabyte file for five additional words is the fact that the computer has to be restarted after updating the operating system.

The explanation on the other hand is quite boring. The update replaces the dictionary files with the updated versions meaning the user is actually downloading the full dictionary files and not just a patch that adds the five words to them.

Most users on the other hand will probably never use those five words anyway, lets hope that this update will be optional and not mandatory.

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It is even possible to add your own message to customize the add-on. The settings can be set to a specific day and time of the day until the office beer o’clock. The user can select the interval between messages that are shown and there is even a “getting close” period in which the reminders are displayed more frequently.

That’s definitely a fun way to spend the days in the office. I would probably either add dozens of new messages or change the interval to display a message to once or twice a day instead.

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Much like the A-Team did in the good old days when they build some huge car to break out of their prison. It seems that someone wasted a lot of time to add a list of problems solved by MacGyver to Wikipedia. Every episode of the five seasons is mentioned in the list and it’s interesting and sometimes funny to read.

Stuff like “MacGyver builds a distraction by balancing pots and pans on a bag of ice that melts from heat produced by a toaster oven. He spreads vegetable oil in the ground to incapacitate some kidnappers” or “MacGyver starts out in Berlin, trying to escape with a microfilm containing government secrets. He takes the place of a dead person and is carried in a coffin towards a bridge, where he is dumped into the water by friends. Upon hitting the water, Mac hits a button and turns his coffin into a jet ski, riding away to safety” are precious, don’t you think..

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The pendant had no moving parts but she still had to race back to the check in to check in her carrying bag with the necklace because here luggage had long been gone. I like the question that one of the security guards was asking after the incident: “How do you know it wasn’t a real gun?” Classic, ain’t it ?

Now who would have thought that this incident could be topped so soon ? Brad Jayakody booked a flight with British Airways from Heathrow to Dusseldorf, Germany. He is wearing a showing Optimus Prime carrying a gun. Apparently passengers with shirts that depict guns cannot board flights anymore and he was asked to change his shirt to be able to board the flight. He was also reminded that he would be arrested if he would change the shirt again.

So what’s next. Asking someone with a gun tattoo to remove it before boarding the plane ?

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I loved that movie when I saw it and I still do. It even made me ignore my lack of talent and draw (yes, on a real paper, using my very own clumsy hands!) a picture, which is fairly untypical of me and hardly ever found in my regular schedule. Having had my own computer out of order for some time now, I had lots of time to spend on a homework we got in school – writing an English essay that would resemble a classic fairy-tale.

I meant it to be inspired by the movie from the very beginning but still wanted to make it somehow original. Then I got a few ideas on how to adapt the basic story to the IT environment and internet culture and thought that those ideas weren’t that bad after all. After one whole afternoon spent on writing (again, on a real paper instead of word processor canvas), I came up with something that may not be exactly called “art” but I still liked it myself and wanted to share it with the web community. Though, I do recommend watching the movie first, if possible.. no, I’m not adding a torrent link here.

Link: Gate to the Net – Bridge to Terabithia for Geeks via Scribd.com

Description:

The excellent and beautiful movie “Bridge to Terabithia” inspired me to write this remake as a school essay. Specially designed for people with a slight insight into the technology world and internet stuff.

System requirements:
Fantasy Unlimited 2.0
Friendship Understanding 2008
Emotion Extension Pack Free
+ Technical Inaccuracy Ignorance Engine

If you happen to like it, I’d appreciate another digg.

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Currently four of those gift boxes are available: A Pro Whisk Set with 28 whisks, the Visor Organizer which turns the head into another pocket, the Smoke Alarm with custom sounds ranging from sounds of the rainforest to Dixieland tunes and last but not least the Auto Power Strip which is a electronic hub placed directly under the rear mirror of the car.

I simply had to write about these, forgive me, hehe.

via Fosfor

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Face in a hole makes that possible. Just select a scenario from one of the many available. You can filter scenarios by categories if you like. Available categories are for instance Sports or Advertising. Once a user has selected a scenario he has to choose a source for the face that he wants to put on the image. The choices are either a webcam image or one from the hard drive.

The image is then added as a layer to the scenario and you can move it around, zoom and rotate it so that the face fits perfectly with the image that you have uploaded. The system tries to put the image that you upload in the correct relation to the scenario that you have selected.

Once you are satisfied you can simply save the image and send it to your friends or upload it to your Facebook or Myspace profile. Lots of fun guaranteed !

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She still manages to convince the director of the company to hire her as the head of the IT departement. Unfortunately only two seasons with six episodes each have been produced so far but Channel 4 did confirm that a third season is currently in production and will air in 2008.

The show is played in front of a live audience and I have to admit that this would be my number 1 pick for the best comedy show of the last years. The following two videos are the outtakes of the show which are also very funny. If you can get your hands on the show do it, it is really worth it.

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Listverse is short for the list universe. It is a site of, you guessed it, lists. Of course, lists on the internet are nothing new but this is the first site I’ve seen that specializes in them. The site was begun in July 2007 by software designer Jamie Frater. He started it largely due to his love of trivia. Since then, the site has grown hugely and each list gets well over a 100 comments.

What makes Listverse special? The lists itself. The site has a huge collection of lists, over a variety of topics. Pop culture lists include the ‘Top 10 cinematic psychopaths’, ‘Top 10 Simpson’s episodes’, and ‘Bizarre Screen Kisses’. Historical lists are those like ‘Badass Ancient Weapons’, ‘Historical Monsters’ etc. The site even has a section on bizarre lists such as ‘strange things you can buy off Amazon’ among others. In addition, there are some humorous lists to satisfy your funny side.

So, what’s so great about the site? Mainly, it’s interesting, unlike a lot of sites on the internet. New lists are uploaded every day. I guarantee you can spend hours at the site. Apart from having a lot of fun, you will also learn new things and have a lot of myths explained.

If you happen to get bitten by the ‘list’ bug, why not try your hand at a list of your own. The site also accepts user contributions. Head over to the site and let me know which list is your favorite. What kind of a list would you create if you had the chance?

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How do you get started? You could open Photoshop and go through some very complicated and time-consuming steps. Alternatively, you could download a software called U.R.Celeb. This program does all the major work for you.

The program has a bunch of readymade magazine templates. Choose the magazine whose cover you want to grace. Then, hit the ‘Picture’ button and navigate to the picture you want to use. You can resize the picture according to your preferences.

The next step is to customize the magazine cover. You can add your own titles and text. You can also add pictures and text for smaller sections of the cover to give it a more ‘authentic’ feel. When you’re done, save your work, as an image file. The program also allows you to send the image as an email or print it.

This is one of those ‘fun’ programs that you can play with. Create covers of magazines featuring you, family members, or friends. Which magazine would you want to grace the cover of? Do you know of other ways to do this?

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This brings me to a pretty neat site that someone recommended. The site is call kissthisguy and it is basically an archive of a lot of misheard lyrics. The site name is itself taken from a misheard line in the Jimi Hendrix song ‘Purple Haze’ though there is a separate page explaining that this is a deliberate mistake by Hendrix.

Anyway, back to the site. You can browse for misheard lyrics by artist or song name. Lyrics are available from the old greats like Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, and Elvis Presley to newer acts like Coldplay, Britney Spears, etc. The lyrics themselves are submitted by ordinary visitors to the site so it’s not uncommon to find one song with ten misheard lyrics contributions by visitors.

Kisstheguy is purely for fun purposes but it actually has a bunch of stuff. To begin with, anyone can submit lyrics to the site. Site visitors can also vote on whether they think a particular song’s lyrics are funny or not. The votes are compiled together to give you the 50 funniest song lyrics. The list is updated regularly so it keeps changing.

If you want, you can sign up for their ‘Lyric of the day’ feature and you will receive a funny song lyric everyday, in your email inbox. Another great feature about this site is the iTunes connection. Every song on the site has a link to the iTunes page from where you can purchase the song. I don’t have iTunes installed so I couldn’t test this feature.

I quite liked the site. It is definitely worth visiting when you’re feeling down or you have some time to kill and don’t quite know what to do. Go check out the site and let me know if you found your favorite song’s misheard lyrics.

A bit of trivia for you. When you mishear a word, it is called as a mondegreen. The term was coined by the author Sylvia Wright and has been used ever since.

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