The world's silliest iPhone apps

(by LOUISA HEARN, 22 July 10, source: smh.com.au)

When Apple wrote “there's no limit to what your iPhone can do” on its website, did it ever imagine that its flagship smartphone would be put to use as a voodoo doll, a cure for warts, or a means of stalking celebrities?
With over 200,000 apps in its iTunes marketplace, it enjoys a huge market lead over competitors. However its closest competitor, Google, is speedily making up ground with 65,000 apps to feed its growing army of Android smartphones.
But is quantity really an important factor in the apps race or does it just lead to a proliferation of frivolous applications for people with either too much time or money?

You be the judge with our compilation of some of the silliest iPhone apps on the market.

Don't dial

This little app is designed to stop you from making those pesky calls to people you probably wouldn't have dialled had you been sober.
The Don't Dial app tests your sobriety with a number of tasks and will lock down certain contacts on your phone should you fail. You can also lock up contacts for a predetermined period for extra personal security. Friends armed with a pin access code will have the say over if and when you can regain access to certain numbers.
OK! Celebspotter

If you are growing sick of random celebrity stalking then here is an app from the king of gossip, OK!, that will allow you to do it in a far more purposeful fashion.
The location-based service gives details of the latest hangouts for stars so you can see which celebrities might be lurking in your vicinity or any 'hotspots' they might have frequented in the past.
Wart Healer

It isn't available in the iTunes market anymore, but for a few days in the month of April, iPhone-wielding wart sufferers were treated to a "distance healing" application that offered to rid them of their warts one by one for a unit fee of $US12.99.
Sending a photograph of your wart to a "professional mental healer" would apparently work a spell that would doom your wart to a VERY slow death. Apple has subsequently pulled the app.
iPhone Blower

If you would like to use your iPhone to blow out candles – or disperse dried parsley on the bench - here is an app that will push a tiny puff of wind out of your phone's speakers (to very little effect if you believe the reviews on the iTunes site). I imagine that Steve Jobs invented the iPhone for all sorts of reasons, with the possible exception of this one.
iFart

From one kind of wind to another - it's been around forever but it seems that the charm of the iFart will never wear thin. This app lets you fart on command with a selection of different farting sounds from the party favourite Burrito Maximo to the more subtle Silent but Deadly.
Passion

Bringing a real sense of purpose to the iPhone's inbuilt accelerometer is this app that measures your competence in bed.
The device's microphone and timer are also put to good use with this application that will rate you out of 10 on the basis of duration, orgasm and activity.
Ask the Octopus

Who doesn't love Paul the Octopus? This app tries to emulate his remarkable World Cup performance with a psychic app that lets you choose between two different options. Just don't bet the farm on it, would be my sage advice.
Ask The Hoff

I can understand the thrill of asking the Octopus to help you make decisions, but help from the Hoff? He seems to have enough of his own life challenges to be trusted to weigh in on anyone else's. Regardless of his lack of credentials as a soothsayer, this app will dole out Hoff-style advice after you ask a question and shake your phone.
Virtual Voodoo

Not quite as disturbing as it sounds, this app lets you stick pins into any bitter foe whose face you manage to snap on your iPhone camera. Just add the face to the creepy little doll and start pricking to send a spiteful little spell.
Paranormal State EMF Meter

Have ghosts been bothering you or is it just some dodgy plumbing that makes your hairs stand on end in the long, dark night. The Paranormal State EMF Meter will (supposedly) set you straight by measuring any abnormal electromagnetic frequencies.
I think I'd rather just blame the plumbing.
Ilickit

Have you ever wondered how skilled you are at licking? Me neither. But here's an app that will rate your ability anyway. Its called iLickit – and all you have to do is lick the screen to get an expert appraisal of your licking ability. How did we ever live without this?
Drink buddy

Have you lost your prototype iPhone in a bar recently? To avoid this and other career limiting situations, the Drink Buddy app will let you set a drinking curfew for yourself with a counter that you can quickly update on the go.
Of course if drinking too much should actually be your goal, then drink buddy will also let you track the consumption of you and your friends. Boasting a large blur-proof digital display, you need never forget how much you and your pals really drank that night.
Bubble Popper ProNot everybody thinks popping bubble wrap for fun is a complete waste of time. This app is for them. For variety, bubble wrap enthusiasts can set different colours and sizes and can even enter bubble popping competitions with like-minded people who also have a vast amount of time on their hands.
GottaGo

For people with substantially less time on their hands than the bubble poppers, this app means they need never waste precious time in any social situation they find tedious or uncomfortable. After some subtle prompting, GottaGo will ring them up with a fake phone call that appears real to the rest of the world – including their unsuspecting companion. Who says honesty is the best policy?

Businesses like iPad

Apple iPad Sets Path to Productivity, Paperless Office
by Rachael King

Tim Markley recently ordered three Apple (AAPL) iPads for his warehouse. He put them on the forklift and the carts that workers push down aisles while they pull items off the shelves to fill orders. Previously, employees would carry lists (on paper) and once they completed an order they'd find a computer on the 20,000-square-foot warehouse floor to update the inventory database. That meant a lot of time spent walking around looking for a computer, then entering data—not filling orders. "In a warehouse, your travel time to pick orders is 50 percent of an employee's time," says Markley, president of Elkhart (Ind.)-based Markley Enterprise, a 75-person firm that designs marketing displays for stores and trade shows. "We put pedometers on our people and we actually saw steps decrease by 30 percent with the iPad," he says. Another benefit: Markley now e-mails orders to each iPad, eliminating the need for paper.

Markley isn't the only small business owner to embrace the iPad. Others have begun experimenting with the lightweight tablet computer, using it to outfit delivery staff and salespeople, as well as to dramatically reduce the amount of paper used. At the Rydges Hotel in Sydney, Australia, diners are handed iPads instead of more traditional menus. In New York City, De Berardinis Salon gives clients iPads rather than magazines to keep them entertained during beauty treatments.

As a device to cut down on paper costs, there's certainly a large market for the iPad. In the U.S., companies spent about $8 billion on paper in 2007, not counting costs for ink or toner, according to John Maine, an analyst with RISI, which tracks the global forest products industry. Copier giant Xerox (XRX) estimated that for every dollar spent on printing documents, companies pay an additional $6 in handling and distribution costs.

Delivery Device

No wonder going paperless can save a small company a small fortune—if they use a lot of paper. Arhaus Furniture estimates it will save $100,000 in paper costs annually when it gives its 50 drivers iPads to use when delivering furniture from its stores. Arhaus uses software from TOA Technologies to track drivers on their routes and to predict within a one-hour window when they will arrive at a customer's home. TOA is now creating an iPad app for Arhaus.

"The unique features of the iPad are the ability to use the built-in GPS function and the ability to collect electronic signatures," says Irad Carmi, co-founder of TOA Technologies, adding that the size of the device is just right for drivers to carry. TOA may add a piece to the app that lets Arhaus drivers show customers photos from the catalog so they can sell accessories during the delivery process. Arhaus wants to have its drivers equipped with iPads in time for the holiday season.

Some small business owners say that the combination of the device's ease of use, always-on capabilities, and large screen size could help them improve business processes. That is, if there's an app—or someone willing to write one—that will let them streamline current operations.

"In the long term, it [the success of the iPad as a small business tool] is going to be very dependent on the availability of apps," says Dan Shey, an analyst with ABI Research, which forecasts trends in communications and emerging technology. "Some of these devices are going to be designed so they are specific to a worker's task, almost like an appliance," he adds.

To make the iPad work, Markley needed an application that would properly display data from an online order-management service on the iPad's large screen. He didn't want to create his own app, so after a thorough search of Apple's App Store he finally found one for $1.99 written by a Japanese developer. "For years, we've used Apple products and that's put us at a disadvantage because most [business software] is written for PCs," says Markley. The iPad may be changing that.

King is a writer for Bloomberg Businessweek in San Francisco.
Reader Discussion

(source: businessweek.com)

Motion controlled games

The big video game companies have opened up a new front in the console wars: motion-controlled games.

Sony and Microsoft have decided that Nintendo's Wii has cornered the market for far too long and both are coming out with add-ons that hope to bring gamers off the couch, instead controlling the game action by flailing their limbs and moving and shaking their body.

Microsoft's Kinect for the Xbox 360 ditches the traditional control pad altogether in favour of voice control and a camera that purports to map players' movements with fine detail precision. It is due to launch in Australia by Christmas.

But Sony's Move for the PlayStation 3 is the first cab off the rank, released on September 16 at $99.95 for the starter pack. A cross between Kinect and the Wii, the Move includes a Wiimote-style wand and Sony PlayStation Eye camera.

The hardware

Sitting atop the wand is an orb that lights up in different colours, which is how the camera can track the wand's position in three dimensions. This coupled with a built-in accelerometer and magnetometer allows the system to detect the speed and orientation of a player's movement with pinpoint accuracy.

Some games, such as The Fight, require players to hold a wand controller in each hand, while others, such as the arcade shooter title The Shoot, just use one. The wand has the four familiar action buttons and trigger from the regular PS3 control pad but some games will need the supplementary "navigation controller" (a better, wireless version of the Wii nunchuk). This is bought separately for $49.95 and includes a joystick and directional pad.

I had a very brief chance to test out some of the Move demos that were unveiled at the recent E3 games conference in Los Angeles and I've come away very excited by the potential. It's almost as fun to watch as it is to play, but be prepared to work up a sweat - some games even report the number of calories you're burning as you play.

There are four launch titles - Sports Champion, Start the Party!, EyePet and Kung Fu Rider - and dozens more on the way. I took a look at four Move games, some of which are early builds and not due for release until October.

Sports Champions (launch)

Like Nintendo's Wii Sports, Sports Champions is designed to introduce players to motion controls. It incorporates six separate games such as table tennis, archery, bocce (bowls), gladiator duel (sword fighting) and disc golf (a cross between frisbee and golf).

Table tennis is extremely fun to play, particularly with a friend, and I was impressed with how precisely you can control the pace and spin of the ball depending on how hard you swing and how much you rotate the wand.

The only other Sports Champions game I was able to play in this demo was disc golf, which was amusing but I can see myself getting bored of it quickly. I'm looking forward to testing archery, which requires players to hold two wands in a way that mimics the real-world version.

Start The Party! (launch)

More for the casual than hardcore gamers, this "augmented reality" title features 20 mini games that uses the camera to put players into the game. You watch yourself flailing about on the screen and, depending on the game, the wand is transformed into anything from a paint brush to sword to a hand-held fan to even a fly swatter.

Playing with up to four players, you'll be using the wand to swat bugs, slice fruit, blow baby chicks into baskets (without cutting them up on the fan blades), whack moles and eat flies.

This game is most fun with several players and watching friends madly swinging the controller is truly hilarious. A fun party game with appeal across age groups.

The Fight (October)

More Fight Club than heavyweight boxing, this is my favourite Move title so far. Set in the world of illegal underground street fighting, this one is sure to give you a workout. By the end of the first bare knuckle fight, I had to sit down and take a breather.

The precision of the controls is fantastic, with your on-screen fighter bobbing, weaving and punching almost exactly in time with your own movements. You can angle your shot to target different parts of the body and the harder you swing, the harder the punch in the game. You're also able to perform quick jabs, upper cuts or get the opponent in a headlock, before delivering a few elbows to the face.

It's probably not for kids, and the full frontal violence may be confronting for some, but for testosterone-fueled men like me who rarely have the guts to get involved in a real fight, this one is great for stress relief and a bit of exercise.

The Shoot (October)

This arcade shooter game has you taking out waves of sci-fi enemies while dodging projectiles but, in my limited play time, I wasn't so impressed. You don't have much control of the character's movements and gameplay involves little more than pointing at the screen and pressing the trigger button to take out enemies.

I'm much more excited by the next wave of first person shooter titles that will be launched for the Move, such as SOCOM 4, Time Crisis and Killzone 3, which are far more tactical and have better artifical intelligence. The graphics and controls appear more refined, the enemies are tougher and more interesting and, in the case of Killzone 3, full 3D is supported.

Verdict: it's still early days

On the whole, I found the Move's controls to be more precise than that of the Wii and the use of both a camera and a wand made it feel like my movements were far more connected to the in-game action.

But the initial lineup of games I got to play didn't offer much in the way of new gameplay experiences. The second wave of titles should be more innovative and i'm keen to see how the Move compares to Microsoft's upcoming Kinect, which I hope to get a chance to trial in August.

(by ASHER MOSES, 2 July 2010, sourch: smh.com.au)

How To Transfer Video to a PSP Memory Stick?

1. Insert a Memory Stick into the Memory Stick slot in the left side of the PSP. Depending on how many video files you want it to hold, you may need to get a larger one than the stick that came with your system.
2. Turn on the PSP.
3. Plug a USB cable into the back of the PSP and into your PC or Mac. The USB cable needs to have a Mini-B connector on one end (this plugs into the PSP), and a standard USB connector on the other (this plugs into the computer).
4. Scroll to the "Settings" icon on the home menu of your PSP.
5. Find the "USB Connection" icon in the "Settings" menu. Press the X button. Your PSP will display the words "USB Mode" and your PC or Mac will recognize it as a USB storage device.
6. There should be a folder called "MP_ROOT" on the PSP Memory Stick if you formatted it on your PSP; if not, create one.
7. There should be a folder called "100MNV01" inside the "MP_ROOT" folder.
8. Drag and drop files into the folders just as you would save files in another folder on your computer. Video files go in the "100MNV01" folder.
9. Disconnect your PSP by first clicking on "Safely Remove Hardware" on the bottom menu bar of a PC, or by "ejecting" the drive on the Mac (drag the icon into the trash). Then unplug the USB cable and press the circle button to return to the home menu.

Tips:

Video files compatible with firmware version 1.50 or higher are MPEG-4 (MP4/AVC). Use the tutorial linked below to find out which firmware version you have (if you're in North America, you'll have at least version 1.50).

What You Need:

a PSPa computer

a Memory Stick Duo or Pro Duo

a USB cable with a Mini-B connector on one end

Top 5 Things to Do With Your PSP Besides Play Games

1. Listen to Music

With a PC, a USB cable, and a memory stick, you can download your music to your PSP and listen on the road. It may not be a big deal if you've already got an MP3 player, except instead of having separate machines for games and music, with the PSP you only carry one. You'll probably need a bigger memory stick than the one that comes in the box, but they're getting cheaper every day.

2. Watch Movies

According to some few reports, sales of movies in the PSP's UMD format are higher than sales of games. Regardless, the PSP makes a nifty portable movie player. You can either buy movies on UMD, or transfer your own DVD movies onto a memory stick. The PSP's screen might seem too small for movie-watching, but it's actually super-sharp, and the audio is great with headphones. And I swear I saw a laptop-sized portable DVD player at Walmart with a screen about the same size as the PSP's.

3. Look at Pictures

You can also download and view photos (or any other images in a supported format) with a memory stick. You can zoom, rotate, and move pictures, and even view them as a slideshow. It's an easy way to show your relatives your latest digital snapshots, without a computer. You can even transfer photos from your PSP onto your mother's PC. The possibilities of using the PSP as a portable portfolio of my art and design were a significant factor in my decision to buy one as soon as I did.

4. Surf the Web

With the system update version 2.0, an internet browser was added to the PSP's features. The "keyboard" might take a while to get used to, but if you've ever sent a text message on your cell phone, you shouldn't have any difficulty. You might not want to bother with websurfing at home on your PSP, especially if you have a desktop or laptop computer handy, but if you're out of the house, you can access any open wireless points. Why lug around a laptop when all you need is your PSP?

5. Read e-Book

You now can download e-book to your PSP and read it anytime you want. The best part is that you don't even have to turn on a light as PSP has its own lit screen. How handy it is!

DJ Max Fever - PSP

DJ Max is a series of rhythm games that originated from Korea. The series is famous for its tracks and a challengingly fun difficulty setting. If you have tried importing the game before, then you should be pleased that you no longer have to do so as DJ Max Fever, the latest off the series, is getting its own North American release.

PM Studios have confirmed that Pentavision's DJ Max Fever will arrive to the States. It is reported to be a concoction of DJ Max Portable and DJ Max 2, and also offers a lot of content.

“The title will pack in more than 100 songs for you to tap through; a Freestyle mode that's activated by performing a perfect mix; goal-based contests called Extreme challenges; five difficulty levels...; Network Battle Mode; and a collection gallery to house the music videos, soundtracks, and images you unlock.”

The game has been scheduled for release on November 11. 'Till then!

Adhoc Party for PSP

Adhoc Party for PSP is an online service with a super descriptive title. No real surprises, it allows users to play PSP titles featuring ad hoc over the internet via the PS3.

Formally released on 6 November 2008 in Japan, users will be able to download the beta to their PS3s and play online in titles like Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G and Phantasy Star Portable. Adhoc Party features a lobby where players can chat with and meet other players.