Darth Maul Me

Ever wonder what you’d look like in Darth Maul’s facial tattoos and horns? A new app lets you find out.

Darth Maul Me, created by Lucasfilm in honor of The Phantom Menace in 3D, puts your face in Maul’s black-and-red visage. Just take a photo with your webcam, or upload an existing photo of yourself, and then help the app’s tools to correctly identify your facial features. (You basically outline your face and position cross hairs over your eyes.) The app does the rest.

You have the option of using the full Darth Maul face, a partial tattoo, or just those creepy golden Sith eyes. Once you’re done, you can download your Maul-ed picture or share it on Facebook. (That’s mine, below. I find it rather disturbing.)

It’s available as a web app at StarWars.com, but Lucasfilm plans to release it for iPhone as well, for iPhone 3GS or better, running at least iOS 5.

Me as Darth Maul

Okay, so “Swackett” isn’t made specifically for us geeks, per se. But I guarantee you’re going to love it.

Swackett is an app that takes weather data from AccuWeather and presents it in a simplified way. Want to know what the weather is like right now, or the forecast for tomorrow? Instead of the temperature and little pictures of clouds and whatnot, Swackett shows you “peeps” — picture icons of people who are always dressed appropriately for the weather. If it’s warm out, you’ll see peeps dressed in t-shirts and shorts. If it’s cold, the peeps will be bundled up in winter attire.

The great thing about it is that once you look at it, you instantly know what to expect from today’s weather. You don’t have to think about the temperature, the precipitation forecast, and so on. It interprets this data for you without the need for words, even.

One of Swackett’s coolest features — and this is the ultra-geeky part — are its easter eggs. Now and then, AG-Logic, the company behind Swackett, substitutes the standard peeps with pop culture references. Recent easter eggs have included characters from The Simpsons, The A-Team, and The Princess Bride. There have been dozens of these easter eggs already in the brief time the app has been available.

(Plus, “swackett” is fun to say. I think it’d make a good faux swear word. “Swackett! I stubbed my toe!”)

Swackett is currently available as a free web app and a free download from the Mac App Store. AG-Logic is working on iPhone and iPad versions, as well. Check out some of the easter egg peeps below.

What if I were to tell you that there is an app for that?

As a matter of fact, there is an app for that! A bunch of undergrads from the University of Waterloo have put their heads together for the benefit of all students – and writers – out there and have created an app that will scan the barcode of a book and then e-mail you the citation. I know what you’re thinking – it sucks to have gotten your degree many years ago and to have laboriously put together all those citations!

The app goes one step further by covering all bases. You can choose which style to follow – APA, Chicago, IEEE, or MLA. This actually reminds me of that Big Bang Theory episode where the guys got together to create an app that would read handwritten differential equations and solve them. This app is for real, though, and is called Quick Cite. For those of you who will save hours and hours of work, thank the guys at 7Cubed.

Here’s a video that will give you a little more insight into the app.

Most users aren’t very tech, just yesterday I was telling a friend that people should take a test before being allowed to use a smartphone. They don’t know more then a third of what the phone can do and are the ones you hear complaining about a huge phone bill because they didn’t know to turn off data roaming when they went abroad.

The app store is so easy that if you left your 5-year old unsupervised with your iPhone and iTunes password she or he would rack up a credit card bill in no time.

Since a couple of weeks I have a Blackberry besides my iPhone and I must have been spoiled by the iPhone because it took me more then a week to get BlackBerry App World working. And downloading an app is not as straight forward as on the iPhone. I have seen courses being giving on how to use your BlackBerry for individuals and companies but never a course for the iPhone. I’m still looking to get my hands on an android phone to see how it works compared to BlackBerry and iPhone.

As you can see the phone app market is big business, for the stores that is. Only few developers make good money from their apps.

I do miss a part about store safety, we know Apple screens each and every app. That did not stop a developer to scam credit cards in the App Store. Google does not check apps added to the Android Market which resulted in apps that stole bank info from users. A safety comparison between all the app stores would be handy.

And how about that 15-year old kid who recently submitted a flash light app to Apple App Store and got it approved? Only turns out the “flashlight” app was more a tethering app that turns your iPhone into a hotspot. I’m still kicking myself for not having downloaded that app before it was removed.

Off topic: We have seen online music stores become successful and I know more people who pay for their music then getting them illegally, that used to be different. Music and app stores are successful, now ebooks stores are gaining more and more. So what is it with the movie business that they can’t follow example?

It’s time to stop pretending, people.

Sure, we can try to talk about other stuff this week. But we all know that this is no ordinary week. The iPad goes on sale tomorrow, and with early reviews praising it as the revolutionary product we all hoped it would be, we might as well face it that this is an appliance we’re all going to have to have.

It’s online, it’s in print magazines, it’s everywhere you look. Even when you watch the news on TV, it’s there. Or when President Obama has one of his rallies to talk about health care reform or this offshore drilling thing… All I’m thinking is, I wonder if the President is going to buy an iPad.

So let’s drop the pretenses and get right to what we all want to talk about. Now that it’s upon us, the iTunes store has officially opened the “iPad Apps” section for business (you’ll find it mingled with the iPhone apps). Here are some of the best free apps iPad owners shouldn’t be without. (And even if you’re still on the fence, you can still download apps to your PC or Mac, and save them for when you finally take the plunge.)

Reading

Wanna read some ebooks or magazines? Be sure to snag Apple’s iBooks app, which is required for buying and reading books from the new iBooks Store. You may also want to grab The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and USA Today. Comic book lovers should be sure to download Marvel’s snazzy new app, and I also suggest Comixology’s great-looking app as well.

Watching

TV & film fans should download the ABC and Netflix apps, both of which let you stream video in style. (A Hulu app is on the way, and the YouTube app comes already loaded on the iPad.) For news and information, I recommend the iMBD and Yahoo Entertainment apps.

Listening

Music listeners: Shazam and Pandora are waiting for you.

Making Stuff

Don’t let anybody tell you there are no productivity apps. They may not be Word or Photoshop, but there’s tons of stuff — including free stuff — that you can do with your iPad. You can cook dinner with some of the recipes of Epicurious, record voice memos, sketch with Draw or Dudel, update your blog with WordPress, or use the terrific Evernote to organize tasks of all kinds. And this barely scratches the surface.

Web Apps

Both Craigsphone (Craigslist for iPad) and eBay for iPad make listing stuff you want to sell about 10x easier than they are to do on the Net. Check the forecast with Weather Channel Max HD or AccuWeather. Bloomberg, NASDAQ OMX, and E*trade let you keep track of your portfolio.

Social Media

Twitter users already have a few different options, such as Twitterific or Tweetdeck. Surprisingly, Facebook has yet to launch an official iPad app, though you can still use the iPhone Facebook app. StumbleUpon has a nice-looking app. AIM for iPad looks good, too.

Play

Fun-looking free games that caught my eye include iMahjong 2, Jigsaw Puzzle HD, Paper Football HD, 10 Pin Shuffle Bowling, Jirbo Says (a new version of Simon), and Tunes Attack, which turns your iTunes playlist into a Rock Band-style rhythmic game.

As you can see, there are already hundreds of iPad apps available, and more are being added by the minute.

Normally I’d write this over at Apple Gazette – your source for excellent Apple news, reviews and commentary – but let’s face it; there’s nothing geekier right now than the iPad. I originally thought that it wasn’t worth my time. There was no reason for me to get an iPad when my laptop and iPhone do everything I need them to do. I just didn’t see a fit for it in my life, frankly, and I didn’t want to spend the money.

I did this same thing with the iPhone. God, did I want the iPhone badly, but it just didn’t fit all of the qualifications that I wanted in a device. I figured that if it was an iPod and a phone in the same package, then I wanted it to replace my 40GB iPod Photo entirely. Plus there was no MMS and no other compelling reason to buy the thing – at least in my case. But I spent the next year trying it out, playing with it at the Apple store and slowly falling in love. When the 3G came out, I figured it was mostly all the way up to my requirements, so I jumped on it. I loved the thing so much that I bought a 3GS when they came out, too.

Now it’s iPad time, and I’m in a familiar situation. This time though, I know what I’m getting into. It’s a new device with limited usage. It wouldn’t replace my laptop in travel situations, nor would it be my device of choice for hammering out blog posts. But it would be nice to use instead of my iPhone when it came time to surfing the web or playing a game. For me, I figured that two things would sway my opinion: the apps and touching the thing for the first time.

Well, the apps are here. Do a search for “iPad” in iTunes and you get the screen pictured above. Take a look at WeatherBug Elite for iPad and tell me that’s not one of the most gorgeous things you’ve ever seen. Twitteriffic for iPad? C’mon. Done deal. The final nail in the coffin for me was At Bat 2010 for iPad. Seriously, I could watch the Red Sox from my desktop and have all the stats I want on hand. Brilliant.

Alright, so the Apps are a done deal. What about touching it? Well I, like everyone else out there, won’t get a chance to touch it until this weekend. But when I get the chance, I’m gonna touch it so much that it’ll have to get a restraining order. I think that it’s going to quickly become a situation where, like petting a puppy for the first time, I touch it and want it.

There’s just one last hurdle here, and that’s the price. I’ve already decided on a 3G model, so I’m instantly in the upper price range. Then there’s the memory. I said 64GB, but truth be told, 32GB might fit just fine depending on how I use it. I doubt it’ll be for playing my iTunes playlist, but it’s definitely made for movies so that will suck up some storage. Then there’s all the books and apps I’ll be getting, mostly for reading to my son and playing games. It’s between 32 and 64 for me, so now I just have to decide if the price is worth it.

But now, unlike with the iPhone, I know I want it. Now I just have to decide on the when part.

Notoriously secretive tech/geek utopia Apple — which actually forbids its employees from having their own blogs — might finally be signing on with the social media revolution. It’s only been going on for you know, like… four whole years. (That’s how old both Facebook and Twitter are, and yes, I’m intentionally ignoring the horrendous mess that is MySpace.)

It started a while back when Apple slowly, almost timidly, tested the waters with several Twitter accounts that announced new content on the iTunes store. Then came full iTunes integration, where iTunes users can share likes and purchases from the store on either Facebook or Twitter, right from inside the iTunes app.

Now, Apple has taken an even bigger step into social media by creating a Facebook fan page for the iPhone App Store. Friend it and you’ll be able to “discover new apps and share recommendations with friends,” according to the description.

So what’s it going to take to get Apple to have an official Twitter account, or its own Facebook page (for the whole company, or other departments of the company, not just the App Store)? Other major tech companies like Microsoft have famously encouraged their employees to jump onboard the social media bandwagon, actually hiring people to keep blogs about various departments within the company (such as Major Nelson, who blogs about Xbox games). The twist is that Microsoft actually wants its employees to be as transparent as possible, with virtually no restrictions on what can and can’t be discussed.

Can you imagine Apple doing something like this? They’re already the pinnacle of all things cool within the tech world. How much cooler would Apple be if it actually engaged its fans on a personal level? (Or would that take away from some of the company’s mystique?)

Ah, I think it’d be awesome.

Come on, Steve! You can do it. Jump into social media with both feet. It won’t bite, I promise. Say it with me, “I think I can, I think I can…“

If you thought we had had it with the useless iPhone apps, you are wrong. Apple long has promoted ‘There’s an app for that’ and the fun site App for That can someone bring the occasionall laugh, but sometimes things just go to far.

We all know the Lightsaber now, the Cylon Detector and the different Mootools. Needs moar cowbell.

No, it doesn’t! Especially not because the ridiculous app development continues, with the latest Sexy Screen Wash as the prime example of how stupid apps can be. More even, this application will set you back $0.99. Whatever rocks your boat, it certainly won’t be installed on my iPhone!

If you were waiting for a reason to jailbreak your iPhone, this might be exactly that moment you have been waiting for. Mini vMac is a complete emulator of the classic Mac Plus for the iPhone, admitted rather useless but oh so nerdy!

Named Fork ported this originally Mac OS X app to the iPhone. Because of restrictions in the iPhone OS, the jailbreak is required. Mini vMac is free and available via Cydia.

The Mini vMac app emulates the Mac Plus hardware, but you will need to provide your own OS. Once the original OS is installed you can play classic games (which you also need to own or you could find them somewhere online)

Something good has come from Google this week, Google Latitude. It’s paired with the Google Maps application allowing you to find your friends on the map at any given time. Scary… well, maybe. But don’t worry, as we know Google, this will be safe.

Google Latitude uses Google Maps My Location service that combines cell tower triangulation and GPS. Ah, too much tech to handle… well, in a snip, if you have a cellphone AND you allow friends to locate you, you can be found. There has been tests, that I’ve personally seen, on the CBS show and I must say it’s a 50/50 accuracy hit, at least for now. They tested Google Latitude on a family on a particularly busy and mobile day. Results were not so good, but brings a promise of improvement!

Oh yeah… this will work IF your cellphones can access Google Earth by the way. It will show you an actual map with a few pins on where your friends are (at least those you’re tracking). Cool eh?

Good news today, Google Earth has just released its iPhone and iPod touch versions. Google Earth is Google’s map software that let’s people scan the entire globe and zero in on a point of interest getting detailed roadmaps for some areas or terrain snapshots.

The iPhone version brings the PC experience to your palms and great to note that this is also the first time that Google Earth is being made available for a mobile phone. With the iPhone’s multi-touch and gesture features, I think it will be much easier to use than the original PC versions.

The only difference I see is that the iPhone version has limited information layers vs. it’s PC versions. But don’t worry, I’ve hopped into the Google Earth download page and saw tons of raves about this software.

This software is FREE by the way. And you can download it right here, from the Apple store website.

Apple Inc looks set to be on to another winner with their new iPhone (capable of 3G network connection speeds to ensure you get your data as fast as possible) in the form of the App Store.  Aside from various useful gadgets and widgetry, the store is going to become host to the whole gamut of iPhone games that will shortly be available for download/purchase on your new handset.

Just like iTunes, the App Store will allow users to easily purchase extra content from publishers and developers, who can also add extra content such as trailers.  Meanwhile, users can add reviews and access free demos.  Already, there are 175 games available, some of which are classics such as Bomberman.

The president of iPhone focussed game development studio ngmoco – Neil Young – said that users were spending more than 60% of their time on the device on features that aren’t phone calls or texts.  This shows that people are clearly taking advantage of the new functionality that the likes of the iPhone are offering – such as media playing, use for work, games playing and much more.

Apple isn’t the only one getting in on the game.  EA Mobile has a bunch of casual games out for the iPhone, Tetris EA Sudoku and Scrabble – as well as something that’s sure to be one of the greatest successes of this generation – a mobile version of Spore.  What makes this perhaps even more interesting is the feature that allows the player to control their spore simply by tilting their phone.

Of course, some out there may be concerned about why people would bother to play games on their phone, when PSP’s and DS’s are arguably better.  Well, for starters the iPhone offers perhaps the best of both worlds, with a display that’s high quality (like the PSP) with some of the more funky functionality of the DS.  Another advantage is that games can be a variety of file sizes, without worrying about restrictions (other than reasonable download sizes of course).

Naturally, Gameloft has also arrived on the scene to act as a high quality games provider.  This has lead to the company offering six launch titles, including Block Breaker Deluxe (where you control a paddle and must smash the blocks further up the screen with a ball), Brain Challenge (think Nintendo’s brain Training), Platinum Sudoku, Platinum Solitaire (great fun), Diamond Twister and Chess & Backgammon.  Although these games were developed in 12 weeks, they make use of the touch screen and the accelerometer – meaning that short development time doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t have depth or use the full functionality of the device.

So, which games would I recommend for your device, given the wealth of content out there?  Well unsurprisingly I’m quite keen on some of the games that are more familiar or belong to franchises that you’ll recognise from your home console.  Let’s take a look at five of the best:

Tetris – Electronic Arts
There are 15 levels to the game in a formula that you’ll easily recognise.  Whilst things are now in colour, there’s no missing the fact that this remains almost exactly the same game as the Gameboy original – and that’s just fantastic.  Marathon Mode is a hot tip to be one of the most addictive things you’ll play.

Zen Pinball: Rollercoaster – Zen Studios
Granted, there’s only one single table to be played here.  However, the fact that the graphics, sound and action that goes on is just brilliant.  Flippers are controlled by tapping the screen – luckily this doesn’t bump the table too or things could get confusing.

Spore – Electronic Arts
Granted, there’s sparse information about Spore – but I’m expecting great things.  Drag your single celled organism around using the touch screen and avoid predators.  Given how good the creature editor is then this could be a real highlight.

Etch a Sketch – Freeze Tag
Showing that perhaps the casual market is even more creative than anyone thought, Etch A Sketch comes to your iPhone.  Granted, you can cheat by touching the screen but somehow that really, really misses the point.  Instead, use the little circular knobs and be just as rubbish as you were as a child.  Sure joy.

Crosswords – Stand Alone
If you’re a fan of crosswords (especially if you can’t get enough of the things) then this is definitely something that’s for you.  Puzzles are pulled from a variety of sources such as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.  You’ll love the simple and clear interface.

Overall, there’s a wealth of content over at the App Store – so if you haven’t ventured on yet make sure you add it to your agenda for the weekend.