Daniel-Helfand Archives

Best Selling iPhone Apps 2008

Monday May 21, 2012

Reading Time: 4 minutes

This a list of the Best Selling iPhone Apps 2008 with a short description:

1. Koi Pond: Imagine gazing into a pond of crystal clear water.
Picture bright, playful koi swimming through its shallow depths.
So close… Can you touch them?

2. Texas Hold’em: Play like a pro against realistic opponents or with your friends over a Wi-Fi Network. Use all of the hints, tips, tells, and your mastery to gain access to exclusive rooms with higher-stakes and even bigger rewards!

3. Moto Chaser: Moto Chaser is an all-out pedal to the metal motorcycle race in the palm of your hand! With turns, jumps, and evil bikers lurking just around the bend.

4. Crash Bandicoot: Nitro Kart 3D: The richest 3D kart racing experience! Speed your way through 12 thrilling tracks and multiple environments! Race and battle against zany opponents and turn them to dust with 8 devastating weapons.

5. Super Monkey Ball: Let’s Roll! Guide a cute little monkey encased in a transparent ball to victory by tilting and rolling him through a variety of slopes and turns.

6. Cro-Mag Rally: Cro-Mag Rally is the wildest racing 3D game since man invented the wheel! You are a speed-hungry caveman named Brog who races through the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages.

7. Enigmo: A 3D puzzle game where you direct animated streams of flowing liquid so that the droplets get to their destination.

8. PocketGuitar: Turns your iPhone or iPod touch into a virtual guitar. You can press and strum strings, just like a real guitar.

9. Recorder: Record memos, discussions, interviews and ideas on your iPhone. Use it as a voice recorder or a sound recorder. Record for seconds or hours. Extremely simple one button interface.

10. iBeer: Brew and drink beer on your iPhone and iPod touch. This hilarious sight-gag is fully interactive and behaves like a real glass of beer thanks to the iPhone sensors and our spare time.

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Apple released a new iTunes Update and the iTunes DJ. The iTunes Remote turns your iPhone or iPod touch into a dedicated, wireless remote control for any iTunes library on your local network, whether you’re running iTunes on Windows or OS X. Take control of your music via iPhone! iTunes DJ allows your friends and family to have a say in whats being listened to. Setting up Remote is simple and safe. A unique passcode pairs your iPod touch or iPhone with your computer and Apple TV.

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OpenOffice.org 3 is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on all common computers. It stores all your data in an international open standard format and can also read and write files from other common office software packages. It can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose.

I have been using Microsoft Office ever since I was a kid. It is very easy for a person to ignore the other amazing software available. I recently upgraded to Windows 7 which did not come with Microsoft Office; I decided I would try some of the open-source software out there. I downloaded OpenOffice.org 3 with a bit of skepticism, I had trouble believing that OpenOffice.org 3 will stands up to the test.

So far I have not come across anything that I could not accomplish with OpenOffice.org 3. On top of that, it was completely free, which is quite a bit less than Microsoft Office at $149.99. That being said, I think it will be hard for me to ever use Microsoft Office again. Give it a Try, I do not think you will find yourself disappointed.

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Midomi is the ultimate music search tool because it is powered by your voice. Sing, hum, or whistle to instantly find your favorite music and connect with a community that shares your musical interests.

At midomi you can create your own profile, sing your favorite songs and share them with your friends and get discovered by other midomi users. You can listen to and rate others’ musical performances, see their pictures, send them messages, buy original music, and more.

Back in 2002, Shazam launched a unique technology, enabling music lovers to identify tunes anywhere – using just their mobile phone. Now six years on, Shazam has been used by more than 20 million people in over 60 countries deployed by leading industry handset manufacturers and more than 75 carriers. Earlier this year it passed a key milestone of over 100 million iDs and continues to go from strength to strength.

Both Shazam and Midomi offer features like tagging music with artist name and song title, linking to music videos on YouTube, and sharing your tagged music with a friend via email. However, this is where similarities end and Midomi takes it to the next level. With the additional methods of tagging (Say, Sing, and Type) and a database of music samples, Midomi is more feature-rich. If you own a iPhone, I strongly suggest downloading both of these applications. Shazam or Midomi, Your Choice!

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I have had my iPhone now for almost a year and have had the opportunity to experience several great applications in the way of utilities and games. The utilities have all been useful in one way or another, but the games have been disappointments! Just recently I was turned on to a new game that is worth taking interest in.

Upon downloading this game I was skeptical, I thought that this game might be better than the other games I have installed on my iPhone; but I was not optimistic about this game being worth the dollar I was about to spend. I could not have been more wrong about Glyder, for Glyder is the future of iPhone gaming!

Fly through and engage in hard tests while piloting a futurist hang-glider. This is a game where a steady hand is of the up most importance, free flight is not something that is easy – one’s depth perception, I found out quickly, is key to survival.

“Eryn has been sucked into a dimensional rift and is left in a world that is not her own. Take control of her glider and help her explore the magical surroundings.

Soar over the majestic and peaceful Rift Valley. Take a death-defying flight through the Dark Pinnacle. Unearth the Lost Kingdom. Explore the wonders of Ambrosia. Discover the secret that lies above The Mushrooms, and delve into the Hidden Depths. Perform fun gliding maneuvers like power dives and dolphining and fly into thermals to soar high into the sky. Collect crystals, take trips, earn achievements, and help Eryn unlock a portal home.”

Download and install Glyder on your iPhone, I promise you will not be disappointed! iPhone gaming can only go uphill from here on out, the application companies have made a enough terrible apps that I think it’s time for a change.

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A visualization of the Ares-1’s main engine plume interacting during a type-4 stage separation with the Interstage, created at the NASA advanced supercomputing facility. The facility’s current top-end supercomputer, known as Pleiades, is the sixth-fastest computer on Earth, measured recently at 973 teraflops–or 973 trillion floating point operations a second.(Credit: Goetz Klopfer, NASA Exploration Systems MissionDirectorate)

People are always talking about the times that they can vividly remember where they were when it happened. Significant events that shaped the world, moments that signified and let people know, as Bob Dylan would say, “The Times They are A-Changin”. Sometimes beautiful and other times ugly, there are definitely moments in my life, that as it was happening, I said to myself, “the world will never be the same”. I remember as a young child hearing stories from my parents about times in their lives that changed the world as they or anyone for that matter knew it. I would think to myself, and ask if one day something even close to comparable to the events that my father and mother lived through would happen in my lifetime.

I was born into the age of computers, despite the Internet being a relative baby, there were people who understood even back in 1984 that computers were going to revolutionize the way we live. I am not sure my parents understood it back then, but there were people that were the same age I am now who knew that they were walking into uncharted territory. I have to imagine that my grandparents felt the same way about the idea of people going into Space and eventually to the moon, as the people in the 80’s felt about computers and eventually a world wide web. My generation is the generation of space and Internet combined, one could say almost Universal; with computers, we can create here on earth, environments and occurrences that only happen in the vast expanses of space. I think about what my grandparents might have said about going into space, or what my parents said about the possibilities of the Internet, and what my generation will say about what is to come?

Just what kind of computer does NASA use to achieve the impossible? The advanced supercomputing facility at the Ames Research Center is the home of NASA’s flagship computer they have named Pleiades; Pleiades is an open star cluster containing middle-aged hot B-type stars located in the constellation of Taurus. NASA Pleiades, not a star cluster, it is the sixth fastest giant computer in the world – with a current rating of 973 teraflops – or 973 trillion floating point operations per second. This computer, along with five other similar computers around the world, are bigger and faster than anything ever imagined and they are allowing us to consider possibilities we couldn’t have even dreamed of.

Super computers are only getting faster and more efficient allowing the world of science to explore and examine the furthest reaches of space. I look forward to the day when I will look back on an historic monumental event in my lifetime short of terrorist attacks and war. The universe is 99.99 percent unexplored, computers like Pleiades will help us explore and understand much more.

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Greenville, South Carolina recruited citizens to spell out Google with color coded glow sticks.

Last month Google announced its plan to provide a Fiber Optic network to a select group of cities. This fiber optic network would be 20 times faster than residential fiber optic services that are available now in select areas. This is big news and there are a number of cities that would love the opportunity to harness the full power of Google. Immediately after Google made its announcement, cities around the country started making attempts to catch Google’s eye. You may ask yourself: what does it takes to get the attention of the biggest company in the world? Let me tell you the great lengths cities have gone to: Topeka, Kansas renamed its city ‘Google’ for the month of March, Mayors signed proclamations, city employees were forced to sing and dance, jumped into freezing lakes, etc.

Google will provide the network free for the city that wins, (consumers using the services will be charged). The speed will be incredible, 1GB/sec fiber, 100 times faster than the average American’s Internet speed. Digital communications and measurement firm Steketee Greiner and Co. analyzed over 90 cities across the US to determine which city was trying the hardest. Not an easy task, according to Tech Crunch, “through measuring activity around online conversation, digital syndication, presence, involvement and activation, to determine which city will come out on top. At the moment, Steketee reports that Duluth seems to be in first place, with Grand Rapids taking second, Topeka coming in third place, Fresno in fourth place and Sarasota rounding out with the fifth spot”.

Unfortunately, I live in a city that did not make as much effort as the others. I submitted a request here in Eugene, OR for the opportunity to experience Internet the way it was intended, but, I fear there were not many here who did the same. Oh well, perhaps in the future we will have the ability to partake in the experience. At the end of the day it makes me happy to know Google is encouraging other Internet providers to offer the same kind of services. Internet should be in every home, whether you can afford it or not, live in the country or city, there is no reason why you should not be connected to the world.

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Where did all the paper go? I am not very old, but, I can still remember when paper dominated my life, it seems like it was everywhere. Years and years of paper work, school work, personal writings, and daily reminders; then there were piles of devices designed to hold all the paper – binders, notebooks, and I’m sad to say even Trapper Keepers littered the house and office. My parents had it even worse; they need garages to hold all their paper work – literally. In the 26 years that I have been on this planet I have accumulated a wealth of writing, a fraction of my folks, but still enough to make a presence.

In the last few years paper has been removed from my life almost completely, with the exception of receipts and medical records, I do not use paper for much of anything anymore. Even better, I do not have a hundred and fifty binders scattered around my house. This has been made possible for me by the use of Google Docs, documents you create that can be shared and edited by whomever you want; Google Docs are saved and secured on Google’s servers, what I like to call the Google File Cabinet. Unlimited storage for whatever you write. Google Documents has revolutionized the workplace, created a much more efficient clutter free environment.

Millions of people now use Google Docs and there is greater demand for improved performance. Google is now promising faster service and real-time collaboration tools for Google Docs. “The main improvement was to create a common infrastructure across the Google Docs products, all of which came into Google from separate acquisitions”, said Jonathan Rochelle, group product manager for Google Apps. Many of the real-time abilities that Google Wave has will be incorporated into Google Docs; that way people who have access to the document you are working on can see the changes you make as they are happening.

If you are not using Google Docs, I encourage you to do so; GDocs can really save you a lot of time in your day to day work. It’s free and it is user friendly. According to CNET, “Microsoft is also intent on delivering online office-productivity services to its customers, with plans to release online versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to users with Office 2010. That will be introduced in May for business users and June for consumers”. This means Google will have to get on the horse to compete!

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Lately, there has been a lot of talk about the future of mobile carriers and the ability to provide the broadband necessary to supply billions of users. Everyone who has had the opportunity to experience the 3G network has also probably experienced a slow connection. If you travel a lot you will notice that from one city to the next connectivity varies despite being in a designated 3G zone. There are a number people who experience the same problem at their own homes. It seems that a solution has been provided for the later problem by way of Femtocells. What are Femtocells?

Femtocells are small, lower-power radio transmission stations that provide a 3G network connection to your phone. It works by hooking into your home broadband network. AT&T has begun selling a version called the MicroCell in the United States and in the U.K. Vodafone can also provide the same service. The idea is that smart phone users will solve their own connectivity problems by setting up femtocells in their homes; the good news is that you don’t need to own one to reap the benefits. If you have dropped calls often and slow network speeds on your smart phone you are really going to like this. If someone that lives close to you has femtocells, they will be freeing up a communication channel on the nearest cell phone tower which will increase you connectivity potential. The more homes that have these, the better it is for everyone.

So if we are helping the mobile carriers provide better service by setting these up, shouldn’t mobile carriers provide these devices free of charge. It seems like more femtocells equates to cell phone carriers saving money; it make sense then that we do, too. It’s a nice dream though. If MicroCells are available in your area, you will be able to get one for $150. Jump on board! Femtocells will certainly change smart phone capability forever.

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Screen Shot of Google.cn

Back in February I created a post which discussed Google’s problems with censorship in China and how they may pull out of China completely if China didn’t bend a little. Google has a lot invested in China, so for them to pack up and leave China would have a devastating impact on Google’s advertising partners in China. Since Google’s announcement, their partners have yet to receive word regarding Google’s intentions which has caused much anxiety; this has prompted 27 of those firms to come together to draft a letter to Google. According to CNET, “the letter, which was signed by 27 partners, was sent Monday via e-mail to John Liu, vice president of sales for greater China and was posted to the Web site of Chinese state broadcaster CCTV. The letter states that the partners’ businesses are at risk of failure and demands to know how they will be compensated if Google shuts down Google.cn”.

According to a Financial Times report last week, Google is now “99.9 percent” certain that it will shut down Google.cn. It’s not surprising that companies that stand to lose millions would be a little weary right now as to their future without Google.cn. Google’s dream for free-speech on the Internet will be a costly dream. Google business partners have been warned by the Chinese government to ready themselves for the day they can’t use Google services or use Google search bars on their websites.

Nothing is set in stone, but, it seems likely that Google is on the way out of China! What are your thoughts?

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Apple has started a patent battle with Taiwanese Cellular company HTC, but, may be starting a war with Google. Apple announced Tuesday that it was suing HTC for allegedly infringing on 20 of their patents. Despite only one company being named in the lawsuit, there is no question that Apple is throwing its weight around to scare off any other companies with iPhone-like devices. HTC recently released the Nexus One smartphone, which runs Google’s Android Operating System; the Nexus One is the iPhone’s number one contender in the smartphone market. It would seem that Google may have to step in to protect their partner companies in this battle. It makes sense that Apple will find themselves biting off more than they can chew if much larger companies like Google and Microsoft get pulled into the suit.

Trying to understand the patents in question can prove challenging and you may need to be an engineer to fully understand them all – I certainly don’t! I will say it is very interesting finding what exactly Apple owns the rights for, some of them seem to be patents on how the human might move their own extremities while operating an Apple device or any device like it. A good example of this is the left-to-right thumb unlock feature, this patent has forced other smartphone companies to make inefficient unlocking techniques because the most efficient way is owned. Apple dictates the way the world unlocks every smartphone, it’s not about user comfort as much as it is about ownership.

It seems clear that Apple is trying to stifle the competition which is sad in my opinion, competition is what breeds innovation. Without competition companies have no incentive to make a better product. I have an iPhone and I think it can be a great tool, but I also believe there can be many great tools that implement similar features. I am hopeful that Google and Microsoft become more vocal about this in the coming weeks.

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Apple has decided that applications that are ‘overtly sexual’ no longer have a home in the App Store. Apple’s new App Store content policy has resulted in over 5,000 companies’ apps being purged. The companies whose apps were deemed ‘overtly sexual’ were notified last week that their applications were going to be removed due to their content. This doesn’t come as a huge surprise, because of iTouch, the App Store needs to cater to children as well as adults; it would seem to be graphic content and wouldn’t be good for business.

What’s strange about the recent purges, isn’t that they are removing sexual content, it’s who they are not removing. Playboy has an application that has not been removed from the App Store yet. Companies whose apps were removed are scratching their heads, wondering what makes Playboy special. Did Apple feel like Playboy is as “American as ‘Apple’ Pie”? It would seem so, or maybe they struck a deal, who knows. I do know that Playboy’s app is more graphic than any other apps I have seen, it appears that thousands of companies are being treated unfairly by Apple. Companies should have and ought to have the right to stay in business if Apple is going to allow Playboy’s app inside the App Store.

The new App Store policy, it will not accept applications that in any way imply sexual content or include the following:

Images of women in bikinis
Images of men in bikinis
Images of skin
Silhouettes indicating that the app includes sexual images
Sexual connotations or innuendo
Sexually arousing content

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Google announces a new product that integrates with Gmail inbox that will allow you to start conversations about things that you find interesting. Google Buzz is about location more than anything, sharing information about your day to day online is considered to be richer if there is a location tagged to the post. The idea is that your description will have more weight if the reader has an idea of your whereabouts. Buzz will let you share links, photos, and videos throughout your social network.

Google Buzz on your mobile phone (Information Provided by Google Mobile Blog):

Buzz.google.com: A web app that provides access to Buzz from your iPhone or Android phone’s browser.
Buzz on Google Maps for mobile: The new Buzz layer allows you to see buzz near you or anywhere on the map. You can post public buzz directly from the layer, and even attach a photo from your phone. Also, try visiting a mobile Place Page to read recent comments or to post buzz about that place. You can access Place Pages from the web app as well, by tapping on the place name in any location-tagged post.
Buzz Shortcut from Google.com: You will see the buzz icon in the top right corner of the google.com homepage. Just tap on the icon to trigger the posting box.
Voice Shortcut: The voice shortcut, which is available in the quick search widget on Android and in Google Mobile App on iPhone, allows you to post buzz without typing anything. Just say ‘post buzz,’ followed by whatever you’d like to post.

Google Buzz at first glance seems kind of exciting and might be useful. Unfortunately, this is not some new social media idea, Brightkite.com has been implementing the same concept for a long time. Who knows, maybe Google’s version will be superior? It seems like Google is focused on so many projects right now it’s hard to believe they can manage providing a solid product. What are your thoughts, Brightkite or Buzz?

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The days of driving yourself around may be coming to an end sooner than we all might think! Ever since the automobile was first conceived people have had the shared dream of the day when cars would drive us around. A team of researchers at the Center for Automotive Research at Stanford (CARS) has modified an Audi TTS with computers and GPS receivers, creating a vehicle that could handle itself. This year the car will attempt to ascend Pikes Peak without a driver at race speeds. This Audi TTS currently holds the world land speed record at 130 mph for autonomously driven vehicles; the car’s computers understand things that the average human driver, shouldn’t, but does struggle with – the car knows how to drift, accelerate, brake, park, and more!

How does it work? The “captain” of the vehicle can utilize two different modes or can combine both options. Sensors detect the vehicle’s movement, comparing this data to external sensors that pick up objects. The computer uses pixel analyzing software in order to detect the lines in the road or the curb, then the data with the other external and motion sensors send the appropriate commands to the vehicle i.e. stop, accelerate, and turn information. On the race track it will be a little bit different because there will be other variables to factor in. One will need to program some of the necessary functions to complete the race track. It seems like one will need a basic understanding of geometry and physics to complete this task; factors like road camber, surface type, traction information, and corner radius are some of the many things that will need to be considered before top speed travel could take place.

It will probably be several years before the car will be ready for public use, but the dream is what matters at the end of the day. Not to mention the progress that has been achieved by VAIL (Volkswagen Automotive Innovation Laboratory) and CARS together, it is unbelievable how far they have come.

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Apple’s iPad might have some competition in the coming months with the recent talk about a Google Tablet. Google just released the Nexus One which was their version of the iPhone in the US. It looks like Google now wants to curb the iPad (release date March 2010) sales with their own spin. Glen Murphy, Google’s user interface designer, presented what the Google Tablet might look like and created a video of how one will use the device. If I had to guess, the Google Tablet will possess many things that the iPad lacks.

In 2009 Google announced that they would be releasing an Operating System, Chrome OS, which would work and be based around a web browser. This would be mainly for small netbooks, which would have fast boot up times and give the user ease of access to the sleuth of Google applications. Along with releasing a Chrome Netbook this year, Google is considering applying the same platform to a tablet, desktops, and flat screen T.V.s. It will be very interesting to see how we will apply Chromium to our lives.

“Chrome OS is still in development and we are constantly experimenting with various user interfaces to determine what designs would produce the best user experience”. Now Apple and Google are in a feud! This is a good thing, because it will force them to one up each other which is great for the consumer. Without competition Apple could take its sweet time making the iPad the way that the users want it. Now Apple has to cater to the needs and demands of the consumer which is the way it should be. Apple will still be the powerhouse in this field of devices; they are ahead of the game in many ways. “It’s easy to do hardware, it’s really hard to create an ecosystem and Apple’s got a head-start on everybody because they’ve been doing this for four to five years, based around iTunes”, said Gartner analyst Robin Simpson.

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Google is struggling to find its place in China amongst heavy censorship, evaluating its future with the Chinese people. “We like what China is doing in terms of growth…we just don’t like censorship. We hope that will change and we can apply some pressure to make things better for the Chinese people,” Google CEO Eric Schmidt said, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. Just two weeks ago Google dealt an ultimatum to China, unless Google was allowed to offer an uncensored search engine in China, it would no longer provide a censored search engine and would consider pulling out of China entirely.

China which has historically been known for its closed doors, keeping western ideals out of China seems to be the goal. Censorship is extremely thick, the Chinese people are forced to use censored search engines or use proxy servers to access the Internet in other countries which is illegal. Google obviously has a lot invested in the Chinese economy so to pull out completely would never happen; Schmidt hopes that he will be able to meet China in the middle. At the end of the day China will have the final say in this matter.

“We like the Chinese people. We like our Chinese employees … we remain committed to being there”, Schmidt stated last week on Google’s fourth-quarter earnings’ call. Something interesting to consider is that on the same day that Schmidt made those statements, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton commended Google for fighting censorship; Internet companies have a “shared responsibility” with the U.S. government in assuring free access to the Internet wherever you are in the world. Unfortunately, that is not an easy task and governments will want to decide for themselves what the people are exposed to.

Will Google succeed in changing Chinese censorship laws? Probably Not! Even if Google shuts down Google.cn, Schmidt is exploring its options in China. Google could still operate a software-development or research presence in China. I guess Google’s battle with censorship in China will continue into the future!

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Apple’s latest creation will be in your hands in 60 days and may revolutionize the way you or I compute. Steve Jobs clarified just what we can expect from Apples iPad, a device that appears to be an iPod Touch on steroids. The iPad platform is very similar to the iPod Touch but its capabilities are far more advanced. “It’s the best web experience you’ve ever had. Way better than a laptop, way better than a phone,” Steve Jobs said.

Here are the Specs:

only 1.5 lbs
only .5 inches and a 9.7-inch LED display
powered by Apple’s own silicon technology, a 1 GHz Apple A4 chip
available in memory configurations of 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB
Bluetooth 2.1
802.11N WiFi
speaker
microphone
accelerometer
compass
10 hours of battery life and over a month of standby time
on-screen keyboard

Apple has already released an SDK program so that after market developers can create amazing new applications that are befitting to a device like the iPad. Apple is launching a brand new service called iBooks (and the corresponding iBookstore). Apple has reached an agreement, similar to the deal struck with record labels, with all the major publishers to market their content on the new iBookstore. Reading on the iPad will be very similar to Kindles, giving the reader the least strain possible on their eyes. There will be an external keyboard available for when you’re in the office, something that we begged Apple to provide with the iPhone. One of the most important features on the iPad is the fact that you will not need a contract with AT&T to access the 3G network; $30 a month will give you unlimited access.

I have saved the best for last, “The Price is Right”! Only $499 for 16GB model, $599 for 32GB, and 64GB for $699. Models with built-in 3G (like the iPhone) will cost more, adding about $130 dollars to the price of each unit. I could make a pretty long list of what the iPad is missing. However, there is no sense in getting worked up about the 1st generation iPad; naturally as the product evolves and is tested by consumers more advancements will find their way to the iPad. I would much rather marvel at the sheer potential this product has to revolutionize the work place as well the classroom than complain about what the device lacks – which seems to be the trend with all the critics. The iPad is scheduled for release in April 2010.

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Web 2.0 and social networking may not be for everyone! Living in a world of “avatars” and mood status updates is not as important to some people as it is others. One finds this out after they have already taken the time to set up detailed accounts about themselves. Thousands of people have found that closing a Facebook, Myspace, or LinkedIn account isn’t the easiest task. Sure you can turn your account off or deactivate it, but all of your personal information and pretty much everything you have typed in is archived somewhere along the vast information highway. Killing one’s virtual self has been quite a burden, almost equal to the burden of living it. So then, how does one commit virtual suicide?

Now, you can use the Web 2.0 suicide machine to completely scrub your Internet presence. The program will use the log in information you provide and go through all your social networking accounts deleting your existence. “Suicide Machine has assisted more than 1,000 virtual deaths, severing more than 80,500 friendships on Facebook and removing some 276,000 tweets from Twitter”, according to TIME Magazine. Suicide Machine is so popular that thousands of people are waiting their turn for their own “cyberoffing”. “Our server is so busy handling the requests,” says Suicide Machine co-creator Walter Langelaar. Whether for a good or bad, there is no turning back or second chances at life; once you have committed to the deletion it will take nothing short of an act from God to reverse the procedure. When the suicide process is complete you’ll receive a “cybermemorial” on the site. “RIP, 2.0. We’ll miss you”.

Facebook, so far is the only social network in up in arms about this new service and feels that the company is breaking the law “citing violation of users privacy”, which is impossible because the individuals voluntarily submit their information to Suicide Machine; LinkedIn, MySpace and Twitter have not yet publicly made a comment about Suicide Machine. Earlier this month Facebook blocked Suicide Machine from accessing its site. However, that has not slowed down Suicide Machine’s creators, the euthanasia goes on. “Compared to the more than 350 million users [on Facebook], we think deleting a few hundred is not very impressive, but they picked up on it as a potential threat”, says Langelaar.

If people are waiting in line to have their Internet lives deleted for good, then it will be interesting to see if the trend continues. So many people open social networking accounts and never once go back online to use them, so then deletion makes sense in that they would no longer want their information out there.

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Wordmark for Twitter logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

What is it about Twitter? A simple question, a simple program, a complex answer – maybe even unexplainable. If you were to type “twitter” into a Wikipedia field you would find this: “Twitter is a free social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author’s profile page and delivered to the author’s subscribers who are known as followers. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or external applications”. If you have a basic understanding of the World Wide Web today you probably understand words like blogging, add a micro- to the beginning and you have tiny blog posts, called Tweets. Simple, Right! What isn’t so simple is why one would ever want to broadcast short transmissions about their day-to-day activities; why would I want to ask questions, and take interest in what a total stranger is doing with their life?

Twitter has been around since 2006, it quietly gained steam at first while people figured out its potential and spread the word. Twitter grew exponentially worldwide and although it has slowed down in the last year, its user numbers are in the millions! Twitter is a tool for the 21st century speeding up the flow of information, allowing people to tap literally into the resources of the entire world. Twitter has no time zone, no deadlines; it is not bound by conventionality! We don’t have to check our favorite news websites to know when a story has “dropped” anymore, no more one sentence emails either – Send a Tweet! Web 2.0 is about life, interaction and feeling like the impossible is possible; the World Wide Web is alive and constantly expanding, now it even has a voice.

Can anyone explain why Twitter has been so successful in such a short period of time? Maybe not, but I do know that in general people want to feel like they have a voice; now, everyone can guarantee an audience, hopefully a full house. The fact that Bill Gates signed on board yesterday says a lot. In eight hours he had over a 100,000 followers!

Reading Time: 4 minutes

When Apple released the long awaited iPhone it completely changed the mobile technology forever. Gone were the days of flip phones, mobile computers that could make phone calls became the bar. Every technology company has tried to create a rival to Apple’s iPhone technology and have failed miserably. What’s strange about the apparent lack of competition is the fact that Apple created a product that was far superior to AT&T service capability which in turn has created a lot of very unhappy customers. Since the beginning it has been one thing right after the other with the iPhone features and AT&T’s inability to make certain features work. I personally know several people who gave up on the iPhone altogether, in search of finding a better product that can facilitate their needs. Google is one of those companies who have taken on the challenge of trying to provide mobile Internet users what they need. Their success with the Android was little and didn’t do much to weaken Apple’s grip on the market; so what did Google do, they went out and tried to make a better product.

Now, Google readies launch of an iPhone rival, the Nexus One. Named after the ‘replicants’ in Ridley Scott’s science-fiction film Blade Runner and the Taiwanese company HTC procured the contract to create the Nexus One. Google will have full control over the Nexus One and it will have the Google logo right on the phone. Retailers expect Google to sell the Nexus One direct to customers through its website. I am optimistic that Google with not make the same mistakes that Apple has made and I am hopeful that they will create a product that is not hindered by the network providers inability to serve its customers.

All I can say is that in the UK there are four network providers that can service the iPhone, but in the United States there can be only one. “Google has approached several mobile phone operators in the UK, including T-Mobile and Vodafone, to gauge their interest in supporting its rival to the iPhone ahead of its launch in Britain next year”, reports the Guardian. How is it that an American company like Apple could throw their American customers under the bus?

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