Review TechRadar: Phone and communications news 09-29-2013

TechRadar: Phone and communications news TechRadar AU latest feeds

Your small business full-time assistant Join the 500,000+ people using Shoeboxed to streamline accounting and bookkeeping. Turn a pile of receipts into digital data to save time, money and hassle. From our sponsors

In Depth: There's an app for that? 9 oddest apps in the world today Sep 29th 2013, 11:00, by Gary Marshall The world of smartphone and tablet apps is a world of delights. There are applications that turn your device into a beautiful musical instrument, a living book or a productivity powerhouse, and there are apps that enable you to tell everyone on Facebook about the last time you pooped. We're interested in the latter kind: not the must-haves, but the who-needs: the log-loggers and the cats in rice and the everyday apps that come with an added pirate dimension. Never mind "there's an app for that". These apps will have you saying "there's an app for that?" 1 Snapcat Available on Android Social media consists largely of selfies and cats, so it was inevitable that some bright spark would combine the two. Snapcat says that it is "the very first social photo sharing app just for cats. Made by cats" and at least half of that claim is true: it enables cats to take selfies by presenting them with an irresistible dot. Once the cat taps the dot the front-facing camera fires, and you can share the result on Facebook and Twitter. 2 Shadow Soon to be available on iOS, Android, Windows Phone It isn't out yet - it's currently in Kickstarter fundraising mode - but when Shadow launches it's going to end up with an awful lot of odd information. The goal is to gather details of people's dreams, enabling the user to see what patterns emerge from their psyches, and although it's off by default users will be able to share their dream records with others - because there's nothing more interesting than someone saying "hey! I had the most amazing dream last night!" 3 Ghost Detector Available on Android Ghost Detector is a BEEP BEEP OH MY GOD OH MY GOD NO NO NO NOOOOO only kidding. It shows a radar, and if there's a ghost nearby that radar will show a picture of the ghost and enable the ghost to talk to you. Reviews suggest it's not entirely reliable - one user tried it in a graveyard and found no ghosts whatsoever - and we're not convinced that "ghosts try to control your devices [sic] magnetic and microphone sensor" either. 4 Melon Meter Available on iOS We've all been there. The supermarket shelves are sagging under the weight of lovely, lovely melons - but how can you tell which one will deliver the most delicious food joy? Thanks to Melon Meter, you no longer have to guess: simply launc the app, put your phone on the melon and give the fruit a good thump. The app analyses the sound and looks for what the developers call a "decay signature"; apparently ripe melons sound different to unripe ones. 5 Death App Available through the web You're in a beautiful place - but is it a deadly place too? The answer is probably no, but if you've ever wanted to know just how many people have died in the nearby area then Death App will tell you in statistical form - broken down into murders and car deaths - and show you on a map. If you're in London you might be better off pointing your browser at the depressing London Murder Map. 6 Bowel Mover and PoopLog Available on iOS and Android There are sensible applications for an app that can track your bowel movements - it's helpful for people suffering from bowel disorders who are trying to identify the causes - but Bowel Mover and PoopLog also enable you to share your data with the wider world, on Twitter in the former and on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, SMS and email in the latter. One unidentified user is "upset I can't share my PoopLog on Facebook". We're sure his or her friends aren't. 7 Sushi Cats Available on Android and iOS There's no need to call PETA: the cats used in the Neko Zushi (Sushi Cat) meme were photographed and filmed under the guidance of professional animal handlers. As the name suggests, Sushi Cats (available on Android and iOS) are cats made into sushi: placed on rice, wrapped in seafood and given a range of tasty additions including spring onions and green beans. The app includes an incomprehensible video and a gallery of Sushi Cats that delivers literally seconds of high quality feline-food-related fun. 8 Carrr Matey Available on Android and iOS We can't beat the developers' own description: "Carrr Matey is a quick, easy to use parking application with a mild pirate theme." Simply record where you park - sorry, "drop anchor" - and when it's time to return to your car - sorry, "vessel" - you can see where you are and where you need to go on the handy pirate-themed map. There's also a compass view for areas that Google hasn't treasure mapped and a Harbour Mode for multi-storey, er, harbours. 9 TapThat Available on Android TapThat enables two consenting Android phones to have sex. Your phone could choose to be a topless lady and the other Homer Simpson; bring them together via the magic of NFC, achieve orgasm and nine months later your Samsung Galaxy S4 will be the proud parent of a Samsung Galaxy Mini. Or something. TapThat does have a genuine use, however: anyone who finds it hilarious - or worse, sexy - probably isn't going to be the greatest sexual partner you'll ever have. Got an iPhone 5S? Then check out these supercharging apps. Inflame: BlackBerry's latest jam sees it jet into financial thunderstorm Sep 29th 2013, 10:00, by Gary Cutlack It's been a nightmare week for phone maker BlackBerry, with the former smartphone king revealing awful financial figures that included a $1bn write-down on unsold BB10 devices and a plan to cut 4,500 jobs in an attempt to stay alive. Whoops. And if that wasn't embarrassing enough, the company revealed that it had taken delivery of a new private jet as recently as July of this year, splurging up to $30m on a personal plane for its execs to whizz about in while its Z10 and Q10 models were metaphorically disintegrating at 35,000 feet and crashing into the sea due to disastrous sales numbers. Given that everyone on the internet loves giving things a kicking while they're down, it's been a busy old time on the BlackBerry news threads. Commenters are giving the company both barrels of the hindsight shotgun, with battered CEO Thorsten Heins taking an Elop-style hammering. You're not the boss of me now Beneath a Business Insider piece on the bizarre private jet scandal, reader Fredisnothere got rather personal with BB boss Thorsten Heins, saying: "On his watch they have accomplished the absolute opposite of what they wanted: their North American market share has continued to decline quarter over quarter, to around 2% now and the brand name has almost become completely irrelevant." A point that was virtually applauded by Canadian by Waterloo, who scoffed: "It makes me sick that these morons still get paid more than Walmart cashiers." But at least the Walmart cashiers aren't stuck using Blackberrys. Sold for spares or repair Over at Cnet, there was a bit of sensible debate about how BB may still salvage something from the mess through clever use of its patents. Reader Godsmurf pointed out that: "It's software and security divisions probably hold greater value that is being suppressed by their marriage to its hardware division. Blackberry can survive, but not in the hardware business." He then went on to mention former gaming giant Sega's sort-of-successful transition to software after making a mess of the hardware side of things. An analogy that works if you don't count Sega's many, many amazing turkeys. After some thought, Godsmurf then came back with a joke about the private jet thing, replying to no one in particular: "I can see their decision-making process now: 'We're already losing $1 billion, so what's another $29 million gonna do?'" Clone wars Over on Arstechnica, the reasons as to how RIM/BlackBerry ended up in this financial jet crash were debated, with user Twdog boiling its troubles down to a failure to copy the iPhone quickly enough, suggesting: "It was entirely their fault because Apple caught the entire smartphone market 'off guard' but others (Google in particular) realised things had changed and adapted accordingly and were successful." Reader LJ responded to this by blaming management once more, adding: "In Google's case, you have executives who understand technology. You have none of that in BlackBerry's case. BlackBerry has executives who understand business, but not technology, and they're trying to run a tech company." Heins means business Finally, commenters on the Huffington Post may have come up with the reason for BlackBerry's jet purchase, with reader FlameWaterhead suggesting that boss Thorsten Heins "needs a Jet to escape all the laid off employees that want to kill him." This thought was enhanced by Ian "I'm using my real name on the internet" Llangan, who amended it to read: "He needs a Jet to escape all the laid off employees, creditors/suppliers, shareholders, let-down customers, and other stakeholders that want to kill him." Inflame is TechRadar's weekly take on the wonderful world of web comments. Get more here.

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions