DJ iPhone in da house yo!

The greatness of iOS 4 is about to be shown to the whole world. Yes, the iOS 4 is so great, so majestic. Why? That’s because one of the 1,500 new APIs in the iOS 4 provides direct access to the iPod library, meaning music apps of all kinds can play your tracks in any funky way they want. Not convinced yet? Well this is great news for iOS 4 developers, but indirectly users of the iOS 4 should also rejoice. That’s because the flexibility of fooling around the iPod music library is so wild, that they can even scratch the iPhone. No, not literally go and scratch it like a kitten, but yeah, you will soon be able to scratch your iPhone like a pro DJ. Next time DJs around the world won’t need the bulky and old notebooks for club banging anymore. All you need is your iPhone with iOS 4, and you’re ready to club!

Early apps are starting to show up, such as this Flare Scratch, which is a new and simply scratch app that supports such functionality. This app would surely look good on the iPad. But being early, there’s the downside of kush. The app is still fairly un-optimized, thus there’s a bit of a waiting when loading up a new track, which means no nonstop scratching of your whatever-music. But don’t worry, as I’m sure there’s going to be more ‘scratching’ apps coming up, so stay tuned you wild monkeys!

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Fring brings video call to iPhone 4.

This came as another surprise lately. The FaceTime has been Apple’s prime baby in video calling, and it’s hard to imagine Apple approving 3rd party apps to access the front camera of the iPhone 4 for video calling. Fring has just updated their new ‘Fring for iPhone’ with support for the iOS 4, and added video call for the iPhone 4 using the front facing camera.

Now why would the Fring come as a surprise, is because it works over 3G. FaceTime only works over Wi-Fi at the moment, as Apple is still sorting out the data packaging and transmission with AT&T. I guess this is AT&T’s fault, with the badly hogged network. But surely FaceTime should simply work effortlessly outside of the States like Japan or UK, where the networks’ been great. It’s such a letdown that FaceTime can’t work over 3G. Perhaps Apple is yet to find a solution to optimize the FaceTime with 3G’s slow connectivity. Oh by the way, Fring’s video call works on other iPhones running on iOS 4! Yey to 3GS users.

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YouTube supporting 4k content, catering to 1% of worldwide viewer

YouTube officially announced support for videos shot in 4k over at VidCon 2010 conference. Er… what’s 4k? 4k refers to a resolution of 4096 x 3072. This is the standard resolution used in professional video recording, before getting it recorded. That’s why it’s called ‘Original’ size for videos. Kinda like raw in photography.

This proves that YouTube is light-speed ahead in the online video portal for now, supporting from 260p to 4,096p. Suddenly, watching YouTube in HD 1080p sounds kind of outdated. Granted, only a handful of Tom and Jerry out there owns a 4k camcorder, and what’s more 4k projectors aren’t your typical home theater setup option as they are rather pricey. But this does not mean you can’t go and click that ‘Original’ tag in YouTube’s video quality option.

View YouTube 4k video here : YouTube [4k video]

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“Beer Me” robot yet another prove of how lazy a man can be.

Like I always say, technology has vastly helped us puny humans to cope up and achieve great things that used to be unthinkable. But technology has also made us lazier by the day. This is a sound proof of the latter. Willow Garage, some drunken group that must be nerdy with a beer belly, had come up with a robot, PR2, which can serve four pints of beers at a time.

Navigated with accurate waypoint of the fridge to the living room, the robot is ‘armed’ with a four-holed foam block placed behind the robot’s navigation laser, so that it can serve its master while the master sob at its team for losing the world cup. What’s great is that the robot can even restock the refrigerator with a tilted ‘self-stocking’ shelf. Too bad the robot can’t make the beers come out ‘magically’. But I don’t mind having this robot if it can serve me some Haagen-Dazs while I watch some cartoons during a hot afternoon.

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Leak: Apple’s tiny 3cm display device that’s still unknown

This comes as a surprise, when Taiwanese site Apple.pro posted up some shots of a tiny display labeled with Apple, and looks like a multitouch display panel. Guys, don’t be fooled by the photo, this thing is real tiny! I mean real! Measuring just 3cm x 3cm, with the looks that it’s ready to support multitouch gestures. Upcoming iPod nano stuff perhaps? A new toy for Team Rocket to blast off? Or maybe Steve Jobs’s Power Ranger dream watch? Haha! Hey, he ‘might’ just be a member of the Power Ranger team.

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NTP readies to engulf a bigger meal after settling with RIM’s lawsuit

Doesn’t mean much to end users, but this is still a big news, to me at least. NTP is a small technology company with a portfolio of dozen of patents. This including wireless email technology that harvested them a $612 million settlement out of RIM in 2006 after couple of years of litigation on court. Well the company is ready to set cruise control for a sweet ride over to the court again, as it’s suing nearly everyone from Silicon Valley, and around. Apple, Google, Microsoft, HTC, LG, and Motorola is getting sued for the same wireless email technology patent that cost RIM over half a billion dollars. That’s a huge load of money, and they’re getting ready to times it by a half a dozen at least.

The RIM case alone took nearly five years and ultimately involved USPTO re-examining several patents, rejecting some and then ultimately declaring some others valid in 2009. This surely won’t end swiftly and with ease. But we’ll be seeing some interesting things down this path. Apple and Microsoft have always have a history of cooperation and cross-licensing in the patent space, and thus I’m sure their lawyers would be having some fine lunch and gags before heading down lawsuit town. That’s yet to include the mammoth Google, and the Taiwanese handheld specialist HTC, the Korean electronics giant LG, and the pioneer in mobile phones Motorola. What a party!

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Ford promotes SYNC to stop you from sms-ing while driving.

Why? Because it’s dangerous! That’s why! It’s already a crime to talk on the phone while driving, and that’s when your eyes are still on the road. What about texting while driving? That’s worse, as you need to focus on the phone’s screen while texting, leaving you prone to danger as you do not know what’s going on the road. Pretty dangerous, and it’s banned in a few places in this cute world already. Ford has come to your assist when they heard about the ban, and is already working with RIM to sync all Blackberries to the car through Bluetooth. So, the car’s gonna read out loud the SMS that you receive, to you, and anyone else in the car. Hope your buddies don’t simply send any sms when your gals’ in the car.

There’s another cute feature coming, called the “Do Not Disturb” function. Basically, all incoming calls and texts will be hold until the journey completes. But you can call out (if you need help), and still be able to use apps while in this mode. All this just to let you pay attention on something that you should: the hot chick in the other car that’s racing with you.

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