iPhone 4 can now be your emergency flashlight

Well well well, what have we got here? Your new iPhone 4 acting as a flashlight? That’s not something Steve Jobs would want the iPhone to be. It seemed to everyone’s surprise that Apple would allow apps to have direct control of the iPhone 4’s LED flashlight besides taking photos.

Apple has always had the notorious trackback of blocking a huge amount of apps, just because they can. But approving the Flashlight apps in the App Store is truly a great big leap for the Apple’s filtering team. Have a good pat on your back boys! You did a great job in making the iPhone a great device during important times. Now I can swing out my iPhone 4 and use it as a flashlight to read the dinner menu in Isabella. What a hi-tech and expensive flashlight I have there.

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Uplink Audio Strap System offers solar power for runners on the run

The Uplink Audio Strap System is a weird concept. Now why would I say it’s weird? Now for start, it gives those joggers another option to listen to music on the go, if they hate the plug-in ear buds. That means it’s a great stuff for nerdy joggers who love to show off their latest gadgets. But then, the concept from Adam Hammerman has a very high-tech ultrasound speakers, which can connect to nearly all your mobile devices and portable music players. It’s so high tech, that no matter how loud you blast the music, only you can hear the sounds. Others by-passers won’t be able to hear a single hum from this new toy. But if you’re going to show off this to the whole world, why restrict the sounds to only yourself? Totally redundant!

But of kush, the tech doesn’t stop there. This new concept is trying to make you go green with the integrated solar panel, which is flexible. Though it’s just a concept, but I wonder how long you can power up the player with such small solar panels.

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RetroN 3 will relieve your classic console glory.

The RetroN 3, in retro-futurist red (I don’t even know what that color is, besides being red) or sober, is fully compatible with your Nintendo, Sega Genesis, and SNES cartridges, if you haven’t thrown ‘em out of the store yet. Not only is the cartridges compatible, but so does the good ol’ controllers. I wonder if mine is still working or not. But fear not, as they also provide their own wireless controllers. Talk about trendy classics. Well this classically new console is yours for a sweat $70.

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Audi’s New AudiDirect Reception System lets you chat with the handsome mechanics.

The German car manufacturer, Audi, has been rather thoughtful lately. They know that some customers really loved their cars like a second wife, and even by sending in the car to authorized centers for servicing, that doesn’t seemed to convince them enough that the car is in good hands. That’s where the AudiDirect Reception System comes in.

With the new AudiDirect Reception System, owners of Audi cars can have a chatting session with the mechanics and technicians while they’re hard at work and the owners chilling out at the waiting lounge. The mobile video cameras and communication systems will allow owners to directly see the work being done on their car and communicate with the person doing the work, all from the comfortable chair of the waiting lounge.

This seemed to be a great idea for some, but I can personally think of some very funny things that would make this system abit blatant. Surely, the most annoyed person would be the mechanics on duty. Who would like to have someone staring at you while you’re working hard? That’s plain unethical to me, and it will also be a hindrance to their productivity. But that’s the things to put up with for the mechanics at Audi. How about the customers? Free and live lecturing on the cars’ parts and jargons? I mean, how many of the owners would know which is the break pump and which is the ECU circuit. I bet there’re many that don’t even know where the engine oil is. But it would be funny if what they’re talking over the air is totally out of topic. Sugar mummy flirting with the macho mechanics? That’ll be super cute!

For now the ‘Audi Cam’ service is only going to be available in Europe, but the response from owners so far has been very positive (not sure how the mechanics like it though) so it might be eventually offered across the pond as well. Sugar mummies in Asia, stay tuned, you’ll get your chance soon.

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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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