My Dream App

No, this isn’t a post about an application that would make my life complete, but rather about an online competition you may, or may not, have heard of.

Although, in a way, perhaps it is about that mythical application. Who knows.

My Dream App is an online competition, in much the same vein as Pop Idol, or X-Factor, in which contestants submit their ideas for applications (Mac only, sorry) and the general public vote for their favourite. 3 application will eventually win, and be developed into full blown, purchasable products.

The first round of voting has begun, and I thought I’d list off what I picked. All the entries are great, but - I suppose in the spirit of the competition - I’ve voted for the apps that I’d like to play with.

So…

Stick-It, Desktop Wars, Savant Carde, Atmosphere, Blossom, Portal, Puppet Constructor, Minerva, Hijack, SweepIt, iSightSee, Telepath, Whistler, and Ground Control…

…all get my vote. If you’ve not had a read of the ideas yet, or voted, it might interest you. Voters get a free license for the Pzizz software too, something I’ve always fancied having a play with.

Fingers Crossed

I heard this morning that Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond is very ill in hospital after a high speed crash. I really hope he’s ok, primarily for the sakes of his family and friends, but also for the sake of the show; Top Gear is one of the BBC’s finest products, and without Hammond it won’t be the same. How this accident will affect the show’s reckless nature remains to be seen.

Gizmodo have reported the incident - and I can’t think of a more hideous way to report that a much loved TV presenter is in critical condition. Yes, he’s now stable; but he’s still very, very ill.

I only hope someone has something as dismissive to say about the Gizmodo author should they have an unfortunate gadget accident. Maybe after a nasty incident with one of those exploding Dell laptops someone will write “Gizmodo writer eaten by Dell - does anyone care?”

Get well soon, Richard.

(Black) Christmas Is Coming, It’s Time To Double Dip

Better news from Arrow in the Head: A new Black Christmas DVD is coming.

It’ll be all shiny and remastered, and is intended to cash in on the upcoming remake. I have virtually no hope for the remake - the original is one of the finest horror films ever made and, much like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, should not suffer the indignity of being remade. The TCM remake is one of the few films I’ve ever felt compelled to walk out of. I didn’t, but maybe the Black Christmas remake can “succeed” where others failed.

So - if you’ve not got a copy of Black Christmas yet, wait for this one. Or pick one of the other versions up cheap. Any self respecting horror fan should see this film.

And Deathdream.

And worship the majesty of Bob Clark.

Depp Never Was Legend

According to Arrow in the Head, Johnny Depp was never, ever going to be in I Am Legend.

Which, on the one hand, is good. Why? Because it suggests that they’ve not messed about with the script too much, and introduced a buddy pairing of Depp and Smith versus mutant vampire hordes.

However, Arrow is also reporting that the script mirrors the Charlton Heston Omega Man remake, rather than Matheson’s original novel. Which - in my book - means this is going to suck quite badly. Apologies for the pun.

The more I hear about Legend, the more I’m convinced we’re heading for a I, Robot remake with hordes of cgi vampires instead of hordes of cgi robots.

Hopefully - and I am hopeful - 30 Days Of Night will live up to my expectations.

Vario Rom Update

I found a custom brewed, AKU 3.2 rom update for the MDA Vario on XDA-Developers and, being the mad-rash fool that I am, I’ve installed it.

Time will tell if it’s any good, but it certainly seems quicker. That said, the officially released T-Mobile AKU2 rom update had been running like a dog with no legs, so anything is an improvement.

If anyone fancies it, the thread can be found here. This is a totally empty rom, so out of the box you’ll need a few bits and pieces to get MMS working. I’ve installed the MMS creation cab found in this thread. I also used the following MMS settings:

Server Name: T Mobile UK
Gateway: 149.254.201.132
Port: 8080
Server Address: http://mmsc.t-mobile.co.uk:8002
Connect Via: T-Mobile (or whatever your WAP connection is called)
Sending size limitation: 100k
WAP Version: 2.0

At this point, I’ve got everything working: GPRS, push email, mms etc. So everything looks good.

Ashleigh has installed the Universal version of the same release, and seems to be enjoying it. I’ll post an update in a few days, once I know how mine’s working.

Found: New (Unmentioned) Feature In iPod Firmware

The recently released firmware for the 5G iPod (you know, the iPod with Video) includes a feature that I don’t think anyone has mentioned before. As far as I know, Mr Jobs didn’t even mention it in the presentation.

Scott has just pointed out that when using the touch-wheel to browse your library, a certain number of revolutions at high speed cause a letter to appear on screen. From this point, keeping your finger on the touch-wheel maintains visibility and scrolling the wheel cycles through the alphabet. Letting go skips straight to the corresponding part of your collection.

It’s a neat feature, and certainly makes scrolling through a large collection quite a bit easier. Perhaps it goes some way to making up for the lack of the search functionality found in new iPods?