Thursday, April 4, 2013

A word about Celebrity Apps ! Dont buy everything that you see

On Tuesday, World Wrestling Entertainment and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson offered up "WWE Presents: Rockpocalypse," a free mobile app for Google Play and iOS. The app, already knee-deep in a suspicious mix of five-star and one-star reviews, pits the world's most famous wrestler against a series of zombie-like extras on the set of The Rock's latest movie.
The lesson? Just because a celebrity endorses a product doesn't make it good.
When some besotted fan says she loves Justin Bieber or Chris Evans or David Hasselhoff, she's not falling in love with a person - she's falling in love with a brand. And in a world where Jennifer Lopez sells perfume, celebrity apps are no different - chances are that you're downloading the name, not the product.
Obviously, an app is only as good as its developer, and any app that markets a celeb can either take the high or the low road. A number of "soundboard" apps just offer audio clips that fans can play over and over, or at opportune times ("Hey, I've got the perfect comeback - just let me load this app...") or a chance to "connect" with the celebrity in question via embedded social media. The most useful apps complement a celebrity's claim to fame; it also helps when a celebrity also performs some useful function, like a chef.
The issue, of course, is that it's all a matter of perspective. Would an app that offers a chance to "kiss" Justin Bieber appeal to many 50-year-old straight men? Probably not. But that same app might be a prized part of some tween's digital hope chest. In general, celebrity apps suck -there, we've said it. But we've managed to find a few that may actually prove useful. See what you think.



Taylor Swift Greeting Cards

Want to remind someone that they're special? Try sending a Taylor Swift greeting card! Remind your boyfriend that there's a song waiting for him if he cheats! Anyway, the app is wildly popular on Google Play.





























Jamie Oliver's 15-Minute Meals

One of the truly useful celebrity apps out there is Jamie Oliver's 15-Minute Meals, which costs $3.99 for Android but appears to be free for iOS. Still, you'll get videos, recipes, photography, and advice from Oliver, one of Britain's more famous chefs


Gordon Ramsay Apps

Gordon Ramsay, most famous for his numerous shows where he alternatively cooks, shouts, and swears, offers a pair of apps: Come Cook with Me HD, a $7.99 app on iTunes that boasts recipes and even a digitized Ramsay yelling at you. A free Cookery Course app on Google Play offers more recipes, but users have complained the app's content is hard to find



Mythbusters

Keep in touch with Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage via the Mythbusters app, available via iTunes. There's not only social media connections, but also a few games to play.





The Colbert Show

Nation, Stephen Colbert launched a new app for the The Colbert Show just a few days ago. Why don't you head on over to the the page to get it? Available for all major platforms, the app has video clips, quotes, and even a calendar so you can set reminders to watch. And all for free, thanks to government subsidies, we suspect. 





It's Britney!

I think at this point we stopped looking for celebrity apps that didn't suck, and embraced the awfulness. This iOS app allows you to get the news directly from Brit herself and digitally paste your face into a photo (which is worth the download). 


Wake Up with Pam (Anderson)

Have you ever wanted to wake up next to model Pam Anderson, and would do anything to realize even the faintest facsimile of that dream? If that's true, then this -99-cent iPhone app may help. Check out sexy videos from Pam, as she urges you to get out of bed. Pam? Pam, come back. 



Kiss Justin Bieber

Hey, ladies, if you ever wanted to kiss Justin Bieber, you need to check out this Google Play app! He even sings to you!


Game changing Mobile Phones

Motorola DynaTAC

The 1984 Motorola DynaTAC was the first commercial cell phone in the United States. It offered 30 minutes of talk time and 8 hours of standby, plus an LED display for dialing or to bring up one of 30 phone numbers stored in the phone. It was priced at $3,995, 



Motorola MicroTAC

Fortunately, by 1989 Motorola had created the MicroTAC, the first mobile phone that you could fit into your pocket. The MicroTAC was also the first "flip" phone, where the phone's plastic covered the microphone. It cost between $2,495 and $3,495 at the time

IBM Simon

IBM's Simon Personal Communicator phone, from 1994, was arguably the world's first smartphone, combining a phone and PDA into one device. Simon was able to send and receive emails and faxes, and offered now-standard "apps" like a calendar, calculator, and note pad - even with handwritten or typed annotations. BellSouth Cellular initially offered the Simon throughout its 15 state service area for $899 with a two-year service contract. 

RIM BlackBerry 957

It's hard to leave out the RIM BlackBerry, although RIM (now BlackBerry) seems to be on the wane. Our original review of the BlackBerry 957 praised it for its high-contrast monochrome display, its tiny physical keyboard, the side-mounted jog dial, and the Esc key. For years, BlackBerrys were the smartphone to have, even after the first iPhones became available. People loved the keyboard, and still do.

Motorola StarTAC

Motorola's StarTAC was the first "clamshell" phone, where the phone essentially folded up in half, rather than just flipping to cover the mouthpiece, like the MicroTAC. The 1996 phone weighed just 88 grams and sold for about $1,000, making it one of the first popular cell-phone model

Samsung Uproar M100

The Samsung Uproar was the first MP3 phone. The phone included RealNetworks's RealJukebox for managing MP3 files, and a separate USB cable for downloading MP3 files to its 64MB of RAM for storing music, then about two hours' worth

Sanyo 5300

The 2003 Sanyo 5300 was the first to include an integrated camera, launching the craze for camera phones and helping to put an eventual, serious dent in the point-and-shoot digital camera industry. Still, the 5300 only allowed 640-by-480 images.

Motorola Razr

The 2004 Razr V3 was slim and sexy, and Motorola sold more than 130 million units of the thing, making it the best-selling clamshell phone in the world. It quickly became the "It Phone" to have, but also plunged in popularity after discounts made it less than exclusive

LG VX8000

The 2005 LG VX8000 may have had an awkward name, but the phone was the first to usher in 3G calling inside the United States, with the Verizon V-Cast service. Ironically, we found everything but V-Cast compelling, as the initial video clips weren't that impressive. The phone also lacked email and a Web browser, features that would become indispensible on successive high-speed smartphones. 

Apple iPhone

What can we say about the original iPhone? Apple's flagship phone of 2007 wasn't much of a phone, but everything else it could do screamed "the future": an integrated touch screen, an app store (that came later in 2008) that launched an entirely new industry of mobile app development, and MP3s that could be bought online and stored on the phone. The smartphone revolution was here to stay, as well as the enormous market for mobile apps.

HTC G1

The HTC G1 from 2008 (as a Google-branded developer model) featured a trackball, tiny screen, and Android 1.6 OS. Android? Yes, Android. Google's open-source OS might not have been much to look at it when it first launched, but the pricing (free for OEMs), incentives for developers helped make Android the world's most popular OS, and the G1 started it all.










This Dishonored Custom Xbox 360 Controller


For Some people gaming is life and death . Even breakfast and dinner too. Check out this very cool X Box controller.
We’ve seen tons of customized Xbox controllers in the past, but we can’t help but feel that perhaps this Dishonored-inspired Xbox 360 controller might take the cake. Designed by Devin Smith of End of Line Designs has finished piecing together a Dishonored Xbox 360 control pad which definitely goes beyond a mere painting or skinning. As you can see, almost every component on the surface of the controller is custom, ranging from the buttons, the grips and even the replacement of the Microsoft Xbox logo with the Dishonored symbol which appears to light up as well. While it looks pretty awesome, the metal “stitching” on the lower part of the controller might be somewhat uncomfortable after extended periods of time, but then again we have a feeling that controllers like these are meant to be admired more than played. We’re not sure if Smith will be selling his creation, but you can check out his other work and additional photos of the controller on his website.