Facebook hired crazy-talented graffiti artist David Choe to paint a wall in their corporate office.  Choe allows Mark to paint anything he wants on the wall, and then Choe will complete the painting (Mark drew a stick figure), to make it look alike with the surrounding elements on the canvas.I know it’s not news or anything, but I just found it kind of neat

Apple also mentioned that over half of the iPods sold were iPod Touches, and that iPod sales actually declined 21 percent from the 19.4 million sold a year ago (no surprise there).

Macs had a 26% increase year-after-year, and about 1.48 million desktops (which includes iMac, Mac Mini, and Mac Pro), and 3.7 million laptops (MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro) were sold. Even Apple’s “hobby”: the Apple TV sold a moderately impressive 1.4 million for the quarter, and 2.8 million for the 2011 fiscal year.

Chart below:

I unfortunately wasn’t able to actually attend the conference this year, as I am now living in Bangalore, India, however I was able to follow all the *cough* excitement and hype *cough* through social networks and tech blogs.  And, I’m really sorry to say that while there was some cool tech here and there, the overall verdict was that I was very unimpressed.  To save you the trouble of looking through the thousands of devices announced, I cut it down to just the four I found most impressive.

The Tiki – Intelligent and Compact USB Audio

The Tiki is Blue’s newest mic.  It looks like a hybrid mix of a snail and a USB thumb drive.  The device is barely three inches long, and manages to fit two condenser capsules to provide CD-quality audio.  It is also plug-and-play avoiding the hassle of installing clunky drivers.  But where the Tiki really shines is in it’s “intelligent mode”.  With just one click, the Tiki uses a series of algorithms to bring your voice to the forefront and eliminate majority of the background noise using noise-cancelling technology.  It is also able to mute out computer fan and typing noise; genius.  The Tiki will set you back $59.

Samsung’s 55-inch OLED TV

OLED stands for Organic Light-Emitting Diode, and is what is used on majority of Samsung’s Android smartphones.  The huge benefit of OLED over LED is that it doesn’t require backlight and is super-thin.  It also provides richer-colors, and just drop-dead gorgeous blacks.  Unfortunately the technology for the longest time has been extremely expensive and hard to make in big sizes.  In fact, the longest record holder for the biggest OLED screen on the market was from Sony, at just 11-inches.

Samsung broke all boundaries and was able to make a (still in the prototype phase) 55-inch OLED TV.  Of course, price of this beauty has yet to have been mentioned, but it is still commendable, nevertheless.

OLPC XO 3.0 ($100 tablet)

CES brought forth a myriad of new tablets or iPad knock-offs to be precise.  Most of them ran Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), and some (thankfully) ran Windows 8.  Howevernone of them held a candle to the oh-so-holy iPad.  Not being an Apple fanboy, just speaking the truth.

The most intriguing out of the bunch however was the OLPC XO 3.0 Tablet.  It’s a $100 tablet, meant to be distributed as an educational tool to developing countries, and underprivileged kids to help them communicate with the world.  The tablet has an 800 Mhz processor, is water-resistant, and features a solar-panel case to charge the tablet without the need of electricity.

Nokia Lumia 900 ( & all Windows 7 phones)

Featuring a 4.3 OLED display, an 8 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics & dual LED flash, a 1.4 Ghz processor and and running the amazing Windows 7 OS is the new Nokia Lumia 900.  The phone is wrapped in one piece of polycarbonate, and looks stunning.  What else is there to say?

I actually found 4 more interesting devices that I want to share with you.  So I will do that next week.

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This is a great game to play if you’re bored. You will have a very hard time putting this game down once you start playing! Currently there are 8 boxes, each containing 25 levels. There is over 200 levels total to play. Updates with more boxes and levels come out often. Each box will need to be unlocked to play but if you get stuck on a level, you can always skip it and come back later (however you can’t leave the box). If the candy touches a bubble it will float up instead of falling down. Socks and Hats act as teleporters (sic). However, the candy has to be in one whole piece to use a teleporter (sic) (on the harder levels the start off in two pieces).

A great feature of this game are the multi-touch capabilities, you can cut two ropes at once, cut a rope and pop a bubble or preform a variety of other touch gestures to control the game. Cut the Rope uses Crystal for leaderboards and achievements.

We love the fact that this game has the option to reset it! So if you want to play it again or someone else that has access to your device wants to its really simple! They also have 4 languages to choose from: English, Russian, German, and French. We really like the fact that the developer consistently provides updates and adds additional boxes. Since the developer is owned by Electronic Arts, we know that they definitely have the funds and dedications to continue to update the app.

Overall, we would like to give Cut the Rope a perfect 5/5 stars! I would definitely recommend buying this app! As of August 2011, Cut the Rope costs $1.01 for Android, $0.99 for iPhone/iPod and $1.99 for iPad!

Editors Note: If you’d like watch Jacob’s video review, please click here. Please check out the gallery after the break!

We’ve had the opportunity to review Cohdoo Highlight from Cohdoo LLC. The Cohdoo Highlight takes the basic recording features of Voice Memos and expands them by adding numerous additional features that make the app significantly more useful compared to Voice Memos. One of my favorite features from Highlight is the fact that it has Dropbox integration – which lets all of your recordings sync with your Dropbox account. Additionally, if you’re on an iPhone or iPad 3G, you’ll even be able to pinpoint where each recording was made. Of course, the main feature of this app is the ability to “highlight” parts of your recordings while listening or taking notes in real time! Just press the highlight button while the app is recording and once you’re done, you can go right back there.

Cohdoo Highlight’s best feature, as it’s name describes, is the highlighting feature. All you have to do is press the button and the app will readily take you right back there when you’re reviewing your recording. In the settings, you can set the app to take you back 2, 5, or 10 seconds from when you pressed highlight – so you can catch up to where you wanted to leave off. Additionally, if you’re going over the entire recording later, you can more highlights while listening to it. I tried to share the file with my Dropbox account and it worked like a charm. You can also use multitasking on iOS 4+ to record while you’re using other apps but you need to be in the app in order to make highlights. The file is saved as a “.caf” file on Dropbox and opens with Quicktime – however you don’t have the ability to use the highlights when listening on the computer (we didn’t quite expect it either). You also have the option to email recordings through the app.

We really enjoyed having the ability to highlight important parts of each recording. While listening to a lecture, we took written notes while using the Cohdoo Highlight to record the lecture. As the instructor emphasized on important points, we highlighted those parts and noted the highlight number on our notes for our future reference when cramming. Compared to Voice Memos this app definitely has significantly better features which make the app absolutely a charm to use when recording and especially when listening to recorded content. After using this app we didn’t find anything that the app is lacking, in order to fulfill everything it’s intended for. We also loved the fact that we could utilize iTunes Sharing in order to download the recordings without having to use Dropbox.

Cohdoo Highlight costs $4.99 at the App Store, so it’s a little more pricey than the average apps that we’re used to. However, if you’re a student, this $4.99 investment may end up saving you hours of having to go through recordings to find the simple parts you’re looking for (and possibly help you maintain your sanity). This app is definitely a must have for those who take courses which have a lot of lecturing and note taking. We wholeheartedly recommend that anyone who takes recordings more than very occasionally. We definitely give this app a perfect 5 out of 5 rating!

Please check out our screenshots of Cohdoo Highlight after the break!

The very first time My Daily Journal is launched, it will ask the user to set up a password so that journal entries can be kept secure. This (optional) feature is the first of many great features included in My Daily Journal, and it’s a must have given the personal nature of many people’s journals. From there My Daily Journal will prompt you to choose the look and feel of your journal. Different settings can be chosen for the cover, font and paper. Optionally, you can use your own camera roll photo for your paper. Thankfully, My Daily Journal adds it as a watermark so that text is still readable. My Daily Journal makes it easy to go back in time to write a journal for any past date. Or you can make one for a future date as well as make multiple entries per day.

For the serious writers with concerns about somehow losing all of your journal entries, don’t worry. My Daily Journal has you covered. With backup/restore functionality via a Dropbox account, you can have peace of mind knowing your entries are safe. My Daily Journal also has several options to quickly share your entries. Entries can be sent via email (as text or PDF), as well as Facebook or Twitter. Just in case you’re worried, this can be disabled in the settings to prevent the accidental sharing of your deep thoughts.

JL Software Co included many other great features, such as a search function that indexes all entries, a nice calendar view, and a character counter for those of you who plan to tweet your entries. Also, the developer seems committed to the app with regular updates, which is always a big plus. We found that the app ran very well. Its fast, crash free in our tests, and the journaling experience was great.  On the off chance it does crash for you, the app automatically saves after every keystroke so you don’t need to worry about losing anything. JL Software clearly put a lot of thought into everything, and it pays off. There was only one thing that irked me, and that was the cancel button is at the top of the sharing menu. This goes against what one would expect on iOS as well as the rest of the app’s UI, where cancel is usually listed at the bottom. Also, the date selection screen feels a little crowded, but it works.

My Daily Journal takes mobile journaling a step further with great features like password protection, a variety of exporting options, backup/restore functionality and more with a great interface to go with it. TeenCastic gives My Daily Journal 4 stars. We highly recommend this if you are interested in journaling, and if you aren’t, try it out anyways. You may discover you enjoy journaling. It can be found in the app store here for $1.99.

My Daily Journal is a universal app, so it will run on your iPad too. We have not tested the iPad version, though we would expect a pleasant experience on the iPad as well. 

Check out Josiah’s Screenshots of My Daily Journal in the gallery, after the break!

From the looks of it, Facebook plans to combine the iPhone and iPad apps into a universal binary so the app can be used natively across all iOS devices. According to TechCrunch this app is actually designed very well and is quite user friendly through its well designed user interface compared to the buggy interface that iPad users currently have to deal with on the iPad and iPad 2.

This feature was uncovered by a self-proclaimed “iOS Enthusiast,” Marvin Bernal, an Engineering Student from Canada. Marvin also explains how to activate the native app on your iPad but we think you can wait a little longer, since you’ve already waited 18 months.

The rumor mill has been whispering about a native Facebook app for the iPad but this is the first indication we’ve seen from the people over at Palo Alto, California. We’re really excited to try out the new Facebook app on our iPad as soon it’s released to the public.

Check out images in the gallery after the break, courtesy of TechCrunch!

Source: @AeroEchelon via TechCrunch via Gizmodo

The Magic Charger is really great because it actually seems magical, since it charges the Magic Mouse through inductive charging. The Magic Charger comes with a charging station, rechargeable battery pack, and a USB cable to power the charging station.

Appearance

If the Magic Charger base station were made of aluminum, instead of plastic, we would think that this was actually a product made by Apple. However, as you know, it’s not. Mobee turned an amazing idea into a great product with a very pleasing design and appearance.

Measuring at 4.64 in x 2.55 in x 0.35 in, this is a very sleek product. The base station is at the perfect width and length to hold the Magic Mouse and its actually quite light too. The base station weighs less than 2 oz. With a unit so light, you’d expect it to be very flimsy but to our amazement, it’s not flimsy at all.

The battery pack that comes with The Magic Charger is a perfect fit on the Magic Mouse. After putting the battery pack into the Magic Mouse, you’ll be ready to go. Just connect a USB cable between your computer and Magic Charger and you should be ready to charge. There are no driver installations required, at all. Just plug and charge!

Performance

It takes about 6 hours to fully charge the rechargeable battery pack on the charging base. When using the mouse extensively, we saw the battery in the Magic Mouse last for nearly a week. When only occasionally using the Magic Mouse, we had the battery last up to nearly ten days. We usually just put the Magic Mouse on the base station every night, so we don’t have to worry about running out of charge the next day. This is good because of the convenience of knowing that your battery won’t run out but on the same note, it’s bad because the battery pack is supposed to have a total life of 500 charge cycles.

Final Thoughts

If you’re an avid user of your Magic Mouse, you should get this product. This product does come in on the pricier side – retailing for $49.99 at the Apple Retail Store. You may be able to get a slightly better price on Amazon or other retailers but it’s still going to cost a bit. This is a good product to keep your Magic Mouse charged but at nearly 3/4th the cost of the Magic Mouse alone – it does cost quite a bit. We also considered that this battery pack would give you about 500 charge cycles, which does make $50 a good investment.

While The Magic Charger is a great alternative to using standard alkaline AA batteries, our cost cautious readers might want to look into buying a pack of rechargeable AA batteries instead.

Check out the gallery after the break!

You can learn more about the Magic Charger from Mobee by visiting them on their website. You can find The Magic Mouse on Amazon.com and the Apple Store.

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