I was expecting this, but not in this way. Not on the iTunes Store, for goodness’ sake.

American Idol aspirant Renaldo Lapuz, a Filipino who caused a riot of sorts with the hosts of American Idol Season 7 by WilliamHung-ing his way into the spotlight with his white feathered costume and self-composed ode to Simon Cowell, is now a free music video on the iTunes Store.

Oh dear God.

It was amusing at first to the MacADoodlers in the Philippines, where MAD is made, and where Lapuz was originally from, but it was particularly amusing for the Doodler himself, as Lapuz’ previous job for 13 years prior to moving to the States, he discovered, was as a public tricycle driver in Sikatuna Village, where the Doodler lives. No wonder he looked familiar.

AI gave him lots of airtime, and Simon himself predicted sarcastically that Lapuz’ song, We’re Brothers Forever, would be the next hit. Well, it’s here. A free 7-min video, all of an 83mb download, from the iTunes Store. Get it while it lasts.

Another sign that the end times are nigh.

Far be it for me to start blogging about Windows topics in a Mac blog, but this one is a special case. Yesterday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Bill Gates, Microsoft Chairman and CEO gave the Keynote speech. Which, incidentally, is also his last one as he is retiring from Microsoft.

It’s interesting to note in comparison with a Steve Jobs Keynote how an MS Keynote would progress. For one thing they have more gimmicks and entertainment mixed in. They have to work harder (I guess because they have less interesting points to share), and there is a lot of creative stretching involved as well. Nothing to write home about though.

Our favorite gadget and tech sites gave it equal time and had online real-time coverage of the Bill’s CES Keynote, just like the Macworld Jobs keynote speeches. It’s kinda odd reading though, specially if you’re used to following Macworld coverages. Check out the live reportage of Gadgetell and Engadget.

One of the more entertaining moments is a seven-minute produced clip about Bill’s last day at Microsoft, with appearances by Matthew McConaughey, Jay-Z, Steven Spielberg, George Clooney, Jon Stewart, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and even Apple stalwarts Bono and Al Gore (Apple board member). It’s one of those things Apple could have done, but it’s a bit surprising Microsoft did it. Gizmodo’s Brian Lam says “this video makes Bill Gates look cooler than Steve Jobs”, and I agree (up to a point: Bill wore a pink shirt and a purple sweater to the Keynote).

I enjoyed the video immensely, and you can watch it for yourself here.

Bill, you old coot, we’re going to miss ye.

With the constant trickle of TPAs (third party applications) for the iPhone and their quick and painless installs, you tend to try everything out - because it’s just as quick and painless to uninstall them. (And believe me, there have been a lot that don’t last ten seconds on mine; the ratio of crap to good stuff is heavily one-sided.) Whatever the case, updating Installer has become a daily routine, which I expect is the same for a lot of you guys.

At the moment I have four pages of apps on my iPhone (considering that the Apple-legal stuff takes up only over half a page, that’s a lot of TPAs). The number of pages grow and shrink as the weeks go by, and staying on the iPhone is survival of the fittest; the ones that stay are either really useful or fun, or are just really good conversation pieces. The common thread among most of them is, why didn’t Apple think of these? (The only one I haven’t yet come across, but was fully expecting to appear this year, was something that let me cut and paste text.)

It being year-end, people have a compulsion to make lists, and I’ve succumbed and made a listing of apps I’ve kept on my iPhone over the many weeks. Please take note that these are personal, subjective choices. I’m sure you have others you prefer, or some you feel are moronic. But hey, it’s my list. Why don’t you post some of yours in the comment box? Who knows, there might’ve been some we missed and should know about.

Anyway, here are some that have managed to stay on my screen this year:

weTool - There have been a few other apps that individually do all the small things that weTool does, but none all together, none as well, and none in a more professional looking package. You can delete specific items in the Call and SMS logs, you can forward texts (to multiple recipients!) and contacts, you can even save texts to Notes. You can even makes calls directly from it. One of the best parts is that it has a set of visually stunning page transitions you can select that Apple is only beginning to do (as the page curl transition seen in a screenshot of the 1.1.3 preview.) Nice one.

TuneWiki - This is for the karaoke lover in you. When connected online, it will search an online wiki database for the lyrics of the song currently being played in iPod mode and will show it to you line by line as the song plays, ostensibly so you can sing along. Of course you have to manually forward each line by tapping on the TuneWiki icon on the screen, but hey, it’s free. Who’s complaining?

[Read the rest of this entry »]

You know things have gone past silly when Steve Jobs creates attention by being seen in public not in a black mock turtleneck and jeans.

That said, take a look at Steve in a suit:

From earlier this year, when he went to Norway to see Al Gore receive his Nobel Peace Prize.

Snazzy, but he’s looking his age. Stick to the t-shirt, dude.

(Via Gizmodo)

Podcasting News has put together a comprehensive list of iPod accessories that misfired, including an iPod tooth whitener, thong underwear for your iPod, an iPod vibrator, an iPod washing machine, the TuneBuckle (featured above), and one that actually comes from Apple itself.

(I personally wouldn’t mind getting a few of these for Christmas, if only for their value as conversation pieces.)

Great fun here.