Folks, let me tell you a secret: I sing. I sing all the damn time. It’s a good job I work at home all by myself, because if I worked in an office I’d drive my colleagues crazy by singing at them all the time.

And since the birth of the App Store, I’ve been looking for a looper. A looper, for those who don’t know, is a musical effects pedal that grabs a short snippet of audio and, well, loops it. Over and over again. And lets you record another loop on top. Repeat, ad lib to fade.

It’s a quick and easy way to do clever things live on stage, and fun things when you’re trying to write new songs.

There’s been a load of apps that promised some kind of looping capability, and I’ve tried a bunch of them and never found anything that really nailed it. Looping needs to be ultra-simple, instantaneous and spontaneous. None of the apps I tried made that possible. None of them until Everyday Looper.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb73TtAB3Dw

There’s enough left over bits of iPhone-specific functions diffused through the iPad SDK to be skeptical of any claims of unannounced telephony “features” in Apple’s forthcoming tablet, but this one’s getting a bit of bit of press: enable passcode lock on your iPad, enter your code wrong five times in a row, and you suddenly have the functionality to slide for an emergency call, just like on the iPhone.

It seems just like residual iPhone functionality crawling around the iPad SDK, but 9to5Mac thinks it could be something more: they point out that FCC regulations mandate that all cellphones must be able to place emergency calls even without a contract.

I seriously doubt that’s what is going on here. 3G is not the same as voice, and the FCC doesn’t enforce the “emergency call” functionality on 3G-only devices. If they did, your 3G netbook or Kindle would have to be able to make emergency 911 calls. This is just residual code… but hey, it makes for a good headline.

Controversy pays: after going public about pressure from glass company Seele over the eBay sale of a fractured stair, former Apple employee Mark Burstiner sold the cracked keepsake for $9,950.

It comes from the spiral staircase in Apple’s 5th avenue store, Burstiner saved the glass heading to the trash after it was fractured by a customer’s Snapple bottle.

The final sale price is about four times what Burstiner first thought a 250lb glass stair from the staircase was worth, $2,500.

We can’t wait to hear the buyer gets the thing home and what they do with it. And whether the suits will have any more to say about it.

Stay tuned.

Axiotron, makers of the thing that was closest to being an iPad before the iPad was announced – the Modbook – are not going to give in without a fight. No sir.

They’ve sent out a press release today, announcing a new promotion for buyers of all new Modbooks. Something they hope will make customers think twice before buying an iPad.

This is absolutely great. Film critic Roger Ebert is premiering his new computer voice on Oprah this afternoon. Below is a sneak peek. His new voice — spoken by his MacBook — actually sounds like him. He looks really delighted with it.

“In first grade they said I talked too much, and now I still can,” he says, grinning.

Ebert lost his voice box after years of cancer treatments. He used to speak with “Alex,” the robotic voice built into OS X.  His new voice was created by CereProc, a company in Scotland that recreated it from hours of Ebert’s TV shows and DVD commentaries.

Via Videogum and Daring Fireball.

You need not risk $20 million in alimony to find deleting compromising text messages from your cell phone useful.

That’s the premise behind Tiger app, a nod to philandering putter Tiger Woods, an iPhone application that erases indiscreet SMS messages, forever, right after you’ve read them. You can set a text “life span,” then those texts are deleted from both user’s phones,  living up to its slogan “to cover your tracks.”

A boon for star-crossed lovers, double dealers, anyone needing a bit of privacy in a world of oversharing, this is certainly a more elegant solution than the double SIM card, a favorite in amore-happy Italy from where I write — where the number of SIMS outnumber inhabitants.

It also provides a much-needed buffer in the dating world, since it offers a tigertext ID you can give to out and then figure out if beer goggles are 20/20 or not.

As one of the app reviewers, JJH13 says: “I was out at a party last night and met someone and wasn’t sure I wanted him to have my number. I noticed he had an iPhone and just gave him my tigertext user name. Later I can decide whether to give him my number. I love the fact what I say via text is pretty much going to stay that way. I work as an attorney in family law and can see some great uses for this professionally.”

However, even the yawningly monogamous may find a use for this: who doesn’t have a few friends or co-workers whose SMS messages are just about always worth automatically deleting?

Tired of the iPod alarm clocks that wake you to the gentle morning light or a bit of soft Winton Marsalis? Yeah, just hit the ‘snooze’ bar and roll over for a few more minutes. What you need is an alarm clock that won’t take no; perhaps iLuv’s new Vibe Plus. This alarm clock will rock your world – literally.

Along with the usual technology, like integrated iPod dock, FM stereo and speakers, is the intriguing option described as “bed shaker.” The attachment, which rests under your pillow, can “shake the deepest of sleepers awake,” claims the maker. Combine the shaker with the buzzer (there are 10 options for getting your lazy behind out of bed) and the iLuv iMM178 Vibe Plus might be the best bit of technology since Mr. Coffee.

Are you looking for an inexpensive notebook for a child? This may be the perfect answer: a G4 iBook running at 1.33GHz for just $300. After you find that deal, you may want a congratulatory bit of gruesomeness while at the same time saving a few bucks. We suggest “Zombie Cannon Carnage,” just one of the iPhone and iPod touch apps included in the latest batch of App Store price drops. Finally, for students, what better way to study than with your Mac? We have a deal of “Cram for Mac,” study aid software befitting the Apple fan.

As always, details on those deals along with many other bargains, are available from CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the following jump.

Boston is one of the first US cities — along with Pittsburgh and San Jose — to let angry citizens file complaints about potholes, graffitti and missed trash pick-ups via iPhone.

Boston’s Citizens Connect, which city officials say has been downloaded 5,000 times since it’s October 2009 debut, won’t be the only way people can let city government know what’s awry in their fair city.

The Cradle of Liberty aims to be the city of smartphone apps thanks to a new one called Boston Urban Mechanic Profiler, or BUMP.

It’s still under development, but the general idea is that instead of using bumping to exchange your phone number with that cute denizen of the coffee table adjacent, by bumping fists with their phones drivers or bicyclists can quickly and easily report road conditions to city officials.

To bridge the iPhone divide — wealthy areas get bumped a lot, poorer areas not at all — officials are considering equipping city workers who live in less affluent neighborhoods with iPhones so they can boost the bumps.

Via Boston Globe

Apple’s App Store Approval Process is often too arbitrary or subjective by half, but no matter how you feel about the latest app rejection to storm the newsfeeds, at least their rationale makes sense: QuackPhone, an app developed by Nick Bonatsakis of Atlantia Software, was rejected for “containing minimal user functionality.” In other words, the app — which made your iPhone quack like a duck — just didn’t do enough for Apple’s tastes.

From a critical perspective, it’s hard to argue with that logic: the App Store is already distressingly filled with lazily programmed and tasteless sound board apps that will allow your iPhone to simulate everything from the sound of a braying jackass to the flatulation of a loose rectum. A higher signal to noise ratio on the App Store is in everyone’s best interests.

But while most people can probably do without these kind of apps, the real issue with Apple rejecting them outright is the old slippery slope argument: exactly how much “functionality” does an app need to have to be approved on the App Store, and isn’t this sort of rejection just really a veiled editorial move on Apple’s part? If an app is open and honest about what it does, who is Apple to say that its users aren’t allowed to use it? If iPhone owners want their handsets to quack like a duck, just what’s the big deal, outside of Apple’s own arbitrary distaste at the concept?

You’ve got about 10 hours to place the winning bid on an unusual piece of Apple memorabilia: a cracked glass stair from the 5th Avenue store’s stunning spiral staircase.

As we predicted, Apple wasn’t happy about it. Former Apple employee Mark Burstiner, who rescued the stair from the trash after it was cracked by a customer’s Snapple bottle, got into an email tussle with a VP from Seele, the company that makes the glass stairs, over pulling the auction.

Burstiner pulled the item, then, in a post on Gizmodo, explained why he decided to put it up for sale again:

As far as Iʼm aware, I have done nothing illegal. I have not stolen. I have not deceived in any way. The step is not confidential, and it is not IP. The step is the very same that any New Yorker could see by walking into Apple Fifth Ave. The only thing I am guilty of is taking the risk of throwing out my back through having to move the step multiple times. I saw an opportunity, I asked for permission, received it, and proceeded. I wonʼt allow a major corporation to bully me into a corner. At the time of this posting, it has been seven full days since I put the listing up, and I havenʼt heard from Apple directly a single time. I have every right to sell my property, and I plan to do so.

The controversy is turning what might’ve been yet another quirky, deserted auction into a potential moneymaker.

Apple is again back in legal headlines, Tuesday suing handset maker HTC for allegedly infringing 20 unspecified iPhone patents. HTC has designed a number of smartphones powered by Google’s Android mobile operating system.

The lawsuit, filed with the U.S. International Trade Commission and in the U.S. District Court of Delaware, points to the iPhone patents covering user interface and associated architecture and hardware, reports said.

It’s Tuesday morning, and we’re all a little tired. Regrettably, this smooth trance infused tribute to Apple product design isn’t exactly likely to wake anyone up: as an experience, it all feels a little bit like dreaming of electric sheep in an android sherpa’s belly.

Soporific or not, though, this is an impressive little video. Animated by US design company Transparent House, the animation was rendered in just ten days by using various 3D visualization tools. Overall, it’s an attractive little love letter to Apple’s three decade history of excellent product design.

Publishers, after winning a struggle to raise ebook prices to $13-$15 in preparation for Apple’s iPad, are now defending the move, blaming consumers for ‘unrealistic expectations.’ In a report, publishers say they will still pay fixed costs along with fighting for a piece of a smaller pie.

A number of publishers have sided with Apple’s “agency pricing” model that could increase the retail price for ebooks from $9.99 which Amazon once required to between $13-$15. However, publishers will get just $9.09 of that after Apple takes its 30 percent cut. Then author royalties will cost $2.27 to $3.25, marketing cost about $0.78 and preparing the manuscript another $0.50, according to The New York Times.

Apple has hired the former head of Microsoft and Mozilla security. Window Snyder had led the software giant’s Windows XP Service Pack 2 security efforts.

On her first day of work at the Cupertino, Calif. company Monday, Apple mentioned it was the “third browser-maker in the past five years that has employed Snyder.” However, the company did not specifically say she would be responsible for enhancing Safari’s security.

During her time at Microsoft, Snyder helped develop a program for the Redmond, Wash. company to talk with outside security researchers. At Mozilla, Snyder was in charge of security for the Firefox Web browser. Since leaving Mozilla in 2008, Snyder has been a consultant.

There’s reason enough to arch a wry eyebrow at yet another classic platformer with a virtual control overlay ported to the App Store, and Gameloft’s newest iPhone gaming release, Rayman 2: The Great Escape is no exception, even at $6.99.

Alfred is a new keyboard launcher in the spirit of Quicksilver, Butler and LaunchBar.

A (free) beta was released last weekend by the UK-based team who’ve developed it.

If you’ve ever used any of those other keyboard launchers, Alfred will be instantly familiar. You invoke it using a global shortcut, then type whatever you want to find. Type an app name to launch it, or type “google” then your search term to search Google.

It has built-in shortcuts for searching Google, Amazon, eBay, Wikipedia, Bing, Twitter and plenty of others. It can also hunt down specific files or folders on your hard disk.

Here’s a cute little Twitter client called Pocket.

Pocket lives at the top of your display, permanently attached to your Menu Bar. Personally, that’s what I dislike about it most, but that’s because I’m a focus kind of person and I don’t want Twitter in my face the whole time. But Pocket wasn’t made for me.

No, Pocket was made for people who love having Twitter in their face the whole time, and for that purpose it totally rocks. I love the cute colors, I love the clever way that all the functionality you need is crammed into such a tiny weeny space. I love the one-tweet-at-a-time way that it displays things, giving you the chance to reply or retweet stuff as it arrives. Which is great if you can afford to spend your whole day watching Twitter.

I won’t be using Pocket myself, but if you love watching your tweets and want something colorful and cute to do it with, I’d recommend Pocket.

If you’ve been coveting a shiny new Nikon DSLR and have daydreams of upgrading, now is a great time to tickle your fancy—Nikon’s instant rebate savings sale has begun.

Until March 27th, you can save a bunch of money any one of Nikon’s four most popular lenses when you buy it along with any Nikon DSLR body. The amount of the rebate will depend on which lense you buy:

• Buy the 70-200mm with any SLR and get a $400.00 instant rebate
• Buy the 24-70mm with any SLR and get a $300 instant rebate
• Buy the 24-120mm with any SLR and get a $200.00 instant rebate
• Buy the 18-200mm VRII with any SLR and get a $250.00 instant rebate

So the architecture isn’t spectacular like some bucket-list worthy Apple stores, but the iLounge looks like a good excuse to check your email or harass expert staff about flash cookies while on vacation.

This is a rendered first look at what will be rolling out on Celebrity Cruises fleet launching in April: funky retro carpet, comfy armchairs and workstations with bar stools and more comfortable-looking work benches.

This new seafaring iLounge is an Authorized Apple Reseller where cruisers can check out the latest MacBooks, iPods and accessories. (No word on whether it will also have iPad, yet). It also has a classroom plus an “enrichment center” where trained staff offers tips.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LamtBiGLzI8

Apple’s latest iPhone ad “Family Travel” follows the app-heavy formula of the most recent iteration of the campaign but adds a Mom’s gushing narration mix to make its point: the App Store is pretty neat.

The premise of the app is that the iPhone works as a veritable Swiss Army Knife for traveling Moms. “It’s unbelievable how much better family trips have gotten!” Narrator Mom enthuses, as she demonstrates using the SouthWest Airlines app to check on her reservations, find a place to eat at the airport with Gate Guru, checks if she turned the lights off with the Schlage Link app and then finally hands her iPhone off to the kids so they can watch Pixar’s FInding Nemo to the flight.

It’s a pretty standard iPhone ad, interesting mostly because of how synonymous the iPhone is with the App Store at this point. Most of the iPhone “features” that Apple advertises these days are third-party software: the iPhone, as far as its advertising campaign is concerned, is pretty much defined as a product by the App Store. Apple is essentially advertising a platform instead of a product, and it’s simply amazing to me that two years ago that platform just didn’t exist.

We start the week with a deal on a MacBook Pro laptop. The MacBook Pro is powered by a 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo for $1,049. Also on tap is a new crop of freebies from the App Store, including “BlaBlaBla,” a sound-sensitive application for the iPhone or iPod touch. Lastly, there is a deal on Assassin’s Creed II for the iPhone or iPod touch.

As always, details on these deals or other bargains (such as the iPod starter kit from Belkin) are available on CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaD_WEYOLTA

The guys over at Vimov has given Touch Arcade a great first-look at their port of Hexen II a great fantasy-themed FPS built upon the venerable Quake engine in 1997.

It’s an impressive port: it runs fluidly, it has a surprisingly innovative control scheme and only the music is missing. The big problem here, though, is that there’ll just never be any way to play it on a non-jailbroken iPhone unless Vimov can ink a deal with Activision, the owners of the Hexen franchise.

The problem is that while Hexen II’s executable is open source, the game data isn’t. The Hexen II GPL license allows for non-commercial redistribution, so Vimov could potentially knock this port up to the App Store as a free product… but since Apple doesn’t officially support a method for users to transfer their own files (like Hexen II’s game data files) to the iPhone for third-party programs to use as they see fit, the app would never be improved.

Still, it’s impressive work, and there is still some hope that Vimov and Activision can work something out: Hexen II was one of my favorite games back as a LAN-going nineteen year old, and I’d happily drop a fin or two for the pleasure of playing it on my iPhone.

Even before Apple unveiled the iPad, I was curious if their tablet-device would be able to function as a small secondary display to desktop Macs. I’ve long liked the idea Mimo’s miniature displays: a ten-inch secondary display isn’t enough screen real estate to add to productivity, but they are great places to corral widgets, contact lists and the like. I would never buy one specifically for that functionality, though, which is what made the notion of the iPad doubling as one so appealing.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like the iPad will functionally work as a secondary desktop display out of the box, but David Klein over at The Apple Blog still thinks that the iPad could function as a peripheral, widget-based display through App Store offerings.

Apple’s Mac mini could become the first line of general purpose computers to support high-definition video later this year, a report Monday suggests. A HDMI connector is located near a DisplayPort connector on prototype Mac mini units. The mini is often used to stream video to home theaters.

The AppleInsider report cites two unnamed “people familiar with the matter.” If true, the enhanced Mac mini would become the only Apple device besides the AppleTV product to provide HDMI compatibility.