Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t. That’s how the old candy commercial went. And that describes the new app, HeavenlySinful. This new dating app helps you either find a booty call or a nice date. Open the app and tell it what you want. It then plots your mood on a map with other users. As matches come in, you swipe up for ‘Heavenly’ and down for ‘Sinful’. Basically, it mixes Down with Tindr and helps cut to the chase. It also sounds like an awesome place to get spammed.
Revolutionary. Disrupter. Driverless cars? Expedition to Mars? Nope. Oscar Mayer has produced an app and plug-in device that wakes you up to the sound, and smell, of bacon. The Wake Up & Smell the Bacon app is live in the iTunes store. It’s legit, Oscar Mayer says they’ve made thousands of these peripheral devices. You plug in the device to your iPhone (sorry Android users) and in the morning, the smell of pork wafts through your room. There’s a catch. Oscar Mayer will give away the devices; they’re not for sale. Here’s hoping that you’re only of the lucky ones.
Dr. Dre, Trent Reznor and Beats Music have pulled out their virtual bow and arrow, setting their crosshairs on Spotify and music streaming services in general. Come January 21st, Beats Music will offer streaming music subscriptions on iOS, Android, Windows, and the web for $9.99 a month.
The music streaming field has more than enough competitors seeking to pipe music into the population’s earholes. Beats Music hopes their collection of editors and guest programmers from sites like Rolling Stone, Rap Radar and Pitchfork, in addition to the ever-present computer algorithm, matches listeners with what they really want to hear.
For example, the Right Now feature. The NY Times says “a user generates an ad hoc playlist by completing a musical status update with four variables: a place, an activity, a person and a genre of music. ‘I’m at the beach & feel like pre-partying with my friends to dance-pop,’ for example, yields the Chemical Brothers, Lady Gaga and Janet Jackson.'”
Or for some, “I’m at home playing World of Warcraft alone wanting to hear depressing music”. You know, hypothetically speaking.
Anyone moving into a new apartment or house this month may want to check out this app called Adornably. Available now in the Apple App Store, users place a physical magazine in their room and snap a pic. The app then creates a scaled, virtual image of the room using the magazine as a reference point. From there, just drag and drop furniture items from their catalog and ask yourself “does this look good in mahogany or cedar wood?”
It’s similar to iKea’s app, where users scan the product page from the 2014 catalog, place the catalog on the ground and through wizardry, the furniture appears on their device. Right now, these apps focus on furniture. The possibilities are endless though, from appliances to paint color to girlfriends. TV Bed Store’s Double TV Beds can transform your bedroom into a dreamy home cinema escape, you can check out these and a host of other double TV beds on TV Bed Store’s website.
Already a hit for iOS users, the VSCO Cam photography app is now ready for Android peeps to get creative with. (Note: Flexing in the bathroom remains uncreative.) Photo editing isn’t always an easy task, so it’s no wonder that VSCO’s user-friendly interface has been a hit, even if it belies the depth of the processing power under the hood. It’s free, available for most devices running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich or higher, and includes 10 presets and some editing tools, while more are available to purchase.
Odds are you don’t commute to work with an RPG in the passenger’s seat, ready to take aim at the first jerkbag that cuts you off. So let the Blow Up Traffic app ($.99 on iTunes) do the dirty work for you. Mount your phone to the windshield, locate the offending motorist, then yell “Fire!’ like a madman to take their vehicle down (virtually) and see the (virtual) gunfire and (also virtual) explosion on your screen. This sounds way better than a stress ball.
Score one for the mouse on your media content/cat vs. mouse scorecard. The rodent in this case is Aereo, the company that streams live television and DVR service to iDevices, and now starting October 22, Android phones and tablets. 30 live TV channels will be available to anyone running Android 4.2 or higher on their gadget. Of course the cats here, broadcast networks, are not happy. But Aereo’s been winning in court, setting up a potential — dun dun dunnn! -Supreme Court showdown. Maybe we’ll be able to watch that on our phones too. Meow.
Those Cheesecake Factory feasts always seem doable at first, but when your mind drifts to dessert, dinner usually gets the doggie bag treatment. But maybe you don’t have a dog (or an appetite for leftovers). That’s where the Leftover Swap rushes to your aid. Just take a picture of your leftovers, upload it to the app, and fellow app users will be notified of this late breaking culinary bulletin. From there you can make things even weirder by arranging a pickup or delivery with said food-seeker. Don’t forget to ask if he wants ketchup with that.