Here’s a pretty sweet deal from the folks over at Slacker. The company is now giving away a free BlackBerry Curve to help promote their music mobile app. I’ve used the Slacker iPhone App version quite a bit this year at the gym while struggling to bench press even the bar pumping massive amounts of iron to transform my chest into sinewy goodness.

Back to reality: all the major carriers are involved in this free phone-for-all so head over to Slacker’s Website and check it out. I’m sure everyone in your gym will thank me later as you serenade the facility with a moving rendition of  “Where Have all the Cowboys Gone.” Indeed, Paula Cole, where exactly have they gone?

Some interesting news this morning for those of you purchasing the myTouch 3G by T-Mobile this week. TeleNav is ensuring that you’ll never be late for business meetings or weddings again with the launch of the GPS Navigator serivce for the much-anticipated mobile device. Here’s the skinny:

TeleNav announced today that TeleNav GPS Navigator will be one of the first turn-by-turn GPS navigation services available to run on the T-Mobile® myTouch™ 3G with Google. TeleNav GPS Navigator will be available for a free 30-day trial beginning tomorrow, August 5, when the device goes on sale in retail stores and online.

Additional features to ensure you arrive on-time include:

• Turn-by-turn directions on-screen and via voice
  
• Choose between landscape and portrait viewing
  
• Miss a turn? No worries: you’ll be rerouted
• Speech recognition for both address entry and business search
• 3D moving maps in color

A 30-day free trial is available right now, so go check it out. If the service lives up to TeleNav’s hype, this could be a must-have for T-Mobile users.

Music news from the band Nine Inch Nails that I wanted to share since it’s my way of shamelessly plugging my favorite band iPhone- and Blackberry-App related. Currently on tour in Europe, frontman Trent Reznor shed some light on the NIN.com forum about iPhone App version 1.0.5 and the pending Blackberry application:

Blackberry NIN app / Android: the Blackberry version has been much more difficult than expected and will obviously not be done in time for any NIN shows. It’s not dead, but it’s not right around the corner. Android – the priority was on the BB version, so don’t hold your breath. Apple 3.0 bug-fix: finished for over a month but rejected by Apple a second time for reasons so stupid it’s not worth going into.

This isn’t the first time Reznor has encountered resistence from Apple. Perhaps developers and musicians out there can attain a breadcrumb of solace that when it comes to the riddle-filled maze of getting an app approved, we’re in this together.

For those of us driving in California, the golden land of tailgaters and rear-view middle fingers, texting while scampering down the roadways has been a no-no since Baby New Year started crawling on all fours earlier this year. Now, if Democratic lawmakers have their way, no one across this great nation of ours will be able to hammer out “LOL, like i knowz, right!” on their mobile devices while driving.

An interesting detail in the proposal is that it would still be legal for motorist to send text messages so long as the vehicle is stopped. Once foot meets gas pedal, however, any SMS activity would be illegal. This is an intriguing point. One could easily conceive a situation where the driver is head-down with the mobile device, unaware that the light has turned green. Would these motorist then throw down their device, slamming on the gas in order to make a light that otherwise would have been simple to go through? If fumbling with mobile devices increases the risk of crashes by 23%, as reported this week by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, why not go all-out as California has and force drivers to have their hands where they belong at all times. On the wheel.

[Via: AFP; IntoMobile]

Look at the mess you've made

If you’ve been looking for the perfect iPhone virus to infect the mobile device of that special someone, then iVirus might be just the app you’ve been seeking. The application, sent over to me and created by Core Information Technology, Inc, attempts to make a royal quagmire of the iPhone’s home screen. While iVirus certainly achieves this goal, the length of time users find the app entertaining (along with the $1.99 price point) just might determine its success.

So fresh and so clean

Getting Started

The first thing that needs to be done is to take a screen shot of your iPhone’s home screen (see photo above). This, of course, stores the image in your Photos App on the device. From there, open the iVirus application and tap the bottom right-hand corner of the screen to bring up and select the “i” icon. After you tap “Select Theme,” you will see 8 premade layouts that come with the app. To be honest, I didn’t find much value in these layouts. I think the enjoyment factor of this app will come from playing with the iPhone’s existing icons. To do this, simply tap “Custom” in the bottom right-hand corner. This takes you to your “Camera Roll” where you can select the screen shot of your iPhone’s home screen. Press “Done” when you’re finished.

Choose Custom to retrieve screenshot of home page

Flick It

Once you’ve returned to your “home screen,” start flicking away. The icons have now become floating tiles that bounce off the “walls” of your iPhone and collide into one another (although icons on the very bottom row remain stationary which I thought was rather odd). To reset the tiles to their original position, just give the phone a good shake.

Bottom row doesn't wish to partake

Options

There are a few minor tweaks you can make to iVirus, although I found a few of them to be a bit confusing or lacking:

• Sound Effects: I’d recommend having it turned off since the only sound made is that of two tiles smacking into one another. Certainly there must be at least one additional sound that can be added to the app.
• Shake to Reset: I thought this was a great way to reset the tiles. A simple shake and you’re back where you began. What I couldn’t understand was how to reset the tiles when I turned this function off.  Seems to me a tile reset button of some kind is needed on-screen.
• Free Float: The tiles either float around the screen or, with this function off, move only as far as your fingers move them.
• Frequency, Gravity, and Fluidity: When Free Float is turned on, these functions determine the manner in which the icons dance around the screen depending on how you flick them and utilize the iPhone’s accelerometer.

Option screen

Conclusion

iVirus is an app that “infects”  your iPhone by distorting the icons. Is it worth $1.99? I personally can’t say I’d spend that kind of money on this app.  While it wa entertaining, I found myself rather bored with it after only a few minutes. Then again, with the success of apps that don’t even reach the limited depths of iVirus, this may be something consumers find appealing.