Although it made us remember the decades long legal disputebetween Apple Inc. and Apple Corps, settled in February 2007., this apple doesn’t have anything to do with Apple, the computer company (although we reckon that Apple Inc. won’t be particularly fond of this release). We’re talking about a limited edition USB containing remastered Beatles songs and other goodies, shaped like an apple. There will only be 30,000 of these, so if you want one, line up for the release date on December 7 (December 8 in North America). Here’s what the package contains: “re-mastered audio for The Beatles’ 14 stereo titles, as well as all of the re-mastered CDs’ visual elements, including 13 mini-documentary films about the studio albums, replicated original UK album art, rare photos and expanded liner notes.”When you plug the USB into your computer, a Flash interface will pop up for easy navigation. It’s compatible with PC and Mac, and if the price of 279 bucks sounds OK to you, you can preorder it here. Tags: apple, Beatles

  PayPal has been rather busy recently. Yesterday at the PayPal Innovate 09 conference, the eBay subsidiary launched PayPal X, its platform for third party developers to integrate payment services into their own apps. It also addressed its growing global base by adding support for new currencies, bringing the total supported up to 24.With so much happening over at PayPal, we thought it would be appropriate to get some additional details on the new PayPal X platform, as well as find out more about the direction that PayPal is going. That’s why I pulled aside Scott Thompson, the President of PayPal, and performed a short interview discussing the new APIs, the ideas he has heard from attending developers, and most importantly, where he believes PayPal will be a year and five years from now. He even put up with my two “last questions.” (I’m sorry about that, Scott!)The full video interview is below:Tags: ebay, interview, paypal, Scott Thompson

  Earlier tonight, Microsoft unveiled the redesign to its MSN.comweb portal. The new look is far more minimalistic than its predecessor, increases its integration with Bing, and adds a social layer to the aging (but still highly popular) Internet gateway. A preview of the new MSN.com can be found here.The best way to explain the new changes to the Microsoft start page is to show you a before and after comparison. First, here’s the before shot, as MSN.com stands today:And here is the new, redesign MSN:The new design has far less clutter and far more aesthetic appeal. It focuses on video, importing your social media streams, and localized customization. Even the iconic MSN butterfly got upgraded. It is dramatically different than the current MSN, which is probably why the rollout of this update will be staggered over weeks, not hours. Still, we’re fans of what Microsoft has created. They couldn’t leave it in the form of the cluttered mess it is currently and expect to keep relevant.MSN.com is still one of the world’s most visited websites in the world (80-100 million U.S. visitors per month alone, according to Compete), so any change to it is huge and could shift the balance of the web in Bing’s favor. We’ll have to wait and see what effect, if any, this change has on either MSN or Bing’s traffic numbers.Reviews: BingTags: bing, facebook, microsoft, msn, twitter

  Ever since Motorola revealed its new Droid phone through its Droid Doescampaign, the buzz surrounding the Google Android-based smartphone has been accelerating. Whether it’s the promise of a worthy competitor to the iPhone or just the nifty commercials, something has been feeding the Droid hype machine.Now the Droid campaign is about to add another head-scratching, eye-popping commercial to its line-up. The minute-long spot, obtained by Boy Genius Report, continues to play off themes from the Droid Does commercial, but takes its message to apocalyptic levels (no, really).While we could try to explain the jets, the falling bomb-like capsules, or the apparent sentience of Droid, but it’s probably best for you to take a look for yourselves and for you to be your own judge. Let us know what you think of the commercial in the comments.Disclosure: Motorola is currently a sponsor of Mashable’s Open Web Awards.Tags: android, droid, Google, Motorola, motorola droid, trending, verizon, verizon droid

  Todd Jamison just happens to be the unfortunate owner of the crushed 2004 Hyundai Elantra that played a starring role in a recent viral YouTube video.The security footage that was posted to YouTube highlights one of the worst parking jobs ever caught on tape. While the video is actually quite hilarious, the reality is that this was a very real incident that took place on October 22, 2009 in an Ontario, Canada parking lot. But one of the victims of the accident can thank the viral accident for his brand new car.The video in question, included below, shows a BMW mounting two parked cars at an Ontario gym and then driving off without so much as a courtesy note. The original video has now amassed upwards of 1.6 million views, and the 62 year-old woman driver has been arrestedfor leaving the scene, but Jamison is out one Hyundai.Not so fast, as the fine folks at Hyundai Canada seized the opportunity to be the heroes in this story, and surprised Jamison with a brand new Hyundai on October 30, 2009. Of course they also set out to capture the moment on film, and that too is on YouTube, and you can watch it below.While there’s no news on what happened to the other injured car, we’re pretty confident that Jamison will now be able to look back at the YouTube video that captured his car’s crushing and laugh.Thanks to Phillip Jefferyfor the heads up on this great story.Reviews: YouTubeTags: Canada, hyundai, viral video, worst parking job

  Here’s something fun and amusing. We just happened upon Tweetrad.io, a site that treats tweets from your Twitter searches like tunes on an old school radio channel, so tweets are read aloud by an automated Twitter DJ as they roll in.The site is self-explanatory, as you can search for tweets, or select from the pre-programmed channels or trending topics, and listen to the tweets instead of having to waste the effort of actually reading them. It may sound a little a dry in theory, but in practice, it’s absolutely hilarious.Curious about how this funky new Twitter service works? The developer posted a description of it on Hacker Newsearlier today, saying:“We use a distributed network of converter bots to handle the work queue. Jobs are placed on the queue via api calls from the javascript client that interacts with twitter’s search api directly in order to avoid rate limiting of a centralized search server. Our app server is a lightweight Sinatra service that handles job queueing. We stream the audio directly from our nginx web server as they become available via the conversion process.We are trying to decide if this app has a real use case or if it’s just a fun thing. One of the ideas we are thinking about is an iphone app for keeping up with your tweet stream on the go. We would love to hear your feedback.”We think it’s both fun and potentially practical, though we don’t have an amazing use case or business model to serve up just yet. We do know, however, that if they release an iPhone app, they’ll have to compete with existing apps like Twuner.Just in case you’re not ready to take our word on how awesome it is, we made a short screencast of Tweetrad.io in action. Check it out below.Image from Ian Hayhurston FlickrReviews: Flickr, Hacker News, TwitterTags: radio, tweetrad.io, twitter

  T-Mobile customers across the United States are experiencing network outages that are preventing them from making calls. The outage, according to T-Mobile representatives, is nationwide and could last for several hours.A quick Twitter searchand a few phone calls from T-Mobile phones confirms that there is a problem. While customers may have signal bars, calls from their phones usually result in a busy signal or a disconnection.We’re going to do some more research on the T-Mobile outage and will update you when we know more.[via Soft Sailor]Reviews: tweetzi Twitter SearchTags: T-Mobile, trending

  Let Twitter’s international expansion commence. Less than a month after announcing it was launching a translation projectwhere users volunteer to help make the site available in other languages, Twitter has launched in a new language: Spanish.In a blog postthis afternoon (written in Spanish), Twitter tells users that the new language can be enabled by going to your Settings page.Here’s the rough translation of Twitter’s post, via Google Translate:“Earlier this month we invite volunteers to translate into more languages Twitter. Thanks to these enthusiastic volunteers hispanoparlantes, Twitter is now officially available in Spanish. You can change the language or visit Twitter.com Settings and change the language setting in the option at the bottom right corner.Some users hispanoparlantes Pepe Aguilar (@ PepeAguilar), Manu Ginobili (@ manuginobili), Jose Hernandez (@ Astro_Jose), Andreu Buenafuente (@ buenafuente), Juan Fonseca (@ Fonseca) and La Moncloa in Spain (@ desdelamoncloa) had discovered the Twitter value even before we released the translated version. We hope to offer Twitter in Spanish means more people able to access and enjoy this service.Welcome!â€�In browsing Twitter, you may have also started to notice that volunteer translators get a special icon on their profile (shown above), much like those you see on Verified accounts. Expect to see a lot more of these as Twitter moves to expand from its current roster of English, Japanese, and now Spanish. Facebook’s very similar community-driven translation project has resulted in the site being translated into more than 70 languages.Reviews: TwitterTags: twitter

  While newer cars have certainly become more sophisticated with technologies like Microsoft’s Sync, we’ve always dreamed of an in-car dashboard capable of surfing the web at high speeds — it would be like having a giant smartphone built-in to our cars.Today the ng Connect Programhasn’t exactly brought this idea to life, but they have released a new concept car, the LTE Connected Car, which promises the technology to make our automotive dreams come true.Should the concept ever make it to the factory, be prepared to be blown away by high speed internet access via the LTE 4G network with a touchscreen experience that promises video on demand, gaming, ecommerce, a wifi hotspot, real-time GPS updates, real-time traffic and weather data, and road and vehicle monitoring.The ng Connect Program is unveiling the concept car with support from some major players in a number of different markets: Atlantic Records, Toyota, QNX Software, Alcatel-Lucent, and even Chumby. It appears to be a very well orchestrated maneuver to sell LTE technology, which is the 4G mobile broadband access technology that would enable vehicles to tap the potential of having broadband access in cars. Color us impressed.Some additional details from the announcement:“The LTE Connected Car concept offers independently operated touchscreens coupled with innovative software which provide access to multiple applications and forms of content. The prototype system supports the creation of personalized and interactive connected experiences that can be tailored to the individual preferences and requirements of both drivers and passengers.The LTE Connected Car concept illustrates that mobile devices are potentially no longer just phones or music players. The concept vehicle becomes a mobile platform where information can be easily accessed and transmitted through the use of high bandwidth connectivity and cloud-based applications.”To see the concept in action, watch this video that highlights a Toyota Prius taking advantage of the LTE 4G network:Tags: 4G, car, concept car, LTE connected car

  Students at Purdue University are experimentingwith a new application developed at the school called Hotseat that integrates Facebook, Twitter, and text messaging to help students “backchannel” during class.People who have attended technology conferences in the past several years are already familiar with this phenomenon, where social media is leveraged to allow the participants in a session or panel to comment and exchange questions and ideas in real-time. At Purdue, Hotseat is used to allow students to comment on the class as it proceeds, with everyone in the class including the professor able to see the messaging as it happens.The Hotseat software allows students to use either Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, or SMS to post messages during classes, or they can simply log in to the web site to post to and view the ongoing backchannel. Right now it’s only being pilot tested in two courses, but has already become a fast favorite for both teachers and students. Professor Sugato Chakravarty, whose personal finance course is one of the pilot tests, said, “I’m seeing students interact more with the course and ask relevant questions.” And although it’s been optional for students to participate, so far 73% of the 600 or so in the pilot classes have used the software. We’ve seen Twitter become mandatoryfor journalism students at Australia’s Griffith University to some negative reaction, but this is a less structured implementation which may perhaps account for its more favorable reception.As Chakravarty goes on to note, though, the application is called “Hotseat” for a reason — and professors will have to be resilient enough to take any potential criticism or even corrections from students in real-time. Nevertheless, he cites it as a “valuable tool for enhancing learning. The students are engaged in the discussions and, for the most part, they are asking relevant questions.”Check out a video introduction to the Hotseat application below, and let us know what you think. Does social media have a natural place in the classroom? What role should Facebookand Twitterplay in education? Reviews: Facebook, MySpace, TwitterTags: classroom, education, facebook, hotseat, myspace, purdue university, SMS, twitter

  Uh oh — looks like the legal gauntlets have come off over Verizon’s “There’s a map for that” ads that directly attacked AT&T’s level of 3G coverage in the U.S. AT&T is now reportedly suing Verizonover the ads, claiming that they mislead customers into believing AT&T doesn’t offer any wireless service to large swaths of the country.Although Verizon clearly labels the two maps it shows in the ads as representing 3G coverage, they’ve already attempted to mollify AT&T with a few changes including adding a “Voice and data services available outside of 3G areas” disclaimer in small print. This apparently hasn’t been enough to satisfy AT&T, who continues to press on with the suit alleging the ads are confusing especially to non-technical consumers.It sounds like the company is gunning for the ads to be pulled from the air. And to AT&T’s credit, their 2G network does cover a much larger area of the country that isn’t being represented on the map in the ad.What do you think: are the comparison maps misleading? Should Verizon pull the ads, or perhaps overlay AT&T’s (significant, if slower) 2G coverage area map? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.Tags: 2G, 3g, att, iphone, Mobile 2.0, trending, verizon

  This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.Name: SplurbQuick Pitch: Splurb is a cross-referenced list of the social web’s most popular links. To get listed, a link must be popular on at least two social websites.Genius Idea: Community news aggregators like Digg, Reddit, and Tweetmeme are a great way to find interesting news links and stories. The only problem is that it can be difficult to keep track of all the news from all the different aggregators. This is Splurb’s mission: to simplify the social aggregators by only listing stories that have been deemed popular by at least two social sites.Splurb aggregates stories that have become popular on sites like Digg, Tweetmeem, Fark, Reddit, Propeller, Yahoo! Buzz, and Mixx. Links can be viewed by category and are sorted by popularity over time. The size of a stories text indicates how many sources linked to it. It’s really nice because at a glance you can see how many sites are linking to a story and how many collective votes that story has received. Clicking on the link takes you directly to the original source.I really like the idea of aggregating and ranking stories that have already been submitted other places on the web. There are only so many hours in the day and I know that if I see a story has been linked by four different sites, it’s a story that I might want to invest time in reading — as opposed to clicking on something that turns out to be sort of a dead-end.Of course, sometimes, the comments attached to story on a social aggregation site are better than those on the story itself (I’m looking at you Reddit!). Splurb lets you view the comments at the sites linking the article (by loading them in an iFrame within an AJAX window) and you can leave comments on Splurb for the stories too.Splurb has a clean, simple design and it delivers on its promise to offer a trimmed down list to the best links on the web.How do you find new information online? What do you think of Splurb’s concept? Let us know!Spark of Genius Series Sponsored by Microsoft BizSparkBizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.Entrepreneurs can take advantage of the Azure Services platformfor their website hosting and storage needs. Microsoft recently announced the “new CloudApp()” contest– use the Azure Services Platform for hosting your .NET or PHP app, and you could be the lucky winner of a USD 5000* (please see website for official rules and guidelines).â€�Reviews: Digg, Mixx, PHP, TweetmemeTags: digg, fark, Mixx, reddit, social aggregation, splurb

  PayPal, fresh off of the launch of its PayPal X developer platform, has announced even more new features here at the PayPal Innovate conference in San Francisco. The newest revelation by the eBay subsidiary is that it now supports 24 different currencies. Curious about the new PayPal currency line-up? Here’s the full list of supported monetary units:U.S. Dollar, Australian Dollar, Canadian Dollar, Hong Kong Dollar, Singapore Dollar, Taiwan New Dollar, New Zealand Dollar, Euro, Swiss Franc, Czech Koruna, Swedish Krona, Danish Krone, Norwegian Krone, Hungarian Forint, Mexican Peso, Philippine Peso, Malaysian Ringgit, Chinese RMB, Israeli New Shekel, Pounds Sterling, Brazilian Real, Polish Zloty, Thai Baht, Japanese Yen.As PayPal expands its platform to thousands of developers, it makes sense to continue expanding its international ambitions with support for more of the world’s many currencies.Disclosure: PayPal is a Mashable sponsor.Reviews: MashableTags: Currencies, paypal

  Who can forget the iPhone Recession Casethat costs just a buck? The lure of owning such a real-life buzz-generating case, with Sharpie script, was enough to make the geek in me whip out my credit card for the insignificant $1.98 charge.Case-mate’s not ready to let the iPhone Recession Case die off just yet, so they’ve started the Recession Case Photo Contestto inspire owners to decorate their cardboard cases and turn them into works of art.Anyone can enter the contest – those without the case can download a file – by uploading their artistic creations to the Case-mate gallery and soliciting friends on Facebook and Twitter to vote for their machination. The case creation with the most votes will win a Suzuki moped from the 80s, on which the winner can sport their fabulous retro cardboard case.The contest is in full swing, and we’re already seeing some hot designs that make the iPhone Recession Case look sexier than ever. We’ve included a few of our favorites below.Hot iPhone Recession Case DesignsBling blingdesign from Kevin KFlame Fishdesign from Christopher IpswichThe money I saved…Geico Spoof design from JeffRobot Lovedesign from Mandy[via CNET]Reviews: Facebook, TwitterTags: casemate, contest, iphone recession case