As stringent (and arguably overzealous) as Apple's App review policy is, things still slip through the cracks from time to time. I mean, who can forget the infamous baby shaking simulator slip-up? The latest bit of contraband to hit the App Store isn't nearly as offensive - that is, unless you're Nintendo.Earlier today, an application called "Nescaline" popped up on the App Store. Everything about the application, from the name, to the copyrighted icon, to the very functionality of the application rang of something that Apple would generally deny without batting an eye.. and yet, there it was - for all of one day, at least.

  GrandCentral, which Google acquired in 2007, relaunched as Google Voice way back in March. It's still technically in private beta, but invitations aren't all that hard to find.From what we've heard, Google is very seriously planning to add a version of the Google Voice product to its Apps/Office suite of applications for businesses. Currently, businesses are offered enterprise versions of Google Docs (online Office), Gmail, calendar and other applications. More than 2 million businesses and 20 million people use Google Apps.Google Voice gives users a phone number that they can then redirect to any phone - mobile, landline, VoIP, etc. My Google Voice number rings my home Vonage line and multiple mobile phones simultaneously. And the Android Google Voice application effectively takes over the phone for all outbound calls and text messages, too.The consumer service will supposedly launch publicly sometime early next year. But an enterprise version, which will act as a virtual phone system for small businesses, may come soon after.

  Last week we wrote about a friendly challenge between super-angel Ron Conway and entrepreneur/VC Sean Parker over who could raise more money for their favorite causes.The results are in. Conway has raised $40,600 for the UCSF Foundation. He's beaten Parker, who raised $32,130 for Malaria No More. TechCrunch readers donated to both causes generously, including by simply going to see Avatar with us last week.Of course the real winners are the children, some 5,000 a year, who get treatment at the UCSF Children's hospital. And 3,200 children will receive mosquito nets that will greatly reduce their chances of getting Malaria.

  Monstrous Company is today announcing that it has raised a $400,000 round of angel funding to compete in the mobile gaming space. And alongside the announcement, the 2009 Founder Institute graduate is formally unveiling its first game, Entranced, an iPhone games that melds music and visuals into a compelling experience.Fans of games like Tap Tap Revenge, Rez, and even Guitar Hero will probably most appreciate Entranced, as it's a game that requires you to listen to music and play along on the screen by tapping different colored objects and they come along. It's all about timing, as you must hit these objects at the right time for them to explode (or "bloom") and keep you alive. Rather than having objects that you tab as they come down the screen at you, these objects in Entranced can be anywhere, which makes it a bit challenging at times. Each music track features its own custom visuals, the company notes. There are 5 worlds you can play in Entranced with the promise of more to come.

  The cable companies suck. All of them. Some suck less than others. But they all suck. We need someone to whip them into shape. And that someone may be Apple.Apple may be on the verge of gaining two key television network agreements, according to The Wall Street Journal. Specifically, CBS and Walt Disney (which runs ABC) are said to be considering a proposal by Apple to offer a subscription-based TV service over the Internet. Presumably, this would work through iTunes like all of Apple-based content, but also presumably it would work over Apple's Apple TV device (though maybe a new version of it) to bring this content into the living room, where people are used to consuming it. Simply put: This could be huge.

  Looks like Google is really going full steam ahead with its shortened URLs. Only a week after the search giant launched its own Goo.gl short URLs, its subsidiary YouTube is launching its own short URL service: youtu.be.In a blog post announcing the new feature, YouTube writes that the short URL will be used exclusively for YouTube videos (which means it isn't as useful to spammers for misdirection). The post also notes that because all youtu.be shortlinks include the YouTube video ID, developers can use that information to surface thumbnails and track how a video is spreading.

  In the two weeks since it acquired imeem in a firesale, MySpace has been met with waves of frustration from outraged users who blame the company for shutting down the troubled music service. MySpace didn't really have anything to do with imeem's sudden shutdown (it would have closed shop anyway), but most users don't care — they just want their imeem playlists and free streaming music back. Today, MySpace is reaching out to these disgruntled imeem users to let them know that their playlists will soon be restored, brought back to life with free streams from MySpace Music.We've known this was happening for a while now (MySpace even tells users who visit imeem.com that their playlists are being migrated), but it now looks like the site is taking a more proactive approach to keeping its users informed.

  Video language learning website EnglishCentral recently raised a total of $3.5 million, according to an SEC filing. Part of that funding was $1.38 million from a previous convertible debt round, making the amount raised in the current series A financing $2.1 million. EnglishCentral is backed by Google Ventures and Atlas Venture. The fact that Google Ventures was the lead investor in a seed round last October was reported, but the amount invested was never disclosed. Based on the information in the filing, it is possible that that the seed round was in the form of the $1.38 million convertible note and is now converting into equity with the additional $2.1 million investment. The filing does not say who the invested in the new round, but Rich Miner of Google Ventures is listed as a director of the company. Google Ventures is Google's venture arm which launched last April with an initial $100 million and can invest in pretty much anything, although mostly it's been putting money into clean tech startups.

  A number of pictures have hit the web now showing the Nexus One, aka the Google Phone, in the flesh. But there haven't been too many showing its packaging, and it getting unboxed. Today, some Twitpics shared by one user show those. As a bonus, he also shows off a bit of its HTC-innards, and even shared a nice little video of the device in action.The Nexus One is expected to be released early next year sold both unlocked from Google and in partnership with at least one major carrier. Plenty of Googlers already have the device and have been going around all over the country showing it off. There was previously a video of it booting up, but apparently Google made the YouTube user take it down.

  Love it or hate it, Google Wave is proving to be a great way for people to express themselves creatively in the form of videos. We've seen it with Pulp Fiction and Good Will Hunting. We've seen it with the Declaration of Independance. And now we have a 2009 year-in-review Google Wave video.There's not much to say other than this is really well done. It was created by Whirled Interactive, the same group that made the movie Waves. These guys are good.

  Appolicious, a comprehensive iPhone app directory with a social twist, is on a roll. The startup just raised $1.5 million in funding last week and is now launching a free iPhone app that compliments its web platform. The Appolicious iPhone app will recommend apps for you based on ratings, reviews, comments and will also let users review and rate apps from the phone itself. Appolicious pulls in professional reviews about each app and also provides you with lists about the most popular apps on its network. You can also keep track of all of your apps and share your apps and recommendations with your social graph via Twitter and Facebook.The iPhone app is similar to fellow iPhone app Chorus.

  When Facebook bought FriendFeed a few months ago, no one was really sure what would happen to the service. The acquisition was mainly for FriendFeed's talent, so there was much concern that FriendFeed would wither. And to an extent it has. But, as it's proving today, it still can serve some purpose for Facebook: A testing ground for new technology.As Facebook's David Recordon writes today on the Developer Blog, the development team has implemented a prototype version of the new OAuth WRAP specification on FriendFeed. One of FriendFeed's co-founders, Bret Taylor, who is now Facebook's Director of Product Management for Platform, also writes at length about it on his own blog. The basic gist is that Facebook decided to test out implementing it in FriendFeed so that they could get feedback from anyone in the developer community that wants to try it out.

  Facebook has just released its list of top status updates for the year, and they're pretty interesting. This is a new feature that Facebook plans to release yearly called "Memology," the study of how memes are spreading on Facebook. Specifically, the Facebook Data Team looked at status updates in the U.S. for this year's list.For this list, Facebook grouped together similar items to make it a more comprehensive one. As such, the first item on the list should be a surprise to no one: "Facebook Applications." The specific words that Facebook grouped together here include Farmville, Farm Town, and Social Living, they note. The fact that Farmville has 72 million month active users who update their statuses with info from the game was probably enough to give Faceboook Applications the top spot.

  For a long time, Meebo has been a widely liked company with lots of funding but a fairly small amount of revenue. This year, that started to change. The company's Meebo Bar (AKA Community IM) has now been deployed to over a hundred major sites and has helped Meebo reach nearly 100 million unique visitors monthly. And today, it's launching a feature that will see that number take a huge jump: a self-serve tool for implementing the Meebo Bar yourself. Last week I spoke with CEO Seth Sternberg about Meebo's recent growth, the impact of the new self-serve tool, and how he sees Meebo's outlook over the next year.Sternberg says that Meebo started 2009 with around 30 million uniques, almost all of which came from the site's chat portal at Meebo.com. The Meebo Bar has added nearly 70 million more visitors in one year. The product was originally announced back in July 2008, and launched late that year on Flixster. Since then, it's been deployed to 130 partner sites, with 150 more contracted partners ready to deploy it in the near future.