What apps do you guys have installed? I have a bunch but my favorites are:

TwitterFon

Let’s me make a quick status update that’ll push to my blog, Facebook status, Myspace profile and AIM profile.

Twinkle

Local chatting. I used this to chat with people within x miles of me. This came in real handy when I was looking for the best theater to watch Dark Knight.

Shazam

When you’re listening to the radio and you wanna know what the song is, just run this program, let it listen for 12 seconds and it’ll tell you all the song info.

Myspace

Cuz I’m a Myspace whore like that.

Facebook

Cuz I’m a Facebook whore like that.

AIM Mobile

Occassionally used to chat when I’m on the move. Add my mobile screenname: mel so hungry.

Cube Runner

Super simple and fun flying game that uses the whole device as a steering wheel.

Yelp

Uses your GPS to find nearby restaurants and bars.

Pandora

Streaming radio while on the move, cuz sometimes your music library isn’t big enough.

Movies.app

Uses your GPS to find nearby movie theaters and movie times. Even tells you ratings from Flixster!

What about you guys?

Californians fed up with being charged for ending their cell phone service prematurely won a major victory in a Bay Area court decision that concluded such fees violate state law.

In a preliminary ruling Monday, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Bonnie Sabraw said Sprint Nextel must pay California mobile-phone consumers $18.2 million as part of a class-action lawsuit challenging early termination fees.

FUCK YES.

This court ruling is so ridiculously huge. Right now, carriers leverage exclusive cell phones to force you into shitty 2 year contracts. The only good thing about it is your expensive phone will largely be paid for by the carrier. On the other hand you’re stuck with a 2 commitment.

You ever notice how everywhere else in the world you can get any phone, throw in a SIM card and you’re good to go with any carrier? That’s the way it should be. Pressure needs to be put on carriers to make their service plans better. No more of this baiting people with sexy cell phones into a 2 year trap.

You want an iPhone? Go ahead and pop in your SIM card. Want a better plan? Just cancel your current and sign up with someone else.

It should be that easy.

Surely this ruling will be appealed, and it’s only in affect in California. But this is just a start…hopefully it foreshadows a time when we’ll see unlocked phones and real consumer choice in the US.

In the competition between PCs and Macs, we outsell Apple 30-to-1. But there is no doubt that Apple is thriving. Why? Because they are good at providing an experience that is narrow but complete, while our commitment to choice often comes with some compromises to the end-to-end experience.– Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO

Even though the iPhone 3G is all sorts of sexiness in a handheld device, memory is limited to 8GB and 16GB. That’s fine for people with only 8 or 16 gigabytes worth of music and videos…but what about the rest of us? You got four options:

1. Buy a bigger iPod or mp3 player
2. Hold out a few months for a larger iPhone
3. Manually drag and drop songs you like, one by one, onto your iPhone
4. Use iTunes’ Smart Playlists feature

I’ve used that latter option — Smart Playlists — for years, when I figured out a way to cram 24 gigs of music to a 4GB iPod mini.

The basic idea is this: you set conditions on what you want to hear and the Smart Playlists will automagically build itself. For example, I may want:

R&B, at least 3 stars, that have not been played in the past week.

To do this in iTunes, just click on File, then New Smart Playlist, and then fill it out accordingly:

Cool, huh? Now whenever you add music to your iTunes, as long as it matches these conditions, it will automagically get added to this Smart Playlist.

Here’s what I did for my 4GB iPod mini back in the day:

Up to 4GB's of the most recently added songs that are rated at least 2 stars, that haven't been skipped in the last month, and haven't been played in the last week.

If you notice, I have Last Skipped and Last Played in there. These are what make it powerful; as I listen to music on my mini (and skip the ones I don’t like), the Smart Playlist will essentially learn what I like/dislike and rotate in songs from my 24 GB library.

Easy as pie.

For more Smart Playlist ideas, check out SmartPlaylists.com

Kid Rock’s reaction to Atlantic Records’ request to denounce file sharing:

Wait a second, you’ve been stealing from the artists for years. Now you want me to stand up for you?

Kid Rock on downloading music illegally:

I don’t steal things. I’m rich. [As for everyone else] download it illegally, I don’t care. I want you to hear my music so I can play live.

Read on: Kid Rock Boycotts iTunes, Champions P2P