Facbook apps crowd the market… Hack into iPhone… Doodle in 3D… Light switch to leave you hanging…

Facebook apps crowd the market

Not all of the new applications being developed for online social network Facebook will survive as the competition for users’ eyeballs intensifies, Wired reports.

Since Facebook opened up its platform to developers in May, more than 1800 apps – mini-software programs that users access and operate via Facebook – have been developed for the social networking site, 30 of which have already signed up a million users each.

Although most of the apps are free, some are already making money for their developers. Lending Club, for example, an app that helps lenders and borrowers within shared networks find each other, has already facilitated $US100,000 worth of loans, each returning a small fee to the company.

Not all apps are functional, however. Charlene Li, principal analyst at Forrester Research, told WebProNews that Facebook is already starting to show signs of overcrowding. “For every app on the site there seem to be three or four that do more or less the same thing, whether it’s managing your photos, sharing movie recommendations or serving up photos of hamsters that vibrate when you click them . Most of these will disappear,” Li says .

Hack into Apple iPhone

The Apple iPhone has been hacked to enable users in Australia to make calls on the Telstra mobile network, according to a report in The Age.

But the hack, which was demonstrated in a video clip posted to YouTube over the weekend, does not allow the user to receive calls or send and receive SMS.

It is the closest anyone has come to unlocking the iPhone for use outside the AT&T mobile network in the US. The device isn’t scheduled for release in Australia until next year.

The YouTube user who hacked the iPhone to work on the Telstra network, “ozbimmer”, declined to be interviewed by The Age and has deleted the clip from YouTube. But steps on how to unlock the phone can still be found in a message ozbimmer posted to the hackint0sh online message board.

Doodle in 3D

Here’s a retro toy for artists. It’s a drawing kit that lets you create your own 3D artworks, using a protractor set that holds a red and blue pencil in each arm. By adjusting the width you change the depth perception, so a particularly smart-assed artist could do some amazing things, according to gizmodo.com.au.

You can buy it online from the UK’s Gadget Shop for £4.95

You Decide: Turn on the Lights or Hang up your Jacket

This subversive designer light switch, which offers you the option of turning the light on or hanging up your jacket, is causing some consternation on treehugger.com, where it is posted.

Why is the light off when the switch is down? Surely it would make more sense for the light to go on when you hang up your jacket, and off when you put it back on to leave the room?

Quote of the Day

I don’t try to be a sex bomb. I am one.
– Kylie Minogue