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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that drivers who text while driving are 23 times more likely to crash. A team from Rutgers University has developed an application that may prove useful in preventing accidents caused by distracted driving. Will it be the answer to solving the nationwide problem of texting and talking while driving? They certainly seem to think so, but it might just end up being an annoying obstacle.

If you think typewriters seem pretty neat in theory, run OS X, and want to engage in a little fauxstalgia, the Noisy Typer app may just be right for you. There are actual typewriter emulators out there if you want the authentic experience, but if you just want the clicky noises -- and you want them all the time -- Noisy Typer is going to make you happy.

As smartphones have become more and more prominent, the practice of recording police officers -- especially when they're dealing with you -- has become more and more common, and more and more of an issue. Several federal courts have ruled that filming police is perfectly legal, but the ACLU of New Jersey is taking things a step further; they want to help you do it. That's why they've released the "Police Tape" app, tailor made for covertly recording officers of the law.

You'll find people who love Instagram, and people who hate Instagram, but it's rare that you'll find someone who thinks that Instagram just doesn't go far enough. Rest assured, they exist, and Martin Ström, Ruben Broman, and Erik Wåhlström are three examples. That's why -- for both kicks and art -- they teamed up to create the InstaCRT app, which doesn't just apply a CRT filter for your photos, it literally photographs them being displayed on a real CRT.

A report over on 9to5Mac claims that the ever-present "sources" say that in Apple's next iteration of their mobile operating system, iOS 6, they will be dropping Google Maps in favor of an in-house Maps apps that has a 3D maps feature.

In a twist very dissimilar from the old "PCs are for games, Macs are for art," adage, a new study has found that Apple's mobile phone juggernaut, the iPhone, is primarily used for games, where its competition, Android, is primarily used for apps. This is something Apple has not quite experienced before, and still doesn't experience in the computer market, as Windows is still seen as the primary PC game platform, whereas Macs are still trying to play catch-up, even with the help of services like Steam that have filled the OS X gaming library.

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Similar to the Social Memories app that chronicles your Facebook profile activity and puts it all into a tangible book made available for purchase, Intel's new Museum of Me app chronicles your Facebook activity and turns it into a short film set in a museum. Different rooms in the museum have different exhibits, such as photos hung on walls like paintings in a gallery, rooms for videos and for things you've "Liked."

At the time of this post, Intel's server seems to be overloaded, so getting the app to work is currently spotty for this blogger, but if you're the type to enjoy a video chronicling of your Facebook life to go alongside your Social Memories-crafted tangible book, Museum of Me seems right up your alley. Head on past the break to see the trailer for the app.

According to a survey administered by Boston-based MocoSpace, men outspend women 9 to 1 when buying mobile virtual goods. The survey comes from a study of 1,500 mobile gamers that analyzed anonymous user behavior to see how different genders behave when it comes to mobile games. Out of the users surveyed, 53 percent were male, 47 percent were female -- almost an even ratio. The survey found that men spend slightly more time mobile gaming, averaging around 21 minutes compared to the 19 minutes females spend. However, the survey found that 69 percent of males buy virtual goods, whereas only 39 percent of females drop money on those sweet, sweet smurfberries. Though the statistics are interesting, the survey was administered solely through mobile games on MocoSpace's platform, so not only were non-MocoSpace games studied, but non-mobile games in general were not included. However, there are around 17 million members gaming on MocoSpace's platform, so the survey did mine information from a rather large userbase. Hilariously, some of the prominent games on MocoSpace's platform seem to be knockoffs of other popular franchises, including Street Wars, Stage Hero, Guitar Band (with screenshots that look fairly similar to a certain other similarly-named gaming franchise) and Happy Farm. (via VentureBeat)

If you're using an Android device on the Sprint network, you may have noticed some apps appearing mysteriously on your phone. No, your phone is not filled with bored ghosts, downloading games to amuse themselves. Apparently, Sprint has brokered deals with some companies to have their apps preloaded -- occasionally during firmware updates -- onto Android phones. Even more annoying is that these apps cannot be deleted by the user. CNet writer and Sprint customer Elinor Mills was able to get the skinny on the whole situation. A Sprint rep told her:

"Sprint does offer a variety of partner applications that are optimized for use on our wireless phones, [...] From time to time, we will provide new apps to our customers in conjunction with a software maintenance release. Also, Sprint, in conjunction with Google, is taking steps to develop a technical solution that would allow customers to remove any unwanted applications that have been preloaded or pushed in an over-the-air software update."

If you've been following tech trends to any extent, it's probably no surprise to hear that mobile still has a lot of room to grow or that Apple, for all its foes, is poised to continue making boatloads of money for the foreseeable future. But the numbers at stake here remain striking to contemplate: According to research firm IHS, app sale revenues will grow 77.7 percent in 2011 alone, with Apple gobbling up a 76 percent share of that revenue. Of the 3.8 billion dollars in play this year, IHS predicts that Apple's App Store will take 2.9 billion, with Android Market a distant second with 425.4 million, followed by BlackBerry App World at 279.1 million and Nokia's Ovi Store at 201.5 million. Though Apple may have a commanding lead right now, IHS cautions us not to count Android out: That projected 425.4 million dollars is a 295 percent increase over the Android app market last year, and a continued growth rate that speedy could allow Android to claim a large portion of the staggering 8.3 billion dollars in play by 2014. (via Guardian)

Ambitious/terrifying/insanely well-funded mobile social photo app Color has taken a beating in the tech press since its recent launch, though as we laid out in our post on the subject yesterday, we think the founders of the company and the investors who gave them $41 million probably know what they're doing, even if the app as initially unveiled doesn't turn out to be the endgame. Color's detractors do have a good point, however, when they note that the app currently has the same problem that many social apps experience upon launch: Without a robust network of existing users, new users can feel like the app is a ghost town and not want to use it again, which isn't helped by the emptiness of Color's current UI when there aren't enough nearby geotagged pictures to fill in the blanks. To this end, Color co-founder and CEO Bill Nguyen says that his team is already hard at work on an update to the app, perhaps the most important part of which will be that its 150-foot radius for photo-viewing, perhaps initially designated with too urban-centric a mindset, will become variable based on the population density wherever the user happens to be.

The first change is a pretty significant one; if you launch the app in the middle of nowhere, you’re essentially going to be locked out. This is designed to prevent you from opening the app and simply having nothing to do or see. The second update should prevent that scenario from occurring too often. Nguyen says the app will dynamically calculate the distance required for somebody to be considered “nearby.” Currently, the app searches for anybody within 150 feet of your location. That number will not be a constant any longer: “We’re going to start adjusting that range based on the density of cities,” he says. For example, cities like Tokyo and New York won’t require a lot of calibration, but Color may determine that your “dynamic network” has a radius of half a mile, especially if you live in a spread-out city or smaller town. The exact distance will be determined on-the-fly, like many of the app’s other core features.

These changes should hopefully take place as soon as next week. Meanwhile, even if you think the app still stinks, Henry Blodget points out that Color isn't necessarily doomed: With a "fat startup"-sized fund already amassed and such a brain trust assembled on staff, even if they scuttle this app and iterate to new ones, they still have a shot at capturing at least one of the various buzzwords among mobile/social/photo/coupon/gameification baked into their current ambitious plan. (Mashable via Techmeme)

Yes, the amount of money that has been raised by Color, the social, mobile photo app founded by Lala founder and serial entrepreneur Bill Nguyen and launched for free just last night for iPhone and Android, is absurd. It's hard to decide which part is crazier: That a single mobile application raised $41 million from the likes of Sequoia Capital, Bain Capital, and Silicon Valley Bank before it even launched, or that $25 million of that reportedly came just last week after one demonstration. "Nguyen showed Color to Sequoia megapartner Mike Moritz early last week. Within 24 hours Sequoia had committed $25 million and put partner Doug Leone on the board. Moritz, says Nguyen, “got the ‘wow’ moment of doing something together, not a day after like on Facebook", Forbes reports. Apart from the bona fides of Ngyuen and his six well-credentialed co-founders, who include BillShrink founder Peter Pham and former LinkedIn chief scientist DJ Patil, what do all of these smart investors see in a single-app company whose first overtures to the public have been weirdly restaurant-centric? FastCompany: "'When I go to a restaurant or public event or cafe, don't I want to know some of these people around me?" [Nguyen] says. 'We thought we could build something that would allow you to get to know everyone else that is not already your Facebook friend.'" TechCrunch: "Say you walk into a restaurant with twenty people in it. You sit down at a table with four friends, and start chatting. Then one of your friends pulls out their phone, fires up Color, and takes a snapshot of you and your buddies. That photo is now public to anyone within around 100 feet of the place it was taken. So if anyone else in the restaurant fires up Color, they’ll see the photograph listed in a stream alongside other photos that have recently been taken in the vicinity." Forbes again: "The potential business model for now (and it is sure to change) is charging stores and restaurants for the right to show their Color photos in people’s streams based on time and a user’s location." But those $41 million aren't really about breaking the ice between early-adopter strangers in restaurants, are they?

A used computer keyboard tells a story: Look at the keys and you can see if its user is a gamer by the worn WASD, an Excel monkey by the wear on the number keys, a QWOP jock by the Q, W, O, and P keys being ground to dust. But when it comes to iPads, all you've got is a touchscreen to look at. That didn't stop Design Observer's George Kokkinidis from running a clever little experiment/art project that attempts to portray what usage for different iPad apps looks like.

My method involved cleaning the iPad’s surface with a microfiber cloth, using an app for a short amount of time, then turning the screen off. Next, I photographed the iPad, positioning a light source and some black matte board to limit distracting reflections. I then brought the photographs into Adobe Illustrator, and created vectors of the iPad and the fingerprints to emphasize the data.

According to The Wall Street Journal, popular iOS and Android apps are sneaky data thieves, pilfering user data without making it clear, then sending it off to third-party companies. Everyone knows software does this sort of thing from time to time, but apparently it's fairly rampant among mobile apps. The Wall Street Journal put together an interactive graphic that details which apps, out of the 101 put under the microscope, collect and redistribute data, and which companies receive said data.

Sitting around while moving nothing but your fingers all day can leave you with the shivers. Well, now you can continue your marathon of inactivity by controlling your thermostat from your phone! Oh, America. I shouldn't be quite so flippant about what actually sounds like a pretty useful application. Available for computers as well as iPhones (no word on an Android app), the Filtrete program is designed to set "temperature changes, four times a day, every day of the week. That’s 56 individual data points to configure on a small display with a minimum of input options." Which might be a bit much to deal with on a phone's touch screen. But think of it as a remote start for your car - if you're coming back from the airport in the dead of winter (say from a warm, sunny environment) the least you deserve is coming home to a warm house. So this would allow you to turn up the heat in the cab on the way home or even before that.