The Tap Tap Revenge franchise was started by Nate True and is published by Tapulous. Tap Tap Revenge was the most downloaded game on the Apple App Store in 2008. The game features tapping on different colored balls before moving from the top of the screen to the bottom. The colored balls are in sync with the song playing with the game. This concept is similar to the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchise.

Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) has already been successful on the App Store and now they are bringing their Rock Band franchise from gaming consoles to the Apple iPhone/iPod Touch. The game announcement was made at the CTIA conference.

The Rock Band iPhone application will have 15 songs and 5 more that can be unlocked as you progress in the World Tour. There will also be an option to buy additional tracks. The game will have single player, multiplayer over Bluetooth, and Facebook Connect integration.

All the instruments will work too. That means you can select the guitar, drums, bass, and vocals. No word yet on the release date, but it is expected to arrive within the next few weeks.

The state of North Carolina must not be too happy with Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL). As I write this article, I am sitting at the Duke University Fuqua School of Business in Durham, NC while on “vacation.” My cousin told me that many of his fellow MBA classmates visited the facility last year as part of an Operations class too. Ouch, sorry to hear the news North Carolina, but all of us are feeling the ruthlessness of the recession especially in the state of Michigan where I am visiting from.

When the Dell plant was first opened, politicians and analysts predicted that there would $300 million generated in state and local inducements. The plant was supposed to employ 1,500 people, create 500 related jobs, and even have a $24.5 billion impact over the next 20 years according to politicians. Instead the plant will shut down in the next four months.

Based in Round Rock, Texas Dell decided to shut down the facility as a plan to simplify their operations. Dell’s goal is to save $4 billion this year and another $4 billion next year. The company sold a remanufacturing plant in Tennessee this past June and is moving an operations facility from Ireland to Poland.

Allen Joines, the mayor of Winston-Salem said that Dell will pay back all of the money the city provided them with upfront costs and other incentive payments. Other major companies based in Winston-Salem include R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc., TW Garner Food Company, and HanesBrands Inc.

The worst part about many car concepts is that they are usually never going to be made on mass production. However the Audi e-Tron that was presented at the Frankfurt auto show last month may be made available for purchase in 2012.

The announcement was confirmed by Audi of America President Johan de Nysschen. “I expect we will see running examples in the next 24 months,” stated Nysschen in an interview with Automotive News.

The concept car had 230 kilowatts produced by four motors giving the vehicle about 313 horsepower with 3,319 pound-feet of torque. The lithium-ion battery with a 42.4 kilowatt hour gives the car a 154 mile range. The recharge requires about 6-8 hours at about 230 volts.

This car will directly compete with the Mercedes-Benz Gullwing and the Tesla Roadster. Audi is also working on hybrid vehicles such as the Q5 crossover which is expected to arrive in 2011.

Surf Canyon is a start-up that focuses on improving search engine results from Google, Yahoo!, etc. The company recently announced that they have raised $250,000 in funding. The CEO of Surf Canyon said that this funding is an up round which means that the valuation of the company rose in the process.

Surf Canyon’s service can be accessed in the form of an add-on plugin or from their website. When you see a website that you like, then you can click on the bulls-eye by it. The bulls-eye will then show you websites that are related to that link.

According to VentureBeat, Surf Canyon has been downloaded about 1 million times and processes about 800,000 queries per day. The investors were undisclosed.

Say what? Rumor has it that the Barnes & Noble e-book reader that will be competing with the Amazon.com Kindle will be powered by Google Android. The rumor was started by a source over at Gizmodo. The source apparently works for the mobile apps division over at B&N. Although a colored version of an e-book reader with applications sounds very appealing, I’m going to take this rumor with a grain of salt.

NASA has been working on a project called LCROSS which is going live tomorrow. The LCROSS project involves sending a rocket into the moon in order to eject debris to find out for sure whether there is frozen water.

The event will be taking place on October 9 at 6:15AM EST and 3:15AM PST. The video can be watched at the following link:
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

The live footage will be from a first person view of a spacecraft camera. There will also be real-time telemetry animation along with commentary from a NASA official. There may even be some live footage from an 88″ telescope in Mauna Kea, Hawaii.

NASA will also be live tweeting and live Facebooking the event.

This event is going to be huge, but I doubt that I will be awake to see it all going down. Hopefully the video will be added to YouTube shortly after it is filmed. If that happens, then I’ll embed it to this post.

The NYPD is starting a new program where they will take the IMEI number from your cellphone if you have been arrested of a crime and monitor your calls for suspicious activity. For example, if you get caught dealing drugs then odds are that you have been calling around some potential customers and other drug dealers on your phone. The NYPD could use the IMEI number to figure out who all the other suspects are of the related crime.

“It doesn’t replace the human element, like debriefing prisoners, but it’s another tool to use that we didn’t have in the past,” stated a source that was interviewed by The NY Daily News. An internal memo at the NYPD states that when making an arrest, it is recommended to remove the suspect’s mobile phone battery and then write down the IMEI number.

However there is a limitation to this idea. Some mobile phones are laced with fake numbers. And in some cases, mobile phones made in China that are sold in India all have the same IMEI number according to the Daily.

The New York Civil Liberties Union associate legal director Christopher Dunn believes that this is a violation of privacy. The Union said that the NYPD is “taking phones apart to get information” without having a warrant.

The IMEI database complements another database that the NYPD has going for about 20 million 911 callers. What are your thoughts? Do you believe that this is an essential initiative for security? Or do you believe this is a violation of privacy?

OMGICU is a website where users report what celebrities that they have spotted are doing. Some examples include Gerard Butler eating a Japanese dinner with Bjork and Mischa Barton walking into Guggenheim. Tracy Morgan was one of the most spotted celebrities, so OMGICU started a new website called Twacy.org where the goal was to make Tracy Morgan join Twitter. And it worked. Tracy Morgan joined Twitter today.

OMGICU was founded by Hugh Dornbush and he said that Morgan “is someone who just really resonates with people, and his sense of humor and his sensibilities are so well-suited to the medium,” in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. “Once you put it on their radar, it’s been pretty easy to find people who say, ‘I would rather be living in a world where Tracy Morgan is sharing his day to day life with us.’”

Dornbush dropped out of the New York University Stern School of Business to start OMGICU and plans to expand the service in Los Angeles. OMGICU started about 15 months ago. Another reason why Dornbush started Twacy.org was because some of Tracy Morgan’s celebrity spottings on OMGICU were quite odd and funny.

For example, one user spotted “Tracy Morgan driving a Yellow Lamborghini with a blond woman listening to Sade.” Another user reported “tracy morgain [sic] is walking around soho eating blueberries looking confused.”

Tracy Morgan was asked by his fans to join Twitter and he has responded by joining the microblogging service. Just as we expected, Morgan’s tweets are extremely entertaining. Below are some of the tweets he sent out since joining:
- Welcome To Tracy Morgans World… about 7 hours ago from web
- my d**khead is shaped liked a darth vadar helmet. my d**k is so fat it looks like r2d2. about 5 hours ago from web
- The wait is over! The black Svengali has arrived! I’m on the street turning good girls bad and getting them pregnant!!! about 5 hours ago from web
- Im a good parent so ill induce the labor about 4 hours ago from web
- Just got in the house. Feeling tired from working 30 Rock. Getting ready to crash. Good night my loves. 6 minutes ago from web