In a recent study by National Geographic co-sponsored by Nintendo Power magazine, it was found that the only people on Earth who have never heard of that strange, mushroom-gobbling, Koopa-smashing plumber, Mario, are the natives of certain Papua New Guinea aboriginal tribes. So I guess we know where Apple is outsourcing the App Store review process: a shameless rip-off of Super Mario Bros, using Nintendo’s trademarked assets, has hit the hit the iOS App Store.

PAH! I say to you. PAH!

Not because I despise what you say, but because I’m playing PAH!, and when you’re playing PAH!, you end up saying PAH! quite a lot.

PAH! is an iOS game with a twist. You don’t need any hands to play it, you only need a voice.

Pop quiz app Revinyl recently got updated and now comes with a killer new feature: direct access to the full iTunes music database.

To create buzz at the Seattle premiere of Mike Daisey’s excellent “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs,” the host theater threw a lookalike contest.

Maybe you had to be imbibing the complimentary Appletinis (har!) to appreciate it, but none of these guys, or the gal, who participated look much like Steve Jobs.

Note to self: a black turtleneck does not an icon make.

But you can still catch the play until May 22.

Via Geekwire

Car manufacturers are finally developing better ways to hook your iPhone into your car.

Check out this video demo showing how BMW is integrating the iPhone into car entertainment systems.

Patched in through BMW’s iDrive system, the iPhone can can be used to play music, web radio, or send updates and messages to Facebook and Twitter.

“This suite of technologies allows smartphone features — the things people really love on their smartphone — to be integrated in a safe, easy-to-use way in your BMW,” says BMW Technology Group senior engineer Rob Passaro in the video.

“The great thing about this is, as Apple updates new features on its iPod, we get it automatically. You don’t have to go to the dealership to get these functions in your car as soon as they are available.”

Check it out:

A new report from Nikkei Shimbun – the Japanese newspaper behind the iPhone 6 LCD rumors – claims the iPad 2 will finally launch in Japan on Thursday, April 28th. The second-generation tablet was delayed for over a month due to the earthquake and tsunami that recently devastated vast parts of the country.

Apple announced that it would be delaying the launch of the iPad 2 in Japan in the middle of March – stating its teams were focusing on recovering from the recent disaster – and the company is yet to release an update on the delay.

The iPad 2 was scheduled to launch in Japan on March 25th – the same day it hit 25 other countries, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Mexico, Norway and the U.K.

If Nikkei’s claims are accurate, the iPad 2 will launch in Japan just a day after the white iPhone 4 is released worldwide; a busy week for Apple, it seems.

[via MacRumors]

Here’s TweetDeck v2, not just an update but a complete “re-imagining” of the original, say its makers.

To create v2 they stripped everything out and started again from scratch. The result is a Twitter client that’s faster and easier to use.

ipswDownloader is a great new tool that makes the process of finding and downloading iOS firmware releases incredibly simple. Developed by Vitaly Parovishnik, and available for both Mac and Windows, the app supports every iOS device there is – including AppleTV – and features iOS firmware from version 1.0.1.

What’s great about ipswDownloader is that once you’ve selected your device and the firmware version you want to download, it provides additional details on the release that jailbreakers in particular will find incredibly valuable; such as the baseband version, whether the firmware can be jailbroken and unlocked, and the size of the download.

ipswDownloader is completely free to download and use. The full list of supported devices can be found after the break.

If you’ve run up against the New York Times‘ new paywall, here is the simplest way to continue reading — guaranteed. This isn’t just a Mac tip: it works on Windows too.

Apple’s not happy with Amazon for calling their new app store for Android… well… “Amazon Appstore for Android.” In fact, they’re suing over it, claiming ownership over the term Android.

Amazon’s trying to get the suit tossed out, of course. First witness for the defense? It’ll be Apple CEO Steve Jobs himself.