Boondoggle

Waking up and realizing your car is covered with snow, or worse, that the roads are paved with ice, can be stressful, and the worst part is, no matter what you do, you're going to be late — maybe very late. If only there were an alarm clock that would automatically wake you up early on such mornings.

Wait! Stop! There's no need to try constructing some sort of bizarre snow-activated Rube Goldberg machine which will set off an alarm early if the world turns into a winter wonderland as you snooze — because there's an app for that.

The app's called Winter Wake-Up and it can be downloaded for free through either the Apple App Store or the Android Market.

According to the app's promotional video, it was created by the folks of digital agency Boondoggle after some employees kept running late on winter mornings.

Using Winter Wake-Up is simple. You just set an alarm for your regular wake-up time and then tell the app how much earlier you'd need to be woken if there was snow or frost during the night. As you snooze, the app will check weather reports in order to ascertain just how many zzzZZZzz's you get to catch.

Oh, and if the snowfall is heavy enough to completely skip work, you can just tell Winter Wake-Up to not bother waking you up at all.

Related stories:

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• Kindle iPad app now offers magazines, textbooks
• Finally! An app to help the truly fashion-challenged

Want more tech news, silly puns or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.

ReelDoozy

Wish you could have Santa in your holiday home videos, but don't have a costume (or beard)? No problem. All you really need is your iPhone, an app called Reel Doozy, and a couple of minutes to doctor footage.

The Reel Doozy app that you'll need for this task can be downloaded through the Apple App Store now. It'll let you edit four videos for free. Additional video packs can be purchased for a buck.

ReelDoozy

In order to have make festive videos, all you need to do is take your existing clips, import them into the app, and choose foreground scenes to add. 

And ta-da! Seconds later you'll have a dancing Santa or singing elves in your own video, thanks to some clever green-screen technology (and perhaps a touch of magic).

Related stories:

• IceBreak is like couples therapy in an app
• Kindle iPad app now offers magazines, textbooks
• Finally! An app to help the truly fashion-challenged

Want more tech news, silly puns or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.

Rooster Teeth

Whenever my iPhone acts up, I throw my hands in the air and announce that my gadget must be "spiteful" or "out to get me" somehow. But what if that wasn't just an irrational way of explaining technical hiccups? What if  Siri — the virtual assistant built into the iPhone 4S — really went evil?

The folks in comedy team Rooster Teeth must've been wondering the same thing when they made this video:

Yes, all the typical clichés are there. Yes, it's just as cheesy as any real horror movie. And yes, I am looking at my iPhone 4S suspiciously right now.

If I disappear under mysterious circumstances, tell someone to interrogate nearby Apple gadgets.

Related stories:

• Apple explains why iPhone won't find abortion centers
• Careful! Your iPhone's Siri could easily embarrass you
• My iPhone says the darndest things (thanks to Siri)

Want more tech news, silly puns, or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.

Google

The Google Voice iOS app has been updated and that's a reason for cheer. After all, iPhone users are now finally able to enjoy group text messaging — a feature which has been available to Android-carrying Google Voice users for quite some time.

The freshly updated Google Voice app — version 1.4.0.2372, in case you're wondering — can be downloaded from the Apple App Store now.

Along with the group text messaging support, it brings to users multi-line text entry fields (so that you don't have to stare at a cramped single-line text entry field), better integration for Sprint iPhones and one-touch copying and pasting on the "Dialer" screen.

All in all, this sounds like a decent update which helps iPhone users catch up to their Android counterparts.

But as Lifehacker's Melanie Pinola points out, it's worth noting that some folks are experiencing log-in problems or seeing account errors while attempting to use this latest version of the Google Voice app. So be careful and make sure you back up your iPhone before updating the app — that way you could always revert to the older version if something's funky with 1.4.0.2372.

Related stories:

• IceBreak is like couples therapy in an app
• Kindle iPad app now offers magazines, textbooks
• Finally! An app to help the truly fashion-challenged

Want more tech news, silly puns or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.

Amazon

The Kindle iOS app — which can be used on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch devices — has received a nice little update on Wednesday. One of the most noteworthy changes? On the iPad version, users are now granted access magazines, newspapers, and textbooks — just like Kindle Fire users.

According to Amazon, all iOS users — iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad — can now sync compatible documents to read on the app, either via iTunes or by emailing files to their Send-to-Kindle addresses. A built-in PDF reader means that you don't have to use a separate app for non-book reading.

The updated (and free) app can be downloaded from the Apple App Store right now. 

But on the iPad, the app has even more. It allows users to access over 400 magazines and newspapers — the same ones that are available to Kindle Fire users — including Martha Stewart Living, Cosmopolitan, Men's Health, Popular Science, and more. It'll be possible to buy single issues or subscriptions thanks to the Kindle Newsstand feature (not to be confused with the iOS Newsstand, of course).

Electronic textbooks that preserve the layout and graphics of the original printed versions will also be available for purchase or rental.

And frankly, the magazine service surprises us a bit. Not that Amazon would bring it to the iPad, but that Apple would allow it in an app. Amazon is blatantly trying to get into magazine subscriptions on the iPad, and Apple has made it clear that it wants to dominate this business — especially on its own turf.

We've reached out to Apple to see why it let things go, at least for now. I will update if there is any comment.

Related stories:

• IceBreak is like couples therapy in an app
• Roomba game encourages you to attack dust bunnies
• Finally! An app to help the truly fashion-challenged

Want more tech news, silly puns or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.

Cloth

The irony of writing a post about a fashion app while dressed in gray kitty-cat pajamas, an oversized shirt of questionable origin, and fuzzy red socks is not lost on me. Fortunately Cloth — the app I'm intending to introduce to you — can help those who seriously struggle when it comes to selecting outfits.

Cloth costs two bucks and can be downloaded through the Apple App Store. (The app is currently on sale for just a buck as part of a limited time promotional offer.) It is the brainchild of Maxim senior editor Seth Porges and fashion designer Wray Serna — and it will help you dress better.

You see, Cloth is designed to track outfits. Which means that anytime you put together a snazzy ensemble — whether thanks to pure skill or sheer dumb luck — you'll be able to enter it into Cloth for future reference.

Cloth

All you have to do is snap a photo of the outfit, add some notes or tags, and you're done. (If you want, you can also push the photo out via your preferred social networks or even submit it to the Cloth website.)

When it's time to get dressed again, you can look up the fantastic outfits of fashionable days past by scrolling through the Feed tab or by selecting a category in the Wardrobe section.

Here's how that looks in action:

Now before you start yelling at me, please understand that I'm aware that an app like Cloth won't exactly instantly turn walking fashion disasters into great dressers. (Believe me, I'm all too aware of that fact!) But the reality is that keeping track of what you do — or in this case, wear — and studying what works and what doesn't will gradually help you improve.

Related stories:

• IceBreak is like couples therapy in an app
• Roomba game encourages you to attack dust bunnies
• How to secure your iPhone's Internet connection

Want more tech news, silly puns or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.

Facebook

Facebook recently made Timeline available to everyone. And now the social network's official iPhone app is being updated to offer support for this shiny and new feature.

You can download the latest Facebook for iPhone app — version 4.1, in case you're wondering — through the Apple App Store as soon as you're done reading this blog post. Once you do that, you'll face a small pile of rather significant changes.

Timelines, Subscribers, and Subscriptions can now be viewed using the iPhone app, Lists can be managed from your device, photo uploads are quicker, and notifications look just a little bit neater.

Oh, and the whole app seems to run more smoothly — which is a pretty big deal considering how quirky and temperamental prior versions could be at times.

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• Facebook for Android app gets a makeover

Want more tech news, silly puns, or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.

Google

It's frustrating when a mobile app can't match the features of its desktop counterpart, but Google is attempting to bridge the gap between its Google+ iPhone app and the social networking website with a little update.

The iPhone app — which can be downloaded for free through the Apple App Store — now allows you to upload full-resolution photos from your iOS device, offers a powerful search feature, and received plenty of little bug fixes and tweaks.

Of course there are still some flaws with the app — such as its tendency to crash at the worst moments for some users. But little by little, it's getting improvements.

Hopefully a future update will include an improvement which turns Google+ into a proper universal app so that we could use it on our iPads as well — without simply staring at a scaled-up version of the iPhone app.

Related stories:

• IceBreak is like couples therapy in an app
• Roomba game encourages you to attack dust bunnies
• How to secure your iPhone's Internet connection

Want more tech news, silly puns or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.

iRobot

Hate dust? Love robot vacuum cleaners? Then you'll probably adore a silly game called Roomba Revenge — because it challenges you to assault as many dust bunnies as possible by controlling an iRobot Roomba vaccuum.

iRobot

The full version of Roomba Revenge will set you back a buck and you can purchase it in the Apple App Store.

The game is pretty basic.

You steer an angry Roomba vacuum cleaner in order to suck up as much dust as you can. You get to do this for 20 levels worth of dust bunny assasinating missions full of achievements, sneaky cats who take a ride on the Roomba, tricky gates and furniture items which block your paths, and a ticking clock.

Overall, the game's a pretty neat little time waster — though for a dollar I'd expect more levels. (This issue could be fixed with an update, of course.)

iRobot

It's worth noting that you can try the first five levels of Roomba Revenge for free by downloading the "lite" version of the game from the Apple App Store. That should be enough to give you a decent idea regarding whether or not you'll enjoy the paid app.

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• IceBreak is like couples therapy in an app
• App lets you rate dishes and find the best meals
• How to secure your iPhone's Internet connection

Want more tech news, silly puns or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.

IceBreak

Communicating with your significant other can be tough. You have to do things like inquire about his or her thoughts, listen, pay attention — and even remember the important stuff. And if you fail at those tasks? You'll wind up being being miserable, lonely, in a therapist's office, or all three.

Don't panic just yet though, because there is one more option: You could find yourself using an app to salvage or maintain your relationship.

The app's called IceBreak For Couples and you can download it for free through the Apple App Store.

IceBreak

IceBreak is supposed to make couples —  whether they're married, engaged, or dating —  happy. It tries to do this by providing icebreaker questions which are supposed to encourage conversations and aid you in discovering more about your beloved. 

The questions feel like something straight out of a "99 Things You Didn't Know About Me And My Love" chain-email and include inquiries such as "Which part of your partner's body could you not do without?" and "What is something your partner's really good at?"

But silly or not, the questions could certainly turn into conversation starters if both partners are willing to answer them.

And in order to encourage the use of these icebreakers — and the app's other features such as the "relationship wall" or "relationship health" sections — IceBreak offers incentives. Every time you complete an activity or task using the app, you'll earn "Date Night Coins" which will eventually be redeemable for real-world rewards such as movie tickets or gifts.

There's no guarantee that all these incentives and icebreakers will make your relationship better, of course — but an app's cheaper than couples therapy, no?

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Want more tech news, silly puns or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.

Comedy Central

Apple's Siri — the virtual assistant built into the iPhone 4S — refuses to help its users find abortion clinics and tends to ignore folks with foreign accents. Sure, there could be an innocent explanation for those things — such as a series of glitches — but Stephen Colbert has an alternate theory.

According to Colbert, Siri is obviously an arch conservative woman, "like Laura Ingraham — but less robotic."

You can check out that theory — and its context — in the clip below. Don't forget that it's from a recent episode of "The Colbert Report" and all in good humor — so don't let it ruffle too many feathers.

Related stories:

• Apple explains why iPhone won't find abortion centers
• How to make your iPhone look like HAL 9000's nicer sister
• Careful! Your iPhone's Siri could easily embarrass you
• My iPhone says the darndest things (thanks to Siri)

Want more tech news, silly puns, or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.

Apple

If you asked Apple's Siri to help you find an abortion center or related information recently, you'd know that the virtual assistant feature built into the iPhone 4S isn't very helpful in that regard. But why? Is it promoting a pro-life agenda? Or is there a far more innocent explanation?

According to what an Apple spokesperson told the New York Times, Siri's inability to track down information related to abortion centers — even if there are several in your area — is not part of some sort of conspiracy, it's just a glitch:

Apple

Our customers want to use Siri to find out all types of information, and while it can find a lot, it doesn’t always find what you want.

These are not intentional omissions meant to offend anyone. It simply means that as we bring Siri from beta to a final product, we find places where we can do better, and we will in the coming weeks.

Yes, Siri — as Apple has mentioned in the past — is considered to be in "beta." This means that it is still in the development phase, not a "final" product. (It also means that every single iPhone 4S owner is technically testing software for Apple.)

Unfortunately this designation additionally means that we're bound to encounter strange quirks and behavior when it comes to the virtual assistant.

As Raw Story's Megan Carpentier — one of the first bloggers to notice the abortion center search issue — points out, Siri is capable of helping users find escort services, strip clubs, places to hide a dead body, the meaning of life, and a variety of other niche information despite the incomplete results it spits out in response to questions about reproductive health services.

While Apple's statement to the New York Times suggests that it intends on correcting this particular discrepancy — as well as other undiscovered glitches, perhaps — soon, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has begun a petition to urge the company to make a change right away.

We're not certain that the petition can affect the timing of the fix though, as it is uncertain whether Apple needs to release an update to iOS — its mobile operating system — in order to make changes to Siri or whether tweaks can be made directly on Apple's servers (which Siri contacts whenever you use it). We've asked Apple for clarification on this process and will update this story once we receive an explanation. 

Related stories:

• Colbert: Apple's Siri 'is clearly an arch conservative woman'
• How to make your iPhone look like HAL 9000's nicer sister
• Careful! Your iPhone's Siri could easily embarrass you
• My iPhone says the darndest things (thanks to Siri)

Want more tech news, silly puns, or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.