It's the Monday of iPad Week so of course Apple mania is setting in. We're full to bursting with Apple stories, from the 25 billionth Apple app download to a reet good iPad 3 concept video.
But there's still time for a few other technological bits and scary space-related bobs, including a terrifying new Facebook competitor, a fake heart and an invisible car. Well, sort of.
It's Applicated – The Apple App Store has now furnished iPhones, iPod touches and iPads the world over with 25 billion apps – and only 24 billion of those were Angry Birds according to a fact we just made up. One lucky app fan managed to nab the 25 billionth download and will therefore enjoy $10,000 of App Store credit as reward. They're going to need a bigger iPhone. [Apple]
IT likes this – You know what the internet was missing? A social network run by Insane Clown Posse. Well it's complete now: Juggalobook.com. [NME]
Dream on – No matter what Apple launches at its iPad 3 event later this week, it's not going to come close to the brilliance of this iPad 3 concept, what with its edge-to-edge Retina Display, magnetism and holographic 3D gaming. Nice one, Aatma Studio. You can probably expect an irate letter from Apple's lawyers sometime soon. [BGR]
To infinity and beyond – Rockets! Robots! Dragons! The very cool letter X! This story has them all as the first private rocket to head to the International Space Station readies itself for launch. Dubbed Dragon, SpaceX's rocket has just completed one successful test flight and has just one more to go before it heads out into the final frontier, probably no sooner than May 2012. [Mashable]
Underwater phone signal – The Channel Tunnel will soon have phone reception after signing a new deal with four mobile phone providers and a breakthrough in mobile signal technology. Like everything else happening this year, it's set to be switched on in time for the Olympics. Sacre bleu. [Guardian]
Invisible car advert of the day – Something something Mercedes, something something fuel efficiency - whatever tenuous reasons Mercedes had for covering one side of this car in LEDs and making it seem invisible by playing video filmed from the other side of the vehicle, it makes for a pretty cool advert. Probably still won't buy one though, soz Merc. [YouTube]
Advertising works – You may have noticed that social telly-watching companion app Zeebox has started advertising on the actual TV. It seems to be working pretty well for it, with founder Ernesto Schmidt tweeting that the app has seen 15,000 new sign-ups per hour since the ads started running. Zeebox might start getting useful now. [Twitter]
Queen of pumps – Hearts? We don't need no stinkin' hearts not when we've got artificial pumps made of parts bought from B&Q that can do the job twice as well. Incidentally, these artificial hearts don't produce a pulse. Hours of dead-playing fun. [Pop Sci]
Chimps – "Oh yeah, we do actually use Corning Gorilla Glass in the iPhone after all," says Apple randomly, after trying to keep it quiet for years for no obvious reason. [Engadget]
Headphonica – Is this a cool thing or a stupid thing? We can't decide. This headphone concept can be used as one set or two sets of 'phones, so you can give one set to a friend and wirelessly share the same music at the same time. And, if you want to hear music and the sounds of the world around you (or your ears are a bit hot), you can just use the outer set – the downside is that you will look like an idiot. Dilemma. [DesignBoom]
Bonus tech video of the day – Memories of MWC 2012 may be fading fast, but its themes are going to hang around all year like that niggling feeling that you forgot to close your front door.
Here they are neatly wrapped up in video form:
