Maybe I'm missing the point of Hulu Plus, but for ten bucks a month why is Hulu still showing me advertisements? I get that this new for-pay streaming video service offers full seasons (and past seasons) of current TV shows that would otherwise be limited to a handful of the most recent episodes. I get that the service works over Wi-Fi and 3G, and all the killer functionality that entails.

What I don't get is why anyone wouldn't apply their annual $120 somewhere, for ad-free services like Netflix.

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iPhone 4 pre-orders have begun in Korea, and distributor KT Corporation (KTC) is reporting huge sales. Specifically, 130,000 orders were placed within the first 13 hours of availability. By comparison, it took 5 days to sell 65,000 units of the 3GS.

KTC reportedly had to expand their server capacity during the frenzied day as the initial surge brought service down. Customers were trying to connect from multiple locations, like work and home, in an attempt to make a successful transaction.

Pyo Hyun-myong, chief of KTC's mobile business, shared his gratitude and apologized for the downtime some customers experienced via Twitter. "I really appreciate this enormous support from our customers, and I also apologize for the discomfort caused by the ordering system. We will do our best for flawless delivery of the product."

There's no definite release date just yet, other than sometime in September. Sales-killing antenna issue? What sales-killing antenna issue?

If you, like me, were a big scifi/fantasy reader at a young age, you probably remember the "Choose Your Own Adventure" series. It was a series of books in which, every chapter or so, you could make a choice that affected the story, and you were then prompted to turn to a certain page to continue the story after that choice. Edward Packard was the original author of that series, and he's now teamed up with an iPhone app company to create U-Ventures, a throwback iPhone application that works as an interactive, e-book style Choose You Own Adventure. The first book is called "Return to the Cave of Time" (after the first book in the original series), and just like the old series, it offers up a set of second-person branching paths.

Unfortunately, at US$3.99, the app is pretty expensive. Reviews say that there are only about 15 minutes of content to go through here, and while the old books were short, there are a lot of other interactive storytelling options on the App Store in the form of games and other e-books. But as a retro return to the old form, it's a nice taste of what's possible. I'm hoping that Packard will update the idea a little bit and make it a little more iPhone-friendly next time.

Or, ... you could just roll your own. Our own CK Sample III wrote about iPod-friendly CYOA books a long time ago. Download some of those onto your iPod, and you could be right back in those old pre-video game days of interactive storytelling.

[via Slashdot]

[via Macworld]

Going forward, the artists formerly known as SmileOnMyMac will now just be known as Smile. The name change reflects the company's more diversified software offerings outside of the Mac, which now include an iOS version of its popular app TextExpander on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

In addition to TextExpander, Smile's (wow, it takes a while to get used to the name) portfolio of Mac OS X apps includes PDF editor PDFpen, CD/DVD label designer DiscLabel, and its fax app PageSender.

Smile's name change is similar to a move that Apple made. Citing its changing product portfolio, which included products outside of the traditional computing paradigm, Steve Jobs announced at Macworld 2007 (where the iPhone debuted) that the company would be changing its name from Apple Computer to Apple, Inc.

Accompanying the company's name change is a new logo (sans the "on my Mac") and a new URL (it has changed from smileonmymac.com to smilesoftware.com), though both URLs will direct you to the company's site.

Madden is usually the word in football video games around this time of year, but just in case you don't want to spend that $8, Gameloft has a deal for you. Even before the season starts, it's dropped the price on NFL 2011 to just 99 cents. The Gameloft version doesn't quite have as much polish or flair as the EA game, but it's more than serviceable as a football game, and it includes all of your favorite NFL brands and players. If you just want to throw the pigskin around and see if your team can grab a few touchdowns or hold the line, Gameloft's version is great.

If you're a real football junkie, Madden's version is probably worth the extra scratch; in addition to that aforementioned polish, it's got a full management game, and Gameloft's game has you sticking with whatever team they give you. Additionally, Madden's got a playoff mode and a nice community behind it, and obviously, since Gameloft's dropping the price, they're basically declaring a surrender to the bigger EA title.

That's fine, though. The cheapskates among us who don't mind a pared-down pigskin experience still win. You can grab NFL 2011 for just a buck "for a limited time."

It seems like only yesterday when anyone chomping at the bit to get their hands on an iPad had to wait a painfully long time to get one. Then the shipping time dropped down to anywhere from seven to 10 days, and new customers didn't have the shakes of anticipation for too long.

Just recently, though, Apple has dropped the expected ship date for iPads down to as few as three days. Word is that the wait for an iPhone 4 may drop significantly by the end of September as well.

Something I'm wondering about with these wait times is whether it's dissuaded people from purchasing. Have you ever visited the Apple store, seen that the wait time was longer than you were willing to hold out, and changed your mind?

If you've ever wished Facebook would integrate some of the functionality of online check-in apps like Gowalla or Foursquare, you're in luck. The Facebook for iPhone app has been updated to version 3.2 and includes a new feature called "Places."

Places is Facebook's stab at sharing locations with friends via GPS tagging; by tapping a "Check in" button and choosing a location near you, you'll be able to share your current location in your friends' news feeds. Your check-in will also show up on the location's Recent Activity page, assuming the location has a Facebook page. So, you can look forward to a lot of "Johnny Appleseed is at Target in University Heights" posts in your Facebook News Feed in the near future. Hooray? You'll also be able to tag any friends who are with you, and you can see other Facebook users at that location by checking the "People Here Now" section.

Places is currently only available in the USA (meaning that I haven't tested it), but Facebook promises to roll the feature out to other countries and mobile platforms "soon."

I like the idea of this feature in theory, but in practice, as soon as this feature rolls out in my country, I'll be scrambling to disable it. I've always thought of apps like Gowalla and Foursquare as the electronic equivalent of hanging a big sign in front of your house saying "I'm away from home, PLEASE ROB ME!" Add Facebook into the mix, a site already notorious for its questionable privacy record, and it's enough to send people like me into paroxysms of paranoia. Facebook spent over half their Places introduction post stressing that any information users share with Places is completely under users' control, but we've all heard that one before.

Everyone's favorite sticky note has appeared on the Apple Store, which is down as of 12 A.M. Eastern. We're not aware of any upcoming products, and the store being down on any day other than Tuesday usually points to maintenance rather than new stuff. That said, we'll keep an eye on it and update if we see anything new when the store comes back up.

As usual, thanks to everyone who tipped us off.

Update: After roughly three hours of downtime, the store is back up with no obvious changes. Looks like it was just a maintenance update after all.

The iPad plays such a big part in some peoples' lives that you could almost say they're married to their iPads. And as for others, ... they just get married by their iPads -- well, sort of.

The iPad helped facilitate the wedding of Aaron and Katie, as it made its rounds to the priest and then the bride and groom. Not only did the bride, Katie, read her vows to her soon-to-be husband, Aaron, from the iPad, she composed them on it as well.

While the couple's wedding was held outdoors, a gazebo provided shade to help make reading easier; the iPad's glass screen and the sunlight usually don't make a good combination for readability.

Offbeat Bride reports on creative wedding ideas; Aaron and Katie's iPad-enabled nuptials certainly qualify.

If you plan on using your iPad in your wedding, you might as well plan your wedding using an iPad. You can use 100 Wedding Tips and the Wedding Guests app, which aims to help you make a final decision on who to invite to your wedding and who to cut from the list.