App News & Review: Ghost In The Shell ‘Optical Camouflage Camera’

Are you a Ghost In The Shell fan and wish that you could have some kind of optical camouflage to blend into your surroundings. Then this app brings you one step closer to that dream in the form of the Ghost In The Shell ‘Optical Camouflage Camera’ app for the iPhone.

The app released this week by Production I.G. to celebrate the 3D version of ‘Ghost In The Shell: Solid State Society’ allows you to make a person or certain objects blend into its surroundings. Here’s the official description of the application and how it works: This camera allows you to take pictures or record videos of objects that turn transparent and blend in with the background. The visual effect is exactly as the one achieved with the Optical Camouflage featured in Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. With this camera, you can also take pictures or videos of transparent people.

Podcast Episode #29

The Anime Chronicle Podcast with Jeremy and Hugo Jackson is back for nearly 90 minutes of Anime based discussion! This week we’re joined by good friend of the show Andy Hanley from UK-Anime.net to talk a whole host of topics with us!

On this edition of the podcast we preview the big Ayacon convention that goes down at Warrick University in just a few weeks time, we bring you various news notes from the world of Anime and J-Music including the Beez Entertainment warehouse being caught up in the London riots and lots of iPhone apps to tell you about (especially if your an Evangelion fan.)

But that’s not all, we also bring you reviews of the following DVDs: ‘Yu-Gi-Oh: Bonds Beyond Time’, ‘Sekirei – The Complete Collection’, TheMelancholy of Haruhi Suzimya – Season 2′ and ‘Birdy – The Mighty Decode, Volume 1’.

It’s a packed show of Anime based discussion, and it’s available for your listening pleasure now!

Download – Right Click, Save As HERE
Download through iTunes HERE

App News: Dir En Grey release official iPhone app

It’s been a busy few weeks for Dir En Grey. They’ve released their new album ‘Dum Spiro Spero’, started a world tour in support of the album in Germany at the Wacken Open Air festival last week and are due to play at the Camden Koko in London this coming Friday (providing certain troubles in London don’t say otherwise). Now they are reaching out to their fanbase further with the introduction of an official iPhone application!

The ‘Dir En Grey – OUROBOROS’ app is based on their previous album ‘OUROBOROS’ released back in 2008. (A somewhat odd choice to me personally seeing as the new album has just been released, but then again it is potentially the album that most UK fans are familiar with.) It features photos from their two concerts at the Budokan Hall in Tokyo that was later released on CD/DVD along with slide shows, access to setlists from concerts and app exclusive extras to customise your handset with. Below is the official information for the app –

“The app features live photos from the 2 DAYS show at NIPPON BUDOKAN in January 2010. On top of that, the app offers live photos from their domestic and overseas tour including shots from their appearance at music festivals. Carefully selected photos from the official photo book for sale only by mail order in Japan and unreleased photos are presented in realistic, sensational and uplifting feelings of DIR EN GREY’s live. When you tap on a photo, you will be able to view the set list of each show. You also have the option to view photos as a slideshow and have access to checking out some band interview. The app also comes with DIR EN GREY icons and skin to customize your iPhone with. With so many features including the ability to watch video previews, the app is user-friendly and simple to use.”

The app is available to purchase through the iTunes app store HERE for the price of £3.99

App News – Gundam themed iPhone GPS released in Japan!

The folks over at Andriasang have reported that iPhone users in Japan are able to purchase what could well be the start of an amazing trend of applications when it comes to the field of Satellite Navigation, otherwise more commonly referred to here in the UK as ‘Sat-Nav’ and ‘GPS’ in the USA.

Namco Bandai have unveiled the first of it’s line of ‘Character Navi’ apps for the Apple iPhone. Which is a Sat-Nav app with the theme of an Anime. The first series to be immortalised in getting Japanese drivers from point A to point B is… Gundam!

That’s right, for approximately £30.00 in Japan, granting you one year of usage, iPhone 4 and 3GS owners can have the Earth Federation or Zeon direct them to their destination. (You can choose either as your theme for the app.)