Bullz-Eye: When one of your most famous characters is turned into part of a superhero duo with their own comic book (Bluntman & Chronic), you’ve got pretty good geek credentials, but what is it about you, Jason Mewes, that makes you a geek?

Jason Mewes: Um, I would say…I could be considered a geek in the sense of my love of TV shows, comics, and action figures. I collect action figures, I collect Legos, I have a Batman pillowcase and sheet set, and, y’know, I play video games all day: “Call of Duty,” “Black Ops,” “Lego Batman 2: DC SuperHeroes”… And I guess a love of technology. I mean, I don’t know why I’m obsessed with technology, and some of it I don’t know how to use, but I want it. I have an iMac that I’ve had for a couple of years, but now they’ve got that new iMac and I want to go get it. I haven’t, but I want to, even though mine’s perfectly fine, because the new one’s all sleek and slim and amazing. I have the newest iPad, the oldest iPad, and when the iPad Mini comes out, I want to get that. So I don’t know, I guess I’d just say that my love of technology, games, comics, toys, all that…I don’t know if that makes me a child or a nerd. [Laughs.]

BE: How was the experience of being a judge on “King of the Nerds”?

JM: It was awesome. What they talked about, the content and the debating of each topic, was awesome, not to mention getting to sit there as a judge, but also the hosts (Robert Carradine and Curtis Armstrong)…I mean, “Revenge of the Nerds” was one of my favorite movies growing up. I know the whole song. [Starts singing.] “Clap your hands, everybody / And everybody clap your hands!” That was my favorite. And to be able to meet Lewis and Booger…that was a treat. So combining the stuff that they talked about and that we got to judge them and the hosts, it was amazing.

BE: Not to divulge any spoilers, but were there any contestants who, when you saw them on the show, struck you as being potential Kings?

JM: Um, you know… [Hesitates.] There’s a lot of great people on the show, so…I don’t know which one’ll be the King. And I don’t really want to give anything away, because they get kicked off…well, they don’t get kicked off, but they leave the show. But…I don’t know, there was a young lady there, I’ll say that, who was really passionate and was really on her stuff. She knew what she was talking about. So we’ll see what happens.

BE: Are you a fan of reality-competition shows as a rule?

JM: Yeah, man, I love “Design Star.”

BE: Really?

JM: Yeah! Have you heard of it?

BE: I have.

JM: “Design Star” is one of my favorite shows that my wife and I watch together. I love “Ultimate Fighter.” I’m a huge fan of that. I mean, how awesome is that show? So, yeah, I mean, there’s two right there that I can just name off the top of my head that are just awesome and that I’ve watched all of ‘em and downloaded ‘em from iTunes and have kept up with ‘em.

BE: What are some of your other TV obsessions?

JM: I’m obsessed with “24.” I just watched that through for the fourth or fifth time. I’m a big fan of…well, right now, I really dig “Grimm,” “Once Upon a Time,” and “Arrow.” But, see, then I have my old classics that I can watch anytime and enjoy ‘em, like “Murder, She Wrote,” “Matlock,” and “21 Jump Street.” I watch a lot of television, but I don’t necessarily just sit down in front of the television and watch. Like, even if it’s on my iPad when I’m in line at the Starbucks or when I’m on the toilet or something. [Laughs.] I just love TV, man. Particularly shows with cliffhangers.

BE: If you’re enough of a fan of “Murder, She Wrote” and “Matlock” to call them out as favorites, do you have any particular favorite guest stars on those shows?

JM: No, y’know, I just dig all of ‘em. I wouldn’t say there’s any particularly specific guest stars that stand out.

BE: As far as your other TV work, “Todd and the Book of Pure Evil” has become a cult hit, thanks to being available for online streaming.

JM: Yeah, it’s awesome, and I’m really hoping that… [Sighs.] Y’know, I’m so bummed they didn’t do a Season 3, because I really thought they had a lot more to tell. The guys had written…they’d already written for more stories, and I just feel like the show was definitely good enough to do more. I don’t know what it was exactly, if it was too expensive for the studio to make or what, but hopefully Netflix will make it more popular and give it that boost that it needs to get another season going or at least…if not another season, then to do a movie, maybe, to wrap up everything from the end of the last season.

BE: To wrap up, in regards to your work with Mr. Smith, are you excited about the prospect of returning to the ViewAskewniverse for one more “Clerks” movie?

JM: Yes! That would be awesome. I mean, it’s not set in stone yet, but I really hope it does happen. Any time I get to work with Kevin and all the people who are involved, it’s just fantastic.

BE: Have you got any thoughts on where Jay is nowadays?

JM: I think he’s kicking back and doing his thing, sitting and waiting and…creating and inventing something that will change the world. But we’ll see!

Developer:
Xynyn

Compatible with:
iPhone
iPad
iPod Touch

Requires:
iOS 4.2 or later

Price:
Free

Available here

On the subject of being a man, in the song “Mannish Boy” Muddy Waters had this to say:

“I can make love to you woman,
in five minutes time
Ain’t that a man

I’m a full grown man
Man
I’m a natural born lovers man
Man
I’m a rollin’ stone
I’m a man-child”

While that was Muddy Waters estimation of a man, it would be unrealistic to compare your only manliness based on the Muddy Waters scale. Still, though, I’m betting in a moment of channel surfing weakness where you ended up on a chick flick too long, or maybe settled for a light beer and a salad at dinner, the question has briefly crossed your mind.

Are you properly manly enough?

Luckily you need not wonder anymore, as one app now has the balls to tell you. From Xynyn comes the Manalyzer, or Manliness analyzer. Using photo analysis of your hands, and face, the Manalyzer uses figures and ratios determined by research done in over 25 scientific papers to take the analysis of these photos and assign a man score to you. The man score then correlates to five different categories (financial success, aggression, leadership, athletics, and innovation) to determine how much man you are, and what kind of man you will be. In the interest of fairness, there is also a mode that manalyzes women (though please note it is not advised that even a level 10 man try this on their girlfriend).

Now I know what you might say. That there is no way this app can accurately calculate how much of a man you are based on a couple of pictures. To these people I say, I scanned a picture of man great Charles Bronson, and came up with a 10.

That’s scientifically proven enough for me to man up, and name this the app of the week.

Developer:
Hollr, Inc.

Compatible With:
iPhone
iPad
iPod Touch

Requires:
iOS 5.0 or later

Price:

$0.99

Available here

With all of the entertainment and social distractions that smartphones provide, it’s hard to remember that they were originally conceived with the simple intention of providing a tool to help the hyper active through their lives. In that respect, there are a few essential apps that everyone must have on their phones, no matter how far the technology may have come. They’re apps like schedule planners, calendars, and metal band name generators, which have all become standard regardless of the user.

But just because an app is standard, though, doesn’t mean it has to be ordinary. Consider the weather app on your phone. Everyone has one, everyone uses it, but unless you’re one of those guys who spends their free time watching mudslides in Honduras on The Weather Channel, using the basic weather app probably doesn’t constitute the highlight of your day.

Thankfully Hollr, Inc. and their app “Solar”, are looking to change that. “Solar” provides all of the usual weather information (current temperature, forecast,etc), but does it in a genuinely engaging way. Using a minimalist design, “Solar” uses a dynamic color palette on each half of the screen to represent the current weather conditions. The top half shows the weather, while the bottom half reveals the temperature, producing a stylish visual for your phone. Scrolling up on the app provides a forecast for the day, that also modifies the screen design appropriately to match the expected weather, and scrolling down gives you the three day weather report. Extra functionality is provided by double tapping on the screen to set up multiple weather locations, which can then be accessed by scrolling left and right on the app. More than any single feature though, the main selling point of “Solar” is its ability to turn one of the most basic features on your phone, into the most stylish.

Even though this app is discounted right now to the low, low price of 0.99 cents, you probably have some reasonable doubt about buying a weather app when so many good ones are available for free. Plus, for all of its incredibly slick design features, “Solar” still does include the standard text read-out weather temperature as its go-to measurement, and lacks some of the more specific details of competitive apps. But the fact is, you really only have two options for how to check the weather each day. Like a guy who’s trying to see if he needs an umbrella, or:

And if you fall into that later category, the only way to really do it is with “Solar”, my app of the week.

I’m beginning a new mission to try and find the best apps available for smartphones and tablets everywhere. While this mission may one week develop into a noble pursuit of finding useful, game-changing applications, or even just innovative time-killers, for this first edition, I can’t help but share my unhealthy fascination with an app that celebrates one of the greatest and most stupid innovations of the internet age.

I speak, of course, about the animated GIF file.

Short for Graphical Interchange Format, the GIF file is another bitmap image format that is easy to use and fairly versatile. But its real potential wasn’t realized until the 90s when people started to animate their GIF files, allowing for them to display a few precious seconds of motion in a repetitive loop. Then suddenly, after one dancing baby became an overnight sensation, the animated GIF established itself as a staple of internet humor.

Now with the free iPhone app Loopcam, you have the ability to create your own animated GIF files to one day slow down the load time of a webpage and lead to potential seizures. It’s an incredibly simple app that streamlines GIF creation into a few-step process. From there, Loopcam gives you the ability to share your creations with the world via e-mail, texts and all of the usual social media outlets. While there are other, similar apps out there, Loopcam’s user friendly nature and range of features make it the standout of the pack.

The GIF is one internet joke that looks to stay, and that’s largely due to the many, creative “shouldn’t be funny but somehow is” ways that people have used the format. Loopcam allows that same user creativity to thrive anywhere you may be, and for that reason stands triumphant as my first app of the week.

I’m going to keep this short and to the point. I don’t have to. I have plenty more than three reasons you should take a pass on the new iPad, but I think three pretty much sums things up.

1. LTE is essentially nowhere
Apple spent a decent chunk of its time today touting the super-fast LTE speeds the new iPad was ready to exploit. The simple reality is that LTE is available to a tiny minority of the country, and its even spotty for those folks. LTE might be awesome when its out–in all likelihood it’s going to mean a massive increase in your cell phone or home internet access plan–but for nearly all intents and purposes it isn’t out yet.

You could definitely make the case that Apple needed to make the LTE upgrade so that networks didn’t have to wait for those pesky 2012 iPad buyers to get off the network. All the same, you likely won’t be able to take advantage of LTE so why pay for it now?

2. The screen difference doesn’t matter
I’m sorry, nerds, it doesn’t. Certainly not in any meaningful way. The current iPad screen is just 10 inches and ridiculously crisp. Crisp in a way that is almost unnecessary for a 10-inch screen. The new screen is definitely unnecessary for a 10-inch screen. Even for professional applications like showing off videos or photography to potential clients, the increased resolution will do nothing for mediums in which those resolutions are actually applicable. I don’t need to see a document in 2048×1536 on an iPad to imagine what it will look like in print. If my designers are not morons, it will look fine, even if you show it to me on the iPad 2 screen.

At this screen size, resolution is an utterly meaningless arms race. It does nothing but raise the cost of the device.

3. The iPad 2 is $529 with 3G
Bet you didn’t see that coming. I’m not an iPad hater. Hell, I want one. I’ve wanted one for a while now. The only reason I haven’t purchased one is that I’m not sure how much use it would see beyond casual reading (no kids). It’s probably for the best that I try to curtail my Netflix consumption, anyway. But that’s not the point. The point here is that the iPad 2, which is for all practical purposes just as good as the new iPad, can be had for $529 with a 3G sim in it. Pair that with an a la carte data plan and you have a much more useful device than the $500 bragging rights of the latest model.

We’ve talked about gadget gifts and stocking stuffers, and here we have two items that are great for the tech-savvy people on your list who like to create music.

GuitarConnect Pro

This cool device from Griffin Technology (pictured above) is designed to work with any instrument that has a ¼ inch jack (including guitars, bass guitars, electric violins, keyboards, etc.), GuitarConnect Pro was created to turn iPad or iPhone into a compact performance or practice rig. A built-in gain control wheel allows the user to adjust the strength of the instrument’s input signal. Users gain a high-quality, all-digital connection from guitars and other instruments directly into GarageBand and other audio apps. It’s a simple yet very powerful device and music lovers will really appreciate it. And, it fits nicely into a holiday stocking!

Korg nanoKEY2

Here we switch to keyboards, which is a very popular way to create music. The nanoKEY2 is built with 25 keys and allows full control of pitch. It’s one of the devices in the NanoSERIES2 which are all compatible with GarageBand. Imagine how much fun music-lovers can have playing around with this device.

Even if someone hasn’t tried to create their own music in the past, devices like these two above offer an easy way to get started. They spur the creative process, and for that reason alone they make great gifts.

With the holidays behind us, many of you are enjoying the new gadget gifts you received, including iPods and iPads. One way to maximize these and other music players involves upgrading the headphones, and Denon sent us several samples to try out, including the AH-D510R Over-Ear Headphone pictured above and the AH-C560R In-Ear Headphone pictured below. Both sets are part of Denon’s exclusive Mobile Elite series.

I was impressed with both units. Naturally, the expectations on sound quality were higher for the over-ear headphones and the AH-D510R delivered excellent sound quality, particularly when you consider the $99.99 retail price. The AH-D510R features Denon’s Acoustic Optimizer system, which provides equal ambient air pressure on both sides of the diaphragm for naturally balanced sound. In addition, the earpieces feature Denon’s exclusive Hybrid Metal Housing technology, which combines machined aluminum alloy with resonance-free resin. It matched up well with a much higher-priced set of headphones I use regularly. The headphones are large as you might expect and they don’t come with a travel case, so using them for travel might be a little difficult.

The AH-C560R In-Ear Headphone was also impressive, though I’m partial to the better sound quality from over-ear headphones. I’ll take better sound over convenience any day. That said, everyone needs in-ear headphones in our portable world and this Denon set offers a solid option. For the $99.99 retail price retail price you also get a handy, compact carrying case along with a number of alternate foam tips that make it easier to find a good fit for your ears.

Both sets feature an inline three button remote on the cord that can control select iPod and iPhone models, and includes a microphone that lets you record voice memos with select iPod models and answer calls with select iPhone models. With the inline remote, you can control volume level as well as play, pause, forward and back functions. This handy feature adds nice value, particularly if you own Apple products.

You can’t go wrong with the Denon headphones, and if you really want to enjoy your new music gadgets, check out our Bullz-Eye music reviews as well for some great new music suggestions.

Features of the Holiday Host Guide (iTunes link) include a virtual wine cellar containing more than 100 new releases handpicked for the holidays; dozens of creative and classic cocktails recipes complete with video demonstrations from expert William Grant & Sons mixologists and ambassadors. The app also offers fresh insights on hospitality and etiquette, tips on organizing a menu, and an array of unique party gifts. The “Chef as Host” function offers party insight and recipes from some of America’s finest chefs. The easy-to-manage party-planning function generates a complete shopping list based on the items you select and enables you to purchase all of the necessary products and ingredients right through the app! Planning your holiday event has never been easier!

The Holiday Host Guide iPad application can be purchased for the introductory price of $2.99. Following the holiday season, this multipurpose and multidimensional application will be continually updated, making it ideal for party hosts throughout the year.