Not only is it back and fully compliant with the SDK agreement, C64 is also up to 30% better than previous versions in terms of performance (battery life and smoother game play). The addition of International Soccer, International Basketball and International Tennis brings the total number of playable games up to 8, with Bruce Lee and others arriving in the 1.2 update set to arrive in mid December. C4 is available now in the app store for $5. [iTunes]

There is something cathartic about eating an old gadget or any other object that tickles your fancy. It may be a freaky tauntaun or a giant Wiimote. Perhaps a bunch of iPhone icons or an R2-D2. Whatever it is, the moment you sink your teeth in a perfect piece of frosted tech is like stepping into fresh snow, or watching the birds shine under the chirping sun after the rain is gone.

It just feels good.

Myself? I like to stuff my face with giant Lego brick cakes. Especially Lego carrot cakes. Call me crazy, but the cake tastes better thanks to its iconic power. Like cannibal tribes who ate their enemies to absorb their qualities, eating a frosted brick makes me absorb bites of good memories. They make me go back in time as I crush keys with my molars, downing sugar, egg, and flour memories through my gastrointestinal tract. And then pooping them out.

See? I'm already back at 13 just by looking at all the photos that Obsolete author, Giz collaborator, and retrogadget wizard Anna Jane Grossman would eat herself. The objects, not the photos. She would eat the photos if they were Polaroids made of pierogies, though.

The only thing I am missing is a Sinclair ZX Spectrum or a Sega Master System. Someone get me that cake and I will be complete. [Obsolete]

Tsk Tsk. Manomio has this to say:

Unfortunately, Apple has pulled the C64 Application from their store as it was discovered by some users that it was possible to enable the Basic program through the interface. We have now fixed the issue and our application has been re-submitted for approval by Apple.

We thank you all for your support and fingers crossed we hope to launch again over the next few days.

The $5 app supports licensed game images sold by Manomio, and $5 gets you 5 games. Included are Dragons Den, Le Mans, Jupiter Lander, Arctic Shipwreck, and Jack Attack. More licensed games are expected to cost about 99c to $2 each.

Hopefully Manomio can sort its shit out soon. Stay tuned. [Touch Arcade]

It is very similar to the first C64 laptop I built, with the key difference being it uses the newer 1541-III Ultimate SD-card based storage solution / disk emulator. USB and Ethernet ports for this device are open and available on the front of the unit.

Want it? You'll need to wait until the auction goes live. All proceeds will benefit the American Cancer Society, so really, it'd be a good deed to buy it. Right? [Ben Heck via CrunchGear]

Why the rejection, you ask? Here's Apple's take, form letter style:

Thank you for submitting C64 1.0 to the App Store. We've reviewed C64 1.0 and determined that we cannot post this version of your iPhone application to the App Store because it violates the iPhone SDK Agreement; "3.3.2 An Application may not itself install or launch other executable code by any means, including without limitation through the use of a plug-in architecture, calling other frameworks, other APIs or otherwise. No interpreted code may be downloaded and used in an Application except for code that is interpreted and run by Apple's Published APIs and built-in interpreter(s)."

Right. All well and good, except that there are plenty of accepted apps floating around out there that do the exact same thing (including the Zork-tastic Frotz).

Worse still, the publisher, Manomio, had secured all the licenses to run such an app from Killoo Apps, the current owner of the Commodore 64 license. But that's not all. How about another kick in the nuts, just for good measure? You see, not only did Manomio have the license, it also had the blessing of Apple Europe, which was "really excited" about the app, said Manomio CEO Brian Lyscarz.

That blessing got misplaced, apparently, as Manomio learned this week. Lyscarz and others, myself included, still hold out hope that the app will be accepted in one form or another. [Touch Arcade- Thanks, Ponies]

Breadbox64 runs on the embedded Contiki OS, and lets you tweet and view your friends' timeline from the ancient platform, provided you have the proper networking gear installed. It will even automatically update your timeline every two minutes. The UI is as 8-bit as can be, though I wouldn't call it the most aesthetically pleasing thing in the world (you didn't expect it to look like TweetDeck, did you now?). Anyways, you can download it if you want here. It's good for a novelty tweet or two. [Van den Brande]

The laptop houses original Commodore 64 hardware, including less convenient throwbacks like the cartridge reader and keyboard (though the keyboard has been chiseled down a bit). Upgrades include the new 80stastic case, a slew of LEDs, one Nokia LCD, two speakers and an SD slot to load game images.

Oh, and another neat factoid: The laptop uses a Gamecube power supply. [benheck via Kotaku]

NetRacer also supports joystick controls, has sound effects and scrolling animations — which is pretty crazy when you think about the hardware it's running on. In addition to the LAN party (rumored to be for C64 A-listers only), the event featured Snogpitch's coveted C-1 computer, soldering stations, impromptu tutorials in 6502 assembler, frankengadgets, Mountain Dew, and a raffle! [C=4 Expo via NetRacer via SlashDot]

The technical specs:

The synth is built into an original Commodore 64 computer case. And features 8 SID chips (4 stereo pairs - one SID per ear x 4 voices). Each SID chip has 3 oscillators and a variety of other features like filters, ADSR, ringmod, sync. The synth has a very flexible (and simple to use) modulation matrix, LFO, bassline sequencers, and stores patches in presets.

[Flickr via Technabob]

Then again, maybe people will purchase a Commodore for the ironic value, giving them the much needed boost to get traction in a market dominated by names like Falcon and Alienware. – Jason Chen

Comodore Returns [Wired]