Catching up on the happenings around the blogosphere is a difficult task. Luckily, I happened to stumble upon John Burke's Download Squad piece on the release of Regator [iTunes link].

So, if you'd like to get caught up on the latest news, insights and commentary on Rod Blagojevich around the blogosphere (now that's a tongue twister), Regator could be of assistance.

Regator's user-interface is similar to USA Today's iPhone app [iTunes link]. A horizontal menu displays a number of categories -- such as sports, lifestyle, and entertainment -- that are touch-scrollable. Tapping on a category displays its subcategories. For instance, NBA news would fall under the basketball branch of the sports tree. While a breadcrumb trail displays your viewing hierarchy, the browsing menu disappears as you scroll down; this was my only annoyance with the app, although it's a relatively minor one.

Regator's stand-out feature is what it calls "trends." Like a tag cloud on a blog, in which bigger clouds are usually associated with more hot topics or issues, trends provides a listing of the latest hot topics around the blogosphere.

For instance, a look at sports trends shows Tiger Woods at the top of the list -- which is no surprise given Y.E. Yang's surprising victory over him this past weekend. And Brett Favre's retiring-unretiring-retiring-unretiring-retiring-unretiring puts him near the top of the trends list as well.

Regator is available as a free download at the iTunes app store. Domo arigato, Regator!

If you've been reading TUAW today, you already know all of the exciting news from today's event. However, some people would rather hear it straight from Steve's mouth instead of reading the "spoilers," so here's your chance. Apple just posted the keynote video for the Apple Special Event.

You can watch the keynote here, or wait for Apple to update the Keynotes podcast [iTunes Link] soon with the new video. It's 53 minutes long, so be sure to lock the door and put up the "Do Not Disturb" sign for the full hour.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Inspired by Engadget and by popular request, here's an iPhone-free feed of TUAW posts courtesy of Yahoo Pipes for all of you who are sick to death about all things iPhone. To subscribe, click the Subscribe button at the top left (just under "Edit Source") and select from Get as RSS, My Yahoo, Add to Google, Sub Bloglines, Royo, Netvibes, Newsgator, My AOL or Get results by Email or Phone.

Of course, you'll be missing out on all the excitement but sometimes it's nice to lead a simpler, less-complicated life. Enjoy the feed.