Posted By Ragart on Saturday, December 27, 2008 under General | No Comments
27
Dec
Here’s just a quick thought I had about the iPhone as a stocking stuffer. I was walking through the mall on a last minute shopping spree (ok, well actually I was trying to get everything last minute…) and I saw this massive ad on the wall for the iPhone (shown above). Alright, so you get somebody a present for about $200 – it’s going to be a best friend or a family member or a significant other. This isn’t just secret Santa pocket change. But the other thing is the plan that you inevitably had to sign up and pay for to get this phone.
I think the iPod Touch can be a great “stocking stuffer”, although anything that costs 20x as much as the stocking probably belongs under the tree instead. People take the iPod Touch out of the stocking, sync their music, and then enjoy the device without having to pay anything more. But the iPhone? I mean, I’m a huge fan of the iPhone, but surprising somebody with $60 of monthly payments for a data and voice plan for three years on Rogers or Fido (in Canada) just seems kinda mean! I think you can buy the iPhone outside of a contract for about $700-750, but we’re not talking about the stuffing at that range. We’re talking about a turkey.
Obviously I’m exaggerating, but it just hit me that this was a rather strange way for Apple to advertise their super phone. I didn’t think a locked, contracted phone belonged in a stocking. I thought stockings were for chocolates, little plush dolls, iPods, or…well, legs!
About a month ago I got a package with two Sena Leatherskin cases, one for the 2G and one for the 3G. I was pretty psyched about trying the Leatherskin case out since it was essentially the Dockable case I had reviewed (and loved) before, but without the cover flap …and the the Dockable part (wait, so how are they the same?!).
Without those features, is it still worth purchasing a LeatherSkin for your 2G or 3G?
Alright, so this review took me longer than it should have. You really shouldn’t experiment with multiple machine syncing when you’re reviewing what is essentially an RPG. I was about a quarter through the game and I ended up destroying my save file by syncing all my applications all over again. Ugh!
In any case, I’m back on track now and ready to give you fine folk the heads-up on Soul Trapper for the iPhone. This one’s pretty different from any other title we’ve seen on the App Store, as it’s a fully voice-driven adventure with very little graphical input. But is it any fun? Or is it more of an interactive audio book?
Ok, I’m pretty much blown away by how awesome RTM’s native iPhone App is for a 1.0 release. For one thing, it’s doing everything ToDo was doing for me even with all the dot upgrades – and what’s more, it’s doing it faster! The one major gripe I have with ToDo is that it’s just a little too slow at syncing with my RTM Pro account. But RTM’s app syncs very quickly with my account (well d’uh!) and it also brings the tags feature to my iPhone – something I was missing in my old setup.
This allows me to simplify my task lists. Whereas before I had JAMM and JAiB as separate lists in RTM, I can now keep them in one list and just tag the items as JAMM (just another mobile monday) or JAiB (this site!).
I’m very happy that the app is free, but a little disappointed that it’s only offered to pro subscribers. My sister would have loved to check the app out on her iPod Touch, but she isn’t sure she wants to fork up $25/year for the pro privileges. I think RTM would get quite a few customers if they decided to sell a sync-less version of the program – or at least a basic account of sorts that could be upgraded to pro at a later point (once people get hooked to RTM goodness).
Anybody else have any thoughts on the app? Like it more or less than the other to-do list apps out there?
So I was turned onto some new games this weekend. One costs $0.99 and one is completely free – but they’re both freaking fantastic for burning a few minutes.
Topple (shown left) is a really great twist on the Tetris idea. Instead of stacking blocks and avoiding a top line, you have to balance them on top of one another (you can also tilt them with the accelerometer) until you reach a certain height. The catch? The ground you’re playing on isn’t always flat, and you’ve got to stack the blocks before the time runs out. It’s an absolute STEAL at $0.99 and everyone has to check this game out. It’s beautiful!
Mazefinger is the company’s other game, and it’s completely free. It consists of mazes that you have to guide your finger through. When you put your finger on the screen you’re half blinded by lightning that shoots onto the spot you press, and you’ve got to find your way to the end of the maze before time runs out. The part I love most about this game? The sound. It literally shouts your score at you at the end of each maze as well as at the end of each level (consisting of five mazes). There’s nothing like your iPhone shouting “AWESOME!” at you five times in a row. Did I mention it was free?
If you think about it it’s kinda funny that we love our high tech goods in leather. We’ve got all this shiny plastic and metal and we protect it with ridiculously old technology. But somehow it works, and it does a heck of a job protecting the device, too.
Today JAiB’s microscope falls upon the two cases from Sena for the iPhone (and iPhone 3G — for one of ‘em). One is a simple leather slip case and the other lets you dock without ever having to take the phone out of its protective shell. I’ve heard a lot of good things about Sena from friends of mine, so I was pretty anxious to check these cases out.
Hit the jump for a full review with lots of pictures.
Posted By Ragart on Saturday, October 11, 2008 under General | 2 Comments
11
Oct
Today we’re taking a look at Brando’s iPower charger for the iPhone (well, 3G, really). It’s a relatively rare breed of chargers that actually fit on the devices they charge. I’ve taken a look at the Mophie charger over on JAMM but Brando offers a similar sled charging form factor for a just under half the price. The 2200 maH battery on this model sounds like it’ll give a fair amount more power and they’ve even thrown in a boosted speaker in the back for some added value. Hit the jump to see how this affordable charger/speaker set fares!
and that’s it. According to Gizmodo, these rip-offs contain just enough circuitry and power to show you the apple logo when you boot them up. The premise is that the battery is broken, but it probably looks real if the price is low enough for a person to buy a phone with dead batteries. Leonardo DiCaprio plays the role of the batteries and Rutger Hauer plays the role of the Apple logo. It’s all a very good show. This rip-off makes the Meizu M8 look like a king.
Pangea’s latest iPhone title is another port from their set of Mac games. You play as Skip, a grasshopper whose backpack is stolen by a bee on the way to visit his famil-ee. He decides not to take this insult lying down and chases after the bee throughout the game’s 10 levels. The makeup reminds me a lot of Pangea’s most recent game, Billy Frontier, in which you play a cowboy throughout a number of different and loosely related mini games. Bugdom 2 certainly looks a lot more polished and put-together at first glance, but hit the jump to see how well their 3D adventure translates from a keyboard and mouse to an accelerometer and touch-screen.
edit — whoops, just wanted to add that 2.2 is NOT released yet. These are just some leaked screenies from devs and whatnot.
This isn’t a ground-breaking change, but apparently Apple thought that the magnifying glass button in Safari wasn’t getting enough use. So now they’ve changed it and put a mini search bar just to the right of the address bar and moved the refresh button right inside of the URL bar. Things certainly look a bit more cramped, but I’ll wait until I give it a shot meself to start my complaining.
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Here’s just a quick thought I had about the iPhone as a stocking stuffer. I was walking through the mall on a last minute shopping spree (ok, well actually I was trying to get everything last minute…) and I saw this massive ad on the wall for the iPhone (shown above). Alright, so you get somebody a present for about $200 – it’s going to be a best friend or a family member or a significant other. This isn’t just secret Santa pocket change. But the other thing is the plan that you inevitably had to sign up and pay for to get this phone. 
