Author Archive for shigzeo
Quickoffice Connect Mobile Suite for iPad in Review
About the text: don't even ask...
Last year I was hot ‘n bothered for a mobile office app. What I got was Quickoffice, an app that went through a lengthy teething stage, but eventually became an iPhone keeper. This year’s Quickoffice Connect Mobile for the iPad is the culmination of a year’s worth of tweaks, good ol’ fashioned GUI design, and a glut of file support.
Better than iPad: LG’s amazing tablet computer will be
a leaked picture of LG's amazing iPad killer
If anyone – anyone at all – can better Apple at building devices that people want to use, it is LG, the South Korean electronics giant, who more and more, prove themselves up to the task. LG are innovative. They are full of clever designers. When I sat with them in an informal Q&A last year about upcoming iPhone-killer smart phones, it was obvious they ‘got it’. The problem I see with the iPad is that it is just so ungraceful; you can’t type on it, you can’t create on it – you can’t do aught but consume media. That is the iPad’s problem. Android will fix all that and LG will magically wave the form factor away. Combined with Android’s wealth of productivity , its smooth, fragmentation-free hardware glut, and its simplicity will show Apple who is boss – that is, if LG can help them out.
If you’ve ever owned an LG phone, or read through an LG manual; if you’ve enjoyed their incredible style and poise in the marketplace, you know what I’m talking about. LG, if anyone can better than iPad, it is you, the Yoda of electronics.
^^ sic ^^
Protect iPhone 4less – saving Apple’s glass ;)
You could grab an iPhone 4 for a good dent in your month’s rent, then give out for the 3 year Apple Guarantee and BAM! the nervous sweat from a first date destroys your iPhone and Apple won’t touch it because it simply covers their glass, not yours. Well, for the price of Apple’s iPhone Protection Plan, you could have two years of coverage for all normal out of warrantee failures such as drops, spills, leaks, cracks, etc. Protect iPhone 4less is a FREE download and covers ALL iPhone models. Should you do something bad to your baby, SquareTrade will cover the cost of shipping to and from their repair depot.
There is a catch though: you have to have an American iPhone. You can’t be some Australian bloke with an iPhone and want to sneak into this clever deal. No, your phone will have to be bought in America either at an Apple Store or say… from Ebay. For Canadians who got an iPhone from the USA, this SquareTrade’s offer takes especial advantage of the longest unprotected border in the world.
Summary: Protect iPhone 4less costs 99$, covers all iPhone models and covers all normal out of warrantee failures. It is also currently rated at 4 1/2 stars at the American iTunes store.
Update: Use the code APPRV when purchasing the warranty to receive $5 off, making it $94 for the 2 year coverage.
SquareTrade, Inc., Protect iPhone 4less, 1.43MB – Free
More details after the gap:
DIY iPad case: ぞうのハナコ (the elephant flower girl)
Introducing the elephant flower girl DIY iPad case
While big name livery gets all the headlines, it’s the products of real makers that stand out. Really, what’s 5$ of felt and a few hours of your time? The above is the product of my genius wife, who having run out of room in her Celtic colouring book, decided to make a case for her iPad. I showed her my scheduler-esque Marware Eco-Vue iPad case (certainly svelte for a scheduler – and pictured here for the Kindle), but she wasn’t impressed. She wanted cute. We headed to PixDix, to the Apple Store, to BestBuy, to #Apple, and to various online retailers; not a one presented anything quite cute enough. Frustrated, but still kicking, my wife found SopoShop, and a really cute elephant pouch. Every poet is a thief and every biology lab researcher can replicate the finest of details, so while we bypassed SopoShop’s unfortunate dearth of iPad cases, we did come away with the elephant flower girl.
Piccies and more after the gap:
iPhone 4 to be a hit in Samsung’s Korea
Good shot, JoongAng
I was walking past the lovely espresso machine in my wife’s semi-lovely work place: Institute Pasteur Korea, today, and saw the ironic JoongAng Daily (a bloody big paper) headline: iPhone 4’s D-day beats expectations. Indeed, the iPhone 3gS has been a hit in the political island of the Republic of Samsung South Korea since last November when South Korea finally allowed smart phones into the country. The same 2009 also allowed the first non-Korean handsets in, severing Oprah-thick layers of corporate sabotage. Korea is beset by anti-competitive practices. While Joongan Daily and its corporate supporters may not like that a foreign company is making waves in the gaming nation, the general populace is all atwitter about the iPhone. The news of course is that in less than 13 hours, pre-orders for the iPhone 4 reached 130 000 units.
More scathe after the gap:
ID’s Rage screams on the iPhone 4
Sorry for the Flash video
iPhone FPS fans have plodded through a dearth of games for far too long. Sure, there have been some hits, but be honest: they aren’t exactly magical. Sure, there is Wolfenstein 3D Classic, Rise of the Triad, Doom Classic, and a handful of other ported titles out there, but not a one really screams, ‘gotta have it!’
Mark my words: Rage’ll be different. It’s tailored for the iPhone and iPad, sports good controls, and looks freakin’ amazing while sliding silkily on at 60 FPS on the iPhone 4. At the moment, Rage is still a tech demo, so you and I will have to wait a bit. Thankfully, Rage is scheduled to be slotted in at the App Store later this year. It’s also rumoured to come at a very competitive price.
RageGame has got all the gore on this upcoming title.
Average Selling Price: iPhone worth 8 Nokia or 2 Blackberry phones
The iPhone's ASP nearly totals the competition
The ever-resourceful @DaringFireball got me onto a clever fellow by the name of Horace Dediu who runs asymco, a quirky but engaging mobile-focused blog. He does a lot of his own research, loads his site with great articles, and gets clicks. This one just happens to be his research on the average selling price (ASP) of mobile phone competitors: Nokia, Apple, LG, Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericcson, and RIM. The results are sour grapes for most of the companies; only Apple and RIM come away without looking foolish.
More after the gap:
Golden Photography impressions: Golden Hour and The Photographer’s Ephemeris
Not the perfectest of shots, but made possible thanks to Golden Hour
A recent trip to Canada changed my life in many ways. Firstly, it severed the ties I had to a silly corporate decision; and secondly, it put an iPad into my hands. Thanks to Apple’s “magical” device, I’ve been able to take gigabytes and gigabytes of photos (though I’ve uploaded only a few to my flickr account), sort them, and offload them later to my lappy, that foul tool that I no longer have to carry around. Along the way, I picked up two interesting iPhone/iPod touch apps: The Photographer’s Ephemeris and Golden Hour. Both tools do the same basic thing: tell where in the sky the sun is; it’s how they do them that is the interesting bit.
Earsonics EM3Pro custom earphone in Review – quite simply the best!
Earsonics have a killer lineup. Their SM3 professional universal monitor is fantastic, blowing the socks off a disgustingly large portion of the audiophile earphone market with its easy-to-drive architecture and beautiful sound. Its lofty price tag is worth it. So how about Earsonics’ top end; how ‘bout their customs? you might ask. Same old story. The triple-driver, dual-crossover EM3Pro is a beautiful product at a fantastic[er] price that should come away from a firefight with the biggest and best in the land without a hitch.
RISK: The Official Game in Review – Ukraine is back in full scanline glory!
Back in my review of Conquest, I was quite sure that the perfect RISK game had been created. Simple, but loaded with extras, its gameplay is pointed and excellent. But Conquest isn’t an official game. Instead, Ukraine-smashing fans have looked forward to this summer’s release of EA’s RISK. Out it is and for better or worse, it is thrashing my good hard free time.
