1. 16 Aug


    Quick iPhone 4 “Apple Bumpers” impressions.

    I got my free case from Apple today. My immediate impression holding the package was “Wow how’d they sell these little things for $30?”. That being said once opened, it feels well made. It easily fit over my SGP skin, in fact the skin likely makes it fit extra snug.

    After rocking a “naked” iPhone 4 since June 24, the “Bumpers” makes the iPhone feel a little fat and more rugged. This gives me mixed feelings… It feels like I have a fair amount of protection without having a full covering case. However I love the feel of the naked iPhone 4 and now my phone is too fat to fit in my Incase belt holster case, that I enjoy because it frees-up pocket space.

    I’ll give the Bumper more time before I give it my final judgment. If it doesn’t work in my car I have a feeling I’ll be going naked again.

    UPDATE: The “Bumpers” case does NOT work with my car AUX cable. This seems to be a common problem with almost any iPhone/iPod car audio cable or dock. I’ve opted against using this case as it’s a pain to remove the bumper just to use accessories… This is a major design flaw.

    Pros: Added protection without a bulky case. Good build quality and finish; looks like a part of the phone. Fits over protective skins. All buttons are easily accessible. Raised rubber edges gives front/back some clearance and slip resistance when set on surfaces.

    Cons: Feels fat and plastic like an iPhone 3G after being accustom to a naked iPhone 4 and doesn’t look quite as sexy. Is too large to fit most belt cases. Dock port and headphone jack might be too small for some 3rd party cables and accessories.

     

  2. 26 Mar



    Astro A40 Audio System quick impressions


    (photo from Astro’s site)

    I received my A40 yesterday! I was impressed right-away by the packaging. Both the headset and MixAmp came in large heavy black boxes with orange accent color inside. They sell you on the quality of the product before you even get into the product itself. The headset comes inside of a heavy duty travel case too (I’ll try to post photos later). The build quality of both the A40 headset and MixAmp feel great.

    I gave the system a test run last night on my Xbox 360 with Borderlands co-op. I’m not sure if it’s the best 5.1 mixed game, but I was quite impressed with how easily I could pick-out the direction of my co-op friends and enemies just from the audio. The biggest plus over regular headphones was being able to voice chat while enjoying being enveloped by the in-game sound.

    The only downside I can see so far is the amount of cable clutter, because these headphones are not wireless. If you don’t use batteries for the MixAmp it requires a USB cable for power, plus the optical audio cable from the console. You then plug the headset into the amp, and when on 360 you run another cable from the controller to the amp for voice chat (up to 4 cables to/from the amp). It’s not too bad though for the features you get. On PC you can run it through just USB if you want.

    That’s my quick impressions so far. Overall I’m quite happy with the A40 Audio System. I just need to buy some longer optical cables and maybe some cable sleeving to cutdown on cable clutter from the console (combine the USB and optical).

     

  3. 3 Nov



    ELIMINATE: ngmoco's free iPhone FPS game

    The game is now out for download on iTunes. It’s the latest hotness right now. The game itself is free, but you can buy (with real money) additional “power cells” that allow you to play in ranked online games that earn you in-game credits for buying upgrades. Players have a limited number of free power cells each day, so once expended players can only play offline practice games (unless they buy more power cells). It’s an interesting implementation of in-game “micro transactions”. I’d just be concerned that players who spend a lot of money in-game will gain a large unfair advantage over players who chose not to invest as much (or any) money in the game.

    The game itself runs great on my iPhone 3GS. The graphics are simple yet impressive for iPhone, similar to Quake Live. The controls are the only sticky part. The game controls by on-screen touch directional sticks that provide no tactile feedback, so it’s hard to tell if your fingers are in the right place during the heat of combat. During the quick practice match I tried (and won), I found it hard to have precise control over either aim or movement. It may become easier with practice.

    Check it out. It’s free.

    My name is NetworkShadow on the online component Plus+ add me if you want to try playing online.

     

  4. 20 Jul



    Layers For iPhone - Review

    Right away the advantages of Layers over all previous iPhone painting applications is apparent from the name. iPhone art programs have been limited to a single layer until now. Brushes and Colors! have been the iPhone art apps of choice, both make great use of the iPhone to allow you to paint or sketch on the go digitally. However both lack layers.

    Layers for iPhone screenshot First Layers Painting (iPhone)

    I took most of the day, between things, working on the above painting as my first test of Layers. Once you get used to the interface it’s actually easier to work with than Brushes (my favorite iPhone art app — until now?). Now that I’ve gotten the hang of Layers I’m sure my next painting will be better and take less time.

    Anyone who has used graphics programs with layers before will know that layers allow for greater control, detail, and depth in an image because you can edit each layer independently. For example backgrounds can be easily added to paintings of objects or characters without worrying about not painting over the edges of your object or character. Layers supports up to 5 separate layers and a 512x512 pixel canvas, and with the Mac Replay Viewer (very similar to the Brushes Viewer) can export up to 4096x4096 pixel JPEGs or layered PSDs.

    In addition to exporting larger format images, the Replay Viewer can play back the painting process and export the video to QuickTime format. So far the only negative experience I’ve had is with the Mac Replay Viewer… There are a few bugs with the first version of the viewer that should be fixed soon according to the the official Layers Twitter. UPDATE: The Replay Viewer has been updated to fix the issues I was having.

    Layers will easily replace Brushes as my new favorite mobile art application. It would be hard to go back to working on a single layer. [$4.99 on iTunes]

    UPDATE #2 (07-23-09): I’ve been having a few more issues with the Replay Viewer. The below image illustrates the difference in quality between the native 512x512 images and exported higher resolution images.
    Layers Viewer Export Comparison

     

  5. 7 Jan



    1UP Video Game Podcasts “Replacements” Impressions 1

    On my quest to fill the 1UP Podcasts void in my life I am listening to a bunch of podcasts I have never listened to before. So far I’ve listened to:

    • Player One Podcast (iTunes link) I picked-up on an after holiday episode so it was rather bland. The hosts are ex-EGM staff so I went back to the previous episode to get a better taste. It might grow on me but I’m not overly impressed yet… I’ll give it a chance and stay subscribed for now.
    • Gamers With Jobs (iTunes link) This was also an after holiday episode where they were missing someone but it was still actually enjoyable. In the episode I heard they talked a bit more about obscure PC games than I’d care to hear about. I’ll stay subscribed.
    • Giant BombCast (iTunes link) It’s a bit more informal than the 1UP podcasts. If they added slightly more structure it could be great. I do like that they jump right into what they were playing after the opening silliness. I’ll be subscribing and I’m sure it’ll grow on me.
    • Idle Thumbs (iTunes link) I enjoyed this one within the first 5 minutes and was fun all the way through. They actually have the best “1UP podcast” style synergy between the podcasters that makes it much more engaging. They also stay on the subject of games better than some podcasts. Less structure than 1UP podcasts, but still very good.