Monthly Archives: October 2009

ROCK BAND rocks the iPhone

Posted on October 19, 2009 by Shaun

rbEA has released ROCK BAND for the iPhone and seemingly done a very good job. It is now available for £5.99 / $9.99 and is yet another huge franchise to grace the iPhone- will it ever end?

“Take your band on the road with 20 legendary songs from great bands like Smashing Pumpkins, Lynyrd Skynyrd & the Beastie Boys, all delivered with the highest, MP3-quality sound.

Rock out solo on lead bass, drums, guitar & vocals, or start a band with other rockers from around the world! Jump into Quickplay for casual jam sessions, or take it on the road in Tour Mode in EA Mobile’s ROCK BAND!”

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Droid sounding good, not looking so pretty

Posted on October 19, 2009 by Shaun

droidBGR has posted a hands-on with the Motorola Droid and included a selection of photos to show what it looks like. As you can see below, the first impressions are highly positive, but I’m not so keen on the looks.

  • It’s running Android 2.0. Duh.
  • It’s thin. Just slightly thicker than an iPhone 3GS and the thinnest QWERTY-slider we’ve ever seen.
  • It is the fastest Android device we’ve ever used. (It’s running a TI OMAP3430 processor)
  • The feel of the device is very reminiscent of the OQO 02 model computer. Just smaller. It’s metal with a non-spring-assisted slide, very sturdy, and half soft-touch plastic.
  • Awesome capacitive display. Plus it’s huge. Easily the best screen we’ve ever seen on an Android handset, and an amazing screen overall.
  • The QWERTY keyboard is actually pretty usable and has a soft-touch rubberized finish. We’ve been told the keyboard design isn’t final on this unit, thus the two no-shows.
  • Have we mentioned this phone flies? It’s the Android device to beat, and easily the most impressive. From what we’ve been told, Google had a direct hand in the Motorola Droid. Something to the point of almost dictating every move Motorola made when designing and making the phone. Interesting, huh?
  • There’s a desktop cradle/charger that will ship with the Motorola Droid that we’ve been playing around with. It turns your Droid into a “multimedia station” and displays local weather, the time, etc.
  • No one wants to listen, but it makes the CLIQ looks like a child’s toy (partly because it is, and partly because the Droid, even in its non-final form, is the most impressive phone we’ve used since the iPhone. It’s positively amazing).
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Survey Finds Most U.S. Adults Won’t Tolerate Mobile Technology Etiquette Violations

Posted on October 19, 2009 by Shaun

intelA new study by Intel brings to light a subject many of us probably don’t think about much. We all know about the loud people on trains who have to let everyone around them know that they are on the phone, but what about the more discreet usage such as replying to emails and checking Twitter? I was in a meeting today and 5 people were on their BlackBerry’s for most of it- those other 4 people were very rude in my opinion:)

“SANTA CLARA, Calif., Oct. 19, 2009 – According to the recent “Intel Holiday Mobile Etiquette” study conducted by Harris Interactive* and sponsored by Intel Corporation, most online U.S. adults (80 percent) feel there are unspoken rules about mobile technology usage, and approximately 7 in 10 (69 percent) agreed that violations of these unspoken mobile etiquette guidelines, such as checking e-mails, sending text messages and making phone calls while in the company of others, are unacceptable.

Mobile etiquette breeches have particular relevance during the upcoming holiday season, as the survey found that more than half (52 percent) would be offended if they were at a holiday party and someone attempted to secretly use an Internet-enabled device, such as a laptop, netbook or cell phone, at the table. The restroom, however, doesn’t seem to command the same reverence when it comes to mobile technology. Despite hygiene considerations and potentially awkward explanations, 75 percent feel it is perfectly appropriate to use Internet-enabled devices, including laptops, netbooks and cell phones, in the bathroom, with only 25 percent agreeing that it was inappropriate behavior…”

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Android powered HTC Dragon makes an appearance

Posted on October 19, 2009 by Shaun

dragonunlockr has nabbed some shots of what is presumed to be the Android powered HTC Dragon. It looks quite smart and not a million miles away from the Tattoo.

“Could this be the HTC Dragon we have heard about? The Dragon I believe will be the Android equivalent of the Touch HD2 (same hardware mostly and just Android instead of Windows Mobile). You can also see the trackball at the bottom of the phone which could be easily added by HTC to the HD2 to give the Dragon a better way to scroll.

EDIT: By the way, I blacked out the photo. Where it says Welcome to …. It doesn’t say the name of the phone it has a number that I’m told is used to determine who this phone was loaned to so for obvious reasons that got blocked, not too mention wouldn’t help us figure out the phone. And then I blocked out the time, just to be extra safe our ninja can’t be traced back to.

So what do you guys think? What phone is this?”

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New cases from PDair for Touch2 and Touch Pro2

Posted on October 19, 2009 by Shaun

PDair has released a selection of new cases for the Touch2 and Touch Pro2-

The Touch Pro2 cases are available in flip, book, horizontal and vertical pouch styles.

For the Touch2 there is flip, book, sleeve, horizontal and vertical pouch styles.

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QOTD: Importance?

Posted on October 19, 2009 by Shaun

qotd23What is the most important function your smartphone is used for? I would say that mine is financial management. It’s not an area I have historically been very good at, but Ascendo Money helps me a lot in this regard.

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Date Wheel for iPhone mini-review

Posted on October 19, 2009 by Shaun

datewheelDate Wheel was a success on the Palm OS platform when it was released and has now been transitioned to the iPhone. At first glance it looks like a simple time calculator, and that is in essence what it is, but there is rarely anything simple about time and date calculations. You may have seen those funny plastic wheels where you work which people use to calculate dates and they are quite simply a pain to use. Date Wheel is an alternative which is readily available on your iPhone whenever you need it.

The idea is simple- input two dates and have the period in between automatically calculated for you- you can choose months, weeks, days and business days which is most useful in the corporate world. You can save these calculations and go back to them with the click of an icon at the bottom and this effectively turns it into one of those countdown style apps which you see dotted around the place. The fact that Date Wheel can calculate types of days gives it an advantage over the competition and thus it is slightly more effective than most others.

The interface contains a selection of arrows which you use to choose a date- you can use the >> arrow to move a week and the > arrow to move one day. A nice touch is the ability to alter the calculated duration which is handy if you are in a business which has, for example, a 28 day lead time. This makes it a lot easier to offer accurate dates to customers.

It really is difficult to write a long review of Date Wheel because it has one purpose, split into a few parts, which it performs admirably. If you need a date calculator, and one which works extremely fast this is the one to go for.

Availale from the App Store for £1.19 / $1.99.

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UK Palm Pre Unboxing

Posted on October 19, 2009 by Shaun

preTop 10 Mobile Phones has produced an unboxing video of the Palm Pre which makes it look like a very sweet device. The lady does sound a bit like she is doing a coookery show, but it is informative and a decent introduction.

“After months of waiting the Palm Pre is finally here. And Top10 is proud to bring you the first-ever unboxing video of the UK edition.

With sales of over one million since June in the US alone and a set of specs to die for, the Palm Pre is one of the most sought-after smartphones ever.

Top10 begged, borrowed, bribed and pleaded with O2 to get hold of one before it officially launches exclusively on O2 on October 16th. And what do you know? It worked. Check out the first-ever UK video unboxing of the O2 version of the phone below…”

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edocrab for BlackBerry

Posted on October 19, 2009 by Shaun

edocrab for BlackBerry is new, free and potentially very useful! “edocrab” (barcode spelled backwards) is a new, FREE beta app for the BlackBerry® smartphone that will let you scan product barcodes with your camera¹ and get instant online price comparisons, user reviews, product images, video clips, and more! You can even make purchases online directly from your BlackBerry device. In a rush? E-mail great deals to yourself or to friends and buy it later from your computer. “edocrab” helps you save time AND money while making you cooler in the process. Does it get much better than this?

* Note that is is a BETA app and is still being actively developed. Check out our website for scanning tips and answers to FAQ regarding the app.

¹ edocrab works on all devices with OS version 4.5 and higher. Scanning feature requires a camera with an auto-focusing lens (BlackBerry® Storm™, Tour™, and Curve™ 8900). Other users can manually enter the barcode easily too!”

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Noiz2sa Free and Zen News for the iPhone

Posted on October 19, 2009 by Shaun

zenNoiz2sa Free is one of the better free games in the app store and is a fully fledged shooter with 10 limited duration levels and 4 endless levels. My first impressions suggest that I could be playing this for some time to come.

Also new and free is ZenNews which offers the following impressive features-

View all your social networks in one timeline
Update Facebook and Twitter simultaneously
Perform custom searches within your own social graph
Keep track of developing topics across your social networks
Discover trends in your own social graph

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Nokia N97 Mini Video Preview & Comparisons

Posted on October 19, 2009 by Shaun

Symbian-Guru has produced an in-depth Nokia N97 Mini Video Preview & Comparison. It tells you lots about this device which I still suspect will be overshadowed by the N900.

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TouchTwit for Windows Mobile reviewed

Posted on October 19, 2009 by Shaun

ttTouchTwit for Windows Mobile has been reviewed by msmobiles and is looking good for larger screened touch enabled devices. “TouchTwit is a very comfortable and well designed Twitter client for Windows phones aka Windows Mobile. Since Twitter is a casual service – you would like to check tweets quickly or quickly post some tweet, usually there is no time to pull stylus, so having ability to use your fingers is vital. While we usually recommend you to test various Twitter clients to find the one that suits you the best or that looks the best, we can say that TouchTwit is worth having – it looks nice and is finger-friendly.”

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“Pirate my eBook” says author

Posted on October 18, 2009 by Shaun

rubyAn author has stated that he would like readers to pirate his eBook because it seems that his publisher has more say over how his work can be priced than he does. Here’s the main extract from techdirt- “My reaction to seeing other Apress books getting the free, electronic version treatment is: I’m good with you pirating my book! Now, of course, I can’t actively participate in pirating my book but, heck, it’s around on plenty of “free e-book” sites and on RapidShare. There are even links on Twitter to torrents like this. I am happy for you to pirate my book, but I’m NOT A LAWYER, and I can’t guarantee what Apress would do about it – so you’d be doing it off your own back! So, uhm, don’t pirate it? ;-) ”

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O2 reports healthy UK Palm Pre sales

Posted on October 18, 2009 by Shaun

tweetThis tweet from O2 says it all. No numbers yet, but maybe it is a better than expected start.

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Verizon takes the gloves off

Posted on October 18, 2009 by Shaun

Verizon has launched its new advertisign campaign for the Motorola Droid and taken a direct pop at the iPhone. This could lead to a tit for tat advertising machine or more likely Apple can take the high ground and refuse to attack its opponents. It could become a politcal game of cat and mouse if others follow. So, looks like Verizon is not getting the iPhone anytime soon…

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