Author Archives: sidthebad

Simple Wants for Your OS

Posted on February 16, 2011 by sidthebad

With iPhone 5 rumours beginning to swirl around I got round to thinking what I’d like to see this summer in iOS5 or even before that. I’m not thinking about hardware but about software.

For one, I’m pretty happy with iPhone4 and ios4.2.1 but I have two major annoyances I’d like fixed.

1) Why oh why can’t the icons twist around and work in landscape mode like they do on the iPad. I like to work in portrait mode a lot and most of my apps work very nicely in portrait but as soon as I swap back into the system its portrait only. It gets really annoying. It works on the iPad and I see no reason it can’t work on the iPhone.

2) I bought an Airprint printer which works just wonderfully. I’m needing my laptop less and less. But why can’t I print from my calendar and more amazingly from Notes. I’ve recently bought CalPrint at £1.79 to solve the calendar printing issues. I can also email the notes to my printer’s email address to print those when needed but these are ugly workarounds that should be built into iOS.

What about you? And please this isn’t limited to iOS. Feel free to comment on your simple wishes for your OS.

SID

4 Comments


Making a Big Change

Posted on February 15, 2011 by sidthebad

A comment that often comes up is that concerning changing OS, Carrier etc and what would make you change.

I want to pose this question again. I think that the general standard of smartphones is very high and all OS’s have a great deal going for them. I’m currently a fan of iOS and O2 as my carrier in the UK but I could be easily swayed to change by either one or preferably both of the following. How about you?

1) International Data. I travel a lot with work – all over Europe. I’m travelling abroad just about every week, hence my occasional absence from the site and forums. As I board my flight in the UK I switch off data on my iPhone only to turn it back on again when I’m back in the UK in a few days time, unless I find some free Wi-Fi. A carrier or plan that allowed me to use international data without gouging me would be an immediate game changer. I’d swap in a heart beat. The European carriers all have sites across Europe so what’s the difference to O2 if I’m using UK data or German data. My data cap is okay but let me use my phone anywhere on your network. For US readers its like moving from one state to another and having to turn off your data. You wouldn’t accept it.

2) I’ll be writing another article soon on enhancing productivity via iPhone but I still feel this is sadly lacking in functionality.  I want my mobile device to work like in the movie ”Minority Report”. I want a system where I can pull up data, move it around regardless of data type, location etc. eg An email comes in, highlight a few lines and swipe it into tasks or memos or calendar. The info is intelligently parsed into a sensible entry. The same for a tweet or RSS article. When I open an appointment on my calendar it automatically pulls up the info I’ll need for the call, spreadsheet, contact names and numbers, history of recent communication, their facebook status…whatever. Windows Phone 7 seemed to promise some of this but done properly this interactivity would be groundbreaking and cause for change on my part.

How about you? What big changes are you just desperate to see?

Or am I missing something. Does a good data tariff exist for me. Have I missed some groundbreaking productivity software on some platform?

SID

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BattleHeart for iOS

Posted on February 15, 2011 by sidthebad

I’ve (Sid) been away for a while but I’m now back and trying to post a little more frequently than previously. I’m going to be posting some practical changes that have freed up some time for me but in the meantime I have a game review.

The game is BattleHeart for iOS.

You take the control of a team of explorers who move from region to region collecting XP and gold as you go. The characters have different attributes such as armour, magic, healing etc and follow traditional dungeons and dragons type of abilities. Having said that, this is quite a light approach to the genre. Its very much pick up and play and the fights are not turn based. You need to control the 4 characters at once, casting spells, healing, moving etc. It can get a little frantic at times but with the right mix of characters you can do well.

You’ll need to spend your cash wisely to upgrade the right things at the right times. It’s great fun and like most iOS games is pretty cheap (£1.79 / US$2.99) and it’s also Universal.

I highly recommend this.

Sid (Hopefully the first post of many upcoming regular posts)

1 Comment


Drop7 for iPhone and Android: addiction included

Posted on December 9, 2010 by sidthebad

I have a new game addiction to share with you for the iOS devices as well as Android. It’s called Drop7 and like all classic games is devilishly simple but challenging. It very much has that “one more turn” addiction. The developer describes it as “Tetris meets Sudoku in this original, addictive puzzle game.”

Essentially you need to drop numbers (between 1 and 7) onto the board. Numbers will disappear (and score points) if the number equals the number of discs in the row or column.

For example in the image attached we’re dropping a 6. If we drop that on top of the 7 it would disappear as there would now be 6 discs in that column. Alternatively if we drop it on top of the 5 on the left of the screen, it won’;t disappear but the two 5′s below it will as there are now 5 discs in their column. Hopefully this makes some sense. It’s simple yet complex at the same time.

Highly highly recommended. For the record, my high score is 262,144. If you download it, let me know what you think.

Sid

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Social Gaming Networks

Posted on November 2, 2010 by sidthebad

I’m not a big gamer as I prefer to use my smartphones (iPhone and Blackberry) as a personal organising device.

However, I play the occassional game and being the competitive soul I am I like to win. For me, this makes social game networks a fantastic idea. Beating someone else’s high score or personal ranking can motivate me to play a game much more than my own personal high score.

How do you feel about social gaming networks? Do you use them much?

If you want to be beaten soundly on any iphone game, please add me “sidthebad” on the Apple Game centre.

Sid

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Frustrating Experiences

Posted on August 5, 2010 by sidthebad

What have been your most frustrating smartphone experiences?
I’ll tell you mine. I eventually got an iPhone 4 yesterday and was very pleased with myself. I decided (maybe unwisely) to set it up as a new phone and not restore the backup from my old 3G. I didn’t want any unnecessary junk coming over. Well almost 24 hours later I’m still having trouble syncing photos, some apps won’t sync and some podcasts refuse to play. My signal shows as “no service” frequently and then pops up to 4-5 bars and that’s without holding the device (no death grip here). I never expected to feel this way but I think this thing’s going back. Apple support is great and so I’ll probably give them a go but this is a very frustrating experience to what I had expected to be a joyous day!
Sid

11 Comments

USA TV Phone adverts

Posted on August 2, 2010 by sidthebad

I’ve just returned to the UK after 2 weeks in the USA. Now I used to live in the USA and so little surprises me but I was totally amazed by the sheer quantity of smartphone adverts on TV. It seemed almost every commercial break had an advert for any of RIM, Samsung Galaxy S, iPhone or multiple Android devices. I think the smartphone has arrived big time.

How about other countries? Do you have many smartphone adverts? There seem to be very few in the UK.

Sid

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Home Screen

Posted on July 14, 2010 by sidthebad

I’m fascinated by what people have as their homescreens, regardless of device. This is probably a little irrational but hey it’s who I am. Anyone want to share what they have on theior homescreens regardless of OS. Mine has been pretty stable for a while now. Sometimes an App will come in for a brief time in the sun but you have to be good to stay! Also, what;s your reasoning for being set up in this way?

I can go first.
iPhone:
Dock: Calendar, Mail, Safari, Todo
Rest of First Screen: Phone, Contacts, iPod, CoPilot, DocsToGo, Messages, Settings, mSecure, Camera, Games Folder, News&TV Folder, Bookmarks Folder, Voice Memos, Books Folder, iThoughts, Trunk Notes.
These are simply my most used apps. I rarely need to leave the homescreen except to find a few other raely used but still important apps. Despite this I still have 8 pages of apps. Why? Just in case I need “An App for That”.

Blackberry 9700:
Mail, SMS, Tasks, Contacts, Calendar, Concur Expenses
This is a boring work device that has few apps on it. Nothing overly exciting here.

How about you?

Sid

7 Comments

Getting a UK iPhone4

Posted on June 21, 2010 by sidthebad

In the US, Apple and AT&T have been taking pre-orders for the iPhone but in the UK it appears that you can only pre-order from Apple whilst the various carriers seem to be preparing for a mad rush on Thursday.

Apple’s UK store shows new pre-orders will now ship on July 14. You can’t pre-order from the carriers so what are you going to do on Thursday? Camp outside O2/Orange/Vodafone? Take your chances sometime on Thursday?

I’m prepared to take the day off work on Thursday to get mine but I just hope there’s stock!

What are your thoughts?

Sid

4 Comments

WWDC 2010

Posted on June 7, 2010 by sidthebad

Just a few hours to go now.

I’m eagerly anticipating the WWDC Keynote today to see the next 12 months of the iPhone. I’m also pretty bummed that I’ll be on an plane as it unfolds and so will be eagerly checking for news once I land and collect my bags.

What has Steve got in his bag of tricks to surprise us with. I’m betting there will be at least one significant surprise. Is it sensible as a grown man to be excited about this event? Probably not but I just don’t care!

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Slay on the iPhone

Posted on June 1, 2010 by sidthebad

I don’t play many games on the iPhone. Words with Friends changed that and now I have another addiction. The game is Slay.

It is a turn based, hexagon winning war game that is delightfully simple yet deep. It’s very easy to pick up and play but the levels get very challenging as you move into the game.

Essentially you have a landscape that is split between several powers with each owning small areas of land. Your job is take over the whole landscape in a fashion similar to the board game “risk”. The more area you control, the more money you have and so the better army you can afford. The first level of army are peasants who can only take unprotected land. Two peasants make a spearman who is much more powerful. After that you have knights and barons that are very powerful but also cost a lot to keep and so you best have plenty of land to look after these guys. There are rules as to who can move where based upon the power of pieces. If you can make ground so that you cut your opponents land in half then this can have a dramatic effect on their army as you effectively “starve” their army. The rules are simple yet complex enough to make the game chellenging and thought provoking.

I managed to pick this up for free a few days ago when it was on sale and I’m delighted by that. However, it is definitely worth a fee. If this sort of games interests you at all, take a look – I think its very good.

What I’d love to see added is an online multiplayer mode similar to words with friends. That would be great.

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Opening My Eyes

Posted on May 27, 2010 by sidthebad

I have been happily plodding along waiting for my new iPhone 2010 (hopefully June) until last night I was made to think. I was at dinner and the person next to me had an HTC HD2. I had a little play and whilst I didn’t see anything in those 2 mins that made me want the HD2, I did see plenty that made me realise that the iPhone was not the only game in town. It was honestly the first time in about 18months that I had realistically even considered the notion of anything other than an iPhone. It looked like an iPhone, felt like an iphone and seemed to do all that an iPhone could do. Bear in mind I had about 2 mins on the device. It did feel too big for my taste.

I do think that come renewal time in the next few weeks I will actually look at the price of the new iPhone as well as some Android devices. If there’s little in it I will stay with Apple due to Apps and also consistancy, but if there’s an Android deal to be had then I could certainly do a little more research and maybe, just maybe could jump ship. A brief dinner time conversation opened my eyes. It’s amazing what you see when you open your eyes.

I know the pic isn’t an HD2 by the way but it is an Android device.

Sid

10 Comments

To Jailbreak Or Not

Posted on May 18, 2010 by sidthebad

On Friday I jailbreaked my iPhone 3G according to the excellent instructions on the todayiniphone.com website using the new spirit jailbreak. I had resisted Jailbreaking for 1.5 years but was just desperate to see what all the fuss was about. Besides I should soon have a shiny new iPhone 2010 or whatever its called come June and so there was little to lose.

The actual jailbreak went very simply. It took just a couple of minutes. I was quite excited to explore Cydia and get my new “forbidden apps”.

First up was Backgrounder to enable Multitasking. Works pretty well and fast app switching is nice to have.
A few other apps followed.

Winterboard – enables themes
MyWi – Create a wifi hotspot for your laptop to connect to
Categories – folders for apps
ScreenSplitr – put all output to an external monitor
iProtect – password protect apps
iPlayer – BBC iplayer app
LockInfo – display calendar/weather/email info on lockscreen.
FiveIcon Dock – exactly how it sounds

That was Friday. Now on Monday evening, what are my impressions?

Well not nearly so positive I’m afraid. In 3 days I’ve had multiple crashes/freezes etc. My phone seems to run much more slowly and I’m close to resetting my iPhone back to Apple standard. I’m not upset or mad or frustrated. This was an experiment that I went into with eyes fully open and I’m not sure the benefits outweigh the problems – for me!

It kinda reminds me of windows mobile or old palm days where you had to (could?) tinker. I’ve got quite used to the simplicity and straightforwardness of Apple and iTunes and I miss that. I have various new icons on my dashboard that I don’t know what they are. They got downloaded as part of something else. It’s all a little messy.

I  like the apps I have tried and I’d like to keep them. My first step is to remove one app at a time and see if I can fix my issues but failing that I’m heading back to Apple standard via a reset. My personal belief is that my issues are down to this being a 3G iphone and not the 3GS but that’s just a guess.

I’m bushed after driving many hours rather than flying due to that annoying ash cloud and I’m not making any rash decisions.

What are your experiences with Jailbreaking?

Sid

20 Comments

My New Addiction: Words With Friends

Posted on May 12, 2010 by sidthebad

I recently tried Words With Friends on my iPhone and I’m addicted with many games going on at the same time. I’ve always enjoyed word games (and once even appeared on a TV word gameshow).

The free version is the same as the paid version but displays an advert after every turn. The adverts are tolerable and so I’m sticking with the free version for now.

The game plays exceptionally well even on a GPRS signal and will pop up an alert whenever its your turn. I’ve been very surprised at how few games go abandoned. One feature I’d like to see is a group of reliable players so that the abandonment rate can be even lower.

Chess with friends is next for me but I don’t expect to do so well with this game. There’s a lot of learning to be done.

For me this interactive gaming is a big trend for the future.

Do you have any games that you’re addicted to?
Does anyone fancy a game of Words With Friends. If so, I’m sidthebad. Search for me.

Sid

1 Comment

iPads in the Wild

Posted on May 7, 2010 by sidthebad

Apple seem to have sold a gizzillion iPads according to the recent announcements but it was only yesterday that I saw my first one out in the wild. I travel a lot (too much?) and even though I’m based in Europe (no iPad released here yet) I had expected to see more – particularly at airports.

I was fascinated watching the guy use it. He was very “laid back” sitting at London Heathrow departure lounge whilst I was hunched over my laptop pecking furiously at keys. It made me kinda jealous. How about others? Have you seen many? How about the guys stateside? Sid.

On the subject of the iPad outside the US, Apple has announced that it will be available Worldwide from 28th May. The UK prices are 16GB, wifi only – £429 inc vat, 32GB, wifi only – £499 inc vat, 64GB, wifi only – £599 inc vat, 16GB, wifi/3G – £529 inc vat, 32GB, wifi/3G – £599 inc vat, 64GB, wifi/3G – £699 inc vat. That is higher than I expected and does not compare well to the US price. Shaun.

11 Comments