Category Archives: Review

January 20, 2012

Apple’s new iBooks Textbooks have a Large problem…

By Dave M.

Apple textbooksThe new Apple iBooks Textbooks truly are a revolution in what kids will very probably be caring around with them in the next 5 or 10 years. The idea of cramming all those thick books into a single iPad is really great.

I only see one problem in the very near future. The file size of these new textbooks are way too big. How many books do your kids carry around with them per semester? 6? 7? I looked at the file sizes of these textbooks, and some are downright huge. One was 2.77GB’s!

Now, I suspect, that if schools buy iPads for their students, they are going to be getting the lowest end iPad’s they can. So, the 16GB WiFi model. That’s only 7 textbooks the size of the Pearson Biology textbook. To be fair, not all the text books are 2.77GB’s. Most seem to be about 1.25GB’s and a couple were under 1GB. Still, these are just the first few textbooks to come out. How crazy are the publishers going to get putting videos and other space consuming data into these textbooks?

It’s possible that this whole problem will be moot when the iPad 3 is released. Maybe Apple will get rid of the 16GB version and have a 32GB, 64GB and 128GB version, and the size of the textbooks won’t be a problem. Unless they get even bigger. Plus, there are still the college textbooks to consider. Surely, those books will be much larger than the K-12 textbooks.

Am I being silly here?

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January 19, 2012

“Cutting the Cord”…

By Dave M.

Cord cuttingI don’t know if this could be considered a New Years Resolution, but this household finally “cut the cord” from Cable and dropped our Cable Television subscription. We kept our Internet with our cable provider, but that’s all we are subscribed to.

Now, our Cable bill last year was $150 a month. That’s for Cable and Internet. So, after dropping Cable, I upped the Internet speed to 30Mbps from 15Mbps, since the price would be the same.

Now since we made this change, we haven’t missed any of the shows we normally watch. We watch them when we want to because we purchase episodes on iTunes, or watch them on Hulu.com.

I put together a spreadsheet of all the shows we watch each week, put the SD (Standard Definition) and HD (High Definition) prices in, decide what we would watch via iTunes and what we can watch on Hulu, and removed the prices we were not going to be purchasing on iTunes. We then decided on the shows that we wanted to watch in HD and remove the SD prices on those and the HD prices on the rest.

The totals were pretty surprising. We are paying about $12 a week on those shows we purchase on iTunes. Hulu is $7.99 a month. So, $50 a month for iTunes and $8 a month for Hulu. Compared to $100 a month with Cable, that’s $600 a year instead of $1,200 a year and we get to keep the shows we pay for instead of just watching them once.

To be fair, there were a few up front purchases to make this transition. An AppleTV ($99) to get the iTunes purchased shows on the HD Television. I also purchased a Digital Television Antenna ($36). Fortunately, we have a Playstation 3 so we can watch Hulu on the PS3 as well as watch Blu-ray and regular DVD’s. Overall, not a huge deal. Just a month and a half of the old Cable bill.

Now I do have a MacBook computer that I was using to watch iTunes shows, but the computer is pretty old (5+ years) and Hulu was just not working well on it. At the time that I was evaluating Hulu with the MacBook, there wasn’t a Hulu app for the PS3, so decisions were made then that Hulu was a bad call to pay the monthly fee. Later, the PS3 wasn’t really able to stream Hulu wirelessly very well. I have now run Cat-5 cables from the Cable Modem to the Home Entertainment system so that streaming Hulu isn’t an issue anymore.

I’ll post an update of our experiences with this process in about a month to see how well we are doing.

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July 31, 2011

OS X Lion “Upgrade/Install” and Post Install Thoughts

By Dave M.

Mac OS X LionSo, Wednesday, I downloaded OS X Lion off the Mac App Store and started preparing the process of installing Lion on my Mac Pro.

Starting with the Upgrade/Install, I chose to boot from my “SuperDuper!” backup external drive (Firewire 800) and then run the install from that drive. The backup took well over 6 hours (I don’t actually know for sure since it ran overnight and I forgot to check the “elapsed time” in SuperDuper! There were over 2.4 million files to be backed up.

I formatted my “Main” drive on the Mac Pro and started the install of Lion on that drive. About 20 minutes later, Lion was installed on the Mac Pro. I then spent well over 6 hours copying my iTunes folder off the backup to Lion. The folder had over 650GB’s of data. After the copy, I ran iTunes and it looked just like it did before the upgrade/install. I was very pleased to see that.

I then spent a bunch of time downloading all the applications I have purchased/downloaded off the Mac App Store. I had to do this with the backup drive “unmounted”. The Mac App Store application sees the applications on the backup drive and tell me that they were installed even though they were not installed on the Lion Application folder. So I unmouned the backup drive and relaunched the Mac App Store.

Now I have just been copying programs off my backup drive to the Lion Applcation folder to install them on Lion. I have to re-enter the registration info for each of the apps (non Mac App Store apps).

So I have been running Lion now for a couple of days and I have some thoughts on how it works over Snow Leopard.

I have some thoughts that I’ll be sharing over time starting with the new “Natural” scrolling.

A lot of folks on the web are saying that they are retraining themselves to use the new Natural scrolling. That’s great guys. However, what are you going to do when you come across a machine where the user didn’t want to retrain themselves. Or, heaven forbid, you have to use a Windows machine? All that retraining will mess you up and confuse you both on the non-natural systems and when you return to your Natural scroll system.

I understand what Apple was thinking when they decided to put Natural scrolling into Lion. However, they didn’t think it through well enough. Natural scrolling works great if you are touching the screen and in effect touching the document that you are scrolling. Move your finger down and the page scrolls up. That makes perfect sence when your finger is touching the screen.

However, when you are using a mouse or touchpad, your finger isn’t touching the document that you are scrolling. It touching a surface that is ~90° off axis. It’s very confusing. I suppose I could make myself think that my finger is touching the document even though it’s not.

Computer users have been trained for many years that rotating the scroll wheel a certain way causes a document to scroll a certain way. Changing that now that Lion is out is just a really bad idea.

As other reviewers have said, thank goodness that there is a way to turn off the Natural scrolling feature.

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As you can see, it’s really simple to change the scroll direction. I’m assuming that there is a similar setting for touchpad users. I don’t currently have one hooked up to my Lion system, so I can tell for sure, but it makes sence.

My next beef is with Versions! Really! I love the idea, but the implementation is not for the computer novice…

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March 31, 2011

Wireless Keyboard + iPad = Cheap Powerful Netbook

By Dave M.

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I just recently bought Apple’s newest Wireless Keyboard (the one without the iPad dock. The purchase was specifically to use it with my iPad (1st gen). I can also use it, of course, with my Mac Pro, MacBook and Playstation 3. I thought I could use it with my iPhone 4, but for some reason, it’s not pairing. No biggie there.

The main purpose, the iPad, is really awesome. I currently use my MacBook as a media source for my Home Entertainment System, so I rarely use it as a notebook computer. My iPad has really become my goto device for keeping up with RSS feeds, email, web browsing, and even game playing.

I’m using my iPad/Wireless Keyboard combo right now to write/post this article. I’m using the WordPress app on my iPad.

Some of the cool features of using the Wireless Keyboard with the iPad is that you can activate the iPad by turning on the keyboard and tapping a key. Kind of like the way the new iPad and it’s Smart Cover works. Tapping the key turns on the iPad and unlocks it at the same time. You can also adjust the screen brightness and iPad volume with the special F-keys that are labeled so. You can also Pause/Play, Previous Track, Next Track what ever is playing on the iPad.

The virtual keyboard on the iPad is pretty good, but can be a real pain to use sometimes. If you have to type numbers and letters together (passwords and codes for things), using the virtual keyboard is just a nightmare. Having the physical keys on the Wireless Keyboard is just so much better.

No to be fair, I have only been using the new keyboard for a few days, so I haven’t had the chance to check, but I understand that there are no “keyboard shortcuts” in apps like Pages and Numbers. Shortcuts would really be nice in apps like those so that you don’t have to remove your hands from the keyboard just so you can make adjustments.

On a positive note, you can make selections with the keyboard by using the usual key combos (Shift-Arrows, Shift-Command-Arrows and Shift-Option-Arrows).

The keyboard is $69, and in my opinion, a truly “must purchase” if you plan on doing anything on the iPad other than gaming.

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January 19, 2011

LittleBigPlanet 2 arrives with freeze-up issues (Fixed now)

By Dave M.

So LittleBigPlanet 2 finally arrived yesterday (1/18/2011) and I ran out to GameStop to pick up my copy pretty much first thing this morning.

I put the disc in my PS3, waited while it installed a huge amount of data to my PS3 HDD, then watched in joy as it started up.

I was enjoying the first couple of levels of MediaMolecule content when my PS3 totally froze up. Even pressing the PS button on the controller did nothing at all. I had to getup and touch the power button on the PS3 to power it down then power it back up again.

As I continued to play LPB2, about 10-15 minutes into the second session, it froze up again. A different location in the game, but the same freeze up that makes me getup and physically power down the PS3.

A third freeze up and yet a different location in the game tells me that there is something definitely fishy with either the PS3 or LPB2.

Other games on the PS3 work just fine. Lego Harry Potter crashes back to the PS3 menu system occasionally, no freeze up, but the rest of my games run just fine.

So I have to assume that LBP2 has an issue. I did a quick search with Google and saw this post on Gamespot. So, thankfully, I’m not the only one seeing this freeze-up issue.

I suppose this is the price we bleeding-edge’rs have to pay for wanting to be one of the first folks to play a game. Hopefully, MediaMolecule will find and patch the game soon so that I can finally play what will probably wind up being the “Game of the Year” for many publications/game blogs for 2011.

Update 1/21/11: Looks like LBP2 is working perfectly now. My PS3 told me this morning that it was doing something to a database (I can’t remember exactly what it said) and when I tried LBP2 afterword, it ran for well over 2 hours without locking up. I don’t know exactly what fixed the lockups, if it was the db update or a combination of deleting all my old LBP data and the db update, but it’s functioning perfectly now and I’ve been able to play through the first creator’s area and make a decent dent in the second creator’s area. That and played around with about 30 community levels.

I haven’t seen everything that LBP2 can do yet, but I’m convinced that it’s a huge step above the first LBP!

3 comments   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in Games, PS3, Review

September 23, 2010

Final Jailbreaking Review

By Dave M.

After quite a bit of time running my iPhone 4 jailbroken, I decided that the problems I was having outweighed the benefits of the jailbroken apps I had installed.

The biggest problem I kept having was the Home button would stop working as a means of returning to SpringBoard after running an app. Each time this would happen, I would have to respring my iPhone to recover the Home button functionality.

So I connected my iPhone to iTunes and told it that I wanted to restore. It downloaded iOS 4.1, extracted it and began the process of installing the OS on the phone. The progress bar got about 3/5′s of the way when it froze. I waited about 30 minutes and decided I would try rebooting the phone. The restore got to the same spot and froze again.

I started researching the problem to see if there was a solution. I did find an article about putting the phone into DFU mode (Device Firmware Update). I made several attempts getting the phone in this mode and a little after midnight, I finally got the phone to install the firmware.

That was quite a scary situation. I was worried that I would have to take the phone to the Apple store and make up a good story as to why I couldn’t get the phone to restore.

It’s currently installing all the apps I had installed (minus the jailbroken apps of course) after doing the restore from backup.

Jailbreaking would be a less stressful option if there was a way to upgrade to current firmware without having to restore the phone first then re-jailbreak the latest firmware. I’ll keep my eyes open to the jailbreak community to see if something like this ever happens, but until then, I think I’ll stick to not jailbreaking my main phone.

If I ever get an iPod touch, I’ll consider that, and I might still consider jailbreaking the iPad. However, that won’t happen unless the iPad is better supported in the jailbreaking world. currently, there are not many packages that will work with iPads

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August 26, 2010

Jailbreaking review

By Dave M.

So it’s been just about a month now since I “jailbroke” my iPhone 4. There are days where I think “How in the world did I ever live without it?” Then there are days where I curse jailbreaking and threaten to restore my iPhone back to factory default and leave jailbreaking behind forever.

Starting with the cursing; recently, I have been having issues with my Home button not working correctly. I’m having to “respring” the phone several times a day. It’s really weird. The button works somewhat. If I double press it, I get the multitasking/fast app switching list just fine. However, if I’m in an application, when I press the Home button, I can’t get back to the home screens.

For the longest time, I wasn’t having any problems with the Home button, so I have to assume that a recent update has caused this problem. There is a package called “Activator” that controls all the buttons as well as many gestures to do things like if you swipe the Status Bar you will activate SBSettings. I’m assuming that Activator has broken something that is causing the Home button to not work correctly. Looking at Activator’s Changelog, it states “Fix Single Press Home Button at lock screen”. It sounds like they fixed a bug somewhere, but the might have accidentally have broken the functionality of the Home button when it’s not assigned to something in that package.

Either way, it’s a problem that is really getting frustrating.

Another thing that has been happening frequently is that in application sound stops working. Now to be fair, I have been downloading packages that are supposed to adjust the sound profile so that I don’t have to keep going into settings every night to turn off certain sound settings and in the morning to re-enable the sounds later. I’m going to have to remove the packages to see if that fixes the sound issues. None of the sound profile tools really work with iOS 4.x, so I really have no need to have them installed for now.

Now for the “How in the world did I ever live without it?” part. I own a WiFi based iPad and it turns out that it’s pretty useless when I go out into the world unless there is free WiFi available. Well, there is a package called MyWi 4.0 which allows me to create a WiFi hotspot in my iPhone. It sells for $19.95 and has a 14 day free trial. It’s a WEP secured hotspot that you can configure the amount of output power to help conserve iPhone battery. MyWi will definitely eat battery power, so it’s pretty important to keep the power as low as possible. Also, secure the hotspot signal! You don’t want anyone in the immediate area to access your 3G hotspot.

I’m currently using the free 2 week demo, but I have to say that I’m very impressed with the way MyWi works.

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I haven’t actually tried it out in the wild, but I enabled MyWi on my phone and selected the MyWi SSID on my iPad and low and behold, I was up and browsing with my phone as the hotspot. Then later that day, my ISP died and I lost my broadband access to the internet. Right in the middle of a City Story session. City Story requires a connection to their servers to play. So, I fired up MyWi on my iPhone and connected to it on my iPad where I play City Story from and I was then able to complete my game session. That was awesome!

Now, did I have to complete my session at that exact moment? No, not really. However, since I have MyWi, I thought I would give it a try to see if it would work and it did a great job! I was able to check email and even browse the web while my ISP was out.

Now, I have to say that using MyWi instead of paying for tethering through AT&T is probably illegal and definitely against AT&T’s terms of service, so if they catch you doing this they can drop you from their service and probably charge you for early service termination. So, if you use MyWi on your jailbroken iPhone, make sure you use it sparingly so that AT&T doesn’t suspect that you are using tethering.

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February 9, 2010

Magic Mouse Pretty Darn Magic!

By Dave M.

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I must say that I am pretty impressed with Apple’s Magic Mouse. It’s sleek, with a good 3/5 of it’s surface being available for multiple-touch functions. Being made from aluminum, it’s sturdy, solid feeling, and clicks like you would expect a mouse with real buttons.

Unlike the “Mighty Mouse”, when you click and drag with the Magic Mouse, it doesn’t feel like you are trying to hold the mouse so that the ‘whole mouse button’ doesn’t release.

Also a great feature of this mouse is that when you scroll windows by sliding you finger down or up the center of the mouse, you can tell the Mouse Preference Pane to glide just like you were flicking your finger across the iPhone/iPod touch’s screen.

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There is also a great $5 shareware program called MouseWizard that adds all kinds of great functionality to the multi-touch abilities of the Magic Mouse.

MouseWizard is a great supplement to the System Preference Mouse Pane. It’s a program that can reside in the MenuBar, Dock, or both, not in System Preferences, so it won’t conflict with Apple’s Mouse Preference Pane.

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The Menubar items include battery status, 3 settings entries as well as the standard application menu items.

MouseWizard lets you set tapping instead on clicking the mouse for both the right and left clicks. Two finger gestures include: Middle Click, Fourth Click, Scroll Up, Scroll Down, Swipe Left, Swipe Right, Zoom / Shrink. Three finger Click and Whole Hand Click. All can be configured to do one of many functions:
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I’m currently waiting for a D-Link DBT-120 Wireless Bluetooth 2.0 USB Adapter from Amazon to hook it up to my Mac Pro. When I purchased the beast 3 1/2 years ago, I didn’t see the need to have Bluetooth and WiFi in the box. I now realize that I should have configured the order with both. A hindsight… Apple has tested their wireless keyboards and mice with the D-Link adapter which is why I ordered it rather than the many others to choose from.

Back in the days of the Mighty Mouse, I would never have suggested to anyone to use it. With the Magic Mouse, I have to say that so far, I have to problems suggesting the mouse. Mind you, I have only just started to use it, and there might still be some issues with both left and right buttons down in games. However, what I have seen so far is darn amazing and I’m very pleased I got one.

2 comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Hardware, Review

January 1, 2010

Personal Top iPhone Apps for 2009

By Dave M.

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It’s been an amazing year for the AppStore this year. 1 Billion apps downloaded, over 100,000 apps approved and in the AppStore. We have seen absurd rejections, strange approvals, thousands of flashlight, fart, and semi-porn apps. The list goes on and on, but overall, Apple’s AppStore has been an amazing success. Both for Apple and the developers submitting apps.

I’d like to highlight some of the most amazing apps I have come across in the 1,126 apps I have downloaded so far. This list is a list of just that, the apps I have experience with. There are probably 10 times more apps out there that are just as good if not better. These are just ones I have found and can’t live without or enjoy playing more than my PS3/Wii/PC games.

edge.pngStarting with games, there have been some amazing stuff published this year. None mark more headaches for the developer than Edge by Mobigame. Thanks to Tim Langdell, Edge has been removed from the AppStore more than any other application. Currently 3 times. It’s changed it’s name twice from Edge, to Edge by Mobigame, to Edgy and yet it’s still not in the AppStore currently. Yet, it’s one of the best games in/not in the AppStore.

I was lucky to have purchased it before the first removal. It’s truly a unique game and is very entertaining to play. The music to the game is done by Romain “Ninomojo” Gauthier, Simon Périn, Jérémie Périn, Matthieu & Richard Malot and is available for download here: http://www.mobigame.net/edge/iphone/soundtrack. You can download it for free, but donations are encuraged. I even sent them $10.

Edge by Mobigame is my “Game of the year” title, but it’s hard to have it be that since it’s not currently in the AppStore. If I had to pick another title that would qualify it would be:

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Rolando 2: Quest for the Golden Orchid [$4.99] or Rolando 2: Quest for the Golden Orchid – Chapter 1 [Free] by ngmoco, inc. This amazing platformer stands right up there with Edge when it comes to unique games for the iPhone/iPod touch. Rolando 2 added depth to the first incarnation of the game making Rolando 2 truly astounding in appearance.

The free version or Chapter 1 gives you the game just like the paid version, but only the first few levels. When you are ready for more, just drop a dollar or two for the next “chapter” or $4.99 for all the chapters. A really nice way to incorporate in-app purchasing.

I played Rolando (the original version) for days and days. I haven’t finished it yet, but am pretty close. There are just tons of levels in the first version. Many hours of playtime. I started Rolando 2, played a couple of the levels, then put it aside so I could finish the first game. However, I’ve been so wrapped up with other games, I haven’t had a chance to get back to Rolando. I certainly will though. Both versions.

Other games worth mentioning are:

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Space Invaders Infinity Gene [$4.99]

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Soosiz [$0.99]

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Flickitty [$1.99]

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Mahjongg Artifacts [$2.99]

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Mahjong Artifacts 2 [$2.99]

As well as countless others, but those I have played the longest and have been on my iPhone the longest.

As for non-game applications, I have found a few that I really and truly can’t live without. They sit on the first page of the Springboard for easy access:

groceryiq.pngGrocery IQ [$0.99]: This amazing application is probably the most improved since it’s release of the group I own. It was a pretty good time-saver when I first got it, but they have added barcode scanning (without the need to actually take a picture), barcode entry, list sharing, coupons, and much more. Making Grocery IQ an absolute killer app for me. Using Grocery IQ, I shave probably half an hour off my grocery shopping each week. Really! With this app, I only have to go through the aisles once. You would be surprised how efficient that makes shopping.

The fact that it’s only a dollar truly astounds me. I would easily pay a dollar or more for some of the updates they have introduced recently. Barcode scanning is really amazing. It works just like Delicious Library does with a webcam, but with the iPhone. No need to take a picture, just put the product in front of the camera putting the barcode between the arrows and beep, the product is scanned and an item appears that can be added to your list and/or favorites.

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1Password Pro [$7.99] or 1Password [$4.99]: Anyone with passwords they need to remember or want to have a secure place to save credit card numbers and social security numbers would be foolish to put them anywhere other than in 1Password. There are other secure note keepers out there, but 1Password is the top of the heap.

If you use a Macintosh, using 1Password/1Password Pro with the desktop version of 1Password allows you to keep track of just about everything you do that uses passwords. Secure websites are easy to enter with 1Password on the iPhone/iPod touch. Just sync your 1Password desktop data with the iPhone/iPod touch version and you have access to everything in the palm of your hand. (Sorry for sounding like an ad, but its true.)

As I have said, I have well over 1,000 apps in iTunes right now. Most are 3 star or better (my ratings), most of the apps that are less than 3 stars are typically free or a dollar. It’s hard to know if an app is any good from the 5 screen shots that Apple supplies. Some have YouTube videos, but most I just took a chance with and was disappointed.

However, I would say a good 90% of the games I have downloaded/purchased have been well worth the purchase. Full price or on sale.

AppShopper.com is a great resource for keeping track of apps you have and want. They notify you of updates and when apps go on sale. Perfect for folks who want to buy apps when they are on sale. My list of apps are here: http://appshopper.com/user/vesperdem. Not all of them are in there, but most are. I have missed some and haven’t been able to figure out which ones they are. The list even shows my ratings.

Well, that’s my list. No huge amount of research was done to produce the list. I just posted a few of my absolute favorites. Enjoy and Happy New Year!

1 comment   |  tags: , , , | posted in iPhone/iPod touch, Review

November 25, 2009

Good & Bad News About Mobigame

By Dave M.

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Good News: Mobigame has done it again with an amazing new game called Cross Fingers. Cross Fingers is a great unique game that uses tangram-style shapes and multi-touch elements to move those shapes into position to finish a level.

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The premise of the game is fairly simple. Move the shapes on the screen so that the lighter colored shapes land in the dark holes. In the example to the left, moving the three shapes with white diamonds in them to the positions with the dark diamonds will solve the level.

The catch to the game is that its not always all that easy to move the shapes to their destinations. Careful thought is necessary. Often, there are obstacles in the way that require you to move them out of the way with one finger while moving the shape with the other.

In the screen shot example, the trick is to move the top shape all the way to the right, so that the middle shape can be moved to the top and into it’s resting place, then the other two shapes can be moved into their resting locations without any other obstructions.

I’ve played through the first 20 or so levels so far and I have to say, this is a joyous game to play. Mobigame seems to really know how to catch the “fun” in a game and make it work for them. Cross Fingers is a must have for anyone that enjoys tangrams and thoughtful puzzles.

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Bad News: I don’t know how he’s done it, but Tim Langell has managed to get Edge by Mobigame removed from the AppStore yet again. I don’t know what the deal is with this scumbag, but someone has to put him in his place. He claims to hold the trademark on the word EDGE. Fine, but if that were the case, he wouldn’t need to keep coming up with games minutes after attacking other developers over their use of the word EDGE.

At any rate, the website ChaosEdge has the full story on the trademark dispute with Mobigame and Langell as well as many other disputes that Langdell has started with other companies. Check it out for a laugh and please, please support Mobigame by purchasing Cross Fingers. It’s only $0.99 and well worth that dollar!

1 comment   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in iPhone/iPod touch, News, Review

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