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How’s your iPhone 3G on iOS 4 working?

It’s been a little while now since iOS 4 was released so we thought we’d check back and see how it’s working (or not) for those of you with the 2008 iPhone 3G?

My iPhone 3G (above, yeah, cracked perhaps a tad poetically) really chugged away at first, but after a clean install (not restored from backup) and turning off Spotlight Search, it’s working much better now. Of course, if you’ve gotten used to an iPhone 4 or iPhone 3GS, it’s obviously slower but if its your one and only — or newly acquired hand-me-down, it’s almost as fast as it was under iOS 3.x.

Let us know your experience, and if you’ve come across any other speed tips we’d love to hear them.

How’s your iPhone 3G on iOS 4 working? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Belkin Max Sleeve for iPad – accessory review

YouTube Link

The Belkin Max Sleeve for iPad not only does a great job of protecting your iPad, but it gives you a little extra room to stick some of your accessories in as well. The case is made of a fabric material that is pleated on the front. This is what allows you to have a zipper compartment in the front to stick your other gadgets in.

The inside of the case is a foamy white mesh material. It’s extremely soft so you don’t have to worry about it scratching your iPad. It’s also a loose fit, which means you won’t damage your iPad while taking it out and putting it back in the case. There’s always a down side to a case not fitting snugly though, and that’s if you forget to zip it and pick up the case by the wrong end, it’s very likely your iPad could go crashing to the floor. We didn’t have this happen with this case, but I could see that being a problem as the material on the inside doesn’t offer any grip.

The way we cast that fear aside was to put a silicon case on the iPad and then put it in the Belkin Max Sleeve. The silicon provides the grip and solves the issue. I know a lot of people wouldn’t want to buy 2 cases so it isn’t an ideal situation. My advice? It’s a great case worth the money, just be careful how you pick it up, or make sure you always zip it up.

Other than the sliding out of the case issue, this is a great case and well worth the money. It offers superior protection in an unobtrusive form factor. Even though it’s small, it still lets you stow away other objects, which is nice. If there’s any girls out there like me that hate carrying around a laptop/iPad bag and a purse, this is awesome. Simply throw your phone, credit cards, etc in the front pouch and you’re good to go.  You can purchase the Belkin Max Sleeve for iPad from the TiPb Accessory Store.

Pros

Allows for extra storage room in the front pocket

Material on the outside is easy to grip on to

Material on inside won’t scratch your iPad

Cons

Inside material is a little slick so forgetting to zip up could cause an iPad to fall out

Zipper on front pocket is sometimes a bit hard to pull

Belkin Max Sleeve for iPad – accessory review is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Apple releases Safari 5 extensions for Mac/Windows. Can we have it for iPhone and iPad as well?

Apple has just announced an update for Safari 5 that enables extensions (plugins), something Mozilla’s Firefox and Google’s Chrome have had for a while now. We’re happy for our big desktop brothers, of course. Really. Truly. But in our minds a lot of the stuff you’ll read about after the break would be even better suited on mobile devices like iPhone and iPad. That’s where convenient extensions like password managers would shine.

Maybe iOS 5?

Read on for the good bits from the presser.

[Apple PR, Apple Safari Extensions Gallery]

“Safari 5 has been a big hit, and user response to the innovative new Safari Reader has been fantastic,” said Brian Croll, Apple’s vice president of OS X Product Marketing. “We’re thrilled to see so many leading developers creating great extensions and think our users are going to love being able to customize Safari.”

“Millions of our customers already use Amazon Wish Lists to store items they want to buy for themselves or receive as gifts,” said Gianna Puerini, vice president of Worldwide Design and Community at Amazon.com. “With Safari 5, we were able to quickly build the Add to Amazon Wish List extension that lets customers add items from any website to their Amazon Wish List with the click of a button.”

“We’re excited to continue working closely with Apple to bring visually compelling Bing experiences to Safari,” said Jeff Henshaw, general manager of Bing User Experience. “The Bing Extension for Safari brings Bing search intelligence to everyday browsing with Safari. When a user selects text in Safari, Bing instantly recognizes what they might need and pops up helpful, informative tips, from real time maps and driving directions to real time translations to direct web search results.”

“Using web standard technologies and Safari’s extension builder, we developed an MLB.com extension to give fans another way to consume up-to-the-moment baseball content, including live look-ins to games, right from the Safari toolbar,” said Noah Garden, executive vice president, Commerce and Sponsorship at MLB.com.

The Safari Extensions Gallery is accessible from the Safari menu or at extensions.apple.com. Users can download and install extensions from the gallery with a single click, and there’s no need to restart the browser. Extensions can be automatically updated and are easily managed within Safari. Users can enable or disable individual extensions, or turn off all extensions with one click.

Safari Extensions are built with HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript web standards, and can have all the power and functionality of advanced web applications. Every Safari Extension is signed with a digital certificate from Apple to prevent tampering and to verify that updates to the extension are from the original developer. Safari Extensions are sandboxed, so they can’t access information on a user’s system or communicate with websites aside from those specified by the developer. For increased stability, Safari Extensions run solely in the browser.
“Our extension for Safari is a great way for readers to get all of the latest breaking news and all the important stories, blogs and columns they want to see,” said Denise Warren, general manager, NYTimes.com at The New York Times Company. “While you browse other sites in Safari, our extension checks for updates and slides in new headlines and thumbnails, so you won’t miss a thing.”

“Creating our Twitter extension in Safari couldn’t have been easier,” said Jason Goldman, vice president of Product at Twitter. “By providing features like the ability to tweet about a page and view trending topics, we’ve created a simple way to deliver relevant, interesting content to people regardless of where they are on the web.”

The Safari Extensions Gallery is accessible from the Safari menu or at extensions.apple.com. Users can download and install extensions from the gallery with a single click, and there’s no need to restart the browser. Extensions can be automatically updated and are easily managed within Safari. Users can enable or disable individual extensions, or turn off all extensions with one click.

Safari Extensions are built with HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript web standards, and can have all the power and functionality of advanced web applications. Every Safari Extension is signed with a digital certificate from Apple to prevent tampering and to verify that updates to the extension are from the original developer. Safari Extensions are sandboxed, so they can’t access information on a user’s system or communicate with websites aside from those specified by the developer. For increased stability, Safari Extensions run solely in the browser.

Apple releases Safari 5 extensions for Mac/Windows. Can we have it for iPhone and iPad as well? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Apple releases iOS 4.1 beta 2 for developers

Once again keeping to the every-2-weeks cycle, Apple has released iOS 4.1 beta 2 for developers. If you’ve got an account, head on over to developer.apple.com and update your SDK and firmware.

We’re guessing Apple plans on doing what they’ve done in year’s past — keep releasing betas until they hold a fall Special Music Event and show off the final version along with a new iPod touch G4.

If anyone notices anything new in beta 2, we’ll update!

[developer.apple.com, thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Apple releases iOS 4.1 beta 2 for developers is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

iOS 4 features: Sync multiple IMAP accounts with Notes

With iOS 4, the built-in Notes app gets the ability to sync with multiple IMAP accounts, including MobileMe and Gmail. When you set up MobileMe or Gmail (not via Google Sync/ActiveSync/Exchange but via the Gmail button) there’s a toggle to turn notes sync on or off.

If you enable notes sync for multiple accounts, you get a new Accounts button at the top left of the Notes app. Tapping it takes you to a new screen where you can choose to view All Notes, just the notes on your iPhone, or just the notes that are synced via IMAP to your email account(s).

Those notes then appear in your desktop and web-based IMAP clients as well, like Apple’s Mac Mail.app (in Marker Felt, ugh!) and Gmail.com.

If you’re using multiple IMAP Notes accounts, let us know how it’s working for you. For more features, see our complete iOS 4 walkthrough.

iOS 4 features: Sync multiple IMAP accounts with Notes is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Plunderland for iPhone- app review

Plunderland is Apple’s App of the Week this week. Does it deserve it? Yes and no. Developer JohnnyTwoShoes has made a solid effort to bring pillaging across the sea in the hands of eager gamers.

The premise of Plunderland is you are a ghost with pirates that sail across the sea to attack and sink enemy ships, pillage tribes people and take money from their monuments then make it to the next port. Sounds fun? Well, get used to it because that is what you do over, and over, and over again with little variety. Call me a stinker, but I don’t see the allure with this game.

Sure, the water physics are nice. You tilt the iPhone left or right to make your boat move in that direction. When there is a storm, etc, the water behaves in a more erratic manor, making maneuvering more difficult. Once you are on the high seas, you come across your enemy; the British warships. You have a couple ways to take them out. First is to use your ships cannon. You have a nifty way of angling the cannon to shoot your targets, just move your finger along the bottom and you will get a reticule via a line that helps your aiming. Release your finger and you fire your cannonballs. Second, you can use the enemies cannonballs against themselves. Before the enemy launches an attack, the cannon will puff smoke, that is your cue to ready your finger and deflect the cannonball back upon the enemy ship and with luck, split it in two!

I know, I make it sound exhilarating, and it is the first two or three times you do it. Sadly, Plunderland does little to keep your attention. Future attacks add blimps and more, but the fun is gone by that point. The attacking villagers is a simple “tap, tap. tap” on the totems to get money and fling some villagers around in an effort to extract some more dough. Again… zzzz…

There is nice upgrade system though, you can upgrade your ship, cannons and bowsprits by earning said money above. The game has excellent promise. The controls, physics and graphical style all lend them selves to a success. However, the bland  I really, really wanted to like this game, being highlighted on Apple’s App Store, but alas, mateys, I just can’t bring myself to recommend this lack-luster treasure.

[$2.99- iTunes Link]

UPDATE: I had a delightful Twitter chat with the developers. I explained that I had played 50% thorough the game and became unchallenged with the levels and objectives. They understood and are looking at a way to unlock the more exciting and complex levels earlier for more “hardcore” gamers. I also said that when I find the time to complete the game 100%, I would update this review to include my findings. I am hopeful that by the time I do this, they will have some new content available. You can follow the developer on Twitter here.

Pros

Great graphics
Solid frame-rate
Good physics engine
Upgrade system

Cons

Very, very, very repetitive
Takes a while to become a challenge (the end of the second chapter)

Plunderland for iPhone- app review is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

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This article serves to introduce you to Blu-ray technology, and where its place is in this fast, ever changing, ever improving World of movie viewing.

Blu-ray players are so called due to the way they operate. Blue violet lasers read the disc instead of red lasers. The wavelengths of blue violet lasers are shorter than their red counterparts and facilitate about 6 times more data storage capability.

There is much speculation and counter speculation about whether or not Blu-ray is the way to go and whether it offers the advantage that hardened enthusiasts constantly seek. Competition in the industry is fierce, provocative, and often argumentative.

The choice for ultimate HD viewing can be blinding, and it is everywhere. But most people still watch their favourite movies on older equipment of standard definition, so the scope is immense. At the time of writing, Blu-ray is ahead in the HD war, and if you don't want to subscribe to services such as Virgin or Sky, then Blu-ray is probably the best way to go.

Even in the most challenging situations and comparisons, a Blu-ray will out-perform a DVD. Up-scaling and compression are aspects you will not have to concern yourself with.

With the size of TV screens becoming ever larger, quality will be always an issue, and this is where Blu-ray comes into its own in this manner because its quality will hold, whereas comparable DVD equivalents can suffer in terms of what they can deliver.

Storage and audio properties also win over in the performance race, and in the effort to simulate studio quality in you living room, again Blu-ray comes out on top.

The top companies in the HD format battle eventually held up their hands in submission and decided that they too would be looking to produce Blu-ray discs of their own, and as of 2009, more than 7000 titles are available Worldwide.

If you have the appropriate technical knowledge, extras such as USB ports and flash memory are available for some Blu-ray players; just be aware which ones before you choose the player that's best for you.

And how about watching commercial Blu-ray movies on your Mac? By virtue of an external nicely sized hard drive, just take your movies anywhere you go. You will have to have Windows XP or Vista installed, as Apple QuickTime is incompatible. Encryption is solved by using PowerDVD in conjunction with Bootcamp technology. To experience the full benefit from this accessory, be sure you have the most up to date graphic card drivers for whichever Windows version you run, and a monitor to manage with HDCP. Now you are ready to gain the most from this HD experience.

Blu ray technology information is something not everybody knows about. Blu ray discs, players, movies etc, though available in the market in plenty, it is hard to find information to help on deciding the appropriate one. Visit Blu Ray Guide to find everything there is to know about blu ray. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Anil_Pandey

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Google remote kills 2 Android apps from user phones

Google has remotely wiped two apps from Android users’ phones, which is something Apple has always had the ability to do with iOS, but has so far never done.

For all the crazy stories about App Store rejections, and the well-deserved criticism Apple faces for some of them, to their credit they’ve never reached out and yanked an app off a users’ phone. Amazon famously deleted Orwell books from Kindle libraries, and now Google has killed Android apps, and maybe one day Apple will find a reason to do likewise (malware comes to mind) but today, they’re the ones who haven’t.

Irony aside, Google’s been very open about the reasons for going all “power word kill” on the apps:

Recently, we became aware of two free applications built by a security researcher for research purposes. These applications intentionally misrepresented their purpose in order to encourage user downloads, but they were not designed to be used maliciously, and did not have permission to access private data — or system resources beyond permission.INTERNET. As the applications were practically useless, most users uninstalled the applications shortly after downloading them.

After the researcher voluntarily removed these applications from Android Market, we decided to exercise our remote application removal feature on the remaining installed copies to complete the cleanup.

The remote application removal feature is one of many security controls Android possesses to help protect users from malicious applications. In case of an emergency, a dangerous application could be removed from active circulation in a rapid and scalable manner to prevent further exposure to users. While we hope to not have to use it, we know that we have the capability to take swift action on behalf of users’ safety when needed.

Again, Apple may decide they have to do likewise one day, so it’s an important reminder to anyone with a managed app or content store — iPhone, Android, Kindle, maybe Palm someday as well.

Does this concern you, or do you trust platform providers to only use the big red ban button when it’s to protect you? Or do you think users should have the choice — a big scary prompt button saying “malicious app detected – delete now/cancel at own risk”?

[Android Developers Blog via Android Central]

Google remote kills 2 Android apps from user phones is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

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So, you've got your brand new, temporarily shiny PSP. It's about as fun as a brick until you get some games, right? Among all the PSP games, however, you don't just want trash. You don't want the portable drek that gets passed off as “games” on the Gameboy Advance, like That's So Raven 2: The Two Towers.

You want new psp games. You want the psp video games that have won awards and accolades, so you know you're not wasting money or time.

The best way to go about this is to find a psp video games list, one that will rank all games. Enter gamerankings.com. Gamerankings is pretty self-explanatory, by the title. They collect reviews from every major and minor gaming site or magazine, and compile these to come up with the best-reviewed games.

You can view the top 10 psp games, or even all of the games in a ranked list. This system is pretty invaluable, and though everyone's taste is different, most of these games are eminently playable. You might notice, however, the disproportionate number of launch titles that populate the top 10 list.

The PSP is still quite young, and reviewers may have been a bit gentle at first. Few gamers would say that Ridge Racer is better than Syphon Filter, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, or Burnout Legends. In this case, you can look at the gamer votes instead of the review scores, for often these can tell the tale better than the reviews, particularly with a system as young as the PSP.

Of course, not all of us have the money to buy so many games. If you need to check out some PSP games first, some new psp downloads may be in order for you. Simply by going to yourpsp.com, you can check out numerous game demos, such as LocoRoco. Simply download these and place them on to your Memory Stick Pro Duo, go to the games section on your media crossbar, and load up your game.

Simple, right?

You can try these demos for as long as you like, and if you enjoy your gameplay experience, you can go out and purchase these games. But hey, if you're happy with playing the demos over and over again, that's your prerogative!

In short, you are own your best critic when it comes to the video games you enjoy. Use gamerankings as a barometer, but if you don't like racing games, you could ignore Wipeout Pure or Ridge Racer. You can search by genre or even ESRB ratings, so if there's a certain type of game you like, it shouldn't be too hard to find. Do your research, and you're sure to have more games you enjoy than you can handle!

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Does the iPhone 4 really have Retina Display?

Apple states that the iPhone 4’s 3.5-inch display has 614,400 78 micrometer-wide pixels which gives us a density of 326 ppi (pixels per inch). Apple claims this will give the iPhone 4 a, “pixel density so high that the human eye is unable to distinguish individual pixels” (at 12 inches). So, is this just a bit of marketing magic or does the iPhone 4 display really venture beyond the limits of the human eye?

Raymond Soneira, the president of DisplayMate, a company which does analysis of screens gave these statistics: the angular resolution of the retina is 0.6 arc minutes per pixel, which he derived from the angular measure of 50 cycles per degree with each cycle being a line pair — two pixels.

Using this model if you hold an iPhone 4 at 8 inches you would be viewing 716 ppi, at 12 inches it would be 477 ppi and if you hold an iPhone 4 further away at 18 inches it would then fall to 318 ppi. From this Raymond Soneira deduced that the iPhone has significantly lower resolution than the retina. He even went further stating that you would need a resolution higher than the retina to deliver a image that looks perfect.

William H.A. Beaudot, Ph.D, a researcher from McGill University, states in his profile that “My research is aimed at understanding how visual information is integrated across space, time and its attributes by the human visual system, as well as modeling specific anatomical circuits and interactions between the visual cortical areas involved in these processes.” You got all that? Me neither… but he seems to know a lot about the visual system.

Beaudot states that 300 pixels per inch is related to standard visual acuity of 20/20 vision. This means that a normal eye can discriminate between two points by 1 arc minute (1/60 deg). 1 arc minute seen from a distance of 12 inches to a dot size of about 89 micrometer or pixel density of 286.5 dpi. Thus, since the iPhones retina display has a pixel density or 326 dpi, it is 14 % better than we would have at 12 inches with 20/20 vision. Using these facts Beaudot feels that Apples claims are accurate.

He went on to state that the optimal viewing distance quoted by Jobs is 12-inches but Beaudot feels that this may be too close. He measured that the most comfortable distance from his eye to the iPhone 3GS was 18 inches which would make Apple’s numbers even better.

So what does seem to be agreed upon is that from 12 to 18 inches the image will be pretty close to if not better than visual acuity.The 326 dpi of the iPhone 4 is also better than magazine print which is only 300 dpi. If you are one of the few who hold your iPhone within 5 inches of your face you will probably be able to see pixels. Either way the iPhone 4 will have a display unmatched in the smartphone market.

What do you think about this, I would love to know your opinion.

[The Loop, Gadget Lab, Popular Mechanics via Gizmodo]

Does the iPhone 4 really have Retina Display? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

dvd to psp

Trashlight isn’t trashy

This is the most classy trash themed light that you could ever possibly own.  Sure, trash is a dirty thing, but you can pretty it up with this little gadget.  With this you’ll never again have to dump out your trash in the dark since the lamp is directly attached to the can itself.  Sure, it could make putting trash bags into the can a little tricky, but at least you’ll be able to see what you’re doing.

Another added bonus is that you won’t have to go far to throw out your burned out light bulb when the lamp stops shining brightly.  The trash is actually a concept design made for a show based around “Uncomfortable Conversations”.  The idea is that not even your trash can be a secret with this can.  It’ll be on display for every single person that enters your home.  After all, your garbage can tells a whole lot about you.  There’s no word on if this design by Craighton Berman will ever make it to a purchasable stage.

Source: CraziestGadgets

Trashlight isn’t trashy

This is the most classy trash themed light that you could ever possibly own. Sure, trash is a dirty thing, but you can pretty it up with this little gadget. With this you’ll never again have to dump out your trash in the dark, since the lamp is directly attached to the can itself. Sure, it could make putting trash bags into the can a little tricky, but at least you’ll be able to see what you’re doing.

Another added bonus is that you won’t have to go far to throw out your burned out light bulb when the lamp stops shining brightly. The trash is actually a concept design made for a show based around “Uncomfortable Conversations”. The idea is that not even your trash can be a secret with this can. It’ll be on display for every single person that enters your home. After all, your garbage can tells a whole lot about you. There’s no word on if this design by Craighton Berman will ever make it to a purchasable stage.

Source: CraziestGadgets

http://craziestgadgets.com/2010/06/08/trashlight-lights-up-your-garbage/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CraziestGadgets+%28Craziest+Gadgets%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Introducing Foolish Gadgets because not all gadgets are cool [ Trashlight isn’t trashy copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

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Monsterbike is the tallest thing on three wheels

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Introducing Foolish Gadgets because not all gadgets are cool [ Gadget Thumbnails for 07-Jun-2010 copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

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V-MODA offers new Remix Audio in-ear headphones

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Introducing Foolish Gadgets because not all gadgets are cool [ Gadget Thumbnails for 19-May-2010 copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

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Star Wars kit for Avatar Marketplace <b>News</b> | Xbox 360 | Eurogamer

Read our Star Wars kit for Avatar Marketplace News for Xbox 360.

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