app review: Canabalt for iPhone

Canabalt is a game that will conjure up memories of watching Jason Bourne running on rooftops, smashing through windows and narrowly making enormous leaps. Thankfully, there is no real danger to be faced, but its rapid pace and bite size game play will have you wondering if your last attempt was truly your best. Its 8-bit like, grey and black colored visuals are deceptive, as it engages you backed by a soundtrack, reminiscent of a Ratatat song, you cannot get out of your head.

Canabalt is simple on paper: you run from left to right nonstop, leap from rooftop to rooftop (a few crumbling under your feet), with speed being your friend and foe. Trouble is also found in the form of boxes in your path that attempt to slow you down; their malevolent purpose being to make your leaps for safety that much more challenging. As you reach Sonic the Hedgehog like speeds, you realize that you may overshoot your landings or crash into the side of buildings.

The game’s charm comes from not only its visual simplicity or its soundtrack but in the way you actually play it. As your in-game avatar runs faster and faster you realize that all it takes to play is one finger, and that is a great achievement. There is no need for annoying, and clunky onscreen joysticks to distract from the game. Your one finger tapping on the screen controls your character’s jump as he builds speed.

In future updates or iterations of Canabalt it would be great to have more varied courses instead of the just one. Also, besides a scoreboard there are no other options to challenge your friends, which is disappointing (I dream for multiplayer challenges someday). Overall, this is another solid iPhone game that will have you coming back, especially with your trusty headphones.

rating: four stars out of five • App Store link

review by Bagner Estrada

app review: Twitter for iPad

Twitter for iPad recently launched! The official Twitter app was updated to be a universal app, working both on the iPhone and iPad. At first glance, there doesn’t seem to be much bells and whistles, but once you figure out all the little hidden secrets, you’ll definitely love the new user interface.

When you first launch the app, you have a left panel with links to your Timeline, Mentions, Lists, Messages, Profile and Search. On the right side is your timeline of tweets. If you’re holding the iPad in landscape mode, the tweets only take up the center area of the screen. You might think that it’s wasting a lot of space the first time you see it. But try tapping on a tweet. The tweet will expand and create a new panel to the right of the timeline. The edge this app has over other iPad Twitter apps is the built-in browser that will display webpages, videos, and photos linked in tweets without closing the app. Having content display in-lined makes the Twitter user experience flow much more seamlessly. If you tapped a tweet that was part of a conversation, the tweets will also be grouped together in a new panel. This makes keeping up with conversations much easier!

As you click on tweets, new panels will appear to the right. You can swipe to slide through the panels to bring up more content. I find this to be an ingenious way to use the space of the iPad. A lot of content is displayed at one time and getting to specific data is as easy as a tap away.

Tips for getting the most out of the Twitter app:

Pinch a tweet and it’ll expand. I find it much easier to use two fingers (one on each hand) and drag out (mimicking a pinch movement). Some of the tweets are one-liners, so the tabs are pretty narrow. If you find a long tweet, it’s much easier to pinch.

Another tip is to use two fingers and drag down on a tweet. This displays the conversation (@replies) in a panel below. I thought this was a very clever way to display tweets. Be sure to keep both fingers on the tweet though. Once you let go, it’ll quickly roll-up like window shades!

If you have an iPhone, you may be interested in our walk-though of Twitter for the iPhone.

Download the Twitter iPhone/iPad app for free now.

More Screenshots

Viewing @replies and a follower’s profile.

The interface for replying and sending a tweet.

OtterBox Defender case for iPhone 4: review

Are you the clumsy type? Or just paranoid with your new iPhone 4? Then there’s a case to suit your iPhone up in pretty much what would be indestructible armor. Meet the OtterBox Defender case for the iPhone 4.

This is quite possibly the most rugged case you’ll ever come across. If you just want protection, then it’s got you covered, although the design is less than attractive. But that’s not the point here, the point is protection.

The Defender case is a two-piece snap on polycarbonate shell with a silicone cover to add shock absorption. When you first get the case, it must be taken apart in order for you to be able to install it on your device. The process is 1) pull the silicone cover from the bottom-up, 2) pull apart the snaps at the sides and top of the polycarbonate shell, and 3) take the two halves apart. You should now be left with a silicone skin, and two halves of a plastic shell.

The front piece of the Defender for iPhone 4 actually has a built-in screen protector, which is pretty awesome. The back half has a see-thru window for the Apple logo, so that you can still show off that what you’re using is pretty much an armored iPhone.

When you install the case, you need to insert the phone into the front half, then get the back piece on and snap the three enclosures together to make sure it’s in place. Then the silicone skin goes back on it.

The process to get the case on and off is a bit tedious, but the protection that the case offers is simply amazing. Once I got the case on, I felt as if I could literally just throw my phone around on concrete and nothing would happen to it since it’s sealed in super-protective armor. The entire phone is buried in two layers of silicon and polycarbonate casing.

As far as buttons and ports go, these are all covered and protected as well. The case is pretty much a box around your device. The volume and power buttons are covered by the case, and the ringer switch, headphone jack, and charge sync terminal are all covered with a silicon port cover to ensure maximum protection. It may be a little annoying having to open the cover up each time to use the button or port if you use them frequently, but it’s a minimal trade for all the protection it offers.

My only little problem with the case is that the silicon is a bit sticky – meaning that it will attract bits of dust and lint and what-have-you. But in the end, the case makes your iPhone a tank in exchange for looks. Seriously, get this case on and just throw it around a little. Nothing will happen to your phone.

So if you’re willing to sacrifice looks for the ultimate in protection and never have to worry about breaking the glass or getting scratches ever again, then the OtterBox Defender case is for you.

If looks still matter to you but you want the best in protection, OtterBox is coming out with the Commuter case for the iPhone 4 soon. Stay tuned for our review when it’s out.

rating: five stars out of five • OtterBox.com

Griffin Reveal case for iPhone 4: review

Do you have the iPhone 4 Bumper from Apple? Or did you consider getting it but was afraid of the surprising lack of protection it offered for the back glass panel? Want a solution? Well, Griffin has a case for that.

The Reveal Case is pretty much what the Apple Bumper should have been. The concept is pretty much the same –  rubbery plastic material that wraps around the sides of your iPhone 4. There’s just one difference – the back is protected with a layer of clear plastic. No more bare and unprotected glass back but it’s still shown so you can proudly show off your iPhone 4! The front remains bare though.

The rubber material covers the volume buttons and power switch. Unfortunately the Reveal case does not have sleek metallic button covers like the Bumper does, which was one thing I loved about the Bumper. However, unlike the Bumper, the bottom opening is big enough to fit older iPhone cables, something the Bumper fails at doing.

The headphone port is easily accessible and the camera and flash are in a perfect ovular cutout that has no obstruction when taking photos.

I did notice that since this is made of a more rubbery material, the edges of the case on the screen can be easily pushed off the screen when enough force is applied. This is bad because then dirt and grim can easily get in the crevices when you’re not looking. This results in a lot of cleaning sessions. The dirt and debris can also show through the plastic backing, which can get really annoying if you’re OCD about that stuff like I am.

Because of the snug fit and plastic back, it may be a bit more work to get the device out of the case, since you can’t push it out like with the Bumper.

Overall though, if you want a case that still shows off your beautiful iPhone 4 but offers more protection than the Apple Bumper (which doesn’t offer much at all, really), then this is definitely the case to pick.

rating: four stars out of five • GriffinTechnology.com

Edifier Luna5 iF500 Encore for iPhone and iPod: review

Nearly all single-unit dockable stereo systems for iPhone and iPod follow the same design philosophy: a flat rectangular structure with the speakers placed at opposite ends of the unit. But with the Luna5 Encore, Edifier blows up the blueprint – almost literally – with a tall balloon shaped unit whose design doesn’t quite compare to any dockable stereo I’ve ever tested in five years of doing so. The pictures don’t quite do the unit justice. Rather than being fully spherical, the Luna5’s speaker housing is only about six or seven inches front to back, with the docking unit sticking out another several inches. Still, it’s something of a monster when sitting on your desk, which helps explain why it’s able to crank out such excellent-sounding audio.

In fact, this is one of those stereos you can crank so loud that your neighbors will be ready to call the police, and you still won’t notice any dropoff in the pristine-ness of the audio quality, even in the lower ranges. In fact the bass is set a bit higher by default than most systems, but that’s fine because the bass and treble can be separately and significantly adjusted via the included remote. Even with its large overall size, it turns out the Luna5 is not as wide left to right as most of its similarly priced competitors, so it actually takes up less desk space. The downside to that tradeoff, however, is that the lack of physical separation of the speakers is immediately obvious when you listen; it sounds like all the audio is emanating from the same spot, because it is. Contrast this with most competing (rectangular) $300 systems, which offer noticeably better stereo separation despite also being single-unit systems.

The Luna5 comes with a built in FM radio, which is a good thing. And it allows for eighteen programmable presets, which is also a good thing, because there’s no way to manually tune the radio stations via the on-board controls; anything beyond accessing the presets has to be done from the remote. Actually, the remote is on the powerful side, with the ability to navigate up and down the menus of your iPhone or iPod, meaning you can access nearly any song on your device, without having to reach for it, so long as you’re close enough to be able to see you device’s screen. On the other hand, the remote is about a foot tall, slightly larger than even the oversized one that came with my cable TV box, which doesn’t make a lot of sense because my cable box remote has about three times as many buttons.

At the end of the day, the Luna5 Encore is one of those products that I really like, but can’t bring myself to give more than four stars out of five because everything that it does right also comes with at least a little bit of a caveat. As a minor example, the on-board volume buttons are easily accessible right near the lip of the dock, but the accompanying LCD screen which displays the volume level and the radio station is obscured behind your iPhone or iPod when viewed anything other than the left side. These are the kind of gripes that probably wouldn’t even register when testing a $100 system. But at $300, users are likely to be picky about the details.

After spending some time with this particular product, my general recommendations haven’t really changed: the iHome iP1 is still our highest rated non-portable system at $300, and the Altec Lansing MIX is still our highest rated $300 portable system. But if those products aren’t for you, or if you merely favor the shape or aesthetics of the Luna5 Encore, then it’s recommendable in its own right. It’s got its flaws, but they’re minor, and they’re essentially overshadowed by what the product gets right – so long as stereo separation is not atop your list of priorities.

Rating: four stars out of five · $299 · Edifier.com

Logitech Rechargeable Speaker S715i for iPhone and iPod: review

Logitech owned the $149 price range for portable iPhone+iPod stereo systems for years, until the company cut too many corners last year in attempting to reduce the price to $129, resulting in a compromised S315i just as Altec Lansing finally managed to nearly perfect its own competing product. Here in 2010, Logitech’s new S715i attempts to put the company back into legitimate competition in the price range, and indeed fixes much of what went wrong with the previous model.

Despite the return to a $149 price tag, the S715i represents a better value over the S315i right off the at in that it sees the return of a (small, basic) remote control. The design of the S715i is smarter in that the volume buttons, which had inexplicably and awkwardly been on the back of its predecessor, are now on the front of the unit; no more blindly groping for them around back. And while the dock on top still cuts corners a bit by not using Apple’s system of universal docking inserts, turns out to be significantly more stable than what came before, as far as tilting the unit forward and such. And the kickstand, while simple, is plenty sturdy (just be sure to remove that slippery yellow piece of tape first). These are all improvements that were easily observable before I even turned the unit on.

Good news on the audio front as well, as the S715i sounds just a little better than its predecessor – but then again, audio quality was never a problem with the S315i to begin with. The hokey “turn this switch to cut audio quality in half for the sake of doubling your battery life” option is gone, which won’t likely be missed. Perhaps of more concern is that the previous ten hour rechargeable battery is now reduced to eight hours, but that still outshines the five hours you’ll get from the competing Altec Lansing iM620. Altec still wins this round, as the iM620 offers a built-in radio, LCD screen, carrying handle, better docking mechanism, and sounds a little better for the same price. But the S715i puts Logitech legitimately back on the playing field at the $149 price point – particularly if battery life is a priority for you.

Rating: four stars out of five · $149 · Logitech.com

iMainGo 2 for iPhone and iPod: review

The original iMainGo emerged during the classic iPod era as an oversized carrying case with built-in speakers, easily the best-sounding product of its kind at the time. Now the new iMainGo 2 faces a bigger challenge, not from any competitor but from the mere fact that today’s iPhone and iPod touch are significantly more complex devices than the simple click-wheel iPods of old, and that’s even before you consider that the iPhone doubles as, you know, a phone.

But the iMainGo 2 tackles the challenge ambitiously, placing your device inside a play-through plastic cover which keeps it fully sealed inside the case while allowing full access to all touchscreen controls. An internal audio cable connects to your device’s headphone port, a pair of small speakers on the back of the case sound impossibly good for their tiny size, and the whole thing is powered by batteries. At about an inch and a half thick, the iMainGo 2 is far larger than your typical iPhone or iPod case, but it’s far smaller than any portable dockable stereo system.

In my tests, I amassed a laundry list of minor gripes, each of which may or may not affect you. First and perhaps foremost there’s the fact that scrolling through the plastic cover is not the smoothest of tasks – which is compounded by the fact that the iPhone’s side volume buttons can’t be accessed, meaning that the on-screen volume slider is your only option. And while the AAA batteries power the iMainGo 2, they don’t keep your device charged – this wasn’t a big deal back in the classic iPod era, but with the iPhone you can be in a heap of trouble if you run your battery to zero in the wrong circumstance. And while the AAA batteries do power the iMainGo 2 for about thirty hours, a built-in rechargeable battery would have been nice.

But two things serve to minimize all of those gripes. One is that the iMainGo 2 costs a mere forty bucks, making it a huge value play. The other is that, as I said, the audio quality is way better than you’d have any reason to expect from a product like this.

Rating: four stars out of five · $49 · iMainGo.com

Griffin Reveal Etch Graphite case for iPhone 4: review

As part of the free case program from Apple, the Reveal Etch Graphite is pretty decent.

The Reveal Etch is a combination of rubber sides and a polycarbonate back with a sketched pattern for style. The rubber provides enough grip to make holding the phone a bit more manageable.

But since the sides are made of rubber, I noticed that they have the tendency to be pushed and pulled around the edges of the screen. This can be a problem since dirt, dust, and grim can accumulate as a result of the somewhat loose rubber sides. The case should provide enough protection to protect your device from the usual wear-and-tear of daily use.

But the cutouts for the headphones and camera with flash are precisely cut so that there are no issues. The power and volume buttons are protected with rubber, but it takes a teensy bit more pressure to press the buttons. The ringer toggle is left open with enough space to be easily accessed.

The bottom has enough space to let the case be compatible with your older and third party cables. Docks may be another question (I don’t have a dock with my iPhone 4, sorry).

Overall, this is a good option of you want a free case from Apple. It protects the phone which adding a unique look to it with the etched backing. It’s also a decent choice for $29.99.

rating: 3.5 stars out of five • GriffinTechnology.com

Hard Candy Bubble Slider case for iPhone 4: review

When I received a box from Hard Candy, I opened it with much glee as to what would await me. What I found was a single iPhone 4 case – the BubbleSlider in a glossy chrome finish. Those that do not like silicon cases or one-piece snap-on cases would probably prefer the easier two-piece snap-on cases, such as myself. I found the BubbleSlider to be a pleasant case to use, despite a few minor quirks.

First, the design is simple and easy. The case has two halves – 80 percent of it is the top half, and 20 percent is the bottom. The inside of the case also has two rubberized guardrails that help with shock absorption. Slide the iPhone 4 into the top half and then slid it closed with the bottom half. 

One thing I did notice, though, was that when sliding the phone in, it will need to be pushed inward towards the right side of the case a bit. This is because the mute switch and volume buttons are separate, so each of these will need to be slide into separately, unlike the previous generations, where the volume buttons were one button with a slight crease in the middle to differentiate them.

Other than that, there are no problems with sliding the phone in. It’s a perfect fit and everything fits in snugly. The case itself gives enough lift to the screen so that any impact that would threaten the front screen will never touch the glass and instead be placed on the case itself. The two pieces fit together snugly, so it actually takes a bit of force to pull it apart. This is great for any drops, because it’s very unlikely that the case will come apart while the phone is inside. The rubber guardrails will also help with shock absorption, as previously stated.

The case allows full access to all buttons and ports, and a full opening on the bottom for compatibility with all previous iPhone cables. The bottom opening is significant, because with Apple’s Bumper cases, the thickness does not play nice with previous generation cables. It seems that third-party case makers are taking notice of this and making sure that the bottom remains open for this purpose.

The reason this is called “BubbleSlider” is because of the bubbly, dimple design on the back of the case. These little bubbles add a bit of grip when held and also make your phone stand out in a unique, fashionable way. The bubbles also seem to mask out most of the fingerprints that will result from the chrome finish.

The only thing that’s missing is a screen protector. The case comes in a Chrome collection consisting of Chrome, Black, and Gold as well as a Soft Touch collection, with matte finishes.

rating: 4.5 out of five stars • HardCandy.com

Aviiq Portable Laptop Stand: hands on first look

The new Portable Laptop Stand from Aviiq has just landed on my desk, and talk about svelte: as if to prove a point, the entire retail packaging is only about two inches tall and two inches deep. But the real shocker comes when you open the box to find that the stand itself is folded up to only about a quarter inch thick (although still two inches tall and more than a foot wide). It folds out into four very thin interconnected metal panels, whose edges then fold back to form a triangle on one end of the stand. The result is a very thin, very lightweight, and presumably very portable full-fledged laptop stand. It’s a clever enough trick that you almost have to see it in action to believe it.

In my tests I’ll be using the Aviiq stand on my desk to see how sturdy it is in terms of supporting my laptop, which is way heavier than the Aviiq itself. I’ll also have to travel with the Aviiq to see if it really is as portable in a practical sense as its super-thin fold up size suggests. With a $79 price tag, it’s got a lot to live up to. In the mean time, you can find the official details on the company’s website.

Jawbone Icon bluetooth headset for iPhone: hands on First Look

Jawbone’s new Icon bluetooth headset has arrived on my desk, or at least “The Hero” model has; it’s one of six new metallic candy-coated Icon models which include flavors of black, gold, silver, white, and red. Out of the box it reminds me a bit of a current-generation iPod shuffle, both for its metallic finish and the fact that it’s shaped vaguely the same, with the Icon being smaller of course. While the Icon is a bluetooth headset which can theoretically be used with any bluetooth-compatible cellphones, Jawbone promises a special level of integration with the iPhone (including the new iPhone 4) including an Icon battery meter on the iPhone’s screen as well as the ability to listen to your iPhone’s music and audio via the Icon wirelessly (although obviously only in the one ear)…

Jawbone’s Icon is impressively shiny right out of the box. But in my hands-on tests the main things I’ll be looking for are audio quality, physical comfort, ease and thoroughness of the touted iPhone integration – and I’ll also be looking to make sure that the Icon is as compatible with the new iOS 4 as it is with existing iPhone operating systems. This one will require a fair amount of real world testing, but I’ll report back with a full review as soon as feasible. In the mean time, the company website is right here.

iPhone 4 review: hands on with FaceTime, display, camera and more

“It’s the biggest leap since the original iPhone.”

Steve Jobs is right. Thankfully, there was no overuse in the words ‘magical’ and ‘revolutionary’ this time around, but one thing is for sure – this iPhone is a complete game changer to the iPhone line.

Design

Let’s go over the build first. This thing has two pieces of glass that serve as the screen/front display as well as the backside. Jobs claims that this glass is 30 times stronger than sapphires, so it is pretty good at being scratch resistant. I’ve been using mine for 4 days now, normal use, and no scratches. But also keep in mind that I have my phone separate from everything else (as should you, really).

Despite my lust for a white iPhone originally, I decided to just deal with a black one because I wanted to have it first, and frankly, I couldn’t wait until the second half of July. I’ve noticed that the black model doesn’t really show fingerprints as much as the previous models, and if it does, it’s easy to clean – I found that this screen as well as the iPad screen can get cleaned simply by wiping with the bottom of your palm. However, dust can show up much more, but that’s easy to clean too.

The stainless steel band that surrounds the exterior of the phone is just a gorgeous design, despite the reception issues that it is reportedly causing (though a software fix may be out soon to address this). Because of the unibody, square design of the phone, it felt a bit weird to hold compared to the previous three generations (I’ve had them all). But after a while, it felt much more natural to hold in the hand, because it didn’t have the curved back of the 3G and 3GS, though I still believe that the first generation’s back casing is the best.

I felt that the glass on the front and back made it a little weird to hold, but surprisingly it isn’t so slippery anymore. I believe that the stainless steel antenna band helps alleviate this problem.

The design of the iPhone has undergone a very thorough change, and for the most part, it’s for the better. I just wish that Apple did not make the back with an easily breakable material and did not have problems with the antenna.

I would believe that it would still be wise to invest in a Bumper or a case since the phone is made of a very easily-breakable material – glass. Better safe than sorry.

But the new redesign of the hardware is a welcome change – since it’s the “biggest leap since the original iPhone”, it would be wise to start it off with a brand-new design. For better or worse, a new look doesn’t seem to hurt the most popular smartphone on the market.

Camera

The camera on this thing is a fantastic upgrade from the 3GS. 5 megapixels, LED flash, and illumination sensor to help take pictures in low light. It’s the iPhoneographer’s dream.

Picture quality of the photos I’ve taken is great, the colors seem just about right and nothing is really too over-saturated or washed out. It captures the scene as it was intended to be. Although if a scene is getting some parts washed out or blown out (such as the sky against a foreground), the tap-to-focus that originated from the 3GS is still there so such problems can be easily fixed. There is also 5x digital zoom, available because of iOS 4, that will activate once the screen is tapped (tap-to-focus).

The LED flash is controlled by the on-screen controls in the upper left corner (On, Auto, Off) and is easy as pie to use. Since the iPhone 4 also comes with a front-facing VGA camera, there is also a button in the top right to switch to the front facing and back again. The Camera app will also remember your settings the next time you go back in the application.

Video recording on the iPhone 4 is shot in beautiful 720p HD resolution. There are still the basic video editing options that are built in, but there is also the iMovie application that Apple has released specifically for the iPhone 4 because of the processor, memory, and HD capabilities.

The biggest downfall though, is that currently HD content cannot be uploaded directly to YouTube through the device – it must be transferred to a computer and then uploaded through the web. There is no iPhone workaround for this. This limitation is also there because of upload performance, though even trying through Wi-Fi will yield the same result. Apple has dropped the ball on this one – if HD content must be sent to a computer first, then it is no different than having to use a Flip Mino HD or the like, besides having everything else with you in one. Hopefully this will be addressed in the future, if not, then Apple has let down a lot of people.

Retina Display

This display is sharp and crisp. And I mean really sharp and crisp. I didn’t even think the 3GS screen was that bad until I saw this thing for the first time – it completely blows the 3GS display out of the water. Typography that is completely zoomed in on will display no showing of pixels – this thing makes everything like real print. Even tiny text can be read clearly now without the need for much adjustment. Everything will just look better with this display (except for the surplus of third party apps that aren’t currently updated with support for the Retina Display – they’re all pixelated).

Not much else I can say about the Retina display, other than it’s just awesome.

FaceTime

FaceTime calls can be placed initially through a regular phone call or directly through the “FaceTime” option when viewing a contact’s information card (only viewable if the user has displayed their phone number for use with FaceTime, available in the device Settings).

When placed through a regular call, once the FaceTime is started, minutes are no longer being used since it will be handled over to the Wi-Fi connection. Video is decent quality for a VGA camera, and the images can be in either portrait or landscape mode. Audio is also pretty good with the current hardware.

The display of FaceTime will have the other recipient of the call being shown on the main screen, and a smaller window that will show your own video on the screen, and this window can be dragged to any of the screen’s corners. You can also switch to the back camera to share your surroundings if you desire.

The camera may not be the best out there, but for quick sharing of moments, it’s perfect. FaceTime is great for catching up in a fun new way.

Software

Because of the iPhone 4′s 1GHz processor and 512MB of RAM, everything just runs much faster and snappier. iOS 4 definitely was not this speedy even on last year’s 3GS model. There is virtually no lag on anything, even games. Everything is just clear and crisp, and blazing fast.

Conclusion

This really is the biggest leap for Apple’s iconic phone. Aside from the design flaws and HD uploading problems, there is little else that absolutely needs to be changed.

If I must give this device a rating, it would be 4.5 stars out of 5 right now.

iOS4 a waste of time for iPhone 3G users? Hands-on conclusions

iOS4 is a highly capable operating system – if you’re using it on a new iPhone 4. If you’re still trying to stretch additional life out of your aging iPhone 3G, you may want to think twice about bothering to install it, as there are pros and cons to doing so. In my case I’ll be getting an iPhone 4 next week, but I was curious as to how iOS 4 would run on my 3G, which I bought back 2008. I wasn’t expecting much to begin with (the 3G is much slower hardware than the new 4), and once Apple made it clear that not all iOS4 features would even exist when you install it on a 3G, I was expecting even less. You can check that sliding scale of iOS4 here as I’m not going to rehash it. But what I can do is to share with you my five days of running it on a now-ancient iPhone 3G (note: I’m referring to the 3G, not the 3GS here).

The new look of the iOS4 home screen, the bottom dock, in particular, does look snazzy, almost too snazzy as it makes the styling of an iPhone 3G look outdated in comparison; the iOS4 interface was clearly designed to match the styling of the iPhone 4. But getting down to things that have a material impact on the user experience, I found that in some cases iOS4 was slightly faster than OS 3 had been, while in other cases it led to unexplained lags in which my iPhone was clearly overwhelmed. I’m not talking about the very first time you launch each app after installing iOS4, as you kind of expect each app to take an extra second to re-wire itself into the new environment on first launch. But even after a few days I still noticed what baseball insiders would refer to as “American League delays” in which things get bogged down now and then for no clearly identifiable reason. In fact, and this makes perfect sense in hindsight, it’s not unlike installing a new operating system on a computer that’s a couple years old. The new OS is faster by design, so it’ll do some things faster. But it’s also assuming more capable hardware, so there are times in which it’s giving your poor old machine instructions that can’t quite be kept up with. If this were a full size computer you’d install more RAM to try to compensate (which might or might not help), but on a miniaturized device like a smartphone, those components are necessarily embedded and there’s no upgrading. So you just have to get used to the fact that some things are a little faster and some are a little slower; if you’re still using an iPhone 3G then by now you’ve already become accustomed to this when you’ve installed various new third party apps which were also written under the assumption of faster iPhone hardware than yours.

So where is the upside? For me, it’s hands-down the ability to view all of my incoming email on the same page. I have two accounts, one for work and one for personal, just like many if not most other working adults (actually I also have a third email account for no good reason, but we won’t talk about that). On my Mac, I see all the new email from all my accounts in the same inbox, in the order they arrived, except when I click on something to separate them out by account. But on my iPhone, I’ve spent the past three years having to tap the screen four or five times just to get from the inbox of one account to the inbox of the other account. It was a terrible, almost drunken design on the original iPhone back in 2007 which bizarrely assumed that you’d be wanting to spend as much time in the sent, drafts, and other random email folders as you would your inbox where all your received email is – and that you’d never want to check more than one email account at a time on your iPhone. I’ve dubbed it one of two of the iPhone’s “original sins” (the other being the inability to turn off that god-awful auto screen rotation system-wide), and now here in iOS4 it’s finally been fixed and done so in a really solid manner. If you have two email accounts that you check regularly on your iPhone, there’s no overstating how important this new feature is. It would have me dancing in the aisles if not for the persistent thought in the back of my head that there’s no excuse for Apple not having implemented this from day one, three years ago, as well as the amount of wasted time and frustration that Apple has needlessly foisted on me and others on a daily basis for the past three years. But alas, the iPhone’s only true fatal flaw has been fixed, and better late than never.

As a side note, I will say that if you really thought you were going to be able to successfully run multitasking on 2008-era cellphone hardware, then you have a misunderstanding of the kind of hardware power required to prevent multitasking from turning your user experience into a complete piece of mush; if multitasking is important to you, go get an iPhone 4 immediately. For the other ninety-something percent of you who don’t even know what multitasking is beyond being a word that the iPhone’s geek competitors like to throw around in television ads, then don’t worry, it’s a meaningless feature in the real world (only implemented on the iPhone to silence said geeks), you won’t miss it.

And that’s about where I stopped exploring iOS4 on my iPhone 3G, to be honest. There’s no speed boost, and that’s actually a slight net-negative as the speed-ups are when you don’t need them and the speed-lags come unexpectedly and tend to be more trouble than the speed-ups are worth. Of all the iOS4 features listed on apple.com that actually make it down to the 3G, the unified email inbox was the only one that I cared about (you can check that list to see if there’s anything you want for yourself). In my case the new email implementation made the iOS 4 installation worth it all on its own, but that massive improvement in my iPhone user experience has felt at times over the past five days like it’s almost been canceled out by the random system lags – sure, they only last a second or two here and there, but this was supposed to be an upgrade. So in my case, if not for the fact that I have two email addresses, I would have uninstalled iOS4 from my iPhone 3G by now and gone back to running the old OS 3 instead (and even OS 3 was designed to be run on the iPhone 3GS, not the 3G).

But again, that’s kind of what I expected before I installed iOS4, and part of why I had already made up my mind to buy an iPhone 4 beforehand. Anyone who is expecting new software (and iOS4 is free, by the way) to magically turn their old slow hardware into something other than old slow hardware, has a misunderstanding of the laws of engineering and physics. These are the same users who can’t understand why they can’t install the new Snow Leopard on their ten year old iMac, or why they can’t install the new Windows Vista on their their ancient PC from the same era, with any success.

Bottom line, based on my five days running iOS4 on an iPhone 3G, and based on what common sense pretty much already told me beforehand: if you really want the features that iOS4 offers, go get an iPhone 4, the new fast and powerful device that iOS4 was specifically designed to run on (here is Beatweek’s full hands-on iPhone 4 review). And if you don’t care about any of the new iOS4 features, there’s no shame in sticking with your old iPhone 3G – but in that case don’t muddy the waters by installing iOS4 on it for no good reason.

Note: if you want to know how iOS4 performs on the more modern iPhone 3GS, check out this hands on review.

Calypso Crystal for iPhone: hands on first look

Can any iPhone dock be worth two hundred dollars? The folks at Calypso believe the answer is yes, so long as the dock is made of handcrafted crystal, which their website says involves fifteen pairs of hands for the creation of each Calypso Crystal dock. The test unit they sent over, now sitting on my desk, is nothing short of gorgeous, and it’s perhaps the only iPhone dock I’ve ever seen that’s so classy looking, it outclasses the iPhone itself from a visual standpoint.

Interestingly, the Calypso dock forgoes the standard Apple system of universal docking inserts (a big hunk of visible white plastic would mar the crystal’s beauty anyway), and instead uses a simple lean-against approach which so far works fine with my iPhone 3G (we’ll see what happens with my impending iPhone 4). A pass through dock connector port is hidden on the back, making the Calypso Crystal a true dock and not just a stand; you can use your existing sync cable to charge and sync your iPhone while it’s in the Calypso (the website says it’ll also work the same for iPod touch).

I’m already sold on the looks of this dock (my test unit is the “Beau” model), but in my tests I’ll have to see how it holds up in a practical sense, particularly in terms of the iPhone docking mechanism. I’ll report back with a full review once I’ve finished my testing. In the mean time, you can have a look for yourself on the company website.

Scosche flipSYNC: hands-on first look

The arrival of the Scosche flipSYNC to market means it must be summer, the time of year in which the products that debuted at the winter trade shows finally start shipping. The flipSYNC was one of Beatweek’s Best of Show winners at Macworld 2010, and now that I’ve got one sitting here on my desk I’ll be able to test it out in real world settings to confirm whether it lives up to the award-winning status that we originally bestowed on it.

My gut says that it will, and here’s why: traveling with sync cables is a pain. It’s one thing to carry your iPhone or iPod with you and another to lug your laptop around with you, but having to take along a three foot cable just to be able to connect the two for charging and syncing purposes feels like insult to injury. I’ve used retractable cables, but they’re still somewhat bulky when wound up. But the flipSYNC, by virtue of being a flip-out product, folds up small enough to be a keychain fob – and even has a little keychain cutout to boot. I’ll have to travel with this product in order to evaluate its practicality, after which I’ll report back with a full review. But I suspect the flipSYNC will find its way onto my list of must-have travel items. In the mean time, you can find it on Scosche’s website.

iOS 4 hands on review: Apple’s new iPhone and iPod touch software

Today marks the fourth iteration of Apple’s now-traditional iPhone operating system, now called iOS. Like the two years before, this update brings a feature that the iPhone should have had since the beginning. With the 3G and 2.0, it was the ability to install third party apps. With the 3GS and 3.0, it was the ability to be able to copy & paste and MMS. Now, with the upcoming iPhone 4 on Thursday and iOS 4 today, we get multitasking, folders, unified inbox, and some other smaller things.

The biggest feature of iOS 4 is multitasking. Although leave it to Apple to not do it in the traditional fashion found on other devices. Apple has decided to implement some developer APIs to enable multitasking for certain apps, such as audio and location services. A perfect example of multitasking would be with the new Pandora Radio 3.1 update – now you can listen to Pandora and do other things on your iDevice. Over the past few days there have been slews of updates for apps to deliver iOS 4 compatibility, mainly multitasking, there are some that don’t have issues on iOS 4, but aren’t updated for the advantages of the new features. However, even though there are apps that aren’t ready to take full advantage of the new OS yet, iOS 4 also provides fast app-switching, so you can now switch back and forth between apps easier.

While Apple has finally implemented multitasking, and in a way that won’t put much drain on your battery, there are still a few flaws. Since there are only APIs for specific types of ‘multitasking’, there isn’t a way for apps to be fetching data in the background yet. So this means that Twitter apps, Facebook, RSS apps, etc cannot automatically update themselves while you’re in something else. Hopefully, this can be addressed in a future OS update, but for now, we just have to make-do with the multitasking APIs that we currently have.

To get the little shelf of currently running apps, you’ll have to double-tap the home button, and then you can flick through all the apps. Tap and hold until the icons dance, and you can quit apps if you want with the red – button. This also means that there is no more ‘Double tap Home button to” option in the settings. This part makes me a bit sad, since I used to have that set for the camera. But it’s worth the trade off for multitasking.

iOS 4 also brings Folders, another way to organize our apps after the mediocre attempt before, where we could organize apps in iTunes. The folders can be created when an app is dragged on top of another app, and the folder will automatically get a name based on the two apps. The name, fortunately, can be changed. The folders can also only hold 12 apps at a time, which is unfortunate. It would have been nice to be able to scroll in a folder to reduce clutterness even more. Maybe in the future.

The Mail app got a significant upgrade with unified inbox and threaded messaging. Now we no longer have to go back and forth between screens to get access to another inbox for a separate mail account. There are also threaded messages, which will show all the emails that the sender has sent to you in a particular email thread (think Gmail). 

One of my biggest complaints about previous OS versions was that there was no way to turn landscape mode off. I’m extremely pleased to say that iOS 4 brings orientation lock to the iPhone (although not by a hardware button like on the iPad). To get the orientation lock, you’ll have to double-tap the home button to bring up the multitasking shelf, then swipe to the left and you’ll see the audio controls as well as orientation lock. It will only lock or unlock Portrait mode though, if you prefer landscape mode you’re out of luck. 

If you’re worried about security when not around your iPhone, you can have more options when it comes to passcode lock now. Either stick with the Simple Passcode (4 digit number) or use an actual password (turn Simple Passcode off). Location Services can also be fine-tuned to specific apps if you are not comfortable with having it on for every app.

Overall, the entire OS feels much more snappy than it was in 3.x versions. Also, have you tried taking a picture with the default camera app? The shutter animation is extremely fast now, as compared to before. There’s also a digital zoom that can be activated, if you tap on the camera viewfinder screen. The Camera Roll now also has Places, Faces, and Events, if you use iPhoto to manage your iPhone’s pictures.

iOS 4 feels so much more responsive than previous versions. With it being a free update to both iPhone and iPod Touch users, there should be little to hesitate about, unless you’re a 1st gen iPhone or iPod Touch user – these will not be supported with iOS 4. The 3G iPhone and 2nd generation iPod Touch can get iOS 4, but with a couple of limitations, such as no multitasking. 3GS and 3rd generation iPod Touch users will have access to all features.

Stay tuned for a follow-up to iOS 4 with the iPhone 4, coming out Thursday, June 24 – we’ll have hands on coverage of it as well.

CableJive dockXtender: hands on First Look

Those users who really, really don’t want to have to uncase their iPhone, iPod, or iPad just to use it with a docking system can do just that with CableJive’s dockXtender, a not so inexpensive cable extender. The difference between this and a standard docking cable is that it’s not a connector cable but an extender, allowing you to set your iDevice next to a docking stereo, for instance, and successfully use it even if the case on your iDevice prevents it from fitting within the docking well of the stereo system. It sounds a little cumbersome, but try telling that to someone who just invested a couple hundred bucks in a dockable stereo and also happens to have a favorite iPhone case that’s not so easy to remove on a daily basis.

My test unit is two feet long and sells for $25.95, and there’s also a six foot option available for $31.95. In addition to testing out the practicality of the product, I’ll be looking for compatibility of the dockXtender with various docking products. Other possible uses worth testing will be the ability to use an iPhone with a dockable stereo system designed for iPod that’s not properly shielded to avoid the static buzz that the iPhone sometimes causes with unshielded speakers.

USBCELL rechargeable AA batteries: First Look

It’s a USB world and other devices are just living in it. So it’s nice to see AA batteries, which had grown overly quaint here in 2010, join the party. Just landed on my desk the USBCELL, a pair of standard size AA batteries whose cap happens to pop off revealing a USB plug which can be used to recharge the battery via any properly powered USB port on any computer (or for that matter any other powered device sporting powered USB ports). The idea here is that unlike standard rechargeable AA batteries, which come with a charging contraption designed to plug into a wall outlet, USBCELL batteries require no such charger, as you can just plug them into your computer overnight and be good to do. This could be particularly useful for those travelers who travel with a laptop but prefer not to carry as few external chargers as possible. One pair of AA USBCELL batteries sells for 10.99 GBP, which converts to about sixteen U.S. dollars; as with all rechargeable batteries, you overpay up front and then presumably get your money back each time you manage to avoid having to buy a new pair of disposable batteries. I suspect the essential question for each potential buyer will come down to how many AA battery devices remain in their lives, perhaps how often they travel with those devices, and certainly the question of how quickly they tend to go through AA batteries overall. USBCELL is of the Ni-MH rechargeable variety, for those curious.

In my real world tests I’ll be looking to see whether the USBCELL lasts as long as standard AA batteries, as well as whether they do in fact recharge via USB within the five hours that manufacturer Moixa claims, along with how the battery’s cap, which slides off but cleverly remains semi-attached via a thin piece of elastic material, holds up after repeated removals and reattachments. And lastly I’ll be examining how the USBCELL batteries function in a practical sense in terms of getting them charged up while traveling and such, and that will of course require me to travel with them – and so I shall report back with a full hands on review once I’ve had the opportunity to do just that. In the mean time the company website is right here.

Artist Colony: iPhone app review

Imagine a game that will take you to a beautiful place populated by beautiful, talented people. Open your eyes – Artist Colony is here.

You might be tempted to say, “But of course, this game is all about artists, it should look good!” – and you’re right. In this PC port to the iPhone, Artist Colony, you help Ben restore his parents’ rundown and abandoned Artist Colony in the hopes of reviving the vibrant world long neglected because of the complexity of human affairs. Yes, there is a story behind the colony, too, and you’ll find yourself immersed in it as soon as you hit the “play” button.

How the game works is pretty simple. The characters wander around the colony – as you progress, buyers and other artists will come in. Manipulating them is done by tapping, locking and dragging to a desired location. There is also a menu on the left that allows you to track their locations and activities. There are tiny icons above each artist’s profile to give you an idea of what they’re doing and looking for. (This is particularly helpful when they are in love with another artist) Meanwhile, in the project of restoration, you need to constantly train artists in their particular fields and upgrade the studios. The ultimate goal is to find the missing photographs to restore the colony.

The artists, like regular people, need to eat, sleep and rest. They also need to put in some manual labor for the colony. An interesting twist to the game is the amount of menial work involved – they pull up weeds, rid the studios of clutter and debris, and they clear up a fair amount of rubbish. However, too much isn’t a good thing, and in this case, it feels as though a large part of the game revolves around housekeeping.

Artists need inspiration in order to fulfill their artistic potential, be it as painters, photographers, sculptors, musicians, or dancers. Falling in love increases their inspiration and makes them more productive. The mysterious part is how to do it because the instructions aren’t clear about it.

When artists are inspired, they create art. When they create art, buyers come in and offer to buy their work. The money you earn from this goes to the expenses of upgrade and restoration.

The 3D graphics are gorgeous and the colony is beautifully designed. Animation generally runs smoothly and the soundtrack is perfect for setting the mood (you can also choose to play your own music). I like how the music and mood changes when say, an artist is holding a musical performance. Controls are smooth and it’s easy enough to navigate the colony, but dragging and dropping ad infinitum can get dizzying after a while.

There are a number of improvements that the game needs. One is a better tutorial and set of instructions. While you can muddle your way around and figure it out as you go along, after all this time, I still don’t know how to manipulate my characters to make them fall in love. The placement of the options to restore and upgrade as part of the pause function needs to be reconsidered. A separate pop-up menu would be much better instead of constantly pausing the game just to upgrade or check on what needs to be done.

While I haven’t finished the game, many user reviews have complained about the duration of gameplay which can be finished in a day. Perhaps a free play mode or mini-games after finishing the story would be much better.

Despite its flaws, Artist Colony is a suitable game fix for your SIMS cravings, in a gorgeously imagined universe. As for its concept as a social simulation game, the game has it down pat.

review by Enuh Iglesias • rated 4.5 out of five stars • $1.99 in the App Store

Brothers in Arms 2: iPhone app review

Brothers in Arms 2: Global Front is the latest first-person shooter game released by Gameloft Software, following in the footsteps of the original Brothers in Arms, N.O.V.A. and Modern Combat. If you’ve played any of those games then this one will seem pretty intuitive, as the control scheme is pretty much the same. Like those other games it is an enjoyable game that, despite a few lingering issues, is worth the $7 that it currently costs in the App Store.

Like most first-person shooter games, Brothers in Arms 2 drops you in the middle of a war zone with a few weapons and the ability to run, jump, and crouch your way to victory. The plot is fairly straightforward—a soldier looking for answers as to how his brother died ends up visiting many major World War II battlefronts, turning into a one-man supersoldier along the way. Gameplay is quite diverse, as different missions might require using a sniper rifle, firing a bazooka at tanks, shooting a turret on top of a moving car, or even flying a glider across the ocean to a landing zone. The trade-off for this is that the plot is extremely linear, and you have to do things exactly the way the game wants you to in order to move on. For example, if the game presents you with some enemies and tells you to flank them, you have to move around the map and attack them from the side, otherwise they will just keep respawning indefinitely. Fortunately, the game helps out with this using mission objective updates at the top of the screen and green arrows telling you which direction to move. However, it does mean that there is a lot less of a chance for exploration (and as such, less replay value).

The graphics here are top-notch, and are roughly comparable to another famous World War II game, the original Call of Duty. In addition to the guns and soldiers, the surrounding environment also received a lot of attention and detail, and as a result doesn’t ever feel particularly repetitive. When running the game on my original iPod touch I was surprised at how good the game looked while still maintaining a decent frame rate. In a couple scenes featuring lots of action and shooting things became a bit jerky, but for the most part it ran fine. If you have an iPhone 3GS or iPad I would expect this game to run fine with few, if any, slowdowns.

The biggest problem with the game, the control scheme, is more or less unavoidable since there is only so much room on an iPhone screen. Movement is controlled with a virtual joystick, while firing, crouching, zooming in, and switching weapons are all controlled via other buttons on the screen. While it is nice to have one-tap access to all of these controls, it also makes the screen fairly cluttered, and makes it more likely to accidentally tap the wrong button by accident. Moreover, moving your finger all over the screen to push buttons means that more of the screen is covered up by it. A nice feature to help with this is auto-aiming, which moves your aim directly to an enemy if it’s pretty close. Since it’s difficult to be particularly accurate when aiming with a relatively large finger on such a small screen, this is a lifesaver when facing far-away enemies.

The only particularly annoying thing with the game is the controls for levels where you control vehicles. The glider, which uses the accelerometer to steer, is prone to randomly dropping out of the sky without warning. Likewise in the level where you drive a Jeep around, the car has a tendency to not move in the direction the joystick is pointing, which can easily lead to several frustrating deaths. However, once these levels are over, it’s back to using controls that work well.

Overall, in spite of its problems Brothers in Arms 2 is a well-made, fun game that leverages the iPhone hardware as much as any other game out there. Once you finish the single player campaign there is an online multiplayer mode, which is useful to have but is, in my opinion, less fun than the single player (the submachine gun pretty much trumps all other weapons here). There is also an iPad version of the game available for a dollar more, which has better graphics and spreads the control buttons out over the screen more.

review by Eric Nguyen • rating: four stars out of five • App Store

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