Connected for iPhone/Touch App Review

Puzzle games have become a staple in the app store lately. Creating something that is new, challenging and fun has become more difficult. Connected steps in as a contender in the puzzle game category. The idea of Connected is simple. Take the pipe pieces and connect the start and finish pieces. Sounds easy right? From the developer: Connected is simple idea, each of the 40 puzzles contains a number of pipe pieces. At the edge of the board are some start and end points. You just have to move the pieces to create a continuous pipe from start to finish, oh and you…

Reviews

Arcade Hockey for iPhone Review

My distinct memories of getting an air hockey table back during the 70’s fad era certainly places me in time, but I do still have a certain fondness for the game that I share with my family from time to time. Our kids got one of those multi-game tables with a small air-hockey board included. So when I heard about Arcade Hockey coming to the iTunes App Store I was thrilled … but the obvious question remains – how does the table game translate to the small screen?

Reviews

Dymo LabelWriter 450 Twin Turbo Review

If you have to send large numbers of snail-mail, a dedicated label printer may be just the thing for you. If you want speed and flexibility in your label printer, then the Dymo 450 Twin Turbo is definitely worth a look. While having a dedicated label printer with two different bays that hold two different sizes and types of labels may sound like overkill, it isn’t. In fact, it makes life even simpler by allowing a degree of flexibility that can save the time of switching from one type of label to another. For example, one side can have address…

Reviews

WunderRadio for iPhone Review

The Internet is proving to be an interesting outlet for traditional, commercial radio. Many programs like iTunes, offer streams from various radio stations. WunderRadio is from the Weather Underground folk, and it brings you literally thousands of radio stations and streams from around the world. Let’s take a closer look!

Reviews

Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks: Week Three into the Rosetta Stone TOTALe Program

As you will recall, this week started with me being quite frustrated when I had miserably failed the Milestone at the end of Unit One. I was also concerned about the empty checkboxes that I was seeing on my Unit 1 progress bar, but I figured I would get things straightened out — eventually. Tuesday morning, I received quite a bit of encouragement from an unexpected source…

News

Get Data In and Out of Google with New Data Liberation Site

Google has had a Twitter account called @dataliberation for a while now, but an official site was just launched today. The Data Liberation site explains how to get data into and out of Google, using standards-based, open formats.

Reviews

Convergence in Da-Club – Case-Mate Credit Card Case

Everyone knows I love convergence devices. From my iPhone to my clock radio to my dock/card reader. Why shouldn’t convergence carry over to iPhone cases? Case-Mate sure thinks it should. They’ve recently released a new case they’re calling the “ID/Credit Card Case.” This slim fitting case, which comes in a ton of colors acts as part case part wallet. How does the case do as both protector and card carrier?

Reviews

Wolfenstein RPG for iPhone Review

Back in 1992 when id Software was preparing to release their seminal first-person shooter ‘Wolfenstein 3D’, I was already sold – it had been over a decade since I had my first Wolfenstein addiction. In 1981 the game ‘Castle Wolfenstein’ for the Apple ][ captivated me to the point that when I heard that Wolf3D would be set in the same game world, I was already sold. Needless to say, Wolf3D was an amazing game regardless of lineage, and I professed my love for it here in my review of the iPhone version. Now the question is – how does…

Reviews

iPod touch Gen 3 First Look

The 3rd generation iPod touch is something special. With plentiful storage, awesome speed, a speaker and hardware volume control it is hard to remember how limited original version of the touch that was released just two short years ago was. While this new version of the touch LOOKS the same as the model it replaces, just a few short minutes with it immediately tells you that this is an entirely different animal. The original touch was an iPod with a touch screen. The 2nd generation touch was, on many levels, “an iPhone lite”. This new touch is being billed as…

Reviews

Review: Cooking Dash for iPhone and iPod Touch

I am a big fan of time management games. They combine some of the most interesting elements of action and puzzle games into a single package. Cooking Dash is a follow-up to the hugely successful Diner Dash game. Let’s see if it lives up to the expectations created by the original.

Reviews

qTweeter Gets New Name, Apple Approval But Loses Key Functionality

qTweeter is one of the best reasons to jailbreak. Once installed via Cydia all you do is draw your finger down from the top of the screen and an input window appears and allows you to quickly update your Twitter or Facebook status. Now the app has been approved by Apple and released in the App Store for $.99. That’s the good news. The bad news?? The key drop down functionality that lets you launch the app from the status bar is missing.

Reviews

GelaSkins Review

Many of us like to keep our overly expensive gadgets protected. We always want them looking like they did when we first pulled them out of the box. There are several ways to do so. Cases are popular, as are clear protective skins. But GelaSkins are another way to not only keep your device pristine but also keep it looking stylish and personalized. GelaSkins are removable covers for protecting and customizing your portable devices. They feature stunning, photo-quality graphics ranging from fine art prints to contemporary urban images designed by the company’s growing family of artists from around the globe….

Reviews

Aqua Jigsaw for iPhone OS Review

Over the summer my family takes a long vacation at our home in the Outer Banks. One of our favorite past times to do at the beach house is to all gather around the kitchen table with a large piece count jigsaw puzzle. We usually get one going and then come back to it over the time we’re there and end up finishing a few during our stay. With Aqua Jigsaw from 99 Games, I don’t have to wait until next summer to continue the jigsaw puzzle tradition my family enjoys. I can keep it going right on my iPhone.

Reviews

RDM+ for iPhone Review: BlackBerry Really Puts Your Computer on Your Phone

You’re out of the office, get a call and the boss needs a quick change on a presentation. You’re an IT admin, you’re enjoying some time out of the house for the weekend and you need to reboot a server — while your laptop is back at home. You want to show off a photo of the kids from vacation while you’re at a soccer game, but then you realize it’s back on your home computer. What do all of these scenarios have in common? Each situation used to require you to physically use the computer that is in the…

Reviews

iPod nano 5th Gen First Look

As I’m sure many of you know Apple have announced their latest refresh of the iPod Touch and iPod nano lines, and while neither were really overhauled the nano picked up a few more features than its big brother. It’s been widely speculated that the iPod line-up would gain cameras, but the rumours were only half right, with the Nano squeezing in a VGA 30fps camera, whilst the Touch had to make do with a performance boost and higher capacities. The look hasn’t really changed much, with the same basic design of the 4th generation Nano. It is still super…

News

Quirky PowerCurl Keeps Mac Laptop Power Cables Organized

Anyone with a MacBook knows that the MagSafe Power Adapter’s block has an elegant winding device built right in – there are little wings that flip up from the block itself to hold the cable. This works very well as long as you are only winding the thin power cable that comes from the block itself. The remaining removable portion that goes from the block to the wall outlet is a much bulkier cable, and it generally has to be looped over itself and tied off somehow. That’s where the quirky PowerCurl comes in. PowerCurl wraps both cords (plug end & MagSafe…

Reviews

There is a case for that: The OtterBox Defender for iPhone 3G/3G S Review

Oh the joy of acquiring a new iPhone – it’s shiny, sexy, has tons of apps and full of user interface goodness until the unthinkable happens: It is that precise moment with joy turns into sorrow, followed by denial, anger, rage, resentment, depression and reality that $99, $199, or $299 just left your bank account. There is a case for those moments when the law of gravitational pull yanks the shiniest gadget (the iPhone) out of one’s hands. I am talking about the OtterBox Defender case for the iPhone.

Editorials

Why Music Subscriptions Make Less Sense Than Ever…

As Larry just posted, Apple actually approved the Rhapsody app for streaming music if you have a RhapsodyTo Go account. So now we have RhapsodyToGo available in the US and Spotify available in much of Europe. That’s awesome, and a bit of a surprise but still… I don’t quite get it. Rhapsody to Go is $15 a month. That comes down to $180 a year or $360 over the contract-life of the iPhone. (As if iPhone ownership weren’t costly enough already.) Worst of all at the end of that year you own NOTHING! Contrast that to the Simplify Music app…

Reviews

Review: Dataviz Documents to Go Version 2.0 for Android

Since I got my G1, I have been interested in viewing documents on my G1. However that was not possible, except for PDF files. I was able to quickly find a good PDF viewer in IcViewer. However, there have been times that I would like to create a Word document or Excel spreadsheet. Since there is no Open Office port for Android, I had to make do with some note apps, bringing the text into a document once I got back to my desk. Once that was done, I either had to print to a PDF file to view it…

Game Diary, Reviews

Yahoo! Fantasy Football ’09 for iPhone/Touch Review

Last week the Blue Plate Special was an app to get us through our fantasy drafts. I used the app to help me make decisions as well as keep track of the entire draft. It was much better than trying to find players on paper lists and scratching them off. Game on, wherever you are. Log in from your phone, and manage your team when you’re mobile. Add or drop players, check their stats and see the match-ups from any team in the league. Sign up for StatTracker® on your PC, and get up-to-the-minute stats on game day, on your phone….

Editorials

The Blurring Line Between “Smart” Phones and “Feature” Phones

My fiancée is on Verizon, and I use AT&T. It’s becoming clear that we really should just bite the bullet and move to a family plan on one of these carriers, as the combined savings would ease the pain of an early termination fee, plus we wouldn’t waste minutes calling each other from the grocery store. (This could also be solved by me simply writing down in more detail what we need before I leave, but that’s too easy.) Unfortunately for me, she’s very pleased with Verizon and is reluctant to leave. I tried enticing her by offering to purchase…

September 2009