Apple iPhone | Gear Diary

InfeCCt iPhone Game Review

I like puzzle games quite a bit. I travel a lot, and so even though I enjoy things like Dark Nebula, Earthworm Jim (yay!), and Cro-Mag Rally, puzzle games like Myst or Beneath a Steel Sky or Bookworm or Glyph are better for me, as they are easy to stop in the middle, the time pressure isn’t a big issue, and I don’t have to worry about being jostled or hitting air-pockets and losing a life as a result. Thumb-twitch games are tough on the heavy traveler. So I’m big on puzzle games. (Also card games, but that’s another review.)…

Reviews

Overboard & Snappy for the iPhone

For those of you who are running jail-broken iPhones take note. We’ve seen some really amazing releases over the last few days. I’ve chose to highlight two of them in the video below. Overboard, which is essentially a version of the Mac utility Expose, makes it really easy to jump around your iPhone’s various springboard pages. Overboard is available for $1.99 via the modmyi source. And Snappy allows you to quickly access the camera application from any screen including the lock screen allowing you to be able to quickly snap pictures when you choose. What’s really great about it you…

Reviews

Konnet HardJAC Graffito – iPhone Case Review

My favorite iPhone cases are those that are more a hard shell than a case. They take a minimalist approach to scratch protection and while they don’t offer much, if any, protection from life’s bumps and bruises, these snap-on cases don’t add much weight or bulk to the device. That’s a trade-off I’m willing to make. The latest snap-on shell I have been reviewing is a case from Konnet. The HardJAC Graffito is a three part-system that I really love using. (Well, more accurately loved since someone took a liking to it yesterday and, as a result, it is now…

Reviews

An iPhone/iPod cable that withstands a beating

From what I understand it’s a fairly common problem with the iPhone & iPod charge and sync cable. It’s also a problem that causes both costly and aggravating results. After pulling it out from the dock connector of your device countless times, the wire that connects to the dock plug becomes damaged. It’s simply not built all that heavy duty and the stress from pulling and pushing on the cord over and over again breaks it down.

Reviews

Archos 5 Internet Tablet: A Tale Of Woe In Two Parts…

I love tablets. I used a Windows Tablet PC for years and have been chomping at the bit for the Apple tablet. The iPhone and iPod touch have been and are awesome, but I have been longing for something a bit larger. When the Archos 5 Internet Tablet with Android came along, I thought it just might be the ticket. Here was a slick slate tablet with a 4.8“ touchscreen with 800*480 resolution. The 32GB model is just thin and light and… it runs Android. I bit. It is an impressive device. But is it a “keeper”?

Reviews

With ReelDirector App Flip Loses Key Advantage Over iPhone

The iPhone shoots video that is “good enough”. The Flip UltraHD shoots video that is better. That allows the Flip to maintain a slight edge over the iPhone but just slight. The HUGE advantage the Flip series had was the inclusion of built-in editing software. Once plugged in to a computer, the software popped up and allowed you to trim video and add credits. That key advantage is now GONE thanks to the $7.99 app ReelDirector. It is pretty impressive…

Reviews

Review: Altec Lansing inMotion CLASSIC

I’ve never had a great iPod speaker. I bought a cheap one at Kroger that didn’t last a month. It also required you to have it hooked to the wall all the time which limited its use. The inMotion CLASSIC that Altec Lansing sent me solves both the quality issues with my old speakers and let’s me be free of the wall. While the inMotion CLASSIC isn’t the first speaker dock to have integrated batteries, it is my first one and that has to be my number one favorite feature of the inMotion CLASSIC. If I want some music while…

News & Features

iPhone/AT&T Feature Checklist… MMS- CHECK! VOiP Over 3G – CHECK! Tethering – NOPE!

I am still a bit surprised by AT&T’s sudden decision to allow VOiP over 3G. Happy but surprised. Sure the decision might just be an attempt to deflect some of the mounting criticism over lousy service (30% of calls in NYC are dropped!!) and numerous conflicts over apps like Google Voice and Slingbox. But no matter what the reason, I’ll take. AT&T has had a good couple of week. First they finally got MMS pushed out to iPhones. Now 3G VOiP. What’s next?? Perhaps tethering? NOPE! Don’t expect it any time soon. Here’s why… According to a Wall Street journal…

News & Features

iPhone 411 Brings Beyond411 Features to iPhone

One of the first applications that I recommend to everyone using a BlackBerry is Beyond411 (formerly, Berry411). The developer, Phil Bogle, moved to an iPhone recently and is almost done porting the app to the iPhone as iPhone411.

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…

How to Do It Yourself!

PALMisLIFE.com Puts a Red Wrapper on Hui’s Apple iPhone

[Editor’s note: This article first appeared in Chinese on the site PALMisLIFE.com. Past Gear Diary contributor Larry Liaw did the modifications and translated the story for our readers. Larry has done some pretty radical upgrades in the past, most notably to the Palm Treo series; this marks the first time he has shared an iPhone mod with us, and what a mod it is!] And here’s the story… Once upon a time, a key webmaster of “PALMisLIFE.com”, Hui, owned an iPhone 3G and was happy with its features and elegant looks. He used it for texting, messaging, gaming, web surfing…

Reviews

iFrogz Timbre Review

iFrogz has quickly become one of the leaders in cutting edge accessories for Apple product, Mp3 players and other electronics devices. Their Ear Pollution line of headphones is one of the most popular headphone available on the market. iFrogz recently released a new item in the Ear Pollution line, the iFrogz Timbre. Available with or without an inline microphone the noise isolating ear buds are made with natural wood. I was recently sent a pair by iFrogz to review. Do the Tibre’s perform as good as they look? Read on to find out.

How to Do It Yourself!

Getting to Locations from the iPhone Calendar

One of the things that I found odd on the iPhone was the inability to use Google Maps to plot a route to a locations directly from the calendar. Consider how easy Apple have made almost everything else on the iPhone, it seemed to be a rather odd omission. You can easily navigate to an address or dial a number out of an email, but why not the calendar? This evening however I found a rather neat trick that manages to get around this problem with almost no fuss whatsoever. Take this calendar item I have for tomorrow (well, today…

How to Do It Yourself!

A Quick Tip For iPhone Users Living On The Edge

This quick tip may be obvious to many but it is easy to forget (as I did) so I thought I might share it with everyone. It is especially useful for iPhone 3G and 3GS users but really applies to anyone using a data connected phone and living on the edge… of a 3G signal. Here’s the story…

Gear Bits

Some Thoughts On the HTC Hero After a Few Days

I have become increasingly disenchanted due to the nonsense being pulled by Apple and AT&T with regard to the iPhone and applications for it. Time and again they have actively limited the device reaching its potential by intentionally crippling or rejecting apps that make it more useful. When the Google Voice apps were pulled from the App Store — and Google’s own app rejected — I started looking around to see what other device options might be available. Ultimately, the HTC Hero seemed to be the best option. Sure, it lacks the US 3G but then again, I spend the…

Reviews

Comics by Comixology (Iconology) for iPhone and iPod Touch Review

When I was younger, my whole family was big into comic books. We’d buy all sorts of titles. Although we didn’t think about it much back then, today we recognize the work and effort and artistry that goes into comics. The problem is, however, comic books have not translated well into electronic formats. ebooks, in general, have had a difficult time making the transition (mostly due to the policy decisions of publishing houses, i think), but comics have an extra hurdle – the graphics. Not only are they bigger, but you have difficulty deciding how to handle viewing them. If you…

Reviews

Track Your Trips in Real-Time with GPSed for iPhone

If you have the travel bug and enjoy sharing your adventures with your friends and family on Facebook, Twitter, etc., then GPSed is definitely for you. If you are a hiker, runner, or biker and just want to track your journeys in real-time, then GPSed is for you. In fact, just about anyone needing to show their location via GPS, archive their trips, or keep a log of their where they’ve been on GoogleMaps will likely find something useful with the many features in Shape Services‘ GPSed.

How to Do It Yourself!

How to get more than 11 pages of iPhone Apps

By default the iPhone limits the user to a total of 11 visible springboard aka home screen pages. Dayna from PHP-Princess has discovered a way around this limitation. Yes needing more than 11 pages of applications (180) is truly for the hardcore iPhone app user, but there are a lot of them floating around. This was a trick I discovered while moving around my icons. First, you have to be an app-aholic and have 11 pages of iPhone apps (and more hidden ones since they can’t be displayed). Then move some of the default apps you do not use like…

Reviews

Where GPS for Android OS Review

I reviewed Sherpa yesterday. While it was very good, it was slow as molasses. Where GPS, or what most of my friends just call Where, is an app that does a lot of what Sherpa does and more. It does it very fast. At the core, Where utilities your phone’s GPS in almost every aspect of its operation. You can manually change to any location by entering in a Zip code, so you can use this for trip planning as well. When you first launch Where, it asks if you are still where you were the last time you ran…

Reviews

Tobias Batton’s Proto iPhone Game Review

What do you get for around a dollar? A donut or some candies and change? Maybe a drink? For around a dollar you won’t get much that lasts long. Except maybe an iPhone app, and even that is not guaranteed to last very long or be useful. Proto from Tobias Batton’s Game Studio costs around a dollar, and I think it is worth every cent.

Reviews

Twitterena+ Pro for iPhone OS Review

If there’s one thing the iTunes App Store is not short on it’s Twitter applications. Anyone who knows me knows I’m a huge Twitter user. I’ve tried at least ten different Twitter apps on my iPhone and usually end up returning to three or so of the apps I call the “big guys.” Software developer Andrew Weeks has just recently released his newest Twitter client for the iPhone Twiterena+ Pro. Is there a new contender for top iPhone Twitter app? Read on to find out.