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Lenovo's ThinkPad T500 gets previewed
Now that you're well acquainted with the specifications of Lenovo's ThinkPad T500, there are only a couple more hoops to leap through before pulling the trigger or calmly placing the mouse on the ground and walking away. Here to help you inch closer to one option or the other is NotebookReview, which has procured one of these rigs and given it a thorough inspection. Fans of the trademark design (read: plain, simple, boring / beautiful) will find oodles to love, and build quality (overall) was seen as satisfactory. Unfortunately, a good bit of flex was noticed in the keyboard, which could be a serious issue for fans of previous units. There's plenty more discussion where this came from, so head on down and give the full writeup a look if you're remotely interested in bringing the T500 into your loving abode.
Acer's Aspire One now available: unboxing and impressions
Given that Acer's contribution to the netbook craze was reviewed over a fortnight ago, it follows logic that the thing finally be available for purchase. Apparently the Aspire One is already on shelves in at least one Circuit City location, so chances are you can run out and grab one for yourself today as well. But what if you're not totally convinced it's the mini laptop for you? If you're 100% okay with subjecting yourself to a 26-minute "geek session" (their words, not ours) that unboxes it and gives a few brief impressions, jump on past the break and hit play. We're warning you though, don't venture down there unless you've got your coke bottle glasses on. We're serious.Read - Acer Aspire One first lookRead - Acer Aspire One impressions
First Look: Sketches
Sketches was one of the apps I picked up the very first day the App Store opened -- in fact, it was the first I ever bought, and I bought it as a mistake: Apple's one-click shopping bit me for $7.99 (the app has since dropped in price to $5.99). But it turns out, as a mistake, it was a fortuitous one, because it's one of the apps I've been most impressed with. There are a few other "Paint" style apps floating around the store nowadays, but Sketches is worth the price of admission for doing exactly what it says: letting you easily and quickly draw whatever you want on whatever you want.The quantity of options in a simple app like this are surprising. Choose from six different kinds of backgrounds, including photos shot with the phone's camera, existing album photos, a solid color, a webpage pulled from an in-app browser, a map of your location or a library of six included backgrounds.Next, select from a bevy of colors and line thickness for drawing or the provided clip art. Finally, save the sketch in the app, export it out to your photo album or send it to Twitter. And even as you use the app, more fun appears -- there's a cool Etch-a-Sketch-like shake feature to erase what you've drawn, and the zoom button can move you in close for even more detail.Text input is missing (and reportedly will be included in a later version), but as a quick sketch creator (you won't be designing the Mona Lisa with this, more like circling something on a map or pic before a quick upload to Twitter), Sketches is a really fun, very professional app. LateNiteSoft has it up to 1.2 so far, and even though I had no intention of buying it when I pressed the "Buy App" button without thinking (weren't we all a little feverish when the App Store first dropped?), I don't regret my purchase one bit.%Gallery-29178%
First Look: 1Password for iPhone
Managing passwords on the go is about to get easier, now that 1Password for iPhone has hit the App Store [iTunes link]. The release features secure notes, wireless sync to your Mac, and all the credential-caching fun you expect from the full-size tool -- in a handy pantsable format.I was able to install 1Password on my iPod touch and (after a few false starts) synchronize my 600+ desktop entries to the device, but unfortunately now 1Password coughs and dies on the touch when launched. I did manage to get some setup screenshots before things went south, including the desktop-side code entry to pair the device and the computer, so feel free to peruse the gallery -- once we have a bit more time (and I've thinned out my sync list) we'll give the long-awaited utility the full review it deserves.1Password for iPhone requires 1Password 2.8.1 on the Mac for synchronization. For a limited time, 1Password for iPhone can be downloaded free of charge.Update: Agile has let it be known that version 1.2 of 1Password has already been sent in to the App Store, so you should be seeing the upgrade as soon as Apple gets it loaded (which may be a little while).%Gallery-28696%
First Look: Texas Hold 'Em
I've been having such a good time getting my virtual wallet cleaned out by my Texas Hold 'Em opponents that it's taken me three days to write this post!Texas Hold 'Em is an iPhone port of the popular Apple iPod game that came out a few years ago. If you're a fan of poker tournaments or just intrigued by Texas Hold 'Em, this $4.99 game is a heck of a lot cheaper and less stress on your home life than going to Vegas and playing the real thing.The play action, as you can see in the gallery below, is amazingly realistic. Each of the players even has a "tell" (distinctive physical cue that they're either bluffing or have a really good hand) that you can pick up after a while. There's music that plays in the background, a Wi-Fi multiplayer mode, a number of poker rooms (including a garage that has a shelf full of old computers on one wall), and a good assortment of well-rendered virtual opponents. Frankly, I think it's one of the unsung bargains of the App Store. %Gallery-27918%
First Look: iZen Garden
The iPhone App Store offers several zen garden applications and today, I was able to play with one of them, iZen Garden [iTunes link], on my simulator. The program allows you to place stones onto a bed of sand and rake the sand around the stones. As the marketing materials suggest, it's basically a fidget toy. "iZen Garden is perfect for long meetings, train rides, or meditation practice. It helps you to center your mind, relax your psyche, and relieve your stress." The interface is easy enough to use, with several rocks available and reset options for when your perfect garden gets too messy. At $4.99, it's a love it or leave it program. If rock placement and sand stroking isn't your thing, then iZen Garden probably isn't either. If it is, this is a simple visually appealing solution. I found the program easy-to-use and modestly fun. I have limited artistic skills and my raked gardens always looked messy. Your mileage will almost certainly vary. iZen Garden works on both iPhone and iPod touch.
First Look: Chimps Ahoy!
%Gallery-27560% Griptonite Games' Chimps Ahoy! is a silly, fun breakout game. I'm not a huge breakout fan (to be fair, I'd rather clean my house and do my taxes) but Chimps' beautiful graphics and silly music won my heart. It's a graphic design tour de force. You play by throwing a coconut between a pair of monkeys, chipping away at inner barriers. Control the monkeys by sliding your thumbs up and down the sides of the screen. The introductory material made me think that game play was going to be a lot more complicated than it was (game play is quite easy) and there's no accelerometer support. Plus it's a breakout game -- but there's no getting around that part. But if you enjoy breakout games, Chimps Ahoy!'s multiple levels and bright inviting screens offer a nice twist on the genre. Given their high design standards, I can't wait to see what other products Griptonite delivers at App Store. Chimps Ahoy! costs $9.99 and can be played on the iPhone and iPod touch.
First Looks: AppEngines ebooks
No doubt by now you've noticed that many of the "applications" available on the iTunes App Store are various ebooks by AppEngines (iTunes Link). I thought I'd take a look so you can see what you're getting for $0.99. Each of these applications is a single classic (and thus copyright-free) book. For my tests I chose Jane Austen's delightful comedy of manners, Emma (iTunes link).When you first open one of the AppEngines ebooks you get a nice "leather" cover splash screen with the name of the book. Then you're taken to the first "page." You can advance pages by either swiping (right to left) or merely by tapping the screen. You can go back a page by swiping in the other direction. There are three font sizes which you can choose via the pinch gesture. At the top there are two buttons: a table of contents button that lists chapter titles and a search button that allows you to search for text. When you search on a term, it is highlighted in yellow throughout the text. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell there does not seem to be an easy way to move to the next instance of the search term. You just have to page through the book until you see the next highlight.While there are several book reader applications in the App Store for both commercial (i.e DRM-ed) and open-source texts, I think the AppEngines editions are basically worth the modest purchase price for the convenience. Personally, I find it nice to have separate home screen buttons for each book, and the presentation is more than adequate. Be sure to check out the gallery below.%Gallery-27444%
First Look: Super Monkey Ball
After the WWDC '08 Keynote, everyone wanted this iPhone game -- it received almost as much hype as the iPhone itself. Super Monkey Ball from SEGA definitely has some good qualities, however it does have some bad qualities as well. First off, this game costs $9.99 -- a little steep at first glance, but totally worth it after you notice that it comes with 100+ levels. The graphics are beautiful, and it definitely pushes the system, but I do have some complaints about the game. First off, the game is extremely hard to control with the tilt-sensors -- perhaps an update with some refined calibration is in order. A bigger complaint about the game: when you have the silent switch flipped on (meaning that the phone shouldn't make ANY noise), the game overrides this and plays the sounds anyway. So, be sure to change the sound settings before you start trying to play this game in a very quiet library or doctor's office. You also cannot pause the game, go to the home screen, and reopen it to start playing again (this might be an SDK issue, rather than a specific SMB problem).Overall this is a solid game with good performance/graphics. While you won't be able to play this game in the car, it still provides hours of fun sitting extremely still so as not to anger the tilt-sensors. This game is available for $9.99 from the App Store.%Gallery-27341%
First Look: NYTimes
If there was one application on the App Store that I wanted to love it was the NYTimes app (iTunes link). I've mentioned before that I'm a big fan of the New York Times and that's why it is so disappointing to me that I can't recommend this app. The New York Times mobile site is great on the iPhone, and this appliction is not. I tested it via WiFi on my first gen iPhone and it was slow, images didn't load, and advertisements took up a good portion of the screen from time to time.The search function is nice, but it isn't reason enough to waste your time on this one. Stick with the Mobile version of the Times' website and save some space on your iPhone.Check out this gallery for lots of screenshots.%Gallery-27406%
Hands on with Moto Racer
Last night, I had the opportunity to sit down and play with Moto Racer (iTunes link) for over an hour. Retailing for $9.99, it's one of the new Freeverse titles available at the iPhone App Store. In it, you play a motorcycle racer and race along several courses. Newer harder courses unlock as you pass easier ones. I had no trouble passing the first dusty town course -- it was very easy to ride -- but I did have to lower the difficulty (found in the Options screen) to get past the second old-growth forest course. My girls insisted on testing the game and proved to be far better riders than me. We all gave thumbs up to the game play, the placement of the left-thumb controlled gas pedal and the optional female racer (girl power!). Thumbs down went to the sound track, the weakest part of an otherwise excellent game and the relatively high default difficulty. Both phone orientation as well as the gas pedal control your progress through the various courses. The camera-work really zooms you into the action with cut-pieces as well as rider point of view. The game play is familiar to anyone who's done arcade gaming. You have to pass each checkpoint to earn extra game time. Coins appear in the road, boosting you to higher speeds to help you make it to the next checkpoint. I found that I often suffered from "lead thumb", forgetting to ease up on the gas before entering curves. Going off road significantly slows you down and is a killer for making those checkpoints happen. All in all, I found Moto Racer entertaining. The girls rated it extremely entertaining. On a Gameboy scale, this is the kind of game that we'd usually pay $4.99 rather than $9.99. On the more expensive Wii scale, this would clock in right at the $9.99 mark. It's no Excite Bike but it may keep you or your kids happy on a long car ride.
First Look: Evernote for iPhone
Evernote for iPhone (iTunes link) looks to fill one of the big remaining holes on the iPhone: virtual notes syncing. Basically, the iPhone app is a stripped down version of the Evernote client which allows you to create and access notes which are stored in the Evernote cloud. Once created these notes can be accessed on the web or through any Evernote client application (they're available for Mac OS X, Windows and Windows Mobile).If you're running the Evernote client for Mac OS X you can easily create notes accessible on your iPhone. Technically, this isn't syncing since the notes are not really stored on the iPhone itself; a network connection is required to access the notes. It's rather unfortunate that there isn't any kind of caching on the iPhone, because this means you lose access to all your notes if, for instance, you go on a plane.The Evernote application allows you to create several different kinds of "notes." Naturally you can create text notes. However, you can also create "Audio Notes" recording a short audio message to yourself, or either of two kinds of photo notes: from a previous taken snapshot, or one newly generated from within the application itself. You can then select which notebook you want it added to, as well as add tags and text. Once saved it goes into the pending category and is shortly uploaded to the cloud. Unfortunately, once created you can only access (and delete) notes from the iPhone; you cannot edit them.There are a few rough edges on the app. Sometimes the syncing does seem to work quite right. Text notes created on the iPhone default to a ridiculously tiny font. And you cannot edit notes. Nonetheless, it's a handy addition to the iPhone toolkit and finally provides a reasonably good work-around for the missing notes syncing. Check out the gallery below.%Gallery-27352%
First Look: Facebook
Facebook always seems to be on the forefront of iPhone development. They were one of the first social networking websites to have a good web application specifically designed for iPhone, and now they are one of the first big-name social networking sites to have a decent native application on the iPhone. The native application looks very similar to the web-based version, but with a few minor "upgrades." You get photo taking/uploading support, iPhone-esqe photo galleries, and Facebook chat. Facebook chat really works wonders, especially if you have been using the web-only client.The Facebook iPhone/iPod touch application is available right now for free from the AppStore. %Gallery-27338%
First Look: NetNewsWire for iPhone
Probably the single most used application on my Mac is NetNewsWire, and so I've been really looking forward to on the iPhone optimized version. It has now appeared and on first glance it appears that developer Brent Simmons has built yet another class leading RSS reader.Like the desktop version NetNewsWire for iPhone (iTunes link) syncs with the Newsgator servers for your subscription list, clippings, and read/unread status. And like the desktop version it's free. However, if you're like me you're not going to want your entire feed list on your iPhone. Fortunately, there is a way to use a desktop browser interface on Newsgator.com to select only a subset of your feeds to appear on your iPhone. Brent explains how to set this up at his site.Check out this gallery for a a quick tour of this great mobile version of NetNewsWire.%Gallery-27342%
First Look: Remote
Apple has a treat waiting for all you iPhone/iPod touch owners who also happen to be iTunes users (I imagine there is a high level of overlap between the two groups): Remote. Remote is a free application that turns your iPhone (or iPod touch) into a remote control for iTunes. Sounds simple, but once you use it you'll wonder how you did without it.Apple's implementation makes it a fairly seamless experience. Your iPhone and Mac that hosts your iTunes library need to be on the same Wi-Fi network (nope, it doesn't work over EDGE or 3G), and you need to enter a code from your iPhone into iTunes but that's it. From there it feels like your entire iTunes library is now on your iPhone. The best part is that if you have multiple sets of AirTunes speakers, like I do, you can control where your music is routed to.Did I mention that Remote is free? Yep, this great little app costs nothing.Check out this gallery for a bunch of screenshots.%Gallery-27343%
MobileMe: A First look
We've all awaited the .Mac to MobileMe switch for a while now (some more than others). However, Apple's 6 hour time table for upgrading to MobileMe turned awry and led into an almost 24 hour up, down, up, up, down cycle.If you're like most users experiencing the 24 outage, then you haven't been able to login and experience MobileMe first hand. So why not take a look at our gallery? We've got pictures of the entire MobileMe suite of web applications and user preferences: from the login screen to storage partitioning. %Gallery-27239%
Big Bang Sudoku
Many months ago, I posted about the free web-based iPhone Sudoku. Today, Freeverse released its native iPhone port of this game. Part of their popular Big Bang series, iPhone Sudoku retails for $4.99, offering expanded game-play and multiple language support (English, German, French, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese). It's a big step up from the web based version. You don't have to struggle with screen scrolling. The game items fit nicely on the screen. There many new features available. You can save and resume games. You can disable the "Show incorrect moves" cheat. You can enable and disable the onboard timer, and so forth. Unfortunately, I was unable to test the software on an actual iPhone so I don't know if the same touch location issues I experienced with the web version have translated to the native version. It's easy to use the mouse and cursor to play the game with its 9-by-9 grid. I can't tell if this will translate to fingers and the touch screen, but you'd sort of assume that it would--otherwise Freeverse would look pretty silly selling an unusable game. Another thing I couldn't judge directly was audio. Freeverse has added some spiffy sound effects to the game but there was no way to test that out. I listened to them in QuickTime after hacking my way down into the application bundle and they included reasonably non-annoying feedback snippets. You can disable sounds in the in-game options if that kind of thing bothers you. All in all, it felt like the equal of any other game currently retailing for $4.99 in the iTunes store. It promises a lot of satisfying game play for Sudoku enthusiasts with a well-designed interface. Freeverse's Big Bang Sudoku is available from AppStore for $4.99. It runs on both the iPhone and iPod touch. Here is the QuickTime version of the above video.
First Look: Typepad for the iPhone
I've been blogging for way too long, and for a good chunk of that time my personal blog has been hosted on Six Apart's TypePad. I'm a big fan of the service (though some might recall it was a little flakey in the early days, I'm happy to report I can recall no major downtime in the last 2 years) and that's why I was very excited to see TypePad was coming out with an iPhone native blogging app.Typepad Mobile, as it is called within the program itself, is available now on the App Store for the low, low price of free (of course, Typepad isn't a free service). It is a blogging client that lets you post directly to your TypePad blog from your iPhone as you might have guessed from the name. You can also snap a picture with your iPhone's camera and post that to your blog, or you can post a photo from your iPhone's photo roll in just a few clicks.During the course of my testing this app was very zippy, and it did everything I would expect from a 1.0 release. I hope to see some more blog management features in future updates (being able to approve/delete comments would be very cool).Check out this gallery for a a quick tour of this neat little app.%Gallery-27315%
Shazam for the iPhone
Song Identification is very near to my heart. For a while, I tried resurrecting my "Listen.app" iPhone utility but a GraceNote license was out of reach (about the price of a typical condo) and early talks with Shazam (via Tapulous) never went anywhere. So I was absolutely gobsmacked when today I found that Shazam had gone ahead and released a version of its Music Identification Software for the iPhone. You hold it up to record a few seconds and Shazam identifies the music. The software is beautifully designed and a joy to use. You can save your tag history and buy music you like directly from iTunes as well as share the music info with friends via email. Kudos to Shazam for releasing such a beautiful application. Although it's currently free, it will require a service plan with a monthly cost. Going by other countries, expect the service to run about $5 to $10 per month.
First Look: Exposure for the iPhone
It seems like only yesterday I was writing about Exposure, the iPhone native Flickr browser, in a rather circumspect manner. Now that the App Store is out I took Exposure (available in a free version and a premium version) for a spin and I really liked what I saw.Before we go any further I should point out that I love browsing Flickr and have always found Flickr's mobile site to be a bit lacking (that's a nice way of saying it sucks). Exposure lets you do everything you can do on Flickr's website and more. The neatest feature, and the creepiest, is the 'Near Me' button. Press it, and through the magic of Core Location, Exposure will show you all the photos on Flickr that were taken near your current location.Check out the gallery for a full tour of this great iPhone app.Exposure comes in a free ad supported version, and a premium version sans ads is available for $9.99.%Gallery-27300%
