Portengo's Wanted.app Review
January 31, 2009
Create your own personalized Western posters with Portengo’s Wanted.app 
for the iPhone. Westernize your loved ones by adding indian and western props to their pictures. Its a lot of fun and for $.99 how can you go wrong?
- hats
- mustaches
- axes
- guns
- and many more…
Not only are the pictures fun to look at, they are also printable in the highest resolution, you don’t get a scaled down image. Oh yes, and there’s Western-style music to go along too! Enjoy this application and watch my review:
“Apple TV is a genuine must-have for iTunes users”
January 30, 2009
In its 5-star (out of 5) review, Stuff.tv calls Apple TV a hot buy. The whole interface is stunningly slick and pretty, and Stuff.tv found loads of movies to buy and rent. You can start watching the brilliant on-demand content almost immediately, and the HD movies look superb and offer excellent sound quality with near-CD dynamics, detail and punch.
iPhone App of the Week – FlightTrack Pro
January 27, 2009
I’m a seasoned traveler! I travel for business all the time and last year clocked over 90,000 flight miles. So needless to say I’ve had my eye out for the ultimate travel app for the iPhone. When I travel, I want an App that can keep track of my flights, reservations, and updates if anything [...]
MarsEdit Public Beta Out, Supports Tumblr
January 27, 2009
I’m going to let you in on a secret. For YEARS, I hand-crafted all my posts for this and other sites in text editors, and laboriously uploaded them through wince-inducing and slow-as-lava web interfaces.
And then sometime last year, I remembered MarsEdit, and I paid the money for it, and my posting to sites like this has been a joy rather than a chore.
Last week, MarsEdit supremo Daniel Jalkut wrote a teaser post about the forthcoming update goodness, in which he promised a lot of new features.
Today, a public beta of that update is now available for download. It includes the promised support for Tumblr blogs, a better media manager, and more.
MarsEdit is one of the apps that I simply cannot live without right now. It takes the hassle out of posting to the Cult, or any Wordpress or MT based blog. Instead of wasting time waiting for slow web interfaces, you get to focus completely on what you’re writing. MarsEdit handles all that tedious talking-to-software business.
Why the iPhone Has Failed in Japan
January 27, 2009
Image: sausurau
Japanese cell phone users are simply ahead of their time, according to a report at Wired, which counts the Apple smartphone’s relatively pedestrian toolset and a strong dose of cultural bias against non-Japanese brands to explain why Apple’s provider partner Softbank is now giving away 8GB iPhones to customers who sign a two year contract in the country where gadgets rule.
For example, while many Japanese are heavily into working and playing with video and photography on their cell phones, the iPhone has virtually no video support and a camera that could be described as eccentric, at best. In addition, many Japanese enjoy TV tuners built into their cell phones, while YouTube and the Ustream app can hardly be said to offer content with mass appeal.
Nokia and Motorola have also famously failed in Japan, so Apple is not without company, but in a country with extremely competitive cellular rate plans, Softbank’s monthly rates are seen as too high in comparison to others’ offerings.
It’s odd to think that in the US and in many parts of the rest of the world, where Apple sold over 10 million iPhones in 2008, the device is seen as a status symbol, even an indicator of too-much coolness, while in Japan, “carrying around an iPhone would make you look pretty lame.”
Rejected Blackberry Ad Misses the Target
January 27, 2009
Engadget, among others, today has been flouting the little piece of filmmaking above as an advertisement for the Blackberry Storm prepared by New York advertising agency Guava, but rejected by RIM as too confrontational.
We’d add, having seen the Blackberry Storm in action, “off the mark” as well.
iPhone: The New Polaroid Camera?
January 27, 2009
Photographer Lisa Wiseman , who describes herself as “addicted to Polaroid film,” snapped a series of pics with her iPhone in everyday settings she called “the new Polaroid.”
About them she says,”These images are the evolution of the Polaroid: they were all taken with my iPhone camera. Because the iPhone is becoming a ubiquitous and trendy accessory, on-the-go picture taking is now the norm.
I see people using their iPhones to take spontaneous photos in the same carefree way that cheap Polaroid has been used in the past…Just like Polaroids had a specific size and look, iPhone photos are unmistakable because the technology limits them to a fixed size and resolution.” (NB: we’ve resized them here).
Complete album on her site.
Images ?Lisa Wiseman
Via Notcot
Madoff Scandal Made on a Mac?
January 27, 2009
What may be the largest investor fraud committed by a single person may have been hatched on a Mac.
These are shots are from ABC’s 20/20 recent special about Bernie Madoff, showing him in his Manhattan penthouse whiling away the hours (without remorse, they suggest) on a MacBook Pro.
Called “The Hunt for Madoff’s Money” it aired on Feb. 20, but you can watch it online here.
Via Macenstein
Would You Jailbreak iPhone for a 5 Row Keyboard?
January 27, 2009
The software keyboard on the iPhone has been seen as a dealbreaker for some consumers from the very beginning.
For example, when I interviewed blogger/developer Erica Sadun for a MacLife piece when the original iPhone came out, she told me under no circumstance could she take a phone without a tactile QWERTY keyboard seriously as a tool for business.
Many others have complained at various times about the inexact science/art of using the iPhone’s touchscreen keyboard and I must admit, as much as I love my iPhone, I avoid using it for tasks that require a lot of typing.
Now, however, there’s a simple little jailbreak app download wayne s world free that takes a least some of the pain out of using the soft keyboard by adding a 5th row, giving users access to numbers without requiring navigation to a sub-menu. Access to symbols is easier, too — just hit the “shift” key and the numbers turn to symbols.
Say what you will about jailbreaking the iPhone, the “outlaw” development community keeps coming up with solutions that many an iPhone user has pined for since Apple’s first smartphone came to market in the summer of 2007.
Via Gizmodo
Japan’s Softbank Giving Away iPhones
January 27, 2009
Japan mobile carrier SoftBank Mobile has begun offering a free 8GB iPhone to entice customers to sign-up for lucrative two-year data plans.
As part of its “iPhone for Everybody Campaign,” Softbank is giving away the iPhone, which previously sold for 8.21 in Japan.
Through May, the carrier is also discounting the 16GB iPhone, charging just .96 per month, or 9.11 over the two-year contract.
When SoftBank began selling iPhones in July of last year, the 16GB handset carried a 8.21 price tag.
The program is just the latest offering consumers discounted iPhones. Earlier this week, electronics retailer Best Buy began offering iPhones for up to 0 off.
The discounts come as both retailers and carriers look to the June Worldwide Developer Conference, at which many believe Apple could unveil a new iPhone version.
