Archive for the “iPod” Category

Since my devistating review of the Camangi WebStation I’ve had some time to think about what my vision is for the soon to be announced Apple tablet.  This isn’t a prediction of what I think it will be, but rather a look at what I hope it will be.  Of course I originally wrote this about two or three weeks ago and since then there have been many rumors and speculations about what the tablet will be.  And by now we have a lot of clues as to what it will be.  And of course it’s very likely that in two days we’ll know exactly what it is, at least it’s initial itteration.  But hit the link and read on to what iWant it to be.

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With less than 30 days until WWDC I’m starting to get anxious about what new Apple iGadgets might (or might not) be released.  Will Steve Jobs be back from his curious sick leave to unveil the next big thing?  Or will it be another disappointing and uneventful keynote?  The rumors have certainly been flowing recently and whether they’re based on anything real or are just wishful thinking on the part of a few fan boys, they’ve got me hopeful that my dream mac might be in my hands soon enough.  Either way, what might be has been enough to make me hold off on upgrading my first generation iPhone – hoping that I’m only a month or two away from that third gen iPhone hardware to go along with the 3.0 iPhone software.  But what will this new iPhone be?  And what of this controversial mac tablet?

About 2 months ago I was mocking up my own concept for a mac tablet when real life got in the way of blogging.  Since then I’ve blogged very little.  I’ve also seen (on other sites) a couple of very cool mockups, one that would be completely awesome but is at least a few years off due to it’s flexible OLED design, and another that is extremely close to what I was planning.  Whipping up a fake now would be completely academic.

Being somewhat of a fan boy myself it’s sometimes difficult to distinguish between my wish list and what I expect will really be released.  But here’s my take on WWDC 09… Read… »

In 1986 I went into my local Atari ST store and was furious to find a cheap Othello-type game selling for $30 – which was like 100 bucks in ‘86.  Why sooo serious?!  Well, because in my opinion it was a total rip off.  First off it showed no creativity – the graphics were just black and white circles for game pieces.  And second, it should have been free out of a magazine (back then you’d just type in the code).  It was a total rip off.  So I set out to write my own version of the game, and mine looked more like a 3D game table.  The rest of that story another time.

To my point, a similar thing has certainly happened to the makers of the iPhone app Bang!Bang! and Boom!BOOM! Shotgun Free (iTunes links).  They had what they thought was an original idea. They set out to make it professional, using realistic graphics and hollywood sound effects, and they worked it through the iPhone app approval process.  Only to find out that Apple was approving several ‘gun’ apps all around the same time.  No proof of this of course, but I suspect that Apple might have held theirs back to time the releases closer together. I believe theirs did hit the store first, but others soon followed, including what can only be described as an extremely cheap knock off called Shotgun Pro.  But plagiarism is the best form of compliment, right?  And competition is what makes this country great.

But still, the idea that Shotgun Pro had made it to #2 on the Entertainment charts got under their skin a bit.  And to be honest it also makes me scratch my head as it is a somewhat un-inspired soundboard app.  So to combat it they too set out on a mission, to ‘pop a cap in the arse’ of the competition.  Take the jump to read on and see the video…

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Ok… Unfortunately I’m old enough to have lived through old Coke vs New Coke vs Classic Coke – which by the way isn’t the same as the old Coke. This might be just a matter of taste too, but I belive the original iPod Shuffle is still the best iPod Shuffle.  By now it’s quite obvious that Apple’s business model is to come out with new iPods every few months so that there’s always a new iPod that you’ll want to buy.  For most of their other iPod models the new ones generall are better than the old ones.  But I still have my original iPod shuffle and it still works great.  And while it doesn’t talk to me, it has some features that make it the best..

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