Archive for the 'Guest' Category

26
Jan

Apple iPod Touch 16GB with 1.1.3 Upgrade Review

By Taylor 0 Comments
Categories: Apple, Guest, Mobile and Reviews

Guest review written by Sam Hulse (samhulse.co.uk)

Basics
For people who already have phones on reasonable contracts (or for Crackberry lovers), Apple introduced the iPod Touch. And lets be honest, most people (especially those less tech-savy) don’t actually know the difference between the iPod and it’s bigger brother the iPhone. Lets face it - there’s not much difference - apart from the obvious lack of ability to make phone calls, send texts or take pictures.

Apple iPod Touch Review

 

Storage
Despite being the same price, the iPod does benefit from having twice the storage capacity of the iPhone; and let’s be honest with such a device boasting so many features: it does help to have room for some actual content. Storage wise the iPod Touch is sufficient but for those who like to take all of their music with them wherever they go the Touch probably isn’t a sensible choice.

Basic Applications
The music library is nicely organized, a customizable dock allows quick access to your music depending on how you like to browse (by Artist, Song, Album, Genre, Playlist etc) and the coverflow feature is definitely a good touch though it doesn’t have much of an everyday use. Videos are of decent quality and play fit nicely on the 3.5″ screen and the YouTube video application is a nice feature also, but again usage of this particular feature is limited in everyday life unless you’re an unashamed YouTube fanatic. The iPod Touch as standard also comes with Calendar, Clock (with World Clock, Alarm, Stopwatch and Timer features), Safari, iTunes Store and Contact Applications.

Extended Applications (Update)
Unfortunately the update which allows iPod Touch users to have the Mail, Maps, Stocks, Weather and Notes applications comes at a price (unless your iPod was shipped with firmware 1.1.2, iPods shipped with firmware 1.1.2 or (1.1.3 from now on) can get the update free), However this update is beneficial to the iPod. The Mail and Contact applications work together - so having the Contacts application on there now has a purpose. The notes feature is also very handy. The ability to have multiple home screens and to add websites to them, along with the rearrange feature is another great bonus to the 1.1.3 update.

Conclusion
However, the iPod does have a few annoyances. The metallic back of the iPod scratches very easily. Many of the features including most of the new Apps rely on WiFi, so if you’re out and about and not in a WiFi hotspot you can’t use the Maps feature to find new locations or directions, which does limit the usefulness, the weather won’t be updated and you can’t download new emails. The iPod has an “intelligent” dictionary and will auto correct mistakes while you’re typing. It learns about common mistakes you make and picks up on your writing style, but also gives you the option to cancel these changes before they are made but this can slow typing down, and abbreviations like “lol” are automatically capitalized to “LOL” no matter how many times you press cancel on the auto correct, and there isn’t a way to edit this in the iPods dictionary.

I can’t help but feel incredibly let down by it Apple for charging for the iPod Applications as well, it’s a bad decision and forces people to pay extra money for something which either should have been included from the start, or come at a price for everyone. It’s not like it’s updated firmware or OS, it’s a set of applications and there is no reason to charge other than Apple wanting to make more money out of people who are already paying through the teeth. First gen users have also had to put up with a lot of bugs, updates and changes in software and still are being punished - and because of this, the iPod suffers.

The iPod is a great device, but unfortunately there are too many downsides. Maybe the next gen iPod Touch will be something special, but for now the cons outweigh the pros - just buy an iPhone.

01
Jan

Sony Slim PSP (PSP-2000) Review

By Taylor 9 Comments
Categories: Guest and Reviews

PSP Slim Review
Guest Post by Neill Silva of thelulz.net.
When the PSP unveiled itself in America on March 24, 2005, ten years after the release of the original Playstation and five years after the release of the Playstation 2, it sold a smashing 200,000 units at launch, and totaled about 500,000 units at the end of the first month. It was a breakthrough in handheld gaming devices, and would soon have many hit games to put it to the top. The PSP was great at the time, but the price was quite high at $249. In 2007, the price dropped to $169 for the console, and $199 for the starter pack, making it more affordable then ever.

Slim PSP Review
(Image compliments of Wikipedia)

Hardware:
The recent limited edition Daxter Entertainment goes for only $199 and comes with the PSP Slim, the charger, a 1 GB SD Memory card, Daxter the game, and the Family Guy: Freakin’ sweet collection. I have had three PSP’s over the span from its release up until now and I can tell you the PSP slim is a lot better than the original and to me is a very good deal even to the Star Wars pack, which only comes with the, “Ceramic White” PSP with the Darth Vader logo on back, the charger, and Star Wars Battlefront the game. Now, why get this when you could get the sparkly silver PSP with the 1 GB memory card and a whole DVD at no extra cost? I couldn’t resist.

I do not work at Sony so I don’t know if the silver and white PSP are made in the same production line, but I can tell you that the white one was just put together wrong. When I got mine it had a dent in the back, a patch of pixels that would only show green, and paint that wasn’t painted in a smooth manner. These problems were NOT existing with my silver PSP. It has such a nice paint color and I have had no regrets with my purchase. There is a few cons with the PSP Slim, but the pros outweigh the cons if you are looking to purchase the new PSP model. It does have a cheap feel to it when you hold it and makes you feel like you could easily break it in your hands, but nothing has materialized out of those concerns. The problem there is that the PSP is just so light! Even with the oddly-light body weight, I have full confidence that my PSP will have a very long lifetime. The screen is the only other complaint that I have - you must get a screen protector when you buy the slim because the LCD screen will make weird blotches if you put even the slightest pressure, but when this happened to me it went away within an hour.

Games:
The PSP plays games using the UMD (Universal Media Disk) format media, which can hold up to 1.8 GB of data. This large storage capacity makes it easy for games to be made both long and detailed. An example of this capacity is the recent Grand Theft Auto ports. Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories are both ports to the PSP of the original large format games and they play very well. It is impressive to see how well the tiny UMD holds such a large game. There are hundreds of games out on the PSP so far and plenty more will be coming and from the ones that I have played there is a lot of different games being produced and a lot more creativity coming to this system, so it is worth the buy if you are looking for fun and unique games.

Conclusion:
The slim PSP is a great buy! If you are going to get a PSP its more available now than it has ever been and the deals on content packs are great. The PSP controls do not have two joysticks or even four trigger/bumper buttons forcing companies to come up with new ways of using the controller, which creates new types of games with exciting ways to play. The PSP also has a camera now, and Internet radio in the latest (3.80) firmware. It has been able to play music since its release making it a great MP3 player and it can play good videos on the 4.3’’ 16:9 ratio screen. It has been my favorite console for a while because in my opinion the games being created on the Xbox 360 are getting old and the PSP is getting better online/WiFi support every day.