Author Archive

Words with Friends HD

Tuesday, September 21st, 2010

words with friends ipad

Recently purchased Words With Friends HD and really loving this game, i tend to have 5-10 games on the go, the iphone version was a popular one for me on the way to work.

One thing i didn’t like was that you do not know when the other player is online looking at the board the iphone version has a pair of eyes on the nickname when they are currently watching.

if you fancy a game my nickname is Kinected

at £1.79 is a steal, this is definitely one game you will be playing for a while, using push notifications when opponents have just had there turn is a great idea, and keeps you on the ball with however many games your playing, you start to learn all the two letter words like xu, xi and ee.

Words

Posted in ipad board games, ipad London

3 ipad pay as you go and Monthly deals

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010

three micro sim

I recently joined three for the pay as you go ipad micro-sim deal

Pay As You Go + 3 3GB – £20/3 months

The micro-sim arrived promptly after ordering on Monday afternoon, it was quick to set and get going. you have to call 3 so they can activate the sim for you, then your pretty much ready to go. I loaded a few sites which took a while to load, but i realised the connection had dropped. I moved locations bit nearer the window and it was much better, no signal loss.

3 have stated that 1gb of Data will give you roughly the following:
Browse the web for 10 hours
Send 1,000 Outlook/HTML emails
Download 32 four-minute music tracks
Download 5 four-minute videos*

The ipad micro-sim Only Monthly deals are very good indeed, but i do not travel with the ipad alot. The contract is monthly and your not tied into a 18 or 24 month contract and can be cancelled at anytime.

Monthly ipad 3g deals
Micro-SIM Only – 1 month rolling 1GB – £7.50 month
Micro-SIM Only – 1 month rolling 10GB – £15 month

Posted in Ipad Pay as you go, Three

Why it is fun to play games on the iPad

Monday, July 26th, 2010


The one thing that the IPad has brought over from the IPhone is that there is a huge library full of games. When most people look at the IPad, they do not see it as a game machine. But in fact that is very well what it is becoming. Game developers loved the fact that they were able to have a new platform for their games when it came to the IPhone. With the IPad, they love it even more. They realize that the device will be more game friendly and with the powerful hardware underneath, they will be able to create even more interactive games. So in this article we will give you several reasons why the IPad is so much fun to play games on.


The size of the device

One of the reasns why the IPad is so fun to play games on is the size of the device. With the IPhone, you always had to deal with the little screen when playing games. While the device was serviceable when playing games on it, it was not ideal. You want to be able to see the graphics in full and with a smaller screen you are not able to do that. With the IPad, you have a much bigger screen to play with and the game designers can take full advantage of that fact. The one thing that game companies love to do is to show off the graphics with their new releases. With the IPad they are able to do that more effectively.


The powerful processor

Not only do you have a bigger screen to play with, you also have a powerful processor that will make the games run even faster. The one thing that you need for a game to be powerful is for the machine to have muscles. With the use of the A4 processor inside, you guarantee that the IPad has the muscles to be able to power the games that come out of the developer’s imagination. If you are looking for a portable machine that has muscle behind it to play games on, you do not have to look at the Ds and the PSP. You can just take a look at the IPad and you will have all that you need.


The screen interaction

With the IPad, you will be able to move away from the normal interaction that you are used to when you play games. The device itself is the joystick and this allows you to have more control and let your body be part of the full experience. The screen is very interactive and the device is able to tell how you are moving it. You will be able to control the players in the game by shifting the device and touching the screen.

If you are looking for a fun experience when playing games on a mobile platform then the IPad is the way to go. You will have fun thanks to all of the features that it provides.

Posted in Ipad Games

The tools you need to develop your own iPad apps

Monday, July 5th, 2010

When you were a kid playing video games in the living room, you always imagined what it would be like to create your own game. And not only to create the game but have it become popular as well. With the introduction of the IPad, the dream that you had as a kid can become a reality. Just like in the early days of computers when a single person could create a game and have it become popular, the same thing is happening to the IPad. All of the tools are there so that you can create your own applications and have them ready to be distributed to millions people around the world. We will go over all that you need to have your own app ready and waiting in the app store for someone to come buy it.

The first thing that you are going to need to do to create your own app is to make sure that you have a computer that is able to run Mac Os X. You need this so that you are able to download the SDK that you need to create the application of your choice. After that is downloaded and installed, you are going to have to get gritty and learn how to manipulate the computer by programming in Objective-c. Many people are scared off when they think about programming but it is really not that hard. Once you have the basics down then all that it takes is to learn the libraries that you will need to make your game come to life. Libraries are special pieces of code that will do some functionality that is used all of the time. For example, you may have a maths library that you can use so you do not have to rewrite simple maths functions yourself.  As we said earlier, programming is not hard but there are a lot of rules to learn. Learning these rules will take more time than anything else that you have to do. The language that you will be creating the app with is called objective-C and you will be using the Cocoa framework.

Once you get the basic ideal of programming, there are several tools that you can use to get your ideals onto the computer. You are going to need a good text editor or IDE. Two of the most highly recommended are XCode and TextMate. Once you have these two then you are ready to start creating. You might also need an image editor as well. If you want to create your own graphics then a tool like Photoshop is what you are going to need to get the job done.

If this sounds like that it might be too much work for you, then you could always go another route. You can come up with the ideal and pay someone to create it for you. There are a lot of apps in the app store that are made this way. If you already have another full time job then you might not have the time to learn how to create your own app. If this is the case, pay someone, it will be a lot quicker and easier.

As you can see, creating your own app can be a lot of work. But it can be alot fun and rewarding as well.

Posted in Ipad Apps, Ipad Development

Using the iPad to conduct your everyday business

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

The best thing about the mobile computing revolution that we are experiencing right now is that it allows us to get our business done while we are on the go. For so long, we have either been tied to our desk because of the desktop or forced to lug around heavy laptops. This is no longer the case for most people. Most people do not need the heavy computing that the desktop or laptop brings to do their work. All they need is a simple computing device that can run a few programs and they are good to go. This is where the IPad comes in. While most people have been touting the fact that this is one of the best multimedia devices on the market, the fact is that a lot of people will use the device to get their work done as well.

One of the places that the IPad comes in handy when you are doing your work is when you are at the office. A thing that people hate about being at the office is all of the meetings that they have to attend. With the IPad, the meetings get easier because you are able to have a very portable device that will allow you to keep records of what was said. You can either type the important points in the meeting or use the mic that is attached to the device and record the meeting. Either way, you will be able to keep a record of everything that was said so you will not miss anything later on. Also, if there is any quick research that needs to be done in the meeting, you can do that as well. You will not have to distract the meeting with opening up a huge laptop. All you have to do is to slide the IPad out quietly, do your research on Google, and then announce your findings to everyone.

The IPad is not only good at the office, it is also useful at more blue collar jobs as well.  Many nurses have found that it is easier to track the records of patients by using the device. The IPad has been used in a test run at many hospitals across the nation and so far the results have been pretty good. Also, people who work in a warehouse can benefit from having an IPad as well. If you connect to the computer network that keeps track of the inventory, you will be able to carry around the IPad and do real time updates. This way you know that whatever is not in the warehouse is already logged into the machine. The IPad has many uses at both blue collar and white collar jobs. It is all about how creative you are able to get with the device.

The IPad is a great machine to have but so far all of the press has been about how great the machine is for media purposes. There is a practical side to the device as well. If you are in need of a computing device at work, then an IPad is a great place to start looking.

Posted in Ipad for Business

Scrabble for the ipad

Saturday, June 19th, 2010

Scrabble for Ipad

I know a lot of people have been giving this game a hard time because this is a £15 boardgame in Argos but, i really like playing it on the ipad, everything is quicker and there isn’t any arguments over words in the dictionary.

My partner and i enjoy playing ‘Party Play’ with both of us using our iphones , as the tiles rack, you have to turn off wifi and turn bluetooth on for this mode, also make sure you download the Scrabble Tile rack app which is free in the app store for both iphone and ipad.

Playing Scrabble with the ipad and iphone is slick and best of all it’s fun and it got us back into playing Scrabble regularly, which is always a good thing.

scrabble for ipad uk

Posted in ipad board games, Ipad Games

Reading books on the IPad is a very pleasant experience

Friday, June 18th, 2010

 

 While it may not be the biggest reason why people get one, the IPad was also intended to be a great reading device. Over the past two years we have seen some great portable eBook readers enter the marketplace.  Apple figured that this may be a new market to take over so they made sure that the IPad had great tools that will allow a serious reader to be able to enjoy the device. There is a small battle going in the background of mainstream society. This is a battle for the soul of the book reading crowd. While reading books may be less popular than it used to be, it is still a very lucrative market. So of course Apple wants to get out in front and be able to control that market. In this article we will show the many good points of the IPad when it comes to reading books on the device. Also we will compare it to other readers that are out now and see how it stacks up against the competition.   

   

  One of the good things that the IPad has going for it as an eBook device is that you are able to get the books in several formats. The books can come to you as a normal eBook or they can be delivered as an app in the app store. This would allow the author to bypass the publisher and release the book themselves. If the author so choose, they could also release the book on the internet and have everyone read it through the Safari app. So as you can see, the ability to use the IPad as more than just an eBook reader works when it comes to using it as a reading device. Also, the ability to buy books out of the app store is very enticing as well. You may already have an account there so that you can buy music. It is only a short little click and you are able to buy books as well. And not only can you read the books that you bought on the IPad, you can also read it on an IPhone or a computer as well.   

 The one factor that the IPad is not able to measure up with regards to the Kindle is the fact that the screen is less hospitable to reading for long periods of time. Many people have agreed that the screen is less inviting on the IPad and the screen that is better for reading is on the Kindle. This is because the Kindle uses a technology called ePaper that was made especially for people to read for long periods of time on the device. The IPad does not have this since they need to accommodate for people who are not going to be using the IPad for reading.   

If you are a person that enjoys reading as well as other forms of other entertainment, then the IPad is the device for you. 

Posted in E-Reader

Is the amount of internal storage a problem on the iPad?

Monday, June 14th, 2010

As we all know, one of the hottest pieces of tech right now is the IPad. It has introduced us to a new way of using computers and is proving not to be a fad. But even though the device has received a lot of praise, there are some complaints about the IPad as well. Some have complained that the device is not as open as they would like it to be. In other words, the operating system does not allow you to do things that a normal computer’s operating system would allow you to do. These things include items such as installing programs that you have created in the device without paying a fee. The software is not the only thing that can seem to hold back the device from openness. Some of the hardware can as well. One particular jarring complaint about the IPad is that you do not have removable storage on it.

The IPad storage comes in three size factors, 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB. A few years ago this would be a huge amount of storage but these days it is barely able to get you by for a couple of months if you are a person that downloads a good amount of media. The average movie size comes in at just a little under 1GB. This means that at most, you would only be able to fit 64 movies on the device at any one time. This may seem like a lot but when you have the device for awhile and if you like to travel; you can go through those movies pretty quickly Sure, you can use the network and switch the movies on the device but that can be a lot of trouble.

A lot of people want to see the IPad have the ability to allow you to place your own storage on the device. This means that you would be able to buy bigger storage devices if you wanted to. It might even be better if it had at least one USB plug that would allow you to add an external hard drive to the IPad. This way you would just be able to store the extra media files on the external hard drive and watch them from there.  I think that this would be a fair compromise and something that would allow people to use the device to its full potential.

Even though most of what we have said has been negative as far as the limited storage space, there are good points of it not being removable as well. The first thing that is a positive is that you know that the system is optimized to that storage space. It will be able to run just a little bit faster with the known storage space than a third party device that it didn’t know. Also, it is a Flash hard drive. These types of hard drives are pretty fast and are known to be the some of the best storage devices that you can get. This is what allows the IPad to be so quick and responsive.

There are a lot of good and bad points for the storage space not being removable in the IPad. You have to figure out for yourself, what you can live with and what you can’t.

Posted in Ipad

Apps that will make the IPad the best musical device

Thursday, June 10th, 2010

Since the iPad has been released, many people have come up with some creative ways to use the device. A lot more creative than I’m sure that even the people at Apple imagined they would. Some of the software that has been released to the app store is also very imaginative. If you have ever thought about a utility that you would like to see on the iPad, there is a good chance that it is probably already on there. With so many developers that have targeted both it and the iPhone, there is a lot of brain power at work. Some of the most creative apps that you will see on the iPad are the musical apps. With so many musical apps, you can turn the device into a DJ booth or a production studio. In this article we will show you some of the things that you can do with a little help from the apps in the iTunes store.

One of the most impressive apps that we have seen when it comes to creating music on the iPad is the Sonoma’s StudioTrack. This app allows you to create, mix and record your own music on the device. It has a very pretty user interface and it allows you to really feel as if you are in a real music studio. Sure, you do not have the drunken engineer besides you but everything else is all that you would need to create your own music. Of course this is not the only musical production app on the IPad.

Sonoma’s StudioTrack ipad

Another competitor is called Groovemaker. It allows you to create music by using preset loops in the device. It is the IPad equivalent to the ever popular fruity loops musical program. You take the loops and mix and mash them into you have a song that is all your own. Another application in the app store that is just like this one is called Looptastic. It has pretty much the same abilities as Groovemaker but the interface is not quite as good.

Groovemaker

groovemaker

Besides musical production apps on the IPad, you can also get DJ apps as well. There are several that are available and they will allow you to DJ a party as if you had two turntables available to you. One of the more popular DJing apps is called Mixr. Another one is called PadDeck X and both of these applications will give you the real feel of being in a DJ booth.

mixr for ipad

If you are less into making our own music on the ipad and instead want to enjoy the music of others, then the iPad is still a great device to use for this. One of the more popular musical apps for the iPad is one from Pandora. It allows you to stream music to your IPad and over time it will start to learn your likes and dislikes. People have given the Pandora app rave reviews.

No matter how you like to enjoy your music on the iPad, there is an application for you to use. Whether it is creating your own music, DJing a party, or just listening to your favorite songs, the iPad is the perfect device for that.

Posted in Ipad Apps, ipad Music Apps

Two great free ipad Apps for UK owners

Monday, June 7th, 2010

The Guardian Eyewitness

Fantastic free app if your into photography, a single photo a day, which looks amazing on the ipad, you also get a pro tip, from the photographer that took the picture.

London Traffic HD
If your based in London or travelling in and around London, this app is useful, sitting in traffic is the worst
The app can locate the nearest jamcam to the iPad’s current location.

Posted in Ipad Apps
 
« Older Entries