The iPhone review: a year and a half later
So it’s been about a year and a half since I bought my iPhone 3G. The novelty has fully worn off, the back is full of scratches and there’s even a few dust specs under the glass, but does it still stand up to the hype? I think I can sum the iPhone up in three words.
Awesome and frustrating
The iPhone has changed how I do many things. It’s changed:
- how, when and where I check email
- what I read and where I read
- how I play games
- what I expect from other small displays
- how I surf the web
- how I judge the quality of other gadgets
- how I view my stocks
- how I listen to music
- how I watch video
- how I get my weather
- how I access things like Facebook and Twitter
- what I do when I’m lost or need to find a coffee shop
- how I find what movies are playing today and at what theater
Mac OS X tip: Why can’t I free up space on my USB drive?
Here’s a quick Mac OS X tip: If you fill up your USB drive on a Mac and then delete some files, the Mac OS will not show that space as free and leave you stumped. The reason for this is because the files are still there. This is good, because if you accidentally deleted them you can get them back from your trash bin. If you want to permanently free up this space up for other files, simply empty the files from your trash and voila!
Galcon Labs: The sequel to Galcon and the next must have iPhone game
Phil Hassey, the creator of the incredibly popular and addictive multi-player game Galcon, for the iPhone and iPod Touch has surprised us with a new game today, Galcon Labs. The game is still really Galcon at it’s core, but there are four new game types, new music, and loads of polish on this baby. The original Galcon is arguably one of the best Multi-player games available on the iPhone.
Flight Control, another great little iPhone game
I’ve come to the conclusion that the best iPhone games are the ones that meet two criteria. First they are extremely simple to learn and second they lend themselves well or are specifically designed for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Case in point, Flight Control by Firemint. This game meets both these criteria and it’s super addictive. With a price point of 1 dollar (soon to be 3 dollars) you really can’t go wrong.
SimCity coming to the iPhone and iPod Touch
One of the most innovative and ground breaking games of it’s time is coming to the iPhone and iPod touch. Rumour has it that SimCity should be submitted to the iTunes store tonight, but as of writing this it’s still not up. EA mobile’s Craig Law released 3 screenshots pictured below of the new game. It looks like it’s the SimCity 3000 engine, or very similar and Craig has also posted this on the EA mobile Twitter account.
Audience is asking about how different SimCity for iPhone than SimCity for PC. It’s the same!!!
One of the most addictive iPhone games to date?
The Apple app store seems to be full of so called killer iPhone apps, but it’s usually not until you download and try them that you realize the longevity you thought existed does not. The same goes for iPhone games; I’ve downloaded both free and paid iPhone games only to find that the ones I thought would have longevity just didn’t, while others turned out to be real winners. One such app is a game for the iPhone called Galcon. When I downloaded the lite version of this a month ago it was the last game I thought I would become addicted too.
2008 year of the smartphone
This year has been without a doubt, the year of the smartphone and Apple has led the charge with it’s iPhone. Touch technology seems to be all the rage now, and of course Apple introduced it’s first smartphone last year, but their second phone reached a far greater audience with more countries and recently announced sales of 6.9 Million iPhones.
I of course jumped on the iPhone bandwagon, but before I did I spent a lot of time researching many of the smartphones out there. At the time just before the second iPhone was launched there were a lot of great smartphones on the way, but none were out yet. Now that the iPhone has been out for a few months a lot of new devices have emerged. One of the reasons I bought the iPhone was because Apple was ahead of the curve, now a lot of the other manufacturers have similar offerings, but are any of them really iPhone killers? I decided to do a quick smartphone round up to see what’s currently out there.
An addictive little iPhone game call Lux Touch
Lately we are seeing more cool little games coming out for the iPhone/iTouch. My iPhone is now becoming my primary hand held gaming device, in fact it is becoming my only device for everything. The other day I saw the free app Lux Touch while surfing the iPhone app store. It looked like a Risk clone, so I had to download it. Although I have never played the real Risk board game, I have put many hours into digital versions including the fantastic Conquer Club web based Risk clone (warning, if you like risk or strategy games going to this site could be dangerous). So when I saw an iPhone Risk clone I got pretty excited.
Apple’s new brick laptop to be announced tomorrow?
There has been a load of buzz over the past few days about Apple’s new MacBooks. Rumours of a sub 1000 dollar laptop along with speculation of a new manufacturing process that allows Apple to produce them for less are fueling the buzz. The new laptops are being code named “brick” and it may refer to a new manufacturing process.
On Tuesday, October 14th Apple has invited media to a special notebook event, so the wait to find out if the rumours a true will be over tomorrow. AppleInsider has more details and photos of the laptop.
Techcrunh also has details on the new laptop and CrunchGear will be there for the announcement.
(update: Engadget will have Live web coverage of Apple’s “The spotlight turns to notebooks” event.)
Space Monkey for the iPhone, iTouch is free for a limited time
Tonight I was browsing the top free downloads and noticed Space Monkey in second place. This was originally a $9.99 game, but right now it is temporarily free from the Glu developers (Update: Space Monkey is no longer free, but it looks like it’s now 99 cents, still a great price). This is why it’s always a good idea to check out the top free apps every few days, because a lot of apps start out free and then cost money later on. Sometimes they will also go on sale or as in the case of Space Monkey go completely free.
