Five weird iPhone cases

May 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment

This is a guest post by William Judd.

Today we’ll be looking at five of the weirdest iPhone 4S cases I’ve ever seen – including some which are a bit creepy, some that look a bit appetizing, and others that just don’t make any sense. Let’s get right into it!

5. Retro Phone Case
Retro handset iPhone caseIt’s quite common for those who prefer older styles tend to choose a phone case that reflects this – perhaps a wooden case, or maybe a nice handmade iPhone 4S leather case. These are good choices because they use classic designs to wrap a modern invention, but there are also tackier solutions – cases that look like cameras or cassettes. These are a bit suspect, but at least they’re well made. Finally, we have this retro phone case: a traditional handset glued to the back of an iPhone case. That’s just weird.

4. Breakfast Food Cases
Breakfast food iPhone casesFrom a badly designed weird case to a rather nicely constructed one, we have these breakfast food cases from Japan. There’s a choice of noodles, hash browns, rice or – my favourite – bacon and eggs. Each case is distressingly realistically well made and could easily pass for what they’re imitating if they were face down resting on your desk.

3. Giant Ear Case
Giant ear iPhone caseFood cases are cool, but I’ve heard of something better: this case that’ll really give you an earful. This lobe-ly case is just a giant silicone ear that’s quite amusing to bring out in public. Thanks to the massive size of the case, this should make your iPhone a lot harder to lose – and I guess that’s a good thing? Of all the cases on the list, this is the one I’d actually love to have.

2. Chocolate Bar Case
Chocolate bar iPhone caseThis is the only one on this list that I’ve actually seen in real life – as my girlfriend has it. She picked it up in Japan, where cute (and sometimes weird) phone cases are definitely the norm. Unlike some the other items on this list, the chocolate bar case looks quite realistic; something that came back to bite me when I noticed it early one morning. I can safely report that it does not taste like chocolate.

1. Creepy Hand Case
Creepy hand iPhone caseOur ‘winner’ this time is this creepy hand case from a Japanese manufacturer (indeed, the same firm behind the breakfast food cases earlier). Available in your choice of little kid or woman varieties, both cases feature a disembodied hand that affixes to the rear of the case. This means you can hold hands while on the phone, or even use it to hold pencils. It’s weird as hell, and for that reason it takes home the top spot.

Conclusion
And there we have it – five of the weirdest iPhone cases I’ve ever seen. Would you actually use any of these, or are they just too weird? Let me know in the comments down below!

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Say goodbye to cable-hunting with the OneCable

April 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The OneCable - three cables in oneWhile the EU would like to see MicroUSB as the standard cable for mobile devices, there’s still a good variation in chargers between different manufacturers. Apple, of course, have their own socket, and just by looking around the room I can see that my Kindle uses MicroUSB while my portable speakers use MiniUSB. This gets really annoying in the car, where I would rather just keep my iPhone cable plugged in. My wife, on the other hand, needs a MicroUSB cable to charge her Blackberry.

What we need is one cable that will charge the majority of devices, and that’s exactly what the OneCable does. This extendable USB cable comes with three fittings: Apple, MicroUSB and MiniUSB. They all fit into each other, and a clever hinge system means the ones that aren’t in use stay attached to the cable… so you don’t lose them down the side of the seat (you know, where all those fluffy sweeties end up).

There’s not really too much you can say about a cable, is there, except that it works… and I do love the spring-loaded extension reel which keeps it tidy when you don’t need it at full length (70cm). It’s already reduced my stress levels in the car, as I’m not hunting around for another cable and wondering how it ended up in the back pocket of the passenger seat any more.

It’s a cable… but I’m impressed.

A free sample of the OneCable was provided for this review. The sample was provided by Mobile Fun, who sell all manner of mobile gadgets and iPhone accessories.

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UltraGlass – protection for your smartphone

April 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment

UltraGlass Screen Protector

There’s a bit of a dilemma to be had with modern smartphones. They look lovely, but using them without any sort of protective cover is a quick path to scratches.

I’ve got a slimline case on my iPhone 4S that protects that back and sides without being too intrusive, but that does leave the front open to the elements. Am I bothered? Well, I know the iPhone 4S’s glass is pretty tough, so I haven’t been worrying about it, but I did notice a scratch recently that made me realise having an open-front case is far from ideal.

I really don’t like most of the cases that offer full enclosure, so I guess we’re looking at some sort of mobile phone screen protector.

The UltraGlass screen protector is a thin sheet of tempered glass that adheres to the front of your phone. It’s thin, and it comes in colours and finishes that allow it to blend in with white or black iPhone 4s and Samsung Galaxy S2s. Because it looks like the face of the phone, it maintains some semblance of the phone’s “naked” look, while offering some protection.

How much protection are we talking? Well, the graphics I’ve seen show people attacking their phone with a drill, but I can tell you I won’t be testing that! I can see it offering a little protection from drops, but the main thing will be protection from scratches. I’ve had my iPhone in the same pocket as my car keys this week (deliberately) and so far there have been no scratches on the UltraGlass.

Application is very easy – just clean the phone, peel the backing off the UltraGlass, line it up, and press it down. Because it’s quite rigid, there’s no worrying about getting bubbles under it.

If there is something I’m not happy about it’s that, under extremely bright light (like a very sunny day) there are little dots visible on the UltraGlass. I think these are how the electrical conductivity of your finger is transmitted to the phone’s touchscreen and, in most conditions they aren’t visible, but they do become a little annoying when you notice them.

Overall, though, I’m pretty impressed with the UltraGlass Protective Screen Cover. It’s easy to apply, feels sturdy, and does allow you to use your phone as normal. And it’s nice to know there’s just that little bit of extra protection in place, without making my phone look ugly in the process.

A review unit of the UltraGlass screen protector was provided free of charge by Mobile Fun.

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Free mobile apps drain your battery?

March 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment

iPhoneThere’s been plenty of speculation about why some iPhone users experience high data usage, but how is your battery use? Some days my iPhone 4S seems to cope pretty well, while others the battery counter drops like a stone. The BBC is reporting on some research by a team from Purdue University that claims free mobile apps can drain your battery.

How does that work? Well, free mobile apps are more likely to be supported by advertising than paid ones and it’s that advertising that seems to be the culprit.

When you’re playing a game you downloaded for free, the developer most likely wants to be compensated for the time they spent building the app. So they build in an advertising delivery system that pulls adverts over the Internet. When an advert is seen or, perhaps, interacted with, the developer gets a little bit of cash to encourage them to keep on developing.

The thing is, those adverts do use an Internet connect (perhaps that’s something to think about when it comes to data usage too) and may be targeted depending on your location. Opening a data connection to send the phone’s location and download adverts takes power… hence the idea that free, advertising supported apps use more power than others.

During their research, the team looked at Angry Birds can came up with the surprising result that around 20% of the energy used to run the game is used to power gameplay. That’s 80% on advertising, and 45% of that is used just to work out your location. Quite apart from the numbers themselves being surprising, Angry Birds isn’t a free app… but it does still serve apps up when you pause the game.

So, what are we meant to do? The research report’s author says developers must take energy consumption more seriously, and I agree with him. Apps should be optimised to avoid unnecessary drain on batteries. After all, you don’t want to have to recharge your phone every hour or so just because you’re enjoying a game. But can we ever get rid of this over-the-Internet advertising phenomenon? I don’t think we can. While there are still people who balk at paying 69p for an app, there will be a huge demand for free mobile software. And while people still have to pay their bills and buy their food, developers will look for ways to generate some income from this free app “market”.

At the moment, the only way to make money without asking users to pay would seem to be advertising and, while some optimisation wouldn’t go amiss, that’s always going to use more battery than if there’s no advertising present.

I’m curious to know your thoughts on this. Does advertising in apps annoy you or do you see it as a necessary evil in order to enjoy free downloads? Do you notice high battery usage when playing free apps as opposed to paid ones? Tell us your thoughts on these questions, or anything else to do with this story in the comments. Go on, I’d love to know what you think. 

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The Lost City [iOS Review]

February 15, 2012 By

The Lost City screenshotBack in 1993, a game called Myst came out that totally changed my idea of what could be achieved in video games. This was a time of poor graphics (although we thought they were excellent) and bleepy sound effects. It was the heyday of Sonic the Hedgehog and consoles like the Super Nintendo. Myst, with its beautifully rendered scenes and fiendishly difficult puzzles, was like a breath of fresh air. It looked amazing, and played like nothing else I had experienced.

Jump forward to the present day, and I recently downloaded The Lost City on my iPhone. It’s a puzzle game that places you in an ancient and abandoned city and has you solving puzzles to try and bring the area back to life. Just like Myst, the screens are pre-rendered and take on a beautiful, almost artistic look. The objects and elements within each screen comprise the puzzles and, believe me, you’ll resort to the hints and tips guide more than once!

The gameplay is a weird mix of linear and non-linear. The early puzzles felt like I was moving along a simple path to some (undefined) ultimate goal, but as I moved on I found I would have to go back and make changes to what I had already done. It felt sort of like I was moving in circles, or undoing perfectly good work, but the more I think about it the more I think it’s an interesting dynamic to introduce. It makes you think about the effects of your earlier actions, and not just put them out of your mind as soon as you complete each puzzle.

The Lost City is a beautiful little game, taxing on the mind but very satisfying when you work out how to get past a particularly tricky section. If you resort to using the hints and tips you should get through it in a few hours – more if you’re determined to work it out all by yourself.

The Lost City costs 69 pence and is available from the App Store for iOS devices.

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Waterproof Phones Try To Become Mainstream

January 23, 2012 By

HZO Water protection technologyAccording to water-protection specialists HzO, their water-proofing technology (or something similar) will be a feature of the next season’s top phones. The company demonstrated its tech by immersing phones and tablets in water at CES this year, and it’s impressing some key companies.

According to Pocket-Lint, Samsung and Apple are both keen to include the technology on their next flagship phones, the iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy SIII, respectively. If these industry leaders add the technology to their phones, it may become an essential box to tick for other handset producers in the market, as much as HD displays, dual core processors and NFC are quickly becoming.

While we’ve seen waterproof phones before, they’ve always been either specialist devices (like the Motorola Defy+) or modifications to existing phones, rather than a feature of a normal handset.

While the news is certainly a PR exercise for HzO, I hope that we do see this technology become more mainstream. As someone who lives in annoyingly-consistent Brizzle (that’s Bristol drizzle, for you outsiders), something like this would make my life rather less worrisome.

This article was written by William Judd. William writes for Mobile Fun, the UK’s leading online retailer of iPhone cases and Jawbone accessories.

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Grand Prix Story for Android and iOS [review]

January 11, 2012 By

gpstoryI have to admit it, I’ve occasionally wondered what it would be like to run my own Formula 1 team. The engineering challenges of developing the best car possible, the thrill of seeing my cars come home at the end of a race (hopefully in a good position) and the glamour of travelling all round the world.

Sadly, I’m almost certainly never going to find out what it would be like, but a great little game for Android and iOS devices does give me a chance to play around with some of the concepts.

You may remember, just before Christmas, Will Judd reviewed a game called Game Dev Story for us. In that game you ran a virtual software company trying to release hit games. Well, Grand Prix Story is another release by the same guys, and has you running a racing team instead.

So what sort of stuff do you get up to? There’s car development – which starts off very simple as you only have one chassis and a couple of drivetrain options available, but you can also research different body types, drive options, and upgrades like aerodynamic wings and improved engines.

You can hire new drivers, choosing to take on a rookie and train him up, or go for someone with plenty of skill and a high salary. Hire mechanics to repair the cars after a race, and to research and build new ones. All of these people can be upgraded in some way to improve their skills and get the most out of them.

In short, it’s the fun parts of team management without the grind of having to break up fights between your drivers or explain to the FIA why your car’s front wing seems to be flexing a little more than it should! It’s obviously very simplified, but it’s still great fun. It’s worth pointing out that this really is about team management, however – you won’t do any actual driving in the races. After all, that’s what you pay your drivers for.

The key to winning is research and knowing which setups work well at which tracks. Taking a road car to an off-road track will result in a poor finish. Some of the tracks reward cornering ability, while others require a good top speed. Some even need a setup that can cope with ice. Don’t expect anything like an accurate replica of Monaco, but by knowing the conditions at the various tracks on your race calendar you’ll do better than if you just approach it randomly.

That semi-thoughtful approach really works for me. You can pay careful attention to the details if you want, or can just have a bit of fun playing with cars, and it’s good either way.

At the end of the game (which is 14 “years” long) you can choose to start again with some of your technological advances in place. Just don’t think that by taking your most advanced car with you you’ll breeze through the early races… I tried it and still struggled!

Grand Prix Story is a fun little simulation of a racing team. It captures the essence of motorsport management without becoming overwhelming or delving too deeply into detail. It’s a great distraction and, if you do have an interest in motorsport, I’m sure you will enjoy it.

Grand Prix Story is available from the Android Marketplace and Apple iOS App Store.

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Game Dev Story for Android and iOS [Review]

December 23, 2011 By

Game Dev Story screenshotMobile phone games are trivial and pointless. The genre hasn’t sufficiently advanced since Snake 10 years ago – when I excitedly found Snake 3 on a handset a few weeks back, it was a total letdown, silly 3D movement and all.

That’s what I thought about the state of mobile gaming for some time… until I found Game Dev Story for Android a few days ago. Where other popular games like Fruit Ninja and Angry Birds introduce a single physics mechanic then bang on about it for 30 levels, Game Dev Story actually contains something worthwhile.

The game is a loose simulation of a game development studio – starting with a few programmers and artists in a back room, you make your way through video game history, developing games to beat the budget and please the public. You can choose to make games in a multitude of genres and themes, with more combinations being unlocked steadily as you progress.

Beyond the fairly simplistic gameplay, which is mostly just making executive decisions on staffing and development via a menu, there are clever ways to get ahead — some combinations of genre and theme work better than others. There are ‘hacker’ characters that’ll lend their elite skills to your team. New video game systems will be released, offering new possibilities for development if you can afford the steep license fee. You can even make your own console, assuring a steady stream of income and a lasting impact on the virtual world.

The feedback provided is beautifully done, with each step being reflected in the company’s fan numbers, trade show attendance figures and ultimately that most precious prize – reviews scores and sales. The rewards are given out slowly; you watch first as your game’s fun, innovation, sound and graphics scores tick slowly upward, receive release scores from the world’s most finicky gaming magazines, and gradually sales ramp up. It’s an addictive process that you’ll find yourself repeating for years in the game world.

It’s this slow release that makes the game so impossible to put down, like eating a packet of Skittles or Malteesers one by one. Sure, it’s mostly empty calories, but the periodic sugar injection will really keep you going on a long train-ride. And for a man stuck writing a review on a long train-ride, that means a lot.

Game Dev Story is available on Android and iOS devices.

This article was written by William Judd. William writes for Mobile Fun, the UK’s leading online retailer of the leather kindle cover, iPod touch cases and a new Kindle cover line.

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Hack brings Siri to iPhone 4 and iPod Touch

November 2, 2011 By

Siri running on an iPhone

This article was written by William Judd. William writes for Mobile Fun, the UK’s leading online retailer of the Kindle cover, including the new Kindle cover and the Kindle cover with light.

We’ve received word that over the weekend, dedicated hackers working on the iPhone 4 were able to successfully port Siri to the device. The exploit that the hackers used has not yet been released, but a video has.

The video shows Siri running completely naturally and at 100% speed on the iPhone 4 and iPod Touch, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that Apple held back Siri from the older devices to make more money rather than Siri having problems running on the slower CPU found on the iPhone 4.

While Siri looks to work perefectly on the iPhone 4, it’s not quite as successful on the iPod Touch, due to the less sensitive microphone. The hack still loads and runs correctly, but you need to speak quite loudly and clearly in order for Siri to hear you properly; speaking at a normal tone barely raises the microphone indicator.

The hack hasn’t yet been released for public consumption, but one of the developers responsible has issued a statement, saying that he is happy to do so once the hack has been checked to ensure that it does not interfere with the operation of any other parts of the iOS system. There’s no ETA listed for this release, as the developer said he doesn’t want to “anger the hive” with broken promises.

We’ll let you know when Siri for the iPhone 4 is officially (or unofficially) available. In the meantime, you’ll have to make do with watching the many hilarious Siri videos on YouTube.

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Samsung to try and block iPhone 4S sales in Europe

October 6, 2011 By

Samsung vs AppleThis article was written by William Judd. William writes for MobileFun.co.uk, the UK’s largest online retailer of Samsung Galaxy S2 accessories.

Samsung announced today that they will be filing patent infringment claims against Apple in European courts. These claims will seek to ban the newly announced iPhone 4S from being sold in France and Italy, ahead of their planned release dates of October 14th and October 28th, respectively.

The claims are on the basis of Apple’s alleged infringement upon the Wideband Code Division Multiple Access standard, better known as W-CDMA. Samsung has announced that it will attempt to prevent the sale of the iPhone 4S in other European markets later, but has chosen France and Italy first as these countries allow bans of products before they have begun to be sold, and are also key markets for the iPhone 4s.

While Samsung has claimed that the move is because ‘Apple has continued to flagrantly violate our intellectual property rights’, in reality it’s a response to Apple’s continuing legal attacks elsewhere – to date, Samsung and Apple have sued one another in twenty cases in ten countries this year.

Most recently, Apple was successful (at least temporarily) in blocking the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 from sale in the EU, following an injunction from a German court. In that case, Apple was found to have doctored images in order to make the Tab and the iPad 2 looks more similar than they were, and the ban was restricted only to Germany.

Having the iPhone 4S being blocked from sale in Europe would be a great blow to the company, which is expected to see its shares fall further following news of the death of Steve Jobs yesterday. Shares in Samsung, on the other hand, rose 1.7% the day after the iPhone 4S announcement.

With the lacklustre announcement of the iPhone 4S, Apple will be looking to prevent their Android rivals from gaining ground, and the legal battlefield is one in which they must not lose. As Samsung and Apple continue to compete in the smartphone market and seem unwilling to settle their differences, expect more legal action between the two companies across the world.

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