A Website And Podcast You Can Trust
We’ve covered Noreve before at Essential Apple and we liked their range of cases to suite all tastes and sizes without that “made for mass market so it feels cheap” normality. Having covered the Noreve Exceptional case before we present for your indulgance the indigo version.
Continue reading → Noreve Exceptional Selection Indigo iPhone 5 Case
Everyone is on the lookout for the best price or deal when shopping for something. These 10 price comparison apps will help you make informed shopping decisions, so that you don’t have to worry about missing out on essential savings.
Continue reading → 10 Of The Best iPhone Apps For Price Comparisons
The online gaming juggernaut Twitch.Tv releases a new version of it’s popular but often broken iOS app. There’s the usual “bug fixes” but in an odd move they’ve removed search and limited the amount of watchable streams to 300.
Continue reading → Twitch.tv Version 2.3.3. Less Features, More Adverts, Same Blank Video Streams
Look out Siri, there’s a new smartphone assistant in town. Google launched Google Now for iPhone and iPad users on April 30. Available for Android devices for nearly a year, the new iOS version of Google Now is aimed at competing with Apple’s Siri talking assistant application. But initial reports are mixed as far as what the launch of Google Now means for millions of smartphone users worldwide. Google’s entrance into this market offers features not found on Siri and is certain to be a game changer.
Google Now is a new voice-activated intelligent personal assistant application developed for smartphones with Android and iOS operating systems. Google Now anticipates users’ needs based on their previous Web activity, location and other personal information. For instance, if a user asks if she needs a jacket, Google Now will give the weather report in her part of the world. If the user asks the cast of a current movie, the program will also tell them where the movie is playing nearby. The application is proactive. Google Now will alert a user when they should leave the office for an appointment or flight based on the weather, airport delays and traffic.
Named the “Innovation of the Year” in 2012 by Popular Science magazine, Google Now seems to be living up to the hype surrounding its launch. The magazine called Siri “outdated” compared to Google Now. The major difference is that, unlike Siri, Google Now provides both active and passive responses. It answers direct questions audibly, while displaying related information on the screen. So, instead of having to ask Siri about Windows server web hosting and other computer needs, Google Now can anticipate your wanting that information based on several factors.
Google Now is not likely to make Siri totally obsolete. An article in USA Today suggested that Google Now is best used as a supplement to Siri, not a replacement. Siri is the superior voice assistant application, but Google Now’s anticipation of your requests makes it useful and intriguing, according to the article. They prefer Siri because she answers every request, even if only to seek clarification, whereas Google Now will often remain silent.
One potential mark against Google Now revolves around privacy issues. Compared to Siri, Google Now requires that you share a good amount of personal information so that the application can anticipate your requests based on past browsing, your age, location, job, interests etc. Not everyone is comfortable with that level of disclosure. Google Now’s performance is only as good as the information the app receives from you.
Google Now is headed toward a desktop near you, according to CNET.com. There are indications within the Google Now code that it is being considered as a replacement for iGoogle, Google’s customized home page. However, no announcement to that effect has been made by Google. We’ll just have to wait and see.
WWDC 2013 was announced with a striking logo looking not too dissimilar to when you press and hold on an icon to move / delete said icon. If you fancy some really nice WWDC 2013 iPad and iPhone wallpapers we’ve a selection for you.
<!–more–>
http://forums.imore.com/wallpapers-ringtones/255375-wwdc-2013-ipad-iphone-wallpapers.html#post2019645
Especially interesting to BossJock users, you can now use iGrand Piano and iLectric Piano with your favourite sequencing, effects and recording apps. iGrand Piano for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, and iLectric Piano for iPad is now Audiobus compatible, allowing players to use these apps with their other Audiobus-compatible music apps like AmpliTube, GarageBand and BossJock Studio.
Continue reading → AudioBus Compatability Added to iGrand Piano and iLectric Piano Apps
Missed the window to upgrade to iOS 6.1.2 which was still jailbreak friendly? A quick google for a jailbreak for iOS 6.1.4 brought up a site called Silverwind or silv3rwind so I decided to research this to see if it’s a legitimate Jailbreak for an iPhone 5
MixPal.Fm steps in where Turntable.fm has closed it’s doors. Listen to live streams of new and upcoming artists, shared and rated by MixPal.FM users. There’s features a plenty along with a wide variation of electronica, dance, house, hard house banging house (think Kevin & Perry) to choose from. Ever tuned into Di.FM? You’ll be happy here.
If your musical tastes are that of tuning into Di.Fm them you’ll be at home here in a nicely presented way with the ability to rate, share, review tracks and artists and skip forward AND backwards through track listings.
As seems to be the trend now you get a walk-through of the UI and features before being dumped into the app but it’s good to be aware of the features as the UI is text free, relying on icons to for getting to settings, some of which aren’t completely obvious to press.
MixPal.Fm steps in where Turntable.fm has closed it’s doors. Listen to live streams of new and upcoming artists, shared and rated by MixPal.FM users. There’s features a plenty along with a wide variation of electronica, dance, house, hard house banging house (think Kevin & Perry) to choose from. Ever tuned into Di.FM? You’ll be happy here.
If your musical tastes are that of tuning into Di.Fm them you’ll be at home here in a nicely presented way with the ability to rate, share, review tracks and artists and skip forward AND backwards through track listings.
As seems to be the trend now you get a walk-through of the UI and features before being dumped into the app but it’s good to be aware of the features as the UI is text free, relying on icons to for getting to settings, some of which aren’t completely obvious to press.
Scrolling and navigation through the menus is silky smooth with no problems encountered during testing on iDevices from the iPhone 4s up to the 5s. Track loading time is pretty much instantaneous on both Wi-Fi and 3G connections and in most circumstances quicker than the MixPal.FM website.
As most people who read reviews here know that we like to do our testing anywhere and everywhere and when MixPal came in for review I was on the beach and so what better place to listen to chilled out melodies whilst strolling on Newgale beach.
It wasn’t smooth sailing at first. Bizarrely pressing play whilst only on 3G you won’t hear anything despite the “Radio EQ” away at the bottom of the screen. No amount of tapping or trying different stations would produce anything in to my headphones. Other music apps would work and in my haste I fired off a bug report to the developers
It’s not until you head into settings and enable a streaming bit rate you’ll be able to use 3G. Confusion which could be easily avoided with a simple notification.
Update The developers have gotten back to me saying this will be addressed in a soon to be released update.
Social interaction is taken care of with the usual Twitter, Facebook integration with the ability to thumbs up or down tracks, leaving a small review for as well. It’s not 100% clear on where the review shows up or what rating tracks actually does as it made no difference to anywhere in the app.
When you register for an account both Facebook and Twitter icons looked grayed out but oddly the Facebook icon works but not twitter. Another oddity is there’s no way to book mark a track that’s playing for later or to share with others.
http://essentialapple.com/mixpal-fm-ios-its-like-di-fm-for-your-iphone
Fan membership comes in at $1,99 month / $9.99 for 6 months. This nets you 96k sound quality, no ads and repeats some tracks. For the best experience including high quality audio, full play features, no adverts, no voice overs and the ability to kill your 3G data plan streaming up to 320 KBIT/s will set you back $4.99 a month or $24.99 for 6 months.
When you look at the more generic music based offerings such as Spotify ($9.99 per month) or Pandora ($3.99 per month) MixPal.Fm make for an interesting proposition as long as your preferred music tastes are catered for.
Update. MixPal.FM will give you 1 months PREMIUM features for FREE simply by registering the app.
Running MixPal.Fm for the first time takes you through the now standard how-to slash screens getting you familiar with the app. Once done you’ll end up at the station lists to get on with some listening.
All that being said if you’re a fan of the genres of music offered by MixPal and don’t mind stumping up the extra cash for decent quality this isn’t a bad app at all to consider.
Overall Thoughts on MixPal for iOS
It’s a cracking little up and if you’re into these genres of music you won’t be disappointed with the features on offer once you’ve stumped up for the more premium offerings. The social integration side does need more work on as it’s not clear what happens to your review or rating after you go to the effort of it all.
Being able to scroll backwards is a nice unique feature that to my recollection hasn’t been implemented in a decent fashion before and there is a LOT to choose from.
http://web.archive.org/web/20140827130852/https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mixpal.fm-music-radio-network/id704407028?mt=8&uo=4&at=10lt3D&ct=EA-Review
A cracking read here from Julian Lepinski who takes a look at a Dell commissioned whitepaper on the cost of putting iPads in the enterprise environment over that of Dell. Is anyone surprised the report favored Dell with some biased and forgetful musings. This ranks up there with Samsung employing staff members to leave negative comments about Apple on forums. : lepinski.net
If you’ve used a computer for any length of time you’ll be familiar with partition sizes, partition types during the setup phase but what about later on down the line? I’ve done it myself being overcautious or forgetting to create a spare one just for data. And so the search for Mac Partition manager brings us nicely onto this review.
Continue reading → Review : Stellar Partition Manager For Mac
Not content with releasing a size for everyone Android device the Samsung Galaxy 3 is out now. Slimmer and faster it’s not a bad spec bump.
Te new slate, running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean on a 1.2GHz dualcore processor, trims the bezels of its 1024 x 600 LCD TFT display so as to come in at a trimmer 111.1 x 188 x 9.9mm, while still accommodating a 4,000 mAh battery.
The WiFi-only version will arrive in May with a global launch planned, and tips the scales at 302g. That will be followed by the slightly heavier – 306g – 3G model, which will have quadband HSPA+ support (850/900/1900/2100) and is due in June;
Both tablets get a 3-megapixel rear camera and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, as well as WiFi a/b/g/n (2.4/5GHz) with channel-bonding and WiFi Direct support. There’s also Bluetooth 3.0, A-GPS, GLONASS, and a microSD card slot to add up to 64GB to the 8GB or 16GB of internal storage.
RAM is 1GB, while sensors include an accelerometer, digital compass, and light; the 3G version also has a proximity sensor, which we’re presuming will turn the screen off as you hold it to your face. That would imply voice calls, assuming your social life can withstand the horror of holding a 7-inch tablet up like a phone.
Samsung Galaxy note 2 came out way back in in from May 2011 and has long been due an update.
Samsung is yet to confirm exactly where the 3G model will and won’t be sold. Samsung is yet to confirm pricing for either version of the Galaxy Tab 3.
Sweetness personified. Xcom has made it to the Mac. Available through the XCOM: Enemy Unknown – Elite Edition contains bonus material those other systems didn’t get at launch.
Continue reading → XCOM: Enemy Unknown – Elite Edition Now Out For Mac
I really didn’t care for those “shouting” Apple adverts. For me it felt almost crass when compared to the svelte smoothness and class of previous adverts.
Continue reading → New iPhone Commercial: Every Day, Apple Goes Back To Being Classy
Glui certainly shook things up on it’s release taking the contender skitch full on and beating it quite comprehensively. To celebrate the latest update Glui is FREE for the week and there’s a whole host of updates.
Continue reading → Our Favourite Screen Capture App Glui Goes Free For A Week
Apple has announced that its WWDC kicks off between June 10th-14th and will take place in San Francisco to talk about the future of iOS and OS X at Moscone West and tickets go on sale tomorrow.
Continue reading → Apple announces WWDC for June 10th, tickets on sale April 25th for $1599