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The Verdict: iPhone 3G 16GB Review

September 11th, 2008

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After initially getting my iPhone 3G and its first impressions I spent time playing around and tweaking it to my settings and requirements. I’ve had experience with smart phones and PDAs before so I knew what standard I was expecting before I used it. Also when I looked at the capability’s of the device I also knew there was nothing brand new which I hadn’t seen before on a device. With all the hype surrounding Apple’s iPhone I couldn’t wait to truly delve deep into the device.

Design

From the pictures you can see that without doubt this is a stunning looking device with it’s smooth curves and shiny surfaces. With the new addition of a plastic shiny back compared to its silver aluminium of last years model it really completes the look of the device. The downside of this is the bigger potential to scratch the back and this has been found by many users so I totally recommend you never take it out unless you have a case on it. Another saviour is the change and removal of the recessed audio port so now you can use any headphones in them. Finally something is fixed which Apple should never have put in it. The 3.5″ screen is the same size as last years rendition and still has that real crisp sharp image that you want on a portable device. It is truly amazing how good movies and games look on it and Apple have done a good job in maintaining this quality across all their products.

In built GPS

This iPhone has built in GPS to assist the wireless location based service that proved popular on the first iPhone and iPod Touch. From my experience it can be temperamental however I believe this is a system flaw and should be rectified in the next update. When it works it seems to pick up my position quite correctly and refreshes position every few seconds which is as good as an external bluetooth GPS unit. The biggest flaw with the GPS is that it is expensive to use on the go as the Google Maps need to be downloaded from the internet every time – there is no offline maps. Tomtom the famous GPS maps company are working on an iPhone version of their award winning navigation software and these will feature maps so you don’t have to go online every time.

Camera

In my opinion the worst piece of hardware that Apple has put in the iPhone is this measly 2 Megapixel Camera. On the market it seems industry standard is coming onto 3 Megapixel for standard phones and for the iPhone to be the best it’s certainly lagging behind. It benefits from GPS geotagging which comes as a nice option but it still doesn’t make up for the lack of video recording capabilities. Unfortunately I don’t see Apple fixing this until the next generation of iPhones and it was something I really looked forward too. The idea of this mobile device where all my media could be viewed and taken is not complete and the 2 Megapixel camera is sub standard today.

Apps

To be honest the user interface is the same on any of the three devices: iPhone, iPod Touch and iPhone 3G if you have the newest software update. With this in mind I am not going to bore you with information about the supplied apps but what I will tell you is that they won’t be enough for most users and you’ll be buying and downloading new apps (including free ones) from the iTunes store very quickly. I’ve already done a lot of this, it’s fun in itself, and I’ve video reviewed a couple of paid games on the site here.

Koi Pond App Review

Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D Review

Real Football 2009 Review

Conclusion

So the iPhone 3G is a marvellous piece of gadgetry and will definitely be one of the must haves of 2008 despite its few flaws and with Apples meticulous attention to detail lets hope they roll out some updates to solve these little niggles. I think if you’ve got an iPhone first generation I see it as a hard case in convincing yourself to get this baby, there is not that much difference I believe to warrant paying for an upgrade. On the other hand if you’re a brand new iPhone pursuer then this is the time to jump in. You have to have one to realise its full potential and I think you’ll have as good a time as I have. Well I hope this phone lasts me for over 3 years and make me more organised as well as make my day to day life easier.

Posted in News, Reviews

Tags: 16gb, 3g, app, black, iphone, ipod, itunes, phone, Reviews, store, touch

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Real Football 2009 for iPhone/iPod Touch

September 10th, 2008

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After Apple’s interesting keynote last night came some more new games for the iTunes App Store. One of these is one which I have been eagerly awaiting -- a real football sports simulation game. Now I was never going to expect to get FIFA or Pro Evo style on the first effort and with this relatively unknown game I was slightly cautious on what to expect. I plunged for the £5.99 price and loaded it up which to my amazement was a real surprise. A good surprise at that.

I was granted with a clean, well designed interface very similar to the Pro Evolution soccer series. It became even clearer after I had gone through the menu systems and into the actual game itself. You can tell that the game has gone through a lot of testing to make it just right -- and it works. Further similarities from Pro Evo come from the licensing agreements; the Premiership teams incorrectly called: Man Red, Man Blue, Merseyside with the rest correct (Chelsea,Aston Villa,Fulham etc.) but they all still suffer from made up logos and not the official ones but they have pretty much all the players correct names. I am really surprised how much they have crammed in (198 teams) -- with all the big teams and leagues: England, Spain, Italy, France, Germany as well as international teams and more it is amazing what they do with 60mb on a mobile device. To be perfectly honest you would pay at least £20.00 for something with this amount of teams on the Nintendo DS or Sony PSP.

The graphic models of the players is above what you’d expect for a mobile game but just below what something like a dedicated games console PSP could produce. However for a first effort its really good and sets the benchmark for the future of sports titles. Another small gripe, I do like to be picky, is some of the transfers; the major signings from the summer are there like Deco to Chelsea but some smaller players have not made it to the teams. On the other hand I am sure with Apples long vetting process the game was made before the end of the transfer window so I expect this small fix to be done with the next update.

The control system is a lover and a hater -- it makes or breaks this App. As it’s practically impossible to create a sports game on touch alone the developers Gameloft have opted to do the majority of actions through a traditional D-pad and two buttons implanted on the touch screen. It makes the game feel like old school if you know what I mean but also quite hard to get used to however with a bit of practice, and it doesn’t take much, you get to know the advanced techniques. For instance a simple pass is a tap of B, but to perform a cross it is tapping B and flicking your finger up. It seems complicated but it’s really easy and intuative on the game and helps the free flowing motion. See the video below for some working action.

As with most sport titles there are many modes to play around with -- Cup, League, Penalty Kicks, Training and Exhibition matches -- you’ll never have nothing to do. There is a significant amount of playback value and I think you’ll be coming back to it soon enough especially with future updates promising multiplayer Wi-fi games -- it could make this a must have App for any iPhone or iPod Touch.

Posted in App Reviews

Tags: 2009, app, fifa, football, game, iphone, ipod, itunes, pro evo, real, soccer, sport, store, touch

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Koi Pond for the iPhone/iPod Touch

September 2nd, 2008

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My second app purchase from the iTunes App store was the relatively cheap Koi Pond for 59p. Yes and for that price you don’t get as much content as Crash Bandikoot for £5.99 but you do get a different type of experience. Koi Pond is essentially a simulation App showing water motion on the iPhone and allowing you to manipulate waves and water disturbance with your finger -- it seems like you’re really putting your finger in the pond!

Where I believe this App truly shines is the authors attention to detail: amazing natural animal noises, natural water movement clips, realistic koi paths and smooth motion. There are no points where you think “Oh I’ve heard that clip before” and it makes a great experience. Ok it’s not the next Super Monkey Ball and you won’t spend hours on it at a time but with its little customisable options, pond colour,amount of plants or koi, it will keep you coming back to play on now and again. I think this is definately one of the best Apps to show off to your friends and everyone should have it on their home screen. With the amazing cheap price, less than a Sunday newspaper, you have no reason not to buy this App. Go now and play with the koi!

Posted in App Reviews

Tags: 59p, app, cheap, iphone, ipod, itunes, koi, nature, pond, store, touch, water

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Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D for the iPhone/iPod Touch

August 31st, 2008

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So after looking through Apple’s iTunes App Store I thought Crash Bandicoot looked the best racer for casual racing. I was looking for something fun and easy to play but also that I could pick up and play any time I wanted for instance on the bus or waiting in a long queue. It cost £5.99 from the App Store and was downloaded and synced to my iPhone within 30 seconds, so far I was happy with the process and had high hopes of the games use of the accelerometer.

After playing it a couple of times I can say the game was built from the ground up for the iPhone, it was not just a simple port over with restricted controls. The graphics are great for a mobile platform although this is less important compared to the gameplay where it truly shines. During the races the game uses constant forward drive meaning you only have to turn the kart left or right, now you might think this makes the game harder as you won’t be able to slow down before corners but since this is in essence an arcade game it is not necessary. You are able to reverse however this is a last option and in my usage never needed. With the controls so simple it is easy for anyway to jump in, it’s like the Wii of mobile phones and makes the true gaming experience even better.

A slightly annoying point is the arcadey music, now I don’t mind living some retro style but after playing it for so long it can get annoying but this can easily be turned off or you can listen to your own tunes while you play. With that niggle sorted the game has very little flaws, some people have reported having slight lag or slow down with the frame rate however so far my game has flowed perfectly so whether it’s just certain units or old versions I don’t know. I’m impressed with the load times as well with minimal wastage so you can just jump in as soon as possible where in the past mobile games have had extremely uncomfortable loading sessions. With the accelerometer comes the problem of how sensitive you want it and many games on the App store are fixed at a certain limit but here on Nitro Kart they have allowed an option to vary it. As some people will turn the device more than others I congratulate them for putting this in the options and hope other developers take heed and use it in future releases, it makes the game open and enjoyable to a wider range of people.

Nitro Kart 3D combines an 8 mission story mode, 3 four leg race cups, a time trial mode and a quick race mode. The downside of this game is there is not much to complete and the 5 unlockable racers are quick and easy but then where the game does shine is in its ability to literally pick up and play whenever you want. Regardless of the fact you might have completed the game weeks ago you’ll still pick it up and do a quick race and be surprised by the different routes each time.