Interesing Apps Episode 4 - My Sketch

Here comes another interesting app I've been meaning to mention for some time now.

It's a simple app that takes a picture taken on your iPhone, iPod, or iPad and converts it to a sketch drawing. That's it. Results can be cropped and tweaked with two sliders, and can be saved in 3 different sizes and uploaded to Facebook, Twitter or emailed. The only issue i've noticed is the final result sometimes looks like it was additionally cropped at the top. Here's a few sample with pics I took...

Granted these are nothing more than "filters" but since he app is free at the moment its not a bad download to fool around with...

If you've found or use a better app for this price i'd love to hear about it and do my own comparison.

See ya next blog!!

FIX IT!

Ok any of my regular readers should know by now that my release schedule for blogs changes at the drop of a hat. But I have a excuse this time, honest!

It would appear that chicken noodle soup and keyboards just don't mix (big surprise). In a sloppy attempt at self medication, alongside playing "catch up with video editing," I spilled some soup on my keyboard...

Sucks I know...

I thought I avoided the worst but in the end it appears my "T" and "F" buttons are not very responsive anymore. They DO work but it's hit or miss. You can imagine how hard it is to try and type long sentences when you constantly have to check whether or not your t's and f's went through.

AKe a look a a sample o how bad yping on a broken keyboard could look if I don' consanly check behind mysel... Very ime consuming indeed...

But never fear that's what I have a iPad for. I'll just open up Blogpress and keep it moving right?

...

Right?

...

Well apparently Blogpress doesn't want to work for me either, and chicken soup had nothing to do with it this time. While I'm not 100% certain I'm fairly sure the problem stems from the recent iOS 5 update. Blogger has recently update their site but I doubt that would affect the app itself. As soon as it opens it crashes, not a good look for a paid app. What this means for now is that I don't have access to the rough drafts of a few of my blogs.

Sadly this is not the first issue I have had with a app not working with iOS 5. While free apps can be a nuisance if they don't work with iOS 5 paid apps are a little more serious because you paid money for something that you no longer have access to.

Welcome to the FIX IT blog!

I hope this will prove to be a beneficial segment for apps that don't work properly on iOS 5. Consider it a stop sign for those who updated and are interested in certain apps, or a warning for those that haven't updated to the new Os in fear of incompatible older apps.

In order for this to work well I need reader participation. In the comments below feel free to post problems you have had with PAID applications in iOS5. As for me I'll be updating with issues I find as well as when said apps are fixed.

• Update #1 November 2, 2011

Blogpress 

As I mentioned earlier, this app won't even start. Fortunately the people behind this app are pretty good with updates so I don't think this will be a issue for too long...

X-Men Arcade 

When I went in the app store and saw the X-Men Arcade game for 99 cent I knew it was a "download now!" unfortunately this game freezes midway through the first level and crashes on iPads with iOS 5.
"But Dennis! That's probably just because you have a first generation iPad and that game needs the faster processor of the iPad 2." not true. This game was also tested with a 4th generation iPod touch with iOs 5 and the same problem persists. KONAMI FIX THIS!!! Till then, don't waste your dollar...

That's all for now but as a final note, be a smart shopper. Check the reviews. Remember that these are NONREFUNDABLE purchases so do your homework before shelling out cash, unless of course you got money to throw away, and if that's the case, I could use some help with these bills...

See ya next blog!

"Clear", super fast mobile Internet? - part 5

While we wait for the results here's a nice little picture of how 4G is supposed to work...



The results are in!

The iSpot is not the MUST HAVE iDevice accessory that Clear wants you to believe it is...

But...

Under certain circumstances It can be a extremely useful (and cost efficient) device.

First off let's cover the worst use of of an iSpot. If your only iDevice is a iPhone this is a terrible investment. Keep in mind that you STILL have to pay for a data plan just to have a iPhone with AT&T. Now I seriously doubt facetime and high quality YouTube videos is worth a additional 25 dollars a month. Clear should consider removing the iPhone in their advertisements, but then again there's one born every day, or minute, hour, ok I can't remember how often a sucker is born.

Next up, do not buy the ispot if your considering using it when you go out of town. This is a 4G only device and coverage is not everywhere. Check for coverage in the area where you live and work and plan your investment around that.

Ok the third one depends on your current cellphone. If you have a Palm Pre Plus, a Droid X, a Sprint Evo, or any other new phone that allows wifi tethering then the $99 dollar price tag for a ispot is pointless. Sure the ispot offers unlimited internet, but will you really be doing more than 2gb of downloading on a iPad or iPod touch? Consider this example:

Pandora Radio is one of the more popular iPhone apps that uses a ton of bandwidth. 60 minutes of nonstop music is approximately 38.9mb of bandwidth. That would give you a little over 2 full days of nonstop streaming music. Breaking that down, you could use Pandora a hour every day in addition to checking email and surfing the web with little to no fear of going over your monthly allowance. That's not bad...

Now granted, Netflix could probably be worse and downloading movies from iTunes would be completely out of the question, but how often will you be doing that? That's what I thought...

While in the subject of cellphones, wifi tethering on the Sprint Evo would surpass the iSpot by leaps and bounds. Both use the same 4G network but the Evo will switch to 3G when 4G is not available. Other 3G only phones still have a upper hand on the ispot simply because of greater 3G coverage. If you can make a phone call you'll probably be able to surf the web.

One last cellphone suggestion. If your ready to upgrade and purchase a new phone, the the 99 dollars you could spend on a iSpot could be easily used toward a phone that allows wifi tethering. That's one less device to keep track of.

Sooooo...

- If you are not in the market for a new phone (like me)
- Using a iPad or a iPod touch throughout the day while away from home in a area with Clear coverage (like me)
- you have more than one device that could benefit from the iSpot's unlimited Internet plan (*cough* MAC spoofing *cough*) (like me)
- and if you use more than 2gb surfing the net, streaming music, streaming netflix, of even using a remote desktop client, (like me)

then the iSpot could be for you...

"Clear", super fast mobile Internet? - part 4

Day 6 - (yeah day 6, I skipped a few days, "big whoop, wanna fight about it...")




Ok last Friday I found out that Clear released a firmware update that was supposed to fix the problems many customers had connecting their devices to the ispot. In my case it did a little more. Let me explain.

As I have explained before the ispot device is designed only to accept connections from iPod, iPhone, and iPad. I have since found out that this is accomplished by the ispot recognizing only a certain number of MAC addresses. (if you don't know what that is, Wiki is your new friend) My hypothesis is that before the firmware update the list of acceptable MAC addresses was far too restrictive and the device ended up denying access to devices that, for some reason or another, had a different address from the standard.

Now after applying the update, not only was the before mentioned iPod touch working but ASLO my iMac (that's right, my home computer.) Apparently the default address of my iMac is acceptable to the ispot. Now there ARE ways to manually change the MAC address of both PCs and Laptops so I'll just leave the possibilities to your imagination. (Google is also your friend)

The other adjustment the firmware update made was a improved performance in signal. Thursday night the device could only get a zero bar signal (red light.) Now I can get a two bar signal, (yellow light.) I've been clocking in speeds of 2.5Mbps at home, which is a vast improvement from pre-update tests in the same area.

So what have I been up to with this device over the weekend?

Towson- connected to iMac. Excellent signal. Checked email and updated websites. Uploaded pictures relatively fast.

Dundalk- connected to 1 iPad and 2 iPods. Hit and miss the closer you got to the city. Decent speeds browsing Internet.

Baltimore to Glen Burnie via Harbor tunnel- connected to iPad (serious disclaimer: do not operate devices while driving, just say'n.) medium to excellent signal, even in the tunnel itself. Listened to Pandora radio flawlessly. (and yeah I know Pandora buffers your playlist in advance and that it is possible that I had a bad signal but couldn't tell.)

Perry Hall- connected to iPad. Ok as long as you stay on the main streets. YouTube playlists were ok as long as it wasn't attempting to handle high def.

Ok I think it's time to wrap this up. Stay tuned for the thrilling, the exciting,... alright informative conclusion...

"Clear", super fast mobile Internet? - part 3

Day 3 - AM
Lemme start today by showing you this snapshot...







That is what the Clear forum currently looks like for a problem related to the brand new iSpot. Now last night you read my first impressions and this morning it looked bleak for this device. Using my Ipad as the test device, I went out and tested the connection speeds throughout the city. Main streets like Belair Rd. Shown excellent signal strength but download speeds were under half the advertised speed, clocking in at 2.5Mbps.

I'm not going to say this is a terrible speed. In fact, it's pretty impressive for the needs of the iPad. Short YouTube videos ran flawlessly but high def video crawled. Streaming Netflix was possible, but you could see that the video quality took a severe hit to stream without pauses.

Today was going to be a busy one for me so I decided to loan the iSpot to a friend in order to get some insight on how the device worked when used with a iPod Touch. Well, that's where the problem came...

By the time I was able to get home after dropping off the iSpot, I got a message saying, "yeah this thing sucks... It keeps telling me that I'm not using acompatible device but I'm on a iPod. Sucks..."

I hopped on the Clear forums to find a topic stickied to the side bar. Clicking on in gave me this message:

"iSpot Connection Problems Firmware Upgrade

We are aware that some of you may be experiencing issues with connecting your Apple Mobile Device to your iSpot.

If you are one of the few customers experiencing this issue, updating your firmware should correct this issue. Step by step instructions can be found below.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused
Thanks for choosing CLEAR."

"I like when things work how they're supposed to the first time." -iamRandomosity

I couldn't have put it better myself...
(To be continued...)

"Clear", super fast mobile Internet? - part 2

Day 2

FedEx delivered my iSpot sooner than expected. The unboxing was recorded today but I doubt I'll upload anything. It'll depend on wether or not this thing really impresses me.

Before going any further I must reiterate that this device is intended for mobile use. Furthermore the specific device I'm testing is designed to support ONLY iPod, iPad, and iPhone devices. Clear does have other devices and plans for home service, laptops, as well as 3G support. All testing is being performed in the Baltimore area and your results could vary. Moving on...

The device was fairly easy to set up. Instructions were clear and
understandable. After turning the device on I was greeted with two LED lights, one red, one blue. A convenient chart on the back explained that the red light meant I had a weak signal and the blue light indicated the wifi was operating. I downloaded the Clear app and got a detailed summary of my connection.


Ok where's the super fast 4G signal? Oh wait a minute, maybe it's because I am indoors after all. Lemme put the iSpot at a window like the instructions suggest. Let's try this again.


Wow big difference... Yeah, so far I'm not impressed.

Looking at their coverage map I should be receiving a much better signal. I'll run more tests away from home tomorrow and I may have a final verdict sooner than I expected. There's no point in trying to compare Clear to AT&T, Verizon, or even Comcast for that matter if they can't come anywhere close to what they advertise. After a speed test under the current conditions my average download speed is less than 1Mbps. Totally unacceptable! Stay tuned for the next blog...

"Clear", super fast mobile Internet? - part 1

A lot of buzz has started circulating about a new device called iSpot by Clear (What you haven't heard?)




If you are reading this blog on August 4, 2010 then you probably still have the chance to pick up one of these devices up at 70% off the regular price of $99.

What is it? Hold on, I'm getting to that part...

"iSpot is your very own 4G hotspot that let's you connect up to eight of your favorite Apple mobile devices, giving you freedom to use Super Fast Mobile Internet on the go anywhere Clear has coverage... Pair with the iSpot On-the-Go Service Plan. Get unlimited data usage and 4G speed all for $25/mo."

Sounds pretty good to me. Especially since I'm a Ipad user. Let's do the math:

My 32gb wifi only iPad costs $599, the 3G version would have been $729. That's a $130 difference to have the ability to use AT&T's 3G service. Now AT&T has abandoned their "unlimited" service for a 2gb plan that costs $25 a month, no contract. Still with me?

Now then, since I bought the cheaper wifi only version of the iPad for $599, I could, theoretically, invest in a $29 wifi 4G hotspot as well as pay $25 a month, no contract, for UNLIMITED service. The end result, a cheaper overall investment with faster speeds.

If this sounded as good to you as it did to me, I say, give it a try! I'll be giving this device a in-depth review when it arrives, (yeah, I bought one), and we'll see if Clear can back up their claims of Super Fast Mobile Internet. I'll also do a break down of 3G vs 4G speeds, complete with pros and cons, as well as sift through the fine print of both AT&T and Clear's service contracts.

Check out this device yourself at www.clear.com/spot/ispot

That's all for now. See you next blog...

Terrible Apps Episode 1 - Rate my Photography

I like critique. Especially in my photography. It's something I often wish I could have more of. DeviantArt is great, my website gets a few hits... a month, and I can always depend on friends to comment on my photos once they become someone else's profile pic. That's what drew me to this little app store program called "Rate my Photography" by Pistol Shrimp Ltd.



Here's the app description:
"Join the craze and download Rate My Photography today. Scroll through endless pictures of the beautiful, amazing, funny, weird, interesting photos from all over the world uploaded by users like yourself!"

They then boast that you can rate photos by other users as well as upload your own photos to see what other people think.

Where's the problem you ask? Well there are two MAJOR ones.

First you cannot delete the pictures you upload. That's a major flaw. How hard would it be to add a delete button? Now this company published this app alongside other free ones that follow the same formula of uploading and rating pictures. Examples are: Rate My Kitten, Rate My Ride, Rate My Bike, Rate My Shoes, Rate My Funny Face, etc. Now the reason I mention this is because a few of these other apps have "premium" versions that you can pay $1.99 to buy. What's the difference? "No Ads", "Manage the comments for your photos", and "DELETE YOUR PHOTOS!"

You've got to be kidding me! Your actually going to make a person pay for a app just so they can delete pictures? The primary reason you would want to delete a pic in the first place would probably be because you didn't like the app and you wanted to sever ties with the program. That's like eating a free cheeseburger but in order to take a dump you gotta pay a dollar!

The second problem is directly related to this statement...
"All photos are screened by our team so please make sure you upload photos that are relevant to the app."

That makes a ton of sense and I completely agree. My question is, HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO APPROVE ONE PICTURE!
I downloaded this app a month ago, uploaded three pictures and I'm STILL waiting for approval. No problem If you don't want to approve them I'll just delete them and... OH YEAH... I can't delete my own pics!

Final Verdict...
This company is a complete joke. They haven't answered any of my emails and their website appears to be a broken link these days. The average rating for the current version, which was updated July 8, 2010, is 3 stars. My rating? 1 star is too much for this garbage, but hey, maybe if I buy the premium version I'll gain the ability to give it a zero star rating...