Battle of the Map Apps

A lot of buzz surrounding the whole Apple Maps issue. A lot of people say it's hardly noticeable, for others... disastrous.

On this side of the planet, here in the Philippines... this is the situation. I tried being fair, entering the name of a popular city rather than some obscure street. These were my results each with the same search parameters simply entered in Google Maps, bing maps, and iOS Maps. Only Google knew of the city.

What are your funny map app stories unique to where you live?

If The Glove Doesn't Fit... (Ralph Lauren Touch Glove Review)

Touchscreens are the standard for smartphones now. They're fun and easy to use... except during cold weather.

I recently came from Chicago where the temp hit -1ºC. Nothing extreme but enough to warrant the use of gloves. My Xperia ray was suddenly such a burden to use... so I began to search for decent looking touch gloves.

Unlike the older resistive screens, which work on pressure, the new crop of capacitive touchscreen need to sense your body electricity to function. Wearing gloves inhibits this conductivity thus eliminates your phone's responsiveness to your touch. A new market for capacitive touch gloves emerged much like the capacitive stylus.

So I stumbled upon Ralph Lauren's Touch Gloves at a mall and tried them on. And sadly, they don't work well at all. The screen responds to a tap, but can't seem to recognize a full swipe all the time. It will work sometimes, but the frustration just makes you want to take off your gloves all together... or just cut the tips off. Final verdict... forget these gloves all together. Absolutely useless.

There are other gloves that work much better at 1/5 the cost (The Ralph's run for US$60-70 pair) but don't look at nice. So for now, I'm still looking...

iPad 2 Prices Officially Drop (Philippines)

Good news to those thinking of getting an iPad! Apple Store PH has officially dropped the iPad 2 prices to coincide with Apple's Official price drop! This also means that preloved iPads should be a lot cheaper as well.

Prices start at

P18,990 for a brand new 16GB iPad 2!

P24,990 for the 16GB 3G model!

Head on over to Apple Store PH now!

iOS Tip Of The Day: Save Your Home...Button.

Almost all iOS owners know the inconvenience of the non-responsive Home Button. It is the weakest link in the iOS hardware platform and yet using it is also the most required action. This leaves you with a perfectly working iOS device...EXCEPT for a Home Button that either doesn't respond or need to be mashed just to respond.

Jailbreaking is an option. It enables gesture (swipe) access to almost all the Home Button functions. But what about people that don't know how, or just don't want to Jailbreak their iOS devices? Well, on iOS 5, Apple has a feature that can help minimize the use of the Home Button.

It's found in the Settings Menu on your device.

Simply scroll down to the General menu

Then go to Accessibility

Then Assistive Touch.

Once enabled, you will now have a translucent button that floats over your desktop. The button placement is dynamic and can be moved around, it will also automatically move out of the way of the virtual keyboard.

Pressing this will bring up a gesture box, and the Home Button is one of them!

It's That Time Of The Month: iPad2, For Lighter Days

Now that Apple has announced the new iPad 2, everyone is on the fence on whether or not it lives up to it's original sibling.  Yes and no.  An Apple representative casually mentioned that the iPad 2 is just a minor update to the original iPad, and that the iPad 3 will be the real upgrade.

But is the iPad 2 worth getting?  Yes it is.  Considering there is no price increase from the original iPad, that alone is a great deal.  And for those that don't need FaceTime, or the fancy new magnetic smart cover, the original iPad is now $399 brand new from Apple.

Other updates include a slimmer and lighter profile, although I'm really not fond of the new back design...I don't like it on my iPod Touch 4G, and I don't like it on the iPad.  Does it really matter?  From a design preference, to me, yes.  Now, the new iPad 2 I'd get for it's features alone, not the design.  But considering that it is still the best looking tablet out there, still says a lot for it.  Seeing as how technology is evolving, we may soon just be buying a transparent piece of glass with a little logo on the corner anyway.  And since most people buy a case for their iPad anyway, the back design is an extremely minor gripe, and a personal one at that.

I would've opted for the same design as the original iPad with a 20 hour battery instead.  But that's just me.  I feel that the slight weight reduction isn't enough to be that big a deal, but a 20-hour charge is significant on a long haul flight or weekend getaway.  Again, this is just my take on the new design.

Reasons to buy the new iPad 2:

• FaceTime
• HD Video recording
• Updated processor (although since no apps maximize this, real world improvements will be incremental at best)
• Smart Cover
• HDMI output (via optional dongle)
• and of course... it comes in WHITE. (For some, this alone is worth the update...hehehe)

Reasons to buy the original iPad:

• $100 cheaper
• Still comparable to the iPad 2 in terms of functionality and practicality
• Milled aluminum design (This is only my personal preference in design, and I still say it's the best look iOS device ever.  I wish they patterned all the other iOS devices after the original iPad)

The screen on both the iPad and iPad 2 are the same, so no Retina upgrade there.  For photographers and videographers, either one will serve your purposes just fine, although editing on the new iPad 2 with the updated iMovie app will be faster.

If you're on the market for an iPad, now is the best time to choose.  For the same amount of money, you get the newer one... and if you aren't really keen on the added features, you can have the original iPad for $100 less.

For those with the original iPad, is it worth the update?  Well, that would depend on the health of your gadget budget.  I'm skipping this update to get the new MacBook Pro instead.

Who Needs a Magic Trackpad????

I'm not a big fan of trackpads.  I think they are a necessary evil for laptops (although for mobile devices, I still prefer IBM's TrackPoint) but they are my least preferred pointing device.  Recently, my Apple Magic Mouse started giving me tracking problems (completely stopped tracking on my wooden desk, doesn't track on bond paper or mouse pads, but it does track on shiny cardboard packaging only)

While Apple is running diagnostics on my Magic Mouse, I didn't want to buy a cheap mouse nor did I want to waste money on the Magic Trackpad.  I did find a better solution: iTap Mobile's Touchpad app for iOS.  (And recently, they added an Android version as well!  Yay!)

Basically, it turns your iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad into a wireless trackpad and keyboard.  If like me, you use your computer on your LCD TV, having a compact, wireless keyboard & pointing device comes in quite handy for watching movies, controlling media playback and couch surfing.

So, until my Magic Mouse is fixed, I'm using this as my primary trackpad on my home computer.  It works on both Mac and Windows, controlled from either iOS or Android!

...and the countdown begins...

TWO HOURS TO GO!!!

iOS 4 for the iPad!!!!

I'm so happy... first, the long awaited 2.1 on my X10 Mini Pro

and now iOS 4 on my iPad!!!!

Just Looking...

Have you ever wished shopping on Amazon was easier?  Have you ever visited Amazon and thought, "Oh, there absolutely nothing I want to buy from here.".  For those of you that think "Oh, Amazon isn't doing a good enough job of showing me stuff I want to buy."* ... well, your prayers have been answered.  Just when you thought that new iPad would tie your shopping urges over...

Presenting

Windowshop

Because wasn't tempting enough.

*Sarcasm intended