Archive for: review
I’m a big cinema goer. In fact I go at least twice a week. There’s nothing I love more than chilling with friends in a cool movie theatre as George Clooney works his magic. Checking times is something that always gets on my grapes though.
Now, for all Android users, you can download a free app called Fandango which enables you to do just that; check movie times at any cinema.
This is just a few weeks after they put out a Beta release before Christmas.
What I liked most about this app was how it integrates so well with Android phones such as the Nexus One. For example, it uses the phone’s GPS to find nearby movie theatres and automatically downloads their screening times.
Furthermore, you can also watch movie trailers, get reviews and even buy tickets at selected cinemas. The app also has a community whereby everyone is asked to rate a movie they’ve seen already to tell fellow users what’s how and what’s not.
Definitely a must have for hardcore movie buffs! You can find it here.
I’m all about netbooks and laptops. There’s something sexy about having all that computing power in such a portable little housing. May I introduce to you LG’s new x300 laptop sporting 2Ghz of processing power and measuring up at a very slim 17.6mm. And sexy she is.
A look from the outside
The portable machine also has a 1.3 mega pixel webcam, reflective keyboard (keys have resistance to bounce back quickly), SSD and a sleek, minimalistic design. It all comes to together very nicely. Even though it is quite skinny, it can run for over three hours. While that may not be hugely impressive for some, the fact that it ships with a spare 2-cell battery for when the going gets tough is.
It was officially announced at the CES conference yesterday. However, we’re all still waiting on one thing – a retail price. Guesses anyone?
Over the past week, Yelp and Google have been in heated debates concerning Google acquiring the service which was founded by two former PayPal employees and allows users to submit reviews of their local services. After days of deliberation both parties had agreed on a price – half a billion dollars. It seemed that everyone was quite happy with the deal until the CEO of Yelp Jeremy Stoppleman notified Google over the weekend that the deal was off.
What happened?
Well nobody knows for sure but it must have taken something big for Yelp to walk away from half a billion dollars and pressure from internet giant Google. My guess is that another offer has been tabled. Obviously, Yelp wan to keep their cards close to their chest should this deal fall through and need to go back to Google. Perhaps one of Google’s rivals such as Microsoft or Apple have decided they want Yelp?
While YouTube is definitely your best bet if you want top videos, it can be a little to constantly search and scour in order to find them. Yes the featured video sections helps, but I think I know better solution.
It’s called Vidque. It’s basically the most popular video sites all combined (or syndicated) into one with a touch of social media plopped on top. Here are the basics:
When a video from a popular service (Youtube, Viddler, MetaCafe ec…) reaches the Vidque it can be viewed by clicking on it. You can see a sample of this below. To the right of the video screen you can see options enabling you to either boost the videos rankings of deem it not worthy. This is how Vidque ranks its videos (along with taking the current rankings from the parent sites).
You can also choose to add a video or series to your page and see what your followers and people you follow have added to theirs. This is where the social media aspect comes into play. This idea (like so many others on the site) is once again incorporated into the videos rankings. The more people who choose to add the video to their page the higher it climbs in the rankings.
You can check it all out here.
Netbooks are becoming more popular because they’re more portable than the very portable laptop and have all the working power into the bargain. Plus they pack more punch than even the best of smart phones. Here we have what I think are the best three netbooks for their tasks.
Home
Dell Inspiron Mini 10v Netbook
This is a great little curvy computer running the most popular of OS among netbooks – Windows XP. It has 1GB of RAM which is into laptop territory and is great 
for surfing the internet and taking care of all those tasks. The reason why this is the best netbook for the home is because of the price. At just $299 it’s a fine purchase to make to fill the gap when someone else is using the family PC or you just want to relax in bed and check you e-mail or RSS. It also doesn’t look and feel cheap like other netbooks for the same price. It can run for over five hours playing video and using software so it’s ideal for entertainment and heavy usage.
School
Asus Eee PC
This one is slightly more bulky than the one mentioned above but it packs more of a punch and it has an extended battery life for those long cramming sessions. The keyboard is also much better for typing on than the DELL.
It has 1GB of RAM but a 1.66GHz processor while running XP.
It weighs 3.4 pounds which isn’t too bad when you compare it to the laptop you could have been lugging around between classes. It looks good and ticks all the right boxes for students. The price tag of $400 isn’t to bad either.
Work
HP Mini 5101
This small netbook is definitely the way to go for work and business. It stylish and discreet with a minimalistic design and has sharper angles than th
e other too. Again, it has 1GB of RAM and a 1.66GHx processor doing all the work for you. It’s really sturdy and solidly built however I don’t like how it lost its Express Card slot which was on the previous model.
Nonetheless, the 160Gb hard drive is more than enough to hold any projects (no matter how big) until you make it back to the office and the 10” display is the perfect screen for working on them along with the comfortable keyboard and track pad.
For ultimate gaming laptops, click here.
Netbooks are becoming cooler by the day. I you’re going on holidays, on a journey or just need something light that can get the job done then a netbook is your best bet. However, they have their drawbacks – namely that they run an outdated OS, have bad graphics and are slow.
However, HP is looking to change all of that with their Mini 311 seen here in the picture. Basically, they have amped up the graphics and all of the other innards so that they’re approaching laptop specs (see list below). What’s more, it will soon begin to ship with Windows 7 instead of the current OS on the system – XP.
One bad bit is that you have to pay extra for a white lid and for a netbook, the price is already steep enough at the $400 mark.
Specs:
RAM: 1GB
OS: XP (soon to be Win7)
Hard Drive: 160GB
Processor: Intel 1.6GHz
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What do you think about the HP Mini 311?
Knowing what users do on your site can be extremely helpful. Why? Simply, because it gives you the opportunity to optimize your pages so that the premium features and advertisements get the very best attention.
ClickTale is a program for websites that records what users do on your website. Basically, it gives you back a video of just what they’re up to showing you where they pause, click, read and ultimately leave your site. This program can help you fix problems with your page to keep users on it longer.
There are four different membership levels. The most basic is ‘Free’ which is recommended for small-time bloggers. This will show you what 400 random users have been up to and give you somewhat of an idea of how to improve your site. However, the real goodies come as you progress up into Bronze, Silver and Gold.
With these membership programs you get a heat map which shows you the most active parts of your webpage, recordings of thousands of visitors and customer support via telephone.
This is a great piece of kit to for any website to have whether your visitor numbers are soaring or floundering. It’s always good to know where you can improve. So whether you blog or own a cool start-up, ClickTale is for you.
Ever been on a buddy’s computer, at work or just in a very low-tech situation? Yet you still want to chat with your friends on your IM service of choice, or perhaps even chat with friends across all the popular IM services at the same time!? Well Meebo is a cool app that I found that will let you do just that.
It’s entirely web-based so it requires no download. All you have to do is go to the homepage and sign in. It will then detect your current friends on what ever service you decide to use and you can start chatting to them using the messaging window (which is basic but what do you expect?).
It supports several IM services such as MSN, GTalk, AIM and Yahoo IM. And it’s not only for instant messaging. Meebo also carries some of the popular social networking sites such as FaceBook and MySpace.
When you’re actually using it everything is simple and easy to use. It’s no problem at all to get to grips with – which is handy seeing as you’ll likely only use it a few times as a back-up. To summarise, a great web app that will come in handy for the power user but I fear a little outdated for most situations given the amount of mobile tech we have.
So the summer is nearly over and you’re wondering what to do. Sure, it’s not long now until big yellow busses start pulling up outside houses to cart kids all over the US back to school and as such the summer is over and the monotony of life kicks back in for a cold winter. However, there is one app that could appeal to your adventurous side before that too is shut away until next July – it’s called iYunque and it offers advice for, and indeed a virtual experience of the only rainforest in the US – El Yunque.
The main feature of this app is giving advice. There are maps, photographs, warnings and local information about the rainforest that will help you stay on track, literally. The maps are detailed and up to date with all the popular tourist and adventure routes taken today in the rain forest. The maps also point out good places to get a good view and nice places to take a little break and how to get to the area if you have to travel first.
Because it’s a rainforest it also offers a few words of warning about travelling alone into the forest and about the wildlife in there.
The virtual tour feature is also really cool for those who can’t make it. It allows you to tap on the map and it gives you information of that area and some pictures.
iYunque is available for download right here.
The camera app that came with the iPhone is quite good. You get all of your basic features but nothing is really shines up to a glistening finish nor does it seem like Apple wants to improve on it. An app development company called CodeGoo seen a gap in the market and decided to make their new iPhone camera app called Camera Genius (well the name says it all really).
It is based more so on taking the right picture rather than just upping the specs of the camera. Take for example their feature called the “Rule of Thirds”. Basically, this feature divides the screen up into nine sections with three horizontal lines and three vertical ones. This technique is used by professional photographers to offset their subject slightly but it’s made really easy in this app.
The zoom feature is also better than the one that comes standard with the phone as it is more refined. Other cool things about this app include sound recorder which recognises a pre-defined noise to take the picture, Big Button which lets you tap anywhere on the screen to take the picture instead of fumbling for the small capture button and anti-shake (well, you figure that one out for yourself).
A cool app for those who are constantly snapping pictures on their iPhone but want more out of them.
I’m a big cinema goer. In fact I go at least twice a week. There’s nothing I love more than chilling with friends in a cool movie theatre as George Clooney works his magic. Checking times is something that always gets on my grapes though.
