Archive for category gadgets
Do you really need a DSLR digital camera?
Posted by matblogger in Lifestyle, gadgets on December 7th, 2009
I guess this is a question every wannabe photography junkie keeps asking himself. For many years the good old SLR camera had been the de facto standard for many a professional photographer. Then came along the digital camera in the 90’s which took the photography world by storm and revolutionized it. From being huge clumsy gadgets, these cameras soon started to evolve into sleek sexy gadgets. Now you had a choice to make – is it the standard compact point and shoot digital camera or the DSLR digital camera?
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Holy cow! Apple sold 60,000 iPhones in a day in Korea!
Posted by matblogger in Tech News, gadgets on December 5th, 2009
Yep that’s right – 1 day, 60,000 iPhones in Korea. That’s considered really good compared to sales of about only 5000 in China during the first week! Anyone has the numbers for *ehem* Malaysia?
Here’s an extract from the report from International Business Times:
KT priced the 32-gigabyte iPhone 3GS at 369,000 won ($317) for customers subscribing to monthly plans based on the basic rate of 45,000 won ($38). Subscribers paying 65,000 won ($56) in basic rates can have the iPhone for 264,000 won ($227), while premium users signing up for monthly plans based on a 132,000 won ($113) basic rate could have the phones for free.
The 8-gigabtye iPhones were priced at 132,000 won ($113) for subscribers signed on the 45,000 won ($38) monthly plans.
As iPhone made its formal debut in China on October 30 through China Unicom, South Korea is one of the last major countries in Asia to get the iPhone which is also on sale in Japan, India and Australia.
Way to go Apple!
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“Macs can get you laid”
Posted by matblogger in gadgets on October 23rd, 2009
Ever wanted to know how it would be like if Steve Jobs and Bill Gates actually squared off? Watch this short cartoon clip that I found on Youtube. Not the funniest I’ve seen but hey it kills some time and I like the part both of them transform to Jedi warriors! Have fun nerds.
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How do you get into the iPhone App business – part one
Posted by matblogger in Software, Tips and Tricks, gadgets on October 14th, 2009
This is a question a lot of people have actually asked me. Apple has done a great job of marketing their app store and according to some recent reports, there are more than 80,000 apps in the app store. A lot of people have made it big by selling their apps on the app store and this has actually fuelled a lot of interest among those who don’t even own an iPhone. Not only individual developers but even big game developers have started to embrace the Apple app store. Not exactly surprising considering the fact that some have even suggested that the app store is going to be as huge as the internet. As exaggerated as it may sound, the app is HUGE and it is able to reach to millions of customers each day. The keyword here is – convenience. It’s just too easy for any customer to browse the app store, search for some keywords, look at a few apps and decide to download it for a buck! And when there is enough interest the volume of customers who are downloading apps is enough to make a developer rich.
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How to play an audio file in your iPhone App?
Posted by matblogger in Tips and Tricks, gadgets on October 6th, 2009
Although its been a while since I figured out how to play an audio file in an iPhone app, it still is a pain in the ass every time I try to make it work on a new app. I still keep doing some trial and errors or refer to the numerous blogs out there helping out fellow iPhone app developers. So I decided to once and for all document the steps that I usually take to play a sound file. Typically the file extensions that are allowed are:
- .caf
- .m4a
- .wav
- .mp3
In my opinion I find the first 3 easier to work with rather than the popular .mp3 format. For some reason there are audio clips in .mp3 format which don’t seem to work. Luckily there are so many .mp3 to .wav converters around which you can use. Or the easiest way will be to use iTunes to convert to AAC format which will assign a .m4a extension for the audio clip. Anyway, here are the steps you need to follow to play an audio file in your iPhone app.
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How to check if your iPhone App is running on Simulator or Device?
Posted by matblogger in Tips and Tricks, gadgets on October 1st, 2009
Its been a while since I wrote an actual programming tutorial for iPhone app developers. I’ve been busy developing a few applications for my clients and since I have completed one major project, I am writing this post to share one of my findings. The app is actually a birthday cake application – sort of like a virtual birthday cake. The user basically downloads the app to his iphone, enters his name (or the person to be wished), lights up the virtual candles and blows the candles out. Simple right? Simple yet fun concept. The tricky part was to design the algorithm for the blow detection into the mic. Once the algorithm was developed, the next part was testing it out. The testing on simulator and device is totally different for one obvious reason – you CANNOT blow into the simulator. So I needed to keep changing variable values while switching from simulator to device until I found out how silly the method actually was. There is an easier way to do this. Here’s how I did it.
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How I setup push email on my iPhone for my Gmail Account
Posted by matblogger in Software, Tips and Tricks, gadgets on September 24th, 2009
FINALLY its here – push service for Gmail. It’s really baffling how come Gmail didn’t incorporate this feature for their millions of loyal users. Although Yahoo! was offering push email for quite some time, it seemed that you needed to purchases third party software to enable this feature in Gmail. Although it was widely speculated that it was just a matter of time before Google was going to enable push services on Gmail it wasn’t very clear when exactly! So what exactly is Push Email?
According to WiseGeek
Push email utilizes a mail delivery system with real-time capability to “push” email through to the client as soon as it arrives, rather than requiring the client to poll and collect or pull mail manually. With a push email smartphone, for example, the client’s mailbox is constantly updated with arriving email without user intervention. Smartphones announce new mail arrival with an alert.
In simpler words, what it means is that your mailbox is updated as soon as a mail arrives in the server. You do not have to login to your account to get the email by yourself.
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Is it really worthwhile to upgrade to iPhone 3.1?
Posted by matblogger in gadgets on September 16th, 2009
Hope you all had a chance to read up on my roundup on the latest iPhone version 3.1 as well as iTunes 9.0. Now that all the excitement around it has abated, I have been reading quite a bit about some of the quirks associated with this new firmware update. Its never surprising to hear that a new firmware update has some issues but some of them I have been reading doesn’t make Apple look good at all. Apple should have been more careful before releasing the iPhone firmware update version 3.1. Here are some of the issues that have been reported in Apple’s discussion forums.
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A roundup of iTunes 9.0 and iPhone OS 3.1 – part 2
Posted by matblogger in Software, Tips and Tricks, gadgets on September 11th, 2009
This is a continuation of A roundup of iTunes 9.0 and iPhone OS 3.1 – part 1. In the previous post we saw some of the neat (and not so neat) stuff that comes with iTunes 9.0. So what’s new with iPhone OS 3.1 then? Well before you install iPhone OS 3.1 you will need to download iTunes 9.0. Once you’ve done that then you got to of course download iPhone OS 3.1 (which is a pretty huge file) and this would probably take you quite some time if you’re on Streamyx – how surprising (trying to keep a straight face here).
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A roundup of iTunes 9.0 and iPhone OS 3.1 – part 1
Posted by matblogger in Software, gadgets on September 10th, 2009
The entire blogosphere is buzzing with information right from Apple’s new range of iPods, Steve Jobs’ health and the latest and greatest iTunes 9.0 – of course with a little mention of iPhone OS 3.1. Somehow I feel that the iPods and iTunes have taken the limelight in comparison to Apple’s latest firmware release for the iPhone. I had anticipated not many drastic changes to version 3.1 and my assumption proved to be correct. Subtle changes have been made which I will be discussing in a while, but more importantly lets discuss iTunes 9.0 first.
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