Author: jamesclay

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Battleship for iPad – Game Choice #04

If you like using your iPad for games (in the main casual gaming) then you may be interested in the following games that I have enjoyed playing on my iPad over the last few years.

Battleship for iPad £1.99

Experience the sea-assault game that sinks all pretenders. More powerful than ever on iPad, enjoy spectacular HD-quality graphics and stunning sound effects. Launch into the iPad exclusive 2 Player Mode and test your strategic senses in an all-out engagement for naval supremacy – just like the all-time favorite board game!

Now first things first, you can play Battleships using pen and paper and that is probably the best way to play.

My son got for Christmas a plastic version (not the official version) that was quite fun, but had one drawback the co-ordinates were the same colour as the board and as a result in poor light I actually needed a torch to read off the co-ordinates!

So in a fit of frustration I decided that there was bound to be a version for the iPad and I would buy that…

There are a few versions available for the iPad, in the end I went with the official version. No real reason, the reviews on the others were mixed and in the end I quite liked the look of the app.

As a game it works. As well as the classic version there are a few alternatives that are quite fun.

The AI when playing on your own isn’t perfect, but then again, Battleships is really more luck than skill once you’ve got a strategy sorted. Against a human however the game works well.

Annoyed with EA by the number of adverts for their other games, especially as I paid for this app; I’ve noticed that with many of the EA games they are shoving adverts into their games. It’s annoying and doesn’t work, well it doesn’t work for me.

If you have the boardgame and assuming it isn’t sitting on a shelf gathering dust then you’ll probably enjoy the iPad version.

Get Battleship for iPad in the iTunes App Store.  – No longer available.

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Netflixing

Even though I was less than impressed with the range of films and TV shows on the new Netflix service in the UK I decided I would give the service a go (having heard good stuff about the service in the US0 and you get a free trial for a month, so it wasn’t going to cost me anything.

I left it for a few days as I expected that everyone else in the UK would be trying out the service and this would have an impact on Netflix’s servers.

So far I have watched the service on my iMac through the Safari browser, through the Apple TV and using the iPad App.

The iPad app works really well, and I have had no buffering issues, and was really pleased with the quality, which was a good as BBC iPlayer and even Home Streaming from my iTunes collection.

Netflix “appeared” on my Apple TV menu, without me needing to do anything. The navigation was fine and again streaming quality was excellent.

Through the Safari browser, most of the time it was okay, but I did have more issues than through the iPad or Apple TV. Netflix uses Silverlight and though I updated the plugin I did have a few stuttering issues. I know this wasn’t a bandwidth issue as if I streamed the same content on the iPad, it worked fine. I also found that I couldn’t interact with the video controls on the Silverlight player, so the pause button didn’t work, but the space bar did to pause the video.

Overall I was impressed with the technical side of Netflix and if I was to continue with a subscription then I know it would work with my system.

As for the content, I think I *may* be able to justify the £5.99 a month it costs, but I would expect to either see an increase in the quantity of content on the service or regular new releases. Netflix is not the place to see new stuff, but from a back catalogue perspective I do expect to be able to see more than there is in there now.

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Action Movie FX App

What the Action Movie FX app does is allow you to shoot a video and add a special effect.

This is a clever app and I am still surprised by how good it is and the fact that it works on a phone…

Well maybe I shouldn’t be surprised as the Star Wars I The Phantom Menace was rendered on computers that had a similar power to the iPhone!

There are two effects that come with the free app, but you can purchase more effects.

The process is quite simple, shoot the video, add the special effect, adjust the timing and wait for it to be rendered. Then you can share the video either to Facebook, via e-mail or save to your camera roll.

Basically this app is a bit of fun and very clever.

Get Action Movie FX in the iTunes App Store.

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Boggle for iPhone – Game Choice #03

If you like using your iPhone for games (in the main casual gaming) then you may be interested in the following games that I have enjoyed playing on my iPhone over the last few years.

Boggle £1.49

Boggle is a nice simple game that gives you sixteen letters, has a time limit, and you need to create as many words as possible with the rules that the letters can only be used once and must be “touching”.

As with a lot of good games it is a simple concept, but quite challenging to play well.

With a recent update the basic game was reduced to just two minutes long, in the most recent update this has reverted back to three minutes following complaints from players. Three minutes is just about right when waiting for a bus or a train, or on the tube.

There is a free ads supported version, but pay the money and get the ad-free version.

Get Boggle in the iTunes App Store. – No longer available.

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Netflix, now in the UK

Today saw the release of Netflix in the UK.

Just download this free app and you can instantly watch TV shows & movies streaming from Netflix.

I have been somewhat interested in Netflix after listening to rave reviews about the service in the US on podcasts such as TWiT. I quite like the idea of “all you can eat” subscription video service, the key though is the content and how often it is refreshed.

I wrote over three years ago now how I subscribed to the GO!VIEW service for the PSP from Sony and Sky. This was a video subscription service (downloading for the PSP mind you, not streaming) however I only subscribed for two months, not for any technical reason, purely content, once I had watched what I wanted to see, and there was no refresh of content within those two months, I couldn’t see the point of continuing my subscription. Now of course GO!VIEW is defunct and no longer available.

When we got our new TV, which has internet services built in, I did consider getting a Lovefilm subscription, but wasn’t that impressed with the content back then.

With the Netflix announcement I have been looking at the content available, and importantly how easy it will be to access. Alas my TV does not have Netflix, though it may come in with an update later. I thought my LG Blu-Ray player would be a possibility, but alas no luck there either. Good news however the PS3 does have Netflix capability and there is an app for the iPad and the iPhone. I suspect that we may see a future update to the Apple TV that gives us Netflix on that box.

So apart from the content considerations, I am also concerned about the impact it will have on my broadband cap, I have a bandwidth limit on my fibre connection and in recent months we have got quite close to the limit. My concern will be if I start using Netflix I will (obviously) be using more bandwidth and if I have to increase my cap that will cost me more money. Not sure if I will watch Netflix instead of iPlayer, that may be a possibility so may not have such an impact after all.

So what about content? Well that has to be a serious consideration and you don’t subscribe to Netflix if you want the most recent film and TV releases. For example it only has the first four seasons of the new Doctor Who, so no Matt Smith (though some may think that is a blessing). There are a few 2010 films, but most are much older.

So not sure yet, but hey you can have a month’s free trial and that may well be the way to go.

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Take a break

I get a fair bit of junk mail at work, but one of the most bizarre I got recently was a KitKat!

Underneath the KitKat though was a QR Code. Well you know me I just had to scan it…

Though whoever used it hadn’t realised that the border or padding around a QR Code is an integral part of the pattern and it helps the scanning software to identify the code amongst the rest of the page.

As a result it took me a little longer for Optiscan on my iPhone 4 to recognise the code.

The code sent me to a YouTube video which was a good idea.

As I eat the KitKat I can watch a video about the company on my phone.

Overall, apart from the graphic designer losing the integral border on the code, this was a good way of using a QR Code on a piece of marketing material.

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Mondo Solitaire for iPad – Game Choice #02

If you like using your iPad for games (in the main casual gaming) then you may be interested in the following games that I have enjoyed playing on my iPad over the last few years.

Mondo Solitaire – £3.99

On every Windows computer was a copy of Solitaire, partly to teach users how to use a mouse, and in the main for users to waste time…

There are a number of free Solitaire apps for the iPad, but what I like about Mondo Solitaire is the sheer number and variety of games within the app.

Mondo Solitaire is the ultimate Solitaire experience for your iPad. With over 100 games and over 200 different combinations of gameplay, you’re sure to find your favorites, such as Klondike and FreeCell, plus many new games to discover, from Angkor Wat to Xerces.

Mondo Solitaire’s beautiful, crisp graphics let you easily identify your cards and assess your current move. Clever tools like the magnifying glass and the paper clip help you intuitively manage your game.

A familiar library search lets you sort and select all of your games — by name, style, favorites, and even popularity. The categorized interface makes it really easy to find the exact game you want to play.

Mondo Solitaire is a true casual game you can play whenever and wherever, yet dismiss quickly to surf the web or send messages. When finished, simply tap on the game application’s icon and head right back into the action!

There is a huge choice of card games to play and the library function certainly makes it very easy to work out which games you like and which ones you’ve not played yet.

The size of the iPad screen makes it ideal for playing card games and is much easier than playing using the iPhone screen (though there is a version of Mondo for the iPhone, alas it is not an universal app so you will need to buy it for both the iPad and the iPhone).

Mondo was one of the first games I purchased for my iPad and I have been very pleased with it.

Mondo Top 5 Solitaire (which is £1.99) uses the same solitaire gaming engine in “mondo Solitaire” to bring you FreeCell, Golf, Klondike, Pyramid, and Spider. However for £3.99 with the full Mondo you get over a hundred games, so I would spend the £3.99.

Get Mondo Solitaire in the iTunes App Store. – No longer available.

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Happy with the Airport Extreme

I am pleased with my new Airport Extreme which I recently installed to replace an unreliable old Airport Express. Since I installed it, it has remained up and broadcasting (and accessible) without any problems.

My old Airport Express, configured for legacy 802.11g devices, would often “disappear” from the network and even though it was still broadcasting, the Airport Express wouldn’t accept connections, nor could it be found via the Airport Admin Utility. As a result my 802.11g devices (such as the iPhone) wouldn’t be able to connect to the network and wouldn’t be able to stream video or download stuff. My main challenge was with my wireless Canon printer which was 802.11g and not been able to print was very annoying. It got to the point where the Airport Express was failing on a daily basis and needed to be unplugged and plugged back in again.

I did consider replacing the Airport Express with the new 802.11n Airport Express, but having had two Expresses go on me, I decided to stump the extra cash and get an Airport Extreme. I had a few reasons, the main was that if my existing Airport Extreme failed I had a replacement on hand. It comes with three ethernet ports and I can then have a few more wired gigabit ethernet devices on the network which is of course much faster than wireless and means more stable Skype and video streaming on more devices, as well as faster file transfers. I can also add a USB hard drive as network storage too.

I didn’t get a Time Capsule as they seemed to add very little to the equation, cost more money and have in my mind more things to go wrong.

So, so far I am pleased with the Extreme and it is doing what I need it to do.

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Tech Stuff – Top Ten Posts of 2011

Here are the top ten blog posts (by views) for 2011.

10. Joikuspot s60 limitation

This blog post which described a major limitation with Jokuspot on the Nokia N95 was the principle reason I bought a MiFi.

9. No joy with Sony PSP and JoikuSpot Premium

This was quite an old post, from nearly three years ago, when my primary method for mobile internet was using Joikuspot on a Nokia N95. Since then I have used a MiFi and now in the main use the portable wireless hotspot on a Google Nexus One.

8. Insufficient Bandwidth

This post described how a problem with my FTTC was causing me to have issues with iPlayer streams. I think in the end it was more of an issue with BBC iPlayer than an issue with my internet connection.

7. New Sony Tablets, the Tablet S

In this blog post I was looking forward to the new Sony Tablet. Having now seen the Tablet for real I am slightly disappointed. It didn’t feel like a Sony product and seemed overpriced for what it was.

6. Instagram on the Desktop

My sixth most popular post looked at a couple of Mac apps that allowed you to view Instagram images on your desktop. I really like Instagram, but sometimes feel disadvantaged when I want to see a feed of Instagram images on my Mac.

5. ITV Player and 4OD on the PS3

An update to the PS3 provided access to the watch again services from ITV and Channel 4.

4. iPhone Portable Wifi Hotspot

Back in January Apple announced a new feature for the iPhone, that allowed you to turn it into a portable wifi hotspot, something I had been doing for a while using my Froyo Google Nexus One.

3. I don’t like BT FON

My third most popular post was a rant about BT FON, well actually it wasn’t a rant about BT FON itself, it was rant that BT routers configured for BT FON also broadcast a BT Openzone SSID which wasn’t a real BT Openzone and so as a result my iPhone (which has free access to BT Openzone) couldn’t use it.

2. BT Openzone-H

This post was a follow on to my BT FON rant, it was apparent that BT were aware of the problem I discussed and are in the process of changing the settings on the BT Homehubs so that instead of broadcasting the BT Openzone SSID they have renamed it to BT Openzone-H. I should say that though I posted this in July, here nearly six months later my neighbour’s BT HomeHub is still broadcasting BT Openzone and not the new Openzone-H.

1. Live BBC TV on the iPad

My most popular post was not really a post more of an addendum to another post reviewing the BBC iPlayer app for the iPad.

The addendum mentioned that the main advantage of the app over the web interface was that you could access live TV through the app.

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iPhone Pain


I am getting more and more annoyed with my iPhone 3GS. I keep losing signal, it crashes way too often when making phone calls and O2’s 3G coverage seems more patchy than usual.

It’s saying something when you find that you don’t want to use your phone for making phone calls. Apart from finding on a regular basis that the phone loses signal, if you are making a phone call and this happens, the phone crashes and reboots. This is very annoying and when it happens it seems to take an age for the phone to reset so you can reconnect and call back the person who you jsut cut off. I ought to keep a log of when it happens, but it does seem to be correlated with a weak signal.

Though I have no scientific evidence to back it up, I am also finding it much more difficult to find a stable 3G signal when travelling. That seems to be getting worse. I often notice my phone losing the 3G signal and then finding it again. As a result streaming or even just pain web browsing becomes less reliable.

I have not yet upgraded the 3GS to iOS 5 as I was awaiting the verdict of the community if I should or not. I do remember when iOS 4 came out and ruined the iPhone 3G experience.

So do you have problems with your iPhone 3GS or is it just me?

If you do have a 3GS have you upgraded to iOS 5 and how is that working for you?