Author: jamesclay

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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?

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BBC iPlayer for iPhone Arrives…


Though you have been able to access BBC iPlayer on your iPhone for a while now, the launch of the dedicated iPhone BBC iPlayer App means you can now stream live TV and radio on your iPhone (as you can with the iPad app).

So is the content different from what you get on the web on the iPhone?

So can you download content for offline viewing? Like when you are on a train? Something you can do on your computer. Well no, you have to have a decent internet connection to watch BBC iPlayer. Also you can’t use the service on 3G, you do need to be on wifi. Correction: I made an incorrect assumption you can access BBC iPlayer streams on your iPhone via 3G on both the App and the Web service. Of course be aware that streaming over 3G uses a lot of your bandwidth, so if you have a cap or are charged per GB be careful.

The main difference is that the app allows you to watch live BBC TV which is probably the main reason for getting the app, though remember you will need a TV licence to watch the live streams!

In the end I can’t see what the app adds that viewing on the iPlayer on Safari doesn’t have already, apart from “favourites”. What’s the point of that as most content disappears in under seven days anyway… I’ve not use that feature on the iPad and I doubt I will use it on the iPhone.

The app doesn’t have Airplay, though the web interface does, so a limitation there rather than an advantage.

Correction: The app does have support for AirPlay but it’s not intuitive. AirPlay is initiated outside the app by double clicking the home button and swiping right and pressing the AirPlay button; the streaming video will then be displayed through your AirPlay device (i.e. your Apple TV).

At the end of the day I am not sure what this brings to the iPhone, though from experience I have found the iPad app experience to be slightly better than the iPad web experience, but only slightly better.

Update: Of course the app and the streaming are only available in the UK.

Get the BBC iPlayer iPhone App in the iTunes Store.

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“Replaced” my Airport Express


In Bristol yesterday I took the plunge and replaced my Airport Express. I have had ongoing issues with the Airport Express for a while now.

The main problem I was having with the Airport Express was that it just stopped working and then “vanishing” from the network. As a result it would need to be power cycled to get it working again. I have an Airport Express, even though I also have an Airport Extreme, as the Extreme is the router on my network, which broadcasts at 5GHz 802.11n. I use the Airport Express in 802.11b/g mode for legacy and mobile devices.

The reason for two wireless networks is that the 802.11n network can work at the full 300Mbps speed, whilst legacy and mobile devices will work just fine on a slower network. If I had a single wireless network it would be “slow” for all devices. This usually isn’t too much of a problem, however I do stream video across my network, and when I use to do this in the past (with standard definition video) on an 802.11g network, I found that due to network congestion I would get buffering which was annoying. iPlayer wouldn’t work either very well over the wireless. With 802.11n I can stream high definition video easily across the network to my Apple TV or my iPad. It also works well in moving large files across the network. 802.11n also makes much more sense when using FTTC (fibre) for internet with its higher speeds.

Looking back I did write something similar about the older Airport Express it replaced. Part of me thinks that there may be an underlying technological reason or flaw for the constant failures of the Express on my network. I am wondering if the setup I have is the problem and there is a flaw in the Airport Express in bridge mode which means that it “vanishes” now and again. I can’t see why and I’ve not always had this problem. Looking at dates I am now wondering if the move to FTTC was the issue, at that point I configured the Airport Extreme for PPPoE whereas before it was a bridge with an ageing Netgear ADSL Modem acting as the DHCP router using PPPoA. However as I can’t turn off PPPoE not sure if that is a road worth going down. Also the Airport Express is about six years old.

I did consider replacing it 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.

Have not yet replaced the Express at this time, so the Extreme is still shrink-wrapped.

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Instagram – “iPhone App of the Year 2011”

Apple have said their iPhone App of the year for 2011 is Instagram.

I do like Instagram, I was less sure when I first looked at the app in October 2010, however since then I have used the app regularly and I like the ease of use, the filters and the social aspect.

Richmond Castle

I said back then

The social network can only be accessed from the phone and that limits it in my opinion. As a photo app it’s great, as a social networking tool, less so.

With any social app the key is the community, now that many more people I know are using Instagram, the social aspect, even though it can only be accessed from the phone is much better and more social.

I do like the multi-posting ability, so usually not only will I post to Instagram, I also post a link to Twitter and upload the image to Flickr.

I have also been using it more and more now for creating images for use with my blogs, especially my food blog.

Squid

Uploading to Flickr allows me to embed the image without needing to download and then upload the image.

I know some people think that the filters that come with Instagram are cheesy and in some respects they are, but this is not a serious photography app, this is a fun app for sharing photographs with friends.

If you haven’t downloaded Instagram, download it now (it’s also coming soon for Android) and if you do have it, why not start using it?