Critique Evaluate Report

1st Gen iPod Nano Recall Swapped For A Brand New Nano 6G 8GB

2012-01-16T04:00:00.012-05:00

So if you were fortunate enough to own a 1st Generation iPod nano, then you would have been greeted by a message in your mailbox in November 2011, recalling the device without packaging and accessories for a 'refurbished replacement'. The first nano has apparently been linked to problems with the internal battery used at that time, which may have exploded upon heating.

One was to log in the the apple service centre, key in your serial number and away you go. Apple will send out a package to return the nano, with strict instructions to do so with a fortnight (although i didn't get round to doing it for a month!).

This morning i was greeted with a knock on the door by our friendly neighbourhood UPS guy holding the anticipated package from Apple.

What i received was not a 1st Gen nano refurbished with a new battery but a brand new 6G nano which quite possibly could be the last of it's kind!

The serial number of your new 6G replacement can quite easily be checked on the net to see when it was produced - mine was made in late November 2011.

Although my old nano was in perfect collectible condition - still entombed in its original protective packaging over the screen.

I am left a tad upset with the loss of my dear old friend. Could this mean that anyone wishing to hold on to their old 1st Gen are quite likely due for a hefty payout on the collectible market in the future?

Time will only tell.

Dropped Your iPhone In Water? Don't Worry! With these simple solutions it'll be up and running in no time!

2012-01-13T08:17:00.004-05:00

I was unfortunate enough to drop my iPhone into a bowl of water last night. It was only submerged for a few seconds but it sunk like a brick.

With electricals, time is of the essence, don't fret, focus!

I swiftly scooped it up and gave it a thorough clean with a dry cloth and quickly scoured the internet for possible solutions for a water damaged phone, from leaving it in a covered box for a few days with silica gel, blowdrying the poor thing or even leaving it in a bag of rice.

Don't even think about taking the phone to an Apple store and claiming "it doesnt work, i don't know why". The iPhone has four built in 'water indicator sensors' that turn a bright pink when exposed to water - you won't be fooling anyone!

The components inside are extremely sensitive to water damage if left exposed for a duration - perhaps causing some of the components to rust or even eroding the battery. One must attempt to dry it quickly and efficiently.

I exposed my cellphone to heat! Regardless, it's better to have a working phone with a lower, less efficient battery life then no phone at all.

My foolproof advice to recover a water damaged phone:

Turn off your iPhone - This prevents a short-circuit, from which theres no recovery.
immediately put the iPhone on a warm radiator (not hot, i set the thermostat to 3 1/2 out of 6) and allow it to dry for an hour on each side with the exposed orifices and then an hour front face down. Be warned, if the heat is intense then the battery will explode!
Examine your phone after completing the previous step, if you can still see condensation inside on the glass, camera, light then repeat the above process.
IF the phone shows no evidence of water damage then switch on your phone and try making a call, watching a video with sound, taking a photo, using the speaker, turning the volume up and down and as many other apps you need.
If the above step shows the all clear, its still a very good idea to leave the phone on or under the radiator or in an airing cuboard for another few hours, to ensure all the steam has dissipated.
If your phone is still not functioning in all areas then repeat the whole process again.
Remember! time is of the utmost important here! The longer the inside components are exposed to water, the more damage will be caused.

*Remember, you will probably experience a lack of battery life after warming the phone. But a working phone is better than no phone.

**Be cautious, all attempts to recover your iPhone are at your own risk!

Apple Unveils The New iPhone 4: A Complete Review

2010-06-08T08:50:00.015-04:00

Although this isn't the first we've heard of the new iPhone 4 2010. The well publicized, albeit, covert leakage of this years hype frenzy that was masterminded by none other than the elusive Steve Jobs, uncovered by gizmodo and exhaustively photographed in every conceivable angle.
How? you ask: They'd obtained it for a huge sum from an "innocent" bystander who just happened upon it after an Apple employee mistakenly left it behind in a German bar, who'd tried to return it to the owner and then to Apple but claimed Apple refused to discuss the matter with him. So he then contacts buyers knowing somebody would want the scoop. Result? Gizmodo.
Sounds like the makes of fiction, no?

So here's what we haven't learnt thus far:

Design

On this, the structure is the same as the leaked iPhone in that it's compiled from black toughened glass to the front and rear (which Apple claims is thirty times harder than plastic) with a stainless steel rim - which also fuctions as an antenna for wi-fi and 3G improving the reception for the new iPhone. It is 34% thinner than it's older sister the 3GS, but weighing in slightly more at 137 grams as oppose to the 134 gram'ed 3GS.

Display

The 3.5 inch multi touch "retina" screen with a resolution of 360x640- the highest ever built into a phone. It packs a punch with four times as many pixels as the current 3GS it also has an 800 to 1 contrast ratio, again, better than the 3GS improving your viewing experience as the images will be much sharper not pixelated.

Battery life

The battery is 16% bigger than the 3GS. Combined with a new A4 custom designed silicon processor and a new display, resulting in a better battery life - Apple claims a massive 40% improvement on talk time!

Here's the spec as released by Apple:

Talk time:
Up to 7 hours on 3G
Up to 14 hours on 2G
Standby time: Up to 300 hours
Internet use:
Up to 6 hours on 3G

Up to 10 hours on Wi-Fi

Video playback: Up to 10 hours

Audio/Music playback: Up to 40 hours

Although the camera stands at 5 megapixels, the lens and light sensors are bigger giving you a clearer shot. iPhone 4 has a higher ISO will giving you better photos and videos in low-light conditions.

It doesn't stop there either. Use the built in LED flash at those candlelit dinners and you'll have no excuse but to catalogue every romantic moment.

The pinnacle of the iPhone 4 is the absurdly overdue ability to video conference with a standard VGA resolution with up to 30 frames per second.

It works iphone 4 to iphone 4 over Wi-Fi although Apple claim it will in the future be available over 3G too.

It has two cameras. One each on the front and the back, so you could broadcast what is in front of you during the video call or recording.

If you're interested to know, you'll also be able to use this facility with third party apps.

Did someone say multi-tasking?

Apple have finally allowed 'selective' multi-tasking! - Apple's way of saving on resources and battery life - Made possible by double clicking your home button, you're then shown a list of apps, select, switch, done.
Apps are left frozen in their pre-switched state minimizing disruption. Making it easy for you to quickly respond to a text whilst still working in another app and then switching back with relatively no disruption.

Folders

No more searching through endless apps with the new folder function. By dragging apps into others you can easily create folders which are then intelligently named to categorize what's inside.

If you're cynical you may think this product has had a meticulously well planned publicity campaign all beginning with the so called "leaked" iPhone to gizmodo or you may choose to believe this was a rare security blunder from apple which has caused them to hasten the release of this model before gizmodo etc have critiqued and photographed every component from every conceivable angle and left no stunning surprises for Steve to pull on the unsuspecting technophile.

Whatever, the case may be, the phone is finally due a release and you'll be able to own one before the end of the month.

How much will it cost and when will it be released?

The new iPhone 4 will be available Apple's standard black or white on June 24th 2010 in the US and UK.

Costing $199 and $299 for the 16GB and 32GB respectively.

Without contract the iPhone is $499 or $599 depending on whether you want the 16 or 32GB.

Will The New iPhone Be Announced In June 2010?

2010-06-04T09:31:00.004-04:00

Ever since Apple's new iPhone was revealed by Gizmodo, there's been widespread rumours as to when exactly it will be announced by Apple - some believed that it may be officially revealed earlier than expected to coincide with all the hype.
But it looks like things haven't been rushed after all!
Expect to see Apple newest iPhone released at Steve Jobs' WWDC keynotes on June 7th 2010.

The New Apple iPad Out In England, UK This Friday 28th May!

2010-05-24T10:26:00.007-04:00

It's hard to overstate how much fun the new iPad is! As a piece of high end technology I don't know of anything that comes remotely close.

If you're reading this post you're probably still wondering whether it's worth forking out the minimum of $499 in the States or £430 in the UK to purchase a piece of history in the making?
You may have your own opinions about it, leave a comment, i would love to hear from you.
Have a look at it here.

The usefulness of this device relates more to individuality and your personal lifestyle - If I need to get some work completed outside of the office i use my Macbook Pro.
To keep up to date with my emails i use my iphone on the go, but replying to these messages can be hard work! Especially if the reply needed is long!
So to me, the iPad fills this transitional void!

Nikon Coolpix P100 26x Superzoom

2010-05-19T16:56:00.009-04:00

Nikon Coolpix P100 10 MP Digital Camera with 26x Optical Vibration Reduction (VR) Zoom and 3.0-Inch LCD (Black)

Nikon finally delivers proper HD video. It not only boasts fulll 1080p video in H.264 but it also shoots full 120FPS bursts.

Being a superzoom-26x (26mm-678mm) I like it more than any other models which have recently been released such as the Fujifilm FinePix HS10 or the new olympus.
admittedly though, the zoom is a little shorter than the latter two. But there's many other features that outshine in Nikon's signature point and shoot.

It's also the first Coolpix to change to CMOS to provide better low-light performance with built in HDR processing.

The Fuji HS10 is far superior on paper than the Nikon P100 with the same promise of the optimized 10MP CMOS sensor, longer zoom at 30x, the 1000fps slow motion video but the Nikon P100 is over a $100 less.

Gold Plate your iPad, iPhones and Wii gadgets

2010-05-19T10:15:00.001-04:00

Want to be a cut above the rest? Stuart Hughes is your answer.
For a small fee he can transform your monotonous whatsit to a hyped up furore comparative to a scruffy haired school girl's transformation to the proverbial prom queen.

Stuart, a 39 year old designer form liverpool can pretty much clad any gadget in gold, diamonds and precious jewels.
Offering a range of options to suite any budget.

So go ahead and order a blinged up iPad. How much will it set you back, you ask? $187,000. Just a tad more than the standard model.

Belated Introduction

2010-05-12T19:53:00.000-04:00

So here i am lamenting over my new found time.
When like a lightening bolt i had a eureka moment. Ever since i've known i've wanted to start a blog - there's no time like the present.
My one strength has always been to find a flaw in any contraption, i've always had a penchant for all things with an ingenious design - built to last, to outstrip its era.
So I will dedicate this blog to finding man-made's hidden treasures. To strip them apart. Purely so you don't have to.

I hope this road is as enjoyable for you as it is for me.

The New Apple Macbook Pro 2010

2010-05-12T13:30:00.026-04:00

I had the opportunity to take a look at the fastest most powerful revolutionary Apple MacBook Pro.
The standard smallest size screen is the 13 inch of which there are two models with slightly different spec:
13-inch: 2.4GHz or the 13-inch: 2.66GHz.

13-inch: 2.4GHz 13-inch: 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB Memory 4GB Memory
250GB hard drive^{1 320GB hard drive¹}
SD card slot SD card slot
Built-in battery (10 hours)^{2 Built-in battery (10 hours)²}
NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics

The 15-inch spec has three available options 15-Inch: 2.4GHz, 15-Inch:2.53GHz, 15-Inch: 2.66GHz.

15-inch: 2.4GHz	15-inch: 2.53GHz	15-inch: 2.66GHz
Intel Core i5	Intel Core i5	Intel Core i7
4GB Memory	4GB Memory	4GB Memory
320GB hard drive¹	500GB hard drive¹	500GB hard drive¹
SD card slot	SD card slot	SD card slot
Built-in battery (8-9 hour)²	Built-in battery (8-9 hour)²	Built-in battery (8-9 hour)²
Intel HD Graphics	Intel HD Graphics	Intel HD Graphics
NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M with 256MB	NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M with 256MB	NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M with 512MB

The 17-inch screen 17-Inch: 2.53GHz Intel Core i5 is the only model in it's league.

17-inch: 2.53GHz

Intel Core i5
4GB Memory

500GB hard drive¹
ExpressCard/34 slot
Built-in battery (8-9 hour)²
Intel HD Graphics
NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M with 512MB

As of writing, Competitively priced with Amazon and cheaper than buying from the Apple store. More information can be obtained by clicking on the above links.