We’ve reviewed Proporta’s cases (and other equipment) for the iPhone before, but they now have a new range for the iPad. They’ve sent me a couple of cases, and the first one I’m looking at is their Recycled Leather case.

Details of the case

As the name suggests, this folio-style case is made of recycled leather, and is complemented with a green fabric covering and stitching. The iPad slides in nicely to a black leather holder, which provides a snug fit. All of the controls and the dock are exposed.

It does add a bit of bulk to your iPad, but not so much that it hinders operation.

The inside cover has an elasticated holder for a pen, and also fabric pocket, which comfortably holds my small notepad. There’s also a strap above the pocket, which I assumed was to keep things secured in the pocket.

Anything else?

Boy, was I wrong about the strap. I’d had this case for about 6 weeks before I thought, Hmm, this strap comes undone, and there’s a popper on the back… Wait a minute!”. I folded the strap around the back, and turned the case into a stand. Altering the spine allows for two angles in which to position the iPad, one of which I’ve found ideal for writing with a Bluetooth keyboard. I should have noticed this from their website!

What’s good?

The case feels durable. The leather gives it an air of sophistication, and it doesn’t immediately scream “Mug me, I’m carrying an iPad!”.

What’s bad?

I find it a little hard to keep Apple’s Component AV cable connected – it’s just a bit big compared to the dock opening, and I have to keep nudging it back it. Other than that, a normal Apple dock cable fits very nicely.

The rotation switch is slightly harder to operate, so it requires the thumbnail to flick it to the lock position.

Overall

It’s quite a bookish case, but I quite like that. It’s very well made, but then you’d expect that for £35. Then again, I get the impression it’ll last as long as my iPad. Sorry, but I won’t be giving this one away!

Proporta Recycled Leather case
Price: £34.95
Available from Proporta

Thanks to Rosie at Proporta for providing the cases for review.

I’ve already reviewed the CoPilot Live satellite navigation app for the iPhone, which I found to be almost like having a whole extra gadget inside my iPhone. One of the commenters on that review suggested I take a look at Trafficmaster Companion, which integrates routing based on live traffic data.

This is a very different kind of satnav app – there are no maps included at all, and very few user-configurable options. The philosophy of this app is very different to the traditional, “do everything” satnav from TomTom and Garmin.

So in this case, is less more?

Before I start, I should point out that there are several versions of this app knocking around. When I was first given this app, only the lifetime subscription version (£24.99) was available. That app later went up to £34.99, and Trafficmaster introduced cheaper PAYG and Lite versions.

Now it seems there is only one Trafficmaster Companion version available on the App Store. The lifetime subscription has gone, and the app is now free to download. You have to pay per block of routes using in-app purchasing, namely

• 10 routes: £4.99
• 20 routes: £7.99
• 30 routes: £9.99

The free app does come with 7 days of free routing, so it’s worth downloading anyway to give it a spin.

However, I have the lifetime subscription, so that’s the one I’ll be reviewing. The only difference between this and the current app is that I can’t look at purchasing of routes.

First use

When you start this app up, you have to enter your phone number, so that the app can check your subscription status. This means that this app require a data connection – at least GPRS – in order to obtain (and update) your routing.

I wondered if this would put people off. One of the reasons I prefer to use a dedicated satnav app over Google Maps is that the latter requires a constant connection in order to update the map. However, if hasn’t put me off, and I don’t think it should put others off either. The amount of data required to update routing is minimal – it’s only voice routing, not full map data that is downloaded.

Here’s a short video walkthrough showing the main options of the app:

Click here to view the embedded video.

How to get route guidance

I’ve found the quickest way to obtain a route – if you don’t have an address saved as a favourite – is to tap Satnav –> Postcode, and you’re away. The voice routing will inform you that, “You have a route of x miles, which will take you on…”, and it’ll list the major roads, followed by an ETA.

There’s one routing option that’s unique to this app: the ability to call a PA. I was told to “be as vague as you like!” when calling the PA, in order to check how good they were. And I have to say, it’s a good option when you have a hazy idea of where you’re going, or don’t know the detailed address or postcode. But it is £1.20 per minute to call, so I wouldn’t hang around chatting to the PA about where you want to go. A little Google search may help pin things down initially, and avoid paying that high per-minute fee.

The options while you’re on a route are fairly basic:

• suspend/resume routing
• clockwise arrow: re-read the directions to you
• cancel routing
• night mode

Lack of maps

As I mentioned at the start of this review – there are NO maps. It’s all voice guidance. It’s a satnav without anything to look at, other than distance and the next turn.

I was quite hesitant about this at first, but it has really grown on me. One of the things I liked about CoPilot Live is that the maps are detailed and you can see where you’re going. One of the things I didn’t like about CoPilot Live is that my eyes are drawn to the map constantly. Unless you’re disciplined it’s a distraction.

There’s no such problem with Trafficmaster. I find myself ignoring the app, apart from when I’m approaching a turn, when I glance at it to confirm my turn. No maps means it’s not sexy, it’s not amazing to look at – but I’ve come to see that as an advantage. I’m much more focussed on my driving now, and there is enough audio guidance to get me to my destination.

Integration with your iPhone

It doesn’t integrate much. I have all my addresses in Contacts, but there’s no option to choose a contact as a destination.

The app has been updated since I received it to play iPod music, and it fades music when directions are being spoken. But there are no iPod controls other than double-tapping the home button to bring up basic overlay controls. You can’t start music playback from within the app otherwise.

It also doesn’t fit in with multi-tasking very well – if you get a phone call, the app will let you take the call, but then starts up again, checks your subscription and resumes the route – rather than suspending itself and starting from where it was. It needs an update for multitasking iPhones.

How good are the dierections?

I’ve found the routing to be quite good. As far as I can tell, this app plumps for the quickest route (rather than shortest), which means it tends towards the major roads. Consequently, it does take the long way round sometimes – for example, it added an additional 5 miles on a journey from Reading to Surrey compared to my usual route. But I was travelling at rush hour and didn’t get stuck in any traffic. I think this is fine as I get the feeling this app is targeted at commuters and professional drivers.

If you do leave the route, the app will recalculate. I like the fact that it tells you it’s recalculating the route, rather than the silent “we’ll get you there how ever many wrong turns you take” approach of other satnavs.

What’s Good, What’s Bad?

It seems to lose the route fairly often, which I imagine is dependent on the location data it receives from the iPhone’s GPS chip. This means the app goes on a bit about going to wrong way, even when you’re not, and “re-routes” you – along the same route. The developers need to account for the lack of sensitivity in the iPhone’s GPS. But I have noticed that the GPS lock stays a lot better with my iPhone 4, which has a better GPS chip than my iPhone 3G.

I’ve noticed discrepancies between the Estimated Time of Arrival that’s spoken, and the time that’s displayed – the time displayed is often 5 or so minutes ahead. Also, if the time is after midday, then the ETA that’s spoken is always indicated as “AM”, even though it’s PM.

I also noticed a slight discrepancy in distance on one route I measured – my car registered 106 miles, whereas Trafficmaster stated 108 miles. Which is a bit picky and makes not a jot of difference.

More importantly, the first time I used the app, I was off to Heathrow Terminal 5. I entered the postcode from BAA’s website – TW6 2GA – but Trafficmaster could not find it.

There are no Points Of Interest built in. You do need to know the address or you’ll be calling the PA.

As I mentioned, it’s light on user-configurable options. For example, there’s no option to switch to kilometres as units. You can choose to avoid motorways, and change the interval that the app checks the traffic from 1 minute to 5 or 10. You can see this as an advantage or disadvantage, depending on how much you like to tinker with settings.

On the plus side, Trafficmaster Companion seems to be very light on memory requirements compared to more graphical satnav apps, and so is suitable for even 1st generation iPhones. It’s very quick to start up, and doesn’t lag.

I also quite like the fact that the app recognises if you’re moving when you start using the app, and will ask you if you’re the Driver or the Passenger, in order to check that it’s safe to use the app.

Overall

There are some things that need work to polish this app up. Better integration with the iPhone’s address book and music capabilities would be welcome. I’d like to see the the discrepancies between the ETA as spoken and displayed sorted out too.

I was very surprised that the app couldn’t find Heathrow T5, but I haven’t had any similar difficulties since.

One additional piece of information I’d like spoken to me is traffic incidents – if I need to be re-routed, or I’ve been routed based on a minor or major incident, I’d like to know about it. Otherwise there is some uncertainly about why Trafficmaster has routed you a particular way.

But in general, I like the model of Trafficmaster Companion. I now use it for most of my journeys. I feel that it will get me there in good time (if not necessarily on the shortest route). But more importantly, I feel safer driving with it as it’s largely distraction-free. It does the job and gets out of the way.

I’d happily recommend you try this app, especially now that 7 days of free routing is bundled in with it.

Thanks to Trafficmaster for providing the review copy of this app.

Trafficmaster Companion
Version reviewed: V1.6
Category: Navigation
Developer: Trafficmaster PLC
Current Price: Free, with free routing for 7 days. Additional routes via in-app purchase.
Platforms: iPhone (version reviewed), iPod Touch, iPad
UK App Store Link

The native calendar app on the iOS is one of its weakest features but one that seems common among mobile devices. All of my past phones had poor native calendars that needed replacing with better third party options and the iPhone is no exception.

I’ve previously looked at Pocket Informant and was very impressed. The regular updates since my review have meant it continues to be an excellent replacement. After all this time though, I was curious to see if PI now had serious competition with the appearance of Agendus from iambic inc.

Agendus is a name I’ve been aware of for many years. It’s calendaring software available on every major mobile platform but, for some reason, one I’ve yet to try. It’s been going since the digital stone age (or about 1999 if you prefer) – not quite as old as the fondly remembered Psion Agenda but certainly one of the elders. With all that time to develop and mature, I was expecting a smooth and pleasant experience.

Starting off
When you run Agendus, the title screen proclaims it to be an ‘All in one personal information manager’. While I was impressed with the ambition of the developers, I did wonder if it could live up to that aim and my initial impression didn’t turn out to be good.

One thing becomes very obvious straight from the off. Agendus is designed on the assumption it would be running on a device that’s always connected and for an app that supports the iPod Touch (such as my 1st gen model), that clearly won’t be the case. You may find, as I did, you’ll encounter a few quirks when it’s run with your Wi-Fi connection off.

After confirming I wanted to sync with my Google account and inputting my user information, I was greeted with an obscure error message rather than the more useful suggestion that I turn on my Wi-Fi connection and try again. Ok, so after backing out of the app, turning Wi-Fi on and trying again, it connected to Google calendar and synced my data with no further problems – that’s more like it. At this point you’re greeted with one of five screens Agendus uses, the Today view.

Today
This unsurprisingly lists any events and tasks due today but also has slots for ‘quote of the day’, ‘this day in history’ and weather. I’ve never been a ‘quote of the day’ fan but I do like ‘this day in history’ (as long as it isn’t too America-centric) and discovered that a tap brought up another example (assuming you were still online of course). I was pleased to later find the option to choose which items to show on this screen – goodbye ‘quote of the day’.

The weather slot requires a tap to change from the default Californian location to your own home town but once it’s updated, another tap brings up the forecast for the following eight days. If you prefer your temperatures spelt with a C rather than an F, there’s an option in the settings screen to display them in Celsius.

A problem that doesn’t become clear until you use it for a few days is the fact the weather doesn’t update automatically. The trouble is the summary forecast given on the main Today view isn’t dated so you’re left wondering when it relates to. Although appearing on the ‘Today’ screen, it might actually be a previous days weather. To update it, you have to move into the 9 day forecast page and hit the refresh button which strikes me as unnecessarily cumbersome.

Each item in the Today screen (Events, Tasks etc) has a plus or minus icon on the right hand side to expand and contract them. Very quickly, I noticed a couple of problems with this screen. Attempting to press the + icon for the top line (Events) actually brings up the ‘Add Items’ pane about 80% of the time. This happens because the two icons are so close together, precisely hitting the ‘+’ icon to expand the line without accidentally tapping the ‘+’ icon to add an entry requires the skill and precision of a keyhole surgeon.

Secondly, When the Events or Tasks panels are rolled up there’s no visual indication whether they contain any items, requiring you to open them to find out. When they’re empty, pressing the icon simply toggles it between + and – with no other visual indication.

Above all this though, is the feeling the space is poorly used. Not only are there two icons to get you to the Settings screen (a specific Today view cog icon on the top left and a different cog icon at the bottom right that takes you to the general options page) but each item seems fatter than it need be and, with no way to zoom out, the screen real estate seems to be used rather inefficiently.

Calendar
This screen offers several views:

- Day
- List
- Week
- Month
- Year

Each of them display your events much as you’d expect and each event is made up with the traditional title, location, due date, contact, alarm, notes etc. You can also assign an icon to it from a selection of 69 that come built into the app.

Tapping in a time slot within the Day view instantly adds a new event. This sounds very convenient until the you find yourself doing it accidentally, time after time. This quickly becomes maddening when you find more and more actions get misinterpreted for an ‘add event’ tap. For example, according to the tutorial video, a simple tap on the top of an event allows you to drag it to a different time slot. It might when using the mouse in the iPhone simulator as featured in the video (actually, even there it takes several attempts) but in the real world, I found this almost impossible. What happens is you scroll the view down a little to give yourself space (probably invoking an unwanted ‘add event’ action in the process) then, very carefully, tap and hold on the top edge of the event (as seen in the video) and guess what? Another unwanted ‘add event’ occurs.

What makes this absolutely infuriating is the fact that when the keyboard pops up for you to add text to the event, there’s no cancel button! You’re forced to create this unwanted event. After much experimentation and investigation, I discovered a shake seems to (eventually) dismiss the keyboard but still leaves you with an unwanted ‘New Event’.

So, after making a dozen unwanted events, it’ll be a simple swipe to delete them, right? Wrong. Swiping or tapping on the event brings the keyboard back so what you have to do for each item is very carefully hit the tiny ‘>’ arrow in the upper right corner of its box to bring up the ‘View Event’ screen (although you’ll inevitably spark off another ‘add event’ action half the time). Here you’ll find the delete event button which you press and confirm. At best, three taps (assuming you get lucky and not kick off multiple new event actions in the process) instead of a simple swipe and tap to delete.

Another problem (admittedly minor in comparison to most others) is the fact that ‘all day’ events and tasks (even ones with a due time) are parked off the top of the day view at the midnight position. Unless you’re in the habit of scrolling to the top of the screen every day you look at, you’ll never see them in this view.

By comparison, the other views were a joy to use. Don’t get me wrong, they were still rather poor by normal standards but compared to using the Day view, they were a delight.

I should note that Agendus includes a year view (something Pocket Informant lacks) but as welcome as it was, it didn’t seem to use the space well and every change of year prompted another pause with only a ‘Loading Events’ popup for entertainment. It was here I first noticed the lack of support for landscape orientation. Every calendar view would benefit from this option but there is zero support for it in Agendus.

For a long time, I hunted around for a way to return to today’s date in these various views. It’s not obvious but I eventually discovered that a shake does it. Personally, I’d prefer a button or possibly a double tap on the title bar to get the same effect – I’ve never been a fan of the shake action.

Tasks
Here you can add a task and assign it a category, due date, icon and add some notes. There’s no pretence at using the GTD philosophy (which, not being a fan, is fine with me) and the tasks, although simple, do their job well enough.

I was surprised and disappointed to find the tasks didn’t sync to an online service such as ToodleDo or Remember the Milk. Having become accustomed to this functionality in Pocket Informant and seeing the other items sync to Google Calendar, I’d assumed Agendus would allow for tasks to be synced to the cloud somewhere. The idea of them not being backed up makes me a little nervous and I also miss the ability to use my PC to type long notes or easily add several new tasks when I need to.

Contacts
This screen puzzled me. Why would I want my contacts duplicated in my calendar app I wondered. On first inspection it offers little more than the native Contacts app but does provide a ‘Birthdays’ view listing everyone whose birth date you’ve added in upcoming order as well as showing how old they’ll be. Useful I suppose but it seems rather unnecessary – your opinion may differ of course especially if you’re using an iPhone which means you’ll be able to dial direct from this view.

The manual suggests Agendus adds valuable functionality to the contacts by integrating it into various aspects of your tasks and calendar (i.e. adding a contact to a calendar or todo entry). I wasn’t convinced by this and more than a little wary (possibly unfairly) of the fact that Agendus seems to be able to write to the native Contacts file. Given the lack of polish evident in most other areas of Agendus, I wasn’t happy for it to mess with my contacts and wished there was the option to disable it.

Prefs
As you’d expect, there are options here to change many aspects of the software including selection and rearrangement of the items on the Today view and much else besides. It also includes two items that caused me to shoot tea out of my nose but I’ll come to those later.

Help
I always like to first try using an app ‘blind’ before diving into any documentation as this gives me a good idea how well designed and easy to use it is. Agendus faired pretty well here. I was able to operate it successfully before looking at the documentation (or even the demo video). Much of this is down to the simplicity of the app. It isn’t packed with features and you’d expect it to be reasonably straightforward to get your head around and so it proved.

When you first start Agendus, you’re offered the chance to watch a brief (online) tutorial video. You can also get to this via an option in the prefs screen (or find it located at the end of this review). As I didn’t see it before jumping in (I wasn’t connected to the net, remember), I chose to avoid watching this as part of my ‘dive in with no instruction and see how well you get on’ approach. Watching it later revealed a couple of surprises. The main one was the ‘shake to return to today’ functionality. I’d already tried that when I first looked at the calendar but it hadn’t worked for me. So I tried again and it still didn’t work and so I tried again with a really exaggerated shake and… it worked! And it’s worked ever since. As much as I’d like to blame Agendus for this, I’m happy to put this one down as my fault.

Another titbit gleaned from the video was the ability to move an event or change its duration by dragging the upper or lower edge in the Day view. I found changing the duration worked well enough but dragging the top proved almost impossible as I’ve already explained.

I’m always pleased to see developers taking the time to provide detailed support for their apps whether it’s in the form of an ‘onboard’ help screen, website, video or, as in this case, a downloadable PDF manual. I found this oddly in keeping with the rest of the app. Superficially, it did the job but spend any time with it and little quirks and oddities soon show up (“The upper portion of the screen displays an common full-month”). I also found reference to ‘Day View Preferences’ which would supposedly allow me to set the start time for a day. Search as I might, I couldn’t find it in the app and an email to the developer confirmed it’s a mistake which needs to be removed from the manual. The lesson from this? I hope they take the trouble to get the next version of the manual properly tested and proof read.

Future features
Planned features include integration with the built-in iPhone calendar and a desktop version to synchronise with (although I’m not sure if that’ll be Windows, Mac or both). I’m also told the developers are on the verge of releasing an iPad version and I’ll be curious to see how it differs from the iPhone and how well they’ll fair, designing the interface.

Verdict
This has been the most difficult app review I’ve written so far.

You know in the Pink Panther films, the way every little thing Inspector Clouseau does infuriates his boss, Dreyfus to the point where Dreyfus develops a nervous twitch and wants to cause physical harm to Clouseau every time he sees him? That’s a pretty accurate reflection of my time with Agendus.

I like to believe my reviews are detailed, fair, reasonable and while I express my opinion, offer enough unbiased reporting to allow the reader to draw their own conclusions. This time though, I’ve found it extremely difficult to stop myself shouting incredulously about all its faults and simply writing ‘Don’t buy it!’

I’d assumed that an app with such a long history would be refined and polished to near perfection (it should be shouldn’t it?) but this version at least is frustrating to use with its design and layout feeling rather rushed and badly thought through. Not having experience of Agendus on any other platform, I can’t judge whether this follows the same historic layout and functionality of other versions or is simply a particularly poor implementation.

Although it’s a little more expensive, Pocket Informant offers more features, better design and largely flawless implementation. It also has regular updates, something I’m unable to judge for Agendus although I know new features are being planned. Perhaps it’s unfair to judge one app against another in terms of numbers of features, after all, Agendus doesn’t claim to do anything that it doesn’t (I’ll be generous and ignore the “All in one personal information manager” line in the title screen). But even if PI only had the same features as Agendus, it would still win easily as they’re designed and implemented so much better – almost as if someone had given it some serious thought, employed competent professionals to implement it and taken the time to test it. Oh, they did.

Is Agendus really that bad? Time and again, when I went to explore the next new part of the app, I’d find some new horror to spoil the experience. The difference between baffling design and poor implementation became blurred as I came across one irritant and another. The annoying wait for ‘Loading Events’ every time it’s started, the weather not being dated on the Today screen, no cancel button when adding a new event in the Day view, design inconsistencies (two cog/settings icons on the Today screen but nowhere else), no support for landscape orientation, being unable to delete unwanted events in the Day view with the standard swipe (it activates the keyboard), the multiple ways to accidentally add a new event in Day view… I could go on.

It got to the point when I started to think these mistakes were deliberate. Surely no-one could make this many wrong decisions? It’s as if the developers had a meeting, decided what all the correct ways to do things were, threw them out and asked themselves ‘what’s the wrong way to do this?’. Don’t believe me? How do you suppose you move from one month to the next in the month view? Swipe horizontally? No. You swipe vertically. I am not kidding. It’s in the manual, check it for yourself – page 18, near the bottom.

That is some radical, free thinking right there. Or do I mean moronic?

As if the poor design and implementation wasn’t enough to make me dislike this app, two items in the settings screen only served to put the nail in the coffin. There’s an item in there to set up your Twitter account. Why? According to the manual, “The Twitter field allows you define which Twitter client to “Tweet the Love” about Agendus.”

Love!? By this point Agendus had provoked many, strong emotional reactions in me but love was most certainly not one of them.

Imagine the state of my blood pressure by this time then consider what seeing the following item did for me. As if supplying shoddy software (that you have to pay for) wasn’t enough, the developer adds insult to injury with the following button, found at the bottom of the options screen:

‘Buy More Icons’

Yes, ‘Buy’. I did a double take when I spotted that. Of all the money grabbing ways to exploit your users, this struck me as particularly cynical, irksome and insulting. If you’re interested in the details, they’re offering two sets of 48 icons for 99 cents per set. I’d suggest the developers concentrate on improving their software so sales naturally increase and throw in the icons free for their poor, suffering paying customers.

Never before has an app actually made me angry.

I suppose someone, somewhere (presumably with masochistic tendencies and supreme patience) could use Agendus and find it does what they want but, really, why live with that pain when there are much better alternatives? If you’re looking for a replacement Calendar app, install the lite version of Pocket Informant and see how it should be done. I’d offer the same advice to the developers of Agendus too.

Have I gone over the top with my dislike of this app? All I can say is I’ve done my best to deliver a calm, sober reflection of my experience using Agendus despite its best efforts to wind me up (and, indeed, drive me to drink). I’ve had to very deliberately rewrite this review a number of times, toning it way down each time. You should have seen the earlier drafts.

To sum Agendus up in as restrained and objective a way as I can manage: it’s disappointing and very often infuriating.

Here’s a video (released by the developer) of the app in action. Bear in mind it’s a video of the app running in the iPhone simulator where the selection is made not by a human finger but with the pixel precision of a mouse:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Agendus
Version reviewed: V2.3
Category: Productivity
Developer: iambic inc.
Current Price: £4.99
Platforms: iPhone, iPod Touch (version reviewed), iPad (in development)
UK App Store Link

This app has been generating quite a bit of interest over the past few days. Why? This isn’t the first app to play movies not supported by Apple – if you’ve jailbroken your iPad, you already have access to VLC4iphone, openstreamer and YXflash.

But now Apple has allowed an app onto the App Store that can play DivX and Xvid. No jailbreak required.

This is an interesting development, no doubt, but how does the app work in reality? Does it play files well, and does it suck battery?

Read on for my experiences with this app so far, plus (in a first for me), a video walkthrough!

This app was released by NXP Software a few days ago, and has generated quite a splash. Not only does it enable you to watch DivX and Xvid movies on your iPad without converting them first, but the app is free!

Here’s a video of CineXPlayer in action, showing the basic functionality:

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you quite the app mid-way through watching a movie, it’ll resume where you left off when you open the app again.

Seeing as this is doing in software what Apple does in hardware with .mp4 files, the player works very well. Decoding in software does mean a slightly higher battery hit though – for an hour’s viewing, my battery indicator dropped from 100% to 86%. Mind you, Apple rates the iPad for 10 hours of video playback (using their own hardware decoding), so that’s not bad.

File support

I’m not sure of the exact specifications of the video that this app currently supports – there’s no mention of maximum resolution or filesize. The developers have made it clear that they don’t support newer file formats such as MKV or AAC – yet.

What about the 2Gb limit?

On the iPhone, apps are limited to a 2Gb sandbox – so for any app, you can’t use more than 2Gb of data. But with the iPad, the sandbox is only limited by the amount of storage on the device.

What does this technical gubbins mean? It means you can put as many movies into CineXPlayer as you have space on your iPad, making it a viable alternative to Apple’s built-in Videos app.

Future Development

I’m quite surprised that Apple has allowed this on the App Store. But if they let it remain, what could we see?

• Support for more file formats
• Removal of the top bar, to provide true full screen video
• A paid version with more features, perhaps support for folders
• Hopefully a change to the user interface
• iPhone version???

I’d also love to see the app become network-capable, removing the need to transfer files via iTunes. But that would kill the battery, I’ll bet.

All in all, this is a great app, which removes the hassle of having to convert video specifically for the iPad. Grab it now, just in case it disappears from the App Store!

CineXPlayer
Version reviewed: 1.1
Category: Utilities
Developer: NXP Software
Current Price: Free
Platforms: iPad
UK App Store Link

I’ve recently reviewed some more different cases and covers for the iPhone:

Pro/Tec’s battery-charging Energy, and their soft leather Executive, as well as Griffin’s elan form.

Well, the Griffin’s already been snaffled by a mate (sorry!), but I’m going to give the two Pro/Tec cases away. However, I do have another case knocking around which I’ll throw in.

So, the cases I have to offer are:

1 x Pro/Tec Executive leather case, for iPhone 3G or 3GS

1 x Pro/Tec Energy battery-charging case, for iPhone 3G or 3GS
– unfortunately I can’t find the mini-USB lead for this, so you’ll have to get one yourself. They’re fairly inexpensive though.

1 x black VOi! Lorem case for iPhone 3G (8GB or 16GB)

All you have to do is either post a comment below, or retweet this post using the Tweetmeme button. The giveaway will close on Friday August 11th at 5pm, after which I’ll randomly choose the three winners.

I’ll post the cases anywhere in the world, so it’s open to all.

UPDATE: This giveaway has ended, and I’ll be in contact with the winners shortly.

I’ve already looked two cases for the iPhone 3G & 3GS from Pro/Tec – the Executive and Energy.

The final case I was given by Memory Card Zoo was the Griffin elan form graphite. I thought it was a bit bling, but gradually warmed to it.

Details of the case

It’s a black hard shell polycarbonate case. It feels well put together, and pretty tough. All the controls are exposed, if a little recessed. The back is slightly blinging: it’s overlaid with leather, and has a mottled, snakeskin-style emboss. It makes the case pretty easy to grip.

The difference with this case is that is comes apart into two pieces. Griffin have recognised that people like to be able to dock their iPhones, so the bottom is removable (“EasyDock”). Smart.

Anything else?

Nope, it’s pretty straightforward!

What’s Good?

It’s a solid case. It takes a few knocks, and my iPhone survived a few drops on the floor.

What’s Bad?

Some grit must have got into the case when I put it on, as there are some scatches on the back now.

Summary

I used this case for a few months. It’s really nice, not flimsy at all. It’s a bit “subdued bling”, if you get my drift, but it really grew on me.

Griffin elan form case
Price: £13.95
Griffin’s website

Thanks to Adam at Memory Card Zoo for providing a case for review.

I’ve already looked at Pro/Tec’s Executive leather case, and now I’m moving on to their Energy case, which contains a battery to keep your iPhone going.

I’ve never tried one of these recharging cases before, so let’s see how I got on.

Details of the case

It’s a hard black plastic case with a protective front flap. All the controls are accessible, and there’s a hole for the camera lens. The dock port, speaker and microphone are hidden away at the bottom of the case. There are two small holes, one in the front and another in the back, to allow sound to travel to the speaker and mic.

The plastic on the back housing the battery is really solid, and I’m sure will take an impact. Inside the front flap is a soft suede lining, so your iPhone’s screen won’t get scratched.

Pro/Tec claim that this case will extend standby up to 300 hours, with talk time of 8 hours. This is compared to iPhone 3G’s average talk time of 5 hours. The battery inside is 1330mAh.

The combined weight of iPhone and the case- 235g, compared to the naked iPhone 3G’s 135g. At its maximum thickness, it’s 23mm.

Anything else?

It comes with a mini USB cable for charging the battery. There’s a light on the bottom-right hand corner of the case with a light to indicate the charging state: Green = charged, Amber = pre-charging, Red = charging in progress.

What’s Good?

Well, it extends your battery life quite a bit – it gave me almost another full charge, delivered over 2-3 hours. You can also charge your iPhone while the mini USB cable is connected to the case.

What’s Bad?

I found it hard to operate the power, ringer and volume switches as the hard case gets in the way. There’s also the question of bulk and weight – it adds a lot to the bulge in your pocket.

I had to keep pushing my iPhone 3G down so that the connection could be made to the dock at the bottom. It was quite frustrating. It was a bit easier once I took my screen protector off.

Summary

It really felt like a holding a massive tricorder. “It’s a brick, Jim!” IF you really need the extra power, then it’s another well made case from Pro/Tec. But it does come with some drawbacks in trying to operate your iPhone. I can see the appeal for some, but it’s not for me.

Pro/Tec Energy case
Price: £39.48
Pro/Tec website

Thanks to Adam at Memory Card Zoo for providing the case for review.

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I have a few iPhone 3G / 3GS cases left over to review, so I’m going to write them up then give them away!

First up is the Pro/Tec Protective Leather case.

Details of the case

It’s a pretty solid-feeling and well-made case. It’s made of very soft leather, black on the outside and beige inside. The stitching is high quality, and the clasp is magnetic, so it stays shut. Inside the iPhone is held in place by a really solid plastic holder, into which the iPhone slides smoothly.

Most of the controls are easily accessible, and there’s a hole in the back of the case for the camera lens. You’ll have to take the phone out if you want to place it in a dock.

Anything else?

On the inside cover there’s a small stitched slit that fits a single credit card. So if you travel without cash, you could conceivably ditch your wallet.

It comes with a screen protector and cleaning cloth.

What’s Good?

The case offers good protection, and you can tell it’s a classy piece of merchandise. I haven’t come across any nicer examples of this sort of case.

What’s Bad?

With the case closed, the speaker was muffled, so it made it a little harder to hear incoming calls and texts, but not so much that I missed any.

The leather front piece doesn’t go flat, so you may find your chin being tickled by the clasp!

Summary

My iPhone 3G fits snugly into this case, and it feels well protected all round. i’m not really one for flip-style cases like this, but if I was in the market for one, I think this would be a good choice.

Pro/Tec Executive case
Price: £14.50
Pro/Tec website

Thanks to Adam at Memory Card Zoo for providing the case for review.

I’ve had my iPad since June 16th. I was in Boston; I had to rush over to the Apple Store on Boylston Street half an hour before they shut at 10pm, because they wouldn’t hold it for me any longer. And then I went and got drunk watching the Celtics at a sports bar, and almost lost my expensive new purchase, but that’s not important right now.

What’s important to me is that, in under a couple of months, I’ve come to use my iPad for more and more tasks. Is it a big iPod touch?. Sort of . Is it a limited device? Yes. But it doesn’t feel limiting, it feels liberating.

I bought the 16Gb Wifi-only version. I really ummed and aaahed about paying the extra for the 3G version, but in the end the £ only stretched so far. I regretted it all the time I was in the US. Having to find others’ spotty wifi to borrow when you’re travelling round was a pain. There were so many times, not least driving, when it would have been useful to be able to pull Google Maps up. As it was, I used ALK’s CoPilot Live on my iPhone 3G to get around (it was super-slow on the 3G by the way. Just about usable most of the time).

As my only computer (other than my iPhone) while I was abroad, it worked well. Email, the web, apps, all of that was great, and so convenient. I used the Transfer app to transfer pics between iPad and iPhone. Skype and Truphone were great to keep in touch while in the US. “But you could have done that on your iPhone!?” I hear you cry. Sure, but then I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to look like Dom Joly

But aside from using it as an oversized phone, it fared very well as a computer that you could all use, pass around, and generally use as a shared device to explore things together.

On the flight home

The kids were entertained with The Wiggles playing through the Videos app, as well as a selection of games such as 123 Color HD, 5-in-1 Kids Pack and Doodle Buddy. They seem to pick up the interface much faster than many adults, who often approach the iPad with a certain amount of tentativeness, as if it will break. Kids have no such worries!

When they went off to sleep, I settled down to some reading. It’s a great device for this. Sure, it’s a little heavy. But I find myself reading in bite-sized chunks these days, so the weight hasn’t been an issue. I haven’t moved on to eBooks yet – I still like the feel of a paperback. But for long-form essays such as those I save to my Instapaper account, it’s ideal. And comics on the device are superb. Really. I’ve reviewed Comixology’s Comics app before for the iPhone, but now it’s on the iPad – wow. I spent almost the whole rest of the flight back from the US reading through new comics. Although I have hundreds of back progs of 2000AD in my loft, I feel that comics are a more disposible form of entertainment (unless they’re collected into decent graphic novels). Comics fit the iPad so perfectly, I’d be happy to move over to downloads entirely for my 2000AD consumption, if only they’d offer a decent system! I read Wanted by Mark Millar, one of the best series I’ve read in a long time. And it was immersive. As John Gruber has said, the iPad becomes whatever you’re doing. And I was reading, as simple as that..

Now I’m back

But now I’m at home, and I have access to my MacBook. But I’m still using my iPad an awful lot. It has become my writing device of choice, especially in conjunction with a Bluetooth keyboard. I play a little music in the background, and get cracking. I feel very focussed and distraction-free using the iPad – uni-tasking works well for me.

A distraction-free writing zone

I’ve installed Documents To Go on my iPad and iPhone, and I keep all my files on Dropbox. Syncing files through iTunes is a bit of a mess, but with online sync, I have round-trip editing on my iPad, iPhone, Mac, and any computer.

It’s also a great music device. I have the iPod app, Laurent Garnier, Soma FM, Tuner (playing Absolute 80s), and in this mode the iPad mostly resides in the kitchen. The speakers are not going to blow you away, but are good enough to hear while you’re doing some cooking and chatting. In “kitchen mode”, the calendar becomes useful for everyone, and Weather Pro HD keeps an eye on the skies for us.

Adding 3G with a MiFi

As I mentioned, I bought the Wifi-only version, but 3 kindly lent me one of their Mifi units to try out some 3G connectivity. Their network isn’t great round here (mind you, no-one’s is!), but when I did get coverage, it was excellent. A few days later I was zooming down the M4 at 1.5Mbps download, 1.7Mbps upload (UPLOAD!). Superb. The little unit is a great complement to the iPad, but as Frasier Speirs has already pointed out, the failing comes when you don’t have coverage, but your iPad still thinks (because of the good wifi connection) that you have excellent coverage. If the iPad had a spinning beach ball, it’d be whizzing round.

However, I also found that, when using the Mifi and Google Maps, the location was surprisingly accurate, and updated quite quickly. Yes, there was the occasional glitch, but it was much better than I expected.

You also have the bonus that you’re not restricted to 20Mb downloads from iTunes and the App Store, because the iPad thinks you’re on Wifi, not 3G.

The only other negative that I found with the Mifi was that you had to press a load of buttons to switch it on, then enable Wifi, then connect to 3′s network… But, I was given the old version of the MiFi, whereas MiFi 2 (out now), is a one-button connect. Well done 3. I think it’s a good addition to your iPad if you’re going to be out and about with it occasionally, but haven’t plumped for the iPad 3G.

What else?

I find some things on the iPad much easier than on the desktop. ColorSplash is a good example. I’ve altered some photos, and produced some pretty good results. The photo below would have taken me an age on the desktop using Photoshop, and just as importantly, it would have been a chore. But using ColorSplash and painting the colour back in with my finger, it was fun.

Me in New York, 1999, edited with ColorSplash on the iPad

A case is a must

None of my electronic goods go naked; with children, it’s an absoloute necessity! Proporta were kind enough to send me a couple of cases and a screen protector.

My iPad wearing Proporta's Recycled Leather case

I tried the Mizu shell – which is both soft and hard, and made the iPad very grippy. I’m currently using their beautiful Recycled Leather case, which makes my iPad seem complete. It adds a bit of bulk to the iPad, but it feels like it conforms to the book-like nature of the device – the iPad is just something I want to pick up and flick through.

Full reviews of these cases will be along in a little bit.

The inevitable gripes

It’s a wonderful device, but it’s not all gravy of course. I am concerned about having my email available for all to see. Maybe multiple users should be allowed, or at least add the ability to password protect apps, especially ones with personal infformation such as Mail.

Most of this post was written on the iPad, and then uploaded to my blog via the WordPress iPad app. Which is pretty good, but the app doesn’t quite cut it just yet. So the finessing has to be done via my Mac.

The ability to jailbreak is important to me. Backgrounder adds in multitasking. LockDown can protect those apps with a PIN that you don’t want others to see.

I’m also waiting for Apple to update its own apps, such as MobileMe Gallery and Remote. Whole-house music control will work wonders on the iPad, but at the moment it feels a bit kludgy with a scaled-up iPhone app. I find myself wanting to do more, especially with the Photos app. I want to be able to delete or edit photos on the iPad and have those edits show up in iPhoto on my Mac.

The iPad still feels like something of an adjunct to a bigger computer. I’m eagerly awaiting iOS4 for the iPad. I want my iPad to grow up, and stand on its own two feet.

Overall

You’d think that, after years of using computers, and three years to get used to the iPhone way of dealing things, that I’d be fairly used to all of this by now. But I find that the iPad really enables me to do things with more ease and pleasure. There’s no sense of slowness. There’s no cause to think that I should upgrade any of the hardware. That level of thinking about computers seems abstracted away.

Call me a fanboy, but I love my iPad, so expect to see a few more iPad-related posts around here.

(Then again, my iPhone 4 is being activated today. Oh, happy, geeky day!)

I recently looked at the cheapest options for mobile data for your iPad 3G.

But if you’re thinking of buying an iPad, you may not want to splash out the extra £100 for a 3G model instead of a Wifi-only model. However, what if you do need mobile broadband? Maybe that £100 is worth it?

So here’s a comparison between the prices of the different iPad models, with their differing mobile broadband options.

With an iPad 3G, you have built-in mobile connectivity, and a choice of tailored tariffs from the mobile networks. With the Wifi-only iPad, you have to roll your own. A good way of doing this is by using 3′s Mifi router, which uses the connectivity of their network, but gives you a wifi connection.

The other difference is one I’ve mentioned already – the setup cost. The 3G iPad costs £100 more than the Wifi-only iPad. On some of 3′s mobile broadband tariffs the Mifi router will cost you to buy, on some it’s free.

How do iPad mobile data options compare?

In order to compare tariffs, I’ve stretched them over 18 months, which is the minimum of some of 3′s tariffs. I’ve also removed the sub-1Gb, sub-30 day data tariffs, as they’re not good comparators over this length of time.

In the table, “Setup Cost” means either the cost of the Mifi router (if it’s a wifi-only iPad), or the extra money you’ll pay for the 3G model.

The full table is below, but here’s the headline:

The cheapest way to get an iPad with mobile data is still 3 + MiFi

For example, on an 18-month contract, 3 is £109 cheaper than any other network. Even if you go for the same 30 day option (PAYG on 3, rolling contract with the others), it’s £50 cheaper over the same period.

At the other end of the scale, 3 will give you 15Gb per month compared to Vodafone’s 5Gb, and it’ll cost you £100 less over an 18 month period. If you choose 3′s PAYG option instead of a contract, it’ll still cost £50 less than Vodafone for triple the bandwidth.

The disadvantages of choosing MiFi

• It’s a two-box solution, which means double the number of power chargers
• You don’t get GPS built-in to your iPad
• You won’t get on-device reminders of your data usage – you’ll have to phone 3 or visit their website, as their Mifi dashboard software won’t run on the iPad

The extra advantage of choosing MiFi

Apart from cost, there’s one little extra if you choose a MiFi: the iPad thinks you’re using a wifi network, not a cellular network. So, you won’t be faced with restrictions Apple has put in place when you’re using 3G, such as being limited to downloads of less than 20Mb from iTunes.

James Burland has written about his experience with a MiFi and iPad over at iPad Creative.

The absolute cheapest option?

Well if you’re going to roll your own mobile broadband, why not go the whole hog? Buy an unlocked Mifi from eBay for about £90, and while you’re at it, buy a data SIM from any network you like off eBay as well. As we’ve been looking at 3, here’s one for sale that’s £34.99 for 12Gb data, and it lasts for a year!

That’s £90 plus £35 = £125 for 12 months. Even if you add on another 12Gb data SIM, then the total cost is still less than the cheapest official 3 Mifi router, you get more data, and you get to use it over the year as you see fit. Nice.

One last option: forget the MiFi, just buy the normal data SIM off eBay, then apply a meat cleaver to make your own micro-SIM. Proceed at your own risk!

So what’s it going to be?

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