[tech junkie]

Vodacom wants to rob you

Whilst making coffee at the office this morning I was informed that Vodacom have finally enabled the Visual Voicemail feature for the iPhone on their network. This feature has been available on the handset since the launch of the original iPhone 2G some 3 years ago. I always understood that the feature wouldn't be available on the Vodacom network as they would have to build some kind of additional functionality into their existing voicemail platform. This didn't really bother me and I made pe...

GTA for the iPhone

It was inevitable. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars was released earlier this week for the iPhone. The was ported from the Nintendo DS and PSP version by the Rockstar Games folk on Leeds. Although I haven't played the other two versions, the game is apparently almost identical. It is available from the iTunes store for £5.99 and carries a mature/17 rating for the swearing, sex and violence that is necessary in any GTA game. My only notable experience with GTA in the past was with GTA IV o...

Quick App for Xbox 360 Owners: 360 Live

Most of the apps I've installed that claim to deliver a great Xbox Live experience have fallen very short. This new app by Juan Xavier Larrea finally delivers the goods. I guess you need to be a bit of an Xbox Live freak to see the value in an app like this, but I've found myself in a situation before where I wanted to check on either one of my own or a friends achievements, online status or some such. If you are a big online gamer and own a Xbox, 360 Live [$1.99 - iTunes Link] is the app fo...

Tweetie 2 for iPhone

[Rating:8/10] For some time now I've resisted the urge to try out any of the pay-for Twitter applications on the iPhon, mostly because I've found the free ones to be more than sufficient for my needs. Tweetdeck for the iPhone has delivered all the functionality that I've needed and it was responsive enough for me not to be on the lookout for anything better. I've also used Echofon before I tried Tweetdeck. Another great client, but I stopped using it when I started using Tweetdeck on my lapt...

Commodore 64 emulator for the iPhone

[Rating:7/10] After some initial hiccups with getting (and keeping) the application in the iTunes App Store, Manomio are back with C64 (iTunes link) and 8 free games. At first you may find yourself questioning your sanity, but after dropping £2.99 in the iTunes store and playing one of the old classics, you'll be pulled right back to you gaming roots. Now maybe it was just because I was stuck on a two hour flight and had nothing else to do after I had finished reading my Stuff Magazine,...

Protect your iPhone

[Rating:9/10] I've never really been a fan of cell phone covers or cases. Usually because you end up compromising on the functionality of your device or you end up doubling its size. My 2G iPhone ended up looking like a expensive German bathroom fitting that had been attacked by a child with an angle grinder. Not a pretty site, but I never saw a cover that appealed to me. Mind you, I wasn't really trying very hard to find one. I was determined not to let my shiny new iPhone 3GS suffer the ...

QOTD: Steve Ballmer (Microsoft) <- this ones a doozy

Steve Ballmer: "Let’s face it, the Internet was designed for the PC. The Internet is not designed for the iPhone. That’s why they’ve got 75,000 applications – they’re all trying to make the Internet look decent on the iPhone." Wow ! Let's not even begin to discuss IE6 and the fact that without ActiveX and Silverlight I doubt a single website would look half decent in any version of IE. Any website that conforms to HTML and CSS standards looks just find uncle Ballmer. Idiot.

Tale of the annoying Apple headset mic

Does the placement of the microphone/volume control button on the Apple headset annoy anyone else ? Maybe I just happen to have a very unfortunate set of bodily proportions, but the microphone/button placement on the headset cable always catches on the collar or my shirt when I am sitting down with the earbuds in my ears. It catches just enough that I have to make wild neck movements to "unhook" it while I'm driving. I have exactly the same problem with the headset that came with my...

SIP clients for the iPhone

For quite some time now I've been on the hunt for a decent SIP client for the iPhone. At one point I almost gave up completely as it seemed that the only people that were interested in releasing SIP clients for the iPhone were companies that provided a "pay for" SIP service. There was no generic SIP client that actually delivered acceptable voice quality. I know there are some great applications if you have a jailbroken iPhone, but I was looking for something mainstream, especially if I was g...