The other day I reviewed an app called myBatteryLife and emailed the developer to let him know. In my email, I told the developer that he could fire back in the comments if I was totally off-base in assuming that his app is nothing but a bunch of images showing static battery life estimates, and I haven’t heard a word from him. Why? Cuz I’m right!!
I’m 99.9% sure his app is just a bunch of images that get displayed one at a time based on how much juice is left in the battery (estimates are pre-determined based on Apple’s battery life claims), yet somehow almost none of the people leaving reviews in the App Store have figured this out! They’re leaving comments about accuracy and how useful it is and how it’s such a great idea. Umm, YEAH, it’s a great idea if it actually calculates battery life, but it doesn’t.
In fairness to KVapps, they never make any claims about what exactly is happening within the app to magically figure out how much battery power remains, but the sales pitch is still pretty sneaky and deceptive in the functionality that it implies… the word “calculate” is actually used in the App Store description (”…to calculate the remaining hours and minutes…”) and it even makes reference to other apps not being accurate.
I know developers love recruiting their friends to leave fake praise in the App Store, but most of these reviews look like they’re the real deal. Even people who say they hate the app are fooled by it. I guess all I can say is WOW!!!! I’m not sure whether I should be LOLing or weeping for humanity’s growing stupidity.
…to start writing here regularly! Yeah I know, I’ve been saying that for a long time.
I have so many stupid iPhone thoughts floating around in my mostly-empty head and I always mean to put them here, but I’m also usually consumed with managing iPhoneAppReviews.net so that makes it tough. In an effort to really turn over a new leaf, I just set iPhoneAppRatings.com as my browser home page so I’ll be reminded daily to write something! Will it work? Who the hell knows. Ok, probably not.
For now, though, I just want to say how much I love i.TV. A lot of people seem to have problems with this app (or at least they used to), but since I just recently moved I’m now relying on i.TV’s channel guide while wasting away in the basement where there is no DVR! See, the basement’s nice and cool which is awesome in the summer, but all that’s down there is a cable connection… no box with a built-in guide! So what’s a lazy single guy with no life supposed to do in the dungeon? I’m too impatient to constantly flip channels and i.TV’s channel listings are perfect - I even promoted it all the way up to Screen #2 on my iPhone which is saying a lot since I typically have about 8 screens of crap installed.
I love my iPhone but I absolutely despise AT&T’s service. I’ve heard that it’s totally fine in other parts of the country but if you’re in Chicago it BLOWS. Dropped calls left and right, and the best answers AT&T support could give me were “get a replacement iPhone” and “try turning off 3G, that usually helps”. I did get a replacement and calls still drop. Turn off 3G? Wow, that’s hilarious considering that AT&T’s entire ad campaign is centered around this supposedly great network.
On top of that, there’s the 3G S upgrade policy which everyone and their mother has been talking about. New AT&T customers, and existing AT&T customers who “qualify” for a phone upgrade because their current contract is just about up, get to buy the new iPhone 3G S for $199 (16 GB) or $299 (32 GB). I, on the other hand, get to pay an extra $200 on top of that because my current iPhone contract is only a year old even though I’m willing to endure two more years of dropped calls.
I want a new iPhone 3G S just like everyone else, but there’s no way in hell I’m gonna pay $399 for the “low end” 16 GB model AND sign a new two year contract for their unbelievably bad service. I’ve read that some think iPhone users like me - people who haven’t finished out our original contracts yet - need to shut up and fulfill the agreement we signed. I would totally agree with that stance if I were looking to pay $199 without extending my commitment but I’ll say it again… I’m perfectly willing to sign up for two more years of Cell Phone Hell in return for the lower upgrade price… as are most current iPhone users.
This story is already old, but if enough people speak up maybe the jackasses at AT&T will realize what’s at stake. The iPhone won’t be exclusive to AT&T forever, and when that exclusivity ends there’s gonna be a hefty price to pay since they’re so hell bent on flushing customer loyalty down the crapper.
Of all the coverage this issue has gotten so far, TechCrunch has by far done the best job of laying out The Big Picture. I can sit here at my keyboard and rant all day, but to really understand why AT&T is making such a colossal mistake with this kick-in-the-balls upgrade policy you should read this:
GRRRRRR!!!! This really pisses me off and it’s been happening all day… I’m trying to send a text message and it won’t send. It gets stuck at the point you see below, then says “Error Sending Message” and it goes back to the text entry keyboard.
I don’t know of any way around this other than to keep sending the damn message. After AT&T’s exclusive contract with Apple runs out and Verizon (or whoever) gets in the game, AT&T is gonna be hurting BAD when the mass exodus happens.
Today I agreed to let The International Business Times start posting iPhone App Reviews content in their tech section in exchange for linking back to the site. Their tech pages see about 150,000 visitors per month, so that should give site traffic a nice boost.
So far the only other site using my content is a tiny Chicago blog, Nerdy by Nature.
Since I’ve mostly been ignoring this blog since putting it up there’s lots of other news to report, specifically in the area of ad sales, but that’ll have to wait cuz right now I gotta do some stuff for my day job.
Damn, I really need to start posting here more often! The purpose of this site is partially SEO and partially for logging non-review news and events regarding iPhone App Reviews.
So ok, I’ve been meaning to write a followup on the iPhone gloves since I got them back in December, and here it is: they’re good! Not great, but good. Warm enough to survive most kinds of cold but the hands do get kind of cold in single-digit (°F) weather.
Here’s a pic of what my right glove looks like after daily use for three months in some pretty harsh Chicago weather:
Bending the index finger takes a toll on the leather
I’m right handed, so the exposed finger isn’t a shock… but Freehands really should do something to improve the durability of that lip.
Overall, though, I’m still happy with the gloves. Pulling back the thumb and forefinger is so much better than taking the gloves off entirely, so unless another option comes along I’ll be getting another pair when this one either falls to pieces or gets lost somewhere. As you can see in the pic, the rest of the leather is showing some pretty good wear but I think I can get another winter out of these.
Best feature? Pressing the Home button when you’re looking at page (x) of app icons takes you back to page 1! Nice. Constantly scrolling back to the first home screen was really starting to piss me off.
I haven’t gotten my iPhone gloves yet, but yesterday Fedex delivered the iPhone clock radio I ordered from the online Apple store last week. I could have gone to the Apple store in Chicago and paid exactly the same price ($78 + tax) but I was at the store the day before Thanksgiving, ie: the day before it went on sale from $99, and I wasn’t gonna go through the pain in the ass of getting there a second time.
I really like this thing… it recharges my iPhone, plays my music and application audio through the speakers (awesome for Pandora), and the alarm can be set to wake me up with iPod music, radio, or the buzzer. As the guy in the video says, the sound isn’t the greatest but I listened to a few different models while I was at the store and none of them blew me away.
The only big disappointment in this unit is that there’s no “seek” on the radio tuner - you have to keep pressing the up/down buttons to find radio stations. BFD, I don’t listen to the radio anyway.
The motion-sensing thing is cool, and for some reason I like using the remote control even though I could just as easily reach across the bed to mess with it.
It’s especially nice to have my iPhone 3G plugged into this thing when I’m drifting into unconsciousness with apps like aSleep and Ambience.
This is someone else's photo! I don't listen to Madonna, and if I did I wouldn't be advertising it to the world
Winter’s pretty much here and I’m already sick of pulling off a glove to use my damn iPhone! So I did a quick search and found Freehands. Apparently these gloves were featured on the Today Show but I can’t fucking stand Kathie Lee Gifford so it’s no wonder I didn’t see it. Plus I’m never, ever up that early.
I don’t think I’ve ever paid $40 for a pair of gloves in my life, but I’m not gonna spend the rest of the winter asking myself if I really need to use my iPhone bad enough to take off a glove. I just put in the order today so it’ll probably be a week before I get them. I’ll try to remember to post a “review” of my fancy new iPhone gloves after getting a chance to try them out for a while.
If you haven’t upgraded your iPhone to version 2.1 yet, you’re a huge loser! Before the upgrade I had nothing but problems, mainly with 3rd party apps refusing to stay open. So far I’m problem-free, but it’s only been a little over a week so I’m still cautiously optimistic.
The biggest difference I’m noticing with 2.1 is that installing apps from the App Store is way faster and more reliable than it used to be. It used to take well over a minute or more, and half the time the app installation would just fail entirely and I’d be stuck with a frozen app installation icon (with the empty progress bar)… I’ve installed several new apps recently and every one of them has installed fast, like within 30 seconds or less, and on the first try. Very nice.
