iPhone 4 Review

Hello, Kyle here. I'm going to do a simple review/informational post about the beautiful piece of technology that's called iPhone 4.


I stood in line for over 3 hours in 90 degree Fahrenheit weather in Texas on June 24, 2010 (Launch day) waiting to pick up my reserved black 32 GB iPhone 4. Was it worth waiting that long for to replace my first generation 8 GB iPhone with a failing battery? Oh, heck yes. I would have waited longer if I needed to. This iPhone is just amazing. If someone tells you that the iPhone 4 is the best smartphone on the planet, you can believe it without a doubt.


First thing you will notice with this phone is the screen's quality. It really is beautiful. You have to see it in person to see how awesome it looks, but believe me. It really does look flawless.

One (very) welcome improvement with this phone is the amount of RAM. It has as much RAM as the iPhone 3GS and iPad put together. That means 512 MB of RAM. For a phone, that is quite a bit. Another very welcome improvement is Apple's A4 processor. With the RAM and processor, this phone is VERY responsive. I can do everything MUCH faster and much more fluidly than I could with my first gen iPhone.

Multitasking is kinda hard to review thus far, since very few apps support it right now. Multitasking is mostly a "recent apps" deal right now. But as time goes on, a ton of apps will support multitasking. From what I've seen so far, it works really well. I don't see a difference with the battery life or any lag in the phone due to overload.

Lets step away from the software for a moment and get to the hardware. First thing is the frame. I love how Apple actually made the structure of the phone the antenna of the phone as well. As far as I know, that has never been done before. That actually has a flaw, though. If you touch the gap on the bottom left of the outside frame with your hand or whatever, you make an electrical connection between the two pieces of metal, making the iPhone lose reception until it loses service entirely. I haven't seen my phone lose service entirely, but it did lose 4 out of 5 bars when I touched that gap for a little while. Solution: Apple's Bumper case made specifically for the iPhone 4. Or a third-party iPhone 4 case. Anyway, moving on.

The 5 megapixel camera (And flash) is awesome. You can record 720p video with it. Actual HD video. On a phone. How awesome is that? What's even cooler is the front facing camera. With that, you can do video calling, known as FaceTime, and also record video and take pictures. The quality is great.

I haven't been able to try FaceTime yet because nintendude hasn't gotten his iPhone 4 yet. FaceTime requires two iPhone 4's.

iPhone 4 also comes with a new 3-axis gyro. With the accelerometer that's already in place, it gives iPhone 4 six points of reference for motion sensing. That makes it capable of advanced motion sensing such as user acceleration, full 3D attitude, and rotation rate. Which is really cool, considering it's a phone.

There's a noise-cancellation microphone on the top of the phone for phone calls. I noticed that the microphone and speaker at the bottom of the phone have switched places from previous generation iPhones.

Getting back to the software. iOS 4 is really cool. Multitasking, folders, the improvements in iPod functionality such as being able to create and name playlists as well as iTunes can (Not that On-The-Go stuff anymore), spell checking (In addition to autocorrect), you can gift applications to people, wireless bluetooth keyboard support, better security, the list goes on and on.

iPhone 4 is the best phone I've seen in my life. I'm very happy with what Apple has done to it and I can't wait to see what they do next year. If you have a first generation iPhone or an iPhone 3G, I strongly urge you to get an iPhone 4. If you have a 3GS and you're thinking of upgrading, I say do so. The upgrade won't be as dramatic as opposed to from a first or second gen iPhone, but it's still a great upgrade.

The iPhone 4 gets a 10/10 score from me. =P

Until next time, see ya.

Kyle

Learning Jav- ...er, Objective-C

Hello, Kyle here. I'm back with Hunter with our project and I, as well as one or two other people, am learning Objective-C as part of our project. Objective-C is a programming language that's used for the Mac and iPhone platforms. I've been wanting to learn it instead of Java. I didn't like Java too much. Don't get me wrong, Java is a good language. It just doesn't do exactly what I want to do. Objective-C does.
So far, I've learned some of the very basic statements. I can output mathematical equations and text to the console. No real program yet. I should get better progress with Objective-C than I did with Java. I didn't have too much of an interest in Java, while I'm very interested in Objective-C.

I'll be using the Mac/iPhone SDK (Xcode) for my programs. The one problem with that, it requires a mac to be able to use it, which I personally don't own. My brother and mother have one, but I can't use those. My solution? Something awesome.


You may be thinking "What am I looking at?" well, besides the Mass Effect 2 theme on my desktop, you're looking at OS X Snow Leopard running in a virtual machine in Windows 7. Basically like the Mac software Parallels, but in reverse. I won't explain how I did it since it's actually quite difficult, but I basically have a mac now. All that trouble just so that I can learn Objective-C. Worth it? Yes. Very yes.

Moving on to the actual language itself. It's not as easy as Java, but I like a good challenge. The code is a bit confusing to me since I know a bit of Java. But other than that, learning progress is slow but steady.

WARNING: The rest of this article is nerd talk.

Here's some example code that I've written.

#import <>

int main (int argc, const char * argv[]){

int a;
int b;
int c;

a = 2;
b = 3;
c = a % b;
NSLog(@"a%%b=%i",c);
c = b % a;
NSLog(@"b%%a=%i",c);
c = a % a;
NSLog(@"a%%a=%i",c);
c = a + b;
NSLog(@"a+b=%i",c);
c = b + a;
NSLog(@"b+a=%i",c);
c = a - b;
NSLog(@"a-b=%i",c);
c = b - a;
NSLog(@"b-a=%i",c);
c = a * b;
NSLog(@"a*b=%i",c);
c = b * a;
NSLog(@"b*a=%i",c);
c = a * b + 5;
NSLog(@"a*b+5=%i",c);
c = a * (b + 5);
NSLog(@"a*(b+5)=%i",c);
c = (a * b) + 5;
NSLog(@"(a*b)+5=%i",c);
c = b * a;
NSLog(@"b*a=%i",c);
c = a / b;
NSLog(@"a/b=%i",c);
c = b / a;
NSLog(@"b/a=%i",c);

return 0;
}

Simple, right? Maybe to you nerds out there. All that does is output this to the console (Got rid of the timestamps):

run
a%b=2
b%a=1
a%a=0
a+b=5
b+a=5
a-b=-1
b-a=1
a*b=6
b*a=6
a*b+5=11
a*(b+5)=16
(a*b)+5=11
b*a=6
a/b=0
b/a=1
Debugger stopped.
Program exited with status value:0.

Besides your math homework, what does it look like to you? "Nothing" should be your answer. But to me, that's my first Objective-C program. I'll explain a few things about the code to the best of my ability.

First off, I'll skip from the very start of the code to the NSLog deal. NSLog is basically a command to output some text (Or numbers or whatever) to the console outside of the user interface. Pretty simple.

With the int a; int b; and int c; stuff, I'm declaring the variables as integers, but they don't yet have a value. They just exist, but don't do anything. I give each variable (Symbolized by a letter after the int statement) a value by simply saying a = 2; b = 3; and c = a % b;

One thing about ints, they're whole numbers. So if you were wondering why 3 divided by 2 only equaled 1 and 2 divided by 3 equaled 0, the program rounded the numbers to whole numbers. It's easy to use decimals by just switching int with float.

To be honest, I'm kinda confused about the % deal. The books I'm reading haven't explained it in too much detail yet.

The return 0; statement makes the program end with a value of 0. As I understand it, it has to do with the computer's random access memory (More commonly known as RAM) and such. Could be wrong, though.

Even though I already knew it would be harder than Java, Objective-C is going to be a somewhat bigger challenge to learn than I originally thought. One step at a time.

Anyway, all this is a (very) simple summary of all I've learned today (And all night last night) and I have a lot of work ahead of me. I'll talk to you guys later.

Until next time, play nice. =)

Kyle

Apple's latest, the iPad

I want one. iPhone OS 3.2 or 4.0 needs multitasking-ish features. But I want one. You may not see it as genuinely awesome or innovative, but Apple's just stickin' to what they know; keeping iPhone software is such a BRILLIANT move: any typical consumer that was washed in the wave of iPhones and iTouch-es can jump right on and fall in love. Again.

It's unfair of anyone to call it a larger iTouch, although - basically - yeah: that's what it is. But that's not a bad thing; bigger is better, after all. So what if us geeks won't have to learn a new interface or deal with intricacies of learning the ins and outs of a more sophisticated desktop-ish OS (Windows, OS X)? Isn't that a good thing? Yes, especially considering geeks are a [somewhat] rare breed, and that the iPhone OS is so fantastic. If you want to tinker with and have fun learning a new desktop OS, look for some Linux... There ya go. Happy? I thought so...

Consider this: if forced to choose one, after familiarizing yourself with each if you don't already know, do you want an Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, or Apple iPad? An iPad? I thought so. Apple has brought their multitouch talent to an entirely new playing field with the iBooks; whether we - people who don't really enjoy reading - care about electronic text or not is another matter: but it matters. This device will inspire many people to read more often because of Apple's amazing product appeal. Reading enhances education, and education can change the world; a = b and b = c, a = c, so - anyway - Apple's revolutionizing society. Again.

The iPad. A giant iTouch? A flat, multitouch netbook from Apple? I want one. And when the 3G-less, Wifi capable models are released a month before the 3G-capable ones, near the end of March, I'll be there. Whether I'll have $700 for the 64GB one - the one iWant - is doubtable, but I'll be there.

"And that's all I have to say about that"

nintendude794

UPDATE: I'm waiting for the second gen because it will be so much better and I don't have the money now anyway. But still, iWant.

What're your thoughts? Let me know in the comments! :)

Some news and other news

Well, hello. Got some news tidbits for everyone. I know you like news! Want some news? Here's some news! =D

I just got a new video game! Oh, wait, wrong news...

The new website is completely on hold. Maybe for a long time... =/ I need to come up with the money for making a website. The website I've been trying to set up doesn't like me and is being very uncooperative. So, I'm wanting to use an excellent service called web.com to build the site (I have experience with them, and it really is a great service), but I lack the money. I should have the money eventually, but it would require the website to launch at a much later date than I want.

In other news: Hunter is back at school, so he's not sick anymore. But in a bit of an unexpected surprise to me, I've had influenza A for several days (Since Friday or so) and hadn't known about it until yesterday. =/ I guess having an intense cough for 5 days is a sign that something may be wrong. =P So I'm out of school now, but may be back in a couple days from now since I've had the flu for at least five days. Before you say "Well, how could you not know you have the flu for several days?!" I have your answer right here: I am mysteriously missing a fever. I only had a fever for a few hours, and that was yesterday at school. I have the flu, but no fever...? Something odd with that... =/

Until next time, play nice.

Kyle

UPDATE: I forgot to clarify something. Since the website may only launch sometime next year, we'll have to keep this blog as the main output of the project until the website launches.

Learning Java Pt. 3 and Other News

Sorry, but this will have to be short. I might extend this post later, but I'm not sure.

In the Java class Hunter (aka nintendude) and I have been taking, we are now programming simple programs. I believe I said we may reveal the secret by the end of the year or early next year, and I stand by that at this point. We now have a total of 5 involved in the project, if I remember correctly.

To what we have been learning: We made Hello World, the most simple program you can make, and another program that was about several math functions. We learned several other things, too, but I don't have time to list or explain them.

We have been working on a new website, but we have been having a few problems with it. We should have the website up and running soon enough, complete with forums and details of our project.

And jumping to another topic: Hunter (aka nintendude) has caught the H1N1 virus. So, he will be missing school for a long while, including the java class. I hope he won't be part of the small percentage of deaths due to the virus.

I'm out of time, but I may extend this post later. Not sure.

Until next time, play nice.

Kyle (aka WiiGamin)

WiiGamin's Game of the Month

Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story

I've been quite excited for the third installment of the Mario & Luigi series. Its fast-paced battle sequences and hilarious dialogue make the whole series special in its own way. In this installment, you don't only play as Mario & Luigi, but you also play as Bowser! Playing as Bowser is always fun, and if you combine that with the fun battle sequences and funny dialogue in the Mario & Luigi series, you get an extremely fun game that you just can't put down.

Until next time, play nice.

WiiGamin

Learning Java Pt. 2 Plus an anouncement!

Here's part two of our Learning Java series.

So, we have started our Java class in school and nintendude and I have the class at the same time AND we sit next to each other! That's very convenient for us because it makes it easier for us to exchange ideas and work on our secret project. I will cover the subject of the project a little later in this post. So far, we haven't learned much because the computers in the classroom (To be specific, all the 24 inch iMacs) have been off the school network, so we haven't been able to log into our school accounts. That is supposed to be fixed this weekend, so we can (hopefully) start the heavy-duty coding very soon. Anyway, we've learned how binary works and how it translates to base 10. We've also learned a few basics of Java. We can write a program now, but it wouldn't do anything past a 'Hello World' program.

So, onto the topic of the project. We have had an extremely unexpected setback that nearly cost us the entire thing. I can't tell you what it was, because it would give away the entire project. Don't worry, I have a better estimate as to when we can reveal what we're doing. And that magic number is: January-February 2010. I know it's still far away, but please be patient. It's well worth the wait.

I feel comfortable enough to announce something that is directly linked to the project. It's small, but it's significant at the same time. We will change our name from Silicon Strategists to another name. The name Silicon Strategists has been a temporary name from the start. Want to know what the name is? Well, keep reading this blog. We will reveal the new name, and start a new site, upon revealing the project.

Until next time, play nice.

WiiGamin

PS: We now have two other people that nintendude knows very well that are now involved in the project, making the whole group a total of four at the time of this post. We may have a fifth member of the group soon. This project is big. We should have more members by the time the project is revealed.

Please note: we're not recruiting publicly. We are only getting friends we know personally and trust that meet the requirements for the project. Sorry!

Also note: This project is not like Fight Club's "Project Mayhem", so don't panic or feel creeped out; although, the first rule is...
And I hope you don't think WiiGamin and I are going to change the world; he makes it sound like a big deal, but really, it's a psychological trick: by telling y'all we have a "big, huge, secret" project, we feel more encouraged to pull through and complete it. It obviously involves software though; I mean, seriously, what else is Java for but software programming and, perhaps, drinking? lol.

WiiGamin's Game of the Month

Here's my first game of the month. They will include paragraphs that will range from short, quick 'horrays' to long, detailed praise. They will get better in quality as time goes on.

Halo 3: ODST

In the next installment in the Halo series, Halo 3: ODST, you are
not playing as Master Chief, but as an Orbital Drop Shock
Trooper investigating the reasons behind the Covenant’s invasion
of New Mombasa. ODST includes 3 new Halo 3 multiplayer maps
as well as the Mythic, Heroic, and Legendary map packs on a
2nd standalone disc. With the maps, new weapons, new tools,
new tactics, the beautiful graphics of the 360, AND the multiplayer
beta key for Halo: Reach, surely, this is a must for Halo fans
everywhere. And don't call me Shirley.

Until next time, play nice.

WiiGamin

Quick update

Nintendude and I have, again, been very busy with our everyday lives. So posting has become somewhat difficult. We're also just getting back into school, so posting will be even harder. Sorry! Without further ado, here's today's quick update.

On the subject of learning Java, we have begun our in-school class for Java programming and we should be able to code decently by November. I expect us to be able to code pretty well by March-June 2010. I know this may be WAY off, but it's just an assumption.

In other news, I have recently bought an Xbox 360 Elite, so I may begin to do bits that involve the 360 and it's games. It depends if I have time away from school. And I should start doing a Game of the Month bit every last day of the month beginning in a few days. I might be late every now and then, though.

Until next time, play nice.

WiiGamin

Redeeming Shawshank

http://www.imdb.com/chart/top
Let's start with my commentary on this [hyper]link: "Of all the hundreds and thousands to hundreds OF thousands of movies, everyone with Internet access who watches movies, and has therefore heard of IMDB, voted The Shawshank Redemption (directed by Frank Darabont as his first feature film, starring Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, and Bob Gunton) as the absolute greatest film of all time. Right now, I agree."
The film, based on a novella entitled "Rita Hayworth & [The] Shawshank Redemption" by Stephen King, the author famous for his mastery of and dominance in the genre of horror, is one of his few non-scary tales and probably his most realistic. The setting of the movie, which is sort of a character in it's own right, turns most people off of being remotely interested immediately as they hear of it: a fictional place called "Shawshank State Prison", or to be less specific and more "in general", prison. People see the trailer, theatrical or otherwise, and assume it's just a "stupid little prison movie" to quote what my Dad thought when it was in theaters, the year I was born, in 1994. When he caught it just before it was halfway over on TV, then finished it, a few years later, he regretted not seeing it at the theater when it was there. Then he soon found out it was based on a story written by his favorite author, the aforementioned Stephen King, and was blown away. It's rated "R" for a bit of cussing and a few suggestive themes, which I'd rather not talk about here; if your so curious what those themes might be... watch the movie! lol. Besides, the reason I bring that up is that, traditionally, my parents don't allow me to play [rated] "M" games or watch [rated] "R" movies, the exceptions for the former being Halo and Call of Duty, while the exceptions for the latter are movies that have little or no sex and/or I just need to watch them as a precaution to anyone spoiling/ruining the climax, and therefore the whole movie, for me. That's why Dad let me watch Shawshank, that's why I'm so heavily encouraging and advising that you watch it ASAP; if you're an adult who hasn't seen it, drive to BlockBuster and rent it or Best Buy to purchase it, as it's definitely one worth owning (I recommend the 2-Disc Special Edition if you're a movie buff like me); if you're a child or teenager whom hasn't seen it, (I'm looking at you, all of my friends, especially WiiGamin!) ask your parents about it, or, in the case of my friends, invite me over and I'll bring the DVD so we can watch it. I actually kinda made a bargain with WiiGamin, which is not yet final, nor has it taken place yet; I already got him to watch the first forty minutes of Shawshank a week or two ago, and he liked what he saw, at least "somewhat" he says, so the deal is: if I bring Shawshank over and we watch it, perhaps skipping that forty minutes he's already seen (time is money) to just finish the 2 hours and 20 or so minutes long movie, I'll finally get to watch Harry Potter 5, not that I want to, WiiGamin. lol.
Shawshank is my new favorite film (an updated "Favorite Films" post of mine will bob to the surface, or "most recent article" spot, of our blog soon, with more than just switcheroos, so look out for it), because I realized how little sense a particular aspect of Fight Club's ending makes. I won't spoil anything, but if you've seen it you probably understand, unless you're unsure what exactly I'm referring to. I'll quote the movie as a clue: "With a gun barrel between your teeth, you speak only in vowels". Yeah, when Edward Norton does THAT at the end. While Fight Club is still my second favorite movie, Shawshank is also just that much better.
But anyway, back to the part about few people seeing it it 1994 for it's theatrical release: at the following Oscar Awards Show/Ceremony, Shawshank, as it's commonly abbreviated nowadays, was nominated for 7 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, but lost to films like Pulp Fiction and Forrest Gump, winning nothing. Yet those several nominations, opportunities for victory and praise that Hollywood gave to the film, instilled in many ordinary American citizens the will to check out the little prison movie that could. Movie fans were rushing to their local Blockbuster/(insert movie rental place name here) and soon enough, The Shawshank Redemption became most rented VHS Tape of 1995, and one of the most commonly rented films of all time.
Since then, it's become one of the greatest films of all time, made more and more popular by word of mouth: "Hey, dude. You've gotta check out this prison movie! It's awesome!" might not sound very convincing, but trust me: you'll be more than glad you did.

Get busy livin' or get busy dyin'!

nintendude794
P.S.: My sign-off, which I try to variate in order to keep things fresh, variety being the spice of life and all, is this time "Get busy livin' or get busy dyin'.", a quote from Shawshank. This line is almost the moral theme of Yes Man, which I watched yesterday. I'd rephrase/combine this quote and Yes Man's theme into something like this: "Quit being such a boring average Joe and live your life or die trying!" That's not at all what the line means in Shawshank... [for those of us who've seen it] lol.
Oh, and also (while I'm here to center and resize the below horizontal line): Shawshank possesses my second favorite movie soundtrack. Although I can't remember if I already have an article on that... If not, you might see one by the end of August. That's definitely a pretty good guarantee. lol.

_________________________________________________________

(space reserved for WiiGamin to commentate on Shawshank once he's watched it)