A very cool blog

http://seungsviews.blogspot.com/

A very cool blog by my friend Seung. Generally talks about everything I don't here and it's very cool !

An Awesome Blog!

Similar to my blog is my friend Yian's blog, which you can find here.

Hope you enjoy!

iTalian Sample App

iTalian Sample App: Can I please have people's feedback on this? Thanks!

Duckhouse Productions

I have decided to co-run this blog as a division of Duckhouse Productions, Duckhouse Apps, with my good friend Alex Forey. This will make iPhone and iPad apps for the iTunes app store, and our first will be released within a couple of weeks. However, Alex and I are currently in discussion over whether Tasteful Technology should be taken over by Duckhouse Productions, or whether it should be kept separate. Alternatively, it could be merged with Alex's film-making blog, Film and Stuff at www.filmandstuff.co.uk (The link doesn't yet work- Alex only bought the domain two days ago).

In-Ear Headphones!

In-ear headphones are really useful for me- I'm too lazy to lug around
Beats on my neck, and they certainly don't fit in my pocket!
These are my favourite in-ear headphones! 

1) Sennheiser CX 400 II

• Noise isolating ear-canal phones with integrated volume control
• Optimised for iPhones, CD players and portable gaming systems.
• Better fit in the ear canals giving good attenuation of sound. 
• Extended ear adapter set included
• Accessories including: cable clip, cable winder and carrying pouch.
• Frequency response (headphones): 17-22,000 Hz
• Impedance 16 ohms
• Sound pressure level (SPL) 114 dB (1 kHz/1 Vrms)
• Quality of sound 8/10
• Price (£40-£42.99) 9/10
• Design 6/10-They look too business like for me

http://www.iheadphones.co.uk/sennheiser-cx400-titanium-earbuds.html

2) iBeats by Dr Dre

• Small, light, high quality In-Ear headphones
• Incorporated volume control
• HD audio compatible with iPad, iPhone and iPod
• Stylish and built to last
• "ControlTalk"-built in voice control
• Quality of Sound 9/10
• Price (£79.99) 8/10 but there definitely worth it
• Comes in 4 colours!
• Design 10/10- Incredibly nice headphone.

http://beatsbydre.com/products/Products.aspx?pid=B5933&cat=2

3) Skullcandy Ink'd headphones

• Direct to ear acoustics
• Big Headphone sound without the hassle
• External noise isolation 
• Frequency Response: 20-20k Hz
• Impedance: 16 ohms
• Max Input Power: 100mW
• Quality of Sound 6/10
• Price (£9.49-£15.99) 10/10
• Design 9/10

http://www.iheadphones.co.uk/skullcandy-ink-d-sc-black-red.html

http://uk.skullcandy.com/shop/earphones-earbuds/inkd.html

Blackberry crisis as millions of users experience a new crash

After the crash a few days ago which saw services in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and now Latin America go down, Blackberry users have complained of experiencing a new crash. RIM had just announced that the services were "operating normally" when a few hours later around 11:00 BST on 10 October, users saw the services disrupted once again not being able to access email, web, or the immensely popular Blackberry Messaging service (BBM). Now users can only text or make calls. The problem believes to have come from a server problem in the core of the RIM Slough data centre. This failure in RIM's system is bad news for Blackberry as it might deter people from buying Blackberries, which are well known for there internet based BBM service.

The Browser Wars- how they started and where they are going

Which browser do you use? Chrome? Internet Explorer? Safari? Well, I bet none of you use the first ever net browser, and I don't blame you. The first net browser was Tim Berners-Lee, who created the WorldWideWeb (this is what causes the www. before domain names). Tim Berners-Lee turned down billions of dollars and made the World Wide Web open source- he gave it away for free. He ran the whole thing on a NeXT computer for a server. In comparison, Google now uses around 1,000,000 servers, which is maybe the equivalent to 900 million NeXT computers!

Mosaic was the most  comercially successful browser- but it wasn't considered that different. Rigt now Chrome is dominating, along with Safari. But where's is it going? Another post is coming!

Facebook iPad App

Finally! It's what we have all been waiting for, The iPad app for Facebook! Only released a few minutes ago there are limited resources on it but so far it has taken format of the iPads photo albums and mail. It will be available for free on the App Store, can't wait to try it out!

Steve Jobs- A nation mourns

Today, there will be no witty titles, no puns, no jokes. Today is a day where the world mourns the loss of a great man, Steve Jobs. His life was full of incredible success and talent and the world will change forever without him. All of you who own Apple products owe him and even if you don't I guarantee that your life will be altered after his tragic death.

At 1:15 this morning, Apple released a statement saying this: "Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being." Tributes have begun pouring in from all over the world, with Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg paying their respects. At 2:02, Tim Cook sent out this e-mail to his colleagues:

"Team,

I have some very sad news to share with all of you. Steve passed away earlier today.
Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.
We are planning a celebration of Steve’s extraordinary life for Apple employees that will take place soon. If you would like to share your thoughts, memories and condolences in the interim, you can simply email rememberingsteve@apple.com.
No words can adequately express our sadness at Steve’s death or our gratitude for the opportunity to work with him. We will honor his memory by dedicating ourselves to continuing the work he loved so much."

-Tim Cooks, Apple CEO

There have already been many tributes, The Telegraph, Apple and Business Insider being my favourites.



Steve, the world respects you and you will be dearly missed

Google hit their 1 billionth download!

This was put up on Facebook as their post. It's a neat way of explaining how big a billion is and I really like it. 

Google

Today, Google Earth celebrates their one billionth download. How large is one billion? One billion minutes ago, the Roman Empire flourished.

Thats a Rap...

Phew! 100 minutes of simultaneous blogging got us and we have:

• A new iPhone 4S
• A (sort of) new iPod Nano
• New iPod Touch- plus it's much cheaper!
• iCloud- old news
• Cards- neat, but nothing really groundbreaking
• Siri- Really cool!
• And a new CEO's first apple presentation! Well done!
  

From all of us here at Tasteful Technology, Thank You and Good Night!

Prices

iPhone 4S

• 6GB for $199, 32GB for $299, and 64GB for $399 (same as the iPod Touch!). However, no sign of a 128GB model, which I would have liked to have seen.

iPhone 4

• just $99 (Also on an AT&T contract, still very cheap!). Prices been slashed. I would jump at this contract, as there's not a huge difference between the 4 and the 4S.

iPhone 3GS

• 8GB for FREE on an At&T contract (unfortunately for us Brits, only in the States). This is also an amazing deal!

Pre-orders on the October 7th, and then launching on the 14th! Go! Go! Go!

Voice recognition- personal assistant!

You now have your own personal assistant! She's called Siri, and she does things responding to the sound of your voice! I hope this works! She also gives forecasts! Siri finds restaurants (Greek ones in Palo Alto, and she ranks them in order), she also reads your messages aloud hands-free! You can also schedule appointments, just with your voice. However, I'm passing judgement on Siri until I see her in action. As we know, some voice recognition services are awful!

More on the camera!

Apple's iPhone camera is 2-3x faster than other phones. “What do Droid Bionic customers have to do between taking pictures? Get coffee?” Also, 1080p Video. Amazing! Real-time video image stabilastion also. We can alos remove red-eye and edit pictures on the device! Demo time!

New iPods!

The updated nano has new clocks, so that you can wear it like a watch. Apple has cut the price of the iPod touch, with the 8GB version at $199. However, no mention of a 128gb model, or of the classic or the shuffle being discontinued.

iPhone specifications!

iPhone 4S-


“Dual-core CPU, 2x as fast at CPU tasks. Also dual-core graphics. Up to 7x faster in the previous iPhone.”


A5 Chip inside, and a retina display

Demo with Epic Games! Infinity Blade update looks impressive, but not amazing. The demo's still going on. Talk time increased to 8 hours, despite the large CPU. Data download is now twice as fast, which is great news! And wow, look at that battery time! Also a great new camera. 8 megapixel sensor, face detection and auto-white balance.

New iPod specifications!

New iPod Updates!

iPod Nano

• Easier to use but not many drastic changes on look.
• 10 new clock faces to personalise your iPod
• It comes in 7 colors, now the iPod nano is 8GB for $129, and 16GB for $149

iPod Touch

• Most popular portable game player in the world!
• Now available in White and Black
• Price range 8GB $199, 32GB $299 and 64GB $399

iOS 5! Coming to you on October 12th!

• Reminders- redesigned!
• Twitter integration- Twitter to be deeply integrated.
• Newsstand- easier to read publications.
• Camera- new home screen icon
• PC-free ability!
• Safari- now includes reader.
• Notification centre- has been redesigned
• iMessages- new messaging system!

Family, Friends and Foursquare!

"What if you could find your family and friends? Today we’re launching a new app called Family and Friends.” Apprarently meant to be a competitor to Foursquare. Very interesting, I'm sure we'll be doing a post on it sometime! 

iPod statistics

More than 300 million iPods sold . It took Sony 30 years to sell 220 Walkman casset players.
Sold 45 million iPods in last year ending in June. Nearly half going to people buying their first iPods. Also we have a release date for the ios 5. October the 12th!

iPad news- a few stats

A 95% satisfaction rate with all customers and 92% of Fortune 500 are implementing in the iPad. That's huge! Also interesting to see that 3 in 4 tablets sold are iPads. That's pretty amazing! Shows how much Apple dominate the tablet market, despite every mobile phone company trying to muscle in on their market share.

Amazing numbers from Scott Forstall!

Scott Forstall syas' There are 140,000 iPad apps, with over 1 bilion apps downloaded per month, and $3 billion paid to developers' That is a lot of downloads, but people seem a little shifty. Tim Cook is building the suspense.

Cards- A new app!

NEW APP!

Apple has just released a brand new app called Cards,

“Create and mail beautiful cards right from your iPhone or iPod touch.” Should be interesting!

Apps downloads have hit the 18 billion mark!

“We’ve passed a quarter billion unit sales mark.” Wow! Scott Forstall is up to talk about iOS!

“All of these together makes the App Store the number one store for downloading apps. Customers have downloaded more than 18b apps. And it’s accelerating. They’re downloading them at a rate of more than 1 billion per month.” That is pretty amazing!

Tim Cooks is in control!

He looks calm and controlled tlking about the apple stores in China. New picture of the the black and the white phones is up. Here's the black one!

Closed, for our new iPhone!

Apple.com domain has been hacked, so this website is down, updating for the iPhone!

We are go!

Tim Cooks has appeared on stage and we are go! Just a quick summary on all the news today: The new phone is likely to be called the 4S, not the 5, and there could be two phones released. Stay tuned!

iPhone 5- or is it just a 4S?

Convincing evidence released yesterday suggests that it will not be an iPhone 5 but an iPhone 4S which is released at 6pm GMT. iTunes Beta devices bar lists a 4S, but not an iPhone 5. However, Apple have been known for decided craftiness, and they'll keep us guessing right up until the conference. Whatever the outcome, we'll be doing a live blog, so join us at 6pm!

Battlefield 3 or Modern Warfare 3?

Battlefield 3 or Modern Warfare 3? That is the question that most gamers will be thinking about this winter and we are one step closer to finding out which is better with Battlefield 3 Beta being released and Modern Warfare 3 being played at Cod XP and Gamefest.

          Battlefield 3 Beta has amazing graphics as expected and there isn’t anything too wrong with the way the game plays so far, but the main issue is the amount of glitches there are. It is bad enough that you fall through the map while trying to kill someone once, but for it to happen on a regular basis along with a few other glitches is really annoying. EA say they’re writing a new code for the actual game which will be released this month but it remains to be seen whether these glitches will still occur in the actual game.

          Modern Warfare 3 is also being beta tested and it feels like Modern Warfare 2.5, which is a no bad thing  (if you imagine Modern Warfare 2 without noob tubes and one man army, you've got the idea) and it's a pretty good game!

 However we wait to see the actual release of the game in November and whether the multiplayer is as annoying as MW2. One disappointment for me is the failure to remove 2^nd chance/Last stand. Everyone knows how annoying it is and Infinity Ward should have had the sense to remove it from the game.

          So, unfortunately, the final verdict on BF3 and MW3 will have to wait until November when both games are out.

In other gaming news FIFA 12 has recently been released and the addition of more online modes means this game is even better for those gamers who love a challenge online but unfortunately the single player mode remains largely unchanged. Nevertheless still a great game and an improvement on FIFA 11!

Credits to Rishi Jindal, Tasteful Technology's Game Reviewer

7 Gadgets I would kill for!

1.) Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Speakers

Wow! The first time I saw these speakers, I fell in love with them. If I had a spare £300, I would buy these in the blink of an eye. These are the best designed speakers I have ever seen, and the sound quality is fantastic. Well worth the steep cost.

Will I get one? Maybe- I would love one of these!

2.) BMW Carbon Racer

I don't cycle, but if I owned one of these, I would cycle everywhere. It's fast, agile and really good-looking. I love it!
Will I get one? No- I don't have two grand.

3.) Batmobile

Bob Dullam. What an amazing guy. This man built a real life batmobile. I would do anything at all for this car. Just look at those wheels. Awesome. Amazing. Enough said. Just look at the picture. Wow. This guy built this car in his garage, from scratch. Please build another one. Please. Just for me. Please.


Will I get one? Keep on dreaming.

4.) Real Life Iron Man Suit

When I first saw Iron Man, I wanted to build the Iron Man suit. Unfortunately I gave up when I realised that he defied the laws of physics in many ways. But that hasn't stopped Tony Hurtubise trying. His suit is amazing, He has performed test after test on it, from picking fights with bears to asking biker gangs to beat him up. The amazing thing is that his suit actually works. It's bulletproof, and it'll stand a grenade. Unfortunately he hasn't invented the laser beams on Iron Man's hands, but his magnetic gun holsters make it easy to slip out your pistol and take out a rogue drone.

Will I get one? There are only two, and I think that I'd have to outbid the U.S Government.

5.) Landyachtz Carbon Evo Longboard: I used to really like skateboarding, but I found it too slow for my taste. So I switched to long-boarding, and this board is one of the best and the fastest I've ever seen. I would love to own one, but it costs the best part of £500, and unfortunately I don't really have that kind of money to spend on my hobbies. However, if I did, I'd get this board in a heartbeat. The carbon fibre lightweight speed clinches it for me. 


                                                                            Will I get one? No- for me, it's not worth £500.

6.)  Martin Jetpack

 The human race has dreamt of flying for many years, and now, it's possible. This amazingly well designed  pack is really, really cool. It can go up to 60mph, and reach 8000ft. However, they don't come cheap, with estimates around $100,000. Want to see it in action? Check out this video!

Will I get one? Not unless I win the lottery.

7.) Beats by Dre

A modest request compared to my last one, but just as classy. These Solo HD's in red are my favourites. Apparently the sound quality is pretty good as well, which you'd expect from something this expensive (it costs around £240).

iPhone 5 Apple Invites!

This image is currently spreading like wildfire as its the official iPhone 5 press release invites!(Sadly the postman has come today and mine isn't here yet) While looking at this I realised it was rather boring, just some simple apps, but as I looked closer I realised it was in-fact a puzzle! I've mangaed to solve most of it, but does the phone symbol mean that only one piece of hardware will be coming out?

Apps

Calendar badge: Conference will happen Tuesday, 4th October.

Clock badge: Event will happen 10am PST

Map icon: Points to Apple HQ, California where event will take place

Phone: Only one new iPhone coming out?

Amazon Re-Kindles Their Tablet

Breaking news! The Amazon Kindle Fire is out and I hate to say this but...I think it looks quite cool. It's a huge step up from the old Kindle design where the lack of diversity (one model, one colour) really annoyed me, because it could have been done so much more tastefully.

However, the Fire also has flaws. It's fat (11.4mm, 2.5 mm off the iPad). Interestingly though, it is 200g lighter than an iPad, which is a lot when you're carrying it in your briefcase. The new Kindle lacks a camera and a microphone, a huge omission by Amazon and most importantly, no 3g connectivity! That is pointless. There are basic abilities your tablet must have before it is even considered to be an iPad rival, and two of those are 3g connectivity and a camera. If I were even considering buying a Kindle Fire (which I'm not), those two omissions are dealbreakers for a Facebook addict like me.

It also has poor memory (just 8gb), no bluetooth, no GPS and 2 hours less run time than the iPad. I cannot stand this. I've been waiting to find a tablet where I could honestly say 'This is way better than an iPad', and I really wanted it to be this one. But I can't. The only tablet that the Kindle rivals is the HP Tablet, but I think it loses out on that rivalry as well. The HP is really well priced, and one of the only true iPad competitors (Find a bargain price on the 32gb version here)

Like: Cheap, good for books

Dislike: No 3G connectivity, no camera, a bit fat

iPad rival? No

Electric Skateboards!

Just saw an article on Geeky Gadgets, which looks pretty cool. For those of you too lazy too actually click on the link, it's about an MIT student who designed an electric skateboard from a deck, a snowmobile and a Chrysler. Of course, his was by no means the first electric skateboard, but it's the first one using snowmobile parts!

Unfortunately, I don't have the time, money or ability to try out these skateboards (my skateboarding is awful!), so I'll just sum up where you can buy them, how much they cost and what they can and can't do.

• Eight Ball

Probably the most popular around (quantified by the reliable test 'Where do they come if you type 'electic skateboard' into Google Shopping?').  Prices range from £160 to £470, depending on the make.

• Rokit Science

More expensive by quite a lot (their most expensive board is £800) and , in my opinion, they have a poorer design. However, as I haven't tested these boards, the price and the design could be redeemed by a superb ride.

• Skate electric

Prices ranging from £350-£450. Very cool design, and with a good range of videos and dates of upcoming events.

Reviews

Best for speed goes to... Electric Skateboards! Wins by a good 4mph!

Best for design goes to... Skate Electric! Red stripe running along the middle looks very cool.

Best for price goes to... Eight Ball! Relatively inexpensive, and a good variety of boards!

Best Overall goes to... Skate Electric! Good design, good price, good speed!

IPhone 5 release date!

Apple have finally announced the launch date for their new smartphone, along with their invites! Unfortunately, Rachel and I haven't received ours. They must have forgotten. The release date is due to be October 4th, when the first Apple speech without Steve Jobs will be given. This event will probably be the release of the iPhone 4S and the iPod Touch 3G.

The iPod Touch 3G? Yes. Images were leaked onto Apple's website such as the one below:

I apologise for the poor quality (it's highly focused), but in the top left corner, you can make out the letters '3G'. Why Apple are releasing a 3G version, I have no idea (what will it do that an iPhone can't?).

On a serious note, if anyone from Apple is reading this then a.) Please may we have an invite to your speech? and b.) Can you please send us an iPhone 5 to write a review on?

Thanks!

Changes to the site

Here at TastefulTechnology, we're all about innovation, and so we're changing our site. The new background will look something like this (except we'll have gotten rid of some of the clutter at the top). More changes as my friend Rachel Green will be blogging occasionally, this week we're running a special on CSI style technology and whether it actually works. We're hoping to hit 1000 page views by the end of the week. Happy reading!

A summary of f8

Facebook, as you have probably heard, is changing. It is changing almost everything, and releasing a ton of useful features. I will try to give you a full summary of f8 and of what has changed.

• The Ticker

This is an updated form of news feed, where realtime information about all of your friends activities comes straight into a 'ticker' (based on the stock exchange's tickers where you see realtime stock movements). Personally, I find this quite useful, though I know that many disagree, multiple hate groups having been set up, campaigning for the old Facebook.

• The Timeline

This is a big one. This is the source of all the buzz. Facebook have once again antagonised its users by invading their privacy and seem hell bent on keeping Timeline as it is. It's modelled on your 'life story'. You can see everything a user has done, or the major changes in his life. It has been described as a 'stalker's paradise' and it's hard to disagree. Also, another element that angers people is that you can now see who has unfriended you. Previously, unfriending was a quiet act, one that didn't appear in your news feed, not a public act, like becoming friends with someone. The buzz around Timeline is similar to that around News Feed, back in 2007. At first, people hated it, but they have grown used to it now.

•  Open Graph

This is by far the biggest change, though probably the least mentioned and the vaguest. It is a fundamental change to apps and the basic platform that the apps run on. It means that you can see what your friends are watching/playing easier, and then open that link without leaving Facebook. So you can click on a new music video by Ed Sheeran and listen to it without ever leaving facebook. This leads me neatly to my next point.

• Media

Facebook now does music, TV shows and movies. I has joined together with companies such as Spotify and Netflix to enable the user to watch the shows and stream the music without leaving Facebook. It is integrated with Open Graph.

• Lifestyle apps

This is much more straightforward and easy to explain. Facebook are creating a whole new class of app, which is much more fully integrated with your profile. The apps are much more similar to iPhone apps than to Farmworld and other games. Some of Facebook’s Lifestyle Apps partners include Nike, Foodspotting, Netflix, Rdio, Foodily, Spotify, Metacafe, FundRazr, Eventbrite, Ticketmaster and Airbnb.

I think that's all, but if I've forgotten something, feel free to let me know about it, and I'll correct it as soon as possible. Thanks for taking the time to read this article!

Gapminder

During my latest piece of work (an essay on the correlation between HIC's and poor teeth) I stumbled upon this little gem of software. It's a free website that allows you to plot statistics against each other, allowing you to vary the x and y axes and the size and colour of the dots which indicate a country. It's a great tool for analysing statistics on nations, and I use it all the time. You don't need to download anything if you don't want to, or you can download so as to run it without internet access. It's great, check out!

iPhone 5 Rumours and Release Date

Having looked at all the rumours circulating around the internet, I thought that I'd try to give you all a lowdown on the iPhone 5's rumours and release date.

1.) Smaller and thinner- As with all the iPhones and iTouches, they are slowly getting thinner. This rumour is no surprise to most of us and will almost certainly happen.

2.) Camera improvements- I personally would hope that the new iPhone boasts an 8 megapixel camera and 1080p video filming.

3.) NFC- For those of you who don't know what this is, it's a method of payment where you charge things to your phone, exchange digital content and connect wireless devices. The iPhone will probably not support the technology, opting to wait to see if it's a passing fad or not. I hope they do support it, as it's an invaluable tool for payment, and a subject on which I will probably be doing a blog post.

4.) IOS 5 
The new operating system doesn't have any major changes, apart from the ability to shoot better pictures and videos.

5.) iPhone 5 Pro
It's the rumour that never goes away. Could this be the year that they announce a Macbook style split for the iPhone and iPhone pro? I hope so!

Facebook's f8 conference is coming up- so what will it change?

Facebook's annual f8 conference is coming up- so what needs to be changed on the social networking site?


a.) The chat bar- Facebook's chat bar has been the source of much dispute. The current chat bar that runs up the right side of your screen is seen by many to be 'gilding the lily' i.e: Over-complicating an item which is already very good. In my opinion, the old chat bar was easier to use. Facebook will need to address this.
b.) Facebook places- A step too far in connecting people? Many see it as being 'stalkerish', and I personally agree with the critics
c.) The general look- Facebook just (and I mean about 45 minutes ago) revamped its look. There are multiple problems with this. First of all, it's a pain to look at on netbooks, as you'll have to use the dumbed down mobile version.
d.) Music and media- Facebook have leaked that a media platform will be announced at the f8, along with a music compatability. If done tastefully, it should look like iTunes' Ping, a music networking site which is very well designed, though not particularly popular.
e.) A Facebook IPO- This is a bold statement, but Zuckerberg must consider a flotation, after the phenomenal success of Reid Hoffman's LinkedIn. It probably won't happen for years, but I'd put my money on it happening eventually.