Review: DefaultCase for iPhone 4 & 3G(S)

DefaultCase is the answer that all iphone 4 users were begging for. It is stylish, protective, lets you feel the thinness of the phone, and FIXES YOUR SIGNAL PROBLEM!!!!! Yes, i said it correct. This case fixes your signal problem!(if your on an iphone4) Also at the price of 1 cent per case, you can have a good looking and good quality case without emptying your wallet. At the end of the day, no matter if your buying the case for your iphone4 or you iphone 3g(s), it is definitely the answer to all of our Apple prayers.

If you want to buy one of these cases, go here: http://defaultcase.com/

Skype Video Calling for iPhone

FaceTime for the iPhone 4, iPod touch, and Mac changed the way we communicate with each other on a daily basis. It revolutionized human relationships. Not only can you ask the person your on the phone with, how they are, but you can actually see how they really are feeling. The only negative thing about Facetime is that you have to own an Apple product with a front facing camera. 

Skype is a website that made free video calling between computers with a web cam. Their intention was Apple's exact intention with iChat. Well now iPhone 4 and iPod touch users can finally get in on the action. After a long and anticipating wait, Skype has finally announced free video calling on the iPhone 4/ iPod touch Skype app. So now, we can all take the basis of Facetime, and use it with anybody that owns a web cam and a Skype account. All you have to do is make a free Skype account, and download the free Skype app from the App store.

iLife '11 — the all new iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand

Apple recently announced their latest upgrade to the iLife suite during the “Back to the Mac” event in October. iLife ’11 includes new releases of iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand. Apple did a great job in adding more advanced features while maintaining their trademark simplicity. The upgrade is priced at only $49 USD and is definitely worth the price.

The incredible new iPhoto has added support for Facebook/Flickr and sharing photos through email. The changes to the full-screen mode allow you to utilize every pixel of your display to its fullest. Apple has also improved the slideshows feature with new transitions and themes. Their book/card-printing service has been updated and now allows for more customization of photo albums and holiday cards. iPhoto continues to keep its “Faces” and “Places” features, as well as its great image retouching tools.

The album view in iPhoto's full-screen mode looks amazing.

iPhoto's face recognition automatically recognizes faces in your photos and allows you to tag then.

The biggest change in the suite is in iMovie. Apple has added a “movie trailers” feature that makes producing short teasers for your films a breeze. Choose a series of clips you would like to use, fill in the credits, and choose a theme and iMovie will automatically stitch together a professional-grade trailer for you next movie.

Apple has also included more advanced audio editing tools in iMovie ’11. Audio clips are now color-coded and provide options for adding fades and filters. Another new feature is what Apple calls “one-step effects”. With the dozens of new effects, such as “instant replay” and color correction, your iMovie project will definitely stand out from other home videos.

iMovie ’11 has also included more exporting options, including iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV, QuickTime movies, and more. You can also publish your videos directly to YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, and even CNN’s iReport. You can also create a video podcast and send it directly to Podcast Producer.

iMovie '11 give you more control over your audio.

Making professional trailers has never been easier.

Making great music in GarageBand has never been simpler. The iLife ’11 upgrade introduced Flex Time, a function that fixes timing issues when something sounds a little off.  Flex Time allows you to manually move, stretch, or shorten individual notes without changing the rest of your recording.GarageBand ’11 adds more guitar amps the Apple’s library and allows you to reproduce the sound of foot pedals with new stompbox effects. Apple also included many new instrument lessons with the update.

Flex Time makes it easy to fix timing errors in your music. 

Apple's instrument lessons make learning the piano or guitar fun.

More lessons can be downloaded or purchased from the Lesson Store.

iLife ’11 allows you to do more with your photos, video, and music than ever before. In iPhoto, you can enjoy your photos in the new full-screen modes. You can turn your home videos into professional films with the latest iMovie and create the perfect soundtrack within GarageBand. iLife ’11 is included with every new Mac, but every existing user should consider the upgrade. If you enjoyed this post, please check out MacDesign, a blog centered around graphic design and video production on the Mac platform.

Android for £99?

Android has very slowly been making a name for itself in the smartphone market, but Google's previous excuses for phone hardware have, in my opinion, been unmitigated failures on a simply biblical scale. The main problem has been it's competitors, and on the hardware front the shaky, badly-built Droid doesn't stack up to the iPhone. Another, possibly more important reason for the bad hardware support has been the pricing of Android devices.

Apple has always been seen in the eyes of many as a premium brand, and the Android hardware manufacturers were perfectly poised to capture the market for affordable yet powerful smartphones. However, this has not been the case and for Android smartphones at this pricepoint, it looks to be slim pickings. 

However, this may no longer be the case as little-known Chinese company ZTE is ready to light the budget-Android fires with it's incredibly affordable (around $150) Android phone, the 'Blade.' If you are willing to forgive the horribly cliché name, the ZTE Blade seems to offer a decent range of abilities for that price. Firstly, it comes with a 3.5 inch capacitive OLED touchscreen, 3.2 megapixel camera, 600mHz processor, Android 2.1, and a free 2Gb SD card!

However, whilst this feature set may be amazing for a sub-£100 price, it's not so amazing that in the UK, this phone is distributed by 'Orange,' a network famous for rather poor pricing and installing needless nonsense on mobile phones, and making them impossible to remove. 

In addition, if any US readers have found this phone to take their fancy, then I'm afraid there is no network (that I know of) currently offering this phone in the US. To finish, I have a question: Are you skeptical that a phone with what appear to be such impressive features can retail for such a price?

Better Battery Life: Smartphone Data 3G vs WiFi

Smartphones have become fairly mainstream recently and all I hear is how WiFi kills your battery and how 3G is slow (in most city areas). While both statements above are true, you can get the best of both worlds.

WiFi is often disregarded by mobile users unless they are at home and have a charger nearby. The sole reason being, it can drain your tiny smartphone battery quickly if not used correctly. Although this is a downside, WiFi is far more efficient than 3G when it comes to downloading and extended mobile browsing. Another thing that most people don't realize is that 3G draws more juice than WiFi when actually being used, communicating with the tower is no small task for your handheld device. In city areas it's even worse, everyone connecting makes the network slow which in turn lengthens the amount of time your phone needs to hold a solid connection with it.

Enough with the technical stuff, you obviously just want a fix.

The answer is fairly simple, to get the best out of your phone turn WiFi on when updating applications and watching YouTube videos. (This also will save you precious MB's with the new Data caps! :))

As soon as you are finished with your data hungry task, flip it off and carry on with your day! Leaving WiFi on keeps your phone searching for a network as you roam about during the day. The scanning and analyzing of local WiFi networks is what chews up your battery like a rottweiler. To make it simple for you lazy people who didn't want to read or are not sure when to switch it up, I made an easy to use chart :D Click to view it big! (Note: I am no artist)

At a glance you can tell when to use WiFi and when to use 3G!

Helpful Tip - If you have an Android phone make a widget (like the one below) on one of your homescreens so you can flip it on and off quickly and easily.

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