1. Go to this and like it on Facebook.
2. You will then be prompted with a coupon code or enter this one: ZK3RBBL
3. The rest is pretty self-explanatory

Hurry up because this offer ends September 5th!

As many of you guys know, Apple released a new iPods on September 1st. The most notible change was the iPod nano. The iPod nano got a complete over haul and in some parts, it’s a downgrade.

What are the upgrades?

The only upgrade that I liked was the clip. Yup, a clip. That means that I can now replace my paper clip with this piece of junk (iPod nano).

What are the downgrades?

The first thing I noticed was the lack of a click wheel. Apple decided to remove the click wheel because they wanted to make it smaller. Now, I personally think that making something smaller isn’t going to make the product better. Going on, Apple decided to make the screen smaller and added touch support. Now, I think that this is a stupid idea because they’ve removed video playback and the ability to play games. Also, since the new Nano is so small, they’ve removed the speaker, camera, accelerometer, and the microphone. The other thing I don’t like is the price. For an 8GB, it’s $149 and $179 for a 16GB version. Now, this is totally outrageous! For what the iPod nano has to offer, this is totally a rip-off. I think that Apple should have priced this iPod at $79 or lower.

Overall, I think that this is the worst iPod ever. It looses some key features that made the Nano so successful and popular. I think that this is a downgrade, not an upgrade. Also, with this iPod, it makes me feel that Apple isn’t caring about a product that revolutionized the music industry anymore.

Please tell me what you think about the iPod nano. I’m curious on what you think about it.

Software: iOS

Just like with ever keynote and conference that Steve does they open up ever segment of the announcements with mind boggling examples about how successful their products and services. So lets start with the changes to the software/firmware that Apple produces for its mobile “iDevices”, aka iOS. For the first time Apple announced a almost “plan” for iOS, announcing two updates just at different times and with different features. iOS 4.1 is going to introduce updates and bug fixes like iPhone 3G performance issues, proximity sensor issues for the iPhone 4 and so on including HDR enhanced photos for all devices, including the camera-less iPad. After a long wait for the “Game Center” which was originally announced at the first iOS 4 event. So the next firmware update they announced was iOS 4.2, which is going o be, as Steve said, “all about the iPad”. Features like wireless printing and AirPlay. iOS 4.2 will be available in November.

iPod shuffle

After going over some more mind boggling stats Steve got down to business, starting with the new iPod Shuffle. Getting rid of the previous moderately disliked headphone controls and microscopic device, they decided to bring back the on-device controls. They will come in 5 colors, see on the left, and will be only $49 USD for a 2gb version.

iPod nano

Steve went on to the next device update the, iPod nano. He compared the previous iPod models showing how each one advanced a little and kind of giving a past “mission statement” one what they were trying to do with the iPod nano. He got to the last two generations and showed how the screens had gotten bigger, and said the only way to make it better was to get rid of the click wheel, hence making the screen a touch screen, but not just a touch screen an multi-touch screen. Giving it a almost iOS feel, yet dropping previous features like the camera.

iPod touch

The first thing they said about the iPod touch was they made it even more thin… My first though.. iPod touch 5 “now paper thin”. Bit without taking it to extremes they made it look even more sleek. They also added Facetime functionality with front AND back facing cameras, with the HD video functionality for the back facing camera. They also added the amazing Retina display, a gyro, and the Apple A4 processor! Now one of the stats that blew me away was that they have more gaming device sales than both Sony and Nintendo COMBINED!

Apple TV

Yes, its still called the Apple TV. Yet you will never be able to get the new design out of your head or your living room, for that matter. Now the best part about it, the price point, $99 for this device. It has integration with NETFLIX® and other service, including the ability to watch YouTube videos in HD. Also it has the ability to view photos and videos from not only Apple’s MobileME but Flickr. It comes with the normal, recently updated Apple Aluminum Remote. But it also has the ability to be controlled through an iPhone or iPod touch application. Also Apple lowered the prices of show rentals from 2.99 to 99 cents.

iTunes 10

The last update is another software one. So now that we have all these cool devices we are going to need a new update to use them and put our content on them, and iTunes 10 is the answer to that! Besides compatibility it also has been given a little bit of a interface revamp, as well as a new icon, with a story behind it. The story is that soon iTunes with overcome CD sales, so they got rid of the CD in there icon. That’s still not all, they also introduced a new service called Ping, that will be built into iTunes 10. Ping allows artists to be able to post concert dates, new songs, as well as pictures and videos of their tours and events. It also allows for general users to, in a Twitter fashion, follow artists and receive those updates. As well as users to post what songs they have purchased and to comment on artist, and friends posts.

Stacks - This is the feature that I noticed right away. Apparently, it’s called Stacks. This is an enhancement to Palm’s already excellent multitasking system. Stacks automatically groups similar apps in one stack. For example, when you open a link in the mail client or an app, the cards (apps) would stick together. I think that this is a nice little organization feature for webOS 2.0

Just Type - Just type is Universal Search for webOS. Although this was already in an older version of webOS, the feature was hidden. If you wanted to search in 1.x, you just type on the keyboard and will give you results. Apparently, Palm wants to make it more visible so they’ve decided to put the search on the home screen. It’s no different than the old search, but developers has APIs for allowing custom search engines that allows you to search in-app and on device.

Exhibition – This feature basically expands the possibilities for Palm’s Touchstone charger, which is similar to Powermat. Palm is allowing developers to make their own small apps like weather info, photo slideshows, clocks, etc. It’s a really nice feature that anyone would appreciate.

Synergy – This feature has been on webOS for quite a while now. If you don’t know what Synergy is, it is a feature that keeps your email accounts and contacts always in sync. This feature reminds me of Microsoft Exchange. Palm has enhanced this feature. They’ve opened up this feature to developers for creating custom address books and IM clients.

HTML5 - Palm is finally adding HTML 5 to their browser. This makes the Palm Pre to support both the popular Adobe Flash and HTML5.

Those are some new major features in webOS 2.0. I’m hoping that this update will also enhance performance and battery life. So, what are your thoughts on webOS? What are some features that you want in it? Please put your answer in the comments.

Picture Source: Engadget

webOS 2.0 Info: Palm

If you are anticipating this event and the products that it may produce, you don’t want to wait a second to know what is going on! So, we are glad to say that both Macworld and Engadget will be covering this even [LIVE]. So, join us and the many others that will be watching every word that is posted. If you are can’t watch the live blogs, don’t worry we will be covering EVERYTHING of meaning that happens at this event! Below are the links were you can access the “live blogs” to see what is happening as it happens tomorrow, also there is a time table so you can see what time to tune in, in your area!

Engadget Live Blog

Macworld Live Blog

The time until the September 1st conference is slowly decreasing, and I can’t help but add an iPad version of the iOS 4 to my wish list. But one wall stands in my minds way. Testing. Apple isn’t a kind of company to just through out a product to it’s audience, so why would that be different for the iPad iOS 4 release. Yes, with every bone in my body I want an iPad firmware update, but it might just have to be for developers for now. So do you think that Apple will just release it to the public on Wednesday, give a beta to developers, or just not mention it at all at this event?

Though the UberKernel will make your Pre uberly quick, but it will uberly kill your battery. Also, the kernel will decrease the CPU and Palm said it might void the warranty.

So on with that and here’s my review of Catalyst 5.8: The Perl MVC Framework.

My Background with Perl

I have to say from the start, that I am by no means a Perl expert. Perl happens to be one of those languages that I’ve used only a few times. But I’m no Perl dummy either; I just… let’s say, don’t have the experience most guys have at it. I only know some of the very basics of Perl.

What the Book Covers

After I finished the book, I was very impressed on how much is in a 228 page book. In Catalyst 5.8: The Perl MVC Framework, they covered every aspect of what a web-developer needs to learn how to use Catalyst 5.8.

Here’s a simple run-down of what this book covers:

• How to install Catalyst and use CPAN
• Learning all the files in the application directory and what their purpose is
• How to add a view
• Adding a database and installing SQLite
• Setting up your basic index page
• Creating web forms
• Authentication and authorization
• Parsing through a database and displaying information in a web-friendly way
• Use of the filesystem module
• Creating an API using REST
• Implementing AJAX in your web application
• Creating a RSS feed
• Covering quite a bit of functionality in Moose
• Setting up your own web-server
• And testing your web application
• And more!

That may sound like a lot for such a small book, but Antano Solar John, the author, did an amazing job at making sure everything ties together and really fits in an excellent place. There wasn’t one bit of text that felt out-of-place or that it didn’t belong in that chapter; in other words, it’s very easy to follow along.

Reference

While working with Catalyst 5.8 on my own web-server, I’ve really learned quite a bit from Catalyst 5.8: The Perl MVC Framework. Creating a “Hello World!” application and following along with everything used in the book is a very easy thing to do. The author makes sure that the code being used in said application would be able to be used in another application; in other words, none of the code is application-dependent and could easily be ported to a new application.

After I finished the book, I ended up with a “Hello World” with Twitter compatibility. Call me crazy for implementing Twitter in a “Hello World!” application, but hey, it was fun to do.

Also, Catalyst 5.8: The Perl MVC Framework provides some free source code to help you follow along with a book and learn from the professional Perl code.

What an Amazing Book

I honestly believe that the author did an amazing job making sure a new user to Catalyst would be able to install, set up, and even deploy their Catalyst application to make it work on any server. In the book, he even wrote about Mac OS X, Linux, and even Windows support on how to install all of this wonderful server-side software on your computer so you can even follow along and run the source code that’s provided with the book. That’s one big plus for any new Catalyst user and for me, because I’m not the best at it per se, it was truly a big help for me being a new user to Catalyst and even Perl.

For a good portion of the book, it guides you through to set up an entire address book that’s fully editable using a SQLite database and how to even create a fully working blog. For these two real-world examples and with all the harder topics being discussed like authentication, this will help quite a bit of web-developers out there looking to use Catalyst for their web applications.

While speaking about real-word examples, Catalyst 5.8: The Perl MVC Framework covers a couple of things I have difficulty with when using PHP to build my web applications: sessions, REST (API), and AJAX. With Perl modules like the FormBuilder, I have no idea why people even bother writing their forms in raw HTML these days. Because I’m a PHP guy myself, I’ve learned one thing from this book that might just get a hard-core PHP guy to switch over to Perl: Perl with Catalyst 5.8 makes hard things very easy things to do, it speeds up application programming development big time with using all of the modules available on CPAN, and it even helps with database management by converting a SQLite database into a “Perl-friendly” way of manipulating that information. No more of using “SELECT * FROM…”, you can do that and even more easily with Perl.

This may sound old school, but Catalyst 5.8: The Perl MVC Framework also provides quite a bit of images in the book to make sure your website is looking the way it’s supposed to and see what’s coming up next. A text-only book can get quite a bit boring and with these images is spices things up.

As you can see, I’ve learned quite a bit from Catalyst 5.8: The Perl MVC Framework and I think Packt might of just made me switch to Perl for one of my upcoming web-projects.

Hey, Nothing’s Perfect

There has been some cases in Catalyst 5.8: The Perl MVC Framework where they use some “un-supported” Perl modules from CPAN. The main thing I’m speaking about here is TTSite. I do have to say this though, when the author decided to use some “un-supported” Perl modules, he clearly states that and sometimes even provides some alternatives that he won’t cover in the book. Now some developers can argue the using an “un-supported” module is a bad thing, but I beg to differ. It’s great that he discusses Perl modules that are like that, but it might be best if he spent about a page or two to give you a run-down of how to do the same thing without that “un-supported” Perl module (for example, using the highly supported, Template Toolkit). Because Catalyst 5.8: The Perl MVC Framework is more geared to beginners, it might be best to not cover “un-supported” modules because if something goes wrong, they might not be able to get out of that hole.

Another thing that really struck me while reading the book is that there are quite a bit of links in this book going to external websites like CPAN. It may be best if Packt invented a very basic URL shortener so the readers of the book don’t need to type in those long links. I would love to visit them, but I would rather not type all of them in my address bar to be fully honest. There’s much room for error when typing any URL in, and if there was a simple URL shortener, even Bit.ly, it may be very beneficial to the reader.

I don’t know if it’s only me, but some of the code formatting is a bit off and because it’s a book, it needs to wrap. It may be best to show a arrow, like in this screenshot, to tell the user that the text was being wrapped there. I find that’s needed for any book with large chunks of source code in it.

Overview

As this is one of the first Perl books that I’ve ever owned/reviewed, I have to say that it is made for beginners. But just for a warning, the book is not meant for learning Perl development. The author assumes you already know Perl and that you wish to expand your Perl knowledge with web-development using Catalyst 5.8.

I would have to highly recommend that you would take a read at this book if you are a Perl developer looking to use your web-development skills and Perl skills together to create one awesome Catalyst application. Catalyst 5.8: The Perl MVC Framework focuses on almost every aspect a web-developer needs to know to create even the most advanced websites. So if you’re looking to take on Facebook or even YouTube, this book will give you some of the knowledge to write it using Catalyst!

If you’re interested to read more about the book, click the following link – Catalyst 5.8: The Perl MVC Framework or to view more books provided by them, visit Packt!

*Note: I’ve tried out all of the phones that I’m going to talk about in this post.

#5. HTC Aria- Price: $129 w/ 2 yr contract

Pros:

1) My first favorite thing about the Aria is the design. The HTC Aria is very small and pocket friendly. It has a very nice matte finish on the back and has four screws, which gives the Aria a nice industrial look.

2) The second thing I like about the Aria is Android. Android is an open-source mobile OS that I’ve been DYING to try out. It has the best notification system, almost unlimited customizability, and Google integration.

3) The third thing I like about the Aria is it’s speed. The phone features a 600MHz processor and 384 MB of RAM. Although this is no SnapDragon, it’s still pretty darn quick. Swiping through home screens, scrolling, and overall system performance was pretty good for it’s size.

Cons:

1) The thing I really don’t like is it’s screen. It’s 3.2 inches with a resolution of 480×320. With the small screen, the typing experience was very cramped in portrait and browsing the web with the screen is lackluster.

2) The second thing I don’t like is the construction. The phone is light mainly because it’s mostly made out of plastic and it feels a little cheap.

4. Palm Pre Plus- Price: $99 w/ 2 yr contract

The Palm Pre Plus is Palm’s phone with their own webOS platform. It isn’t the most popular phone in the world, but it deserves some credit.

Pros:

1) The first thing I like about the Palm Pre is it’s portrait keyboard. I absolutely love portrait sliders. (I have a post about why I like them) The keyboard might look a little cramped, but it’s still pretty decent. It’s a lot more tactile than the original Palm Pre and it’s slightly bigger.

2) The second thing I like about the Pre is webOS. I LOVE webOS in many ways. I find it very intuitive and revolutionary. Particularly it’s multitasking system. In my opinion (could be a fact ), Palm’s execution of multitasking is probably the best out there. When you exit out of an app, the app will zoom out into a card. If you would like to close the app, simply swipe up on the card.

Cons:

1) The thing I noticed right away with the Pre is it’s performance. Performance on the Pre was pretty slow, especially when you have a bunch of applications open. Apps like the browser, mail, maps, and even the calculator opened slowly. I just hope that Palm release a Pre with a SnapDragon or a high-end CPU.

2) The second thing I don’t like is a problem that I have with the Aria. That problem is the small                                                                              screen. It’s basically the same reasoning as the Aria.

3. iPhone 4- Price: $199 w/ 2 yr contract

The iPhone 4 is Apple’s 4th gen iPhone. It’s the biggest overhaul in the iPhone family and packs a lot of features in one small device.

Pros:

1) The first thing you’ll notice with the iPhone 4 is the screen. The iPhone 4 has the “Retina Display”, which has an amazing resolution of 960×640 with a crazy 362ppi. With that kind of ppi, the screen is amazing. First, you can’t see the pixels at all on the icons, text, and graphics. It basically looks like it has been painted on to the phone. The Retina Display also uses the LED and  IPS technologies, which are found on the iPad. Overall, you have to go into an Apple Store and experience it.

2) The iPhone 4 has a new 5 megapixel camera with LED flash and it records video in 720p at 30 fps. Although the megapixel count isn’t as big as the EVO’s, but it by looking at the photos from the iPhone 4, they look awesome. What’s cool about the iPhone 4 is that it support’s Apple’s iMovie app for the iPhone. You can do full-blown editing on an iPhone app.

Cons:

1) The thing I despise about the iPhone 4 is it’s glass front and back. Although it gives the iPhone 4 a very nice and sturdy design, it’s extremely fragile. If you drop the phone on it’s back, it’s guaranteed to shatter.

2) The biggest issue with the iPhone 4 is iOS. Yes, you heard me, iOS. I know it’s very easy to use and seamless, but it’s getting old. As a power user, I demand better multitasking, better customization WITHOUT hacking, and a good notification system. I just want to talk about those demands for a second. First off, let’s talk about the multitasking. I personally don’t like Apple’s implementation because you have to make your app to work with multitasking. That basically means that not all apps in the App Store will support it, unless the developer is not lazy and goes to Xcode to add the multitasking API. I understand Apple is trying to keep system performance quick, but I’m willing to sacrifice that for true multitasking. Let’s talk customization. Customization on iOS is very minimal. You can basically change the wallpaper and that’s it. I know you can jailbreak it, but I personally don’t like hacking. The third and final thing is notifications. This is a biggie. Apple’s notification system has to be the worst implementation in the world. If your friend sends an IM, it interrupts what you are doing, which can get really irritating.

2. BlackBerry Torch- $199 w/ 2yr contract

Now, I bet you weren’t expecting this at all. In my opinion, the Torch is my 2nd favorite phone. I’ll go over why.

Pros:

1) The Torch’s screen is 3.2 inches and has a resolution of 480×360. Now, this isn’t the highest resolution, but the screen is really bright and vibrant. Also, the touchscreen responsiveness was pretty good.

2) The second thing I like about the Torch is the trackpad, touch screen, and keyboard combo. It’s a really nice combo because you don’t have one way to operate the phone. I think the trackpad will come in handy, when you are using this phone with one hand.

3) The third thing I like about the Torch is BlackBerry OS 6. To be honest, I was never a fan of the BB OS, but when I played with OS 6, I loved it. I liked it because of how the slick the UI looked, how it handles notifications, and how it integrates all of your social media in one app. I also liked the media player. It’s not the best thing in the world, but I think it’s good enough for what I do and also, it has Wireless Syncing!

Cons:

1) The web browser on the Torch is ok. The browser is web-kit based, supports full HTML, and multitouch. It sounds promising, but the experience is a little sluggish. Sites like TechCores took about 15 seconds on a Wi-Fi network. If you are trying to load New York Times, you’ll be waiting till Christmas. (Not really )

2) When I played with the phone for a while, I noticed that the phone can get a little sluggish. I’m not totally sure what the CPU is clocked at, but I think it’s around 600MHz.

1. Samsung Captivate- $199 w/ 2 yr contract

The Samsung Captivate is AT&T’s first high-end Android smartphone. This phone is my #1 phone and this will be my next phone purchase.

Pros:

1) The screen on the Captivate is stunning. It’s a 4 inch Super AMOLED screen with a resolution of 800×480. The resolution isn’t as high as the iPhone 4, but the text still looked pretty good. What’s great about AMOLED is that it doesn’t use any power when it’s displaying blacks.

2) The second thing I like about this phone is the speed. This phone is just blazingly fast. It has the 1GHz Humming Bird processor, which is similar to the A4 chip and has 512MB of RAM. Swiping through home screens, scrolling, and overall system performance was pretty good.

3) The third thing I liked about the Captivate is it’s design. The Captivate is only 9.3 mm thin and has a carbon fiber like battery cover on the back. The design reminds me of a squished BlackBerry Storm for some reason.

4) The forth thing I like about this phone is Android. Android is an open-source mobile OS that I’ve been DYING to try out. It has the best notification system, almost unlimited customizability, and Google integration. But, Samsung just makes the experience even better with their TouchWhiz skin. In my opinion, this is better than HTC Sense. It’s less in-your-face and it’s a lot lighter. The UI is very iPhone like and has some cool widgets like Daily Briefing, which gathers local news, weather, and stock quotes in one widget.

Cons:

none!

What’s your favorite phone? Do you like your current phone? If so, what is it? Please put your answer in the comments.

Welcome, to App Fanatic Fridays!

App Fanatic Fridays, or AFF, is a weekly blog post about the top application on the Apple App Store for either the iPhone/iPod touch or the iPad. Todays post is going to be taken from the Tops list for the iPhone/iPod touch, an application called Angry Birds.

Angry Birds

Can you believe it!?!?! The pigs stole the birds eggs! How could they? Well join the force on getting the eggs back, in the not so ordinary way. We aren’t asking for the eggs back we are launching other birds at the pigs, avoiding the obstacles, trying to kill them. Not the most ordinary idea, but who doesn’t like to think, or play, outside the box sometimes…or all the time!

So you start out with a line of birds, a slingshot, and pigs protected by objects made of various materials, hence varying in strength. This can only go one way… As the first bird jumps into the sling shot you are able to customize its speed and angle of projection by slinging your finger back, forth, up, and down. By releasing your hold on the bird the sling shot does its thing and then is launched in the direction, hopefully towards the target object… As you can see in the screenshot to the right there may be objects protecting the pigs from the birds. This is when it gets challenging, you have to find a way to either have to objects fall on the pigs or a way to destroy the obstacles and then the pigs.

Overall it is a fun and “out of the box” way to pass the time. One of the best and simplest applications on the gaming section of the App Store, and indeed it has earned its way to the top of the iTunes Apple Store list.

Click One Of the following links to download this application!

Please check out our website and Facebook. If you can support us by giving us a shout out that would be awesome! Stay tuned to our Facebook and Youtube for upcoming updates/information if you are interested in our clan: D4RK

I have posted a new poll for Tech Cores, relating to the post on the September 1st Apple event!

Here are the results for the last poll, thanks for voting!

iOS: 7

Android: 9

Blackberry: 1

Windows Mobile: 5

webOS: 1

Apple has announced it will be holding a “Special Event” on September First! There will be live blog posts from Engadget keeping us here at home updated on the latest news of the event! So, I have compiled a small list of some of the posts here on Tech Cores that might be on topic for this event! Post you predictions about this event in the comments section, I can’t wait to hear what you think is going to happen! I personally am hoping for the release of iOS4 on the iPad and some type of Facetime feature on the iPod touch!

The Countdown is Dwindling while the Rumors are Piling Up: iPod touch 4G

iPod Touch 4G – What’s Going to Happen?

Google Voice has been a great launch for Google but in an effort to bring it to more people they have integrated it with there amazing email client Gmail. But not only have they done that but they have integrated there browser application for Windows, Mac and Linux which allows you to use your web browsers, in addition with this add-on to call any number or any of your Google contacts with the normal Google voice rates. In most situations this is a great thing to have, it allows you to use a better mic and speakers than your normal, cell or landline, phone have and it is extremely convenient if you already use the Gmail web interface.

So, we all know Google didn’t just pull this idea out of the sky, they are now competing with VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) clients of the like. But with out a doubt there biggest competitor is Skype. Though Google voice is lacking an actual desktop application unlike most VOIP clients would. Now don’t be lead astray we have full confidence that Google will be releasing a desktop application, especially after it bough a company called Gizmo5 which is undoubtedly the framework Google will use in this desktop application, but for now they have made a big stride in Goggle voice by not only allowing people to call through there browser but they also made it more public by including it in their Gmail interface!

Note: This post was from 3/31/10. It has been modified to have Android 1.5 instead of 1.6 and the pricing/availability.

I’ve been using Photoshop for a number of years now. In the very beginning stages of learning how to use the more advanced features of Photoshop, I remember watching videos that were not even fifteen minutes. To watch a video that long and to only learn one new feature is just ridiculous in my mind. That is why Photoshop In 5 was created. In these series of videos and blog posts, we’ll have a video attach to every one of our posts that will be under five minutes long. No more of being bored when watching tutorial videos or grabbing a coffee just to wait for that fifteen minute HD video to load.

Welcome to the very first episode of Photoshop In 5. Photoshop in 5 is a video series dedicated for anyone to learn Photoshop tips and tricks in five minutes or less. In this episode, we’ll cover color replacement.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

And of course, please leave your comments below leaving your thoughts on our new video series. If the video above was helpful, please give it a thumbs up on YouTube and be sure to leave your comments for what we should do next!

Yah, I know its not the best Photoshop job, but it’ll do for now! We are everyday getting closer to the inevitable Apple® event were Steve Jobs will come on stage wearing the typical black shirt and blue jeans, and give the world the next innovation in the mobile media player world. Over the last couple months there has been a flood of comments and rumors coming into various sites about what new and great features this “iPod touch 4G” will be sporting on stage! And, no I don’t count them some way adding a way to death grip your iPod touch so it dies or something of the like a feature! But on to the real stuff!

Facetime and Camera(s)

This is a well wanted feature that was recently added to the iPhone 4. Recently Apple® released the 3rd revision of the 4.1 beta firmware to developers with an option to Facetime with only your email address, hence giving iPod users a way to use this feature. But, you can’t just add the software, you need the accompanying hardware to go with it! In which case would lead us to believe that it would be sporting at least a front facing camera. But why would we stop there, lets just carry over the “last year’s” rumor of a back facing camera too. Though just as hopeful as the fest of the monkey barrel, Apple needs to leave some space between there products, and the iPhone already has two cameras.

Case Design

If you look at the case designs of the iPhone and iPod touch, they have been different yet somewhat close. Generation 1: Kinda Boxy… Generation 2 and 3: Rounded and no big change on the generation hop, and lastly Generation 4: [iPhone: Glass front and back, total redesign] So it leads me to hope that there will be a new case design for the iPod touch 4G.

Internal and External Workings

You know the stuff that only us geeks will care about? Well I think that Apple absolutely will add not only there newest, latest, and greatest A4 processor to the new iPod but they will also the new higher resolution Retina Display.

So, what do you think Apple will do next to there iPod touch line?

Music is great, so why can’t your headphones be just as good, or even better? Yes, that’s right music can sound better when you aren’t listening to it through your stock Apple® Earbuds. But how? One example, the V-MODA Crossfade LPs. The headphones that sound as great as they look!

Lets Get It Started

The Crossfade LPs are a high quality and meticulously designed pair of headphones. Built as much for the hardcore audiophile as everyday user they are a great mix of style and quality. Now like I always say first impressions are everything, so the box better be as nice as the product, and let me tell you, it is! From the alligator skin like  handle and strap and the red security ribbon, its nothing but “high class” from the inside out, and that goes for the head phones too. When you first open the box you are greeted with the Crossfade LPs #1 accessory, the exoskeleton carrying case. Inside the exoskeleton you will fond not only the headphones, but V-MODA’s “V-STRAP” system so the included 3.5mm, detachable, audio cables aren’t going to get lost easily. Also included is a 3.5mm to 1/4” adapter so these headphones can be used with professional audio equipment as well as your normal iPod or MP3 player. Mentioned above are the two 3.5mm audio cables. One shorting, sporting a three button remote control and microphone similar to the remote found on the Apple® Earphones. Also another one, longer yet lacking the remote and mic, for just plain audio. Both of the cables are Kevlar® reinforced so they will be less likely to break as well as tangle.

Design and Sound

V-MODA hit the bulls eye on style with these headphones. They stated that they spent 4 years developing and tweaking the style and other aspects of these headphones to what I would call close to perfection. I would like to quote Val Kolton, CEO of V-MODA, “Your headphones should be as unique as your style and your music – they are the most visible product that you wear and experience music with everyday…”. What this shows is that head phones need to reflect their sound quality in their design. I have bought headphones that sound great but look like they got put through the slicer in the Deli more that through the manufacturing machine and headphones that nailed the design but sounds like there was construction in the recording studio. With a 50mm Dual-Diaphragm High-Def Drivers, there is plenty of sound to go around. But with power come the fact of overpower-ment, and at times the bass can get a little out of hand with some types of music, but then again for most DJs that’s a good thing.

Summary

When V-MODA says “Ground Breaking” they mean it, these are a great set of headphones. With the V-MODA “Replay Replacement Program”, a life time warranty that allows a 50% off discount on the same headphones if they break after the normal warranty, they are also guaranteed to last you a long time. So, for the $250 investment, I would highly recommend these headphones to any user that is looking for great style and sound quality!

Information and Order Page

We’ve been using InMotion Hosting since late Q4 of last year up to recently. We’ve stopped using them for many reasons, but here are my reasons why we switched and why we even went with them in the first place. There are quite a few great things that happened with our time with InMotion Hosting, but it seems that the bad always outweighs the good. From all that has happened to us in such a short time, which everything is written in this blog post, is just saddening to see happen. Hopefully this blog post will help you find out if you want to use InMotion Hosting’s service or even to drop them even based on our original thoughts.

The Good

Why we went with them

My reasoning why we went with InMotion Hosting is actually for a number of good purposes.  We have five good reasons why we picked InMotion Hosting.

1. We needed the expandability. We started out on their business plan and I was planning on that in the future I would upgrade to their VPS plans if we needed it (which ironically we’re powered by a VPS now). And I also picked them because they offered dedicated hosting, which is another major reason for expandability.
2. We needed the support. I’ve worked with many hosting companies and I have to say, InMotion Hosting had one of the best support representatives. But I have to say, their support isn’t the best all the time; we’ll get to that later.
3. We needed the reliability. Because we’re running a blog here that’s on the first page of Google for a variety of search queries, we needed perfect uptime (even though we all know you cannot have 100% uptime because of kernel updates, which requires a restart to apply changes). And their server uptime is great, our server that we were hosting on has been up for around 160 days; that’s great uptime right there.
4. We needed the power. Tech Cores is very minimalistic without a doubt, one of the most minimalistic tech blogs out there, but we still need the power to make sure our system loads and runs quickly. We needed those quad core servers (which we’ll talk more about soon) and a powerful network to make sure our content will get served to our readers quickly.
5. We needed the top web host. I went out on a huge search last year for the best web host who has won the most awards and such for their perfect uptime, support, and reliability. And I have to say, they really did have all of that while I was hosting with them but things started to go way down hill (we’ll get to it soon).

The Bad

Why we left them

I really have to say right off the bat that InMotion Hosting was a great web-host for a good period of time. But when things went wrong with their system, it seems to be that they didn’t know what to do.

1. Their support was a bit brain-dead sometimes. I have to say, their support was great most of the time, but I can name a few names at InMotion Hosting who’s support representatives really don’t know what they’re are talking about. Like for example, there is this one support representative that basically has no idea about a couple of things and he/she asks one of the colleagues working with them every single time I posed a question. I don’t want to be put on the phone waiting for a support representative to ask someone else because that support representative doesn’t have the proper training/knowledge. That’s bad training right there and to be honest, I didn’t want to deal with it. I honestly felt like I wanted to hang up and call back to hopefully get a smarter support representative.
2. Their servers are over-sold. When you have a host that has around 50GBs of RAM on their servers and only 300MB of it is left, that says something right there to a server guy like myself. I can almost guarantee you that they might have some VPS plans on the same server we were hosting on. To occupy that much RAM on a shared server is ridiculous. It might be cPanel’s/WHM’s fault with all those hosting accounts, but honestly, that’s scary to look at a server occupying that much RAM.
3. Their bandwidth usage is huge. I’m seeing around 20TB (yes, terabytes) being sent from this one server. Because it’s a shared server, I don’t have any idea on what the timeframe is for that, but that’s one over-sold server if you ask me. We’re on the business plan so you might think that they might have a set limit about how many accounts they have on a server, but seriously, 20TB being sent is a rather large number on one server. I don’t know about you, but the very first thing that pops up in my head is that they might not only be hosting their business accounts on that server.
4. The server has it’s laggy days. Some days, I have noticed that the server is dreadfully slow. This can happen to any hosting company for lots of reasons, but sometimes waiting 5+ seconds just for the domain to resolve. With the server being powered by four processors (Intel Xeon X5560), it’s quite the beast of a server. The fifteen minute load average is at about 4.5, so that’s not too bad per se, but remember, it’s one beast of a server with a large amount of accounts on it.
5. When something goes wrong, things get crazy. For about two months straight, we were having problems gathering statistical information via a widely used program, AWStats. This is most likely caused by cPanel’s system, but I didn’t care what was causing it. I contacted the highest guy over at InMotion Hosting I could (the co-founder) and I was able to get it fixed by letting the system admins (who I have talked to on the phone for many hours) move Tech Cores over to a new (and more powerful) server on their network. Granted that this did fix the issue, but why did I have to tell the system admins to do it? It took two months for me to get my butt off the chair, step up and talk to the co-founder, and get the system to collect statistical information correctly by moving to a new server. Why didn’t the system admins offer that after many days of struggling, I don’t know, but what I do know is that they did try get it fixed, so I have to give them credit for that. I got in direct contact with the system admins (people who actually know how the system really works) and we were able to get that issue sorted out. But for the fact that it took two months is outrageous.
6. Their legal support doesn’t listen. I contacted the legal support department at InMotion Hosting to ask them some clear and straightforward questions about one of the websites I’m starting up (which will not be hosted with them as of now) that would be hosted on their servers at the time, and they responded by saying this message, “InMotion Hosting is unable to offer legal advice. We recommend that you get in touch with a lawyer to get detailed answers to your questions.” If you ask me, that would be a failure on their part to read my original message that clearly stated I would be hosting it on their servers. I was not pleased at all with their response and when I replied back to their message, they never got back to me. I had to go through at least five support representatives to get the answer I needed after that. Their legal department needs to read the whole email and not glimpse through it. If I’m asking a serious legal question about my business with them, I expect a serious response back and not their failure to read the email I’ve sent.
7. Their servers aren’t entirely secure. Earlier this year in January, we had a major phishing attack on Tech Cores that made quite a few systems block Tech Cores from viewing all because a secure hole in InMotion Hosting’s system. Basically, a user was able to use our domain as a plot for a phishing attack but letting the information on another account on the same server be served. To explain this in an easier fashion, they were able to use a link like “http://techcores.com/~accountname/phishattack.html” that used “accountname”, a different InMotion Hosting customer on the same server, and use our domain to view a file on their own account. Obviously this is a major secure hole and InMotion Hosting said that the offending code that caused it was in our Apache’s .htaccess file for the main domain. But to be fully honest, they should prevent this on their end and not the customers end. I expect more security from a host as big as InMotion Hosting. Even if they suspend the account that caused it, which they did, it still leaves that trail on our end which I do not appreciate at all. As a server admin myself, I know for a fact that they could of prevented this.
8. When there’s an issue, they don’t contact you. We had one issue with our Roundcube installation (which cPanel controlled) accessing its database. Because I wondered why I could not access my own webmail, I contacted support and they were aware of the issue. But for the fact that they didn’t post any notification at all kind of startles me. If there’s something wrong, and they knew about it, they should, with all due respect, contact their users on said server about the issue and not wait for their users to contact them. It saves them the trouble of them receiving calls and emails from their customers and it also saves their customers time to inform them about the issue.

Hopefully this will help some of you InMotion Hosting customers who are currently using their service and also those looking to switch over to them. Please remember this though, everything listed is our experience with InMotion Hosting. Your experience may be different, but this is what happened to us. As of right now, we are currently off InMotion Hosting’s servers and we are hosted on our own VPS. I’m honestly done with InMotion Hosting’s service and will not be returning because of our bad experiences with them. All of this happened in just eight months and I’m afraid to see what would happen longer if we would of stayed with them.

R2-D2 Droid 2

I know Jeffrey is the phone guy here on Tech Cores, but I decided to try something a little different.

Anyways, the Droid 2 was released August 10th. Later on, Motorola announced a special edition of the Droid that will be released on Verizon in late September called, “R2-D2 Edition.” The only difference is the case. If you are a Star wars fan or have seen Star Wars before, you will know what R2-D2 looks like. This phone has no price yet but I’m guessing it will be a  little more than the price for the Droid 2. So buckle your seat belts because we will be taking off to a galaxy far, far away to discover this upcoming device.

Also, with this 15 minute video length, you can now make a more sophisticated video without knowing you have to rush and give all the information you can as quickly as possible. I am excited for this, so please leave your thoughts below. Should they make the length even longer? Or should they keep it how it is?

In a very short time, they have done something incredible for any company. They have just announced their business services division, which basically allows companies to launch contests right in an iPhone app. Okay, you might say, “so what?” Well, that’s not just it. They have also partnered up with General Electric, which in my mind, is one huge improvement for any company.

Because of the perfect system that Appswell has created, GE wanted to get in on it also. Because of GE’s Ecomagination Challenge, Appswell made it possible by making their system power their iPhone app.

Their iPhone app, entitled GE Challenge on the App Store, is powered by the remarkable system Appswell created in Q4 of last year.

To just refresh your knowledge of Appswell, basically, users like yourself reading this post sometimes have a great idea for an iPhone app, but they’re not a developer or they don’t want to spend any money to make said app. Appswell makes it possible for people like you to get your ideas out to the world and get some money from it all for free!

And of course, if you’re a business looking to use Appswell’s amazing system, visit their business website:

http://www.appswell.com/business

If you want to learn more about their app or even their service, all the information is listed on their website:

http://www.appswell.com/

The question is, what’s next for Appswell?

Design

iPhone 4 on it's side

When it comes to design, the iPhone 4 has the most substantial change of any other iPhone. The iPhone 4 now has a glass front and back with a stainless steel band around the phone. With those materials, the phone feels noticeably heaver and feels more premium in your hand. The major draw back with the glass back and the glass front is that the phone is way more fragile and feels delicate in your hand.

iPhone 3GS

The 3GS has the traditional curved plastic back with tapered edges and a chrome bezel, but it’s a little thicker. The drawback of the plastic back is that it scratches easily and it does feel a little cheap. Although, I personally like this design better because I can get a better grip on the phone.

Performance

The Apple A4

WIth the iPhone 4, you get the Apple A4 processor, which the iPad has and 512MB of RAM instead of the 256 from the 3GS. When I tried the iPhone 4 at the Apple Store, I didn’t really notice a difference between my 3GS. The only difference I noticed were the animations, but thats it. Overall, I find the performance to be the same.

Screen

The AMAZING Retina Display

When it comes to the screen, the iPhone 4 just owns the iPhone 3GS. The iPhone 4 has the “Retina Display”, which has an amazing resolution of 960×640 with a crazy 362ppi. With that kind of ppi, the screen is amazing. First, you can’t see the pixels at all and the icons, text, and graphics looks like it has been painted on to the phone. The Retina Display also uses the LED and  IPS technologies, which are found on the iPad. Overall, you have to go into an Apple Store and experience it.

Small Image = Low Resolution Screen

The iPhone 3GS’ screen has a 320×480 LCD screen with a ppi of 164. The screen is still crisp, but compared to the 3GS, it’s a pixelated mess. The screen does not use IPS or the LED technology. I personally like the lack of IPS because I don’t really want people to look at my screen.

Camera

The iPhone 4 has a new 5 megapixel camera with LED flash and it records video in 720p at 30 fps. Although the megapixel count isn’t as big as the EVO’s, but it by looking at the photos from the iPhone 4, they look awesome.

The iPhone 3GS has a 3 megapixel camera with VGA recording. The picture quality on the iPhone 3GS is alright, but not as good as the iPhone 4. The video recording is pretty good on the 3GS, but once again, not as good as the iPhone 4′s HD recording.

Conclusion

Overall, both the 3GS and the iPhone 4 are great phones. They both have their ups and downs. If you have the iPhone or the iPhone 3G, you should definitely upgrade. The improved performance and the dramatically improved screen is going to enhance your experience. If you have the 3GS, I would wait. For me, the screen is still good, the performance is still zippy, and I like the old design better.

Note: All images were from Apple.