ION iCade vs Atari Arcade vs a real arcade cabinet: Classic gaming gear shootout!

Ah! the 1980’s. A time when hair was big and so were the arcades. Sure, it's 2012 now, and we have more computing power in our iPads than we used to have in our houses, but there's still many a retro gamer just itching to play the classic arcade games on a classic arcade gear. Both the Atari Arcade Duo-powered joystick for iPad and ION Audio's iCade for iPad promise just that -- to give you a flashback of the '80s on the iPad of the '10s. But which is better, and which gives the best real arcade experience?

Since the Atari Arcade vs. ION iCade has been done to death, I decided to up the ante and go full out -- I decided to put the Atari Arcade and ION iCade not only against each other but to put both of them against a full size arcade machine as well. That's right. It's on like Pong! Literally!

Shootout criteria

So how close do the Atari Arcade and ION iCade get in terms of bringing that real arcade experience to the iPad? We've run a series of tests that compare our iPad accessories to the real deal arcade cabinet. For each test we've awarded a point for matching the arcade experience, half a point for effort, or no points for getting it wrong.

Tests included looks, feel, sound, coin feeding, coin staging, aggression proofing, kick resilience, trackball options, awesome art, and two player compatibility.

There were also a few ways the pretenders were better than the real thing, so  so we have some bonus points for the competition.

Those include portability, power efficiency, home convenience, and cost.

So which comes closest?

Here's the point where you watch the video up top and find out!

Bottom line

If you want the genuine arcade experience then get a genuine arcade cabinet!

However, for those who have a more limited budget or more limited floor space and want to relive some of the glory days of arcade gaming, judging from our results, the iCade is your best choice.

  • $70.58 - ION iCade for iPad - Buy now

  • $49.99 Atari Arcade for iPad - Buy now

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/F7WJr2j1RNE/story01.htm

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Zoho Docs 2.0 adds iPad support

zoho docs ipad
Zoho has offered an iOS app for a while now -- at least for the iPhone and iPod touch. Those of you who have been wanting to use the Zoho app on your iPad were out of luck, but that's no longer the case.

Zoho Docs 2.0 has landed in the App Store, and the most notable change is that it's now a universal app. Now you're able to take advantage of the app's mobile productivity powers on your larger iOS device. Retina display support has also been added, as have document sharing options -- which you can utilize in both the viewer and collaboration modes.

Just like the basic Zoho service, the app is available totally free of charge. Paid subscriptions get you additional storage space and start at $3 per month for professional use.

Zoho Docs 2.0 adds iPad support originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 22:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/06/zoho-docs-2-0-app-for-ipad-arrives/

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Microsoft confirms Flash vulnerability fix for Internet Explorer 10 coming soon

Microsoft confirms Flash vulnerability fix for Internet Explorer 10 coming soon

Microsoft has just announced that it will be providing security patches for the Windows 8 IE10-specific version of Flash, despite the software giant initially suggesting it wouldn't. The patch will be available "shortly," and hints at a return to the update cycles of old. More significantly, as ZDNet points out, unless Microsoft coordinates these releases with Adobe, there could be a constant cycle of IE10 being vulnerable in the future. On a positive note, the fix should be released before Windows 8 goes prime time, but for those who jumped on board early, you might want to keep one eye locked on the update page, and get it when it lands.

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Microsoft confirms Flash vulnerability fix for Internet Explorer 10 coming soon originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Sep 2012 11:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/2saW6wX-P6Q/

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Google's Blogger platform adds five new HTML5 Dynamic Views

Google Blogger Mosaic Dynamic View
Google, as part of its ongoing and much-needed overhaul of its popular Blogger platform, has just enabled five dynamic, HTML5ish, AJAXy 'Dynamic Views'. There's a video introducing the new layouts after the break.

The five new views provide fresh and interesting ways to explore your favorite Blogger blogs. The Mosaic view, for example, creates a wall of thumbnails -- click one, and it zooms to fill the screen; click it again and it minimizes. Flipcard is similar to Mosaic, but not quite as eclectic. Sidebar, Timeslide and Snapshot round off the new views, with each one obviously targeted at different types of content, from photo blogs, to text-only philosophy blogs, and everything in between.

For now, you have to visit a Blogger blog and add /view to the URL to enable the new Dynamic Views. If you own a Blogger blog, you can disable the new views -- and really, why weren't they disabled by default?

If feedback is positive -- which we're sure it will be -- these Dynamic Views will soon be enabled by default. You'll also be able to edit the views in much the same way as current Blogger templates.

Continue reading Google's Blogger platform adds five new HTML5 Dynamic Views

Google's Blogger platform adds five new HTML5 Dynamic Views originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 10:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/31/google-blogger-platform-introduces-five-new-html5-dynamic-views/

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Sony reveals HMZ-T2 head-mounted display pricing, launch date and features in Japan

Sony rolled out its first head-mounted 3D visor last fall, and announced the HMZ-T2 followup recently at IFA 2012. Now in Japan it has revealed few more details about the changes it's made this time around as well as a release date and pricing. Scheduled to hit shelves on October 13th, the HMZ-T2 features all the upgrades we'd heard about: lighter total weight, redesigned head strap for improved comfort, ear buds instead of headphones plus 24p cinema support and a "Clear" panel drive mode for fast moving content. While we still don't have a US price the Japanese damage is 70,000 yen ($894), a 10,000 yen ($127) boost over last year's model which cost $799 in the US. Sony Japan has also put together an "Institute for Immersive Pleasure" Facebook page , and plans to show it off again at the Tokyo Game Show. Check out our hands-on impressions from IFA here, we'll let you know when there's more release information for other regions.

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Sony reveals HMZ-T2 head-mounted display pricing, launch date and features in Japan originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Sep 2012 00:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/11/sony-hmz-t2-price-release-date-japan/

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Boats-To-Go MP3 Boombox Review

Back in 1984 (geesh, I’m old) I received a wonderful Christmas present.  It was my very first boom box, and it had dual tape decks and a radio, and a line-in jack to plug up a microphone.  I didn’t want one of those single tape deck boom boxes, no sir. I wanted to be big time. I wanted the ability to copy tapes and maybe record stuff, and I was the envy of the other kids on the block, let me tell you. It was big, heavy, and oh so cool. And my parents shelled out several hundred dollars to get it. Looking back now, it’s sort of laughable, but then again, so were the clothes we wore! Boom boxes were part of the lexicon of my youth, and apparently a lasting part, because you can still buy one today at your local Walmart. Fast forward to 2012 and enter the Boats To Go MP3 Boom Box.  A mere fraction of the size and cost of its former brethren, but still big on cool.

My love affair with MP3 players

I collected CDs for years, and jumped on the MP3 bandwagon as well, filling up my computer hard drive.  Which led me to owning numerous MP3 players in various forms, including 4 different generations of iPods. After a few years though, it became a hassle having to carry them around in addition to my cellphone. So over the last several years, I gravitated toward using my smartphone as my music player because the various apps for listening to music provide me lots of options.  But listening to music on your smartphone, especially music in the cloud like Pandora and Google Music which uses a constant data connection, kills your battery quick. So I don’t use my cellphone to play music at a party, or lounging on the back patio in the evenings.

Enter the Boats To Go MP3 Boombox. (Herein after referred to as the ‘Boombox’.)

Features

The Boombox is almost the size and shape of a small Subway sandwich.  It is a little over 8 inches long, 1.5 inches thick, and 2.5 inches wide. Along the side edges and bottom edge is nothing. On the front is the speaker grill that stretches the entire length of the device, and 3 play buttons are above the speaker grill.  The buttons are for Backward, Pause/Play, and Forward. A fold out kickstand is on the smooth back of the device and surrounds the battery door which houses a Nokia Li-Ion replaceable battery.  The kickstand is a very nice feature because the device has rounded edges all the way around and won’t stand up without the kickstand.  The downside is that the kickstand seems very flimsy to me and is probably the first thing that is going to break on this device.

Along the top edge of the Boombox are all the controls and ports. You’ll find a volume button, USB port, SD card slot, aux line-in port, mini-USB power port, a power indicator light, and the power button that switches between off/music/FM.  If you slide it to FM, the radio turns on and you can use the forward and backward buttons on the front to scroll through the radio dial from station to station. If you slide the switch to music, then it will automatically start playing MP3 files on the SD card or the USB jump drive, whichever has been inserted into their respective ports.

In the box you’ll find the Boombox, a mini-USB to USB charging cable for charging with your computer, an aux line-in cable for connecting other devices (like cellphones) to the Boombox, the battery, and a clear water-proof dry-bag with lanyard for keeping the Boombox dry around water. To use the dry-bag you simply slide the Boombox in the bag, roll the top of the bag down several times and snap the fastener in place. You can now totally immerse the Boombox in water without fear! As a side note, I had no idea how to use the bag because there weren’t instructions in the box. I had to contact the manufacture to get instructions. I feel kinda silly now because of how easy it is, but I still had no idea how to use the bag.

Performance

This little sucker has a really nice sound.  The speakers are rated at 3W, but they sound much bigger than that to me.  When I turn up the volume all the way, I don’t even get that annoying vibrating distorted sound. It just sounds good, and honestly, turning it up all the way is a bit too loud for me.  I used numerous sizes of SD cards and USB drives and the Boombox recognized them all.  I even buried MP3 files in multiple sub folders on those devices and the Boombox found them all and played them.  I plugged up my Android cellphone to the line-in port and played music from the phone, and I also did the same thing successfully with my iPad, and 3 Android tablets.

I only have a few small complaints about the performance. The 3-button controls on the front of the device are very simple.  You can only go forward, backward, and pause/play. So you can’t go directly to the radio station you want and because there is no digital readout of any kind, you can’t tell which radio station you have landed on. Likewise, when listening to MP3 files from the SD card or USB stick, you can’t decide which MP3 files to listen to. If you organize your MP3 files into nice folders it doesn’t matter because you can’t control which songs it plays.  It just grabs songs and starts to play them. So if I was in the mood for just Jimmy Buffet, I could only listen to him if his were the only songs on the SD card/USB stick. I don’t guess that would be a big deal as long as you loaded up the music you want to listen to, but if you plan on loading up your entire MP3 library on an SD card and using this as your daily MP3 player, you’ll probably be a bit disappointed.

Google Nexus 7 tablet on the left. Across the top you see connected a USB stick, SD card, and aux line-in from the Nexus.

 

Finally, battery life of course plays a part in the performance of the device.  The company website states that you’ll get 4-5 hours of battery life, depending on the volume that you use.  I got closer to the 4 hour mark myself. When the battery is getting close to dying, the radio performance tanks, which should be no surprise. So one way of knowing when the battery is close to dying is how strong the station comes through on the radio.

Conclusion

Even with the various misc drawbacks I have mentioned, with a price of $29 the Boombox is a huge value. Big sound, easy portability, multiple ways to listen to music, and a nifty kickstand make this device a wonderfully affordable gift for just about anyone. Boats To Go pitch this product as being ideal for situations where you are around water, like the pool and on the lake.  But I think it is great for just about any situation, especially parties and gatherings where you want some music playing in the background.  I highly recommend it.

Product Information

Price:29.00
Manufacturer:Boats To Go
Pros:
  • Big sound
  • Multiple Options for inputs
  • Kickstand
Cons:
  • No wall charger
  • Controls are very basic
  • Flimsy kickstand

Filed in categories: Audio, Video, TV Gear, Home Tech, Pocket Gear

Tagged: , ,

Boats-To-Go MP3 Boombox Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on September 8, 2012 at 12:00 pm.

Dear President Obama, ask not how you can dial an iPhone, ask how iMore can help you dial!

Dear President Obama, ask not how you can dial an iPhone, ask how iMore can help you dial!

U.S. President Obama seems to have had some problems using an iPhone -- the most usable phone in the world -- this week. He'd borrowed it to make some thank you calls, but couldn't get it to dial. Years of living with BlackBerry had apparently hard-coded hard keyboards into his muscle memory, and made capacitive touch a challenge. Dave Boyer from The Washington Times reports:

"It's not clear he knows how to dial on an iPhone," the reporter wrote in a pool report. Finally, Mr. Obama said, "Oh, I got to dial it in. Hold on, hold on. I can do this. See, I still have a BlackBerry."

Anyone who listens to the iMore show knows that I use the dialer almost exclusively to making calls and it works fantastically well. Clearly, all President Obama needs is an iPhone of his own, and a little time on iMore, particularly our iPhone help and how-to section and our iPhone help and discussion forums. They're friendly, fast-paced, fun, and guaranteed to get anyone from the chief executive of the United States to the chief media officer of Mobile Nations familiar with all the features of modern, mobile touchscreen computing in no time.

Source: The Washington Times

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/MCG8ftu_y-M/story01.htm

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Apple's Hideous Leather Software Is Based on Steve Jobs' Private Jet [Apple]

We hate the way a lot of Apple design looks, these days: virtual leather, felt, wood, and glass. It's like a sleazy game room in your Cool Uncle's basement. Who is making these eye-screwing decisions? Fast Company says it was Jobs. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/OEhPCD66brw/apples-hideous-leather-software-is-based-on-steve-jobs-private-jet

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Two Android events, Hands-on the Lumia 920, Apple iPhone event and more!