Printed from www.pcpro.co.uk
Posts Tagged ‘ apple ’
My favourite Android apps
Thursday, October 15th, 2009
After Editor/Overlord Tim Danton gave it a glowing review last month I took the plunge and upgraded my aging phone to the HTC Hero – and, so far, it’s been a fantastic experience. Android is proving to be a solid OS and HTC’s TouchFLO 3D interface makes the phone more intuitive than any I’ve used before.
I’ve been particularly impressed by the Android Market, though, which has introduced me to numerous tools and widgets that have quickly become indespensable.
Take Google’s own Places Directory, which is a prime example of how apps can be used to make life easier. Using the Hero’s built-in GPS, the software notes down your location and figures out what banks, bars, restaurants, shops, attractions and transport links are in your area – and then provides you with a route to the service you’ve chosen using Google Maps, which updates in real-time. It’s already proved invaluable when wandering around unfamiliar areas of London and works extremely well – and is a superb advert for the Hero.
Palm should leave Apple alone
Monday, October 5th, 2009
I challenge you to name something – anything – more ludicrous than the war of attrition being waged by Palm against Apple.
I realise that looks the wrong way round. Palm is the smaller company. The weedy David to Apple’s giant Goliath. But each time the chance to go to war with a company several times its size has been presented, Palm has reached for it with both hands like a 19-stone man lunging for cake.
I’m talking, in case you’re not following the smartphone market as closely as you should, about Palm’s moronic battle to keep the Pre compatible with iTunes.
Meet the Adamo XPS… from Apple?
Thursday, September 10th, 2009
Regular readers of our reviews section will know we drooled all over Dell’s Adamo a few weeks back. Its metal slab design, superb build quality and all-round bloody loveliness won over most of the PC Pro crew and even elicited reluctantly positive grunts from several of MacUser’s troops too.
So what’s this Dell is now teasing? (Click to enlarge)
Puzzlingly, it’s a new 9.99mm-thin Adamo XPS laptop that looks remarkably like a MacBook Air. (more…)
Mac OS X 10.6: a quick look at Snow Leopard
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009
It wasn’t mentioned on the 10 o’clock news. It barely got a mention in the newspapers. Many non-Apple interest web sites didn’t mention it. When I went to the flagship Apple Store in Regents Street on Friday lunch time, there weren’t queues round the block (though there were a few inside). It seems that Apple have managed to launch a new product without all the usual fuss.
However, I am sure that everyone who reads this article will know that Snow Leopard is the update to Mac OS X that was released last week. Obviously as a keen Mac user, I did go and buy it on the day it launched and I did install it on my MacBook over the weekend but was it worth the £25 I paid for it?
The PC Pro Father’s Day gift guide
Thursday, June 18th, 2009
Father’s Day is this Sunday and, as the big day looms ever closer, there’s now little time left to go out and hunt for the ideal gift. Just turn to the PC Pro A List, then, for the perfect presents that you can rush out and buy before it’s too late.
Those with photographic fathers are spoilt for choice: there are superb choices available no matter what you’re looking for, whether it’s a compact, DLSR or video camera.
First look: four new Packard Bell laptops
Monday, June 1st, 2009
While Packard Bell is making plenty of fuss about its AMD-powered netbooks, the firm’s new line-up of full-size laptops has plenty of potential, too.
The most exciting of the new models is the EasyNote TR series, which takes a leaf out of Apple and Sony’s books by concentrating on design just as much as hardware. And it’s not just any old in-house designers who are putting together these latest laptops, either – Packard Bell has enlisted the help of Italian design house Pininfarina to make sure that the TR can match up to the best in the business.
First look: Sony Walkman X-series
Tuesday, May 12th, 2009
Sony has taken the wrapping off its most obvious iPod Touch competitor yet – the OLED-equipped X-series Walkman.
We’ve been hands-on with Sony’s latest addition to the Walkman family at the London launch and, while it’ll have to go some way to beat the all-conquering iPod Touch and iPhone duopoly, we’ve come away impressed.
Apple earns Reznor’s wrath
Tuesday, May 5th, 2009
Glorious. Potty-mouthed rocker Trent Reznor – creative force behind the eternally agitated Nine Inch Nails – has taken a pop at Apple for rejecting his latest NIN iPhone app update. Apparently, the app contained some objectionable language which violated Apple’s Ts & Cs. Needless to say, this does not sit well with the Reznor.
Bask in the seething hostility of his response posted on the NiN official forums: “I’ll voice the same issue I had with Wal-Mart years ago, which is a matter of consistency and hypocrisy. Wal-Mart went on a rampage years ago insisting all music they carry be censored of all profanity and “clean” versions be made for them to carry. Bands (including Nirvana) tripped over themselves editing out words, changing album art, etc to meet Wal-Mart’s standards of decency – because Wal-Mart sells a lot of records.
“NIN refused, and you’ll notice a pretty empty NIN section at any Wal-Mart. My reasoning was this: I can understand if you want the moral posturing of not having any “indecent” material for sale – but you could literally turn around 180 degrees from where the NIN record would be and purchase the film “Scarface” completely uncensored, or buy a copy of Grand Theft Auto where you can be rewarded for beating up prostitutes. How does that make sense?”
10 things Apple is more likely to buy than Twitter
Tuesday, May 5th, 2009
There are wild rumours doing the rounds today that Apple is set to spend $700m on Twitter. Yes, Apple. The company that turns its nose up at anything without a double-digit profit margin is apparently going to buy a service that’s less profitable than a soup kitchen. Right oh.
Here are ten things we think Apple is more likely to splash its cash on:
1. Windows Mobile
3. Greenpeace
4. Maggie Philbin
5. Replacing the Mac OS X interface with the Command Prompt
6. Pears
7. A TV advertising campaign entitled: “Windows, it’s alright actually”
8. A microphone for the Q&A session at the end of MacWorld
9. Cats in Bomber Jackets
10. A new house for Steve
I kissed a flash, and I liked it…
Friday, March 27th, 2009
Someone was asking about SSD drive upgrades in a comment thread; I just took a bit of a risk and tried the OCZ Apex Series 120GB inside my two-ish year old MacBook Pro.
You want the short summary? It works. And how: the machine boots in a shade over 4 seconds.
The detail is where the devil lives, of course. This wasn’t a full test, by any means – i got a recommendation from a mate and thought the risk worth taking: I wanted to extend the life of the trusty MacBook but if it turned out the whole idea was a non-starter I could always use the SSD in a more mainstream laptop, and I wanted to see if the claimed advances in flash architecture really did make the whole concept more usable. Well, that and a conversation with the guys at Overclockers who instantly categorised all the cheaper options by a four-letter word rhyming with “trap”. But then, vendors with new expensive things to sell often do that…
Categories
- About the bloggers
- Green
- Hardware
- How To
- Just in
- Microsoft Office 2010
- Newsdesk
- Online business
- Random
- Rant
- Real World Computing
- Software
- View from the Labs
- Windows 7
Authors
Archives
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
advertisement
