On the other hand…

Last night (local time) the new iPad was released. Some found it to be disappointing, others rejoiced. Myself? I’m somewhere in between. I am mostly happy with the update.

The screen is magnificent, no doubt. Just look at the resolution. I reckon it will take me all of one 12th of a second to get used to that raaaazor-sharp text and graphics. It’s simply stunning. And remember people, Apple did it firs. Sure, miscellaneous other tablets might do the same later on, but honestly, how often do you remember the runner-ups? Apple sets the agenda with the finest display yet.

2048×1536 pixels. That’s more than my 24 inch pc monitor. It’s more than the Full HD projector I have in my home theater setup. That’s going to take a hell of a CPU/GPU to drive that, and Apple believes the A5X is potent enough for the job. Apparently the actual CPU part of it hasn’t been much improved, but it now sports a quad-core GPU. That, combined with seemingly 1GB of memory, should be enough for decent performance according to certain developers. Others aren’t so sure.

The demo of Infinity Blade sure looked decent, so I’m pretty certain it will pack a moderate punch, but to be honest, I had been hoping for something better. Of course, we retain the wondrous battery life and since none of us has had the device in our hands and experienced tailor written/optimised software for it, we cannot yet say for sure, just how potent the A5X is.

I’m not sure what else people had been expecting. Haptic feedback? It sounded cool, but a bit too sci-fi for now. A smaller 7 inch little brother? Why? That wouldn’t make much sense. Pressure sensitive display? Would have been nice for painting applications. HD FaceTime? Big deal. A cooler name? Fancier look? Hard to say what people would have preferred, but all I know is this:

It looks great and seems to perform good. I am getting one, unless something really damaging facts turn up. March 23rd, here I come!

-Jacob

Okay, so there are a lot of predictions and speculation going on about the Apple keynote tomorrow.

It’s pretty certain that we’ll see a new iPad, but what new features will it have and what will it be called?

Here are my predictions iPad-wise:

• The name will be “iPad 3″
• It will come in 16/32/64 AND 128GB editions (or at least something bigger than 64, maybe 96GB)
• It will have the “retina” screen with a resolution of 2048×1536
• It will have at least 768MB Ram – hopefully 1GB or more
• It will have the A5X CPU – unfortunately not the A6
• GPU will be slightly faster, but not that much
• It will be slightly thicker but have about the same bezel
• It will have about the same battery life
• The home button will still be present – although maybe in a different form
• It will sport iOS 5.1
• Siri will be included
• Microsoft Office suite in some form will be announced for iPad as well
• There will be demos regarding the new display (well, d’uh)
• A new Smart Cover will be announced – goes without saying
• No LTE
• No haptic screen (ie. not touch sensitive at varying degrees)

-Jacob

For some odd reason I never saw Black Hawk Down in the theater. Big mistake, I know. I have seen it a few times on DVD though and there is no doubt it is an awesome movie, that really should have been seen on the big screen accompanied by a soundtrack played at high volume.

Cue to present day and my current setup. 1080p 3LCD projector, Denon 7.1 amp and Dali speakers. A quick trip to the local mall and hey presto, Black Hawk Down bluray on sale for 69,95 DKK. Remembering how good it was I couldn’t refuse. Watching it in 110″ with Dolby DTS-HD Master audio made up for missing it at the theater.

Pristine picture and one hell of a kick-ass soundtrack, even for a bluray. All the beautiful film grain is intact. If I have to put a finger on something, it has to be the presentation of the bluray. Menus are sparse and so it the extras. Personally I don’t really care too much about extras, as long as the main feature is good to go and in this case it is.

Being from 2001, the movie isn’t very old and it hasn’t aged a day in my opinion. Every single special effect is perfect, camera work is awesome, soundtrack mind bending and every actor gives a good performance. Unless you dislike war movies, Black Hawk Down is pretty much the epitome of modern war movies. It’s not for the faint of heart, depicting war in a very gruesome and realistic way.

The movie is a classic and is to be rated as such.

Rating: 10 out of 10

Ah, coffee! Some people love it, some hate it, and others are quite indifferent towards it. Myself, I find the craving at various times, the cravings to indulge in either a finely brewed black cup or a more soothing latte, cappuccino, mocha, cafe au lait, etc. Until previously, one would have to purchase a rather expensive piece of machinery, in order to brew such special cups yourself. Prices were in the range of 4-5000 DKK. But recently, the introduction of various machines using capsules, prices have lowered a great deal.

The Nescafé Dolce Gusto Circulo will set you back about 1000 DKK, a somewhat easier price to swallow. It’s also very easy to use and maintain, but more about that below.

There is a varied set of capsules available. From normal coffee to the variants mentioned above plus espresso, different kinds of cocoa, chai tea latte, to various cold drinks too (ice coffee, ice tea etc.)

Of course there is a price for convenience, and using the Circulo is very easy:

1. Turn on the machine. It requires a 30 second pre-heating period if started from cold.
2. Fill the water tank with water. It comes off easily and can be filled from tap.
3. Take out capsule tray and insert capsule.
4. Insert glass/cup.
5. Move slider on top to the warm or cold setting, depending on capsule variant, and fill in the amount you wish.
6. Some drinks require two capsules. In that case, remove the first capsule and insert the next. Repeat step 5.
7. Remove capsule and your drink of choice it ready. It usually takes but a minute.

The whole process is very easy and you can’t really mess it up. You can of course personalise some drinks a bit. If you like your cappuccino strong, put it a bit more coffee or a bit less milk etc. Very easy to do.

Like I mentioned above, convenience comes at a price. The capsules aren’t exactly cheap. It usually costs about 40 DKK for 8 cups of drinks using 2 capsules and 16 of drinks using one. I’m sure you could probably make some of them cheaper yourself – at least the black coffees – but as for the rest, I’m not so sure. And besides, there is something about craving a vanilla latte and having it 3 minutes later. The price is worth it in my opinion. Your mileage may vary.

It all comes down to taste and of course the taste is rather important here. Again, it’s a subject to taste, but most of the stuff the Circulo brews taste fine to me. I have had better cups, but you can’t really beat the price and convenience factor. I’ve tasted both Nespressos and Tassimos cappuccino and they do really taste very much alike. Perhaps the Nespresso cup was a bit less sweet, but generally I find the standard pretty high. The chai tea and vanilla latte is a big hit here. The chocolate is also quite good, though I drink very little of such, so I’m not the most qualified to speak of that matter.

Maintenance of the machine is low. It needs cleaning after about every 500th cup so I can’t really say much about that yet. But I can’t imagine it being much work, considering how convenient everything else is.

I might not be the most qualified reviewer of a product like the Circulo, but I will give it my recommendations and say that I’m happy with the machine overall.

Rating: 8 out of 10

-Jacob

Just a heads up to support the nimble Nimblebit and their great effort on Tiny Tower.

Zynga blantantly copied the idea, concept and almost also the execution, as you can see here.

-Jacob

It’s really elementary, my dear Watson. If you are in any way a fan of Sherlock Holmes and the masterful tales about him by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, you need to get this. 

You see, while many people are of the impression that the extraordinaire books cannot be visualised, these DVDs of the 1984-1994 tv-show will prove them wrong. The late Jeremy Brett simply is Sherlock Holmes visualised in person. 

This box has 36 episodes and 5 longer episodes (tv movies) and the total run-time is about 41 hours. That’s almost two days worth of the most atmospheric crime mystery and drama ever filmed for the screen.

With perfect settings, props, clothing and language, you quickly become immersed in this wonderful world of the extremely clever Holmes and his trusty companion, Dr. Watson. Throughout the episodes Jeremy Brett plays Holmes, while Dr. Watson is changed about halfway through. Whether the first or the last is the better, is probably subject to taste. In my opinion both are fine.

The box set comes on 12 DVDs. Picture quality is by no means stellar. Actually is kinda rough, but I’m very much used to watching blu-rays, so it’s a bit unfair for me to expect the same quality. But the quality is perfectly adequate. The stories are great and the audio is clear and fine. Just don’t expect anything special from the visual presentation.

Sound is standard 2-channel stereo and the episodes are subtitled in Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish. Price is about 250-300 dkk depending on where you shop.

The box-set comes fully recommended for splendid entertainment.

Rating: 9 out of 10

-Jacob

I’ve been using a jailbroken iPhone 4 on iOS 5.0 for some weeks now. Was the upgrade from my finely tweaked 4.3.1 worth it?

I think so. Even though my jailbreak is tethered, I’m enjoy the very good Notification Center plugin IntelliScreenX and BiteSMS 6.0 is also shaping up very nicely. Both are still in beta, but are relatively stable. For the last week I haven’t really had any crashes and I’m a fairly heavy user of my phone.

Battery life seems okay on my phone so no complaints there either. The only real downside is the tethering reboots, but 95% of the time a respring is enough.

So far, jailbreaking iOS 5 is very recommendable!

-Jacob

NeoGAF – a well know site to gamers – has a really nice comprehensive list of the best/most popular iDevice games out.

The first 30 games are detailed with screenshots. As for the rest, they are just listed with their name.

Check it out!

Linky

-Jacob

You know when you take a picture with your camera and it turns out blurry? Usually it’s because you’re moving your hand while take the picture.

Now, what if a piece of software could someone attempt to analyze in which way you moved your and, i.e. the path of movement and then unblur the image? Sounds like something out of la-la land or an episode of NCSI or similar? Well, this is getting close to reality, thanks to Adobe’s latest sneak peak of their “deblurring” technology. Watch and be amazed.

-Jacob

If you were one of the many to enjoy Amanita Designs Machinarium, you just might like to watch out for their latest upcoming game, Botanicula. Not much is know, but the teaser below certainly seems loaded with charm, much like Machinarium.

Amanita Design is considering an iOS release as well. Here’s hoping!

-Jacob