I’ve hated other “free texting” apps for the iPhone because they either have shitty interfaces, or they just take waaaay too long to load.
Textie is written by Loren Brichter, developer of the awesome (and soon to be official) Tweetie client for Twitter. That was enough to get me to download the app, as I consider Tweetie one of my most indispensable apps on my iPhone and Mac. It’s free with ad-support or you can pay $1.99 within the app to get rid of the ads.
Textie requires a simple user signup, but once that’s done it looks and feels almost exactly the same as the official “Messages” app on your iPhone, complete with message threading. The best thing about Textie is that it loads just as quickly as Messages does. It supports text and picture messages between email or Textie users. Of course, you can text any mobile phone as normal for free. Unfortunately you can’t MMS, though.
We’ll see how I feel after using it in the wild for a couple weeks, but as of now I’m in love. Go grab it.
(Man, Lefsetz was right, tech guys are the rock stars of the 21st century. As soon as I knew “the guy from Tweetie” was behind this, I gobbled it up like a side project album from “the guy from Radiohead”.)
Many people wonder why their beloved iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads (iDevices) don’t support Flash. People often cite this lacking feature as a reason to avoid Apple mobile products. Today, Steve Jobs published an open letter arguing Apple’s case.
Here’s the TL;DR of what he had to say:
Adobe’s Flash is a proprietary and closed platform. Apple’s pushing HTML5, which is an open web standard not owned by Apple.
Most video on the web is actually in a format viewable by iDevices, H.264. Yes, you can’t play Flash-based games, but games from the app store are better anyway.
Flash is the number one cause for Mac crashes, is full of security holes, and has never performed well on a mobile device.
Most Flash video drains battery life at almost double the rate of H.264.
Flash was designed for mice, not touch devices.
Allowing developers to use Flash for mobile app development means apps created for the lowest common denominator, rather than apps created to maximize the capabilities of iDevices.
Reading this letter made a whole lot of sense to me. I’m a power user. I own both a Mac and a PC. I know firsthand that Flash makes my Macbook fan spin like a tornado and my PC browser crash every day. I couldn’t care less about what format my web videos play in if they load fast, look good, and don’t slow down my device. Yes, it sucks that I can’t play the latest fad flash game on my iDevice, but rare is the case that I run out of things to do on my mobile that I clamor for it.
I don’t have an allegiance to either company; I just want the day to come where I can go to a restaurant website and not have my browser crash.
Without question, one of the killer apps for the iPad is the ability to read comics/graphic novels digitally. While the screen size of the iPad isn’t exactly 1:1 with the size of a comic, it’s close enough to provide an almost identical reading experience. It might be even better than the real thing, since you can easily screen shot pages and email them to friends. No other device on the market currently can offer this capability. In fact, I’ve probably spent more time reading digital comics on the iPad than doing anything else on it so far.
You’ll need to download an app to read comics, as there’s no built-in function on the iPad to do so. I’ve been using Bitolithic’s Comic Zeal 4 for iPad since launch week and have put it through its paces.
TL;DR version of this review: While not perfect, Comic Zeal is worth the $7.99 price if you intend to spend any significant time reading multiple comic files on your iPad.
File Import:
Comic Zeal 4 supports the .cbr, .cbz, and.cbi filetypes for digital comics import. I haven’t come across a situation yet where I needed more filetypes supported, but if you need PDF or RAR support, you’ll need to either convert them or find another app. Transferring comics to the iPad is very simple. You plug in your iPad to your computer’s USB port, navigate to the Apps tab in iTunes, and click on the Comic Zeal icon under the “file sharing” section. From there, you drag and drop any number of comic files to transfer them over. I found transfer speeds comparable to those of mp3 files. Finally, the next time you open the Comic Zeal app on your iPad, there will be a short processing queue for all of the comics you transferred earlier. In the initial version of the app, this process took an unbearably long time. Fortunately, the 4.0.2 update addressed this and the queue is now a minor inconvenience. According to the developer, this extra bit of processing is needed in order to optimize reading performance for the iPad.
I’d like to see a form of Wi-Fi syncing in the future, preferably a solution that accounts for batch file importing. (Update: I’ve been informed that you can do this currently via Comic Zeal Sync, a free Java app downloadable from the Bitolithic website. It is very simple to use and sync. No fiddling with network settings is necessary. It would still be nice to have a solution that doesn’t require the installation of a standalone app, though.) I can see myself in situations where I’m away from my main PC, but would like the capability to add content to read. The recently released free Cloud Reader app offers this capability, but requires far too many clicks in order to get over a large number of files.
The UI:
Comic Zeal UI
As you can see above, Comic Zeal makes good use of pop-over window panes in its interface. The biggest strength of Comic Zeal is its thoughtful interface for organizing and navigating your collection. All of the comics in your collection are represented by icons of the actual comic’s cover. You can then sort your comics into graphically represented long comic boxes (think folders) via a slick tap interface. Once you go into edit mode by tapping the edit button, you can then tap the comics you want to select. Selected comics will jiggle, like when you manipulate icons on the iPad home page. From there you can either delete the selected comics or move them into an “other” or existing folder. You can also change the view to display only icons or text and icons. It’s pretty nice, but there are a few nits I’d pick. A “select all” button would be nice, along with a clarification that the “other…” selection on the move window really means “new folder”. Also, the ability to rename folders seems like an obvious oversight. Finally, as cool as the “jiggling” animation looks, it can be hard to tell what’s jiggling and whats not when you have an entire screen of icons selected. Some simple checkboxes may provide a more salient solution. Nevertheless, organizing your digital collection on Comic Zeal is a treat.
The other icons I didn’t find as useful. The “Recents” and “Downloads” sections are currently useless as they puts the most recently accessed or downloaded files on the bottom, forcing you to scroll through pages before getting to them. (Bitolithic has confirmed this as an issue and will have it fixed for a future release.) There’s also a “Featured” button which should be labeled most appropriately as “Download” or “Store”. From there, you can download selected golden age and Flashback Universe comics for free.
The Reading Experience:
Comic Zeal 4’s reading experience is polished. Your trusty swipe and pinch gestures make it intuitive to flip pages and zoom in and out. Unlike it’s competition, pages are displayed in the correct order and distinctly on each screen. Splash pages automatically resize to fit width-wise in portrait form. You’ll probably want to rotate the screen to landscape in order to properly read the pages without zooming.
There are a few puzzling interface decisions, though. I’ve been trained by iBooks, Kindle, instapaper, Goodreader, and countless other apps that single tapping the middle of the screen hides and shows the menu bars. Single tapping in Comic Zeal zooms in to wherever you tap. It takes a double tap (or a tap on the watermarked arrow) to bring up the menu. You can change this behavior by going into the iPad settings section, but it’s odd as to why the default settings aren’t set up like most iPad apps. I also found myself constantly wanting to tap the margins to change pages, but the app doesn’t have that capability yet. (Bitolithic promises this will be in the new version.)
Buttons on the bottom bar allow you to snap a screen shot, lock the screen orientation, open a file, page forward and backwards, and seek to a page with a slider. I love the screen shot button, as it provides an obvious way to snap a page to share with people. In future versions, I’d like to see this expanded upon to allow for a screen shot of selected panels and easy access to share them via twitter/email/etc. It would also be great to have a way to read lots of consecutive single issues without having to navigate the collection through multiple taps. Perhaps the arrow keys on the bottom menu could be used for next/previous issue in a folder.
Reading in Comic Zeal is a breeze once you learn the quirks of the interface. It’s relatively clean, but could be so much better with a few small changes.
Conclusion:
At iPad launch, Comic Zeal was one of two solutions for reading your own comics digitally. It still is, with the difference being that the alternative app, Cloud Reader, is now free rather than more expensive. That being said, I still think Comic Zeal provides enough in the way of features to warrant the purchase if you plan on frequently reading digital comics. If you’re only looking for an app to demo to your friends or read a digital comic file here and there, you’re better off with the official Marvel app or Cloud Reader.
A promising sign with Comic Zeal is that Bitolithic appears to be listening to feedback and has provided transparency in their development process through their twitter feed. $7.99 is a bit more than an impulse purchase on the app store, but for an app i use constantly, I consider it worth the investment. If Bitolithic follows through on its promises and continually evolves Comic Zeal, it could be the beacon for a true digital comics revolution.
Sometimes simplicity is good in a racing game. Getting into a Forza 3 or Gran Turismo or even memorizing what all the different power-ups do in Mario Kart can be a daunting experience. If it’s one thing Black Rock Studios (makers of PURE) got right with Split/Second, it’s the pick up and play aspect of an arcade game. Toss in a shitton of explosions, pretty graphics, a breakneck sense of speed, and you might just have the perfect game to play in short bursts with gamers and non-gamers alike. Think of it as Burnout 3, but with controlled explosions instead of boosting.
There’s essentially three buttons you use in Split/Second: “Gas”, “Brake”, and “Power Play”. The first two are self explanatory. The third one is what you use to get a leg up on the other racers. Fill your power meter to level one and you can unleash a Jerry Bruckheimer/Michael Bay-esque environmental movie explosion on cars in front of you. These can come in such forms as a hovering helicopter dropping an explosive barrel or an exploding tunnel collapsing on top of your opponents. You can also use a level one Power Play to take shortcuts along the course. Fill your power meter all the way to level two and you can completely level the race course itself (preferably while your opponents are still on it), changing the path everyone has to follow. There are three ways to fill the power meter: drafting behind opponents, drifting around corners, and by catching air time. Personally, I found few opportunities to jump in the demo, but the other two maneuvers are plentiful.
I had a few concerns with the game though. First, there don’t seem to be many opportunities to use the level two power play. It can take out 3-4 opponents at once, but I often found myself missing good opportunities waiting for the game’s permission. Second, I found myself constantly wishing for a nitro button or something to get me ahead of the competition when no cars are nearby me. You need cars around you to be able to use even a level one power play. Finally, the Split/Second demo is short. There’s only one track and you can’t choose your vehicle. In fact, it’ll take you under 5 minutes to complete a three lap race. Yes, one of the game’s strengths is the ease of which to pick up and have fun, but I hope there’s a bit more depth in the full version.
That being said, if you like racing, explosions, blowing shit up, or fun, go give the Split/Second demo a download. You’ll probably like it.
(Oh, and for anyone worrying about the “reality show” premise being annoying, it’s not. There’s no cheesy announcer or anything to even remind you of reality TV once you’re playing.)
Well, due to the ineptitude of AT&T in providing adequate SMS or data service at Coachella this year, most of my tweets during the festival didn’t get out. All in all, I enjoyed the music and the festival. At least, when I could actually be in the venue.
Here’s a rough timeline of what would have been sent out (some of them actually did manage to squirm out):
Day 1
2:15PM – Left house at 12:30 and still stuck in immovable traffic. Had to pee on the side of a main road, public be damned.
3:30PM – Stuck in a immovable line to get wristbands for event entry. People are cutting in the front because there’s no security.
4:30PM – Officially pissed that I missed one of the bands I wanted to see the most, Yeasayer. Regretting coming to this thing.
4:45PM – Line is finally moving. Apparently the ticket scanning system went down for a couple hours. Heads better roll for this bullshit.
5:15PM – Feel a bit less cranky after eating some surprisingly good Thai BBQ. I can hear Tom Morello playing a song I don’t know.
6:00PM – She & Him is surprisingly entertaining. The songs are a lot more uptempo and fun than I was expecting. Delightful festival warmup.
6:05PM – Have to admit, zooey deschanel is lookin pretty adorable on stage http://twitpic.com/1g4wq9
7:45PM – Even a mediocre live band like Passion Pit can be great fun with the right crowd. Dancing/singing with the chorus of Little Secrets was a great moment.
8:15PM – I know everyone swears by Grizzly Bear, but I’m finding his set boring. It’s one of those “you have to know the material” situations. I didn’t.
8:25PM – Stopped by La Roux. She sounds okay, nothing extraordinary. Not going to wade through that crowd for “In For The Kill”.
8: 45PM – I only know the Echo and the Bunnymen hits. They’re not playing them, so I’m getting out of here.
9:15PM – The sound for LCD Soundsystem is amazing.
9:30PM – James Murphy is incredibly awkward on stage. He could have command of the crowd, but he’s rambling like a insecure nerd onstage.
10:15PM – LCD Soundsystem had a couple chances to be an epic set, but never quite got there. Going to walk by Vampire Weekend.
10:20PM – Heard Cousins being played and promptly turned around to get a beer.
10:30PM – Pretty ridiculous that the main stage is playing a recorded Vampire Weekend song while the actual band is on the other stage.
11:15PM – Jay-Z makes his entrance by rising from under the stage floor to the intro of “We Run This Town”. As the bass kicks in, he authoritatively commands the audience to bounce. We obey.
11:45PM – The soundsystem here is unreal. Hiphop bass has never sounded so clear. Best mainstream rap show I have seen so far.
12:25AM – Big Pimpin’ starts. The crowd starts to go nuts before Jigga stops it, telling us that we aren’t ready yet. He then continues on with another song. Fucking awesome.
12:35AM – No Dr. Dre or Alicia Keyes appearance, but we get Beyonce as the surprise guest.
12:45AM – Damn, I didn’t plan on staying for all of Jay-Z, but I couldn’t resist.
12:50AM – I have to make a decision to see the end of The Whitest Boy Alive or deadmau5 – I go with Whitest Boy, but really wanted to do both. Damn you, scheduling!
12:55AM – Erlend Oye looks like a dweebier young Bill Gates, if that’s even possible. Still, this set is really good. I gotta see them when they tour next.
3:30AM – Fuck traffic and crowds and lines and godawful parking infrastructure.
Day 2
3:15PM – Well that wasn’t as bad getting in this time. Took a back route and lot. Missed my boy Frank Turner, but a noon start time is untenable.
3:30PM – Day two starts with bluegrass from old crow medicine show. Haven’t seen a guy string his own guitar in awhile. http://twitpic.com/1gmxkt
4:45PM – Have a nice spot by the soundboard for Beach House. The music is inoffensive, but not really grabbing me. Guess it’s a similar situation to Grizzly Bear.
5:40PM – Man does the girl from Gossip have pipes, this is an awesomely fun set. Crowd loves them.
6:20PM – Holy shit, the entire LCD Soundsystem band is on stage, along with more people I don’t recognize. It’s madness in here.
6:35PM – Stayed for the last couple songs of The Raveonettes set. I like them, but the end of their set was a far cry from the energy level of Gossip’s.
6:45PM – Well, The XX is good music for listening to while you’re eating dinner.
7:15PM – Seem to have found a great spot for Hot Chip with a raucous group of South Americans who sing and do chants. This is going to be awesome.
7:45PM – Steel drums are back, baby! I was wondering where they had gone, but I’m positive I’ve seen at least 3 bands use them so far.
8:20PM – Using Aterciopelados’ set to recover. They’re actually not bad rockers. Too bad I don’t understand Spanish.
9:35PM – Some kid tries to move past me in a crowd. He says he’s trying to get away from his mom who’s in the crowd behind him for fear she’ll ground him from video games for 2 weeks. wat.
9:45PM – Spent the last 50 minutes in the dance tent with Kaskade and David Guetta. Sensory overload. Bass made my entire body shake. Wish I had drugs.
9:55PM – Major Lazer is fucking amazing!! There’s two Chinese dragons onstage with a black chick in a wedding gown. This is a real party.
10:15PM – Get news that Danny Devito ran shirtless across the stage during Faith No More. That sounds fun.
10:30PM – Muse is way less intense than that dance tent was. They still rock though.
11:20PM – Man, The Dead Weather really vacillate between awesome and boring. Love the blues stuff, hate the slow shit.
12:00AM – F. Dee and mac from it’s always sunny in Philadelphia bumped into my friend wearing a paddys pub shirt at the beer tent and I wasn’t there!
12:15AM – Eating pizza while on a bench with a view of Tiesto on the main stage. I think I’d need to plan my day around Tiesto to properly enjoy his set.
12:18AM – Is it just me or does Tiesto look like Christian Slater? Also, lasers.
12:20AM – Someone brought the wrong visuals for Tiesto, the screen just addressed “Austin”.
12:22AM – There we go, Coachella lets make some noise!
12:50AM – Having to decide between the end of 2ManyDJ’s or Devo, I go with Devo in the hopes of getting “Whip It”. Got old dudes stripping into tshirts and boxers instead.
4:00AM – Fuck traffic and crowds and lines and godawful parking infrastructure.
Day 3
2:45PM – Really surprised to have made it inside the venue in time to catch the end of Local Natives. They were pretty good.
3:45PM – No idea what to have expected for Mayer Hawthorne, but this is kinda cool. Fairly young white dude singing soul. People are dancing, including shirtless pothead in front of me with a gut and no pectorals.
4:10PM – My friend explains to me the lols of Mayer introducing his “break up song” with “Coachella I’m sorry to do this to you but…” Hilarious.
4:15PM – Walk by Deerhunter, didn’t look like a meat jackpot Deerhunter set so continued to De La Soul.
4:20PM – De La Soul is pretty boring. Nothing else to do but sit on the grass and chill. Too lazy to walk to Florence and the Machine for a couple minutes.
4:50PM – Surprised to hear Sunny Day Real Estate play Seven so early in their set. Not complaining, this song rules.
5:20PM – Decided to check out Yo La Tengo. Love the pop songs and synchronized light dancing, really dislike the masturbatory jam sessions. Cool how all 3 band members play everything.
6:15PM – Really dig the soundscape that Jonsi/Sigur Ros create. The songs seem a bit more uptempo than Sigur Ros. Plus he’s got a really cool festive outfit and headdress.
6:50PM – Made it into a nice spot by the soundboard for Miike Snow. The band comes out in masks and amidst smoke.
7:15PM – The album is good, but the live show is amazing. This stuff needs to be turned up LOUD!
7:30PM – Would definitely see Miike Snow again.
7:45PM – There’s a ridiculous amount of people for Phoenix, not going to bother getting close for this.
8:00PM – Just realized I only really like 1901 and If I Ever Feel Better from Phoenix anyway. Glad I got to hear those at the end.
8:15PM – Holy laser light show at Little Boots! She’s pretty fun too.
9:05PM – Caught the last few minutes of Orbital’s DJ set. Heard an amazing mix of Halcyon with Belinda Carlisle and Bon Jovi. Lamp shades baby!
9:30PM – As much as I love Radiohead, I’m pretty sick of The Eraser. Some of the songs just don’t translate well to large venues.
9:30PM – That being said, adding someone like Flea really makes the bass come alive for songs like Harrowdown Hill.
12:30AM – Forewent gorillaz to beat the coachella traffic. Surprisingly it worked! Already at the daily pint in Santa Monica playing shuffleboard.
