Reviews of products on NZiPhone.com, a website for the New Zealand iPhone community. It includes the latest New Zealand iPhone news, discussion forums, international news and reviews. http://www.nziphone.com/ http://www.nziphone.com/iphone-and-ipod-touch-hardware/cases/dlo-videoshell-for-ipod-touch-2g.html I have to say that I love this case, nice hard plastic, came with a screen protector, easy access to the volume and sleep buttons. It even allows the iPod to be used on my dock (not the official Apple one) without taking it out of the case! Possibly the nicest feature is the inbuilt stand so that I can sit the iPod in either portrait or landscape on me desk and watch video on it without having to worry about it falling over. ]]> Jamie Cases 2009-01-04 07:59:22 http://www.nziphone.com/iphone-and-ipod-touch-hardware/cases/power-support-crystal-film-set.html One of the things I like about this screen film is that you get two in the pack....you also get very detailed instructions, which I confess confused me a bit. This was mostly because after cleaning your iPhone screen, you then apply a film that you peel off....this film is actually just a final step in cleaning your screen. Adding the final film was easy, although I missed a hint that many people suggest....putting a piece of sellotape onto the film so that you can pull it off to re-align if you don't align it well at first. This is because you are not meant to touch the sticky side of the film at all. The screen itself fits perfectly (no odd part cut out like on another film I tried that had an odd cut near the phone speaker at the top of the phone), although I appear to have given it a slight scratch...but to me, that's what this screen is for. I've noticed no problems with it picking up my tapping on the screen etc, so there's no issue there. I like the fact the film can be removed an reapplied...although I hope I don't ever have to do that. Available for iPod Touch also. ]]> Philip Roy Cases 2009-01-03 22:58:20 http://www.nziphone.com/iphone-and-ipod-touch-software/games/ipint.html Mr brother (a non-iPhone user) seems obsessed with this app. He kept talking about it, so I installed it in the end. The one thing that disappoints is that it would be great to have a burp at the end of drinking the beer! Commercial versions have these sorts of features and more....but people do find it a laugh. ]]> Philip Roy Games 2009-01-03 22:20:36 http://www.nziphone.com/iphone-and-ipod-touch-software/games/tangram-puzzle-pro.html The iPhone is making me regress! I'm going backwards in time and trying all those things I passed up as a kid or saw in a shop as a puzzle and thought "cool...but not for me". I got this app free, but it is now back to $1.29, but still worth it. There are some free x-mas versions to download still. This is so easy and so challenging...and there are so many puzzles to work through, that I'm constantly picking up my phone just to do a couple more puzzles. Love it! So easy and so addictive, Great brain stimulation! ]]> Philip Roy Games 2008-12-30 02:25:40 http://www.nziphone.com/iphone-and-ipod-touch-software/games/papijump.html Simple and addictive? Boy, that's an understatement. I got hooked on this quite quickly. Such a simple concept and simple game....with admittedly simple graphics, but it soon gets to be something you just want to keep getting better and better at. ]]> Philip Roy Games 2008-12-30 02:05:20 http://www.nziphone.com/iphone-and-ipod-touch-software/entertainment/classics.html If, like me, you like to read but find having to carry around a book or two puts you off so you don't read as much as you would like, then chances are you've looked at e-books. The idea of e-books are nice but as with most ideas they are rarely carried off nicely. E-books' biggest problem is the reader and the fact a lot is left out of them. Pictures seem to disappear when going to e-book so you lose some of what makes a book so nice. Then of course there's the interface. Most of the readers are horrible and usually require buttons to navigate around which gets distracting. So what if there was a reader that addressed these concerns and aimed at being a book away from a book? Welcome Classics. Classics is more than just an e-book reader, it gives us the one thing other readers don't... the feel of a book. The first screen you will see is a Delicious Library inspired bookshelf. On that bookshelf is a number of books including Time Machine, Alice In Wonderland, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, and others giving a total of 13 books. Try taking 13 books with you this holiday and see how you get on. Once you're in the book of your choice you see a reader like no other. The pages have the colour of a weathered book which makes it feel like you've got real print and paper in your hands. The font is slightly off black which makes it easy to read and with the aliasing isn't hard on your eyes like the solid LED text of dedicated e-book readers. The font is big enough so that it doesn't become tiring to read but small enough so that you're not constantly turning pages all the time. Then comes the piece de resistance. To turn the page you press no button. You drag your thumb or finger over the screen and the page turns... literally. An animation of a page turning is played adding to the illusion that you are reading a physical book. When you decide to leave the story a red bookmark is placed on your page just like you would a real book adding still more to the illusion that you are reading a physical book. The sound of the pages turning adds even more to the illusion but I personally turn that off because it gets distracting after a while. All that is needed is a Dock adapter that produces a slight hint of old paper and you'll forget you're using a 3.5" LCD screen instead of a real book. Get it NOW. It's on sale for $1.29 but it mostly sells for around $7. It is well worth the money, in fact even at full price it feels like you're ripping off the authors not that it matters because the authors of the books included are all dead by some rather large time frames. This will be the most rewarding purchase you will have made if you are into classic books. ]]> Loweded Wookie Entertainment 2008-12-22 20:41:15 http://www.nziphone.com/iphone-and-ipod-touch-software/games/toy-bot-diaries-entry-3.html In the last review (Entry 2 of the game), I said that I hoped the final version wasn't rushed and that the last entry would be big and time consuming. It isn't. And in fact, it had the best opportunity to be. Diary Entry 3 introduces a lot of new game play, screen design and ideas that should have been in part 2. Part 2 seemed very much like a continuation of part 1 with little new. Unfortunately, whilst this version brings in a lot of new things, it is still very easy to get through the game. I'm no obsessed gamer, but I completed it easily in 3 days....with perhaps only the final scene the most challenging. I truly wish they had taken much more time with this game and made this final version perhaps 3 times as long and big. There is obviusly a lot of work put into the game (as an aside, I can't for the life of me understand the story that is presented in a series of panel slides at all) but it just seemed disappointing. One thing that did pop into my head that I wished could happen. Imagine if it were possible to develop our own levels with a level editor and distribute them. The characters and graphics in this game would be a superb base for others to develop ongoing adventures. ]]> Philip Roy Games 2008-12-19 08:59:17 http://www.nziphone.com/iphone-and-ipod-touch-software/photography/pano.html I'm with Phil on this. After Phil's review I downloaded it to try it out. I did a shot of my office and it came out great. I was amazed that even though my workmate walked into the shot and then ended up in the last frame which should have produced two Bobs it removed Bob from the first frame and kept him in the last frame. The smarts in this app is phenomenal. If you regularly want panoramic photos and you want them from your iPhone then Pano is definitely what you need. ]]> Loweded Wookie Photography 2008-12-18 20:38:00 http://www.nziphone.com/iphone-and-ipod-touch-software/games/simcity.html If you've never heard of SimCity then I guess you're either new to computers or you have extremely narrow tastes. SimCity is the city building game that all city building games strive to be. I loved SimCity since my Amiga days although it never got good until v1.1. I had SimCity 3000 on the Mac but it only ran on Mac OS 9 so when I moved to Mac OS X I was let down until SimCity 4 came out. I have to admit I hated what they did in SimCity 4. They made it bloated for no reason. Then I got the worst ever version of SimCity which should have been the best version - SimCity DS. The DS had cool things like blowing into the microphone to put out fires and the stylus should have made everything so much better but it didn't. It was completely let down by the fact EA are the most useless programmers around. I'm pretty sure it was an EA version rather than Maxis because there is no way Maxis would have made SimCity that bad. It was so bad they had to develop another game which was supposed to be good but once bitten twice shy. Now SimCity is on the coolest gaming device around - the iPhone. The iPhone version uses multi-touch features like pinch to zoom in and out. Laying down zones and all that can be tricky to do accurately first but this has been factored in by buttons that show up at either end of the zone as well as a crosshair button. The buttons on the left and right of the zones expands or shrinks the area. While they point left and right they basically allow dragging in XY axis like you would with the mouse to create a proper zone. The crosshair button when held down allows you to position the zone exactly where you want it. This makes the iPhone version so much easier to do than even the DS version which should have been more accurate but wasn't. The tool buttons that adorn all versions are there and are large enough for you to be accurate in your choice of tool but not so big it takes up screen real estate. There are no tools missing from the iPhone version that are in the desktop version so it's not like a cutdown version of SimCity for the iPhone, it's more a version designed specifically for the iPhone which takes the features of the iPhone interface into account. This really is a nice game. I have to admit I haven't had an indepth play but the 10 minutes of full on playing I did have makes me think this game is worth a high rating. I've played SimCity so much that this review is merely more of an indication of how well it plays on iPhone and I can assure you that this is so easy to pick up and play that you'll forget you're playing it on a 3" screen. It plays most like SimCity 3000 which I think is the best version of them all. I have yet to see it lock up but there have been a few people who say it does but I think that's more down to them not having reset the phone which you should do periodically. All in all I LOVE this game on this device. It is extremely playable, makes good use of the iPhone interface without going overboard, and the graphics are well done. If you have always enjoyed SimCity and you want a version you can take anywhere the iPhone version is the BEST mobile version of SimCity ever made. This has to be the best mobile version of SimCity ever developed. It has perfect use of the Multi-Touch interface in order to get around the limitations of this interface. It plays well, looks good, and is not limited in its features. If you loved SimCity 3000 then this is for you. ]]> Loweded Wookie Games 2008-12-18 20:31:15 http://www.nziphone.com/iphone-and-ipod-touch-hardware/headphones/philips-neck-headphones-shs390.html I'm not a great fan of in-ear buds and just wanted something that if I was travelling or sitting down, I could use that were a bit more comfortable for me. These headphones are billed as having improved base and I would agree. I wouldn't suggest they are superb headphones, but for the $24 I paid, I'm happy with them. ]]> Philip Roy Headphones 2008-12-13 03:18:59