Some of you might be glad to know, I am continuing development of ALS v0.03B. New features to look out for in the next release:

• AJAX Functionality!
• Development Functions for developers
• Download Protection
• And of course, fully integrated themes and languages

As you can see, that’s quite a lot of features, so please be patient as I work on the script. I might release an update once in a while for you all to take a sneak peek at how development’s going.

Oh, and music of the week: The Blues by Switchfoot in their album Nothing is Sound

Off-topic: Wall-E is a very cute and touching movie. Definitely one of the best by Pixar. Of course, all the Mac references helped as well.

Till next time,
cheers

ARGH, MATHS AND PHYSICS TO GO.

While the lectures sure seem like slow moving dreams, the days never passed by any faster. From 40+ days since I had a countdown timer on my Mac, it’s now down to 4 days before our first paper. Somehow, this is the first time I actually feel unconfident about the exams even though I am quite sure I prepared myself quite adequately for it. Maybe it’s the very thought of sitting for long draggy papers that last about 3 hours each with almost no break in between.

The very thought of the exams ending brings joy to my heart. Both fortunately and unfortunately, it’s dragged over 9 days. Fortunate in the sense I get more time to revise for the later papers, Maths and Physics, unfortunate in the sense that it’s a few extra days of agony. And all my papers are morning papers, so that’s a bad thing as well.

But after exams life is sure something to look forward to. For one, it’s been a long time since I went cycling or running. If I am lucky, I might just fly to Australia in late October as well. Then in november I have my attachment, and I am flying off to Shanghai in mid December to attend my cousin’s wedding. And then of course there is always the usual gang to hang out with.

Time to sleep to prepare for another day of studying tomorrow. So,
Till next time,
cheers

Really, there isn’t nothing much to celebrate. I have the bleakest outlook on my life ever.

I am waiting for the 2.1 iPhone jailbreak before upgrading. Come on, iPhone Dev Team, do us proud.

UPDATE: just as I am writing this post, the dev team came up with the latest version of Pwnage tool! Now I will just wait till the update is online!

UPDATE 2: I got the latest versions of the tools. Now I am upgrading my firmware and waiting for my phone to finish backing up. Which is going to like take forever.

But the hardest thing is probably pushing myself to study. The same thing happened during blocks - a nicely planned schedule gone to waste because I don’t have self-discipline. End result? A screwed up block test result slip. BUT I AM NOT GOING TO REPEAT THE SAME MISTAKE AGAIN.

So,
Till after promos,
cheers

Now, let me share with you 10 of my favorite iPhone apps and games. Note that the list is non-exhaustive, there are many other great apps out there, but these are the ones I liked best. (Of course there is also a long list of crap apps that gets deleted after I ran it for one time)

Not in order of preference (since each of them does different things),

1. Palringo (Free) - A free Instant Messaging client for the iPhone. Works with a variety of services including MSN and AIM. It’s pretty much no frills, and it connects quickly to the servers. Great for peeps who can’t live without Instant Messaging, or just want to do it on the go. Downside is that you must sign up for a free account at Palringo before you can use it with any other services.

2. Facebook (Free) - A must have app for the Facebook addict developed by the company itself. Also great for using as a contact list - you can directly call numbers listed on your friend’s profiles. However, I don’t know if it’s just me, but my friends list doesn’t update with my new friends.

3. Wordpress (Free) - Simple and perfect app for publishing to your Wordpress blog. I love it!

4. Wikipanion (Free) - Wikipedia for iPhone on Steroids!

5. FileMagnet ($4.99) - One of the many file storage apps for the iPhone. Not sure if it is the best since it’s the only one I tested, but it works well enough for me, although sometimes an annoying message telling me that there is “insufficient memory” will pop up and stop me from accessing my PDFs on the go.

6. Ultralingua Dictionary ($9.99) - Dictionary for the iPhone. Enough Said.

7. Stage Hand ($7.99) - Acts like a presentation remote, only that it connects through WiFi, and you can see your presentation notes on your iPhone. Works only with Keynote (which doesn’t matter, since that’s what I use anyway)

Now, what is a phone without games? Especially a phone with a built in accelerometer and touchscreen? Again, not in any order,

8. Crash Banditcoot Nitro Kart ($9.99) - Kart racing for iPhone. It promises hours of addictive fun. Really.

9. Asphalt 4 ($9.99) - This is like the iPhone version of Need For Speed. However, due to the high graphical and CPU intensity, the application might be choppy, making it hard to drive.

10. Mote-M ($0.99) - Tower Defense for the iPhone! Place towers on the map and prevent creeps (known as Motes in this game) from reaching the objective portal. Makes for fun and easy game play.

On another note, I had a high fever yesterday and I think I have just recovered. Though, somehow, I got a neck ache now.

3 weeks left to promotional exams. Time for me to really start studying!

A quick Music Of The Week: Sway Your Head by We Shot the Moon in their album, Fear and Love

Till next time,
cheers

PLUS
1. Decent Speakers. The speakers are rather good, at least for me.
2. Very responsive touchscreen. I think this is what sets it apart from other similar touchscreen phones.
3. Excellent Mobile surfing. The web browser is excellent, something that sets it apart from the rest of the phones allows web surfing.
4. App Store. Another nice feature, though it would be nice if they allowed for payment via PayPal for the Singapore store. But then on the other hand, it stops me from overspending on the Apps.
5. Nice touch type interface. The built in spellchecker is excellent. I can SMS even faster than with physical numeric keys.
6. Finger Gestures rules. The pinch, swipe and what have you are really cool. Not seen on any other phone.
7. Rather smooth operation. Except for a few apps which lags, the operation of the phone is very smooth. Typical of Apple products.
8. Beautiful gaming platform. While the graphics engine might not be the best, the way many games make use of the built in accelerometer is really good. The touchscreen helps too.
9. Innovative SMS interface. Keeps everything in a IM chat way which everyone is familiar with, allowing you to easy see what messages have been sent.
10. Support for PDF, Powerpoint, Word documents etc. Great for studying notes on the go without printing them out.

MINUS
This is where I am going to elaborate a bit more.
1. Not as good syncing with even Mac programs. One good example is Notes. It makes sense for notes written on the iPhone and notes written in Apple Mail to sync, but they don’t. Same with to do lists. They should sync the To Do lists in iCal with the Calendar app on the Phone, but they didn’t. Instead I am forced to use some 3rd party app that doesn’t allow for syncing with my Mac.
2. Laggy applications. While operations on the phone are smooth thanks to the responsive touchscreen, some apps lags and ruin the perfect experience for you. The Contacts app lags the most. The camera also takes quite a long time to start up. The SMS app can be quite lag at times as well.
3. Lack of a better camera. Yup, everyone has the same complaint, but I suppose it helps conserve battery life, which brings me to my next point.
4. Short Battery Life. With nice games on the iPhone, it is hard for the iPhone battery to last me even one day in school. Especially when I am using WiFi to surf the net during lectures.
5. No editing of the documents. Even with such a great typing interface, there isn’t even basic support for editing documents on the go. It might not be a feature that everyone will use everyday, but it certainly helps when you don’t wish to lug a heavy laptop everyday.
6. Crap Earpiece. Maybe I am too used to plugged in earpieces, but I don’t like the fact that Apple doesn’t offer a plug-in version of their headphone with mic.
7. Not really the iPhone’s fault, but it is really a huge distraction especially when you can surf the Web during lectures.
Of course there are many other complaints like not being able to copy and paste and lack of Bluetooth support for file transfer, but the ones listed above irks me the most.

Conclusion
While the iPhone is a great mobile web browsing device, there can certainly be improvements in terms of both hardware and software. I just hope Apple does not disappoint in the next software update for iPhone.

I finally got my new iPhone yesterday after three and half hours of queuing. In fact, I am using it to type out this post using the Wordpress app. Cool eh?

Till next time,
Cheers

Oh my god, less than 20 hours left to the collection of my new iPhone 3G (if nothing goes wrong). I can’t think of anything else.

But no matter, because his desire for an iPhone outweigh everything.

But really, Singtel’s plans are driving me up the wall. I just hope that send the email to make an appointment to collect my iPhone before I hesitate.

Till next time,
cheers