Tag Archive for 'Free'

Win a copy of Snow Leopard!

Published on 12 August, 2009. View Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

Twitter Snow Leopard Giveaway

Squarespace did it, Moonfruit did it, and now I’m doing it. For fun. And also as a bit of an experiment. I wouldn’t consider myself huge on Twitter (despite me owning this), so I’d like to see what kind of impact a giveaway from a person with just 325 followers would have on Twitter in general. It probably won’t be much of an impact like Squarespace or Moonfruit’s ones were, but I can try anyway. ;) Oh, and lastly, because this is being funded out of my own pocket and because I’m not a rich corporation with lots of spare cash, I’m only giving away one copy, and I’m only giving away one copy of the upgrade version, not the full version. But of course, if you’re willing to offer a sponsorship deal, feel free to ask. :D

So, onto the details/rules:

  • You need an Intel Mac that 1) is running Leopard now, and 2) can run Snow Leopard (duh :roll: ).
  • To enter, simply add the hashtag #osxgiveaway to any tweet you make. There’s no limit, so feel free to enter as much as you like!
  • You can enter anywhere from now until 12pm (midday) GMT+0, on the day of Snow Leopard’s UK release – 28th August 2009.
  • You do not need to follow me on Twitter to be eligible to enter.
  • Entry is open to residents of these countries only: Apple – Choose your country or region.
  • Depending on whether or not I’m able to purchase Snow Leopard from your country’s store, I may have to purchase a copy from the UK Apple Store and ship the box via the postal service to you, so please bare this in mind. ;)
  • Because Snow Leopard is stupidly overpriced in the UK (and if you win, and you’re in the UK), I’ll contribute £20 toward it, and you can contribute £5. Fair deal I’d say. ;)
  • Once Snow Leopard is released, I will place the order and get it shipped to you within two weeks of Snow Leopard’s public release. I will, of course, keep you updated via email, @ replies, or Direct Messages on Twitter.
  • If you win and you already have a copy of Snow Leopard, and you don’t need another (c’mon, be nice!), let me know and I’ll pick another winner.

To link to this post, here’s a nice short tweet-sized URL: http://bit.ly/osxgiveaway
If you want to follow me on Twitter, I’m @williamtm

And that’s about it. Good luck, tell your friends, and get tweeting! :D

Update: The competition is now closed, and the winner is @djchrisallen! Congrats. :)

Nokia N97 vs the iPhone

Published on 11 August, 2009. View Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

Nokia N97 - Open

As I said in my previous post, I managed to score a free N97 for a few weeks. So, here we go, a short review. :D

In terms of the phone overall, it feels solid. However, it’s thick. It’s almost twice as thick as the iPhone, which that alone really puts me off it. While both phones are the same weight, the iPhone feels a lot smaller, despite actually being wider then the N97. Both phones have WiFi, A-GPS, Bluetooth, HSDPA, and 32GB of internal memory (well, I have a 16GB iPhone 3G S, but it does come in a 32GB model). However, the N97 is a bit better in terms of features – it has an FM radio (doesn’t bother me, I rarely listen to the radio anyway, and if I do, it’s usually Capital FM, which is only on DAB where I live), and an FM transmitter, which is sortof useful – you can play your music from the N97 on any car stereo for example. However, I’ve never ever had one of these work well for me. Finally, it has a pretty good physical keyboard. It takes a bit of getting used to though, as the spacebar is a pretty small key on the right.

Now, onto the software. The iPhone OS is, quite honestly, my favourite mobile OS around. It’s well thought out, it rarely crashes, and it looks fantastic. If I was forced to choose another OS, it would probably be a tie between Windows Mobile, and Android. The N97, on the other hand…well, it’s hard to explain. On one hand, it has some great points – it looks pretty good out of the box, it’s skinnable, it can run background apps (ahem), and it’s very open – you can run whatever you want on it (ahem), you can change settings without needing hacks (ahem), and so on, but that’s where the positive points end.
Continue reading ‘Nokia N97 vs the iPhone’

Nokia N97

Published on 6 August, 2009. View Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

As soom some people may have noticed on my Twitter / Facebook stream, I have an N97. Why? Well, 9 days ago, a random person sent me an email asking if I wanted to try out the N97. At first, I though “haha, scam”, but then as I read it, I noticed it was actually real. :lol: The place that sent it to me is WOM World, which is a Nokia-sponsored company.

Anyway, so, I have the N97 to try out for two weeks, and in the end, I (think) I’m supposed to basically compare it to the iPhone (since I ramble on about that so much), via various methods, such as blog posts, twitter comments, etc. :D

So, that’s why I have an N97. And, no, I’m not replacing my iPhone for two reasons. 1) I have a 24 month contract with O2, and 2) the N97 itself is a brick. It’s almost twice as thick as the iPhone, and it’s heavy, which, quite honestly, I hate. Anyway, I’ll post a more in depth look at it in the next week or so. :)

My Top 10 iPhone Applications

Published on 24 December, 2008. View Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

As you might know, I have an iPhone, and I love it very much. It’s only a 1st gen one, but it’s still fast enough for everyday use and serves me well. Since the iPhone App Store has been up and running since Apple launched it earlier this year, I thought I’d post a list of the 10 applications that I use the most. I have not included screenshots, as there are ones on the iTunes store listings, and, finally, this list is not in a specific order – it’s random.

• Twitterrific Premium (£5.99, or free ad-supported version) / Twinkle (free)
These two apps are tied, because I probably use them both equally, and they’re both pretty much the same thing. They’re clients for the popular site, Twitter. If I had to choose only one client, it would be Twitterrific Premium, because it’s the nicest looking and it’s very easy to use. However, Twinkle is also easy to use, but it has in the past not shown some tweets, so it comes second place. It does have one feature which Twitterrific does not have though, which is location-based Tweeting. It works by sending all tweets through Tapulous’ servers, and when you open the app on your iPhone, you can see any nearby tweets. This is handy for meeting new people, however if you live somewhere like me, you might be surrounded by retards.

• Facebook (free)
No guesses as to what this is for – it’s an iPhone client for the popular social networking site. It’s also one of the best iPhone apps that I’ve used – it’s pretty to look at, easy to use, and has yet to crash a single time on me. It does lack some features of the desktop-based Facebook site, but for what it is now, it’s fine for casual use.

• Movies (free)
Again, it’s pretty obvious what this is about. Movies shows current films showing, as well as nearby cinemas, with times, and DVD releases. It’s pretty handy for finding nearby cinemas, and checking times, however I’ve found that more then once, it’s shown the wrong times for a specific film then the cinema’s official website does. Also, the movie dates (such as the “released this week” films) are targeted toward the US market. I think this would be a great app if you live in the US, but otherwise, don’t rely on it 100%. It’s still worth downloading though.

• Night Stand (free)
Simply put, this is a clock. It displays a large LED clock, and does it while looking stylish. It also has the ability to disable the iPhone’s turn-the-screen-off-after-X-minutes function, so it can stay on all night long. However, it WILL kill your battery so it’s best if you use the power adaptor and USB cable to keep it charged.

• 1Password (free)
The iPhone based client that works very well with the desktop based password manager, 1Password. This is an extremely handy app for storing passwords, usernames, credit card numbers, and so on. It’s also protected by a PIN when you open it, and you can also assign a second password to specific entries, such as credit cards. While you don’t need the Mac-only desktop software to use this, it’s handy if you’re an OS X user, as you can sync them both over WiFi. This is also easily the most useful and productive app I have on my iPhone, and I would highly recommend both it and the desktop app if you have a Mac!

• TV Forecast (£1.79)
One of my very favourite apps, this program grabs info from (I think) TV.com, about when your favourite TV show is next on. It’s more suited to the US market, as it doesn’t allow you to choose, say, Prison Break on Sky1 in the UK instead of Fox in the US (season 4 of Prison Break has been shown on Tuesdays here, 24 hours after it’s aired in the US). It can show other shows though – it’s successfully worked with the UK’s “Top Gear” and “The IT Crowd”, as well as “Rush”, which is an Australian cop drama type show. Overall, very useful if you live in the US (or live outside of the US but know what bittorrent is ;) ), and only 75% useful if you live outside the US. There’s also a dashboard widget for OS X, made by the same guy, which I also have. It’s pretty much the same thing as the iPhone app though.

• TV Plus (£2.99)
As far as I know, this is a UK-only app, which is a huge guide of all the TV channels available on Freeview or Sky here. Where the other apps fail though, is where this one is great – it has built in support for Sky’s “Remote Record” function, which allows you to set stuff to record when you’re not at home onto your Sky+ or Sky+HD box. However, this app is buggy, and crashes a lot, so it could do with some bug fixes.

• AroundMe (free)
Simply put – this shows points of interest around you, similar to what a GPS does. There are several categories available, including banks, bars, coffee, gas stations, hotels, cinemas, parking garages, pubs, restaurants, supermarkets, and so on. Data is provided by Google Maps.

• Shazam (free)
We’ve all at one time heard a great song, but have no idea what it actually is. Shazam is perfect for this – hold it up to your speakers (or wherever the music is coming from), and it’ll attempt to identify the track. Most of the time this works fine, but I’ve had several times where it’s failed on obscure music off a TV show. However, it works fine most of the time.

• Moonlight Mahjong (£2.99, or free “lite” version)
Last, but most definitely not least, is this great game. Other people might not like it too much, but I find myself addicted to it all the time. It’s also very pretty, has good performance, doesn’t crash, and there’s a frequent stream of new user-created layouts on the blog that you can load and play.

Note: Prices were correct at time of writing. This post is my personal opinion and is not in any way influnced by the developers of these apps. However, developers, if you want to give me a comission for posting this, feel free to do so. :P