// testing, testing.

Trism

Buying new gadgets is exciting, but buying things to accessorized the gadget is even better. I must confess that I bought Trism before I even received my iPhone in the mail. I read the review on the game on the New York Times, and I was instantly sold.

As a big fan of Tetris, something about Trism’s geometric aesthetics really intrigued me. The game isn’t just about matching three or more triangles of the same color. Bombs and locks on the triangle are some of the basic obstacles in the game, and stimulates a little bit of thought and careful judgement.

Infinism is my favorite section of the game. The obscatles are what I explained above, and it is untimed. The bomb counts down from every move you take until you’ve cleared the specific triangle. The lock basically locks down on one triangle and prevents you from moving the rest of the row.

This is my choice of a game while I’m on the bus, waiting in line, and basically when I have a few minutes on my own.

Finding the perfect application for whatever the purpose can sometimes be challenging.

This time, it involves finding the perfect IM app for my iPhone.

When fring was released, it was a big hype because it allows users with VOIP capabilities over WiFi.

I remember how excited my friend, Joe was. He IMed me and told me to log on to Skype so he could test it out.

It worked fairly well, with minimal delay.

I was also very excited because make daily calls to my family using Skype.

After a month of test calls, I give the app a 4/10.

Call quality on the receivers end was apparently, horrible. Receivers often complained about strong echos of their own voice.

9/10 times , VOIP does not go through. fring immediately dropped my call when dialed, and the app needed a few restarts before a successful connection was made.

fring does not do good job with updating contacts that are online and offline, even after restarting.

I hope they fix they bugs with the next updates.

I am going to stick with IM+, for now. I keep fring on my phone for emergency purposes, but SkypeOut calls shall continue to only be made from my computer.

Bedtime reading with the iPhone can be a little challenging.

Over the last couple of nights, I’ve been catching up with the news on the mobile Safari, before I went to sleep. I discovered that what I once thought was a cool feature, now became a real pain.

The auto screen positioning feature makes it impossible to lay on my side and read at the vertical screen position, without trying to keep my phone tilted at just the right angle so it doesn’t rotate.

I went as far as turning on my computer, again at 3 in the morning to google for tricks to work around this. There were a few, like rotating the phone 180 degrees to “trick” the phone.

Nope, it only works horizontally.

Anybody else annoyed with this? Or do you have a tip? Or is there something blatantly obvious I have missed? If there is, please, help a girl out!

I wish there was a switch to turn off the auto screen rotating feature on the mobile Safari.

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UPDATE: With my morning cup of tea and breakfast. I found the MyFox browser on Cydia. Just what I needed. Hasn’t crashed on me, once. With a shake, I can even view on full screen. The shake can be a little twitchy, but 8/10 times, it works. No tabs, but I didn’t like it much on Safari anyways. It shows the bookmarks that I’ve saved from Safari, so no need to re-add them.

Life is good.

Cube Runner

I recently discovered the Cube Runner, a free app on iTunes. It is very much like a driving game, except you are an arrow, and the objective of the game is to avoid the cubes for as long as possible!

You are able to choose different level packs, which changes the speed the arrow travels. The game utilizes how the iPhone detects motion, and sharp turns can be made by tilting the phone in either direction to avoid the cubes. The graphics are very simple and straight forward, which I think was what attracted me to the game.

In the settings of the game, you are able to rotate the screen. I like playing it side ways because it feels like I’m holding a controller.

Basically, the higher levels can get very challenging but still very enjoyable. Don’t let the simple graphics fool you!

I guess I’ve always been first a photographer, then anything else. Only recently shifted part of my focus to something else. But I still know my preference.

In the last week, on the SportsShooter message board, there were many concerns raised about Apple’s new line of laptops. Most weren’t happy about the glossy screens. Only a very small minority seem to think that glossy screens won’t be a problem. Mainly because working outdoors with glossy screens gives an impossible glare, and under toning photos while editing.

Colors looks too pretty on a glossy screen in comparison to how it would really look like when printed. And this I can say from experience.

• New apple laptops, glossy screens only.
• New MacBooks continued
• Does Apple Hate Photographers?

I wonder if Apple will have any feedback to the concerns raised by the pro photographers and possibly some consumers.