iPhone App Review: Pac-Man Remix

Name: Pac-Man Remix (iTunes Link)
Written By: Namco Networks America
Category: Games
Price: $5.99 $4.99
Size: 11.3 MB
Requirements: iPhone / iPod Touch
Version: 1.0.0
Rate: 4 out of 5 Stars

Pac-Man fans will greatly enjoy the newly released Pac-Man Remix game for the iPhone and iPod touch! The object of the game hasn’t changed much. Pac-Man still eats dots, power pellets, and ghosts when they turn blue. He still also gets chased by the ghosts when they’re not blue and loses a life if they catch him. The addition of the 3D graphics and fun animations adds a whole new dimension to the game. As an added twist, the Remix version has exclusive features like boss battles, stage-specific gadgets, and power-up items!

Pac-Man is stranded on an island full of ghostly enemies — big and small. The island is divided into 6 different sections. Within each section are 5 different levels, which means there are 30 different levels altogether. The last level of each island section is the big boss battle. Before playing each level, a short colorful clip shows you the challenges you will face in the next stage. Although, with only 30 levels, gameplay seems a bit short.
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Books about iPhone

I love my library’s Safari Books Online database! There’s an amazing wealth of knowledge there. And I love discovering new books that I could share with you. If you recently got an iPhone or want to learn more about iPhones, here are two books that I suggest you read:

iPhone: The Missing Manual, 3rd Edition

iPhone: The Missing Manual, 3rd Edition by David Pogue – This is an updated version for iPhone 3Gs users. It’s an excellent book if you’re new to the iPhone. There are also some great tips and tricks if you’re an iPhone veteran! With the new iPhone OS 3.0+ and iPhone 3Gs phones, there are hidden treasures everywhere. There are 17 chapters full of great information and screenshots. I highly recommend this book if you want to learn more about the iPhone.

This book is also available as iPhone apps: iTunes Link – $4.99 and iTunes Link – FREE Lite Version

Best iPhone Apps

Best iPhone Apps by Josh Clark – The book is nicely categorized by types of iPhone apps — Best Apps at work, Best Apps on the Town, Best Apps at Leisure, Best Apps at Play, etc. Each page is filled with colorful screenshots of the apps and a paragraph about each app. I enjoyed it because I can discover new apps that I never used before.

With over 200 pages of apps, it’s sure to make a perfect present for that iPhone geek friend of yours. You can also see the apps listed in the book at http://iphoneapps.oreilly.com.

To stay updated on the technology books I’m interested in, add me on Shelfari.

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Do You Wanna Date my Avatar Video

If you’re a gamer, know of a gamer, play World of Warcraft, or a big Felicia Day fan, then you probably have already seen this amazing The Guild music video! The song was written by Felicia Day and Jed Whedon and I can’t seem to stop watching it!

I got my first glimpse of the video at Comic-Con 2009, and believe me, the crowd there went wild! The song and video were recently released to the public on Aug. 17th, 2009. And yes, I purchased them the minute they hit the iTune store. You can too!

• (Do You Wanna Date My) Avatar Single (iTunes)
• (Do You Wanna Date My) Avatar Music Video (iTunes)
• (Do You Wanna Date My) Avatar Single (Amazon)

If you’re interested in Felica Day’s work, check out WatchTheGuild.com, Dr. Horrible, Dollhouse, and her blog.

Related Posts

• Comic-Con 2009 On-site Review
• I’m a new “The Guild” fan

Popularity: 1% [?]

How to send MMS on an iPhone

My friend recently upgraded to an iPhone and asked how she could send photos to her friends. Inspired by my friend, I wrote a tutorial on how to send MMS on an iPhone.

If you are accustomed to taking camera photos and then sending them via multimedia message (mms) to people, you’ll be sad to know that the iPhone lacks this mms feature. Luckily, there’s a workaround for this. What you want to do is email the photo to your friend’s phone. This would require you to know who their carrier is though. Here is a list of some popular US cellphone carriers and their mms email:

US Carrier	MMS Email
AT&T	mms.att.com
Sprint / Nextel	messaging.sprintpcs.com
T-Mobile	tmomail.net
Verizon	vzwpix.com
Virgin	vmobl.net

So in this example, let’s pretend our friend John Smith lives in the US, his cellphone number is 1 (234) 567-8910, and his cellphone carrier is T-Mobile. To get his phone’s email address, we would need to append his 10-digit phone number to carrier’s email address format. So John’s mms email would be 2345678910@tmomail.net.

Here are the steps on how to send John Smith a picture message:

1. Edit one of your contacts. (Pictured above)
2. Copy and paste their number into the email field. Remove any special characters.
   1. Click on the phone number.
   2. If you have the iPhone 3.0 OS, press down on the number, and menu will pop up. Select “Select All” and then “Copy,” then “Cancel” on the top left.
   3. Click on “Add New Email”
   4. Press in the email field until a bubble appears, let go, and click on “Paste.”
   5. Now edit the number and remove all special characters, and append the correct carrier email.
   6. If you are running iPhone 2.2.1 or lower, skip the copy/paste steps and add in the number manually, appending the carrier email.
3. Save the contact by clicking on “Done”
4. Now go to the Photo app and find the photo you want to send.
5. At the bottom, click on the leftmost button and select “Email Photo.”
6. This will add your photo into the Mail app to send.
7. Tap on the “To” field and a plus will show up.
8. Click on the +
9. Find your contact.
   1. If the user only has the one email account, it’ll select it by default.
   2. If the user more than one email account, select one by tapping on it.
10. Once you’re back in your mail app, hit “Send.”

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Facebook Privacy Settings

Before you start adding too much data into your Facebook profile, you may want to change your privacy settings to allow only certain groups of people to view your content. This is a good idea if you have friends, family, and business contacts in your Facebook account.

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Popularity: 7% [?]

Comic-Con 2009 On-Site Report

On-site report from Comic-Con 2009 in San Diego, which included appearances by everyone ranging from Joss Whedon and Felicia Day to Wil Wheaton and, well, pretty much every fictional character ever created…

Comic-Con is where geeks meet annually to celebrate their passion for comics, science fiction, fantasy, and their inner-geekiness! Many dress up as their favorite comic book characters and pose in photos, getting a dose of the celebrity life for a weekend.

Comic-Con is also where many long-awaited special announcements are first heard, and I believe the best surprises this year came from The Guild panel. So what is The Guild? It’s an online comedy show about the online and offline lives of a guild (group of gamers). Whether you play games or not, it’s worth checking out. You’ll find yourself laughing at all the characters, because we all know people in real life that reminds us of each character!

The Guild panel was on Friday morning, and to my surprise, the line was wrapping around the hallway! Every seat in the room was taken, and many of the attendees stood against the back walls. The session was quite packed!
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Popularity: 1% [?]

How To Display 11+ Pages of iPhone Apps

In the latest iPhone OS upgrade, we were allowed to have up to 11 viewable pages of apps. But if you look in the image to the right, you will see that there are 12 pages!

So how did I do that? This was a trick I discovered while moving around my icons. First, you have to be an app-aholic and have 11 pages of iPhone apps (and more hidden ones since they can’t be displayed). Then move some of the default apps you do not use like “Weather,” “Stocks,” “YouTube,” “Audio Memo,” etc. to the last page.

Now take one icon from the 10th page and drag it over to the 11th page. This will force the last icon to be booted off the page and into the iPhone abyss!

Now download another app to replace that empty space. And magically, a 12th page will be created with all the apps you weren’t able to view on it. I repeated the same steps and was able to make a 13th page.

It’s a nice trick, especially if you’re an iPhone app addict like me. There never seems to be enough pages! I think forcing a default icon off the pages will bring it back on an extra page, but I’m not quite sure. I was able to create the extra pages a few times, and after much testing, I was unable to duplicate it the 5th time. If you see a logical pattern or explanation on how to do this, please let me know. I can’t seem to bring back the 13th page, and would like to. ;) Also note, this is not a jailbroken iPhone.

UPDATE 11/22/2009: Additional note, this was tested on iPhone OS 3.0. However, it has been working in the updated versions of iPhone OS as well. I’ve stopped creating extra pages because the moment I sync with iTunes, only 11 pages will be displayed.

As mentioned by Jeff K. below in the comments, moving the “Voice Memo” icon seems to be the trick to creating an extra page.

Popularity: 100% [?]

WordCamp LA

I just registered for the first WordCamp LA and I’m super excited! There’s a lot of great speakers and they’re adding more each day.

What is WordCamp you may ask? It’s a conference that focuses on everything WordPress. Attendees include the casual users, designers, plugin developers to the core WordPress developers. If you have the slightest interest in WordPress or even blogging, I highly suggest you attend!

The first WordCamp LA will be taking place on Saturday, September 12th, 2009 at Loyola Marymount University, which is very close to LAX airport for those of you coming from out of town.

Tickets are selling fast, so be sure to get yours soon! I’ll see you there!

Related Links

• WordCamp LA
• WordCamp.org
• WordCamp LA 2009 Facebook Event Page
• WordCamp SF
• My Experience at WordCamp SF

Popularity: 1% [?]

iDog iPhone App

The moment I saw this, I couldn’t stop smiling! How adorable and irresistibly geeky! What a great idea for a doggie Halloween costume. :)

© 2007 Gregory Hull.
Swell created this great iPhone model from ‘scratch’ for the 2007 Tompkins Square Halloween Parade.

Popularity: 2% [?]

iPhone App Review: Rolando 2

Name: Rolando 2: Quest for the Golden Orchid (iTunes Link)
Written By: ngmoco, Inc.
Category: Games
Price: $9.99
Size: 56.1 MB
Requirements: iPhone / iPod Touch / (iPhone OS 2.2.1 and later)
Version: 1.1
Rate: 5 Stars

The sequel to one of the best iPhone games has arrived, jammed packed with even more fun than ever before! “Rolando 2: The Quest for the Golden Orchid” takes us back to the days of pirates and their quest leads us through tropical beaches, ancient ruins, volcanic caverns, and jungles. The new cast of characters in this adventure/puzzle game will surely make you smile!

As the story goes, Sir Richard Buttons-Smthe, a brave young Rolando, returns home to the Kingdom of Rolando to report of his adventures to the King and Queen. As he tells the Sages of his adventures, they suddenly fall ill, showing symptoms of the Kilgorean Flu. Sir Richard mentions that the only cure for it is the “fabled Golden Orchid, atop the great Mount on the Isle of Fontanis.” So the King sends him back to the boat, along with a new team of Rolandos and that’s how their adventure begin.
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