My Blog Is Moving

Hey all,

Just to let you know i am moving away from WordPress to add my blog to my site.

To keep following my blog just visit http://www.krismunro.co.uk/blog

Thanks see you there

iVerseComics iPhone App – Review

There are 2 big comic book apps out on the iPhone, you have Comixology and IverseComics. Both of these applications, are portals to digital comics. When you purchase a comic from within these applications, they stay within this application and not taking up your iPhone desktop space.

I started with comixology, but then found out that iVerse were releasing one. I decided to go with iVerse as I had several digital comics already purchased by them, and that they would at somepoint be merged into this single app.

The comics I had purchased were Farscape #1 and #2, Ghost Whisperer #1 to #5 and Atomic Robo #1 to #4.

The iVerseComics application is nicely designed, the main icon looks proffesional and when you run it its easy to use and navigate. There are several screen to choose from the main two that users will click are the store and the My Comics, this My Comics page is designed to look like a bookshelf where all the comics are displayed by there covers and you slide left and right to see them…once you find the one you like you can just click it to start reading or there is a list view if you dont like this view.

The viewer to read the comics is great, it makes reading the comic easy and displays each section of the page just right on screen.

To be honest I have never been a big comic fan, I had a few Spawn comics when I was younger but I thought I would try them again. I enjoyed the ones I had purchased and also the free ones that have come with iVerseComics and will continue to try the free ones and if I like them continue with that series.

Overall its a very well presented application, but there is room for some improvments :

*note : I didnt include bring in already purchased comic apps to the application as this feature is coming.

• Subscriptions : Like an issue and want to subscribe for it to purchase and download the comic, this would be very cool…dont know how hard it is to do but would be a nice feature.
• Zoom : Once or twice I have found myself trying to read small speach/text in a comic (tried both views) and wished that I could zoom in just a little to read it. A zoom feature would be nice.
• More Comics : Its not been out long and am sure there is lots of work behind the scenes to do this and talking to the publishers, but past 2 weeks only a handful of comics have been released each week.
• Grouping : on the My Comics view, it seperates a series…maybe some sort of grouping for that series where you click that and you see all the comics for that series.
• More Preview Images : When you click a comic you only get to see the coverart, seeing maybe 3 inside previews would be nice.

Two other things that would be cool, and am sure most fans of this application and comic would like are :

• Motion Comics : I sent a message to iVersecomics on Twitter about if they plan on doing motion comics, they said they would stick with static comics. I think maybe an IverseMotion application which featured on the motion comics would be cool….but since they said “just static” I cant see this happening but it would be a nice idea.
• Desktop Viewer : So you have download your comics to the iPhone but wouldnt it be cool, to have a nice desktop viewer that grabbed your comics and you could see them on a bigger screen. A desktop viewer would be cool…though to do this I feel you would need an IverseComics account system, so it tracks what comics you have downloaded etc.

As I said its a great application and I will continue to use it, as comics are slowly growing on me. If your a comic fan and have an iPhone do check it out.

www.iversecomic.com

AppleTV 2.4 Update – Review

So nearly one year on and I am still loving my AppleTV. The main reason I got it was to get Diggnation and other podcasts to play on my TV in HD, but I have now started to use more of its features i.e. Renting movies, flickr etc

This 2.4 update, I find is a little more responsive, gestures on the remote app and the cover art images download a lot faster.

With this recent update I decided I would try and sync my iPhone 3GS, and use the remote app and see what its like. One word “Amazing”, its a lot more responsive and I find it 100% better to use than the remote that comes with the product.

Overall a really nice update and look forward to many more.

Taking a bite out of the Apple

After starting with Microsoft Windows 3.11 going through all the updates, all the way up to Vista. Also spending 3 years with Ubuntu as my main operating system, at the end of this month I will be moving to Apple.

So whats the reason? well I have an iPod Touch and AppleTV, soon to have an iPhone 3GS so it just makes sense to make the move…plus the Macbook Pro’s look very nice.

I dont think moving from Ubuntu to Mac is going to be a difficult change, its just going to take time to get used to the Mac OS and find alternative applications to the ones I have been used to…luckly since I am on Ubuntu and use OpenSource software most are cross platform.

I will still use Ubuntu and Windows on the Mac, but as a VM mostly for testing due to the area of work I am in.

Will keep you updated on how I get on once its been purchased and arrived.

AppleTV – Review 2

I have been playing with more of its features and thought I would share my thoughts.

Movie Renting :

One thing I couldn’t find online was clear information on once you rent, what happens and what do I need to do. I decided to rent Iron Man in HD to test it out, I started the download / rent  just before going to sleep and it was ready to watch in the morning.

The movie sits on your AppleTV box for a long period of time, but once you start watching you have 48hrs to watch it as many times as you like then you delete it.

The HD quality for Iron Man was very good, my only complaint is I had to turn my TV volume up to around the 60/70% for it to be at a good level. This could just be a setting I have missed on my AppleTV or just the way its encoded, but putting that aside the quality was amazing.

Photos

I have a flicker account that I use to store photos taken within Secondlife of any AICR event I host, so I decided to take it over fully and use it for my photos and the AICR ones.

Adding the account was easy, though a keyboard would have been faster at inputting my details. Once the account had been added, I clicked the gallery I wanted and selected slide show….very nice it add a subtle animation and changes the photos at a nice time.

YouTube

I know that YouTube is low quality but I wanted to see how it looked on a TV. Its not bad, granted its not great quality but hey its youtube and you know that. I will be interested to see how the new HD quality tubes are.

So overall so far so good, I am going to try and rent Kung Fu Panda but I will do the SD version and see how that is.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

AppleTV – First Impression Review

Part of my Christmas I received an AppleTV, I had been wanting one for a good few months mostly for the movie rental and podcast features. I have only played with it for a short period, but I thought I would post my first impressions and see how they change over time.

The Good :

• Design : The design of this box is very cool, it looks good just sitting there…very stylish.
• Features : A lot of the features are very cool, you can download and watch podcasts in HD, rent movies in HD, purchase movies and music, stream photos to your TV etc etc all very cool features.
• Interface : The look of the interface is very nice, it looks very slick and nice to look at. Cover flow photos appear when listening to music, the layout is ok and easy to understand.

The Bad :

• Interface : I know I had this in the good but it also comes with the bad….with Take 2 the interface has been improved but its still not perfect, i feel that I am clicking way too much to get to places.
• On/Off Switch : Yes a very small features but its always on and unless you have Take 2 which now includes a standby option…the only way to turn it off is to pull the plug..not a great way to turn it off.
• Hot : If you have this on for a while it heats up and I havent had it on over night, so I dont know if it gets REALLY hot….I cant see any breathers….

I know the bad points are nothing major.

So I have still to test an HD rental, I think for this I will rent it that night…let it download over night and watch it the next day. So far everything I have tested just works, I am a little dissapointed that the iPod Touch Remote app cant control the menu but hey it comes with a little remote.

So far I am liking this product very much….now to play with it more

Blogged with the Flock Browser

To Mac or not to Mac

I used to be a windows user up until about 2 years ago, then I started to use Ubuntu as my main operating system.

Over the past 2 years I have really enjoyed learning about Linux, and also watching how Ubuntu has improved. The applications I use are 99% Gnome and only 1 application KDE based (Amarok). The laptop I am using is an HP Pavilion DVP6000 and I am now finding its getting very warm, when trying to do a few tasks….so I am now looking for a replacement.

I have had my eye on a Sony Viao, as I purchased one so I could use iTunes and SAM Broadcaster. It runs vista and YUK its crap….but leaving that aside its a fantastic laptop.

I have also started to look at Mac Books, though I have never been a fan of the OS. I have been reading up on OSX and I really like the full intigration it has with the apps, the iPhone etc. This has got me thinking about possibly getting a Mac Book now.

I have looked and checked and 99% of the applications I use on Ubuntu, are already ported over to OSX which is great. I then noticed that the graphics card on the Mac Book are a little lower than the Viao i was looking at…so I checked out the Mac Book Pro which has at the time of posting this a 8600GT which is a nice card. The battery life on the Mac’s are really good about 4 to 5 hours, where with my HP its about 30/45mins under Ubuntu which is pants.

So now I am highly thinking about getting a MBP, but not yet probably early 2009 as I have heard they will be doing a refresh to include BluRay support and BluRay drive which will mean a more up to date laptop.

Blogged with the Flock Browser