iOS 4, iPad and Jailbreak

I haven't had a post in a long time and I thought what appropriate topic to address none other that the iOS formerly known as iPhone operating system. The new iOS4 is just 4 days away coming to all touch devices other than the iPad which will be coming out later this year. For a list of features you can visit http://www.apple.com/iphone/softwareupdate/ (or google search, or search cnet, engadget, or which ever tech sites your like to stay up to date with) for iOS4. Everyone has been talking about how awesome there ipads are, or how its a waste of money, some jailbroken, some just happy with iBooks and iWork. So I figured why not share my opinions on the entire matter. Some of these opinions I have gathered from research I have done from friends, trouble shooting myself, or simply reading from reliable tech sources. (Statements are biased to my opinion, however I have been optimistic to methods and do not downgrade any products or software.) I won't be covering iOS really, most of what you would have questions for can be answered on the site I posted or by googling iOS4. iOS4 is mainly a big change for users that have an iPhone 3G and end of the week iPhone 4. The biggest feature coming to those devices will be multitasking.


iPad

Specs: http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/

(mobility and some app functions are primarily assuming internet connection has been made, whether wifi or 3g)


I had originally planned on getting a Apple tablet when the rumors spread, but once the coverage happened on the iPad this winter I must admit I was a bit turned off. From what I could summarize it was a halfway point between the iPod touch and a Macbook, (some calling it a giant iPhone.) But after seeing a few IT peers with them and what they were able (and not able) to do with it, I was impressed enough to change my mind on getting one. So here are my pros and cons.

Pros

0.5 No At&t contract required for 3g iPads!

1. Mobility - Most of us who use laptops can agree that at times it can be a nuisance to carry a larger device around, examples being: Student carrying a backpack between classes with only one or two books. Business person carrying a briefcase when they could just carry a portfolio. When realistically for a list of mobile tasks we might only need it for a few minutes, or just a few applications. This device makes it a bit easier than trying to type up a lengthy email on your phone, but not quite an entire paper on your laptop. In the office, Project Managers may just need to bring up an excel spreadsheet to show a team or co-worker quickly as opposed to printing it off or using a laptop. Database operators tend to need to just make a quick change to a spreadsheet inventory. A student may only need to make small changes to a paper he or she wrote between classes, printing can be a headache with this, but "pages" give you the option to be able to share via email, or iwork.com. A Realtor could demo some houses from the website to a client while on the road with them, instead of wasting time taking them to a house they already were declining in their head when they pulled up together.

2. Enterprise -iWork makes it convenient to making changes to a presentation, spreadsheet, document (or starting one from scratch if you decide.) This making it a feature the phone and ipod do not have, and can be more easily manipulated if you blu-tooth a keyboard to your iPad. I absolutely love 2 of the apps for iOS, both which are for iPad and iPhone. Citrix Receiver (free) and Wyse Pocket Cloud RDP ($9.99) make it convenient to quickly remote to a Workstation or Virtual machine (vmware view), or use your iPad in a Hospital environment running Citrix. Also Lawyers can take advantage of this and Nexis-Lexis search. Where Doctors are starting to pick up on this, and if you are in IT the WYSE app is a must if you have a list of machines you need access to remotely. LogMeIn ignition ($29.99) works very well also for those of you who use them for your remote or networking resources (logmein.com.)

3. Fun - If you liked using the iPod touch or iPhone for your app games (not click wheel), movies, music, tv shows, and podcasts, this is just a bigger screen and interface that has been optimized for it. They come in several different sizes so storage space isn't likely to be an issue for you, except for you pirates who still need to carry around that miniature tank you call an iPod classic. Also the iPad was the first iOS device to get Netflix, bringing your instant stream to the device if you have an account (www.netflix.com.)

4. Simplicity - This is more of an expansion to fun, but I would target this toward friends and family. Your in-laws just wants to look at some photos of the kids on vacation. Dad wants to look at auto-trader. Grandma wants to watch a movie on the hammock, or Mom needs something in the kitchen whether it be a cook book or some short entertainment. This device is not only convenient, but has a simple learning curve that even babies and cats are playing with it.

Cons

0.5 it requires 10 volts to charge, so far I can charge off a wall outlet and macbook pro. But it will not charge off iPod car charger or a PC with USB 2.0 (Apparently it won't "cheat" on the Mac.)

1. You guessed it......Adobe Flash - This biggest issue most people have with the iOS is the fact Apple and Adobe have come to a disagreement about a version for flash. The story changes quickly but the biggest argument and rumors were (or have been) that Flash simply bogs down the operating system too much and needs too many resources currently. Adobe partnered with Android recently and "gave up" on Apple. This will be huge for present technology, however Steve Jobs has verbally mentioned on many counts he is ready for HTML5.

2. It's.......a giant iPod? - It maybe more convenient to carry this around then a laptop, but it doesn't have a full desktop experience right now of one either. I mentioned before that you can remote to machines, but if you just have a wifi iPad and aren't near a hotspot....this becomes an issue if you need that to do a Windows task (or other non iOS software.) Windows integrates easily in enterprise domain environments and most software applications are developed for it currently. There are some mobile software solutions but the market is still short for the business word (referring to phones primarily.) The Mac OS has many alternatives, and if there isn't one you can find, you have 3 options: 1.Run your application software in Citrix. 2.Remotely access a Windows machine (examples: remote desktop or vnc.) 3. Run a virtual machine (example and refer to vmware.com.) Although there are many apps in the app store and jail-broken apps on the web, it still is fairly new and hasn't become mainstream enough to replace mobile computing such as laptops and net-books (not all software or software task are available yet outside of Windows, Mac, Unix, and Linux.)

3. (3g devices) At&t - I have had good luck myself with At&t but the word on the street and in tech news is people aren't happy campers. They are getting rid of the unlimited data plans, however if you signed up for one before June 7, 2010 you were grandfathered in. Recently their website was hacked, 114,000 email and SIM card identifiers for iPad 3g owners were made public, not a giant deal other than the fact they might get a good bit of spam mail now. There have been claims that the previous versions of iOS can be broken into the phone through SMS (http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-10299378-245.html.) Although this was regarding the phone, it makes you wonder what other holes are in the data network for apple devices or if this lies with the big fruit company themselves.

4. Hardware - Want to hook up to your tv as another display? How about import some pictures from your camera card without touching your computer? Have a document on your flash drive you want to make changes to? What about just printing off that presentation you just finished on your iPad? The issue here is the fact it has a connector for iPod cables and headphones only....some of these tasks can be accomplished through apps, but it make be quicker or less of a headache to do these tasks on a desktop or laptop right now.

Pro or Con (on the fence)

5. Security - We really don't know the level of Security the iOS has provided us yet, but the plus to sticking with your iOS instead of Jail-broken software, you are trusting a reliable source (instead of people (or company) that reviews, techs, and grey hat hackers have pointed you to.) Apple gives you what you can develop with and you have to submit to them for approval before put in the app store (Cydia I would assume has a similar method.) This really could be looked at either way for both Jail-broken developers or Apple. You are trusting either way that the operating system and apps you run on your device. Black hat hackers have claimed the phone has holes in its security (sms being the main case currently.) But the iPad essentially just has an air card, data only. Apple has been claimed to be good for security simply because most malicious software isn't written for their products currently. However if we start seeing more of Apple common sense tells me that would change. Security is a toss up right now, but you seldom read about someone having their Apple hacked unless you are specifically looking for it.

Jailbreak will be covered in the next post.

Presentation

Well the semester is ending and I have been trying to get caught up with everything between work and School. The Wiki seems to be coming along Okay as well as the game. There are a few things I'm going to do to the Wiki page and Team page to get them caught up. The one thing I've been kicking myself to do is the paper prototyping. It hasn't necessarily been priority due to Work and other classes, but the main reason it hasn't been prepared is the fact mine wasn't the game we chose to use for our project. Thus this assignment slipped because I told Josh and Patrick I could do it with my camera so it wouldn't affect them doing other students. But me being thoughtful has turned into procrastination so no excuse, it get's completed or I get no credit.

The presentation is coming along great all considered. The game has come to a road block I will talk about but for now let me speak about the presentation. I'm putting together a power-point regarding what needs to be covered according to the Wiki. This is actually something I feel at home about. I'm more familiar with Office than I am with Action Script. So it was no problem jumping on that assignment when I found out about it. Over the next 24 hours I will be polishing it up and finishing catching up the Wiki by posting my files and filing it out finally.

Halo 2.5? double you tee eff?

This past Tuesday Microsoft and Bungie launched the latest Halo edition Halo 3: ODST. The letters ODST stand for Orbital Drop Shock Trooper, which in the Halo's version of the UNSC Marines are extremely elite. The game takes place between Halo 2 and 3 in New Mombasa, Kenya. The year is 2552 and Master Chief has been sucked to another galaxy right on schedule. Covenant forces control the city of and they are searching for something beneath its darkened streets. Your orders: Stay alive, meet up with your scattered squad, and escape the embattled city.

The game isn't bad, actually quite good. It's a new campaign that isn't exactly run and gun, if you don't strategically try to conserve your ammo you will run out quickly. Definitely something different for the Halo world. You play as a rookie searching a city at night for the rest of his squad, the map somewhat playing it out like an RPG (role playing game). Every time that you find a clue it makes the gamer go into a flashback of what happened there. So you play as different members of the squad for each level and as the rookie for your main map, "put it all together," storyline. Some of the features of this game have the resemblance of Halo 1; not being able to wield in left hand, pistol is awesome again and with zoom, etc. Which so far gamers have been ecstatic about. Also the game brings in a new feature that seems like all to familiar zombies style firefight, where you alone or with a team see how long you can survive against on coming enemy. Getting progressively more difficult the longer you survive. The game also includes a second disc which includes all of the multiplayer of Halo 3, including maps and game saves you may already have, work with this game. It features three new maps, which are so far not available for DLC on Halo 3. So if you haven't already purchased the map packs for H3, this may be a cheaper alternative to get the experience, plus 3 new maps yo. ODST is available anywhere games are sold, I definitely recommend at least renting it if you don't have the $59.99 to shell out, or throwing this bad boy on your Christmas wish-list. All in all the game is put together well and so far has been a hit in the gaming world. I would give Halo 3: ODST a 9 out of 10.

Favorite Game.

It's very difficult to choose a specific favorite video game throughout all the years that I've been playing them. I started playing video games when I was 5 years old when I got a Sega Genesis for Christmas that year. I'm 21 now which means I've been playing games for 16 years. If I were to pick a favorite game I would have to base it on the game I have spent the most time playing, and that would be Halo 1 for the Original Microsoft Xbox. The game was very well put together especially for when it came out, it never has gotten old for me, and if were able to play online I believe today thousands of people would play it every day even 8 years after it was released. It had sold 5 million copies as of November 2005. It's predecessor Halo 2 made $125 million with unit sales of 2.38 million on the first day of its release, earning it the distinction of the fastest-selling United States media product in history. Three years later, Halo 3 shattered that record with the biggest opening day in entertainment history, taking in US$170 million in its first 24 hours.

Uploaded Bugs to Wiki

Today we uploaded our flash game to the MCTC wiki. It was kind of interesting embedding a flash game onto a web page. I am familiar with playing flash items but this was the first time that I had created anything in flash pro. I never knew how much code it can take to do something as simple as having a carrot get attacked by a rabbit.

Bugs 1.0

Today we worked on our first Adobe Flash project. We used a template provided from our Wiki site that had several characters on it, including a bunny and a carrot. We removed everything except the bunny and carrot. We started by developing code to show the carrot moving in a certain direction on it's own and to stop at the edge of the window. We then modified the bunny to be controlled by the user by using arrows on the keyboard. After that we developed code that if the carrot collides with the bunny its returns to it's starting point. Every time the bunny eats (collides) with carrot, it receives a point.

First day of class.

Hello my name is Benji King, I'm creating this first blog to test out the features of blogspot and for gaming class purposes.