Mazen Al-Angary's Official Blog
Posts tagged Review
Camera+: Editing Photos on iPhone 4
Jul 28th
By now you all know that there are a ton of photo editing an manipulation app available for iOS devices. One of those apps is Camera+ a $1.99 great iPhone app that I got way back when I had my iPhone 3GS, and thought that I would never need to use it when iPhone 4 comes out, was I so wrong.
Using Camera+ on any iPhone including the new one is simply a pleasure, since you can edit and retouch your images using the apps light box feature. Both images included in this post have been edited using the app to get that HDR effect, on the above image, and a vintage effect on the one bellow. You can get Camera+ from iTunes store by clicking on this Link.
eSkyGuide: Travel Info at Your Fingertips
Jul 28th
While preparing for my vacation, I was introduced to a new app on the iPhone called eSkyGuide.
The whole purpose of the application is very straight forward, it lets you navigate changes and track all your air travel plans. Using your current location it would locate nearby airports, giving you updated flight schedules, since you can lookup availabilities and flight options for the next 7 days.
eSkyGuide gives you a 7 day weather forecast for airports that are listed in your itinerary.
The app truly shines when it provides you with contact information for airlines, hotels, car rentals, and travel agencies at your destination with numbers that you can tap to place a call right from your iPhone.
During my vacation to Europe, I tested how the app operated and functioned, to find it quite useful when it comes to providing me with needed information right at my finger tips.
eSkyGuide is available on the app store and sells for $4.99, Personally I think that the price is steep for what the app has to offer, where I find that a $1.99 price tag would be the sweet spot. Yet this is one of those apps that I will always keep in my iPhone’s Travel folder to find what I want when I need it.
آبل آيباد: حقيقة أكبر من خيال
Apr 11th
وأخيراً إنتهى الإنتظار والترقب، حيث قامت شركة آبل بتسليم الدفعة الأولى من أجهزة الآيباد للمشترين الأوائل، حيث وصل للمملكة جهازي المرتقب في الثامن من إبريل، مع العلم بأن جهازي زار مواقع عديدة خلال أربع أيام، فمن الصين طار للولايات المتحدة، ومن ثم لفرنسا ثم الإمارات العربية المتحدة، بعد ذلك إلتف ليصل للرياض وأخيراً وصل بسلام في يدي بمدينة جدة.
طبعاً أنا متأكد من أن الكثير منكم قراء العديد من المقالات والتحليلات عن الجهاز، مما يجعل إعادة الحديث عنها من محض اللت والعجن الممل. لكن ما أود الحديث عنه هي التجربة الأولى في حد ذاتها، وهذا ما قررت أن أشاركه معكم.
أول خاطرة ترد في ذهني عند رفع الجهاز من الصندوق هي “واو“ وبعد تشغيل بعض البرامج على الجهاز تداركت معنى إيجاد الجهاز في حد ذاته. فشركة آبل صرحت بأن هذا الجهاز ليس بديلاً عن الهاتف الذكي (أو آيبود بشاشه عملاقة)، ولا هو بديل عن أجهزة الكمبيوتر المحمولة. هذا الجهاز يُصنف تحت فصيلة جديدة من الأجهزة المتنقلة الخفيفة. وكما قال الرئيس التنفيذي للشركة ستيف جوبز “هذا جهاز وسطي بين الهاتف الذكي واللابتوب“.
إدعى البعض أن الجهاز ثقيل في الحمل، مما أعطى إنطباعاً بأنه غير عملي في التنقل، ردي على ذلك أن الجهاز متوازن في الوزن بالنسبه لحجمه، وذلك يعطي الإحساس بجودة الصنع العالية، حيث أنه غير مُصنع من قطع بلاستيك لُزقت بغراء رخيص.
كما قامت العديد من وكالات الأنباء الكبيرة بنشر أخبار عن عدم قدرة الجهاز على التواصل مع بعض شبكات الـWiFi، مما جعلني أجرب الإتصال بشبكات متعددة من دون أي صعوبات وبدقة فائقة تحاكي إتصال أجهزة الكمبيوتر المحمولة. في إعتقادي الخاص، وبما أن كلمة “iPad” من الكلمات المهمه في مواقع البحث هذه الأيام، أرادت بعض تلك المواقع الحصول على إنتباه الزوار من خلال نفخ بعض فقاعات الصابون من حالات فردية لم يتم التحقق من صحتها (يمكن أصحاب الأجهزة المتضررة زيارة أيٍ من صالات بيع أجهزة آبل، لكن لم يتم إثبات ذلك بعد).
لنكن منطقيين قليلاً في تفكيرنا، قامت آبل بإستثمار الكثير من الأموال والجهد لتطوير وتصنيع هذا الجهاز المرتقب من قِبل المستخدمين والمنافسين على حدٍ سواء، لا أظن أنها ستسمح بفرصة ثقب ترسانتها في مرحلة مهمه مثل هذه.
عنصر الإثارة
لإختصار الموضوع، فإن الآيباد أفضل جهاز كمبيوتر متنقل يتم تصنيعه حتى الآن. فهو أفضل متصفح للإنترنت (حيث يمكنك لمس المواقع كما لم تفعل من قبل)، هو أفضل مشغل وسائط صوتية، أفضل مشغل أفلام HD متنقل، أفضل جهاز للإبداع السريع مثل الكتابة أو الرسم، أفضل جهاز ألعاب (قريباً سيتغلب على البلاي ستيشن PSP والننتيدو DSi لما يتميز به الجهاز من قدرات فائقة لعرض الجرافيكس ثلاثية الأبعاد عالية الجودة)، كما أن الآيباد هو أفضل جهاز يمكنك أن تحلم بإقتنائه لقراءة الكتب والمجلات والصحف والمجلات الهزلية .
في الماضي تمكنت من السفر بجهاز آيفون مكنني من التواصل عبر البريد الإلكتروني والإنترنت، والآن يمكنني فعل أكثر من ذلك بالآيباد.
سألني البعض عن عمر البطارية، لم أقم بتجربة فعلية لكن من ملاحظتي إستخدمت الجهاز لمدة ٣ ساعات إستهلكت ما يقارب ٩٪ من طاقة الجهاز. آبل أعلنت عن ١٠ ساعات مشاهدة فيديو، وقام البعض بتحقيق ١١ ساعة من الألعاب والفيديو المتواصل.
جميع الحقوق محفوظة ٢٠١٠ مازن العنقري
The Devil is in The Details PART 1
Apr 11th
Thought of starting a series of thoughts and discoveries about using Apple products in general, so will call this series “The Devil is in The Details”
Part one will shed some light about something I noticed while reading a book on my iPad. The first observation was the ability to bookmark a page and set a special color to that bookmark.
The second observation is that you can remove all the controls on the page by simply tapping anywhere in the center of the page to give you more of a book reading experience.
Copyright 2010 © Mazen Al-Angary, All Rights Reserved.
Apple iPad: Bigger Than Life
Apr 8th
Well finally the wait is over, Apple delivered the iPad on the 3rd of April as promised, and I got mine delivered on the 8th, given the fact that my iPad flew all the way from China to the US, visited France, the UAE, till it reached my hands in Jeddah Saudi Arabia.
Now I am sure by now that you read a ton of articles, reviews, and opinions about the iPad and what it can and can’t do. So this won’t be a review, this will be an experience.
The first word that crossed my mind when i first held the iPad out of its box was “WOW!” after firing up some apps the whole iPad experience started to sink in, now i fully understand what Apple has created, and I think this is what got many people confused, they try to label this revolutionary device as a portable computer, or a netbook, or in some cases as a giant iPod touch (or iPhone). Yet Steve Jobs made it very clear when he said that this is something in-between a mobile phone and a laptop, created for ultra mobility.
Some people said that the device is so heavy, I find it very light and balanced (Recommendation: Try lifting some weight you wussies), you can feel that you’re holding a quality product, not a cheap piece of plastic tablet wannabe.
Many news sites reported that the new Apple product has issue connecting to the Internet, I found it connecting to many networks with no problems, so I guess in the quest to get more web-hits and Google juice, those site got there hand on a single incident to make a huge air-balloon out of it.
Let’s be logical, Apple placed a lot of betting chips on those product, they won’t ship out a defected device, especially when every other company dreams of finding a crack they can stab at.
The WOW Factor
Bottom line, the iPad is the best ultra-mobile device ever created, hands down.
It is the best Internet tablet (you can really touch the web for the first time), the best music device, the best HD movie player, the best creation on-the-go device, the best mobile gaming device, and the best book, magazine, and comic book reader you can ever dream of buying.
In the past I managed to travel naked with my iPhone, as a dear friend likes to say, now I can be even more productive and move lighter with the iPad, with everything merely a finger tap away.
P.S. This article has been drafted on an iPad, and if I had the SD card adaptor I would have posted directly to the web, thanks to Pages app on the iPad, so much for creating. Now scroll down and enjoy the images.
iPad thickness compared to iPhone 3GS
Reading books on the iPad
Drafting this article on the iPad using pages and exporting seamlessly through iTunes.
UPDATE: Regarding battery life, I have been playing with my iPad for about 3 hours with WiFi turned on, it consumed about 9% leaving me with 91% full battery.
Copyright 2010 © Mazen Al-Angary, All Rights Reserved.
Nokia X6 Full Review
Mar 3rd
I got my hands on a brand new Nokia X6 phone that has the “Comes with Music” feature, and boy was it so much fun to try that out for the very first time. The new Nokia X6 should be in the Saudi market within a week or so, with an MSRP of SR 2250 (estimated price).
Unpacking:
Inside the box you will find the X6, a charger, battery, in-ear white headphones with controls, a USB cable, Software CD, manuals, and the PIN code to activate your Ovi music store account to get as much free music as you want for a full year.
Hardware:
The Nokia X6 features a much welcomed 3.2 inches TFT capacitive touchscreen over the older resistive touchscreens, so this is clearly a move in the right direction. The unit also sports a proximity sensor, that will turn the screen off when it comes closer to the users face. A cool feature is the high-quality scratch-resistant glass surface.
As far as aesthetics, the devices feels solid while being held in hand, reminds me of the standard candy bar phones, over all it feels great to hold, yet I have noticed that the only minor drawback is the side lock-screen sliders, that feels a bit clunky. Otherwise it feels natural in the users hand.
The front of the X6 features a frontal camera for video calls, the back features a 5 MP, 2592 X 1944 pixels, Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, Dual LED flash, video light. The camera also Geo-tags your images if you wish so.
On the sides you will find stereo speakers, along with the SIM card slot. While on the other side you get the volume controls, camera button, and the screen lock slider.
On the top of the device you will find the USB port, a standard 3.5mm audio jack, the charging port, and the on/off button. On the bottom you will find a place to hang a strap or a charm-attachment . The Nokia X6 comes in many colors like Blue on White, Red on Black, and Black on Black.
User Interface and Software:
Nokia X6 runs Symbian OS v9.4, Series 60 rel. 5 on its ARM 11 434MHz processor, you can touch almost any part of the screen to get to functions with a haptics tactile feedback to let you know you clicked on something. Navigating through the menus is quite simple, if you’re used to Nokia S60 devices you will find yourself right at home with the X6.
The device features the usual suspects like; Stereo FM radio, A-GPS support (with the free Ovi Maps 3.0), media player, Organizer, Photo editor, TV-out, Flash Lite 3.0, T9 support, A2DP Bluetooth support, among many other.
The Nokia X6 comes with a large 32 GB storage, 128 MB RAM, yet it doesn’t offer a way to expand your storage with a memory card.
The Experience:
Once I got the Nokia X6 out of the box, I got hold of the instruction card that shows you how to get free music, and application on it, you simply connect to the internet via 3.5G or WiFi which was easy to setup, after that you log into the Ovi store and enter the provided PIN, sit back and enjoy over 4 million Arabic and International tracks and albums that are available through Ovi music store. You can also install the Ovi application on your Windows PC and use the account to sync your music with your brand new device.
Nokia has worked hard on connectivity, where I learned by attending their private media roundtable meeting that they are pushing new solutions for Nokia messaging services that is suitable for both corporations and home-users, the new services provides push notifications and emails directly to your device, anywhere at any time. And with a foot-print as large as Nokia’s you can see the future of socializing with everyone around you. Setting up a new Nokia device is as easy as 3 simple steps, after that you get all your emails, IM massages, and social networks like Twitter and FaceBook running on the fly.
Conclusion:
I find myself compelled to use such a device, Nokia came a long way to reach this level, where now you can get free music, tons of applications, while staying truly connected to work and play with simple to use devices that many people have been loving and knowing for years.
What I liked about the X6:
- The improved capacitive touchscreen
- The standard 3.5mm headphone jack
- The ability to use it as an every day phone that can hold all your music.
- Easy connectivity to emails, messaging, and social sites.
- A great device for music lovers.
What I didn’t like about the X6:
- User Interface is a bit sluggish and slow at times.
- Ovi store needs more improvements.
- The way the interface occasionally requires a double tap can also be annoying.
- Slow at times while browsing the web.
So let’s rate the Nokia X6 shall we:
Hardware 4.5 out of 5. 
UI & Software 3 out of 5. 
Experience 4.5 out of 5. 
Overall 4 out of 5. 
Copyright 2010 © Mazen Al-Angary, All Rights Reserved.
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