Magic Reader: Reading in a MAGICAL way

On January, 2010, Apple introduced a revolutionary device called iPad, which has truly change the way interact with our daily tasks. At the same time, the late CEO, Steve Jobs had also announced an unbelievable book reader app, an app that turned iPad into an even more amazing portable ebook reader, and not to mention the super convenient iBook Store that can possibly revolutionize the way we purchase books. So what's next? What's next to be anticipated on our iPad?

Magic Reader is the answer! This reader can possibly change the way we read our magazines and journal articles, even if you have your hand smudged while making cake and muffins in your kitchen. MAGIC Reader enables you to read your magazines by turning your head. It detects your head movement through the front facing camera and indicates successful face detection through 2 bright blue stars. When both stars turn blue, it means that you can start flipping your magazine with your head.

The app currently supports only PDF files and image file formats (jpg, png, gif, tiff, and bmp). To insert your magazines, you have to plug in your iPad to your PC and transfer the files via iTunes File Sharing.

Verdict: We find this app quite useful, especially when our hands are busy. The coverflow layout for selecting magazines and articles of our choice is also quite intuitive. However, we think that the supported head gestures are still limited. To select books, we still have to tap our fingers on the screen. We really hope that the developer can make this app even better by adding more handy gestures, like "nod" to select book, and waving hands to cancel selection, and blink our eyes to zoom in and out, for our convenience. Besides that, we also think that the file format support can be improved, with the hope that popular book formats like ePub, Kindle (AZW), and Microsoft LIT (.lit), and Mobipocket (mobi) will soon be supported. Other than that, the current file transferring method is also pretty tedious, which require us to plug in our iPad to the PC. It will be cool if we can transfer the downloaded files from other apps via "open with" function. Furthermore, the limitation of screen orientation to just vertical orientation is quite troublesome, especially when our iPad folio can only support horizontal orientation. Otherwise, this free iPad app is an unbeatable deal for hardcore book readers.

Complaining About iOS Lacked of flash Support? Problem Solved!

Various arguments have been made by different parties regarding the practicality of iOS, including the missing FLASH feature. Flash is important, particularly for those who can't live without FarmVille and The Sims Social on their facebook. Some websites which consist of interactive content would also require flash support to render. So, does that mean that we have to give up the beautiful unibody enclosure and choose the plastic instead?

No, you don't have to. In fact, we have something special for all of you. Puffin is one of the best flash web browser we have ever tested. It supports flash contents, including flash games, flash videos, and interactive web content. And it's not just that! The Puffin also includes an optional virtual touch pad which let you control the screen by using a cursor.

Note: Puffin Web Browser costs only $2.99 USD and it's available for both iPad and iPhone. If you are unsure about purchasing the app right away, you can also evaluate the app by downloading the free version, which allows you to tryout all the paid features for 14 days. Android version is also available for those who want to enjoy a complete desktop web browsing experience on their tablets and smartphones.

Phoster: Creating Eye Catching Posters with Your iPad

If we talk about editting photos, we have amazing apps like iPhoto; while we would like to create home made movies and trailers, we have iMovie; attractive slideshow presentations can be done through Keynote; music production has never been so easy with Garageband, so what about Posters? Posters are important, especially when we want to announce and promote a new product, a memorable event, a notable issue, and lots more stuff that matters to us. We know that Adobe creates great tools for creating stunning posters and flyers, but it's somehow too complicated for amateurs.

Phoster is different. It provides you with the simplest way to create the poster you desire. With a huge variety of templates to choose from, there is certainly something that suits your needs. You can either select a photo from your photo library or capture a photo with your iPad camera. Besides photo of your product, you can also insert some catchy phrases for better effect. Jut tap on the words that you want to change, and edit right away. Before completing your poster, you can fine tune your final product with different filtering effects before saving it. That's it! You can share your creation with your friends via FB, Twitter, Instagram, email, and Flickr.

Note: Phoster app is available in the Appstore for just USD $1.99. It can be downloaded by both iPad and iPhone users.

Virtual Table Tennis 2: Ping Pong Battle for Free

Craving for a professional ping pong battle but don't have the skill? This virtual table tennis app is all you need! With customizable game mode, this app can definitely statisfy your need, whether you desire a friendship battle or an international tournament, with AI players from various countries around the world. If you are an amateur, practice is all you need to brush up your skills. You can select the practice mode to sharpen your gaming skills, and also test on different ping pong styles. If you prefer playing versus your buddies, you can choose the multiplayer mode which connect both your iPads via bluetooth or wifi. We find this game worth playing, and would like to recommend to our fellow readers.

Note: This app is only available for free for a limited time, go grab it before it's too late! It's available for both iPhone and iPad.

The Star ePaper: A Brand New Way to Interact with Your News

We've been testing the generous 1 month free trial of Malaysia's first full featured ePaper, The Star ePaper, and it's great. The idea of having a package of both ePapers and printed copies delivered to our doorstep with just a single order is simply exciting. The ePaper version looks stunning on our iPad 9.7" big screen. And perhaps the best thing is that every single information you expect from the printed newspaper is available in the ePaper, making it an exact shadow copy of the printed edition. So, no more worries about missing anything important while reading e-News. Papers available for downloading are The Star Malaysia, Metro (Central, North, Perak, South & East), The Star Sarawak, and StarClassifieds. Besides being available to iOS platform, Android devices are also supported. If you have non of those devices, no worries, you can always order the desktop version through the website. Through, the website, you can either read your favourite news online, or save the paper for offline reading.

Verdict: We found this new initiative very attractive, with all the latest news and updates delivered through the devices we use the most. Business people, as well as educators and students will find it useful to be able to get themselves updated right from their mobile devices. It's on a few days before the trial ends, and if you are interested in subscribing, you can contact The Star for more pricing details.

The Brilliant Camera Connection Kit

We all know how amazingly flexible it is to use a jailbroken iPad with the original Camera Connection Kit, it extends the USB capability of our king of tablet, just like what we've described in our previous post. But, what if we don't want to jailbreak? What if we want to preserve the original essence of iOS? Does this mean that we have to be stucked with a single functioned Camera Connection Kit (limited to only transferring photos from camera n SD cards)? Not really.

We have read various articles that talk about using external USB keyboard with iPad. So, we decided to give it a try. The keyboard we tested on is a full sized Acer desktop keyboard, which is originally paired with a Windows based Acer desktop PC. When we plugged in the keyboard to the connection kit, it initially shows an incompatibility pop-up message, yet as we launched our Pages app and started typing, the keyboard works smoothly. Even the arrows and numbers keys work amazingly! Now, no more worries about tired fingers after typing on your iPad screen for extended hours!

USB Capability on Your iPad

We know it's rare for us to discuss about jailbreaking issues in "My Tech, My Life", but here is some small tips we thought might be useful for our fellow freshmen out there.

First, we all know that one of the best features and benefits of jailbreaking your iPad is that you get a USB reading capability. For those who are not quite sure what we am talking about, it basically unlock your iPad, allowing it to read the various content in your USB drive, using Apple's pure white CCK (camera connection kit). Bear in mind, it's not just reading the photos and videos in your SD card or camera; it's more than that. With a jailbroken iPad, you can open your word documents, PDF, ePub files, mp3, and much more, right from your pendrive! Exactly! Your hear me right! And it's doesn't just stop there. You can even transfer some light word processing documents directly to your Pages and Numbers apps. Small sized videos with mp4 format can be transferred to your 3rd party video apps, so far it works successful with the Flex Player, which can be downloaded from the App Store with absolutely no charges. Besides that, another notable feature is that ePub and PDF ebooks can also be transferred right into your iBooks app. That's especially useful if you have a lot of ebooks and have limited storage in your iPad. 

Yes, pretty convenient, isn't it? But, we have identified a problem here recently. We noticed that many of the USB drives out there require much more power than the iPad itself can support. Take an example of a Toshiba branded 4GB thumbdrive that we used for testing. It's stated by iPad that "The connected USB device requires too much power". And it's not just that, some of the "Pendrive" branded thumbdrives share the same connectivity issue as well. So what should you do? How do you make sure that your flash device is compatible? Here's a simple tip for all of you, we have tested on most of the 8GB Kingston branded thumbdrives and they work wonderfully on our test units. We have used it to read and transfer files and documents smoothly, and only encounter problem while attempting to transfer music to the default music player. However, we are glad that the transfer still works on third party apps like Golden Ear, which costs $7.99 USD in the App Store. 

And in case you don't know, you have to download the iFile app from Cydia  to perform the tasks above. 

For those who don't want to jailbreak their iPad, don't worry, you still have your iTunes and sync cable :)

it's All About Music

For many, music is an identity, an attitude, and a tool that allows you to release your stress, yet too many of us are exposed to cheap, low quality mp3 files, pairing with low quality gears. Yes of course! Low price is our first priority. Therefore I am here to tell you how to grab the best bargain without compromising the sound quality.

I'm currently using an over ear DJ headphone, HD 205, designed by German audio company, Sennheiser. The bass is thick, the tone is rich, and the earcups provide a firm grip to your ear, creating close to perfect passive noise cancelling, making your listening experience even more enjoyable. Initially, the tight grip of the earcups might be a little bit discomforting, especially if you are wearing glasses. But after few months of usage, it will loosen up. If you intend to speed up the process, you can purchase a cheap head sculpture model from Art Friend, located in The Gardens Mall, beside Mid Valley Megamall, Malaysia. All you need to do is to put the headphone on the styrofoam head everytime after you finish listening.

A good headphone should be paired with a good amplifier for richer sound projection. My recommendation would be the affordable but good quality FiiO E3, which cost only RM35. To power up this little beast, all you need is an AAA battery. If you have extra cash to burn, you can also consider the higher end E6 or E7 model. With the help of this tiny little portable amplifier, your music listening experience will never be the same.

Well, a great combination of high quality headphone and amplifier certainly do magic to your music, but there is something we have to remember, high quality source of music is still the fundamental part of music listening. You might want to consider buying original CDs which definitely have sounds better than your low quality mp3 files. But if you insist on saving some cash by supporting the pirates, I would suggest you to at least look for mp3 files with the bitrate of 320kbps. If you want to even better music quality, you can either purchase audiophile grade music CDs from outlets like Popular Bookstore or Rock Corner, or download lossless music file formats such as FLAC, WMA Lossless, Apple Lossless (compatible with iPods), and WAV. These music files are much larger size than your normal audio files, but the quality are guaranteed, mainly because they are not compressed, hence you can enjoy the so called original music quality. It would be advisable for you to download "foobar2000" for audio playback on Windows based PC, as it supports most of the music formats, including the lossless formats. If you have a couple of high quality albums and an iPod, you can use iTunes to extract the songs from the CD and convert into Apple Lossless format. By doing so, the sound quality of the music will not be affected.

If you need more information, please feel free to leave me a comment. ;)

Staff Favourite of The Month!

To celebrate the great month of April, we are introducing a brand new section, "Staff Favourite of The Month"!!! In this section, we will bring you the iOS app of our choice, with no specific categories, in the beginning of the month. Whether you are a fan of iDevices or just some random dudes who stop by to have a peep, we hope that this new tryout section will help you with your purchase or downloads :)

And ladies n gentlemen, our staff favourite for the month of APRIL is (drum rolllllllllllll)........TOUCH HOCKEY 2 HD!

This game is just amazing! All you need is to score as much as 7 goals and you win! The free version comes with easy mode and 2 choices of paddles. The game can be viewed in either "top down" or "3D perspective". The 3D view changes smoothly while you changes the position of your iPad. If you want to enjoy the full featured Touch Hockey 2 HD, you can upgrade to the full version through in app purchase. With the full unlocked version, you can select more varieties of paddles and scene, and even play with your friend via Wi-Fi!

We think that this app's simplicity makes it fun and addictive, and we are in love with the realistic sound effect that makes this game even better!

Note: This version of Touch Hockey is only available for iPad. iPhone users can download "Touch Hockey: FS5 (FREE)" which is also available in the App Store with absolutely no charges! (if you can bear with the ads)