Big Fun - Flight Sim Hidden In Google Earth

Posted by: PatrickJ on Aug 31 2007 - 895 views

Google Earth has a flight simulator game tucked away inside it - and it’s a load of fun.

I just crashed pretty much straight away into the Colorado River - but nobody was hurt. I’ve never even been into flight simulators, but it’s very cool trying it out over your own home town and real terrain!

Hidden inside Google Earth is a secret Flight Simulator that takes full advantage of Google’s extensive satellite imagery.

To access the hidden feature, open Google Earth and hit Command+Option+A (note it must be capital A) or Ctrl+Alt+A if you’re using a Windows Machine.

The Google Earth Flight Simulator comes with two aircraft options, a F16 Viper and the more manageable SR22 4 seater. Players have the option of commencing the game from their current location in Google Earth or can pick from a list of pre-determined runways. Control instructions can be found here.

Definitely worth a go on the weekend …

Via: TechCrunch

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Clinton Fitch: Rocket Man

Posted by: dgoldring on Aug 31 2007 - 522 views

I thought I was pretty familiar with Astraware’s games, but every once in a while I get surprised. That was the case when I read Clinton Fitch’s latest review, Rocket Mania. This one really flew in under my radar and I do not know how I missed it.

Rocket Mania is a puzzle game, in which you must connect cut pieces of fuse to link the lit end of the fuse to the dynamite. This is a very common genre, which usually involves a plumber connecting pipes to a water source and faucet. Leave it to Astraware, of course, to put their own twist on things and add high explosives into the mix.

In his review, Clinton says:

From a visual perspective Rocket Mania is great. The fireworks displays within the game are quite realistic and the three dimensional aspect of the menus are great as well. Having played the game on a VGA and QVGA device, it looks beautiful on both. Moving to the game play itself, it is easy and fun! There isn’t much of a learning curve with the game so anyone should be able to pick it up and begin playing it immediately. Strategy is key though: Learn how to put the pieces of fuse together in order to clear levels faster.

Click here to read the full review on Clinton Fitch(dot) com.

Technorati Tags: clinton fitch(dot)com, astraware, rocket mania, just another mobile monday

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What’s In A Name?

Posted by: dgoldring on Aug 31 2007 - 442 views

In the play Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare famously asked:

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”

Well, as the folks at TrekStor learned earlier this week, quite a lot can ride on a name.  Apparently, their typical naming convention over the past four years has been to use the words i.beat in the name of their music players.  The word beat, of course, is intended not as a verb, but as a noun referring to the beat of the music.

Last week, Trekstor announced its newest device, the i.beat Blaxx, which was covered in a black glossy material.  The folks at Gizmodo immediately noticed a problem with the name i.beat Blaxx, which — you guessed it — could be read as, “I Beat Black.”   See any problems there?  Uhm yeah…ya think?  Based upon the article in Gizmodo, Trekstor correctly acted appalled and changed the name immediately to the TrekStor Blaxx, dropping the “i.beat” convention.  You can read all about the new Trekstor Blaxx, here.

So yes, it would seem that a Rose by any other name…well, would apparently just be racist and mean.  What concerns me the most here is that a lot of people at Trekstor would have reviewed the name of this device before they announced it.  Not one of them saw any problems here.  Not a single one.  If I was a minority working in Trekstor, I think now would be a good time to get my resume in order.  What do you think?  Should this have been caught before it was announced?  Would you buy a media player with such an evil sounding name?  Or does the name matter to you at all?  Would you have even noticed?  And where is Jesse Jackson when we need him?

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Alu-Leather Goodness

Posted by: Steve Laser on Aug 31 2007 - 962 views

Proporta’s beautiful Alu-Leather case fits my HP iPaq HW 6925 like a glove - a glove with airplane grade aluminum underneath its handcrafted, high quality leather. The first thing I noticed when I took it out of the package was the smell of leather wafting in the air.

Read more »

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PogoNotes - Easy iPhone Online Notes App

Posted by: PatrickJ on Aug 31 2007 - 1,202 views

The heart of the PogoNotes ethic is flexible access to notes. It is our goal to guarantee that if your device can google PogoNotes, then you can access your PogoNotes.

PogoNotes is a simple, online Note-taking application, particularly for use with iPhones and other mobiles. Tomorrow they’re launching their ‘full web service’ which includes:

• Mac OS X Widget
• Cell phone WAP portal
• IE, Firefox, and Safari compliant web application
• iPhone application

PogoNotes has a very basic interface for quick creation and editing of notes via a browser. It’s in its very early days, so I imagine the ‘prettiness’ factor of its interface will want to increase in future - at the moment its functional, but not very pretty when you’re writing notes. It is very easy for reading and navigating through a short list of notes on the desktop and on an iPhone though. It also has a sharing feature that I have not played with yet.

I don’t believe it has a way to group or categorize notes right now either, which will need to be added to avoid chaos once you’ve got a large number of notes created.

I’ve only just got an iPhone, and I’m busy scouting around for web applications for it for common tasks. So far, PogoNotes seems a very nice supplement to the in-built note-taking application on the iPhone.

In terms of browsers, PogoNotes runs best in Safari and Firefox.  For lots more info, and to register for free and start using it, visit:

PogoNotes home

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Clinton Fitch Keeps His Eyes (And Hands) On The Prize

Posted by: dgoldring on Aug 31 2007 - 595 views

 

Many of you participated in our recent Astraware contest, which we ran in conjunction with Gear Diary and Clinton Fitch(dot)com.  As you will recall (and as lucky winner, Frank Su knows), the Grand Prize in that contest included the HTC Touch.

Clinton Fitch has just posted his review of that very device (special note to Frank, I am told the Touch is now in the mail).  Clinton gives an extremely thorough overview of the Touch, which he refers to as:

a small, sleek new Windows Mobile Professional device that sports TouchFLO, a new finger sensitive touch screen that responds to gestures, not just stylus input. 

So, what did he ultimately think of the Touch, well, I will be curious to see if Frank agrees when Clint says it is hard not to like the Touch.  Specifically, he states:

the device’s size and weight are outstanding as well as the call quality and radio function.  While power users could easily pick on the device for its slower processor and limited RAM, the majority of users will likely find it fits their needs quite well.  The TouchFLO application works well and is a nice change from the traditional stylus based interaction with devices.  While it is clear that the application has room to grow it is equally clear that it is a step in the right direction.  Having used the Touch for several weeks now I must stay I’m having a hard time adjusting to TouchFLO not being on my regular device!  More importantly, my wife has found it to be the perfect sized device for her!

Check out the full review at Clinton Fitch(dot)com.  And hopefully, Frank will check in with us once he receives his prize to let us know his thoughts on the TouchFLO interface as well.

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