Chinese knockoff products have a warm place in my heart for being boldly courageous and amazingly clever at tricking consumers into purchasing their cute ripoff. Some of them are cool, others are annoying, but one particular Chinese website does its best to not only replicate the charm of Apple and the iPhone 4 as reseller, they have a certificate of manliness to prove it.
Chinese Knockoff Website Impresses with Authorization
Six Weeks With an iPhone 4
I got my iPhone 4 on June 30th, six weeks ago. I bought it from an Italian eBay seller who purchased two units in Montpellier (France) and decided to re-sell them at a considerably higher price on eBay. Looking back, I know I did the right thing: Apple sent a very few units for the Italian launch on July 30th, and even if I could manage to grab one on that day I would have missed 30 days of intensive usage and enjoyment. In those 30 days I had the chance to test the Retina Display, the antenna, FaceTime, the updated apps. It was worth it.
Now, it’s been six weeks with iPhone 4. Does it change everything?
iAd “Most Progressive Thing Seen to Date” in Digital Advertising
Quoting Nissan senior manager Chad Jacoby from the LA Times, “What iAd promises is the most progressive thing I’ve seen to date” in digital advertising. North American Unilever media director Rob Master too called it, “a good start,” and is planning to launch a second iAd for the Klondike bar, while noting the success of the Dove soap iAd which resulted in a 20% return rate of viewers who wanted to check out the contents again. Campbell soup, DirectTV, and even General Electric are planning to jump on board. iAd is becoming one of Apple’s most incredible successes, securing $60 million in advertising commitments for 2010.
Apple’s Rechargeable Batteries Suggested to be Eneloops
We’ve heard this story quite a bit; the batteries are of course rebranded, and the general consensus was that these were some form of a Sanyo Eneloop. The crazy kids over at Superapple decided to take apart a AA (we recommend that you don’t do this) Apple rechargeable battery to see what was inside.
Musicians Recreate “Eye of the Tiger” Using Only iPad Apps [Video]
Speaking of music apps for the iPad, take a look at this video. A group of musicians recreated the 80’s hit “Eye of the Tiger” using only iPad apps (such as Pianolo and Pocket Drums) and then photographer Jordan Hollender shot a great video of the “performance” using Canon EOS 5D Mark II and a Canon EOS 7D.
SoundPrism for iPad Will Blow Your Mind
There are many music apps available for the iPad, especially DJ ones. Great apps, which sport a stunning attention to UI design and rather “professional” features. I bet you haven’t seen anything like SoundPrism by Audanika, though.
SoundPrism will let you “create music” in a different way: you can’t do nothing wrong with it. It always sounds great. So what’s the point? The point is how you create that music: with multi-touch and a beautiful interface specifically designed for the iPad and with iPad users in mind.
Really, just take a look at the video below. The app has been submitted to the App Store, but you can follow @audanika to stay updated. We can’t wait.
[via Jason Fried]
Time Warner Cable Prototype iPad App [Video]
Time Warner Cable is working on an official application for the iPad, not publicly available yet, and they’re showing it off in a series of videos where TWC CEO Glenn Britt, CTO Mike LaJoie, VP of Web Services Jason Gaedtke and Director of Digital Communications Jeff Simmermon discuss the future of their online services and the possibilities that new devices like the iPad create for content publishers.
Even in its early development stages, the app looks good. It embeds a TV guide, and allows you to schedule recording with a few taps. Another section of the application lets you stream content to the iPad, but it’s still unknown whether the first version of the application will allow you to sync the status of your watched shows across multiple devices.
Check out the video below, and find other vides of the discussions here, here, and here. [via Engadget]
Square Enix Releases Chaos Rings for iPad
I’ve been waiting for Chaos Rings to come to the iPad ever since I saw the first iPhone version and read some enthusiastic reviews here and there on the internet. Finally, last night Apple approved the “HD” version of Chaos Rings which comes to the tablet with a bigger resolution, a higher price and…that’s it. No new features, no additional stuff - it’s just a bigger version. But still, it’s Chaos Rings.
As for the game itself:
“The story revolves around a tournament where combatants fight for their lives: the Ark Arena. Upon choosing a pair of characters, one male and one female, you will then have to fight against the other pairs. Each pair has their own story, and the truth behind the Ark Arena will not be revealed until each story is completed.”
Chaos Rings is available at $15.99 in the App Store. Check out a gameplay video below.
An iPad, A Keg And A Custom Beer App [Video]
If you’re not into Yelp, this video will make you change your mind. The engineers over at Yelp have built a custom iPad-controlled “kegbot” which displays information about the beer, its temperature, how much beer is flowing (in real time) - it even has a history and leaderboard of people who took beer from that keg. Oh yes, because you have to swipe your ID card first and the iPad app will recognize you.