Apple knows how to create a hype and what better way to further enhance it by adding iPAD into   annual Grammys when Stephen Colbert took one out present Song of the Year Nominees and with the largest viewership ever Apple got to show the iPAD to 25.8 million viewers at the moment when all eyes were glued to the screen

Stephen later asked “ Honey did I look cool with it “ and the response was well I’ll let the snap do the talking

Nokia is not far behind , not having a firm footing in America , they did sponsored the largest Indian Movie Award Show – 16th Annual Star Screen Awards showcasing Indian Movie idols like Amitabh Bachan , Shahrukh Khan etc etc  with viewership across India and Pakistan .

Those waiting to get their iPads can for now change the outlook of their iPhone /  iPod into iPad .

Search Cydia for iPad , copy any of the available Winterboard themes and activate it , Viola your iPad is in your pocket

Eye Candy for those interested

I’m using iPad Complete theme by AodTT and MacCiti    , no slowdowns or hangups

Z

Finally Pakistan is getting some importance in tech market , Media Center ( http://www.mediacenterpk.com) , the authorized Apple Dealer in Pakistan is brining iPAD to Pakistan , right now the prices are TBA but an email to iPad-info@mediacenterpk.com will let you be one of the first to know when this oversized iPod will be launched in Pakistan .

For me the attraction is that I can play with it at their outlet without purchasing the iPad

I wish Google and others think the same way

So what you think of iPAD was all the hype , the leaks , the waiting worth it , I don’t think so for me it was a major disappointment , I thought Apple with comeup with something ground breaking like they did with iPhone , iPod and even MacBook Air but all they come up with is an Oversized iPod with support for SIM Card for data usage only –

Here’s my comparison of iPad vs iPhone 3GS

I’m not touching the price as for now it’s irrelevant as iPhone 3GS is mostly sold on contract , but feature wise all we’ll get is

• an oversized iPod /  iPhone with no Voice support
• 140,000 available applications which may not use the full large screen potential and many may only cover the corner covering 480 x 320 pixels
• No Voice Support although a SIM Card can be inserted
• TV-Out (  even iPhone 3GS support it with an accessory )
• No builtin Camera as iPhone 3GS but does support photo transfer from an external source /  SD Card or Camera  (  Cough out more money )
• It’s so Iphone /  iPod isq that the standard screen only has 4 icons per row just like it’s smaller siblings

So are you in for an iPad or Out for an iPOD pick your choice .

Z

Bamboo Group brings the nostalgia to iPhone complete with X386 /  486 computer boot screens , Mine Sweeper , the fell of early 90’s Windows with the Wind OS .

Available at iTunes for USS $0.99.  Wind OS is a clever application which can run a couple of programs over itself namely

• Web Browser
• Mine Sweeper Game
• Notes -  Text Editor

When you start the Wind OS , it beeps like the old Pentium /  486 machines, Energy Star lookalike logo appears , those familiar with the Infra /  Phoenix boots will get a nostalgic kick , messages like no Disk Drive ,  Mouse and Keyboard found shows up

The application starts with the almost familiar 4 petal Start menu click it and a familiar Windows menu show up with About , Apps , Games ,  Notes and Help

• About covers a Fictious  Story about some Private Bryan in whose memory the OS is made .\

• Apps contains the Web Browser which uses the Safari Browser

• Games has Mine Sweeper

• Notes is the standalone text Editor

• and Help , well it tells about the application , the nostalgia and says that there are some 40 Bill Gates Quotations hidden in the OS for the one who is smart enough to find them

Click on the Trash bin and try to Empty it , you get the classic BSOD (  Bliue Screen of Death ) and the Windows restarts ( App keeps on running ) Also Virtual Memory low errors are shown which could also result in BSOD

The most annoying feature of the App is the Cooler Hum Sound for which I had to put the phone on vibrate .

Overall may be the Apps is not that useful but it does lay the foundation for other developers to be able to run one App over other and fix iPhone’s multi tasking problems -  may be in future we may see some Apps within Apps

What you think of Wind OS -  A blast from the Past or will simply Pass

Many a times in life comes a point where you just want to make a video and share it with the world , be it a political demonstration or a guys dancing at a wedding  like I was at a couple of nights ago .  For Nokia you have QIK which is also available for iPhone however a new contender is in the App Store and is available for Free .

Introducing UStream for iPhone , a Video Broadcaster which works well even on a EDGE network and capable of sharing videos on Facebook , Twitter and even YouTube .

The installation is easy , just grab the software from iTunes , install it , create an account on iPhone , however integration with Facebook , Twitter and Youtube requires accessing the www.ustream,tv  website and start streaming live from your iPhone wherever you are

One of the best features of the software are that it gives the option of live streaming or recording on the phone

The uploaded video quality depends on the connection speed , here’s the example of video I’ve taken on  EDGE and live uploaded on YouTube

The only problem I had is with the battery life but hey it’s inherited with iPhone so can’t help it

Are you going to stream your life and share it on the web , I’m going for selected moments what about you

Imagine sitting in a Cafe with your significant other and all of the sudden the speakers starts blaring

“ When I say jump, you say how high
I aint never seen nobody, how they get so high
Like a bird, like a plane, this party got me insane
This party got me insane, so jump jump jump jump “

and your girl friends starts jumping on her seat , Oh My God Oh My God , I love this song , I love this song and you are sitting wondering

‘WTF I never heard this song , what crazy lyrics , is she planning to do the same to me , make me jump and I gotta ask how high -  you got the picture but you got other plans which includes keeping her happy

so whip out our iPhone and starts Shazam , the song finder , start the app and simply let it listen to the song and within seconds not only it will give you the name of the song , the singer , the album but also the option to download it from iTunes , download it there and then , play it in the car , play it for her in the restaurant for all I care and be her iPod Hero and you can also get recommendation from Shazam based on the song and also you can share it on Twitter , Facebook or share it as a postcard

Shazam is available for Free on iTunes for the Lite Version while the Shazam Encore which let you unlimited tagging of songs ( what if she wants to know which song she loved the most )  so you can find it later .

Btw that song is Jump by Nelly Furtado

Enjoy Song hunting

Finally an app for the new parents or even old ones who forgot their time with the earlier kids   , Cry Translator App on iPhone says it can translate what your baby is trying to communicate with his /  her cries .

Start the Cry Translator , take it near your baby , too near and you will get an error , too far you will get an error , but still it will tell you why your little one is getting so cranky .

No guarantees that it will make the right diagnostic  , I made some sounds to it and it told me that my baby wants to sleep , well I’m tired but not sleepy

Still if it works with some new parents do let me know

Other features include , setting up of Emergency Number for quick dial through the app , suggestions on what to do to calm down the baby with the disclaimer that they take no responsibility of the end results so if your baby is hungry and you want it to sleep based on his / her cry translation , the App maker is not responsible for  that .

Now if only they can add the functionality to translate big people words into baby talk that will be the innovation

What you think about it , will you trust your baby to iPhone

iPhone had been bashed a lot by critics for not able to run applications in the background and hence not able to multi task . Little do they know that what if Apple cannot add the functionality , on Jail Broken iPhones a little software installation can run it all .

To multitask on iPhone , first you need to install Backgrounder from Cydia .  As the name suggests , it makes applications run in the background when the Home button is pressed for a couple of extra seconds than the usual tap and go .

Fine now you can run apps in the background but what about finding which Apps are running in back ground ???  This happens a lot to people like me with 100 plus applications installed on their iPhone and they have no clue which one are running , the solution KiriKae ,  another software available from Cydia and also included as top downloaded apps in Rock .

Kirkae integrates itself with backgrounder and shows the list of applications running in the back ground , how you activate it , just install and run the application and you are all set .  To see the list of running apps , simply tap the home button once or twice ( configurable in settings ) and you are all set with multiple applications running in the back ground and you have once click access to all and you can also set up your favorite  applications on once access in Kirikae

The Eyecandy below shows it all

If are like me and have Jailbroken your iPhone with Blackra1n and also use cracked application with Installous installed ,  after installing BlackRa1n , you may get the error 8008001 when syncing your hacked apps with iTunes .

The solution is simple , from Hackulous repository in Cydia install the Appsync 3.0 to rectify the error and sync apps with iTunes