Mac|Life - Reviews

The Optrix iPhone Adventure Suit Review

Ambika Subramony — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 15:00:30 +0000

Dive in to adventure!

Living in Hawaii, I was lucky enough to be able to give the Optrix iPhone Adventure Suit a taste of all the elements. Photojojo was even kind enough to send a Super Sucker mount (an incredibly strong suction base available for $50 extra), which allowed me to take the iPhone surfing.

At first I was a little worried about dunking my phone in water, but the Optrix quickly put my mind at ease. The included documentation advised me to test the case without an iPhone in it, just to make sure there weren’t any factory defects. I tested mine underwater overnight, and not a single drop entered the case. It’s two pieces: a slim case for your iPhone, and the larger plastic Optrix. The well-constructed inner case looks great—if it matched my white iPhone, I’d probably use it permanently. The Optrix secures with a single latch on the back; taking your phone in and out of the case is totally foolproof, and you can even charge your phone with the Optrix on.

The Optrix is designed for land adventures as well as water, and I love the idea of using my iPhone as essentially a GoPro replacement. Being able to edit and share photos and videos instantly without a separate gadget is great, but the iPhone’s battery life is not great for taking prolonged video. (For short videos it’s usually not an issue.)

On land the Optrix worked perfectly, but underwater was another story. While the case is completely waterproof, actually using the phone in the water was less than perfect. The iPhone’s touchscreen works through the Optrix, but only on top of the water, not underwater. But even though my fingers couldn’t control the touchscreen underwater, waves and moving water did manage to affect the screen—often switching the camera to face front when I didn’t want it to. I quickly realized I’d have to use the volume buttons to snap photos, but they’re difficult to press through the case.

I was also a little disappointed to find that while above-ground photos taken through the case are crystal clear, underwater photos are grainy and lower in quality. The wide-angle lens also produces a pretty significant vignette on your photos, though this is easily cropped. I enjoyed taking above-water photos, but leaving the camera on drained my battery before the end of a surf session—the case made it difficult to push the iPhone’s sleep button to save battery, especially while mounted on a surfboard.

The bottom line. While the Optrix has its drawbacks, I trusted its ability to keep my iPhone safe, and the mount works great too.

Review Synopsis

Product:

The Optrix iPhone Adventure Suit

Company:

Photojojo

Contact:

www.photojojo.com/store

Price:

$130 ($180 for suit plus Super Sucker)

Requirements:

iPhone 5, a sense of adventure

Positives:

Totally waterproof (and drop proof) for up to 15 feet. Inserting and removing phone is fast and easy. Comes with wide fisheye lens, and multiple mounting attachments for helmets, cars, and so on. Safely allows you to take your iPhone where it’s never been before. Solid and lightweight build quality.

Negatives:

Quality of photos taken under water is subpar. Buttons like volume and sleep are very difficult to push with case on. Touchscreen gets wonky underwater. Fisheye lens creates significant vignetting. Mount looks dorky on a helmet and is not easily removable.

Score:

3.5 Good

Disney's Where's My Mickey? to Hit App Store Thursday

Leif Johnson — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 23:12:52 +0000

It was only a matter of time. Today Disney announced that Where's My Mickey? will debut on the App Store on Thursday, June 20, introducing the world's favorite 85-year-old rodent to its popular mobile gaming series that kicked off in 2011 with Where's My Water? You'll be able to pick it up for both iPhones and iPads, in addition (if you swing that way) to Android and PC.

Apparently the concept's not limited to a simple case of switching out Swampy the alligator or Perry (as seen in last year's Where's My Perry?) for Mickey Mouse. The art draws its inspiration from the retro stylings of Disney's new animated shorts scheduled for release on The Disney Channel later this month, and short cartoons in the game itself will sandwich the three major sections of the game's 60 unique levels. Goofy will have some time in the spotlight, too, but only if you purchase his collection of 40 puzzles on the App Store.

Disney also changed some aspects of the gameplay. Mickey now has to work with wind in order to get his water, and he spends much of his time filling up clouds with water in order to transport it to the necessary spots. If you happen to play on a tablet, you'll even get some bonus content using the new concepts that's been modified for use with the big screen.

That could be enough to allow Where's My Mickey? to share some of the explosive success of Where's My Water?, which has been downloaded over 200 million times to date and still retains active player base of around 85 million a month, according to Disney. Keeping checking back at Mac|Life--we'll have a review posted not long after Thursday's launch.

Follow this article's writer, Leif Johnson, on Twitter.

Intro to Colors Review

Michael Simon — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 21:49:54 +0000

Our kids may have been able to unlock our iPhones since before they could walk, but that doesn't mean they're actually gaining anything by using them. There are countless cartoon and character apps to keep them occupied, but sometimes we want them to learn and create while they're having fun. Montessorium's "Intro" apps have always struck a keen balance between education and entertainment, but its latest entry, Intro to Colors, might be the best to date. With a vivid, interactive interface inspired by the Montessori color tablets, Intro to Colors just might turn your child into the next Picasso.

The app teaches your child the basics of colors through a series of matching and ordering games, starting with the primary group of red, blue, and yellow. Simple sounds offer feedback while a recorded voice plainly enunciates each color, reinforcing correct answers after a match. Once the primary and secondary levels are mastered, your child can head over to the gradient wheel, which takes that newfound knowledge a step further. A series of nine spinnable swatch palettes need to be properly organized by brightness, demonstrating the subtle nuances within each color they've been introduced to.

Lessons are fairly elementary and will likely be completed very quickly, so Montessorium has two extra sections in the app to keep your kids occupied long after the learning is over. The first is a remarkably simple painting app that uses primary colors to let your child explore the rainbow of possibilities available in mixing. The other is a sort of "search" game that adds color to portions of an outlined picture and challenges your kid to identify them.

As enjoyable as Intro to Colors is, for $3.99 we wish there were a few more games included. While the drawing app is fun, we think our kids would have far more control over their masterpieces if the mixing were done on an easel rather than directly on the canvas. Also, we also encountered a minor bug in the form of a stubborn info box that wouldn't disappear.

The bottom line. Intro to Colors will brighten your kids' smiles – and their minds.

Review Synopsis

Product:

Intro to Colors by Montessorium 1.0

Company:

Montessorium

Contact:

http://www.montessorium.com

Price:

$3.99

Requirements:

iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch running iOS 5.0 or later

Positives:

Slick interface. Excellent teaching tool. Fun games.

Negatives:

Not very challenging, even for a two-year-old. Limited lessons.

Score:

4 Great

Pagico Review

Steve Paris — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 15:00:36 +0000

Check the Dashboard to see what deadlines are coming up.

Compared to more basic to-do apps that focus on simplicity by limiting your options, Pagico goes in the other direction. But don’t let that put you off, because this is its greatest strength. You can dump nearly anything into it: ideas, files, contacts, PDFs, images, notes, to-dos, whatever, and organize anything in your life and work.

The inbox collects everything, and you can file items into the database individually or organized into defined projects. Keyword tagging makes it easy to create Smart Collections—isolating any tasks tagged “errand” in any of your projects, for example. If you’re not a stickler for filing, the search field finds anything in seconds, no matter where it’s stored in Pagico’s database.

The Dashboard presents a neat graph of your appointments and due dates, and Pagico’s Contacts feature lets you link tasks, notes, emails, and files to contacts, for a souped-up address book. But both of these features would benefit from integration with Apple’s Calendars and Contacts apps. Keeping track of two databases, especially with your contacts, can be frustrating. Luckily, adding contacts to Pagico in the first place is a simple matter of drag and drop.

Despite Pagico’s complexity and flexibility—this is professional software, and it shows—it didn’t take us too long to get used to the interface and really start organizing our life. We found a few small annoyances, like not being able to select all the text in a comment with the Command-A shortcut, for example, but nothing major.

And unfortunately, syncing costs extra. Syncing with an iOS device requires the Pagico Plus 2 app ($14.99, universal), which includes one year of Personal Workspace, aka 100MB of cloud storage and sync. Subsequent years are $15 annually. Personal Workspace is sized for individuals, families, or small teams—up to four computers and iOS devices can use one account. For larger groups, Pagico offers Team Workspaces with a six-month free trial and flexible billing options. The syncing worked great, but we wish the cost was built in to the price of the software, as with Things and OmniFocus, although those two really aren’t built for teams.

The bottom line. Pagico makes keeping track of complex projects a simpler task, so you can focus on the work.

Review Synopsis

Product:

Pagico 6.2

Company:

Pagico Software

Contact:

www.pagico.com

Price:

$50

Requirements:

Intel Mac, OS X 10.5 or later

Positives:

Keeps track of everything related to a project. Flexible workflows.

Negatives:

No automatic save. No sync with Apple’s Contacts app. Not for casual use: this is professional software and the options and complexity reflex that.

Score:

4 Great

NB-250 vs. Rocksteady XS Review

Cody Cardarelli — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 15:00:07 +0000

The NB-250 does sound better.

As consumers we face the lifelong dichotomy of wanting to know our good money is well spent, and we also want to get the most bang for our buck. With speakers, this is rarely different. Nyne’s NB-250 sounds lush, there’s no denying it, but Killer Concepts’ Rocksteady XS is making waves at half of the price. Does a Benjamin honestly represent the gap between these two products?

Taking a look under the hood, we can see that part of Nyne’s higher price tag comes from its double 7W output, already at twice the oomph of the Rocksteady XS. Both speakers carry a respectable passive subwoofer, but even at higher volumes the NB-250 keeps the party going without wavering, while the Rocksteady can start to lose its midrange at about peak volume. Still, when subjected to meticulous tests across most genres of music, neither speaker ever sounds cluttered—each hit of a snare drum sounds warm thanks to the solid construction.

But the Rocksteady XS gives it a run for its money at a lower price point.

While the NB-250 maintains the standard of Bluetooth 2.1, the Rocksteady XS supports Bluetooth 3.0. Both rechargeable devices kept the music flowing for just under 10 hours, and both can also charge your phone thanks to onboard USB ports. Impressively, Killer Concepts bucks the tech industry’s status quo by allowing you to easily replace the Rocksteady’s battery, making its lifecycle potentially infinite.

While the NB-250 is an incredible-sounding speaker, we’re not sure it’s worth the extra money. It comes with its own (admittedly pretty cool) tote bag for lugging it around, which is nice, but the Rocksteady XS is half the size so it doesn’t really need one. The NB-250’s water resistance is a plus, but would you feel comfortable taking a $200 piece of equipment to the pool? While slimmer than most speakers in its budget class, the NB-250 doesn’t do much to differentiate itself from competitors like Soundfreq’s $149 Sound Step Recharge.

The bottom line. We love the NB-250’s beautiful sound, but at half the price, the Rocksteady XS sounds fantastic and doesn’t need a carrying case to be one of the most portable Bluetooth speakers out there.

NB-250 Portable Bluetooth Speaker

NYNE
www.nyne.com

Price: $199.99

Requirements: Audio source with Bluetooth or headphone jack

Pros: Crystal-clear audio. Water resistant. USB port for device charging.

Cons: A little pricey, although it can be found for $30 less at Amazon.

Rocksteady XS

Killer Concepts
www.killerc.com

Price: $99.99

Requirements: Audio source with Bluetooth or headphone jack

Pros: Small. Replaceable battery. Surprising bass. USB port for charging.

Cons: Slight loss of midrange at high volumes.

Quadropus Rampage Review

Steve Watts — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 20:20:32 +0000

The iOS games market generally isn’t defined by the kinds of action titles with pinpoint-precise controls that dominate consoles. That makes it all the more daring when a game on iPhone and iPad attempts to go in such a direction, and even more impressive when one does it well. Quadropus Rampage manages to leap that particular hurdle with relative ease, though the touch screen interface does keep the controls from feeling particularly on point.

Butterscotch Shenanigans' latest game models itself after similar action-RPGs, complete with an isometric view and random weapon drops. Our hero, the cartoonish Quadropus, begins each game anew, and travels into the watery fathoms by defeating all the enemies and then dropping through a doorway to the next depth. The levels are randomly generated, with pitfalls scattered throughout that can drop you to a lower depth at the cost of some health.

The controls aren’t quite as exact as the game requires, sadly, because the virtual stick behaves more like a directional pad than an analog control. Even with the increased screen real estate of the iPad, it seems to go from a dead stop to full speed with no middle ground. Since the combat requires navigating around the various pitfalls, it's often difficult to finesse the right amount of movement to avoid them.

The penalty for falling through a gap is small enough to avoid feeling too punishing, though, and the action mechanics are complemented by often-humorous weapon descriptions and dialogue. Weirdly, though, the button to advance dialogue overlaps with an attack, so pressing it sometimes performs both functions at once – an odd oversight. But while each new session starts you back at the beginning, you’re constantly gathering currency to develop your Quadropus, and earning “Masteries” that let you choose passive bonuses. Those small additions give it plenty of depth, adding up to a more serious action experience to back up its vibrant aesthetic.

The bottom line. Quadropus Rampage would benefit from more exact directional controls, but the action pacing and amusing tone carry themselves well on iOS devices.

Review Synopsis

Product:

Quadropus Rampage 1.0.1

Company:

Butterscotch Shenanigans

Contact:

http://www.butterscotch-shenanigans.com

Price:

Free

Requirements:

iPad, iPod touch, or iPhone running iOS 4.3 or later

Positives:

Action mechanics work well. Humorous dialogue. Plenty of combat depth.

Negatives:

Virtual stick makes avoiding pitfalls difficult.

Score:

3.5 Good

Gangstar Vegas Review

Giancarlo Saldana — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 17:18:03 +0000

Like its predecessors, Gangstar Vegas takes many of its cues from popular open-world action games like Grand Theft Auto and Saints Row, offering plenty of story-driven missions and a large setting to explore. As such, you can expect to drive around in stolen cars, engage in gunfights with random thugs, and perhaps even run over a pedestrian or two. It may not win any awards for innovation or originality, but this robust copycat offers plenty of pick-up-and-play entertainment if you can overcome its unreliable controls.

The latest entry follows the story of Jason Malone, an MMA fighter-turned-gangster who ticks off the wrong guy and becomes the target of Sin City’s most notorious offenders. Its story is pushed forward by 80 missions, which follow Jason as he gains allies and resources to become a powerful crime lord in Las Vegas. Gangstar’s impressive presentation, gorgeous visuals, and talented cast of actors combine to make the clichéd storyline feel a little more unique and enjoyable.

Story-based missions are quick to complete and range in objectives from stealing cars to flying over the city and bombing things below. Completing tasks provides you with experience and money to upgrade your stats and purchase better weapons and armor. You can also play score-based side missions and even some casino-inspired mini-games for more rewards. Available missions can be played by simply tapping them on the map screen, which makes it easy to jump right in and have fun. Gangstar's deep player leveling system also gives you more reason to revisit the game and customize Jason to your liking.

Movement is done via virtual joysticks and buttons, and driving can also be handled via motion controls, but neither method is as responsive as it should be, which can often take the fun out of critical moments in the game. Jason will jump onto ledges when you’re running by them, for instance, or get out of cover when you’re trying to strafe. Combat is a lot better in execution, though it's simplistic, and involves tapping targets to lock on to them. Mastering the controls takes lots of getting used to, and for a game that revolves around driving and exploration, they could be a lot better.

The bottom line. Gangstar Vegas may not be "Grand," but it’s sure to satisfy your hunger for a good open-world game on your iPhone or iPad.

Review Synopsis

Product:

Gangstar Vegas 1.0.0

Company:

Gameloft

Contact:

http://www.gameloft.com

Price:

$6.99

Requirements:

iPad, iPod touch, or iPhone running iOS 5.0 or later

Positives:

Immersive open-world experience. Impressive visuals and presentation. Plenty of missions and other activities to take on.

Negatives:

Unresponsive controls can impede your experience. Combat system isn't very fluid.

Score:

3.5 Good

Juice Pack Helium for iPhone 5 Review

Christopher Phin — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 15:00:34 +0000

Juice Pack Helium extends your iPhone’s battery life without bulking it up.

Unless you spend your entire life within arm's length of a power outlet, or you never actually use your iPhone, it’s likely that at some point you’ll get frustrated by your iPhone dying at an inconvenient moment. We’ve come to love Mophie’s battery cases, and often depend on them when away from power for a day, and there’s now an impossibly slim version built for the iPhone 5.

At 1500mAh, the Juice Pack Helium for iPhone 5’s capacity is even a little higher than the iPhone 5’s own battery. (A chunkier 1700mAh Juice Pack Air is $99.95, and the 2100mAh Juice Pack Plus is $119.95.) So you’re almost doubling the life of your iPhone when you slip it into this case.

Mophie gear has always been well made, but this is a real step up, even from its usual high build-quality. It really feels like a premium accessory, and the iPhone 5 is so slim and light that even adding the Juice Pack Helium’s (not excessive) bulk, it still doesn’t feel too bulbous.

There’s one frustrating (though perhaps inevitable) design compromise. The headphone jack gets recessed inside a hole on the bottom edge of the unit. Although some headphones will still fit, Mophie supplies a short extender for those that don’t.

(There are some intriguing metal contacts on the bottom flanking the Micro-USB port through which you charge it; we’ve asked Mophie if this is for an easy docking system, but it’s keeping schtum.)

The bottom line. Although it’s expensive, if you regularly find your iPhone 5 running out of battery power, we have to recommend this. It’s well built, robust, light and looks great on your new iPhone.

Review Synopsis

Product:

Juice Pack Helium for iPhone 5

Company:

Mophie

Contact:

www.mophie.com

Price:

$79.95

Requirements:

iPhone 5

Positives:

Adds barely any weight. 1500mAh capacity.

Negatives:

Not all headphones will fit the recessed jack, but Mophie includes an adapter to help. Smallest battery of Mophie's Juice Pack line.

Score:

5 Awesome

E3 2013: FIFA 14 (iOS) hands-on preview

Andrew Hayward — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 01:06:17 +0000

Last year's FIFA 13 from EA Sports delivered an excellent simulation of the world's most popular sport, albeit one that essentially translated the home console versions to a touch screen using virtual buttons. Still, considering the warm reception and strong sales, you might expect more of the same from this fall's FIFA 14 on iPhone and iPad. Surprisingly, that's not the case. Sure, FIFA 14 is notably bulked up, offering more leagues, teams, players, and features than ever before, but the biggest change comes from its significantly overhauled gameplay approach.

"We thought there should be something more," explains Lucian Cotreanti, product marketing manager at developer Electronic Arts Romania, regarding the previous console-like design. "We started by saying, 'How can we redefine what the football experience is on a touch device?'" Considering the usual language of touch screen games, the answer quickly became clear. "There should be no more buttons," he says the team decided.

Enter a new approach in which the screen is relatively uncluttered, letting you focus on comfortable touch commands to dominate on the pitch. Player movement is lightly automated, though you can drag from your player's spot to create a path forward, almost like in Flight Control. Tapping another player passes the ball to him, and when you approach the goal, you can swipe to take a shot. The controls are similar in style on defense, with a tap of an opponent triggering your nearest player to engage, and swipes used for slide tackles.

While the new controls streamline the game approach to some extent, they feel great and really geared towards the mobile touch experience. And surprisingly, they even enable some more advanced tactics. The ability to position your entire team with just a few quick drags allows you to create on-the-fly formations, plus the swipe-to-shoot command comes with surprising depth. "The speed and the length of my swipe determines the strength [of the shot]," notes Cotreanti. You can even curve your shots to add some extra finesse.

It's fair to expect that entrenched FIFA fans might not be keen on giving up some level of control, even if it unclutters the screen to let the glossy game visuals shine through. No worries – EA Sports says that a legacy control scheme will be available with the classic virtual buttons, letting you play FIFA 14 much like last year's entry. But the new controls feel really stellar in execution so far, and the fresh approach is sure to make touch soccer a more inviting experience for casual fans.

In addition to the fresh play style, FIFA 14 is also larger and sleeker than any previous iOS entry. Additional leagues are included, bringing the total to more than 30, with 600+ teams and more than 16,000 players included. Furthermore, the menus will look closer to the console versions' front end, and big features like online play and FIFA Ultimate Team will be joined by other new modes, which EA Sports says will be revealed prior to the expected fall release. The iOS version will also feature full commentary tracks in French, Spanish, German, and Italian, in addition to the default English, and those bonus languages will be available as free in-app downloads to minimize the core app install size.

It's tough to imagine a losing scenario here with FIFA 14. The new control approach is smart and accessible, while the previous control scheme is still baked in as an option, plus the game is larger and richer than ever before. Soccer fans that need the latest and greatest mobile fix can expect the iOS game to launch alongside the console versions later this year.

E3 2013: Fightback (iOS) hands-on preview

Andrew Hayward — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 01:05:17 +0000

Console-like action games don't always make the most graceful of transitions to iOS devices, and English developer Ninja Theory certainly knows the console side of the genre, having designed such well-regarded affairs as DmC: Devil May Cry and Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. Luckily, the studio's first touch screen effort doesn't try to shoehorn a controller-based experience onto iPhones and iPads, instead delivering a streamlined, free-to-play take on a beat-'em-up brawler.

Fightback – published by Chillingo – takes its situational cues from '80s action flicks, with cheesy dialogue and a bulked-up hero trying to track down his kidnapped sister. To do so, he'll punch, kick, and shoot through more than 90 levels across a neon-tinged nighttime city, scaling towers packed with different combinations of foes to pummel with fluid combo attacks.

Character movement is automated in the brief stages, letting you focus on skillfully dispatching the various foes that approach from the right and left. Taps let you punch, while swipes trigger kicks, and combinations of the two can lead to brutal combo moves that deliver extra pop. Dodge and evade moves are also available, but if you find yourself in a bind and need a quick assist before failing out, you can hit the gun icon, tap the enemies on the screen, and watch as they're blasted with ease. Firearm usage is limited by bullets, which can be purchased with in-game currency. Expectedly, given the free nature of the game, you can purchase stacks of currency with real cash if you see fit.

Nina Kristensen, the Chief Development Ninja at the studio, says that while the early levels we tried were relatively easy to smash through, the game scales quite quickly to offer a significant challenge on the back end. That's likely where the temptation to pump real money into the game will come in, as you consider whether to grind away at stages to pay for character and weapon upgrades, or try to speed up the process with a quick influx of cash. With a free-to-play game like this, the flow of earned currency will be a huge part of its lasting impact, and with luck the average player won't feel backed into a corner too quickly by the challenge and lack of resources.

Our only other concern comes from the simplicity of the combat and whether that will hold up over potential hours of gameplay, but from what we played, we're mostly encouraged by the slightly silly tone and iOS-centric gameplay approach. Ninja Theory absolutely knows what makes a great, violent action game tick, and here's hoping that the move to a touch screen plus a free-to-play model doesn't diminish the studio's immense craft.