Straying a little afield form our usual game and software reviews we are going to look specifically at an iPhone App today, the app in question is WorldCard Mobile made by Penpower Technology.

The main function of the App is to utilise the iPhone camera to quickly import a business card load of information into your contacts without all that tedious typing. It also saves on the annoying “Can you pose for a photo so I can remember who the bloody hell you are” moments by importanting photos located on business cards too. This should work out hilariously if someone has a penguin logo on their business card instead of a picture but the app is to clever for that and spoilt my fun, damn their advanced facial recognition stuff.

I’ll be honest, I’ve seen some bad camera apps like this in the past, stuff not focusing or not picking up, there was a particularly bad barcode one early in the 3GS line of apps. I’m pleased to say this App is not one, the camera function works well, has a decent interface and a high recognition level. We’ll take a look at it in use.

Although I tested seven business cards in total I have chosen a kind of difficult one to include in this test, not sure if it will show up in the photo but it is quite shiny and has a watermark, perfect for fooling a camera, muhahaha.

 It’s not the most modern card out there but it’s my brothers garage and a good test as its not super crisp.

The app starts with a nice splash screen, interface is quite nice and this is something I actually think is important in apps like this. Way too many apps throw away good GUI to reduce production cost, again this isn’t one of them.

You tap the camera icon and get into the main app screen where the purpose is, like many similar apps, to centre the object your scanning in a fram. The interface remains sleek and easy to understand, I had to take this screenshot with the phone down on the table but you get the idea.

It’s got a nice little anti-shake feature too, good if the business card has smaller text. I’m also told it suppports the iPhone 4 model flash for the camera, I only have a 3GS at the moment so couldn’t test this but I am sure it will make positioning the photo that little bit easier.

Once lined up you take a photo and the app does a kind of cool scanning animation and “recognises” the field. This is really where the app stands or falls so let me show you the results screen.

You can see it’s actually done a bloody good job of picking fields up, I was pleasantly surprised to be honest. One thing I have seen before is them randomly attributing fields to the wrong things, the only one, if at all, this managed to do was the “job title” field, still an understandable mistake for a text reader as sales is quite likely to be a title or department.

You’ll notice it didn’t pick up a photo on the card even though there was the penguin logo, I was actually quite impressed by that, I expected it to pick any old picture up but it clearly[read here: I am guessing] runs on facial recognition as it worked fine on a drivers license I tested (I didn’t have any business card with photos).

As I said earlier I tested seven business cards, all different styles and designs, only one card really messed the app up and it did have a terrible font so I’m going to let it off. Most of the time it didn’t even mess any fields up, the one I saw most frequently missed was URL, it did pick strings up as URLs but sometimes made mistakes this was 2 out of 7 and considering one was the already mentioned font, it’s not that bad at all.

The app also feature some other cool features like being able to export the busines cards you scan to CSV, personally not something I would use but I could certainly see the function being useful at large conferences. You can also scan in from a photo you took earlier or scroll through saved business card images, all nice little touches. It also has multilingual features, a very important addition for people who are no doubt more important than me jet-setting around the world and the like.

Conclusion

This is a solid app that does what it says on the tin, it’s premium at £3.99 but better than almost recognition bits I have used so far. It’s got a great success rate and it’s easy to fix up information which is wrong. It’s a niche product that’s for sure, Joe Bloggs at the pub won’t need it but a lot of business professionals have iPhones and business cards and this is a lot less weird than that bump app for people trying to look professional.

You can find the app here: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/worldcard-mobile-business/id333211045?mt=8

Related posts:

• Our First Few Weeks with iPhone
• iPhone News
• Make Your Mobile Ex-Directory

So what are the hard facts for us UK peeps;

• New design is nicer (IMO) and metal
• Much better camera and additional one on front
• WiFi Video Calling
• Much better (4x in fact) screen (although not quite 720 HD Apple)
• Pre Orders next week for June 24th release date in UK, USA, France, Germany, Japan
• No UK Prices YET

OK a more in-depth look below

Design

• Yeah all those rumour shots were true and we do have the new, boxier, metal design.
• It will be available in black and white again and is completely made (casing) of steel and glass.
• Glass is on front and back(?)
• It will be the thinnest smart phone in the world at 9.3mm
• The metal strips around the bottom and sides are various antenna

Screen

• Has 4x as many pixels which they call “retina display”
• Res will be 960×640 with a contrast of 800:1
• Super tough scratch resistant glass
• 326 pixels per inch
• Great quality zooming

Internal Tech

• New A4 chip
• 802 WiFi
• Up to QuadBand
• More compact internal design
• Uses microSIM
• 2 Microphones for noise cancelling
• 3 Axis Gyro
  • 6 way motion sensing
  • accelerometer
  • proximity sensor
  • ambient light sensor
  • Jobs says “great for gaming” I say “we’ll see”

Camera

• 5MP
• Backside illuminated sensor
• 5x digital zoom
• LED Flash
• HD video recording
• 720p at 30 fps
• Built in video editing

Software

• Not much we didn’t know
• Multiple Exchange Accounts
• SSL VPN
• Multitasking
• Folders
• Better Enterprise support
• Default search engine choice

Related posts:

• Obligatory iPad Response Post
• Our First Few Weeks with iPhone
• iPhone News

Earlier today several news sources(that’s right I cited the Christian Science Monitor, what you gonna do about it?) began reporting that a very bad bug had crept into the old “fat” (as in, not slimline) PS3 consoles that caused some major problems when it came to connecting to the PlayStation Network, syncing trophies and generally playing games.

** UPDATE ** Apparently all is well now, Heavy Rain here I come…

Sony got around to doing an official announcement soon after and to be fair to them have been pushing Twitter and other updates out to try and keep people happy.

So what are the facts?

• Firstly this problem only effects the old fat black PS3′s and most reports have focused on the original launch ones being more of a problem.
• Yes that’s all of GF:UK!
• Upon trying to sign in to the PSN you will receive the error “An error has occurred. You have been signed out of PlayStation Network (8001050F)”.
• Launching any game with trophy support will result in the error “Failed to install trophies. Please exit your game.” and even worse may remove any trophies you had earned for this game.
• The clock will reset to Jan 1, 2000
• If you try to change the clock you will get, “The current date and time could not be obtained. (8001050F)”
• You won’t be able to playback rental content from the PSN Store.

Basically if you have a fat black PS3, don’t turn it on for the next 24 hours.

OK so there are definitely some serious issues here with a majority of people getting this error not being able to play games at all. Especially annoying considering that Heavy Rain has just come out and Final Fantasy XIII is out in 9 days!

Negative stuff aside this is actually no where enar as bad as some people are making out. I’m no console fanboy and no matter what this is a major fuck up for Sony however comparing it to Red Ring of Death is retarded. Firstly this is expected to be a temporary issue, secondly it is unlikely to reoccur since the fault has now been identified and thirdly it is not writing the hardware off, look at the error the complete worst case is you loose a few trophies. No doubt it’s annoying but it’s hardly having to post your console back to the factory and wait a week for a new one with no fucking data on it at all.

Sony posted around 3 hours ago that they will have the issue sorted within 24 hours so take a deep breath, go to the gym, put on your PC or 360 and wait until tomorrow before getting too excited.

Oh and in case you are upset here’s the seemingly undying Hitler Internet meme done up for Sony’s latest fiasco!

If you weren’t impressed by that you should probably stop reading now.

Augmented reality (AR from here on in) is an up and coming field that everyone here at Guardian Force is  a big fan of, this latest endeavour by Microsoft is not only technologically impressive but also so promising for the future development of the field.

Firstly the improved operation of the overall mapping functionality is fantastic, no more glitchy jumping, no more load times when I scroll, seamless, quick and attractive.

Secondly the new perspective (sim city as he called it) is also amazing, the Google Maps part 3D view is good but this is a serious improvement, now we can see things in size comparison and even gauge how far apart they are etc. I really liked just this mode with AR features and he made the passing reference to blog post being linked to locations etc, I am sure tweets will follow.

Then we get down to the really cool stuff, the link between 3D and street view is amazing and their improved more dynamic version of street view is also impressive.

Everything from this point in is just fantastic, the live video is great (think of all the camera it could stream from, concerts etc!) and all the interlink information and meta data has seemingly unlimited potential development, think of all the gaming developments alone this could bring.

Lastly, if anyone thinks there is going to be a privacy problem from this your a twat and please fuck off back to facebook and your abacus.

for everyone else, what do you think impressive or am I over-egging it?  What was your favourite feature?

OK we are PC gamers but we’re not Windows fanboys, I like Apple in general and we all have iPones, iPods etc.

That being said I always feel Apple should be going that extra mile to innovate and push boundaries, they have done it before and when they go around calling themselves “innovation specialists” and “industry leaders” I am going to expect special things from them but I can’t help feeling like the guy in this video after watching the iPad presentation.

All right so it’s over the top but still made me giggle.

I strongly recommended you put the time aside to read Stephen Fry’s very informative post on this, it’s a long one but worth it, thanks for the effort on this one Mr. Fry. Alas it is time for a less cultured opinion than his on here though, namely my own.

Just like Mr Hitler in the video when the rumours first started flying on this I wanted it to be good, I wanted Apple to smash the market to pieces with a new piece of cutting edge tech that I would pre-order tonight.

What we got (and I hate to say this because it’s going to be the most annoying cliche over the next week so super big sorry in advance) is a big fucking iPhone with no camera and no sim card and most importantly nothing new.

Tablets are new, they are only just becoming good enough to warrent being a full time product for the everyday person, but to have Apple of all companies bring us something which almost everyone I have spoke to agree is so mediocre then I just can’t get on board.

Lets do the negative first. It’s not hard to spot.

No OSX or Multitasking

The first big upset is no OS. I didn’t expect the latest version of OSX to be given to me in handy tablet form but I wanted something, jesus even M$ can make mobile OS software and special touch screen editions, can’t apple be bothered?

I have seen some “comeback” to this point saying that people want it to be simple, they want it to be cheap.

Well two things; if you want it to be cheap then stop looking at the Apple version, this is a premium product from a company infamous for making high quality, expensive designer goods. For Geeks.

The iPhone is expensive but it is beautiful. Not just in a designery flowers and sleek edges way but in a world in the palm of your and way. Other things do what it does better but the iPhone has the edge because it’s simply looks and feels better.

Secondly, simple? FUCK OFF why should the geeks and businesses who have funded this shit being developed for the last 40 years have to have things dumbed down for them because the general public decided technology as suddenly “in”. Go and play football and drink shots and stop forcing big companies like Google and Apple to fuck projects up because you are so stupid *cough* Google Maps *cough*.

OK step back there, i’m not being patronising or elitist or anything else, I want everyone to embrace technology and I understand it should be accessible but god damn it please don’t use this as an excuse for the lack of major, if not essential functionality.

No USB

I can’t even guess what the pro-iPad people are saying in response to this. USB is needed for accessibility (something which is supposed to be a goal here) but Apple are so intent on controlling it all that they wont even let us use memory sticks, why? Because they know full well people will use it to expand their functionality and they [Apple] hate that.

Fry goes more into the Apple control argument in his post and I won’t pretend for a second I can articulate it better than him so go and read it, bottom line of my opinion is this is a childish move.

No Flash

Jesus I thought they would have learnt from the iPhone here. Every major software update we are promised flash support, do we ever get it? No. Now it looks like it wqill never come to iPhone and iPad is not even going to try.

Going to geek mode for a second here.

This is not as bad as it initially seems as HTML 5 can do a lot more than people realise and I assume that iPad will support this with Safari patches however why not just put basic Flash support on? I just want to watch YouTube and play Newgrounds!

Most people won’t understand the HTML5 thing and I think, in time, Flash will matter less but it’s going to be a long time.

No Phone Calls or Camera

Actually I don’t care about these features, it’s not actually supposed to be a big iPhone, it doesn’t need them. Besides Skype App renders this argument void and I would like to see you take a picture with a 10 inch flat camera.

On to some good points about it then, I told you it was not all just bitching.

It Has the iPhone Magic

As Fry says on his blog, it looks fantastic. I am sure he is 100% right about holding it makes you want one. It’s a small saving grace but it’s almost a neccessity for an Apple product and its one field the iPad doesn’t disappoint in. I will not truly know until i touch one.

It’s Quick

It’s quick as hell, compared to most netbooks at a similar price it is going to blow them out of the water. That solid state is just what the next wave of tech ordered but unfortunately it’s probably the only thing in it that is.

It Will Hijack App Success

Ok this is going to be a major point of the post.

The ONLY reason (in my opinion) the iPhone is so successful is the Apps other people make for Apple and their customers. All Apple to do was the initial push of  ”Look at the sexiest fucking gadget EVER, every one of your customer will have one” and we all ran with it. After that major players like Facebook, Google, Xanga and all the banks etc ran with it too and from there on in it was self reciprocating.

If Apps had never taken off I almost guarantee I would never have got one, the cost would not have been worth it. Whether or not you attribute this success to amazing Apple marketing, luck or a little of both is up to you but for iPad to succeed it needs the same thing to happen.

I think, hand on my heart, this hype is strong enough to carry the iPad into a decent portion of people’s lives. Once it does that the cycle will begin again and the $’s will roll into Apple HQ.

Will I Buy One?

Probably not version 1. I would like one but I am not buzzing about it.

There is a lot of potential and as I said, maybe some amazing Apps will get produced and it will all of a sudden be a much, much better deal but for now it simply isn’t a big enough leap in tech to warrant my hard earned cash.

Plus of course the “England” tax means it will likely be £600 for basic.

Related posts:

• Another iPhone 4 Response Post
• iPhone – The campaign
• iPhone News

O2 are unable to help except put through a “change of number” request, which is a bitch to those of us that do not want to change it! Either that or Jailbreak the phone which again, most of us do not want to do.

Apple support suggests we can push for a number blocking feature to be added to a future update.

So, anyone who is looking to block a number, fill out the below and cross your fingers!

http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html

Related posts:

• iPhone News
• Our First Few Weeks with iPhone
• iPhone App Review: WorldCard Mobile

It takes two minutes to do but you will need your phone with you. Worth it to stop potential cold callers.

Here is a link to the need page of their site.

Please get as many people to opt out as possible and stop these fucks selling our details.

Related posts:

• iPhone App Review: WorldCard Mobile
• iPhone – The campaign

It’s been a pretty warm few weeks in England, far too warm for us gamer types but none the less it has been really nice to walk around in t-shirts and sunglasses and actually feel like we live in a nice country for a change. It’s still warm even now but looking a lot more grumpy. Anyway, as you probably guessed from our comment talk a few weeks ago we were eyeing up the new iPhone 3GS. We haven’t ever been an Apple using guild so this was a big step for us but the gadget allure was finally enough. Myself, Jesta and Onimi all got shiny new iPhones, here’s all our initial thoughts, it’s good and bad points and top 5 iPhone apps from each of us!

Diablos Says….

I actually ended up with the 32GB even when I went out with the intention of getting a 16GB, they had “no more in stock” :D Anyway I am really enjoying the iPhone, a few things have really surprised me about it, first and foremost build quality.

No one ever seems to talk about this but the build quality on the iPhone is amazing, I can feel where some of that money went when I hold it.  I had to hold on to my old SE k850i while my numbers switched over and I always liked this old phone but when you press buttons on it next to the iPhone it feels cheap as shit and everything just looks low quality (except the camera which is better). The iPhone is relatively heavy but in a good way, it’s heavy because it’s solid and not gonna break if drop it a few inches to a table. The screen too feels good quality, as I saw Stephen Fry comment it actually seems to magically repel dirt and grease and never seems to get too icky.

The other thing that I love way more than I thought I would is having email access all the time. I work as a SEM and having 24/7 access to emails without having to boot a computer is really useful, the Twitter access for similar reasons also saves me so much time. Granted other devices can get emails but it’s a hell of a lot easier and smoother on an iPhone, i.e. I don’t need a Blackberry Server that costs $1000 to do what I want.

From a gaming point of view it’s also stunning, loads of the free games are amazing and the paid one just tend to get better, I am not gonna go through every available game but if you are a serious gamer then having the iPhone is like having that amazing missing link between the good games of the DS and the awesome tech of the PSP.

My Top 5 Apps

5) The official eBay App is pretty awesome, it’s easy to use, relatively fast and does exactly what I need it to do. Well done eBay for getting this sorted.

4) I really like the Last.fm app, it lets me get free music even if I don’t have 100% control over it. Last.fm was overshadowed by Spotify in my eyes but until Spotify get an app out this is my number 1 music app.

3) This is my games section! Tap Tap Revenge 2 is just an ace idea, it’s free, it’s fun and it’s multiplayer. For those who don’t know it’s a rhythm game similar to Guitar Hero but on your iPhone. Get it now if you don’t have already. Field Runners and Crystal Defenders Vanguard are both paid apps but very low cost and awesome defence games, if you liked  Pixel Junk Monsters or Savage Moon on your PS3 get both these apps.

2) TweetDeck is super useful if you are a Tweep. It’s got an attractive interface, you can sort things easily and type replies and posts with minimal effort, more importantly it’s FREE.

1)  The shock winner for me in PandoraBox, this awesome little app lets you know when other Apps become free or drop in price, I love it and have already found loads of fun games and useful apps because of it, best thing about it? The App itself is FREE :)

Jesta Says….

I love it, it goes everywhere with me, I no longer need my PSP for WiFi access as well as my old Sony K800i.  It gives me Internet and email access at work and is well built and versatile.  Picked up a smooth case and screen protector on ebay and it’s ready to travel.  Can’t wait for TomTom later this month, will need to pick up a car charger!  Speaking of which, battery life is not amazing.  Can turn WiFi off when not in use to help but otherwise it needs charging daily.

My Top 5 Apps?

5) Skype technically gives free phone calls.  Very good if you and your mates are Pay-and-Go.

4) Facebook’s app gives quick access.  Has most of the features of the full website and I’m sure the rest will come with updates.

3) Having Internet access isn’t strictly an app but it’s one of the reasons I got one in the first place.  Very useful when at Cricket, I don’t have use of the Internet at work daily so it comes in handy.  It’s not a big distraction as I thought it would be so I do resit using it at my desk. :)

2) Games – Assassin’s Creed, Puzzle Quest and Simcity are three of the great well know games I’ve bought.  Very much like their DS, PSP and PC equivelants respectivly.  There’s loads of Tower Defence style like Field Runner, strategy like Uno and Flight Control.  Being a Vampire fan I also play Vampire Bloodlust.

1) e-Mail isn’t an app again but I didn’t know the iPhone had it built in!  I have my email addresses set up and get a nice “beep” when a message arrives.  Very handy.

Related posts:

• iPhone News
• iPhone App Review: WorldCard Mobile
• iPhone – The campaign

What we can’t deny is how cool and useful the iPhone really is. Before none of us got one because the price was retarded, seems now we have even lost that excuse. Check out the GFUK summary of the iPhone updates from the latest Apple speech at the Development Conference.

What’s new in 3.0…

Seems they added a lot of stuff that maybe should have been in the 1.0 phone but never mind

• Cut, Copy, Paste
• SMS in Landscape
• Picture messaging
• Still O2 only
• iTunes access
• Tethering (Internet connection sharing from MAC or PC, **Contract Only**, I think you wanted this Docta J?)
• Improved Java and HTTP streaming
• Autofill for website user name\passwords
• Track a lost or remotely wipe a stolen phone (Seems this may cost £60 a year though, could be wrong)
• Can also remotely force the phone to make a noise even on silent, if you misplace it around the house
• This, and I promise this is an actual quote “Free apps remain free. In App purchase is only for paid apps”
• Peer-to-Peer connection
• Ability to communicate to 3rd party hardware
• Iceburg, a book buying\viewing app like the Amazon one
• Tom Tom! :D  (Can get car holder and lighter charger, want, but will NOT be looking forward to the price of this)
• Another one for Docta – guitar tuner and effects box

And the new phone…

• 2 times faster for all apps, including things like opening SMS
• 3MP auto focus camera, touch screen zoom is nice
• 30 fps video recording
• Voice control (“Call Home” “What song is playing?” “Play songs by Bon Jovi”)
• Built in compass (NOT great but useful with gps to rotate street maps to the way you’re facing)
• Increased battery life
• $200 for 16 gig + $30 a month data (Min 24 months) (£440 inc 12 months data from O2)
• $300 for 32 gig + $30 a month data (Min 24 months)  (£540 inc 12 months data from O2)
• 2nd Gen will be $100+ $30 a month data (Min 24 months) (£340 from O2)
• Black and White, No lime green as rumoured :)
• Out by August, might even be in a couple of weeks

So lots of good stuff, I really am convinced now. I will never live this down at work.

Big props to Jesta for writing up the bullets from the Keynotes speech for this one.

Additional note:-

Thanks to engadget.com for their excellent almost live coverage of the 2009 Apple WWDC.

Check out these suppliers as this phone is released in the UK on the 19th June 2009!

Apple Store

O2

Carphone Warehouse

Related posts:

• iPhone – The campaign
• Our First Few Weeks with iPhone
• Another iPhone 4 Response Post