Hijinks Inc.

Category: Apple

  • Entry Level Xcode: Hello World for iPad

    Entry Level Xcode: Hello World for iPad

    This tutorial starts at square one and walks you through writing your very own Hello World app, the one prerequisite  is that you have at least Xcode 3.2 installed on your Mac. You can grab the latest version of Xcode from Apple’s Developer website.

    Xcode can be fairly daunting to the average user, even though it’s one of the friendlier programming environments out there. My goal is through this sporadic series of Xcode tutorials to try and reduce that intimidation factor.

    Ready to get started? (more…)

  • National De-Lurking Day!

    They say that 87% of all statistics are made up on the spot, and 63% of all those crazy holidays you hear about completely don’t exist. It may not actually be National De-Lurking Day, but we here at Hijinks Inc. are choosing to celebrate it today.

    I ran across an article on this website and thought that we ought to have a day to de-lurk and get to know some of you who frequent our website, not only to make us feel better about ourselves, but because we’d like to continue to write about the stuff that interests you.

    So here’s what we’d like you to do, we’d appreciate it if you would take some time and leave us a comment or two. We’d love it if you’d look over a few of our articles and comment on all of them. In fact, over the course of the next 30 days, each comment you leave (worthwhile comments only, don’t break a single comment into 2 or 3 just to up your total) will qualify you to win a $25 iTunes gift card. The more comments you leave, the more you’ll be qualified to win!

    If you choose to add a comment below, don’t think of it as a favor to me but as a favor to everyone else. See, as much as I enjoy reading a comment, I can assure you many comments are added just because other comments preceded them.

    In this vein, if you choose to de-lurk and leave a comment, here’s what to do:

    1. Whether you are reading this in a feed reader, an email message, or a syndicated blog post somewhere, click here to visit the actual post.
    2. Scroll to the bottom of the page and follow the directions to add a comment, or jump straight to this page to register for an account.
    3. Type in your email address so I can email you privately, thanking you for de-lurking.
    4. Type in your blog address, or your corporate website, or maybe your Facebook page. Somewhere where I and others can click your name (your web link will be linked to your name) and read more about you.
    5. Want to take a step further? Become our fan on Facebook for an extra shot at winning.

    Please don’t be shy. Care to de-lurk now?

  • What I’m Playing: Episode 2

    What I’m Playing: Episode 2

    On the iPad:

    On the iPhone:

    On the PS3:

    On the PC:

  • Hijinks Reviews: The Jim and Frank Mysteries – The Blood River Files

    Publisher: Chillingo Ltd
    Platform: iPhone, iPod touch, iPad
    Cost: $0.99 [iTunes Link] – for a limited time
    Released: Jul 09, 2010
    Version Reviewed: 1.0

    I stumbled across The Jim and Frank Mysteries the other day, as I was perusing the App Store on my iPod. It was receiving 4.5 out of 5 stars on only about 45 ratings, boasted over 20 hours of engaging gameplay, and it warned of being a “TIME LIMITED INTRODUCTORY PRICE!” I’d recently played the Chillingo game Pro Zombie Soccer and enjoyed it, so for $.99, I figured I’d give it a try. In short, I’d like to congratulate Chillingo for going 2 for 2. (more…)

  • How Apple spends $100 million… on a faulty product.

    Here at Hijinks Inc. we tout ourselves as being ‘a technology blog focusing on reviews and tutorials,’ and I’ve yet to post anything really technology related. Sure, I cover the entertainment stuff, so that’s kind of a built in excuse, but when given the chance, I like to get in with the tech-y stuff as well.

    This is making the rounds in the blogosphere today, and I found it interesting. These are some pictures of Apple’s $100 million iPhone testing facility, all for a product that gets released with flaws, you think they would’ve noticed the phone not working. Here’s the statement Apple released with these images:

    Apple never releases a product without thoroughly testing it first. To do this, we built our multimillion-dollar antenna design and test labs. These labs feature 17 different antenna characterization chambers (or anechoic chambers) designed to accurately measure antenna and wireless performance.

    Our anechoic chambers are connected to sophisticated equipment that simulates cellular base stations, Wi-Fi networks, Bluetooth devices — even GPS satellites. These chambers measure performance in free space, in the presence of materials simulating human tissue (“phantom” heads and hands, for example), and in use by human subjects. Over a one- to two-year development cycle, Apple engineers spend thousands of hours performing antenna and wireless testing in the lab.

    Apple engineers tested iPhone 4 in a variety of scenarios, environments, and conditions in order to gauge performance. They spent thousands of hours in cities in the U.S. and throughout the world testing iPhone 4 call quality, dropped-call performance, call origination and termination, and in-service time. They tested iPhone 4 while stationary, at high and low speeds, and in urban, dense urban, and highway environments. In low-coverage areas and good-coverage areas, during peak and off-peak hours — iPhone 4 was field-tested in nearly every possible coverage scenario across different vendor and carrier equipment all over the world.

    You can see the rest of the images after the jump. (more…)