Hijinks Inc.

Category: Dave Sack

  • 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…)

  • T.W.I.S.T. for July 11-17

    This is the dog days of summer, so if I want to continue to do a weekly sports summary, I’m gonna be forced to mention baseball. I really apologize about this guys. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.

    MLB

    • David Ortiz, who’s hardly been able to hit the broad side of a barn, let alone hit the ball out of the park for the better part of 2 years (*cough* steroids *cough*), apparently has been saving it all for the Home Run Derby, because he cranked out 11 HRs, in the final round to take down Hanley Ramirez and win the competition.
    • George Steinbrenner passed away this week after having a massive heart attack on Tuesday. In 37-plus seasons as owner, Steinbrenner led the Yankees to seven World Series championships, 11 American League pennants and 16 AL East titles. He purchased the Yankees, now valued at $1.6 billion, for about $10 million in 1973.
    • In what is probably the worst rule in sports, the National League locked up home field advantage in the World Series by winning the All-Star game, for the first time since 1996, 3-1.

    And… that’s about it. There were a few good laughs at the ESPY’s though, I’ll include those videos after the jump. (more…)

  • How To: Load NCAA 11 Rosters With A Flash Drive

    How To: Load NCAA 11 Rosters With A Flash Drive

    I’ve had a number of people hitting me up on twitter asking how to download the updated rosters without Xbox Live or the PSN. After searching high and low for the information, I figured it would be easier to just centralize it here. PS3 and Xbox walkthroughs after the jump. (more…)

  • Saturday’s Shenanigans = Entertainment News + Double Rainbow

    In honor of the great Nathan Fillion (@NathanFillion on Twitter) and his spearheading of the new “it” phrase ‘double rainbow‘, I will bring you the entertainment news this week with a double rainbow rating:

    Totally not double rainbow: After last weeks news that Ed Norton officially would not be back in the role of Bruce Banner and turning into the Hulk, we have a new possibility to fill Banner’s shoes: Joaquin Phoenix. Please, are you serious? If this is true, I’m going to be awfully upset. Marvel said they didn’t want to pay Norton and that he was to difficult to deal with. So your solution is go get another A-lister? One who grew a big homeless guy beard, ‘retired’ and turned himself into a rapper for a ‘documentary’? Yeah, sounds like the perfect example of reasonable and accountable.

    Double rainbow across the sky, all the way: Another rumor about Mark Ruffalo replacing Norton seems a bit more on the level. Apparently they are in advanced stages of negotiations, it looks like this is probably going to happen. (more…)