Hijinks Inc.

Category: Software

  • Clearing up hard drive space on your Mac

    I have a problem: I’m addicted to podcasts. From Diggnation and 1UP Yours, to Car Talk and A Prairie Home Companion, my subscription list covers a wide range of interests, and an even wider space on my hard drive. I have an 80 gig hard drive on my Macbook, and as of an hour ago I had 987MB free. That’s not good folks, that’s not good at all.

    I talked to fellow blogger Aaron about it, and he suggested a few applications that would clear up some space without forcing me to delete any programs or media.

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  • VLC Hits the iPhone

    Heck. Freakin’. Yes.

    VLC is one of the greatest pieces of media playing software around and it has been successfully ported to the iPhone!

    Currently vlc4iphone is only been released to a select group of beta testers (ie. people who’ve given this guy money), but hopefully there will be a more public beta release soon.

    Codec support is limited to MPEG / MPG, AVI, MP3. However, the developer (zodttd) is planning on adding support for FLAC, OGG, and is also looking into supporting VCD, DivX, WMA, WMV.

  • Hijinks Reviews: MPG

    Pros: Practical application with an easy to use interface.

    Cons: Lacking in the features department right now. We’re looking forward to 1.1.

    Developer: Catamount Software (www.catamount.com)

    Version Reviewed: 1.0.3

    Platform: iPhone and iPod Touch

    If you have a drivers license, you’re probably painfully aware of the price you pay every time you fill up your tank. Catamount Software can’t solve the world’s energy crisis, but they at least offer a way to keep track of it all. MPG is an app that allows you to keep track of your fuel and service expense for multiple vehicles. True to its name it keeps track of your miles per gallon and updates the number every time you fill up. More after the jump. (more…)

  • Hijinks Reviews: Tris

    Pros: Touch screen controls actually improve this game. Closest to a perfect Tetris port if we ever saw one.

    Cons: While easy to use, at the very high levels the touch controls aren’t quite as fast as the old D-pad.

    Developer: Noah Witherspoon (Two Finger Play)

    Version Reviewed: 0.6

    Platform: iPhone and iPod Touch

    Ever since the days of playing Tetris on my old black and white Gameboy I’ve held a special place in my heart for blocks falling from the sky. And interestedly enough, I haven’t seen anyone make improvements to that D-Pad and A and B buttons I used all those years ago. I can honestly say that I didn’t expect to see a good Tetris port on the iPhone/Touch. Not that I didn’t expect to see Tetris, but I thought they would try to overlay buttons on the screen (a’la Yeti3D) and things would just get awkward. Thankfully, they didn’t. Full review after the jump. (more…)

  • Hijinks Reviews: Feeds


    Pros:     Fresh approach to RSS. Clean interface. Finally makes Google Reader relevant and useful.
    Cons: The lack of a Mark All Feeds as Read option.

    Platform: iPod Touch and iPhone

    Developed by: Boris Bluntschli (424f.com/feeds)

    Version Reviewed: 0.2

    Feeds is the third RSS app I’ve ever used for the iPhone, and easily the best so far. It may not have the fancy effects that smartRSS has, but it makes up for it with a much better cleaner layout. Perhaps one of it’s greatest advantages is also a sizable drawback, it’s based on the Google Reader API, meaning if you don’t use Google Reader you’re out of luck.

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