Hijinks Inc.

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  • Unicorn Tears and Jonathan Ive

    We all know Apple products are powered by unicorn tears, but did you know that we here at Hijinks Inc. recently started using the tears of Apple’s lead designer Jonathan Ive to power not only our RSS feed, but our Twitter accounts as well? True story. Don’t let Ive’s tears go to waste.

    Please consider doing the following:

  • The MMA Minute – Strikeforce: Fedor vs Werdum

    Not sure if we have any fight fans out there, but then again, nobody is twisting your arm to read this either. Haha, that’d be funny to you if you were a fight fan… but I digress.

    This Saturday night we are treated to an event that features the widely regarded best male and female fighters in the world. Fedor on the men’s side and ‘Cyborg’ Santos to represent the women. Admittedly, I follow the UFC a bit closer, but I’ve been doing my best to watch the recent Strikeforce cards, ever since they absorbed most of EliteXC. Here’s the main card, per Wikipedia:

    Main Card

    And for my quick picks? Fedor over Werdum, ‘Cyborg’ over Finney, Smith over Le, and Thomson over Healy. Regardless, here’s hoping for some good fights.

  • iPhone 4 Mini-Review

    Note: I didn’t buy an iPhone 4, but I did get a chance to sit down and play with one for a few hours last night…

    First off, I have to agree with everyone else out there and say that this screen is fantastic, that is unless you get one with a defective screen with that nice yellow discoloration in the lower lefthand corner. HD video is mind-blowingly awesome for such a small screen, colors are crazy vivid and photos look absolutely amazing because of this. Sadly though, screen smudging and fingerprints still run rampant and viewing in bright light is as glare filled as ever.

    Similar to how the iPhone 3G made the original iPhone feel like a cheap toy; iPhone 4 makes the 3GS not only cry like a girl, but feel like outdated lump of plastic. A very outdated lump of plastic. In more technical terms, what I’m saying is the build quality is very impressive and it feels quite solid. Not to mention the hardware specs of the iPhone 4 outshine even the iPad (at least in the RAM department). And you notice those hardware differences, the A4 processor in conjunction with 512MB of RAM allows current applications to load insanely fast, which helps make users feel like they actually are multitasking, and as a developer I’m pretty excited to see what can be done with this extra power in future applications.

    Video recording has also improved nicely since the 3GS, largely thanks to the bigger and better sensors. Image stabilization is quite handy and works surprisingly well, which makes using FaceTime quite a bit less nauseating than it might be otherwise. I only made a short 3 minute FactTime call, but I could see it catching on, albeit slowly as it seems slightly handicapped by the fact that FaceTime is WiFi only. Also, I have confirmed that FaceTime works over a MiFi connection without problem, so what the heck AT&T?!

    As for iOS 4, my opinions haven’t changed much, the big ‘wow’ feature of multitasking isn’t really all it’s chalked up to be. Think of it more as fast application switching and while it’s a step in the right direction, you can’t really label it true multitasking when it requires developers to recode their applications to include support for background audio / local notification APIs. I still prefer the way Backgrounder (Jailbreak required) addresses the issue, though I have not had a chance to test Backgrounder with iOS 4 yet.

    Even though I think it’s a great phone, I don’t think I’ll be upgrading from my current iPhone anytime soon, partially because  I’m considering switching to the Android platform or at least adding one to my arsenal of phones. Now I didn’t get a chance to see if my iPad’s Micro SIM worked as a data only option in the iPhone 4, but I will try and arrange an opportunity to do so in the near future. And of course, I’ll keep you guys updated when I do

  • What Dave’s Watching: TV

    I know I was brought in here to review movies and games, but I’m big into watching TV shows as well. I download torrents of some old stuff, watch some on DVD, and when my wife was on maternity leave we signed up for Netflix to stream over the Xbox.  I don’t have cable or even rabbit ears, so my whole lineup of shows comes from what I can find online (usually btjunkie). Here’s where I’m currently spending my time, for this edition we’ll start out with TV shows I regularly download to watch:

    Burn Notice : This show first grabbed my attention because Bruce Campbell was in it. C’mon, you gotta love Bruce. However, I didn’t get started until late in the 2nd season. It’s a really fun spy show that doesn’t take itself TOO seriously. In case you’re interested, it airs on USA on Thursday nights. Rating: 8 out of 10 (more…)

  • So this is what video game nirvana feels like..

    On a side note, since I last wrote a post we have a new writer (welcome Ryan), and DAVE started posting again. If this isn’t a sign from God I need to start posting more, I don’t know what is.

    Last week I picked up a Nintendo Wii from eBay on the cheap. With the Xbox 360 I bought last year, and the Playstation 3 I purchased earlier this year, I now own all the current consoles. To put this achievement in perspective, I’m now the coolest guy my 15 year old self could have imagined I would ever be. There is certainly something to be said for being able to switch between playing the Wii, 360, and PS3 with the push of a button on my TV remote. I don’t even have to leave my couch. It offers a kind of fulfillment I don’t imagine my girlfriend will ever understand.

    The reality I’m choosing to ignore by buying all these things is the fact that between working 40-50 hours a week and trying to spend time with people in the RL, I’ll never have time to justify my purchase. My current solution is to sacrifice sleep to play. I wouldn’t call it a viable long term solution, but on the bright side, Final Fantasy XIII’s story almost makes sense at 3 o’clock in the morning. (more…)