Yamiya, Just wanna blog

Among a list of complains I have on iPhone, battery power top the list. With such a useful device but only pack with 3.7V 1219mAh non-removable Li-ion polymer rechargeable battery, it can't even last 3 hours of intensive game play. Switching on MotionX-GPS while cycling, the battery is dead after one and half hours, not even half way of my cycle route.

For months I been searching for a backup battery, however they all cost more than RM200. There's a RM60 China brand made popular by Low Yat cellular shops but I dare not use ever since my friend iPhone is toasted by a RM20 China brand car charger, bought in Low Yat too. The lesson is, when it comes to power and battery, best avoid China brands. Nevertheless even if it's safe to use, the design is disaster. The backup battery will fall off when held vertically.

I visited EpiCenter in Pavillion, KL during Chinese New Year and found this RM149 Macmosphere Power Port XL iPhone backup battery. Rated 1900mAh, it's half the size of iPhone, slightly thicker than iPhone but with iPhone case on they rest firmly on flat surface. It clips firmly with the dock connector and will not fall when held vertically. Since it is tested and sold by EpiCenter, Apple authorized dealer, and it meets my budget, I decided to sweep my credit card.

Taking home I run a search on the web but couldn't find Macmosphere website. It appears to be Korean brand since many Korean online stores carry this product. The battery comes with a male and female dock connector, hence you can charge your iPhone and the backup battery at the same time. There are four blue LEDs with one indicates charging while the other three indicates battery level. Pressing the small button will bring up the battery level.

Charging Macmosphere Power Port XL takes about 1 1/2 hours using power from socket, longer on USB. With my iPhone left 10% battery life, Macmosphere manage to rejuvenate it back to 60% within half an hour, a very promising performance. It also works on iPod, iPod Nano and iTouch. I am a happy man now

You have a secret lover, or belongs to some secret society, and other secret … You do not wish other people to see the SMS send by them, not even popping up on homescreen.

HiddenSMS Lite is the solution for iPhone. Once you added the incoming number, the app will intercept all SMS from the sender and direct it into the app inbox. Under settings you can choose how HiddenSMS Lite notifies you when you receive those secret SMS. Either a pop up (not recommended), vibrate, custom tone or a small icon on the menu bar.

HiddenSMS Lite is not free. It costs USD4.99, which is a cheap price to pay if you wanna keep secrets from your love ones, your boss and other people. Again, it only works on Jailbreak iPhone.

One last note. HiddenSMS Lite only handles SMS but not calls. So if you are cheating on your partner, make sure you never leave your phone around. Don’t repeat the same mistake Tiger Woods did. Best if you don’t get it started at all.

See the I LOVE U in contacts? Behind it is my secret lover name and number

For every great gadget there's always the love and hate affair. Nevertheless iPhone is a great gadget. "Those who knows how to use it will love it, while those who doesn't dislike it", is the sentence I always get from the second group of users. I find that sentence too general. Doesn't that apply to all things in life? Be it computer, cars, tools or even people. I admit iPhone is quite restrictive. Thus I would say, "Whether or not you like an iPhone depends on whether you know how to Jailbreak it!"

Back in the old days when iPhone can't even forward SMS I been doing against Steve's wills while saving drafts and creating templates too (iSMS). While you stream YouTube videos, I downloaded them and watch later (MXTube), all on the iPhone. So today I am going to teaching you how to run multitasking on iPhone.

Multitasking is not a restriction on iPhone. It's happening on the iPhone all the while. Mail, Phone, SMS, Safari and iPod are all running concurrently. In my previous post, backgrounder is the Cydia app that helps put application into multitasking. Now couple with Kirikae you get a lovely app switcher, without the need to exit to homescreen to gain access into the next app. You can also add your frequently use apps into favorites without the need to flip thru pages looking for them. There are various ways to fire up Kirikae. No Command-Tab here, so I change double tap from home to Kirikae. For example I want to use Facebook and IM+ at the same time. I fire up both, put them into background. When I am in IM+, I just double click, it will take me to the active screen, choose Facebook and I am there. And the cross button allows you to terminate an app without the need to go into it. Sweet.

Who says iPhone doesn't support multitasking? You just don't know how to Jailbreak it.

I stayed awake until 4am on the day Apple iPad is launched. Heck I am excited about it, and hell yes I want one. There have been much criticism on iPad, from the naming, to the absence of camera and USB ports, or just an iPhone pump up to 9.7″.

To me the usefulness of a device depends on what the user want it to do for him/her the most. For years I been reading ebooks and magazines online, because they are far cheaper than buying off the shelves, at least that is true in Malaysia where imported books and magazines are expensive, in which case readable local material is truly limited. eBooks and online magazines never become popular as most people will agree my point that they cannot be taken into toilet while settling big business, for at least I (a man) do not want to toast my lap if not further up. You get what I mean.

Yes, iPad is what I want to get out from a 70 years old walking (reading) posture to the relax Sunday sofa reading as demonstrated by Steve Jobs in the keynote. Books, magazines, newspapers and web surfing. It’s phenomena like Jobs describe, and that’s just what I want!

Now back to criticism.

Some say the bezel is too thick. All I know is if it’s as thin as iPhone, I will have to hold it top and bottom which is not ergonomic.

Some say it cannot make calls. All I know is I wouldn’t want to talk on a 9.7″ phone.

Some say it does not have a back camera. All I know is I do not want such a big touch screen camera.

Some say it does not have a front video camera. All I know is I can’t do skype video calls to my pal in overseas.

Some say it only comes with 16-64GB capacity. All I know is that’s an SSD and I can shake an iPad but can’t do the same with a netbook with 160GB HDD.

Some say it does not have USB ports. All I know is Apple think wireless. Yeah I still prefer cables at times.

Some say it does not have an SD card reader. I couldn’t agree more.

Some say it’s a huge dissappointment it runs on iPhone OS. All I know is others have failed for the last decade because of a desktop interface on a tablet.

Some say it’s a huge disappointment Apple again does not support flash. All I know is if it does game developers wouldn’t have earn so well already. Conspiracy, conspiracy.

Some say it’s not widescreen. All I know is it just nice for reading books and magazines, page by page.

Some say HD movie look sucks on it because it’s not widescreen. All I know is heck even if it’s 13″ widescreen, it will never been better than watching on my 40″ LCD home theatre system.

Some say it does not support multitasking. All I know is I am running multitasking on iPhone and believe the same will happen to iPad thanks to some genius. The keyword is “Jailbreak”!

Some say it’s expensive for a tablet. All I know is most black and white reader cost the same and does nothing more than reading. Still complaining? Or you just want one for free?

Some say it sounded like some woman accessories. All I know is Thank God it’s not called iSlate.

Is Apple evil? Hmm… in some way, yes. Certainly most of iPhone apps are USD0.99 and few more than USD5.99. However since most apps are cheaper than a cup of coffee, they tempt people buying them just for the sake of trying out. I know a friend who practice this "hobby" and ended up spending RM1400, to the point he has to cancel all his credit cards to control the addiction.

While iTunes keep a record of your purchase history, it does not tell you the total amount spent. Perhaps a conspiracy by Apple of not letting customer see the big figure so user will continue to purchase the small figure apps. Is there a simple straight forward way to tell just how much one have spent on apps?

App Store Expense Monitor (ASEM) is the answer. This application gathers all iPhone applications from your iTunes folder on your computer, reads out the price information and presents the total amount of money you spent on the Apple App Store. ASEM doesn’t access your iTunes Store account directly; rather, it checks the contents of your Mobile Applications folder—the place iTunes stores all your downloaded iPhone apps—and looks up the current cost of each app. It then sums these values to give you a grand total, which it displays in its menu. (You can also choose to display the total in place of the menu’s icon.) If you’ve got apps purchased through different iTunes Store accounts, the menu lists the total for each account.

However even ASEM does not reflect the true total as it looks up the most current pricing, which might be different at the time of purchase, higher or lower. Also deleted apps from iTunes are not taken into calculation.

Lastly if you are not paying in USD, the most accurate calculation is to look back your credit card statements for currency fluctuation over the years.

ASEM is available for Mac OS X only. Windows users please use your favorite Microsoft Excel.

Read full review at Macworld.