Beats By Dre Review

WARNING: This is just a disclaimer that this review may or may not agree with your current fanboy-ism. Please do not take it personally. From hours and hours of testing, in conjunction with previous time with other headphones, I have compiled a pretty good overview of the Beats By Dre. Once again, don’t hate me because I have an opinion.

Now that we that out of the way, I shall tackle this behemoth of a review. It’s always difficult to review headphones because there’s so much out there and there so many different kinds of people. What do I mean by that last part? Well, everyone hears differently. Some people may have a wider range in which they can hear than others. Scienctifics aside, the Beats By Dre Studio headphones are great headphones. That’s not to say it doesn’t have it shortcomings. I’ll tackle the cons first.

The cable is only about 4 feet in length. So for all you ballers out there, you may to purchase a longer auxillary cable to get functionality out of these headphones. Also, the passive noise cancellation isn’t up to par with the price tag. How can you tell? Well, when you play your music loud, it REALLY leaks out, which can be awkward in many situations. Since a lot of sound leaks out, one can assume that sound can leak in quite easily, and thus the PASSIVE noise cancellation is mediocre.

Furthermore, when you activate the noise cancellation there is a VERY faint hiss that can be heard (which virtually dissappears from your senses when you begin to play musics). Lastly, these headphones can NOT be used without two AAA batteries. When you buy these headphones, buy rechargeable batteries. Sadly, that’s a must!

All that being said, these are amazing headphones. They provide MUCH better bass than many of it’s competitors (Bose QC2 and OC3’s) and have highs that are even comparable to those flashy Sennheisers. The mids can get a LITTLE muddy at times, but this is often due to poor file quality.

There is a iPhone attachement that is way to high up on the wire to be an ‘awesome’ idea, but the sensitivity of the button itself makes is a ‘good’ idea. It’s included in the package, but could have used a little more thought. That being said, the sound quality on the receiving end of the mic is pretty good.

Right over the power switch, the ‘b’ logo is a mute button that can be held to turn off the audio and noise cancellation momentarily. I wish that you didn’t have to HOLD it there in order to mute.

Aesthetically, you cannot argue that these headphones are SEXY!  The piano black finish is very slick. The hot red highlights are sick. And the overall design brings all these together to give a set of headphones that look like no other. All in all, these headphones are great. They come with a beautiful package and all the necessary accesories. The $400 price tage ($350 in the US) may be steep to many consumers, but mind you, the cost price is about $215 CDN. In other words: SHOP AROUND!

DIAA: Best Book Apps

This category, unlike the one the preceeded it, isn’t a very big one to choose from. It was actually pretty easy to pick my two favorite book applications for the iPhone of 2008. They are as follows:

Stanza

I cannot begin to explain how simple this app is. You download the app for free… then you download books for free. It isn’t the prettiest UI in the world. Heck, it may be on of the uglier ones, but it’s practical. It works. And most importantly, it is stupid easy to find and download books on the fly to your iPhone and get reading. Yes kids, people in the world still do read books.

Classics

Arguably one of the most underrated apps in the iTunes store. The UI alone for this app is worth the price of purchase. With a sticker price ranging from $2.99 to as low as $0.99, you can ALL afford to check out this book reader. You pay a price, and then you get this application that comes preloaded with 12 books (13 now, since they added A Christmas Carol). After about a month on the shelves, they added another book, with promises of more to come. Definitely check out Classics. It may be on of the most good-looking interfaces you interact with on your iPhone.

DIAA: Best Entertainment Apps

This is a pretty tough category to narrow down. It shouldn’t be surprising considering the plethora of apps in this category. After quite a bit of thinking, I narrowed it to the top two that I use a bunch. Many of you may not agree, but then again, a specific niche of you will agree entirely. As always, feel free to let me know what you think below.

Lightsaber Unleashed

Okay… this is a HIGHLY questionable first choice. Especially controversial way to start off this series. But try this app. For crying out loud, it’s free! Now… just tap the button, and let your inner padawan run wild. This will go down in iPhone App history as one of those defining apps of 2008. From young to old, anyone with even a remote amount of Star Wars knowledge will find app fun beyond words. Go ahead… *hear comes the REQUIRED, but overdone, Star Wars quote* may the force be with you.

Remote

If this app made noises as I swung my iPhone side-to-side, it may have taken the top spot here. Alright, maybe not… but in all seriousness, whether you are a Mac user or PC user, if you use iTunes to manage your multimedia, this app is a must have. Once again, it’s free, but does quite a bit of work. Simply connect onto the same network as your computer, and in a few easy steps, you’ll be controlling and monitoring your media via you iPhone from anywhere in the vicintiy of your wireless network. Take it a step further by connecting an Airport Express to your main speakers and damn… you feel pretty damn confident about yourself. Enjoy. You deserved it.

DRJ0K3Rs’ iPhone App Awards

Am I a highly paid and internationally spoken about technology pundit? Probably not. But do I have a pretty good idea on what applications on the App Store may be worth your time and/or money? Hells yea! Allow me to introduce the *deep breath* 2008 DRJ0K3R iPhone App Awards!

This is a blog series I will post throughout the month for all you lovable readers of mine. Basically I will tackle a handful of categories and choose what I think are the two best in each. Yes, this is MY opinion, so if you don’t agree… don’t take it personally, just comment on what YOU think is worthy.

Lastly, I will end off with the best iPhone games of the year, once again, according to MY opinion. I’ve been gaming on the iPhone since October 2007, jailbroken and not, so it’s safe to say I’ll have a pretty good critique on what’s available. If you have any suggestions, feel free to let me know in a comment below (oh snap, did I just rhyme there?!).

Review: Liquid Case for the iPhone 3G

When you go form retailer to retailer, it’s hard to find very much differentiation in terms of iPhone accessories. I admit, I’m a bit of an accessory whore, but that’s only because I want the best (or the best at the time). I’m not about to tell you that the Liquid Case is the best iPhone case, however, it does hit a lot of points that make it best in it’s class.

Attention to details

As soon as I heard about the Liquid Cases by Element Case, I knew there was something different. These guys seriously take their job seriously. Let me try and break it down for you. You get to choose from three different backing colours (black, white, grey) and then theres another seven flip lid covers that you can choose from (you get two with each purchase). On top of that, you can choose from several design you want to be laser engraved on the flip lids. If that wasn’t enough, you can even go as far as e-mailing the guys over at Element Case to get your own logos on the product. In the infamous words of Paris Hilton, that’s hot.

For the inquiring minds

There are five essential portions to the Liquid Case. You have a brushed aluminum plate (embedded with the Element Case insignia) that is on the back of the tough backing itself. There is then the backing which thick, glossy polycarbonate that provides a !@#$ load of shock protection. This thing isn’t going to crack like most shell cases upon dropping it. You then have a plastic bezel that holds the iPhone in place. Correction: there are four screws (the fourth portion) that holds the bezel, which holds the iPhone down. Finally, you have your flip lid. Magnetized at the corners, it’s your last line of defense.

So my verdict?

The element case is truly a creme de la creme of iPhone cases (I really hope I got that French proper). The looks may not appeal to everybody, but there will be a select niche that love the construction/industrial design. The case adds a bit of heft, but in return you get a product with amazing finish, and improtantly, protection. With a $100 sticker price, the real dilemma is whether the case is worth it or not.

In my opinion, it truly depends on your situation. You will most certainly find cases that provide the same, if not more, protection for a lot less. But you will have a hard time finding a case with so much flexibility in terms of design for the same price. The holiday seasons are coming up, and this is an AWESOME present to that iPhone addict of yours. Though I would second guess whether I would buy this for myself, I would totally buy this for a family memeber or close friend as a gift. The fact you have so much say in the final look adds to the uniqueness of this product, which will translate immensely to anyone on the recieving end of this case.

All in all, its a great product that has so much to offer. Though the sticker price isn’t for everyone, you can assure yourself that with a little creativity, no one on the planet will have the same case as you. If you have that special someone you don’t mind spending a few bucks on in these beautiful economic times, check out the Liquid Case. You can gaurantee that they’ll love you for the following days (at the least).

An app-auling situation…

There is something about the iTunes App store that I have thought about (and has concerned me)in the back of my mind since I started purchasing apps. It’s the whole “Top Paid” and “Top Free” lists. I seriously believe there is a serious flaw in the way the App store (and maybe even the entire iTunes store) is set up. Let me start off my semi-rant by a situation…

Classics ($2.99) is a great reading app. Recieved a lot of publicity and rightfully so: it’s amazing. It releases on the app store, climbs the charts and the developers quite a bit of money. A week or so passes and as usual… a boat load of $0.99 apps come out and knock Classics down, down, down in the charts. Fast forward to now, and the people at Classics have dropped their price to $0.99 (for a limited time).

The point of this post is not to say, “don’t buy an app when it comes out… it will be cheaper later.” It just pisses me off to a degree that I have to search a bit to find those premium QUALITY app. For the average iPhone user (of which many I meet when I activate their phone and teach them how to use it), all they know is price and see nothing more.

What do you people think? Post a comment or address it yourselves in a YouTube video. I’m surprised not many more people are talking about this. Sure, some will argue that it’s about the little guy and not the big name developers. Well, to be honest… I don’t care who the !@#$ develops it. I want to know (easily) which apps are the best at what they do. Written reviews are good to a degree… but you only get to see three of them and 90% of the time, not much info is revealed. I feel like like I’m ranting and touching several issues in this post so let me finalize by saying…

The App store sucks. It has to be refined. The way apps are ranked is a ridicule and a slap in the face to the hard working developers that DON’T rip off apps. That’s not to say there aren’t good $1 apps. I’m just saying a lot of $5-10 apps are taking a hit and being overlookd. Think about it people.

Apple’s Friday flop?

These are shots from the Australian Apple store online. Mind you the price is in the Australian dollar (there’s your Thursday math session). Looking at this, the deals are OKAY in my opinion. To be honest, the deals are great if you solely shop at the Apple online store, but if at the least you have a Best Buy near you, the deals may seem mediocre. I thought there would be something really smashing. Maybe a full $50 off any iPod? Free cases? I mean, $100+ off a MacBook seems nice, but I doubt Apple will use that discount in conjunction with student pricing. We’ll have to wait an see, but my current impression is as follows…

meh…

Impulse and timing

I was about 3 clicks away from purchasing the Mophie Juicepack for the iPhone 3G yesterday. But there was this feeling. No it wasn’t a tickle below the belt. I just decided I didn’t want to buy it just yet. If you’re religious, maybe you can assume it’s a sign from God… but you know what they say about assuming. Long story short, I found out that we started carrying the new Juicepacks at Best Buy Mobile and got the Juicepack for about $40 less than what I would have paid. SWEET! No this isn’t a review, but there will be one soon. Video and written. This post is more of a heads up to let you all know I’m alive and well… and juiced (maybe not the best pun, but hey, I tried). So enjoy your Thursday, and for you Americans, happy thanksgiving!

iTunes’ Bargains

I’m writing this at 9:30AM EST and there is NOTHING avaialable for free at the iTunes store. Sure there’s that episode of Extreme Trains from last week, but there might be a later update coming to the store. As of now, I came across a few games for your iPhone that are discounted and may actually be worth your money.

• Bugdom 2: From $7.99, this app is now $0.99.
• Enigmo: From $1.99, this app is now $0.99.
• Nanosaur 2: From $7.99, this app is now $0.99.
• Billy Frontier: From $7.99, this app is now $0.99.
• Scoops: From $1.99, this app is now $0.99. I got this app when this was free, and I would have honestly payed at least $4 for this app. It has to be one of the top 3 games for the iPhone in my opinion.

If there are any updates to the iTunes Canadian store that are pretty good deals, I will post it later today. Sure, you can say Basic Instinct for $5 is a deal… actually it isn’t. It’s a filler. Let’s hope there’s a better movie deal next week.

*UPDATE*

So there are a few updates done to the iTunes store:

• FREE: Keepsake – Contrived: This is the free single of the week for the Canadian iTunes store.
• X-Files ‘Reinstated’ Featurette: Three minutes of video from the recent movie. It’s free… not sure why this matters, but hey… this post is to let you know what is available and for what price.

iPhone 2.2 impressions…

First and foremost, I forgot to mention that upon deleting an application straight from your iPhone, you have the option to rate it as well. Nice touch if you aren’t keen on writing an iTunes review but you really think Twinkle is an annoying Twitter app. To keep this both simple and consistent, I’ll list off my impressions as I listed the features in the 2.2 update:

• Google Street View is meaningless to me (and many other Torontonians) because it is only available for the major US cities.
• Public transit isn’t available either, however walking directions is a nice way of knowing of not only how to walk somewhere, but how to get somewhere by avoiding the highway.
• Pressing the Home button at any screen will take you to the first page of your many screens. This is an AWESOME feature and something I’m really getting used to. No more scrolling back 7 pages to change my playlist.
• Downloading podcasts over the fly is a great feature. I don’t think I will have much use for it now, but it’s a great thing to know that you CAN do, in case you don’t have your laptop attached to you always like a malignant tumor.
• Safari seems to be much more crisp and stable. The Google search bar is now in the same bar as the URL which is nice. I managed to open several image heavy pages and not have it crash on me. Who knows if it fixed EVERYTHING, but realistically speaking, it seems to work well enough to serve my needs.

Overall, this is a great update for the iPhone. However, it’s been four months without cross-app copy/paste functionality. Four months without the ability to sync notes. Four months without the ability to send/recieve picture messages. I really hope Apple doesn’t pull a fast one and just save those features strictly for the next iteration of the iPhone.