From the most addicting (albeit, frustrating) game in the entire iPhone / iPod Touch world, Tap Tap Revenge is back with its new version. Bearing the version number 2, it sports a completely new game engine which means faster graphics, crazier colors, and more intense gaming (as if the uber-difficult level wasn’t intense enough). There’s also a new gesture called tap-hold where you hold the area where a “swooshing” graphic comes in (like a ball of ghost, or ghost of ball, whatever fits), and multi-tap (Yey! Finally!) which will force you to put the phone on a stable place and use your two hands.

Tap Tap Revenge 2 is available through the Apple iTunes AppStore.

No Comments

Last Thursday, me and Terence were hanging out in his place, singing, chilling out for a bit, smoking cigarettes and drinking Tequila Rose. Suddenly, Terence asked me if I wanted to sing. I wanted to ‘coz I was starting to fee buzzed and I thought, hell, no one can hear us singing anyway.

So, as usual, I set up the Magic Sing and started choosing songs. My night’s favorite is “Shower me with Your Love” by Surface, and it felt like having my own concert (I was buzzed so I can imagine what I can imagine), and though I’m buzzed, I’m pretty sure I’m not off key and I sang the song beautifully because I was drawing emotions from somewhere.

Then the rounds went on, and it was my turn again. Funny ‘coz I usually find songs in the middle, but at that time, I chose to look at the first page. All the songs in that page were unfamiliar, except for one: Heart’s “Alone”. And then it occurred to me, no matter how many people show their support or assure their friendship to me, I still feel alone. Not even my family satisfies that loneliness. I’m happy at work, but in life, why did I choose to be alone anyway?

And the emotional snowball started rolling again…

No Comments

I’m currently doing an iPhone app called “Contacts Cleaner”. Why am I posting this? ‘Coz it’s damn annoying this new feature for Mac’s “Address Book” app messed up with my OC-ness when it comes to cleaning up my contacts.

OK. I’m not that OC, but if you knew my old contacts list, it’s pretty damn neat compared to what I have now. I may have slipped two or three duplicates, but never have I imagined that my contacts list would grow as much as 316 contacts! The more I’m motivated now to finish Contacts Cleaner!

And just now, I have thought of a killer feature for Contacts Cleaner, and it’s so simple to imagine, I’m motivated to finish this bit without ruining (my already ruined) schedule. Hope I could finish this before the week ends.

In the meantime, you can feast on some of Contact Cleaner’s screenshots here.

No Comments

I remember 2 days ago, I was looking for a place to stay perhaps on the third week of February, I’ll be moving in somewhere else (the head-aching door-banging going on in that place drives me nuts, and leaves me with 1 hour of cool sleep hours). I saw this place in Abada, and I met this old lady. From the looks of it, she seemed discriminating and headmistress-ish (my hair strands were heading in different directions, thus the treamtment, I guess), but when I started talking about getting a place, she became more hospitable and more accommodating.

Especially when I asked her number and I took Kirei out. Of course I caught her taking a glimpse of the beauty, she did even mention about “her”. Anyway, she then asked me what’s my name and what my phone number is. I almost… almost… forgot I have something in my iPhone that could help her know my name, email and phone number, and good thing I didn’t forget. I had “Flash Me“, and since the perks of being the developer of the program is having the latest version in my iPhone before any users get a taste of the app, I immediately flashed (unceremoniously though) my (weird enough but I learned to love it) name and phone number in front of her and she picked it up quickly. She had a quick question if “that phone” has that, and I said, nope, I did the program myself…

And then I realized I started being an airhead…

Anyway, the new “Flash Me 1.1″ sports some cool new features like choosing email addresses from the multitude that the contact has, also phone numbers, a combo box to support the feature, and I finally removed that annoying bug I had with “John Doe” involved in it.

I personally want to thank one of our users (he refused to be acknowledged with the bug) for helping us out track this bug. If you’re reading this post, my most sincerest (that’s redundant) gratitude to you. Did I tell you I love being in a product-based, startup-style company because the customer-relations here is so rewarding, and the responsibilities are more challenging? (If not, then just read the past sentence, this time not in question form)

Oh, did I tell you that Flash Me 1.1 will be available in a few hours from the App Store? As of press time, it hasn’t push through yet, but I’m pretty sure the wait won’t be too long.

New screenies follow:

No Comments

I admit I am a cheapskate, that’s why I wait there like a scavenger for a free app to drop their prices down to free, so I could devour each of them wholly.

Of course it’s legal. They are the ones who made their softwares free, but recently, there’ve been too much price drops, it came to a point when it’s super annoying.

This is a phenomenon that mimic’s iShoot’s move to have their app a “Lite” version, thus giving more exposure to the main, full-featured app. Some of the apps really got my attention, the negative way. They are somewhat hideous and I really asked myself if I’d really pay a dollar for something as clunky as what I saw in the App Store. The only app I won’t badmouth about is iSteam. My parents and relatives love it. I even saw my grand-aunt’s saliva on the home button (yeah I know, it’s disgusting) as she blows that part for more steam (Kirei had a lot of cleaning up to do before I even touch her).

I also like the fish-catching app, “Gone Fishin’”. My brothers and sisters piled up just to catch a glimpse of that big catch.

Maybe I’m just annoyed because of this trend in the App Store gets more tacky than expected…

Or maybe this is what I deserve for being a cheapskate (How I wish Philippine itunes members could use Paypal as payment, arghhh!).

No Comments

Great thing about subscribing to AppShopper.com is that you receive these good news about apps. Last week’s top downloaded iPhone app is now downloadable for free for a limited time only.

Experience steaming hot awesomeness! (iTunes Home Page).

No Comments

Just recently, I (in my usual release of frustration) went to panic mode when I saw this crash report about Flash Me. I was so upset that the customer / user kept on telling is it started up with the “John Doe” screen. I asked myself, did I even have the words “John” or “Doe” inside my code?

I searched far and wide, and not even a variable name did I find the words “john” or “doe”. So what was he referring? And I also searched the code for any case of crashing. I localized the possible bugs to getting the information from the Address Book, but I still can’t find anything that would hurt the iPhone. Even the “lens” bug we had I already fixed even before release.

What bothers me most is that he insists he saw the name “John Doe” in the screen. I really want to reach out to him but apparently we lost contact and all. If “you” are seeing this blog post, please help us kill this bug, or at least tell us how it really looks like.

Anyway, hope to also hear from other “Flash Me” users.

No Comments

Prologue: I recently got Kirei back. Remember Kirei? Of course, she sports a new black look now. *wink*

Details from The Unofficial Apple Weblog (or TUAW for short) says that it’s just (1) Safari stability, (2) saved images from emails, (3) and Apple Lossless Playback skippers fixes. Kirei’s Wifi doesn’t work now, and was really hoping the firmware upgrade would solve that.

Hopefully Kirei would be better soon.

No Comments

Nope, this is not about your regular detergent company. This is about 2008 and how loopy it was for me, the way the zeros and the 8’s drove me to a roller coaster ride.

Gambles

I made a ton of “professional” stunts myself last year. I resigned from Xackup Inc. (thus leaving Bandwagon hanging, and am still hurting for leaving Bandwagon just like that), started a freelancing gig (and from there I met a lot of contacts), tried to look for more jobs (which opened my eyes about the employment process here in our country), hooked up with a very elite IT team (Stratpoint Solutions Inc., that is), and fell face-down with my financial and emotional struggles.

Almost three months I spent thinking and wallowing, and thinking more. And maybe just like casinos, I had beginner’s luck with Xackup Inc. Bandwagon was a big hit. Then I got distracted with personal issues, same way people get distracted with their first lost coin in that slot machine.

I wanted to learn how to not get distracted. I wanted to be productive but I just can’t.

Proctors

I met a lot of great people. There’s AJ Batac, Joseph Ross Lee, Diwa del Mundo, Marte Soliza (kid wonder of the CS Department), Waldemar Bautista, and Sir Bob Uy (My Software Applications Lab Mentor / Proctor). Then came Sir Paco (Sandejas), Sir Mon (Dalde), and Sir Ernie (Tarroza). I just realized that I’m being connected to awesome people, and I guess the one person (exactly how I described him while I was talking to him) who exudes this awesome kind of awesomeness, it would be Gramps (Terence Pua).

I have so many cool mentors (and colleagues) but last year, I was still as sucky as a racing horse who delays the conclusion of the race because he crawls from start to finish. “What’s wrong then?” you would ask.

The thing about proctors is that they are there to watch over you. Tell you what seemingly wrong stuff you might be doing. But like normal exam proctors, they just give you comments, prying eyes, or perhaps that slight kicking-your-ass gesture. Proctors give us direction. We take hold of the reins. We decide how fast our paces should be. We decide if we crawl from start to finish. We make that imaginary burden weigh 10 tons.

Back on the Loop

2009 is a great year for me, and for every one of us, not because optimism is the *it* mentality nowadays (with all the recession crap we hear on CNN and BBC World News), but because we, being intelligent beings, after a big blow of recession, depression, and confusion, we manage to keep things going. We still breathe air even if it’s polluted. We still manage to blog about things considering the crumbling world we’re currently in. We still persist. I persist.

Now I’m back in the loop, fixing tangles, starting to become less greedy, calculating every step of my way, without compromising my ability to dream. I can even write long articles now. I’m back on the loop, back to where I’m supposed to be.

I see “Gramps” smiling now. (Haha!)

No Comments

Recently, I moved to Quezon City (home of the no-redipping-of-fishballs stands, and the very famous Oblation Run), in a small room-for-rent in Krus na Ligas. I feel like college these days… (also felt like online casinos to me – risky but well worth the cold sweat, if you know what I mean)

Anyway, along with the moving in comes with it the problems of finding food places (BIG PROBLEM!), and, being the techie that I am (or so I thought), unlimited connectivity. My old senior project-mate Alvin had to install lines for his Bayantel connection. Bayantel has a fair connectivity service, but it’s just too expensive, I can’t describe how sucky I felt acquiring such service. So, I turned to 3G wifi. I looked at Smart Bro and (the now defunct) Globe Visibility, and they seem pretty expensive as they charge a hefty amount per minute. Then James, a friend of mine, received this SMS announcing Sun Cellular’s Easy Broadband Plan. I checked it out, asked around, and settled to getting this service (because it’s cheap).

Lo and behold!

Yeah! You saw it right. Mind you, I wasn’t paid to post this b*sh*t here (as for most of my posts are b*sh*t), but this is some sweet sh*t! Just now, it hit 278 KBps! It’s even better than my old Php ~3k Bayantel net connection.

To learn more about Sun Cellular’s Easy Broadband Service, go to their website and choose whichever fits your pocket. Php 800 worth of 1 month unlimited connectivity, virtually anywhere in Metro Manila (it’s a shame Taguig wasn’t included).

This post is to help out as testimonial of a very satisfied customer .

No Comments