Comments closed on the entire blog

Hi there.

Since this blog pretty much isn´t used anymore, and since all I do is delete the occasional spam comment, I decided to close comments for all posts.

Any communication with me can be done through the ABOUT ME / CONTACT link at the top.

Trading stocks on the iPod Touch/iPhone: Comparing iPSX and iTrade.

EDIT – iPSX has been pulled from the app store due to the amount of bugs and design flaws it had. Movile hasn’t commented on the future of iPSX in the past few weeks so as of now, iTrade is the only stock trading simulation game in the iTunes App Store. I’ve been in contact with the developers in the past and I can fully recommend iTrade.

A few days ago, iPSX (App Store link) ($1.99 now, $2.99 after introduction sale) was released in the app store and today the first update went live, along with the release of a competing application, iTrade (App Store link) (free). Both applications allow you to play a stock trading game. The game is realistic in that you ‘trade’ in stocks that are available on the US markets and the prices you can buy/sell them at are at almost real time. They will be a few minutes behind due to financial reasons (it costs a lot of money to show real time quotes) but the prices they stocks are bought/sold at are current prices. But it’s also a fantasy game, since you play with imaginary money. iPSX gives you a portfolio of $10,000,000, iTrade gives you $100,000 and you try to make that into as much as you can.

In this article I will compare the versions of these games that are out on May 1st, 2009 (this includes the first iPSX update, and the release version of iTrade). Where possible, I will mention the plans of the developers to improve their game.

Lack of new posts

This is simply a short post explaining why I haven’t posted a lot lately, and why I’m also not planning to have a lot of reviews out in the near future.

Four years ago I had to pick a study, and I chose to study Law at the University of Utrecht. I had a lot of fun with my fellow students, but in the last year I realized that this wasn’t going to be something I’d like to work with. I didn’t even look forward to finding a job. So, I decided to give space to a thought that has always been in the back of my head. I’ve been thinking I would like to be a elementary school teacher for a long time, but I never really considered it because of two reasons. The first reason was that I didn’t think I was capable for it, I never worked with children and didn’t think I would be good at it. The other reason was that there’s some kind of social pressure that if you can, you should do the best study you can. Working with the Law can generate better paychecks and of course there’s the Masters degree. However, I realised that I wasn’t going to have the satisfaction in that field of work, that I do think I will find when teaching children.

So since early September I started on the Hogeschool Domstad (also in Utrecht), and I find that I’m having less time for Pocket PC related things. So as a logical consequence, I can no longer post reviews that take a few hours to write.’

I’m not sure what’s going to happen with the blog though, for two reasons. First of all, I wouldn’t want to close down a site that some people still find useful for the reviews and articles that are available at this moment. Second, there’s the chance that I’ll want to write an occiasional review. I think that I will just decide at that moment wether to post it here or ask one of the kind folks at SolSie.com, MyTodayScreen.com or JustAnotherMobileMonday.com if they’d like to publish my review.

I’m sure I’ll see some of you around, wether it is on the SBSH forums, one of the blogs I mentioned above, the SBSH, Astraware, Mastersoft, Ilium or eSoft Interactive beta teams, or somewhere else. :)

Resco Bubbles for HTC Touch Diamond/Pro released!

Bratislava, Slovakia (September 5, 2008) — Resco, a leading provider of end-user mobile applications, announced today the release of Resco Bubbles version 1.0.

Resco Bubbles is an action puzzle game where the idea is to clear the grid of bubbles in order to advance to the next level. You are given a sequence of bubbles, which should be quickly and efficiently popped. Numerous explosive, speed-up, slow-down and damage bubbles keep the game play exciting and challenging.

Features:

• G-sensor support
• 30 challenging levels
• various surfaces
• calibration
• best score
• realistic ball-bounce feeling

Review: ceTwit 2.0 – free Twitter client for Windows Mobile

Two days ago, Twitter disabled outgoing SMS from the UK number. This means that if you’re not in the US, Canada or India, you won’t be able to receive your SMS updates (Direct Messages, status updates for people you follow and, if the Track feature would work, tweets about trackwords you’ve chosen) from Twitter. The Twitter team plans to have new numbers in different countries all around the world, making SMS a sustainable feature to offer. (According to the Twitter team, the weekly limit of 250 SMS messages could generate a cost of $1000 per international user, per year.) But who knows if your country will be included and how long it will take before a number is added for your country? And while http://m.twitter.com can fill your Twitter needs partly, it doesn’t give you access to your @replies and Direct Messages. (At least, not yet – @jack said that they plan to add DM’s and @replies). So you’ll need to find another way to have a complete Twitter experience on your Pocket PC or Smartphone (WM Standard, Classic and Professional). That’s where ceTwit 2.0 comes in. It has just been released so it couldn’t have come at a better time.

In this review I’ll be taking a look at ceTwit 2.0, assuming that you are familiar with Twitter. If you are not, you might want to check out the microblogging website/tool www.twitter.com or read about it here. (The only way to truly get to know it, though, is by actively getting involved). Reading a review about a Twitter client doesn’t really make sense if you’re not a Twitter user, so I’m assuming that people who read on after the break will be familiar with the terms “follow”, “@reply”, “direct message”, “favorite” and maybe even “retweet” and other services like Ping.fm and TwitPic. (The latter three will be briefly explained though).