iPhone App Zealot

I bought the Jawbone ICON Hero this weekend after a quick survey of comparable devices. Bottom line: good quality caller and called voices, reasonable battery life given size, and comfortable wear for extended period. Jawbone’s MyTalk beta is a fun bonus and appears promising.

I owned the first Jawbone bluetooth headset when it came out. I did not care for the fit, the feel, or frankly the noise cancellation. When the noise suppression worked, it was fine. But most of the time the nub lost contact with my cheek and chopped up my voice. The ICON Series no longer requires face contact although it works better with contact. Since the fit issues for me are significantly better than the first generation, it now stays in contact with my cheek all the time. That said, due to operator error, it took me time to find the right fit. At first I fiddled with the three earbud-only pieces. Then the three without the expander loop and using the behind-the-ear loop. None seemed to hold it in place well or feel good. I finally read the (two-step) instructions. Inserting it as pictured seated the standard one fit perfectly. At first it was noticeable, but that quickly evaporated. I do not walk around with the headset in my ear when not in use. I do, however, make long calls. Longest single call this weekend was just over 1 1/2 hours.  The Ace, my custom voice, announced I still had two hours of talk time left. Not great, but adequate for this tiny headset.

My ICON Hero provided great call quality in both directions. I have not used it in a high noise environment, like driving with open windows in the truck, but it did well in an office environment with the usual complement of way too many computer fans humming.

Jawbone’s MyTalk deserves a mention. First, only the ICON Series can take advantage of this. Second, it can run only one app and one custom voice. Right now the apps are very limited. I am running A2DP which allows me to listen to content–music, podcasts, etc.–over the headset not just phone calls. In addition to that, there are three female and three male voices to choose from. I am running Ace. Ace, subtitled Be Foxy, reminds me of my GPS’ female Australian voice (but maybe Ace  is British.) She is professional and sexy sounding. The Bombshell and The Catch, the other two female voices, sounded a little too air headed for me /shrug, to each his own. I am sure the male voices sounded fine. If any of you are using a male voice, please leave a comment and let us know what you think.

Full version of Underworlds, an RPG in the old-school style of Diablo, is free today. Easy to pick-up and play, the UI provides a minimalist directional mover and single action button. The button knows when to get treasure, talk to an NPC, or kill a monster. Over time you gain skills that add extra buttons for those actions. Your health and manna dropping? Touch the red and blue vials to drink potions and replenish each. Pausing allows you to dig deeper into the interface to equip items from inventory, increase skills, and create save points. Underworlds delivers both the standing-in-line as well as sit-and-lose-an-hour game experience.  At free, Underworlds delivers the kind of value I love as an App Zealot.

Get Underworlds today

Uncommon makes custom iPhone 3G/3GS cases. They teamed with a variety of artists to produce beautiful hardshell slider cases. If you are so inclined, you can use your own custom art. I did, and I love it. After my previous case got baked in the sun while on the beach in the Bahamas, I needed a new one. Not content with an average case, I looked for something unique. What is more unique than a one-of-a-kind print to order case? Nothing!

The cases are reasonably priced at $39.95 plus shipping. They use their TATT printing on a good quality hard plastic slider case. From their website: “Our exclusive 3D TATT™ (Thermo-Active Transdermal Technology) printing process transfers the ink deep into the case’s surface creating the only one-of-a-kind protective cases on the planet.” From my experience, the image holds up well with routine scratches. I do not have any deep gouges (yet!) Looking at the edges of the printing in the connector area, the print depth appears to range from 0.5 – 1 mm into the plastic. There is a uniform black area on the front analogous to the silver bezel on the phone.

The process is brain dead simple. After uploading your image, you can scale and rotate it while seeing how it will overlay on the case and print area. When you are done, they provide an image of what the case will look like (see left) as well as a wallpaper image for your iPhone. Uncommon kept me informed during the process from submitting my order, through printing, to shipping. It took three days from order to in my pocket. The delivered case looked exactly like the mock-up provided during the process.

I am extremely happy with the end result and have received numerous compliments. Most are doubly amazed that case image is from a photo I shot.