Author Archives: Steve
First look: HDR cranks up the awesome factor on your iPhone 4′s camera: but is it real HDR?
One of the nice surprises at today’s Apple event was the addition of HDR (high dynamic range) to the camera app on the iPhone 4 in iOS 4.1. HDR is a photographic technique that blends together three photos taken at various levels of exposure and combines the best of all of them into one. A good explanation can be found on this site, but the result is a shot that captures both the shadows and the bright parts of a picture without washing out and detail. We’ve downloaded the 4.1 GM today and taken a few shots to put it through its paces.
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Posted in All, Other News, iPhone
iTunes 10 now available
Posted in All, Other News, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch
Tomorrow’s Apple event: Your predictions please [UPDATE: Event to be live-streamed]
In case you’ve been living under an Apple-proof rock for the last fortnight then you’ll already know that an Apple event is taking place Sept 1st – that’s tomorrow (02/09) 5am NZ time. This time of year is traditionally when Cupertino unveil refreshed iPods, and from the graphic it’s clear that music is at the heart of the event. An updated iPod touch with front-facing camera and FaceTime is almost a certainty, but there are rumours (as usual) that the event could also be used to announce a slew of other goodies including an all-new Apple TV (iTV), cloud-based iTunes, TV show rentals (for the US), iOS 4 for the iPad, and the release date for the white iPhone 4. We want your predictions, so hit the comments and put your stake in the sand!
UPDATE: Apple have just announced that for the first time they will be live streaming the event on the Apple website. So if any of you are going to be up at 5am and were planning on a date with the refresh button, great news! – You can now sit back and watch the whole thing live. Note that PC owners are left in the dark – this will be available on Mac, iPhone, iPod touch and iPad only
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Posted in All, Other News, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch
Yahoo!’s new mail web app for iPhone is amazing
Yeah, that’s right: I said amazing. Once the leader of the web, expectations of Yahoo! have slipped in recent years, and it’s not often that we get excited about any of their offerings. But their new mail web app (which consequently becomes the web app for Telecom / Xtra mail) for iPhone and iPad is an effort worthy of some attention, so it’s going to get some.
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Posted in All, Other News, Telecom XT, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch
Kiwi App Review: Joketoons
If the phrase “An Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman walk into a bar…” is enough to get your funny-bone all of a twitter, then Joketoons could be the app for you. Produced by kiwi animation studio The Funny Farm, this app is designed for one thing: to make you laugh. But will it have you in stitches or reaching for the rotten tomatoes? Read on to find out!
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Posted in Reviews, iPhone, iPod touch
Special deal for iPhonewzealand readers: Save $20 on CreativeTech Event
iPhonewzealand has managed to secure a discount for our readers on tickets for the CreativeTech Apple-centric event taking place in Auckland next weekend. Keep reading for details on the event, and how to claim your discount.
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Posted in All, Other News, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch
Kiwi app review: Menus.co.nz
The team over at Yellow have recently released their latest creation: Menus.co.nz, an app to accompany the website of the same name. Carrying out a similar function to the long-established MenuMania app, Menus.co.nz is designed to help you choose a restaurant or bar based on proximity or budget. But does it deliver the goods in gourmet style, or does it plonk it all in a torn take-out bag? Keep reading for the low-down.
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Posted in All, Reviews, iPhone, iPod touch
iPhone 4′s finally arrive: Now we want your thoughts!
So the first wave of iPhone 4′s are finally safely where they belong: in kiwi pockets! You’ve read what we think of the latest version of Apple’s game-changer in our early first-look and in our in-depth hands-on, but this site isn’t all about us and now we want to know what you think of your new purchases! Hit the comments and give us your first impressions, or if you’ve had yours for a while give us your seasoned opinions. Insert or link-to pics and use links to videos you’ve made on YouTube if you like — we really want to know what you think.
And now that your phones are here, we hope you’ll all stick around and carry on reading our news, reviews and tips, so we’d really like to know what you want to see on the site from here on in. What rocks your world: app reviews? News? Rumours? Everything?! Don’t be shy — hit the comments!
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Posted in All, Other News, iPhone
Ask iPhonewzealand: How do I top-up or manage my prepaid Telecom connection on my iPad?
As we’ve seen again and again, despite not being an “official” Apple carrier, Telecom’s XT network is arguably the network of choice for performance. However, when it comes to the iPad there are some quirks that make managing your prepaid connection more of a chore than it should be. Keep reading to find out how you top up and how you check your balance.
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Posted in Telecom XT, iPad
First wave of free iPhone cases now shipping
If you were lucky enough to score an iPhone 4 on launch day and you got straight to ordering your free case via the iPhone 4 Case Program, then check your order status as we’re hearing reports that they’ve started to ship. Dan, who sourced his iPhone 4 from overseas in early July but had to wait until the Case Program launched in NZ to place his order, has just received the notification himself so it looks like we do, indeed, have ignition!
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Posted in Other News, iPhone
iTunes Promo: DSE
Current Promo:
Store – DSE (Dick Smiths Electronics)
Offer – 2 x $20 cards for $30
Promo ends – 6th September 2010
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Posted in All, iTunes Promos
First wave of iPhone 4 orders now shipping
It’s a beautiful thing to wake up to — an email from Apple advising your iPhone 4 has shipped, and a flood of similar emails from readers who have received the same. Strangely, the tracking details for mine show that the shipment originated from Katowice in Poland. It’s not exactly clear on the tracking where it is now, but wherever it is it’s ‘in transit’ which sounds good to me. God speed!
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Posted in Other News, iPhone
First wave of Apple Online Store iPhone 4 orders ‘prepared for shipment’
We’re starting to get reports from people whose iPhone 4 orders had 20th August as the ‘ships’ date are now showing a status of ‘Prepared for Shipment’. According to the Apple website, that means that “your items have already been prepared for shipment and cannot be changed online or by our customer service department.” I just checked my own and sure enough, it would seem there’s a little iPhone 4 with my name on it sat somewhere ready to be dispatched. Very exciting! Let us know in the comments how your order is looking.
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Posted in Other News, iPhone
Two more turn-by-turn GPS apps for New Zealand hit the App Store
Two more major turn-by-turn GPS apps built for New Zealand have hit the App Store: Sygic Aura and Navigon. In what’s becoming an increasingly competitive market, these two apps will need to bring a feature set and price that stand out – so have they hit the mark? Keep reading for a sneak peek at both, with full reviews coming soon.
Read MoreiMovie for iPhone 4: Video walkthrough
Trying to explain iMovie for iPhone 4 in words is not easy, so I’ve put together a quick video walkthrough where I’ll explain what it can and can’t do, how to create titles, include music, insert photos and of course add video. Carry on reading for the video, and you’ll be shooting award-winning home videos in no time!
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Posted in All, Other News, Reviews, iPhone
Speed tests show that XT still leaves Vodafone in the dust on the iPhone 4 despite 900Mhz capability
Recently we were contacted by readers Ahmad and Grant Smith who have completed some pretty exhaustive speed tests in their home regions of Dunedin and Hamilton / Cambridge respectively. Hopes were high for Vodafone customers that the iPhone 4′s 900Mhz capability (the first iPhone to work with that frequency, providing nationwide 3G coverage on Big Red) would close the gap between the iPhone experience for XT customers and their own which had been somewhat of a gulf on the iPhone 3G and 3GS.
On their own blogs, Ahmad and Grant Smith have found that in the majority of places they carried out tests, XT still blazes ahead of Vodafone. On buttonmasher Ahmad reports that in his tests XT had “a distinct and significant speed advantage over Vodafone 3G” while Grant Smith found that XT out-performed Vodafone at ten of the fifteen locations tested and found that speeds in some locations “were twice as fast or more than the Vodafone NZ Network, at the time of testing.”
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Posted in All, Other News, Telecom XT, Vodafone, iPad, iPhone
App Store Essentials: Don’t sync your video, stream it with Air Video
Have you ever felt limited by the amount of space available for video on your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch? Well, if you have your movies stored on your computer (or external drive connected to your computer) on your home network, then with the right tools you can stream your entire video collection to your device on-demand, giving you limitless video resources with zero capacity on your device being taken up. The tool I’m referring to is called Air Video. Carry on reading for my experience with setting up and using this amazing app.
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Posted in All, Reviews, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch
