christyxcore

It’s been about a little over a month since Apple has released the iPhone 3G, iPhone 2.0 software and with these, the addition of the App Store in the latest version of iTunes.

The App Store is filled with tons of apps that once before, many could only obtain by jailbreaking their iPhones and using the Installer to get them on their iPhone. Now that day is no more (unless you want to jailbreak your iPhone for other uses, such as the new Qik appliction not yet available in the App Store).

There are tons of apps you can download and install on your iPhone, iPhone 3G, or iPod Touch. A good amount of apps are free, with some others that you need to pay for (though there are always free alternatives, don’t buy an app unless it’s really a must, at least this applies for me). After having a month to get apps and try them out, here are some apps that I would highly recommend for any iPhone or iPod Touch user.

Wordpress: When the App Store first opened, I was eagerly looking for a good blogging app. The only one available from what I know was TypePad. The app was free, but the service? It has to be paid for! So once finding out about this, I got rid of it. Completely useless to me, since the blogging service I have been using for a while now is Wordpress, and I don’t want to pay for a new service and start over.

A couple of weeks later, the Wordpress app is introduced into the App Store. I rejoiced once I caught wind of it being available, and the best part, for FREE!

I have already written about the Wordpress App before, so if you want to read how it works, please go to this link: Wordpress for iPhone by christyxcore.

Apple Remote: Seriously one of the best little apps, and it’s FREE. With this nifty app, you can turn your iPhone or iPod Touch into a wireless remote to control your entire iTunes library or Apple TV, all done over a wi-fi network.

What do you do when you are feet away from your computer but want to change your music in iTunes? No worries now! Just hope you got your iPhone or iTouch nearby, and there’s your solution. Just connect to the specific iTunes library and you can flick through your albums and artists and songs and change what’s playing with the touch of a finger.

The application can also sync with any iTunes library that is it is able to detect within range. To connect the device to the library, it will show up in iTunes and whoever owns that library will have to give the Remote app permission or deny the request to be able to access it.

So if you’re lazy at a party to change the music playing or anything like that, look no more, Apple Remote is for you.

Voice Notes: What bugged me when I first got my iPhone was that there was no way to record little voice notes, something that most basic phones can even do. A bit disappointing for such an expensive device. But now with the addition of official apps, there is Voice Notes, a free app that is simple and gets the job done. No fancy name, no fancy look. Just plain and simple. What does it do? Just record your little voice notes, when you need to remember something but there is no pen or paper handy, and sometimes speaking is faster than typing on the iPhone/iTouch keyboard.

Tumble: The other microblogging service that seems to be quite popular nowadays, Tumblr. This application allows you to log in with your Tumblr account (if you don’t have one, it’s free and easy to sign up-do it now!) and then you have several options: 1) Quick Post 2) Text 3) Photo 4) Quote 5) Link 6) Chat. Similiar to what appears on the Dashboard on the Tumblr site.

Although, options 4-6 don’t seem that great for use on the iPhone, the first three are fantastic. Quick Post allows you to post something like a status update, and comes with pre-made sentence prefixes so you just simply fill in the rest with your thoughts.

Text is simply what it is: text. Just type something out and it will post it to your Tumblr.

Photo is nifty for easily adding a photo of what you’re doing or something you want to share. Just touch the “Choose Photo” section and you are prompted with the option to take a new photo or choose from your existing photos. Add a caption and you’re done!

Simple and effective. The other options I haven’t messed with because I don’t see the point in them. They’re more useful on the actual Tumblr site.

Google: A mobile Google app. It is simple and effective. When you open it up, you are just presented with a search bar and the keyboard. Start typing and it will quickly give you quick links to well-known sites or services, or if you want to google something else, like maybe your online alias, it will open up the search results page of the google site that we should all be familiar with.

With a good connection, the app runs quickly and efficiently with just a few seconds to search for results. If you use Google a lot, then this app is recommended.

AIM: What can I really say? If you have an iPhone/iPod Touch and have an AIM account and use it frequently, this app is nifty when you have some time to spare and want to chat with your best online buddies.

When you open it up, you get four different tabs at the bottom. Buddy List, Favorites, My Info, and IMs. Simple and efficient organizing.

Buddy List shows well, your buddy list. Divided into sections like Online, Offline, and all your other groups, and shows the number of people that are online in each of your customized groups. Tap on a group to see who’s online and then tap their screenname to start a new IM with them, which will appear in the IMs tab.

The IMs tab will show all conversations that you’ve had using the application, and you can tap “Edit” to delete a conversation if it’s old. Tap any screenname in this tab to view the current IM.

You can add favorites in the AIM app by tapping the blue arrow next to a screenname from the Buddy List. You will see the option to add a favorite contact, which is great if you have specific people you really like talking to, just add them to your Favorites and you don’t need to search the regular buddy list to see if they’re online!

My Info allows you to set your buddy icon, status and away messages.

This app is great for the mobile AIM user. I believe that it runs in the background for a short amount of time, because you don’t sign off right away. So if you need to quickly check something in Safari or reply to a text message, you can do that and then return to get any IMs you may have received in the meantime. But after a longer period if you open the app again, it will show ‘connecting…’ so it’s obvious you were kicked. But reconnecting is quick and painless.

A great app if you love to chat to AIM buddies!

YPMobile: Ever need to look up a business you’ve heard of that’s in your current location? Know the place but don’t know the number to call to ask a question? With YPMobile, you simply enter a search term and the location, or even have your current location with the location services on, and it will pull up results for you, you can tap the specific choice, and it displays address and phone info, and any other bits of info it has in its database.

I use this app pretty frequently in order to look up locations of restaurants and coffeeshops, pizza phone numbers, and anything else of the like. Info returned is pretty accurate from what I have seen.

Where: Open it, and it finds your location and then displays several useful widgets that you can use. The main things I use on it are just the Starbucks, Gas, Yelp, and just the regular search. With your location, it displays any Starbucks, gas stations, or whatever you want to look for (pizza, coffee, market, etc) in that specific vicinity that you are in. It will not look for anything much farther than that given perimeter, which is the whole point of Where: no need to go far.

In a new area you’re not familar with and want a Starbucks? Just open up Where and it will find you and any Starbucks. Problem solved! It was reported that when the app first came out there were many crashes and it just didn’t work properly at all. But now after updates the app works great, so don’t let the negative reviews in the app store scare you; just get this and you will find it to be extremely useful.

Showtimes: Need something to do? Want to know when the showtimes are for that new movie that’s out that you’re dying to see? Showtimes is your friend! It will locate you and give you the nearest theater locations. Tap a specific theater and it will show you all the movies currently being shown and all the showtimes. If you don’t have this app, then go get it, because it’s free and I don’t know how you can have an iPhone or iTouch and not find this USEFUL.

Pandora: Create an account. Create a station by selecting an artist you like, then when you listen to the station it will start off with one song from that selected artist, and once that song is done it will begin playing songs from various artists that have a similiar style or sound of the chosen artist. This is a fantastic way to explore new music by using a sample of what you already like! When each song plays, you can also give it a thumbs up or a thumbs down in reaction of whether you like the given song or not. This will help shape the station even further, creating a totally customizable radio station to only stuff that you will [probably] like!

The Music Genome Project. Start with a thing you like, and it will spread and explore the music world to mold a station that is totally you.

Shazam: Heard a song on the radio that you just love but you don’t know who sings or made it or even what it’s called? Just open this app and start tagging by letting it hear the music that is on, and it will record it, send it to the server, and give you the result back from the database of pretty much everything out there (except for brand new stuff, of course).

Once a song is tagged, it is saved in a history of all your tagged music and all of these tagged songs will even have links to the iTunes store where you can sample more music and even purchase it, given that you are connected to a wi-fi network for iTunes or just get back on the computer and do it manually.

Similar to that of Verizon Wireless SongID but better in that you can purchase it on iTunes with provided links.

Last.fm: Are you a last.fm user? Of course you are! That’s why you would get this app! You can listen to songs that are in your recorded library, listen to recommended stations, neighbor radio, and also view your charts, friends, and events.

The only thing that is missing is the ability to be able to scrobble. But other than that, this app is just a mobile version of everything else that last.fm has to offer. But I know that the scrobbling is a big deal for some so this might not be for everyone. However, I enjoy it as a time-killer app.

Aurora Feint: If you have to get one game on the iPhone, get this one! The best part is that it is FREE. The graphics are simply beautiful, just as good as the graphics on handheld systems like the PSP and it’s simply beautiful when compared to other free games.

What is Aurora Feint? Think of a puzzle game RPG, similar to that of Puzzle Quest without the monster battling. You have to match up blocks of elements in rows or columns of at least three or more. The trick is that the iPhone must be rotated in all directions in order to maximize the number of results of blocks to match up (this is not made clear in the initial directions). The blocks of each element then are added up for future use to build and develop skills and magic that enhance your game. You also earn crystals that you use in the shop to buy initial skills and magic that you must develop with elemental blocks and strategic puzzles. After the main mining part, you level up your character which determines what skills and abilities they can have to assist you in the puzzles. The level of your character can also determine what the threshold is during the game for you to complete the goal. Higher level = more blocks and crystals.

This game is a great time killer and it’s graphically beautiful for being a free game. It’s amazing that they actually have this for free; many reviewers have even said they would pay $9.99 for a game of this quality. It’s a great game for it’s price tag and highly recommended. It is also being said that it will be the first MMO game developed exclusively for the iPhone/iPod Touch.

Twitter Apps

There are several choices to choose from when it comes to apps for the ever-popular microblogging service called Twitter. But to me personally, I feel that only three of the many apps can really be of any use. Here’s what I say…

Twinkle: What makes this app great is it’s ability to locate you and also show you tweets from other nearby Twinkle users within a set mile radius that you can set from 1 mile to 1000 miles or even Everywhere if you so choose. This specific “Nearby” feature is great to meet up with others and connect with local users that you could possibly befriend in person.

Users of Twinkle don’t necessarily have a Twitter account, because to use Twinkle, one must sign up for a service called Tapulous, which is it’s own separate thing. Users of Twinkle can simply communicate with each other even if there is no Twitter account. Twinkle itself is a chatting app; Twitter is just an added bonus.

Twittelator: A simple and effective app that also can send out an emergency alert with a map of your current location using the iPhone’s GPS or cellular tower to pinpoint location. Not that useful if you don’t really have any local contacts on Twitter, but for some I suppose it could be useful.

The main charm of Twittelator is the fact that it’s a snap to send multiple @’s. Simply start a new tweet and then tap the “@ friends” button at the top and then you are able to select multiple recipients for your @, all sorted by alphabetical order through a drop down menu. This is a very practical and necessary feature if you love to talk to multiple people at once.

Twitterfon: Something very simple, yet it gets the job done. Simple in that it allows you to view your friends tweets, view @’s, and view DMs, and then one more tab for Settings, which is just login info. To reply to someone, just simply tap their avatar, and a new @ message is started. To reply to a DM, tap the avatar and a “d [username here]” is started. Simple but effective. No bells and whistles, just the basics, which is really all you need.

Also, there is a built in web browser in the app, similar to how Twitterific had a mini-Safari browser. If there’s a link in a tweet, a small icon with a chain will be displayed next to it, and you simply tap the icon and it will open up the link.

For me personally, this app replaced Twitterific. It is much more simple and effective and does things faster, which to get the same result in Twitterific, you had to do a few more taps. And everything is neat and organized, whereas in Twitterific all tweets (including DMs and @’s) were all mashed together in one huge timeline. And scrolling felt laggy in Twitterific, which amazingly is still on 1.0 last time I checked.

If you still use Twitterific, why? Drop it and replace it with Twitterfon!

This is just a small list of apps that I have used and loved and highly recommend if you use either an iPhone or iPod Touch. There are other apps I could not have mentioned (this is long enough already!) but these are my all-time favorites and I use them all the time.

Try em out if you haven’t already!

Continue reading

App Store, Apple, apps, iPhone, iPod Touch

So. I had cracked the screen on my 1st gen iPhone, right? Placed an order for the iPhone 3G in black 16GB on July 21st. Officially got my phone August 6th. So I’ve had this thing about a week, with the latest updated firmware, 2.0.1. A good handful of apps downloaded. Let’s get on with this, shall we?

The main difference between the 3G and the 1st gen is the obvious 3G data connectivity (and with that, a higher fee every month, unfortunately I am not happy about this part) and GPS (sort of), and the physical appearance of the device.

The cosmetic appearance of the device is a bit different from the first one, with the main difference being the plastic-like back and flush headphone jack. The feel of the phone feels a bit lighter and more comfortable in the hands, at least to me, however, I prefer the metal part of the first gen more than the plastic like substance. And the metal kept the phone feeling a bit cooler, at least I think it did. The headphone jack is much nicer this time around, with it being flush with the rest of the phone and not made so deep that it’s hard to find a pair of headphones/earphones that will fit.

Overall, I miss the metal backing of the device, but the choice of black and white is quite nice. And though the metal was great, I didn’t like the two-tone back much. The feel is quite nice and better, and the headphone jack is much improved. I give the appearance an 8/10.

GPS. Although it’s not quite GPS, since I noticed I was off the road while traveling down to Irvine as I watched my blue dot move. A blue circle may appear around the dot, larger circle being more of a disparity than a small circle. The smaller circle, the more accurate the GPS signal is. And if there is no circle then that means that it is accurate. At least as accurate as Google Maps can be. The GPS was truly not as good as I thought it would be. But then again, I knew it wouldn’t be turn-by-turn GPS, so I couldn’t really excpect much, could I? I give the GPS a 6.5/10

3G…both a blessing, but also a curse. A curse because of constant connection problems I seem to be having with the phone trying to maintain a 3G signal while I am at home. It has been discussed that there are connectivity issues with the 3G iPhone than say, compared to another AT&T 3G phone. For example, people with a device such as the Tilt will maintain a constant 3G signal while the iPhone will consistently lose or gain the signal.

I do get strong signal in many of the places I go to when I am out, but I find it a bit of a nuisance to only have it half working most of the time I am at work, or even when I am at home. However, when I do have a 3G signal, the speeds are much improved over the EDGE network. Makes apps such as Pandora Radio and Last.fm much more useable when not around a Wi-fi network. For now, the 3G on the iPhone I would give a 7/10, just because of the connectivity issues I am having at times, and any others that have the same problem.

And the 2.0.1 firmware update surely is a lifesaver, as it improves the lagginess that came from the 2.0 software. Contacts load faster and don’t need to wait a few seconds before scrolling, less crashes and more stability.

I’ve spent a lot of time messing with apps (just look at those pics!) and I am trying to work on notes about apps I would recommend. I hope to get that up soon, so keep an eye out for it.

In the week I’ve had my new iPhone 3G, no real issues. Overall, I would give it an 8/10..much improved over the original, but some changes I miss. But to each their own!

Continue reading

3G, Apple, iPhone

@markdavidson on Twitter asked me to do an article for Comic Con 2008 and so I did. With some editing and revising, my post is now up at http://twitterstars.com.

To go straight to my guest post, it can be found here: “Xcored: Comic Con 2008″

Continue reading

guest blog, markdavidson, TwitterStars

From July 24-27, 2008 in San Diego, California was the annual San Diego Comic Con 2008. Despite the name, Comic Con is not limited to just comic books. It’s more like “Pop Culture Con” because the variety of things to be found and explored within the convention center walls ranges from comic books to books to anime, movies and TV shows to video games and trading card games. Anything that is nerdy and popular will find a place in the ever popular Comic Con International.

Comic Con is a much more different experience than the other convention I have been to this month as well, Anime Expo 2008. Whereas such a convention is dedicated to the popular Japanese arts and animation and video games with an estimated attendance of almost 50,000 people from all over, Comic Con is a convention where there is something for pretty much anyone, regardless of tastes, and has an estimated 130,000+ attendees from patterns of previous years.

I am able to get a free badge to Comic Con for the last 3 years due to my brother’s employment at toy company Mattel, which grants him access to Professional and Exhibitor level badges and I have been invited to go every year with him. This year, I attended Friday and Saturday (July 25-26).

Star Wars Day
This Friday was Star Wars Day, where the main theme of the convention is that of George Lucas’ treasured sci-fi movie series, Star Wars. I like Star Wars myself, but I am not a diehard fan of it. However, there were plenty of Star Wars fanatics roaming around the Exhibit Hall dressed up in costumes that came straight from the Star Wars universe ranging from stormtroopers, Darth Vader, jedis, and there was even a Elvis Stormtrooper! Yes, thats right. An Elvis version stormtrooper. Truly one of the creative ones. And finding Star Wars merchandise was not a hard thing to accomplish, especially on Star Wars day.

It is lovely to see even young little children dressing up and showing the Star Wars spirit! There were plenty of little kids dressed up in stormtrooper or Boba Fett or jedi outfits. Even barely toddlers were dressed up and there was one particularly charming pair of toddlers that just made me stop and say ‘aww…’. It’s quite a feeling to see such young toddlers that probably could barely understand the complex storyline of Star Wars dressing up like the characters. Star Wars is a sci-fi pop culture symbol and even the new generation of children are recognizing it so.

The Dark Knight - Joker Fandom
With The Dark Knight making record breaking sales from just the two weeks that it’s been out, there has been much recognition for Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker at the convention. Finding a Joker wasn’t hard to do, just walk a bit and you’d be sure to encounter one. There is one particular Joker that was easily one of the best around and truly my favorite Joker: the Nurse Joker. I almost mistook it for the real thing straight from the movie at first sight!

I could not really find anyone that was dressed up like The Dark Knight’s Batman (just the original costume from the comic books and cartoons) or Two-Face, and saw a few Commissioner Gordons. But the majority of Dark Knight people were indeed the Joker, and it’s not surprising since Heath Ledger’s performance as Batman’s nemesis was truly spectacular.

Futurama and The Simpsons
Matt Groening and his cast from “Futurama” and “The Simpsons” did their traditional panel in Ballroom 20 on Saturday July 26. I was lucky enough to make it to the panel, as I got in the line 15 minutes before the Futurama one started, and actually got in the room.

It was pretty much just a Q&A session for both shows, the questions being provided by fans that feel the need to ask critical questions (or just plain silly ones). I found the Futurama panel to be a bit more interesting than The Simpsons, but that’s only because I haven’t cared for the Simpsons since several seasons back. But it’s all good…

One question that is of high importance in the Futurama panel was whether they would be working on getting a new season of Futurama on the air. The answer? Depending on the sales of the movies currently out (Bender’s Big Score and The Beast With a Billion Backs) and the future sales of the other two movies, and whether Fox (it was their first year at Comic Con!) would get wind of how enthusiastic fans are for the series, it could be a small ray of hope for the future of Futurama.

Another question of some importance was about the development between Fry and Leela. Of course, they couldn’t say exactly what will happen, but there will be more development between the two in the next two movies. I guess there is some more development in BwaBB, but I have yet to see this one yet (yes, shame on me) so I wouldn’t know. I plan on seeing it soon though. But yes, more development on Fry and Leela’s relationship! Also: Katey Sagal (Leela) and Billy West (Fry, Farnsworth, Zoidberg) kissed in front of the hundreds of fans! In response to the Fry and Leela relationship question. It was certainly a surprise brought on by Billy West (which I got to actually meet in person at Comic Con 2006).

The Simpsons panel was pretty much the same as the Futurama panel, except of course it was the Simpsons cast of writers and animators. They did show a clip from the upcoming Treehouse of Horrors XIX and talked about future guest appearances in the series, with plenty of surprises.

Soul Calibur IV
There was the Bandai booth which featured plenty of upcoming video game titles to try out, with the highly anticipated Soul Calibur IV being the main spotlight with its release this week on Tuesday.

People were able to sneak a peek at all the playable characters, which have returning favorites and changed characters in relation to the storyline of the Soul Calibur franchise, and additional characters, including the first armor-clad female, Hilde. The XBOX 360 version will also have Yoda and the PS3 version will have Darth Vader, and both will have stages in relation to their respectable Star Wars characters.

Also, this will be the first time in which the character’s armor will be able to break during battle, changing their appearance slowly throughout the battles. Hilde’s full body armor can break into pieces and reveal her in just pieces of cloth, which of course will just make her more vulnerable. Seems that the costumes will be more towards the realistic side, which only adds to the completely realistic graphics.

Tite Kubo?

Anime fans should have been pleased to know that Tite Kubo, creator of [adult swim]’s Bleach, made a rare appearance at Comic Con 2008 as well.

Unfortunately, I had lined up about 20 minutes late, because I was unable to get into the panel. I am guessing they did not anticipate so many Bleach fans, because it was in Room 7A and the line was gigantic. Many people were disappointed and upset, myself included! It was a pretty big waste of time for tons of hardcore Bleach fans. And let me tell you, I was REALLY looking forward to seeing Tite Kubo since Anime Expo WEEKS ago! What a letdown…they need to run events like that (big guest panels of creators of POPULAR anime series) just a bit better. Perhaps the people in charge should take that into consideration for next year.

But there was a KON!

And so…

A place where nerds of all kinds collide and bond over their shared common interest—pop culture. Comic books, books, manga, anime, television shows, movies, trading card games, art, video games, collectibles…Comic Con has got them all.

Continue reading

Comicon, convention, Futuram, Joker, pop culture, San Diego, Star Wars, The Dark Knight, The Simpsons

So, anyone with an iPhone should be very familar with 2.0 by now and the app store. Just over the weekend, a much anticipated Wordpress application was released for the iPhone and iPod Touch in Apple’s App Store in iTunes.

This is great! I had been waiting for a mobile blogging app, and when 2.0 was released I had downloaded Typepad since it was a free application, but to my disappointment the service was not free, so I deleted it. Then came the Wordpress app!

This app is perfect for Wordpress bloggers.

Setting up your blog is easy and painless. It even does custom hosted blogs, as long as it uses Wordpress, of course. Simply input the blog address, username and password info, and it will fetch the blog. You can even set up multiple blogs, even private ones.

The application lets you view previous blog entries and write new ones.

When writing new posts, it looks like starting a new email message. There are fields for inputting title, tags, categories, and the status of a post. Then you can start writing the body!

If you aren’t finished with a post, it will be saved in the app under ‘local draft’ and you can pick up where you left off later. (I’m typing this post from the app right now!)

And there is integrated mobile safari so you can view the blog as it appears on the web. Very nifty!

Also, you can take an image from the phone and put it into the post or even snap a new pic from the camera. What can be more useful than that?

Overall very pleased with this app. If you are a wordpress user with an iPhone or iTouch, make sure to get this nifty and convenient app! Makes mobile blogging a snap.

Continue reading

app, Apple, download, free, iPhone, wordpress, [blogging]

So…today was the death of my perfect little original iPhone 16GB that was a birthday gift from my mother for my 21st this year (which was May 27, mind you, the phone was bought in April).
No, not dead completely. But death in it’s glorious perfection, the smooth and sexy screen that is made of glass. Yes, it is dead. Well, perhaps not completely, but it’s more like my iPhone lost it’s leg or arm in a deadly battle. You know, like a war casualty. The screen is still there but it’s severely injured.
A spiderweb appears in the lower right corner, and slowly spreads over the rest of the glass, reaching all the way up to the top left corner. The spiderweb in glass that is like impending doom every time I cast my eyes upon it.
Glorious perfection, ruined.
A simple fumble of the phone in my hands, lose the grip, and watch it floating in the air, slowly plummeting to the ground. Those moments seemed like eternity, as I watched my precious iPhone out of my hands, in the air, and finally landing on the hard, rough cement, face down on the screen.
When my eyes looked down upon the backside of my iPhone on the ground, I knew it wouldn’t be coming out of this without major damage, if not death. I picked it up, and that’s all I saw. Spiderweb trapped in glass.

That is the story of my ruined iPhone screen. The good thing is, since it would have been $250 to repair the glass screen on a 16GB anyway, I figured I may as well just go and order an iPhone 3G in 16GB Black. And so I did. I was told it would take 10-20 days or 3-4 weeks. Something like that. Hopefully soon, because I can’t live with this cracked screen for much longer. I want a shiny new phone.
Even though I am only about ~4 months into the new AT&T contract with my mom, I was eligible for an upgrade with the iPhone it seems, so I got the black 16GB for the $299 price. Sweet!
Why pay $250 to fix older technology when the newer version is not that much more. Yes, I will be paying $10 more a month (I have the $40 plan right now, but with $29.99 data and 19.99 unlimited text it only adds up to $10 more than what I have already, oh well) but I think it will be worth it. Plus, EDGE just doesn’t cut it sometimes, and the GPS would be nice, of course!
So…yeah. My original iPhone screen cracked, and I will be getting a new 3G iPhone soon. Awesome.
Perhaps this was destiny…

Continue reading

3G, Apple, AT&T, crack, iPhone, screen

During the 4th of July weekend was  the annual Anime Expo, a convention that is held every year in Southern California to cater to the thousands of japanese anime fans and gaming nerds. This year it was held at the Los Angeles Convention Center on Figueroa Street, right next to the infamous Staples Center.
I was an attendee for all four days this time around, whereas last year I was only there for one day at Long Beach Convention Center. I found spending four days with fellow nerds to be quite an enjoyable experience, and the panels that I got a chance to attend were fairly interesting, but one particular panel I saw was a bit debatable, and I was able to form my own opinion after thinking about the topic.

Fansubs and the Death of Anime
The first panel that I attended was after the Keynote on July 3rd, and this panel discussed fansubs and how it is affecting the anime industry. Fansubs are when a group of people get their hands on an anime that is not dubbed, and release it with subtitles onto the internet, where people can view and download them for free by torrents or some other method. This is by far the most popular way to get access to a specific anime that is not released out on American shores yet, or just to gain access to the original version, the way it was meant to be instead of all the dubs and editing.
The panel consisted of several people that all are working for companies that are distributors of anime DVDs and the like. It seems that fansubs are having a devastating effect on the anime industry due to poor DVD sales, since anime can be gotten for free over the Internet.
If you want my opinion, I believe that what would be the right thing to do is to view fansubs to sample a series or view the entire thing, but if you like it enough, then you should at least go and buy the DVDs to support the creators. I believe this is only fair. It’s a similar view about music for me too; if you like a song or artist, you should at least buy a song or a CD in order to support the artists and this will help them with future projects. In the end, it is all about supporting the artists and creators so that they can bring more new stuff in the future.
Now, I can see both viewpoints. I understand that some of the dubbing done to great series’ are so bad that a true fan can only watch the original subbed versions. This is where the people in the industry that select the American voice cast should be doing better decisions; this is one of the biggest things about dubs that fans just abhor about dubbing, the voices. They need to be more selective about the voices and actually find voices that suit the character like the original Japanese voice actors do.
Also, editing extreme violence and gore is not as big of an issue, but it’s still an issue. Especially in Naruto, where there is the famous edited scene of Naruto stabbing himself with a…lunchbox and apple, rather than what it was supposed to be, a kunai (ninja knife) in order to make himself bleed to rid poison in the blood. This was totally an unnecessary edit and changes things entirely of the situation. And the editing of that one character in One Piece from having a cigarette and replacing it with a lollipop. Very bad edits and things like this just piss off the original fans. I say, if things have to be edited like this just for children’s eyes, then it’s unnecessary to dub it for a children’s network to begin with.
There are dubs that aren’t completely bad. I personally thought the dubbed versions of Bleach, Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, FLCL, and some other ones (mostly the ones on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim) aren’t that bad. I am not bashing all dubs, but some of the voice work in particular series such as Naruto and Death Note just aren’t good compared to the originals.
So there are two viewpoints and I believe they are both right in their own way. People should support the creators and companies that bring us anime instead of only relying on fansubs all the time, but then the companies for the dubbed versions should actually do a better job of finding voice actors that suit the characters themselves. But, most DVDs have the original Japanese audio with English subtitles, so you should just buy them if you have the chance and the money. Not like they are forcing you to listen to the English audio.

Other than this one panel, I just enjoyed the convention with fellow nerds and otakus. Many cosplayers as always, I saw plenty of good ones, and of course, there’s always the ones that are cosplaying that really just, shouldn’t. I love shopping around the exhibit hall and finding the goodies that I can’t find normally.
One thing that I don’t like about Anime Expo is the lack of a lot of free goodies, without having to win them. Compared to Comic Con, where you can snag tons of good freebies! But, other than that, I had the best 4th of July weekend ever by nerding it up!
Also, my footage of Soul Calibur 4’s PS3 Darth Vader stage got me a bit of internet fame for being one o the first ones to leak the stage. This video is uploaded on Viddler, and is actually in the post below.
For pictures, please see my Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/christyxcore/sets/72157605983696590/

Continue reading

2008, anime, Anime Expo, Los Angeles Convention Center, nerd, otaku

This is my footage taken from AX 2008 at Los Angeles Convention Center at the Bandai Namco booth. In over 24 hours, this video has gained over 300,000 views and I am finding articles linking and embedding the video in it. I did a google search for “Soul Calibur 4 Star Wars” and this video is #4 as of 7/8/08.

Watch it! And love or hate it, whichever one you prefer.

Continue reading

Anime Expo 2008, Darth Vader, Los Angeles Convention Center, SC4, Soul Calibur, Star Wars

The wonderful age of Web 2.0 has brought us many new forms of communication with other people from all over the world, and this type of communication is what we would call ‘social networking,’ or ‘soc net’ for short. The Internet connects us to anyone else that is behind a computer screen, and through soc net sites, one person can get to know hundreds of new people and also become close net friends with them. But not all soc net sites are built the same. There is one particular site that is immense in popularity, and goes by the name of Twitter.
What is Twitter? It is a micro blogging service that allows a user to post a short message—up to 140 chars—that informs anyone interested, a follower, of what they are doing at any given time. But don’t let the main point of it fool you—the real charm in Twitter are the lovely @ replies that you get whenever someone responds to one of your tweets. The @ replies are what lets users communicate with one another in a way that is similar to IM, but it’s also visible to others so they are able to freely join in the conversation if they have something to say or add.

There are many types of people that one can find on Twitter, and these will range from kids that use it as a way to communicate to all their friends at once to adults that use it for networking with online friends. There are even businesses that use it to share their new marketing ideas or to promote their products, and there are also the Internet celebrities, and even reallife celebrities, so that they may update their devoted fans on what they are doing on a regular basis.
These are just some general ideas of how to use Twitter. But to me, I find it as a tool to make new friends that I can actually get to know more about each day, and over time build a bond with them over a common interest of some sort. There are several reasons that keep me on Twitter, even with all of it’s downtime and problems as of late. Even despite its flaws, I find it to be a form of online crack, almost like I can’t live without it.

• Real people. As I communicate with dozens of people each day on this site, I am pleased to know that I am actually interacting with other real people, that share something in common with me, otherwise I wouldn’t be talking to them. I am usually shy in real life except when around friends of course, but as I use Twitter to get to know people, I feel that I can easily spark up conversation with these people if I would ever be given the chance to meet them in real life, which I have actually met a few. It’s just nice to know that one is able to talk to other real people (the exception of bots and spammers, of course) that actually exist somewhere in the world.
• TweetUps. Even though I was unfortunate enough to miss the L.A. TweetUp that I could have gone to back in May 2008, I just find it amazing that one soc net site has brought people together and actually having the users organizing events in which people that once only knew each other online now actually know each other in real life. Once only knowing each other by the words that we type out on the keyboard, to knowing each other by seeing them living and breathing, in person. It’s amazing that one site can do this, even though it’s not the only one, it is quite impressive.
• New, real life friends. Even though I did not attend the official TweetUpLA, I was able to meet with a few of my friends from Twitter. Because of Twitter, I was able to meet some good people such as @jacklhasa, @scarab, @markdavidson, and @DaisyAvenue. Four out of about 200+ friends, but still, I was given the chance to meet these wonderful people and it was quite a pleasant feeling to know that these are people I talk to regularly.
• Useful info. Not everyone that one can follow is necessarily a real person. There are many sites that use Twitter to post tweets as new updates for their site or blog. These can deliver quite useful information. Since I’m on Twitter quite often, looking through my timeline stream can actually give me something quite noteworthy or interesting to read, and keep me up to date, especially since Twitter is quite popular with the tech industry with the many geeky twitterers (myself included!).
• Networking. A very useful function of Twitter is the ability to create networks. With many users being in particular industries, there is good chance of building friendships and future contacts for possible jobs. Or even to just get to know people well enough to get a feel of the industry and their work. It can open up a world of possibilities and knowing someone in a particular field may actually help one change their perspectives. If not, then it’s good for discovering new things, at least.
• Simplicity. Yes, there are many sites out that are similar to Twitter, in that it is a way for people to let others that care know what they are up to. But, Twitter keeps it simple. There is nothing complicated about Twitter’s timeline, and the mobile ability of SMS is great for people on the go all the time, and don’t have a data package for their phones. Yes, Jaiku has SMS capability but it will burn a whole in your wallet since it’s an international number! Twitter’s is clean and relatively simple, and local. There will always be other sites like Twitter, but nothing can really beat it in terms of simplicity. Simple, yet easy to navigate and customize.

So there you have it. Six reasons why I love Twitter and continue to use it, despite it’s horrible downtime and broken features lately. It seems that the Twitter craze is beginning to die down due to recent server problems, but this won’t stop me from staying on Twitter. It’s the social network that I’ve started on a year ago and has grown to become a big part of my life and a tool for communicating with friends.

Continue reading

"social networking", Twitter