Review: UnYOUsual Custom iPhone Cases

UnYOUsual, with a rather unusual name offers custom made iPhone cases and glass panels for the iPhone. I received two units to try out from UnYOUsual, one of their GlassPic Panels as well as a Slender Case. Both of the cases allowed me to add my own image, which I believe UnYOUsual laser prints on, so its pretty permanent, no scratching or peeling. FIrst, let’s start off with the Slender Case.

UnYOUsual Slender Case

The slender case arrived packaged in a pretty cool recycled box, which appeared to be a gift box at first glance. After opening the box, I noticed the case that I custom made nestled in styrofoam packing to protect it from cracking or breaking. Upon inspecting the Slender Case and giving it a once over, I noticed that the case wasn’t made of the thick polyurethane plastic that most of these cases are made out of, but instead a slightly cheaper, lighter plastic, which gave off an excellent shine and showed the designs very well, but had me doubting its duty of protecting my iPhone, if I were to drop it.

The Slender Case is your average polycarbonate iPhone case, but what truly sets it apart is UnYOUsual’s addition of customer designs. UnYOUsual allows you to add your own custom design, however, they also have a collection of artist designs that you may also apply. Check out the Pros and cons below and other cases that UnYOUsual offers, which we’ll also look at, keep reading!

Living Earth HD for iPhone – World Clock and Weather (Review)

Living Earth HD is the last weather application that you’ll use. It brings together an alarm clock with the times of every country, and city in the world. Just input your favorites into the cue and you can easily flip through them. The live view of the earth allows you to see the Earth via satellite. The live images are updated every 3 hours. This allows you to see a great image of the planet no matter where you are. In my use of the app, I found that the alarm clock was the hidden gem of this app.

It allows you to wake up to your favorite song and plays a backup tone for several seconds in case you close the app by mistake. The UI of the app is fluid and runs smoothly on Apple’s iPad, iPhone 4, and iPod touch 4. It has a simple settings section, the live view of the earth and the only connection out of the app is a selection screen that pops up for your music. I can proudly say that this app will be replacing my bland Apple Weather application preinstalled on my iPod.

(Living Earth HD – $0.99 in App Store)

**Developer Moshen Chan provided us with a few promo codes, so if you’d like a copy of the app, leave a comment below with a real email address so that we can email you the promo code. An iTunes account is required in order to download the app.**

Nomad Brush Review (Sponsored)

Nomad Brush is a tool that all artists with a passion for technology need.  It’s blurs the lines between art and tech, bringing both of the worlds together with the most accurate precision. Each bristle creates smooth lines and beautiful color, allowing artists to draw with the most ease and accuracy. Working with the Nomad Brush made it a lot easier than using paints and an actual canvas. I could easily stow away the brush as it is the same height and weight as an actual paintbrush.

This is what sets apart Nomad Brush from any other competitors in this market. It’s very interesting to see a great product that actually works very well penetrate the market. Personally, I liked the rubber grip on the brush which made it easy to adjust on quick strokes and light accents. The thin bristles glide across the iPad touchscreen and allows for amazing texture and vibrance to any art piece. Painting seems to be so natural with the Nomad brush, especially since the Nomad Brush has real bristles. The paints, since they are not real are much easier to access depending on which app you use (list below). Overall, the Nomad Brush is an excellent product, is very handy and could possibly revolutionize  the art and tech landscape by blurring the lines between the two.

Rating: Out of 5 Stars, I give the Nomad Brush 5, due to it’s sturdy build and excellent adaptation to the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.

Some Apps that work well with Nomad Brush: Artrage, Brushes, Auryn Ink and Zen Brush.

**Special thanks to CEO Don Lee for providing the review Nomad Brush**

Apple Releases iPad 2 at Wednesday’s Event

Early Wednesday morning, Steve Jobs hit sneaker to stage and introduced Apple’s second iteration of the iPad (dubbed iPad 2). Steve Jobs constantly touted 2010, “The Year of the iPad” and said they were ready to make 2011 the year of iPad 2. It seems to be going accordingly to Steve’s wishes.

The iPad 2 introduced the Apple A5 chip, adding 512MB RAM and 9x the graphics performance as the last model. It also has an all new aluminum curved back and edge to edge glass, similiar to iPod touch 4 and the iPhone 4. iPad 2 also sports 2 cameras, the front facing for FaceTime and the new Photobooth app. The rear facing camera is an interesting piece as it is said to take 720p video but takes anemic stills at 0.92MP.

This low megapixel camera was rumoured previous to the event and was said to be “similiar to the iPod touch”. Apple also introduced something called SmartCovers. SmartCovers are simply magnetized, foldable pieces of polyeutherane that can automatically put the iPad to sleep when put on and can turn it back on when taken off (almost instantly). SmartCovers use two magnets that are also inside the corners of the iPad itself. It can autoalign so that there is no mistake in quickly covering the screen.  There are 9 different colors and some leather ones.

Apple has introduced what seems like yet another successful device and there will be more to come for sure as the year moves on.

** There are now 3 versions of the iPad.There is a regular WiFi version, a GSM AT&T version and a CDMA Verizon version (Prices for the new iPad, both 3G and WiFi are the same as before, while the original iPad has now dropped $100 in price)**

Apple Issues Invitations For March 2nd Event to Introduce 2nd Gen iPad

Apple has just issued invitations for it’s March 2nd event to be held at the Yerba Buena Arts center where the iPad was originally introduced. This is defientely the introduction of the 2nd Gen iPad, rumored to be revised with a FaceTime camera and other goodies. The tagline on the invite reads, “Come see what 2011 will be the year of”. The event is to be held at 10:00AM PST, as all other Apple events were previously held.

Apple Releases New “iPad is Delicious” Commercial

Yesterday, Apple released their new iPad commercial on both primetime televison and also posted it to Apple.com and their Youtube page. The ad shows different apps being used on the iPad and reads off “iPad is…” with a  theme: delicious, current, learning, playful, literary, artful, friendly, productive, scientific, and (of course) magical. Earlier this year, in May, Apple released an ad that called back to the Newton Ads from almost 10 years ago. With this ad, Apple seems to move away from their original theme and add in a more upbeat and peppy theme.

(Via MacRumors)

Hulu Plus Introduced For iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Other Devices

Hulu unveiled their ne service yesterday called Hulu Plus. The new service is availble for only $10 (with regular ads unfortuantely) and gives you entire streaming seasons of shows from ABC, NBC, and FOX. There are also shows that were on these networks years ago that are also available for streaming including, Roswell, Ally Mcbeal, and Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Hulu Plus has drawn lots of attention due to the fact that it now streams on the iPhone and iPad, although it has drawn an equal amount of criticism because of the inclusion of ads and high price tag according to some. Either way, this makes Apple’s point that Flash is dying very true. Hulu Plus is currently avaible only through preview and will be granted upon email request. You can get your invite here. The Hulu Plus app for iPhone and iPad is also available for download. (iTunes Link to Hulu Plus)