Reviews

You learned recently that the iPhone and iPod Touch are not as secure as we would like them to be.

Luckily for iPhone and iPod Touch users, third-party vendors are supplying applications that help fill some security holes. Acrylic Software makes software that fills some of these chinks. Its Mac software, Wallet 3, costs $20 CDN ($15.62 US); upgrades are priced at $5 CDN ($3.91 US) and requires Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard--sadly, there is no Windows version. A version of Wallet for the iPhone and iPod Touch (iTunes Link) costs $3.99 US.

Wallet for iPhone … Read more

This week Apple made a very small, but important tweak to the user rating system on its iTunes app store. It now shows which version of an application the user was running when they wrote the review. This has been applied retroactively, so that reviews written before the change will show which version the users had installed at the time they wrote it.

This is important on two levels, with the first being how transparent user reviews are. No longer do you have to wonder what version a user had installed when they said there was a problem, or broken … Read more

For HDTV shoppers who recognize that burn-in and product lifespan, two bugaboos that have plagued the public perception of plasma TVs since their introduction, are largely not worth worrying about today, one potential hurdle on the path to plasma remains: power consumption. Plasma has always used significantly more power than LCD. Panasonic aims to narrow that gap with a new plasma display panel it calls, naturally, Neo PDP. The least expensive of the company's numerous 2009 plasma models to boast the new panel is the TC-PS1 series.

In our testing, we found that the S1 does indeed suck less … Read more

Sure, PMA was lots of fun, but there was plenty of other stuff going on here at Crave this week. Here's some of the best and some of the worst.

• We took a look at the new 24-inch iMacs from Apple--and liked what we saw.

• We brought you news of "trashy" lingerie made from recycled materials. We won't tell if you click.

• Strangely, it seems Amazon wants to help the iPhone be the Kindle killer with its own Kindle app. It works, but there's some strangeness.

• We can rebuild him: Meet the quasi-bionic eye camera. … Read more

I've now seen "Watchmen" twice. After my first viewing, I did not know what to think. I've been reading the original graphic novel since about 1990, and I've always wanted to see a movie based on a work that had such a powerful impact on me.

So yes, as I left the theater, I did not know what to think. What had I just seen? There was so much changed from the GN, yet so much that was translated verbatim. There were scenes I felt didn't work as well as they did in the GN; conversely, there were scenes that were executed so well, they put the novel to shame.

I did not know what to think, but I knew what I was feeling--that I'd just had a very powerful experience. A day after that first viewing, I could not wait to see it again. Last night, I finally (after three days) got my chance.

This time everything just clicked. Scenes that felt compressed during my first viewing were pitch perfect the second go-round. The first time the movie felt like a collection of scenes in (mostly) sequential order. On my second viewing I saw, plain as day, the narrative structure of the film.

And it works, on so many levels. Some levels I'm not even aware of. What I am aware of is that as an action movie, as a drama, and as a character study (of many characters) the movie just works.… Read more

Apple announced updates to its desktop offering this week in hopes of jump-starting sales in a category that has stagnated.

Three Mac desktop categories were updated, but only one really matters: the Mac Mini and Mac Pro aren't nearly as popular as the all-in-one iMac. Apple did improve the specifications of the iMac at the same price points, lowering the cost of acquiring a 24-inch version to $1,499. But it made few significant changes to a design that hasn't been updated since September 2007 and resisted calls to reduce the price of the iMac below $1,000, … Read more

Dr. Jeffrey Segal has an interesting business. Called Medical Justice, it proclaims on its home page that it is "relentlessly protecting physicians from frivolous lawsuits."

One thing Medical Justice does in its march against frivolity is help doctors get patients to sign "Mutual Privacy Agreements." These appear to be documents in which the patient promises never to post anything negative about the doctor on review sites or blogs. (2,000 doctors are already using these agreements.)

There are many, many words on the Medical Justice site. And I tried to pay attention to them all. So … Read more

Dropio has launched a new applet called Playlistio that allows users to post music to the cloud in just three clicks. According to the company, users can find the file, upload it to the cloud, and stream it anywhere they can find a Web hookup and connect to Dropio. And with the help of the company's new Apple App store application, Droppler, users can even stream their Playlistio songs through their iPhone. The free applet is available now.

Google announced Tuesday that it has launched a new skills qualification program. Dubbed Google Analytics Individual Qualification, the new feature will … Read more

MacRumors has published a report that details information about Apple once again revising iTunes App Store reviews. This time, however, Apple is wielding a big eraser.

One of the more problematic issues for iPhone developers when the App Store first opened was the fact that anyone could post an app review. No purchase was required. Negative reviews from users who had never used apps lowered rank in the App Store. However, last September, Apple's policy changed, and users could only review apps they purchased and/or downloaded.

Now according to MacRumors, Apple has made changes to some "existing … Read more