<title> ipad

For Dads: Kindle Fire from Radio Shack Review Part 2

August 13, 2012 by Eddy 1 Comment

Image courtesy of Amazon.com For the second part of my review on the Kindle Fire I received from Radio Shack, I will focus on the Fire’s Performance as a Tablet. Screen Resolution Since I am a Amazon Prime Member I get free access to many of the streaming shows and movies on Amazon. To test out the Fire, I headed over to the site and fired up an episode of Arrested Development. Once it loaded the show looked great, there were no hiccups in terms of service and the quality looked near HD. The great thing about having such a small screen is that HD doesn't really factor into the equation. At such a small screen 1080p, 720p or slightly below do not register as easily as it does on a big screen TV. Screen Touch I have already talked about the sensitivity of the screen in the previous post. The screen reacted pretty well, though I did experience times where I felt like I had to press a bit harder to get a response. Unfortunately, the Fire fall a bit short of … [Read more...]

Filed Under: For Dads, The New Tagged With: apple, apps, battery, browsing, Eddy, fire, functions, ipad, kindle, power, resolution, review, screen, speed, store, tablet, touch

Appgear Foam Fighters App review

May 16, 2012 by Eddy Leave a Comment

Augmented Reality is the new hit among portable games. With the technology available on Iphone/Ipads and Android phones/tablets it is great to see games take advantage of the unique experience these devices provide. Yet with any new tech for games, it is only as good as the game itself. I had the opportunity to try one of these new generation of AR games: Appgear’s Foam Fighter. Basically bringing the Air Combat simulation to the next level, Foam Fighter combines Augmented Reality with the physical world. Players can download the game and start playing immediately (demo only unfortunately), or they can pick up the foam fighters, aptly named as they are miniature airplanes made of foam. When attached to your phone or tablet by a small arm with a suction cup, the game will scan the plane opening up new campaigns specific to the plane. I had the chance to try out the Battle of Britain. Missions were pretty varied from destroying select buildings as targets or full … [Read more...]

Filed Under: App Reviews, The New Tagged With: appgear, apple, augmented, foam fighter, game, ipad, IPhone, reality, review

Disney’s Peter Pan App Review

April 25, 2012 by Eddy Leave a Comment

Lately the exploits of high flying superheroes such as Thor and Iron, spiderman and the Hulk seems to be everywhere we look. It is no surprise that many kids want to be just like these heroes when they grow up. Yet, lost amongst the high testosterone and flashy action is the exploits of one hero that was no longer grabbing children’s imaginations. Thankfully to the popularity of shows like Jake and The Never Land Pirates and this App, Peter Pan is returning to the public spotlight. Not many children would argue joining the lost boys and fighting against the evil Captain Hook alongside Peter Pan. Now Children can realize the magic of Peter’s and Tinkerbell’s story through the iPad. Illustrated to resemble a book from an older era, after watching the story unfold I realized that Peter Pan, like he always wanted remains timeless. Sprinkled throughout out the story are various animations and mini games that serve to add to the magic rather than take away from it. Check out the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: App Reviews, Disney, The New Tagged With: Amazing!, apple, children, Disney, family, Hulk, ipad, Iron, ironman, pan, peter, Spiderman, Thor, tinkerbell, video

(Video) D.W.’s Unicorn Adventure App Review

April 20, 2012 by Divina Rodriguez 2 Comments

Healthy eating is essential, and contrary to television kids do like to eat vegetables. Rock for one, is a huge fan of vegetables. Honestly, he loves them so much I could imagine him becoming a vegetarian when he gets older. Coming from a family of meat eaters the concept is just crazy. Even if your little one(s) are not as avid vegetable eaters as Rock, it still never hurts to start building healthy eating habits early. The key is making it fun! One way to do this is by incorporating games which focus on helping kids recognize healthy foods. We had the fortunate opportunity to try out one of PBS kids latest apps: D.W.’s Unicorn Adventure. For those of you not familiar with D.W., she is the little sister to the most famous aardvark I know Arthur. Developed especially for kids aged 4-6, Children must help D.W. save a unicorn by using the power of health food, more specifically Rainbow foods (vegetables of various colors like strawberries, plums, egg plant, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: App Reviews, PBS Kids, The New Tagged With: aardvark, Arthur, d.w., food, games, healthy, ipad, IPhone, Kids, PBS, Rock, sister, unicorn, vegetable

(Video) Learn Chinese: Toy Story 3 App Review

March 30, 2012 by Eddy Leave a Comment

One of my strongest wishes as a parent is to have my sons learn a different language. I am not saying Spanish (even though it is tough enough as it trying to teach it to Rock and X). Ideally the language they would learn would be Chinese (more specifically Mandarin, not to be confused with Cantonese). I can already see the currents changing from the traditional languages taught at school (French and Spanish) to more exotic languages, and at the forefront in Chinese. I wish we could put in the effort that everyone else in China is putting toward learning English. Right now, all state employees younger than 40 are required to know 1,000 English phrases and all children start learning English in kindergarten. It is about time we start catching up! The thing is neither D nor I can speak the language. So we are forced to use the other tools at our disposal. Fortunately, we had the opportunity to try out a new app from Disney, Learn Chinese: Toy Story 3. This app basically … [Read more...]

Filed Under: App Reviews, Disney, The New Tagged With: app, apple, china, Chinese, diglot, Disney, Eddy, English, ipad, language, learn, review, Rock, x

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol Movie Review

January 10, 2012 by Divina Rodriguez Leave a Comment

By Eddy Other than the straight to DVD title MI:GP fulfills all the promises of action that we expected from series. Director Brad Bird had a lot to live up to after his hit The Incredibles. As a fan of the Pixar film I was interested in finding out what he could do when constrained by this such as the law of gravity and physics. Add in the drop in interest in the last two Mission Impossible films as well as Tom Cruise’s well known antics, this appeared to be the makings of a possible explosive combination and not in a good way. The first and foremost thing about the movie is that it is all about ACTION, everything else is just a vehicle to move us to the next action sequence. As far as plot goes, MI:GP fall behind the other movies. I would not be surprised if they just adapted one of the episodes from the 1970’s show, the whole “save the world from a nuclear war with Russia” was played out in the 80’s, 90’s and 00’s and while I lived a part of my life … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Movie News and Reviews Tagged With: action, apple, Bird, bourne, Brad, cruise, damon, Eddy, Film, Films, ghost, IMAx, impossible, Incredibles, ipad, Jason, Jeremy, jobs, matt, MI, mission, movie, movies, Patton, Paula, protocol, renner, steve, Tom

Dancing Hotdogs 2011 Holiday Guide

December 13, 2011 by Divina Rodriguez 2 Comments

With Christmas almost upon us, the time to buy gifts is limited. That is why gift guides are so important. While there are so many holiday guides out there but ONLY ONE Dancing Hotdogs guide. What is special about our guide is these items are really in our house, we are gifting or on our list to Santa. The household is made up of 11 month old son, 3 year old son, 29 year old parents and two pups but we tried to include a little bit of everything for you and your holiday shopping list. Disclosure: We received some items from companies as samples and they are noted with a *** but this entire guide is our unbiased recommendation to you. Toddlers: BrainyBaby’s Glowberry Bears ($24.99) we love these bears because they are huggable night lights. Perfect for 2 years and up.*** Sesame Street’s Let’s Rock Elmo ($69.99) our favorite little monster rocking out with a tambourine and drum set! Perfect for 18 months and up.*** LeapFrog LeapPad Explorer … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Dancing Hotdogs Family Product Reviews, The Blog Tagged With: alloy of law, barbie, box, cars 2, chaser, coach, cookbook, cover, creations, Dancing Hotdogs holiday gift guide, Disney, duck, feed our small world, gloves, glowberry, grandoes, hearts, Hulk, hunter, imaginext, ipad, Kids, kindle, launch and load, lazer, LeapFrog, leappad, Let's rock Elmo, Mattel, mattel's, microdermabrasion, Neutragena, our Santa List, Perplexus, Pixar, rocksmith, rookie, sensor, Sesame Street, St. Judes, striv, stunt, tablet, the complete vader, touch, WWF

Don’t Let the Pigeon Run this App! Review

November 15, 2011 by Divina Rodriguez 1 Comment

By Eddy Don’t let the Pigeon Run this App! Is a cute little story app for the Iphone and Ipad for children. The story is aimed for kids ages 3-5 years old, and tells the story of a pigeon that wants to take over the world. The story was written by Caldacott Honoree Mo Willems. There are three modes designed for kids of different ages. The first mode is a simple an animated retelling of the story for very young children. The animation and story is very cute, it also adds some very simple interactive activities. The second mode allows the child to customize the story based on various options, included is the ability for them to state their name and be named as one of the authors of the story. The final mode is for the older children who are familiar with technology. This mode acts almost like mad libs and removes the options in the second mode. The child is able to say anything they want to fill in the blanks of the story. The Ipad then records the child’s … [Read more...]

Filed Under: App Reviews Tagged With: animation, app, caldacott, Don’t, draw, drawing, Eddy, fun, game, honoree, ipad, IPhone, let, mo, Pigeon, Rock, story, time, tutorial, waste, willems

Handy Manny iphone App review

December 28, 2010 by Divina Rodriguez 4 Comments

By Eddy So far the Handy Manny iphone app has been both a blessing and a curse. Babyboy loves it, the five activities keeps him happy and busy to no end. The only problem is that now that he has played it a couple of time, every time I pull out the iphone I get assailed with "Manny, Manny, I want to play Manny". It is getting to the point that I can't check my emails in front of him. The app comes with 5 activities: 1) Color it- which allows the little one to color various Handy Manny drawings. Kids are also able to save their art work on the iphone for later use or display. 2) Find it- This game has the kids try to find all of Manny's tools in his work shop. This one is Babyboy's favorite game. I have played it a couple of time as well. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: App Reviews Tagged With: apple, children, color, fun, game, games, Handy many, ipad, IPhone, kids games, puzzle, sing, tools, video game, video games

Braveheart HD App Review

December 27, 2010 by Divina Rodriguez Leave a Comment

By Eddy Braveheart HD is an action/RPG game for the iphone and ipad created by Gajin Entertainment. Overall, Braveheart HD is a solid title to add on to your phone to kill a bit of time. The game puts you in the place of a Knight named Richard as you go to different lands defeating enemies and bosses trying to win his freedom by finding a grail guarded by dragon. I know it isn't the most original story, but that is what you get in the Action/RPG genre. Building your character is pretty fun, as you have a variety of weapons, abilities and tools at your disposal. In addition to the story mode, there is a challenge mode which has your character fighting against a set amount of enemies. The action component can be a bit repetitive as you have a limited variety of attacks. Lucky the execution of the attacks-spinning your finger around in circle to get a mace or sword spinning and then slice on the screen in the right direct is a new touch. Long distance weapons such … [Read more...]