Marianne Schultz

the musings of a geeky girl

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First Look: DODOcase for iPad

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If you follow me on Twitter, you probably saw that I talked about ordering a DODOcase case for my iPad on the day before the iPad was released. I love the look of Moleskine notebooks and wanted at least one case for my iPad that provided a bit of camouflage while using it in public. The DODOcase fit the bill and I placed my order right away. It arrived today (well within the 4-6 week delivery window) and I’m just starting to use it and wanted to post a quick video of it to start off. I will write a full review of it after I spend some time using it regularly.

My first impressions:
  • The case is well-made and doesn’t feel flimsy at all.
  • It fits the iPad very well and the pictures and description of it at Dodocase.com are accurate.
  • It makes my iPad look like a large Moleskine notebook from afar (or even up close if someone doesn’t look closely at the edges to see the cut-outs and the sides of the iPad), which is exactly what I was hoping for.
  • My only durability concern revolves around the four foam pieces in each corner. These serve to hold the iPad in place and they could compress over time and fail to hold the iPad in securely enough. I won’t hazard a guess at how long they’ll hold up, but I’m not extremely worried about them now.
Here’s my first impressions video of the DODOcase for iPad:
The DODOcase costs $49.95 and can be found at the company’s site here.
Questions? Anything specific you want me to cover in my review? Comment on this blog post or send me an email at marianne at macgirl dot net.
DISCLOSURE: I purchased this case with my own money – it was not sent to me as a review unit.

Review of Navigon’s MobileNavigator turn-by-turn navigation app for the iPhone

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I’ve finished my latest iPhone GPS app review – this time of Navigon’s MobileNavigator app. I rarely gush positively about anything I review, but I have to say Navigon has done a fantastic job with this app. With that said, I must note that it still has a few issues that really bother me. You can get the details in my review here.

I also recently reviewed the TomTom app for work – you can read that review here. To give you a very high-level summary of the TomTom app: don’t waste $99 on it – TomTom is well behind Navigon and Sygic in terms of features at this point.

Dirty rotten developers: minor reformation

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I wrote about Matt Rajca, a developer who released an update to his Gazette RSS feed reader app but made it a paid update requiring users of the previous version to pay yet again to get the newest version of the app, a little while ago. At that time, Rajca held firm against the criticism of his actions in that forum thread, stating “It’s just $2.99! Maybe the App Store wouldn’t full of crap [sic] if people would be willing to pay a decent amount of money for quality products” in response at one time. However, he’s since made a vague attempt at amends that I wanted to note.

Matt is now offering promo codes for the latest version of Gazette to those who purchased Gazette 1.X. However, the major catch is that this offer is only valid for MacRumors.com forum members. In order to get the code, he’s asking for a screenshot of your iTunes purchase history showing your previous purchase of Gazette 1.X and your iTunes account email address so that he can have proof of purchase and know where to send the code.
First, I do want to say that I appreciate that he’s making this offer. However, I have not seen him apologize anywhere for his poor treatment of the customers who bought Gazette 1.X, nor does this promo code offer seem to apply to any other customers but those who happen to be members of that forum, and chances are that there are still many forum members who purchased Gazette 1.X and have not seen this offer. I would have hoped for a better, more thorough attempt to reach out to unhappy customers to make things right, as well as some sort of acknowledgement that he didn’t make the best decision to shaft his customers to begin with.
For the record, I have not taken him up on his promo code offer, nor do I plan to do so. As I said before, I am perfectly happy with ByLine as my RSS reader app and I think I’ll even go back to NetNewsWire once the transition to Google Reader synchronization is complete since I found it to be a very competent RSS app as well.

Review of the GelaSkins skin for the iPhone 3G/3GS

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Of course, in the midst of working on my iPhone 3GS v. iPhone 3G v. first-generation iPhone review, I get side-tracked by a new iPhone accessory (and Sygic’s Mobile Maps navigation app as well), though I have a perfectly good excuse for it. See, I just got this shiny new iPhone 3GS, and after becoming quite used to using a DecalGirl skin on my old iPhone 3G paired with a Proporta Maya pouch, I wanted to put a skin on my new iPhone ASAP though I wanted to try a different one this time. I came across GelaSkins and got my hot little hands on a couple of skins and screen protectors to try out (thanks, Solveig!). I’m happy to report that the Gelaskins skin performs perfectly as a svelte protector of my iPhone, though there is one concern you should be aware of – read my review for all of the glorious details.

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Image courtesy of GelaSkins.com