QuickLook: Rivet Hard Leather Case for iPhone 3G

A short while ago a new company sprang up on the JAMM radar and we were quick to give them a holler and ask to take a look at some of their gear. This new (to us) company - Rivet - has been around for quite a long time making clip systems for consumer electronics and you can find these clip systems on all sorts of cases from MP3 players to phones.

Well, they popped up on our radar when they started to team up with the folks over at Vaja. So far this information and technology sharing team up has produced some excellent stuff - one of them being the Rivet Hard Leather Case for the iPhone 3G. So, since we’re all here anyway – how’s about we take a look?

The fist thing I noticed when I took the Rivet Hard Case (RHC from here on out) from its packaging was how smooth the leather felt. Right from the get go I could tell this was a good quality case and it definitely doesn’t disappoint.

Imprinted on the back of the case is the company name – on the front in the same style is a small Rivet logo. These aren’t cut into the case unlike some other companies I’ve seen, and even though they are there they aren’t done in some horrible color or done in such a way as to be distracting. Inside the case is a soft felt material which helps to cushion the phone and prevent the inside of the case from scratching the heck out of your precious 3G. I can’t remember how many times I’ve seen people’s devices get scratched up because of the case! Well, rest assured I don’t think that’s going to happen with this one.

All the usual cut outs are where you would expect them. But, unlike many other cases I’ve tested Rivet has done an excellent job of making the openings big enough for your fingers to actually do the job. The big problem is a lot of cases are cut to allow access to the silence switch or the lock button – but they aren’t designed to actually allow your thick ol’ finger in there to work the switch/button. Not so with the RHC. My only complaint is that the camera hole should be a tiny bit bigger – but full points awarded for all other cut outs.

Alright, I said this was going to be a quick look and it has been. The RHC is a great case if you’re onto this sort of style. The leather quality is excellent, the cutouts for the switch, buttons, headphone and sync port are all right where they should be and leave plenty of room to access them, the case itself feels very solid and holds the phone very nicely.

The only complaints I’ve really got with this one is that like all hard cases, it adds significant bulk (its not a whale though) and it can prevent smooth actions around the edge of the screen.Again this applies to all cases in this style though, so they aren’t major issues.

All in all, I like the case. I think Rivet has made a very strong first showing into the case market and I look forward to what they may have coming up in the future.

Info:

Where to buy: Direct from Rivet

Cost: $29.90

Also available in red

• Features:
       Rigid plastic shell, leather exterior and soft interior lining provide full anti-shock
       Cut-outs allow easy access to all controls, screen and functions
       Includes one free Rivet Screen Protector

JAMM Contest: A Few of your favorite things

Quick post here - many of you are well aware of our sister site Just Another Mobile Monday. Well this is a quick heads up that over at JAMM we’re running a pretty big giveaway this week. The part that applies to you folks here at JAiB is that I personally am tossing in a bunch of stuff from JAVOedge, OtterBox, Speck and others - all for the iPhone, iPhone 3G and the iPod Touch (2nd Gen).

So, if you’d like to get in on the freebie action and possibly win a free case for your iPhone or Touch - head on over and take a shot at winning!

(via JAMM)

Hidden menu in Google Mobile

Paper Football iPhone App = Misty, Water-colored …

memories.

Oh boy - Paper Football is a new iPhone game that is a big blast of nostalgia for me - recalling long ago times of playing the real life, folded up triangle-shaped paper ‘ball’ version, and many heated disputes with no chance of a booth review!

It’s a very simple game. If you ever played the real version, you’ll know the deal right away - swipe the screen to push the ball across the table and try to get it to hang off the far edge - that’s a touchdown. Then try for the extra point, by swiping to kick it through the goalposts. You can play the game in single player or two-player mode

My only wish list item so far is that the game would display a scoreboard prominently - that would help a lot with the trash talking

Paper Football is in the App Store now and is free - although there is also a $4.99 ‘Premium’ version (ad free I assume is the difference).

Latest ‘Quantity Over Quality’ iPhone Apps Series: iFlag

We ranted recently about the ridiculous ‘Call One Name’ set of 26 apps that all do the same thing (speed dial icon on home screen), but are all sold individually at $0.99 for each person’s name that you might want to call. There are a number of these quantity over quality sort of apps hitting the App Store now. Latest I’ve spotted is the iFlag series - here’s a small part of their App Store description on the Turkish flag version of the app:

This is a cool application with an interactive 3D flag of Turkey. It is a live interactive simulation of a 3D Turkish flag modeled and simulated like cloth using laws of physics, so it moves and feels similar to an actual flag.

Honestly, I’m already not feeling I need this app. Respecting your nation’s flag, hanging one outside your home - seem well and good to me - but I just can’t imagine feeling a need to have a ‘virtual’ flag to touch and mess around with on the iPhone. That’s just me though. These apps do offer to play each nation’s national anthem on a double-tap, and let you interact with the flags which are meant to move and feel like a real flag - so for entertainment, hey if it floats your boat …

The scarier line in the app’s description is this:

We are currently adding flags for most of the countries.

How many countries are there in the world? 190 odd? So we’re eventually going to end up with how many of the iFlag series littering the App Store aisles???

The set already has 10 apps - at $0.99 each. Apple really needs to figure out a better stance on this subject soon - or we really are going to get to where it is a huge struggle to find anything useful.

OT: Spotted on Friendfeed

Way off topic, but this made me crack up, so had to share.

The comment from the poster on Friendfeed - Live4Soccer: “I’m gonna say this is shopped”.

Brilliant ..

Pocket Informant for iPhone - Sneak Peek at WOIP

Pocket Informant has been a popular powerhouse in the mobile PIM (personal information manager) arena for many years - if you’ve ever used Windows Mobile, you’ve probably come across it. It’s a hugely feature-rich and powerful application for managing your calendar, contacts, and tasks.

The iPhone version of Pocket Informant (PI) has been much anticipated - so it’s good to see a post tonight from Dan over at What’s On iPhone, saying that the app’s release is now getting very close, that Alex and the PI team will be at Macworld next week demo-ing it, and that he is impressed with the beta …

Having seen a Beta version I’m pleased to tell you that the wait will have been worth it. The version currently on my iPhone looks great and is incredibly usable.

I used PI for years on WinMob devices, and always found it excellent. I hope we’ll be seeing it in the App Store very soon …

We’re on Alltop - Thank You, Thank You

I thought I’d share some good news, or good JAiB site news, with you all tonight. We’re now featured very prominently in the ‘iPhone’ section of the Alltop.com site. Hurrah! This is a very cool thing.

For those who haven’t discovered it yet, Alltop.com is a super cool aggregated collection of ‘all the top’ sites on the web - created by Guy Kawasaki and a couple key partners- which offers a very simple (and very easy to navigate) layout that lets you quickly find and view items in all your favorite subject areas, all in one place. It covers a very broad range of topics, from fibromyalgia to fantasy football - and has particularly excellent Tech sections.

Here are some much better words than mine, from the ‘About’ section at Alltop:

We help you explore your passions by collecting stories from “all the top” sites on the web. We’ve grouped these collections — “aggregations” — into individual Alltop sites based on topics such as environment, photography, science, Muslim, celebrity gossip, military, fashion, gaming, sports, politics, automobiles, and Macintosh. At each Alltop site, we display the headlines of the latest stories from dozens of sites and blogs.
We import the stories of the top news websites and blogs for any given topic and display the headlines of the five most recent stories (except Moms.alltop which has fewer headlines because there are so many feeds). When you place the cursor over a headline, we display part of the story so that you can decide if you’d like to read it. To read the story, click on its title. To go to the home page of the site, click on its domain name.

And a nice FAQ entry on how sites are chosen to be included in a topic area:

Q. How do you decide which sites and blogs are in a topic?
A. We use a patent-pending, semantic computational algorithm derived from the post-doctoral work of Guy at Stanford. Just kidding. We rely on several sources: results of Google searches, review of the sites’ and blogs’ content, researchers, and our “gut” plus the recommendations of the Twitter community, owners of the sites and blogs, and people who care enough to write to us. Let us declare something: The Twitter community has been the single biggest factor in the quality of Alltop. Without this group of mavens and connectors, Alltop would not be what it is today.

So I am very, very happy to see that Just Another iPhone Blog is featured very near the top of the iPhone section, amongst some illustrious company (Gizmodo, Macrumors, Apple Insider, Lifehacker, and many others). Check it out:

Check out the iPhone section for yourself HERE.

Alltop also has a nicely otpimized iPhone site, so you can give it a look on your favorite device as well …

In addition to being very happy, I feel hugely grateful to all of you! For visiting the site, for commenting, for Twittering or otherwise sharing articles you find interesting here, for shouting out for us at Alltop. A complete cliche / truism - but all this stuff really makes it not just worthwhile, but big, big fun to work on the site.

Thank you …

Bizarro iPhone App of the Day: Cow Pong Beef in 3D

This bizarre iPhone app may be in pole position for a most absurd name award as well - it’s going to be tough to beat Cow Pong Beef in 3D - but it’s nice to see a succinct, straight description from the developer:

Pong with a cow in 3D … Can’t get much stupider than that.

That’s the entire App Store description for CPB3D (all great games get an acronym right?).

I’m definitely not sold - but mildly amused by the name and description CPB3D is out now in the App Store at $0.99.

Nambu: All-in-One Twitter, Friendfeed, Ping.fm (and more) Client for iPhone

I’ve just discovered Nambu a short while ago, via a message in a Friendfeed room (from Devon Campbell), and it looks and sounds quite promising. Here’s a short excerpt from its App Store description:

Nambu is a full-featured Twitter, Identi.ca, Ping.fm, and Friendfeed client all rolled into one.

We all have our favorite iPhone Twitter apps, and the same for Friendfeed or any other ’social’ apps we use frequently - but for anyone who uses two or more of these services, any app that lets you manage and update them all from one central place has got to be of some interest.

I’ve only been playing with Nambu for around half an hour, so these are just some very early and quick impressions …

Good Things:

For me, Friendfeed and Twitter in one place - like that.

Inline browser for when you tap on a link in a post

You can Like and Comment on a Friendfeed item easily

You can see @ and DM replies in the Twitter view - and reply in both those ways from within the app as well

Search option in both FF and Twitter

Not So Good Things:

It refuses to remember my login credentials - for both Twitter and Friendfeed - so far I’ve had to re-enter them every time after half a dozen closes and launches of Nambu. If this is just me affected, well lucky me and such - otherwise they may want to fix this quite quickly.

Don’t see a way to include a pic in Twitter or FF

Don’t see a way to see followers / following details for Twitter

Not super keen on the dark backgrounds - would like an option to set this / theme

The interface is not the most slick or intuitive. Small example - in both Twitter and Friendfeed views, you need to tap on the Star symbol on the top nav bar to see activity of friends (in FF) or @ replies in Twitter - it took me a while to realize this, because I just didn’t associate the star symbol with these areas.

So … Nambu looks interesting, but needs improvement in some places, maybe a few more features to match up with dedicated Twitter apps (for instance), and maybe a few more services thrown in.

Anyone else tried this yet? If so, your thoughts?