New app in a week

Today a new Proctele app was uploaded to the App Store. It uses GPS. Further details will remain secret until shortly before the release.
If the App Store review goes according to plan, it's going to be released after next weekend.

iPhone5 - my predictions reviewed

I have been playing the game of predicting what iPhone5 will be like, since before the iPhone4S was released. The iPhone5 was announced yesterday and it looks very attractive. It's mainly a hardware update, but there are some new functions too, like fully automatic panoramic photo shooting.

In this blog I intend to go through my predictions point by point, and color-code them as follows: Good prediction Partly good, partly bad prediction Bad prediction


My predictions on Sept 5th 2011 ahead of iPhone 4S:
It will be lighter. 
The screen will cover much more of the device's front. 
The screen will be at least the size of the iPhone4's.
The whole device will be smaller. 
It will be thinner. 
Its profile shape will be similar to MacBook Air.
The new device will use the screen as its membrane.
It's going to cost less than iPhone 4. 
The name will not be iPhone 5.

My predictions on June 8th 2012:
Thinner.
Lighter.
It will retain its boxy shape and shiny body, because it still looks good and expensive.
The screen will be over 4 inches
Screen will perform very well in sunlight.
There will be two speakers and the sound will be much improved and wide.
There will be new stands for iPhones to make the listening position optimal.
Contrary to my previous name prediction, I think Apple will stay with the numbers.
The price will be somewhat lower than the 4S.

The missing dollar solution

Here's the riddle as presented in the last blog:

Three men go to a cheap motel, and the desk clerk charges them a sum of $30.00 for the night. The three of them split the cost ten dollars each. Later the manager comes over and tells the desk clerk that he overcharged the men, since the actual cost should have been $25.00. The manager gives the bellboy $5.00 and tells him to give it to the men. The bellboy, however, decides to cheat the men and pockets $2.00, giving each of the men only one dollar.

Now each man has paid $9.00 to stay for the night, and 3 x $9.00 = $27.00. The bellboy has pocketed $2.00. But $27.00 + $2.00 = $29.00. Where is the missing $1.00?

Something is wrong here. Let's change the story a little and assume the bellboy takes all $5.00. Then using the same logic would render:

Now each man has paid $10.00 to stay for the night, and 3 x $10.00 = $30.00. The bellboy has pocketed $5.00. And $30.00 + $5.00 = $35.00. Now $5.00 have come out of nowhere. It seems to be getting worse!

What's wrong in the original story is the equation we use. Here's what it should be.

"What the men pay" should equal "what the hotel gets plus what the bellboy gets". Hence the correct equation is:  $30.00 - (3 x $1.00) = $25.00 + $2.00 and we can rewrite that as:

$30.00 - $3.00 - $2.00 = $25.00. We can rewrite that once more to really spell it out:

$27.00 - $2.00 = $25.00. Now it's clearer what went wrong. 

We see that the originally used equation was totally wrong. The greatest fault is the loose use of the equals sign. We realize quickly that each man pays $9.00. Then we multiply by 3 and add the bell boy's $2.00 and forget about the hotel's $25.00, and we end up confused.

The missing dollar

I stumbled upon this riddle using StumbleUpon:

Three men go to a cheap motel, and the desk clerk charges them a sum of $30.00 for the night. The three of them split the cost ten dollars each. Later the manager comes over and tells the desk clerk that he overcharged the men, since the actual cost should have been $25.00. The manager gives the bellboy $5.00 and tells him to give it to the men. The bellboy, however, decides to cheat the men and pockets $2.00, giving each of the men only one dollar.

Now each man has paid $9.00 to stay for the night, and 3 x $9.00 = $27.00. The bellboy has pocketed $2.00. But $27.00 + $2.00 = $29.00. Where is the missing $1.00?

I found this riddle surprisingly difficult to solve by thinking only. I needed to put my reasoning in writing to see what was wrong.

Social media joke

Smartphones can give us the impression that we're really social while we're watching TV or doing nothing. That's what this commercial is really about. It presents iPhone5 and uses some well-known lines from Apple commercials, but it could otherwise be about any smartphone, or DSLR perhaps?
http://gizmodo.com/5936453/iphone-5-commercial-is-a-hilarious-parody-inspired-by-us-all

Good Game: Alcohol Check - Skills Test

This Proctele app is for checking your mental and physical abilities to see if you're fit to drive.  It tests these important abilities:

1. The steadiness of your hand. This is tested by letting you drive a car from the bottom of the screen to the top, to the tune of a great V8 snarl. Easy though it sounds, this is quite a tough test. You have to park your BMW convertible first and that's not at all easy in this game. The steadiness test is my kids' favorite. The youngest one wants to crash as many cars as he possibly can. Quite contrary to the test's intention.
2. Eye-hand coordination. Here you're supposed to puncture a balloon as soon as it appears on the screen.
3. Visual clarity. This works similarly to the balloon test, except the difficulty is to actually see the dot you're supposed to touch. A true challenge if you've had a couple of drinks.
4. Mental agility. Tests if you're still mentally agile enough. You'll see a digit on screen and the task is to input the next higher digit using a keyboard.
5. Memory. This tests if your memory is working Ok. Works similar to the smiley-test in our Elephant Super Memory Challenge game.

If you don't score well on these tests, you probably should ask someone to drive you home. But it could also mean that you're nervous or have concentration problems, and that might be a reason not to drive either.

Enjoy the app, but always drive safely.

1984 is here again

I wanted these pictures in my blog, because they're cool. 
It's an iPad in a case looking like a 1984 Mac.

They come from Gizmodo.com and this URL: 
http://gizmodo.com/5934584/double-take-an-ipad-case-thats-a-1984-mac