Category Archives: Impressions

Detailed impressions of games, tech devices, software, and so on

Case-Mate Barely There iPhone 5 Case

Most people will think you’re a mad man to own an iPhone 5 and not have a case! The same goes for most smartphones these days and it makes perfect sense – most people would want to keep expensive purchases like that in good condition. There are no shortages when it comes to finding a case fortunately.

The Case-Mate Barely There, as you can probably gather by the name, is a case that aims not to be so noticeable when put it on your iPhone 5. Let’s talk about the design first. The case is on the thin side, but not super thin to not be noticeable at all. There’s a bit of weight to it and it does add a slight bit of bulk to your iPhone. The back is a plain soft rubber type surface – I was expecting there to be a pattern considering there’s strangely one on the inside of the case. This seems to be a waste since you’ll only ever see it when you take your iPhone out of the case.

There are cut outs for the volume and mute buttons on the side as well as the camera on the back. I’m not sure if Case-Mate were originally trying to make a universal case as the camera slot on the back is a bit too big. I prefer to have snug cases without unnecessary gaps.

When the case is fitted onto your iPhone, the sides next to the screen stick out a bit. This means the screen itself will not come into contact with a flat surface should you place it face down. However, this also makes it quite noticeable and gives the screen a sunken feel in the case whenever your finger gets close to the edge.

The case has a solid feel to it and would probably provide adequate protection if you were to drop your iPhone – not that I tried it! The pictures show a grey version of the case with a blue interior pattern, however I tried out a fully black version of the case with the interior also being black. There are so many iPhone 5 cases out there that it’s difficult to make one stand out. I don’t feel the Case-Mate Barely There does anything special except feeling nice in the hand. However, if that’s all you want, then look no further. Either way, it’s well worth investing in an iPhone 5 case!

STM Small Jacket 13″ Laptop Case

Buying a laptop case is always an important choice, especially with so many available now. Most of the time, it comes down to your requirements – whether you want to be not only carry your laptop but also all your various accessories. On the flip side, there is something to be said about travelling light.

The STM Small Jacket is a case for 13″ laptops. First off, if you’re someone who wants to carry everything, then you can pretty much forget about doing so with this case. In fact, you can’t really fit a charger in this case either! It seems this case is very much intended for those short journeys where you won’t need a charger and only want to carry your laptop, along with maybe a couple of sheets of paper. You may be able to squeeze a charger into the front section, however I think this bag was designed with US two pin adapters in mind, as those are significantly thinner than its UK chunky three pin cousin. There’s no way you’ll be fitting a UK plug in there!

The bag itself is pretty trendy. It has a clean look & feel and the orange really makes a good contrast to the primary brown colour. The interior is all orange too and softly padded for your laptop to easily slide into.

The front contains a small pocket, presumably to slide your phone in and out of. This doesn’t have any zip or velcro strap to close, so it’s a free access pocket. There’s then a zipped slot immediately beneath that, where you can keep larger items. On the back of the case is a velcro supported slot where you can keep A4 pieces of papers or other thin items.

On the whole, the STM Small Jacket 13″ case is a nice minimalistic case to simply carry your 13″ MacBook, or other laptop. It’s not heavily padded however, so don’t expect it to give much protection should you drop it. However, it’s nice to carry and looks trendy too. Either way, it’s highly recommend to have a good case for your MacBook!

Tuff-Luv 2.5″ Portable Hard Drive Case

Some may feel that portable hard drives are being phased out thanks to cloud storage solutions such as Dropbox, Google Drive, etc. However, the truth is that portable hard drives remain an extremely convenient method of transferring large chunks of data. If, like me, you use a portable hard drive regularly then you’ll definitely want to have a good case to protect it from knocks and general wear & tear.

I got my hands on the Tuff-Luv 2.5″ Hard Drive Case and have been extremely pleased with it. The outer shell of the case is solid, meaning that if you drop it then your drive won’t be affected. Of course, if you’re carrying a hard drive with a spinning disc then that can still be affected by the drop although the chassis or hard drive itself won’t be damaged.

The case has a smooth finish to it and opens up, as shown in the second picture, on the side. The amount that the case opens up is limited due to restraining flaps on either side internally. I found that the case feels like it should really open about half an inch more for ease of access, however it wasn’t a major issue as I could still access the drive and cable.

There’s ample space for you to slide your 2.5″ hard drive in, with a small strap fitted in to hold your drive in place. You can then put the cable in freely next to it. I was expecting there to be a built-in pouch inside for the cable to slot into but unfortunately there wasn’t. This means there’s always the potential that the cable, typically USB, may scratch against your drive chassis depending on how large the chassis is and the material.

On the whole however, I found this to be an excellent case for my needs. I’m able to take my hard drive around with comfort and not have to worry about any potential damage to it. For the Tuff-Luv case as well as other cases, check out hard drive cases for sale by LoveCases.

Tablet PC Game Review: Hack Run

Hack Run is available on Android and iOS.

Let me spin you a gaming tale. Once upon a time, there was a hugely intelligent princess. She wasn’t overly pretty, but she could conduct a witty conversation with charm and humour and she wrote papers on formal logic in her spare time. Everyone loved her: she provided a challenge because she was clever, and when others bested her it felt like a huge achievement. All was calm and joyous until the twisted witch of 3D arrived and forced the princess to undergo cosmetic surgery. All who looked upon her beauty fell in love, but the spark was gone. People no longer enjoyed beating her in mental combat. She was washed-out, drab, and grey. But then one day, a young and foolish platform developer stumbled upon her, and offered her the chance to write a story, like days gone by. So, she wrote Hack RUN. It’s awesome, and you should buy it. Here’s why.

Hack Run’s graphics put DOS to shame. Is that green?

The modern gamer, generally, follows a well-trodden path: the back of the Xbox 360 box for Black Ops II will give you a good idea of what I mean – in short, the slicker the game, the better. But this doesn’t improve things; in fact, it’s making games worse. Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw’s, one of gamers’ top go-to-guys for embittered ranting and reviews, knows this better than anyone else. Though he’s been ridiculed for being absurdly unfair, overly damning, even critically obtuse, his philosophy remains the same – it is simple and accurate: you should be able to tell if it’s a good game, just by playing it. No, it’s not about graphical style. It’s not even about having an armory at your fingertips that’s so big it could shame the North Korean government. Neither does quick paced action, nor smooth animation guarantee an excellent game. It’s all about creating an engaging learning curve – and this is exactly where Hack RUN excels.

Mainly, because the developer has acknowledged that steep learning curves can work in games, so long as they’re very, very fun. And so long as they player also feels like they’re dictating the pace at which they learn. Think Megaman Classic, or Castlevania (both expertly profiled by Egoraptor on his YouTube channel) – games in which a tremendous amount can be achieved by carefully introducing the player to game mechanics through play. And all this without hovering text or radio call-ins from a helpful aide. Portal did the same thing – run through with the developer commentary enabled and you’ll see what I mean. In a roundabout way, what I’m trying to saying is: play HackRUN, if only to remember how enjoyable it is to pick up game play as you go along.

There’s none of this rubbish. Because the game teaches you the skills as you play – subtly

What’s the premise? The game launches you straight in to a console, with the barest of commands. From there, you have to uncover the truth behind a massive cover-up protected by pharmaceutical company RUN. How should you do that? Why, with the sporadic aid of a mysterious benefactor (who, I assumed, only has temporary access to the internet) and good old DOS. It’s a skin-of-the-teeth puzzler with a storyline to match.

Developers these days go to enormous lengths to get the player immersed in the game – the latest hardware innovations, Oculus Rift and Leap Motion, are designed to do just that. But Hack RUN is without a shadow of doubt the most immersive game I have recently played. Sitting with my ThinkPad on my lap (the game runs on smartphones and tablet PCs, by the way), gradually unpicking the world’s most complicated conspiracy through DOS commands, made me feel like a real hacker. When I play Call of Duty, I don’t feel like a real soldier. When I play Forza I don’t feel like a real racing driver. They’re just games and I’m just a player. But with HackRUN, every so often, I would lean back from my touch-screen and its tiny green ASCII text, and wonder if somewhere, a master hacker might actually be using me to break into something real. The thrill of that feeling – even for a second – makes HackRUN well worth playing. A big recommendation from me.

ZeroShock IV Advanced 13.3″ Laptop Case

The nice guys over at GearZap sent over a laptop case for me to check out, the ZeroShock IV Advanced case for 13.3″ laptops, making it a good case for my MacBook.

First off, I haven’t got a new styled MacBook. Mine is the old white MacBooks pre-unibody, making the build slightly different from the latest aluminium-look MacBooks. However, generally the dimensions are pretty similar so the case in theory should fit as per usual. This, however, was the one disappointment that I had with the case. It seemed to be a bit loose for my laptop, with the MacBook sliding slightly inside. I’d be a bit worried if I were to drop it in this case – even though the case has enough protection, the movement due to the slack inside the case may cause some damage.

Besides that however, this is actually a great case. Made of something similar to a toughened version of memory foam, it actually does a fantastic job of adding protection to your laptop. It’s not really a case to use on its own, since all it has for additional storage is a small pouch on the inside, which can fit just some small items (definitely not a charger unfortunately).

As I said, the case is not really something to use on its own. Ideally, you’d probably put the laptop in it, and then into a regular backpack or shoulder bag rather than just carry the laptop alone in the ZeroShock case. There isn’t a handle or any other grip to really carry it with, so it simply serves as a ‘peace of mind’ protection for your laptop, wherever you decide to put it.

On the whole, it’s a good case if you’re solely looking for protecting your laptop. However, if you’re looking for a case to be able to carry your laptop, as well as at least a charger, then this probably isn’t for you. The work around would be to use your existing backpack or shoulder bag in conjunction with this case to give you extra space and allow yourself to carry it around.

You can find more MacBook cases and other accessories over at Gear Zap.