I just came across an interesting “real world” example of multimeter burden voltage. I have a nifty USB voltage/amperage tester that I was using to measure the voltage/current/power draw of my iPhone 5s connected to one of those rechargeable battery power packs, and I kept seeing the phone, after some time, would report “accessory not supported” and stop charging. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why ((this is largely because I wasn’t paying attention to the meters all the time, so I didn’t notice the pattern right away)). The setup was running the battery pack into the USB tester, then to the phone. The USB Tester was plugged into my two Keithley 196’s, one measuring voltage, the other, current. Both were set to auto range ((you might see where this is going now, if you’re paying attention)). When you first plugin the phone, it would draw about 3/4 of an amp. It would then slowly draw less and less as the charge got higher and higher on the phone. Then at some point, it would stop charging.
Repeated Wrong Number Calls
I have a long standing (going on a couple months now) issue with someone in Portland calling my cell phone when she actually means to be calling her mom or something. Anyway, she’s probably done this a couple dozen times in the last 2 months, and a bit ago, I decided to actually do something about it, since ATT doesn’t seem to have any free way to keep this from happening.
Turns out, I’m not the first one to have this issue. And after finding this post, I was easily able to add the silent ringtone, and then add the number to a contact with that custom “ring”. And now, if this happens any more with another number, you can just assign them to that contact as well, and they’re gone! Sure, you can still “see” the incoming call, but you don’t actually have to hear/feel it (with iOS 5+, you can assign no vibration to certain contacts as well).
Luckily the person isn’t dumb enough to leave me a message. =/
Secret of Mana (iOS)
I have been a fan of Secret of Mana for years. I played it when it first came out for the SNES, and I’ve played most of the sequels that have been released since (none really compare). So when I saw that it was available for the iOS, I jumped on it, and by and large, I’ve been happy. The software itself works very well, it hasn’t crashed on me once, and the gameplay is just as I remember it, with one exception: the iPhone doesn’t have a d-pad.
I don’t know about most people, but my thumb/fingers do not easily glide on the iPhone screen. They kind of “stick” or “drag”. So the fact that this is how you move around the screen, takes some real getting used to. What also takes time is figuring out the wheel interface when you’re used to the SNES controller. It’s not very intuitive for a touch interface, but I’m sure they just wanted to leave the screen nice and simple, rather than adding more buttons.
Is the game what I remember? Yes. Complete with the seemingly endless grinding of weapons and magic. Is it as good as if Square-Enix had ported it to the Nintendo DS? No, no way. Several older Final Fantasy’s, and ChronoTrigger have both been ported to the DS, and vs. the version on iOS, the physical interface of the DS is far superior to the iOS’s virtual interface. Maybe the current generation of gamers will disagree, but if Nintendo/Sony/Microsoft can all weather the storm of “OMG, iPhone/Android gaming!” and continue to release good products/games, I think they’ll be fine. People still play board/card games because the interface is better than a digital version of the same game (Settlers of Catan is a lot easier, more fun, to play on the table top, than on the iOS). Sure, those companies may need a reality check, but the interface that’s BUILT for doing something is always going to win out over the generic interface, virtual or not.
All and all, the game is great. The interface, through very little fault of their own, sucks. I just hope Square-Enix ports the game to an actual gaming device at some point. Maybe I’ll just pick it up through the Virtual Console store.
[xrr rating=4/5]