A Random Life In Review: App Of The Week

Wounderlist

 

Price: Free

Categories: Business

What Dose It Do: It’s a to do list

 

And in More Detail: Ok so the standard To Do List is great with iSO – its syncs over iCloud with your Mac or iPad (or both) fine but there is a problem – want to sync it with a PC running windows… Ah that’s a problem – not with Wounderlist. Want to be able to send your self emails to set tasks, again not a problem, Wounderlist knows your email address so provided you’re emailing from that address it will be added to your list – simply add the target address in your contacts.

So thats all the standard stuff out the way with what else can you do, well you can change the backgrounds, star tasks and even set due dates and search for tasks based on the time there due for example – you can view only the tasks due in the int he next seven days, Todays, Tomorrow or Later. You can also review task already completed.

Overall: I use to think, why are the so many To Do apps on the store, when most of them don’t add any value above the standard To Do App in iOS but Wounderlist is a real upgrade and its free.

4 out of 5

A Random Life In Review: Movies

Sleeping Beauty

 

 

 

 

 

Staring:

Rachael Blake

Bridgette Barrett

Emily Browning

Trailer:

Whats It About:

Lucy, a struggling student is working the night to help make end meet, when she is offered a job serving silver service but there is a twist, a rather fetish twist. Is this as low as Lucy can go to earn money. Well no, there are some things that are worse and agreeing to take drugs that will put you to sleep can be a lot worst then all that.

Is It Any Good: 

All in all its ok, and only ok – yes some of the photography is great and some of the scenes are very brave and arty but all in all its a very slow movie – which is a shame, I think this would have had the same impact had it been a short film. Lucy has a very strange relationship with Thomas, its clear they both love each other but it’s not a normal relationship and the film never explains this. Even right at the end there are problems – for example: Lucy wants to know what happens when she’s in her drug induced sleep and so sets up a spy camera, but they was no need as she finds out any hows – just a time-wasting scene and the film has loads of them – hence it could have worked just as well as a short movie.

Overall: I wouldn’t watch this movie again but if you like fetish then you may enjoy this movie, could have, no should have been a short movie rather than a full feature – would have been great then 2 out of 5

A Random Life In Pre-View: Movies I Want To See

Total Recall

 

 

 

 

 

Staring:

Kate Beckinsale

Bryan Cranston

Colin Farrell

Trailer:

 

Whats it About: 

It’s a remake of the original Sci-Fi staring, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sharon Stone set in the future, Douglas Quaid (Arnold in the old film, Colin in the new version) is a normal every day person who fancies a change and so despite his friends telling him not to go, he takes a virtual vacation. Thais when it all go’s to pot, he wakes up as Hauser  an agent on a mission that takes him to Mars where we get to see all manner of sites like exploding eyes and a rather interesting top less bar made (and it’s not strictly because she’s top less that makes it interesting its more a numbers thing!).

Ok the story line isn’t great, the effects for the time where not great, no what Total Recall is, is total classic Arnold at his cheesy best – will the new version be as good, most likely not, but do I want to see it yes.

3 Scenes I hope they keep:

1) The Top Less Bar Tender – ok it’s not a main part of the original but it still get refinanced today as in, “would you rather have the bar tender from Total Recall or X…”

2) Where Arnold is outside on Mars and his eyes nearly pop out.

3) The first time you meet the underground leader… it’s just classic.

For any one that needs a re-cap of the Original here’s a six min run over:

Just LOL

This TV ad is just wrong, plan wrong but you have to pay attention to see why, here’s the add:

Here is why, two men have a drink, and the girls come out in bikinis dancing but its cool and non-degrading to women because there is a female friend who is joining in with the fun and she’s cool with it so its cool. Although she’s clearly over acting it, I get the impression she’s trying not to make a sean.

Then there is the one chaps committee to his friend “I wonder what they taste like” OMG its just so bad its funny.

A Random Life In Review: App of the Week

Measures

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Price: £0.69

Categories: Utilities

Whats it do: Measures stuff with ten different tools.

And in more detail: If you need to measure any thing, from Degrees, to distance. Levels or even magnetism then this is the app for you. It’s a Swiss army knife of measuring – so what do you get then:

1. Protractor – with for units you can measure Degrees, Radian, Gradian and Revolutions. Simply move the marker around and a dotted line that runs to the edge of the screen helps you line up – no need to squint to read the screen as there it shows you to one decimal place your required measurement.

2. Ruler – It’s just like a normal ruler but just like the Protractor you can change the units between Centimetre, Inches, Pixel and Pica (Post Script).

3.Surface Level – Again you have four different units to choice from and can also change the sensitivity and lock zero to help measure different surfaces.

4.Spirit Level – Yep you got it, 4 different units can be selected as well as the sensitivity you can even change the Orientation

5. Plumb Bob – it’s the virtual version of the traditional Plum Bob

6.Seismometer – Your own mini earth quack / T-Rex (Think glass of water / Jarisic Park) device – you can turn on up to three different axis.

7. Stopwatch – Just a normal Stopwatch but you can email the results which can come in handy.

8. Timers – With Five Timers that you can run all at the same time this is a great handy app when cooking.

9. Metronome – A full Metronome, with all the options you could need from BPM, to type etc.

10. Teslameter – Measure magnetism.

The main question then is – are any or all of these tools any good – well yes they good to the point that you can take a quick measurement but no, none will replace a professional version of the real thing but then again its only 69p and there all very handy.

Overall: 3 out of 5

A Random Life In Review: Movies

Prometheus

Staring:

Noomi Rapace

Michael Fassbender

Charlize Theron

Idris Elba

Trailer:

Whats it About: Prometheus – One of the Titans from ancient Greek mythology who stole fire from Zeus and gave it back to humankind and was punished for his rebellion towards the gods – Ridley Scotts film makes good reference to this classic story both in plot and in the film itself. Two young, ambitious explores discover a cave painting that shows a star map and in the belief that this is where mankind’s makers are from, and that they would like their children to come back home head of with a team of scientists on a mission to answer humans oldest question “where are we from”. Perhaps there should have stayed at home as the parents don’t always want the children back.

Review: I’m not sure if it was because I had such high hopes for this movie, but I have to say that it really let me down – a good prequel needs (in my eyes) to meet one main requirement and that’s set up the elements needed for the first film and I hate to say that Prometheus failed to meet this requirement. In Alien you first encounter the engineers, as X calls them, on their ship, in the pilot’s seat, chest exploded out thanks to our little friend the Xenomorph. You do meet the same engineer but, without wanting to give anything away, lets just say that someone (unexplained in the Film) must move the engineer back into the ship, which would require a whole film to explain the how and that’s completely forgetting the why.

Thought out the whole film there are hints at the Alien and face huggers, each time its meant to add tension as any one who has seen Alien will know their bad ass – however after the first dozen or so references to the old nemeses you get a little feed up, ok I know this was never going to be about them, so why keep playing on the threat of them. When they do make an appearance its more a filling of “at last” followed by, hang on even that’s not right!

However moving past the whole Alien connection (which although this is billed as the prequel to Alien, it’s not about them) I have to also so that the whole story was also a little weak – it was all over the place in parts, like what the engineers are / where doing, yes it is explained but as a plot it left me feeling like there where still some massive gaps to each element. SPOLER ALART START: such as, how did the barrier that reacts when touched come to be – there are no face hunger eggs in Prometheus. If it’s a planet used to house WOMD then what is the WOMD – as that Black stuff seems to do a good job so the Xenomorph can’t be it. What are the snake creatures, are there apart of the Xenomorph or are they some kind of bio-defense and if so then still what are the Xenomorph and lastly hows come the warning message Ripley and the crew in Alien pick up was in an alien language but its the human crew that leave the warning at the end of Prometheus. SPOLER ALART OVER. Likewise the motivation of the characters is also some what all over place and a little lacking thought out the film.

Saying all that overall Prometheus was enjoyable – I only wise I had not watched the trailers so much and that the whole Xenomorph had been completely left out, or at lest only referenced at the very end of the movie rather than all the way thought.

Overall: lacking the overall thrill and horror ride that was and still is Alien, Prometheus is not a bad film by any stretch of the imagination but it could have, nay should have been much better 3 out of 5 (But I had very high expectations).

Random Rant

Traffic reports – I think they must get stuck in traffic as there always late – example, last week (Thursday) I was travelling back from Bristol to Leicestershire a trip that normally takes 2 hours took me 3.5 hours and all because I was stuck in traffic for the whole way. First the M4 / M5 junction was at a standstill, which was to be expected as there where road works at the junction. What wasn’t was the endless start stop for the whole 60+ mile along the M5.

The radio kept talking about the M1, the M25 etc but nothing about the road I was on – then just as I pull up my drive the reporter finally says there is traffic on the M5 some 3.5 hours later – the exact words out of my mouth after “your f-ing kidding me” was “no sh!t there is traffic”

Between extremely late, to the point of being pointless traffic reports and crazy lorry drivers I think driven for me may not be the best thing for my health.

A Random Life In Pre-Review: Movies I Want To See

TED

 

 

 

 

 

Staring: 

Mark Wahlberg

Giovanni Ribisi

Mila Kunis

Seth MacFarlane

Trailer: 

Whats it About: John only has one friend and thats his teddy called Ted (and who say kinds don’t have any imagination nowadays!) any hows one Christmas John wishes for Ted to be a real friend and so via the magic of hollywood so it is, which was great when John was a kid but now both him and Ted have grown up and now Ted is a crude rude teddy. John need to pick between his girl friend and his teddy. Sounds like its going to be LOL and ROLF with Seth doing the voice over for Ted.

Just LOL

A Random Life: Apps

So it’s that time again, app review time – My App Of The Week is:

Price: Free

Categories: Entertainment

What Dose It Do: Lets you watch live TV on you iPhone or iPad

And in more detail: With all the free view channels in one place, you can watch live TV , granted you are shown a quick ad when you first select a channel (and every time there after) so if like me you change channel to skip ads your kind of out of luck with this but then again they have to make their money somewhere. You have all the main free view channels apart from HD (which is a shame but again its free) and its about 1 min behind normal TV.

Over All: If you’re looking to watch TV on your iPad / iPhone then this is the one to get.

5 out of 5