Ignition Unlimited

A World Of Smartphones

We’ve all heard it: Microsoft (nowadays Google and Apple, too) being referred to as the “evil empire,” or Windows Mobile being called a “dying breed.” There are some truths to these statements: if you really think about it, smartphone brands, their parent companies, the user base, the developers and the community are a lot like nations, each vying for success and dominance. So, what would each smartphone brand be like as a country (or other stately body)? Well, I thought about it for a while and what follows is what I came up with. I’ve spent time in each or with people from each community, and these are the conclusions I’ve drawn. In chronological order, I present the Five Nations of Smartphone. Enjoy!

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Girlfriend Guest Post: An Introduction

Hello, crazy-car-people! My name is Desiree, and as a new guest poster who might sporadically write things here, I thought you all deserved a little introduction. I don’t really know that much about cars, but I know quite a bit about the boys who own them. I also happen to be really good at making fun of stupid looking cars. And just to brag, I got my license on the first try with literally 6 hours of practice.

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A Mandatory Apology And Explanation

Alright, I’ll come clean. Get ready for it: Ignition Unlimited wasn’t my highest priority from September until now. Comes as an absolute shock, right? Yeah, I didn’t think so either. So what happened, you ask? College. College happened, and it’s a one hell “happened.” Eight and a half months came and went like 37 minutes instead of 37 weeks, and so much has happened between then and now. One thing hasn’t changed, though: I still love cars, and that’s why Ignition Unlimited is making a comeback. I’m sorry for the hiatus, but it’s go time. See what’s going to happen here after the jump.

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The Best April Fools’ Prank That Wasn’t

Ah, April Fools’ Day: Google is now Topeka, the excellent webcomic xkcd goes terminal, and my college announced that next year the campus will be dry (this was especially well-played because alcohol policy was in the process of being changed only yesterday). Among all these April 1st shenanigans, the 2010 New York International Auto Show pressed on, with its usual stock of interesting reveals (which I shall definitely be covering in the coming week). Toyota, however, decided that it would be the perfect day to launch two new video ad campaigns in order to increase attention for new models in its subsidiary brands. Oh, they got my attention alright…

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Sebring 2010: 12 Hours Of Storylines

Storylines. If I had to pick one reason why I enjoy watching endurance races more than any other types, it’s the fact that there are so many different “stories” occurring at any given moment during the race. Such was the case at the 58th running of 12 Hours of Sebring, the grand opening to the 2010 American Le Mans Series.

Before I go into talking about this race, though, I have some definite explaining to do. No, your RSS reader is not broken, and no, I haven’t been posting to a secret part of this site: the date of the last post I made is indeed August 9, 2009. Sad thing, isn’t it? Well, I’m back now, and I have new plans and ideas for Ignition Unlimited. Believe it or not, I’ve even convinced a guest writer to occasionally drop some content on here! Amazing! I’ll go into detail about the future of IU later, because now, it’s time to talk about Sebring.

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A Failure, Undercover

Yeah, yeah, I know this game came out in November of 2008, and that it’s almost a whole year later, AND that Need For Speed: Shift is coming out in slightly over a month, but I still feel the need to give a commentary on this game. Until I saw the light of games like DiRT, Test Drive Unlimited, and Forza Motorsport 2, I was a big Need For Speed fan.

Need For Speed: Most Wanted was (and still is) one of the greatest “arcadey” racing games ever made (those police chases almost become zombie-horror-survival-esque with their one-versus-infinite feel), so it was natural for EA: Blackbox to try to replicate that feel after two games that didn’t do so well (Carbon and ProStreet). Did they succeed? Read on to find out.

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More Phone Stuff

A week ago, I did an unboxing video for the extended battery I got for my Touch Pro. Well, now I’ve got some more new stuff for my phone, and another unboxing video. This time, however, I’ve been using the two items for a couple weeks, so I can also give a “long term test” result on each… after, of course, you watch the unboxing and see what items I’m talking about. The video is after the jump.

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Twikini: Twitter Client For Grand Tourers

Grand touring is great. I’m taking a short road trip to Lime Rock this weekend, and I promised I’d post some sort of updates regarding my travels and the race… and I’ve just found out how I’m going to do that. Twikini, by Trinket Software, is exactly how I’m going to do that. It’s got everything your normal Twitter client has, mobile or not, but this piece of Windows Mobile software goes many, many steps further. How does this so well integrate into a grand touring experience? Make the jump to find out!

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Verizon Touch Pro Extended Battery

Well, since this new Ignition Unlimited is here, I thought I’d start off after this beginning-of-summer hiatus with a tech post. In April, I ditched my old Verizon XV6700 for a new Verizon HTC Touch Pro. I love this new phone, but when I got it, I had a few issues with it.

Firstly, Verizon had locked the GPS for use with only their stupid “VZNavigator” program, which is coded in such a way that it looks like it belongs on a “dumb phone” rather than a smartphone like the Touch Pro (which runs an HTC-modified version of Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional). Luckily, Verizon has since unlocked the GPS in a new official ROM update, which I will link to in the bottom of this post after the jump. Rest assured you’ll be seeing a lot more posts that somehow include what I’ve done with this GPS update… The second issue with the phone is that it has less RAM than the competitors. It’s slow sometimes, but I really can’t complain, and nothing can be done about that. Lastly, this phone, being packed to the brim with battery-drinking features, has pretty poor battery life. Luckily, I could do something about that: I bought the official Verizon Wireless extended battery for the Touch Pro. Details and an unboxing video, as well as how to order it are after the jump.

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Out Of The Garage

Ignition Unlimited is back in action! As you notice, things are different. A lot different. This post is to describe what I’ve done to the site, what my new direction for it will be, and other plans for the future of the site. I felt like going with a more luxurious feel this time around, to support my grand touring aspirations, so I went with chrome, leather and carbon fiber. Continue into the post for a further description of all my plans and everything else I have to say about this update.

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