Game Review – Ski Safari: Adventure Time
A great endless side-scroller that will really jump out to fans of Adventure Time
Much of the time, when a cartoon is turned into a phone game, the results aren’t always the best. That is definitely not the case with this Adventure Time game. Following the same principles as the original Ski Safari, this one is a must-have for any lover of the show.
The premise is simple – You play as Finn, and you are sliding down a mountain, away from an avalanche. Try not to run into rocks or land upside-down, otherwise you could get stuck in the snow. Most of the time, you’ll be riding on a slew of familiar characters like Jake, Ice King, LSP, Marceline, Princess Bubblegum, Rainicorn, Gunter, and many, many more.
You begin on the Rock Candy Mountain, and you can unlock more levels like the Ice Kingdom and the Mystery Mountain. Actually, those are the only levels in the game. We would have liked to see more, but each level is pretty difficult to reach with the amount of coins that you earn, so you won’t get bored with each one too quickly.
You’re able to unlock new characters and outfits with the coins that you receive from your runs. There is, however, the ability to make some in-app purchases for more upgrades. So if your kids are unmonitored while playing this, you might need to check on them every once in awhile.
All in all, we love this game. There is a huge variety of characters to interact with to ensure that you don’t get bored. The music and sound effects remind us exactly of the show, and creates a very authentic experience. If you don’t mind spending 99 cents, we’d definitely urge you to pick this one up.
What we liked
- Easy to learn
- Characters are spot-on
- Enough variety to ensure gameplay doesn’t become monotonous
- Hey, it’s only 99 cents!
What could be improved
- We would have liked to see more levels
- Could be more challenging
The post Game Review – Ski Safari: Adventure Time appeared first on AndroidGuys.
HTC Releases a Detailed Infographic for ‘The Anatomy of the Android OS Update’
Happens time and time again. New version of Android gets released to the community, and everyone starts asking when they will get it on their devices. If you are part of the Moto or Nexus family, you don’t have to wait long at all. If you are on any other OEM, well that is when your patience is put to the test. OEMs will do their very best to let their users know when they will get their juicy little updates. Sometimes they are right. Most times they are wrong. There is a whole science to updating your Android device, and HTC has released that formula in a pretty awesome looking infographic.
The infographic below is pretty long. Lot of people out there that are not familiar with how the development process works, just gets upset at the OEMs, even though those OEMs are trying their best to make sure they release a stable build for their devices. Hopefully this little infographic will shut some of the complainers up, but that would only be in a perfect world. When I get asked about updates for certain devices, and simply tell them to be patient, or to root their device.
So check out the entire HTC infographic by clicking the link below. You’ll head to the HTC.com page for the whole thing. Let us know what you think about it.
9 Grid Launcher Wants to Simplify Your Homescreen
Too much clutter happening on your homescreen? Well here is a launcher that will solve all your clutter problems. 9 Grid Launcher is a home replacement that gives you your favorite apps in a 3×3 grid, and that is about it.There are no widgets and no fancy customizations with this launcher, so it will not appeal to us Android enthusiasts. I will say this, however, if you have someone that just cannot grasp the Android OS, this launcher will simplify everything for them, so they will have a better experience.
You will still be able to download numerous themes from the Play Store for the launcher, so it still gives you customization options. Right now, 9 Grid Launcher is on sale for $0.99, coming down from a whopping $9.99 price tag. Very overpriced for a launcher that doesn’t really add much to the Android experience. If the developer is smart, he will keep the sales price as the regular price, because I cannot see anyone spending 10 bucks on a simple launcher. Check out the review video from Androidtap below to see it in action. Let us know if it appeals to you.
Carrier site helps Americans watch out for data-hungry mobile apps
American carriers warn you when you’re using a lot of data, but they don’t always tell you how to avoid that usage in the first place. Thankfully, they’re taking a more proactive stance with the launch of their Know My App site. The CTIA-run page shows the typical data consumption of popular mobile apps and compares it against capped US wireless plans. You’ll want to avoid using bandwidth-heavy apps like Netflix when away from WiFi, for instance, but miserly software like Candy Crush Saga is safe even with basic internet service. Know My App won’t be of much use to mobile veterans — or anyone holding on to unlimited data for dear life — but it could prove vital to newcomers who don’t yet know how to keep their wireless bills in check.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Internet, Mobile
Via: PCWorld
Source: Know My App
Confirmed: Oppo Find 7 to have a 5.5 Inch display with 538 PPI
Earlier this month, Oppo teased the upcoming Oppo Find 7 on their official Twitter account, and now they are back again with the teasing, and this time they are actually sharing some valuable information. We heard that Oppo Find 7 will be the first ever Android phone to feature a 2K display, and now it seems its true as Oppo confirmed it on their Facebook page that Find 7 will have a 5.5 inch display with 2560×1440 resolution and 538 PPI, and I guess that’s Oppo being true to their “#AlwaysImprove” hash-tag.
The smartphone is expected to feature:
- Snapdragon 805 processor
- 3GB of RAM
- 13MP rear camera
- 5MP front-facing camera
- LTE
- 4,000 mAh battery
Oppo is on the roll nowadays, as they also released the first ever phone to ship with CyanogenMod 10.2 with the CyanogenMod team. Find 7 seems like an excellent device, and we might see at the CES 2014. Are you looking forward to it?
Source: Oppo (Facebook)
The post Confirmed: Oppo Find 7 to have a 5.5 Inch display with 538 PPI appeared first on AndroidGuys.
iOS Remains More Popular Than Android Among Holiday Shoppers in the U.S.
The majority of Christmas day shopping from mobile devices was done by iOS users rather than Android users, according to new report from IBM. 23 percent of total online sales on Christmas in the United States were made from iOS devices, while just 4.6 percent were made from Android devices. Overall online traffic from iOS devices was at 32.6 percent, compared to 14.8 percent for Android.
As a percentage of total online sales, iOS was more than five times higher than Android, driving 23 percent vs. 4.6 percent for Android. On average, iOS users spent $93.94 per order, nearly twice that of Android users, who spent $48.10 per order. iOS also led as a component of overall traffic with 32.6 percent vs. 14.8 percent for Android.
iOS users also spent nearly twice as much on their online orders, with the average order coming in at $93.94 compared to $48.10 per order from Android devices. When comparing tablets to smartphones, consumers made more purchases via tablets (19.4 percent vs. 9.3 percent) on smartphones and paid slightly more than smartphone users.
Overall online sales were up 16.5 percent in 2013, with mobile sales surging up to nearly 29 percent of all online traffic for a year-over-year gain of 40 percent.
IBM’s data was gathered using its IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark, which analyzes data from approximately 800 retail sites in the United States. The company saw similar sales numbers during Black Friday, where iOS was responsible for 18.1 percent of sales with an average order amount of $127.92, compared to 3.5 percent and $105.20 for Android.
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Add your new toys to your Engadget profile
Throw out all the wrapping paper, finish eating the leftover turkey and have the last of the eggnog, because Christmas has come and gone. It’s time to take stock of all your fancy new loot. Yesterday, you told us what you received. Today, you should show all of it off. Head over to your Engadget profile and add the new gear to your have list. If you’re not sure how to do that, check out this helpful primer on the new Engadget.
Daily Roundup: Taiwan fines Apple, LG HomeChat, Siri photo-tagging patent and more!
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Samsung’s latest developer kit
Samsung’s new Smart TV SDK 5.0 gives developers the ability to tap into home automation. Follow the link for more information about its January 6th release.
Apple photo-tagging patent
Apple’s latest patent hints at potential photo- and geo-tagging functionality through Siri voice commands. Click through for more details.
Taiwanese FTC fines Apple
Apple awoke to a not-so-merry surprise on Christmas day as Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission accused the company of unlawfully mandating pricing to iPhone carriers. According to WSJ, Cupertino can appeal the ruling, but could face steep penalties. Click the link for more information.
LG announces HomeChat
LG announced that its 2014 Smart Appliance lineup will be able to be controlled through natural language commands via the Line messaging app. Click on through for details on the feature’s 2014 arrival.
Filed under: Misc
Possible 3D Model of the HTC One 2/M8 Photographed
The HTC One 2, or M8, has possibly been caught on camera. It looks like HTC has decided to jump into the soap bar business, how about that? HTC One soap? Sign me up for that.Wouldn’t surprise me if they decided to do that, but of course this is just a 3D 1:1 scale model of the supposed HTC One 2 made purely out of wax.
This comes from a Chinese blog named weibo.com, but the images have been taken down by the person who posted them. I am sure he got some heat from it, even though the model looks almost identical to the regular HTC One. Other than this image you see above, we have no further information about the new flagship phone at this time.
The little bit of information we do have about the HTC One sequel, is that it might be unveiled as early as February of next year. Rumored specs have also been floating around as well, but we got to be patient and wait for the actual confirmed specs. Don’t you hate that word, patient? Let us know if you are excited for the HTC one follow-up, and also chime in on the HTC One Soap bar you see above.
Source: Phandroid
Update rolling out for the NVIDIA Tegra Note 7 Tablet
NVIDIA has started pushing out an over-the-air update to all who happen to own a Tegra Note 7 tablet. The update is nothing to sneeze at either. It moves the tablet to Android 4.3 and brings in a slew of updated features.
- DirectStylus help options
- Stylus removal and insert notifications
- Ability to capture the notification bar with full screen capture
- Always on HDR (AOHDR) capability
- Video stabilization
- Ability to transfer app and data files between internal and external memory
- Security and bug fixes
- Tuning and optimizations to improve camera performance
A pretty good looking update. While it isn’t Android 4.4, Anyone holding onto one of these $200 tablets from NVIDIA is sure to be pleased by the update.
Look for this update now on your Tegra NOTE 7 tablet from EVGA, ADVENT, Gigabyte, Shenzhen Homecare Technology, ZOTAC and XOLO.
Via NVIDIA
AIVAnet 