Gamebook Galore: Humble Tin Man Games Mobile Bundle nets you great gamebook titles on the cheap
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Do you miss the days when adventure gamebooks were a thing? Well, in case you didn’t know, they kind of are still a thing and Australian developer Tin Man Games has been making them on mobile for quite some time now. Better still, Tin Man Games and Humble Bundle have teamed up to offer the Humble Tin Man Games Mobile Bundle which offers up to ten of their gamebooks for not much at all. Among the titles are Judge Dredd: Countdown Sector 106 (read review here) and Curse of the Assassin (read review here) as well as several entries in Tin Man Games’ hugely popular Fighting Fantasy series.
If you pay your standard token donation, you’ll get four titles. Paying above the average, which is currently $6.52 USD, will net you another 4 titles. Paying $9 will get you another two gamebooks, bringing up your total to ten with the possibility of books to be added in the neat future. And if it takes your fancy, a donation of $35 or more will net you a Tin Man Games t-shirt as well. Considering each gamebook costs around $3-5 on the Play Store, I think this Bundle is a steal, particularly if you’re wanting a change in pace in your gaming habits. Be quick though as this Bundle will only last till May 4th.
What do you think about the Humble Tin Man Games Mobile Bundle? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: Humble via TalkAndroid
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LG’s G Stylo phablet has a 5.7-Inch HD display and Stylus pen
We’ve heard rumours for a while that LG was going to release another handset with a built-in stylus, and here it is. It’s called the LG G Stylo and it should become available from May 5th in major overseas regions. We have the specifications after the break.
LG has pushed out a few Android smartphones with a built-in stylus in recent times, but the Korean company is still not quite ready to go after Samsung’s Galaxy Note series. Instead, LG is content to carry on learning its trade by pushing out the wallet-friendly G Stylo that boasts a 5.7-inch display, as well as that all-important stylus.
Specifications:
- 5.7-Inch IPS 720p display with 258ppi
- Quad-core Snapdragon 410 @ 1.2GHz (64-bit)
- 1.5GB RAM
- 8GB Internal Storage
- MicroSD card support
- 8MP Main camera
- 5MP Front camera
- Bluetooth 4.1, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n
- NFC, A-GPS
- LTE network support
- Battery: 3,000mAh (removable)
- Dimensions: 154.3 x 79.2 x 9.6mm
- Weight: 163 grams
- Android 5.0 Lollipop
- Stylus
No word on pricing or exactly where the LG G Stylo will be available although it is said to be affordable and available in titanium or white. Let us know in the comments if this a handset you will be looking out for.
Source: LG
Via: AndroidCentral
Come comment on this article: LG’s G Stylo phablet has a 5.7-Inch HD display and Stylus pen
Blackberry wants to lock down security for the Internet of Things
Say what you will about BlackBerry’s current state of affairs, but in its heyday it was workplace no-brainer because of its then-unparalleled security systems. Well, the Canadian company has plans to make that work in its favor with an encryption certificate based on subsidiary Certicom’s elliptic-curved cryptography. As Reuters reports, this could secure numerous devices ranging from connected car systems to smart meters — ease of security and authentication are the name of the game here. In fact, the outfit’s already netted some support from across the pond with a contract that’ll cover some 104 million household energy management gizmos and smart meters in Britain. BlackBerry also wants to beef up its research and development that could improve on computer data security. So in case you were wondering what the company formerly known as Research in Motion‘s been up to, now you know.
[Image credit: Getty Images]
Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Software, Mobile, Blackberry
Source: Reuters
‘Daredevil’ will return to Netflix for a second season
Despite the popularity of Netflix’s original shows, the streaming giant doesn’t actually own most of the content it delivers to customers. It’s a situation that the company is working hard to rectify, but in the meantime it has to negotiate with partners to continue serving up shows like House of Cards, Orange Is The New Black and its latest hit, Daredevil. The Marvel series only hit Netflix on April 10th but it’s already proved lucrative enough for Reed Hastings and co. to renew the series for a second season.
There are some changes for the second season, however. Executive producer Steven Deknight is signing off, making way for Doug Petrie and Marco Ramirez (who worked closely with the team during the first season). Of course, Daredevil is just the first of a number of new Marvel shows coming to the streaming service: Jessica Jones will debut later this year, with Luke Cage premiering in 2016. All of those characters will then come together for a Defenders mini-series, ensuring comic book fans can continue to justify their monthly subscription fee.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD
Source: Marvel
Opera Mini Browser updated – we take a quick look
Opera Mini Browser received a huge update recently that seemed to change everything about the browser. The UI saw a significant revamp and more features were added such as gesture controls, new omnibar support, and even some data compression and data saving features were implemented. With all these changes, we figured it was worth taking a quick look! It might as well be a whole new browser so we wanted to take a closer quick look.
Design
Opera Mini’s new design is both clean and functional although it does take a moment to get used to. The omnibar is at the top along with a plus symbol for adding bookmarks. The bottom houses the menu button (which is just the Opera logo), tab controls, a button to take you to the Speed Dial feature, and back and forward buttons.
Inside the menu, you’ll see your data savings but more on that in a minute. Below that you’ll see four buttons for history, find-in-page functionality, a share button, and a button to close the tab. You can also access your downloads and the app settings below that.
In the settings you’ll be able to change the app layout depending on your preferences, determine new tab behaviors, change text size, access full screen features, and some advanced features like cookies, text wrap, protocol, and network test to see if you have a functioning connection. For power users, and others that like to have more control over their browsing experience, these features are a boon for control and functionality.
Overall, I found the experience to be quite nice and refreshing, as Opera puts a lot of controls in a relatively small amount of space and made them large and noticeable enough to find easily. That’s something that other browsers could definitely learn from.
Functionality
Along with the app comes a data compression feature that attempts to minimize how much data you use when you browse the web. In many cases, it’s highly functional and we managed to use about 10% of the data we would have using other browsers. If you’re one to want to conserve data consumption on mobile, or for other reasons, this is something to definitely take note of.
Opera’s data compression system is very aggressive which should help those who live in areas with slower network connections. The compression will also almost certainly help those on capped data plans to save more data.
The Speed Dial feature has been present in Opera’s main browser for a while and Opera Mini is no different. The Speed Dial allows you to set up sites you go to frequently so you can get there very quickly. You can also find your bookmarks, sites you saved for offline reading, and even a somewhat customizable news feed to keep you caught up on whatever kind of news you enjoy.
During our testing, we visited 50 websites in total and all 50 of them loaded relatively quickly. A few had some graphical and text formatting errors that are likely a result of Opera’s data compression but at no point did the websites cease to function as they should. A few larger websites may load more slowly than expected but there were very few instances where it was so slow that it was annoying.
Also included in the latest update is private tabs similar to Google’s incognito mode. You can also swipe to close tabs, swipe to delete bookmarks, and swipe up to search.
Overall
Pros:
- The new UI revamp is clean and functional.
- Dedicated tablet layout and two phone layouts that you can switch between.
- Data compression saves you a lot of data.
- Bookmarks can be synced across devices including computers.
- Speed Dial is as useful as ever.
- New private tab lets you browse without saving cookies or web history.
Cons:
- Occasional graphical glitches on websites, likely from data compression.
- likely from data compression.
- Some sites may load slowly.
- There doesn’t appear to be a way to turn data compression off.
Overall, this is a positive update for Opera Mini. It brings a lot of the features and looks from Opera’s full fledged browser and the performance is still very good. The data compression is fantastic and very helpful for those with limited data plans and connections. With the new features and looks, Opera Mini is now brought up to date with current browser options which is only a good thing. If you want to check it out, click the button!
Android Wear update is coming soon, bringing always-on apps, Wi-Fi support, and gestures
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The Android Wear family is growing with every passing month and with so many new faces, Google has seen fit to announce that a Android Wear update is on its way. The update will bring three main areas of improvement for Android Wear users, including support for always-on apps, Wi-Fi, and gestures to control your wearable and how you interact with it.
First up, always-on app support will allow apps to stay on screen, meaning you will be able to see them on your watch display even after the screen has dimmed. This is not dissimilar to the option which allows your watch face to remain visible after dimming. This will definitely be an important feature once Android Wear apps start to get better and more useful, but we’ll have to see if battery life incurs any kind of penalty with this new feature.
Next on the list is Wi-Fi support. Unbeknownst to many people (including me), most of the Android Wear smartwatches out there support Wi-Fi, which means they can independently connect to a Wi-Fi connection. What this means is that after this Android Wear update drops, as long as your phone has a data connection and your smartwatch is connected to Wi-Fi, you will be able to get notifications.
Gestures looks to be one of the more interesting parts of this Android Wear update. The first gesture feature will allow you to scroll through notification items just by flicking your wrist. Google is also finally adding some easier phone capabilities into Android Wear, adding an apps list and contacts list once you tap the screen.
The last gesture feature Google elaborated on is emoji support, which will allow you to reply to messages simply by drawing an emoji with your finger and your smartwatch will figure out what emoji you meant.
All-in-all, this Android Wear update looks like it’s going to introduce a lot of neat features that are going to make your Android Wear experience just that much better. What do you think about these updates? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: Google
The post Android Wear update is coming soon, bringing always-on apps, Wi-Fi support, and gestures appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
Daniel Radcliffe confirmed for BBC ‘Grand Theft Auto’ drama
The rumors were true. The BBC’s new ‘Grand Theft Auto’ drama will feature two heavyweight stars: Daniel Radcliffe as Rockstar Games co-founder Sam Houser and Bill Paxton as Jack Thompson, a former American attorney that famously campaigned against the video game franchise. When news of the project first broke, we weren’t sure what to expect. The BBC, making a TV show about Grand Theft Auto? It seemed like a PR disaster waiting to happen. But now more details are coming to light. The BBC has revealed the working title “Game Changer” and says the show will focus on the series’ cultural impact, rather than how it was designed and coded. Furthermore, the show has been “conceived for an adult audience,” so it’s unlikely to be aired straight after the six o’clock news.
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment
Source: BBC
Amazon Destinations handpicks hotels in LA, NY and Seattle
Amazon’s rumored new travel site has appeared and it’s well, exactly as rumored. While the company previously sold flash-sale hotel rooms as part of Amazon Local, alongside steep discounts, Destinations is more about curated hotels. The service currently focuses on areas around LA, New York and Seattle, with the aim of selling short-term getaways that are near to those aforementioned transport hubs. There’s no news on whether it’d roll-out the new service to other US areas (let alone other countries), but it wouldn’t be a shocker if it did. The site is already accepting user reviews, but expanding the service will likely depend on how many people are looking to pay typical list prices – if only because it’s paired with the ubiquity of Amazon.
Via: TechCrunch
Source: Amazon Destinations
Microsoft Office Preview apps released for Android tablets on Lollipop, and x86 systems
Microsoft truly has been on a tear bringing their apps and services to tablet users, and not just users of their own Windows operating system. In this latest release, a new Preview of their Office apps is available for Android 5.0+ Lollipop tablets, or any tablet 10.1-inches and smaller running x86 architecture.
It was not long ago we announced that these Office apps, being Word, Excel and PowerPoint, were made available, for free, to Android tablet users. This new Preview release is, for lack of a better word, a beta program, allowing you a glimpse of what is to come for all Microsoft Office users.
Getting in on the fun requires you to apply through the Microsoft Office testing group on Google+. Just ask for permission to get in, then, upon approval, your access to the apps in the Google Play Store will provide the Preview apps instead of the currently more stable releases.
As previously mentioned, the apps at play here are Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint. You can always hit up the Google Play Store for the current public release of each app for your Android tablet. Of course, most Android Lollipop tablets, as with the newly built tablets running the ‘old’ x86 architecture, have been exempt from these public release apps, making this new release very exciting for Office fans with tablets running the latest Android software.
We’ll be certain to keep tabs on this and let you know if anything significant is available in the Preview Office apps. Until then, are any of you in the beta program and having anything exciting to share?
HTC’s VR headset is available, but you probably won’t get one
HTC and Valve will be giving out Vive virtual reality headsets for free as reported in March, but only if you’re a developer — a very lucky developer. The duo has just launched a sign-up form for folks who want a shot at getting one of the developer units to be distributed throughout spring and summer. They’ll apparently be “distributing dev kits continually” and sending new ones out every couple of weeks. Supplies, however, “may be limited,” so you’ll have to take writing up that application seriously if you want to convince them to choose you during the selection process. If you’re not a dev, you unfortunately can’t purchase a kit, no matter how much money you’re willing to throw at HTC and Valve. Don’t worry, though: they’re planning to release the commercial version sometime later this year, provided nothing derails their timeline before then.
Via: Road to VR
Source: Steam Community
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