Marvel’s universe gets a dedicated search engine for comic queries

Since Marvel opened up its API to developers, creative types are able to leverage the company’s massive comic library for apps and the like. One dev, Filix Mogilevsky, took it upon himself to create a search engine for the collection of characters and issues. iMarvel serves up character and comic book descriptions based on what you input with auto-complete suggestions to boot. For example, inputting “Thanos” provides a short bio with links to different sections of Marvel’s site for more detailed info. Search for a specific title like The Avengers & the Infinity Gaunlet and you’ll be privy to a brief synopsis, characters, a few images and a list of creators. Sure, it’s more of a quick reference tool than anything else — and yes, it’s piping in content from Marvel’s own site — but I’ll admit to spending more than a few minutes pecking around. Give a go for yourself via the source link below.

[Image credit: JD Hancock/Flickr]

Filed under: Internet

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Via: The Next Web

Source: iMarvel.co

Why you still need antivirus on your Android

W

e’re all concerned about safety and justifiably so. Whether it’s a security system for our home, a car-seat for our child or where our food comes from, it’s only human nature to protect oneself from danger. Hardwired from years of evolutionary progress, being able to identify threats is an invaluable skill. While we’re (hopefully) no longer fighting off tigers in the wilderness, the presence of predators is still very real.

As our society becomes more sophisticated, the threats don’t disappear — they simply take on a new form. It’s not likely that a wolf is going to hunt you down in a fast-food restaurant to steal your McBurger but the chances of some contemptible schmuck stealing your credit card information are frighteningly high. Cyber attacks, hackers and identify theft are phrases you’ll hear just about every day in the news. If our nation’s capitol isn’t exempt from these attacks, what makes you think your phone safe?

While many, including Symantec’s Senior VP, have claimed the decline of antivirus, Forbes reports that what we may be experiencing is a shift in just how we protect ourselves. Perhaps the one-stop “set it and forget it” model of primitive software is dwindling in favor of a more comprehensive and smarter solution. The idea that the threats have disappeared or that protection is futile is a silly assumption and one that we certainly don’t believe. With over a quarter of the world using smartphones, it’s more important than ever to be protected.

Sure, you may say that most modern smartphones have built-in security measures. You’re right. Blackberry was once an industry leader, renowned for their fortification and Android is considered by most to be leaps and bounds more secure than your standard desktop PC. Neither, however, have been immune from breaches and attacks. A recent study from Symantec claims that 17% of all Android applications are malware. These are staggering numbers. Granted, some of this comes from folks installing third-party apps from unknown sources and tinkering around with Android’s standard security settings.

With all of the malicious software, nefarious characters and sketchy websites floating around online, how can we stay safe? There’s no excuse for ignorance and educating yourself about the most common threats is certainly a necessary line of defense. Now what? You’ve done your homework and brushed up on best practices for avoiding risky clicks but relying solely on your own understanding is like walking a tightrope. Antivirus software can serve as a safety net to protect you from mistakes and the unforeseen. When it comes to your identity and online safety, it’s not worth risking the fall.

Kapersky, Norton, Lookout, AVG… it can be dizzying to try to figure out which software to install. While there are myriad choices when it comes to antivirus developers and publishers, visiting an aggregate source such as Top 10 Antivirus Software Website can help you compare and contrast the many different options available and help you make an informed decision about how you protect yourself and your data.

The post Why you still need antivirus on your Android appeared first on AndroidGuys.

We Play: Blood Brothers 2

Blood Brothers 2 is a strategy RPG released by DeNA. It’s the sequel to the acclaimed Blood Brothers game that amassed over ten million downloads during its run. It’s a strategy RPG with some monster collection elements and a bit of online multiplayer thrown in. It was a fairly solid game already but DeNA recently released a huge update to make it even better. Let’s take a look.

Game Play

For those who have never played the game before, here’s how Blood Brothers 2 works. You play as a tactician and your role is to deploy your heroes and win battles. Each hero has a small contingent of soldiers that also make up their hit points and they also have special abilities. Once you deploy your heroes and their troops, they clash with the enemy heroes and troops and that process repeats until someone wins the battle.

The game operates on a trio of roles. Each hero will either control a group of archers, a group of ground troops, or a group of cavalry troops and at that point you’re playing rock, paper, scissors. Archers beat ground troops, ground troops beat cavalry, and cavalry beats archers and that dynamic is the foundation from which all decisions in battle are made.

Each mission in the campaign contains several battles and you’ll have to fight through all of them to finish the mission. Each mission generally has a boss battle at the end. After missions are completed, you’ll earn various resources, mostly gold, which can then be used to upgrade and train your troops. During battles, you can also capture enemy commanders and convince them to join your cause and grow your army that way.

Blood Brothers 2 has one of the better stories out there for a tap to play game. You kind of get thrown into the action to start with but you get a real sense for what’s going on fairly quickly and it grows from there. It’s a dark fantasy story that’s very gritty and dirty. You’re commanding monsters and fighting in the trenches and the game does a good job of relaying that feeling to the player.

Along with all of that, you can engage in PvP combat in the arena, engage with weekly events to get extra resources and gear, and there is a tree of research that you can assign your commanders to research that will give you extra abilities, benefits, upgrades, and more.

The new stuff

DeNA has added a lot of new stuff to the game in a recent update that changes things a whole bunch. By far the biggest change is the inclusion of guilds. Each guild can have up to 50 members and there is a dedicated guild chat. Everything is fairly straight forward and typical of mobile game guilds except for a few things. Let’s discuss some of the exceptions.

Guilds have a shared mastery tree similar to the ones each player has. Guild members can contribute and complete the guild mastery stuff and each member benefits from it, even the new ones. Also, if anyone buys any Blood Sigils through in-app purchases, everyone in the guild gets a gift which is kind of a nice idea.

One of the other new features is a new slew of daily events. This is to help keep the game fresh and give players something else to do a little more frequently. DeNA has said that there will be seven dungeons that will be rotated out daily and players will be able to use these to win more stuff like gear, gold, various souls, and other stuff.

There are other new features as well. One is daily pacts that help players buy specific commanders based on what day of the week it is. This is great for those who have been around for a while and have some Blood Sigils to spare. DeNA has also included a random loot box that will drop at random times after random battles.

The good

Here’s what we liked about Blood Brothers 2:

• The game play is consistent, simple, but still fun. You’re not asked to do a whole lot but you do have to pay attention and think a little bit in order to win. This not only includes battles, but upgrading, skill research, and pretty much everything is easy to do, but you have to make sure you’re doing it right.
• The guilds are fantastic. During my testing, I went to bed one evening and woke up with around 45 gifts thanks to the actions of my guild members. The chat is useful for strategy and discussion, and the guild skill trees are very helpful. It was a very positive addition to the game.
• The story is actually pretty decent for a mobile game. It’s not super deep but the dark fantasy grittiness is refreshing. Usually in mobile games you have cute little monsters and you’re trying to do good. It always looks polished and friendly. In this game, you get the trench-warfare feel and the people you work with don’t look friendly. At all. It’s nice.
• There is a lot of stuff to do. Between the campaign, the events, the daily missions, upgrading your troops, recruiting new ones, and getting the skill trees mastered, it’s going to take you a long time to beat this game. Don’t forget the new guild stuff, the achievements, and the PvP arena also. There is just a lot to do.
• The developers get a lot done. You already had a lot of stuff to do and DeNA came back and gave players even more with the guilds, the daily missions, etc.
• Blood Brothers 2 does include cloud saving. It’s not Google Play Games cloud saving, but it’s definitely good enough to get your stuff to your next device.

The bad

And here’s what we didn’t like so much:

• The menu system probably could’ve been laid out a little better. It’s not bad, but it’s a bit overwhelming at first and I feel like things could have been better labeled. Of course, once you pour a few hours into it, you’ll learn where everything is so this is a minor nitpick. Still, a few things are kind of hard to find at first.
• The PvP arena dynamic is a bit weird. I assume that they’re going for an idea where players blindly choose their commanders not knowing what the other player will pick. The problem with this is the game relies heavily on choosing based on what you see on the field so a blind match takes away a lot of control. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it operates on different mechanics than the rest of the game and it feels off.

Wrap up

Overall, this is about as good of a time waster game as you can get. It pulls from a lot of genres, including card collecting, strategy, MMO, and RPG elements which really allows players to delve into the game and gives you a whole lot to do. The new addition of daily missions and guilds help keep the game fresh and gives it a bit more of a social aspect so you have someone to talk to while you play which we liked a lot.

There were a few things here and there that didn’t mesh well with the overall feel of the game, but at the end of the day these are minor nitpicks. The game is free with in-app purchases in the Google Play Store which means it costs nothing to at least check it out and you’ll be showing your support for Android Authority and the Android Apps Weekly show. Who knows, you may actually love it!