Mountain Goat Mountain: a new free game from Zynga
Enjoying the weekend? Probably not enough, so let’s take a look at a new game from popular developer Zynga. It goes by the name of Mountain Goat Mountain and it just might become your new addiction.
As its name entails, the new title revolves around a lonely little goat. The goal is to go as high up the mountain as possible, before dying. This may sound easy for a mountain goat, which can climb incredibly steep slopes without a problem, but it’s a bit harder for the animal in this game. There’s plenty of traps, falling objects and obstacles that can harm you.
The mechanics of the game are a bit interesting. The goat can go to different maps and locations by collecting new hats. Some of the maps include the Arizona Desert, VR Voxels and Winter Snowland. Pretty straight forward and fun, right?
Let me warn you, though – this game is addictive, which makes it a very fun-packed time for those of us who have nothing to do during the weekend. It’s no Flappy Bird, but it sure is a worthy download. Especially considering the game is free on the Google Play Store!
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The developer does make some cash through in-app purchases. The user can buy in-game currency to help him advance faster, as well as getting 20 different goats and other great buys.
With that in mind, let’s stop talking and get goating! I know I’ll be spending a good amount of hours on this game. Will you?
Znaps adds a magnetic charging port to any smartphone
Apple may not be our favorite company here at Android Authority, but we gotta give it to them for coming up with the MagSafe charger; it’s about the most convenient and safe charging technology we have seen. In fact, we wonder why they haven’t applied a similar concept to their mobile devices. Regardless, someone has already beat them to the punch.
The Znaps was just introduced via Kickstarter this week, and it seems like a brilliant idea that should have come years ago. In essence, Znaps is an adapter that turns any microUSB or Lightning port into a magnetic charger. You simply plug it into your port and a small protrusion will show, but it’s so small it shouldn’t really affect you. Znaps claims you can even continue to use your cases without an issue.
The set-up can’t really be any easier. And you have no idea how convenient something like this would be. Just think about it. These are gadgets we carry every single day… and we charge them very often, too. Smartphones are prone to much more accidents than computers are, yet this MagSafe concept hasn’t been adopted by the mobile industry yet.
Interesting fact: the guys from Znaps managed to avoid a lawsuit from Apple by making an adapter for your current chargers. Making a cable would have violated Apple’s patent, and we know they are not fans of people copying them! By the way, it seems this system can do as much as the cable you are using. It supports Quick Charge 2.0, data transfers and all.
I suppose something that also has me excited is that this will probably get rid of the hassle that comes with owning devices from multiple platforms. You could probably use a microUSB charger with an adapter to power up an iPhone with with a connector, for example. The same should apply the other way around.
As the Znaps team mentions on Kickstarter, your phone would be safe from sudden pulls. Charging will be super easy (you can even plug it in without looking). Oh, and there’s the added bonus of Znaps making your phone a bit more resistant to water dunks, as it stops water from going in through the microUSB port.
The best part is that Znaps is super affordable. You can get yourself an adapter and connector for only $9 USD, and they offer a calculator which you can use to make a custom order.
There’s no plans to support USB-C just yet, but the team does claim they will work on it if this Kickstarter campaign does well… which it has. They have more than doubled their $120,000 funding goal in just a few days and still have 26 days to go.
I am in love with this thing and am pledging today. I seriously hate cables dangling around my living space. They are annoying and get damaged very easily. Not to mention the damage they can create if someone accidentally pulls them while in use! A recent Zagg study states about 48% of smartphone users live with damaged smartphones. Something like Znaps would probably help reduce that number.
Wireless charging is also great, but doesn’t offer the same charging speeds and data transfers are impossible with it. Sadly, we do still need them cables, so we should at least have better ones. Are you signing up? Hit the comments and let us know how you feel about this little accessory!
T-Mobile paying $17.5 million in fees for 911 outages
Having access to 911 calls is of utmost importance to Americans. Being able to make these calls in time can be the difference between life and death, so the FCC takes it very seriously when a carrier has an outage in which calls can’t be routed to the nation’s emergency line.
The latest major 911 outage came from T-Mobile, in August 8, 2014. There were a couple nationwide blackouts this day, accounting for about 3 hours of down time. That is a long time of having no 911 access, especially considering T-Mobile serves about 55 million subscribers. The number was a bit lower when the event took place, at about 50 million, but we are sure more than a few of them needed help during this outage.
T-Mobile is making amends by paying $17.5 million USD in fees. In addition, they are taking responsibility and incorporating a compliance program to strengthen their 911 network communications.
- In particular, T-Mobile will develop and implement processes to:
- Identify risks that could result in disruptions to 911 service;
- Protect against such risks;
- Detect future 911 outages;
- Respond with remedial actions, including prompt notification to affected 911 call centers; and
- Recover from such outages on a timely basis.
T-Mobile’s prevention methods (or lack thereof) were not the single issue in this investigation. Matters worsened upon realizing the carrier hadn’t notified affected 911 call centers in a timely fashion, which is a requisite from the FCC.
The Commission has adopted a number of rules intended to ensure seamless, ubiquitous, and reliable 911 service nationwide. These rules include the obligation for wireless carriers to implement 911 routing and delivery systems to ensure that 911 calls are transmitted to the appropriate 911 emergency call centers and to notify those call centers of 911 service outages lasting longer than 30 minutes.
That’s a hefty chunk of cash t-Mobile has to fork out, though we don’t know how significant of a fee that would be for a large carrier. Regardless, seeing them improving their systems and keeping 911 accessible is golden. T-Mobile has been doing great improving their services with Uncarrier, offering deals no other carrier ever brought to the table. I am not sure I would give up 911 for all that, though.
Did any of you happen to notice these outages last year? It would be interesting to hear your take on this.
Slugterra: Dark Waters game launches on the Google Play Store
Have you ever watched Slugterra? This Canadian animated series has managed to get very popular since its 2012 launch. It’s been airing for a few years now and a new season is coming, but few of us knew the franchise’s next step was going to be mobile gaming.
Developer Apps Ministry put together a pretty fun game based on the show. Slugterra: Dark Waters is an action-packed shooting game with 13 levels, 10 unique enemies and many, many slugs.
For those who need a reminder or may not be familiar with the series, Slugterra follows a story line based on an underground world deep under our feet. This subterranean location has people, villages, amazing technology and slugs.
What are slugs? These creatures are cute little pets, but they are much more than they seem. They are also living ammo, as you can shoot them out of your blaster and use their unique abilities to protect the underground world.
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Pretty interesting, right? The game is looking to be just as fun as the cartoon, too. You would take control of the main character, Eli Shane, in order to protect the 99 caverns from Dr. Blakk. This evil character wants to gain control of the subterranean lands by giving slugs “dark water” a substance that turns them into evil weapons.
Want in on the action? You can download Slugterra: Dark Waters straight from the Google Play Store today. The game is free to play, but does offer in-app purchases to speed up your progress and upgrade your slugs. Have a blast and hit the comments to tell us how you are enjoying the new game!
SwiftKey releases new themes in anticipation for PIXELS
Most of us out there remember playing the classics like Pac-Mac, Donkey Kong, and Space Invaders. Well in anticipation of the release of PIXELS, Swiftkey has released five new themes to show your excitement. While PIXELS doesn’t come out until July 24th, you can get your fix starting now on your devices.
It’s got video game aliens, a team of misfits including Adam Sandler and Peter Dinklage, and a Pac-Man that literally eats San Francisco. Who’s not excited for PIXELS, out in theaters on July 24th? Good news: you don’t have to wait any longer to get a peek at all your favorite old-school arcade characters.
SwiftKey partnered with Sony Pictures to bring these new themes to your devices, and have the following themes available:
- Donkey Kong
- Pac-Man
- Q*bert
- Centipede
- Space Invaders
No, don’t worry, you don’t have to pay for these new themes. You can either download only the themes you want, or download all five of the PIXELS themes in a pack within the theme store on your device.
Let us know in the comments below if you are excited for the release of PIXELS and what your all-time favorite games are, new or old.
Source: SwiftKey Blog
The post SwiftKey releases new themes in anticipation for PIXELS appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Speedy 50W 5-Port USB Charger
If the area around your wall outlet is beginning to look like a scene from Jumanji, it may be time to consider a neater solution. We’re all running so many wireless and battery powered devices that need nightly recharges and things don’t look like they’ll be changing anytime soon. When every member of your household has a smartphone and a tablet, space to tap into electricity can be scarce. Luckily, with the Speedy 50W 5-Port USB charger, you can wave bye-bye to all of these issues.
This Speedy Desktop USB Charger allows you to charge multiple devices, from one location, at the same time. With 50 watts of power, this unit adapts to your device specs to maximize and optimize your charging speeds. You’ll get the biggest bang for your buck and it’s completely portable. This precious little piece of power regularly sells for $30 but AndroidGuys readers take 26% off, today, and own it for just $21.99!
See more at deals.androidguys.com
The post Speedy 50W 5-Port USB Charger appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Need some vibrant wallpapers? Beautiful Color Wallpaper has you covered
Even if you aren’t a wallpaper lover, it won’t do any damage to change your wallpaper every now and then. After all, it is the most seen part of your phone. What’s even better is when it’s animated, granted that it’s not too much for your phone to handle.
Setup
As this is a simple wallpaper app, there is fortunately little to set up. You’ll have to grant it permission to use a live wallpaper but that’s the only “hard work” I had to do. The only other setup you’ll experience is choosing your wallpaper, which is part of the fun
Function
The obvious and only function of the app is to allow you to create live wallpapers with pre-selected toggles. I found it easy to navigate and use, especially because there is one screen for everything. There were times when it wouldn’t display my selected theme, but that was easily resolved by reselecting my option.
Is it for me?
Unless you have a slow phone, you should take a shot at trying it. The childish menu designs might make you want to puke rainbows, but it certainly didn’t hinder me in selecting my choosen setup. It’s not a bad idea to change your wallpaper every now and then.
What we Liked:
- Ease of use
- Nice, animated wallpapers
- You can choose various patterns and themes
And not so much:
- Childish user interface
- Many of the patterns/themes are similar
Overall, Beautiful Color Wallpapers is a decent app for those who struggle to keep their satisfaction with their current wallpaper. Granted that your device has respectable specs, everything should run smoothly. The app will not run nicely on low range devices and will chew battery excessively, simply because a live wallpaper puts a lot of strain on the system. If those things don’t concern you, go try it it out!
The post Need some vibrant wallpapers? Beautiful Color Wallpaper has you covered appeared first on AndroidGuys.
The Galaxy S6 Edge+ shows itself, next to a Note 4
Reports have been suggesting a near release for a Samsung phablet duo, one being a progression of the Note line and the other a blown up S6 Edge. Naturally, as launch preparation ramps up, so does the vulnerability for visual leaks. Courtesy of All About Samsung, we have a look at an alleged dummy unit of the Galaxy S6 Edge+.
This time we have a Note 4 as a reference, giving us an idea of the Edge+ phone size. Previous leaks have hinted at either a 5.6″ or 5.7″ display, and the image above supports that.
Below, we have a look at the back of the phone. While the form looks as expected, I’m wondering why there isn’t a “Galaxy S6 edge+” logo towards the bottom, like on the previous Edge model.
This leak did not confirm any of the suspected specifications for the Edge+. We’ve been hearing that Samsung may toss Qualcomm a bone and use the Snapdragon 808 for this one. All other supposed specs follow what the S6 Edge gave us, but with a larger 3,000mAh battery. Current reports point to a mid-August launch, so stay tuned!
The post The Galaxy S6 Edge+ shows itself, next to a Note 4 appeared first on AndroidGuys.
July 28th could bring us all the 2015 Moto G
Motorola is all set to bring the all new Moto G (2015) into the market. It’s been reported that Motorola could launch the Moto G (2015) as early as July 28. This latest iteration has been rumored and leaked a couple of times before, giving us the glimpse of internal specifications as well as hardware features.
Rumored specifications :
- 5-inch 720p display
- 1.4 GHz quad core Cortex A53 CPU(Snapdragon 410)
- 1GB RAM and 8/16GB of internal storage
- 13MP rear-facing camera
- 5MP front-facing camera
- micro-SD card slot
- 2,470 mAh battery
In addition to all of this, Motorola is also supposed to bring Moto Maker support to the Moto G (2015). The handset is also supposed to be water resistant, but I think it will be just nano-coating that will be preventing the hardware from water damage to some extent as seen in other Moto devices.
It’s interesting to see that Motorola is bringing customization to the mid-range Moto G. There’s no word on whether or not Moto Maker will cost extra for the latest version, or whether it will carry additional material options for the rear shell like the Moto X. However, we will be sure to keep you posted about each and every detail surrounding the all new Moto G(2015).
Source: tecmundo
The post July 28th could bring us all the 2015 Moto G appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Google finally acknowledges the Lollipop battery drain associated with mobile radios
Over on the Android Developer Preview portal, Google has acknowledged an issue with battery life on Lollipop.
The problem occurs when a device running either 5.0 or 5.1 uses data. Internet apps will continue to drain the battery by keeping mobile data active unless they are forced to stop. On KitKat, apps stop doing so once they have completed their tasks. According to the user who reported it, this happens on Android M, as well. He or she also adds that the issue has been in the Android Issue Tracker since April, but Google has given it low priority.
A project member responded to the post with this:
Hi,
Thank you for reporting this issue. We have passed this on to the development team and will update this issue with more information as it becomes available.Status: Acknowledged
Owner: dnaga…@google.com
Labels: Defect-22287469
Personally, I’ve experienced this since my LG G3 updated to Lollipop some time ago. Battery life indeed was worse, as the personal anecdotes I had read had mentioned.
Still, Google realizes this complication, and hopefully, this means that Google will raise its priority and work to fix it, especially as Lollipop (and later, Android M) becomes the most used flavor of Android.
The post Google finally acknowledges the Lollipop battery drain associated with mobile radios appeared first on AndroidGuys.
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