Splendor is Days of Wonder’s latest board game to make the digital jump
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Back in 2014, Days of Wonder, creator of popular board games Ticket to Ride and Small World, released a new board game called Splendor. The game has since been a critical success, so much so that Days of Wonder decided to bring a digital version of Splendor to Android and iOS. That version released today and is available on the Play Store for the tidy sum of $6.99 USD.
For your hard earned cash, you will get access to a resource collection card game that will see you scrabbling for scarcely available resources to build up your prestige points – enough prestige will see you get a visit from nobility, further boosting your prestige count, with the winner being the first one to reach 15 prestige points. While that doesn’t sound like much, Splendor is a surprisingly intensely strategic game for 2 to 4 players, one that is befitting of Days of Wonder’s pedigree – stay tuned for our full review of the game in the coming days.
If Splendor sounds like the type of game you want to get your hands on, hit the Play Store link below:
What do you think about Splendor? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
The post Splendor is Days of Wonder’s latest board game to make the digital jump appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
NASA observatories back up New Horizons in observing Pluto
NASA’s New Horizons is getting more than a little help from its friends — other observatories and spacecraft, if you want to be technical — in studying what was once the ninth planet. When it flies by Pluto on July 14th, Cassini’s eyes will also leave Saturn for a bit to turn them onto the dwarf planet and take photos from a distance. On July 23rd, the Spitzer Space Telescope will start gathering infrared data from the ex-planet for seven days, while Kepler’s turn will begin in October. The Kepler observatory, which usually hunts for exoplanets, will focus on Pluto for three full months, measuring the light that reflects off its surface and off Charon’s (its largest moon).
A couple of other New Horizons allies have already done their jobs: The SOFIA observatory installed aboard a 747 plane, for one, have been analyzing Pluto from here on Earth since June. While the Hubble Space Telescope observed the celestial body for years in preparation for the spacecraft’s arrival: it even discovered four moons in the process. New Horizons has already captured some of the clearest photos of Pluto we’ve ever seen, but it’s slated to take even more close-ups once it flies nearer the ousted planet next week.
[Image credit: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute]
Filed under: Science
Source: NASA
Android M Developer Preview 2 is now available for Nexus 5, 6, 9 and Player
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At Google I/O 2015, Google unveiled that their next version of Android would predictably be called Android M and gave an early look at operating system with the Android M Developer Preview. It’s now time for that Preview to get update with improvements that have been made thanks to feedback from the community. Intuitively dubbed the Android M Developer Preview 2, the latest update is available on all the devices the Developer Preview was (i.e. Nexus 5, 6, 9 and Player). As for the changes made in this update, Google says that:
“The update includes a variety of enhancements and bug fixes made across the system, including those related to issues reported by developers through the external issue tracker.”
Of course, being a Preview, there are still known issues that haven’t been stamped out yet, most notably that you can’t share YouTube videos from within the app, among other things. But overall, it’s been reported that the Developer Preview has been relatively stable as a daily driver, all things considered – just don’t expect everything to be hunky dory just yet.
As for getting the update, if you’re currently already using the first Developer Preview, you should be getting an OTA update for Preview 2 anytime now. If you’re just joining the Developer Preview bandwagon now, Google says to flash the Preview to your device and wait a few hours while your device subscribes to OTA updates. For more info, check out the Preview notes on the Android website.
Have any of you been updated to the new Preview yet? Let us know your thoughts on it in the comments below.
The post Android M Developer Preview 2 is now available for Nexus 5, 6, 9 and Player appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
‘Battletoads’ is getting a Comic-Con exclusive vinyl soundtrack
The rumors circling a Battletoads return came to a head at E3 this year with the announcement of the Rare Replay collection, and Microsoft didn’t waste its next tradeshow appearance for a chance to capitalize on the hype. Folks roaming San Diego Comic Con can pick up a limited edition soundtrack for the amphibious beat ’em up on a very fitting yellow and green 180 gram LP. If the cover art up above looks a little familiar, that’s because it was done by the same artist responsible for Run the Jewels’ records, Nick Gazin. The SDCC run is $25, limited to 300 copies and features different art than what’ll be sold outside of the show later this year, according to Entertainment Weekly.
That’s not all, either: the folks at iam8bit have a Con-exclusive screen-printed poster featuring all 30 of the games in the Rare Replay. That goes for $50 and could very well be a SDCC exclusive — the art-minded company hasn’t revealed if it’ll be sold outside the show just yet.
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, Microsoft
Via: Entertainment Weekly
Source: Xbox Wire
Diving into Android M: (re)revamped app drawer and customizing what shows in status bar
Earlier today Android M Developer Preview 2 arrived adding a number of bug fixes, performance tweaks, and the promise of more complete APIs for developer testing. We are still diving in and trying out some new things but we thought we’d take the time to highlight two interesting changes.
First, the app drawer has once again been modified. As you might recall, the first M preview brought a new vertical scrolling app drawer that was alphabetically sorted and featured four shortcuts on the top row. While this is still the case, the difference now is that the A/B/C/etc lettering on the side has now been removed.
Android M left, Android M Dev Preview 2 on right
While on the subject of the launcher, it’s now also possible to allow rotation on the homescreen by enabling “rotation” from within the launcher settings.
Moving on, you might remember the System UI Tuner from the first preview. This made it easy to tweak what icons showed up on the quick settings menu, though it first had to be turned on from the developer options. With the second preview, this functionality remains but has also extended to the status bar.
Simply put, you can now toggle off Wi-Fi, cellular, and just about everything that surfaces on the right side of the status bar except for battery. You can also enable/disable battery percentage from the System UI tuner and toggle on demo mode.
For those wondering what demo mode is, basically it sets your battery status to 100% and shows only the cellular icon giving you a clean, unified status bar for taking screenshots of your apps (obviously geared towards developers).
So there’s a quick look at just a few of the changes we’ve stumbled upon with Android M, though we should have many more “Diving into M” articles coming over the next few days. What do you think of these changes so far? Let us know in the comments.
Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0 and Galaxy Tab A 9.7 review
After staying away from the tablet market for almost a year, Samsung introduced a new budget-friendly tablet series back in March. First launched in Russia, the Galaxy Tab A series has now made its way to other markets around the world, including the US. The two tablets that are currently a part of the series offer everything that you may love about the Samsung experience, and at an affordable price point. As is true in the Android world though, the competition in this space is quite intense, with some really good options out there. So are these devices worth it? We find out in this full review of the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0 and Galaxy Tab A 9.7!
Buy the Galaxy Tab A 8.0 from Amazon for $229
Buy the Galaxy Tab A 9.7 from Amazon for $266.77
Design
On the design front, both tablets feature an all-plastic build, with a matte-finish back and a silver display frame. The plastic certainly feels cheap when talking about the overall feel, but at least it makes for a back that isn’t prone to fingerprints. There are parting lines to be found on the sides and the corners of both tablets as well. While that doesn’t necessarily impact the usage negatively, it is a testament to the somewhat disappointing build quality of these devices.
Read more: Best cheap Android tablets (June 2015)
Signature Samsung design elements make a return this time around as well, with the physical home button up front, flanked by capacitive back and recent apps keys, found below the display. There is no backlighting with these capacitive keys though. Moving around the device, the power button and volume rocker are found on the right side, the microSD card slot is placed on the left, and the microUSB port and headphone jack are both at the bottom. The speakers are also found on the bottom, with the larger Galaxy Tab A 9.7 featuring a dual stereo speaker setup, compared to the single speaker of its smaller sibling. On the back of both are the camera and two smart cover connectors that can be used with the Samsung Smart Cover and a handful of third-party cases.
Both the Galaxy Tab A 8.0 and Galaxy Tab A 9.7 are thin and somewhat light, with a thickness and weight of 7.4 mm and 313 grams for the former, and 7.5 mm and 450 grams in the case of the latter. With the exception of an extra speaker, a slightly less protruding camera on the larger device, and of course, the overall size, both tablets share a similar aesthetic. It also worth mentioning that both of these devices come with a display with a 4:3 aspect ratio, and as a result, are slightly wider than what you’d expect to see on any other Android tablet.
Display
Both the Galaxy Tab A 8.0 and the Galaxy Tab A 9.7 feature TFT touchscreens with the identical resolution of 1024 x 768, resulting in unfortunately low pixel densities of 160 ppi and 132 ppi respectively. This low resolution is certainly disappointing, as it would be something you’d expect with a tablet that is far cheaper than the price for what these tablets are being sold.
With that said, despite the noticeable lack of sharpness, both panels do offer vibrant colors and excellent viewing angles. Sunlight readability could be slightly improved, but the displays are definitely bright enough for standard indoor use. Also noticeable is a thin black border around each display that adds to the bezel of the device. This is a lot more evident on the white model, which could be an annoyance to some people.
Performance and hardware
Under the hood, both tablets pack the quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor clocked at 1.2 GHz, and backed by the Adreno 306 GPU and 1.5 GB of RAM. This is quite the capable processing package, but things tend to feel a little slower than they should at times. The benchmark scores disappoint as well, and just like with the displays, this isn’t what you’d expect nor want with a device priced as high as these. The extra .5GB of RAM is pretty noticeable compared to devices with only 1GB, but unfortunately not by much. On the other hand, these tablets do handle gaming well, and while there is the occasional dropped frame, things remain smooth for the most part.
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Both tablets come with 16 GB of on-board storage, further expandable via microSD by up to 128 GB. Apart from the standard suite of connectivity options, a 4G LTE-capable version is also coming soon, which will also see the on-board storage and RAM bumped up to 32 GB and 2 GB respectively.
The speakers on the Galaxy Tab A devices get reasonably loud, and sound pretty good overall. It is easy to block them when using the device in landscape orientation, though, which is an issue with pretty much all devices with side-firing audio. The larger 9.7-inch model has a slight advantage in this area with its dual stereo speakers, but the audio quality remains about the same when it comes to real world usage.
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One highlight when it comes to the Galaxy Tab A 8.0 and Galaxy Tab A 9.7 is the battery life, with the devices packing large 4,200 mAh and 6,000 mAh batteries respectively. Using each tablet with Wi-Fi enabled and the screen brightness set at 75% allowed for both devices to last just over 14 hours, with an impressive 7 hours of screen-on time in the case of the 8-inch model, and 8 hours of screen-on time with the 9.7-inch model. The power saving modes Samsung offers with its devices are also available here.
Camera
Both devices come with 5 MP rear camera and a 2 MP front-facing unit. The rear camera allows for decent looking shots and will do in a pinch, but is certainly not capable enough to replace your primary mobile photography device. As far as the camera application is concerned, it isn’t as packed with features as is found with Samsung smartphones, but there are a few different modes, effects, and filters available that might help make up for the poor quality photos.
Software
As far as the software is concerned, both devices come with Android 5.0.2 Lollipop with Samsung’s TouchWiz UI on top. These tablets also bring with them quite a few incentives on the software side, including the availability of six Microsoft applications pre-installed, along with the option to claim 100 GB of free cloud storage for 2 years with the use of Microsoft OneDrive. In addition, you also get a 3-month subscription to Next Issue, one free Kindle e-book every month for a year, three free audio books from Audible, and three months of access to SIRIUSXM radio for new users.
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When it comes to the user interface, some of the positives include quicker and easier access to the Quick Toggles menu, along with the ability to edit these toggles, a split view of the Settings menu, a “close all apps” button, and multi-window, which proves to be really useful on devices with large displays. What gets confusing is the number of duplicate apps you’ll see, such as two web browsers, two note-taking apps, two email apps, three music apps, and even two app stores. The launcher’s non-alphabetical organization method can also take some getting used to, and the default keyboard is mediocre at best. Of course, you always have the option of third-party launchers and keyboards to remedy these downfalls.
Specifications
| Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0 | Samsung Galaxy Tab A 9.7 | |
|---|---|---|
| Display | 8-inch TFT display 1024 x 768 resolution, 160 ppi |
9.7-inch TFT display 1024 x 768 resolution, 132 ppi |
| Processor | 1.2 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 Adreno 306 GPU |
1.2 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 Adreno 306 GPU |
| RAM | 1.5 GB | 1.5 GB |
| Storage | 16 GB expandable up to 128 GB |
16 GB expandable up to 128 GB |
| Camera | 5 MP rear camera 2 MP front-facing camera |
5 MP rear camera 2 MP front-facing camera |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n Bluetooth 4.0 GPS + GLONASS microUSB 2.0 |
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n Bluetooth 4.0 GPS + GLONASS microUSB 2.0 |
| Software | Android 5.0.2 Lollipop | Android 5.0.2 Lollipop |
| Battery | 4,200 mAh | 6,000 mAh |
| Dimensions | 208.3 x 137.9 x 7.4 mm 313 grams |
242.5 x 166.8 x 7.5 mm 450 grams |
| Colors | white, smoky titanium, smoky blue | white, smoky titanium, smoky blue |
Gallery
Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0
Samsung Galaxy Tab A 9.7
Pricing and final thoughts
The Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0 is available for $229, and the larger Galaxy Tab A 9.7 also features a heftier price tag of $299, but is currently on Amazon with a price tag of $266.77. Further, an S-Pen can also be picked up with the 9.7-inch model for an additional $50, but keep in mind that the device itself doesn’t have a slot to house the stylus. Available color options for both tablets include White, Smoky Titanium, and Smoky Blue.
Check out these other Samsung devices!
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So there you have it, a close look at the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0 and Galaxy Tab A 9.7! Both of these tablets bring a lot of positives to the table, including good quality audio, fantastic battery life, and a few useful Samsung-exclusive software features. With that said, the low resolution display and slower performance make it hard to justify the price tag, especially with regards to the larger 9.7-inch version. There are some really good tablets that offer similar specs and features to these tablets, but are also cheaper. That turns out to be the biggest issue with the latest Samsung tablets, unless you’re absolutely sold on the Samsung experience.
Buy the Galaxy Tab A 8.0 from Amazon for $229
Buy the Galaxy Tab A 9.7 from Amazon for $266.77
‘The Talos Principle: Road to Ghenna’ promises more robots, philosophy
Haunting. Creative. Beautiful. Intelligent–these are the words we used to describe The Talos Principle and its narrative-driven first-person puzzles. It’s a charming, well-written game that gently convinces the player to question the very nature of consciousness. If you liked it, you’re about to get more of it–Croteam and Devolver Digital recently announced The Talos Principle: Road to Gehenna, the game’s first episodic expansion pack.
Gehnna promises to guide players into new, unseen areas of Uriel’s simulation–introducing new characters, in a new society with loads of history and philosophical challenges. It sounds creepy and intriguing, exactly what you’d want after playing the original game.
The expansion will be available on Steam on July 23rd–but pricing isn’t clear. “The original plan was to divide The Talos Principle: Road to Gehenna into over 100 different $5 DLCs,” teases the game’s official press release in the guise of Devolver Digital’s fictional CFO, Fork Parker. “But the Devolver Digital DLC Ethics Department advised against it. That particular department has subsequently been disbanded.” Good, I guess?
Filed under: Gaming
Source: Croteam
Google Apps get some Android app updates
Although Google may not have caught Microsoft’s Office suite for hardcore office workers, they continue to pursue that goal. Sometimes that means adding major new features. Other times, like this latest batch of tweaks to the Docs, Sheets, and Slides apps for Android devices, the updates are minor items that can be big productivity boosters.
New features that were announced today include the ability to edit the titles of files directly from the overflow menu within each of the apps. This means less switching around between the office apps and Drive.
Users of the Slides app will find they can now change the layout of existing slides to one of several predefined layouts. This could be useful for users who need to make a quick change on the fly and only have their mobile device available.
Finally, Google changed the way the Office Compatibility Mode handles comments and suggestions in Docs. Previously the app listed all comments first and then all suggestions. Now, these will appear in the order in which they were made in the Comments panel. Google also made it easier for users to collaborate by making it possible to reply to comments.
Users can look for these updates to be available in the next few days as Google rolls out the update.
source: Google Apps
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Apple Debuts Two New iPhone 6 Ads: ‘Loved’ and ‘Hardware & Software’
Apple tonight debuted two brand new iPhone 6 ads that appear to be a part of a new marketing campaign. The ads feature a voice over detailing what makes an iPhone unique compared to other smart phones and smart phone platforms while showing off multiple iPhones doing different things on a white background. Both ads end with a new tagline: “If it’s not an iPhone, it’s not an iPhone.”
The first ad, “Loved”, talks about the iPhone’s high user satisfaction rate, claiming that 99% of people who have an iPhone love their device. It shows off people messaging, sending emojis, FaceTiming and having a good time on a multitude of iPhones before cutting to the new tagline.
The second ad, “Hardware & Software”, explains how Apple is one of the few smart phone manufacturers to design both the hardware and software parts of the device. It goes on to say that this allows the device to function as a whole better than other smartphones can. It shows off games, intensive apps like GarageBand and iPhone-exclusive features like Apple Pay and FaceTime.
The new ads mark the third campaign centered around Apple’s flagship device after the Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake ads explaining the differences between the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus and Apple’s award-winning “Shot on iPhone 6” campaign.
The $200 ‘Mirror’s Edge Catalyst’ bundle might be worth it
Note the operative word, “might,” in that headline. It’s difficult to quantify a bundle of egregiously nerdy items, but for those with Faith in their hearts, the Mirror’s Edge Catalyst Collector’s Edition looks like a real treat. For $200, the Collector’s Edition comes with a 14 inch statue featuring Faith as an adult and as a child, sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with a pane of glass between them, plus 10 concept-art prints, a limited-edition lithograph and steelbook case, two temporary tattoos and a box to house it all. This package will be available in limited quantities at “select retailers” for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC versions of Mirror’s Edge Catalyst, and of course the full game is due to launch on February 23rd.
Source: Mirror’s Edge
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