Clever Volume Beta: Clever Music
As a tech savvy guy, I”m always on the lookout for something that makes my life easier, be it a life hack or a convenient app. Clever Volume Beta is an application that allows your music volume to automatically adjust according to the amount of background noise there is. Granted your headphones are plugged in, this certainly provides a handy tool for you.
Setup
As the app is in beta, you’ll need an invite code to access the app once you install. Thankfully, I managed to get one quickly after requesting it and started using it in no time. You are instructed to adjust a graph to your liking that determines how fast the volume changes, and to what degree. Soon, you’re in and instructed to put in your headphones. I must point out, it won’t work if you’re using the loudspeaker. It takes a bit of time to see what’s what and how everything works.
Function
According to the Playstore description, ‘Clever Volume Beta’ affords you with “The perfect music volume for every situation”. It is indeed the app to do that right, as I enjoyed using it on a regular basis. If there is a lot of pesky people talking and making noise around you, your volume will simply get a little bit louder. To my surprise, it worked surprisingly well, minus the minor hiccups. If you leave the noisy area, your volume will go down again. Occasionally, the volume went way too loud for my liking (and probably too loud for a safe volume). I also had difficulty understanding the way the settings work, although that might just be me. There’s a notification that shows while the app is running in order to keep it in the phone memory, a handy feature that’ll ensure the app won’t drop out on you. The user interface was also pleasing, with no signs of lag.
Is it for me?
It’s for anyone that uses headphones really, but will appeal more to people that work in noisy areas and cannot always easily adjust the volume manually.
What we liked:
- Original app
- Accurate adjustments
- The nice UI
And not so much…
- You need to request an invite
- Goes way over a safe listening volume sometimes
All-in-all, Clever Volume Beta is an original app that works nicely. It would be nice to see it easier to use with more accurate adjustments in a later release.
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Dating app Luxy rejects over 40,000 applications for being “poor or ugly”
Dating app Luxy has kicked out 40,000 new applicants for being either “poor or ugly.” The app has received much scrutiny for only wanting wealthy and attractive individuals on its service, mainly because some feel it is extremely shallow.
It’s essentially an exclusive matchmaking club for the wealthy and attractive, which can seem shallow, but it has been quite successful thus far. It’s also extremely difficult to become a Luxy member: if 50% of users reject you via the app’s Vouch feature, you’re out. Additionally 20% of applicants or more are rejected by Luxy staff themselves.
Luxy is very focused on providing a service for millionaires, providing a Tinder-like experience, although there are some other features that make Luxy unique, but without the “poor and unattractive” people.
Luxy truly is an exclusive club, and if you don’t make the cut, you’ll certainly be voted off the island without any hesitation.
source: PR Newswire
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[TA Deals] Save 89% on this Android development bundle
Learning something new as complex as Android development is time-consuming and costly (or at least it seems that way). Also, finding the right tools to get started isn’t exactly easy. That’s where the Supreme Android Coding & Design Bundle on Talk Android Deals comes in. This bundle, which is highly accessible and affordable, packs three sets of lessons into training sessions that last more than forty hours and allow you to learn at your own pace.
Lessons ranging from basic Java programming to Material Design implementation are included and each focuses on a different area to help understand Android development. The bundle will take you from the very basics of learning terminology to being able to manage Eclipse and Android Studio with ease.
Again, everything is done at your pace. There is nothing to rush through and you can go back and practice if necessary.
Reputable services and instructors — LearnToProgram, Antonio Pachon, Tim Buchalka — are responsible for the creation of these resources. What does that mean? You’re provided with guidance from those with years of development experience.
The overall value of this bundle that aims to take you from zero to hero is $377. Talk Android Deals, though, has that price knocked down to $39, saving you nearly 90%.
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T-Mobile officially passes Sprint as the third-largest mobile carrier in the US
T-Mobile has been growing its overall number of subscribers in the United States pretty rapidly throughout the past few months, adding anywhere between one and two million just about every quarter. At the same time, Sprint has been seeing an increasing number of subscriber losses or gains that just can’t compete with those of the Un-carrier. We all pretty much knew this would happen eventually, and now, according to Sprint and T-Mobile’s most recent quarterly earnings reports, T-Mobile has finally overtaken Sprint as the third-largest mobile carrier in the United States.
Sprint has just reported its financial results for the first fiscal quarter in 2015, which ended on June 30th. The carrier reported a gain of 675,000 net subscribers in this time period, 310,000 of which are considered postpaid additions. The company lost 366,000 prepaid subscribers in the first fiscal quarter as well. At the end of this quarter, Sprint reported that it now has 56.8 million subscribers, compared to T-Mobile’s 58.9 million subscribers in the quarter ending at the same time.
This news should come at no surprise to anyone. T-Mobile has been constantly pushing for lower prices, more benefits for its subscribers, as well as a number of valuable promotions to get new customers on board. Although Sprint has been trying to rival most of the moves the Un-carrier makes, it’s now very clear that T-Mobile has been making some great strides in the mobile space.
Angry Birds 2 review: how does it compare to the original?
The very first Angry Birds game was launched in December 2009. Since then, it has collected over 100 million downloads in the Google Play Store and currently holds almost 3 million 5-star reviews. This application is off the charts and continues to be one of the most entertaining casual games around, but we do have to say a successor was due after 6 years.
We have seen plenty of other Angry Birds iterations, but those were really just themed titles. Additional releases included Angry Birds Seasons, Space, Star Wars, Star Wars 2, Epic, Transformers, GO, Friends and even VR. But what about the true successor to Angry Birds? We finally saw it hit the Google Play Store last July 30th! It is plainly named Angry Birds 2 and I have taken the time (likely too much) to play around with it and gather my opinions on the game.
Is Angry Birds 2 a worthy successor to what could be the most popular mobile game in existence? We at least know it will probably be as popular, as it has been downloaded over 10 million times since its inception, last week. It definitely has its pros and cons, though, so let’s dig into the details.
Gameplay
You have played Angry Birds before, right? If you answered “no”, you really need to get out of that rock you are living under. The game is very similar to what we have seen from Angry Birds titles in the past. Those annoying green pigs are back at it, taking all your eggs for themselves. Your goal is to recover these unborn birds by flinging fowl at structures and oddly colored swine. Just take them on before running out of birds.
Your score will be based on performance (birds used and structure destruction), which, in turn, determines how many stars you receive (limit is 3). It’s also possible to unlock spells and easily beat any stage.
As with the previous iteration, each bird has its specific characteristics and abilities, which can be triggered by tapping on the screen when the bird is in mid flight. The red bird sends a blow to anything in front of it, the smaller blue bird splits into three, the white one throws an egg bomb, the yellow one can fly faster and the new gray character can fly drop straight down and smash its opponents.
There are 240 stages to play, so you won’t exactly run out of fun, especially considering there is now the addition of the Arena, in which you can play for as long as your birds will last you. Users can then compare high scores with friends and see who is the true king of the perch.
Angry Birds vs Angry Birds 2
You have probably figured out some of the differences in the new Angry Birds iteration just by playing it or watching some of the trailers. There’s quite a bit, though, so we thought it would be important to touch on them so you know what you are getting into.
Choosing bird order
Every time you start a stage, you will be given the ability to use all available birds. These will show up as cards in the lower-left corner. The real kicker here is that Rovio is no longer choosing which bird you use first and which after. The user now gets the freedom to pick which bird to use at any given fling.
Each stage has levels
Instead of playing only one scenario, Angry Birds 2 has multiple levels within each single stage. There’s usually 2-4 areas per stage, all with different structures and pigs. This makes it imperative that you choose your birds intelligently and form a good strategy. You don’t want to run out of birds before reaching other areas of the stage.
Red bird has an ability!
While we are used to seeing the red bird have no added ability, such is not the case in Angry Birds 2. The lead protagonist now emits a blow (or shock waves?) that will blast anything in front of it.
The new gray bird
Some say it’s silver, some say it’s gray, but whatever color you prefer to call it, one thing is for sure – this bird is awesome. Just send it flying in any direction and tap on the screen when you want it to swoop around and drop downward, smashing anything on its way.
Spells!
The original Angry Birds did something similar with the “Mighty Eagle”, which allowed users to obliterate all green pigs whenever things got tough. The new spells are certainly not all as powerful, but they can be used to give you that added advantage you need during difficult levels.
You can do things like create a rain of yellow ducks, inflate pigs, convert all blocks into ice and turn pigs into bombs. And yes, the Mighty Eagle is still around.
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Bosses
Every few stages you will be presented with a boss. These larger pigs are especially harder to beat. You can’t destroy them with a single hit and will need to get creative with your surroundings. Drop bombs on them, throw boulders at it; just do what you need to do to give these tough guys some damage!
Compete against your friends in the Arena
Angry Birds is no longer a single-player game. Rovio has added the Arena to the second iteration of the series, making gameplay much more social. The only trick is that you will have to beat the first 25 stages before unlocking this special feature.
The Arena is an endless mode you can access once a day (for free). You can play a second time if you watch a commercial. The purpose of this endless stage is to get through as many levels (or rooms) as you can, only using a limited amount of birds. You will then get a score and have it compared to other fellow players.
Business model – cash money!
We thought this change was a bit more important, so we gave it its own section in the review. Rovio has changed things up quite a bit here. Instead of asking for a one-time payment or making the game free (with ads), the developer decided to make money by taking advantage of the addictive in-game currency system we are now so used to.
They also started doing something similar with the original Angry Birds, which allows you to buy the Mighty Eagle spell for actual money. Things are obviously a bit different this time around, though. Let’s go into detail about how it all works.
The new Angry Birds 2 game uses gems, which are quite important. Gems can quickly become necessary, depending on the level of difficulty or amount of time you play. It’s really easy to run out of lives if you don’t finish your levels successfully, for example. This starts happening very often after levels get more difficult. Getting more lives immediately, or repeating the lost game, costs gems. Alternatively, you can wait 30 minutes to keep playing.
There are ways to get free gems, but you shouldn’t depend on them too much, because the flow of free gems slows down after some time. You can get free gems by accomplishing objectives, watching ads and competing in daily challenges. Otherwise, you will have to pay real money for them.
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Conclusion
Overall, Angry Birds 2 is a very fun game that keeps its classic essence, yet adds enough improvements to keep it fresh and lively. The game looks good, thanks to its animations and improved graphics. It also plays very well. I personally love that Rovio is giving users more choice in bird selection and strategy. And game physics are as good as they have always been.
My one gripe is the new monetary system. Relying on in-game currency and limited lives is no surprise, as that is the proven way to make more money. But as a heavy user, I do feel like it crosses that line where it starts breaking my experience, especially when trying to binge fling past all these levels in one sitting. I personally would have much rather dealt with a larger one-time charge.
With that said, you probably won’t find any annoyances if you are truly a casual gamer. This system is great for those who play sporadically, in shorter sessions. If you are patient, you can get through the whole game without spending a dime. The one upside is that Angry Birds 2 is completely free to download and play, so it costs you nothing to go ahead and try it for yourself!
Give it a go and let us know what you think of the game in the comments below. Do you like the improvements? Where you hoping to see more changes? Do you like the new business model?
BlackBerry Passport Silver Edition gets stainless steel, keeps it square
Blackberry debuted its square-screened Passport last fall, and now it has a new model to entice you. The company revealed the Silver Edition of the phone today, a variant that wields a “refined design” that includes a stainless steel frame and soft-touch diamond-pattern back cover. We have to give it to BlackBerry, this silver version certainly does look more sophisticated, but during our review, we found the phone’s size to be a bit awkward and the keyboard took some getting used to.
The new model carries the same specs as the original with a 4.5-inch square screen with 1,440 x 1,440 resolution at 453 DPI. Inside, a 2.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801 CPU and Ardeno 330 GPU do the heavy lifting alongside 3GB RAM and 32GB of built-in storage (expandable to 128GB via SD card). There’s also a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera and 2-megapixel front-facing camera for selfies and video chats. And, of course, BlackBerry 10 runs the show. If you’re looking to take the leap, the Silver Edition is available in North America today for $549 with Europe and other countries to follow shortly (it’ll cost £429 in the UK, by the way). If you opt in soon, BlackBerry will toss in a $130 accessory package at no extra charge.
Filed under:
Cellphones, Mobile
Source:
BlackBerry
Tags: blackberry, blackberrypassport, blackberrypassportsilveredition, cellphone, mobilepostcross, passport, phone, silveredition
‘Halo Wars 2’ exists, hits Xbox One and Windows 10 in 2016
Halo Wars 2 is the sequel to 2009’s troubled yet generally beloved real-time strategy game, and it’s on its way to Xbox One and Windows 10 in fall 2016. Microsoft presented Halo Wars 2 as the cherry on top of its Xbox Gamescom conference in Cologne, Germany, today, offering us a short and sweet cinematic. Halo Wars 2 comes from current Halo developer 343 Industries and Alien: Isolation studio Creative Assembly.
The original Halo Wars ended up being the last game for developer Ensemble Studios. After the studio’s closing, founder Tony Goodman said that the original Halo developer, Bungie, was never into the idea of an RTS. In 2014, we heard rumblings that Microsoft was hiring for “an established and well-loved strategy franchise,” which sounded a lot like Halo Wars 2, at least from the players’ point of view.
It’s really here – #HaloWars2 from @cagames is coming to #XboxOne #Windows10 Fall 2016! #xboxgamescom pic.twitter.com/Q7GLYfZ49V
— Xbox (@Xbox) August 4, 2015
Filed under:
Gaming, HD, Microsoft
Tags: 343Industries, creativeassembly, gamescom2015, HaloWars, halowars2, hdpostcross, microsoft
Sky’s new £15 Now TV box arrives this week
Sky announced a successor to its cheap and cheerful Now TV streaming puck way back at the beginning of the year, and today we’ve learned it’s definitely going to meet its August release window. In fact, the little set-top box will be available through the Now TV website from this Thursday, August 6th, before hitting Argos the following day and other retailers “in the coming weeks.” At £15, it’s a fiver more expensive than the original Now TV box, but that extra cash buys you a faster processor, which should make the user experience that bit slicker, and an Ethernet port for ensuring stable streams if your WiFi is on the flaky side.
Like the old model, the new all-black Now TV box is basically a rebranded Roku. This time around, though, it’s based on the Roku 3, but with one key difference: Sky’s version doesn’t support full HD (1080p) streams, meaning 720p is still as good as it gets. Nevertheless, with a redesigned Now TV app and a couple of improvements on the hardware side, it’s looking like the new Now TV box will be just as good value for money as the last. Especially if you’re up for making it more useful than Sky ever intended.
Filed under:
Home Entertainment, HD
Tags: hdpostcross, nowtv, nowtvbox, roku, roku3, Set-topBox, SetTopBox, sky, skynowtv, streaming, uk-feature
Sprint hopes thousands of new cell sites will revive its fortunes
Sprint chief Marcelo Claure may have done a lot to clean house and keep his customers from leaving, but it’s clear that there’s still a lot of work left to go before people stop abandoning ship. The carrier has reported first fiscal quarter earnings that saw it add a net total of 675,000 customers, but lost 12,000 postpaid (that is, regular subscription) customers. While that’s low for a provider that has suffered some dire losses as of late, it pales in comparison to the unbridled successes of T-Mobile. At least things are getting better — Sprint says that it saw its first net postpaid additions in roughly two years during this quarter.
While those are positive signs, the company isn’t simply counting on its existing efforts to turn things around. It knows that its frequently slow network is a big reason why people are leaving, and the next phase of its service upgrade is a “significant densification” of its network that will include not just more regular cell sites, but “tens of thousands” of small cells that should fill in gaps. Hopefully, this means that you’ll spend less time struggling with oversaturated networks and spotty reception. It’s hard to say if this will work, but Sprint is being candid about its trouble. Chairman (and SoftBank CEO) Masayoshi Son says that American networks as a whole are “very bad” — he thinks Sprint can improve this reputation without spending a ton of money.
[Image credit: AP Photo/Charlie Riedel]
Filed under:
Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Sprint
Source:
Sprint
Tags: carrier, earnings, mobilepostcross, q22015, sprint, wireless
After DirecTV acquisition, AT&T moves to bundle services
AT&T, hot off their acquisition of satellite TV provider DirecTV, has quickly moved into the bundle game. On August 10th, the communications giant will start offering bundles of cellular service, mobile data and satellite service to customers for around $200 a month. While other companies offer bundles with home phone, internet, and television service, AT&T is the first to bundle cell phone service along with television. In some markets you can even add AT&T’s internet service as well.
For $200 a month you’ll receive unlimited calls and texts, 10 GB of data to share among four lines and HDTV and DVR service on four televisions. In addition to the TV service, you’ll be able to access your DirecTV service through an app on compatible smartphones. AT&T claims that this bundle will save customers up to $600 a year while providing an unparalleled experience.
“Today is the first of many planned moves to enable our customers to enjoy a premium entertainment experience almost anywhere. We’re going to deliver more TV and entertainment choices to more screens – when and where our customers want it. And we’ll offer incredible value with more flexibility and convenience through our integrated packages that deliver a great experience.“
Under the new bundle, customers will be able to chose from several tiers of DirecTV service starting with a $50 DIRECTV Select or U-verse U-Family plan ranging all the way to a $125 DirecTV Premiere or U-verse U-450 plan. AT&T’s service, with 4 lines of unlimited calling, text and a 10 GB data bucket will run you $160 a month and when you add a qualifying TV plan, they will attach a $10 a month credit to your account bring the total cost for the base plan to $200 a month.
AT&T is now big the biggest pay TV provider in the country with 55 million users in the combined AT&T U-Verse and DirecTV family and has 132 million wireless users with 308 million pops. It will be interesting to see what path the newly combined companies take from here on out and how AT&T is able to leverage the spectrum owned and entertainment services offered by the largest satellite provider in the country.
Source: Droid Life via AT&T
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AIVAnet 