Exercise your gray matter with Brain It On! – Physics Puzzles (app review)

As I previously mentioned in my review of the app Sum, our brains need to periodically be worked out. The Alzheimer’s Association says:

Mental decline as you age appears to be largely due to altered connections among brain cells. But research has found that keeping the brain active seems to increase its vitality and may build its reserves of brain cells and connections. You could even generate new brain cells.

Brain It On! takes a different approach from Sum, which relies primarily on math puzzles, and allows you to draw shapes to solve the various objectives given in each level.

Brain It On! Overview:

At its core Brain It On! is a physics puzzle game. There are 100 levels to solve. They are grouped in pages of 20 and in order to unlock pages 2-5, you’ll have to collect stars by solving puzzles. Each puzzle has the opportunity to earn 3 stars. One star for solving the puzzle, one star for doing it within the number of allotted shapes, and one star for doing it within the time limit. If you don’t have the patience to collect the required stars, then you can purchase individual pages for $0.99 each.

Each level has a specific objective. It’s up to you to think of a way to achieve said objective by drawing shapes on the screen. As you solve the puzzles, they progressively get harder. I’ve found that I only have the patience to solve 2-3 puzzles at a time before I have to turn it off. It can be frustrating if you’re like me and don’t like to move to the next puzzle without getting all 3 stars first. It seems that when I pick it up again, it’s easier to think of a solution, then when I was losing patience with the level. Having said that, this is a casual game at it’s best.

You can also login to Facebook to see leaderboards and compete with your friends.

The game was designed using the Unity game engine, which is why I was surprised at the game’s simple interface. I’m a big fan of Google’s Material Design Language and wish that they would use in the app.

In spite of the lack of Material Design, I still enjoyed the game.

Brain It On! setup:

The game is very to easy to install. Just download it from Google Play and follow the prompts. You can sign in to Facebook as well, but it is not necessary to play the game.

Who will enjoy Brain It On!:

If you enjoy physics puzzle games or any puzzle game in general, then I’m sure that you’ll enjoy this game.

What we liked

• Challenging puzzles
• Facebook integration

What could be better

• Material design
• Google Play Games service

Brain It On! summary:

This is a fun physics puzzle game that will help exercise your gray matter. Eventually, you’ll beat all the levels and uninstall the game, but until then, it’s a fun game.

The post Exercise your gray matter with Brain It On! – Physics Puzzles (app review) appeared first on AndroidGuys.

Sky’s new Now TV box is full HD compatible after all

Sky’s second-generation Now TV box goes on sale tomorrow, and the company’s just been in touch to say it made a bit of a boo-boo on yesterday’s announcement. You see, the new Now TV box is basically a rebranded Roku 3, and since that device supports full HD, 1080p streaming, we assumed Sky’s reskinned version would too. We were told yesterday, however, that Sky’s model was slightly different, in that it can only output at 720p like the first-gen Now TV box. As it turns out, this isn’t true: the new Now TV box does support 1080p, but Sky content will continue to stream at a maximum resolution of 720p. Also, there are “no immediate plans” to make the jump to full HD, as Sky would rather not hinge the user experience on the speed of your internet connection. By coming clean about its mistake, Sky’s actually made the £15 streaming puck a more attractive purchase. You can use the little set-top box to stream from plenty of content sources that aren’t the Now TV app, so where available, you’ll now be able to do so in glorious full HD.

Filed under:
Home Entertainment, HD

Comments

Tags: hdpostcross, nowtv, nowtvbox, roku, roku3, sky, skynowtv

Rolls-Royce’s new Wraith can silence the jeers of the poor

Music is about youth, vibrancy and rebellion, something that seems at odds with Rolls-Royce, cars that are normally the province of stuffed shirts the world over. Despite this, the company feels that it needs to reach out to music-loving billionaires, which is why it’s launching the Rolls-Royce Wraith Inspired By Music edition. Effectively, the existing Wraith has been kitted out with a custom stereo that, it’s claimed, will turn your car into “the most exclusive music venue” on the highway. Considering that a base model Wraith can cost in excess of $360,000, we’d say that’s a fair claim to make.

Rolls-Royce is boasting that its bespoke audio setup has been in the works for two years and was crafted by a team of “the world’s very best automotive audio engineers.” The end product is a 1,300W, 18 channel system with two big bass speakers, seven tweeters and seven mid-rangers around the cabin. In addition, two speakers are mounted at ear level, so that you can avoid hearing your chatty chauffeur on the way to the airport. If that wasn’t nerdy enough, microphones inside and outside the car monitor the ambient audio, constantly tweaking the sound settings to ensure that you can’t hear the screams of the roadside poor.

Since Rolls-Royce had our attention, it also wanted to spoil some of the more fun myths about its products. The company’s historians have debunked the story that Keith Moon drove his own Roller into a pool during a “high spirited” evening in Michigan. Unfortunately, Rolls’ believes that it’s a conflation of two stories: one where Moon left the handbrake off his car to roll into a half-constructed swimming pool, and another where the drummer drove a Chrysler Wimbledon into an ornamental pond as a protest. So, now you can bore all of your friends with that piece of trivia down the pub this weekend.

Filed under:
Portable Audio/Video, Transportation

Comments

Source:
Rolls-Royce

Tags: Audio, Car, InspiredByMusic, KeithMoon, Pool, Rich, Rolls-Royce, Wraith

24 hours with Sony’s A7R II full-frame mirrorless camera

If that RX100 IV point-and-shoot isn’t powerful enough for you, Sony has a couple other new cameras to fit your needs: the A7R II and RX10 II. For now, our focus is on the A7R II, a full-frame mirrorless beast that’s been one of the most anticipated shooters of the year, and for good reason — it packs high-end specs in a surprisingly small body. It’s definitely smaller than your average DSLR. Sony’s second-generation A7R comes with a whopping 42.4-megapixel Exmor R BSI CMOS sensor (35mm) and BIONZ X processor, both high-end components that are expected to make this one of the sharpest and fastest cameras on the market.Slideshow-309324

At 22.05 oz (body-only), the $3,200 camera feels light yet sturdy in your hands — even with a 24-70mm lens mounted on it, which weighs about one pound on its own. Better yet, Sony’s menu system makes it a breeze to find and use any settings you may want to change. You’ll feel right at home if you’ve owned or played with one of its cameras before.

While we aren’t ready to make a final call on the A7R II, the results so far are promising. Both pictures and videos we’ve taken with it have looked terrific, but we’ll see if this great first impression is able to carry over through a more thorough testing. In the meantime, enjoy this collection of sample photos, captured during a gorgeous sunny day in Portland, Oregon.

To view full-resolution sample images shot with the Sony A7R II, click here.

Filed under:
Cameras, Misc

Comments

Tags: A7R II, A7R2, A7RII, hands-on, Sony, Sony A7R, Sony A7R 2, Sony A7R II, SonyA7RII

EE recalls portable battery in light of fire hazard

Talk Android’s Tony Pilato reported on an incident last week involving an EE Power Bar bursting into flames and severely burning the hand of a 26 year old medical student from Aberdeen.

In the latest update to this story, EE is officially recalling all Power Bars from that particular batch, admitting that this was not an isolated incident.

If you are the owner of an EE Power Bar that bares the model number of E1-06 on the side, you are requested to return the portable batter to the nearest EE store. EE states that Power Bars from any other batch are not affected and pose no risk.

We’ve identified a very small number of incidents where Power Bars have overheated, all of which relate to batch E1-06, and could pose a fire safety risk. EE Power Bars can be identified by a code found on the side of the device. For the recalled models this code will read ‘E1-06′.

To read more about the recall, please check out the source link below. There are some helpful links there including one to assist you in finding your nearest EE store that will accept your faulty Power Bar should it be from this particular batch.

Source: EE

Come comment on this article: EE recalls portable battery in light of fire hazard

[TA Deals] Learn web development in five hours with this free developer bundle

Learning something new can be difficult between school, work, raising a family, or whatever you have going on. Comprehending what goes into web development will take a lot of time and energy depending upon the tools used. Over on Talk Android Deals, there is a free bundle from Mammoth Interactive that provides the core languages and fundamentals necessary to understand web development.

The bundle covers everything from the basics to what plenty of websites are using today. It includes one-hour courses on HTML, CSS, JavaScript, JQuery, and HTML5. That means you can be well-versed in web development in just five hours.

John Bura, the instructor of these courses, has been involved in programming since the late 1990s and started teaching in 2002. He has taught classes on developing for Android, iOS, HTML, and more. Whether it is web development or game design, Bura knows exactly what he’s talking about.

Each course normally costs $29, meaning that the bundle should be priced at $145. However, for a limited time, Mammoth Interactive’s bundle for learning web development is free.

[Talk Android Deals]

Come comment on this article: [TA Deals] Learn web development in five hours with this free developer bundle

Lawsuit Against Apple Over Android-Switching iMessage Issue Fails to Gain Class-Action Status

Apple yesterday won a significant ruling against a group lawsuit filed by a former iPhone user who sued the Cupertino company after claiming that switching from an iPhone to an Android smartphone interfered with her receipt of text messages (via Bloomberg).

The plaintiff, Adrienne Moore, noted in her complaint originally filed in May 2014 that an inability to unlink her phone number from iMessage prevented her from receiving text messages sent by iPhone users to her Samsung Galaxy S5 running Android. The lawsuit claimed users switching away from the iPhone to other devices were “penalized and unable to obtain the full benefits of their wireless-service contracts” due to the issue, with Moore and her lawyers alleging Apple failed to successfully elaborate on the “interference” that switching platforms would cause.

The lawsuit sought group status for the claim, which would automatically include all affected users and potentially result in a significant settlement or court judgment, but U.S. District Judge Lucy H. Koh yesterday ruled the suit can’t continue as a group lawsuit because it wasn’t clear enough that all included members were actually affected by the occurrence described by Moore. Koh decided there was no direct “contractual breach or interference” relating to a problem within the iMessage system itself, thereby giving Apple a victory on the case.

Even if Moore is correct in arguing iMessage has “systematic flaws that could result in the disruption of text messaging services, that determination does not assist the court in determining whether iMessage actually caused the proposed class members to suffer any interference,” Koh wrote in her ruling.

The ruling is a win for Apple because allowing the case to proceed stood to increase the iPhone maker’s potential costs in defending the case, and could have given plaintiffs leverage to negotiate a deal.

The lawsuit began in May of 2014, with customers noting iMessage issues after switching over to a non-Apple platform since the service was introduced in 2011. Despite Apple’s move to address the issue by offering a tool for users to deregister their phone numbers from iMessage, it was ruled last November that the company would indeed face a federal lawsuit on the iMessage issue.