Need For Speed – No Limits is now available on the Play Store

It’s September 30, and that means it’s not only the day after Google unleashed a whole host of new devices and services (which you can catch up on right here), but it’s also the day where you can finally download the new Need For Speed racing game – No Limits.

If you pre-registered for the game, you’ll receive 50,000 credits as well as a couple of crates and cars, and you should have received a notification informing you that the game is ready to be installed. Be warned, it’s a 775MB download, so make sure you are connected to WiFi if you have a data cap, and EA says the game requires a constant data connection during use.

While NFS No Limits is free to download, as you can see from the screenshots above, as expected, there are plenty of In-App-Purchases available. So if you are installing it on your child’s device, make sure to secure your payment methods by setting the Play Store to ask for a password for every transaction, if not going so far as to completely disable them. The IAP’s range from £1.49 to a whopping £79.99, so it’s definitely worth keeping an eye on. Available IAP’s include buying gold, cars, and crates of premium parts for the car.

At the start of the game, you are given 10 units of fuel, with every race you enter using a certain number of units. While in the beginning of the game, the fuel gets topped up with comparative ease, you can bet that the further you get in the game, the harder it will be to keep your tank topped up.

As for the game, well, anyone who played NFS Most Wanted on their device will be familiar with the controls. Tap on the left or right of the display to steer, swipe up to activate the Nitro boost. It really is that simple. You can also set the steering to control the car by tilting the device in the appropriate direction or by swiping left and right.

Despite the fact it is laden with IAP’s, after having played for around 30 mins (purely in the name of research, you understand), I’ve found NFS No Limits to be a fun installment in the venerable Need For Speed franchise. That said, I haven’t really progressed to the point where frustration will set in because EA want to force people to buy IAP’s.

It should also be pointed out that there are some early complaints of less than stunning graphics, which is surprising considering that this game took so long to be released. YMMV.

You can download NFS No Limits simply by clicking the Play Store link below:

Come comment on this article: Need For Speed – No Limits is now available on the Play Store

[TA Deals] Save 81% on the HTML5 & CSS3 Web Design Bundle

How often have you browsed a website and thought that you could have done a better job of designing it, if only you knew how to code your web design ideas into reality? Well, today’s your lucky day, because here’s your chance to deep-dive into the world of website design with the HTML5 and CSS3 Web Design 5-Course Bundle that can be yours for just $39 from Talk Android Deals. Giving you a massive saving of 81% over the $215 RRP.

Besides learning about two of the primary languages of web design; HTML5 and CSS3, the 5-course Web Design Bundle will teach you the basics of wireframing, as well as how to:

• Configure the basic sections of your site
• Figure out how text and images are arranged on your pages
• Wireframe your header and other page components in great detail
• Embellish your site with finishing elements such as image and logo placeholders among others
• Publish your work online to share with colleagues

Bundle contents:

• HTML5 & CSS3 Site Design Online Short Course
• Website Wireframing with HTML5 & CSS3 Online Short Course
• Building Responsive Websites with HTML5 and CSS3 Online Short Course
• Applying Design to Wireframes with HTML5 & CSS3 Online Course
• CSS Floating Layouts Online Short Course

Learning how to design your own website from scratch doesn’t have to be expensive, thanks to the 5-course HTML5 and CSS3 Web Design Bundle that can be yours for just $39.

[Talk Android Deals]

Come comment on this article: [TA Deals] Save 81% on the HTML5 & CSS3 Web Design Bundle

You can pre-order the Chromecast (2015) and Chromecast Audio at Best Buy

Those interested in picking up the new Chromecast (2015) and a Chromecast Audio dongle can pre-order either from Best Buy. Google yesterday announced the two new devices during its loaded event in San Francisco to much excitement.

The devices became available to buy yesterday on the Google Store for $35, and surprisingly, they could be showing up on consumers’ doorsteps as early as today, according to a report from Android Police.

If you’re looking at getting these devices on your doorstep soon, you might want to look at buying it directly from Google, as Best Buy lists the estimated delivery date as October 8. That’s a little over a week away.

Another downside to buying them either Chromecast device via Best Buy is that it seems the Lemonade and Coral colors will be an exclusive to the Google Store. So, if you were looking to get it in one of those colors from Best Buy, you’ll be fresh out of luck.

What are your thoughts on the new Chromecast (2015) and Chromecast Audio?

source: Best Buy
via: Android Police

Come comment on this article: You can pre-order the Chromecast (2015) and Chromecast Audio at Best Buy

‘The Martian’ author Andy Weir: Private space travel is ‘critical’

The Martian is the sort of success story that will inspire countless authors. Andy Weir initially started writing the story of Mark Watney, a NASA astronaut who gets stranded on Mars, as a free serial on his website. Eventually, fans pushed for him to place it on Amazon’s Kindle store, where he offered it for a paltry 99 cents. Soon after that, he had liftoff. It ended up being one of Amazon’s best-selling sci-fi books, which led to a major book deal (the print version remains at the top of The New York Times‘ best-selling paperbacks). Naturally, Hollywood came calling, and now we have Ridley Scott’s adaptation of The Martian hitting theaters on October 2nd. And yes, you can relax: The film is more akin to Scott’s best work, like Alien and Blade Runner, than his recent follies. In a wide-ranging interview, we chatted with Weir about the book, the state of NASA and the importance of commercial space travel.

What was the inspiration for focusing on one guy being stranded on Mars?

Well man versus nature and a guy stranded alone is not a new concept. But basically … I’m a space dork, and I was plotting out how can we do a manned mission to Mars with our current technology. Not for a book or anything; it was just me on my couch. … I was working out all the details on how to get him there, keep him alive and how to get back and stuff. And I thought any mission plan needs to account for failures and problems. … What’s the fallback if this thing breaks? … What if these two things break at the same time? How do we make sure the crew doesn’t die? These situations seemed pretty interesting, so I created an unfortunate protagonist and subjected him to all of it.

How much were you involved with the production of the film? Did you work together with [screenwriter] Drew Goddard?

Drew talked to me frequently. … They didn’t have to include me at all, but they chose to. Drew talked to me pretty much every day when he was working on the screenplay. And then when he finished it, he sent [revisions] of it to me for feedback, and I gave lots of feedback, and he made some changes and ignored others (it’s his screenplay). … And while they were filming the movie, they would occasionally send me questions of deeply technical stuff, because I’m a good source for that. Other than that, I was just mostly an outsider eagerly watching the process unfold.

You’ve mainly worked in programming so far; what led you to extensively research space?

Well, it comes down to that being my hobby. I’ve been a space dork my whole life. Ever since I was a kid, I’d watch any documentary I can about space and space travel, manned and unmanned space flights. It’s easy to research things you’re interested in. … So it just comes down to writing what you know, and that’s what I know.

I appreciate how much you stress scientific accuracy. How did you go about balancing that with the greater plot and having so many characters?

That was probably the hardest part of writing the book, because I at times had to do weeks of work to come up with the solution and to figure out the science behind something, and it turns out to be one sentence. And there’s a part deep down that says: “Damn it! It took me this long to write this; it should take you a long time to read it!” (laughs) But you’ve got to resist that urge. Basically, I decided readers need to understand the situation, but they don’t need to become researchers in this field. I can’t deluge them with information. I need to give them just the information they need so they can understand what’s happening, and tell them that detail in a snarky, sarcastic tone, because that’s Mark Watney’s personality, so that it doesn’t sound like a Wikipedia article. It needs to be fun.

Since the book has come out, we’ve learned a lot more about Mars, especially about the wider availability of water. How would those discoveries have changed the book? [Note: This interview was conducted before NASA announced liquid water was found on Mars’ surface.]

Basically, the limited amount of water was a major plot line in the book, but it turns out you wouldn’t have needed it. There’s plenty of water. … The whole hydrazine-reduction thing, that was an awesome plot, so I’d want to keep that and instead do a bit of a hand wave and say there’s a lot of water in other places on Mars, but not on Acidalia Planitia [the plain where Watney is stranded]; it’s a desert. … So I’d say there wasn’t as much water as there is in Gale Crater, where Curiosity landed. It’s probably false; there’s probably plenty of water, but I’d say you can’t prove me wrong until you send a probe to Acidalia. There are also new technologies developed by NASA in the past few years. … They can just pull CO2 out of the air without expendable filters now.

There’s a lot of NASA love in the book and in the film, and I appreciate that as a space nerd. The Pluto mission was a big thing to rally around, but beyond that NASA just hasn’t gotten much attention lately. Do you see that as a problem with how the general public looks at space travel?

Well people like to see new things happen. We’ve had ISS [the International Space Station] up there for years. It feels like, to the layman, that NASA hasn’t done anything really new, or accomplished anything very significant in a long time. Now building a big-ass space station is actually really hard. There’s also kind of a bruised national pride that we don’t have a manned spaceflight program anymore. I think you’ll see interest in NASA get rekindled once the Orion program [NASA’s latest manned capsule] gets up and running, and we actually start sending our own astronauts back into space without hitching a ride with the Russians.

Private space travel is becoming a bigger topic these days; how do you see that working together with public programs like NASA?

I think commercial space travel is critical. We’re not really going to do much in space at all until the price to low-Earth orbit gets driven down. Right now it’s just so damn expensive, there’s no economic incentive to go into space. So any missions are just governments spending money they’re not going to recoup. But if you can drive down the price, then there will be a commercial space enterprise and economics will see to it from there. If you can imagine a scenario where, for $50,000 you can go into space and spend a week on a space hotel, like a space station. And the whole process were as safe for you as international [air] travel is today. I think people would be lining up to do that. There would be infinite demand.

It all comes down to driving down the cost of getting stuff into low-Earth orbit. That’s what these commercial companies will do, since they’re competing with each other. A government has different objectives. The folks at SpaceX are doing a great job at driving these costs down. … Once that happens, then agencies like NASA could say: “We want to send astronauts to Mars. Well, we need to put 300 kilograms of a big-ass spaceship into orbit. Hey SpaceX, we need eight launches for these parts. We’re going to spend $20 billion building this space station, and we’ll pay you $5 billion to put it into orbit.”

[Photo credits: Kevin Winter/Getty Images, Andy Weir; Aidan Monaghan/Twentieth Century Fox, The Martian]

London plans to regulate Uber with driver tests and pick-up delays

Over the past year, London’s Mayor and transport authority have held discussions over how best to regulate private hire taxi services like Uber, much to the delight of the city’s black cab drivers. Boris Johnson suggested capping the number of unregistered vehicles, and also the idea of a Knowledge-like test to ensure that Uber drivers had a better understanding of the captial’s backstreets. Now, it appears, some of those suggestions could implemented by Transport for London (TfL).

After its initial consultation on the private hire industry concluded in June (and received almost 4,000 responses), TfL is making a second call for opinions on how regulations might need to change in response to the growth of firms like Uber. In it, the authority asks whether Uber drivers should be made to pass English-language and navigation tests (like those put forward by the London Mayor), sign up for “appropriate” insurance and and whether limitations need to be placed on bookings.

One proposal suggests that when customers make a booking, Uber drivers will need to wait five minutes before picking that person up. That way, “driver and vehicle information [can] be communicated to passengers.” Another recommends that private hire companies must let customers book a ride up to seven days in advance. “It is our view is that it is reasonable to expect a private hire operator to offer such a facility,” notes TfL.

The restrictions come after TfL originally ruled in favour of Uber’s app-based operating model. Traditional taxi companies argued that because Uber drivers use their smartphones and don’t utilise a licensed taximeter, the were breaking the law. TfL said that in its “provisional view” the two weren’t the same and the debate was passed onto the High Court for an official ruling. The hearing is scheduled to begin on October 5th.

In a bid to defend itself, Uber has set up a petition calling for people to remind TfL that riders and drivers come first. “We understand that black cab drivers are feeling the pressure from services like Uber,” it says. “But the answer is to level the playing field by reducing today’s burdensome black cab regulations — not to introduce rules that will be bad for riders, drivers and London.” The petition has 92,200 signatures at the time of writing, but whether it really has been signed by tens of thousands of worried Londoners remains to be seen.

Transport for London’s consultation will remain open for 12 weeks and end on December 23rd. Between then and now, we should learn more about whether Uber’s app model is entirely legal, giving the company (or its stanchest opposition) firmer legal ground on which to go about its business.

Via: Transport for London

Source: Private Hire Regulations Review