From Galaxy S to Galaxy S7, the timeline of Samsung’s flagship Android phones in pictures

This coming Sunday, 21 February, Samsung will unveil its two latest flagship smartphones; the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge. They will be announced on stage at a Samsung Unpacked event the night before Mobile World Congress starts in Barcelona and the world will be watching the livestream to get a glimpse of the new designs.

However, by the time it starts there’ll be barely anything to reveal. Thanks to leaks from @evleaks and others, we have already seen some cracking press images of both the S7 and S7 edge. And Samsung’s own teaser site gives certain hints that the leaked pics are genuine.

Therefore, we think we know what each of the new devices looks like now.

READ: Samsung Galaxy S7, S7 edge, S7 edge plus: What’s the story so far?

What is perhaps more interesting is what they look like in comparison to the previous generation; the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge. A touch softer and curvier perhaps?

And what about other Galaxy S models gone by? Just how much have Samsung’s flagship handsets changed over the years?

That’s why we’ve put together a timeline gallery of all the major Samsung Galaxy S smartphones from the first to the two expected to launch this weekend coming.

We’ve ignored variants – the Neo, Plus, Mini, etc – and stuck to the major phones from each line. So flick through our gallery above and see how Samsung has changed its design philosophy as the technology has improved.

And don’t forget to join us for the actual Samsung Unpacked event, which we’ll be covering from Barcelona. Exciting times for Sammy fans for sure.

Pocket Zombie – Virtual Pet (review)

Pocket Zombie is a delighful and unique take on the virtual pet, er, in this case, zombie. Pocket Zombie places you in control of the care taking of a Pete Lorre’esque zombie. Care for this zombie occurs through a series of tasks including: play, feeding, bathing and sleep. As you continue to take care of your zombie, you will level up and gain access to items for your zombie, including: skins, environmental decorations, new types of food and potions. All of these items can be purchased using the games gold coin currency which you earn through performing each task involved with taking care of your zombie.

Setup

Setup of Pocket Zombie is a breeze. To download Pocket Zombie to your device, simply grab it from the Play Store, locate the game on your device and click the icon.

Inspiration?

Upon first opening the game, you will be notified of the permissions the game requests access to. Agree to these permissions and continue. After approving the games permissions, you will be taken to a brief and straightforward interactive tutorial on how to care for your zombie. Upon completion of the tutorial, you will be asked to name your zombie and you will then be given full control of the game.

Review

I think one word sums up Pocket Zombie, very well: charm. Having grown up in the 90’s during the Tamagotchi and Digimon craze, it’s very refreshing to see a modern day take on the virtual pet for a new generation of kids. I say “kids” because this game is the perfect distraction for your kid(s) while sitting in a waiting room or during a long road trip. There’s plenty here to keep your child busy.

Gameplay

As a virtual pet game you are tasked with taking care of a zombie. Luckily for you, care of the un-dead is pretty simple and straightforward. Four tasks are required to take care of your zombie:

Playing with your zombie – this is accomplished through 4 minigames
Feeding your zombie (he thankfully does not eat human flesh)
Bathing your zombie
Allowing your zombie to sleep

One of the things I love most about this game is how unique of an approach it takes toward one specific task: play with your zombie. Playing with your zombie is accomplished through the play of 4 minigames:

• Flappy Zombie – a “Flappy Bird” clone
• Memory – a match tile memory game
• 2048 – a puzzle game that has you combining tiles of the same number to reach a sum of 2048
• Match 3 – a match 3 game in the vain of “Candy Crush Saga” and “Bejeweled”

As you play these mini games (any that you wish to play), you will continually raise your zombie’s happiness level as well as contribute to leveling up and earning coins to buy items for your zombie. Each of these games is fully fleshed out and each plays very well, lending to a full experience with all of them.

A lot of times, the mini games contained in virtual pet titles are lazy and unoriginal. I have to applaud the Arongame in his creativity and implementation of this feature in the game. I must mention that 2048 feels a bit too advanced to be featured in a game geared towards children and should probably be removed from the game altogether.

Feeding

Feeding allows you to feed your zombie a variety of different foods, both healthy and unhealthy. I love this feature because it allows you the option to make your zombie fat. My zombie has lived entirely on a diet of french fries. As you level up, more foods will become available for purchase using the in-game coin currency.

Bathing

Bathing is pretty straight forward. You touch a bar of soap and move it over the zombie in order to lather him up. After you’ve lathered the zombie up, you click a bucket located to the 1 o’clock position of the zombie, which releases a small torrent of water to rinse him off. It could just be me, but the zombie seems to look a bit smug during his bath time…

If you go too long without bathing your zombie, flies will begin to buzz around him, which he does not like or appreciate. This raises the question: is it really possible to clean a zombie?  He’s a rotting corpse…

Sleep

Sleeping is my biggest problem with this game. When you put your zombie to sleep, a timer begins. This timer can start as high as 1 hour, 59 minutes! I see this as a bit of a pay wall because there is a potion you can buy for 50 coins which will automatically replenish your zombie’s energy level and eliminate the need for you to wait for him to sleep.

Now here comes my “conspiracy theory”: My thought is that this sleep timer is a way to manipulate you into buying a coin bundle, via in app purchase, to have on stand by for those times that you don’t feel like waiting the upwards of 2 hours for your zombie to sleep. With all of the content available to unlock in this game, it is certainly very reasonable to assume that you could run out of coins and be forced to buy more, using real money, in order to continue playing the game uninterrupted.

Parents, be warned: this game does have in-app purchases. In order to avoid unwanted charges to your bank account, be sure to block in-app purchases on the device your child is playing Pocket Zombie on. One bright light in the midst of this darkness is the ability for your child to continue to play the available mini games despite how tired the zombie may be. Trust me; the zombie will get over it.

The “Shop”

Now that we’ve covered the gameplay basics, let talk about the “Shop”. The “Shop” is accessible via the green button with a shopping cart on it that is seen in each area of the zombie’s habitat.

The Shop has four categories:

Money – the games in app purchases
Clothes
Food
Decor – items that allow you to decorate your zombie’s habitat

As you progress through the game and level up, more and more items will become available for purchase in the “Shop” using the game’s coin currency.

Graphics

I think the graphics in this game are one of its weak points (in reference to the main game’s graphics. I will review the mini game graphics separately). I particularly dislike the way the zombie looks. As mentioned above, it looks like Pete Lorre from Looney Tunes, which dredges up terrifying childhood memories.

The textures in the game are bland and lack a great amount of detail. I must admit that before playing this game, I was expecting something less ‘cutesy’ and more like “Zombie Weatherman” aesthetically. Anyone remember that old app (game?)? Nonetheless, the graphics get the job done. I won’t ding the game too much for them.

Mini Game Graphics

Graphically, the mini games look excellent! I have no complaints about any of them, either from a visual standpoint or a playability standpoint. I especially applaud the developer for Flappy Zombie. Arongame really captured the ‘pixelesque’ retro feel of it’s inspiration, Flappy Bird. Out of everything in this game, Flappy Zombie is my favorite feature. Flappy Zombie is so good that it could be a standalone title. Kudos, Arongame, for designing something so delightful!

One last feature of note is the ability to take screenshots of your zombie. This can be accomplished via the blue button with a camcorder on it, located to the 10 o’clock position of your zombie. This feature is available in each main area of your zombie’s habitat.

Sound

The game’s sound design is a bit sparse. The only music heard in-game is in the mini games. Unfortunately, this music is the same no matter which mini game you play. There are some basic sound effects throughout the main game: crickets in the sleep area (and even a rooster and a wolf at appropriate times), a water splash sound when rinsing the soap off of your zombie in the bathing area; it’s all basic stuff here. The zombie’s voice definitely fits its look. It sounds sort of like a squeaky voiced muppet.

Conclusion

While Pocket Zombie is not perfect, I definitely have no reservations in recommending it to any parent looking for a new game for their child to play. Heck, even as an adult you may have some fun with it. Give 2048 a try. It’ll give your brain a workout.

I do think the game could use a little more in-depth of a tutorial. For example: at the end of my time with this game, my zombie was shivering and had a temperature gauge to his left that started out at a reading of 5 percent. I had no idea what to do about this.

I would also recommend that 2048 be completely removed from the game. I think that 2048 is just too advanced for what I perceive this game’s target audience to be.

Score

Pocket Zombie is a wonderful game. It’s solid and it’s fun to play. It has a near infinite replay value and if you avoid the wretched in app purchases, the game is completely free! Despite my complaints about the game’s graphics and sound; the mini games, their quality, and the overall charm of this game warrant a score of 3/5 from me. Definitely give Pocket Zombie a try. I feel confident that you won’t be disappointed.

Download Pocket Zombie from the Google Play Store.

UE ROLL is a great speaker with an excellent companion app: review

Most of us love music (if you don’t, I’m very sorry for you). Tastes may vary, but we all like a good tune every now and then. When we want to listen to music at home or on the go, it’s important to be able to do it on a good speaker and unless you’re rocking an HTC One M series phone, Moto X, or Nexus 6P, you’re probably looking for something better than the speakers on your phone.

Ultimate Ears has an offering that’s really hard to pass up when it comes to pure speaker quality and loudness; they call it the UE ROLL.

Design

Upon removal from the packaging (rolled cardboard), my first impression was that this is a very attractive and modern-looking speaker. The colors are very appealing and you quickly realize that even though it doesn’t look like a boulder with an OtterBox case on it, it’s actually a very rugged device. I don’t recommend running it over with your monster truck, but it feels like it might actually survive being run over.

 

As noted in the spec sheet below, it’s IPX7 rated, which means it can be completely immersed in water up to one meter deep for up to 30 minutes. Again, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend trying to drown it, but you can certainly take it with you to the shower or the beach without having to worry.

Sound

When I started playing music, I noticed how clear and beautiful the sound was and how it doesn’t distort when you turn it up to full volume. The loudness is also very impressive for what it is. I found that keeping it at full volume for too long was going to probably upset someone around me, which for something of its size is pretty amazing.

As far as the tuning is concerned, I’d definitely say it sounds better in the mid-range to high-range sounds. UE advertises it as being a pro with the lows and it even has a “bass jump” mode in the built-in equalizer, but it didn’t really impress me much in that department.

Control

The front of the UE Roll is very stylish. It didn’t actually occur to me at first though, that the stylish design is actually very functional. The front of the speaker has giant +/- buttons on it to control the volume and I was very pleased by that. After that the fun ends. The buttons can’t be long-pressed to get any additional functionality (such as skipping or repeating a song) and there’s no way to pause/play the music without your phone in your hand.

However, if you have your phone in your hand, there are a bunch of other things you can do to control the speaker with its companion app!

Overall, the companion app is rather scant, but what do you really expect from a companion app to a Bluetooth speaker? In addition to giving you information about the battery life of the speaker and allowing you to control the equalizer, it has an alarm feature and gives you the ability to pair a second UE ROLL to create true stereo sound. You can also update the firmware on the speaker via the app, which adds the latest features including new equalizer presets and “Block Party” mode, which allows multiple people to connect to a single UE Roll and create a queue together. This a really cool feature in its own right (the owner still holds the power of veto, as it should be).

What I found to be most impressive about the app is actually one of the simpler features. The ability to control the power of the speaker from the app is really useful. It’s nice not to have to physically manipulate the speaker just to turn it on/off. What that also means is the speaker can be powered off when you have the alarm set, and it will power itself on and start playing music when your alarm goes off. My only problem with this feature is the phone doesn’t disconnect from (and power off) the ROLL after you dismiss the alarm. It would be good to include this in a future software update.

Specs

Dimensions: diameter: 135mm, height: 40mm, weight: 330g

Waterproof: IPX7 rated: UE ROLL can be immersed in liquid up to one minute for up to 30 minutes.

Audio:

• Maximum sound level: 85dBA

• Frequency range: 108Hz – 20kHz
• Drivers: one two inch driver and two ¾” tweeters

Battery: rechargeable lithium-ion battery

Wireless/Audio compatibility: for audio playback – smartphones, tablets and other devices that support Bluetooth wireless audio profile [Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP)] or 3.5 mm audio output.

Overall

I found the UE Roll to have exceptional sound, especially for the size that it is. It’s definitely a little pricey, but I’ve never seen anything like this before: something with such bold sound, that’s so portable, has great battery life, and you can take it to the beach because it’s okay if it gets wet.

More of the value of this speaker comes from the companion app and its ability to make a simple Bluetooth speaker into the life of the party. Pick one up today at Verizon and save 20% off of full price.

Google Play Store – UE Roll app

Purchase: Verizon Wireless

Puxers – The fun brain game [Review]

Overview

At risk of sounding utterly cliche, Puxers is a game that’s easy to pick up, but hard to master. You flick numbered pucks around an arena, colliding like-numbered pucks with one another. When these pucks collide, they transform into the sum of those numbers. You may have no more than 12 pucks on the board at a time – any more, and you lose.

Developer: Rokitt Dynamix TM

Price: Free (Ad-Supported; Individual Undos: $0.99)

Highlights:

• Collide like-numbered pucks to increase your score.
• No more than 12 pucks on board at a time.
• Use multipliers to win big!

Main Menu.

Setup

Beyond the standard Google Play login, there’s not much to do as far as setup for this app goes. I’d highly recommend viewing the tutorial slides, which you access by tapping on the stylized ‘?’ on the right side of the screen.

Features

Puxers is relatively simple, but at the same time challenging and strategic. I fell in love with it very quickly. The graphics are cute and arcadey, with sounds to match,  and the game itself runs very smoothly. Pucks range in scale by powers of 2, from 2 to 8192. By colliding like numbers, you create a numbered puck that equals the sum of the two you collided. For example, colliding two 8-pucks results in a 16-puck, two 16-pucks yields a 32-puck, etc. At some point – I believe it is when the number reaches 8192, the puck simply turns into a star and leaves the field. As you accumulate numbers, your score goes up.

Basic Gameplay.

The kicker, however, is that if you accumulate twelve pucks on the board and fail to clear one, you lose. Game over. This is where the game’s only in-app-purchase comes into play; if you lose, you are able to Undo your last move by paying $0.99. In between games you’ll often encounter long, video-based ads that can be skipped in a few seconds, which will then direct you to a Play Store download link. A small inconvenience, but inconvenient nonetheless.

Microtransactions!

What I like

• Simple, fun gameplay mechanics.
• Hard to master; strategy legitimately matters.

What I don’t

• Micro-transaction price is a little steep.
• Multipliers seem to appear at random.

Conclusion

If you like simple, challenging puzzlers, this game is for you. Great quality of product, a simple game mechanic, and a real sense of accomplishment when you beat your score should make this game a hit if it gains traction.

Google Play Store –  Puxers – The fun brain game

Asus ZenFone Zoom review: Clearing up the view ahead

Premium build, 4GB of RAM, 3x optical zoom, and $399 price tag – is this the smartphone to beat?

Asus has been trying to crack the market’s smartphone code for a while now. Prior to its current lineup, the company tried again and again to get consumers on-board with an unconventional but innovative smartphone/tablet integration concept with the PadFone. Alas, the Taiwanese manufacturer finally gave in to the lackluster sales and redirected its smartphone efforts to the ZenFone.

2015 was a good year for Asus; when the ZenFone 2 managed to catch the market’s attention with its newfound value. It packed bangin’ specs for the competitive price. Asus phones were finally selling. But while the company later used this success as an opportunity to introduce ZenFone 2 variants, one of its offering quietly slipped out of view – the ZenFone Zoom.

First announced at CES 2015, Asus boasted a smartphone with a camera that could optically zoom. In hindsight, it seems like that project was a bit too ambitious for the manufacturer, as it’s taken a whole year of extra development to finally get it into our hands.

Is the ZenFone Zoom better late than never, or should it have remained as a concept? Let’s find out.

Design

If you recall the ZenFone Zoom’s CES 2015 announcement, you may notice that the back cover is slightly different to the production unit. The former had a smooth plastic cover while the latter looks leathery. Due to the Zoom’s aggressive pricing, I suspected that we would actually be dealing with faux leather.

When I got a hold of the review unit, I was convinced that my assumption was correct. The entire back cover feels like a leather-textured hard plastic. However, Asus states that it is in fact a “premium”, burnished leather. Because the material doesn’t quite feel the part, I’m left ambivalent about the effort.

Nonetheless, the texture and rounded back feels great in hand. Yes, the phone is in no way trying to be slim, but it’s not a brick either. OEM obsession over phone thinness is overrated in my book (especially when it’s traded for features), and the Zoom’s extra girth is no way impugns phone ergonomics.

Thickness comparison between the LG V10 (left) and ZenFone Zoom (right)

 

We can’t talk about the back of the phone without addressing the elephant in the room – that large circular camera housing. I’m not quite sure why the camera component has to take up so much space, but I won’t question the engineering magic that Asus had to pull off to gain 3x zooming from a lens that doesn’t telescope (more on the camera details later). I do appreciate that the odd module is just about the same thickness as the thickest portions of the phone. It doesn’t have that disruptive appearance that previous optically zooming smartphones have beared (i.e. Samsung’s Galaxy Zoom series)

The camera lens is recessed, so you don’t have to worry about the protective glass getting scratched and ruining your pictures. However, on a usability note, the len’s placement on the back isn’t conventional (it’s lower than on most phones). I find myself often touching it with my index finger, then having to swipe off the fingerprint smudge before taking pics.

Because the curved back tapers on the sides, towards the bottom you’ll see a raised lining for stability (it keeps the phone from wobbling when set on a table). Subtle leather stitching surrounds the protrusion, for that convincing look. Right below it is a rear-facing, mono external speaker.

Oh, and that back cover is removeable. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that you’ll have access to the battery (it’s barricaded in), but you will get a micro-SD slot. This is where the SIM slot lives as well.

Before receiving the Zoom, I wasn’t aware that Asus had now evolved the ZenFone’s build with a metal frame. It’s excellent and as premium as they come. It’s rounded, similar to the iPhone, and feels great in-hand. The finish is smooth and matte, the color has an interesting deep purple-ish tone. The metal is chamfered on both edges of the frame to show off its shine. The whole presentation says classy and complements the leathery backing well.

Regarding ports, you’ll find the headphone jack on the top and micro-USB port on the bottom. And because the Zoom is camera-centric, Asus included a lanyard opening on the bottom-left corner, for safety from drops during all those photo shoots.

The physical buttons are all on the right side (there’s nothing on the left side). Asus not only fitted a camera shutter button but also a record button adjacent to it. Holding down on either button launches the camera app whether the phone is off or on. Cleverly, the volume buttons double up for zooming when you’re in the camera app. They even have “T” (Telephoto) and “W” (Wide Angle) labels etched on them, like on a dedicated camera.

The front of the phone keeps traditional ZenFone fashion. There’s an Asus logo squeezed in between the earpiece and display, capacitive buttons, and the signature bezel plate along the bottom (which has a circular texture that produces a light ray effect from the center of the pattern). The Zoom’s bezel size is fairly average; it’s not the best screen-to-body ratio. It is just about as tall as the LG V10, which isn’t a good thing. The V10 has a 0.2″ larger display and a secondary screen on top of that.

But I suppose that when you factor in the $399 price and optical zoom, it can be forgivable.

Performance

Asus continues its partnership with Intel on the ZenFone Zoom. It packs an Intel Atom Z3580, which is comprised of a quad-core processor (running at 2.3GHz), PowerVR G6430 graphics processor, and 4GB of LPDDR3 RAM. Yes, you heard correctly – 4GB in a $399 smartphone.

But do those specs mean as much as they sound like they mean in the real world? Mostly. The Zoom is a speedy animal. Even despite the heavy ZenUI, it still manages to chug through Android without hesitation.

However, there were moments that frame rate drops were noticeable. I’m not talking about lags or delays, but rather, the fluidity was interrupted at times. In digging around, I noticed that ZenUI’s default “Normal” power management system says that it “Smartly adjusts CPU performance and brightness”. You can switch it to the “Performance” mode, in which it will utilize the entire CPU’s capability (at the cost of battery life).

A great thing is that the standard internal storage capacity of the Zoom is 64GB. I wish that every OEM would follow suit. And what makes that even sweeter is that micro-SD expansion is supported. You can only add on 64GB more, but at least you can.

Audio performance on all front is nothing to write home about. The rear placement of the external speaker is not ideal, and it’s thin-sounding. And there is nothing special to my ears from the audio out of the headphone jack.

Display

The ZenFone Zoom has a 5.5″ sized IPS LCD screen. Its resolution isn’t saturated with the QHD pixel count that many flagships boast these days, but 1080P is sufficient (403 PPI). I don’t find the difference between QHD and 1080P on a 5.5″ display that telling anyways, and would much rather not waste the extra battery life on something that frivolous.

The panel’s quality is above average. It particularly excels at keeping its composure at even extreme viewing angles. Colors look a tad dull to my eyes, but that’s just me being nit-picky.

The brightness does leave to be desired though. I feel like the max brightness should be able to go an extra 20-30% further (based on my experience with other phones). This mostly becomes a concern outside on a sunny day. But in digging around, I did find out that you can gain more brightness from within the Battery settings. Putting the phone in “Performance” mode increases the max brightness slightly (we’ll talk about this more in the Battery section).

Camera

Now the moment you’ve probably been waiting for – the ZenFone Zoom’s camera performance. Asus boasts a lot of technological achievement about the Zoom’s sensor on paper, but all that awesomeness deliver in real world use? We’ll get to that.

Firstly, something to know about the Zoom’s optics is that the lens doesn’t telescope like with traditional optical zooming. I didn’t know that upon receiving the phone. So when I opened her up and stared at the lens while zooming, you can probably guess the look on my face.

Asus says that the 3x optical magnification is achieved by some 10-element HOYA periscopic lens arrangement trickery. You can get more details about the technology (which Asus dubs PixelMaster 2.0) on the manufacturer’s site.

The sensor itself has a 13MP capture resolution. It is also supplemented by 4 stops of Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) and an ultra-fast (0.03 seconds) laser auto-focus. The len’s f/2.7 aperture isn’t particularly great (compared to significantly larger sizes from the latest flagships), but Asus tries to assist the low-light performance from the software side with a Low Light shooting mode.

Without further ado, let’s get into the photo samples. Click on the collection below to see zoomed in (3x) and out samples.

The optical zoom does work, and the camera quality is maintained when zoomed. Check out this comparison with the LG V10, both zoomed at 3x (but the V10 can only do digital zoom).

LG V10, 3x zoom

Asus ZenFone Zoom, 3x zoom

To my eyes, the Zoom’s camera performs fantastically in good lighting. But the results can take a dubious turn otherwise. Areas of concentrated lighting can too easily be overexposed.

HDR helps to a point (mostly to even out the overall contrast), but the blown-out areas will still be there. On the other extreme, there is an expected struggle when light is taken away. But the camera doesn’t try to force it and give you grainy images, things are just less visible. Thankfully, there is a Low Light shooting mode in the camera interface, which produces decent results.

Auto shooting mode

Low Light shooting mode

There’s no strings attached to the optical zoom’s use. It still works in special shooting modes, such as HDR and Low Light, as well as while recording. If you find that you need to zoom more than 3x, the len’s mechanism also allows it to go all the way to 12x (but via digital zooming).

Speaking of shooting modes, Asus makes sure the hardware is well supported on the software front. On the bottom-right corner of the camera interface is a shortcut to a barrage of modes.

Some of these options are commonplace, but there’s a couple standout features. Super Resolution combines the detail from four simultaneous shots into a result that simulates 4x the capture resolution. Miniature mode gives the user finer tuning over the depth of field effect. Time Rewind takes simultaneous burst shots before and after the shutter button was tapped.

Battery

The ZenFone Zoom packs a modest 3,000 mAh capacity battery (non-removeable). It’s been sufficient in my use. I’ll go ahead to show you a battery usage graph, over a 9-hour period (the first half on T-Mobile’s network and the other half on WiFi).

50% battery drain over 9 hours is fine in my book. My usage covered a lot of use cases, such as internet browsing, music, maps/navigation, social media, and camera (screen brightness varied between max and 75%). But I didn’t play any games.

Do be aware that ZenUI packs battery modes that can largely determine what your battery life outcome will be. By default, the system is set to “Normal” (this is the mode that I used for the results above). It’s nice that Asus gives the user choices. Most UI’s have some form of Power Saving settings, but ZenUI actually lets you maximize performance if you want to (at the cost of battery life of course).

There are two tiers of power saving modes: “Power saving” and “Super saving”. The former disables networks when the phone is on standby, while the latter only keeps the basic phone functions going (calling, texting, alarm). Or you can select “Customized” and pick and choose the system behavior yourself, such as CPU performance, screen brightness, and network and app activity. Lastly, “Smart switch” allows automatic battery mode switching based on either a certain battery percentage or user-specified schedule.

Software

The ZenFone Zoom runs off of Android 5.0 (Lollipop). Sadly, it’s not the latest version of Android and not even Android 5.1 (which was a crucial update in Lollipop). ZenUI is the user interface (UI) overlay and is no doubt as heavy as they come. But I will admit that after some time with the UI, I’ve started to open up to it. I don’t find that performance is hindered by ZenUI (which gives me confidence over Asus’s software competence), and I’ve discovered several useful functions that aren’t on other UI’s.

But I will always complain about unnecessary changes to Android’s aesthetics; it’s a waste of effort when changes don’t add any value. Things like the notification shade, app drawer, folder layout, and panel transitions all get a ZenUI fix. In fact, there’s no trace of true Android that I can spot.

Adding more insult to injury, Asus throws in a ton of home-brewed apps that get in your face. At the phone’s first startup, you get a barrage of notifications from these apps to let you know that they’re present (and they pop up again over time). The Asus apps range from system management (data cleaner, power settings) to media features/tools. Fortunately, if you’re like me and don’t care, the system allows you to disable the apps (but not uninstall).

But ZenUI does redeem itself through a couple ways. One of these is gestures (which stock Android has yet to implement).

There are two categories of gestures: Motion and Touch. There’s only a couple of motion gestures; shaking the phone to take a screenshot or bringing the phone to your ear to pick up a phone call. The touch gestures are far more interesting. Firstly, tap-to-wake is present (thank you, Asus!). What’s also cool is that you can draw a letter on the screen when it is off to launch one of the specified apps.

One other neat action is when you swipe up from the home screen. A “Manage Home” area pop ups, which contains various functions you may often use. You’ll also run into other nice useful features throughout the UI. For instance, you can set a tap and hold on Recent Apps button to take a screenshot or open up an app’s menu. The display’s coloring is alterable via presets or user customization. And there’s a useful “Auto-start Manager”, where you can save system memory by controlling which apps are allowed to run automatically.

Theming is something that I think every UI should be able to do. ZenUI has a “Themes” app with a vast library of free and paid options. This includes a library of icon packs and third-party support to grab a pack from the Play Store.

Final Thoughts

When I reflect on everything that the ZenFone Zoom offers and then recall its asking price of $399, I can’t help but think that the value is great. I could most definitely replace my daily driver flagship phone (which costs almost twice as much) and not regret it. That’s where the ZenFone line has the upper-hand, and the 3x optical zoom is icing that you won’t get on most cakes out there.

As long as your expectations aren’t sky-high, the ZenFone Zoom is definitely recommendable. I just emphasize that the camera’s general performance is good but not the best you’ll find, and that ZenUI may be too heavy for Android enthusiasts (although, it functions just fine).

We’d like to give a shout-out to B&H Photo for supplying our ZenFone Zoom review unit!

Asus ZenFone Zoom product page

Clocks is a dead-simple yet attractive game (review)

Overview

The mobile game market tends to have emphasis placed on opposing ends of the spectrum.  On one end you have the very (and sometimes extremely!) grand, detailed, and complex works of artistic and scientific wonder. These games are constantly out developing each other with their intricate world designs, control schemes, and processor-eating technical requirements.

On the opposite end you have a very different expectation. These are games where simplicity rules, and both ease-of-play and addictiveness by design can quickly decide the success of a title. There are plenty of options at both ends.

One such option on the simpler end of things is the title “Clocks”, by the Saskatchewan, Canada-based studio Noodlecake Games. They first hit the mobile game market with their possibly familiar “Stickman Golf” and “Super Stickman Golf” games.

Setup

You can grab the game for free from the Play Store, and startup is as easy as pressing the app icon on your device.
The game does connect with your Google Play Games account, though I’ve never personally used that so I cannot speak to it’s worth here.

Gameplay

The idea of “Clocks” is simple enough. There are two modes, ‘Quest’ and ‘Survival’, though you are forced to start with ‘Quest’.  In this mode, in each level you are presented with a different arrangement of clock faces, each with a single hand spinning either clockwise or…you guessed it.

Each clock’s hand is also spinning at a different speed. The only control is a large ‘shoot’ button taking up the bottom of the display; about the size of the Android screen dock on a typical home screen.  At the beginning of each level, one clock is highlighted as the one you are in control of.

The idea is to press the ‘shoot’ button as the spinning hand lines up with another clock of your choice. This action shoots a small dot, or BB, at the clock you’re aiming at. If you hit it, the previous clock disappears and you are now in control of the clock you just hit; ready to shoot the next one of your choosing. You repeat this until you have cleared all of the clocks off the screen, when you are congratulated on-screen and taken to the next level. If you miss, a quick “oh darn”-type message pops up; you’re given the option to try again and again until you complete it.

There are two levels of victory in each stage: you receive a *star* if you complete the stage before the stage’s countdown timer gets to zero, or simply a ‘passable’ score, with the option to move to the next stage or retry for the star.

Once you clear the 10th level, a message displays that you have unlocked access to the ‘Survival’ option of the game. This is an untimed version of the game. You begin with a similar screen of randomly placed spinning clocks, one highlighted as the one in your control, ready to stop and shoot upon your button press.

The difference here is when you accurately shoot a clock and take it over, the old one disappears and a new one randomly appears guaranteeing you never run out of clocks to shoot. The object here is not to clear the screen, but to see how many clocks you can accurately hit before finally missing, which becomes your high score. Successive attempts at this game option are solely to break your record and get a new personal high score.

Summary

Overall I do enjoy this game; the design is simple, but colorful and with good visual contrast, so it’s easy on the eyes when staring at a 5” screen. The gameplay is a matter of simple timing, which makes personal investment a minimum. You can pick it up and put it back down equally easily, which is nice in a typical hectic day. Sometimes you just want to challenge yourself, or while away the minutes in the doctor’s waiting room on something not called Facebook.

Download from the Play Store.

 

Save over 50% on the Luminid Light Up Cable to save yourself some headaches

We’ve all been there before at some point in time. You are ready to roll into bed, but you need to plug in your phone before you pass out for the night. In your exhaustion, you have to fumble with the charger, not being able to get the charger plugged in the right way.

This is something that everyone has been dealing with for years. Even if you’re an early adopter of USB Type-C, you’ve had to deal with this issue in the past with your older phones. Luckily, for those of us who haven’t upgraded to a USB Type-C device, there’s a cable available that will help you make sure you’re plugging the charger in correctly even if it’s the middle of the night.

The Luminid Touch Light-Up Cable has two LED lights build into the Micro-USB end of the cable, that will light up whenever you touch the edge. This will illuminate the area that you’re pointing the cable so that you will easily be able to identify where you will need to plug your device into. You will no longer have to worry about scratching up the bottom of the phone, or accidentally pushing the cable in too far, in the wrong direction.

• Activate the automated touch light w/ your fingertips
• Use consistently; strong PVC jacket cord & strain relief won’t tear
• Sync & charge your phone simultaneously
• Use safely w/ micro USB compatible devices
• Get the flexibility of 40″ in length

Normally priced at $20, you can jump on this great deal for the Luminid Touch Light-Up Cable for only $8.99. That’s a savings of over 50% for a cable that can solve your headaches with your Micro-USB devices. Of course, this cable isn’t life-saving, but avoiding the frustration of plugging the cable in the wrong way, is definitely something worth checking out.

You can find this, and many other great tech bargains through our Deals page. Backed by StackCommerce, there are daily promos, giveaways, freebies, and much more!

AndroidGuys Deals: Luminid Touch Light-Up Cable (Micro-USB)

Five for Friday: Apps to get your sports fix

The world of professional sports has become the linchpin in many lives around the world. From the “Big 5” – American Football, Baseball, Basketball, Hockey, Football – to the more obscure Golf, Lacrosse, NASCAR, and others, sports are everywhere. We all have our individual preference when it comes to the industry – I, personally, am a huge NBA fan – but one thing binds us all in sports fandom; the need to keep up with it all.

Some of us are one-team guys (Go Kings). Some of us follow anything within our geographical location – which, if you live in the San Francisco Bay, for instance, can get pretty wild; between the San Francisco Giants, the Oakland As, the Oakland Raiders, the San Fransisco 49ers, the Golden State Warriors and the San Jose Sharks, you’re looking at following six teams just in the primary four sports in the U.S. Some of us follow teams that represent where we come from. Perhaps you moved as a child, and you root rabidly for the team the plays in the area from whence you came.

But I digress; we all need a way to keep track of all these sports, and let’s face it; the newspaper doesn’t cut it anymore. So, without further delay, I present the top 5 apps for tracking all your favorite sports teams;

the Score

• Plenty of sports to choose from, including some of the more obscure leagues like Lacrosse and Canadian Football League.
• Statistics screen only provides basic stats for each player, nothing in depth.
• Play-by-Play screen for each game.
• Configurable homescreen widget.

CBS Sports

• Fantasy scoring and management.
• TV/Radio schedule (input your TV provider for a custom schedule).
• Score overview for the day.
• Ad-Supported
• Large database of sports from which to choose.
• Optional CBS Sports sign-in.

ESPN

• Ad-Supported
• Disappointingly limited selection of sports.
• Video Highlights
• ESPN Streaming built into the app.

Yahoo Sports

• Yahoo Fantasy management and scoring.
• Database of sports competitive with CBS Sports and MSN Sports.
• Limited stats page.
• Ad-Supported
• Dedicated “Tweets” page for each game.

MSN Sports

• Massive sports database – the biggest on this list.
• Windows 10 UI (which, on Android, is rather startling)
• Limited app options.
• Very, very limited statistics.

Disagree with any of the selections you see here? Think we missed one? Let us know in the comments below.

 

 

Check out these great NVIDIA SHIELD game discounts

If you have a NVIDIA SHIELD gamer in your life (including yourself), why not treat them this Valentine’s? Ending on the 14th February, a few select titles are available with up to 67% off the original price, from both the GeForce NOW store and Google Play.

If you’re the exploring type, there are two adventure gems you can pick up in the GeForce NOW store and stream on SHIELD, plus puzzle-, arcade-, strategy- and adventure-game options you can pick up from Google Play. Read on for a rundown on all the titles.

Fall in love with The Park and Submerged

Any adventure game fan will definitely enjoy the spine-tingling thrills provided by The Park, which you can pick up in the GeForce NOW store for 33% off the standard $12.99 price. Step into the shoes of a frantic mother searching for her lost son in a creepy amusement park after hours. The intense storyline will keep you on the edge of your seat—and guessing—until the very end. (Purchase includes a digital download code you can use to play the game on a local PC.)

Sounds very… uh… eerie…

For a more relaxing adventure, check out Submerged, which lets you explore a mysterious and beautiful world and uncover its story at your own pace. You play as Miku, a young girl who must navigate through a flooded city to find a cure for her ailing younger brother. Submerged’s emphasis on narrative, exploration, and non-violent puzzle-solving makes it a safe, refreshing choice you can share with anyone. You can pick Submerged up now in the GeForce NOW store at 25% off the standard $19.99 price. (Purchase includes a digital download code you can use to play the game on a local PC.)

A GeForce NOW membership is required to purchase and play these games on SHIELD. Membership is free for the first three months, then just $7.99 month thereafter. Membership also gives you instant access to more than 60 additional games!

To play, navigate to the GeForce NOW menu within SHIELD Hub on your SHIELD Android TV, portable or tablet. You’ll find Submerged and The Park available for purchase in the Buy and Play Instantly category.

Up To 67% Savings On Four Google Play Games!

In addition to the savings on these two PC adventure games that you can stream on SHIELD with GeForce NOW, we’re also offering the following four native Android games at up to 67% off in the Google Play store.

JuJu

Join JuJu the shaman panda and his lizard sidekick, Peyo, for a colorful platform-style adventure to save the world from an ancient evil. Don’t let the cute characters and brightly animated levels fool you – enemies will challenge you at every hop, swing, and jump. Square off against towering robots, deadly sea creatures, and more either by yourself or with a friend in co-op play. JuJu is available now for 50% off its standard $9.99 price.

Dustoff Heli Rescue for SHIELD

Actions fans will enjoy this SHIELD exclusive, visually enhanced version of the arcade hit Dustoff Heli Rescue. Take off for a series of 25 harrowing search-and-rescue missions in one of three types of helicopters that have different handling characteristics, payload limits, and weapons. Dustoff Heli Rescue for SHIELD is available now for 50% off its standard $2.99 price.

This War of Mine

In This War of Mine, a role-playing simulation game, you will experience war from the perspective of civilians trying to survive against long odds in a besieged city. Lack of food and medicine, and constant danger from snipers and other scavengers are just a few of your worries. Life-and-death decision-making is at the core of this game, and your conscience will be your guide. Grab This War of Mine now for 66% off its standard $14.49 price.

Windward

Hit the high seas in Windward, an open-world, role-playing adventure game in which you explore a procedurally generated world filled with treasure and rival captains. Sink your enemies, plunder their cargo and visit towns to upgrade your ship and crew to try for even bigger rewards. It’s a pirate’s life for you! Windward is available now for 67% its standard $9.99 price.

Duplicate Files Fixer review: automatically detect and remove duplicate items to save space.

Does your device run out of storage, forcing you to painstakingly go through your phone and delete your contents ? Too busy or just too tired to go through your contents? Worry no more! Duplicate Files Fixer(free), available and rated 4.5 stars on the Google Play Store, does all this for you.

Objective View

Entailing a simplistic and easy to use interface, this is a user-friendly application that can be operated by anyone. Within the program, you are met by several options including Scan Audio, Scan Videos, Scan Pictures, Scan Documents and Full Scan.

Upon inspecting the miscellaneous categories, your device will scan each for the respective content and display a screen with all the duplicates. It then has all the duplicates selected and gives you the ability to unmark the duplicates you intend on keeping. After pressing the delete button, you are asked to confirm your decision in the event of you making an error.

Although the purpose of this application is to optimize your tech by cleaning duplicate files, it does not include the option to delete the original file. Sometimes when choosing what to clean, you may come across files you have no intention of keeping and want to delete it as well as the duplicate, but alas, you can only remove the duplicate and have to locate the original afterwards. Perhaps developers would take a look into that matter.

 

 Summary

I used this application for a mere few hours and found that it is an absolute blessing. I was able to delete approximately 800 megabytes of duplicate files alone, including pictures, voice notes, music tracks and documents. It’s a really simple program and has only one screen excluding the help menu which includes a basic tutorial of pictures. Despite the few flaws and improvements which could be made, Duplicate Files Fixer was definitely well thought out and has a smooth and polished UI.

In conclusion, this simple program is definitely worth downloading, and it will most definitely help you clean up your device and free some space for your more important information, but more so, it will help save your time.

Google Play Store – Duplicate File Fixer