EA Announces Card-Based Strategy Game ‘Plants vs. Zombies Heroes’

Electronic Arts today announced a new game in the popular Plants vs. Zombies series, called Plants vs. Zombies Heroes, that ditches the tower defense mechanisms of past mobile installments for a collectible card format in the vein of Hearthstone (via VentureBeat). EA and PopCap Games aimed to make the game “accessible, with a lot of depth” to satisfy those new at card battling games but keep experts playing for a while.

The game introduces new “Super Hero” classes of plants and zombies that act as the franchise’s version of the heroes from Hearthstone. Some of these include The Green Shadow, an elusive but powerful peashooter, and Impfinity, a Zombie Imp Hero with the ability to create multiple Imp clones during battle. They serve as the main character supporting the “rest of your team,” or the deck you’ve built, and lead the charge in a multiplayer battle against another Super Hero.

In the game, you need sun energy to make moves on the plants side. When you play a card, an enemy can attack. You always get a chance to attack back. To win he game, you have to defeat the enemy Hero and defend your own. You can buff your units to make them stronger. Some units can only be played in water or roof lanes. Once you reach a certain level, you can start playing as zombies. Zombies have their own advantages, like hiding played characters under gravestones so you can’t see their capabilities.

Other than multiplayer, users will be able to travel through a single player adventure, compete in tournaments, lower the pressure in casual mode, and even see familiar faces of the franchise. Most notably, the new mobile game appears to directly reference the recently released Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2, which is the franchise’s version of a third-person shooter that launched on consoles in February.

Plants vs. Zombies Heroes will have over 300 unique characters with unique animations, which EA hopes will help the game become more accessible to a larger group of people. For that same reason, it’ll keep games to short 10-15 minute runs and leave “about a third of the characters” as easily unlockable options, “but you may have to dish out real money to buy character packs to get more characters.”

So little is officially nailed down about the game because today’s announcement precedes a soft launch for Plants vs. Zombies Heroes in New Zealand, with a planned worldwide launch “soon.” EA is no doubt testing the waters for the possibility of micro-transactions and game balancing before a bigger release.

Brian Lindley, senior producer at EA, knows the company’s new game falls closely in the category that Hearthstone has helped legitimize, noting that “Hearthstone is both inspiration and competition. They took the genre in a good direction.” Blizzard’s card game makes it easy to opt-out of paying for most of its in-app purchases and still have fun with the game, so hopefully EA keeps that in mind for any potential micro-transactions in its own card battler.

For anyone interested in playing Plants vs. Zombies Heroes ahead of the wide release, our sister site Touch Arcade has a how-to guide listing the steps to download soft-launch games like this one outside of the debut territory.

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Apple Seeds Sixth Beta of tvOS 9.2 to Developers

Apple today provided developers with the sixth beta of an upcoming 9.2 update to tvOS, the operating system that runs on the fourth-generation Apple TV and powers its built-in App Store. Today’s tvOS 9.2 beta 6 update comes more than a week after Apple released the fifth beta of tvOS 9.2 and one and a half months after the release of tvOS 9.1.1, a minor update to tvOS 9.1. tvOS 9.2 has been in testing since January 11.

tvOS betas are more difficult to install than beta updates for iOS and OS X. Installing the tvOS beta requires the Apple TV to be connected to a computer with a USB-C to USB-A cable, with the software downloaded and installed via iTunes or Apple Configurator. Those who have already installed the first tvOS 9.2 betas will be able to download the sixth update over the air.

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tvOS 9.2 is a significant update for the tvOS operating system and new features have been added throughout the beta testing process. It brings support for Bluetooth keyboards, allowing a keyboard to be paired to the Apple TV for text entry. Bluetooth keyboard support is a major feature that was missing from previous versions of tvOS and its addition should make it much easier to do tasks like entering passwords on the fourth-generation Apple TV.

Along with Bluetooth keyboard support, the tvOS 9.2 update introduces support for grouping apps into folders on the Home screen like on iOS devices, plus it includes a new look for the App Switcher interface and it brings support for iCloud Photo Library and Live Photos. There’s an update for the Apple TV Remote firmware, adding improved motion sensor performance and support for additional sound bar and receiver hardware.

Support for dictation allows Apple TV users to dictate text and spell user names and passwords rather than typing them in. Dictation capabilities are available in all countries where Siri is available on the Apple TV. With tvOS 9.2, Siri also gains the ability to search for App Store apps, improving app discovery. Siri can search for a specific app or bring up a category of apps, such as games.

tvOS 9.2 also introduces MapKit so developers can incorporate maps into their tvOS apps, and it adds Siri support for US Spanish (in the US only) and French Canadian (in Canada only). UK English, Australian English, and US English are also now available as Siri options in the UK, Australian, and US Storefronts when English is set as the tvOS language.

We’ll update this post with any new features that are discovered in the sixth beta of tvOS 9.2, which may be the last beta we’ll see. tvOS 9.2 is likely nearing the end of its beta testing period and could see a public release soon.

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How to deep clean a deep fryer – CNET

Give your fryer some love and make it sparkle.

Oster

Whether you have a Fry Daddy, a Hamilton Beach 35200 or a T-fal EZ Clean, you’ll need to deep clean your fryer after a few uses. A dirty fryer can alter the flavor of foods and can be a fire hazard. While cleaning a deep fryer may not be fun, it doesn’t require any special tools.

Say goodbye to grease

First, unplug the fryer and empty any leftover grease after it cools. Pour the grease into a non-recyclable, sealable container. Never put oils down the drain. It can damage and clog pipes. Check to see if your local recycling center takes cooking oils. Some do, but if not, toss the oil into the trash or use it in your compost pile.

Wipe it down

Next, ball up some newspaper and wipe down the outside of the unit. Newspaper is great at soaking up oil and it’s free. Once you’ve done a preliminary wipe down, spritz the outside of the unit with all-purpose cleaner and wipe it down one more time with some balled up newspaper.

Get to the nitty-gritty

Now for the inside. Remove the fry basket and lid and wash them in the sink using warm, soapy water and a scrub brush. Let them air dry while you tackle the rest of the cleaning.

Wipe it down with newspaper and then wash it. Do not submerge the fryer in water to avoid any damage to the electrical elements inside the unit. Instead, put two drops of dishwashing liquid inside of the fryer and fill it to the oil fill line with hot water. Let the fryer sit for around 30 minutes and then scrub the inside with a sponge to loosen food particles. Pour the water out into the sink and then refill the unit with clean warm water and empty it again to rinse.

Finish up

Lastly, wipe down the heating element, if you can get to it, with a rag. Make sure to remove any crumbs and oil. Some units have exposed heating units while others have enclosed heating units that you won’t be able to get to. Check your manual if you’re not sure.

Finish cleaning by checking the filters. If your unit has a foam filter it will need a good washing, too. Wash the foam filter with warm water and dish soap, rinse and then let it air dry before putting it back in the fryer.

Canon EOS Rebel T6 Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Meet the new T6, same as the old T5.

Canon

For the EOS Rebel T6, Canon updates its cheap, entry-level T5 dSLR with features that bring it into parity with older but similarly priced cameras. It will cost $550 for a kit with the EF-S 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 IS II lens; I don’t have pricing for the UK or Australia yet, but that converts to £397 and AU$732 at today’s exchange rates. Canon plans to ship it in April.

What’s new

• Connectivity. It gets Wi-Fi and NFC for connecting to a mobile device for remote shooting and wireless file transfer.
• Image processor. According to Canon, updating to 2014’s Digic 4+ from 2008’s Digic 4 brings slightly better noise reduction at higher ISO sensitivities for marginally better low-light photography. It also provides a user-selectable option for more neutral white balance in incandescent light — less of that urine-yellow color cast — and a new Food scene mode which boosts brightness and saturation.
• Design. The back LCD’s resolution doubles, and the buttons have been slightly tweaked.

My take

With its entry level models, it seems like Canon banks on the fact that people generally prefer cheap and new over cheap and better, albeit older. That, plus Canon uses the nomenclature of the more modern models to give it a more recent vibe. But despite dubbing it “T6”, the camera has far more in common with the T5 series than the T6i/T6s; it uses the sensor, autofocus and metering systems of the older generation of cameras. The other T6 models use newer, more sophisticated sensor technology, autofocus and metering systems, among other things.

Those strategies have been working pretty well for the company, though. For instance, based on past history the T6 will probably be very popular despite the fact that the two year old T5i looks like a much better camera in almost every way and it’s not much more expensive — which makes it insanely annoying that you’d have to downgrade to the T6 just for Wi-Fi on the cheap. Or you could buy the three-year-old Nikon D5300. Based on the T6’s specs, both the T5i and D5300 offer better performance, flip-and-twistable LCDs and likely better photo quality.

Comparative specs

Fossil Q Motion Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

The Misfit Ray…I mean, Fossil Q Motion.

Fossil

Suddenly, all fitness trackers seem like they’re trying to be jewelry. Fitbit, Misfit and others are trying to make that thing on your wrist counting steps more attractive. Fossil’s Q Motion has a similar fashion-esque metal-banded look. It joins a ton of other Fossil wearables that launched last year: other Q activity trackers, fitness-embedded watches and a Q Founder Android Wear smartwatch.

Fossil

But the Q Motion is a bit different. And…it looks like it’s a very close cousin of Misfit’s newest wearable, the Ray.

The Q Motion tracks steps and vibrates for notifications, but also does sleep tracking. It also has “smart tap,” which lets you set the band to do quick one-tap smart button functions, like change music tracks on your phone, or act as a selfie remote for its camera.

The Q Motion, unlike Misfit Ray, can’t be worn as a pendant (design sketches shared with CNET suggested it could, but those were early designs). But the battery lasts 6 months, and is water resistant to 50 meters (164 feet).

The similarity is probably not an accident. Fossil acquired Misfit, a wearable and connected tech company, last year. This is the Misfit-ification of Fossil in progress. The Q Motion costs $95 — within spitting distance of the Misfit Ray’s price — and comes out in the US this summer. (UK and Australian availability are yet to be announced, but that converts to about £65 or AU$125.)

YouTube Gaming now streams in Australia, Canada, Ireland and New Zealand

Should you reside in Australia, Canada, Ireland or New Zealand you’ll be pleased to learn that YouTube Gaming has launched on a screen near you. Already available in the UK and U.S., it’s positive to see the service roll out in new countries in order to more effectively compete against the likes of Twitch.

As well as launching the service in four new markets, the official YouTube Gaming app also received some love. Here’s what is new in the latest release:

• Welcome and setup flow for new users
• Redesigned search results view
• Mobile Capture performance and UI improvements and support for more Android 5.1 devices
• Support for Cardboard VR playback
• Updated game page layout
• Support for creator Sponsorships
• Denser video grids for quicker browsing
• Performance improvements and bug fixes

The web version of the platform is also being revamped with a new simplified homepage, making it easier to get you involved. You can download YouTube Gaming from the Play Store.

Nest can now better determine when you’re home or away

Nest has announced the roll out of Family accounts and home/away assist. These handy new features will enable households to better configure their Nest setup. The latter is fairly self-explanatory – you can now have up to 10 people access connected Nest products located in your home using the Nest apps with their own accounts. Now everyone can control the heating, check out live feeds and receive alerts from Nest Protect.

As for detecting whether or not anyone is actually present at the house, Nest has opted to approach this differently to geofencing, which can cause issues. Using a mobile device to determine whether someone is home or not is a bad idea. Not only could you mistakenly turn the heating off by leaving the house with the phone and making it unbearable for those still in the house, but it’s also not very accurate. Would you want your heating on if you’re next-door?

Nest will utilize sensors built into the company’s products, as well as learning algorithms and any connected phones. This also works well with family accounts who can use the app on their own smartphones. That way, should you leave the house while someone is still at home, Nest should be able to use sensors and geofencing on other household phones to work out that the heating should remain on. (Only if it’s cold of course.)

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Android N’s under-the-hood changes might point to a new future for OS updates

Early Android N Developer Preview shows some significant changes in Android’s structure — with potentially big implications.

We’ve spent the better part of a day digging into the inner workings of the initial release of the Android N Developer Preview, and we’ve learned a few things. The first of them is easy — this is a super-beta (if that’s not a word, it needs to be) version of software that will have bugs on top of bugs. A lot of us have flashed it and are enjoying the new flavor, but you should tread lightly if you want to try on the phone you need every day. Things are broken, and some things will be more broken in the next update. This preview is for developers to start working on their apps to get them Android N-compatible, and for people who like to report bugs. It says so right on the tin.

The second thing we’re seeing is the more interesting one, even though we’re not entirely sure what it’s all about just yet.

Big things may well be afoot for Android.

Android has a major (and not entirely incorrect) image problem when it comes to keeping devices on current software. We can argue about it, try to blame one company more than another, or pack up our ball and move to iMore. None of that helps when you have more than 1.5 billion things running Android — and few of them are running the exact same software. In the end, it’s Google that has to take the heat because their name is on the product. It’s a discussion that’s been beaten to death and then some — and the beatings will continue.

Google knows this and is doing “stuff” under the Android hood to make it easier for the people who build phones to get it all together. And this initial Developer Preview (there will be several others before public release later this year) shows it. We don’t know exactly where Google is going and what it has planned, but small changes to file structure and partitioning in the first factory device images are clues to how things might well work. We’re seeing more things placed into the vendor and OEM partitions — things that can (and do) overwrite or attach to the “stock” Android versions that live in the system partition when the phone boots. And not just support libraries and kernel objects — there are full apps that are supplied by the vendor (in this case that vendor is Google) that can greatly affect how the phone operates and how you interface with it.

Imagine a world where Samsung can have its vision of Android, while keeping the deep system processes untouched.

Imagine a world where Samsung can have its vision of Android running just how it likes it, while deep system processes — like the infamous Stagefright library — are separate and untouched. That would mean that Samsung or Google could push out changes to their separate parts of the system far more easily (and much faster) than they can today without interfering with the other half of the system. (With APIs and libraries to bridge the gap.) The manpower alone that this situation frees up means more people are available to work on making the Samsung experience better without having to worry about the underlying Android code.

With Android N, Google has essentially started to divide Android into two sections: the core OS (the framework that makes everything work) and the interface (the apps, launcher, notifications, and everything else the user interacts with).

Take it a step further and consider a smaller company without Samsung’s seemingly bottomless resource pool and consider how this helps it. A more “standalone” system built this way is better for everyone — and most importantly that means you and me.

Let’s go even deeper

Android as a framework instead of an operating system means it’s easier to change the user-facing features.

Android as a framework instead of an operating system means that it’s easier to change the user-facing features. I think back to “blocking mode” on recent Samsung phones, or Moto Display on the original Moto X. They definitely weren’t made better with Android updates, and what we have from Google to replace them isn’t as good as the originals. A way for a vendor to tap into the system processes with its own interface — and system processes that stay the same between versions — lets Samsung control how you keep notifications in check. Or it lets Lenovo/Moto display things on the lock screen they way they want to do it, without redesigning everything from scratch each time a new version comes out.

It also means that what we’re seeing today may never grace the phone currently in your hands.

Nexus phones are a brand. Nexus phones don’t run unadulterated open-source Android — virtually nothing does. Google takes the code and changes it to its liking and then installs that version of Android on the phones it sells — and that’s exactly what HTC and LG and Samsung do. Google touches less of the system than most manufacturers (though the HTC One A9 was darn close) but it’s still not the purely open source Android you can download and build yourself.

If we take these new ideas — and make no mistake that right now they are only ideas — and think ahead a year or so, it means that things like new notification trays or dark modes or multi-window are just how Google wants to interface with the system on its vision of Android. Samsung or Huawei are free to do their own thing — and they will — and it’s not going to match Google’s thing. But more important is that it’s not going to break things as easily. The system just lets you pick a color for the interface. “Dark Theme” is a UI idea, and one that anyone can implement anyway they like.

The biggest advantage would be seen when it comes to security updates. We pick on Samsung a lot when it comes to monthly security patches because it is the company we expect the most from. Being the big dog means you get the most scrutiny. Samsung has reasons why only a few models get timely security updates, and we imagine most of them revolve around development costs, or sheer manpower. If Android becomes more of a framework than a full operating system, it will be easier to get that framework updated on more phones at a faster pace.

Hopefully Google is steering the Android ship in a way to fix its biggest problem.

Let Google worry about patching Widevine or Stagefright, and Samsung can worry about its own software — the thing it knows best. Samsung can rightly let Google be the fall guy when it comes to native Android bugs. Even the Evil Cabal of North American Carriers can butt out of the security patch process. Everyone wins.

We’re speculating a lot here based on some relatively small changes to the inner workings of the Android N Developer Preview. That’s what we can do right now without source code or official words from Google HQ. But we do know that Google always has a reason for the changes it makes (though we often disagree), and these small changes to the way the vendor and OEM sections of Android work weren’t an accident.

We expect to learn a lot more at Google I/O, and hopefully Google is steering the Android ship in a way to fix its biggest problem.

Android N Developer Preview

The Android N Developer Preview is just that — a developer preview. It is not intended for daily use. That doesn’t mean it’s not cool, and that you shouldn’t poke around. But know that things will break. Tread carefully. (And have fun!)

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Galaxy S6 on Sprint now receiving its Marshmallow update

Sprint has started pushing its Marshmallow update out to the Samsung Galaxy S6. The update weighs in at around 1.2GB, and brings a number of big changes and improvements to the phone. With this update, you’ll get the new version of TouchWiz which changes some visual elements and improves the usability. Additionally, you gain Doze, enhanced permission controls and more with the update.

It appears as though the roll out has only just started, so it may take some time before it is available on your phone. If you want to check manually for the update, you can do so by heading into your Settings, then About phone and finally check for update. Once updated, be sure to share your thoughts with us in the forums!

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Plants vs. Zombies Heroes will bring Hearthstone gameplay to the garden

PopCap Games and Electronic Arts are adding yet another collectible card game to mobile devices. Plants vs. Zombies Heroes has been announced, which is based on the colorful console and PC game franchise.

The game description sounds very similar to Blizzard’s mega-hit mobile card game Hearthstone:

For the first time ever on mobile, play as either plants or zombies and unlock their lawn-inspiring super powers. Collect hundreds of characters, including new roster favorites from Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2 like Super Brainz, Z-Mech, Citron, and Rose, and adventure through an all new PvZ Universe with a unique, comic-style narrative. Pick your favorite hero, assemble your team, and use your heroic skills to outwit your opponents in battle.

Battle and adventure by yourself against AI in the single player campaign, or battle against other players in real-time multiplayer! Challenge your friends or test your powers and strategy against the rest of the world in casual or ranked multiplayer battles – all in real time. Complete Daily Quests to earn rewards to expand your roster of Heroes and sidekicks.

In adventure mode, lead your favorite plant and zombies on an epic missions to battle and take down all opposing Heroes across locations as zany and diverse as the Heroes who inhabit them. Experience the story of PvZ Heroes via comic-styled story sequences revealed as your adventure progresses. Use the adventure mode to one your skills and fine-tune your strategy, experimenting with different heroes and powerful teammate combinations along the way.

Plants vs. Zombies Heroes is being soft-launched in a number of countries and will be available worldwide at some point in 2016.