Looking for a challenge? Drain Pipe Contract is it. [Review]

Overview Truly difficult games can be hard to come by in the Play Store. Not just jerky, fickle tapping/rhythm games like all the “Flappy Bird” clones out there; I mean

Dimensional Intersection will make its way to Steam, Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR this fall

Dimensional Intersection, the upcoming title from publisher Nicalis Inc., will be available later this fall on Steam, Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR. The game, which was developed by the Swedish studio DNV will create surreal environments that continuously morph and evolve, and give you a truly unique journey. The team behind this game is also the one responsible for various successful titles already, such as The Binding of Isaac, Cave Story and others. The team describes it as:

Dimensional Intersection’s meditative gameplay syncs with the music and creates surreal environments that continuously morph and evolve over time, with a grand sense of scale in a physics-driven world. Dimensional Intersection is a truly unique journey where players will lose themselves while exploring new virtual realities.

Full details about the game and its release can be found in the release below.

Press release:

Nicalis Reveals Interactive VR Experience, Dimensional Intersection

Enter the Heart of the Music in a Mind-Altering 3D VR World

Santa Ana, Calif.—March 21, 2016—Nicalis Inc., a publisher known for its work on critically-acclaimed games such as The Binding of Isaac, 1001 Spikes and Cave Story, today announced that it will publish Dimensional Intersection for Steam, Oculus Rift and PlayStation®VR. Experience an ever-changing, intensely visual world synced to trance-oriented music this fall.

Developed by Swedish studio, DNV, and tested in the psychedelic city of Anjuna in Goa, Dimensional Intersection is a transformation experience inside the heart of music. Featuring music from artists such as Soulacybin, Land Switcher and MONS, Dimensional Intersection will take participants to a new reality through surreal scenes filled with interactive real-time fractals, infinite tunnels and morphing 3D models.

“Dimensional Intersection is a crazy experience that distills music into the purest form,” said Tyrone Rodriguez, Founder of Nicalis. “It’s being developed in a place very close to the origin of psytrance and that influence is evident in the game.”

Dimensional Intersection’s meditative gameplay syncs with the music and creates surreal environments that continuously morph and evolve over time, with a grand sense of scale in a physics-driven world. Dimensional Intersection is a truly unique journey where players will lose themselves while exploring new virtual realities.

The game is currently under development by DNV and slated to release later this fall. For more information on Dimensional Intersection, please visit http://www.dimensionalintersection.com/.

Money is the root of all Android

The world’s most popular free operating system rode to dominance on a tsunami of cash.

Android is the most popular computing platform in the world. More people use Android than use Apple’s OS X and iOS (combined), Microsoft’s Windows phone and desktop OS (again, combined), and even more than everything else all bundled together. This doesn’t mean Android is the best OS for things like desktop computers or Internet servers — it’s a reflection of the rise of the smartphone.

How Android was able to take the smartphone market by storm and grab over two-thirds of the market is an interesting study in economics and how it relates to technology. And, naturally, it’s all about the money.

Depending on when you look, Android-powered phones are between 75 percent and 80 percent of the worldwide total. While Apple makes the majority of the profit when talking about the folks who build smartphones, the sheer numbers of Android phones in the wild is staggering. The last “official” count was over 1.4 billion (and that’s only devices with Google services installed) and it comes from a Nexus press event in 2015 — we expect that the number will have grown significantly if Google makes a similar announcement at Google I/O 2016. Clearly, there’s money to be made by building (and more important) selling Android phones.

Android-powered phones have between 75 and 80 percent of the worldwide market.

In 2008 things looked a little different. Windows phones, Symbian phones and BlackBerries were slowly being phased out by the iPhone, players like Palm were trying to make a dent, and Google, in partnership with HTC, had released the Dream/G1. That partnership with HTC, just who had control over the operating system, and who was able to collect the money from sales is where everything was going to change.

Android is free. Google continues development of it all, then freely gives away the source code with a pretty liberal software license, and manufacturers like HTC were allowed to do anything they wanted with it. They then built out services and applications so that phones running Android could do the things we all want our devices to do.

Any company that built phones had a complete package of software they could use — and modify — and it didn’t cost them a dime to develop or license. Who actually controlled that software was quickly evident when HTC and Rogers decided that phones sold in Canada weren’t going to be upgraded to a new version of Android, while identical models in the United States and elsewhere would be. Unfortunately, fragmentation is a real thing, has been from the very first Android phone, and it is by design.

The era of City ID and Carrier IQ was not an accident.

It wasn’t long before companies like Samsung and Motorola got on board, taking the functional but sparse system Google offered and customizing it to their liking. The source code license allowed them to make any changes they wanted to make without releasing the modifications for anyone else to use, and meeting the requirements to use Google’s applications and services was fairly easy — Google wants as many phones as possible to use its services.

These early phones were completely functional smartphones with a minimum of development costs and very little software licensing fees. This means they had a pretty attractive price tag for manufacturers — savings over competing platforms that they could pocket or pass on to customers. Consumers and smartphone resellers and service providers soon caught on, and Android took off like a wildfire, especially in places where you couldn’t buy an iPhone, or where the price was more than the average person could afford.

More than anyone, cellular service providers like Verizon or AT&T loved the idea. The phones themselves were fairly cheap to buy in bulk, and the companies making them were more than happy to add any software the buyers — again, we’re talking the carriers, not individual customers — wanted. The era of City ID and Carrier IQ was not an accident. Not only could a company like Sprint fill its shelves with affordable and capable smartphones, but those phones were chock full of services they could make money from. And we bought them.

Even without any carrier involvement, adding software was profitable for Android manufacturers because they could score lucrative contracts with the companies that wrote mobile software. We still see that today when we buy an unlocked and unbranded phone and it comes with something like Clean Master or Lookout pre-installed. (Cheetah Mobile had done really well for itself the past couple years before its stock took a hit in mid-2015.) Google has no say in what extras are on a phone you buy as long as the minimum requirements are met.

Make no mistake, tragedies like the death of Palm were a direct result of Android being free to use.

It wasn’t just the major players that found that using Android was a way to stay competitive without budgeting the costs to build their own software or license it from someone else. Smaller companies like BLU or ZTE were able to leverage free software and turn out successful products by the millions, and many have become one of the aforementioned major players because they were able to use Android. Just because your year-end balance sheet doesn’t compare to Apple’s doesn’t mean it’s not profitable to stay in business.

Bing!

This meant that companies that build their own hardware and software in-house weren’t able to corner the emerging smartphone market. Some, like BlackBerry, fell on tough times. Apple was able to cater to the high-end market in the West by offering what many felt was a superior product worth paying more for. Microsoft can afford to weather bad times while they reinvent themselves. Consumers found value in lesser-priced products, and Android being “free” meant most of those products were using it. Make no mistake, tragedies like the death of Palm were a direct result of Android being free to use. Sprint stopped trying to sell you a Pre when they started stocking the HTC Hero, because the Hero was more profitable for them.

Android may be free to use, but it’s still a pay-to-play game if you want to win.

While inexpensive yet capable phones are mostly a benefit for consumers, there are some serious drawbacks, too. I use and enjoy Google’s services, and I’ll wager most everyone reading does as well. But because so many phones are reliant on them, it’s hard for new companies to get a foothold. Even if offered for free, it’s difficult to convince people to use a new service when they are already embedded in an existing one. With so many phones natively designed to use something like Gmail, we’ll never know if something better was developed and abandoned.

If you are in charge of Samsung’s phone division, what’s your incentive to bundle a client for something you’ve never heard of when so many of your loyal customers are satisfied with the existing software and how it works? Money, that’s what. Only companies that can afford to compete are able. A free market can be a good thing, but not when the deck is stacked against everyone else. Thankfully, Google has proven to be an innovative company who isn’t afraid to buy that better idea and incorporate it. Let’s hope they remain that way.

Android has evolved. Phones like the Galaxy S7 or Nexus 6P are amazing pieces of technology running software that have little user-facing resemblance to what we used in 2008. The Internet can argue over silly things like Touchwiz versus “stock” Android, but the reality is that both sides are wrong. That’s called choice, and Android brings it to the luxury smartphone market just as it does with the low-end.

The choices will continue to grow, because using Android is profitable at both ends of the spectrum. Companies that build phones will continue to use Android because it’s free. Carriers will continue to have their own special versions of phones built because they make more money from them. Google will continue to make copious amounts of cash from Android, not by directly selling or licensing it, but because so many people can easily use their services.

The rise of Android, like so many other things, followed a trail of money.

Amazon Prime Video grabs Doctor Who video streaming rights in the U.S.

Amazon Prime subscribers in the U.S. will gain access to the reboot of the popular sci-fi series Doctor Who starting March 27. Amazon has signed a multi-year deal with the BBC for those rights, with the first eight seasons available to stream via Amazon Prime Video:

According to Variety:

On Amazon Prime in the U.S., season nine as well as Christmas special “The Husbands of River Song” will be available some time in the fall of 2016. BBC America will premiere a new “Doctor Who” Christmas special later this year, with season 10 on tap for 2017.

Doctor Who was previously available on Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video in the U.S, but the series was pulled from all of those services in mid-February. The new deal with Amazon Prime does not seem to include streaming episodes from the classic Doctor Who series.

Subscribe to Amazon Prime

Taking a look at the iPhone SE vs. some of Android’s best

A newer, smaller, iPhone is here. And while it’s tough to directly compare size and specs and price, it’s still good to know what’s going on.

The iPhone SE is upon us. And if we’re going to compare it to what’s available in the Android world, we need to rethink things a little bit. This isn’t the top-shelf iPhone. But neither is it a bargain basement deal. It packs good iPhone specs in a smaller body than the top dogs. But it also does so at a price point that makes sense for Apple — and might not make sense if we were looking at the same sort of thing in the Android world.

So let’s take a look at the new iPhone SE specs alongside the iPhone 6S Plus (for high-end Apple context), as well as up against the Moto X Pure Edition, and the Nexus 6P. Why those two Android phones and not the newer Samsung Galaxy S7 or upcoming LG G5? Price, for one. The GS7 can be nearly twice the price of the iPhone SE (depending on which storage option you go for Samsung’s latest). And we’ll assume the LG G5 will come in closer to the high end than not. So the Moto X makes sense in that respect, as does the Nexus 6P. We’re talking between $400 and $500 here. The Nexus 5X could well be compared, too, but we tend to recommend the Nexus 6P more than the smaller one.

It’s not really an apples-to-apples comparison (sorry!) in specs in any event — the iPhone just does more with less than anyone else. And it’s nearly impossible to find something that’s worth buying in this sort of diminutive size. But this comparison should give you a pretty good idea of what’s going down on the other side of nerdville.

More: What you need to know from Apple’s March 2016 event!

Meet Apple’s Liam, the 29 arm robot that can dismantle an iPhone in minutes

Apple has unveiled an amazing multi-armed robot called Liam that it’s using to help the environment by destroying iPhones.

The Liam robot, aka “large inverse assembly machine”, will use its 29 arms to dismantle iPhones to bare parts so each section can be recycled and reused. This is part of the Apple Renew process that aims to help reduce the company’s carbon footprint by avoiding waste, bringing it closer to its goal of being totally sustainable.

Stunningly Liam is able to complete a disassembly process every 11 seconds. That means getting intact parts, and separating them, at a rate of 350 units an hour, or 1.2 million per year. So a complete dismantle works out at about five minutes per iPhone, according to Mashable’s figures.

Liam not only operates at a staggering rate but also takes out the risk for humans. Batteries can be dangerous to an operator if they’re punctured or damaged. If Liam is damaged it can continue operating for up to half an hour before needing a repair thanks to its myriad arms.

The collection of pieces is also a smart part of the process. Screws are sucked into tubes to be housed in a dedicated container while SIM cards are dropped into specific buckets. Should a screw be corroded, Liam can attempt to remove it for up to five minutes while a back-up arm continues with the other handsets passing through. Apple says Liam has a 97 per cent success rate for removing each component.

Traditional methods involve a shredder and magnets that result in a far less pure end result and lots ending up in landfill.

Liam is currently still in the early testing phases. As such it only disassembles the iPhone 6S and works Monday to Friday with the weekend off. Slacker.

READ: Apple iPhone SE formally announced, a 4-inch iPhone for all

How does the SE stack up to the rest of the iPhone line?

The iPhone SE is the newest member of Apple’s smartphone line, with a smaller size that makes it more pocket-friendly than either the 6s or 6s Plus. But, while the SE boasts a diminutive frame and familiar design, is that enough to make you choose it over its bigger siblings? Though you’ll have to wait for our review for the ultimate verdict, we can at least compare the specs side by side to see how the SE stacks up on paper.

iPhone SE
iPhone 6s
iPhone 6s Plus
Pricing
$399, $499 (off-contract)
$199, $299, $399 (on contract); $649, $749, $849 (off-contract)
$299, $399, $499 (on contract); $749, $849, $949 (off-contract)
Known Dimensions
123.8 x 58.6 x 7.6mm (4.87 x 2.31 x 0.30 inches)
138.3 x 67.1 x 7.1mm (5.44 x 2.64 x 0.28 inches)
158.2 x 77.9 x 7.3mm (6.23 x 3.07 x 0.29 inches)
Weight
113g (3.99 ounces)
143g (5.04 ounces)
192g (6.77 ounces)
Screen size
4 inches (101.6mm)
4.7 inches (119.38mm)
5.5 inches (139.7mm)
Screen resolution
1,136 x 640 (326ppi)
1,334 x 750 (326ppi)
1,920 x 1,080 (401 ppi)
Screen type
IPS LCD, Retina HD
IPS LCD, Retina HD
IPS LCD, Retina HD
Battery
NA
1,715mAh
2,750mAh
Internal storage
16 / 64GB
16 / 64 / 128GB
16 / 64 / 128GB
External storage
None
None
None
Rear camera
12MP iSight, f/2.2, 1.22µm pixel size
12MP iSight, f/2.2, 1.22µm pixel size
12MP iSight, f/2.2, 1.22µm pixel size
Front-facing cam
1.2MP FaceTime HD, f/2.4
5MP FaceTime HD, f/2.2
5MP FaceTime HD, f/2.2
Video capture
4K at 30fps
4K at 30fps
4K at 30fps
NFC
Yes
Yes
Yes
Bluetooth
v4.2
v4.2
v4.2
SoC
Apple A9
Apple A9
Apple A9
CPU
1.8GHz dual-core
1.8GHz dual-core
1.8GHz dual-core
GPU
PowerVR GT7600
PowerVR GT7600
PowerVR GT7600
RAM
NA (rumored 1GB)
2GB
2GB
WiFi
Dual band, 802.11a/b/g/n/ac
Dual band, 802.11a/b/g/n/ac
Dual band, 802.11a/b/g/n/ac
Operating system
iOS 9
iOS 9
iOS 9
Standout features
2nd-gen Touch ID, Retina flash
3D Touch, 2nd-gen Touch ID, Retina flash
3D Touch, 2nd-gen Touch ID, Retina flash

Get all the news from today’s iPhone event right here.

The iPhone SE vs. the competition: Small but strong

In the ongoing march to larger screen sizes, the new iPhone SE might seem like a step backwards. But it’s welcome relief to people who find large handsets unwieldy. However, even if few phones aren’t as little as the new 4-inch iPhone, there are still plenty of options with smaller-than-average screens and prices to match. We’ve stacked up the 5se against some of the more notable of these petite phones to see which could be worth buying.

Nexus 5X
Moto G (2015)
OnePlus X
Pricing
$399, $499 (off-contract)
$349, $399 (off-contract)
$180, $200 (off-contract)
$249 (off-contract)
Known dimensions
123.8 x 58.6 x 7.6mm (4.87 x 2.31 x 0.30 inches)
147 x 72.6 x 7.9mm (5.79 x 2.86 x 0.31 inches)
142.1 x 72.4 x 6.1mm (5.59 x 2.85 x 0.24 inches)
140 x 69 x 6.9mm (5.51 x 2.72 x 0.27 inches)
Weight
113g (3.99 ounces)
136g (4.8 ounces)
155g (5.47 ounces)
138 or 160g (4.86 or 5.64 ounces)
Screen size
4 inches (101.6mm)
5.2 inches (132.08mm)
5 inches (127mm)
5 inches (127mm)
Screen resolution
1,136 x 640 (326ppi)
1,920 x 1,080 (423 ppi)
1,280 x 720 (294 ppi)
1,920 x 1,080 (441 ppi)
Screen type
IPS LCD, Retina HD
FHD LCD, Gorilla Glass 3
HD LCD, Gorilla Glass 3
FHD AMOLED, Gorilla Glass 3
Battery
NA
2,700mAh (non-removable)
2,470mAh (non-removable)
2,525mAh (non-removable)
Internal storage
16 / 64GB
16 / 32GB
16 / 32GB
16GB
External storage
None
None
microSD, up to 32GB
microSD, up to 128GB
Rear camera
12MP iSight, f/2.2, 1.22µm pixel size
12.3MP, f/2.0, 1.55µm pixel size, dual LED flash, IR laser-assisted autofocus
13MP, f/2.0, dual LED flash, autofocus
13MP, f/2.2
Front-facing cam
1.2MP FaceTime HD, f/2.4
5MP, f/2.0, 1.4µm pixel size
5MP, f/2.2
8MP, f/2.4
Video capture
4K at 30fps
4K at 30fps
1080p at 30fps
1080p
NFC
Yes
Yes
No
No
Bluetooth
v4.2
v4.2
v4.0 LE
v4.0
SoC
Apple A9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 808
Qualcomm Snapdragon 410
Qualcomm Snapdragon 801
CPU
1.8Ghz dual-core
1.8GHz hexa-core
1.4GHz quad-core
2.3GHz quad-core
GPU
PowerVR GT7600
Adreno 418
Adreno 306
Adreno 330
RAM
NA (possibly 1GB)
2GB
1 / 2GB
3GB
WiFi
Dual band, 802.11a/b/g/n/ac
Dual band, 802.11a/b/g/n/ac
802.11b/g/n (2.4GHz)
802.11b/g/n (2.4GHz)
Operating system
iOS 9
Android 6.0
Android 5.1.1
Oxygen OS (Android 5.1.1)
Standout features
2nd-gen Touch ID, Retina flash
Nexus Imprint, USB Type-C
IPX7 water resistance
FM radio, Ambient Display

Get all the news from today’s iPhone event right here.

UK pricing for the iPhone SE and smaller iPad Pro

As expected, Apple unwrapped a handful of new devices and accessories today in Cupertino. We had our first glimpse of the iPhone SE, a smaller iPad Pro and a handful of new bands for the Apple Watch. If you live in the UK and are wondering how much all of this will cost, good news — you’ve come to the right place. Here’s a breakdown of all the new prices.

iPhone SE

Apple’s return to the 4-inch form factor should appeal to fans of the iPhone 5C and older iPhone handsets. The design feels like a combination of the iPhone 5S and iPhone 6, with two colours on the rear and a flat, grippier rail running around the outside. But inside it’s packing plenty of power, such as Apple’s 64-bit A9 processor and embedded M9 motion co-processor. There’s also the same 12-megapixel iSight camera found on the iPhone 6S, capable of shooting 4K video and animated Live Photos.

iPad Pro (9.7-inch)

If there was a trend at this year’s Apple’s event, it was this: what you know, but in smaller sizes. The latest iPad Pro is a retread of the 12.9-inch version announced last year, packing similar features and power in a more compact frame. It’s built for creative professionals, with a beefy A9X processor and support for app multitasking. There’s also the optional Apple Pencil and keyboard cover, which should appeal to illustrators and enterprise customers respectively. The iPad Air 2 is no slouch, but if you’re after serious performance with a 9.7-inch display, this is your tablet.

iPad Air 2

The old iPad Air 2 now costs £349 for the 16GB version and £429 for the 64GB version. It’s still worth considering if you use a tablet for slightly less strenuous tasks, such as playing games or reading comic books.

Apple Watch

Old Apple Watch, new starting price: £259. That’ll net you the 38mm Sport model — alternatively, you can get the basic 42mm version for £299. Of course, some British retailers have been discounting the Apple Watch for some time now. Still, this is an official price drop, so if anything those reductions will be lowered even further in the coming months.

Apple Watch bands

Apple is hoping that if you already own its debut timepiece, you’ll be tempted to switch up its look with a stylish new band. The company unveiled a handful of designs today, with a new “Woven Nylon” range taking centre stage. There are seven different colour combinations and each will cost you £39 from the Apple Store. Meanwhile, a Space Black version of the Milanese Loop band will set you back £179. Alternatively, you can get one of the new colourful Sport bands for £39 a pop.

Apple Releases OS X 10.11.4 El Capitan With Live Photos Support for Messages, Password Protected Notes

Apple today released OS X 10.11.4 to the public, marking the launch of the third update to the El Capitan operating system that was first released on September 30. In testing since January 11, OS X 10.11.4 comes two months after the release of OS X 10.11.3.

The OS X 10.11.4 update is available to all OS X El Capitan users and can be downloaded through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store.

OS X 10.11.4 introduces Live Photos support in the Messages app, expanding the number of ways Live Photos can be viewed on a Mac. Prior to OS X 10.11.4, Live Photos could only be viewed through the Mac Photos app. Live Photos in Messages are denoted by the concentric circle icon that marks a Live Photo, and a click on a Live Photo will bring up a mini photo viewer that will play the photo animation.

The update includes support for password protected Notes, a feature that is also available within iOS 9.3. With password protection, individual notes within the Notes app can be locked with a password that must be entered before content can be viewed. Also new is an option to import notes from other note-taking apps like Evernote.

Aside from the minor new features in Notes an Messages, OS X 10.11.4 includes no other obvious outward-facing changes, instead focusing primarily on under-the-hood performance improvements and bug fixes to address issues that have surfaced since the launch of OS X 10.11.3. Here’s a full list of features and bug fixes included, according to the release notes:

– Adds the ability to passcode-protect notes containing personal data in Notes
– Adds the ability to sort notes alphabetically, by date created, or date modified in Notes
– Adds the ability to import Evernote files into Notes
– Adds support for sharing Live Photos between iOS and OS X via AirDrop and Messages
– Addresses an issue that may cause RAW images to open slowly in Photos
– Adds the ability for iBooks to store PDFs in iCloud, making them available across all your devices
– Fixes an issue that prevented loading Twitter t.co links in Safari
– Prevents JavaScript dialogs from blocking access to other webpages in Safari
– Fixes an issue that prevented the VIPs mailbox from working with Gmail accounts
– Fixes an issue that caused USB audio devices to disconnect
– Improves the compatibility and reliability of Apple USB-C Multipart Adapters

Almost all of Apple’s OS X El Capitan updates have been focused on improving performance rather than introducing new features and OS X 10.11.4 is no exception.

Related Roundup: OS X El Capitan
Tag: OS X 10.11.4
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