TouchArcade iOS Gaming Roundup: Minecon, Darkest Dungeon, Valve’s New Game, and More

Kicking off this week in iOS gaming was an appearance I made on the Australian games podcast, GameHugs. It’s an industry-centric podcast that explores the backstory of web sites and studios in the world of video games (and often mobile games). On the most recent episode, I get into what goes on behind the scenes running a site like TouchArcade, as well as the odd chain of events that led me to TouchArcade — including, but not limited to, getting banned from the MacRumors forums. It’s a fun story, but if that’s not your cup of tea, as usual there are always tons of other things going on in the world of iOS games.

I’ve mentioned it in previous roundups, but things are starting to get real when it comes to the impending release of iOS 11 and with it, what we’ve been calling the 32-bit app-pocalypse. We started casually compiling a list of our favorite games that have yet to be updated, which grew into this gargantuan article filled with some amazing titles that likely aren’t going to work in the future. It’s worth skimming through, as if you’ve been buying iOS games for a few years now I’d be really surprised if you didn’t own at least one of the games on the list. It might be worth one last play through before iOS 11 steamrolls everything next month.

Hi Shaun, this week’s release will feature an updated emulator core with new features. This will be rolled out to other releases soon.

— SEGA Forever (@SEGAForever) August 7, 2017

We’ve been giving Sega a pretty hard time surrounding the launch of the “Sega Forever” lineup of free with one-time unlock classic emulated games, as most of the re-released titles perform worse than the first time they hit the App Store, back in 2009. This week, they released Ristar, which as mentioned in the tweet above includes a new emulation engine. This new engine is loads better than the one used in the rest of the Sega Forever lineup, making Ristar a game worth checking out just to experience the difference. Hopefully Sega quickly updates the rest of its library with the updated emulator.

If you’ve got kids who are into Minecraft either on the Mac, or Minecraft: Pocket Edition, chances are you’ve heard about Minecon. If not, it’s an event Mojang puts on that is the place to be if you even remotely care about the game. It features meetups, developer Q&A, and other things along those lines. The problem is, Minecraft is a very inclusive game and an expensive conference with a limited number of tickets is fairly exclusive. In the future, they’re shifting the event to be focused around livestreaming and interactive community events that everyone, not just people at Minecon, can participate in. This seems like a really cool move. Watch the video above for way more details.

In regards to games to look forward to, one title we’re super stoked for is Darkest Dungeon coming to iPad. We’ve known it’s been in the works for a while, but now we have a release date: August 29. Darkest Dungeon is an award-winning RPG that currently is only available on Steam. The iPad port is going to have a really cool feature: totally cross-platform Dropbox save syncing. I’m always a huge fan of this sort of thing, and really wish more developers took the time to implement it — particularly when porting games like this.

The International is taking place this week, which is basically the DOTA 2 equivalent of the NFL playoffs and Super Bowl being sandwiched together into one massive week long event. Between games, they announced that they were going to reveal a game Valve has been working on. Valve fans have been dying for Half Life 3 (or Portal 3, or any other sequel) for years now, and many thought this would be it. What they ended up revealing is a likely free to play fantasy collectable card game called Artifact. The crowd reaction was incredible:

LOL THE DISAPPOINTMENT #TI7 pic.twitter.com/WVXP30jxyT

— nick@TI7 (@nickisnixed) August 9, 2017

While I’m sure Artifact will do very well, particularly if they tie in the Steam Marketplace, yet another digital collectable card game is close to the most boring thing Valve could have announced. Regardless, with these kinds of games the key is to get as many people as possible playing them. Platforms have yet to be announced, but it really wouldn’t surprise me at all if Artifact came to both Mac and mobile. Whatever it’s going to be on, it won’t be released until next year.

When it comes to to digital collectable card games you can actually play right now on both Mac and iOS, Hearthstone’s new expansion launched this week. Aside from loads of new cards, Knights of the Frozen Throne also features some really cool single player content. Blizzard is releasing new missions each week until players finally face off against the Lich King himself. Oh, and per the above video, the Lich King is really into reading mean tweets.

(Photo by Afterpad)
Last, but not least, is a puzzling lawsuit by Gamevice. If you haven’t heard of them, they make some pretty cool MFi controller accessories that you stick your iPhone or iPad in to play them in a form factor that’s pretty close to the Nintendo Switch. In the eyes of Gamevice, a little too close to the Nintendo Switch, which is why they’re taking them to court for patent infringement. If Gamevice is successful in their lawsuit, they could put a stop to Nintendo Switch sales all together. It seems unlikely, but as a spectator sport, watching these patent cases evolve is always interesting.

That’s it for this week in iOS gaming, but as always if you enjoy these sorts of things be sure to check out TouchArcade. We review tons of games, post way more news like this, and have a weekly podcast that’s also a great way to keep up in the world of iOS games.

Tag: TouchArcade gaming roundup
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Apple Accepting Red Cross Donations to Aid British Columbia Wildfire Relief Efforts

Apple is accepting donations to the Canadian Red Cross through iTunes to help people affected by ongoing wildfires in British Columbia. The province declared a state of emergency in July.

iTunes users in Canada can donate $5, $10, $25, $50, $100, or $200 with a credit card tied to their account. Apple will transfer 100 percent of the proceeds to the Canadian Red Cross, which is providing relief efforts for the wildfires.

As of August 6, the BC Wildfire Service said 132 wildfires were currently burning in the province, with a total of 900 wildfires since April 1. As of August 9, over 3,600 personnel were working to fight the fires, which have forced some residents to evacuate due to dangerous conditions, including poor air quality.

Apple says iTunes credit cannot be used to make a donation. The fine print also says donations may not qualify for a tax deduction.

Apple routinely accepts Red Cross donations through iTunes for natural crises, including wildfires in Fort McMurray, Alberta last year.

Via: iPhone in Canada

Tags: Canada, Red Cross
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Mockups Imagine What Apps Might Look Like on iPhone 8

As the launch of Apple’s “iPhone 8” approaches, we’ve seen multiple images and dummy models outlining what the device will look like, but non-functional dummy devices don’t include software and don’t offer a complete picture of what we can expect.

Designer Maksim Petriv has mocked up several iPhone 8 images that take into account current rumors to demonstrate what iOS 11 might look like on the new device.

Rumors and leaked firmware information suggest the iPhone 8 includes both a top notch that houses the front-facing camera and sensors for a facial recognition system and a function area with a virtual Home button, both of which are imagined in Petriv’s images.

Petriv’s photos include status bar information located at the top of the device on either side of the notch, and a small Home button area at the bottom. We’re not yet sure what Apple plans to do with that area of the iPhone 8, but we do know that it’s resizable, can be hidden, and does not appear to include app UI elements, meaning it’s simple.

The renderings made by Petriv demonstrated the Lock screen and App Store, along with popular apps Netflix and Spotify.

Apple’s HomePod firmware has suggested the status bar information like signal strength, carrier info, and battery life will be split and displayed in the area near the sensors/camera, with Petriv also imagining three ways Apple could display status bar information. Apple’s own firmware image leak points towards the third option and suggests the company will fully embrace the notch rather than hiding it through software.

It’s not quite clear what design solution Apple will use, but these images do give us some idea of what apps will look like on an edge-to-edge display with almost no bezels and with a cutout for the front-facing camera and sensors.

Apple typically unveils new iPhones in early September, so we are just weeks away from getting our first glimpse at the iPhone 8 and its companion devices, the iPhone 7s and the iPhone 7s Plus. For a deeper look at what to expect from the upcoming iPhones, make sure to check out our iPhone 8 roundup.

Related Roundup: iPhone 8
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Expand your car’s power ports with Bestek’s 7-port car charger!

In addition to making a damned fine Power Tower, Bestek also has a line of products dedicated to expanding the number of power ports in your car. Most cars have one or two outlets, at most, and if you have more than one person in the car that needs to charge their phone, you might be out of luck.

Fortunately, Bestek has a solution to that problem. This little guy not only provides three DC ports for the price of one, it also gives you four USB (2×2.4A, 1x1A, and 1 variable 0-2.4A) ports – for a total of seven usable power plugs for various devices. The case is made of glossy, black and red plastic that feels solid in-hand but picks up fingerprints like crazy. A LED mounted on the front lets you know when the unit is on, and little rubber feet on the bottom help keep it in place in a moving car – unless, of course, you set it in your center console, like I did. As you can see, it fits perfectly.

A nice design touch in this power strip is the LED readout that displays the current charge of your car battery, which is very useful. It gives you an idea of how much power you’re consuming, which can be helpful for people with cars that have smaller batteries. There’s also a power switch, so you can turn off the unit without unplugging it. Finally, the third of the three DC ports also acts as a cigarette lighter, for those of you that still smoke in your cars (the box actually includes a cigarette lighter to plug into that port, funnily enough).

The only beef I have with this particular unit is the covers for each DC port; they’re soft rubber, making them hard to pry open – they simply flex instead of opening, much to my chagrin, especially while driving. No matter, though – once they’re open, I doubt you’ll find cause to close them again.

Buy this Bestek 7 port car on Amazon for $23.99 – not a bad bargain for expanding the number of power ports on your car to a more comfortable level.

An unassuming box, but a fine product inside.

As you can see, the glossy finish really picks up fingerprints.

3 DC ports, 4 USB ports. 7 Total.

Battery Bar turns checking your phone’s battery into a colorful experience (Review)

Overview:

As a smartphone user, you probably check your device’s battery levels at least a few times a day. After all, you want to make sure you have enough juice to be able to play a game while you’re waiting for the subway to take you home from work, right?

But what if I told you there’s a cooler way of checking your battery’s status? Forget the boring battery icon that sits in the top right corner of your display and say hello to a more colorful battery checking experience. Say hello to Battery Bar.

Getting started

As always you need to download the app from the Play Store (warning: it’s a paid app, it costs $0.99). Battery Bar requires system overlay permission in order to draw the energy bar on the Android status bar.

Experience

The app basically replaces the plain generic status bar on top with something more eye-catching and colorful. And offers plenty of options to customize it.

For starters, you can choose how the app displays the Battery Bar. For example, you can have it live on top of the status bar or at the bottom or to fill the whole status bar with battery bar color indicating current Battery level. You can center it, or choose to have it displayed to the Right or Left.

The best part is that you get to set the bar’s color segments that help differentiate from 25% remaining or 50% remaining. You also get choose how the bar is divided into the five segments, meaning you can set the percentages. However, the app does not allow you to choose the number of segments. With Battery Bar you’ll have only two options: two segments or five segments – no options in between.

And yes the app plays nice with apps that take up the full screen like YouTube (there’s the option of hiding the bar in landscape if you want that).

Once you set the colors, you can tinker with Thickness and Transparency settings. Once you get started, you can try out many different styles and see which one fits your phone’s display better.

Furthermore, you’re also allowed to pick a charging pulsating animation which will be displayed in the depleted bar(s). You have a choice between things like a moon, little heart or a smiley face and you also get to set the color and the how the animation is displayed (linear, blink, wave).

You can also have the app display the exact battery percent you have left (ex: 82%) in a color of your choosing and align it however you want.

While the app offers a rich palette of customization options, it doesn’t always work smoothly. Perhaps the most annoying part is that the Battery Bar randomly disappears from view, which forces you to fire up the app again.

At other times, after setting the segment’s colors, the app would revert them to default gray without much warning. So I had to start all over again.

There’s also a Theme feature in the Advanced Options section which doesn’t seem to work, most of the time.

Conclusion:

I had fun customizing my Battery bar with the app, especially since it didn’t seem to put a toll on the phone’s performance or battery life. The app in itself is easy to use and offers a wide range of tools to help you create a unique Battery bar. More will probably be added with future updates. However, there are a few issues that need to be addressed like the disappearing bar, before the app can hope to gain popularity among the Android crowd.

Download Energy Battery Bar from the Google Play Store

Xbox Insider program opens its doors to all Xbox One owners

Why it matters to you

Anyone who wants a sneak peek at upcoming features on their Xbox One should consider taking part in the Insider program.

Much like the Windows Insider program, the Xbox Insider members can test out upcoming features on their Xbox One before they go live for the masses. Now, Microsoft has announced plans to open up admissions to anyone who wants to opt in.

Previously, only certain Xbox Live members were invited to take part in these tests, according to a report from Gamespot. The doors are now being flung wide open for everyone, but there are certain tiers to the program that determine what individuals will get access to.

The basic group is labeled Omega, and will be used to test minor tweaks to the most recent monthly update. Members of the Omega group will typically get those monthly updates a little earlier than the bulk of users.

Then there’s the Delta group, which is open to anyone who has been an Xbox Insider for more than a month, and has attained Xbox Insider Level 2 or higher by participating and providing feedback. These testers might get to tinker with new features ahead of time, but not all of them will receive the same updates simultaneously.

The next step up is the Beta group, which is open to any Xbox One owner who has been an Insider for over three months, and is sitting at Insider Level 4 or higher.

The zenith of the Insider hierarchy is the Alpha group, which is invite-only. Beta and Delta group members who provide a lot of feedback, issue clear instructions on how to reproduce problems, and are particularly active will sporadically be given the opportunity to graduate to Alpha.

However, there’s a caveat to these tests: If your internet bandwidth is a concern, the higher tiers might not be a good idea. The Alpha ring will receive around 15 to 20 updates a month, which could tear through as much as 60 and 80 GB of bandwidth. Lower tiers aren’t quite so intensive, with the Omega group expected to use between 4 and 32 GB across up to eight updates.

For more details on the Insider program, as well instructions on how to sign up, check out the announcement post published this week via Xbox Wire.

Opera 47 improves design, finally adds exportable bookmarks

Why it matters to you

Opera 47 is light on new features, but its improvements related to bookmarks, visual design, and security make it an essential install if this is your browser of choice.

This week saw the release of Opera 47, which was a little earlier than expected based on the browser’s typical six-week update cycle. In a blog post, Krystian Kolondra, the executive vice president of the company’s desktop division, laid out some of the changes that users can expect.

The biggest news is that it’s now possible to export bookmarks from the browser, which is handy if you’re testing out an alternative. The stable build of Opera gives users the option to take every single bookmark from the Speed Dial, bookmarks bar, and all other folders, and have them served up as a handy, portable HTML file.

The bookmarks pop-up that appears when users add a new item to the bookmarks bar or the Speed Dial has also been fixed in response to bug reports.

Opera 47 also brings some improvements to the browser’s visual design. The dark color scheme now tempers darker favicons with a dab of a lighter shade, in order to help them stand out against the rest of the user interface. Meanwhile, the light color scheme has received some color contrast improvements to make it as legible as possible.

Elsewhere, users can now select background loading of news to occur every three hours or six hours. The video pop-up player has also been adjusted for smoother playback, and there are specific tweaks to video for two operating systems; flickering images on YouTube should be fixed for Windows 7 Aero users, and the MacOS crowd should no longer suffer from issues with going to fullscreen while watching YouTube videos on auto-play.

Another user request addressed in Opera 47 is the larger capacity for the ‘recently closed’ tab in the tabs bar. Previously, only 10 recently closed tabs would be retained, but this has now been upgraded to a whopping 32.

Finally, there’s a minor but useful tweak to the browser’s security protections. Opera will warn users about certain ‘risky’ file types before instigating a download, and now the Shell Command File (.scf) has been added to the list.

Installation links for Windows, MacOS, and Linux are available now via the announcement blog post, alongside a full changelog for more details on what’s new.

NASA working on Venus rover that can can stand planet’s extreme heat, acid rain

Why it matters to you

NASA’s unique designs could help a probe survive longer on Venus and beam back more data about the planet.

Much like the goddess it’s named after, the planet Venus is unforgiving. At its surface, pressure is equal to that encountered 3,000 feet below Earth’s oceans, and temperatures average above 850 degree Fahrenheit, which is hot enough to fry conventional electronic equipment. Add sulfuric acid rain and dense cloud cover that makes solar power practically impossible, and it’s clear why the record for the longest survival time of a Venus rover — held by the USSR’s Venera 13 probe — is a mere 127 minutes.

Suffice it to say that the next mission to the surface of Venus will be difficult, but NASA is known for overcoming seemingly insurmountable challenges. The agency is now investigating new ways to keep a probe functioning in the planet’s formidable atmosphere, the most intriguing of which removes electronics all together and instead focuses on developing a mechanical machine.

In theory, this mechanical rover would function without much of the electronic components we’ve grown accustomed to. Computers, batteries, and electronic sensors would be replaced by clockwork mechanisms, such as gears and springs. They’re calling it the Automaton Rover for Extreme Environments (AREE).

“We realized that there are two places that make a lot of sense for something like this, where electronics don’t survive,” Jonathan Sauder, a technologist and mechatronics engineer working on the project, told IEEE Spectrum. “One is Venus, because the longest we’ve been able to survive on the surface of Venus is two hours because electrical systems overheated overhead, and one is around Jupiter, because of the high radiation environment that disrupts electronics.”

The AREE team has gone through a few designs for the rover, one of which was inspired by artist Theo Jansen’s semiautonomous Strandbeest sculptures. A later phase featured tank treads that enable it to move with power supplied by an internal wind turbine. The team expects to go through many more concepts — perhaps one with wheels — before settling on a final design.

“Basically, what we’re doing is developing some very specialized systems in terms of obstacle avoidance and determining whether there’s enough power to move or not, rather than a standard centralized system where you have a rover that can do multiple processes or be reconfigured or changed at any time via software,” Sauder said.

The team has received funding to continue its work. The technology that goes into the machine may be used elsewhere in the solar system, such as on Jupiter’s moon, Europa.

Magnetic microbots mark milestone by capturing and transporting single cells

Why it matters to you

Future versions of these microbots may be able to function autonomously at a cellular level for targeted drug delivery.

Microscopic robots have been created by researchers at North Carolina State University and Duke University. By converting magnetic energy from their environment into movement, the devices can capture and transport single cells, demonstrating a step forward for microbots that function at a cellular level.

“To create the microbots, we started by making polymer cubes that have a metallic coating on one side, essentially allowing the metallic side to act as a micro-magnet,” Koohee Han, first author of the study and Ph.D. candidate at NC State, told Digital Trends. “Depending on their position, the cubes can be assembled in many different ways. Once assembled, the microbots open when a magnetic field is applied and close when the field is removed. The orientation and gradient of the magnetic field allows us to control the rotation and movement of the microbots.”

Microbots aren’t a new development but the new study demonstrates progress in the field. Whereas previously reported versions had rigid bodies that restricted them to simple tasks like pushing and penetrating, the bots made by Han and his team have the ability to fold and change their shape like origami, enabling them to attach together, open, and close through magnetic stimulation.

In their study, the researchers tasked the microbots with capturing and transporting a live yeast cell, and controlled their movement by activating and deactivating the magnetic field.

“The ability to remotely control the dynamic reconfiguration of our microbot creates a new platform for exquisitely manipulating micro-scale objects such as single-cell isolation and targeted drug delivery,” said Wyatt Shields, co-author of the study and postdoctoral researcher at Duke University and NC State University. “Although this technology is still in its early stages, we believe these tools could one day entirely replace expensive and tedious micro-manipulators.”

The researchers point out that their current design is limited to 2D functions but they see their study as driving forward small, self-reconfigurable machines.

“We expect the principles of this simple platform can be extended to more advanced structures by using more advanced particle shapes, compositions, and field parameters to address a broad range of applications, from robotics and micro-manipulation to responsive materials and on-demand reconfigurable structures,” said Orlin Velev, corresponding author and professor of chemical and biomolecular Engineering at NC State.

A paper detailing the study was published this week in the journal Science Advances.

Charge your gear all over the world with this $16 adapter

Our friends at Thrifter are back again, this time with a way to charge your phones and computers no matter where in the world you travel!

Traveling out of the U.S. and still want to charge your phones and tablets? Amazon’s Gold Box deal of the day has the Poweradd international travel adapter kit for $18.99. Normally this kit hovers around $26. Today’s deal is the lowest price in almost a year.

This adapter kit comes with two power outlets, two USB ports and a micro USB connector. On the back of the device is a place where you can easily replace the plug based on where you’re traveling.

The kit comes with 5 international adapters for the U.S., U.K., Australia, Europe, and Japan. It’s compatible with more than 150 countries. (It specifically mentions not being compatible with 5: Italy, Switzerland, Brazil, Chile, South Africa. However, many places in Italy and Switzerland would have both the traditional sockets and the European standard based on my experiences traveling there.)

Poweradd offers a 2-year warranty on all devices. More than 1,000 users give this product 4.6 stars, and many of them have shared their positive traveling experience with this kit.

You can also get the Poweradd surge protector with international adapters for $19.49. That’s down from a regular price of $24 and is its lowest price drop ever.

See at Amazon

More from Thrifter

• How to keep your passport safe while travelling
• Here’s how a Priority Pass Select Membership can help you save BIG at the airport

For more great deals be sure to check out our friends at Thrifter now!