EasyAcc 28W Solar Charger: This should be in your charger inventory (Review)

Overview

We live in an ever-changing world where our electronic devices have become everyday necessities. While tech has enabled us to do things beyond our wildest imagination just a decade ago, the downside is portable devices need to be recharged. Most on a daily basis. For those of us considered power users, devices with terrible battery lives are the bane of our existence. This means we need to charge those devices all too frequently, and unfortunately, there isn’t always an outlet around to help us refuel. You could use a power bank, but those need charging too.

For the times we don’t have access to power banks or wall outlets, we have the EasyAcc 28W Solar Charger.

In the box

• Portable solar charger
• MicroUSB cable
• Two carabiner clips
• Backpack rope
• Travel pouch
• User manual

Review

A few years ago while on vacation, I was telling my wife I wished there was a solar charging battery case. I had horrible battery life and needed to charge my phone up to three times a day. While on vacation, this can prove to be quite the chore, and you can easily become a wall hugger. You could say I was excited to find out about the next best thing. Yes, I know I could have used a power bank, but I didn’t have one.

The EasyAcc 28W Solar Charger is a 28 watt, four-port USB charger that is compatible with most 5V input devices. It can harness the energy from the sun and can provide you with a full charge within two to three hours. It’s made up of a durable, weatherproof material that can handle just about any type of weather while still looking charming.

The pouch is equipped with the four-port charging station. The charging station is armed with two 2.4 amp Smart Charge ports and two one amp ports. The Smart Charge ports are designed to detect how much current your device needs to charge to prevent overcharging. In the event that your devices get too hot, the charger will pause until the battery cools down to prevent a nasty fire or other internal damage.

Although there are four ports to hook devices up to, there isn’t much room inside the pouch. There’s enough room for two large smartphones, or a regular size tablet and small phone. There is room to throw in small Bluetooth headphones too, but you’re not getting too much else in there. Unless you’re sitting still for a while, don’t plan to charge a lot of devices on the go.

Four solar panels open to lay out flat to collect as much sunlight as possible. The more direct sunlight you get, the stronger the charge your charge will be. I would suggest tucking the pouch under the panels during hotter days to reduce heat exposure to your electronic devices.

Of course, there are many times when you’re not sitting still. If you’re always on the go, you can attach the solar charger to your backpack with the included clips or rope. Or you can get creative with the attachments, just make sure you maintain direct contact with the sun to get the best charge.

Conclusion

For those of you enjoying the great outdoors this summer, the EasyAcc 28W solar charger is a great option for staying powered and on the go when you’re away from an outlet. Even if you bring power banks on your camping trips, they still need charging. With the EasyAcc solar charger, you could charge your power bank during the day and use your power bank to charge your phones when the sun is down at night. For the price of $60, it is a solid investment for any outdoorsman or for those who wish to preserve the environment by harnessing the free energy from the sun.

Buy the EasyAcc 28W Solar Charger at Amazon for $59.99 with free shipping included.

Yoga Monkey: Monkey see, monkey do yoga (Review)

Overview

Yoga is good for your physical and mental health. It relieves stress and helps you feel better. However, not everyone has the time, energy, or money to go to a yoga studio. That is where apps like Yoga Monkey come in. These apps make yoga very simple and time-flexible. This one in particular uses a monkey – because Monkey See, Monkey Do, right?

Developer: Guru Inc.

Cost: Free

Impressions

User Interface

Yoga Monkey uses a nice hamburger menu to present the available settings and then tabs to access your coursework. The light yellow used throughout the app is quite attractive and everything is placed in a really fluid experience. The video player for the courses is a bit rudimentary, but it’s still easy to go through the different videos.

In these videos, it shows you everything you’re supposed to be doing. There’s also a voice that explains everything as well. However, the voice doesn’t feel very human, but that does not get in the way of understanding the instructions.

Ad Obtrusiveness

I can’t say that Yoga Monkey’s ads are obtrusive as much as they are just strange. They show up after you pause a video… SOMETIMES. That being said, they don’t interfere with any functions of the video player. As soon as you start your video, the ad disappears.

Features

Yoga Monkey has a lot of things to keep you on track. It has 10 series, ascending by rank. In each series, there are 10 videos that appear in a timeline. Aside from the series, there’s a calendar to help keep you organized. If there’s a desired effect you’re looking for, you can add additional plugins such as weight loss, better sleep, etc.

Conclusion

Yoga monkey is great for all users. It has a good interface with a system that keeps you motivated to do yoga each and every day.

Download and install Yoga Monkey from the Google Play Store.

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Five Android games for getting your word fix in

Enjoy word games? Or do you sometimes need to kill some time with a game that doesn’t require an intense amount of skill or time? I am the type who always has a bunch of word games on my phone – they challenge my brain and are fun at the same time and don’t have a large learning curve. They’re also a ton of fun to play with friends in competition or in tandem mode.

Today’s list of apps are here to help you sort through the thousands of word games available in the Google Play Store. And since it is Friday, you can try some of them out this weekend while you relax and enjoy your time away from work.

This week: Android games for getting your word fix in

Words with Friends

Words with Friends is the world’s most popular word game app you can get today. So there’s a good chance you have played it, but if for some reason you have stopped, today is a good day to download it again. Words with Friends challenges your word building skills by giving you seven random letters that you assemble on a game board with point multipliers. You can play in solo mode, random mode, or select who you want to play if you know their username.

The developers of Words with Friends are constantly adding new features and it is available in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese and British English.

You can play random people or you can play friends you know anywhere in the world. If you want an easy win, feel free to challenge me directly. My username is pandab55 and love a good challenge. Just don’t cheat! If you do happen to challenge me it is a great way to chat with me about anything related to Android too using the Words with Friends chat tool.

Google Play Store – LINK

.Word Fever.

One of my new favorite games is Word Fever. It’s not too often you come across a fun game that is also ad-free, and this one is both.

Word Fever is part crossword, part word search game. Use the clues to figure out what the hidden words are. The answers can be about nature, food, science, sports, vacation, geography and many other categories.

It starts very easy but gets challenging quickly. Find the twisted words and slide your finger over the letters – as easy as that! If you like to play brain teasers, charades, text twist, quiz and word puzzles, this one is for you.

Google Play Store – LINK

Word Streak With Friends

 Another fun game from Zygna is Word Streak with Friends. This game is a little more fast paced as you need to find and select as many words as humanly possible in a limited amount of time.

You’re given a 4×4 grid of random letters where you must connect letters to make new words. The longer the word the more points you get. You can play solo, tournament mode, head to head, or enter the daily challenge. The app does cost $1.99 but is worth every penny. It’s highly addictive so be careful if you’re worried about having too much fun.

Google Play Store – LINK

Word Search

Rather than creating words, Word Search is a mashup of letters with hidden words that you need to find vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. You’re given a list of words to find at the bottom of the app and all you have to do is simply find them in the grid. It’s a fun game to kill time while also challenging your brain to look for words in odd directions. One of my favorite features is that you can play this game with no time restraints. Pick up when you have time and leave it when you’re busy. It will always be waiting for you to find your next word.

Google Play Store – LINK

What Restaurant ?

What Restaurant? is a lot of fun because it brings your knowledge of restaurants into play with creating words. It gives you an image of a logo from a restaurant like McDonald’s, and below is a grid of letters to pick from and you need to know how to spell the name correctly in order to advance to the next level. The game starts off easy but gets a little harder with each stage.

Google Play Store – LINK

Your turn!

What’s your favorite Android for traveling on a budget or saving a few bucks when out and about? Is it one of the five we picked?  What do you like most about it?  Leave a comment below and share with the class!

Why Stop Now?

Have you checked out our previous Five for Friday categories?  Here’s some of the most recent selection!

• Android apps for traveling on a budget
• Apps for fans of Pinterest
• Apps for tracking your run and workout

The Turtle Beach Elite Pro headset is every gamer’s dream (Review)

If you’ve ever searched for a gaming headset, you probably know who Turtle Beach is. Along with Astro, Turtle Beach is one of the most well-respected names out there because of the quality of products it brings to the market. With the ever-expanding area of competitive gaming continuing to explode, Turtle Beach decided to give gamers an option. The new Elite Pro headset for Xbox One, PS4, and PC is a simple formula: pro-gamer gear at consumer level prices.

Build and Feel

The first thing you’ll notice when taking the Elite Pro headset out of the box is how solid it feels. It feels like a product that’s been well made with strong materials that will last forever. But, what may throw you off is how light the headset is. Turtle Beach rebuilt this headset from the ground up to ensure that it was light enough for long gaming sessions. I normally wear the headset while I’m at my computer for either gaming or writing and these periods can last upwards of eight hours with only small breaks. I honestly sometimes forget I even have a headset on because it’s so light.

The earcups were also a huge area of focus for Turtle Beach with the Elite Pro. The 50mm “nanoclear” speakers sit behind earcups made of spandex, leather, and gel infused memory foam. I honestly can’t believe how comfortable they are on my ears. The soft materials don’t irritate my skin even though they extend past my ears and sit on top of my beard which is an issue I’ve had with multiple headsets in the past. Turtle Beach really tried to make sure that your ears wouldn’t sweat with these on and, for the most part, it does a good job but near hour three or four, I do get a bit of moisture going on. It’s just natural for your body to do that and even though Turtle Beach does admirably, its fighting nature.

Of special note on the ear cups is the “ProSpecs” system which is just an indent into the cups so those of you with glasses can wear them comfortably with the headset. It’s not immediately clear where this mark is just by looking at the headset, but once you slip on your glasses you’ll find a little notch cut out in the foam. I tested this out with my sunglasses to positive results. Even though there is a slight notch in the foam, the cups still maintain solid suction to your head so ambient noise isn’t getting in.

The ability to wear glasses and your headset comfortably is something that will please many players with less than perfect sight. Turtle Beach did excellently here.

Turtle Beach also added in a tension adjustment system to the top of the headset. The top bar can be adjusted to as tight or as loose as you would like it to be. This is great in combination with the standard height adjuster you find on the sides of the Elite Pro. I’ve dealt with headsets in the past that squeeze my head or just fall off because I can’t get the tension right. This allows a perfect fit. I do appreciate that the tension adjusters don’t slip out of place while you’re using the headset, but they can be a bit hard to adjust unless you actually take the headset off. Perhaps a notch system in a later revision of the headset would be welcome, but the tension system is still a huge positive.

T.A.C.

The T.A.C. or Tactical Audio Controller is an optional accessory to the Elite Pro headset that will take your ability to control exactly what goes into and what comes out of your headset to another level. There are sliders for a game/chat mix, a background noise limiter, an outbound mic boost and a mic monitor level. Let’s take a look at what each of these sliders control.

The game/chat slider lets you favor members of your party or game sounds. If you’re playing with someone who’s mic just isn’t great or who sits far away from the audio source, this is wonderful to have because you can adjust exactly how loud that person is going to be in your ear relative to game sounds. If their audio is low, favor the chat on the mixer and turn up the overall sound. It’s perfect and I adjust it all the time based on who I’m playing with.

The background noise limiter is perfect for those of us with kids. My daughter likes to run around screaming and that’s not necessarily what my teammates want to hear while we’re raiding. Rather than mute my mic completely, I can adjust the sensitivity of the noise gate with this slider so that it only allows my voice to go through. Very handy.

The outbound mic boost is fairly self-explanatory. If you’re quiet, or loud, this will control what is coming out of the headset. This is a great feature for anyone playing games late at night while others sleep. Before the writing of this article, I was able to play after my wife went to bed in the next room whereas normally I’d have to keep my mic muted and my mouth shut, no matter how many times I was killed.

The mic monitor level allows you to set exactly how much of yourself you can hear in your headset. If you like to hear yourself, like I do, I set this rather high. I’m a television director in my other life and because of how our headsets are set up, I always hear myself speak. It’s something I’ve gotten used to and using headsets that don’t have mic monitoring always feel like something is missing. Once you’re used to hearing yourself in your headset, it’s hard to let go of.

On the back of the T.A.C. are many ports but I want to focus on two: The Aux in and ethernet ports.

The Aux port allows you to plug in your phone so you can take calls and mix in music during your gameplay sessions. I normally use a Turtle Beach 800X headset and the main selling point for this wireless headset was the inclusion of Bluetooth. I keep my phone connected to the headset with Bluetooth because I like to listen more than game sounds and I need to hear my phone ring when my wife calls and I’m playing. While the Elite Pro doesn’t have Bluetooth, it does have these features through the inclusion of the Aux port.

If you’re taking your Elite Pro and T.A.C. on the go to a LAN party, the ethernet port is going to be a killer feature for you. Other competing headset makers let you daisy-chain your mixamps together for team chat during LAN parties or competitions and the T.A.C. for the Elite Pro lets you do just that too. Connecting an ethernet cable between your T.A.C.’s creates a lag free voice chat party. The only issue being that if your clanmates have other headsets, this won’t work for you.

Noise-cancelling Microphone

The Elite Pro comes with a standard detachable boom microphone in the box, but you can also grab the noise-cancelling microphone as an add-on. I subjected my clanmates to many tests back and forth between the default boom mic and the noise-cancelling mic. There is a difference in audio quality and background noise, but it isn’t game breaking.

If you play in a loud or crowded area, I’d definitely suggest picking one of these up, but if you’re playing in a quiet area like your man-cave on the weekends, this may be a pass. It’s a great accessory that does it’s job wonderfully, but not everyone will need it.

Sound

One of the biggest reasons to get a headset is the hear the game world around you. Turtle Beach has always been widely regarded as a company that puts out some of the best sounding headsets around and the Elite Pro is no exception, in fact, it may be the best sounding headset on the market.

If you’re skipping the T.A.C., you’re plugging directly into your controller and getting stereo audio. There is a significant boost in audio quality with this headset over using television speakers or a home surround system. Even without the T.A.C., I can hear footsteps all around me. I know what’s coming and that’s a huge advantage.

When you add in the T.A.C., it’s almost unfair to other players. The T.A.C. gives you 7.1 surround sound that lets you pinpoint exactly where an enemy is sneaking up on you from. There are also four presets to switch you in between game mode, movie mode, music mode and turning the surround off. In game mode, you can choose between Signature Sound, Shooter, Superhuman Hearing and Footstep Focus. Movie mode keeps Signature Sound as your first option and gives you Action, Horror, and Drama settings as well. Music Mode also starts with Signature Sound and adds in Stadium, Acoustic, and Dance modes as well. When you turn the Surround Sound off, you can select between Natural Sound focus, Bass Boost, Bass and Treble Booster and Vocal Booster modes. With these 16 choices, you’re going to find something for every occasion to make the audio coming into your headset sound perfect.

Mobile Applications

So, this is an Android website. How exactly can you use this with your Android device? The answer is, much like any other headset with a 3.5mm jack. The headset comes with a standard 3.5mm adapter to connect your headset to your controller and that works for phones too. Plugging this into your phone is amazing for long conference calls or a long conversation with family. You sound excellent by using the boom microphone, the headset is very light so you can wear it for long periods and it opens up your hands to continue on with whatever you were doing previously. As I mentioned earlier, if you pick up the T.A.C., you can already have your phone plugged in and answer calls while you continue to play.

There aren’t a ton of games on Android where you would need a headset, but for the few that are out there, this can’t hurt. It’s an ultra sensitive headset that puts out the best possible sound.

Conclusion

Turtle Beach really has a winner on its hands here. I hope it catches on in the gaming community because I’d love to see more prosumer products like this one. The audio isn’t unmatched in the market, but it’s among the leaders and it does an excellent job in-game of informing you of what’s going on around you. Even just using the Elite Pro to listen to music is an awesome experience. I love kicking on the bass boost and scrolling through Monstercat’s extensive library.

I can’t overstate how comfortable this headset actually is. Sure, you’re going to see plenty of marketing material that makes it seem amazing, but in real life situations, it really holds up. After numerous hours, the pads still feel comfortable on the sides of my head and due to the fact it’s so light, I have zero neck fatigue.

If you’re interested in grabbing the Turtle Beach Elite Pro headset, you can grab it for $199 from Best Buy, Gamestop, or Amazon. It’s compatible with Xbox One, PS4, PC and pretty much anything with an aux jack.

Amber Weather Widget: Just another Weather Widget? (Review)

The Brief

Sometimes names can be deceiving. In the case of Amber Weather Widget, this app is so much more than just a widget. It’s a full-fledged attack on all things weather. Yeah, sure, there are a few widgets that come along for the ride. But the real power shows when you click that widget on your home screen and bring the app full screen.

Digging In

First, long press the home screen and add the widget. There are 3 to choose from. Try them all to see which one you like best. I chose the small one, since I already have a clock on my home page from my alarm app that I like better.

Now it’s time for the magic! Click the temperature on the widget and you are transported to weather heaven. The first thing I needed to do was change the temperature settings to Fahrenheit from Celsius. I did this by clicking the hamburger button at the upper left of the screen and then tapping settings. Here you will have all the settings you need so the app makes sense for your location. You can change:

• Fahrenheit and Celsius
• Mph and m/s
• Mi and Km
• 12 hours and 24 hours

(Wait, did he say hamburger button? Yes, I did, it’s the 3 straight lines stacked on top of each other that take you to the settings page in most apps.)

Out on the main screen, there is a whole slew of weather info for your current location. From currents to hourly forecast and precipitation for certain days, it’s all here.

Warning: By clicking the customize button, you understand that you will waste at least half an hour trying to pick the best theme for your icons and widget. Obviously, that’s a joke but I really did spend 45 minutes once I found the customize button, downloading themes and icon packs to get the perfect look.

There are free themes and paid themes – some of the paid themes even have a 5-minute trial so you can see if you like it or not before spending $1.49 on it.

After digging a little into the settings, I found that I could even tell Amber Weather to use my alarm app when I click the clock on the widget. I was able to remove the widget for the alarm app that I was using and just use the Amber Weather Widget for opening my alarm app from the home screen (score!).

As with many apps recently, there are paid options. They are $5.99 yearly or $1.99 monthly, this will give you access to all the themes and remove the ads.

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Custom Widgets

Main App page

Main App Page when scrolling down

Main App Page when scrolling down

In The End

If you are looking for a highly customizable, accurate and downright beautiful weather app, this is the one. Some of the menu items are not described very well and the subscription-based app purchase made me hesitate to pay for it. That being said, this is an awesome app and you should give it a try. You can find Amber Weather Widget for free with an in-app purchase of $5.99 yearly or $1.99 monthly that will remove ads and gives access to all paid themes.

Download and install Amber Weather Widget from the Google Play Store.

[Review] JolyJoy makes minimal design accessible with an LED lamp

I’ve always been somewhat of a minimalist. Whether it’s trying out the One Backpack Lifestyle, or putting together modern architecture boards on Pinterest, I appreciate minimal and modern design. So when I received an LED lamp in them mail by JolyJoy, I was immediately enamored of its sleek look.

First Impressions

Not only is the lamp minimal, but the packaging is as well. It came in a simple black box with a thin plastic covering, so unpacking it was a breeze. The device comes out of the box fully charged, so you can start using it immediately.

The lamp itself is made of white silicon rubber and aluminum, so it is, dare I say…light. The most interesting feature of the lamp is its flexibility. You can bend it a full 180° back so it lies flat against the table, or bend it forward so it fits inside the packaging. The lamp also comes in black.

Features

• Brand: Joly Joy
• Item Weight: 1.9 lbs
• Dimensions: 15.1 x 3.8 x 3.2 inches
• Light Source: 0.4W – 0.5W
• Battery: Rechargeable lithium-polymer, 2000mAh

On the top of the base near the front, there is a power button symbol etched into the plastic, but it’s not a button per se. Rather, it is touch sensitive. All you need to do is lightly touch the power symbol to turn it on and off.

At the front of the base you’ll see a small touch panel, to control the dimming/brightness of the light (six dimmable levels) and to cycle it through different shades of white. That’s right, another cool feature is the lamp’s ability to shine in three shades of white: a cool white, a neutral white and a warm white. The shades of white are meant be used for different reading situations in order to help reduce eyestrain.

The 2000mAh battery can last up to 30 hours on a single charge, and it takes about three hours to charge it up again with a micro USB port on the base. The lamp comes with a USB cord that’s about 12 inches long.

Fluorescence vs Incandescence vs LED

So what is the difference between these types of light anyway?

Compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs generate light by sending an electrical charge through an ionized gas mixture of argon and mercury vapor. First introduced in 1970, they were believed to replace incandescent bulbs because of their higher energy efficiency (lasting anywhere from 6,000 – 35,000 hours). But CFL bulbs are more expensive and contain mercury, which caused some people to worry about them as a health hazard.

Incandescent bulbs emit light by heating a metal filament, commonly made from tungsten, inside of a bulb filled with an inert gas like argon. These types of bulbs only last for about 2,000 hours. They aren’t as energy efficient but they are cheaper than CFL bulbs, so this bulb has stuck around for decades.

Light-emitting diode (LED) lights were meant to be a solution to the hazards of CFL bulbs. These lights are called solid state lighting (SSL), because instead of emitting light from a vacuum (incandescent) or a gas (fluorescent), an SSL commonly emits light from a solid piece of matter, like a semiconductor.

LED bulbs aren’t commonly found in most households yet, but they can be even more energy efficient than CFL bulbs, with some lasting up to 50,000 hours. The LED method loses less energy in the form of heat than other light technology.

Conclusion

This LED lamp has quickly become one of my favorite products. It’s a little pricey and doesn’t shine as brightly as a traditional incandescent bulb, but it’s more environmentally friendly and rechargeable. And if you’re a lover of modern design as I am, you might like this product too.

Check out the product on JolyJoy’s website for $45, or buy it on Amazon (Affiliate Link).

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Personalize your Nexus 5X, 6P or 6 with a Google Live case (review)

Back in April, Google announced it was launching official Live cases for its Nexus 6, 6P and 5X smartphones. Live cases are personalized smartphone cases where you can put just about any image onto a blank slate for a personal touch to add to your smartphone.

There are two types to choose from, the Photos Live Case, and the Places Live Case.

I decided to pick up two live cases for my Nexus 6P to test them out.

Designing your own live cases

The process of designing a Live case is simple. All you have to do is go to the Google Store, select Live Cases, pick from Places or Photos and follow the four step process.

For exact instructions, you can follow my tutorial here.

I chose to do one of each – one of my dog Taro when she was a puppy, and one from Places where I spend most of my time.

Taro on the Google Photos Live Case.

Custom Google Places Live Case for the Nexus 6P.

Setting up a custom case design is very simple. Google will even warn you if your image is blurry and will result in a blurry print. In both of my cases though, I had no issues with resolution.

You’re free to choose from stock images, or you can place pre selected designs Google has laid out for you, from different colors schemes to different shapes and patterns. In the Live Case I made, I selected a two tone fading color scheme of blue and purple. My Places Case though remained stock from Google Maps.

Cases come with a live wallpaper and NFC chip

What’s an especially cool feature built into both live cases, is an NFC chip that serves as a button to bring in your image from your creation to create a live wallpaper. Once you download the official Live Case app from the Google Play Store, all you have to do touch the case to your phone to activate it.

Your live wallpaper will be the image of your Place or Live photo, so with my Live Case of Taro, my wallpaper became an image of her as well.

The shortcut button on the back can give you one-touch access to places of interest around you, or you can customize the button to open your camera or your favorite app.

Fit and Feel

The fit of the official Google Live cases is perfect. At the time I placed my orders back in April, the Matte option was available, but Glossy was not. Matte provides a smooth finish that doesn’t attract fingerprints and is nice to hold.

As you can see in the images, the cases fit about as perfect as one can ask for.

There’s also a lip that protrudes just above the display to offer drop protection for your screen.

Conclusion

At $35 per case, with shipping included, the price for a custom and well-built case is a great price. It fits perfectly, offers excellent protection for your Nexus smartphones, and looks pretty darned cool. It’s a nice change from the black and clear cases we normally purchase. The only downside to ordering a custom case is the long wait time of 4-5 weeks, but that may be shorter now that it has been available to purchase for a couple of months now.

Get your own custom Live Case from the Google Play Store for $35.

The Nexus 6P is also on sale at Amazon and Newegg for a limited time.

Scraby: Simple design and simple to play (Review)

Overview

Who doesn’t like a good word puzzle game? Whether it’s a fast-paced, thinking on your toes style, or a laid back playing the long game, they can definitely keep your mind sharp. Luckily for you there is a new app in town called Scraby. What is Scraby? Let’s find out.

Developer: Bushido Games

Cost: Free

Review

Scraby was until recently only available in Polish. But with the warm reception it had in Poland Bushido Games decided to extend it to English. The game is so short and simple that it only took a few minutes to learn.

When you open the app you are prompted to create a username, and don’t worry, if you don’t like it, it can be easily changed. After that, you click play and you are now in the game.

What really sets this game apart is the gameplay. It’s not too far off from Scramble in that you have a bunch of letters mixed up and you have to score as many points as you can in two minutes. Each letter has an assigned value and there are also bonus letters that you can use. The main difference is while creating the words the letters don’t have to touch each other. You can pick any letter off the board that you want from anywhere.

The next thing that really makes it a unique experience is the way you play against other people. They have the same letters as you do on the same board. The game is the same for everybody who is online. There is only one game going on at a time. So when you click play you are added to the game in progress. Once the game is over you are added into another game in ten seconds or you can just leave the game.

Baked inside this game is a leader board among your friends. It doesn’t use Facebook or anything like that, it just recognizes people you have played with that are in the same location as you. The setting is really stripped down to only two options. Light and Dark mode as well as animations on or off. That’s it.

Conclusion

This game isn’t overly complicated or covered in flashy animations that distract you. It’s a simple game with a simple design that can really drive your competitive spirit. I also appreciate that this game is totally free with no ads or in-app purchases of any kind. Bushido Games could easily charge a little for Scraby and it would be totally worth it.

 Download Scraby in the Play Store

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Start Screen

Ragnarok: Heroes of Midgard could use some Godly help (Review)

Overview

Ragnarok: Heroes of Midgard is a free-to-play card collecting/RPG game that has a lot of potential, but also a lot of faults.

Developer: OmegaGamesLLC

Cost: Free (with micro-transactions and ads)

Impressions

Ragnarok: Heroes of Midgard is an interesting game, to say the least. It’s a sort of card game/RPG hybrid with characters based off of Norse mythology and fantasy. The game features card collecting, exploration and battling with a team of characters – sounds great, right? Unfortunately, Ragnarok doesn’t exactly do any of these things in an outstanding way.

The story of the game is essentially Loki, the Norse god of Mischief, is up to no good and you need to stop his evil deeds across the realms of Asgard. The game takes some liberties with Norse lore, but it isn’t the worst premise.

The game is similar in style to other popular mobile games like Brave Frontier, where you collect characters of varying rarity and power, put them in a team, and fight in automatic battles. Ragnarok uses cards instead of characters, with admittedly nice art on them, which you collect from the field of battle and from the environment. You can summon cards using in-game currency and real money, as well as upgrade and fuse them together to get more powerful units. Once you get the cards, however, the game takes a sharp drop in fun.

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Pay no attention to the user name… I run out of ideas easily.

Where a game like Brave Frontier has Final Fantasy-style animated battles with interesting effects and some degree of interactivity, Ragnarok does not. Battles in Ragnarok boil down to two parties bumping into each other with little to no animation, and just some numbers popping up.

The battles last about 2-10 seconds at most, and sometimes you don’t even know what happened until the win/loss screen appears. I wish they had sprung for animations, or added some strategy to the mix, letting you pick which cards attack when, or maybe add some ability to launch special attacks. The game just doesn’t give the player much to do besides tap one button and watch.

The same can be said of exploration, which consists of tapping the “explore” button and watching a little animation over and over until something happens. Occasionally a battle will crop up, or a cut-scene detailing the story will occur, but they are not very frequent, making exploration become tedious at times.

There are other modes to play as well, including an arena mode, where you can battle your party against others. A guild feature is also available, in which you can create and join teams with other players or friends. These modes are fine, but the arena is just more of the same boring battles.

Also, the app has a weird issue where it installs two different icons. Worst of all, one works and the other doesn’t. Confusing and frustrating for sure.

Conclusion

Overall, I was disappointed with Ragnarok: Heroes of Midgard. It has a lot of promise and a bunch of content to work with, but the gameplay itself, coupled with the bevy of superior games available in the same genre for the same price, make this game a hard sell. If you’re looking for a decent game to pick up and play for a time waster, or if you need that collectible free-to-play card game/RPG fix, you could certainly do worse, but also a lot better.

Download and install Ragnarok: Heroes of Midgard from the Google Play Store.

Pelican PROTECTOR: A case review

The Shpeel

Smartphones are not cheap. In fact, if you already have a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge you know this all too well. Almost 800 bucks is the current going rate.

The debate is fierce, do I go “NAKED’ and show off the beauty of this very expensive pocket size computer. Or do I cover all the beautiful glass and metal up with a case, so that it lasts longer than the first day when inevitably I drop it on the sidewalk, face down and try to convince myself that ” it didn’t drop that hard. The screen is fine!” only to pick it up and to realize that even though “it didn’t drop that hard” it’s now a shattered mess that will cost almost as much to fix as replace.

I say COVER IT UP! Protect that investment and put a good case on it. Even though it’s not 100% certain that it still won’t break, there is a lot better chance of it dropping and being ok with a case on.

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The Scoop

Enter the Pelican Protector! Pelican has been at the “protecting things” game for a long time. 40 years in fact! It started out making Scuba diving gear, and have since moved into protecting everything imaginable.

Which so happens to include the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge. The Protector is “Tested to Military Specifications to survive multiple drops”, has impact absorbing TPR rubber lining to protect the electronics inside the phone, and angled edges to divert energy and protect the screen from surface contact. The case is made with hard plastic and rubber for “two layer” protection. 

Summing it up

This case has a hard plastic back, but softer rubbery side walls. There is a rubber ring around the back that helps it not slip around when the phone is sat down on its back and when it’s in your hand. This case is two layers, not two pieces like with some other cases.

The smooth look of the hard plastic with rubber grips in all the right places make this case from Pelican visually pleasing and feels great in your hand.

Some drawbacks are the power and volume buttons are a little bit too small and take just a slightly harder push than I would like. Also the charging port cutout is slightly smaller than the non-Samsung chargers I have. Neither of those issues are a deal breaker by any means.

The other drawback for me specifically is I use a magnetic CD tray mount in my car (LIKE THIS ONE). The thickness of the hard plastic on the back, and the slippery section in the middle where the magnet connects, made my phone fall off the mount while driving. I really like the look and feel of this case and definitely feel my phone is protected from drops. Also, this case comes with a lifetime warranty that covers the case if it breaks. “Guaranteed For Life: You break it, we replace it” is the Pelican’s motto.

You can buy the Pelican Protector at Amazon HERE for around $39.99 with free shipping included.

You can also learn more at Pelican.

Pelican_Protrctor

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Back in package

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Back Far

Front/Inside

Side View Volume Buttons

Side View Power button