Lenovo ThinkCentre Chromebox Tiny review

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With the release of its first Chromebox, Lenovo is looking to offer the Chrome OS experience in a compact package, and is designed with educational and enterprise institutions in mind. Is its versatility and affordable price tag enough to make it a compelling option? We find out, in this in-depth look at the Lenovo ThinkCentre Chromebox Tiny!

Design

The ThinkCentre Chromebox Tiny obviously gets its name from its small form factor, with its dimensions of 7 x 7.2 x 1.4 inches, and weight of 1 kg, making this portable device ideal for use in environments like home entertainment systems. The device comes with several rubber feet on the bottom for horizontal use, but there is also a stand included in the box to prop up the PC in a vertical orientation.

This Chromebox can easily be used with any monitor or TV you may have available, as it supports both DisplayPort and HDMI out connections. You also have the ability to convert the Chromebox Tiny into a 23-inch all-in-one, by pairing the device with Lenovo’s Thinkvision monitor which comes with a slot on the back to house the Chromebox, allowing for what Lenovo calls a “space saving transformation.” While this feature may not be particularly necessary if you’re looking to pick up this device for personal use, the ability to easily and quickly remove the device from the monitor to facilitate upgrades and servicing makes a lot of sense when it comes to educational institutions and businesses.

Performance

The Lenovo ThinkCentre Chromebox Tiny is available in two models, the 10H5 and the 10H3. The former is the less powerful of the two, with it packing a dual-core Intel Celeron 3205U processor under the hood, clocked at 1.5 GHz. The 10H3 is the more expensive option and features an Intel Core i3 5005U processor, clocked at 2 GHz. Also contributing to the price point is the fact that either model can be picked with 2 GB or 4 GB of RAM.

This particular review unit is the top-end 10H3 model with 4 GB of RAM, and performance has been excellent. Of course, Chrome OS is a relatively conservative operating system and doesn’t need to pack a lot of power, so the other iterations of the Chromebox Tiny should allow for a smooth performance as well. 4 GB of RAM is definitely recommended though, especially if you are someone who likes to have a lot of Chrome tabs open at once.

Hardware

The Chromebox Tiny comes with four USB 3.0 ports, an audio jack, HDMI and DisplayPort outputs, an Ethernet port, and built-in Wi-Fi support. There is an antenna that is included in the box to boost the Wi-Fi signal, which made a significant difference to the signal strength, and proved to be a very welcome addition. If you do decide to go the AIO route, Lenovo has designed their Thinkvision monitors to accommodate the attached antenna as well. There is no speaker available, so you will either need a monitor with speakers or use the audio jack to connect your own set. You also get only 16 GB of on-board storage, but given the cloud-centric nature of Chrome OS, the 100 GB of free Google Drive cloud storage is the one that will be more useful.

The Chromebox Tiny does come with Bluetooth 4.0 support, but there were some issues when using a Logitech Ultrathin Touch mouse and an Apple Wireless Keyboard. The mouse cursor would occasionally flicker, but what was far more alarming was when the computer would start entering a keystroke repeatedly, which became very frustrating very quickly. Further, the devices would randomly disconnect and refuse to pair again, requiring a reboot to use any Bluetooth devices again.

Switching to the included wired keyboard and continuing to use just the mouse didn’t resolve the problem, and finally, the only solution was to turn off Bluetooth and depend on the included wired keyboard and mouse. Luckily, the included mouse and keyboard are pretty good, with the keys of the keyboard providing a good amount of tactile feedback, while also featuring Chrome OS exclusive shortcuts. I would have still preferred to use wireless accessories though, and hopefully Google and Lenovo will have a solution in a future software update.

Software

Running Chrome OS, the Chromebox Tiny provides a very basic software experience, ideal for those who are comfortable with exclusively using cloud services. Chrome OS is otherwise very easy to use, and offers only what is essential.

Turning on the Chromebox is when you immediately get its penchant for simplicity, with the device showing a Chrome OS logo for a few seconds, before directly taking you to the login screen. Logging in shows you the minimalistic Chrome OS interface, with basically just a search button in the left corner next to pinned applications, with status information seen in the right corner. There is no desktop where you can place shortcuts or files, and is actually just a wallpaper of your choice.

The search button will pull up Google, where you can search the web, launch specific apps, or use Google Now. The primary app that will used is the Google Chrome browser, which works exactly like it would on Windows or OS X. You can install apps and extensions from the Chrome Web Store, and also quickly switch between these installed apps by using the past view shortcut on the keyboard. Clicking on the time in the bottom right corner gives you access to a system menu with options to sign out or power off, connect to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, adjust the volume, or access the full settings app. There is also a help link in that menu which includes a lot of very useful resources to help answer any questions.

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Chrome OS is a very spartan take on the traditional PC software experience, and will definitely take some getting used to. Fortunately, the learning curve isn’t as steep as one might expect at first glance. Just keep in mind there isn’t any powerful photo editing and video tools, developer tools, or if you’re looking for some form of local file management, so if that is what you require, Chrome OS is not going to be a good fit. If your primary usage is online however, you do have Google Drive and other features that you can take advantage of.

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Pricing and final thoughts

As mentioned, there are multiple variants of the Chromebox Tiny, with the base model starting at $205, all the way up to around $340 for the top end version with the Intel Core i3 processor and 4 GB of RAM.

So there you have it for this in-depth look at the Lenovo ThinkCentre Chromebox Tiny! While Chrome OS may not be for everyone, this device offers good value for not only educational institutions and businesses, but also home users who are not dependent on Windows or OS X applications, and are looking for a simplified experience. There are some issues with Bluetooth connectivity though, that will hopefully be resolved soon. While this Chromebox will not replace the traditional PC experience you may be used to, it is small and portable, offers excellent performance, and features a smooth and simple software experience, which is more than enough for some people.

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Daily Calculator Free: a customizable calculator short on functionality (App Review)

For this review, we have Daily Calculator Free, a calculator with many whom have come before it and surely many whom will come after it. It has a lot of competition out there, including the various calculators that are pre-installed by OEMs. Ultimately, the purpose of such an app is to solve calculations ranging from the basic addition, division, and so on to possibly more complex computations involving trigonometry and exponents.

Setup

Daily Calculator Free’s setup is simple. Download and install the app from Google Play, and open it. You’ll be presented with the following (main screen) after a short prompt, which I’ll explain in the next section.

The default layout and theme for Daily Calculator Free.

Features and Functions

The app is able to perform addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, key for any calculator. Also, there are buttons for percents, entry clearing, and manipulations for calculations stored in its memory.

Next, the prompt I mentioned explains two commands a user can perform within the calculation window. A tap on this window reveals calculations stored in memory. Meanwhile, a long press copies the latest answer to the clipboard.

To get to the app’s preferences, click the icon of the three dots in the top left-hand corner. Options here include touch vibration, keypad layouts, and themes.

Themes appear to be the main appeal of Daily Calculator Free. There currently are 12 of them to choose from, half of which are a variation of “Material.” I assume this means they closely follow the aesthetic of Material design. Meanwhile, the others are based on “Original.”

The Material – Amber theme

The Original – Blue theme

Although I thought these themes were well-made, this didn’t change my opinion of the app’s functionality. And as a calculator, it lacks in this regard. For example, LG’s take on the G3 has commands for pi, trigonometry, logarithms, exponents, and more. Not everyone is going to need this, I understand. However, it’s nice to have just in case, especially when it usually is given for free.

What We Like

• Customizable layout and display format
• Theme selection

What We Don’t Like

• Only has basic arithmetic of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division

Overall, I believe Daily Calculator Free is okay. The ability to change the layout, theme, and so on is a nice addition, but it is not necessary with calculator apps. Instead, the most important goal is to give it as much functionality because a calculator is a tool, more than anything else. And in this saturated market of calculator apps, this one does not stand out as having the most functionality.

The post Daily Calculator Free: a customizable calculator short on functionality (App Review) appeared first on AndroidGuys.

PureGear Galaxy S6 Edge case review

Many of us desire ample phone protection but do not want to have to carry around a brick.  So we search for a case that can meet us somewhere in the middle, and just maybe, one that reaches far to either extreme.  PureGear is a phone case company that is up to the task, and I was given both of its Slim Shell Galaxy S6 Edge cases to test out.

Design

The Slim Shell case comes in two flavors.  One is completely clear and the other is clear but with a black rim.  A nice touch on the black rim is that there is a clear strip that runs through the middle of it, giving you a peak of the hardware underneath.  The clear case has a similar lining also, but it’s much more subtle because the entire case is clear.

 

All but the perimeter of the cases are hard, rigid plastic.  The frame is stiff but bendable TPU material, which allows you to get the phone into the case.

These are very slim-fitting cases.  The added bulk is pretty much negligible.  There are three dots (two on the bottom corners and one above the camera slot) that serve as risers, to keep the back of the case from rubbing on whatever surface it’s laying on.

The power and volume button stick out of the frame slightly to make them easy to locate and press.  I really like how PureGear did the case buttons.  They provide more area than the stock Galaxy S6 buttons do and are neither too sensitive or hard to press.  They also retain the sleekness, with a metallic finish.

 

There’s not much to say about the camera slot, it’s just an open space for the camera module, flash, and sensors.  There’s a little tab that runs from the top right corner with the PureGear logo.

It’s a stylish way to put the company’s name on the case.  I just wish PureGear would’ve left it at this instead of putting its name along the bottom of the case.  Some folks may prefer a cleaner look.

Functionality

The cases have as snug as a fit as you would want.  They’re maybe even too snug.  These won’t be cases that you will like to frequently switch out.  You have to pry somewhat, and they rub against the power/volume buttons too much for my comfort when doing so.  But on the flip-side, the tight fit means that the case won’t wobble when it’s equipped, and there won’t be gaps that allow little debris to find its way in between the phone and case.

Despite the slimness of the cases, they still appear to provide plenty of protection.  This is especially true for the frame, where there is considerable thickness shielding the phone.

  

 

To protect the front of your phone, there is a slight lip on the top and bottom over the screen.

  

I don’t have fear that the phone wouldn’t survive drops.  However, I can’t express the same feeling for the case, at least regarding the preservation of its clean appearance.  With my causal use, I found that the plastic backing tends to scratch easy.  I’ve only set the phone down on wood surfaces and a multitude of hairline scratches began appearing more and more.

They’re occurring on the center of the cases, so I’m assuming that those little risers on the top and bottom aren’t suitable enough.

Another annoyance is small, warping effects that occur as the back of the phone touches the inner case plastic.

I initially thought that some moisture got in the case when I put it on.  I then wiped it and but it back on, but I got the same result.

As expected, the case honors the shape of the Galaxy S6 Edge, and gives some clearance on the sides for usability of the curved screen.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I’m satisfied with the PureGear Slim Shell cases for my Galaxy S6 Edge.  The fit is secure and snug.  I have peace of mind that my precious device is protected well enough, all while the slim form-factor is retained.

However, I do stress that PureGear makes improvements to the case’s backing.  Scratches happen too easily, and although subtle in appearance, they disrupt the clean look.  Maybe a more scratch-resistant plastic or finish should be looked into.  And while at it, that weird warping effect that occurs at some points of contact between the phone’s glass back and the plastic should be addressed.

PureGear Galaxy S6 Edge Slim Shell case product page

Amazon product page

The post PureGear Galaxy S6 Edge case review appeared first on AndroidGuys.

Fallout Shelter: an overdue Android game that doesn’t disappoint (app review)

As an Android fanboy, I hate it when iOS gets an app that I want and Android gets left in the dark. That’s exactly what happened this year at E3 when not only Fallout 4 was announced, but Fallout Shelter as well. Bethesda announced that its first mobile game would be available later that day for iOS devices. I was crushed, yet again, that another developer had ignored Android.Whatsapp Messenger

Luckily for us fanboys, Pete Hines, Vice President of PR/Marketing at Bethesda took to Twitter later that day to announce that there would be information about an Android version coming. And the information did come. It was later announced on Twitter again that Fallout Shelter would be available on Android devices starting August 13, 2015.

I could be wrong, but I think that Fallout Shelter could be the most hotly anticipated game for Android this year. And with over a million app downloads in just 4 days. I think the numbers speak for themselves.

The question remains, was it worth the wait?

Fallout Shelter overview

In Fallout Shelter, you assume the role of a vault overseer. As the overseer, it’s your job to grow the vault, both in population and in size. There are several rooms that you can build and every room has a specific purpose that works symbiotically with the other rooms.

You need a generator room to create power. You need a water treatment room to provide water. You need a diner to provide food for your residents and you need barracks to house your vault dwellers. You cannot focus on just one type of room. Every room you add increases the requirements for electricity, food, and water, so you’ll need to balance all the rooms.

The vault dwellers have stats that correspond to various other rooms. If you’re familiar with the Fallout series, then you’ll recognize the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats.

Strength. The strength stat directly corresponds with the creation of electricity. By assigning vault dwellers with high strength to the generator rooms, they will produce electricity faster and more efficiently.

Perception. Vault dwellers with a high perception do well in the water treatment rooms.

Endurance. The higher the endurance, the longer your character can stay out in the wasteland and the longer they are in the wasteland, the better chances they will have to find more caps, weapons, and outfits.

Charisma. When your dwellers have high charisma they are best suited for the radio room.

Intelligence. Vault dwellers with high intelligence are best suited to making RadAway and stimpaks.

Agility. A higher agility dweller should be used to make food.

Luck. This stat helps out all around, but it’s speculated that it is best used for exploring the wasteland.

All of the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats are beneficial in the wasteland. You can send your dwellers out to the wasteland to collect outfits, weapons, and caps. The caps are the in-game currency, used to purchase new rooms and upgrades to those rooms.

The rooms can also be merged with other similar rooms that are at the same level. This can help you upgrade the rooms more efficiently. The upgrades are more expensive on a merged room, but they are cheaper than upgrading 3 rooms separately. Other benefits of having merged rooms are that your dwellers are happier working in larger groups and they work more efficiently in larger groups. This is true as well in the training rooms.

Training rooms will allow you to increase the dwellers stats in the individual areas. It is possible through training in each stat to max level every S.P.E.C.I.A.L. characteristic. Once you have max-leveled, the only way to increase the level more is through the outfits.

The outfits found in Fallout Shelter are the same outfits that you know and love in the Fallout series. Like the outfits found in Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas, the outfits in Fallout Shelter will increase your dwellers stats in certain areas. Some outfits have multiple stats to them, however, the ones that specialize in one particular stat, tend to raise that stat higher than one that shares multiple stats.

Weapons are needed in the game to defend your vault from raiders, radroaches, molerats, and even deathclaws. This is where the game takes on an almost tower defense style gameplay. The radroaches and molerats are typically confined to one room unless it is empty. Then they will spread out until they are exterminated. The radroaches are the easiest to kill, but deathclaws are the hardest.

Just like in Fallout 3 or Fallout New Vegas, deathclaws are easily the toughest creature in the wasteland. When they come into your vault the will go from floor to floor decimating everything in their path. The first time they come through your vault, you probably won’t be prepared for them and many of your dwellers will die. I found the best strategy to deal with not only deathclaws but raiders as well, is to place your highest leveled characters with the best weapons and best outfits on the top floor, closest to the vault entrance. Keep a good supply of stimpaks on hand as well. The deathclaws will move from room to room after a certain period of time, so if your dwellers are leveled high enough and have the right gear they will suffer damage, but won’t die. Just make sure that those deathclaws die as quickly as possible, because if they make it to your lower levels, your going to have a bunch of dead vault dwellers.

Raiders will move in the same fashion, but are significantly easier to kill than the deathclaws.

In order to grow your vault, you will need dwellers. When you build a radio room you will be able to call dwellers to your vault. The more upgraded the room and the higher charisma rating of the dwellers working there, the higher chance you have of someone showing up at your door. You can also find dwellers in lunchboxes, which can be obtained through in-app purchases or completing certain daily tasks.

The easiest way to increase your vaults population is by having your dwellers make babies. To make new baby dwellers, you’ll need to assign a male add a female to the same dormitory. From there they will get to know each other and eventually will run off behind a partition and when they emerge the female will be pregnant.

There are only two in-app purchases found in the game. The first are the lunchboxes. The second are Mr. Handy robots. You can assign a Mr. Handy robot to each level and they will automate the task of collecting resources produced by the various production rooms. They will also defend the floors from unwanted visitors. You can even send Mr. Handy out to the wasteland to collect caps and items.

Fallout Shelter setup

Fallout Shelter is found in the Google Play Store and is a sinch to install. The tutorial will walk you through the basics and will get you started as a vault overseer. I highly recommend that you read the help section found in the game. There is a lot of information that will help you as you play. If you don’t like reading the help files and want to jump right in, go ahead. It’s easy enough to pick up on and learn as you go.

Who will enjoy Fallout Shelter?

If you enjoyed any of the previous Fallout games and you enjoy casual mobile gaming, then it’s safe to say that you will enjoy Fallout Shelter. It’s a rather addicting game. In fact, I had trouble even putting it down to write the review.

Bethesda took many different game styles and blended them. You’ll find tower defense elements. You’ll find that their 2D characters in a semi 3D world is reminiscent of Paper Mario with a Fallout flair. The vault building and resource collecting portion reminded me of Farmville. There are many RPG elements in the game as well. They all come together in a way that only Bethesda could do it.

There have been previous reviews on other pages that complain about the lack of an endgame in Fallout Shelter. While this would bother me in Fallout 4, it doesn’t bother me at all in a mobile game. There are plenty of games that have been fun that don’t have an endgame. Take Minecraft for example. How many people play the game with the intention defeating the Ender dragon? Eventually, many players will attempt it, but most just have fun building stuff and creating stuff.

I don’t think there needs to be an endgame.

What we liked:

• The look and feel of Fallout in a smaller package
• Game mechanics
• Addicting gameplay

What could be better:

• The touch controls seemed a little finicky at times

Fallout Shelter summary

Bethesda knocked this one out of the park. They made the perfect blend of a fun and addicting mobile game in the Fallout universe. This is a fun game to play, but beware it’s hard to put down.

How can Bethesda top themselves in the mobile arena? I can only think of one thing. An android port of Fallout 3 or Fallout New Vegas and why not. There are mobile ports of Bioshock and other PC games. If anything Android makes the perfect platform since, there are no size limit constraints like there are with a certain fruity phone.

The post Fallout Shelter: an overdue Android game that doesn’t disappoint (app review) appeared first on AndroidGuys.

Fallout Shelter review

Hello – my name is Edgar and I have a problem. I started playing Fallout Shelter since last June and my addiction has only grown since then!

Seriously, this game is the most addicting I have played since Flappy Bird. For those who may be out of the loop, Fallout Shelter is Bethesda’s latest mobile game, based on the popular Fallout franchise that has thrived for over a decade. The game was announced by Bethesda on June 14th, the same date the title was released on iOS. It took the developer 2 months to bring it to Android. Though that was an annoyance to us Google advocates, at least we can now leave this disappointment behind and get gaming!

I have spent some quality time (hours after hours) with the game and am ready to give you my review, so let’s jump right into the details and show you what you can expect out of Fallout Shelter.

Editor’s note: Since the game has only just made its way to Android, we decided to keep our progress and stick with reviewing the iPad version of Fallout Shelter. We did also test out the Android version to ensure it played just as smoothly. Ultimately there aren’t too many noticeable differences between the Android and iOS versions, but we felt it necessary to clarify anyway. 

Story

The story is very simple, and very similar to that of all other Fallout titles. The world has gone to hell and people are struggling to survive in a post-apocalyptic world full of radiation. It’s hard to live out there, and this is where you come into play as the overseer of a vault (or multiple).

Think of this game as a cooler version of The Sims, with a touch of Sim City. You have to oversee the building of an underground vault, where your dwellers (residents) will spend all their time. That is, unless you send them to the wasteland.

Your goal is to develop a vault which keeps all your residents healthy, happy and secure. In order to achieve this, the strategy game allows you to build multiple types of rooms, each with its own purpose.

Resource rooms

You will need all types of facilities within your vault if you want your population to thrive. After all, this is pretty much an underground city. In Fallout Shelter, there are a bevy of rooms that become unlocked as more dwellers join the community. Each room has its own purpose. You can assign your dwellers to these rooms, but choose wisely as production benefits from different characteristics in your residents.

By the way, the rooms can be merged (up to 3), allowing you to produce more at a time and put more dwellers to work in a specific area. Simply build a room next to an equal one and they will be automatically combined. Without further ado, let’s talk more about the specific buildings.

The power generator creates electricity, the diner produces food and the water treatment plant makes sure your liquids are plentiful. These three rooms are the most important, as they offer the basic needs for your dwellers. If one of these resources fails to be made, it all goes downhill. If you ever find yourself in a tough situation, you can rush rooms to get your resources faster, but there is a risk that things may go wrong, causing a fire or an infestation (more on that later).

Living quarters increase your population capacity and enable the making of babies. The storage room increases your item capacity, allowing you to store more outfits and weapons. You can also build a radio station to try and lure more people into joining your vault.

The Medbay and Science lab produce Stimpacks and RadAways, respectively. Stimpacks are used for restoring health, while RadAways clears radiation damage.

After you become a more advanced player, it will be possible to unlock a nuclear reactor, garden and other rooms, but these are pretty much just more advanced versions of the other types of resource rooms.

Character stats and training rooms

Each type of room can benefit from specific character traits. This system works in the form of stats. Each character has stat bars for strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility and luck. Raising these will not only help you fend off infestations and attackers, but it will also make your dwellers more productive, depending on which rooms they are assigned to.

For example, characters with more strength will perform better in power generators. Likewise, having more perception will improve your water production. But what if none of your characters are any good? This is where training rooms come into play.

Assigning your dwellers to a weight room will make them stronger. Sending them to the athletics room will make them more agile. Furthermore, the classroom will raise intelligence, the game room will increase luck and so on. Just leave them there and train them until they reach your desired level, then send them back to work and you will be outputting resources in a jiffy.

How to get dwellers

Residents are the base of all your vault needs

Residents are the base of all your vault needs. Like in any society, people are the foundation of your community, so you better have a good balance on population. You have to make sure there’s enough people to keep everything running. At the same time, have too many dwellers and resources will become scarce.

There are three ways to get new dwellers. The main (and most fun) way is sending current dwellers of opposite sexes to the living quarters. If they have enough charisma and fun, they will start dancing and then go to the room to get cozy. After a few moments, they will come out and the woman will be pregnant. Let time pass and she will have the baby (which you can name). The kid will simply roam the vault. Wait some more time and the infant will grow to become a productive member of your mini-society.

Another way to get new dwellers is by simply waiting for them to show up at your door. The eventual dweller will come and just stand outside until (and if) you let him/her in by dragging him into one of the rooms.

The third way to get more residents is by using the lunch boxes with cards (more on this on the in-app purchases section). When you use your rewards cards, sometimes they are special characters. These usually come with better specs, by the way.

Dangers of living in the vault

Of course, living in this post-apocalyptic vault is not all joy. It doesn’t matter if your economy is thriving, there are risks out there, so you must keep your dwellers strong and well armed. For starters, infestations can pop out any time. And though these used to be only Radroaches, the latest update adds Molerats to the equation. Your residents will have to fight them off or die trying.

Infestations and fires can occur at any time, but they usually happen when you unsuccessfully attempt to rush production on a room.

We can’t dismiss outside dangers, either. Raiders show up and break into your vault from time to time. They will try to take your resources and caps (in-game currency). Also added in the latest update are Deathclaw monsters. These are not pretty, by the way. Some scary stuff!

Furthermore, it’s possible to send your dwellers into the wasteland, which is definitely dangerous. It’s full of monsters and raiders out there. If your dweller survives long enough, they bring back some great loot and plenty of caps. But if your dweller’s health is depleting when out in the wasteland, simply call them back to the vault. Waiting for your dweller to return can take some time, but not too long compared to the time they spent out there.

In-app purchases

One of the best parts about Fallout Shelter is that the game is completely free to download. Of course, Bethesda does have to make money somehow, and that’s what in-app purchases are for. The kicker here is that you can continue playing this game forever without paying a single dime.

The latest update introduces Mister Handy, a robot that can help collect resources, fight off enemies and even search the wasteland for caps. This robot costs $0.99, or you can get 5 for $3.99.

In addition, you can buy lunch boxes, which come with multiple cards inside. These cards include caps, weapons, outfits, resources and characters. At least one of them is supposed to be a “premium” prize, so you are sure to walk out with something good, no matter what. It’s possible to acquire these lunch boxes by accomplishing game objectives, but they are pretty hard to come by after the initial phase is over. If you still want them, you can just purchase one for $0.99, five for $3.99, fifteen for $9.99 or forty for $19.99. Or you could just keep playing for free. That’s what I do!

Conclusion and final thoughts

I suppose I can’t complain much about the game if I have been playing it for 2 months straight, usually not missing a single day. Fallout Shelter has applied the perfect elements to keep you hooked. It is a highly addictive game.

Like every good mobile title, Fallout Shelter never really ends. You can keep expanding your vault and there is always something more to do. In addition, the occasional surprises keep you on your toes. It also helps that it’s a very complex game with very clear chain results. This means you get some kind of satisfaction out of formulating the best strategy. Sure, taking a bird through large tubes is fun, but this is less instinctive and more mentally stimulating.

And if you are already a Fallout fan you will feel right at home, encountering the same monsters, living in this post-nuclear world and dealing with the issues the Fallout franchise is known for. The only difference is that you are now controlling a whole vault community. You will go through some struggles at first, but once you figure out the balance right, it’s all smooth sailing and very fun.

It’s highly addictive, but that may come at a price

I do have one complaint, though. And it’s a major one. What’s up with the lack of cloud saving support? This is a game that is designed to spend many hours playing. We would love to be able to play using various devices. Not only that, but Bethesda makes it pretty hard to transfer your saves. You have to jump through hurdles if you get a new smartphone or tablet, or if you simply need to do a factory data resent, and want to keep your vaults. It’s just not acceptable for a game like this one, which is characterized by the time investment users have to make.

Otherwise, Fallout Shelter is definitely a must-try. It’s fun, complex and challenging, but it’s also a game you can easily get the hang of. It also helps that it’s free and the need to spend real money is really minimal for those who don’t mind spending a little more time advancing.

Just head straight to the Google Play Store and join the fun. Then hit the comments and let us know how you are liking it! How far have you gotten? I am currently at 51 dwellers.

Download Fallout Shelter from the Google Play Store

ASUS ZenPad S 8.0 review

Buy now on Amazon

There has been a significant surge of affordable yet high-end devices in the smartphone world, but this trend hasn’t entirely found its way over to the tablet market. A distinct difference between affordable and premium tablets can still be seen, but ASUS is hoping to blur the lines a little bit with their latest tablet offering. Does the company succeed? We find out, in this in-depth review of the ASUS ZenPad S 8.0 review!

Design

There are two aspects of the design of the ZenPad S 8.0 that are noticeable right off the bat, with the first being how compact this 8-inch tablet is, and the second being how thin it is, with a thickness of just 6.6 mm. The 4:3 aspect ratio of the display means that the device is a little wider that it would be with a 16:9 ratio display, but it isn’t uncomfortable to hold on to.

There is a brushed metallic finish throughout the back, bordered by a shiny metallic edge that gives the tablet a nice elegant look, but helping with the grip is a soft, leathery material that used along the bottom of the tablet when holding it in the landscape orientation, which feels really nice, and prevents the tablet from easily slipping from your hand. Also aiding the grip is a soft rubbery material that borders the entire tablet. Its sleek profile and build material choices not only make for a great looking device, but also makes it that much more portable and easier to use.

Going around the device, the camera can be found on the back, the headphone jack is up top, and on the left side is a flap that allows for access to the microSD card slot. The volume rocker and the power button are on the right, and the buttons are unfortunately quite stiff and hard to press, more so in the case of the power button, which does help to avoid accidentally triggering them, but can be confusing as to whether you’ve actually pressed the button or not without the tactile feedback you’d expect. The tablet does come with the double tap to wake feature however, so you won’t find yourself reaching for the power button that often.

The ZenPad S 8.0 also comes with a USB Type-C port at the bottom, and its great to see OEMs slowly start to adopt the new USB standard with their devices. Up front, on either side of the display, is the dual stereo speaker setup, which is of course the best implementation when it comes to the placement of speakers, especially in the case of a tablet, a primary use of which for a lot of people is media consumption.

Display

The ASUS ZenPad S 8.0 comes with an 8-inch IPS LCD display with a 2048 x 1536 resolution, resulting in a pixel density of 320 ppi. Quad HD is all the rage in the smartphone arena, but makes much more sense with the larger displays of a tablet, allowing for great viewing experience. Text is very clear and sharp, viewing angles are fantastic, and the color reproduction, with the default settings, is very accurate. If you are looking for a touch of more saturation, you do have the option to change it, with preset options including Balance, BlueLight filter, and Vivid, as well as the ability to manually adjust the settings.

A small amount of sharpening does appear to be going on throughout the display, which can make text appear a little fuzzy, which is especially noticeable in certain scenarios, like with black text on a colored background. As good as looking at still images on this high-resolution display is, viewing videos may lead to some disappointment. The software tries to smoothen the video out, similar to the Soap Opera effect available with some HDTVs, so if a movie you’re watching is intended to be shot at a cinematic 24 frames per second, the tablet will try to smoothen the video to make it look like it was shot at 60 frames per second, making it seem very strange looking.

You do have the option to adjust this “Blur Motion Free” setting to either high, medium, or low, or even completely disable it. However, it has to be mentioned that even when it is disabled, this effect is still very noticeable. The issues with sharpening and the smoothing of videos can, and will hopefully, be fixed with future updates, but for now, these questionable software implications put a damper on what is otherwise a gorgeous display.

Performance

Under the hood, the ASUS ZenPad S 8.0 packs a quad-core Intel Atom Z3580 processor, clocked at 2.3 GHz, and backed by the PowerVR G6430 GPU and 4 GB of RAM. This is the configuration of this particular review unit, but there is a cheaper version available which comes with an Intel Atom Z3560 processor and 2 GB of RAM as well.

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The processing package allows for a very smooth and lag free experience. Animations are incredibly fluid, and opening, closing, and switching between apps is quite fast. It has to be said though that a contributing factor to this stutter-free performance is the stock-like software experience, that keeps everything smooth and snappy. When it comes to gaming, you may notice a few hiccups with graphic-intensive games, but the device handles gaming very well for the most part. Gaming is also the only time you may notice the device getting warm, but never uncomfortably so.

Hardware

The ZenPad S 8.0 comes with 16 GB, 32 GB, or 64 GB of built-in storage, which can be further expanded via microSD card by up to 128 GB. The device also comes with a standard suite of connectivity options, but a version of the device with a SIM card slot to take advantage of mobile data isn’t currently available. As mentioned, the tablet comes with dual front-facing stereo speakers. This is not only the best placement for speakers on a tablet, but the sound these speakers provide is also very crisp, clear, and loud, which will make media and gaming-centric users very happy.

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This ZenPad S 8.0 packs 4,000 mAh battery, which might be a bit smaller than the battery capacity available with other high-end tablets, but the software optimization allows for some pretty decent battery life. I was able to get up to 6 hours on screen-on time when using the tablet to watch videos and browse the internet, and if you are somebody who is not going to watch videos all day long, you should comfortably get a full day of use out of this tablet, if not more.

Camera

Tablets aren’t well known for their prowess in the camera department, and most pack mediocre camera packages at best, and the ASUS ZenPad S 8.0, with its 8 MP rear camera and 5 MP front-facing unit, only somewhat changes that impression.

The rear camera is capable of taking good pictures, but only in very specific situations, and it does tend to overexpose the shot a lot. Even when setting the focus on different areas of the picture, and with multiple attempts, there was always some form of overexposure to be seen. There are instances when you get a great looking photo however, but there are more misses than hits. Images are also sometimes lacking in detail, and the software does have trouble processing some bright colors.

The story goes along the same lines when it comes to front-facing camera as well, with it capable of occasionally taking some good shots with a lot of detail, as long as the lighting conditions are ideal. Even if the lighting deteriorates slightly, your selfies will start to look grainy. When it comes to the camera app, it is packed with a lot of features and camera effect, such as Low Light mode, which bumps up the brightness and tones down the noise you’d see with a normal low light shot. Detail is still lacking however, but this mode does help take low light performance from poor to just about average.

The camera package of this tablet is likely not going to match up with what is available with your smartphone, but this is definitely good enough to manage a good shot in a pinch, and overall, the camera of the ASUS ZenPad S 8.0 is actually one of the better ones we’ve seen on tablets thus far.

Software

On the software side of things, the ZenPad S 8.0 runs Android 5.0 Lollipop out of the box, with the Zen UI on top. This is one of the more minimalistic takes on Android out there, and a lot of the Material Design elements of Lollipop are retained, and can be seen in areas like the notification drop down and recent apps screen, even if aspects like the on-screen navigation keys are a little dated.  On the lockscreen, you can set up to 3 shortcuts to launch your most used apps which is very handy. By default these are camera, mail, and browser but you can change these to whatever apps you’d like or just disable them all.

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The device comes with a slew of customization options and gesture-based additions, that can prove to be very useful. For example, by holding down or swiping up on the homescreen, customization options like icon packs, scroll effects, and launcher fonts show up and can be changed to better suit your liking. With Touch Gesture, you can draw letters while the screen is off to launch certain apps, like C for Camera, or E for Email, and as mentioned, the device also comes with a double tap to wake feature.  In Motion Gesture, you can do things like, shaking the tablet to take a screenshot.There’s even a “Kid Mode,” where you can turn your tablet into a protected environment for a youngster set with parent controls and a timer.

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It’s a little disappointing that something like dual window or having small versions of apps running side by side is not available, but that might not be that big of a deal for some people. It’s also worth mentioning that the device is, unfortunately, packed with a lot of bloatware than cannot be uninstalled. That said, there are far more positives with this software experience than negatives, and overall, things remain smooth and snappy, which is the most important part.

Specifications

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Pricing and final thoughts

The base model of the ASUS ZenPad S 8.0 starts at just $199, but the 64 GB storage and 4 GB RAM version will set you back only an additional $100. ASUS managed to impress everyone with the pricing of its Zenfone 2 smartphones, and the company has brought over that same fantastic pricing policy to its latest tablet line as well.

So there you have it for this in-depth look at the ASUS ZenPad S 8.0! This tablet offers everything you’d expect from a high-end device in 2015, with its Quad HD resolution display, 4 GB of RAM, and front-facing dual stereo speakers. Additions like the extremely customizable UI make the experience even better, and the device doesn’t need any help from a third-party applications to create a great tablet experience. Thankfully, the only flaws in the ZenPad S 8.0 are software related and can likely be fixed at some point down the road. This tablet manages exceeds all expectations, and with a price point of just $299, is definitely worth picking up.

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Elephone P8000 review

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Elephone may not be the most well known Android smartphone manufacturer out there, but like its other Chinese OEM counterparts, the company churns out solid offerings that feature price points that are competitive and affordable. The flagship Elephone P7000 may have been released just a few months ago, but its successor is already available, bringing with a few improvements along the way. What does this device bring to the table? We find out, in this Elephone P8000 review!

Design

The Elephone P8000 retains a lot of the design elements of its predecessor, but that isn’t a bad thing in this case. The rear back panel comes with a carbon fiber texture that will remind you of the carbon fiber dbrand skin, and along with the metal band, the P8000 offers a surprisingly premium build that you wouldn’t expect from a device in this price range.

With its weight and thickness of 205 grams and 10.1 mm, the device feels very substantial and solid in the hand, but this extra heft is worth it, considering that it makes room for a large 4,000 mAh battery. The back cover is removable, giving you access to the dual SIM card slots and the microSD card slot. The back cover is quite thin though, and with relatively strong clips holding it in place, it can be very difficult to remove.

While at first glance it may appear as though the device has very thin bezels along the sides of the display, turning on the display shows that there is actually a black border around the screen, a design element that some users may not be a fan of. Below the display are three capacitive keys, with the dots being the back and recent apps keys, and the circle being the home button. The home button is illuminated, and depending on when you picked up the device, may also double as a notification LED.

We say depending on when you picked up the device, because the first batch of 5000 devices come without the notification LED feature. Elephone mentions that this was a compromise that had to be made initially to keep up with the demand. Users who face this problem are entitled to a discount with the next Elephone flagship, but other than that, there is nothing else that Elephone is offering by way of compensation.

Display

The Elephone comes with a 5.5-inch IPS LCD display, with a Full HD resolution, resulting in a pixel density of 401 ppi. The display looks fantastic, and features excellent color reproduction, neutral color temperatures, good viewing angles, and enough brightness to allow for comfortable outdoor visibility.

There are some issues with quality control though, which is quite worrying. For starters, there is no Gorilla Glass panel protecting the display, which is surprising given that it was found with its predecessor, the P7000. Further, there was a line of LCD bright spots on the right side of the display, a dead pixel near the bottom left corner, as well as a bit of dust trapped between the LCD and digitizer. While not every device will see these issues, the oversight in quality control before shipping is certainly alarming.

Performance

Under the hood, the Elephone P8000 packs an octa-core 64-bit MediaTek MT6753 processor, clocked at 1.3 GHz, and backed by the Mali-T720 GPU and 3 GB of RAM. This is the processing package seen with quite a few similar low-cost smartphones out of China, and the performance is quite good, given the price of the device. There were no issues with general day to day tasks, and multi-tasking is a breeze with 3 GB of RAM. Graphically-intensive gaming will result in dropped frames and slow loading times, however, but it can handle more casual games easily.

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Hardware

The P8000 comes with 16 GB of on-board storage, further expandable via microSD card by up to 64 GB. The device also packs a standard suite of connectivity options, and also comes with 4G LTE support in select markets. Network connectivity was a big issue however, with the device unable to connect to the T-Mobile network, and allowing only for 2G speeds on the AT&T network, and that too only when outdoors. Basically, the Elephone P8000 isn’t going to be a good option at all if you are in the US.

The single rear speaker unit of the P8000 is unfortunately disappointing, as it is not very clear and doesn’t get too loud either. It is good enough for basic use, but certainly isn’t going to meet the need when it comes to media consumption. Using headphones certainly allows for a far better audio experience, but even then, the maximum volume isn’t as loud as one would hope. This may just be a software issue however, and something that Elephone can fix in a future update.

The Elephone P8000 comes with a fingerprint reader on the back of the device, which can take some getting used to, as you can’t see the scanner to place your finger properly. It is a 360 degree sensor though, which means that it shouldn’t matter which angle you place the finger in, but in my experience, it didn’t work as well as it should. Accuracy was at around 70% even placing the finger perfectly, which is certainly disappointing. The same setup on the P7000 worked much better, so it is actually quite surprising to see this kind of performance this time around.

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One of the best features of the Elephone P8000 is the battery, with the device packing a large 4,000 mAh unit. The device lasted for as long as 25 hours with just over 5 hours of screen-on time, which is impressive by any standard. Granted, this was with mobile connectivity turned off because of the issues mentioned above, so your usage results may vary. In either case, users should be able to comfortably get a full day of use out of the device. An expected trade off here is the charge time though, with the device taking a little under 4 hours to charge fully.

Camera

The Elephone P8000 comes with a 13 MP rear camera with a LED flash and a 5 MP front-facing camera. As good as it sounds on paper, the camera unfortunately produces only average looking shots. Good images are possible, but the camera suffers from focus and exposure issues, which means that it can take a while to get a correct shot. Low-light performance is also poor, which is understandable. Overall, we’ve seen some better cameras with other devices in this price range.

Software

The Elephone P8000 runs Android 5.1 Lollipop out of the box, with the custom Elephone UI on top. As is seen with other custom user interfaces from Chinese OEMs, there isn’t an app drawer available, leaving users dependent on folders to keep things organized. A nice addition here though is the ability to swipe easily swipe between different folders to quickly find what you are looking for.

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There is a theme store, but changing to a different theme only affects the wallpaper and the system icons, and not much else. Everything else, like the Settings menu and other software aspects remain stock-like, which many enthusiasts will appreciate. However, gesture settings that were seen with its predecessor, like double tap to wake, are no longer available. Miravision does make its way over though, which lets you adjust the display colors to your liking.

Specifications

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Pricing and final thoughts

The Elephone P8000 is available for just $170, with color options including white, silver, and gold. Of course, keep in mind that network connectivity is a big issue in the US, so it’s a good idea to buy this device only in other markets, after checking for compatibility first.

So there you have it for this in-depth look at the Elephone P8000! As impressive as this device looks on paper, there are a lot of issues that show up when it comes to real world performance. While the battery life is amazing, and the display, other than some quality control issues, is excellent, there are some glaring flaws that are hard to overlook. It’s a definite no go if you are in the US unless they can fix its network connectivity issues, but may still be a good option in other markets however, especially if you’re looking for an affordable device with excellent battery life. 

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cheero Ingress Power Cube: The most unique portable battery you can gets your hands on

When cheero offered me the opportunity to review its official Ingress powerpack I jumped at the task. Portable batteries are a dime a dozen and offer very little differentiation other than things like outputs and capacity. They have one reason for their existence – to provide backup power when you need it. But in comes cheero with quite possibly the coolest looking portable battery I have ever seen. You don’t necessarily need to be a fan of Ingress to appreciate it, but if you are a fan of Ingress you will love this battery.

Ingress is an award winning, real-world interactive game with over 10M downloads from the Google Play Store. The game is also available on iOS so this battery applies to both Android and iOS users alike. Here is a description from Google Play:

Move through the real world using your Android device and the Ingress app to discover and tap sources of this mysterious energy. Acquire objects to aid in your quest, deploy tech to capture territory, and ally with other players to advance the cause of the Enlightened or the Resistance.

Strategy
The struggle is being played out globally. Track the progress of players around the world, plan your next steps, and communicate with others using an Intelligence map.

What is the Niantic Project?
Is this just a game? An Investigation Board (http://www.google.com/+NianticProject) filled with cryptic clues and secret codes awaits. The story evolves everyday. Powerful secrets and game tech are there to be unlocked.

Form Alliances
The struggle to save the planet spans the entire world. Groups of people acting together can be more effective than individuals acting alone. Cooperation accoss neighborhoods, cities, and countries will be needed to achieve the ultimate victory.

The game was created by Niantic Labs, a startup from Google. Gameplay consists of establishing “portals” from real life places like landmarks and monuments, and linking them to create “control fields” over areas of the map. Progress is measured by how many “mind units” you capture through these control fields. This game spans the globe through alliances and has quite the extreme following. If you haven’t played it, give it a try. It is fun and very unique. Back to the battery. Ingress players travel the map establishing their portals, but that causes serious drain on battery life. You can play the game to your heart’s content, but you will need a battery to match. This is where cheero saw a need for the fanatics of Ingress and released their official cheero Ingress Power Cube.

Design

The cheero Ingress 12000mAh battery is quite possibly one of the coolest looking portable batteries you can buy today. No this isn’t for everyone, as you probably won’t find business people carrying this on them, as it is quite flashy. At first glance, when unboxing the battery looks like most batteries – it is long and rectangular.

As you expose it to light, you can see there is something special in the design with the Ingress battery. You see colorful sparkles from glitter embedded in a clear plastic layer that shows the Ingress logo in the center. That’s the point you realize, this is a special battery.

When the battery is powered on, the Ingress logo instantly lights up with colorful LED lights. By pushing a toggle button on the side of the battery, you can change the color of the LED lights to blue, green, and white. If you hold the button down, the battery will give you a dazzling light show as there are multiple LEDs surrounding the logo which reflect off that glitter. Simply put, this is the coolest light show portable battery you can get your hands on. And if you’re a fan of Ingress this battery was specifically designed with you in mind.

Hardware wise, you can tell cheero took pride in building this 12000mAh battery pack. It is well-built, and feels very sturdy in hand. They also packed quite a bit of juice into this battery which is about the size of my Samsung Galaxy Note Edge, just a bit thicker.

Specs

• Capacity – 12000mAh – Roughly 4 full phone charges for my Note Edge with a 3000mAh battery
• Output – USB 1:  1A / 5V  USB 2: 2.1A / 5V
• Size – 156.5mm×72mm×19mm
• Weight – 275g
• Protection features – Auto shut down on overcharging, over-discharging, overheating or short-circuit
• 6 various lighting patterns which can be cycled through using the buttons on side
• Recharge time – 7 hours

Usage

Coming in at 12000mAh, the cheero Ingress Power Cube contains more than enough juice to get me through a few days of use on my smartphone without needing a wall charger. The portable battery provides quite the light show when it is charging your device. It was quite a surprise to me as this type of accessory is not my style. I’m usually quite happy with any power pack, but this Ingress Power Cube is special. I have never seen anything quite like it, and when I was at a local coffee shop working, I was asked several times what it was followed with a few compliments.

The cheero Ingress Power Cube works like all other battery packs. It has a micro USB input for charging with two USB outlets for charging two devices simultaneously. It also works as advertised as I did get 4 refills on my Note Edge battery.

Summary

If you are a fan and enjoy playing Ingress you need this battery. It comes with unique passcode for an ADA Refactor, Jarvis Virus, and Power Cube for use within the game. Also, priced at $43.99 at Amazon.com, the cheero Ingress Power Cube is quite a deal. Similar sized batteries without the special design, can sell for over $100.

This battery pack isn’t just for Ingress gamers , it is for anyone who needs a portable battery and for anyone who appreciates being unique. I have no qualms recommending this battery to anyone as long as you don’t mind bright LED lights while your phone or tablet is charging.

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