Dell announces new Windows 8-running PCs, lets you preorder now
Dell is introduced its lineup of upcoming PCs, running the new Windows 8 operating system.
There’s the new tablet-slash-ultrabook called XPS 12, the XPS 13 ultrabook has received an Ivy Bridge update, while the XPS One 27 and Inspiron One 23 All-in-Ones got touch-enabled screens. All four are available for pre-order in the USA, Canada and select European countries with shipping expected to start on October 25.
The most interesting device in the pack is the XPS 12. It has a 12.5″ touchscreen of 1080p resolution and with 400 nit brightness, which can be rotated full 360 degrees, making the ultrabook usable as a tablet. The XPS 12 comes with a choice between Inter Core i5 and i7 processors and either 128 GB or 256 GB SSD.
The XPS 12 should ship around October 30 and starts at $1199. Here’s its product page.
Next comes the XPS 13 which got announced at CES this year. It’s received an update to Intel’s Ivy Bridge processors and replaced the Intel HD 3000 with Intel HD 4000 graphics. It will come in two variants – an i5 and i7 with 128 GB SSD, starting at $999.
Dell estimates October 25 as a shipping date. Here’s the product page.
The XPS One 27 is an All-in-One PC with a 27″ WQHD (2560 x 1440) display which is now also touch-capable.
The XPS One 27 is rather pricey, but has very solid specs to show for it. Price starts from $1599 and shipping will start between October 25 and November 1, depending on the model. Here’s the product page for the XPS One 27.
Finally we come to the Inspiron One 23, which is the smaller All-in-One PC from Dell. It still has the 23″ 1080p display only now it’s been bumped to a touch panel too.
Price starts from $649. Check out the product page here.
And here’s a promo video of Dell’s new PC offerings.
Android-powered Ouya console breaks all Kickstarter records, raises over $2M in a day
Yesterday an interesting project launched on Kickstarter. An Android-based gaming console called Ouya promised to change the gaming world for good. The $99 console aimed to deliver cheap, high quality games to everyone by being completely open to developers, hackers and users.
Yet, what Ouya managed to achieve was probably beyond its creators’ wildest dreams. The developers were hoping to gather $950,000 to begin production, but the Kickstarter project generated a whopping $2 million on the first day alone.
At the time of this writing the counter is at a mind-blowing $2.7 million and it keeps rising quite quickly. Shocked by the amount of money they got, the developers are now working on their stretch goals – the things they will do with the extra financing. In case you have an idea you are welcome to contact them ideas@ouya.tv and if you want to back the project or just learn more about it, feel free to follow the source link.
Apple iPhone 5 battery test is complete, find the results inside
The iPhone 5 has been the center of attention here at the GSMArena HQ for a few days now. We’re busy putting it through its paces and it’s time for us to reveal the detailed battery results and see how it does against the current crop of top smartphones.
Apple has implied that the iPhone 5 is bending the laws of physics and it turns out when it comes to the battery, that claim isn’t far from the truth.
The battery inside the iPhone 5 has a capacity of 1440mAh at 3.8V, which equals 5.45Wh, compared to the 1432mAh, 3.7V, 5.3Wh of the iPhone 4S. This, coupled with the nicely optimized software, produced some truly impressive results.
Talk time on the iPhone 5 was quite impressive, reaching 8 hours and 42 minutes – far from the top spots but pretty good nonetheless. Given that the official iPhone 5 specs suggest a maxim talk time of 8 hours, we were nicely surprised by the performance of the iOS smartphone.
Talk time
Motorola RAZR MAXX (ICS) 21:18
Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX 20:24
Huawei Ascend P1 12:30
Samsung Galaxy Note 12:14
Samsung I8530 Galaxy Beam 11:58
Samsung Wave 3 S8600 11:07
HTC One X (AT&T, LTE) 10:35
Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III 10:20
HTC One V 10:00
Meizu MX 4-core 10:00
HTC One X 9:57
HTC One S 9:42
Samsung I9103 Galaxy R 9:40
HTC Sensation XL 9:30
Nokia Lumia 710 9:05
Motorola Atrix HD 9:04
HTC Vivid 9:02
HTC Rhyme 8:48
Apple iPhone 5 8:42
LG Optimus 3D Max P720 8:42
Sony Ericsson Xperia neo V 8:41
Meizu MX 8:39
Samsung Galaxy S II 8:35
Nokia Lumia 800 8:25
Samsung Galaxy Nexus 8:23
Samsung Captivate Glide 8:20
Sony Xperia T 8:15
HTC Rezound (LTE) 8:10
Samsung Galaxy Note (LTE) 8:02
LG Optimus Vu 7:57
LG Optimus 4X HD 7:41
Apple iPhone 4S 7:41
Samsung i937 Focus S 7:25
HTC Evo 4G LTE (LTE) 7:21
Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G 7:14
Sony Xperia acro S 7:09
Samsung Rugby Smart I847 7:09
Sony Ericsson Xperia Pro 6:57
Nokia N9 6:57
HTC Radar 6:53
Samsung Galaxy Ace Duos 6:53
BlackBerry Curve 9380 6:52
Samsung Galaxy Pocket 5:54
Nokia Lumia 900 for AT&T (LTE) 5:53
Sony Xperia ion LTE 5:52
Sony Xperia P 5:33
Nokia 808 PureView 5:16
LG Nitro HD (LTE) 5:16
HTC Titan II (LTE) 5:10
BlackBerry Bold 9790 5:00
Pantech Burst 4:46
The iPhone’s Mobile Safari browser offers no Flash whatsoever and relies only on HTML5, which is far less taxing on the battery. The iPhone 5 set the new record here, only 4 minutes short of 10 solid hours. It got 40 minutes more than the Motorola RAZR MAXXX, which is an impressive feat indeed.
Web browsing
Apple iPhone 5 9:56
Motorola RAZR MAXX (ICS) 9:12
Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX 7:23
HTC Radar 7:17
Apple iPhone 4S 6:56
HTC One V 6:49
Motorola Atrix HD 6:40
BlackBerry Curve 9380 6:40
Samsung i937 Focus S 6:15
Sony Xperia ion LTE 5:56
Samsung Rugby Smart I847 5:53
Pantech Burst 5:51
Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G 5:45
HTC Evo 4G LTE 5:41
Samsung Wave 3 S8600 5:34
Sony Xperia T 5:33
Samsung Captivate Glide 5:33
Samsung I8530 Galaxy Beam 5:28
Samsung Galaxy Note LTE 5:24
HTC Sensation XL 5:20
Meizu MX 4-core 5:19
Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III 5:17
Sony Xperia acro S 5:16
HTC Rezound 5:16
HTC Rhyme 5:08
Samsung I9103 Galaxy R 5:07
HTC One X (AT&T) 5:03
Sony Ericsson Xperia Pro 4:50
LG Optimus Vu 4:49
HTC Vivid 4:46
Samsung Galaxy Ace Duos 4:45
Meizu MX 4:35
Nokia N9 4:33
Samsung Galaxy S II 4:24
Sony Ericsson Xperia neo V 4:20
HTC One X 4:18
Nokia 808 PureView 4:14
LG Optimus 3D Max P720 4:10
Nokia Lumia 900 for AT&T 4:10
Nokia Lumia 800 4:07
HTC Titan II (LTE) 4:05
HTC One S 4:03
BlackBerry Bold 9790 4:02
LG Nitro HD 4:00
LG Optimus 4X HD 3:59
Sony Xperia P 3:59
Nokia Lumia 710 3:51
Samsung Galaxy Pocket 3:47
Samsung Galaxy Note 3:35
Huawei Ascend P1 3:23
Samsung Galaxy Nexus 3:01
And finally we get to video playback. The iPhone 5 is at an advantage here as its videos are converted to the mov format, but it managed to beat the iPhone 4S’s achievement of 9:24 hours by nearly a full hour, so its chipset should really get some credit, too.
Video playback
Motorola RAZR MAXX (ICS) 16:35
Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX 14:17
Apple iPhone 5 10:12
Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III 10:01
Nokia 808 PureView 9:53
Samsung I8530 Galaxy Beam 9:42
Samsung Rugby Smart I847 9:34
HTC One S 9:28
Apple iPhone 4S 9:24
HTC Evo 4G LTE 9:07
Nokia N9 8:40
Samsung Galaxy Note 8:25
Samsung Galaxy S II 8:00
Samsung i937 Focus S 7:55
Samsung Wave 3 S8600 7:52
Sony Ericsson Xperia neo V 7:45
Huawei Ascend P1 7:38
Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G 7:33
Samsung Galaxy Note LTE 7:30
Meizu MX 4-core 6:33
HTC One X (AT&T) 6:26
Samsung Galaxy Ace Duos 6:25
LG Optimus Vu 6:23
Samsung I9103 Galaxy R 6:21
HTC Sensation XL 6:12
Samsung Galaxy Pocket 6:06
Samsung Captivate Glide 6:04
Sony Xperia ion LTE 6:03
Samsung Galaxy Nexus 6:02
Sony Xperia T 6:01
Motorola Atrix HD 6:01
HTC Vivid 6:00
HTC Radar 5:54
Nokia Lumia 800 5:52
HTC Titan II 5:50
BlackBerry Bold 9790 5:47
HTC One X 5:45
Sony Ericsson Xperia Pro 5:44
Sony Xperia acro S 5:38
Pantech Burst 5:38
Meizu MX 5:27
HTC Rhyme 5:23
HTC One V 5:20
Nokia Lumia 900 for AT&T 5:18
BlackBerry Curve 9380 5:09
HTC Rezound 5:03
Sony Xperia P 4:30
LG Nitro HD 4:17
LG Optimus 4X HD 4:14
LG Optimus 3D Max P720 3:28
Nokia Lumia 710 3:27
Finally we come to the Apple iPhone 5 endurance rating and we got a mind-blowing 51 h score.This means that you will only need to charge your iPhone 5 once every 51 hours if you use it for an hour of web browsing, an hour of video playback and an hour of talk time per day.
When it comes to battery, the new iPhone 5 is definitely a solid step over the iPhone 4S. Retaining the same results as its predecessor would’ve been a great achievement considering the new more slender body of the iPhone 5, but doing even better, despite the larger screen is even more impressive.
If you’d like to see what else the iPhone 5 has over the 4S you can check out our dedicated review here.
Amazon App Store uncovered early, has exclusive content and competitive prices
The secret art of URL guessing – sometimes it pays off. Someone decided to add /apps after amazon.com and the upcoming Android app store was revealed. It was stocked with about 50 apps, some exclusive and some cheaper than in Google’s Market.
AndroidNews.de discovered the URL, took screenshots of the Amazon App Store and made a price comparison table between it and the Android Market…
The page has been taken down since but apparently wasn’t fully working even when it was up. Still, there were 48 apps and games were listed in the Amazon App Store. Angry Birds Rio (which will launch exclusively there) wasn’t on the list so, there will be more content added before the store launches.
Here’s a sample of what was available in the Amazon App Store. You can check out the full list over at AndroidNews.de along with the price comparison between the two app stores.
Among the exclusive titles was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Force Recon (now that’s a mouthful), while some apps like Scan2PDF Mobile 2.0 was a cool $2.50 cheaper in the Amazon App Store.
It’s getting crowded in the app store world, isn’t it?
First games to use iPhone 4 gyroscopes impress on video
When the iPhone 4 was first announced, I wasn’t quite sure what the big deal about the gyroscope was. What can you do with it that can’t be done with an accelerometer? Well, now I know – it’s amazingly accurate, which leads to fun-looking games like Eliminate: Gun Range…
The idea behind Eliminate: Gun Range is simple – you point a variety of guns by physically moving the phone and shoot at all the targets that show up. Doesn’t sound like much but it looks pretty impressive – the gyroscope is so accurate that it almost feels real.
Check out the video to see the game in action:
If it looks this good on video, I bet it’ll be even better in real life. And though the Eliminate: Gun Range doesn’t have the most complicated gameplay, just think of all the first-person shooters that will become available for the iPhone 4 sooner rather than later.
Eliminate: Gun Range is the first game that is exclusive to the iPhone 4. Other games from the Eliminate series work on the old models, but the controls aren’t as impressive.
It’s not just FPS games though, the other obvious use is in racing games – turn the iPhone 4 into a steering wheel for a virtual car. Here’s a video of one such game, the imaginatively named Real Racing:
A whole bunch of other games are getting updated to support the iPhone 4, though most of them just bump up the graphics to take full advantage of the high-res Retina Display. Still, it’s the motion controlled games that seem more interesting – they change how the games is played, rather than just make things look prettier.
Amazon pre-installs the Silk browser on its Kindle tablets but hasn’t really improved on it in a while. Now it brings an update to the browser, which revamps the UI, brings new features and gives some old ones a fresh new look and feel.
Among the novelties are redesigned tabs, an upper left-placed menu panel and a new start page featuring your most visited pages. The address bar brings up the keyboard by default, there’s improved easier access to the Reading View (which compiles the article without ads or banners) and more.
Once you launch the updated Silk browser you’re immediately greeted by an on-screen tutorial, dubbed Just-In-Time, which walks you trough the new features.
Amazon Silk browser overhaul
Users have complained that tabs in Silk were too flat and confusing – you wouldn’t know which tab you were currently on – so Amazon redesigned them with rounded edges and different colors for the active and non-active tabs.
Upon a scroll down the page you’ll also now get fullscreen view, with the browser controls hiding automatically.
Google Voice has a long list of features already, but you know how Google engineers are, they can’t help themselves but add more and more new features. The latest addition greatly speeds up notifications – no more waiting before you’re alerted of new messages in the inbox.
If you’ve got an Android phone that is…
The latest version of Google Voice for Android includes the Synchronize Inbox option (in the Refresh and notification settings), which when switched on, cuts down the time before notifications of new messages pop up on your Android phone from about 15 minutes to mere seconds.
Notifications by SMS are automatically disabled to avoid duplicate notifications.
Another update to the Google Voice app has tweaked its interface a bit – it now features functionality similar to quick contacts (a relatively new feature that arrived with Android 2.0). Tap on a contacts photo and you get a small popup that gives you the option to respond to voicemail by email or IM.
The latest version of the Google Voice app can be found in the Android Market. Unfortunately, the Google Voice service is available only in the US, sigh!
Samsung Australia says it has nothing to do with "Wake up!" campaign
Samsung’s advertising has been pretty aggressive, especially against rival Apple. They even mocked the infamous long lines of people queuing to grab their next iGadget. Samsung Australia actually pulled a stunt where they offered Galaxy S II phones for $2 right outside of Apple’s store. So, when a video of a flashmob waiving signs and chanting “Wake up!” showed up in front of an Australian Apple store, everyone (including us) jumped to the assumption that it was the South Korean company that organized it.
Except now Samsung Australia is denying that they had anything to do with it.
So, who was behind it? That’s not clear – there are plenty of companies and groups of people that have a bone to pick with Apple. There are various speculation about who did it (like RIM, for instance), but at this point there’s no solid evidence to point the finger at anyone.
OTA update hits US owners of the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime
Owners of the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime, which its fair to say has one of the longest names in tablet history, should expect a pleasant surprise during the next few days.
Reports are already coming in that US owners of this quad-core beauty are receiving notifications for a new OTA update. The update to improve the Prime’s connectivity.
Despite a lack of any official changelog, the update is said to effect both WiFi and Bluetooth as well as addressing a random reboot issue that many users had encountered following the Prime’s step up to Android ICS last month.
Don’t forget to check your Prime for signs of an update notification and let us know if you’ve got a message waiting for you, particularly if you’re outside of the US.
Two Sony netbooks (almost) slip by unnoticed - a slider and an ultra-thin netbook
Okay, let’s rewind this a bit. Remember the two Android tablets that Sony announced? They also showed two netbook-ish computers. The first was dubbed Ultra Mobile PC (UMPCs were the “Neanderthals” to netbooks).
The second is a “Freestyle Hybrid PC” and is a side-sliding tablet/netbook… The form factor is very rare but not unseen – there’s the Asus Eee Pad Slider and the Samsung Sliding PC 7 Series that showed up in January.
Still, the Sony Freestyle Hybrid PC has VAIO branding, which suggests it’s the sliding VAIO that made the rounds in the Internet rumor mill a while back. Supposedly, it’s an 9.4” slider powered by Intel Pine Trail and runs Windows 7. Rumors went on to suggest an $800 price tag and a fall launch, October specifically.
Sony Ultra Mobile PC ? Sony Freestyle Hybrid PC
The other gadget, the Ultra Mobile PC, looks like a more traditional netbook but with an ultra-thin frame. There’s not much more on it, but I can just make out an USB 3.0 port (marked by the blue line) and an HDMI port.
Olympus OM-D E-M1 unveiled, brings premium heavy-duty body for $1,399
Olympus has outed its new Micro Four Thirds camera flagship called E-M1. It brings along a 16.3 MP Live MOS sensor with on-chip phase detection, promising faster focusing. There’s also a new electronic viewfinder, touch-sensitive tilting LCD and rugged body capable of withstanding water, dust and freezing temperatures.
The Olympus E-M1 will become available in October with a body-only price of $1399.99/￡1299.99. UK customers that pre-order prior to launch have a chance to get the HLD-7 battery grip for free.
The premium E-M1 ILC by Olympus will also carry Wi-Fi connectivity built into its magnesium alloy body. Its sensor has an ISO range of 100-25600 and sensor-shift stabilization, while the AF system is said to be able to deliver faster focus with legacy lenses using the optional MMF-3 adapter.
Samsung has just unveiled a new member of their feature phone family. The Samsug Ch@t 350 C3500 (now that’s a mouthful) is an entry level handset with a taste for messaging. It packs a side-sliding full QWERTY keyboard and runs on the Samsung proprietary TouchWiz platform.
The screen on that one is a 2.4” LCD of QVGA resolution, which isn’t exactly ideal, but it’s about what you could expect in this class. There’s no 3G or Wi-Fi on board, so you are left with EDGE for your data transfers. Bluetooth 2.1 and FM radio are included though.
You also get a 2MP camera, a nicroSD card slot (allowing you to increase the available storage by up to 8GB). And yes I know the 16mm-thick Samsung Ch@t 350 isn’t your dream handset, but when you are on a budget, you can’t have it all.
Apple announces iBooks 2, iBooks Author and iTunes U
Just as expected, Apple made three important education-related announcements at their event in New York today. The company unveiled the next version of iBooks for iPad – iBooks 2, which now features interactive textbooks.
Apple also unveiled iBooks Author – a Mac OS X application that should greatly facilitate the creation of those textbooks (or other interactive books) and iTunes U iOS app, which lets you access complete courses from leading universities and plenty of free educational content.
The Cupertino-based company claims to have reinvented (the Apple PR department sure loves that word) the textbook with their iBooks 2 app, which now has an extra category called Textbooks. The company has partnered with Pearson, McGraw Hill and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to fill the category’s shelves and offers their textbooks starting from $14.99.
iBooks 2.0
And to make sure the stream of new titles doesn’t stop, Apple created the iBooks Author Mac OS app. Available for free over the Mac application store, the app should make it extremely easy to create textbooks and regular electronic books for the iBooks store.
You can pick one of the many preloaded templates, or you can create the whole thing from scratch – the capabilities of iBooks Author seem endless. It’s also pretty intuitive, automatically creating and formatting pages when you drop in a Word document, creating widgets from presentations, etc.
Next, Apple talked about their new iTunes U app, which should enable students to easily access notes, lectures and even whole courses from the comfort of their iDevices. It’s available for iPod, iPhone and iPad running iOS 5.0 or later.
iTunes U claims to have the world’s largest catalog of free education content including over 500,000 free lectures, videos, books, and other resources on thousands of subjects from Algebra to Zoology.
Finally, Apple also released a new iTunes version, which should enable the new functionality of the iBooks app. iTunes 10.5.3 is naturally available for free and requires a 107MB download to install.
Fring is going to introduce four-way group video calls between Android, iOS and Symbian for free
Fring is preparing an update for its apps, which will add four-way group video calls. The service will work on iOS, Android and Symbian and best of all, it will allow for cross-platform video conferencing too.
Fring is currently working to launch a closed beta which will be available to a limited group of people. You can sign up for it here.
The group video-calls will be free when they become available.
The highly anticipated iOS version of the popular Mac email client Sparrow has finally arrived. Sparrow is now available for download on the App Store and costs $2.99.
The reason everyone was waiting for this app is because anyone who has used the built-in Mail app on iOS can tell you that it is quite mediocre. Although Apple has spruced it up a few times over the years it still lags far behind the official Gmail app on Android or the email app in Windows Phone.
Sparrow, however, promises to be a lot better. First of all, it looks better. The app has been designed by Loren Brichter, who designed Tweetie for iOS, which later on got branded as Twitter for iPhone when Twitter acquired him. He uses a lot of ideas that he first introduced with Tweetie, such as pull to refresh and swipe to reveal additional options for a mail. Sparrow also uses Facebook like drawer on the left, that shows you your mail folders and labels. Swipe again and you go to your email accounts. Sparrow also supports unified inbox.
Other feature include the ability to move through mails by scrolling up and down, 2-step composer, ability to add attachments from within the app (default Mail app does not do this; you have to go to the image and then choose to mail it) and the ability to swipe on the top bar and switch between your mail folders.
Unfortunately, the app does not do push mail, for reasons explained on the website. You will also find other information about the app there and the download link for the app. Just click on the source link below.
The hit mobile game Cut the Rope has now landed on your desktop browser. The game developers have partnered with Microsoft to release the game for their Internet Explorer 9 browser. Having said that, the game works just fine on other browsers too.
This version of the game seems to be identical to the one that we saw for Windows 8. It uses a landscape layout unlike the mobile versions. Right now, you only have 25 levels available, with the last seven only available if you pin the game through IE9 to your Windows 7 taskbar. Additional levels are expected to arrive soon.
Best part is that the game is completely free, although I’m not sure if this is a limited time thing or it will be that way forever. To start playing the game, click on the source link below.
iPhone 4S camera said to be the fastest, beating even the Nokia N9
So, Apple has just announced the next iPhone – 4S – with big improvements in the camera department. The iPhone 4S packs an 8 megapixel camera with LED flash and 1080p camcorder. But that’s just the beginning.
First you get lots of new technology improvements – back-illuminated sensor with 5 elements lens, F/2.4 aperture, hybrid IR filter, etc. So, all this new stuff will get you better colors, better noise performance, more sharpness and better white balance. There is face detection and the HDR feature is present too along with an AE/AF lock.
But the iPhone 4S has lots of (cameraphone) competitors already available, so it needs to do better. According to Apple, the iPhone 4S camera might just be the fastest cameraphone around. We have to see if it is the best for real, but we get some really impressive times for the first photo and shot-to-shot.
As Apple claims, the iPhone 4S camera needs just 1.1 seconds to take its first photo and just half a second for the next one. This is a lot better from everything we’ve seen so far, or at least Apple wants us to believe so.
Nokia has already proclaimed its upcoming N9 for the fastest camera phone, but the N9 needs 2.6 seconds for the same task.
The rest of the improvements concern the iPhone 4S video recording capabilities – you now get 1080p video recording with image stabilization and temporal noise reduction. We are yet to see how those will perform.
Well, it seems the already popular cameraphone iPhone 4 will get a worthy successor. Well, the iPhone platform may have been off to a slow start in the camera department, but Apple is finally picking up speed. Though, they are not quote setting the pace in the industry this time around.
Black and white LG Nexus 4 pop up in Carphone Warehouse inventory
The rumors that the next Nexus device is going to be LG-made, got yet more backing today as an LG Nexus 4 was spotted in Carphone Warehouse’s inventory listing.
In fact we’ve got two different items in the list – one for each of the available color versions. Of course, the listing could be simply a placeholder, inspired by the previous rumors and might not mean anything.
The LG-made Nexus was also referred to as the Optimus Nexus and previous rumors were pointing to a device based on the Optimus G, sporting a 4.7″ True-HD IPS LCD with a resolution of 1280 x 768 resolution, a Qualcomm S4 Pro chipset and an 8 MP snapper.
We’ve already seen purported images of the said device. Let’s hope we’ll hear more about it in the coming weeks.
Windows Store glitch allows non-Lumia smartphones to download Nokia-exclusive apps
Unquestionably, the exclusive apps are part of the charm of the Nokia smartphones, over their WP8 competitors. As you would imagine apps such as Nokia Drive, Nokia Here Maps and Nokia Music are unavailable for owners of non-Nokia smartphones running Microsoft’s OS. Up until now.
WPDang has found a simple exploit giving users access to all Nokia WP8 applications in the Microsoft Windows Store. While a bit risky, the hack include routing your traffic through a Chinese proxy server, which fools the Windows Store into thinking your smartphone is Lumia-branded.
Here’s the full description below.
Ensure your device has no Wi-Fi or mobile data connection switched on.
Close Windows Phone Store app �C including background processes.
Assign APN proxy for your primary WiFi connection: 117.135.139.179, port 8888. (Tap the connected network to edit its properties, select ��enable proxy��).
Connect via the WiFi proxy, open up Windows Phone Store, search for Lumia-exclusive apps by name. You now be able to find the Nokia-exclusive apps but do not download at this point, just click on app description.
Switch back to your WiFi settings, remove the proxy and return to the Windows Phone Store to download.
Naturally, we suspect Nokia and Microsoft are going to promptly issue a patch that’ll fix this, so swiftly try it if you are interested. Keep in mind though, that sending all your traffic through a proxy you know nothing about might jeopardize your privacy.
Yahoo is the second most popular search engine on the web (according to Alexa.com) but has had issues in the last couple of years to stay relevant. Among its top problems is its aging demographic, which contributes to the company’s lack of coolness. Yahoo’s Chief Financial Officer Ken Goldman even admitted this, saying the company has to make itself cool again, something it “got away from for a couple of years”.
Sources, allegedly close to both sides claim that Yahoo has been in “serious” talks with popular blogging service Tumblr on some kind of a collaboration deal or even a complete acquisition. Tumblr has what Yahoo wants – the large user base in the 18-to-24 age group.
Tumblr has been hard at work raising money as it prefers to steer clear of full-on ads in its website’s feed. The New York-based company is currently valued at around $800 million but is expected to hit a price around the sweet $1 billion mark when it’s done raising money in 2013.
Yahoo could be very interested in acquiring Tumblr for around that price, although no specifics have been confirmed just yet. Yahoo generally has been focusing on smaller acquisitions, but Tumblr which currently has around 107.8 million blogs with around 50.6 billion posts might be digging a bit deeper in its pockets.
Bad Piggies is a complete departure from Rovio’s award winning Angry Birds series. After letting you play as the birds for almost three years now, you will now get to play as the pigs for the first time.
But you won’t be doing any flinging in this game. Other than the main characters of the game, Bad Piggies shares nothing with Angry Birds and is a complete departure in terms of gameplay. We decided to take a look and see just how bad the piggies really are.
Title
Bad Piggies
Developer
Rovio Entertainment Ltd.
Rovio Mobile Ltd.
Platform
iOS
Android
Content rating
4+
Low Maturity
Size
40.9MB / 41.3MB
34MB
Price
$0.99 / $2.99
Free (with ads)
The Premise
The pigs are making plans to capture the eggs from the birds. Unfortunately, the plans were blown away by the wind and the pigs have to get them all back. They have some objects at their disposal and your job is to assemble a vehicle to transport them to the plans.
Gameplay
In terms of gameplay, Bad Piggies is closer to Amazing Alex than Angry Birds. In each level, you have a single pig and you have to assemble a vehicle around him to transport him to the goal at the end of the level. In each level, you get a bunch of objects that you have to arrange in a grid to form the vehicle.
The object include boxes, wheels, rockets, balloons, TNT, umbrellas, etc. Each of them have a specific purpose. The boxes form the frame of the vehicle and everything has to be attached to them. The wheels, of course, facilitate motion. Propulsion devices, such as fans, rockets, bellows, soda bottles, etc. help propel the vehicle to make it go faster or climb up a slope. Umbrellas act as your brakes. Balloons lift the vehicle and sandbags weight it down as long as you want. TNT, when denoted correctly, lets you shoot the pig in a particular direction and achieve greater height than otherwise would be possible. At times you get objects such as motors, that don’t do anything on their own but combined with something like the fan makes the vehicle move faster.
You can access the in-game tips to see how you can use the objects you have at your disposal. Once you assemble the vehicle, you hit the button and the level begins. Depending upon the objects you have, you get buttons on screen to activate or deactivate them. You can, for example, switch the fans on or off, open or close the umbrellas or pop the balloons as required.
There are multiple goals in the level but the main one is always the plans at the end of the level. You need to get there to finish the level and for other achieved goals to count. Other goals include stars that you can collect, reaching the plans before the timer runs out and not using a specific object in a level.
Unlike Angry Birds, you don’t have to collect all stars at once. You can, for example, choose to finish the level before the timer runs out thus getting one star for it, plus one more for finishing the level. After that, you can replay the level and instead of having to finish it in time, you can go after the stars that might be scattered across the level. Once you finish the level with the stars, your previous star for finishing the level on time stays and you also get a new star for collecting it in the level. This way you can collect a maximum of three stars per level. The more stars you collect, the more levels you unlock in the game.
There are three modes in Bad Piggies. The first is ‘Ground Hog’, where you build vehicles that stay on the ground. The second is ‘When Pigs Fly’, that involves building flying vehicles, consisting of balloons, wings and propellers. The third is ‘Sand Box’, where there are no plans to collect but just to build massive contraptions that can go across the enormous levels and collect all the stars.
So how is the game to play? Well, it’s a bit slow and takes a while to become truly interesting. The initial levels are fairly easy and not very interesting. You need to spend some time with the game and unlock more objects before you get involved in it. Once more objects get unlocked the levels start becoming more and more fun. Eventually you will find yourself playing the levels again and again to get all three stars.
Assembling the vehicles can be fairly challenging. You have to take into consideration the objects you have been provided, the grid in which you can arrange them and the terrain you will be traversing. Needless to say, there is a fair amount of trial and error involved and you will find yourself building and refining your designs again and again until you find one that gets the job done. In many of the levels there is no one particular way that you can build a vehicle. You could place things differently and still get similar results.
You can’t get too creative with the positioning, though. The game relies heavily on physics and the placement of each object has repercussions. Place everything on one end of the vehicle and you will unbalance it, making it tilt on slopes. The propulsion objects need to be placed such that they all fire in one direction and they shouldn’t all be on one side or the vehicle will spin like a top in one place. Once you grasp the physics of the objects and know what each does, building the vehicles becomes relatively easy.
If at all you do get stuck, the game helps you out by building the vehicle for you. You will still have to control it yourself after you start it but that’s the easy part. You can use the game’s help three times and if you want more you will have to purchase them using in-app purchasing.
Speaking of pricing, the iOS version of the game costs $0.99 on the iPhone and iPod touch whereas the iPad version costs $2.99. On Android, there are two versions, with one being optimized for HD displays, and both are free to download but have in-game ads that burn through your battery and look ugly. Unfortunately, there is no paid option available on Android at all, so even if you want to you can’t get rid of the ads.
Graphics and Sound
Bad Piggies feature the same visual style as Angry Birds, which is understandable as it comes from the same universe. However, while the Angry Birds visuals were filled with many objects and characters, the Bad Piggies world looks barren and desolate. This further adds to the general lack of excitement you get while playing the game, as you transport a lone pig through an empty world with nothing but the sound of the contraptions and the odd squeaks of the pig to keep you company. The game could have used jazzier environments to spice things up and look less drab.
The music in the game is pleasant but nothing that particularly stands out. There are couple of themes that play while you’re building your vehicles and another that plays once the level starts. The former is calm and engaging whereas the latter is fast and exciting. They get the job done but again, could have been better.
Conclusion
One of the best things I liked about Bad Piggies was that it wasn’t Angry Birds. That game was fun two years ago but has started getting long in the tooth and honestly, I doubt I can sit through another variant of that game. So kudos to Rovio for making a game from the same universe but without the same gameplay.
On its own, Bad Piggies is not all that bad and offers a fairly enjoyable experience. Its drawbacks are that it’s not particularly exciting, especially during the early levels and that itself could put off many people who wouldn’t go further from that point. Also, it lacks the pick up and play nature of Angry Birds, which is not a bad thing, but not a lot of people would want to spend time and mental energy thinking of the perfect vehicle design to get all the stars in the level. In Angry Birds, you can senselessly fling birds at the pigs and although you wouldn’t many stars you’d still finish it and go to the next one. That does not happen here. Even to finish the level you have to be fairly good at the game.
Lastly, the game is packaged in a dull wrapper, with boring visuals and a passable soundtrack that don’t do justice to the gameplay.
Eventually, you end up with a game that you really wanted to play but can’t go beyond a few levels. Especially when there are so many other good games to play out there.
Rating: 3.5/5 Pros: Challenging gameplay Cons: Initial missions are uninteresting, drab visual presentation makes the game seem more boring than it is, no ad-free version on Android
Download: iPhone / iPad | Android / Android HD
Note: We have only talked about the iOS and Android version here but an OS X version is also available. Moreover, the game is coming soon for Windows and Windows Phone 8.
