T-Mobile doesn’t want to let Valentine’s Day just squeak by without showing its appreciation. To round out the promotions over the past few days, the UnCarrier has just launched a couple devices – the LG K7 Android phone and ZTE Falcon mobile hotspot.
If the LG K7 sounds familiar, that may be because it was just unveiled last month at CES 2016. It’s an affordable offering, retailing for $139 in T-Mobile’s store.
The K7 has a 5″ display (854×480 resolution) and is powered by a Snapdragon 210 chipset (1.1 GHz quad-core processor and 1.5GB of RAM) and Android 5.1 (Lollipop). The meger 8GB of internal storage is expandable to 32GB via micro-SD card. Both the rear and front cameras have 5MP capture resolution.
The latter isn’t a smartphone, but it may be enticing for on-the-go lifestyles. The ZTE Falcon is a 4G LTE mobile hotspot that is capable of simultaneously supplying up to 10 devices with the interwebz.
The Falcon has support for UMTS 850/1700/2100/1900 and LTE 2, 4, and 12 bands. It also packs a 2,000mAh battery. Retail pricing is set at $79.
You should also know that there are discounts on several prepaid phones over the holiday. The Samsung Galaxy Core Prime and Galaxy Grand Prime are both cut by $40, putting them at $99 and $149, respectively. The LG G Stylo is also getting some love, cut by $75 for a price of $214.
Flagship smartphones aren’t left out of the fun either. T-Mobile has a Half-Off event underway, which cuts the costly price in half when you buy another (of equal or greater value, from the same manufacturer). This includes the latest from Samsung (Galaxy S6, Note5, S6 Edge+) and LG (G4 or V10).
Lastly, T-Mobile is renewing the “Get a Tablet on Us” promo. This gets interested customers a freeAlcatel OneTouch Pixi 7 when a 1GB or higher data plan is agreed on.
If you want to upgrade to a new phone, now might be just the perfect time for that. Sprint is offering its customers a guaranteed $200 savings if they choose a new Samsung Galaxy S6 or the Galaxy Note 5 and trade in their current working smartphone.
The $200 trade-in is only available for those who already own their devices and not the ones whose phones are on a lease. For those who are eligible for the offer, it is a great deal as it brings the monthly cost of a Sprint lease on the Galaxy S6 (32 GB variant) down to less than $10 per month for 24 months. The Galaxy Note 5, on the other hand, will cost less than $17 per month for 24 months. It’s a great deal for both phones, but with MWC just around the corner you may want to wait for the new S7.
This offer is already available in all Sprint retail stores, while the sale online will begin offering the trade-in sometime later this week. The deal becomes even sweeter for those who want to switch from AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon as it can be combined with Sprint’s “Cut your Bill in Half” promotion. Sprint is offering 50 percent off the standard rate plans of its rival carriers. If you want to know more about this offer, visit www.sprint.com.
Pocket Zombie is a delighful and unique take on the virtual pet, er, in this case, zombie. Pocket Zombie places you in control of the care taking of a Pete Lorre’esque zombie. Care for this zombie occurs through a series of tasks including: play, feeding, bathing and sleep. As you continue to take care of your zombie, you will level up and gain access to items for your zombie, including: skins, environmental decorations, new types of food and potions. All of these items can be purchased using the games gold coin currency which you earn through performing each task involved with taking care of your zombie.
Setup
Setup of Pocket Zombie is a breeze. To download Pocket Zombie to your device, simply grab it from the Play Store, locate the game on your device and click the icon.
Inspiration?
Upon first opening the game, you will be notified of the permissions the game requests access to. Agree to these permissions and continue. After approving the games permissions, you will be taken to a brief and straightforward interactive tutorial on how to care for your zombie. Upon completion of the tutorial, you will be asked to name your zombie and you will then be given full control of the game.
Review
I think one word sums up Pocket Zombie, very well: charm. Having grown up in the 90’s during the Tamagotchi and Digimon craze, it’s very refreshing to see a modern day take on the virtual pet for a new generation of kids. I say “kids” because this game is the perfect distraction for your kid(s) while sitting in a waiting room or during a long road trip. There’s plenty here to keep your child busy.
Gameplay
As a virtual pet game you are tasked with taking care of a zombie. Luckily for you, care of the un-dead is pretty simple and straightforward. Four tasks are required to take care of your zombie:
Playing with your zombie – this is accomplished through 4 minigames
Feeding your zombie (he thankfully does not eat human flesh)
Bathing your zombie
Allowing your zombie to sleep
One of the things I love most about this game is how unique of an approach it takes toward one specific task: play with your zombie. Playing with your zombie is accomplished through the play of 4 minigames:
Flappy Zombie – a “Flappy Bird” clone
Memory – a match tile memory game
2048 – a puzzle game that has you combining tiles of the same number to reach a sum of 2048
Match 3 – a match 3 game in the vain of “Candy Crush Saga” and “Bejeweled”
As you play these mini games (any that you wish to play), you will continually raise your zombie’s happiness level as well as contribute to leveling up and earning coins to buy items for your zombie. Each of these games is fully fleshed out and each plays very well, lending to a full experience with all of them.
A lot of times, the mini games contained in virtual pet titles are lazy and unoriginal. I have to applaud the Arongame in his creativity and implementation of this feature in the game. I must mention that 2048 feels a bit too advanced to be featured in a game geared towards children and should probably be removed from the game altogether.
Feeding
Feeding allows you to feed your zombie a variety of different foods, both healthy and unhealthy. I love this feature because it allows you the option to make your zombie fat. My zombie has lived entirely on a diet of french fries. As you level up, more foods will become available for purchase using the in-game coin currency.
Bathing
Bathing is pretty straight forward. You touch a bar of soap and move it over the zombie in order to lather him up. After you’ve lathered the zombie up, you click a bucket located to the 1 o’clock position of the zombie, which releases a small torrent of water to rinse him off. It could just be me, but the zombie seems to look a bit smug during his bath time…
If you go too long without bathing your zombie, flies will begin to buzz around him, which he does not like or appreciate. This raises the question: is it really possible to clean a zombie? He’s a rotting corpse…
Sleep
Sleeping is my biggest problem with this game. When you put your zombie to sleep, a timer begins. This timer can start as high as 1 hour, 59 minutes! I see this as a bit of a pay wall because there is a potion you can buy for 50 coins which will automatically replenish your zombie’s energy level and eliminate the need for you to wait for him to sleep.
Now here comes my “conspiracy theory”: My thought is that this sleep timer is a way to manipulate you into buying a coin bundle, via in app purchase, to have on stand by for those times that you don’t feel like waiting the upwards of 2 hours for your zombie to sleep. With all of the content available to unlock in this game, it is certainly very reasonable to assume that you could run out of coins and be forced to buy more, using real money, in order to continue playing the game uninterrupted.
Parents, be warned: this game does have in-app purchases. In order to avoid unwanted charges to your bank account, be sure to block in-app purchases on the device your child is playing Pocket Zombie on. One bright light in the midst of this darkness is the ability for your child to continue to play the available mini games despite how tired the zombie may be. Trust me; the zombie will get over it.
The “Shop”
Now that we’ve covered the gameplay basics, let talk about the “Shop”. The “Shop” is accessible via the green button with a shopping cart on it that is seen in each area of the zombie’s habitat.
The Shop has four categories:
Money – the games in app purchases
Clothes
Food
Decor – items that allow you to decorate your zombie’s habitat
As you progress through the game and level up, more and more items will become available for purchase in the “Shop” using the game’s coin currency.
Graphics
I think the graphics in this game are one of its weak points (in reference to the main game’s graphics. I will review the mini game graphics separately). I particularly dislike the way the zombie looks. As mentioned above, it looks like Pete Lorre from Looney Tunes, which dredges up terrifying childhood memories.
The textures in the game are bland and lack a great amount of detail. I must admit that before playing this game, I was expecting something less ‘cutesy’ and more like “Zombie Weatherman” aesthetically. Anyone remember that old app (game?)? Nonetheless, the graphics get the job done. I won’t ding the game too much for them.
Mini Game Graphics
Graphically, the mini games look excellent! I have no complaints about any of them, either from a visual standpoint or a playability standpoint. I especially applaud the developer for Flappy Zombie. Arongame really captured the ‘pixelesque’ retro feel of it’s inspiration, Flappy Bird. Out of everything in this game, Flappy Zombie is my favorite feature. Flappy Zombie is so good that it could be a standalone title. Kudos, Arongame, for designing something so delightful!
One last feature of note is the ability to take screenshots of your zombie. This can be accomplished via the blue button with a camcorder on it, located to the 10 o’clock position of your zombie. This feature is available in each main area of your zombie’s habitat.
Sound
The game’s sound design is a bit sparse. The only music heard in-game is in the mini games. Unfortunately, this music is the same no matter which mini game you play. There are some basic sound effects throughout the main game: crickets in the sleep area (and even a rooster and a wolf at appropriate times), a water splash sound when rinsing the soap off of your zombie in the bathing area; it’s all basic stuff here. The zombie’s voice definitely fits its look. It sounds sort of like a squeaky voiced muppet.
Conclusion
While Pocket Zombie is not perfect, I definitely have no reservations in recommending it to any parent looking for a new game for their child to play. Heck, even as an adult you may have some fun with it. Give 2048 a try. It’ll give your brain a workout.
I do think the game could use a little more in-depth of a tutorial. For example: at the end of my time with this game, my zombie was shivering and had a temperature gauge to his left that started out at a reading of 5 percent. I had no idea what to do about this.
I would also recommend that 2048 be completely removed from the game. I think that 2048 is just too advanced for what I perceive this game’s target audience to be.
Score
Pocket Zombie is a wonderful game. It’s solid and it’s fun to play. It has a near infinite replay value and if you avoid the wretched in app purchases, the game is completely free! Despite my complaints about the game’s graphics and sound; the mini games, their quality, and the overall charm of this game warrant a score of 3/5 from me. Definitely give Pocket Zombie a try. I feel confident that you won’t be disappointed.
Destroy the robot in this slick Angry-Birds-meets-Cut-the-Rope style archery game. With expansive levels, four different types of arrows, half a dozen different bows and a plethora of game mechanics – switches, explosive barrels, portals, and others – this is definitely a thinking man(/woman)’s game.
Pretty painless. Open the app, sign into Google Play, figure out what all the icons mean, then play! There was one little thing I noticed, and that’s the fact that the game actually loads in Russian by default. If you tap on the 2 o’clock (upper right) icon that reads “Ru” it’ll change to “En,” which is from Russian to English.
I was thoroughly impressed with this game. It’s got a charming, sketchbook-style aesthetic and mechanics that are familiar to anyone that’s played Angry Birds – which, let’s be honest is just about everyone these days. The game is separated into ten “seasons” of ten levels each, totaling 100 stages in all. Each stage begins with one (or more) spaces to fire your bow from, with the end goal of destroying one (or more) robots within the level.
There are a number of different mechanics to utilize in order to hit the robot; portals, which teleport your arrow to another portal; explosive barrels, which you can detonate with a flaming arrow in order to demolish objects in the world; switches, which you shoot with heavy arrows and perform a variety of functions from moving platforms to lowering bridges. There may be more mechanics to discover, but these were the ones I encountered in my time with the app.
The difficulty curve is challenging, but not impossible, and with a little trial-and-error it is very doable for someone willing to take the challenge. The unfortunate part of a trial-and-error system is that there are often ads in between tries, leading to a lot of ads – for you will fail frequently.
What I like
Lots of levels
Varied mechanics
Challenging but doable
What I don’t
Lots of trial and error
Ad-supported version has a lot of ads; occasionally painful in a trial-and-error system
Conclusion
Finger Bow is both a joy to play and extremely easy on the wallet. The graphics, while not top notch, are charming in their own right, and the music is very fun to listen to. The ads can occasionally provide a bit of annoyance, but overall a very enjoyable experience. I plan on keeping the game on my phone to try to reach Season 10, personally.
Are you looking for a tablet for your Valentine? HTC is having a massive, limited-time sale to help you pick one up at a great price.
For today only you can pick up an HTC Nexus 9 for 40 percent off! This brings the cost down to be very competitive with even the best priced tablets. Here’s how all the prices break down:
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16 GB WiFi – $239
32 GB Wifi – $287
32 GB Wifi + LTE – $359
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The 16 GB Wifi version has been going in and out of stock (probably due to this sale), so you may want to save yourself some time and pick up the 32 GB version if it fits into your budget.
But wait, there’s more
In addition to the 40 percent discount, you’ll receive a Logitech Bluetooth Keyboard when you purchase the 32 GB Wifi + LTE version of the Nexus 9. This is not the same Folio Keyboard offered by HTC that showed up in some advertisements last year.
If your choice in mobile games veers toward your inner ‘word nerd’, then you should consider “Jumpy Word” by evezzon. This game could be alternatively titled ‘Speed Scrabble’ if not for all the potential copyright infringements.
Why do you ask? Well, how do you play Scrabble? You are given a set of random letters and are tasked to spell the most complicated words with them, scoring the most points — that’s how. Jump Word works a lot in the same way. The big difference is that your letter inventory is never-ending and your time limit for finding said words is much more limited. But, I’m getting ahead of myself.
Setup
Available for free from the Play Store, the game is linkable to Google Play Games, if that’s your thing. Note that it only applies if you manually click on the profile icon in the title screen. The settings consist of turning sound effects background music on or off. An additional setting is to turn ‘Slow Mode’, which simply slows the game down.
Gameplay
To play (by clicking on the gamepad icon in the title screen), you are presented with a blue 7 x 6 grid on your screen. Another way to think of this game as Scrabble combined with Tetris. This grid starts out blank, but begins filling each square with a random letter, starting at the bottom and moving up towards the top.
Your goal is to tap on combinations of letters making the longest words possible (longer words = more points). After tapping out the letter combination you want, click on the pencil icon to register your word. If you make a mistake in your tapping, there is an eraser button which clears your current word build. If your combination is an actual word, your word is scored and the squares holding your tapped letters are emptied, albeit temporarily.
After a brief time these square begin to fill back in with new letters, again moving (generally) from bottom to top. As the grid fills up, the background color moves from blue, to a kind of gray, to orange, and finally to red. This is designed to indicate your game is close to ending. The game does end when your grid fills up.
If there is a twist to this game, it’s the inclusion of ‘bombs’. You can tap the bomb button anytime to completely empty your grid to start fresh without disrupting your current score. You can gain more bombs, at the rate of one per 500 points scored at the end of a round. Players have a maximum inventory of 50 bombs.
Conclusion
I personally love this game, as it combines very easy pick-up gameplay with light-hearted mental gymnastics. Because the game can be played with any word combination, the difficulty is flexible to the person playing it. This makes it a great title to have on a parent’s phone as it can be enjoyed by an adult or child. It’s currently residing on my phone where my grade-school kiddos can access it.
A new update to the Instagram app for Android and iOS devices was announced yesterday which should come as welcome news for a number of you. Available in the 7.15 version of the app is support for multiple user accounts.
Once you have the update you will be able to hop back and forth between various Instagram accounts. No longer will you have to log out of one profile to log back into another; it will as simple as tapping the account.
As to how notifications will work, Instagram says you’ll receive them for any accounts that have them turned on and active.
What would you do if you lost access to your Google account? It’s not something we would like to think about.
But have you done anything to protect your account from malevolent sources, or at least include a way to recover your account if anything happens?
To help, Google is rewarding anyone who does a security check-up on their account with a cool 2GB of Google Drive storage space.
To get started, head to the Security Check-Up page and login to your Google account.
On the Security Check-up page, you can change or add your recovery information, review your connected devices and app permissions, enable or change your two-step authentication and app password settings. Of course, if anything looks odd or suspicious, you can alert Google and take steps to fix the problem.
Once everything looks like it should and your account is at its most secure, Google will add your bonus 2GB of Google Drive storage to your account, permanently. That’s all there is to it!
It is all part of the Safer Internet Day initiative, which Google and many other companies and organisations are a part of, to promote safer and more responsible internet use.
But you better hurry, you must complete this check-up by February 18 to get the bonus Google Drive data.
Screen Off Pro does what it sets out to do; it locks your screen at the push of a software button, negating the use of the hardware button for this use. There are a number of other options within the app, including assigning vibration, sound and animation to the screen off function, but many of these are hidden behind the paywall of the $0.99 ‘unlock’ version.
As far as Screen Lock apps go, Screen Off Pro is pretty full-featured, if limited. Unfortunately, many of these features are hidden behind the paid version of the app. These features are not marked in any way as pro features; you’re only informed of such once you try to use them. At best, this is a minor inconvenience. Below is a list of the features as provided by the developer. My annotations follow in parenthesis.
Number of best Screen off Shortcut icons (FREE)
Change the label, name of the screen lock shortcuts (FREE)
Play sound you like on screen lock (Pro Only)
Vibrate on screen lock if you like (Pro Only)
Lock with style, Choose the best animations (Some options free, most Pro Only)
Notification shortcut to easily lock the screen from anywhere (Pro Only)
Floating screen off button over all apps, with option to set transparency and size of floating Screen off button (Pro Only)
Best UI design with minimal option for simple use
This app also requires Administrator permissions, which may be concerning to some. To see if it was an isolated incident with this particular app, I downloaded a number of other screen off apps – they all require Administrator permissions, in order to turn off the screen. Looks like if you’d like this functionality, you have to play ball. I also ran into a number of instances where the app force-closed on my Nexus 6P, possibly due to inactivity.
Screen Off Pro does what it sets out to do; provide an app that turns your phone’s screen off without using the hardware button. However, I find the app description and, indeed the app itself, to be misleading in that it does not mention that many features are hidden behind a paid app. If you’re looking for a free app that turns off your screen and little else, this app is for you; if you’re looking for a free app that does the features described, you’re out of luck.
The unveiling of Samsung’s latest Galaxy handsets is fast approaching, but if you’re too antsy to wait, thankfully leakers have our backs. Today, we’ve gotten our best looks yet (allegedly) at the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge. We also have some juicy details to round out the leaks.
First up is a rear shot of the Galaxy S7. We’ve previously heard that Samsung was working on slimming that unpopular camera hump from last year’s flagship, so many folks have been itching to get a visual of that effort.
While the camera component doesn’t look completely flush with the chassis, it does seem like a big improvement. If you’ve missed recent murmur about the S7’s camera module, it supposedly uses BRITECELL technology and underwent a reduction in megapixel count, from 16MP in the Galaxy S6 to 12MP (f/1.7 aperture lens).
Another interesting observation on the leaked image is that the back cover appears to be plastic rather than glass. But we shouldn’t jump to conclusions yet. It’s likely that this unit is a prototype. Also, notice that the Note5‘s curved back made a return.
Fortunately, that’s not all we have. Another image, of the alleged Galaxy S7 Edge, also surfaced.
This image doesn’t really show us anything we didn’t already know. We’re familiar with those sexy curved edges. The S7 Edge is supposed to be the larger of the pair (5.5″ vs 5.1″ on the S7), and it does look like it from these pictures.
Samsung is said to have refined the metal frame on the Galaxy S7, replacing it with a stronger magnesium alloy. Water resistance and considerable battery capacities have also been reiterated.
We all know that the chipset will be a beast (they always are). The AnTuTu benchmark score on the S7 Edge image is thought to be achieved with the newest Exynos SoC. But keep in mind that various sources have suggested that some markets will get the Snapdragon 820 (likely the U.S.). Quick charging will also get a significant boost, with a claim of 0 to 80% in just 30 minutes. Lastly, the Galaxy S7 is said to join LG in the high quality audio game, also packing the HiFi ESS Sabre 9018 DAC (digital-to-analog converter).
What do you think about the Galaxy S7 pair so fair? If these details are true, are you sold on one or the other?
Pocket Zombie is a delighful and unique take on the virtual pet, er, in this case, zombie. Pocket Zombie places you in control of the care taking of a Pete Lorre’esque zombie. Care for this zombie occurs through a series of tasks including: play, feeding, bathing and sleep. As you continue to take care of your zombie, you will level up and gain access to items for your zombie, including: skins, environmental decorations, new types of food and potions. All of these items can be purchased using the games gold coin currency which you earn through performing each task involved with taking care of your zombie.
A new update to the Instagram app for Android and iOS devices was announced yesterday which should come as welcome news for a number of you. Available in the 7.15 version of the app is support for multiple user accounts.
