With Mobile World Congress just around the corner, we are already seeing some early announcements and press releases from manufacturers. This latest one comes from Archos, a French manufacturer known for mostly making low- to mid-range tablets and smartphones in the European markets. The latest Archos device will be an addition to the existing Oxygen line, and will be dubbed the Oxygen 50d. The namesake indicates that it is a successor to the mid-range Oxygen 50c, which debuted two years ago.
The Oxygen 50d looks to fit in somewhere between mid-range and high-end, sporting a 5-inch 1080 x 1920 IPS display that boasts 440 pixels per inch. Under the hood will be a MediaTek MTK6753 processor at 1.3GHz, backed by a Mali T720 MP3 GPU and 2GB of RAM. The latest Oxygen device will also feature a 13MP rear camera with LED flash and a 5MP front camera.
Image credit: AndroidCentral.com
Sadly, there will only be 16GB of onboard storage, but users will be able to expand that by up to 32GB via a MicroSD card slot. The Oxygen 50d will also feature a dual-SIM slot. A 2100 mAh battery will power the Android 5.1 Lollipop device, which Archos will have on display at Mobile World Congress in a few weeks.
Interestingly, the Oxygen 50d sports capacitive Home, Menu, and Back buttons, which deviates from the common practice of onscreen Android navigation buttons that most flagship devices of late have come to feature. We will be watching to see how this change plays out when the phone is released. Expect the Oxygen 50d to go on sale in May of this year with a $149.99 price tag.
At risk of sounding utterly cliche, Puxers is a game that’s easy to pick up, but hard to master. You flick numbered pucks around an arena, colliding like-numbered pucks with one another. When these pucks collide, they transform into the sum of those numbers. You may have no more than 12 pucks on the board at a time – any more, and you lose.
Beyond the standard Google Play login, there’s not much to do as far as setup for this app goes. I’d highly recommend viewing the tutorial slides, which you access by tapping on the stylized ‘?’ on the right side of the screen.
Features
Puxers is relatively simple, but at the same time challenging and strategic. I fell in love with it very quickly. The graphics are cute and arcadey, with sounds to match, and the game itself runs very smoothly. Pucks range in scale by powers of 2, from 2 to 8192. By colliding like numbers, you create a numbered puck that equals the sum of the two you collided. For example, colliding two 8-pucks results in a 16-puck, two 16-pucks yields a 32-puck, etc. At some point – I believe it is when the number reaches 8192, the puck simply turns into a star and leaves the field. As you accumulate numbers, your score goes up.
The kicker, however, is that if you accumulate twelve pucks on the board and fail to clear one, you lose. Game over. This is where the game’s only in-app-purchase comes into play; if you lose, you are able to Undo your last move by paying $0.99. In between games you’ll often encounter long, video-based ads that can be skipped in a few seconds, which will then direct you to a Play Store download link. A small inconvenience, but inconvenient nonetheless.
If you like simple, challenging puzzlers, this game is for you. Great quality of product, a simple game mechanic, and a real sense of accomplishment when you beat your score should make this game a hit if it gains traction.
We know that the LG G5 is upon us; LG hasn’t been quiet about the fact. The Korean manufacturer is also known to tease little tidbits about new upcoming features, and we just got our first one for the G5. The company’s Facebook page, LG Mobile, posted a teaser gif that reveals Always On capability on the G5’s display.
Always On isn’t a radical concept, but a real nice to have. It’s probably most known on Motorola devices (Moto Display). It partially lights up the screen to only show information that we frequently check on our phones (the time, date, and notifications).
LG first played with the idea on the V10 (with the help of the Second Screen). However, the G5 teaser shows the information pop up front and center on the display. This strongly hints that LG will make a move to an OLED panel (which isn’t too far-fetched based on recent reportings), because lighting up the entire display for small pieces of information would be hugely inefficient. The V10 got away with it because it only needed to turn on the small secondary 2.1″ display up top.
LG V10 Always On Second Screen
While this is all we know so far officially, we have recently gotten some telling leaks. Check out our rumor roundup on the G5. The Feb. 21st unveiling at Mobile World Congress isn’t too far now, so hang tight. Does LG really grab your attention with the Always On feature?
Update: New LG G5 Quick Cover case announced as well
Looks like LG is having a hard time waiting for the G5’s official announcement. A refreshed Quick Cover case was just introduced for the phone that does not yet exist. It will be touch-enabled (interaction through the case’s screen cover) and take advantage of the Always On display feature via a cutout.
The case’s cover is said to be made of a semi-transparent mesh. You’ll be able to answer/reject calls and control alarm settings without flipping it open.
[blockquote author=”LG”]Users of the case can check the time, date and notifications on the Always-on Display of the yet unseen LG G5 even with the cover closed. LG also incorporated a unique film with a glossy metallic finish to enhance the smooth and luxurious look and feel of the cover for maximum consistency with the speculative LG G5.[/blockquote]
Stay tuned for a closer look at the new Quick Cover at Mobile World Congress later this month. But I’m sure we’ll get more teasers on the way.
Most of us love music (if you don’t, I’m very sorry for you). Tastes may vary, but we all like a good tune every now and then. When we want to listen to music at home or on the go, it’s important to be able to do it on a good speaker and unless you’re rocking an HTC One M series phone, Moto X, or Nexus 6P, you’re probably looking for something better than the speakers on your phone.
Ultimate Ears has an offering that’s really hard to pass up when it comes to pure speaker quality and loudness; they call it the UE ROLL.
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Design
Upon removal from the packaging (rolled cardboard), my first impression was that this is a very attractive and modern-looking speaker. The colors are very appealing and you quickly realize that even though it doesn’t look like a boulder with an OtterBox case on it, it’s actually a very rugged device. I don’t recommend running it over with your monster truck, but it feels like it might actually survive being run over.
As noted in the spec sheet below, it’s IPX7 rated, which means it can be completely immersed in water up to one meter deep for up to 30 minutes. Again, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend trying to drown it, but you can certainly take it with you to the shower or the beach without having to worry.
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Sound
When I started playing music, I noticed how clear and beautiful the sound was and how it doesn’t distort when you turn it up to full volume. The loudness is also very impressive for what it is. I found that keeping it at full volume for too long was going to probably upset someone around me, which for something of its size is pretty amazing.
As far as the tuning is concerned, I’d definitely say it sounds better in the mid-range to high-range sounds. UE advertises it as being a pro with the lows and it even has a “bass jump” mode in the built-in equalizer, but it didn’t really impress me much in that department.
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Control
The front of the UE Roll is very stylish. It didn’t actually occur to me at first though, that the stylish design is actually very functional. The front of the speaker has giant +/- buttons on it to control the volume and I was very pleased by that. After that the fun ends. The buttons can’t be long-pressed to get any additional functionality (such as skipping or repeating a song) and there’s no way to pause/play the music without your phone in your hand.
However, if you have your phone in your hand, there are a bunch of other things you can do to control the speaker with its companion app!
Overall, the companion app is rather scant, but what do you really expect from a companion app to a Bluetooth speaker? In addition to giving you information about the battery life of the speaker and allowing you to control the equalizer, it has an alarm feature and gives you the ability to pair a second UE ROLL to create true stereo sound. You can also update the firmware on the speaker via the app, which adds the latest features including new equalizer presets and “Block Party” mode, which allows multiple people to connect to a single UE Roll and create a queue together. This a really cool feature in its own right (the owner still holds the power of veto, as it should be).
What I found to be most impressive about the app is actually one of the simpler features. The ability to control the power of the speaker from the app is really useful. It’s nice not to have to physically manipulate the speaker just to turn it on/off. What that also means is the speaker can be powered off when you have the alarm set, and it will power itself on and start playing music when your alarm goes off. My only problem with this feature is the phone doesn’t disconnect from (and power off) the ROLL after you dismiss the alarm. It would be good to include this in a future software update.
Waterproof: IPX7 rated: UE ROLL can be immersed in liquid up to one minute for up to 30 minutes.
Audio:
Maximum sound level: 85dBA
Frequency range: 108Hz – 20kHz
Drivers: one two inch driver and two ¾” tweeters
Battery: rechargeable lithium-ion battery
Wireless/Audio compatibility: for audio playback – smartphones, tablets and other devices that support Bluetooth wireless audio profile [Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP)] or 3.5 mm audio output.
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Overall
I found the UE Roll to have exceptional sound, especially for the size that it is. It’s definitely a little pricey, but I’ve never seen anything like this before: something with such bold sound, that’s so portable, has great battery life, and you can take it to the beach because it’s okay if it gets wet.
More of the value of this speaker comes from the companion app and its ability to make a simple Bluetooth speaker into the life of the party. Pick one up today at Verizon and save 20% off of full price.
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.
With Mobile World Congress just around the corner, we are already seeing some early announcements and press releases from manufacturers. This latest one comes from Archos, a French manufacturer known for mostly making low- to mid-range tablets and smartphones in the European markets. The latest Archos device will be an addition to the existing Oxygen line, and will be dubbed the Oxygen 50d. The namesake indicates that it is a successor to the mid-range Oxygen 50c, which debuted two years ago.
Upon removal from the packaging (rolled cardboard), my first impression was that this is a very attractive and modern-looking speaker. The colors are very appealing and you quickly realize that even though it doesn’t look like a boulder with an OtterBox case on it, it’s actually a very rugged device. I don’t recommend running it over with your monster truck, but it feels like it might actually survive being run over.
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.
