Tuesday 30 October 2012

Answers for the Guess Who app

Did you really think that Id be so kind as to provide the 'Guess Who' answers without a fight? Truth be told, the mildly entertaining app is founded on a good idea: a series of progressively less defined drawings of famous people need to be guessed. The drawings on the easiest level are well defined, on the hardest barely legible.
But this is a hardcore guessing game with no clues whatsoever as to who they are,and no prizes for correct guesses either ! As a result it is very easy to hit a frustration wall and give up on the app.
So if you've been baited to this app review of Guess Who with the promise of answers then I'm sorry to disappoint. However if you know the answers please share them in the comments below.
The frustrating, but kinda fun app 'Guess Who' is available for IPad and iPhone.

Monday 29 October 2012

Comfort and convenience with the i-Music Hat

Hats to be used with smartphones
i-Music Hat
MP3 Player: Check, Wooly Hat: Check, Gloves: Check . Yes, Winter is here and if you're going to go out there's a lot to remember to bring with you and the last thing that you're wanting to have to do is drag around yet more things that can be lost. So think back to that little Winter list up there at the top of this article, as a modern day lover of gadgets whether you're going running or commuting or whatever; you're going to want your personal tunes with you in some shape or form. Whether that's in the form of a dedicated MP3 player or a top of the range Smartphone personal music is where it's at. but wait! Something was missing from that list, of course, what good is a personal music player without headphones!

We're reviewing another idea with the thematic similarities of Winter + Smartphone (or equivalent) needs specialised accessories-just like our Tocuhscreen friendly gloves from a prior review. Yes, tech lovers, it's another of those funny secret santa gifts that will appeal to this Smartphone loving audience. This time we're heading up in the world , but not too high, just as high as your head really. With the great idea of combining built in speakers with a warm "beany" type hat comes the i-Music Hat.

They've gone for a very generic hat type which is a good thing, you'd be quite unlikely to pop out with a Stetson or a Top-Hat upon your head-even if it was iPod friendly. But by going for a stocking type beany hat the makers have not only attempted to capture some urban suave but have probably hit upon the most practical hat design.

Made of polyester and in a one size fits all format the i-Music Hat is a great way to enjoy your tunes on the move without the hindrance of easily lost headphones. The speakers produce a good range of sounds and most importantly,in keeping with the convenience idea, are simply powered from your music device. Luckily it is possible to wash the hat too-as I can quite happily see it as a must have for a jogger, thick enough to keep the worst of the chill off, but not thick enough to make anybody doing even the lightest of exercise uncomfortable.

More importantly for the audiophiles amongst us is the fact that the speakers deliver much more superior sound quality than a conventional hat/headphone setup. The nasty thing about Winter is that it isn't very technology friendly and so generally even something as basic as headphones when paired with cold protection don't work to their potential-irrsepective of if they cost hundreds of pounds or mere pennys. This combined hat/speaker idea negates those bad experiences.

We've been jogging and commuting and generally wandering around with the built in speaker hat for just over a week now and it is still performing admirably, despite a lot of sweat and rain exposure! At first the speaker lead doesn't seem very strong, but as we have had no problems so far that doesn't appear to be the case.

If you're wanting to keep comfortable this winter and avoid having yet another item to get tangled, lost or inconvenience yourself with then try the hat that avoids these headphone/speaker woes.
We particularly recommend the i-Music Hat for joggers, runners and others whose personal music is important to themselves.

Saturday 27 October 2012

Clash of Clans Halloween Update

clash of clans new pekka
Introducing dark Castle and Level 3 PEKKA
New for Halloween 2013: More Pumpkin bombs, a level editor that takes the drudge out of continual redesigns,Samhains all about magic so the spell forge can now be boosted for only 1 gem. Also watch out for mortar level 8...now that's scary! Supercell also promises many scary surprises...Pumpkin bombs to replace your normal Clash of Clans Defence bombs? Luckily the latest Clans update offers a lot more than that, especially for those with higher level town halls. And now take your town hall even higher with the Dark Castle Level 9 upgrade.

Clash of Clans Halloween Update
Now the PEKKA is even more ferocious with a level 3 PEKKA getting a fearsome new appearance.
Meet the JumpSpell which when upgraded is even powerful enough to let giants and Pekkas jump walls- so no more hiding behind your walls as a legit defence!
Watch out for the X-Bow; the elixir bolt shooting defence is available at higher levels and has a fearsome rate of fire. Top tip for the Xbow is that it has different modes of fire-longer range for anything attacking from the ground-or a lesser range attack that can devestate both air and ground forces.
Now almost all buildings, including cannons and storage have new upgrade levels.
Continuing on the Halloween Theme CofC has cheaper spells and a 'witches and monsters' package with wizards,dragons and the PEKKA being cheaper to produce for a while-and let's not forget those pumpkin bombs!
Important advice about Clash of Clans Halloween Update: now is the time to remove all obstacles, trees, mushrooms, rocks etc. You'll notice a Halloween theme to them with creepy eyes etc., what I have notice since the update is that every obstacle removed seems to be dropping free gems, do it now while still in the scary season and maybe more gems will be coming your way!

Marlee Signs: An app intro for signing

Marlee Matlin making Marlee Signs
Marlee Matlin is a famous American deaf actress who is the star of the Marlee Signs app. Intended as an introduction to sign language there is a lot of potential , even in the free portion of the signing app.
Admittedly it is a little disconcerting at first that there is, aptly enough, no sound. But Marlee is really a gifted individual who in the video driven app managed to convey so much with both her mouthing of the words and enunciation.
I didn't think I could lip read prior to using this app to learn sign language , but Marlee just seems to make understanding the hard of hearing so easy.
You'll be seeing a lot of her in this app as it mostly consists of her teaching signing for words,  numbers and letters via a series of videoclips. It's an easy enough introduction to signing for IPad and iPhone users and if they wish to explore the topic more than in app purchases can buy more comprehensive signing tools.

Friday 26 October 2012

SmartGlass on Android and IPhone

Android release date for SmartGlass
Xbox SmartGlass is out for Microsoft's Surface tablet on October 26th, Windows Phone 8 devices will have SmartGlass on October 29th. iOS- and Android-powered devices have a long time to wait; until early 2013 to be precise.
SmartGlass is an app allowing  control of Xbox 360's content with a smartphone or tablet.
What can the Smartglass App control?
Movies and music will be controllable and your device will act as a second screen to view information on actors and artists.
As a second screen idea for the 360's internet browsing it's a good idea but more exciting for gamers is the second screen function which enables your Android/ios/Windows 8 device to display secondary information like inventory and maps. The catch is that some functions need An Xbox Live Gold subscription and of course the wait for non Windows 8 phones to get the app. We're hoping that the Cyanogen or Cydia folk can hack the app and bring a cracked version of SmartGlass to Android or Ios sooner than next year.

Shoot em ' Up with Monster Shooter


Most aliens in video games or cartoons are villains. In Monster Shooter this holds true as well. For reasons unknown aliens have abducted your puppy. You love that puppy and have a space ship of your own so when this happens you embark on a mission to get your cute lovable pet at whatever cost. You are aided by an alien weapons dealer who helps you at a price. You two speak the same language, or at least understand each other.


 I may be getting lazy so I'll let the pictures do some of the talking. Screenshots of gameplay are always important in judging a game in my opinion.


 The cutscenes before each planet is very well drawn and hilarious. Put a smile on my face.


Enemies I've encountered.
Regular Green, Red Jellyfish with more HP, Purple Hulk, Pink Hulk. 

 The guns on the bottom of the screenshot above are actually in the game. I just haven't tried more than two of them.

I haven't gotten very far in the game (somewhere on the second or 3rd world). My last new enemies were the pink ones. Towards the end of my testing it became difficult for me to make money because the ammo for the gun I used(not the starting weapon) cost about the same as the reward/prize money obtained from each match. So while the game is fun at first, it gets really difficult really fast. Earning money becomes quite hard and there isn't very much you can do about it besides grind the easier levels A LOT. You can also purchases ingame money with real money.


Monster Shooter is Xperia Play Optimized.
 Use left pad to move, right pad to fire in a desired direction. You can also choose auto fire where the game chooses the closest enemy target to shoot. This however must be done before a match. One problem with the touchpad controls was the sensitivity of the mid pad between the two pads. Touching this part opens up the shop, which gets annoying in the heat of battle. Maybe this parts sensitivity may be turned down a notch or only make the very center activate the menu.

The smartphone app is FREE and available on both iOS and Android platforms. It is brought to you by the developers at Gamelion Studios. On Google Play the app has a high rating of 4.7 out of 5 and over 1 Million Downloads. Download the app and see for yourself. 

P.S. The game is monster shooting at aliens so it could also be called Alien Shooter. I'm not that great in English so I'm not sure which way the title means.



Either way,
Enjoy



Thursday 25 October 2012

Beyond Jelly Bean for Galaxy S3

Eventually Jellybean rolled out for most of the World's Samsung Galaxy S3's ( Sorry USA I know quite a few networks are still waiting for the latest Android OS! )
Already talk has moved beyond Project Butter and objective to the rumoured capabilities of Android 4.1.2 with the exciting "multi-window" mode apparently coming to the S3 as early as December. But one thing the JB rollout has taught us, if we didn't know already, that December probably means January or February or never!
What is Android Multi Window Mode?

Featuring on the Samsung Galaxy Note II is the multi-window mode, which allows you to see two apps running simultaneously. The two windows can be resized as the user sees fit and uses are only limited by the owner's imagination.
Apart from the "Will it really happen question?" other obstacles are the international S3 only having 1Gb of RAM and indeed the LTE S3 being merely dual core. If the hardware can cope; and it should with the Galaxy being a powerful beast -the question of effectiveness on a smaller screen than the Note still stands. Is it a feature that can work on a 4.8 inch screen?
Keep up the good work Samsung in your quest to be the coolest Korean export since Gangnam.

Medieval Logic Adventure for iPad

Medieval Cluedo type logic game for ipad
iLogic Hero for iPad
Following on from their enormous success with iLogic Crimes ; Marian Consulting is set to turn the logic puzzle genre down a darker and more medieval flavoured road with iLogic Hero.

If Dragons, magic and similar themes set in a logic game sound like a fun idea then it can only be driven to new heights by a studio who has previously excelled in puzzle logic games on the iPad.

The press release promises some exciting features for a wide age range of players. Naturally the Princess has disappeared and in a Grimm's Tales flavoured Cluedo type deductive game you're charged with being the heroic Knight that sets out to rescue her. 
Naturally in this deductive game you won't be intervewing and grilling your standard type of criminals , but a whole menagerie of Fairytale animals need to be visited to find the missing royalty.

It's a fun concept that Marian carried out very well in their previous iLogic outing, but with the added impetus of a unique setting for a crime scene it should play out very well. As soon as iLogic Hero is available for review we'll be keeping you in the loop as to the quality of the newest Quick Logic Adventure.

Wednesday 24 October 2012

Outrage at new IPad

Differences between iPad 4 and iPad 3
iPad 4 and iPad Mini
The iPad Mini-a good idea to compete with the Google Nexus' and Kindle Fires of the world. But news that the IPad 4 is to be released has caused outrage-particularly amongst IPad 3 (Hd) owners.

A mere 6 month upgrade cycle shows Apple's greed and the fact that thus virtually confirms that they made the 'previous' IPad underpowered. It also throws App studios into disarray as they are only now starting to harness the 3's power and aren't geared for an even faster processor. Will the extra power of the Ipad 4 therefore be redundant-is it just Apple's way to milk more money in an upgrade cycle that has gone insane?
The new iPad replaces the tablet's traditional 30-pin dock connector with the smaller Lightning port that Apple unveiled with the iPhone 5.Also new to the 4th generation device is a faster A6X processor, which apparently boasts double the graphic performance of the iPad 3's phased-out A5X.

This shows a few things apart from sheer greed: The A5X chips inclusion into the Hd model was always a poor and underpowered choice; and yet most media sources locked in a"The top Tablet" love affair rarely alluded to this lack of horsepower. Is this not another cash grabbing exercise to use their reputation to sell to other early adopters? And even a way to flog more lightning port adapters?
If you're a 'first in the queue' Iphone 5 owner now's the time to start worrying about how quickly your new toy will be replaced by a better model.

And finally if the media is to avoid previous mistakes it has to be strongly pointed out ; before the iPhone 5S as arrives in a matter of months-how the current devices lack of NFC capability abducted poor battery make it already destined for a swift upgrade. Help stop Apple's greed and have your say in the comments section.

Maximising Google Now potential

British Sports on Google Now
Following on from our last article about Google Now basics we're coming back at you with more information about how to get the most out of the new Jellybean exclusive info system.
How to edit GoogleNow Sports Teams
When I saw I could get news about my favourite sports teams I was very excited. My excitement soon turned to confusion as going into the Google Now settings the 'edit teams' button was always grayed out. That is until I did a Google search for Manchester United. Now the card automatically popped up with my team-so just search and GoogleNow sporting teams cards should be yours to enjoy. And yes that even includes support for British Sports Teams on Google Now, so if you want to view an upcoming Liverpool or Aresnal or whatever match just do that search and soon you should start seeing those helpful cards appearing on your phone.
How does GoogleNow know where I live and Work?
Initially I thought that Google Now was clever enough to learn my daily commute. I think I gave it too much credit as it doesn't automatically give you  commute cards. To get googleNow popups for driving  it's necessary for you to check in your work and home locations in Google Maps. This way it'll be able to give you traffic warnings and theoretically even warn you when you need to leave early for work.
The more permission you give the more Now can help you. So enabling automatic check ins and internet searches will better enable Google Now to learn your interests and habits to give you better info cards on your Android phone.
What places will show up on a Now Card
Once you tick permissions for places nearby they should start to show up based on your location and privacy settings.
 
To really make the most out of Google Now you should allow notifications to pop up. This really makes it more of an automatic service.
Hopefully this clears up some confusion especially for Samsung Galaxy S3 UK owners needing to know how to use Google Now ( The UK S3 upgraded recently to Jellybean on Vodafone, O2 and Three-some users -myself included-didn't think that the Galaxy S3 used Google Now or Google Voice; hopefully this article will answers all those burning questions about Jellybean's most impressive feature.)

Tuesday 23 October 2012

Using Google Now on your Mobile

Google Now on Uk Galaxy S3
If you've recently updated to Android Jellybean you're probably as excited as I was to try out Google Now on your Android device.
Initially I thought the location/info personalised Pa type app wasn't working untold I discovered that Google Now needs an internet connection.
After that initial scare the 'Advice cards' still didn't show up as permission needs to be given to the app before it will start showing up on your mobile.
A day into using Google Now on a Galaxy S3 (international 3G quad core version) and the excitement still remains for the apps potential and not for its performance. You see Google Now won't dramatically change your phone-yet. It l learns from your habits and gradually more and more Help Cards will be displayed.
Go into settings for Google Now and you can change it to display all sorts of info and the frequency of how often the cards display as well as timings. For example you could tell it that you commute to work by car and you want it to display heavy traffic before your evening commute.
Amongst other things sports cards, places cards and public transport are some of the options.

I turned on WiFi today at a work canteen and was very excited to find a card other than the Weather Card that had been displaying continually. It was a card for a nearby fancy bar/restaurant.  Had Google Now seen my phone in a cheap canteen and offered me a better place to eat?
The app is learning, but only slowly and as such using Google Now on an Android Phone is still excitement in potentia and not reality.

Monday 22 October 2012

Is Your Business Efficient? Find out with Lean Audit

    Business owners, do you want to test your company and gauge it against the standard for professional companies? With Lean Audit you can. Depending on the type of audit, you can find out in 10 minutes to about an hour. The company behind the application is Leanmap. They are a consulting firm that helps improve, teach, and increase performance operations and effectiveness for businesses across the world. The app is imple to use. Just select the type of audit, the industry and language. After the set of questions, you get your results almost instantly.




     The User Interface for answering questions is smooth. Setting up was a little odd in landscape mode but just turn your phone and this should be remedied.  As I don't have a business, I couldn't necessarily test the app fully. I tried to use Gametrender in factory terms to complete an audit. This was tricky since a blog isn't a company, I am not the main operator of Gametrender.net, and I do not know of all it's operations. Lean Audit also expects you to know a lot of business concepts and some simple grade school level arithmetic. Also like in grade school, a couple of the questions gave hints to the answers of other questions. Perhaps you knowing some of those business terms(like "5S" and "lean") in itself is a standard for being classy. The smartphone app also gets you thinking about other aspects of a busniess that maybe you haven't thought of or need to rethink about.

   A small suggestion I have is to have English(or any other languages) by itself. The questions feel clustered and confusing when you can see the question in another language right after your question. It'll take a few minutes to adjust to this happening, but it still feels odd. Another thing I'm unsure about concerning the app is the use of "What means ____?" I am not sure it's grammatically correct, however it's short and understandable and gets to the point quicker. I sometimes make up words with clear meanings too.

Leanmaps logo is an upper case sigma.
   After the questionnaire, the Android app gives you a score, and if you want more in-depth results you may purchase the Full Report. The Lean Audit app was developed by Leanmap and can be found on Google Play for Android devices. This app can do so much for your company. You can fin out more about Leanmap at http://www.leanmap.com/.





Good Luck to you and your Business(es),
Gametrender 



Saturday 20 October 2012

Dead Trigger: Best Free 1st Person Shooter App with Zombies


   Dead Trigger has quickly become one of those games that you just have to bring up when talking about quality apps since it's release in June 2012. It's a first person shooter with various weapons, character power ups, special items, and amazing graphics quality. The details are meant for more recent higher end devices, but for us with about 1 Ghz memory, we can still play the game smoothly on low setting and still get a great looking game. The controls and zombie motions are smooth, the guns look great, the h.u.d is respectable, there are a variety of items, weapons, and power ups, blood gushes nice, you can move your character who walks as a medium pace. In my opinion, Dead Trigger is the Best Zombie App and Best 1st Person Shooter app that is FREE. If you want to challenge that statement feel free to let me know of another awesome app. I've also tested the COD: BOZ app and wasn't impressed with that one. If you want to fight waves of zombies, you can do that in Dead Trigger too.

My Sony Xperia Play doesn't capture screens really well while under pressure.
    One thing that sets this zombie killing game apart from others is that it contains a storyline. Play Main Missions to progress in the story. Side missions are also there if you feel like taking a break from the storyline, or you can't defeat a main level and need to accumulate gold and money. The story doesn't last forever, but it keeps the game fresh longer and from getting completely repetitive. There is some humor and suspense in the story. You're adventure is presented to you in text, but that leaves it up to your mind and imagination to interpret how things look and sound.

Very informative loading screen. I'll let it do the talking concerning the controls. It might contain a thousand words.


There are many different types of main weapons: Pistols, Sub-Machine Guns, Shotguns, Alien Gun, chainsaws. Tip:Towards level 15 of the game, make sure you save enough money to purchase the Striker shotgun. It has less recoil and a faster fire rate than most other shotguns. It's best quality is the quick reloading capability. It reloads with just one cartridge for all it's ammo. With other shotguns you have to reload one ammo at a time(even if you only used 1 ammo, you must reload the total number of maximum shots that the gun started with before upgrades). Sucks to be putting in 5 bullets in your gun individually while zombies are close by sprinting, crawling, biting and clawing at you. With all weapons, you don't lose any unused Ammo in your old cartridge while reloading(not realistic, but I don't mind, it's a tough zombie game). It does however become less effective at later levels before rank 43. I'm currently rank 42. I started trying to play the hard missions sometime around rank 30. I noticed my minigun was only able to do carnage in medium difficulties.


Some of those words might ring some bells for fans of Supernatural. Just pretend they're Croatoans.

Purchasing new guns can be tricky. First you don't know whether or not the weapon will be that much better vs upgrading what you have. Usually buying the next weapon vs upgrading will get you more accuracy and distance, but it still comes pretty close. Another thing is that you don't know how the other weapons shoot and their fire rates. Although the game tells you and does a good job at giving you a fairly good idea with the weapons stats, a little difference during crunch time can make the difference.

Zombies Types 
Gotta have more than one type of zombie right? Right. As of now Dead Trigger features over  8 kinds of zombies(9). Some regular zombies include:
-Male Zombie : Guy in a Hood Sweater
-Frino Zombie : Looks like a farmer.
-Hasmat Zombie : Scientist that has been turned while wearing their contamination suits.
-The Mobster zombie : Shirtless kinda Chubby guy.


Now for some tougher zombies.
-The Police Zombie : is almost normal except he can run a little quicker, naturally due to his training. He has a unique ability to spit blood at you. Yes the projectile blood does hurt you unlike blood on the floor or splattered blood. He tilts his head back before spitting and spitting produces a sound effect. He also seems to have a little more hp than regular zombies.
-Female Zombie :  can sprint  longer than the regular guys and even has a little more health even though she looks skinnier. She also has a scarier growl and scream and arm waving.
-SWAT Zombie :  The equivalent of a toned down version of a Sentinel from Call of Duty. Shooting this dude anywhere except the face will do little damage and make sparks with sounds of shooting metal. He is armored and has a helmet so only his face is exposed.(I'm not sure but maybe you do more damage right after he flinches). My worst Zombie friend.
- Athlete Zombie : You don't have to worry about this guy much unless you participate in the Arena map Stadium of Dead. He can do a lot of damage and sprint much longer distances (as he has been training his whole life to be a fast zombie).
 -Hulk Zombie : The name even implies the size and strength of this guy. He is a big round shirtless guy and does the most damage, has the most health and resistances(not sure about that last one compared to a SWAT zombie). There are moments when this zombie stands still and looks around. When this happens he is invincible.

Credit for zombie names and other information goes to Dead Trigger wiki.

Showing off some non-explorable scenery before Zombies reach me.

Free gifts
Daily-  There are two types of currencies in the game. Gold, and dollars. Get 1-5 Gold from the daily reward mission. The icon for this mission is 3 gold bars on the world map. Defeating this mission will get you more arena entries and casino chips. There are also casino chips which can by used at the Casino.  Each day you get 3 chips and 3 Arena Entries just from loading up the app. Your chances with the slots are one of the best I've had with slots. The most you can go on without winning is 2 Days. The prizes are nothing small neither: money, 3 more chips, or items. Items don't come cheap. If you're only prizes from spending 3 chips are 3 more chips, then I suggest reserving your chips for another day. However, that can just be me being superstitious.(1/1/13) It seems that the chances of winning gold from the slot have gotten lower. Not sure if this assumption is wrong, or if it's based on player level or total gold already obtained. I usually log in every morning to get my 5 gold. Not sure but on days when I seem to be winning small prizes considerably less(measly items and red cherries that are worth approximately 2 g's), there seems to be a much higher chance of winning gold. 

Bonus Missions
 After you complete 3 missions you get a bonus mission. That bonus mission is dropped off by a supply chopper on the world map. It will look like a care packaged being dropped off and parachuted onto the ground/city.  I believe these mission's difficulty are set to normal. Once completed, you get an item set of items of the same name.


The Arena (Waves)
Like I said, if fighting zombie waves is your thing Dead Trigger has that too. The Arena has 4 maps.
Bloody Subway, Haunted Graveyard, Stadium of the Dead, and Bloody XMAS. It costs arena entries to enter a wave game/arena. The map Stadium of Dead is only available in The Arena. You can only enter 3 times a day upon opening up the app. Of course, each wave gets harder than the last. And the Arena's increase in difficulty as you rank up. Leveling up in the game is called Rank up. I haven't tested out this portion of the smart phone application more than 5 times yet. After the end of the year updates (1.7) in 2012, Arena entries became unlimited.


Guns 
Pistols:Walther P99, Colt 1911, Alien Gun (reminds me of the Ray Gun from the Black Ops Games.) I head the alien weapon is lousy though.

Submachine Guns: Scorpion, Project 90, Uzi

Rifles: Colt M4, Winchester, Enfield 303, AK 47

Shotguns: RMGT 870, Lupara, KSG, Striker (My Favorite until late game pre rank 43), RMGT Tactics(reloading manually loads 6 but still counts as 8 shells)

Machine Guns: Minigun, Lewis, Bren (My 2nd Favorite until I got the minigun)

Melee/Others: Chainsaw T-800(when paused you can still hear the motor running), Brain-Mill, Crossbow, Grenade Launcher(easily became my favorite weapon).


Healing Items++
There are a variety of powerups and items in the store. To be honest I have not bought any items besides the healing items. I save up the other items from bonus missions and bonus rewards and casinos. Health items include:
-Bandage - White packet that Heals a little. (costs for $300 for 4)
-Medkit - Heals to full health (Costs $500 for 2)
-Revive Kit - Revives you upon death and destroys surrounding enemies. (costs $2000 for 2)


Powerup Items
These are expensive and you probably won't be buying them without using real world moolah. Once obtained, they can by used unlimited amount of times. I haven't gotten enough gold to purchase any of them.
-Money Booster- Greatly increases the amount of money you get from completing missions (Cost:400 Gold)
-Speed Booster- Increases your walking speed by 25%. (Cost:250 gold)
-Damage Booster- Increases damage output a good amount. (Cost:450 Gold)
-Head Flator X1- Inflates zombies heads for deal easier damage and headshots.(Cost: 199 Gold)

Other Items (1 Time Use)
All the items are costly. The good news is that Dead Trigger lets you obtain these items as rewards from daily missions and reward missions and the casino in addition to buying them with money.
I haven't used any of these items. May update in the future if I ever do try them out.
Frag Grenade (cost $1000 for 2)
Bait Grenade (cost $750 for 2) - not sure why this costs less than a grenade when it's a grenade with a special better improved feature. Maybe it does less damage and is rated down for losing the ability to roll longer distances to attack zombies.
Mine (cost $500 for 4)
Bait (Costs $300 for 2)
Turret (Costs $1500 for 2)
Blade Cutter - Cuts legs, making zombies crawl. Explodes when health is gone. Explosion has no effect.
Laser Turret - (Costs 9 Gold for 3) Explodes when health is gone. Explosion kills zombies.
Laser Cutter - (Comes in 2's and costs $1500) Improved Blade Cutter. Kills instead of just cutting off legs. Explodes when health is gone. Explosion kills zombies.

Character Upgrades
Weapon Slot - You may buy up to three of these.
Item Slot - You may buy up to 3 of these. 
Ammo Supply - You may buy up to 2 of these, each increasing your total ammo by 25%. Clips also hold more than before too.
Autoheal Kit - Slowly regenerate more than 1 bar but less than 2 bars of health per 12 seconds. (Extremely important and helpful at higher levels if you're like me and not pro)
Improved Radar - Your radar can now see up to 15M. What the game doesn't tell you for comparison is that your beginning radar sees up to 10 Meters.
Additional Health - Increase your health by 20, or 2 bars. 3 of these items may be purchased.


Xperia Play Optimized?
   Although the app description claims that "The game was not tested on Sony Ericsson devices", the hardware controls of the Play are compatible. Not only that, they are very compatible. Free up space on your screen and view the game. Dead Trigger has brought back some life into the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play. Thank You. You get to use R Trigger for shooting and the Left Trigger for Zooming(iron sight). The touchpads work like that of a laptop (better than mimicking a joystick like on Black Ops Zombies app). Walking is also better with DT than BOZ. Speaking of the device, my device stopped working after lots of Dead Triggering. Luckily on a rare occassion that I saved my progress on a "cloud" feature for an app(Go to New Hope then login by choosing name and pw then save or load data), it proved useful. I was able to continue my profile on another device, and another.



There are a 2 Xperia Play glitches with this game however. First, once in a while the camera/character turns to a really odd angle really fast like in a flash. The turn is a twitch much quicker than my sensitivity would allow me to voluntarily do.  Most of the time I'm not close to zombies anyways so I can adjust to where I am facing and resume what I was doing (by letting go of the left touchpad and trying to continue to play as usual). A bit frustrating when zombies are closely chasing you though. Second, there is an Xperia Play effect where if you are holding down the trigger button the moment you beat the mission and it enters slow motion, there is a good chance your weapons will keep shooting during the slow motion scene if you let go of the button. During the slow motion effect at the end of a game, your guns fire rate actually speeds up and keeps shooting even while your character is involuntarily reloading and the weapon has no ammo. Blood will still splatter slow. It's pretty cool. I thought this effect was normal until I noticed it didn't happen on the Samsung Galaxy S II  and this effect wasn't mentioned in Dead Trigger Wikia. These glitches aren't useful, but yeah. (update 12/12/12) I've tested this by using the minigun only the last couple seconds and activating the glitch. At the results summary screen the minigun shows up as my favorite weapon of that round. I'm assuming the accuracy and other stats are still calculated during the slow motion sequence.)

Tips and Trivia and Hypotheses and Hints:
-When a zombie must climb to get to you, if you shoot it's legs it won't be able to climb and it will die after a while.
-The Remington 870 cannot be upgraded or modded ingame to become the RMGT Tactics. I don't know anything about guns and thought it might work and tested it.
-When you shoot off a limb of a zombie, there is a slight moment when zombie becomes harder to kill when it falls to the floor. (taking off a limb may increase the time and effort required to kill them)
-Headshots seem to become less possible as zombies are ducking through a gate slowly.
-Sometimes when a zombie is starting to climb over an object such as a road block or window and you shoot it, it will disrupt it's climbing animation and cause it to slide through the object. The zombie will no longer need to climb and will actually be closer to you in less amount of time.
-This is one of those rare big games that are/were updated on Android OS before iOS.(not a lot sooner and might not be a big deal).
-Although the world Map looks detailed, pinching and zooming isn't available(not important).
-Special shots include Headshot, Limb out(arms), Leg out, and Carnage(most likely when your gun does a lot more damage than the zombie can handle according to your rank). I only got Carnage for a short period of time after purchasing a weapon or one of my upgrades until I got the minigun to its maximum level. 
-After a zombie bites you(your hand), if you still have health left you may continue playing without having to worry about ever turning into a zombie.
-Cheat: By saving at New Hope, you also save your casino chips. If you aren't satisfied with what you got for the casino, you can reload your profile from the cloud data and retry. I use this almost every day. Some days don't get anything after a few tries though. This might be a build in cheat to reward dedicated players who are willing to put in the time and effort to achieve gold this way. This is my main strategy of obtaining gold. Another part of my strategy is to make purchases when I get one time offers (to purchase guns at a much lower price than usual). These are 75% off. However I made sure I kept enough around to purchase what I really needed (minigun and Health Regeneration) so I skipped some offers. I don't know if these are random or not. I thought they might come back but they don't. For making money tried to get carnage with the minigun as much as possible and collect cases of money. Sometimes one case of money will be available in a level (often become accessable after new areas of the map are unlocked after a set time)

Some possible problems/glitches or minor defects
According to Dead Trigger Wiki, many of the shop items don't look as cool ingame as their photos. This in understandable somewhat because the pictures do look cool, but the rest of the game is so top notch that you might not expect something like this to happen on such a big scale(still a minor thing). There are other more useful glitches available. I'll just refer you to the Dead Trigger Wiki. I mention the site again because that's where I got a lot of clarification and information from. Highly recommended visitation spot if you are into the game.


Madfinger Games has done it again with Dead Trigger. This isn't the first game they've made that has gotten great reviews. Shadowgun and Samurai and Samurai II:Vengeance has also been critically acclaimed. Their posters can be seen below (and on the Bren weapon) in Dead Trigger. It's probably a combination of advertising and boasting. I don't blame Madfingers for doing so. If I was part of a few great games and could brag I would too. They can all be found on Google Play and the iOS store, all with great ratings. I haven't used most of the items and weapons. How about you go test them yourselves? It's definitely one of my favorite games.




 I discussed a few of the updates here. http://www.gametrender.net/2013/01/dead-trigger-updates-are-like-free-dlcs.html

Enjoy

Friday 19 October 2012

Why you shouldn't buy a second hand iPod

Igaming is great until it all starts to go wrong. Unfortunately while an older iPhone or Ipod might seem like a an Ebay gaming bargain there are some inherent problems. 

Most new apps are compatible with all devices. The entire list is virtually endless but a good indicator is by going on to the Appstore, there in the left hand margin you'll find
which devices the App is compatible with . Generally being an iPad gamer I find that apps that have been specifically designed for the iPhone or iPod just scale up to the larger
resolution (in the bottom right of the app a small button marked 2x scales the app up).


One of the concerns for many gamers who have older iDevices is that the OS is no longer
supported by many apps. New apps tend to be designed with the latest OS in mind, so for example my iPod Touch 3rd gen is severely limited in the new apps and games that can be
played on it. This rampant updating of the Apple OS quickly makes older Apple devices redundant for gaming purposes. Just try playing Infinity Blade 2 on even a cracked iPad 1 and you'll see what I mean.

Thursday 18 October 2012

Mobile friendly gloves

iGloves? Touch Screen Gloves to use with
any mobile device.
Sitting out in the mid autumn cold seemed appropriate to write a review for this winter's must have accessory for Smartphone owners: Conductive gloves that can be used with any capacitive screened device. Simply called "Touch Screen Gloves" or iPhone Smart gloves

Unfortunately with our current screen technology we are reliant upon the electrically conductive properties of our digits to use our screens. Unlike less premium resistive screens which work according to pressure a mobile devices capacitive screen is lightning fast and can also pick up multiple digit inputs. So far so good; but believe it or not mobile performance is affected by the weather. That's because when your hands are so numb from the cold that you can't even face taking them out of your pocket; you can imagine how many phone calls are simply ignored because cold weather; personal comfort and modern mobiles don't make an easy alliance! 

Unfortunately ordinary gloves while fantastic at keeping the cold out also render our fingers conductive properties unusable when it comes to operating our otherwise fantastic devices. With a simple yet elegant solution Touch Screen gloves not only fight off the cold but also make cold weather mobile use feasible. The gloves thickness is enough to fight off most reasonable snaps of cold weather and also come with the convenience of being in a one size fits all variety. A sensible cybercentric black colour is the only hue they come in; so convenience rather than fashion is clearly the aim. 

Close up of the magic
mesh that makes them work on any
mobile screen
The mobile friendly gloves will work with all mobile devices screens thanks to hidden filaments within the gloves fingertips. The three important considerations that make this capacitive screen friendly device a recommended mobile friendly product are they mobile friendly, you can use the gloves with any mobile device and not worry about damaging your screen, they're washable and warm!
And they'd also make a great mobile lovers funny stocking filler.

Wednesday 17 October 2012

Mobile Casino Gaming Apps

Update: Mobile casino gaming apps
Is there a mobile casino app that is compatible with my mobile device? The answer to this is now probably, yes. The online casino industry revolutionised the way we play games on our mobile, but initially games were struggling with compatibility issues and rendering incorrectly on different devices. Online casinos have had a few tricks up their sleeves recently, and the latest releases and high profile games are now readily available and compatible with most brands and OS.


What are the different options for mobile games? Apps have replaced the traditional downloadable option in the mobile sphere and compatible apps for all devices are found across the web. Certain sites also offer browser based games that render correctly on mobile devices, but these are still limited and look to improve only over time. A site like JackpotCity Online Casino is an established and trusted brand and offers players a choice of apps that suit different devices and OS options. These options are becoming more popular with the bigger sites as developers are pushing out compatible versions of the best games to keep up with demand.


The most popular slots games like Tomb Raider and Thunderstruck have made the successful transition to being available as apps, as well as a host of additional slots, blackjack, roulette and other casino-style entertainment. Thanks to software developers like Microgaming who use the mobile Spin3 technology to power mobile games, you can enjoy user-friendly navigation and functionality on most mobile devices.


Are the games compatible with all mobile devices? The answer to this is yes, the improved technology and the switch by Apple to HTML 5 means that just about any mobile device is compatible with the games on offer. The casinos stipulate the different compatibility options and the user can then choose what their preferred device will be. Find apps compatible with Apple products such as the iPhone and iPad, most tablets include the Samsung Galaxy and smart phones that include Nokia and Blackberry. Operating systems posed the biggest challenge for developers, but games can now be easily found for both the Android and Apple OS.
The apps all work really well and come highly recommended; and with the huge demand for this type of gaming it can only grow and improve to a player’s advantage.

Tuesday 16 October 2012

Ian Livingstone's Fighting Fantasy now on Appstore


Fighting Fantasy fans rejoice, Ian Livingstone's "Blood of the Zombies" is finally available for IPad and IPhone. Ian Livingstone and developer Tin Man Games new ios Fighting Fantasy app is called Blood of the Zombies, a UK and USA release is imminent with the RPG book app only out in New Zealand for now. Blood of the Zombies Storyline In this Fighting Fantasy adventure for iPhone and iPad, you choose your own adventure to enable you to defeat Gingrich Yurr and his army of flesh-eating zombies. Choose the wrong path and Zombiedom awaits you! Is the Fighting Fantasy IOS app better than the books? It's a question of whether you prefer print books over ebooks but the digital version of Blood of the Zombies will give you access to new features like new death scenes, alternative artwork, and Game Center-powered achievements.

Xbox 360 Latest update: Using internet explorer and more

Can you surf the internet on an Xbox 360? Now you can thanks to this October's latest Xbox 360 update. Bringing overall better functionality and an easier to use layout the new 360 UI comes with a lot of tricks up its sleeve.

What are the features of the newest Xbox 360 Update?
Aside from the excitement generated by those whose only web access is via console MS has also put a lot of thought into a new Zune replacement: Xbox Music and introduced  the first 360 free-to-play game Happy Wars. Let's look at some of the pros and cons of the new update.

Best bits of latest Xbox 360 Update
An improved My Pins feature, that kets you cut out searching and browsing for the content by adding each app to a menu that pops up on the home screen just below the window that shows you what game you’ve got in your 360 at the time. Adding and removing apps is very quick, making it easy to change what you want to use.
This function works well with the new IE browser and favourite websites can be pinned too. One of the best side effects of this is speedier access to Netflix, Hulu and YouTube.

Some features we could do without

Back up emails and such like forming a new authentication system are a good idea but does slow down log in times.
Is Internet Explorer usable on Xbox 360?
The good news is that unlike the Wii and PS3 browsers it seems that more web content can be displayed by the Xbox browser with Flash Player or equivalents supported. When Smart Glass comes out it will be a great second screen to view web content.

The Internet Explorer app does work fairly well, and if you have your 360 hooked up via a wired Internet connection, it’s also quite reliable; unfortunately only available to Xbox Live Gold subscribers.

Great Pet App: Sweet Garden


Have you been looking for a pet simulation game for your android? I have, and with Sweet Garden I have found one, except its for plants instead of animals. From my point of view, that means less food to feed, and less used food to clean up. No leash or collars necessary. No dog license, or shots. You get the idea...well, sort of. You can still feed it (soil and water), music, pet it to make it more comfortable, and put a pot around its roots. There is so much more to the app than that. This app is a combination of multiple apps to support the main app. Hack and slash weeds around it (Fruit Ninja) and Whack a mole. By checking up on your plant, you can maintain it's health and watch it grow. It has a lot in similarity with those virtual pet games like Tamagotchi back in the days. However, the 2D Graphics are very up to date compared to those things. If you find that you might not have time for your pet, there's an option to slow down the app. Oh and your pet is referred to as a PPU in the app. Choose from a dozen types of PPU's to raise. The app is FREE and Fun.


With your Sweet Garden app you need to use a widget. The widget shows your plant in it's current phase of growth. The widget may even display your battery life. You may choose from a mini widget(size of an app icon) to put on a homescreen or a Full sized widget that will an area of 2 icons by 2 icons. It seems you can put two icons on a home screen, but only one of the widgets will have a plant. Still, it's something I've never seen before for an app. And it's appropriate and cool.

There are four kinds of tools to use in managing your plant. Each tool has a status bar/icon on the top right of the screen when selected. When that tool is used, this bar depletes. Tap on the icon and choose from a selection of in-game purchases with game currency replenish the bar.






 Watering your plant is the most frequent responsibility you have with your plant, just like in real life. Unlike in reality however you don't have to give it soil. Maybe someone does this for you already, but you may replace the soil to speed up your plants growth rate. Give it water by using the bucket tool, then taping or touching an area above your plant. You don't directly get points for watering your plant unless you give your pet just the right amount of water, which is tricky and only gives you a few SS. SS stands for Silver Seeds and are one of the two currencies in the game. Gold Seeds (GS) are rarer, like the gold currencies commonly found in apps.


If there are bugs around, get a can and spray non poisonous insecticides by tapping on the insects. Sometimes it will take more than just instant contact to kill a critter. They will drop points upon their destruction. Make sure to tap the points to collect them.


Surrounding weeds will steal water and nutrients from your plant. Take care of these by using the trimmer/scissor tool. Once the tool is selected, hack and slash the unwanted leachers. It will take more than one cut to get rid of each plant. When you clear away a weed, it will drop some SS points too.


Keep your pet's area clean. Do this by using the rag tool and wiping the screen. The tutorial isn't very fluid. It let me waste my cleaning rag trying to clean the screen. At that time I didn't know using the rag would use up the rags energy bar. There is an inapp game manual for the app that can be accessed from the apps main menu. It's located in the top left of the screen. During the game, when you can see your plant without entering any sub-menu's, a button in that same location can be pressed and it will show you an overview explanation of the in game display screen telling the player what the onsceen icons means. Here is what it looks like as it is very helpful.


There are three items that you can buy in store to help your PPU grow. These are activated on your current pet once you purchase them.

- Soil - Makes the plant grow faster (Green bar indicates growth towards being fully grown)

- Medicine - restores the plants health towards full health. (health bar indicated with cross)

- Music - Pet your pet after buying to increase your pets happiness. (there is a happiness bar with a heart)

Every 2 Hours it will be time for you to collect seeds. There is a seed bar indicated with a sun. When that bar is full, a sun will be in the sky on the left. Click it and seeds will appear. The healthier and happier your plant, the more seeds it will produce and the better your chances are at getting Gold seeds. Make sure to increase your chances before clicking the sun.


Sweet Garden has some sweet Settings. The settings are explained to you upon toggle. This way you know what you just did and can quickly undoing without harm.
-Turn off background music.
-Turn off other sounds.
-Change the whether or not the game vibrates.
-There is a very convenient sleep mode to slow down the dangers and growth of your plant while you are away for sleeping. I am not sure what notifications are toggled on and off by the notification option from the settings. Your PPU will notify you if there are groups of bugs or weeds, if it's thirsty, or if it's ready to give you seeds via the Sun icon.
-Battery status in the widget,
-Animation,  (Not sure what animations are turned off)
-Pet Dialogue,
-and whether Sweet Garden app is on or not. (That's what it says, but I don't fully understand what this means.)

 Mini Games
I only have one minigame (out of 2, more is suppose to be coming soon) available because it's unlocked from the start. A second minigame will become available upon unlocking the second background, the desert. Wack-A-Mole is much like the classic game except with some welcomed updates. Moles come out of more than 10 locations.  Missing a whack with a hammer, or letting a mole submerge will deplete your progress bar. The progress bar is on the top center of the page. The mini game ends when the progress bar is gone. There are more than two types of moles.
-Regular Brown moles which require one hit to get rid of
-Yellow construction hat moles which take two hits to disappear.
-Black construction hat moles take 3 hits to demolish.
- Dirty Muddy Moles -  Will get mud on your screen if you smack them.


There's another creature that is in this game. They are cute little white bunny rabbits. Do not hit these Rabits as they will deplete your progress bar by more than 60% of the whole bar. For some reason their eyes look exactly like a moles eyes when peeping out of a burrow. Once you get to about 100 whacks, the game gets difficult. Whacks don't directly transfer into amount of SS received. You get less SS than successful whacks done. Not every set of eyes that pop out, will have the animal pop up. It may just go away. Although there is no pause button, pressing "return" on your android device will pause it. Exiting mid game will not get you any SS.

Minor suggestions for further updates. First, the game should do better job of explaining some of the terms like SS and GS. I don't know what punishing the plant accomplishes. And the instructions say rub/pet when the player hears the music buff, however I can pet it as long as the music purchased is playing and that will make the plant happier. The app could be made so the player cannot make errors or use up tools more than necessary for the tutorial. Explain what the Shovel Menu is(I made the name up, because I don't know what it's called). From the main menu there is a Shovel icon on the upper right hand corner of the screen. It takes you to a Shovel Menu. In here you may change the plant you want to work on by clicking on the red icon, located on the bottom of the screen 2nd most to the left, then clicking the Shovel. After selecting your seed you can click the shovel on the bottom to have it selected as the plant to grow during the app. Only this plant will grow/need help, so I don't see why the app lets you have more than one widget(and without a warning). If you already have a seed, don't plant another one. Each time you plant a seed it costs 1000 SS. Upon entering the Shovel menu, a selection of new seeds will pop up. Ignore this until you are ready to plant another plant. Just go click on other icons on the bottom of the screen or "return" to the main menu. Also EVERY TIME you exit the manual from the main menu, the app tells/reminds you that you need  a widget to play/run the app (kinda annoying after a few times). Maybe have the plant giggle when petted(although that may sound a little creepy).Maybe add a high score to the Mole minigame. All in all a lot of the user interface is friendly and/or self explanatory like the settings button. And there are some language barriers so it's understandable to have some explanation problems. For a app that's not originally in English, the app gets almost all of it's English correct.





Some Final Words As a Digimon fan I highly welcome and recommend this app.  It's FREE and brought to you by Korean developers at Toast. So far I've only gotten my first plant to about 80% of full grown after 24 hours. I'm not sure what the "check if there are any gifts on the server" does, or if it ever has gifts. I'm still on the first background (with one star). Time restraints on my Fiverr Gig forces me to publish this article review before completion.  I may update this article upon further testing. Sweet Garden takes classic games and combines them in a playable smartphone application with modern graphics and great playability.



Have Fun!