Where's My Water with Phineas and Ferb character Style(or vice versa)

"Where's My Water" has become an extremely popular smartphone application. By trying it out the reasons become clear why. Swampy  the alligator needs water in his bathtub, and you must find a way to deliver water to him. This isn't a simple mediocre game. It's graphics and physics are an extremely smooth and colorful flash type of animation. The developer is Disney. I'm sure you've heard of them. They also put some life in Kingdom Hearts cut scenes in 3D on the older PS2. The game play of Where's My Water is simple and easy, but that doesn't mean that the puzzles always are. To get rid of sand in specific location, tough it. The creative levels hardly uses recycled sprites, and that's already a pretty amazing feat by itself. Although at first I thought this was another version of the old Pipe Drain games, this is clearly something more. The free version of "Where's My Water" comes with 20 exclusive levels not in the full version. The full version of "Where's My Water" according to the Google Play post has "3 STORIES — 3 SEPARATE GAMES — MORE THAN 400 TOTAL PUZZLES — FREE UPDATES!" And only for $.99. That's almost free (close enough).

Phineas and Ferb have also become quite popular as well. I've only seen about one of the Disney episodes so I cannot say whether or not I am a fan yet. I am however a fan of it's theme song performers Bowling for Soup. Now back to business or smartphone apps. Both Swampy and Perry (the cool looking secret agent pet platypus) have teamed up, probably with some pressure from their Disney creators. Perry wasn't just thrown into a "Where's My Water" game tub and quickly sold off as another game. No, he gets his own cool secret spy type of tub complete with digital sound effects. Upon completion of a level, his tub getting the required amount of water, Perry dives into a secret passageway type of hole. The app description indicates these entrances lead to O.W.C.A. which stands for "Organization Without a Cool Acronym". What an ironic and cool name. I don't believe Agent P shows frustration as he waits for water the way Swampy does. I can't tell the difference between alligators and crocodiles, especially in cartoon form.

"Where's My Perry" has a $1 edition and a free version. Note, the free stages are already included in Where's My Holidays(discussed below). I believe there are a few differences though between the free version of Where's My Perry and the levels in Holidays.
 1)Someone contacting Perry for assistance, Major Monogram, his superior, via text and voice.
2) The bad guy of the show, Dr. Doofenshmirtz, occasionally taunting Perry and responding to Perry's success.
3) An ending video with characters from the show.
Notice:The full version has over 80 levels.

"Where's My Holiday" is an application that brings them both together for 12 exclusive playable levels for free in this demo. That way you won't be repeating them if you do get pressured into buying the full versions of these great creations. The FREE levels aren't short and simple puzzles for you to complete in a matter of minutes. They are challenging, fun, and rewarding to play by themselves. What a tempting free gift they are. I know I'm using that F word a lot in this article but that's what's really cool about this group of apps. All these smartphone apps are downloadable on iTunes for iOS and Google Play for Android OS. One feature it claims is "3 brand new levels to play every week – for FREE". If you haven't played before somehow, these will get you interested in the full versions.
Trivia: The app's icon in the app section is named "Holiday". That's understandable as opposed to always having to say "Where's my _____".

Here's a hint, remember that water has more than 1 form and the games knows that. There's steam(vapor/gas), liquid, and solid ice form. Whether or not they wanted to come together, these two groups have made some awesome looking games.


Enjoy

Emulation on IPad

If you want to use emulation on IPad for old arcade rooms,SNES rooms and more you're going to need to find a good emulator for IOS. Those of you on the know will have heard of MAME which basically acts as an emu for all IOS devices. When the emulator slipped through the net a while back it wasn't long before Apple, who doesn't like this type of thing, soon pulled it from the AppStore. Well guess what MAME has resurfaced in an altered but essentially the same form.

How to use emus on IPad

The Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator (MAME) is back on the App Store as bundled content in 

retro arcade shooter Gridlee, designed to run on arcade cabinets back in the '80s.

The Gridlee ROM has been released by  the game's developer Videa (it never made it to the arcades) 

If you've got a ROM, you're going to need an emulator to run it. Enter the MAME4iOS Reloaded project, Seleuco's iPhone- and iPad-friendly emulator, which just so happens to come bundled with the Gridlee app.

Naturally, as soon as gamers caught wind of the Gridlee's not-so-secret bonus content, they set about trying to use the MAME4iOS software to get other ROMs to run on their iOS devices.

Sure enough, within hours of Gridlee's launch Touch Arcade forummembers had located the folder housing the ROM and were reporting back with news of their retro game-loading successes.

Jogging my MAMEory

Ruggedised Military Servers

Bravo to Sony for planning for their latest mobile to be waterproof, in this day and age with our gadgets and mobiles constantly with us we expect a bit of ruggednesss to them. NCS Technologies new server, just like the waterproof smartphone, caught our eye as it really exemplifies what we can expect our gadgets, tools and machines to do. It's certainly not going to be mounted in standsandmounts dvd cabinets  as the Bunker XRV-5241 is designed for military use and first responders that are needing to deploy to combat  zones and other areas of danger. It can withstand drops, severe temperatures and can be deployed via parachute too! It can be used on trucks and ships in combat situations and is really a new level of tough server for combat needs. Beat that Sony!

jOBS scene wrong

The jOBS movie is set to release later this year retelling the story of Steve Jobs and is already starting to attract controversy. It's surely only the tech scene that can can have such immediate ramifications throughout the net. In this case the first released scene from the movie has already taken a blow from someone claiming to be Steve Wozniak who describes the released Woz and Steve scene as:
"Not close...we never had such interactions and roles...I'm not even sure what it's getting at...personalities are very wrong although mine is closer...don't forget that my purpose was inspired by the values of the Homebrew Computer Club along with ideas of the value of such machines and Steve J wasn't around and didn't attend the club so he was the one learning about such social impact of the future."

If jOBS first critic really is Wozniak we can only say that the indie outfit behind the movie needs to check their research.

More 4G Quicker for USA?

The FCC is pushing for a Broadband Acceleration Initiative to expand Cell Networks. The FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski taking time out from relaxing under his Hayward Led Pool lights is putting the importance of expanding mobile networks right up there with expanding USA's roads and bridges infrastructure. Citing precedents like increasing network capacity for events like the Olympics and SuperBowl the legislation that has previously stalled efforts to raise temporary cell towers is undergoing a massive overhaul.
In current legislation and paperwork processes request to modify and install base stations take too long to review, this process will be streamlined to give networks the confidence to expand their infrastructure much more quickly.

Glass Foundry is go

So what have we learned from Glass Foundry, the recently held Google Glass Hackathon that we covered a while back?

Unfortunately not much as there are some very strong NDA agreements in place to stop Google Glass Developers sharing any details with the general public. The only facts that have come out as semi-concrete is that users have been told to take caution when walking and not to drive with their headsets. This might suggest that Google Glass Developers could have test rigs available shortly. However don't expect many leaked actual facts or pictures if the Glass developers want to keep their developer accounts.

Revitalizing Citizen Science

If we had a half dollar for every time that the internet planned to revolutionize the way that we go about our daily live's we'd certainly be up there with the other tech millionaires. In some ways in some very specialized niches the internet is changing some things and opening up doors that we never knew existed. One of the exciting developments for archaeologists for example is satellite archaeology where Google Earth has become instrumental in detecting buried artifacts , for those prepared to spend the time to scrutinize the world from satellite pictures.

Another interesting area that hasn't really been covered very much by the media in recent years is internet assisted space exploration as embodied by programs like SETI a few years ago. A new technology emerging in this area is the Planet Hunters website, which uses NASA's epler telescope to facilitate citizen science in finding new stars. Something worth exploring if you're interested in revitalizing internet assisted space exploration.

The future of Android Gaming

What is Android as a gaming platform? The simple touchscreen games of its past and present based on the successful iPhone model (we're surprised that Apple doesn't have a patent for touchscreen gaming!) are only a little bit of what it does as a platform. New developments are particularly suited to the open source OS and developers and thinkers are always coming up with new ideas to bolt on to the Android OS and make it a console competitor. So what is it? A poor man's console, a new way of gaming or the future of touchscreen gaming? We'll let the latest ideas for Android gaming speak for themselves...

The Xperia Play in it's short lived glory was exactly what every gamer wanted. And I was particularly in love with it myself with not only its dedicated controller bu also ability to emulate PSN games, SNES games and more. It's only a pity that build quality wasn't great (mine succumbed to water damage, just from ambient moisture) and the handsets specs were lacklustre even when it was first released. Will there be an Xperia Play 2-I hope.

The Tegra chip is changing the way we see mobile gaming. Nvidia has seen the popularity of Android as a gaming platform and has built the superchips to match. Console quality games become very possible with a Tegra toting device, but we're still left with the smaller touchscreen limits-even Project Shield using a powerful tegra chip in an Nvidia branded Android dedicated gaming handheld could be priced out by its limitations. Those limitations are the same as the PSP Vita-powerful specs, but does my pocket have room for a 5 inch phone and a dedicated gaming handheld-probably not.

Which brings us to Ouya/ Is it going to compete with the next generation of consoles? Probably not too, but it brings the power of Android to the living room screen with a dedicated and ever refining controller that also has limited touchscreen capabilities. If the console really lives up to it's ability to be upgraded this Ouya could certainly be the future of Android gaming.

Competitive Online Gaming by Sony

If you're a competitive gamer then it will be big news to you that Sony Online Entertainment and Major League Gaming have teamed up to turn online game PlanetSide 2 into 2013's biggest e-sport competition. Already only 2 months into its life PlanetSide 2 has over 3 million players. It's also a very respectable nod to the game's quality that renowned esport broker MLG is endorsing the new franchise.

Huge numbers of players will be able to play the esport as any single arena (continent) can support up to 2000 players in the battle for resources. Commentators suggest that preliminary rounds could have as many as hundreds of people -perhaps 600 to 700 competing. All you e-sportsman with your geekdom has never been so lucrative!This is certainly a new level to egaming and just goes to show how popular esports are becoming.

Latest iPad 5 Rumors

The iPad and its incarnations are always on the technology news front and there seems to be a new one coming out every couple of months. Site iLounge claims to have the latest information on the iPad 5 but their rumor of a late March release has been downgraded to an Autumn release.

Other information that they claim to have is that the iPad 5 bezel will be virtually non-existent with just enough room on the border for the home button and camera. Size wise the screen will be the 9.7 inch we're used to but left and right bezels will be neglible. They claim that the iPad 5 will be smaller in every dimension and especially thinner.

Every time a new iPad 5 rumor surfaces we wince, but iLounge seems to be in the now and is often quoyed by reliable sources so let's see if the info is true when the time comes.

Superior text to speech bought by Amazon

Amazon is not one to sit back and let the opposition get away from them. They're still acquiring other assets to bolster up their portfolio and the latest is Ivona Software.

Ivona is responsible for the text to speech technology that is used on Kindle Fire tablets -features include "Text to Speech", "Voice Guide" and "Explore by Touch". Their technology is used by thousands of devs and businesses worldwide and is not simply dual diagnosis treatment centers for text/voice output but a progressively R and D led concern.

They are regarded as the industry's leading text to speech quality when it comes to voice quality, access and how uncannily accurate their software is. At the moment IVONA has 17 languages which are supported with 44 voices and is a substantial acquisition for Amazon.

When will my Pebble Watch be delivered?

The Pebble Watch is on its way for those lucky enough to have ordered one or been charitable enough to have helped the  Kickstarter campaign.

When can I buy a Pebble Watch?

The e-ink using mobile device augmenting watch will reach a maximum factory capacity run of 2400 watches a day. If the watch takes off, as we expect of to do, hopefully production concerns will be shunted aside as it upgrades to a larger factory. The Android Pebble App is also now available meaning that supported apps and virtual watch faces should soon be making their way to your wrists.

At the moment manufacturing delays mean that Pebble production line is sticking to the most popular black colour scheme and so as to when the other colours will be available is anyone's guess at the moment.

Become an app developer for free

Hands up if you've heard of Stanford University, now keep your hand up in the air if you want to learn how to program for iOS 6. Now take both of those hands and thrust them gleefully in the air in celebration as through the iTunes U program you're going to be able to learn to do so for free!

Stanford School of Engineering is offering the free course that will run from January 22 to March 28 and needs to be enrolled on by Feb1. In Stanford U's free app development course you'll learn such topics as tools and APIs needed to dev for IPad and IPhone, user interface designs, object orientated designs and more.

The page to visit to enrol in this free course is Stanford's Coding Together: Developing Apps for IPhone and IPad and can be found on iTunes U. Don't miss out as this could be your best chance at becoming an app developer. and quit your day job as a business startup lawyer raleigh nc

The iShoe

The iShoe

No,really it does exist, or soon will if Apple follows through with their latest patent that, to paraphrase, is a detector for sensing when a shoe wears out. Perhaps not such a strange concept as detectors which could include, according to the patent, accelerometers and pressure sensors, could be used to not only measure activity but also to tell professionals like athletes when their shoes need replacing.

Apple's delving into footwear and the mass market of training uses for their products is most exemplified in the Nike + IPod sensor, so this patent might not be as out of left field as it seems. The upcoming iWatch concept would work very well in conjunction with the iShoe ( I'm sure Apple will come up with a snappier name than that) and athletes and those into training can only wait and see if it makes it into production.

Sony Network Hacking Aftermath

Sony loses legal battle at last. If you’re still mad over the network hacking debacle of April 2011 and Sony’s “We’re sorry” package wasn’t good enough for you then you’ll be pleased to now that the saga continues. In Britain they have just lost their legal battle against The Information Commissioner’s Office who has ruled that if Sony had employed  more recent software then the hacking could have been prevented. Saving Sony £100 million and stopping hackers obtaining names, addresses, emails and credit card details.
The 250 thousand pound fine is naturally a drop in the ocean to Sony who is still a wholesale printer for money, but still a sting to their reputation. Naturally they are going to appeal.

Temple Run 2 Secrets,hints and tips

Temple Run 2 is upon us -and now available for Android too-what little we know about becoming successful at the endless running coin-a-thon is now written down to help you to get the best TempleRun2 score with these hints, tips and secrets
Use your Special Power
Each of the three unlockable characters has a special power that you can activate multiple times . Guy's is naturally the weakest Temple Run2 special power but the other characters can give you a massive score boost. An awesome new feature is that once the powers are unlocked you can trade them between characters.

Finding and using the best Temple Run 2 Multiplier
it's no secret that using the multiplier is your best bet for getting a high score. Each one you do boosts your multiplier by one. "So definitely focus on getting those done if you want to score really high," says the developer.  You should look to Focus on coin and multiplier upgrades first. Unfortunately the  Coin magnet doesn't double like in Temple Run 1, here you have to pay for the privilege.
 Don't forget your abilities
Maxing out your abilities gives you more coins, more energy, and durability. These are all important when it comes to a long run, which, naturally, produces more points. Your multiplier can be boosted by a few points with abilities, too. 
Just Run
Be like a sportsman in your running, don't think about what you're doing just do it. Hypnotherapists must be having a field day with fast twitch repetitive action games like these as it is well known that repeated activity puts you in a trance like state-which is the best gaming zone-especially for games like TR2!
Get Your Coins Up
Coins buy stuff so remember that your  Coin Values ability is important-which means that you need to head to the Coin Magnet as fast as you can.

Boost Yourself
The easiest run is the one you don't even have to worry about. "Using the Boost power and Head Starts at the beginning of the game can also help you safely move forward without having to worry about making turns or avoiding obstacles," is a great tip straight from the developer.
The Biggest Temple Run 2 Secret.
Power ups and abilities can complement each other and make for some very powerful combinations such as the character’s power-up ability is set to boost combined with the coin magnet icon is grabbed allowing you to concentrate on dodging obstacles instead of tilting the game screen to get coins. Reach the distance set by the coin value ability and coins multiply astronomically.

Choosing the best Temple Run 2 Ability

Shield Duration:  lasts for about 30 seconds invest coins to increase the time.
Coin Value After a certain distance has been reached, each coin’s value will be tripled . If you spend coins on improving the coin value ability you'll need less distance to get this bonus.
 Coin Magnet Like Shield Duration, this feature comes in very handy for players simply focusing in on dodging obstacles instead of money grabbing.
Is this the most powerful Temple Run 2 Combination?
Paired with Boost and Coin Value, this combination can be very powerful when activated by a combination of power-ups that appear in the game.

 Boost Distance : Each notch adds 200 metres and is great when used in combination with the coin value ability to get quick cash.

Which TempleRun2 ability should be upgraded first?
 Pickup Spawn: Arguably you should upgrade this Temple Run 2 Ability first. Random power ups occur 1 out of ten times at the start but this  improves by about 7% per notch of the pick up spawn ability purchased. 

Power Meter This feature is very handy for players often making use of self-activated power-ups. It allows for a faster charge-up.
 Save Me Dying often? Gems don't appear very often and this ability uses them rapidly. Expect to spend about four hours in the game to collect 50 emerald pieces.
The best time to use the Save me Dying feature is when that threshold in the Coin Value ability is reached.
 Head Start does exactly what it says and boosts you by 250m.
Score Multiplier doesn't effect the coins you gained but will boost your bragging rights by improving the score.

Ouya controller redesigned

With the Ouya launch just around the corner it's good to see that the developers are taking the warning notice seriously and have listened to Ouya Beta testers recommendations as to how the Ouya controller could be improved.

First, the D-pad on the controller is no longer a "disc" and the much more user friendly "cross" layout with greater traction and more precision is to be adopted. The thumbstick tops have been redesigned to be more grippy  and the touchpad area has better sensitivity now. The triggers have undergone a massive improvement too and are more aesthetically pleasing and more flush with the controller's surface. Even the battery compartment has been rethought to be a snigger and tighter fit with the rest of the Ouya controller's body.

The changes are not only superficial but the materials have also been swapped out in some cases for higher quality ones, it's great to see that the designers are taking on board the end consumers points making the whole project carry on its Kickstarter ethos of design by public opinion.

Don't Fix Some Things that aren't Broken (January edition)

Sigh* Sometimes new things just take a while to get used to, even if they are improvements over the old. This holds especially true for me and my opinion with cars. First impressions can't always be trusted. I try not to jump to conclusions, like I did with Microsoft Word 2010 from 2007. Lots of things were changed and those changes did not help me at all when doing hectic research essays. Some buttons were thrown and here and there and behind this new tab that confused me and took me time to find. (I often last minute work). It didn't take longer or more clicks to do the same tasks once you get used to them, but was it really necessary to move features around if it didn't actually really help or improve anything? Why the headache? This Microsoft Office issue was smaller than the ones I'm going to list as a few alterings that I gave about a year to warm up to me.

-Windows 7's Windows Media Player. (My biggest issue is that the Playlist used to be a lot more convenient to use and find.) I enjoy my visualizations. This new editions like to take you to the library where nothing pretty is to be seen. The "Now Playing" and "Playlist" were easily accessable before (at least in Windows XP) with an on screen button. With the annoying version you gotta right click and it's the first on the list, (no longer a button? Why not just make it a button?!?) I skipped Windows Vista because my desktop with XP was still working just fine. Plus I liked the change from boring gray rectangles in Pre-XP to smooth blue edges in XP was kinda epic for me.

-Windows Movie Maker Videos and music used to overlap with a small section for text in a timeline fashion. Now those animations take longer to do and I don't thing the Music could overlap. Text transitions were also worsened because they couldn't overlap each other or fade through or into each other. I could be wrong and these could be a features activated through some sort of menu. But these things used to be the default features and were there for use to use right away SMOOTH and AWESOME they were. Getting used to them was fast and natural and buttons/features placement made sense. I consider myself not too bad with the computer and those features took very little time to learn and use in the XP version of things so I blame Microsoft designers for this inconvenience.
The Rise of Windows Movie Maker grew with Youtube. In fact I think they contributed to each others growth. Youtube isn't getting smaller or worst, why are you WM Maker?

-Right Click DRAGGING items/icons in Windows Seven. While right-click dragging, the item may become undragged. Or when you let go of right click after a drag, the item drops as if it were left click. I am confident in my simple left and right clicking skills so again I blame Microsoft guys and women. This was not in issue in all my computer experience(except maybe sometimes with Apple products).You can't just right click an item if another item/file is already highlighted. You have to click to highlight or select the item you want to right click, then you can right click like previously possible in XP OS.

-USB Microphones. -with a growing population and the popularity of singing competition shows such as American Idol, X Factor, the Voice and America's Got Talent (sort of) I would expect Desktops and Laptops and all sorts of computers to have improved microphone friendliness, or at least not worst. I am researching this to see if there are common fixes. But my opinions still stand this should have been not even a problem in the first place. Further research suggests this isn't a software issue but may be due to the Rockband Mic that delays with computers. I have to mention that I never tried USB Mics on older versions of windows so this isn't a comparison. I am still looking into this matter.


I am not a professional and sort of noob compared to experts, but I do use computers frequently and casually. Some of these ticks may just be a personal preference or issue or my one desktop may be faulty. If you can confirm these problems or give fixes, I would appreciate it.



Let me know your thoughts.(especially if you agree with something so I don't feel so alone).

Garden Puzzle Lite Review

Garden Puzzle Lite comes out of the development inferno that is the Ukraine. A simple sliding block (or classic game of 'fifteens') as it is know by our ex Eastern bloc developer pals. There's only so much you can do with a sliding block puzzle, but what little Garden Puzzle for iOs does it does quite well. A chirpy nature orientated soundtrack combines with a numerically orientated game board done out with quite a realistic graphic style which makes good use of textures.

If a bit of app relaxation with a simple sliding puzzle app is on the game menu for today then please visit the AppStore to see the iTwins Garden Puzzle App.

Galaxy Note 3 Rumours

Latest rumours on the Samsung Galaxy Note 3

Display

Korea Times is reporting that the Galaxy Note 3 will feature a 6.3-inch OLED display with 1080p resolution. If this is true it remains to be seen if the public will take to a screen size that is bigger than the already large 5.5inch sported by the Note 2.

What Processor can we expect the Galaxy Note 3 to have?

The Galaxy Note 3 is rumored to have a Samsung Exynos 5 Octa 8-core processor, which Samsung claims uses 70% less battery power than comparable processors. Benchmarking site Antutu apparently clocks this at a blitzing 1.8ghz. Spammy is of course proud of their new overkill processor so we could probably expect it to make up the brains of the Galaxy S4 too.

Internal Memory

No changes are expected from the current storage: We're talking either 16Gb or 32GB of flash memory, with up to 64GB in external storage via SD slot.

What is the release Date for the Galaxy Note 3?

The Wall Street Journal citing Samsung Sources say that a first half of the year release can be expected -a very fast turn around considering many customers are still levering out their Note2's from the Samsung packaging with safety box cutters to hand. 

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