Saturday, July 13, 2013

Android Authority: App Review: Guncrafter (video)

Android Authority
Android News, Reviews, How To
App Review: Guncrafter (video)
Jul 13th 2013, 17:45, by Brad Ward

guncrafter for android review Everyone knows about Minecraft and its huge success, along with the many renditions of the concept. Rarely are those renditions any good, but a brand new game called Guncrafter seems to have a huge amount of potential here, and we’re going to give it the full review treatment. In a rush? Jump straight to the video, otherwise, stick with us as we take a closer look at the gameplay, graphics, pros, and cons of Guncrafter! It’s by no means a direct duplicate of Minecraft, as it actually does quite a few unique things. Can it rise above the array of low quality apps, though? Read on to find out!

Gameplay

Gameplay is just as you would expect. Being a simple game, the controls aren’t that difficult to grasp. In fact, there’s nothing you can’t do with a tilt of your phone, and a tap of your screen. This is especially helpful for people who hate those dreadful and complicated on-screen controls. Guncrafter_7 When your first open up the game, you’ll be brought to a menu, which is where you choose to build, battle, view awards, or simply share your progress to social networks. Aside from keeping track of your achievements, the awards button doesn’t really do anything. The share button doesn’t do much either, unless you want to share what you’re doing to your friends on Facebook or some other social network. The fun begins in build mode. In this mode, you can build up to about a dozen guns with various materials. You start with a small square, 8 bullets per clip, and wood for your materials. As you level up, you get better materials, more bullets, and larger square to build more awesome weapons. Guncrafter_2 Battle mode isn’t actually what you think it is. If you thought you were going to run around and shoot little Minecraft looking dudes, you’re wrong. In battle mode, you engage in shooting range style contests to see who can shoot the most blocks the fastest. There’s also a couple of extra modes — farming and chance. In farming, you plant flowers that you can later shoot to obtain additional money. For chance, you choose one of three black to shoot at, and then you can earn coins, plants, or nothing depending on how you shoot at them. All in all, it’s a very simple game, and it’s a lot of fun. However, due to its simplicity, it’s not going to be for everybody.

Graphics

Guncrafter is based on the same, groundbreaking graphics that powered Minecraft. That said, you can expect everything to look like a block. The bullets, the guns, objects you shoot at, and etc. Every last thing in Guncrafter is literally a block. Guncrafter_3 Don’t let the graphics fool you, though. As Minecraft proved, you can have a perfect fun and extremely popular game with graphics that look like they’re from 1985. When it comes down to it, this game is fun for its mechanics, and definitely not its looks. The game’s music was passable, at best. By that, we mean it had music, but it wasn’t anything particular good, or even relaxing like Minecraft’s. There’s not much you can ask out of Guncrafter’s music. Gun shots sound like gun shots, and there are a few addition sound effects for clicks, coins, and hitting blocks. If you’re looking for a full-fledged soundtrack, you’re going to be really disappointed.

Pros

And, here’s what we liked about the game. Guncrafter, at it’s core, is pretty fun. We found it easy to lose oneself for a sizable amount of time, tinkering with builds to get the best stats, and coin forming to unlock more guns. The build your own gun concept, altogether, and while unique, it works pretty well. Guncrafter_4 Another thing we liked was the quick gameplay. There aren’t 15 minute battles where you have to be in the zone to play this game well. Rounds take a mere minute or two, and you can choose whether you want to face bots or real people in multiplayer matchmaking. Guncrafter_5 The matchmaking system is probably one of our favorite parts of the game. It’s very fast at finding opponents. During our testing, it would only a few seconds before a game against another player was up and running. Luckily, there are enough players at all skill levels where you’re rarely matched up with someone who is ahead of you in upgrades by a large margin.

Cons

Finally, there are a few negatives about this game. While the build mode is a lot of fun, it has its limitations. The stats for your custom gun get better when you keep to the typical aesthetic of a gun, and we thought it was kind of weird that many of the wall designs were penalized with bad stats. Most guns with really good stats look like, well, real guns. Guncrafter_6 Farming and chance mini games felt incomplete. There are only three options for chance games, and farming is really just placing plants at shooting at them later on. It really feels like there should have been more depth there, as it’s not really worth playing the mini games that much. However, it doesn’t take away from the main attraction of Guncrafter, which is a good thing. Lastly, we would’ve liked to see a whole lot more content. There are a mere six materials and five gun sizes. Sure, there are plenty of ways to build a gun, but one everything has been unlocked, there’s nothing left to do but dual. It’d be nice to see more stuff added in the future.

Video review

Guncrafter Wrap up

At the end of the day, this is a cheap game that can takes weeks or months depending on how much you play, and how fast you get bored. Aside from being a cheap purchase, it’s a lot of fun despite the lack of long term content. Really, all this game is designing a block gun, and then shooting things with it. Guncrafter_1 With that said, don’t underestimate how much it is to build guns and shoot things with them in Guncrafter. It’s very fast to get into, and it’s quite easy to get your first, few upgrades. You don’t run into the coin grind until later on in the game. We really do recommend this game. After all, it costs a mere dollar, and there’s even a free version to take for a test run before you decide on the full purchase. You can spend more if you wish to unlock things faster, but really, you can go through the full game without making any purchases. We really liked that, and so will a lot of other people.

    


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Android News, Rumours, and Updates: Apple rubbing off a bit on Samsung? Samsung fights LG over use of the word “unpack”

Android News, Rumours, and Updates
The latest in android news, rumours, and updates, including device news and apps!
Apple rubbing off a bit on Samsung? Samsung fights LG over use of the word "unpack"
Jul 13th 2013, 15:18, by Harrison Kaminsky

Samsung_LG

Throughout all of the intense court battles that Samsung has had (are still having, and will continue to have) with Apple, it looks like Samsung’s learned a thing or two from their competitor.

In what might be the most ridiculous “patent” battle of any mobile phone manufacturer, Samsung has recently filed an objection with the Intellectual Property Office against LG to prevent them from using the phrase “Unpack event” in their marketing materials.

Apparently Samsung thinks they were the first company to ever use the word “unpack,” and they deservedly so should be the only company to use it. The Intellectual Property Office has since ruled that “unpack” is a common verb and can’t be registered as a trademark, something a fifth grader probably could have told Samsung.

In response, LG explained that they weren’t even planning on using the term in their actual media event, only in the invitations.

The two companies have clashed many times in the past, but the fact that they are clashing over something so trivial goes to show just how serious competition is in the mobile industry these days.

Source: ETNews


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Android Authority: AT&T acquires Cricket for $1.19 billion, has a lot to gain

Android Authority
Android News, Reviews, How To
AT&T acquires Cricket for $1.19 billion, has a lot to gain
Jul 13th 2013, 17:00, by Kyle Wiggers

AT&T

In a cellphone carrier market where high-profile acquisitions and the ready exchange of billions in cash are almost commonplace, AT&T's $1.19 billion purchase of Leap Wireless –  known better as Cricket to most – doesn’t seem that surprising. With yesterday's buy, the network giant hopes to both expand its prepaid programs and augment its 4G LTE footprint.

The prepaid cellphone market, once relegated to inflexible plans and cheap devices on big carriers like AT&T, has now become the focal point of national networks' new strategies. T-Mobile acquired a prepaid provider of its own – MetroPCS – in May, and has been extolling the virtues of prepaid plans since the carrier unleashed its "uncarrier" ad blitz earlier this year.  Sprint has made moves, including the purchase of Virgin Mobile and Boost, to boost its prepaid portfolio in recent years. Even Verizon, arguably the least outwardly enthusiastic about the shift to prepaid, has taken steps to increase the attractiveness of its offerings. AT&T's buy, then, makes sense from a competitive standpoint. AT&T will gain nearly 5 million prepaid customers from the sale.

Though Leap's customer base is an inarguable boost to AT&T's prepaid subscriber base, the network giant has a lot more to gain from Leap's network spectrum. Leap's existing infrastructure is nothing to scoff at: the carrier has deployed LTE to 11 markets covering 21 million people. However, the Leap’s PCS and AWS are capable of far more. In an interview with FierceWireless last year, Leap CEO Doug Hutcheson said a substantial amount of the carrier's spectrum – 60 percent – had yet to be used. That could help AT&T rapidly build out 4G service in a number of locations.

It’s not all roses and rainbows for AT&T. The network’s Leap buy faces a few hurdles, both legal and technological. The deal is certain to face regulatory scrutiny, as AT&T's relative size and previous attempted purchase place the network in a difficult position. Advocacy group Fress Press opposes the deal, which it believes will limit consumer choice and lead to higher prices. Of lesser (but still valid) concern is network incompatibility. Cricket's 3G uses CDMA, while AT&T's  GSM. It's unclear how AT&T plans to transition customers to its network technology. One thing’s for certain, though: AT&T has a lot to gain from the purchase of Leap, and will do everything in its power to convince governing bodies and the public that the acquisition is in everyone’s best interest. How successful the carrier will be in that endeavor remains to be seen.

    


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Android Community: Carbon for Twitter v1.2.0 arrives with new features and fixes

Android Community
Tracking the Android Platform Revolution
Carbon for Twitter v1.2.0 arrives with new features and fixes
Jul 13th 2013, 17:04, by Robert Nelson

Arriving as nice weekend update, version 1.2.0 of Carbon for Twitter has arrived in the Google Play Store. This update has brought a nice mix of new features, some changes to existing features and even some bug fixes. Or more to the point for those fixes, the Carbon team has said this update includes a “ton” of bug fixes along with some overall performance and stability enhancements.

carbon-for-twitter-new-features

While those are generally welcomed to see, how about we shift to the more important here — the changes and new features. Just to begin with, Carbon for Twitter now has a new widget. The widget is 4×1 with quick actions to tweet, send an image, search and even launch the app. Not to mention, the widget does have a pretty decent look.

Another big addition with this update is the in-app browser. This is a fairly standard offering in quite a few other apps, but that aside, the browser does just what you would hope — it allows you to see content without having to exit and use another app. You can get a look at the widget and the in-app browser setup in the above screenshots.

In addition to adding the in-app browser for easier viewing, it also allows for the playback of YouTube videos. Sticking on the topic of video, Vine videos can offer preview and playback in the timeline view. Some of the other changes are image related. In this case, Carbon now has a new save image option, a new image viewer screen and can also upload images to TwitPic.

Finally, remaining changes include people search, a few options for font size, some quote style options, the option to disable image/video previews in the timeline view and the ability to change the notification frequency from anywhere from 5 minutes up to 120 minutes. Aside from the Carbon for Twitter app, we have also seen recent (and notable) updates coming from the official Twitter app as well as Falcon Pro.

SOURCE: Google Play Store

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Android News, Rumours, and Updates: LG G2 comparison pictures leak, device alongside Samsung Galaxy Note 2

Android News, Rumours, and Updates
The latest in android news, rumours, and updates, including device news and apps!
LG G2 comparison pictures leak, device alongside Samsung Galaxy Note 2
Jul 13th 2013, 14:27, by Harrison Kaminsky

LG-Optimus-G2-leak-645x454

YET AGAIN pictures have leaked of the highly anticipated, upcoming LG G2, and in the photos, it’s being compared alongside the Samsung Galaxy Note 2. Why they couldn’t find a Galaxy Note 3 and compare them alongside one another is beyond me (kidding), but this is still pretty cool.  Check out all the leaked photos (the one above is not one of them) and all that we’ve found below after the break.

So, what came out of this comparison, you ask? Well according to the photo below, it looks as though the G2′s bezel is at least half as thing as the Note 2′s.

G2_Note_Bezel_Compare

 

Also what has been found is that the battery in the G2 leaves a little room for wanting more, as it’s only 2,540 mAh. However, we wouldn’t be surprised if the battery life is just fine on this device, considering how well Snapdragon chips deal with power consumption, we’ll leave this one for later judgement.

Battery

And then, of course, is the issue of RAM. As previously mentioned, the G2 was rumored to be the first phone (along with the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 ) to feature 3GB of RAM. However, the photo below indicates that it will only have 2GB RAM. We’ll just have to wait and see if this is legit or not…

RAM

What we do know is that the phone will be released on August 7th, so we’ll know soon enough whether all of the above leaks are indeed true. And, as always, we’ll keep you informed as more leaks come through.

Source: CDPKorea


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Android News, Rumours, and Updates: Qualcomm releases video imagining world without mobile

Android News, Rumours, and Updates
The latest in android news, rumours, and updates, including device news and apps!
Qualcomm releases video imagining world without mobile
Jul 13th 2013, 14:54, by Harrison Kaminsky

Qualcomm_Video

Qualcomm’s got a wacky way of doing things lately, and their new advertisement certainly adds to it all. The CPU maker imagines the world without mobile, but if we still had access to mobile apps such as email, Twitter, Angry Birds, and more. After you watch it you’ll probably be just as confused as I am, as it doesn’t make much sense at all, but I pretty sure it’s not supposed to make sense.

They do certainly have a point though, as they definitely get across the fact that we rely on our devices nowadays. Check out the video below to see what I’m talking about.

Click here to view the embedded video.


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Android Authority: Corsair Voyager Air review (video)

Android Authority
Android News, Reviews, How To

Corsair Voyager Air review (video)
Jul 13th 2013, 14:56, by Kristofer Wouk

corsair-voyager-air-aa-front-on
The Corsair Voyager Air is more than just your average, external hard drive. Most smartphone top out at about 64GB of onboard memory, and even if you’re able to double that with a microSD card, it’s still not a whole lot of space if you plan on storing movies, music, and photos on your device. Sure, Corsair’s Voyager Air may not solve that exact problem, but it does a pretty good job at trying.
So, the question is — can you justify the Voyager Air’s, somewhat, high price? Read on to find out.

Hardware

Corsair’s Voyager Air comes in two capacities: 500GB and 1TB. We’re reviewing the latter. It connects via backwards-compatible USB 3.0, and it sports a powerful, built-in 6,200 mAh battery that allows you to use the device while it’s not plugged in.

Build

The Voyage Air comes in at roughly 5.5-inches long, 3-inches wide, and a single inch thick. To give you an idea of just how small this external hard drive, it’s about the size of an old MP3 player. So much so that the device easily fits in my pocket.
corsair-voyager-air-aa-back
Power and Wi-Fi switches are placed on the front, while the USB, power, and LAN connections are placed on the back. While you can connect the Voyager Air with just one cable for data transfer, using the second cable and a second port charges the device’s built-in battery as you use it. In other words, you’re going to be able to get a lot of juice out of this bad boy.

Software

corsair-voyager-air-aa-app-screenshot
While you can plug it into a computer via USB or use it as a NAS device if you connect it to a router, to use the Voyager Air with your Android device, you’ll want to enable its built-in Wi-Fi. It’s a simple process, really. Just turn the drive on, turn on WiFi, and connect just like you would to any other Wi-Fi network. It’s that easy.
Once you’re connected, you can use the Voyage Air app to manage settings and files; you just have to download it from the Play Store, first. One of the coolest things about this external hard drive is its built-in Wi-Fi Passthru.
When the Voyager Air connects to another wireless network and acts as a bridge between your device and the other network, meaning you can still have full access to the Internet, but this has... other uses.
Basically, when the Voyager Air connects to another wireless network and acts as a bridge between your device and the other network, meaning you can still have full access to the Internet, but this has… other uses.
Think about hotel rooms that charge per device you hook up to the Wi-Fi. Simply connect the Voyager Air to the Wi-Fi, and connect all of your other devices to the Voyager Air. While it’s a really cool feature, the best part about this is that it can potentially save you a lot of money if you travel a lot.
corsair-voyager-air-aa-branding

Battery

As for the battery, Corsair claims that the Voyager Air’s 6,200 mAh unit allows video streaming for up to seven hours. While I didn’t test this specifically, I did get quite a substantial amount of life out of the Voyager Air. However, you can always check the battery capacity of the Air through the Voyager Air app, if you want to try and pinpoint how long this device can actually last.

Video review

Wrap up

I connected the Voyager Air to a few Android devices as well as computers running Windows 8, Mac OS X Mountain Lion and a few different Linux distributions, and it was plug and play on every one, although it's formatted to NTFS, so I wasn’t able to write to it out of the box on Mountain Lion. Still, it’s extremely easy to use.
corsair-voyager-air-aa-branding-2
The Voyager Air is a bit high when it comes to price. The extremely portable, external hard drive will cost you around $200, depending on where you look online. However, if you travel a lot, you could potentially save yourself a few extra bucks. It’s definitely a cool little gadget.
Brad Ward contributed to this review

Buy Now

500GB
1TB



    


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