Clash of Clans update (with Yeti?)

Here comes the August update for Clash of Clans and its looking to be massive. Upgraded levels for the Wizard and Wizard Tower accompany a rebalancing of the loot rewards for league wins. Finally there's going to be a colour change for replay share notifications too.

For those higher level players who fancy having a crack at the Champions League or taking down hundreds of Inferno Towers you'll be more than satisfied with Augusts Clash of Clans Update. Cheaper and slightly more effective spells are also part of this and also a rumoured "Dark Secret" could this be the fabled and ever so slightly mythological Yeti troop becoming available? Updates that are heavy duty have become expected from SuperCell so we can't wait to see when the final package is delivered.

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Classic Party Tunes on mobile revisited

Coming across an awesome nostalgia inducing piece on mobile ringtones that changed the world , I thought it crucial for all you ringtone loving aficionados to appreciate how far music on mobile has come, and maybe to even revisit a huge nostalgic music surge for these turn of the millennium, '90s tunes and bring the love back to modern mobile. For sure they'll sound great on a monster beats powered HTC One for example.
Of course the daddy of all mobile ringtones from back in the day is the Offspring's "Pretty Fly for a White Guy", add to that mid/late '90s list such legends as Linkin Park, Blink-182 and Lou Bega's Mambo No. 5 and you've truly got a mobile hit list to be proud of. Now download away or re-create using a Gibson bass at musicians friend for a mobile ring tone to set your nostalgia bells a clanging.

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Big Names for London Appsworld

Hacking and apps go hand in hand. But when commercial enterprise becomes involved ou know that the world of technology is being shaken up. These are some of the big wes doing to the Earls Court AppsWorld in the name of a Hackfest:

GM, Amazon, Halio, Betfair, Zeebox, FilmOn & Civolution join the Hackfests at Apps World!

Are the first of this year's sponsors for the Hackfests, hosted at Apps World taking place at London’s Earls Court on the 22nd & 23rd October.General Motors, Amazon, Hailo, Betfair, Zeebox, FilmOn and Civolution are the first of our confirmed sponsors for the three hackathons  taking place -  Auto Hackfest, TV Hackfestand Apps Hackfest.  Designed with a pure objective to deliver hacked solutions and inventions, the Hackfest is at the cutting edge - empowering and equipping developers to take on a host of challenges and push new boundaries.

Amazon Web Services for mobile marketing?

Following on from their increased push on mobile apps Amazon has expanded its popular Amazon Web Services (AWS) platform to include a unified alerts system for their Simple Notification Service.

Providing the ability to send push notifications to multiple devices simultaneously – for mobile marketeers this  is good news as Android, iOS, and Kindle Fire hardware. This latest update is available to all current AWS customers at no extra cost.

Starting at this level contains support for handling up to one million notifications per month, thereafter it’s an extra dollar to deliver a further one million push notifications.

Raju Gulabani, Vice President of Database Services, AWS says: “Many customers tell us they build and maintain their own mobile push services, even though they find this approach expensive, complex and error-prone,”

He continues: “Amazon SNS with Mobile Push takes these concerns off the table with one simple cross-platform API, a flat low price and a free tier that means many customers won’t pay anything until their applications achieve scale.”

For those considering more traditional marketing routes color brochure printing is still a very viable option. 

What are the Best Series to download on Google Play?

Google Play with its multi device movie and music sharing capabilities is becoming a firm favourite with the Android crowd, of course Android being Android there are other options for handset users to download there favourite series from, take Sonys android devices for example, Somy has their own store to download from and the of course Samsung and other weighty offerings are available. But if you do want to go to source, then this is what's currently hot on Google Play:
Breaking Bad
Sherlock
Luther
Peppa Pig
The Big Bang Theory
Homeland
30 Rock
The Thick of It

Exploring music with Google Play

Mobile music is experiencing something of a minor revolution at the moment. Pirate Bay is doing some interesting things when it comes to updating the sharing of music and with the legendary Dr Dre Monster Beats now coming at you in the form of a portable speaker: the Monster Beats Pill. It might just be time to retire your trumpet at musicians friend and start to explore some of the hottest music currently available on Google Play:
Top Tunes on Google Play
The Lumineers
The '80s
My Head is an Animal
Civil Wars

Mabinogi Episode 7

Episode Seven of The Saga: Iria is now live in Nexon’s fantasy MMO Mabinogi. In Episode Seven – Heroic Path: The Choice, Millia meets Ruairi at the oasis, and they bond over their mutual desire for revenge.  The player escapes from the Giants and Elves and is reunited with Akule.  While speaking with Akule, the player is suddenly taken to the Soul Stream, where Nao asks them to help Krug, king of the Giants, who is about to be assassinated by the Cessair.  The player rushes to Vales and drives the Cessair off, and then returns to Akule with Shamala

Are we ready for the Internet of things?

Gadgets, particularly smartphones are, as you already know, our forte, and when new buzzwords arise its our technological duty to put our own little Gametrender spin on it. So are we really ready for the Internet of Things, a technological home and lifestyle so blended in with our lives, lifestyles and homes that they're indistinguishable?

The internet of things is a massive technological leap for mankind. The ability to remotely control various aspects of our home is appealing to many, and makes life more convenient for a lot of people who invest in home automation. This does however represent a big investment and is a bandwagon that a lot of tech companies have jumped on,so needs to be approached with caution. Just look at Philips smart lighting solution to see the type of money you can expect to pay. Home automation has its pros and cons. 

Pros

Home automation systems can make a technological life a lot more convenient . They are built to help relieve stress from your life, and relieve you of your cash!Apparently convenience and money saving a all promised by the internet of things. You’€™ll have the ability to turn off your lights, coffee pot and other small appliances from your phone or tablet, literally an app for every gadget(there's an app entrepreneur idea there somewhere!)

Another way that you can save money is by having a smart thermostat. By turning off or down your heating/ac, you’€™ll be saving on your bill. You can program your thermostat according to your schedule, or you can turn it on and off from your mobile device. So basically, you’€™re paying to have an easier, more convenient life. To many people there is no price tag that you can put on that. To many other people, however, these comforts seem unnecessary and expensive.

Cons

There are a surprising amount of things that are negative about home automation. Home automation providers usually require you to sign a contract of at least three years, paying over 50 dollars a month, in most cases. That’€™s a lot of money. One of the big pitches in selling you home automation, is that you’€™ll save money on your power bill. Unless you’€™re saving at least 50 dollars a month, home automation will end up costing a great deal, and could also prove very stressful if you dont have a lot of technological know how. But just think, instead of finding carpet cleaning durham nc ,you can just use the power of the Internet of things and use your smartphone activated Roomba!

Using a projector with IPhone/IPad

As the Ubuntu Edge IndieGogo campaign slowly gathers momentum, just having passed the ten million dollar mark. Us business users are, for the meantime, still limited by our mobile OS when it comes to business uses. If you're tethered to your iPhone or IPad and don't want to be lugging around a laptop(roll on Ubuntu Edge!) there are still some mobile presentation solutions available.
Here are some of the pros and cons of using a pick projector with iphone.

Pico projectors include a wide range of input ports, users are allowed to connect to varied data sources. Most of the products come with USB input as well as SD memory card readers. While using these devices, you will be able to store your PowerPoint slides and other images on the SD card. It’s also really easy to display your slides directly from the projector on a display board or electronic display gadget. Some come with bespoke iPhone or lightning bolt connectors which allow you to access your data straight from your I device.

Comparison To The Traditional Data Projector

Pico projectors of course cant provide a full suite of features. Literally, with a device of this size one is unlikely to achieve the exact same performance as the conventional data projectors. But generally, especially with the more,expensive poco projectors a reasonable result can be gained.

Top tip for using Pico projectors with iPhone 

In order to get the best results with the iPhone projectors you need to set up the device at the maximum throw distance of about 2.5 meters. You should also keep the lowest possible ambient lighting levels in order to get the best exposure. Furthermore, you should keep in mind that these products are best for a limited numbers of audiences (e.g. a maximum of around 10 people).

Conclusion

To sum up, we may conclude that Pico projectors are ideal for iPhone, iPad, Laptops, and other e-gadgets as a display solution for small scale meetings. Their small size ensures that you can easily slip them inside the laptop case or even in your pocket. As they are enabled with numerous input ports they are compatible with the majority of data sources.

Read more: http://www.techsling.com/2013/08/useful-portable-projectors-for-iphone/#ixzz2byQaUal7

The death of CAPTCHA on Mobile

A frustrating fact about having a mobile phone and using it as your primary source for your web browsing is that many sites still haven't improved their auto resolution to the extent that viewing is compatible. This becomes especially apparent with the irritation of many sites requiring a CAPTCHA which is rendered doubly difficult on mobile because of bad auto resolution. So we are solidly behind the Australian led campaign to rid the world of CAPTCHA : ACCAN, together with Able Australia, Blind Citizens Australia and Australian Deafblind are calling for the killing of the CAPTCHA due to its frustrating puzzles that is hard to unravel for people with disabilities.

The Kill CAPTCHA petition was launched and immediately received signatures from a lot of people who are against it. Their main reason is that it’€™s hard for the blind to access online government websites and their services and other websites. Though, there is software that can read CAPTCHA for the blind or for those who have eyesight problems, oftentimes, it is not accurate. The audio CAPTCHA alternative is just too hard to hear too.

So, are these negative responses good enough to remove CAPTCHA? Michael McKinnon of AVG doesn’€™t think so, he said that is unavoidable. And if this security measure is removed, it would be easier for criminals to automate illegalities and online activities. W3C also added that there are other alternatives, like trivia, math questions, sound files, and biometrics. The only problem is, most websites are comfortable using CAPTCHA. A definite plus for the world particularly us mobile web browsers. So when typing in obscure searches  mobile users should appreciate the new future of a captchaless Internet.

SWAT Counter Strike Force: Game Review

      Looking for a shooter that can deliver some fun?  Try SWAT Counter Strike Force. I haven't played on-screen shooters for a while so it took me a bit to get used to the aiming. The smartphone app has five Levels with different Stages(or vice versa). There isn't a story in the game but at least the developer(s) came up with one (unlike a lot of apps these days). The first person shooter has a good view of his or her detailed weapon(this is one of the most important aspects for first person shooters in my opinion). Weapon selections include a Desert Eagle, Shotgun, and an AK 47. That basically covers all the main types of shooting you can do. The weapons shoot like they should. For example, the shotgun doesn't always hit the reticule. It may miss by hitting close to where you're aiming and sometimes that's a good thing. One nice thing about the app is that the enemies have depth to them and the sceneries are different and detailed.

Even with the pic enlarged, details are still sharp.

      Don't worry too much about reloading. As it takes less than a second to reload. The reload button is white and clear right above your fire button. Your current ammo in your weapon and your health is clearly displayed in the top right hand corner of the screen. The game isn't too difficult as I am uncoordinated and even I never got a game over. So even casual players or smartphone users will be able to beat the game.

You're a cooler soldier when you have a digital map.

      One room for improvement that I see or hear is that the enemies grunt when shot sound the same as the main characters grunt or shot. I think its okay to sound similar as they are in similar agony when making those noises, however I would prefer if they were at least somewhat different. Although the graphics are decent enough to be playable, I could also see the game improving the graphics of the enemy units. As of now they are highly pixelated in contrast to the detailed 3D backgrounds. Another suggestion could be to have a secondary attack or special, perhaps a grenade or health packet (although they aren't necessary unless the game has a harder mode or harder levels).

The FPS Android application is brought to you by the developer(s) at STNich. It currently has between 5,000 and 10,000 installs and an average rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars on Google Play. You can download it FREE here. Although the app is a bit short, it does deliver more and longer fun than a quarter would in an arcade machine.

Saga:Iria. What's happening in Mabinogi?

The tension is mounting in Nexon’s fantasy MMO Mabinogi. Episode Six in The Saga: Iria, Swarm of Demons: Truth, sets the stage for players to fight against the Black Dragon Knight and his minions, but they eventually fall.  However, the charm explodes, driving enemies off.  This also turns the gathered Milletians into demons, which shocks the Giants and Elves.  They decide to lock up all Milletians until they can figure out what is going on.  Meanwhile, the Black Dragon and the Black Dragon Knight attack the holy land, but are stopped by Lelach.  Sure enough, Lelach is revealed to be Akule.  Back with the player, Millia is furious because the demons that the Milletians turned into are the same as the ones that killed her parents.  She throws herself into battle with the demons, but there are just too many.  She uses a spell she learned from Lelach to teleport away to her favorite place, the oasis. A powerful demon killer indeed , bet they don't sell those anti apparition charms anywhere legit!

New Star Soccer 1.5 Coming in September

For all you portable football game fans on Android and IOS you've got a treat coming in September. The award winning New Star Soccer is to be updated to version 1.5. This will include:

Featuring brand new lifestyle items to purchase, pre-match statistics, Agents, Trainers, and for the first time ever the opportunity to play as a female footballer. Based on a wealth of fan feedback, update 1.5 will ensure that New Star Soccer is bigger and better than ever before!

Released across iOS, Android and Flash in March 2012, New Star Soccer has been downloaded over 2.7 million times, reaching number one in the UK iPhone App Store in June 2012 and has received glowing reviews across the board.

Dungeon Wagon free for IPad

"Dungeon Wagon features 14 levels of game play and makes full use of motion controls to really get the player right into the action!", stated Abhinav Gupta, Lead Developer and CEO of Game Scorpion Inc., "Players take on the role of protectors and must help rid the land of Talnas of evil Tartu Minions." With swarms of enemies, puzzles and a colorful storyline, Dungeon Wagon is a definite must have for any iPhone or iPad user.  Simply turn the device to move, tap on the screen to fire projectiles. So unique (!) controls and a tantalising storyline,so what else does Dungeon Wagon have to offer: 

• Amazing Full 3D Graphics
• Full Game Center and Achievements
• Makes full use of motion controls
• Amazing music by Lucky Lion Studios
• Unique game play and storyline
• New upgrades bringing out many new levels and even more game play and storyline constantly
• The game makes good use of the accelerometer and you don't need to be earning a bankruptcy free consultation fee wage to pay for it either as the game is released on IOS for free on 22 August! 

Anime Legends in all girl IPad game

Kickstarter has brought many gaming concepts to fruition,if you like IAd gaming and Anime than Revolution 60 is one to watch out for:

Years in the future, in Revolution 60 an American orbital weapons platform has drifted off course, threatening an international incident. Chessboard, a special ops group led by an artificial intelligence, has tasked a team to rendezvous with the station and regain control. In this crucial mission players are cast as Holiday, a Chessboard assassin who must decide if her loyalty is to her friends or to the mission. Featuring an all female cast starring anime legends Amanda Winn-Lee and Marieve Herrington, players undertake a series of missions, and make difficult moral choices that have significant effects on the game outcome so that every ending is different.

Revolution 60 is a story of intense character conflict where the main character lives or dies based on the player’s choices. Featuring some of the most complex animation on iOS to date, including full facial animation using Unreal, Revolution 60 also features intuitive, fluid combat, optimized for touch screen. Featuring detailed animations using the Unreal engine and gameplay that is accessible to the casual iOS user as well as mechanics suited to hardcore players.  

Visit the Revolution 60 website: http://www.revolution60.com/

Advertising your video game through other media

Not content with the immense success that it has already enjoyed, Maple Story is continuing to find new outlets to market itself. As a video game developer you've always got to appreciate that becoming a success is not just about your games quality ,but also other factors to take into account ,especially marketing.

Season One of MapleStory New Leaf Saga Now Available on Crunchyroll

Based on Nexon’s popular free-to-play game MapleStory, the first season of animator Brain Schmoyer’s short series New Leaf Saga is now available in its entirety on Crunchyroll. In addition, the second season is currently in production and will be available on Crunchyroll later this summer.

Chronicling the cyber gaming adventures of four friends, New Leaf Saga utilizes fun and snarky humor to help players understand the gameplay mechanics of MapleStory. Whether it’s choosing the perfect class from the plethora available in-game, or dealing with an absentee gaming buddy, New Leaf Saga covers all bases.

To watch all 12 episodes of season one, and the upcoming episode of season two visit: crunchy roll/maplestory. Definitely more entertaining than being a Raleigh business lawyer ! 

How powerful is the Clash of Clan's Witches Skeletons?

If you're a player of Clash of Clans you'll be very happy with the latest update which gives you, amongst other things,a powerful summoning witch. As a Clash of Clans attacker her projectile attack and hit points aren't all that great, but a Witches Rush with dozens of skeletons is a powerful attack.
How powerful are the Witch's Skeletons?
A level 1 witch summons 3 skeletons who have 45 hit points and do damage of 25 dps.
At any one time there can be a max of 6 skeletons.
A level 2 witch summons 4 skeletons and can have 8 alive at any one time.

How to get three stars in every Tiny Thief level

Now that the price of Rovio's Tiny Stars, "Sneak 'em up/point and click hybrid" Tiny Thief has had a price reduction it is certainly worth getting for the sheer variety that has been packed into the game.

While a little disappointed as I was expecting the IPad version of Thief:Deadly Shadows, rather than a cute point and click(and why hasn't it been made yet I wonder, the graphical and processing grunt is certainly there as numerous FPS on IPad show). Tiny Thief is a good game nevertheless. However in the "Where's Wally" style of gameplay you often find yourself clicking everywhere to get those three stars. Shop fronts, bridges, sheep, aluminumbleachersdirect.com , nothing is not worth clicking on!

You'll get one star for finding your sneaky ferret companion who has a habit of popping up around the tableau, you'll get another for finding the special object that you've been told to get from the level and to get the Third Star in Tiny Thief there will always be a musty object, poke around and look for things out of place to stumble across this object, also see what objects could logically interact. And keep own waiting for Thief Deadly Shadows, let's hope it comes soon!