Category Archives: Tech News

Play Games Services – list of games

Android, Tech News

At Google I/O Play Game services was introduced. A number of games have been updated to take advantage of this Game Center alternative. These include –

5 Tiles (Free) (achievements)
A2Z (Free) ( achievements)
Avabel Online (Free) (90 achievements)
Ball Maze (Free/$1.29) ( achievements)
Beach Buggy Blitz (Free) (48 achievements)
Chip Chain (Free) (43 achievements)
Circulo (Free) (12 achievements)
Cosmic Defense (Free/$0.99) ( achievements)
Eternity Warriors 2 (Free) (29 achievements)
Eufloria (Free/$4.99) (achievements)
Eyelord (Free) ( achievements)
Farm Invasion USA (Free/$5.20) (20 achievements)
GRave Defense HD (Free/$2.99) ( achievements)
Gunslugs (Free/$1.49) ( achievements)
Hungry Slimes (Free/$1.29) ( achievements)
Ice World Labirynth (Free) (achievements)
Kingdom Rush ($1.99) (achievements)
Mega Run (Free) (achievements)
Memory Temple (Free) (achievements)
Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour ($6.99) (49 achievements)
No Gravity ($3.50) ( achievements)
Numbers Plus Game (Free) (achievements)
Osmos ($2.99) (?achievements)
PBA Bowling Challenge (Free) ( achievements)
Plague Inc. (Free) (54 achievements)
Plasma Sky ($1.99) ( achievements)
Riptide GP ($1.99) ( achievements)
Rocket Island (Free) (24 achievements)
Save the Puppies (Free) (36 achievements)
Shine Runner ($0.99) ( achievements)
Stick Stunt Biker 2 (Free) (achievements)
Super Stickman Golf 2 (Free) (60 achievements)
Townsmen (Free) (61 achievements)
Triple Town (Free) (26 achievements)
War Of Wizards (Free) ( achievements)
Wind-up Knight (Free) ( achievements)
World of Goo ($4.99 $0.99) (22 achievements)
Unblock 2 Escape (Free) ( achievements)
Zookeeper Battle (Free) (achievements)

Oppo Find 5 smartphone finally comes to Europe – €399 delivered

Android, Tech News

The Oppo Find 5 will be available to buy from its new European Store in a few hours. But who is Oppo?

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OPPO Electronics Corp., Ltd is an electronics manufacturer based in Dongguan, Guangdong, China. Its major product lines include MP3 players, Portable Media players, LCD-TV, eBook, DVD/Blu-ray Disc players and mobile phones. Founded in 2004, the company has registered the Oppo brand name in many parts of the World, with a company mission to become one of the worldwide leading brand in consumer electronics. It’s older phone the Finder once held the title for the thinnest phone in the world at 6.65mm. More info on both its phones can be found from its main website here..

The Oppo Find 5 specs include –

– 5 inch 1080p at an excellent 441ppi using OGS screen technology
– 3.25mm bezel
– 13mp rear camera 1/3 06 CMOS f2.2 with HDR supported via hardware, 4 layer glass with blue filters
– Burst mode takes 100 photos, 5 per second.
– 120fps video
– quad core S4 Qualcomm chip at 1.5hz. 320 Adreno 320 GPU .
– Dirac HD sound for high quality audio
– smart tags, NFC, DNLA
– 165g but apparently long battery life
– 16 or 32g. No micro SD slot as far as I can tell
– Networks 850, 900, 1700, 1800, 1900, 2100 no LTE
– GPS
– Gyroscope
– Digital compass
– Light Sensor
– IR Proximity Sensor
– Magnetic Sensor
– Gravity Sensor

Now you might be asking isn’t this a risk to buy as a Chinese company. Well it is slightly. It is a bit of an unknown. However, via Oppo’s forums firmware updates occur every 2 weeks based on your feedback.

Update : the battery is a massive 2500maH.

Update 2 : Oppo released Tips and Tricks which has some clever stuff.

The Perfect Smartphone

Tech News

There are so many great phones being released at the moment, all with great features but none with everything I want or with something missing. Lets look at what’s available.

HTC One
Currently I have the HTC One as my main driver. It is absolutely amazing but has a weakness or two. Landscape shots don’t have enough detail. But with photos of people and my pets I have achieved the best photos ever. However, I do take a lot of landscapes. Also it doesn’t have a memory card slot. So while I stream my music from Google, if I was away from the Internet I would be scuppered. Having all my music on my memory card would cure this problem. And then there is the battery. In 2 years it won’t be as good. A replaceable battery would be ideal. If I had all of this, I wouldn’t need to ever change the HTC One. That would make a perfect phone. Well nearly.

Samsung S4
This potentially should have been a killer device. It has all that I want, looks good, has an excellent camera and comes with the kitchen sink. And then there is the big but. Only 9gb free of memory for apps and games, and app caches. That’s not enough for me. But it gets worse. There is an issue with crackling with the headphone jack with music. This affects the i9505 model, not so much the i9500 version.

Nokia Lumia 920
The 920 is a decent phone and if you like Windows Phone 8 it’s fine. It is soon to be replaced by a slightly lighter and thinner version, with an upgraded camera and screen. The 925. But as an operating system it still lacks the variety of apps. So is not on my radar. But I might change my mind when I receive it 🙂

iPhone 5
Be there and done it. A very capable pocketable one handed device. Just suffers from screen size being too small for me now and an aesthetically tired looking iOS 6. Otherwise nearly there but not quite.

There are other contenders like the Samsung Note 2, but that is too large to be used a daily driver. So what would make the perfect phone for me.

A HTC One with a flexible non breakable screen, 64gb internal memory, 64gb micro SD card, an 13mp ultra pixel lens and a replaceable battery. Or a 5 inch iPhone with iOS 7 perhaps. I just wonder how long the wait will be 🙂

So what would be your perfect phone?

Google joins Apple and shares 3D maps

Android, Apple, Tech News

When Apple released its own Maps app, which was using its own data, the world took centre stage and panned it for major obscurities. Warped roads, bent buildings and more.

Well, Google is now going 3D with its maps, and if you try it out you will also find similar obscurities that plagued Apple.

Maybe the two companies are sharing data. Unlikely. But it does show that despite Google’s strength in Maps, it still can face issues.

Urgent – please read – Sky News Google Play account has been hacked

Android, Tech News,

Sky News Google Play account has been hacked and compromised by the Syrian Electronic Army. Hackers placed their logo in the Google Play account.

Sky News has now advised that all it’s android apps were hacked and replaced. They advise to uninstall immediately and wait further instructions.

Repeat uninstall all Sky android apps now.

A 1080p 6.1 inch smartphone all for £335

Android, Tech News

UK retailer Expansys are selling the new Huawei Ascend Mate for a crazy low price of £335.

For this you get a 1080p, 6.1 inch screened monster phone. It’s technical specs are –

Screen to body ratio of 73 percent
Platform: Android 4.1
CPU: 1.5 GHz quad-core Hi-Silicon K3V2 + Intel XMM6260
Memory: RAM: 2GB
Display: 6.1-inch HD IPS+ 1280 x 720 LCD touchscreen with Corning® Gorilla® glass
Camera: 8.0-megapixel AF rear-facing camera with HDR, 1.0-megapixel HD front-facing camera
Connectivity: Bluetooth® 4.0 / Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n / 3.5 mm stereo audio jack / Micro-USB / DLNA
GPS: yes
Network: GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz / HSPA/WCDMA: 850/2100 MHz
Sensors: Gyro sensor, accelerometer, proximity and ambient light sensor
Battery: 4050mAh battery
Weight: 198 grams
Dimensions: 163.5 mm x 85.7 mm x 9.9 mm

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For the price it does make you wonder why it is necessary to spend £550 on a Samsung S4.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 Pricing Fix

Android, Tech News

3 weeks ago the Samsung S4 launched with prices from the largest retailers asking £629 sim free. These included Amazon and Carphonewarehouse.

At the same time, and clearly not a coincidence the networks began offering the S4 on 2 year contract deals that made it financially more viable to select a 2 year contract instead of buying it sim free.

The sim free price did cause outrage and apparently it was Samsung who set this price, and clearly in collusion with the networks.

Why do I think this ? Well not even a month later the sim free price has dropped by £130 to £499. Both Carphonewarehouse and Amazon are selling it at this price now. Let me repeat that, the price has dropped by £130!!!!

In my opinion this behaviour is scandalous and ripping off the consumer.

A good example of treating customers fairly is Apple. Buy an iPhone on first day of release and its price doesn’t drop in price until the new iPhone appears.

Amazon goes for global domination

Android, Tech News

Amazon still doesn’t have a smartphone yet but it is going for global domination with its app store and tablets.

Amazon announced that it will sell the two higher-end versions of the device, the Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Fire HD 8.9″, in 170 countries and their app store will now be available in 200 countries.

Up to now, the Android-based Appstore, which works on their Kindle tablets and other Android devices, has only been live in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, China and Japan, with Brazil next in line. It makes sense that Amazon will have opened it up at the same time as it’s ramping up its Fire tablet distribution.

This is really a massive strike as Amazon will have the entertainment, online store, apps, tablets all on offer in 200 countries, ready for when they launch their first smartphone.

Apple, Samsung, HTC and others better watch out!

Moga Pro Controller is coming to the UK on 14th June 2013

Android, Tech News

Gaming on your android phone is about to reach new heights for people in the UK. The Moga Pro controller has been available in the US for about two months, but Moga tweeted that its available for pre order from Amazon, Tesco Direct Game and Carphonewarehouse for £39.99. Moga also do a cheaper version for £29.99 but its best to get the Pro.

So what’s all the fuss about. It works really well. On several forums the feedback has been excellent. Well check out the spec below –

Clickable dual analog sticks, shoulder buttons and triggers, D-pad, and four action buttons offer the control you need for the games you want
Wireless Bluetooth connection that works with Android tablets and phones.
The MOGA Arm™ secures phones up to 3.2 in./82mm, the largest phones in the market
Full-sized, rubberized grips minimize wrist fatigue during mobile gaming sessions
Internal, rechargeable batteries with a USB recharging cable
Folding tablet stand
Huge game library with more titles coming all the time
Works with Bluetooth-enabled Android 2.3+ smartphones and tablets

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Check out some of the games and more information from Moga.

And here is a link to games it works with. This list is growing all the time. Games.

What will you be doing on 10th June 2013?

Apple, Tech News

The keynote speech the world is waiting for happens at 6pm 10th June 2013 UK time. It is Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference and the anticipation is high.

There is an expectation to see glimpses of iOS 7 and the latest Mac OS. Unlikely, but maybe some hardware too. Apple has been very quiet since last year, so everyone is very keen to find out what they have been secretly working on.

One thing is for sure, the next 6-9 months will reveal major refreshes on the software front and brand new hardware to fuel sales frenzies. New iPhones, iPad and Macs are all on the cards and next year the Apple iWatch and iPhablet.

Lets hope Apple live streams the keynote. If it does the Internet is sure to ground to a halt.

So what would you like to see from iOS and Mac OS? And the same question again, but covering the updates to hardware?