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Tag Archive for: IOS

WWDC21 Everything Apple Announced This Week!

9th June 2021/in Gadgets / Tech/by billywright

WWDC21 and Apple have announced a slew of new features for iOS, MacOS and WatchOS. Lots of features aimed at improving your social side of life, both with connecting with others and reducing the amount of time that you spend on your devices!

iOS15 – WWDC21

Apple showed off updates to FaceTime, a new way to reduce distractions, enhanced on-device intelligence to discover information. Plus there’s also updates to Maps, Weather and Wallet!

Facetime

FaceTime gets an update to help make conversations on screen feel more natural over video calls. Spatial Audio helps to make the voices from who you are talking to sound as if they are coming from where the person is positioned on screen. There are also new microphone modes to separate the voice from the background noise. Portrait mode also comes to FaceTime and is designed specifically for video calls so users can blur their backgrounds and keep themselves in focus. Furthermore in Group FaceTime there is a new grid mode which enables participants to see more faces at the same time.

FaceTime entertianment

Make FaceTime more entertaining with SharePlay. You can now listen to Apple Music, Watch a TV show or Movie in Sync and even share your screen with them! SharePlay works across iPhone, iPad and Mac. Users are also able to share playback controls so anyone can play, pause or jump ahead. SharePlay can even connect to Apple TV, so users can watch content on the big screen. All while keeping your devices in sync. Disney+, ESPN+, HBO Max, Hulu, MasterClass, Paramount+, Pluto TV, TikTok, Twitch, and many others are integrating SharePlay into their apps.

FaceTime calls can now extend beyond Apple devices with the ability to create a FaceTime link and share it through Messages, Mail or any 3rd Party app. Anyone can join a FaceTime call from their web browser or Android and Windows devices. FaceTime calls on the web remain end to end encrypted so privacy is not compromised.

Focus

Distraction will be a thing of the past in iOS15. Focus is a new feature that filters notifications and apps based on what the user wants to focus on. Users can set their device to help them focus by creating a custom Focus or select a suggested Focus. The device will use on-device intelligence to suggest which apps and people are allowed to notify them. It will be suggested to them based on a users context, like during work hours or while they are winding down for bed. Focus can be set on one device and then extend across all their Apple devices. Home Screen pages can also be created with apps and widgets to moments of focus and only display relevant apps and reduce temptation. When you are restricting incoming notifications, their status is displayed to others in Messages. Letting others know that you are not currently reachable.

Notifications

Notifications have also been redesigned. Contact photos for people and larger icons for apps make them easier to identify. Reducing distraction a new notification summary will collect non-time-critical notifications for delivery at a more opportune time. Such as in the mornings or in the evenings. The on-device intelligence will arrange notifications by priority, with the most relevant notifications rising to the top. All based on a user’s interactions with their apps. Urgent messages will be delivered immediately. While it is easy to temporarily mute any app or messaging thread for the next hour or day.

Cool On-Device Intelligence Tech

Live Text will use on-device intelligence to recognise text in a photo and let users take action on that. For example, users can search for and locate the picture of a handwritten recipe, capture a number from a store front. Then using Apple Neural Engine can either copy and paste the recipe or call the number that was on the store front.

With Visual Look Up, users can learn more popular art and landmarks around the world, plants and flowers found in nature, breeds of pets and even find books. Spotlight will alsu use intelligence to search photos by location, people, scenes and objects using Live Text. It can even find text and handwriting in recent conversations, shared photos and even location if shared through Find My. Photos also has an update to Memories. With a new look, interactive interface and integration with Apple Music.

Safari

Safari gets a cool new redesign making it easier to control and reach with one hand. The tab bar is now compact and lightweight and now has been moved to the bottom of the screen. Therefore making it easier to swipe between tabs. Tab Groups also allows users to save tabs and easily access them at any time on any device. There is now a customisable start page and web extensions on iOS.

Apple Maps

Apple Maps now will be significantly enhanced with new details in cities for neighborhoods, commercial districts, elevation, buildings and new road colors, labels, custom designed landmarks and a new night mode.

While using and navigation with Apple Maps on iPhone or Car Play, Maps will feature a 3D city driving experience. With new road details, therefore making it easier to understand improtant details. Such as when to turn lanes, medians, bike lanes and pedestrian crosswalks. Transit riders can now find nearby stations more easily and pin favorite lines. Maps will automatically follow along a selected transit route, notifying users when it’s nearly time to disembark. Furthermore in iOS15, users can hold up their iPhone and Maps will generate a highly accurate position to deliver walking directions in augmented reality.

New Keys and State ID’s in Apple Wallet

Apple Wallet now has support for additional types of keys! Last year Apple introduced digital car keys, with BMW being the first manufacturer to take advantage of this tech. Digital Car Keys get even better with support for Ultra Wideband Technology, making it easy for users to securely unlock and lock their supported vehicle without having to take their iPhone from a pocket or bag. Futhermore iPhone can also be used to unlock a user’s home, office or hotel room. All with keys stored in the Wallet.

For those in the US, participating states will allow users to add their drivers license or state IDs to Wallet. TSA is working to enable airport security checkpoints to be the first place that customers can use their digital Identity card in wallet. ID cards in Wallet are encrypted and stored safely in the Secure Element. Using the same tech that makes Apple Pay private and secure.

Privacy

iOS15 now has even more privacy controls. On-device speech recognition, audio of Siri requests is now processed entirely on iPhone by default. Mail Privacy Protection stops senders from learning whether an email has been opened and hides IP addresses so senders can’t learn a user’s location and use it to build a profile. App Privacy Report will also offer an overview of how apps use the access that has been granted to location, photos, camera, microphone and contacts in the last 7 days and which other domains have been contacted.

Weather and Notes

Weather gets a nice new facelift and adds graphical displays of weather data, full screen maps and dynamic layouts which change based on conditions. Animated backgrounds more accurately reflect the sun’s position and precipitation and notifications highlight when rain or snow starts and stops.

Notes will add user created tags that make it easy to quickly categorise notes and mentions allow members of shared notes to notify each other of important changes. While an all-new Activity view shows the history of a shared note.

Additional features WWDC21

  • Siri now can announce notifications on Airpods and the ability for users to share what’s on their screen just by asking
  • Shared With You. Will work across Apple Devices to show articles, music, tv shows, photos and more which are shared in Messages and display them conveniently in the appropriate app. Photos in Photos app, TV shows in Apple Tv and Podcasts in Apple Podcasts for example.
  • iCloud+ can now hide your email, expanded HomeKit Secure Video support, new innovative internet privacy service, iCloud Private Relay all at now additional cost.
  • Health App now allows you to share health data with family, caregives, your doctor or a care team. Trends will also give users a way to focus on meaningful personal health metrics.
  • Find My allows uers to locate a device that has been turned off or erased as well as live-streaming locations for family and friends who have turned on sharing their location. Seperation alerts will notify a user of they leave an AirTag, Apple Device or Find My network accessory behind in an unfamiliar location. A new Find My Widget also offers an at-a-glace view directly from the Home Screen.
  • Translate also adds a new Live Translate feature which makes conversation flow naturally across languages. Systemwide translation allows uers to translate text anywhere on iPhone.
  • Apple TV will now feature a row titled “For All of You” which will showcase a collection of movies and TV shows based on everyone’s tasets from within a select group of people or household using the data discovered through each Apple ID.
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iPad OS15 WWDC21

iPad gets a new and easier way to multitask, a new home screen design with widgets, the App Library, systemwide note taking with Quick Note, SharePlay and a redesigned Safari Experience and new tools to stay focused.

MultiTasking

iPadOS 15 makes working with multiple apps much easier. There is a new multitasking menu at the top of apps, letting you go into Split View or Slide Over with a simple tap. You can now have quick access to the Home Screen when using Split View, making it easier to get to the right app. Furthermore there is a new Shelf section where you can multitask with apps which have multiple windows such as Safari or Pages. Furthermore there is an experience with external keyboard which allows users to get more done with keyboard shortcuts and a redesigned menu bar. You can quickly set up and switch between Split View and Slide Over with new shortcuts for multitasking right from the keyboard.

Widgets and App Library

Users can now place widgets much like they can on iPhone on Home Screen pages. Providing more information at a glance and offering a more personalised experience. Designed specifically for the larger display of the iPad, there is a new larger Widget size for showcasing videos, music, games and photos. The App Library is also coming to iPad, automatically organising apps into helpful categories, like Productivity, Games, Recently added and more. Allowing users to access all their apps right from the Dock.

Note Taking

Note taking on iPad gets even better with new features which make it easier to capture thoughts and ideas. Notes goes systemwide with Quick Note. A new fast and easy way to take notes anywhere on the system. Whether that is browsing on Safari or finding a restaurant on Yelp. You can bring up the Quick Note feature anywhere and jot down a thought. Even add links and provide an easy way to get back to what you were doing.

Notes will also organise, collaborate and capture information easier and better. Tages make it easy to categorise notes and quickly find them with an all new Tag Browser and tag-based Smart Folders. For those working in Shared Notes, mentions creates a way to notify collaborators and link them back to the note. There is also a new Activity View to show recent updates.

FaceTime

iPadOS 15 gets the same FaceTime update as iOS 15 and makes conversations more natural with spatial audio and share experiences with SharePlay. Share songs on Apple Music, Watch a Tv Show in sync and view apps together with sharing your screen. Also share playback controls and let anyone play, pause or jump forward or rewind.

Safari

Safari gets a new tab design, like the iOS 15 Safari update, you can now see more of the page as you browse. A new tab bar takes the colour of the page that you are browsing. Tabs are now combined with the tool bar and search field into a single compact design. Tab Groups offer a new way to easily save and manage tabs. Great for planning trips or shopping. Tab Groups are also synced across Mac and iPhone and other Apple devices. So users can continue their project from anywhere. Safari on iPad now lets you add web extensions to them available from the App Store.

Find Focus

Much like on iOS 15, iPad OS 15 delivers powerful tools to keep you focused. Focus is a new feature that filters notifications based on what a user is doing. You are able to set your device to help you be in the moment by creating a custom Focus setting or a suggested on based on their context. Such as during work hours or while your winding down for bed. You can also create Home Screen pages with apps and widgets that apply to moments of focus to only display relevant apps to reduce temptation. A new notification summary will organise a collection of notifications which can be delivered at any time the user chooses. Such as in the morning or after work.

New Photos Experience

iPadOS15 uses the same on device intelligence to recognise text in a photo and let them copy and paste text or call a phone number from a picture. With Visual Look Up, users can identify objects within a photo such as a type of dog or flower. Spotlight can now seatch the Photos app and web images and has all-new rich results for contacts and context like recent conversations, shared photos and location if shared through Find My. Using Live Text, Spotlight can also look up a photo of a public transit map, receipt or a screenshot of a cooking recipe. It can also work with handwritten text, great for searching text on whiteboards or notes.

Translate

Translate app now comes to iPad with new features that make conversations easier and natural. Auto Translate will detect when someone is speaking and in which language, so users can converse naturally without having to tap a microphone button. Face to face view allows people to sit across from each other with iPad inbetween them and see translations of the conversation on their side. Text can now be translated from anywhere on the iPad by slecting it and tapping translate. Handwritten text can also be translated! You can even translate text in photos!

Additional Features WWDC21

  • Universal Control lets users work with a single mouse and keyboard to move between iPad and Mac for a seamless experience, with no setup required. Users can even drag and drop content back and forth between devices — great for sketching a drawing with Apple Pencil on iPad and placing it into a Keynote slide on Mac.
  • Photos gets an update to Memories with integration with Apple Music and a fresh new look.
  • Maps gets the same update as iOS 15 allowing you to navigate more with new road colours, elevation, enhanced details in cities for neighbourhoods, commercial districts, elevation, and buildings, new road colours and labels, custom-designed landmarks, and a new night-time mode with a moonlit glow.
  • Siri now can announce notifications on Airpods and the ability for users to share what’s on their screen just by asking
  • Shared With You. Will work across Apple Devices to show articles, music, tv shows, photos and more which are shared in Messages and display them conveniently in the appropriate app. Photos in Photos app, TV shows in Apple Tv and Podcasts in Apple Podcasts for example.
  • iCloud+ can now hide your email, expanded HomeKit Secure Video support, new innovative internet privacy service, iCloud Private Relay all at now additional cost.
  • Privacy gets an update with Mail Privacy Protection help to stop trackers from snooping on an email, and App Privacy Report provides transparency into how apps are sharing information with other companies
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macOS Monterey – WWDC21

Monterey adds new ways to connect with friends and family, work smarter across devices, and stay focused!

Safari

Safari gets a redesign and reimagines the browsing experience with a new tab design, which allows users to see more of the webpage as they scroll. The tab bar gets a facelift and takes on the colour of the webpage that you are on. It also combines tabs, tool bar and search field into one single compact design. Tab Groups offer a new way to easily save and manage tabs. Tab Groups will also sync across all devices.

Shortcuts

Shortcuts is now on Mac. Helping users to automate everyday tasks and achieve peak productivity. Just like shortcuts on iPhone and iPad, Shortcuts on Mac lets users quickly accomplish tasks with the apps which you use the most. There is a rich gallery full of pre-build actions designed just for Mac, users can share files, make animated GIFs and much more. While power users can take things further and use the Shortcuts Editor to match workflows. Shortcuts is intergrated throughout macOS, including the menu bar, Finder, Sportlight and even hands free with Sir. Users of Automator can import their existing workflows into Shortcuts too.

Notes

Notes can help users stay organised, collaboirate and create notes from anywhere. With Quick Note much like on iPadOS15, users can jot down notes from anywhere in any app or website. Making it easy to capture thoughts and ideas whenever. You can even links from an app to a Quick Note to create context or even an address in Maps. Add mentions and see everyone’s edits in Acitivity View and categorise Notes with Tags to quicklt and easily find them in the new Tag Browser and tag-based Smart Folders.

Focus

Focus on Mac can stay in the moment by filtering unwanted notifications unrelated to what they are doing. You can signal your status to let others know when you are focusing and not available. When you are in Focus on one device you are in Focus across all Apple devices. All of this is custom to their current activity too.

FaceTime

Much like FaceTime updates to iPadOS 15 and iOS15, Mac OS Monterey also has the same new upgrades:
  • FaceTime now includes a suite of new audio and video features that make calls feel more natural and lifelike. With spatial audio, voices in a FaceTime call sound like they are coming from where the person is positioned on the screen, while Voice Isolation ensures the user’s voice is crystal clear and uses machine learning to eliminate background noise, and Wide Spectrum allows all the sound in the area to come through so participants can hear everything. Portrait mode taps into the Apple Neural Engine in the M1 chip to blur the user’s background for a stunning video effect, and a new Grid View shows participants in same-sized tiles.
  • SharePlay is a powerful set of system features that enables users to have shared experiences while on a FaceTime call. Users can share their favourite music, TV shows, movies, projects, and more with friends and family in real time — kicking off a shared listening party, watching movies and shows, collaborating in apps through screen sharing, and more. With an API built for easy adoption, third-party developers can bring their own apps right into FaceTime.
  • Shared with You makes it easy to locate and enjoy all the great content that’s shared through Messages, including photos, videos, articles, and more, right from a Shared with You tab within Photos, Safari, Apple Podcasts, Apple News, and the Apple TV app.

Continuity

Universal Control will let users work with a single mouse and keyboard and move between Mac and iPad for a seamless experience, with no setup required! Users can even drag and drop files between each of your devices. You can sketch on iPad and then move it to a Keynote slide on Mac! AirPlay to Mac allows you to play, present and share anything from their iPhone or iPad to their Mac! The Mac can also be used as an AirPlay speaker, so users can play music on their Mac or use their Mac as a secondary speaker for multi-room audio.

Additional New Features of macOS Monterey WWDC21

  • Maps gets the same update as iPadOS15 and iOS15 but it also has a new interactive globe too!
  • LiveText features in iPadOS15 and iOS15 also come to MacOS Monterey
  • iCloud+ also is available
  • Use your Airpods Pro and Airpods Max to deliver a new experience with Spatial Audio with Macs which have the M1 Chip
  • The all new Privacy features from iOS15 and iPadOS15 are also available.
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WatchOS 8 – WWDC21

watchOS 8 now offers better access to your Wallet, more capabilities with the Home app, new workout types, and an updated Breathe app.

Wallet

Apple Watch and watchOS8 can now have access to unlicking their car from a distance and start it from the drivers seat with supported vehicles. You can now have access to the keys that are in your Wallet which control the house, office and hotel. While in participating states in the US, you can add your drivers or state ID to Wallet. So watchOS 8 will have access to that too!

Home

Home app in watchOS 8 has even better conenient access to accessories and scenes needed in a particular moment and the ability to control accessories by room. For example, with a HomeKit enabled camera you can view who is at the door directly on your wrist. Also, you can also tap the Intercom to quickly broadcast a message throughout the home or to individual rooms via HomePod, HomePod Mini or other personal devices.

Workout Types

watchOS 8 introduces Tai Chi and Pilates to the workouts app. While, the new workouts are supported by powerful validate custom-built rate and motion algorithms to provide users with accurate metrics.

Mindfulness

Furthermore, the Breathe app has been reimagined as the Mindfulness app and will feature and enhanced Breathe experience and a new experience, Reflect. Reflect will offer a mindful intention to focus on as little as one minute and can be done at any time. Each Reflect session welcomes the user to think with a positive frame of mind. So, for example the app may ask you to “Recall a time when you recently felt a sense of calm. Bring that feeling into this moment”.

Sleep

Apple Watch can help users meet their sleep goals by establishing a pre-bedtime routine and will track metrics like time asleep, heart rate and blood oxygen. watchOS 8 will give users more insight to their sleeping respiratory rate, which is the number of breaths per minute. While, it does this via the in built accelerometer to measure respiratory rate whilst sleeping. It can be viewed along with trends over time on the Health app on iPhone.

Watch Faces

watchOS 8 introduces new ways to engage with your favourite photos. The new Portraits watch face brings to life stunning portrait photos which are shot on iPhone. With an immersive, multi-layered effect. Intelligently recognising faces in photos and cropping in to highlight the subject. The photos app is also redesigned. So, it will offer new ways to view and navigate collections, memories and featured photos which sync to Apple Watch.

Messages

Also, you can now combine the use of Scribble, dictaion and emoji all within the same message. For dictated messages you’ll have the option to edit the presented text. You can now also simply enter a word or phrase and select from loads of GIFs. Contacts app is now available on watchOS8 too! While, allowing you to browse, edit, add and share contacts directly from the app.

Focus

watchOS8 supports Focus which is on iPadOS 15, iOS 15 and Mac OS Monterey. Helping you to reduce distraction, it will filter notifications based on what you are doing. While, Focus will use on-device intelligence to make suggestions based on usage patterns.

Additional watchOS 8 Updates – WWDC21

  • Multiple Timers can now be set and given a label, for example Cooking Timer and Laundry Timer.
  • More Apple Watch Apps support Always-On display such as Maps, Phone, Podcasts, Stop Watch and more.
  • While, Assistive Touch enables one arm usage of Apple Watch by sensing hand gestures to interact without touching the display.
  • Furthermore, Find My is available on Apple Watch allowing users to locate tagged items using the Find My Network. The Find Devices app which is new helps users locate Apple Devices. Which are signed in using the same Apple ID.
  • While, Apple Music App has been redesigned
  • Weather App now supports severe weather notifications, displaying government alerts about certain severe weather events. As well as Next Hour Precipitation alerts and updated complications.
  • Also, later in June, Fitness+ introduces a new series of workouts featuring Jeanette Jenkins. A new Artist Spotlight Series with workouts featuring entire playlists from Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban, and Alicia Keys.
(Apple)
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talking tom

Talking Tom and his POKE-A-THON!

21st July 2020/in Entertainment/by billywright

Outfit7 is celebrating it’s 10 year anniversary of Talking Tom this summer! Talking Tom made his global debut in his first game in July 2010 and instantly became an overnight sensation! 10 years and 13 billion downloads later, Outfit7 is inviting fans to a special “POK-A-TOM’ event from July 20th to July 30th.

The reason behind this? Can Tom’s fans poke him 10 billion times in 10 days?

The anniversary event is taking place in a total of four of Tom’s most popular games: Talking Tom Cat, My Talking Tom, My Talking Tom 2, and My Talking Tom Friends.

During the celebration the total number of pokes will be displayed on a “POK-A-METER” on the Outfit7 official website. While if players manage to complete the challenge, (10 billion pokes) every player will be gifted a generous in-game currency bundle. More times Tom gets poked, the bigger the reward!

“Fans have poked Tom almost too many times to count since 2010,”  

“Over 400 million fans play with the games every month, so we wanted them to be included in the celebration by doing more of what they love – and getting fun rewards to enjoy with Tom in return!”

Xinyu Qian, CEO of Outfit7

Over The Years

Tom has changed a lot over the past 10 years. Tom has inspired the Talking Tom and Friends Franchise, which now includes a total of 23 mobile games, digital video content, which has over 56 billion views and a movie that’s in development! The original game was named as one of Android’s “Most Downloaded Games of All Time!”

Go ahead and poke Tom and see how many pokes we can all get by downloading his mobile games here:

Android / Apple

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Folding iPhone Exciting Concept!

14th May 2020/in Gadgets / Tech/by billywright

Folding iPhone. The one rumour that just won’t go away. Noe the team over at #iOS beta news have created a rather cool concept. The Folding iPhone looks like a cross between a Samsung Galaxy Z Flip or the rebooted Motorola Razr.

In the video above we see the iPhone Flip, a handset that when folded out in phone form, has really thin bezels. The notch is gone and has replaced by a centre mounted pin-hole camera. The back has the usual tipped iPhone camera array.

The video also shows a backplate-mounted secodary screen.Which can display content, notifcations and messages when the phone is in clamshell mode.

The rumours of a folding iPhone and the hundreds of concepts as a result. Have come from a patent from Apple depicting a folding iPhone. Now you know as well as I do that not all patents get made. So who knows maybe Apple are planning a folding iPhone, maybe they’re not, they may just be testing the water. But whatever happens, we know that Apple tend to wait until the tech has been perfected before adding it into their smartphones.

(T3)

So I guess we’ll have to wait and see. Until then we can enjoy the plenty of concepts that are on the web today.

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AirPods Pro – Music To Your Ears

29th October 2019/in Gadgets / Tech/by marcusbronzy

 

AirPods Go Pro

Airpods Go Pro!

Posted by How To Kill an Hour on Tuesday, 29 October 2019

 

The AirPods Pro are here and they offer noise cancellation and hands-free access to Siri for $249. There was a bunch of design changes as the stems are shorter, there’s silicone tips to offer a better seal and a wider bigger charging case. (Which is still wireless charging!) Furthermore Apple magic helps you fit the buds perfectly. The use of the Ear Tip Fit Test will examine the seal for each ear, determining which size tip is best!

Apple says the AirPods Pro “superior sound quality” with audio feature called Adaptive EQ. Adaptive EQ will automatically tune the low and mid range frequencies to suit each person’s ears. AirPods pro have an amplifier on board for “pure, incredibly clear sound” and extended battery life. Bass will be produced down to 20Hz to create an “immersive” audio quality for the listener.

Active Noise Cancellation

Active Noise Cancellation works by employing two microphones on each earbud which continuously adapt the level of noice cancellation to your ears. One mic will listen to ambient sound around you, while the other will pick up any additional sound inward. Continuously analysing the sound 200 times per second! Impressive! Furthermore to promote safety, Apple have included a ‘transparency mode’.

This is for when you need to hear what’s going on or you need to chat to someone. You can activate it on the earbud itself via the force sensor or through the control center. The force sensor can also be used to play/pause, skip and answer calls. However volume adjustments will need to be done on your iPhone.

Battery life is 5hours with active noise cancelling turned off and 4.5hrs with active noise cancelling turned on. With the included wireless charging case, you can expect up to 24hrs of total listening time.

AirPods cost £249, begin shipping on 30th Oct and you can purchase your own here

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Mario Kart Tour

28th August 2019/in Entertainment/by billywright

Mario Kart Tour originally was planned to be released on mobile platforms in March of this year (2019). As Nintendo delayed the release of a mobile version of the the ever popular karting game to give it a nice polish.

Now, Nintendo have announced that the official launch date for Mario Kart Tour. That release date is not too far away at all. You can strap in, put the pedal to the metal on September 25th. For those eager to play Mario Kart Tour you can sign up for pre-registrations for both the Android and iOS versions of the game on the game’s official website. By doing this, players will be notified as soon as the game is ready to download.

There was a closed beta of the game and up until now, Nintendo didn’t give too much information away about Mario Kart Tour. The game features race courses inspired by iconic real world cities which rotate every two weeks. The game is “free-to-start”, which means players will have to decide whether to spend money on it. The Microtransactions will be used to unlock features and perhaps even characters.

This game looks absolutely incredible and we cannot wait to give it a go for ourselves. Nintendo will be releasing more information via their official Twitter account. So keep an eye on Twitter for more details as the games release date approaches.

Welcome to the official #MarioKartTour Twitter account! Buckle up, because we have a lot of information to share as we race towards launch! pic.twitter.com/EbG5WB0dVa

— Mario Kart Tour (@mariokarttourEN) August 27, 2019

 

(Endgadget)

 

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Google Maps AR

Google Maps AR

2nd April 2019/in Gadgets / Tech/by billywright

We came across the below tweet earlier on the week and we are very very impressed! Who needs Google Glasses or Apple Glasses when you have got your phone and AR! Say hello to Google Maps AR! It’s now looking like it’s starting to roll it out slowly to some users

https://twitter.com/ow/status/1106211516217470977

Google announced this feature in May of 2018 at it’s annual I/O developer conference. At the time it was called the AR Visual Positioning System. Which provided a layer of augmented reality over reality. Just raise your phone in front of your eyes and you are given directions of where to go. Whereas if you were to put your phone down it will revert back to the traditional map view.

It doesn’t look like something I’d use all the time and Rachel Inman the AR lead for the project told the Wall Street Journal that it’s not meant to be used as a primary navigation tool. Rather intended to be put to use when looking for a difficult to find specific road.

(Mashable)

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Nadaland

7th March 2019/in Entertainment/by billywright

Swiss from So Solid Crew stopped by recently to discuss his latest single with Funk Butcher Swipe Delete however, he also mentioned that he has an app out! He has formed a company called Tekspurtz and created a gaming app which is similar to the game flappy bird! It’s called Nadaland and is a side scrolling flap and shoot action/platforming game.

See more information below:

Nadaland

The Nadaland Empire is full of specially bred hybrid birds raised by the Royal Family and turned into soldiers in order to keep Nadaland a safe place. Enemies often try to steal eggs for themselves but are always unsuccessful in their attempts. However one particular individual got lucky…..

You play as Mr Stay Fly – The most advanced hybrid and the most senior guard of the Royal Family. Your duty is to return as many eggs as possible to save the new breed from possible extinction.

The King has an old friend “The Owl of Wisdom” who will help guide and give you helpful hints along the way.

You must battle your way through a wide range of enemies and bosses in order to do so and also did I forget to mention your girlfiend has been kidnapped by the bad guys too!! (can someone say Cliché!!!).

This Demo features:
– The first Level + Boss fight
– Full use of power ups

The Full game features:

– 7 crazy levels each with incremental difficulty
– Bonus Rounds – collect 100 eggs to activate each bonus level where you collect EVEN MORE EGGS!!
– 5 powerups to tactically help you in the right scenarios
– Shooting with unlimited bullets but an overheat feature to avoid spamming and force you to be more tactical! ha ha
– Good variety of enemies and obstacles
– Boss fights!!! yes they come in all shapes and sizes.
– The game is FREE to download but will include IAP’s and Ads – Ads will be an optional watch but give you a chance to get some freebies.
– A Shop with goodies.
– Achievements – specific targets required to gain stars to unlock later levels

Note:

-No internet connection required to play!!!
-Some images like the menu and level select screen are still a work in progress and will be finalized in the full version.

(Tekspurtz / GOOGLE)

Download Nadaland here: Apple / Android

Listen to the guys chatting about this by clicking here! 

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Data Meme

What are your most Data Draining Apps?

25th February 2019/in Gadgets / Tech/by billywright
We all love our data and back in the day there was a stupid amount charged per MB! So, wouldn’t we all like to save MB’s where possible? We all don’t like that dread text message towards the end of the month that you’re about to run out of data. Therefore wouldn’t you like to know which apps are sucking the life out of your data plan? Well we’ve got some data for you! (See what we did there) A study, conducted by Mobile Phones Direct, explored the data usage of a number of apps that hurt your data balance.
First of all, daily video and music streaming is doing you more harm than good and it’s hitting your data, HARD. If you use BBC iPlayer and Channel 5’s My 5 then you’re gonna have to cut back. As they’ve been named as the worst offending video apps for data drainage. Taking up to a gig, a GIG of data for an hour of streaming.  Suprisingly Netflix uses very little data at 314mb. See the handy chart below for more:

Quick Tip: 

Download on Netflix to allow videos to be played offline to save data. However, if you don’t wish to download videos, let the show buffer whilst you are on WiFi network and then watch on your mobile network. Therefore you aren’t using any data as the file has already buffered on your phone! Furthermore on YouTube you can head into settings and make sure that the ‘limit mobile data usage’ option is ticked. This will force the app to only watch videos in HD when connected to a WiFi Network.

Music Streaming however, there may be a different way to save data, if you’re a Spotify user. Tthere’s a way to help limit the way that it uses your data! As well as changing the quality of the music, making the music available offline, or downloading the music that Spotify (and many other apps) offer you, you can do more.
With Spotify only there’s an app called Spotify Lite (Currently only available on Android). This version of the app only takes up 15mb of memory compared to 100mb. Most of all, the app doesn’t allow HQ music to be played. If you’re an Apple Music or a Tidal user however, then they take up the most data when listening for an hour. Tidal gobbles up 184mb compared to Spotify using almost 100mb less.

(Deloitte)

(Mobile Phones Direct) 

*Mobile Phones Direct watched 5 minutes of content from each app and multiplied it to determine the total data usage over an hour. Each video was watched on both an  iPhone 7 plus and XR in HD using 4G. Results may vary.

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10 year Challenge for Phones

#10YearChallenge – Smartphone Edition

18th February 2019/in Gadgets / Tech/by billywright

The #10YearChallenge has only just finished sweeping the world. However, what would the #10YearChallenge look like if our smartphones undertook this challenge instead? CompareMyMobile have undertook a really cool study on how the smartphone world looked 10years ago. It’s very suprising to be fair! We’ve come a very long way!

For example 10 years ago only 17% of adults had a smartphone, compared to a whopping 78% of adults currently. Which as a result we are more addicted to our smartphones than we ever were. They’ve also changed in a number of other ways

  • Costs – the mobile phones of today are in some cases 7 times more expensive than they were in 2009
  • Memory capacity – it has increased 16 times in some cases
  • Display is twice as big (or more!) compared to mobile phones in 2009
  • Camera – smartphone cameras today have at least 3 times (or more pixels) than in 2009

CompareMyMobile.com has compiled a list of the most talked about phones in 2009 and compared them to their 2019 rivals from the same manufacturer. They also took a look at what contracts were on offer to punters in 2009 too!

Contracts

They discovered that in 2009, upfront costs for phones and monthly payments were a lot cheaper (unsurprisingly) however, what is shocking is that some of the 2019 prices compared to their 2009 equivalent have TRIPLED! Whereas mobile devices were affordable in 2009 when looking at upfront costs. While in some cases monthly payments are fairly similar. The one thing that is surprising. If you look at all of the contracts today for smartphones. It’s normal to expect Gigs of data. It’s crazy to think now, but in 2009, some networks were charging  £5 per megabyte for internet usage!!

In 2009 500 texts per month, which was deemed as quite good. Minutes were 100-900minutes. Fast forward to 2019 and both those are often listed as unlimited. (Who calls these days anyway?)

(CompareMyMobile)

Please see two examples below!

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12

For a much more detailed look at the #10YearChallenge Smartphone edition please click here! There’s a look at past popular smartphones developers such as Blackberry’s (remember BBM!?) and the ever favourite Nokia.

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Might and Magic: Elemental Guardians

Might and Magic: Elemental Guardians

10th June 2018/in Entertainment/by billywright

Might and Magic: Elemental Guardians is an RPG game that is a lot of fun, when we say a lot of fun we mean alot of fun! Now I have never been a big fan of turn based RPG games myself, but I’ve always given them a go, and I’m glad that I gave Might and Magic: Elemental Guardians a go!

Why?

Addictive RPG!

As I cannot put it down, I’m always on it now! I almost missed my train earlier because I was too busy fighting the enemies and upgrading my little creatures! The aim of Might and Magic: Elemental Guardians is to battle your way through  the various lands and elements to claim victory and rule over the land once more. You are tasked with taking hold of up to 4 creatures of your choosing, whilst utilising the mystic powers of your hero to help them along the way. Once you have chosen your creatures you are then tasked with choosing which magic that your character is responsible for. Furthermore, those House Magic choices are either Materia, Chimera or Anima. With each of them giving you an extra edge against your opponent be that extra attack speed, extra defence or even taking away an enemies ability. So, for example, making them more vulnerable to attacks!

Character Progression

Each character is able to be ranked up and leveled up, however, choose wisely as ranking up requires you to sacrifice other members of your team! Consequently this is where the replayability of this game comes into play, if you want to keep all of your strongest creatures. The task would be to rank up your least favourite creatures and then use them to rank up your favoured battle creatures! It’s a bit of a pain but, it allows you to keep playing for much longer! Each creature is able to hold up to 6 glyphs which allow you to increase the abilities of your creatures, so much like other RPG games you have to be tactical in what you upgrade as to best achieve success!

Furthermore with many games these days there are various tasks that you have to complete to earn achievements. Yet, this is where Might and Magic: Elemental Guardians separates itself from the pack. The achievements that you unlock unlock special tokens and other various magic elements to help you either upgrade your creatures or help them along the way to evolve into bigger better creatures! Yet, the evolving is a marathon more than a sprint as it takes A LOT to evolve them. Hence why this game is for the long haul and not for a quick 10minute play. Well you can play for 1o minutes but that 10minutes may turn into an hour. As I’ve found out more than once this week!

Might and Magic is out now! Please see below for more information and a link to download the game!

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Game Info

Enter the world of Might & Magic: Elemental Guardians – a fast-paced strategy RPG based on the medieval fantasy realm of Might & Magic.
Journey through enchanted lands, collecting fierce and fantastic elemental creatures, and evolve a team of mighty warriors to summon to battle on the path to victory.

ENROLL IN THE ACADEMY OF MAGIC
• Create, customize and level up your own hero
• Choose a House of Magic: Materia, Chimera or Anima
• Use the mystic powers of your House to triumph in the arena

SUMMON A LEGENDARY TEAM
• Discover and collect hundreds of fantastic beasts and iconic creatures
• Watch their evolution from cute companions to legendary war allies
• Equip your team with arcane Glyphs to enhance their abilities

TRAIN & BATTLE
• Level up your creatures to unlock their true might
• Compete in the PvP Arena to rise up the league leaderboards
• Participate in Live Events to win epic prizes and rare items
• Ally with your friends in Guilds for mighty team adventures

LEAD YOUR TEAM TO VICTORY
• Face fierce opponents in fast and strategic RPG battles
• Use the elements of Fire, Water, Air and Earth tactically to gain the advantage
• Cast epic spells and use magical abilities of different elements

BECOME A HERO OF LEGENDS
• Journey through the fabled fantasy realms of Might & Magic
• Complete diverse daily quests and earn special rewards
• Enjoy beautiful graphics and unique creature designs

This app contains In-App Purchases which allow you to buy in-game currency. In-game currency can also be collected by playing the game without requiring any purchase. [Apple/Ubisoft]

To download Might and Magic Elemental Guardians please click here Apple / Android

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