YotaPhone 2 Review

May 20, 2015 By Karen Jackson Leave a Comment

The YotaPhone 2 is available for pre-order in the US – finally!

But is it worth it? It’s kinda expensive, and there are other smartphones on the market that could satisfy your tech needs. But before you settle on something, let’s talk about the yota smartphone, and see if it suits you.

The YotaPhone 2 is one of the coolest smartphones on the market at this moment, and guess what? It has two displays. It boggles the mind at first, but when you understand how it actually works it doesn’t seem that confusing. The partnership, the marriage if you will, between E Ink, and LCD had me intrigued since I first heard of it back in 2014, and the dual-screen is an engineering marvel.

The Yoda Phone, oups, the Yota Device sports a beautiful, crips and fresh design, top-shelf specs, and a top-notch display.

The first time I put my hands on a Yota Device was way back in 2014, and I fell in love with it – it felt different back then, and its new iteration feels quite exquisite. A bigger display, higher resolution, and that E Ink screen are garnering cool points from me, but it may not be for everyone. Here’s why.

The Yota Phone

We are going to start with its design, but keep in mind that it hasn’t changed since its first installment, and I really can’t say anything else about it that you don’t already know. Just by gazing at a couple of pictures you have it all figured out – it actually looks almost like a Nexus S. The E Ink panel is behind, and the tight-held display is still the same, but when you take a look at its hardware, at the Yota tech inside, you’ll witness some major changes.

The sturdy device isn’t waterproof, nor it is completely made out of metal or anodized aluminium, but it’s still premium quality build. The glass-fiber reinforced plastic is more than enough – well, unless you plan on murdering someone with your smartphone, and both of you making it alive out of the whole ordeal, then no, it’s not enough.

Gorilla Corning Glass 3 protects the device from unwanted accidents – it spans the entire front and back of the handset, thus making the device really hard to bend.

Around the plastic band you’ll notice the smartphone’s ports, and of course buttons.

On top

The headphone jack

On bottom

The micro-USB port is surrounded by a grille loudspeaker.

On the right side

The power button, and the volume rocker – which is actually a nano-Sim tray too.

Display and Yota Tech

The YotaPhone 2 weighs about 145 grams, and its size of 144 x 69.5 x 8.9 mm perfectly encompasses a 5-inch display – although, it seems a little bigger when you compare it a your average 5-inch display smartphone. It looks a little bit bloated but you won’t even care, because you’ll be wondering how did they manage to build two displays, a 2,500 mAh battery, and wireless charging into it.

Now if you turn it over, like an abnormal human being, you’ll see the E Ink display. Now, it may not be really that comfortable using the secondary display, because you’ll constantly feel the other one on your palm, but it seriously depends on what kind of a person you are – if you’re like me then you’ll have a problem with this, if you’re like my roommate Mark, then you’ll absolutely love this. I don’t understand people.

It won’t stop you from using it for an extended period of time, but you’ll definitely feel the sharp edges – maybe a block form would have been more welcome to this type of a device.

Also, you don’t need to worry about scratching your primary display with whatever rings, or jewellery you’re wearing – I fully trust Corning Gorilla Glass 3 to protect my device even when I’m dropping my smartphone on spikes. Corning Gorilla Glass 4 is dubbed a Klutz’s best friend.

Now, a question for every smartphone lover. If you have two displays, on what side do you put your smartphone down? The E Ink one, or on its primary display?

It really doesn’t matter, because like I said before, it features CGG 3 – but if you’re feeling really paranoiac get the bumper case accessory. More so if you think of yourself of being too much of a clumsy man.

I’ve gotten some strange looks from people in the subway while using the E Ink side – people will think you’re crazy when you switch to the back of your phone and start meddling with it.

The YotaPhone 2 has grown a little bit since its first iteration. The 4.2-inch, 720p display has become a 5-inch, 1080p display, and at 442 ppi it’s one gorgeous device. The new installment has an AMOLED display – and they are known for their quality. It can output deep black, and vibrant colours, crisp and sharp images. I’ve even found the viewing angles to be perfect – I can say that I have never used a more polished smartphone in my entire life.

If you plan on gazing down on your smartphone on a sunny day you shouldn’t be worried, because readability is good, and the auto-brightness doesn’t fidget like other so-called flagship devices – I’m looking at you iPhone 6.

The E Ink display is also a little bigger than the previous launched yota phone – it stands at 4.7 inches, a resolution of 960×540, and at 235 ppi is more than a second-gen Kindle Paperwhite can output. But that’s not the greatest thing about the E Ink display – it now supports multi-touch.

It sounds really great, but I’ve found a problem that would seriously bug the living hell out of you. Well, both screens can’t be active at the same time – no problem, you may say; but you can unlock the second E Ink screen by accident – and this accident has a repro rate of 5/5.

How come?

Android has a built-in feature that allows you to unlock the second display using only three fingers, and since everyone holds their smartphones with their thumb, and three fingers, this may be a nuisance. While using your primary display, you may unlock the secondary one thus locking the first. The built-in Android feature can be disabled easily from settings, and I highly recommend you doing so.

I must warn you that if you perform a dragging gesture on the E Ink display you’ll encounter the same problem, but in order for you to perform the correct gesture you’ll need a high dose of bad luck. It’s really infrequent.

Yota Camera

I’m a little bit disappointed how the camera works. Its front facing camera that is primary used for video calls, and selfies has changed for the better. From the 1 megapixel camera it has grown to a 2.1 megapixel selfie maker. Unfortunately I can’t say the same about the primary camera. It has actually been downgraded from 13 megapixels to 8 measly ones. It’s already a really expensive smartphone, and this is probably the reason why they reduced the camera’s capability – although, I don’t agree with their decision.

It’s not that it outputs horrible quality, it’s actually decent, but that’s the whole problem. When you’re paying so much money for a high-end device you expect it to be great in every way.

The quality of the images taken are great for Facebook or if you want to share something with your friends via WhatsApp, but don’t expect to win photographer of the year award with Yota.

It comes with the standard Android camera app, but almost everyone installs a different app almost immediately.

Yota Software

YotaPhone 2 comes with 4.4.3 Kitkat, but you can update your device to 5.0 Lollipop.

There isn’t that much bloatware on your device – you got all the Android basic apps – two browsers, a music player, an office suite, a multilingual dictionary, or translator, and a non-removable Russian e-book service. You can ignore all of them, as they don’t clog up your smartphone, nor do they suck-dry the RAM from it.

One of the problems that I had with the YotaPhone’s first iteration was that the software wasn’t really that usable on the second E Ink screen, thus making it quite useless. They seem to have learned from their past mistakes, and the first time you launch your device you are prompted to a tutorial that teaches you all about the secondary display – how to properly use it, and how to take full advantage out of it.

The walktrough doesn’t last more than a couple of minutes, and in no-time you’ll flip back and forth like a bad-ass Jedi master!

Yota Mirror

This is why you should buy a Yota Phone. With one push of a button, you can translate the fully functional Android on your primary screen to your E Ink secondary display – simply just push the homey key on your primary display, and drag your thumb to the left, where the YotaMirror icon is located.

It’s a selling point for the device. The refresh rate can withstand almost anything you challenge it to, but be careful if, and when you want to watch videos – it will actually drain the phone’s battery faster.

You’re not buying the E Ink display for gaming, or clips, you’re buying it because it offers the possibility of reading books, articles, and surfing the web without draining your battery dry.

I basically use it for reading, and selecting tracks from my music player, or Spotify.

Yota Performance and Battery Life

Your high-end device sports a quad-core 2.2 GHz Snapdragon 800 chip, 2 GB of RAM, and 32 GB of on-board storage – unfortunately you don’t have the possibility of adding more storage, because that’s the maximum you can get, and there is no micro-SD card slot.

You’ll have no problems running everything that’s currently on the app store.

Yota is of course 4G, and it sports the usual features dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, GPS and GLONASS.

When talking about the YotaPhone 2’s battery life you should know that it isn’t what you were expecting. It’s really great, but don’t let the E Ink display fool you. It lasted me about 2 whole days, and I used the device constantly, but there’s a huge difference in terms of battery-life if you only use the AMOLED primary display. A day’s worth of battery isn’t that bad, but it ain’t great either.

Yota’s Competition

The handset is available in almost all of the European Countries, and the Middle East. Now you can even pre-order it if you reside in the US. It costs about $850 depending where you’re buying the device from.

In this price range I can recommend the iPhone 6, and the Galaxy S6 – they are almost $850.

There aren’t that many contenders that offer the same capabilities that the YotaPhone 2 offers.

Conclusion

It’s really one of the best phones around, and the Yota smartphone, the Yota phone, the Yota mobile or simply Yoda – whatever you want to call it; is quite a nice addition to your arsenal. I highly recommend it.

Pros

– Beautiful dual-screen

– Top notch E Ink screen

– Top-shelf performance

– Great battery

Cons

– Quite expensive

– Mediocre camera

– It’s uncomfortable when using the secondary display

Image Source: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

Google has Started a Cloud War!

May 20, 2015 By Michael Turner Leave a Comment

The cloud wars are real, and they are being fought on common ground – or at least, that’s what Google hopes!

Google has just cut down on prices for its Compute Engine by 30 percent, and has made Amazon, its primary challenger, re-consider their strategies.

The big G has also introduce a new a new Preemptible Virtual Machine – it’s able to deliver short-term computing capacity at a low, and fixed price. If Amazon doesn’t change its tactics immediately, they will most likely lose a ton of clients to Google.

The Google Cloud Platform Blog states that – ” Compared to other public cloud providers, Google Cloud Platform is now 40 percent less expensive for many workloads. Starting today, we are reducing prices of all Google Compute Engine Instance types as well as introducing a new class of preemptible virtual machines that deliver short-term capacity for a very low, fixed cost.”

This means that in the US a standard instance will be 20 percent cheaper, and a micro-instance will be 30 percent less. Europe, and Asia haven’t received the same treatment yet, and the price reduction will come in the near future, maybe even next month.

Google states that their clients have the upper-hand when it comes down to saving money – they will be paying 40 percent less than what other individuals are paying using a competitors services wink wink Amazon.

Microsoft, and Amazon are most likely to counter Google’s offer, so be patient and don’t move just yet from a service to another. Most analysts think that the services will get even more cheaper in the years to come, eventually leading to it being completely free.

Now, Google introduced their Preemptible Virtual Machines, that cost $0.015, and they are 70 percent cheaper than their non-preemptible siblings. But there is a catch to this. Google doesn’t guarantee that their VM’s will run continuously. This shouldn’t pose as a problem, because you use them only in a cluster, and if one drops, the cluster won’t suffer – also, you’ll receive a notification 30 seconds prior to it going offline.

Image Source: 1, 2

Build a Mars Habitat for NASA and You’ll be Rewarded!

May 20, 2015 By Nancy Young Leave a Comment

A proper 3D printed Mars habitat would not only make the lives of the first colonists easier, but also it could ensure their safety. The NASA contest focuses on safety, human exploration, and of course colonisation.

The best design for a printable Mars Habitat will receive $2.25 million – but this is no easy feat to achieve. There are so many factors to take into consideration, and to be honest, you can’t exactly predict what’s going to happen on a planet you’ve never been too. Sure, you may guess, and speculate, but we’re talking about human lives here.

NASA is also looking to reduce the costs of materials needed, and to reduce the amount of materials needed to built shelters on location.

Participants in the The 3D Printed Habitat Challenge will need to demonstrate how someone can actually build their design – quick, and sturdy are pluses.

NASA’s contest has 3 phases.

Phase 1

It’s all about the habitat’s design – no, they aren’t looking for that gorgeous architectural design, they are looking for efficiency. In this phase, participants are tasked to take advantage of what 3D printers offer. 30 plans will be selected to move to the next phase, and the winner of the first round will receive a $50,000 cash prize.

Phase 2

The Structural Member Competition is the next round, and it focuses on building the habitat from what materials can be found on the landing site – discarded parts from spaceships, and other resources that can be found on arrival. In order to do so, we need advanced fabrication technologies – not only those that come with added capabilities have the possibility of moving on, but also those who reduce the cost of materials needed, and are quick to build.

Phase 3

The last round consists of members actually showing NASA how they would construct their design on Mars utilizing the 3D printed technology. It is yet unknown if participants will be needed to construct their habits in a setting that will emulate Mars exactly. The winner of phase 2, and phase 3 will receive a $1.1 million cash prize.

For more information about the contest and its rules go to the official website.

We all know how shelter is important, and on Earth we consider it to be a basic necessity – unfortunately, we don’t consider it a basic human right, but maybe soon mankind will solve this mystery. Building proper shelters on Mars is a top priority to colonists, and if they are poorly made it could mean the death of our pioneers.

Sam Ortega, Centennial Challenges program manager has stated that – ” The future possibilities for 3-D printing are inspiring, and the technology is extremely important to deep space exploration. This challenge definitely raises the bar from what we are currently capable of, and we are excited to see what the maker community does with it.”

Everyone is urged to compete in NASA’s contest – amateur, and professionals alike. You may send submissions until August the 3rd, and the competition will run through September the 27th at the New York Hall of Science.

“If we can solve for the need to ship materials, we can develop solutions for a variety of scenarios, including those for humanitarian and disaster relief efforts on earth, wherever affordable housing is needed and access to conventional building materials is limited.” the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute has reported on their official website.

Image Source: 1, 2, 3

Did KFC Just Release a Keyboard Tray?

May 19, 2015 By Kenneth Scott Leave a Comment

It really seems like KFC just released a keyboard tray. But how? and why?

It’s an advertising campaign made by a Germany-based KFC restaurant, and by God, if it isn’t the perfect solution to our first world problem.

We’ve all been at least once in our lives to a fast food restaurant – yes, even you hipster vegan; and while we munched on our frozen delicacies we also craved for our other addiction – social media. But how to combine them both? Hipster vegan must know!

KFC seems like it solved this problem, even though it’s an advertising stunt.

The super-thin, rechargeable Bluetooth keyboard can be easily paired with any smartphone and it comes on your tray of food.

The KFC keyboard tray was built by Serviceplan and it’s actually a high-tech product. This cutting edge technology has been around since 2013 thanks to brilliant minds over at UK-based CSR. Take a look down below and how magnificent it is.

Now let’s get back to our favourite fast food chain – not!

Serviceplan claims that the all of the keyboard trays were taken home on day one – “every single one … was taken home.”; and who wouldn’t? They are grease resistant, you can clean them easily, they fold however you like, and you can take them anywhere you want to go. Sure, it has the KFC logo all over it, but nobody’s going to care. Although, maybe if you try to use it while eating at McDonalds you’ll get some nasty looks from the staff.

This isn’t the craziest thing that a fast food chain has ever pulled.

Still talking about KFC, but this time in Japan. Last year, they released a keyboard, mouse and USB stick all in the shapes of fried chicken. Also earrings.

I think I’ll have to take a trip to my local KFC restaurant and put some pressure on them – I really want a foldable keyboard tray. I really do!

Image Source: 1, 2, 3

Nikon Built a Doggy Camera

May 19, 2015 By Karen Jackson Leave a Comment

Who said dogs can’t be photographers, or is it pho-dog-graphers? Nikon developed a doggy camera with a built-in heart monitor. It pays attention to the pet’s heartbeat and once it sky rockets it takes a photo.

Dogs are curious little creatures, and they get excited super easy, so Nikon built their new camera with this in mind. Whether it is getting a treat, sniffing other doggy butts, or just meeting a new pet friend, you’ll have a library full of doggy experiences to gaze at.

Nikon’s Heartography mechanism will capture every emotion your buddy sees on a daily basis. Heartography consists of two parts:

a) the elastic heart-monitoring band

and

b) the SmartCase for the camera.

It’s no rocket science, and Nikon isn’t the first ones to build this kind of thing, but by God, their promo video looks super adorable.

Meet Grizzler, the first canine photographer that will melt your heart!

Now, it doesn’t seem to be a consumer product, because I haven’t seen it being sold anywhere on this planet, and if you go to their official website you don’t get any pricing information, nor when it will be available. It looks tons of fun, and I’ll most likely buy it for my Akita-Inu – his name is Vadim.

But a couple of lines ago I hinted that Nikon weren’t the only ones in the doggy camera business. Until we figure out when they’ll be planning on selling their product, you might want to take a look at what GoPro has.

GoPro’s Fetch is basically a glorified harness. You can attach your GoPro camera to your doggy’s back, or belly – doesn’t matter if your furry friend weighs 15 pounds or 120, because the Fetch is universal. It has padded material, and a tether to help prevent losing your camera when your dog goes on a wild spree of sniffing, and pooping on everything he sees.

This one is available, and it’s only $70.

Image Source: 1

Nexus 2015 Rumours

May 19, 2015 By Deborah Campbell Leave a Comment

We’ve rounded up some of the rumoured features the iPhone 6s will probably have in a recent article so I think it’s the perfect time to show some love to its rival – Google Nexus!

I absolutely loved LG-made Nexus 4, and 5, and when Motorola-made Nexus 6 hit stores, and subsequently my hands, I felt what only a kid on Christmas day who received socks can feel. But no more, because Google is once again partnering with LG, and newcomer Huawei.

There are reports that Google will launch two Nexus smartphones this year – one made by LG, and the other by Huawei. But we don’t know this for sure, and maybe the two companies are bundling together to make the supreme smartphone! Or a smartphone, and a tablet. Maybe a phablet and a smartphone! The possibilities are, well, not endless, but there are a couple of options here.

Artem Russakovskii, a respected and well know tech aficionado reports that there will indeed be two devices to hit 2015. One made by LG that will sport a 5.2-inch screen, and a phablet made by Huawei at 5.7-inch.

” If Google indeed rolls with both, it’d be the first time two Nexus phones came out in the same year – a strategy that makes a whole lot of sense to me as not everyone is into behemoths like a Nexus 6.” said Artem.

Google went to LG for the Nexus 6, but the company refused to work on the new iteration in the series. It’s quite a back and forth relationship they have, and hopefully the rumours are not false – even though LG is denying of working on the new smartphone. LG has denied working on the fourth, and fifth installment as well, so I don’t quite believe them when they’re making statements.

Google’s Nexus may interfere with LG’s plans for 2015 – it’s already known that they are planning on releasing the LG G4, G Flex 2, and a G4 Note – the last one being a phablet.

Google released its Q1 2015 earning call, and it states that the company has witnessed a 23% growth over the year ranking up to $1.8 billion, but still it’s 3% less compared to Q3 of 2014. This revenue is based only on their smaller companies like Google Play and Google Store. Google CFO Patrick Pichette states that ” […] the year over year increase was driven by growth of the Play Store.”, and the decline is due partly because the Nexus 6 was priced the same as the iPhone 6.

So we should be expecting a price drop when the 2015 version will hit stores. Android buyers expect to get the most bang for their buck when acquiring their devices. Price really makes a difference, regardless of what Google may say, especially to Android devices. You can’t compare them to Apple’s line because not only do they have a cult following, but they are the only one producing smartphones that work with iOS. There is no competition in the iOS marketplace, but there is a ton of challengers on the Android market.

Well, now I’m just speculating, and hopefully, my speculations will come true – I think I can speak for everyone when I saw that we would love to see Google come back to the Nexus 4, and 5 business model.

One thing that confuses the hell out of me is what are they going to name their new smartphone? Can’t really name it the Nexus 7 because it already exists, and just adding 2015 to the title seems awful. Their probably re-name it completely so no more Nexus.

When should we be expecting it to drop?

If we take a look at the Google’s release schedule for its previous devices, then we should expect it to be released sometime in Q3 of this year.

What specs should we be expecting?

If the rumours are true that LG is indeed going to release the new iteration, then we should be expecting something like, or even better, the LG G4. It has some monster specs. We’ll probably witness QHD+ resolution, a new display technology, bigger and better camera, more RAM, and a new Corning Gorilla Glass protection for sure – amongst other things.

Image Source: 1, 2, 3, 4

You Can Buy Robots from Amazon!

May 19, 2015 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

When I was a wee child I was reading a ton of science fiction books, and robots felt like something human kind would be capable of creating sometime in the future – I was thinking more of 2050, or 2100, not 2015!

Did you know that you can buy robots from Amazon? I didn’t know until today, and it kinda shocked me. I just realized that we live in the future I was reading when I was a child. I’m all giddy now – what will 2020, or 2030 be like?

Technology is growing, some say exponentially, and with this growth more and more people seem to make it a part of their lives. Robots can make daily tasks a thing of the past.

Let’s see how down below!

Floor Mopping Robots iRobot Braava 320

When I call my friends over to my place they always leave the kitchen a complete mess. I swear, there are people that haven’t learned how to eat without dropping half of the food on the floor – and they are almost 30 years old *sigh*. I’m fed up with cleaning every time after them so the floor mopping robot Braava 320 comes in at the perfect time.

It can run on a single charge for about three hours and you can fit it with either a damp cloth, or a dry one – Braava has its own designed cloth with microfiber, but to be honest, anything will do. It can clean all hardwood surfaces including vinyl, hardwood and laminate.

Braava’s iRobot line has seen some tough places. Their military products are used by the US army in combat, and to protect themselves from danger. You won’t need to worry about enemies taking your house in a blitz play, because the Braava 320 will give its cogs and plastic for you! No, seriously, it won’t help you from house invaders, so get an alarm or a dog.

Anyway, it’s built with NorthStar Navigation System – an indoor GPS mechanism that tracks everything it has already cleaned, and it organizes itself where to go next. It marks walls, obstacles, and other things so each time it learns to clean the place faster, and better – I don’t like robots that are learning by themselves they scare me!

You can buy it on Amazon for $200!

Vacuum Cleaning Robots iRobot Roomba 880 for Pets and Allergies

An ex-roommate of mine had a serious problems with pets. He loved them with all his heart, but Jimmy had some nasty allergies to their fur or something like that. At one point he started sneezing and scratching himself while we were watching Rick and Morty on TV. I thought it was a gag he was trying to make, but he was in distress.

Now, if we had the Roomba 880 maybe he didn’t have to move out and take his sweet PS4 with him – that was his only redeeming quality.

Anyway, the Roomba 880 can be your cleaning buddy. It uses AeroForce Performance Cleaning. Big words, I know. Their system cleans, and traps allergens, and it’s highly efficient doing this too – it features HEPA filters.

HEPA filters, or high-efficiency particulate arrestance, is a type of air filter. I’m not going to get into the science that stands behind them. What you need to know is that they are really top notch, and those who suffer from random allergies should try to look into them and see how one can incorporate them in their day to day life.

Its navigation system, the Virtual Wall Lighthouse ensures that the Roomba 880 stays in one room, and cleans it until you can even eat off the floor.

You can buy it on Amazon for $700!

Self Cleaning Litter Box Robots Litter Robot LRII

I have a sweet little kitty cat that I take care of every day – mostly because my new cat overlord forces me to, but that’s a story for another time.

Sometimes I have to work late at the office, go grab a quick bite to eat, and get home only to shower, and sleep. There’s not much free time in my life any more. I still feed Bruno – I’m not a monster. I make time for that regardless of how busy my schedule is. But I really can’t make time to clean his litter box every time it starts to stink – last time I thought a sewage pipe erupted in the building, but no, it was from the bathroom.

This is were the Litter Robot LRII swoops in and saves the day – and my nose. It automatically cleans the litter box and it deposits the mess in its built-in large capacity drawer – you can set it up with a trash bag.

It doesn’t have any wires, or cables so you don’t need to worry about your cat chewing on them.

How much do you love your cat? Enough to pay $370? Yup, that’s how much it costs.

Robot Kits WowWee RoboMe

This one doesn’t do anything fancy – it won’t help you with anything in your house. It’s just an iPhone-powered robot that its owner can control it using voice commands. You can customize WowWee to track your face, and follow you around the house.

It can be used only with an iPhone, or an iPod Touch.

WowWee RoboMe costs about $130!

Robot Kits WowWee MiP Robot RC

It can interact with you using sounds, motion and its RGB LED eyes. It’s really intriguing, and the MiP Robot is really responsive.

It’s so fun when you see it follow your hand gestures. WowWee’s product can follow you around the house using his, oups, its unique two wheels balancing system.

WowWee MiP Robot costs about $100!

We’ve got one more robot for you to discover. It may be out of your price range. I know it’s out of mine’s.

The Kuratas Robot

I thought of adding this one just for giggles. It’s available only on Amazon Japan and it costs about, oh well, $1 million!

Yup, a million dollar robot. It’s fully functional, and it’s pretty darn huge – it’s actually a rideable mech robot! It stands at 3.8 meters tall, that is 12.5 feet, and it weighs 5 tons. This is Kogoro Kuratas baby – a Japanese blacksmith that developed this ender of lives for several years.

Why ender of lives? Well, it has a BB gun incorporated that can fire 6,000 rounds per minute.

If you plan on buying it don’t expect any Amazon Prime discounts, and you should know that it doesn’t come paired with arms – they are being sold separately. You actually don’t even need them. Even without Kuratas’ arms you’ll still be able to inspire fear and dread in your neighbours.

Image Source: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,

Must-Have Android Apps and Games

May 18, 2015 By Cristopher Hall Leave a Comment

The AFP team had a tough weekend. We brainstormed from Friday night to Monday morning, and we have rounded up the best Android apps and games.

iOS users don’t despair, because some of them are available for Apple devices too.

Without further ado I introduce you to our list:

Must-Have Android Apps

Meerkat

If you’ve lived under a rock for the past year or so you should know that Meerkat is a fabulous app that lets the user stream live video directly to his Twitter followers. Periscope is the only challenger, but it lacks the stability that Meerkat offers.

Available on iOS too.

It’s a free app.

Microsoft Hyperlapse

Hyperlapse helps you create high-speed short-stories about you, your life, your friends, what you’ve seen on your daily commute – actually, about everything that you can capture with your device.

The craze is all about selfie time lapses – go figure, the selfie killer is a new selfie method.

It’s a free app.

Wear Fitness Personal Trainer

If you’re looking for the best fitness app that will track your progress, and keep you on schedule look no further. The WFPT, created by Vimo Labs, is your virtual buddy that will help you get rid of those pesky extra pounds – it’s also available for Android smartwatches.

Available on iOS too.

It’s a free app.

Fruit Ninja Math Master

$Must-Have Android App$

When I was growing up I didn’t have any apps/games that would teach me how to do math. I had to learn it the hard way by going to school, and sitting there for hours until 1+1=2 got crammed up in my brain. Now, with Fruit Ninja Math Master, you’ll be a genius mathematician in no time, and hard equations like (1+1)-(2+2)x(3/5) will feel like a Summer’s breeze.

It’s intended for children between the ages of 5 to 7 and it offers help with addition, subtraction, multiplication as well as sequences and shape recognition.

It costs about $4, and if your child is constantly with his nose in his device you should probably get this app – and also teach him, or her, about the outside world, a mythical land filled with other human beings *GASP*.

Available on iOS too.

It costs about $4.

DeeMe

We don’t know if people actually need another instant messaging service, but DeeMe also offers a photo editor. It encourages you to add your very own flavour in the mix – before sending a photo with DeeMe don’t forget to edit it, and get that perfect typography that yells <insert reader’s name here>!

It’s a free app.

Desire42

This is an app aimed to couples. Think of it as a safe haven for those nudes you want to send to Cristopher Hall tonight. It’s like a dare that goes back and forth. You take a picture without your clothes on, and I take a picture with all of my clothes on. Wait. How does flirting work?

It’s a free app.

Dreamstime: Sell Your Photos

Pair it with Desire42, and you’ll make millions sending your nudes to different stock photography services. But no, that would be horrible, and you shouldn’t pervert this really great app. As I said, you can sell snaps that you took with your phone to various stock photography services. That photo that you took of that weird tree might be worth 40$!

It’s a free app.

Must-Have Android Games

VoxelMaker

It’s basically a Minecraft clone. You build stuff with colourful blocks, and cubes, and you can export whatever you made to other software – like Photoshop, Illustrator, and so on. Tremendous potential is hidden in VoxelMaker, and your creativity is needed!

It costs about $4!

Seabeard

The best copy of Animal Crossing that has been originally developed for iOS. You can explore the world, perform various intriguing tasks like those seemingly easy mini-games that are in fact the work of the devil. Play with your villagers, and help them re-build their island.

Available on iOS too.

It’s a free game!

Knights of Pen & Paper 2

Ever heard of Paradox Interactive? They are the guys and girls behind great games like Europa Universalis, and Crusader Kings – grand strategy video-games that offers the player a chance of ruling the world.

Knights of Pen & Paper 2 is a role-playing turn-based retro-style laugh-inducing mind-relaxing mobile game full of dangerous adventures, and semi-appropriate cultural jokes. Take it with a grain of salt – everything is meant to be funny, and induce a chill mode. Don’t get yourself overly infuriated by humour.

Available on iOS too.

It costs about $4!

Lego Star Wars: TCS

If you’re in love with the Star Wars universe, and are between 5 and 80 years old, you should definitely play it. At first glance you might be fooled of thinking that it’s a child’s game – well, in fact it is, but don’t let society tell you what to do! Everyone can have a ton of fun playing through 2 Lego Star Wars games that were initially available for PC, and consoles. But be warned, before buying it, you need to have at least 735 MB of free space.

Available on iOS too.

It costs about $4!

Marvel Future Fight

It’s an average brawler, but because it’s set in the Marvel Universe it makes it a must-have game for the geek inside you! It consists a ton of characters from past, present and FUTURE comic books. It’s worth giving it a shot. I, for one, absolutely love the fact that I can beat up Spider-Man with Spider-Man – I don’t like Spider-Man that much.

Available on iOS too.

It’s a free game!

Earn to Die 2

Remember the first one? Gee, I do. That’s all that I was doing on my morning subway commute. A couple of my co-workers stopped talking to me a while back because I didn’t want to conversate back with them while travelling to our headquarters.

You smash zombies, and your goal is to squash zombies, in order to save the world from the zombie apocalypse. Zombies Zombie Zombies! What’s the deal with it? It seems like the media is filled with the undead horde – no, no, I’m not talking about Madonna. I loved the trend a few years ago, but now it just feels a little bit like beating a dead horse.

Available on iOS too.

It’s a free game!

Grim Fandango Remastered

Ow, I bought this the day it went live on the store. If you’ve ever played Psychonauts, Brutal Legend, or the Monkey Island franchise you should definitely give this game a try too. I want to live in Tim Schafer’s mind for a year, then come back and write a novel about the hilarious, and scary things that I’ve experienced. Also, I think Tim Schafer might be my spirit animal.

Available on iOS too.

It costs about $10!

Bears vs. Art

Yup. You read it right. Bears vs. Art. You play a bear who goes by the name of Rory. Rory wants pointless pieces of art to be eradicated from the world. It’s a fun, and clever puzzle game. I might have thrown my phone at the wall at one moment, but if you are a well adjusted human being, you’ll not get frustrated by this sweet game.

Available on iOS too.

It’s a free game!

Empires vs. Allies

Have you ever wondered what’s it like to have the perfect army? Destruction at your finger tips? Empires vs. Allies is a discontinued Facebook game – thanks FarmVille, and Zynga. Don’t let it being shut down fool you. It’s really fun, and addictive.

Available on iOS too.

It’s a free game!

Mortal Kombat X

Need I say more? It’s Mortal Kombat X on mobile phones, and it’s frikin’ FREE! No memory leaks, no horrible lag, and no bugs – gee, thanks developers for taking your time with the mobile app. No, why would PC users be angry at you. It’s not like you shipped a game that should have stood in development a little bit longer.

Available on iOS too.

It’s a free game!

Goat Simulator GoatZ

I remember pre-ordering Goat Simulator, taking a day off from work, calling all my best friends over, and just go full goat for a day. It’s really great, and you can set up a connection with your inner animal. Unfortunately, later on that day, I found that the goat isn’t my spirit animal – searching deep inside I found an ugly Blobfish with my name on it. I swore that I would never touch Goat Simulator.

Until now.

It has zombies!

Available on iOS too.

It costs about $5!

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Rumoured Features for the iPhone 6s

May 18, 2015 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

The iPhone 6 was an incredible success that propelled Apple to greater heights – who would’ve guessed that this was even possible?!

The iPhone 6s is just around the corner – hopefully! If we take a look at Apple’s release schedule, most of their smartphones were released during Autumn, so we should be expecting their new device to hit sometime between September and November.

It’s also rumoured that because Apple is adding so many new features to their smartphone they’ll call it iPhone 7, not 6s, but who knows for sure?

What we can do is talk about the rumours, and speculate amongst ourselves.

Force Touch

This is just pure speculation over here, but Force Touch would be a great addition to Apple’s smartphone. Their new MacBook line has already adopted the Force and it was positively received by users, and critics alike. What you may not know is that Force is completely useless – you’ll use it for its novelty sake a couple of times, then you’ll revert back to your old ways. I’m not saying it’s bad, I’m just saying that you shouldn’t fix something that ain’t broken.

What I do love about the Force Touch is that Apple will let third-party developers create apps for their new feature. Can’t wait to see what crazy things innovative minds will come up!

12 Megapixel Camera

We all know that the iPhone 6 has one of the best cameras on the market. But Apple’s 8 MP camera hasn’t change in a while – I’m not dissing them, and I’m not a hypocrite, I know what I’ve just wrote, but they have the capabilities to add more megapixels. It’s not like they will be reinventing the camera, or how it works – although, we’re talking about Apple here.

We see smartphones with great image quality, and our display is outputting greater, and better, resolutions year in, and year out, so why not better photo resolutions too?

It’s most likely that the company will try to add more power to their camera.

A9 Processor

This isn’t speculation, and we’re going by pure logic here. With every new iteration, Apple has upgraded the smartphone’s processor. What Apple isn’t going to change is how much RAM their device will hold – rumours state that the company won’t add more GB to the one it already has.

A New Colour

The Rose Gold colour option will most likely be available with the new iPhone – in a strategy to keep in line with Apple’s Watch. Previous iterations hold Silver, Gold and Space Gray colours. I don’t know if I’ve ever told you, but I really really really hate the colour Gold – every single device that I saw that had that colour felt tacky and cheap to me. I can’t stand it, and it makes me think that you picked it just for attention.

A Much Improved Fingerprint Scanner

An improved fingerprint scanner will most likely lead to an early adoption of Apple Pay’s service – but, let’s not get ahead of ourselves, and let’s first see if it’s working properly.

The iPhone 6s, or 7, or Omega, or whatever else you want to call it, will most likely be a huge success exactly like the iPhone 6.

I bet that those who said that the company will decline after Steve Job’s death are eating their shoes now.

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Firefox OS Smart TV’s Have Been Launched in Europe

May 18, 2015 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

The alliance formed between Mozilla and Panasonic seems to be really fruitful – their smart TV’s have just been launched in Europe, and in the upcoming months they will also ship to the United States. Fingers are crossed for shipping availability to shift towards globally.

The stock is limited, and it really depends from each European country to another.

The collaboration was announced in January of this year, and 6 smart TV models from Panasonic will feature Mozilla’s Firefox OS:

CR850
CR730
CX800
CX750
CX700
CX680

Models may vary by country.

Mashiro Shinada, the Director of the TV Business Division stated that – “Through our partnership with Mozilla and the openness and flexibility of Firefox OS, we have been able to create a more user friendly and customizable TV UI. This allows us to provide a better user experience for our consumers providing a differentiator in the Smart TV market.”

The Linux-based OS will be featured on some of the top notch smart TV’s available. Let’s take the Viera TX-50CX700B – a 50-inch, 4k Ultra HD TV with 3D capability. As you might wonder, it is indeed really expensive, and it has been seen at the price of $1570.

Firefox OS has first seen the light of day on tablets and smartphones – read more about their partnership with Orange on African soil in our very own article.

It’s going to be tough for Mozilla to break-in the smartphone marketplace which is dominated by Google’s Android, and Apple’s iOS, but when it comes down to smart TV’s there is no king of the hill, no knight in shining armour. Firefox OS has a really great chance on garnering customer loyalty, but it seriously depends on the quality they are offering along with Panasonic – and most importantly what kind of apps will the Linux-based OS run.

It does lack apps, but luckily, even though Mozilla has just breached smart TV domain, Netflix, and YouTube have already developed their official apps.

Mozilla states that it made it easy, and it’s continuing to make it easier, for developers that wish to port their creations to their OS.

You can read more about Mozilla’s partnership with Panasonic on Mozilla’s official blog.

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The Yota Phone

Display and Yota Tech

Yota Camera

Yota Software

Yota Mirror

Yota Performance and Battery Life

Yota’s Competition

Conclusion

Phase 1

Phase 2

Phase 3

Floor Mopping Robots iRobot Braava 320

Vacuum Cleaning Robots iRobot Roomba 880 for Pets and Allergies

Self Cleaning Litter Box Robots Litter Robot LRII

Robot Kits WowWee RoboMe

Robot Kits WowWee MiP Robot RC

The Kuratas Robot

Must-Have Android Apps

Must-Have Android Games

Force Touch

12 Megapixel Camera

A9 Processor

A New Colour

A Much Improved Fingerprint Scanner

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