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Device Unlock is an application that allows you to request and apply a Mobile Device Unlock directly from the device. For many of you Android users out there, you probably know your way around, but there are many out there with tied-down phones who have no idea where to start. And since unlocked phones are basically a civil liberty for the time being, T-Mobile plans to help them.
Note: Unlocking your smartphone is completely different from rooting your Android device. For walk-through on how to root most Android devices, kindly read: 3 Steps to Root any Android Phone with 1 Click
A Coin of Two Sides
The Device Unlock App offers you two options: one that permanently unlocks a device, for those who want complete freedom from the carrier, and a temporary unlock, which frees the phone for 30 days so you an use it overseas. The permanent unlocking option will check to see if your device is actually eligible for it before it completes the process.
The Downside
While the functionality of this app remains flawless, the limitation of supported devices remains the Achilles heel: So far, the application may install successfully on devices like T-mobile variant of the LG G3 but only works on Samsung Avant devices as clearly stated on the Play Store description. This has earned it a number of criticism among Android users in the Play Store. However, according to TmoNews.com, the US’s fourth biggest carrier is working on an app that lets its users easily unlock their phones with the literal touch of a button. It’s a really smart idea, and it’s probably how the carrier plans to appeal to all the novice smartphone users out there.
When unlocking is unsuccessful an alert pops up with details on why the your unlocking failed (See screenshot above).
COMMENT: While the idea of changing the Facebook default blue header to your custom color seems great, Cheetah Mobile has warned that you might end up getting more than what you bargained for.
IDG NEWS NETWORK – On Facebook, some scams are so alluring that they seem to live forever.
So it goes with “Facebook Color Changer,” a new malware attack that masquerades as a way to change the appearance of Facebook’s Website. Security firm Cheetah Mobile claims that the latest scam has affected more than 10,000 people around the world.
Don’t fall for this.
According to Cheetah Mobile, the app advertises the ability to “select your favourite color scheme for facebook layout,” and appears to direct users to “apps.facebook.com/themsandcolors.” But instead, the app sends users to a phishing site.
Once there, the site asks users to view a tutorial video. Launching the video supposedly provides temporary access to the user’s Access Tokens, letting the malicious site connect to the user’s Facebook friends. If the user doesn’t view the video, the site then attempts to download a pornographic video player on PCs or a bogus malware scanner on Android devices.
Cheetah Mobile blames a “a vulnerability that lives in Facebook’s app page itself, allowing hackers to implant viruses and malicious code into Facebook-based applications directs users to phishing sites.”
As Mashable points out, color-changing capabilities have been a popular hook for Facebook malware peddlers in the past. At least two previousscams have gained traction by inviting users to switch the color of Facebook’s blue menu bar. The color changer joins a number of other recurring scams that pose as oft-requested features, including the fabled ”dislike” button and ability to see who viewed your profile.
What if you need a real Facebook Color Changer?
There is a legitimate way to change the color of Facebook’s menu bar, using an extension in the Chrome Web Store, but in general it’s best to treat these “feature enhancements” with extreme caution. Just because a friend posts a link your feed doesn’t mean it’s safe to click.
What do you do if you’re a robotic hexapod and one of your legs is broken? Do you give up? Lie down and burst into flames? Cry from tear duct-less eyes? Or, through a process of trial-and-error, do you brush yourself off, hide your broken leg, and learn to walk again?
You guessed it.
Researchers Antoine Cully, Jeff Clune and Jean-Baptiste Mouret have trained a hexapod to try different walking configurations through “Intelligent Trial and Error.” The original version of this algorithm kept the robots stumped for about 20 minutes until they figured out how to go in a relatively straight line after suffering damage. The new system lets the robots learn to walk in about two minutes.
As you see in the video, the robot tries different walking “styles.” First it hops a little, then it brings its damaged leg up high to try to balance itself. All the while it is sensing its position in the room as well as its speed. If the gait it has chosen is suitably straight and fast, it can keep doing it indefinitely until it gets moving again.
How does it work? Well, in this case the researchers created a database of potential gaits – 13,000 in all – by running a simulated version of the hexapod and rendering the walking styles. Because the robot is fairly simple it could easily classify the problem it was having (broken strut, mashed leg, etc.) and compare it to the database. Then, using a series of tests, it could decide how to move.
While this isn’t exactly artificial intelligence, the system does save time in the field and, more importantly, allows the robot to carry out its nefarious mission without stopping, an important consideration when the robots finally rise up to take control of our precious bodily fluids.
For more on what Hexapod Robots are doing to stay indestructible, check out Spectrum and remember to watch the video above again.
The original copyright to this post belongs to Techcruch. All rights reserved. Image & Video are the properties of Spectrum.
From the oldest libraries on the Web to the modern book shelves, EwtNet has searched all corners and compiled the most thrilling places virtual bookworms can have a good read and download free E-books
Since the beginning of time men has been searching for one knowledge or the other. Reading is one of the simplest method of acquiring knowledge best known to man. The invention of the Web and various technologies has insured that books can be fully represented in digital media format know as E-book.
Whether you are developer seeking for handouts, a student searching for information or just another book nerd looking for the next great book to sink your teeth into? We have compiled a list of the best shelves to pick your favorite E-book and even more, have a good read without spending a dime.
Topping our list today is a free E-book community site Free-Ebook. The site is an online source for free E-book downloads, E-book resources and E-book authors in over 80 categories. Besides free E-books, you also download free magazines or submit your own E-book.
The online e-book library is recommended for everyone, especially to students and fictional book lovers. If you need to get something nice for your kid, you might want to browse through the Children Audio Books category.
In the midst of stiff competition from other free e-book sites, it will be unfair not to include the Google Book Shelf. The Google eBookstore is a home to tons of premium and free e-books from a variety of genres. You can filter your search to bestsellers, favorite classics and more. Books are available in several formats, and you can also check out ratings and reviews from other users.
Free Book Spot is a free e-books links library where you can find and download free books in almost any category. Created November 2006, Free Book Spot is one of the oldest e-book library you can come across. The library houses 187,565 e-books in more than 90 categories.
The simplicity of the site makes it easier to navigate through pages and look up e-books using the search box.
If you are looking for tutorial handout on any tech-related subject, Know Free is the shelf you might want to start looking from. No registration or fee is required and has 15 categories.
The Open Library can boast of over 1 million free e-books available on it’s shelves. This library catalog is an open online project of Internet Archive, and allows users to contribute books or make correction to the catalog. You can easily search by the title, author and subject.
One of the unique features of Open Library is the E-book borrowing: Open Library account holders can borrow an eBook from the growing collection of mainly 20th Century titles available now. Each title can be borrowed by one patron at once, and you can read it in a web browser or in Adobe Digital Editions as a PDF or ePub.
Online Programming Books consists of a huge collection of free online Computer, Programming, Mathematics, Technical Books, Lecture Notes and Tutorials. It is very well categorized by topics, with 92 categories and 1,574+ E-books.
If you are searching for a particular educational textbook or business book BookBoon may come very handy. The site offers more than 1,000 e-books, it’s easy to navigate and best of all, you don’t have to register to download them.
Grouped under authors, titles, languages and genres Many Books houses more than 29,000 E-books for Kindle, Nook, iPad and most other eReaders. The simplified navigation gives you the option to browse by most popular titles, recent reviews, authors, titles, genres, languages and more.
You might find the simplicity of The Online Book Page’s website a bit interesting but it has a list of over 1 million E-books from the web. It is more like an E-book search engine with option for visitors to submit more E-book links to their index.
Completing our list of top 10 Online Libraries is the Online Free E-books. The library has 100s of E-books categorized under various tags.
Download/Read Chinese Novels PDFs Free Online
With the rise of Chinese industry in the global economy comes strong appeal for everything China, including novels – which are great, by the way. Chinese novels has the tendency of getting you hooked up and leaving you hanging. This is owing to the original material being in Mandarin and English translation apps charging too much to unlock chapters.
Novels.Fun homepage for reading free Chinese novels online.
The President has signed a bill into law that allows American citizens to legally unlock their phones. That means you can take your mobile device, no matter which carrier subsidized it, and move with it to a competing carrier.
Unlocking phones was made illegal in January of 2013, when an exemption to the DMCA expired. The bi-partisan bill was passed last week by the U.S. House of Representatives, after already being approved by the Senate.
There is bit of a catch: the Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act, as it’s called, is valid only through 2015. For now, it ensures you have a choice in matters of your mobile device, as long as your phone is compatible with another carrier’s network and you’ve complied with your previous contract. And even if you don’t fancy yourself as technologically savvy, the bill allows you to seek outside help.
It’s been a long journey to get to this point. About a year ago, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) filed a petition urging the FCC to make a ruling that would require carriers to unlock phones and tablets at the customer’s request. While most carriers have been kind about unlocking devices, tools for consumers to unlock those phones and tablets themselves were considered illegal.
So, what are you waiting for? Go forth and be free! At least until the next time this exemption expires.
Facebook does plan to monetize Messenger through payments, but it’s going to take its time to do it right. Regarding Messenger, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on today’s Q2 earningscall that “over time there will be some overlap between that and payments”. He stressed that “The payments piece will be a part of what will help drive the overall success and help people share with each other and interact with businesses.”
We shouldn’t expect this to happen too soon, though. Zuckerberg explained that “there’s so much groundwork for us to do.” He continued, “we could take the cheap and easy approach and put ads in and do payments and make money in the short-term, but we’re not going to do that.”
He urged analysts and investors to revise their estimates of Facebook’s revenue if they expected this to come quickly. “To the extent that your models or anything reflect that we might be doing that, I strongly encourage you to adjust that, because we’re not going to. We’re going to take the time to do this in the way that is going to be right over multiple years” Zuckerberg concluded.
Messenger hit 200 million active users in Q1 2014, and people now send 12 billion messages per day on Facebook. The question on the earnings call about how it would make money from the product was prompted by Facebook’s hire of PayPal president David Marcus to run its messaging unit.
If Facebook allowed peer-to-peer payments or payments to businesses via Messenger, it could earn serious revenue by taking a cut. Facebook’s international footprint could allow it to disrupt the greedy remittance industry, which often charges migrant workers exorbitant fees to send money home. Facebook could engender good will and save families money while still turning a tidy profit by undercutting traditional remittance players like Western Union, MoneyGram, Remit2India, and more.
Along with a strong performance in Q2 in terms of user growth and revenue, this news as has pushed Facebook’s share price to an all-time high of $75 in after-hours trading.
From simple text links to rich media ads, Google has continued it’s bid to optimize revenue for it’s publishers and subsequently gain more advertisers. According to a blog post in Adsense official blog, Google has rolled out two brand new ad sizes – 970 x 250 Billboard and the 300 x 1050 Portrait – that will help you reach more advertisers while also enhancing user experience and engagement on your site.
According to Adsense Product Specialist Alexey Petrov, the new ad sizes was as a result of publishers and advertisers demand for a larger ad unit.
We’ve heard from both publishers and advertisers that new, larger ad formats provide a great canvas for rich creatives and perform well on many sites. Today, we’re pleased to share two new ad sizes – 970 x 250 Billboard and the 300 x 1050 Portrait – that will help you reach more advertisers while also enhancing user experience and engagement on your site.
What’s up with the new ad sizes?
The new ad size will follow the way of it’s predecessors – supporting text only and text/display ads.
The ad is pretty much at the beta stage; you are likely to see fewer banners at that size. However, As with most of Adsense ad sizes, both of these ad units can accommodate standard text ads in addition to image ads. Additionally, they can show similar-sized image ads when doing so will maximize the performance of your ad unit. In this case, a 300 x 250 ad would serve in the 970 x 250 ad unit and a 160 x 600 would serve in the 300 x 1050 ad unit.
While trying the new ad sizes you will also discover that you can only make use of a maximum of one large banner per page, of course, I don’t see anyone complaining about this, considering the the size of each banner.
Feel free to play around with this new ad sizes and share your experience with us.
MBOX Converter is an apt solution that can be used as an Entourage to Outlook converter though the application works only on Windows Operating System, whereas Microsoft Entourage is an email client that was developed for Macintosh OS 8.5 and higher. But the release of Entourage has been discontinued with the release of ‘MS Office for Mac 2011.’ Rather it can be said that ‘Outlook for Mac’ or Outlook 2011 has replaced Entourage mail client that was developed specifically for Mac systems.
Here in this page we will be reviewing MBOX Converter version-2.1 and check into the useful attributes of the tool that makes it suitable to be employed as an Entourage to Outlook converter; that requires the conversion of MBOX files to PST format. But before we exactly go for the inspection of the software it is necessary to know how to perform transition from Entourage to Outlook for Windows, with the assistance of the application.
How to Migrate and Access Entourage Mail in Outlook?
The tool whose performance is being examined in this page converts MBOX files to PST format and also functions only on Windows OS instead of Mac. The Entourage folder structure is stored at the following location in Apple Macintosh OS X: ‘Hard Disk Name/Users/user_name/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2008 Identities/Main Identity’
Therefore, to use the tool as Entourage to Outlook converter, following steps need to be followed:
Copy the Main Identity folder to a Windows system because when this is practiced, MBOX files are created for individual mail folders.
Import the exported PST file in Outlook mail client once the conversion of MBOX files to PST format is complete by running/ executing the software program.
Installation Prerequisite
The application seeks some basic minimum system requirements and they are:
System Requirement
SysTools
Support
Windows 8.1 & Below versions
Available Hard Disk Space
10 MB
Processor
1GHz
Memory (RAM)
512MB
Acquaintance with Some Key Attributes Of the Converter
Scans the emails in short span of time
Previews emails along with attachments
Can merge multiple MBOX files into single PST
Can create single Outlook PST file for each MBOX data file
Outlook installation is not needed to convert MBOX to PST form
Can convert multiple MBOX files to PST/EML/MSG format in bulk
Both demo and full version of the converter is available
Detailed Description of Characteristic Features of the Software
Exports MBOX File In Bulk – The tool has the exportation potential of converting and exporting multiple MBOX file all together at a time in batch.
Multiple Forms Of MBOX File Backed – MBOX file is an ordinarily used format created by a number of mail clients in different forms such as .mbox, .mbx and MBOX file without any extension. The application backs all these MBOX file forms.
2 Conversion Choices Except Outlook PST – MBOX files can also be exported in 2 different file formats such as EML and MSG excluding PST format.
Supports Different Mail Clients MBOX Files – The tool has the ability to convert about 17+ email clients (e.g. Entourage, Thunderbird, etc.) MBOX files to MS Outlook PST, EML and MSG file type.
Capability To Create Multiple PST File – While converting MBOX to PST file type, the Entourage to Outlook converter provides two different options so as to create either single or multiple PST. Note – With ‘Create single PST file’ option, all MBOX files can be merged into a single common PST file whereas with ‘create multiple PST file’ choice one PST file can be produced for each MBOX file.
Files & Folders Selectivity Choices – Either all or selected Entourage emails can be converted and exported to Outlook PST or other supported formats.
Various File Naming Convention Available – When exporting emails, the software provides alternative to choose an appropriate naming pattern to save each email. The different file naming patterns that are available are: Save as subject, DD-MM-YY, DD-MM-YYY, MD5, Auto incremental and many more.
Demo and Full Release Comparison
Almost all features explained above are provided in both the demo version and full version. Though there are some exceptions in the demo edition which is provided for trial purpose so that the execution of the program is well known before purchasing the license. The comparison is shown in form of the table given below:
Features
Demo Version
Full Version
Auto Scan MBOX files
Yes
Yes
Preview MBOX emails with attachments
Yes
Yes
Windows 8 & below versions supported
Yes
Yes
Advanced Naming Convention
No
Yes
Export MBOX file as PST, EML, MSG
No(Limited)
Yes
It is inferred from the comparison table that demo version of Entourage to Outlook converter does not fulfill the exportation of all emails if the number of emails is more than 25. Also naming convention feature is not enabled in free edition. Thence, to avail all the facilities, license of the third party application has to be purchased. Activation Key Of Full Versions: Personal License, Business License, Enterprise License
Extended Client Assistance
To make the users completely satisfied with the product and to assist users Chat as well as Email optionhas been provided to the customers. Users can log on to: www.mboxtooutlook.org and avail the facilities 24*7.
Chat – Clients can chat with the support technicians to clear their doubts or any uncertainties.
Launcher 8 (fake wp8) is a Android application that turns your boring, dull Android home UI into a fluid, mock-up UI of that of a Windows 8 phone! Developed by the QiHang Team, this application has been downloaded over 5 million+ times, and really turns your Android into something else! Now, I (Jake) of EWT will go into detail of my review and thoughts of the app!
Installation
The installation process is very easy, smooth, and simple. Just download from the Google Play Store, install, and press your home button and set Launcher 8 as your main action for “Home.” Wa-la! There’s no hacking, modding, or rooting needed to install this application. Installation is very simple, great work there.
New UI & Logics
The app’s added new ui and logics is very helpful and astonishing! After installation, you instantly have the power of an Android phone with the look and options of a Windows phone. There are many themes users have made that you can effortlessly download and install, or you can customize yourself! You can add/edit/remove tiles, re-size, and even use special “widget” tiles that are included in the app. You can bind your installed applications to tiles, change individual tile background colors, names, and more. This application truly gives you control over everything! It also is programmed to work with certain apps, such as SMS, Phone, and Facebook – showing the number of new notifications, missed calls, and new SMS messages. It’s very convenient! The app also has a setting for a customizable lockscreen, which completely overrides the default Android lock screen – you can add custom backgrounds, change the layout, etc to it and add a password. The only problem with the lockscreen in this app is if you had a lock screen set up on the default Android UI before this installation, applications like “Camera” and such will not work correctly, and pressing your Home button will try and take you to the original Android lock screen rather than the Launcher 8 lock screen. You can, however, fix this by simply going to System Settings -> Security -> Passwords and turning off any locks, pins, etc. You can set your lockscreen pin for Launcher 8 in the Launcher 8 settings.
Effect on Battery
One of the main, if not the only, downside to this application is the power consumption. You’ll be loosing more and more phone battery life every 2 to 3 minutes even if you’re in idle mode. However, the QiHang team brags that their Pro version is more power efficient. This application really does take a toll on your battery life, my Android has been on the charger more then often since the install.
Final Thoughts
I believe this is a great Android application for those who want the power of Android/Google products but the look and feel of a Windows product. It has great potential, and I believe it would be even more widely popular if the free version was less battery-consuming. It could use some literary work (the grammar for settings are poor), and some of the ads are a bit mis-placed and annoying, but all around it’s pretty amazing and I’m sure to never uninstall it!
Final Rating
Price When Rated:
$2.58Free
Our Rating: 4.5
Requires Android:
2.0 and up
Content Rating:
Low Maturity This is a great app, and does everything that it says in it’s description. However, there is room for improvement and the battery drainage is what really kills it from being 5 stars.
Pros:
Complete customization; Easy to customize to your liking
Downloadable themes; For those living in the fast lane
Beautiful and fluid; Includes smart widgets and is beautiful with live tiles
Free with minimal ads, and many options and settings to configure
Cons:
Drains the battery of your device VERY fastly
Lockscreen issues occur if you have the default Android lockscreen already set up
Can be a bit laggy once you first boot up your Android
Have you ever thought of making your smartphone much more smarter than it is?
Going outdoors or camping, but not knowing exactly where to start? Or you just want to feel secured with a full suite of tools covering lots of different things – measurements of all sorts, flashlights and more?
Smart Tools has everything you might need in your day-to-day life! On more than one occasion, this awesome android app has got me out of a traffic jam, so it comes highly recommended.
Smart Tools Version 1.7
The latest version of Android Smart Tools comes with 5 Pro sets for a total of 16 tools. In a word, All-in-One
Set 1: Length, Angle, Slope, Level, Thread – Smart Ruler Pro
Set 2: Distance, Height, Width, Area – Smart Measure Pro
Set 3: Compass, Metal detector, GPS – Smart Compass Pro
Set 4: Sound level meter, Vibrometer – Sound Meter Pro
Set 5: Flashlight, Magnifier, Mirror – Smart Light Pro
Set 6: Unit – Unit Converter
Cons
The heaviest downside of this app is the lack homescreen shortcuts to individual tools. Maybe it’s just me but you pay for this app then realize there are no shortcuts then the author wants you to buy the individual tool apps or be pledged with adverts!
Pros
This app basically helps you deal with any measurement problem you may encounter. It’s affordable price tag will also give it an edge over similar apps in the play store.
The best way to understand this app is probably by experimenting with it. Nonetheless, I can guarantee that your $2.55 will be worth it.
Facebook doesn’t show ads in Messenger or WhatsApp. Instead, payments could be the key to earning money on chat, especially in the developing world where ad rates are low. If that’s the strategy, Facebook just got the perfect executive to lead the charge. It’s poached PayPal’s president David Marcus to run its Messenger unit.
Facebook hinted that Marcus would be looking outside of ads for how Messenger could bring in revenue, writing in its announcement of the hire that “David is a widely respected leader in the technology industry with a track record of building great products and finding creative ways to turn them into great businesses.” For now, eBay CEO John Donahoe will be the interim PayPal president.
Marcus joined PayPal three years ago when it acquired his mobile payments company Zong for $240 million in cash. Zong let users buy things online through carrier-billed mobile payments.
In a Facebook post announcing his move, Marcus wrote: “While I was in the middle of my thought process about what was next for me, Mark Zuckerberg and I got together. Mark shared a compelling vision about Mobile Messaging. At first, I didn’t know whether another big company gig was a good thing for me, but Mark’s enthusiasm, and the unparalleled reach and consumer engagement of the Facebook platform ultimately won me over. So… yes. I’m excited to go to Facebook to lead Messaging Products.”
Facebook has previously said that it wants its standalone apps to hit at least 100 million users before it starts monetizing them. Messenger now has 200 million users and recent acquisition WhatsApp has 500 million, so they’re both definitely eligible. Both have been focusing on growth and boxing out the competition in the heated messaging space. But since monetization plans can take a while to get mapped out and then revved up, it’s smart for Facebook to start thinking about this now.
Facebook has already made some forays into the payments space. The Financial Times reported in April that Facebook had applied for an e-money license in Ireland that let it handle peer-to-peer money transfers in Europe.
Using Marcus’ expertise could one day help Facebook earn significant revenue from developing nations and the parts of the world it’s trying to connect to the web through Internet.org. In these markets, buying power is smaller in absolute terms because of lower currency values, cost of living, and more modest incomes of citizens. This makes it tough to earn serious revenue from ads. Facebook makes just 11 percent of its revenue from all countries outside of the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia combined.
But one thing people do spend money on in the developing world is fees for payments and remittance. Mobile payments for digital and physical goods are starting to become popular in developing nations. Meanwhile, many migrants send money they earn back to family members in their home countries, but are forced to endure extortionate fees. Facebook could use the ubiquity of its mobile apps, including Messenger and WhatsApp, to disrupt the current players in mobile payments and remittance, earning those fees for itself.
Facebook and WhatsApp already know people’s social graphs so they can chat. Layering payments on top could be relatively simple. It could look a little like a combination of Messenger and Venmo, a slick peer-to-peer payments app that PayPal acquired along with its buy of parent company Braintree. The same way you select to send a photo with a message now, you could eventually add a money transfer.
In the developed world, this might help friends settle up for group dinners or shared taxi rides. But in developing countries, remittance through Facebook could become popular if it costs less and were easier than existing solutions. I’d imagine Zuckerberg’s vision for mobile messaging that he shared with Marcus goes something like “Messaging connects people directly and privately. Along with text and media, another big thing people send one another this way is money. By expanding Messenger to encompass payments, Facebook can bring families, friends, and colleagues closer by eliminating the barriers to sending and receiving cash.”
Every year or two they release a new Spider-Man game. Every year or two I get my hopes up that the developers have made a proper follow-up to 2004’s Spider-Man 2—the only fun Spider-Man game in recent memory. We’re now a decade out from that, and Amazing Spider-Man 2 shares (mostly) the same title as that lone bright spot. Is this the Spider-Man game that will break the long streak of stinkers?
Nope.
Impossible standards
In a way, it’s unfair to developer Beenox to hold them to Spider-Man 2’s standards. See, Spider-Man 2 wasn’t even a very good game. It fell prey to a lot of the movie-game pitfalls—repetitive content, dumb missions, a horrible camera, et cetera. The swinging, though. Spider-Man 2 was the first game to implement a system where Spidey’s webs actually stuck to walls instead of fastening to some invisible helicopter in the sky. I distinctly remember standing in a GameStop in New Jersey, waiting for my dad to finish up shopping at Home Depot or something, transfixed by the way the swinging worked, probably humming the song from the Spider-Man 2 trailer under my breath. (I think it was Vicarious by Dashboard Confessional? Different times.)
Spider-Man 2 was the first game to make me feel like Spidey, which was a big deal—he’d always been one of my favorite superheroes, and I’ve long thought that web-swinging is a more interesting mode of transportation than flight.
It was easy to put up with all the dumb movie-game garbage in Spider-Man 2 because swinging around Manhattan was such a joy. Keep in mind, this was also an era when expansive open-world games were relatively novel. We’d only had two large-scale Grand Theft Auto games and a handful of knock-offs. There was still a sense of wonder at just moving around an enormous environment, even if you could only enter a handful of buildings and the draw distance was about a hundred feet.
This is what nostalgia results in: impossible standards.
Amazing Spider-Man 2 is not really that bad, compared to Spider-Man 2. Let me rephrase: “Game released this month” is not really that bad, compared to “Game that came out a decade ago.”
After a baffling sidestep into the old “webs attach to skyhooks” mode in 2012’s Amazing Spider-Man, Beenox has brought Spidey back into a world governed by physics. His webs are forced to attach to walls or ceilings, which is a step in the right direction. You also affect speed by releasing higher or lower in the arc of your swing.
Swinging still doesn’t feel quite right, though. I could never quite get the hang of Spidey’s momentum, and it seemed like I swung into walls a bit more often than I’d expect. It also lacks the complexity of Spider-Man 2’s system, which allowed for all sorts of high-level maneuvering by accounting for how long you held buttons. Amazing Spider-Man 2 is at least on par with Ultimate Spider-Man (the second-best Spidey game) though, as far as swinging is concerned.
Roll film
Where Amazing Spider-Man 2 is not on par with anything worth playing recently is in the actual game part. This is where those “impossible standards” come into play. I’m not going to argue that Amazing Spider-Man 2 is any worse than the original Spider-Man 2. But that’s not a high bar.
Amazing Spider-Man 2 has far too much in common with the movie tie-in games of old. Bad camera, bad lip-syncing, bad models, bad mission design—it’s all present here.
Side quests are universally abysmal. Many of them are the same rote, quicktime event-infested tedium we’ve seen in other Spider-Man games—stop the fleeing car full of criminals!—except here you have to load into them. You swing to a location, hit a prompt to start the mission, and then sit and wait for the scene to load instead of having the events trigger organically in the world. You already won’t want to do the missions because they’re boring, but you doubly won’t want to do them when you have to sit through a loading screen each time.
Too bad. You have to do them. If you don’t, Spidey’s reputation goes down and you’re targeted by hit squads that make it an enormous pain to just swing around the city. Apparently “not stopping a crime” is equivalent to “endorsing crime.” It’s asinine, and makes the game tedious even if you’re just there to run through story content.
And the story? For some baffling reason Marvel or Beenox or Activision or whoeverdecided the story shouldn’t really match the story of the film. Maybe they got gun-shy after Amazing Spider-Man spoiled the film for certain players?
Whatever the case, you’re left with an utterly forgettable tale that mostly concerns a bunch of iconic villains doing the least iconic things possible. Some of my favorite villains make an appearance in this game, but they’re given short shrift by lackluster writing and acting.
Another thing: Apparently this game, despite being an official tie-in, couldn’t secure rights to any of the actors. Neither likenesses nor voices are present here. This results in an awkward situation where, for instance, Spidey sounds a lot like Tobey Maguire instead of Andrew Garfield, and Gwen Stacey doesn’t even appear in the entire game. It’s explained away with so much hand-waving.
No, it doesn’t really make sense.
Bottom line
Sorry, true believers. I know you’re holding out hope for a great Spider-Man game, but this isn’t it. It’s good for a few hours of web-swinging entertainment if you need a fix, but by no means does it recapture the magic. (That won’t stop me from getting my hopes up the next time a Spider-Man game comes around, though.)
This review was originally posted on PCWorld. Price When Rated: $40$40 Our Rating: 3.0 Operating System: Windows, Mac
Freaking out about creating a good-looking header photo for your Twitter profile?
You’ve probably noticed that striking visual piece in the Twitter profile layout — a full-screen-width banner image, known as a “Header Photo.”
On Tuesday, April 8, 2014, Twitter blessed it’s users with a new profile layout that includes a full-width header photo.
But you may have noticed that not every header photo is a home run …
Following the release of twitter new profile layout “New You” last month, I have compiled a few image recommendations to help you create a header photo that looks professional, makes a great first impression, and markets your brand’s best assets — without violating the Twitter Image Terms.
What’s new about the “new you”?
Background image -out, cover image -in, summarize the new twitter profile look. The new web profile lets you use a larger profile photo, customize your header, show off your best Tweets and more. Other features included to the new look are:
Best Tweets: Tweets that have received more engagement will appear slightly larger, so your best content is easy to find.
Pinned Tweet: Pin one of your Tweets to the top of your page, so it’s easy for your followers to see what you’re all about.
Filtered Tweets: Now you can choose which timeline to view when checking out other profiles. Select from these options: Tweets, Tweets with photos/videos, or Tweets and replies.
Feeling Un-Cosy? 5 Steps to Setup a Branded Twitter Profile
If you are an existing twitter user, you may find your old profile header photo a little bit un-cosy after migrating to the new look. With the background image feature gone from the profile area, the massive space occupied by the header photo becomes your next billboard.
In this article I’m going to show you how to make the most of this massive space in five steps.
1. Abide by Twitter Image Policy
Twitter reserves the right to suspend/terminate your account if you don’t comply to the rules. One of this rules states that “You may not use obscene or pornographic images in either your profile photo, header photo, or user background”. Having that at the back of your mind, let’s proceed to the next step.
2. Map out the exact dimensions and shape
The Twitter header photo is not a common image size, and the rectangular composition includes a cut-out for your profile image in the lower left corner.
This means the best-looking header photos tend to be images that are designed to take advantage of the header photo’s exact size and shape.
Shape and dimension of Header area. Click to view full image
Detailed measurements:
Official recommended size for Twitter header photo is: 1500 pixels wide by 500 pixels tall.
Profile image cut-out: 211 pixels wide by 125 pixels tall, spaced 90 pixels from the left edge of the header photo.
Profile image size: 200 x 200 pixels, with a recommended image upload size of 250 x 250 pixels. (Note: Larger images can be cropped).
Important tips:
If you upload an image smaller than 1500 x 500, it will be stretched to fit. This will make your image quality appear slightly grainy or distorted. The best practice is to upload an image that’s sized to Twitter’s dimensions.
Screenshot measurements reveal that only 321 pixels are visible from a 500-pixel image upload. The top edge appears to be covered by the Twitter header bar. A test with a 321-pixel tall image became distorted when uploaded, so do upload a 500-pixel tall image even though only the bottom 321 pixels will be visible.
3. Don’t hide content behind your profile picture.
Even though you are granted a massive 1500 pixels by 500 pixels to design a Header Photo doesn’t mean that you have all of that to work with. Because of the way that Profile Image are placed on Twitter profiles, there’s a section of your Header Photo that won’t appear unless you click on it.
Note the area highlighted with dotted lines in the image below: That’s the part of the Header Photo that isn’t immediately visible to your Twitter followers.
The dotted area is not visible unless the viewer clicks on the Header Photo
Unless you are hiding a Christmas tree behind your profile image, it is generally recommended to keep the space clear.
4. Decide contents to include in your header photo
Outside abusive and pornographic contents, Twitter currently does not have any rule limiting users on what kind of contents to display on their profile header image. However, it is the best practice to include only text/image that describe or relates to you.
Use high-quality photographs that are in focus, have balanced color and good lighting, or use photo editing software to optimize your images. You can design an image collage or use one big, beautiful photograph — just keep the cover photo shape in mind when setting up your composition.
Australian Football League Twitter profile. Notice the powerful text on the Header Photo
Your company logo should appear somewhere, usually in your profile image, in which case it is not needed as an extra graphic in your cover photo. If you plan to include text, consider its placement when selecting images.
Here are a few image content ideas suitable for brands:
Candid photos of customers enjoying your products (be sure to get permission to use their likeness)
Your most popular products
Icons of awards won
Employees in action
Company founders
Store interior or exterior
Branded vector graphic
You might also consider the following type of text to grab your audience attention:
Company tagline or short phrase that explains what your business does
An impactful word that embodies your brand
Inspiring quote
Names of people in your photo
Photographer credits
Image copyrights
5. Upload your profile header header photo
Now is the easy part. Uploading your profile header photo is as simple as ever.
Log in to your Twitter account.
Go to your profile by clicking on “Me” on the twitter main menus.
Just below the header photo area, click on Edit Profile button.
Click on the Camera Icon on Header Photo space and click Upload from the drop down menu
Reposition and scale your header photo by dragging the image and scale bar below it. When done, click Apply.
Finally, save your changes and you are good to go!
Awesome! If you think you did a great job, inspire others by posting your Twitter profile links on the comment section. GoodLuck!
A lot has been said about Nigerian cashless economy since the turn of last year. While the government seems to delay the implementation of this service, Quickteller has given us a taste of what it means to go cashless.
Quickteller is a company based in Nigeria that allows Nigerians to buy airtime and pay bills online using their ATM card. The website has been around for some time but came to the interest of EwtNet only a few months ago, after the company added MasterCard NG to their list of payment means. Also read: How to create a US bank account in Nigeria
What Quickteller can do for you?
While a lot of Nigerians are already acquainted to buying airtime through ATM centers, you can ignore the long queue and and follow the shortcut: Quickteller allows you to easily top up your airtime balance online through your account dashboard. Currently supported mobile carriers include:
MTN Top-up (Prepaid)
Glo Top-up (Prepaid)
Airtel Top-up (Postpaid & Prepaid)
DexterSim Top-up (Prepaid)
Etisalat Top-up (Prepaid)
Visafone (Direct Top-up)
Starcomms (Direct Top-up)
Smile Communication Nigeria (Direct Top-up)
The service also allows you to pay bills such as Government tax, School fees, TV renewal fees, Donations, Tithes, etc.
Apart from topping up and paying bills, Nigerians can as well transfer funds or receive funds to their back account directly from Quickteller.
The service saves you a tremendous amount of time, easy to use, mobile friendly and does not apply additional charges to paying bills and buying airtime.
The Down Side
In all ways but one, Quickteller has proven to be flawless in delivering efficient and quality service to Nigerian residents. To help you remember your card details, you can add your mobile phone number to your account. However, as Salvador Dalí rightly placed it, “Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it.” Quickteller has confirmed that it’s no candidate to bridge that saying as the company show it’s own lapses.
Time and time again, Nigerian shopping malls seems to go clueless when it comes to payment processing. Quickkteller, is once again a victim of this circumstances: The payment processor is currently limited to the use of MasterCard and Verve ATM cards. This implies that users whose ATM card parade the VISA logo has no place in Quickteller. You should also be aware that your international MasterCard will not be accepted. However, it is my beleive that this service will be improved sooner rather than later.
Although the device will support KitKat and a couple of new features, including new tools for working with photos easier, Google has also decided to remove the option to do video calls from Glass for the time being.
Google says video calls from Glass didn’t live out to the company’s “high standards.” Only about 10 percent of Glass users currently use them, and because of this, the Glass team has made “the hard decision to remove video calls from Glass until the experience is better.” It’s unclear when this feature will return, but Google tells Glass users to keep an eye out for video-streaming apps in the MyGlass app library for third-party solutions. Given that video calls from Glass were always one of the device’s marquee features, it does come as quite a surprise that Google would remove this, even if just a few percent of its current users use it.
Is Hangout Really Enough?
As for the photo updates, Google now finally bundles photos together so when you scroll through your timelines, it’s not cluttered by lots of photos, and the photos you take are easier to find. Glass now bundles all your videos, photos and vignettes into a single bundle for each day. If you take a lot of photos on Glass, that’s definitely a major improvement.
Despite losing the video calling feature, Hangouts on Glass are still an option for chats, and with this update, Google now allows users to more easily send photos in Hangout messages.
Other new updates include a voice command menu that’s now sorted by frequency and recency, as well as the ability to more easily send feedback about Glass right from the device.
According to Google, there are a few more features in this update, too, but it hasn’t updated its Glass Journal blog yet. We will update this post with a list of all the new features as Google makes this information available.
According to a report on Techcrunch, job outsourcing marketplace Freelancer.com has put down a portion of the money it raised from its IPO last fall on buying Warrior Forum, a marketplace and forum for digital marketing professionals.
Freelancer.com filed for an IPO last October, with the aim of raising ~$14.2 million — noting at the time that it intended to use the IPO funds for organic growth and also acquisition opportunities. It confirmed today it’s spent $3.2 million to buy the 732,000+ member strong marketing community site, Warrior Forum, where marketing professionals swap intel on topics including SEO, mobile marketing, social media, ad networks and more. More than 7.2 million postings have been made to the forum since it was founded, back in 1997.
Freelancer.com said Warrior Forum will be run as an independent site, post-acquisition, with its new parent contributing resources and a dedicated team to help fuel further development of the community site.
Freelancer.com, which was founded back in 2009, has acquired several companies over the years — including tech freelance jobs site vWorker/RentACoder and IT marketplace Scriptlance, both in 2012. More recently (this March) it picked up Polish freelance marketplace, Zlecenia.przez.net.
In compliance to Google’s announcement last week, everyone in the U.S. will be able to buy Google Glass today, starting from 9 a.m ET. “Every day, we get requests from those of you who haven’t found a way into the program yet, and we want your feedback too,” the company wrote in a blog post.
Google Glass is not commercially available yet; it’s been available only to Google Glass Explorers — in other words, only through a very limited beta-testing program.
Now, Google is opening up the program and folks in the U.S. will be able to get the Glass for $1500 + tax. Google has apologized to everyone else, saying it’s “just not ready yet to bring Glass to other countries.”
The price is steep, but at least Google will throw in frames or a shade of your choice.
To get the Glass, you need to be 18 years old, and you need to be a U.S. resident with a U.S. shipping address. Then, go to this address today, April 15, at 9am ET. Be fast, as the number of spots available is limited. You can also sign up for a reminder at the same address.
If you are wondering what this pair of glasses will do for you, poke your cursor on this link to find out.
Password management service LastPass, which stores passwords on a secure online service to automatically log users into websites, has rolled out automatic password entry to Android apps and the smartphone’s Chrome browser.
So for LastPass users on Android, the days of manually entering passwords into apps and websites are over.
“It takes the concept of our desktop functionality — recognizing what page you’re on and looking for a match stored in your vault — but is adapted for the Android accessibility feature,” Amber Gott, a LastPass spokesperson, told Mashable. “Once the option is enabled in the LastPass Android app, LastPass can now ‘see’ when you’re on an app login page, and then can hover and let you know if you have a matching login.”
The news comes just a few weeks after competing password management service PasswordBox enabled a similar automatic entry feature. Previously, LastPass users needed to copy and paste passwords from the LastPass app to log into native apps and sites.
The feature is available for apps on devices with Android 4.1 and later and Chrome on smartphones running 4.3 and later. It also supports Dolphin HD and Firefox mobile browsers, too.
Although the functionality adds a big convenience on Android, it’s unclear if and when the feature will ever come to iOS devices.
“Unfortunately, Apple doesn’t have an equivalent that allows us to hook into the OS and securely deliver users their data,” a LastPass spokesperson told Mashable. “We’re still looking into it and hope that further updates to iOS may allow us to implement something similar.”
Click here to download LastPass password manager to your Android smart phone.
Today Dell and Microsoft announced that they have signed an agreement relating to intellectual property, which will see the two companies “license each company’s applicable” patents regarding Android and Chrome OS devices, as well as Xbox consoles.
So Dell will pay Microsoft dollars when it ships devices running Google’s operating systems. The companies mention Xbox consoles because Dell, it turns out, has some IP with surface area to the device. Dell likely got a discount on its royalty payments as a result. The Android and Chrome OS portion of the agreement are not surprising, other than that they indicate that Microsoft can turn the largest of OEMs into its paying customers, and that it undercuts Google’s mobile platform hegemony and attempt to break into the traditional PC market. How so? Increasing the unit cost of using Android and Chrome OS adds a nip of cost to each unit, making them less profitable for their manufacturer, or more expensive to the consumer. Neither is much of a good option.
And Microsoft directly cashes further into Google’s success, which is one of the more ironical pieces of the technology world at the moment.
This post was originally posted on Techcrunch | Image by Flicker user Alex Schwenke under CC BY 2.0 Licence (Images has been cropped)
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