The brain of PaxRon

Crimson Alliance – Xbox 360

2011-12-20T23:47:00.001+02:00

Xbox Live Arcade games can be pretty much sub par mostly, but this gem has got me lifting my dusty Xbox control daily. Crimson Alliance is an action adventure game that supports solo play, but comes alive with co-op play with 2-4 players local or through Live.

You can play the part of three characters in your possy, namely a wizard, mercenary and assassin, each providing different fighting styles from long range to hand combat. The fight takes place against Soul Siren and evil goddess with tons of evil minions to do her bidding.

The game download is just under a gig and allows you to play the game although restricted for free to see how it interests you. Thereafter it will cost you 800 MS Points per character or a discounted 1200 MS Points for all three.

Graphics are descent and I love the lighting in this game. The normal adventure options to collect money to upgrade your weapons, armour, health and magical powers. I really am enjoying this game and although you can go through all stages within a day or more you will return to playing all screens multiple times once you are upgraded to earn more money or find those secret areas you missed. There are also certain puzzle areas that can only be unlocked by working together in co-op mode.

If you are like hacking away in a non stop action packed adventure then this is your game, the end stages get pretty intense and there is also an additional stages pack to be bought that is very challenging. Collect a few other friends and tackle the adventure together.

2 Great iPad apps for Kids…

2011-11-24T21:39:00.001+02:00

My friends 5 year old daughter can’t get enough of the iPad when she visits. I have become a total hit amongst kids with my iPad. I have watched which apps are her favourites, is child proof and fun. There are many apps for kids that just get it wrong, it’s all about the money and they don’t have a clue, constant pop ups, ads and purchase buttons to confuse any child.

There are two apps that stands out and they are both from the same developer, namely Toca Boca.

Toca Hair Salon allows you to select various clients to cut their hair. You can select from many different items such as scissors, hairdryer, electric shaver, comb, oil, or even colour the hair. The whole thing is easy and feels therapeutic at the same time. Kids love how the characters pull faces as you cut away. Kids 3 and older will have great fun with this quality well thought out app. When finished take a snapshot with the camera.

Toca Doctor is probably the best loved by my friends daughter. Various points of injury are pointed out on a patient, it’s your job as a doctor to heal the person. Each problem leads to a simple puzzle or mini game to be solved to heal that area, each one uniquely different from each other. There are 21 games in total and the apps are selling for a low price of $0.99, most people give this 5 stars and I totally concur.

Need for Speed - Shift 2 Unleashed for iPad

2011-11-21T21:26:00.001+02:00

Electronics Arts brings you Shift 2 Unleashed, this app was updated in October 2011 and the new version adds HDMI out functionality to race on your LCD TV.

Shift 2 is your typical racing game with various tracks and vehicles with trials, career and single race modes. Nothing new here really, this game just did not grab me at all. There 4 camera views, the in-car view was totally boring and the over the bonnet or behind car view gives you more a sense of speed. Tilt steering also allows you to use your iPad as a steering wheel.

For those who love these types of games you can could give it a go, you have options to earn credit to upgrade your ride with tyres, suspension and acceleration. Nitrous options are also available and you can pimp out the body. Graphics are descent and smooth.

The games receives a true 3.5 star rating from 169 reviews. It’s available in the store for $4.99, I think it’s worth half that really, so wait until there it’s on special before getting this one.

500px app for iPad - Review

2011-11-20T19:09:00.001+02:00

The very popular website amongst photographers 500px has an official app for the iPad. If you have a 500px account then this is a must app to bring all those beautiful photos to your iPad.

Just about anything you do on the website can be done in this app from viewing your account photos, creating slideshows, browsing your friends photos and the typical streams of popular, editors choice, upcoming and fresh photos. You have the ability to contribute by voting, leaving comments, sharing to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and by email. A neat feature is to create a slideshow with music from iTunes.

Overall a beautifully rendered application that's a must for everyone that enjoys photos. The application gets 4.5 stars from 168 ratings so far.

Shadowgun for iOS - Review

2011-11-19T21:48:00.001+02:00

Madfinger Games produces Shadowgun, and puts you in control of John Slade a bounty hunter in a 3rd person combat shooter. The game is pretty and produces some good lighting effects and 3D rendered environments.

Feedback is positive and It receives 4 stars from 1600 ratings. Playing this game feels smooth and controls are excellent, except reaching to the middle of the screen at times to action an item can be tedious. Fighting is enhanced by the fact you can take cover behind barriers and pop shoot your enemy.

Another excellent game that is worth the purchase for you iPad and iPhone device.

iMedicalApps

2011-09-12T09:22:00.001+02:00

A great website that lists medical applications for mobile devices like iPhone, iPad, Android and Blackberry. Browse the apps by device, type or speciality. There are apps for electronic medical records, emergency management, patient education, medical imaging, etc.

www.imedicalapps.com

Fruit Ninja Kinect for Xbox 360

2011-08-28T15:02:00.001+02:00

Fruit Ninja Kinect is a very fun game to play, at 43 years of age it got me back in touch with my nine year old self, pulling out all those old Kung Fu moves. By then end of 20 minutes it felt that I had a very good workout, my arms were pumped as if I had hit the gym for an hour. The best thing of all I felt completely distressed, Bruce Lee slicing through tons of falling fruit felt therapeutic indeed.

This game is the same classic taken from the mobile and put where it was meant to be, on Kinect. The game cost 800 Microsoft points and is definitely worth it. There are 3 single player modes and 2 co-op modes.

In arcade mode you have 60 seconds to slice as many fruit as you can, avoiding those deadly bombs that minus points from your score. There are various bonus bananas to send you into a fruit frenzy. Classic mode gives you 3 lives and a life is lost when a fruit falls from the screen unsliced. Zen mode is exactly that, 90 seconds of no bombs, no bananas and no lives to be lost.

Two player modes involves side by side competition or a team arcade mode. I can imagine that if the adults enjoy this the Kids would just love it. The accuracy is pretty good, I even used a plastic light sabre as a sword and it worked pretty well, see the video below for a good laugh at my serious Kung Fu acting skills. If you need a fun action packed workout that's different from your regular Jane Fonda routine give it a go.

Microsoft’s Zune

2011-08-27T22:38:00.001+02:00

I was interested in looking at the current Windows Phone 7 apps and decided to install Zune to view the marketplace. What I did not expect is for Zune to look and feel so good, it’s definitely going into the top spot above my current media centre.

The look and feel it typically Microsoft’s new metro tile design and feels really light, clean and fresh. Much quicker than the clunky, bloated, buggy feel of Windows Media Player 12. Starting the application will land you on a Quickplay screen where you can pin your favourite media. New media is displayed in tile format and scrolling along you can also view your play history. To me this seems to a cross between Windows Media Centre and Windows Media Player, just this time done right.

Zune is chromeless with no window border, so viewing photos looks much better on your desktop, it feels like a giant widget, with a nice drop shadow on your desktop. Minimizing does actually reduce the player to a widget.

The second tab is Collection that is pretty much your access to your music, videos, podcasts and pictures. Again is is looks so clean and simple, selecting Artists for example will display the amount artists and the a-z list, but also next to it the Albums, next to that all the songs etc.

The Now Playing screen displays all your albums as tiles in the background, and they rotate subtlety every now and then. Highlighting effects when you move over any item in Zune is also very effective.

The third tab is the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace similar to the Android marketplace but even more precise, easy filtering, very light, clicking an app brings up the info in a flash, no clutter, I luv!

Playing a movie applies all of the above positives, click the video the movie will quickly resize from small to 2X, 3X and Full.

Sharing with your Xbox is also supported. So definitely a download to try if want something that works, is simple, is fast, is 10X better than Windows Media Player.

123D Sculpt for iPad

2011-08-11T21:25:00.001+02:00

So now and again after you are bored of your iPad apps something unique comes along to perk your brain.

123D Sculpt by Autodesk Inc. is a free app for now, and will turn you into a professional sculptor in minutes. You can select from various clay like 3D models and easily resize and rotate your sculpture using various multi-touch gestures. Stroke the model as if moulding clay and create your own sculpture figure, overlay various real life textures and rub onto your sculpture, reminds me of those rub on tattoos when I was a kid.

What impressed me here is such a complex environment is made almost child's play and you get the hang of it in minutes with any real training needed. Everyone is going to love this app and it’s therapeutic to say the least.

You can take snapshots of your final model or even create 720p videos to share on social networks. A neat feature is you can take your own textures using the iPad 2 camera. Take a shot of your mother in-law and add her to your newly created Shrek bust. Well done to Autodesk a truly beautiful application.

appSaver for Android

2011-08-04T22:27:00.001+02:00

Need a simple quick app to backup all your Android apps to your SD card?, then appSaver is your app.,No need to download your apps again if you uninstall or hard reset your phone. appSaver allows you to install apk files from the SD card, system apps are filtered out from the backup.

Store rating is 4.4 stars and the app is free.

Android Store Link

NetCarShow for iPad

2011-08-02T19:44:00.001+02:00

NetCarShow is definitely hands down my favourite car app for the iPad. If you want to see every car, from every manufacturer, including concept cars, ever made…then this is your application. Warning spend 5 minutes on this application browsing some interesting motor vehicles and it could turn into hours. The application is basically the iOS GUI for the www.netcarshow.com website.

The first tab displays all the latest models coming down the pipeline from all manufacturers, some going ahead to 2013. The second tab allows you to browse by manufacturer, and they are all listed, some I did not even know existed. The third tab displays your favourites, you can mark any picture that interests you as a favourite to enjoy later. The application also provides a full text search.

Images for vehicles are of very good quality, taping the book at the bottom left hand corner will display all you need to know about that vehicle, so with information and images for every vehicle you don’t need another car app.

The application is also available for the iPhone and is totally free with completely no ads, just a quality app for pure car lovers.

Microsoft Wireless Desktop 3000

2011-07-26T21:21:00.001+02:00

Today I want to share some excellent hardware from Microsoft, the Microsoft Wireless Desktop 3000 consists of a beautiful slim wireless keyboard and mouse. The keyboard is a joy to use with a sloping rubbery surface for your wrist and glossy black top surrounding your flat keys. The keyboard in total is two toned with a white underbelly.

There are plenty of additional windows keys to play with, there are 5 favourite keys you can customise with actions, there are keys to open Outlook with new/forward/reply buttons, Windows Media Player with stop/pause/skip track buttons, adjust volume/mute, open/close/new documents, undo/redo, picture gallery with zoom and calculator etc.

The mouse is moves just beautifully and is such a joy to use, it uses BlueTrack technology that allows the mouse to operate smoothly on just about any surface. The mouse is also covered in a glossy black surface with 5 buttons and a rubber strips on each side for your fingers to gently grip the mouse. The scroll wheel is smooth as silk and there is configuration software supplied to configure both devices to your hearts content.

Setting up is the easiest, running Windows 7 I just added the included batteries in both devices, plugged in the single Wi-Fi adapter in an open usb port and booted up, voila worked immediately.

Another device that goes very well with this is the Microsoft LifeCam HD 5000, also a shiny black device that can display video at a resolution of 1280 X 720 pixels, it can capture video and pictures at this resolution. It has autofocus and will adjust the focus as you move forward or backwards. The video is very fast at a resolution of 640 X 360 which is what you would normally use for video conferencing but gets a little slower at the HD resolution, but not bad even at that resolution. Video is taken in widescreen format 16:9 to fit nicely on most LCD monitors today.

These devices are not the cheapest, but you get the quality, by looking around at smaller computer stores I managed to purchase all 3 items for under R900. Saving R550 had I purchased this at the bigger chain stores.

Player+ for iPad

2011-07-19T22:41:00.001+02:00

Player+ app for the iPad was updated with some great new features. This app is a music player with some neat features. I used this application over the weekend to play music for a function of 100 people and it went pretty well with no crashes. New in the update is a 5 band graphic equaliser to add that base you have been looking for. You can select existing playlists and add individual songs to your current playlist, shuffle all or shuffle down, neat features when playing live at a function. There are various patterns to mix into the next track, creating a professional sound. This is a neat free application which definitely replaces your stock iPad player. The new update also adds cueing and loop.

Archos G9 Tablets Launch

2011-07-18T21:31:00.001+02:00

I reviewed the Archos G9 series tablets a little while ago, regarding the 8” and 10” versions. Launch date has been announced for September and pricing is a little more expensive than said in my last post. Starting at $299.99 and $369.99 respectively.

See my previous review here…

Asteroid Tower Defense for Android

2011-07-18T20:17:00.001+02:00

Finally a game that held my attention for 60 minutes solid. This is a neat and exciting little tower defense game with descent graphics and hectic scrambling to survive in the later stages.

Basically collect and add to your base by purchasing various laser or missile turrets and upgrading those as you earn more funds. All the while different types and sized asteroid objects come hurtling towards your base.

Defense is the object of the game but adding turrets requires power and adding solar panels to your base is crucial to keep them powered and firing. Add walled shields and repair units to survive longer.

There is a button in the game to toggle the game faster and make the first stages go quicker. Once I got to around 300 000 points things went completely down hill, my base could not stand the onslaught and an hour of struggle was in vain. Leader boards show scores of a million plus so good luck to you on that.

The game is offered free and provides online leader boards to take on your friends or the universe. A good game to keep on your phone when you are bored and feel like being challenged.

QuickPic Gallery App for Android

2011-07-17T20:43:00.001+02:00

Quickpic is a free gallery/album application for your Android device that has gathered 39500 ratings to date and achieves 5 stars. I love this application and it has replaced my default Android gallery application.

The main advantage with this application is it’s fast, brings a real smooth experience to your image browsing. A really neat and useful feature is the ability to multi-select your images in an album and bulk share, rotate, delete, crop, move or copy. Sorting of photos is also easy by various filters.

Settings are also plentiful, things you just don't get in the standard gallery …

Include or exclude directories
Include videos in your albums
Open last viewed folders
Single tap zoom
Auto max brightness
Slideshow options
Screen orientation options
Password protected folders

I also noticed that when using QuickPic for setting your wallpaper, it crops images at much better quality. I totally recommend this application, just a complete quality app.

Reckless Racing HD

2011-07-10T20:46:00.001+02:00

Pixelbite’s Reckless Racing HD for the iPad is also available for the iPhone. The game is a typical arcade like top down approach to racing where controlling your vehicle is challenging due to slipping and sliding around dirt tracks. There are 8 tracks and you will be able to unlock the ability to race the tracks in the opposite direction giving you 16 tracks effectively.

The game is set in the heart of Dixie and has a very neat foot stomping opening track with the banjo. There are typical characters in the game with names like Bubba and Otis. The game has single and multiplayer. Staying on the road can be difficult but thankfully there are a few types of steering modes for you to choose from, namely Tank, Tilt, Standard and Half Wheel. Different types of vehicles depending on the character you choose, from truck, rally car, jeep, pickup, etc.

Reckless Racing is a fun game that is graphically smooth but not so easy to play, over steering your V8 on the dirt will become common practice…well until you practice.

iOS Jailbreak Now Easy!

2011-07-09T16:10:00.001+02:00

The PDF exploit in the iOS system has made jailbreaking your device pretty easy. By browsing to the jailbreakme.com website and just one click on a link will allow you to jailbreak your device in seconds.

The Cydia Store application will also automatically be installed where you can download the patch to fix the PDF exploit. If you think about how unsecure all the iOS devices are at the moment, by clicking one link on a website and without any further prompts you could actually jailbreak your device and load applications. Imagine what hackers can achieve with this level of easy access to your device.

Apple have reported to be working on a fix, which would also stop the jailbreak. The German government has issued a security warning to iOS users in the country. Once you jailbreak your device and run the patch you would also need to change the default password to the root of your storage as hackers could hack your files using a method called SSH. By installing the SBSettings application you can also toggle SSH access off or on.

PSN Back Online!

2011-07-05T20:34:00.001+02:00

The PlayStation Network has been down for months now after the network had been hacked and the information of 100 million plus users were stolen. It’s almost hard to believe that Sony would be affected for so long and their faithful gamers in the end paid the price.

Sony announced that they would be restoring the service later this week. Well I am holding thumbs for the PS3 gamers out there, let hope this time around you get joy.

iStunt 2 HD Insane Hills Review

2011-07-02T14:02:00.001+02:00

This is a fun game with an upbeat sound track and fluid gameplay for your iOS device. The game takes place on snow slopes, featuring you speeding your way across the landscape using your snowboard.

Moving forward is automatic and requires you to tilt your iOS device so that you can make jumps across crevices, increase speed, perform stunts in the air and collect items. Fast paced levels where you navigate battling gravity, speed boosts, saws and huge jumps. There are variants where you crab and ride rails and dodge floating mountains. The physics engine is ragdoll like and requires very small tilt movements from your device.

Game Centre is integrated and your score is uploaded to a worldwide leader board. The game receives 4.5 star rating in the app store and is a very addictive and enjoyable game, guaranteed to lift your heart rate a little.

200 Million Tweets/Day

2011-07-02T12:30:00.001+02:00

Twitter posted a blog post recently that stated it’s users were sending out around 200 million tweets per day. If you stop and think about that amount for a moment it’s staggering, especially when that figure was only 2 million beginning 2009.

Twitter indicated in a diagram that if a single tweet is around 25 words then that would equal to 25 tweets to fill one page of the book War and Peace. The book has 1225 pages which equals to 24 500 tweets per book. Finally this would mean that the information equivalent of around 8 163 copies of War and Peace are tweeted each day.

I looked at a few infographic charts of out going social networks. In 3-5 years a dominant network could fall to almost oblivion during this period if you do not keep your eye on the changing markets and keep expanding your strategy. Look at the leading power house that Facebook has become, it’s expanding and changing constantly, Google+ could for example topple it in just 3 years if it’s not careful of what users want.

Twitter is growing for now and good on them, but it’s functionality has been the same for far too long, it needs more expansion to stay alive in the future.

Cheap and Free eBooks

2011-06-28T21:47:00.001+02:00

You may find many websites that offer free eBooks and most likely they all offer the same type of books, some most likely from Project Gutenberg etc. One website FeedBooks does make the experience easier than most.

The website offers books mainly in four languages namely English, French, German and Spanish. There are a span of categories to choose from the eBook store and prices are reasonable, Computers for example returns 1663 books while romance returns 4353 books. There is also a Public Domain section and a Original Books section. Download links are immediate and there are no nagging advertisement pages etc.

www.feedbooks.com

Google’s What Do You Love

2011-06-28T21:32:00.001+02:00

Google quietly launched a new website called “What Do You Love”, the page is a search similar to the normal Google search that we all use every day. The difference is the search is done across all Google’s services and mashed up onto one page.

Some of the services used are Picasa, Maps, Sketchup, Patent Search, Books, Voice, Gmail, Translation, Blogs etc. Try searching your name or handle and you will be surprised at all the info stored about you.

www.wdyl.com or www.google.com/whatdoyoulove

ARCHOS G9 Series Tablets

2011-06-26T21:16:00.001+02:00

Archos try to mix things up a little with these new puppies. There are two versions, first the ARCHOS 80 G9 which sports a 8” 1024 X 768 resolution screen and secondly the ARCHOS 101 G9 tablet with a 10.1” 1280 X 800 screen.

So what makes this different from all the other Android tablets out there, well this has 250GB HDD storage. Instead of the usual Tegra processor it sports a powerful 1.5 GHZ OMAP4 CPU that promises 50% better experience over the NVIDIA chip. Now the cruncher, instead of the usual $499 selling price even with the above additions, the tablets will go for $279 and $349 respectively.

Other features include a HDMI 1080P output and a slot for a 3G stick, see the below video for the example. Operating system will be Android Honeycomb 3.1. There is no indication of what the HDD will do to the battery but personally I will take the extra storage space for a true laptop/PC convergence.

My impression of the devices from the below video, well I instinctively wanted one, lets hope the Honeycomb apps start picking up and we finally have choice.

Sony S1 & S2 Commercials

2011-06-19T17:30:00.001+02:00

Official commercials for the upcoming Sony S1 and S2 (dual screen) Honeycomb tablets.

The S1 is a typical tablet device with a 9.4 inch screen while the S2 is a clamshell type device with 2 5.5 inch screens.

Bothe devices sport the Nvidia Tegra 2 CPU. Battery is around 10 hours and sports both front and back cameras.