You would usually have to look up both the movie and the actor on IMDb and then manually calculate the age to get the answer. That’s pretty bothersome, so for fun, I decided to make a website that automates the task: How Old Were the Actors. The website will show you how old the entire main cast was when making  the film, how old the actors are now, and whether they’re still alive.

How Old Were the Actors will also display information about the movies and provide links to IMDb. As a bonus, the site features a list with all the oldest actors in the world. Among the popular Hollywood actors, Eli Wallach (97), Kirk Douglas (96) and Mickey Rooney (92) have been on this planet the longest. You can visit How Old Were the Actors at the following URL if you want to check it out: http://asmoothsea.com/actorsage/.

Considering that TechCredo has been pretty vocal about Apple and its methods and products in the past, I feel that a minor disclaimer is in order before presenting this collection of top iPhone 5 wallpapers (640 x 1136 pixel resolution). I write about Android for a living (not on TechCredo, of course) and my interest in Google’s platform started five years ago.

I’m curious of all mobile operating systems – not just Android – and last fall I wanted to completely explore a new platform and its apps and ecosystem. I purchased the Windows Phone 8 device HTC 8X as soon as it was released, hoping that Microsoft’s mobile OS had matured enough to be a viable option. Alas, it had not. I love the minimalist design and typography, but the system is way too limited compared to Android.

The worst part, though, is that Windows Phone basically has no ecosystem and no Google support. WP8 lacked nearly all my favorite apps and the few titles it did have, such as the official IMDb client, were horrible. I felt bad for Windows Phone users not knowing what they were missing out on and I returned the HTC 8X within 24 hours.

Rejecting Windows Phone 8 didn’t leave me much option if I wanted to explore another mobile ecosystem: I had to join the Dark Side and get an iOS device. So against my better judgment, I bought an iPhone 5. Apple’s iOS is of course a polished system (although I find Apple’s design language pretty tacky) and all the high quality apps make it a far better OS than Windows Phone 8.

However, everything is very locked down and the system basically has no customization options at all. I get claustrophobic when using iOS from time to time since the system hardly offers any communication and sharing possibilities between apps. The fact that Apple calls iOS “the most advanced mobile operating system in the world” is a joke. Android is so far ahead you can’t even see iOS in the rear mirror.

Still, I have to admit that I do enjoy several aspects of the iPhone 5. The build quality is excellent, iOS is fast and easy to use but foremost the platform has a vast number of great apps. The most important part, however, is that Google is supporting iOS by releasing quality apps for all its major services. Google does not support Windows Phone and has no plans to release apps for Microsoft’s OS – that alone is enough for me to not use WP.

Enough of this rambling – here’s a great collection of 102 quality iPhone 5 wallpapers. They all have the same resolution as the iPhone 5: 640 x 1136 pixels. All of the backgrounds are more or less stylish, minimalist, artsy and well… quirky. Hope you’ll enjoy them!

Download the entire iPhone 5 wallpaper collection (102 images – 28MB)

Still, from time to time I start a new quest to find the ultimate homescreen wallpapers and this time I may actually have succeeded. Here is a nice collection of retro, 8-bit, pixelart, minimalist, video game and Super Mario wallpapers.

Nearly all of these retro styled backgrounds look great on my Android devices, including the Galaxy Nexus and the phablet Samsung Galaxy Note 2. Many of the wallpapers have a very high resolution – 1080p or above. Please note that I do not own the copyright to these images, but they should all be freely distributable. Enjoy!

Download the entire wallpaper collection (181 images – 101MB)

Google Now is a great new Android feature that was introduced with Jelly Bean back in June. It was recently named Innovation of the Year by the magazine Popular Science and it’s part of the Google Search app.

I personally don’t have Google Now turned on since I currently don’t have much use for it, but I regularly use the Google Search app to find information using my voice. However, Google Now and Google Search always showed me temperatures in Fahrenheit. I prefer Celsius and I couldn’t find a setting to make the app switch from Fahrenheit.

Sure, I could manually force Google Search to show me weather temperatures in Celsius by saying “Show me the temperature in Celsius in London”, for example. That’s a bit bothersome, though. Luckily there’s a simple way of switching to either Fahrenheit or Celsius, but first you need to activate Google Now (you can always turn it off later). Here’s how to change the weather and temperature settings in the app.

Activate Google Now (if you haven’t done that already) by launching the Google Search app and then navigating to Settings > Google Now. There should be a button in the upper right corner (at least on Nexus devices) that will activate the service. Choose “Yes, I’m in”.

Tap your way to Settings > Google Now > Weather > Weather units and select either Fahrenheit or Celsius. From now on, Google Now and the Search app will always show temperatures in the unit of your choice. You can now deactivate Google Now if you don’t need it.

The other flagship phones have much more interesting and vivid designs. One might argue that HTC copied the colorful design of Nokia’s Lumia line, but that’s not the point: The Ativ S looks boring compared to the HTC 8X and the Lumia 920. They feel like true Windows Phone 8 devices while the Ativ S looks like any other phone out there.

The Nokia Lumia 920′s camera will probably be great and the screen on the HTC 8X has the highest pixel density. Still, I’m surprised that Samsung’s WP8 device hasn’t gotten more love. In fact, here are seven reasons to pick the Ativ S instead of the Nokia Lumia 920 and the HTC 8X.

1) It features a Super AMOLED display

AMOLED displays use less power while displaying black or dark backgrounds. Each pixel on AMOLED screens is photoemissive and will actually generate its own light. Since there’s no need for a backlight, the pixel can essentially turn off its light source and go total black. As a result, you can save energy by having a dark or black background. And as you know, Windows Phone 8 has a lot of black interface elements.

2) It has the most powerful battery

The Samsung Ativ S rocks a 2300mAh battery. Combined with its Super AMOLED screen, you will probably get great battery life. The Nokia Lumia 920’s battery has 2000mAh and the HTC 8X merely has a 1800mAh battery.

3) The Samsung Ativ S has an SD card slot

Unlike its WP8 flagship competitors, the Ativ S supports SD cards. You can expand its storage with 32GB and if you do, you get three times the storage space as the HTC 8X (16GB) and 16GB more than in the Lumia 920 (32GB).

4) The Ativ S has a removable battery

Unless I’m mistaken, the Samsung Ativ S is the only of this fall’s Windows Phone 8 flagship phones that has a removable battery. Batteries age and get less powerful and effective. They are also known to simply break from time to time, and being able to replace the battery yourself is a bonus. On top of that, you can carry an extra fully charged battery while camping or being out in the wilderness. You can’t do that with the HTC 8X or Lumia 920.

5) It has the largest screen

This is just a matter of personal preference, but the Ativ S has the biggest screen. In fact, its 4,8” screen is 25% larger than the screen on the HTC 8X and 14% bigger than the 4,5” display on the Nokia Lumia 920. I love big displays on phones (I carry the 5.5” Samsung Galaxy Note 2) and for me, the big screen on the Ativ S is a bonus.

6) The Ativ S rocks an FM radio

Samsung’s Windows Phone 8 device comes equipped with a stereo FM radio: the other phones have no built in radio. It’s a small advantage that I personally don’t care much about, but still…

7) It is pocketable and very light considering its massive screen

The Ativ S has the largest screen of these three devices, but it’s almost as light as the HTC 8X. Even though the screen is much bigger, it has the same total volume as the HTC 8X and it has 16% less total volume than the Nokia Lumia 920.

One should not forget that the Nokia Lumia 920 is extremely heavy for a phone (185g). It’s actually quite a lot heavier than the Nokia 5110 I rocked in 1998. In fact, it’s heavier than any phone I’ve ever owned. It weighs more than the 5.5” behemoth Samsung Galaxy Note 2.

I haven’t actually held the Lumia 920, but there’s no excuse for it to be that heavy. It’s so heavy that it’s a problem. With its 11mm profile, the Nokia Lumia 920 is quite thick as well. The HTC 8X has a more reasonable weight and dimensions.

I bet I can list at least as many reasons to pick either the Nokia Lumia 920 or the HTC 8X, but I feel Samsung’s Windows Phone 8 device is underrated. I still haven’t decided which one I’m going to get myself. All I know is that I will definitely rock a Windows Phone 8 device this fall. Which one is your favorite?