domenica 30 settembre 2012

This Gargantuan Slingshot Crossbow Is Taller Than You Are [Video]

Slingshots aren't just child's play, especially when they have a draw-distance greater than the height of several small children. Joerg Sprave is no stranger to crazy slingshot cannons, but he's really outdone himself this time with one that's longer than he is tall. More »


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Bad Piggies for iPhone and iPad review

After what feels like an eternity since Angry Birds maker Rovio teased that they were working on a game that was from the pigs point of view, Bad Piggies is finally here. I wouldn't call it a "sequel" to Angry Birds, however, because it doesn't feature the birds at all. Instead, it's an entirely new game featuring only the pigs -- and it's awesome!

The objective of Bad Piggies is to help the pigs build modes of transportation to get them to the finish line. Each level also has the option of earning up to three stars, but unlike Angry Birds, these stars are not based off points and don't need to be earned in a single attempt. In fact, you usually can't earn all the star at once. Every level will give you one star for completing the level, another one for collecting the star icon, but the objective for the third star varies from level to level. For example, one level may have a time requirement, another may require that you not use a specific object in your machine, and another level may require you to get to the finish line without blowing up TNT. I'm a huge fan of this approach to earning stars because it fosters creativity since you usually have to change your vehicle's design to earn all the stars.

If you get stuck on a level and need help with designing your vehicle, you can purchase the Mechanic Pig and he'll build one for you. Although the Mechanic Pig's design won't necessarily earn all stars for you, he at least gets you started so that all you have to do is tweek the vehicle to help you get all three stars.

In addition to the 60 levels included, Bad Piggies also includes 4 very difficult "sandbox levels", 30 puzzles that can be unlocked by earning three stars on levels, and an extra-special, super-secret level that will be revealed after collecting all the skulls.

Bad Piggies is availalble as separate purchases for the iPhone and iPad, but unfortunately, the iPhone version doesn't support the iPhone 5's larger display, yet. Another big disappointment about Bad Piggies is that, just like Angry Birds, there is no iCloud sync available to keep your levels in sync between devices. This is such a terrible decision by Rovio because it actually discourages people from purchasing both versions.

The good

  • Fun and addicting
  • Different than Angry Birds
  • 60 levels crammed with flying/driving/crashing fun
  • 30 additional puzzles unlocked by three-starring levels
  • 4 sandbox levels to stretch your creativity
  • Ultra-special, ultra-secret, ultra-difficult sandbox level to unlock by collecting all the skulls!
  • 33 objects to create the ultimate machine: motors, wings, fans, bottle rockets, umbrellas, balloons, and much more!
  • Purchase the mechanic pig and he'll help you build your mode of transportation needed to complete the level Mechanic Pig

The bad

  • No iCloud sync between iPhone and iPad
  • iPhone version is not optimized for the iPhone 5

The bottom line

Rovio has done a great job with Bad PIggies and it was worth the wait. It's a completely different game from Angry Birds that is challenging, fun, and addicting.

$0.99 for iPhone - Download Now

$2.99 for iPad - Download now



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PSX games now available in the Android Market, if you own an Xperia Play

PlayStation One games on the Android Market
If you're lucky enough to own an Xperia Play -- Sony Ericsson's new Gingerbread-powered smartphone-cum-gamepad -- you can now buy PlayStation (PSX) titles from the Android Market.

There are five titles currently available, all priced at £3.99: Syphon Filter, MediEvil, Cool Boarders 2, Destruction Derby, and Jumping Flash. They don't have an American price yet, but that will surely change once the Xperia Play launches in the States.

Two important questions remain unanswered: How big are these games? The Market descriptions say the games are only 5MB, but that sounds incredibly unlikely -- and more importantly, will it be possible to 'spoof' the Xperia Play and download PSX games onto other Gingerbread-powered phones, like the Nexus S?

In other news, the PlayStation emulator PSX4droid was recently removed from the Android Market. This obviously has nothing to do with today's release of first-party PlayStation games.

PSX games now available in the Android Market, if you own an Xperia Play originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 01 Apr 2011 04:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New iPad Quad Core Graphics

Prior to the unveiling of the new iPad 3, there was a lot of speculation and rumors about what processor would be on board and what features the new tablet. The older iPad 2 came with an A5 processor which included a dual core graphics processor and 512mb of RAM. The graphics processor takes care of all the display functions whilst the main processor handles all of the other functions. A lot of the rumors prior to the new iPad [...]

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Cold Brew Irish Coffee: The Best Part of Waking Up Drunk [Video]

Cold brew coffee has recently gained a massive following for its incredible smoothness and delicious flavor. Irish coffee, being caffeinated and alcoholic, has been popular for even longer. Too bad Irish coffee usually tastes like an 80-proof mug of acid. More »


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Digitimes says ASUS says Digitimes doesn't know what the hell it's talking about

Nexus 7

Because if you can't trust the source of yesterday's anonymously sourced $99 Nexus rumor to accurately report the denial of a $99 Nexus 7, who can you trust in this crazy world?

Never mind that the actual quote Digitimes has today doesn't actually refute anything. Here 'tis:

With Nexus 7's strong sales, rumor have circulated that Google is looking to push forward and will cooperate with Asustek to release a US$99 entry-level model and a US$199 ultra-thin upgraded model to counter Amazon and Apple's new tablet devices.

So, yeah. There's that. Ain't nothing official till it's official, folks.



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Deal of the Day ? 17.3? Dell Inspiron 17R Ivy Bridge Core i7 Quad-core Laptop

Friday’s LogicBUY Deal is the�17.3″ Dell Inspiron 17R (5720) 3rd generation Core i7-3612QM 2.1GHz Quad-core laptop for $699.99. �Features: 8GB RAM 1TB Hard Drive Intel HD 4000 graphics 8X DVD burner 4 USB 3.0 ports 802.11n WiFi Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OS Adobe Elements 9.0 Photoshop and Premiere Bundle $20 Shutterfly Credit 15-months McAfee [...]

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What ever should we do with these?

Android Central

If you're not yet registered with the site, now's the time. How else are you going to win one when we start giving away these sold-out Series 3 Android Minis?



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Logitech Harmony Touch remote pops up unannounced at Best Buy (Update: Pictures)

Logitech Harmony Touch remote pops up unannounced at Best Buy

It's been a long time since we've seen any new blood refreshing Logitech's line of universal remotes, but after indications of new devices on the way in an earnings call earlier this year tipster Andrew spotted this brand new Harmony Touch on store shelves. Arriving at Best Buy unheralded by any official announcement or specs so far, the box shots and list of features show the ability to control 15 different devices and (of course) that center mounted touchscreen. There's no mention of it on the Logitech site either, however one leaked blog post we spotted referred to this device and a Harmony Plus.

As our friends at Tech of the Hub note, the Touch clearly draws a lot of its heritage from the Harmony One and 1100 touchscreen remotes although to have ditched the dedicated Activity button for "one touch" control. The touchscreen itself supports both taps and swipes as well as up to 50 customizable channel icons, and the box lists both online setup and on-remote customization as features. According to Andrew it's rocking a price tag of $249 -- $50 above the current price of the Harmony One but $100 shy of the RF-equipped Harmony 900 -- hopefully we'll find out soon if what Logitech has added this time around makes it worth the wait.

Update: Another one of our readers, Zachary also saw it at Best Buy and bought one, check out a few out of the box pics in the gallery below, and drop any questions about its capabilities in the comments. He's digging it so far, saying that the touchscreen is responsive and it found icons for his area quickly, with options to change background, LCD brightness and screen timeout. There does not appear to be any RF support however, so it's IR control only.

[Thanks, Andrew]

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Logitech Harmony Touch remote pops up unannounced at Best Buy (Update: Pictures) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 Sep 2012 19:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Chrome now uses SPDY HTTP replacement, halves page load time

SPDY in Google Chrome
We're not entirely sure of the time line here, but it looks like Google has now rolled out the SPDY HTTP replacement to its full bevy of Web services, including Gmail, Docs, and YouTube. If you're currently using Google's Chrome browser you're probably already using SPDY.

We originally reported on SPDY way back in November 2009, when Google introduced it as yet another experiment in making the Web faster, like Go, Native Client and speculative pre-connections. Over the last 18 months, though, SPDY support has found its way into the stable build of Chrome.

SPDY is basically a streamlined and more efficient version of HTTP. At its most basic, SPDY introduces parallel, multiplexed streams over a single TCP connection -- but at the same time, SPDY allows for prioritization, so that vital content (HTML) can be sent before periphery content (JavaScript, video). All in all, the SPDY protocol can halve page load times, which is obviously rather significant.

The best bit, though, is that SPDY is an open-source project. HTTP 1.1 is a lumbering beast that needs to be replaced before low-latency real-time computing really becomes a reality, and SPDY is one of the best options currently on the table. To be honest, we're not sure why SPDY hasn't received more coverage -- it's awesome in every way. At the moment, though, the only way to help speed up SPDY's proliferation, is with an experimental Apache mod.

As far as actually 'trying it out,' your best bet is downloading Chrome, hitting up some Google sites, and then checking chrome://net-internals to see your active SPDY sessions. SPDY is a transparent replacement for HTTP, though, and as such it's rather hard to see its effects. Google's sites definitely feel fast in Chrome, but there are more technologies than just SPDY at work.

Google Chrome now uses SPDY HTTP replacement, halves page load time originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Klout Would Like Potential Employers To Consider Your Score Before Hiring You. And That?s Stupid.

6056125359_d96b0bfa05_zLet's put it out there right now: I am personally not a fan of Klout, which ranks people based on their Internet interactions and engagement on services like Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. I have nothing against the company whatsoever, and this is a vertical that someone was going to get into sooner or later. However, I still feel like the whole concept is bunk.

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Burrito Bison is a simple game for gummy bear lovers

burritobison
Burrito Bison is a pretty simple game, but if you're into gummy bears you might find it addictive.

As you may have guessed from the name, you're a bison (not a burrito, though). In the course of your day-to-day grocery shopping, you're abducted into a bag of gummy bears, and must now fend for yourself.

At the beginning of each round you launch yourself onto the marching gummy (gummi?) bears, while you're being watched by a huge crowd of even more gummy bears. Your goal is to keep bouncing on the bears and earn more and more money while you do it. Every time you hit a gummy bear, you lose some momentum. If you hit the floor, you basically lose all of it.

But don't give up just yet! You have an emergency thrust which you can use to gain some momentum and keep bouncing on those bears. This extra thrust gets refilled as you hit more bears.

There are also special gummy bears that give you extra thrust or extra money. The money comes in handy at the end of each round, when you can shop for cool stuff to make your bison even more effective against those gummy bears.

It's a fun and colorful game that kept my interest for quite some time, and almost sent me running to the closest store to get some gummy bears!

Burrito Bison is a simple game for gummy bear lovers originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 26 Mar 2011 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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