Mobile Gaming

In the year 2000 I had just graduated high school and was just entering the big world of post secondary employment. On my off hours I do spent countless hours on my computer playing games. In fact, until 2007 or so I played mostly computer games and just the occasional PS3 title. What can I say, I was addicted to Quakeworld and World of Warcraft. I've never been a big mobile gamer, except maybe the Sega Game Gear way back when. Until recently I figured that mobile gaming has been a dieing industry.

Now don't get me wrong I realize that mindless games like Angry Birds, Cut the Rope, Where's My Water, Canabalt, Contre Jour and Temple Run have revolutionized mobile gaming. I agree that those, and many other games are great for wasting time, and even better at draining your phones battery, but to me, they are missing elements of what made gaming on the computer and consoles so emersive. I can definitely be entertained by typical phone games, sometimes I even feel a certain amount of satisfaction when I beat a level or get a high score. Do these games emerse me in a place where I forget the troubles of the outside world, making me want to play non stop? No, they don't as I can put the game down and probably not care about picking it up again until the next time I have nothing better to do. So I guess the big question is, can mobile games be better than this?

They can and are, if you know what to look for. Finding decent mobile games isn't as simple as looking at the highest rated games in the online store. Most of the really good games are featured and reviewed on separate sites, and aren't developed by the more popular mobile games authors. I think some of the best mobile games, are ones that were originally designed to be computer games, but have since been updated and ported to us for use on touch screen devices. Nostalgic games like Another World, Prince of Persia and Broken Sword: Secret of the Templars are perfect examples of immersive, story driven strategy games, that were designed for adults that wanted to sit and enjoy a game for several hours at a time.

My point in all this jabber is to make it clear that mobile gaming has become a time waster, when it should have a similar experience to a PC or console. The developers need to play to the devices strong features and make games with simple controls, good stories, strategy, and quality sound. I don't think people typically expect mobile game graphics to be amazing, and they shouldn't as graphics mean nothing when a game is well developed. I look forward to more old school game ports and developers willing to take a chance with creative, immersive game experiences that don't involve repetitive, short levels with no story.

Ian

Trolls Attacked My Blog!

If you were to look at the post before this one you'd probably notice that it's been many months since I've updated my site. Between work, my daughter and my normal day to day life, I just haven't found the time, or inspiration to hammer out a quality post. I've got several draft posts from last year but they are fairly irrelevant now.

It really seems like I've dropped the ball, but one thing I have kept up on is killing trolls! A troll is someone who purposely delays or submits useless garbage to a site like mine. You wouldn't know it, but my Blog gets several thousand hits a month, with no new posts, and those old posts get around 200 comments a month. That sounds impressive to me, but about 190 of those comments are advertisements and people trying to link back to another site. I don't know about you but I hate it when I'm reading through comments on a post about nuclear astro-fusion (yeah right) and their are comments like "try my interweb site :: www.joelikesapples.com" and ridiculous stuff like that.

So several times a day I have been getting emails from my site about these jobless blog trolls posting comments, and I have been deleting these comments and reporting them all to Google. Google won't do anything about it, but it's the principal of it that matters to me. Trolls need to be put down. So from now on all comments are moderated. Good luck getting past me!

My Samsung Galaxy S3

If I think back 5 years, I had a different job, different home and I really only thought about food and computer games. I won't lie, I had a semi-serious addiction to World of Warcraft. I've long since pulled the plug on WOW and am now into home entertainment and tech gadgets.

A week ago, I sold my Samsung Galaxy S (SGS) and jumped into a blue Samsung Galaxy S III (S3) 32GB model. The SGS was a great phone and, actually still is a great phone. The only real problem I had with it was that I was operating at a level that was faster than the phone. I needed a device with enough power to keep up with the applications, games and tasks that I use on a day to day basis. The SGS was able to do it, but it took 2-3 times longer than it does with the S3. I think my favorite part of the SGS was its popularity. You could Google it, and have endless amounts of information about special apps, custom roms and valuable user experience. I was able to sell my SGS on Ebay for just under $200, covering for the cost of the S3.

The S3 has been out for a while now, so their has been some developments with the software. The S2 ships with Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) but is expected to get an upgrade to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean (JB). The great people over at Cyanogen have already released an early version of their rom,  that's based on JB. I don't think I'll get into the custom roms until the S3 has stopped getting official releases. That being said, I think I waited about 15 hours before I flashed a modified stock rom to root my S3. Rooting a phone allows the user full access to the system files, as well as cool abilities that are impossible without it. I discussed rooting a lot more in my SGS post.

The S3 is a beautiful phone, boasting a 4.8" HD Super AMOLED (720p) display, in a very minimalistic form at only 133 grams. The stock S3 was able to complete the Quadrant benchmark almost 3 times faster than my SGS. With such a big screen, battery life can be an issue, but I was able to play with the settings and load Juice Defender Ultimate to keep it alive. I couldn't be happier with my  decision to upgrade. Now I just have to wait until their is a super stable version of Cyanogen Mod or DarkyRom, so that I can unlock its full potential. I can only hope that the Samsung Galaxy S IV doesn't leave my S3 completely in the dust.

IaN

The Dell Experience

I found this while looking for a suitable Dell logo (below). It was so true that I
 felt it needed to be posted. Drop Microsoft while you still can!

A few months back, my grandmother called me and said that she was having trouble with her computer. If I remember correctly it was an issue with the Internet and how pages weren't being displayed how they should. Of course the real problem was that her computer was purchased in 1999 and Windows 2000 just wasn't cutting it anymore. I could have thrown some more ram in it and tried for Windows XP but in the long run it would just be a bandaid.

So I did what I do best and researched online for the best deal on what she wanted, a laptop with a full keyboard, big screen and that had enough processing power to prevent the need to upgrade anytime soon. Unfortunately with laptops, you can't build them yourself, so for the most part you need to find a store to buy a complete unit, or at least a base to add components to.

After exploring several local and online stores, Dell had the best deal. I had some reservations about Dell before I even browsed their site, but after looking at hundreds of independent reviews and comparing stats, Dell had just what I wanted for the best price. If I had to pick apart the Dell experience, I would blame their customer service.It's Dell's reputation for overseas ESL phone support that hurts them. That being said, I called them once to ask a question before I bought the laptop and the guy I dealt with spoke better English than me.

So, based on the above experience, Dell is probably one of the first places I'll look when I need to buy a new computer. If your a big gamer you might want to check out Dell gaming laptops as they're built for high end graphics and are nice to look at as well. I'd be interested to here from you if you have had any recent issues with Dell's customer service.

IaN

Dexter Review

I have to say that for the most part, TV programming has become total crap. I usually keep myself busy with movies or reruns of shows from back in the day. Their are only a select few TV shows that can keep me entertained these days.

One of those shows is Dexter. The series is about a blood spatter technician who works out of the Miami Metro police department. It's more that just another cop show as Dexter has a secret, he uses his cop connections to seek out the guilty, and slay them. That's right, he's a serial killer, and he's the good guy! The series has completed it's 6th season and I'm impatiently waiting for the 7th season, as the last episode left the biggest cliffhanger yet.

The great thing about Dexter is that their are a lot of complex characters that have been built up over the seasons. Dexter has a sister, who is a police officer that works with Dexter, and she has a special relationship with her brother that could almost be made into a show of it's own. These characters, along with some crude humor and a decent amount of blood and boob, make for a real TV treat.

I highly recommend you check out Dexter, especially if your a fan of shows like Criminal Minds or CSI. Don't screw around and start by watching season 6 as you need to start at the beginning. It took me almost 3 months to watch the first 6 seasons, but I'm so glad that I did. I can hardly wait until season 7, sometime in September/October 2012.

IaN

The Best Android Apps of 2012

I've spent a lot of time going through the android application store (aka Google Play), searching, downloading, reviewing, and usually deleting new apps. Google Play has hundreds of thousands of apps, and is constantly growing in size. The problem is that most of the apps are garbage and not worth downloading. Obviously not everyone is going to like the same apps as the next person and not all phones and versions of Android are compatible with all apps. I'm going too tell you my favorite apps, in no particular order, and you can do whatever you want with the info.

I'll start by saying that I have a rooted Samsung Galaxy S i1900m. It's a Canadian model but it's the same hardware as the American and international models. I have flashed to DarkyRom running Android 3.36. It's not the newest version of Android but it runs most of the apps on Google Play.

Titanium Backup - Allows you to backup all of your applications to your phone or a cloud service. Great if you mess around with your phone a lot like me. Note that this app has extra functions if your phone is rooted.

Opera Mini - the stock Android Internet browser is smooth and fast but lacked the viewing functions that I like. This version of Opera doesn't do flash but makes up for it with pure speed.

Screen Filter - allows you to apply a special filter to your screen to dim the brightness beyond the stock setting. This is a lifesaver if you use your phone in a dark place and want to save your eyes.

Avast Anti-Theft - this app actually installs as a full mobile security suite but the firewall and scanners can be uninstalled to leave you with a great anti-theft app. Note that this app has extra functions if your phone is rooted.

Juice Defender - I purchased the extreme edition, which after making dozens of adjustments, has provided my phone with an average of 86% more battery life. Note that this app has extra functions if your phone is rooted.

GO Launcher EX - the GO suite of programs provides easy to use replacement apps for the stock launcher, messaging and calendar apps. All of the GO apps give extra functions and a ton of themes.

Baby Rattle with Child Lock - your stuck in traffic and your 12 month old is strapped in the rear seat, screaming bloody murder... Out comes Baby Rattle! This is the final answer in keeping your screamer at bay. Note that baby slober can be hazardous to your phone.

I use a lot of other apps but the above aren't as common. Maybe I'll make a list of my favorite Android games at some point. Do you use any great apps that I haven't mentioned?

IaN