Android By Russell Holly Dec. 12, 2013 4:25 pm
Welcome to Geekout, our weekly Hangout on Air where we talk about all the interesting things happening in the technology world this week.
Everyone knows laser pointers are fun. Some of you might even have a 500mW laser or even a 1W handheld laser. At what point do you have to mount the laser onto the back of a giant truck? If you’re the US Army, the answer is 10KW, or 10,000 times the power of the 1W laser. These machines are part of a new trial for the Arms called High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator, and this is surely not going to be the last time we hear about them, especially knowing that there are 50KW and 100KW upgrades planned for the future.
Google has taken it upon themselves to update almost every one of their apps and services this week, but it seems that wasn’t enough for them. The Google Play Store is now home to some new Google Play edition hardware. The Sony Z Ultra has shed its Xperia branding and is joining the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4, while the LG G Pad 8.3 takes its place as the first tablet with the GPe branding. Neither device has sold particularly well on its own, despite both being of superior construction and reasonable pricing. We’ll see if adding a little Google flavor does anything to help with that in the coming weeks.
Our app of the week this week might have been Angry Birds Go! if we didn’t have such a hard time actually having fun while playing the game. Rovio seems to have done everything possible to charge users to enjoy the game, from $50 cars and a level system that makes playing the game just plain not fun. To make matters worse, your characters fall asleep after five races and make you pay for more energy if you want to keep playing. It’s a great big mess, so if you decide you just have to play this game you need to get ready to open your wallet.
Instead, our app of the week this week is Badland. If you’re into side scrolling 2D silhouette puzzle games, this fast paced ride is right up your alley. The game is broken into dozens of tiny obstacles that require a lot of focus on the environment around you, and include crazy modifiers that split your body into a thousand tiny clones, make your body spin counterclockwise at great speed without your control, or even blow up to massive proportions to crush the puzzle ahead of you. All the while you’re dodging spikes, sawblades, giant rocks, and all just to get to the end of the stage where you’re sucked through a pipe into the next level.
If you’ve got a topic you’d like us to talk about on our Geekout, or questions for us during a live broadcast, leave us a message here or on the Google+ page.
More...
Everyone knows laser pointers are fun. Some of you might even have a 500mW laser or even a 1W handheld laser. At what point do you have to mount the laser onto the back of a giant truck? If you’re the US Army, the answer is 10KW, or 10,000 times the power of the 1W laser. These machines are part of a new trial for the Arms called High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator, and this is surely not going to be the last time we hear about them, especially knowing that there are 50KW and 100KW upgrades planned for the future.
Google has taken it upon themselves to update almost every one of their apps and services this week, but it seems that wasn’t enough for them. The Google Play Store is now home to some new Google Play edition hardware. The Sony Z Ultra has shed its Xperia branding and is joining the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4, while the LG G Pad 8.3 takes its place as the first tablet with the GPe branding. Neither device has sold particularly well on its own, despite both being of superior construction and reasonable pricing. We’ll see if adding a little Google flavor does anything to help with that in the coming weeks.
Our app of the week this week might have been Angry Birds Go! if we didn’t have such a hard time actually having fun while playing the game. Rovio seems to have done everything possible to charge users to enjoy the game, from $50 cars and a level system that makes playing the game just plain not fun. To make matters worse, your characters fall asleep after five races and make you pay for more energy if you want to keep playing. It’s a great big mess, so if you decide you just have to play this game you need to get ready to open your wallet.
Instead, our app of the week this week is Badland. If you’re into side scrolling 2D silhouette puzzle games, this fast paced ride is right up your alley. The game is broken into dozens of tiny obstacles that require a lot of focus on the environment around you, and include crazy modifiers that split your body into a thousand tiny clones, make your body spin counterclockwise at great speed without your control, or even blow up to massive proportions to crush the puzzle ahead of you. All the while you’re dodging spikes, sawblades, giant rocks, and all just to get to the end of the stage where you’re sucked through a pipe into the next level.
If you’ve got a topic you’d like us to talk about on our Geekout, or questions for us during a live broadcast, leave us a message here or on the Google+ page.
More...
