by Xavier Voigt-Hill

iOS AOTW: Temple Run

Today’s app of the week for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch is Temple Run by Imangi Studios.

The best mobile games are ones that you just cannot put down with simple controls, and Temple Run hits the nail on the head in this respect. The game starts with you being given control of an explorer who has stolen an idol from a temple hidden deep inside a jungle. You have to run away from the vicious monkeys who want the idol back and, by swiping and tilting your device, you collect coins, slide under fire, jump over gaps and try to avoid smashing your face into a tree. Coins and power-ups are scattered around the place and are used to purchase upgrades to your character. Additional coins can be purchased in-game if you want them as well.

Temple Run is fantastic and addictive and that is precisely why, despite the fact that the game itself is free, it remains the top-grossing app in the UK App Store.

Temple Run, iOS, Free
Download from the App Store or visit the website

by Henry Hunt

HP announce new Z1 all-in-one workstation with hefty price tag

At Digixav we love HP computers and we all agree that they make brilliant hardware. The Folio 13 won best PC of 2011, and the Envy 14 Spectre is one beautiful piece of Gorilla Glass. The new Z1 workstation, announced today, looks to be another excellent product for Meg Whitman’s company.

The all-in-one workstation looks fantastic. The Z1 comes with a Sandy Bridge i3, integrated graphics and a 250GB hard drive as standard which aren’t fantastic specs for $1,899 but, if you have the money, you can make it phenomenal with a quad-core 3.5GHz Intel Xeon chip, up to 32GB of RAM and a top-of-the-line Nvidia graphics card. There is not much that this configuration couldn’t handle.

Not only is this an incredibly powerful computer, but it looks great too. The clean crisp lines are continued throughout the design, making it look good from any angle. The whole thing can even fold down, making it possible to store very easily. The display even lifts up to allow for easy access and upgrading of the internals.

However, there is one drawback to all this power and design which is the hefty price tag. According to the HP website, it will start at $1,899, a rather high price considering that it is the i3 base model. But considering all this, the Z1 is a business machine aimed at the rich companies, programmers and graphics designers so the price isn’t that unreasonable. Expect to see these hitting workplaces in April.

by Hannah Marsh :)

Why do teenagers love BlackBerry devices?

Among teenagers, BlackBerry smartphones are all the hype at the moment, but I genuinely can’t help but ask myself why. While most people can see that RIM is on a knife edge and need to make drastic changes to survive, our demographic seems to be addicted to the Canadian QWERTY phones, with their outdated operating systems and poor user experiences. Why is this?

In my opinions BlackBerry phones (and PlayBooks) really aren’t great. People say that the BBM way of communicating is their favourite thing about the phones world, but this service ties you down to communicating with other BB users. Why not just download a cross-platform thing like WhatsApp? Then you will be able to communicate for free with people that have other phones too, such as Androids, iPhones and Windows Phones.

The performance of BlackBerry phones is often absolutely appalling, usually due to the outdated hardware, and my friends that have them are always complaining about how they crash far too regularly to be considered reliable. The camera quality is in a completely different league to other phones, and not in a good way. You cannot compare the quality with that of Nokia, HTC, Samsung and Apple cameras as it is just far too poor. The video quality is equally awful, almost embarrassing to watch once blown up to a decent size. The keys on the phone are small and hard to use at times.

Also (personal rant here) have you ever tried sharing a room with a BlackBerry user? When you’re trying to sleep at night and all you can hear is “click… click… click…” People claim that the keypad on the BlackBerry Bold doesn’t click, which for the record, is a lie. When the room is silent at night you can, and I repeat can, hear it. Now you may be thinking of a counter argument to do with the all-touch Torch and similar models due to the fact that they have software keyboards, however the touch panels are quite frankly of a severely sub-standard quality. In some of the older models the screen clicks as if it’s a button when you touch it. Resistive touch-screens do not deserve a place in this world.

BlackBerry devices are good as business phones due to the security and relative efficiency of the push email services, however as a phone for the youth, they are quite simply abysmal in my opinion. Much better alternatives are available at a wide array of price points, but BB diehards seem oblivious to this fact. I just wish that more people would think the same as me.

by Hannah Marsh :)

Why you don’t need a quad-core phone

“OMG I’ve seen this totally cool new phone, I really just have to get it!”

“Oh really? What is so good about it?”

“It’s got a quad-core processor”

“What does that mean?”

“I have no idea. However it sounds WICKED!!”

Companies trick you into thinking that you always have to have the latest thing, and the today’s society pressures you into believing all the given specifications are absolutely amazing. However, the truth is, some of it just isn’t needed. Why would you want a quad-core processor? To have a faster phone obviously. However you will never need that much power, nor will you ever use it! People say they need the power for gaming; however computers that don’t have quad-core processors have been used for gaming for so many years and are completely fine. Also why would you want to play high quality games on your phone? The screen is so small and the graphics are such poor quality that it isn’t worth it, not if you want anywhere near decent detail and picture. My phone (HTC Sensation) has a dual-core processor; and that works sensationally. I can multitask efficiently, I can play music whilst on the internet and texting and running social apps in the background. I can receive emails and play on apps at the same time. The speed is fantastic and you really couldn’t need a faster phone.

Quad-core costs a lot more money and quite frankly, it isn’t worth it. You may think it is cool to have it, however you will never use all four processors at once, and so you will never notice the fact that you have them.

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Mattel to (finally) release the Back To The Future hoverboard

Finally! The iconic hoverboard from Back To The Future will finally be put into production by Mattel! The board doesn’t actually hover but glides and it won’t work on water, but it’s actually going to be real! Preorders will start on MattyCollector on March 1st and, if enough orders are taken, the board will be produced and shipped in November or December. It’s going to cost a lot, but my life is now complete.

From the Mattel press release:

Finally! This totally awesome 1:1 replica of the hoverboard from the BTTF 2 and BTTF 3 films includes multiple whooshing sounds and will glide over most surfaces (does not actually “hover” – check back in 2015 for that feature). We’ll be taking orders for it March 1 – March 20, 2012, and the final product will be shipped around November/December 2012. Because this is such a high-cost item, there will be a minimum number of orders required to go into production. If we don’t receive the minimum orders, won’t go into production and customers will not be charged. The price will be announced later this month. (Note: Hover board does not work on water.)

by assortedletters

Return of the golden child

I’ve been away for a while. You may or may not have noticed.

I have from my extended sojourn of masturbation I found Digixav to have turned into a trumpet for Microsoft and Anonymous. A veritable hive of scum and villainy; and Henry is Jabba.

I, like many others, detest SOPA, ACTA and PIPA, and am enjoying the build up to Windows (Phone) 8. But with so much more going on in the world and my colleagues blindness to startups, Chinese labourers and so much more, I have decided to wreak literary havoc, with views and reviews that will make you pause and think, then change.

I really enjoyed all the references.

CS

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Horse_ebookmarklet turns the internet into engaging gibberish

You’ve probably heard of the @Horse_ebooks Twitter account. If you haven’t, why not? Unlike other bots on Twitter, @Horse_ebooks sends out cryptic messages that have oddly mesmerised the internet. @Fart says it best:

@Horse_ebooks is a Twitter bot designed and automated by apparently some Russian guy to sell worthless, horrible ebooks about horses. In order to avoid being detected as a spam bot, it occasionally posts a text snippet or two from one of its ebooks, chosen at random. I will never buy an ebook from it, but I will follow this Twitter account until I die or horses become extinct, whichever comes first.

Now, Ben Nyberg has developed a bookmarklet to spread the @Horse_ebooks hilarity all over the internet. When the Javascript is run, every image on a page becomes the trademark horse and all the text becomes delightful gibberish. Nyberg himself expected this to amuse people for about 20 minutes, but all I know is that I am doing it to every site I see. Here are some examples.

Carphone Warehouse

Digixav

Facebook

Google

Pinterest

So, what are you waiting for? Install the bookmarklet and try it yourself.

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Protesting ACTA and TPP

This Saturday, activists worldwide will take to the streets in protest of ACTA. Like SOPA and PIPA, ACTA would criminalize users, encourage internet providers to spy on you, and make it easier for media companies to sue sites out of existence and jail their founders. TPP goes even farther than ACTA, and the process has been even more secretive and corrupt. Last weekend (we wish this was a joke) trade negotiators partied with MPAA (pro-SOPA) lobbyists before secret negotiations in a Hollywood hotel, while public interest groups were barred from meeting in the same building.

Please help the internet by standing up for your rights.

Thank you.

Kill ACTA

6 Reasons to oppose ACTA

  1. ACTA locks countries into obsolete copyright and patent laws. If a democracy decides on less restrictive laws that reflect the reality of the internet, ACTA will prevent that.
  2. ACTA criminalizes users by making noncommercial, harmless remixes into crimes if “on a commercial scale” (art 2.14.1). Many amateur works achieve a commercial scale on sites like YouTube. ACTA, like SOPA, could mean jail time for the Justin Biebers of the world.
  3. ACTA criminalizes legitimate websites, making them responsible for user behavior by “aiding and abetting”. (art 2.14.4). Like SOPA, the founders of your favorite sites could be sued or (worse) thrown in jail for copyright infringement by their users.
  4. ACTA will let rightsholders use laughably inflated claims of damages (based on the disproven idea that every download or stream is a lost sale) to sue people. As if suing amazing artists, video makers and websites for millions wasn’t hard enough!
  5. ACTA Permanently bypasses democracy by giving the “ACTA Committee” the power to “propose amendments to [ACTA]” (art 6.4). In other words, voting for ACTA writes a blank check to an unelected committee. These closed-door proceedings will be a playground for SOPA-supporters like the MPAA.
  6. Trade agreements are a gaping loophole, a backdoor track that, even though it creates new law, is miles removed from democracy. It’s a secretive process that’s tailor-made to serve politically connected companies. And the movie studios behind SOPA? They’re experts at it. If we can’t make secretive trade agreements harder to pass than US law, our internet’s future belongs to the lobbyists behind SOPA.