September 2013

Grand Theft Auto V Generates More than $800 Million, Which is a LOT of Money

You might have heard of the Grand Theft Auto games, which are either the cause of all evil or just a video game depending on your perspective. The fifth entry (or 7th counting Vice City and San Andreas) was just released – and has already sold over $800 million during its first 24 hours of retail and digital sales. Wow. By comparison, GTA4 sold 3.6 million copies for $310 million on launch day – 2K games isn’t telling how many units of GTA5 were sold. And in the UK GTA5 replaced Call of Duty: Black Ops as the fastest selling…

Gear Bits

Google Completes QuickOffice Assimilation, and It’s Now Free

In June of 2012, Google picked up Quick Office and for the longest time, didn’t do anything with it. Today Google has pushed out a brand new version of Quick Office completing the assimilation of this office suite. They have added the ability to save work to Google Drive as well; it’s also now free to download for all. Google has made some significant changes to the mobile office suite they picked up over a year ago. Namely, a brand new look for the application and the ability to use your Google Drive storage. You can also view Google Drive…

Reviews

Griffin PowerDock 5 Review – an Efficient Charging Station + Storage for Five Devices

Anyone who owns a smartphone and tablet knows that charging can become a juggling act between cables and plugs. Multiply those devices by a couple of owners, and suddenly a better storage and charging solution becomes a necessity; that’s where the Griffin PowerDock 5 Charging Station comes in. It efficiently stores, charges, and organizes up to five of different devices.

Gear Bits

Check Out the Trailer for the Upcoming Dungeon Defense Game ‘Evil Master Overlord’!

I love the under-served genre of dungeon defense games, such as the 90’s Dungeon Keeper games. In these games rather than playing the dungeon-raiding hero you are the master of the dungeon, warding off adventurers! A great looking new entry to the genre ‘Evil Master Overlord’ is coming to iOS and Android soon. Check out the trailer! From the developers: Evil Master Overlord (EMO) is an exciting dungeon defense game with a recognizable tile-matching puzzle style mechanic that will soon be available on the iOS and Android platforms. It will appeal to gamers who cannot get enough of the dungeon…

Game Diary, Reviews

Arcane Legends Brings Action-RPG Hack’n’Slash Excellence to iOS and Android!

While the PC world is full of free-to-play action-RPG games with plenty of loot and quests and things to kill. But getting a solid entry for your iOS or Android device is harder: Spacetime Studios pioneered with ‘Pocket Legends’, then a year ago introduced ‘Arcane Legends’. The ‘Realm of Shadows’ expansion recently launched, and the game is an absolute blast! Type of app: Multiplayer Online Fantasy Role-Playing Game Platform/where to buy: iPad; available in the iTunes App Store and on Google Play for Android. Developer: Spacetime Studios Description: Arcane Legends has loads of content, including: + Free to play forever…

News

Want to Be Kind to Your Ears? Check Out JBL’s New Synchros Headphones

Last night JBL and Harman International formally introduced their new JBL Synchros line of headphones in a rather unusual way. They had the amazing performer Trixie Whitley offer up a small, intimate concert with Trixie, her keyboardist, and all in attendance wearing the new flagship S700 headphones. The sound was amazing, and the music was too. Here’s a look … Here’s a bit of Trixie performing in the S700 headphones and then some details on each … JBL Synchros S700 are the top of the Synchros line. These premium powered over-ear stereo headphones are “built for those who know…

Gear Bits

Unintended Reveal of New iPhone Speed Test: Samsung Galaxy S4 Is Slower Than iPhone 5!

We all know both the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S4 are excellent phones. But since the iPhone 5 is now ‘obsolete’ and the S4 is just a few months old, it might surprise you that in ‘real world’ tests the iPhone 5 is considerably faster than the S4. The tests were intended for the iPhone 5s, which is insanely fast. You can see all results here, but I do realize that these sorts of tests are seldom an indication of exactly the experience someone will have. For some it is all about app-switching, others are data-throttled, and so on. Personally…

Gear Bits

Pocket Adds iOS 7 Capabilities Including Instant Sync to Offline Reader App

Pocket has been around iOS users for quite a while (previously as ‘Read it Later’), and it provides excellent offline reading capabilities that integrate with several other apps to let you read what you want, when you want. For iOS 7, Pocket has gotten better in several important ways including speed and responsiveness, updated design, and background capabilities. Here are the main things included in the newly released Pocket 4.6: Fresh New Design – Changes to every screen in Pocket, as well as a new app icon to complement the look and feel of the new version of iOS. Instant…

Gear Bits

Phiaton’s Fusion MS 430 Brings Audio Quality and Style Together

Phiaton‘s latest over-ear headphones are the new Fusion MS 430. “Every detail in the Fusion MS 430 Headphones was skillfully combined, fusing brilliant materials and sound technology to deliver a powerful, aesthetic and resilient headphone.” The Fusion MS 430s bring aluminum and red accents to Phiaton’s signature carbon graphite fiber design. Lightweight and durable, the 40mm drivers and oversized Neodymium magnets help create beautiful music. We’ll have links and a closer look soon.

Gear Bits

Cut the Cords and the Noise with Phiaton’s New Chord MS 530 Headphones

Phiaton has been adding depth to their headphone lineup and their latest, the Phiaton Chord MS 530 Headphones, is set to impress. These headphones offer “incredible sound, active noise-cancellation, the flexibility of wireless Bluetooth and an unrivaled design that stands apart from competitors.” With 18-30 hours of talk and listening time these $349 headphones do it all. Check them out.

How to Do It Yourself!

First Things First – What to Do After Updating to iOS 7

Installing a new operating system to your iPhone or iPad almost feels like getting a new phone. It looks completely different and has a bunch of cool new features. An upgraded operating system can breathe life into an older phone. iOS 7 is treating me very well so far, but there are a few things I recommend doing first. Turn on Automatic App Updates. This will automatically update your apps as the updates become available. There’s no need to worry about burning through your cellular data because there’s an option to turn off automatic updating while using cellular data. This…

2013 Ram 3500 HD Laramie Longhorn Crew Cab 4x4 Pickup

Vehicles & Gear

2013 Ram 3500 HD Laramie Longhorn Crew Cab 4×4 Pickup

Competition in the pickup world does not end at the light duty segment, far from it. Truck makers constantly work to improve their heavy-duty consumer models as well and for 2013 the Chrysler Group has made significant improvements in the HD lineup of Ram trucks in the areas of powertrains, suspensions, technology and content. Ram, the truck division over at the Chrysler Group (formerly known as Dodge Ram), has been busy making improvements to its consumer pickup models for 2013. Highlighting the upgrades in the Heavy Duty lineup is the power bump in the Cummins turbodiesel engines that now has…

Game Diary, News

Teens Design Fun ‘Pic It’ App as a Summer Challenge from Parents!

What did your kids do this summer? One family challenged their kids to come up with an app idea that their iOS developer father would help them make real. The result? Pic It! With tagline ‘A word is worth a thousand pictures!’, Pic It is a multiplayer game where you submit a picture based on a word to get points. Pic It reminds me of a variation of Apples to Apples – one person starts a round and chooses a word. The others in the game submit pictures based on that word, and the person who started the round chooses…

News

A Monster of a Tablet for Under $150 Comes to Walmart.com

Monster, best known for their headphone lineup, just jumped into the low-price tablet market. The Monster M7 tablet will be available exclusively at Walmart.com for just $149. The M10 tablet will come later this fall. Available in a variety of colors, the M7 is optimized for sound and actually has some decent specs for the price. Check it out. The Monster M7 tablet has a unique non-skid surface. It comes in eight custom “candy” colors that match the Monster N-Tune headphone line. You can choose from Candy Blueberry, Candy Tangerine Orange, Candy Grape Purple, Candy Apple Red, Candy Lime Green, Cotton Candy…

Editorials, Music Diary

10 Reasons to Get Twerkin’ With iTunes Radio on iOS7!

Along with a rather anemic product announcement keynote, Tim Cook reiterated the upcoming release of iOS 7, and with it iTunes Radio. While some have called Apple ‘late to market’ with iTunes Radio, I would say they are launching at the perfect time. Some of the reasons include the established user base of iTunes, and profit struggles of streaming services. Here are ten reasons to get excited for iTunes Radio: iTunes Integration: If I am listening to something in iTunes and want to go to Slacker, I have to stop, exit, flip pages and launch. With iTunes Radio you just…

News

Want OS X or Windows 8 On Your iPad? Check Out Parallels Access

I just got a subscription to Parallels Access, and although I will be doing a full review I had to share a quick post because… “It is all kinds of awesome!” Minutes after creating an account, I had full access to my Mac from my iPad. The gestures are amazing. There’s no lag time. It just works. Check it out. I’ve used LogMeIn Ignition for some time. I like it a good deal and didn’t think I needed or even wanted Parallels Access. But after trying out my reviewer’s access to the service, I’m blown away. The biggest difference? In…

Gear Bits

When to Expect the iOS 7 Update on Your iDevice

Heads-up iPhone and iPad users! Before you rabidly start checking your phone for the iOS 7 update, keep in mind that Apple has typically released big iOS updates around 10:00 am Pacific Time. This means for those on the East Coast, iOS 7 should be ready for installing around 1:00pm. This has been a public service announcement. In the meantime, to help feed your iOS hunger, you can check out all the upgrades and enhancements that iOS 7 will bring on Apple’s website.

Gear Bits

Apple Now Lets You Get the Version That Works on Your Crappy Old iOS Device

While Apple is really good at upgrading operating systems on older devices, eventually they ‘sunset’ devices based on capabilities. This typically means you can no longer get an app that has been upgraded to require a newer OS version, but now Apple is allowing users who are looking for apps with an older OS to download the ‘last compatible version’. There seem to be limits on devices and apps, and some potential issues about non-working older versions – and nothing has been made official by Apple. But for now it works, and it is awesome.

Gear Bits

Be Sure Your Apps Are Ready Before You Rush to Upgrade to iOS 7!

After Carly posted about B&N’s iOS7 ‘warning’, I got several emails from app developers warning me about potential issues with apps and iOS7 that would be resolved with updates released soon. Getting these is a reminder that it is critical that you fully assess the potential impact of updating on the apps that are critical to your daily life. So … unless you know your apps are all updated, or you only use Apple apps and basic functionality, then it might make sense to hold off for a bit. Also, be sure to (always) back up before updating the OS…

Gear Bits

The Hidden Linux of the Week Is a Vending Kiosk

Today’s hidden Linux system is one you probably never think about. Have you ever seen a kiosk like at the airport quick check in counter or running a vending area? Well my friend Dan Frey did at his office and he found out that the kiosk that Avanti Markets uses runs Linux. Dan, who is one my fellow co-hosts of The Linux Link Tech Show found this out when the vendor that runs his cafeteria at work was installing them. They needed help setting up the network connections as the installers were primarily familiar with Windows networking. They asked him…

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