Samsung opened its first Samsung Mobile Store in Paris, France on December 1. It’s dedicated to mobile devices only and offers a similar experience and support as the Apple’s Retail Stores.
The store spreads to 170 square meters and you can find and try every one of the latest Samsung’s smartphones, players, slates, portable cameras and notebooks.
The Mobile Store is probably also the one place where you can find all original accessories for Samsung’s latest gadgets.
Samsung Mobile Store also doubles as a showroom for Samsung’s distribution partners as well as a place where children can learn and play with the new technologies.
Just to avoid the confusion, Samsung already has its own stores around the world, but this is the first one exclusively dedicated to the mobile technologies. So you won’t find TVs, PCs and other non-mobile Samsung devices.
If you like reading on your phone then you may have used or heard of Read it Later. One of the most popular reading apps around, Read it Later allowed you to mark sites on your desktop browser for reading later and then when you go to the mobile app you would find them there properly formatted for the display of your smartphone.
Read it Later has now gone through a major redesign and is now called Pocket. The developers have changed almost every visible aspect of the application, and it looks almost nothing like the old one. It is also completely free, unlike Read it Later, which was sold in free and paid versions.
Right off the bat you’ll notice that Pocket is a gorgeous app and is miles ahead of the app that it replaces in terms of design alone. The new UI shows you the list of articles along with a thumbnail image on the right. On the top you can choose which category to display. Unlike Read it Later, Pocket supports images and videos along with articles. You can tag the items in the list, mark them as favorite or archive them for offline viewing.
Open the article and you will find the new article view with the tool bar at the bottom. With just one tap you can make the app go full screen. The toolbar lets you adjust the font size, switch between serif and sans-serif fonts, text justification and an inverse night mode. You can also adjust the display brightness independent of the main settings.
Pocket is a multiplatform app, which means along with iPhone and iPad it is also available on Android (no Windows Phone version, yet). The Android version too looks beautiful and it is optimized for Ice Cream Sandwich but the biggest problem with this version is the scrolling, which is terribly sluggish, even on powerful phones such as HTC One X. The original Read it Later app was a lot smoother in comparison. There is also a version for the Kindle Fire, although we could not try it out.
Pocket is free for download and has all the features and more from the premium version of Read it Later, which would be great news for those who were using the free version but not so much for those who recently purchased it. There are a couple of niggles with it, such as the lack of choices for fonts and the poor scrolling on the Android version but otherwise it is a fantastic app for those who like to read even when they are away from their computers.
Download for iOS • Download for Android • Download for Kindle Fire
You may have heard about the game Tiny Wings by now. It was released in February last year and so far has only been available on the iPhone and iPod touch.
A few days ago, developer Andreas Illiger released the v2.0 of Tiny Wings that introduces some new gameplay mechanics, along with an iPad version. Let’s take a look at it.
Just in case you don’t know about this game, here is a quick recap. Tiny Wings involves controlling a bird with small wings that cannot fly on its own. Instead, it uses the terrain to its advantage and slides down slopes to cover ground. As a player, you have just one thing to do: tap the screen, which causes the bird to slide down the slope faster, which in turn causes it to jump higher when the terrain slopes upwards.
You have to time your taps properly so that you attain maximum speed while going up the slope and thus cover the most distance. You have a limited amount of time on your hand and the more ground you cover in that time, the higher your score.
Tiny Wings makes use of procedural graphics, that is, graphics that are generated on the fly. This means that the terrain never looks the same no matter how many times you play the game.
v1.0 of the game had just one level that involved covering as much distance as possible and performing certain challenges, such as staying in the air for a certain amount of time or covering a certain amount of distance.
v2.0, however, brings a new game mode called ‘Flight School’ that adds four more birds. In Flight School, you can choose from any of the four birds (they have the same abilities; only their color and the sound they make are unique). The current version of Tiny Wings has three islands and each island has five levels. Once you choose a bird, you will be competing against the other birds to reach the destination first. If you are in the top three, you progress onto the next level, or you try the level again.
The gameplay is basically the same as in the main ‘Day Trip’ game mode, although the environments have been slightly changed. There are no coins to collect here and the blue boost points have been replaced with sunflowers, which will boost you if you land directly on them. Certain depressions in the terrain now also contain water and if you land in it you lose your speed and you can’t jump out.
The new game mode is fun and it gives you something to compete against, even in single-player mode. I also noticed that although it’s easy to come in at second or third, the first position is substantially more difficult to attain, which keeps things from being too easy.
Since there are only three islands for now (with more coming soon) and with fifteen levels between them, it’s not too time consuming to finish them all in once sitting. After completing each island your bird gets an upgraded nest. Once you fully upgrade the nest of one bird, you can choose another and play the levels again, if you so wish.
Another major thing that this update brings is an iPad version. The iPad version is a separate download and supports the Retina display on your new iPad. This version also comes with a split screen multi-player mode, where the screen is vertically divided in two parts so that two people can play and compete in a single game simultaneously.
Now, if you have played this game before, you know that it can be very addictive. Tiny Wings falls in the category of games that includes the likes of Canabalt or Temple Run, where the gameplay is ridiculously simple and repetitive, yet you keep on playing it again and again in the hopes of doing better next time just because it’s so much fun. Tiny Wings also complements the fun gameplay with beautiful hand-drawn visuals that look especially stunning on the Retina display and lovely, soothing music that stays with you long after you stop playing the game.
Overall, Tiny Wings is simple, fun and beautiful. It can be enjoyed by anyone, anytime and does not cost a lot. v2.0 isn’t a substantially major leap forward but then again, the game was already very good so even small improvements can go a long way. A must buy, if you haven’t already done so by now. Too bad it’s only available on iOS right now. Hopefully, the developer will release it on other platforms soon.
Rating: 4.5/5 Pros: Simple yet addictive gameplay, beautiful visuals and sound Cons: Not a universal app (iPad version is separate and slightly expensive)
Developer: Andreas Illiger Content Rating: 4+ Size: 15.7/22.3MB Price: $0.99/$2.99
Samsung Galaxy S II stars in second ad, no hands required [VIDEO]
The second Samsung Galaxy S II ad is out and it takes us far north where an Eskimo faces a challenge – send an SMS with gloves on. Taking the gloves off isn’t recommended, even predictive text input can’t make sense of text typed with freezing, shaking hands.
So, how does the Galaxy S II help the Eskimo? Well… Using Google’s Voice Actions is the answer. Of course Voice Actions will work on any Froyo droid, so I’m a bit confused as to what Samsung is advertising here.
Anyway, here’s the video:
Better than showing the Samsung Galaxy S II working under water with a disclaimer that it can’t actually do that. Really, I don’t get the value of either of those ads.
Twist Pilot is an puzzle action by Zynga for iOS and Android. The game involves controlling Phil through a maze while collecting rings and avoiding spiders.
The game uses simple gameplay elements and cleverly designed levels to deliver the thrills. Let’s take a closer look at it.
Title
Twist Pilot
Developer
Zynga
Platform
iOS
Android
Release Date
October 2012
October 2012
Content rating
4+
Everyone
Size
36.4MB
36MB
Price
$0.99
Gameplay
This is Phil. Phil is a�� I’m not sure what he is but he looks like a weirdly shaped band-aid and has eyes and a mouth. Phil also happens to be constantly rotating. Your goal is to guide Phil through the maze towards the goal, while collecting as many rings as you can and avoiding the spiders.
Now because Phil is constantly rotating, guiding him through the maze is not as easy as it sounds. You have to time your movements so that you can easily pass through narrow sections and bends. You also have to look out for spiders and giant moving blocks that might come in your way. But most importantly, you have to take care not to touch any surface at all.
This is where it gets tricky because if you touch something that is not a ring or a key you lose health. Lose enough health and the game is over and you have to start the level all over again. Thankfully, your health regenerates and in particularly challenging levels you will also find health boosts but that doesn’t mean you can carelessly lose your health. Losing health also comes with a 1.5 second time penalty, which affects your final time.
At the end of each level, you earn up to three stars depending upon how many rings you collected and if you managed to finish under the target time for the level.
You have power-ups scattered throughout the levels to help you through. Some of them make Phil smaller so he can squeeze through tight spaces. Some make him longer, which honestly only makes things more difficult. Some slow him down, some increase his rate of rotation and some make him spin the other way. The effects of these power-ups are temporary so you need to do whatever you have to do quickly once you use them. The power-ups are optional and you can only use them if you want to although at times they are necessary.
To move Phil around, you have to drag your finger across the screen. Now I have couple of issues with this method of controlling. First of all, it is the exact opposite of the way we are used to moving things around on a touchscreen. Take a web browser for example. When you swipe on the screen, the web page move in the direction of the swipe, along with your finger. We have been doing this for long enough for it to feel natural. In Twist Pilot, swiping the finger moves the environment in the opposite direction, which is why it feels odd at first.
Secondly, the game involves a lot, and I mean a lot of swiping on the screen. After a few levels you feel like you need a new set of fingertips and start worrying if all that swiping around has wiped the prints off your fingers. The rate of motion is understandably slowed down so when you are navigating through tight spaces you have more precision but when moving through long, wide spaces the amount of swiping you have to do becomes quite tiring. An alternate, perhaps accelerometer based control mechanism, would have been welcome, at least as an option.
The initial levels in the game are fairly simple. You will be navigating through uncomplicated mazes and not have much in terms of enemies to worry about. The later levels wind up the difficulty level considerably and make you crawl through some tight spaces while throwing a ton of spiders in for good measure. The target time also drops from comfortably high to uncomfortably close and you may find yourself replaying levels if you dawdle around or take too much damage repeatedly.
Initially, I didn’t think much of the gameplay and found it way too boring and easy for my liking. However, the later levels are quite gripping. Also, even when it becomes difficult, the game is never too hard and 99% of the times you will be flying through a level with three stars at the first attempt. This makes you keep going to the next level as soon as you finish one and thus end up playing the game for much longer than you initially anticipated. There are 75 levels in total right now but more are promised in the future.
Graphics and Sound
Twist Pilot has a very simplistic look to it. The visuals and animations lack the polish of some of the games we have seen and has the feel of something made on a tight budget. The character designs are also clearly targeted towards kids and adults playing the game might not find them all that amusing. It’s not a terrible looking game, and actually looks pretty decent on high-resolution displays. Just that it lacks the sophistication and flair one expects from a game studio as big as Zynga.
The sound in the game is pretty good though. You have a good variety in the background music, from dubstep to some mexican music and it’s all pretty good. The sound effects are also pretty decent overall.
Verdict
While it did not seem much in the beginning, Twist Pilot turned out to be surprisingly enjoyable. The gameplay is fun and not too difficult so that pretty much anyone can enjoy this game, although the kids would probably like it more than the adults. The reversed control mechanism takes getting used to and the swiping can get tiring at times. Also, the visuals could have used some more polish. But in the grand scheme things, these issues don’t bother you as much as you’d think and for $0.99, you really can’t complain much. Overall, for that price, Twist Pilot is a fun game that’s worth checking out.
Rating: 4/5 Pros: Simple yet engrossing gameplay that should appeal to anyone, peppy soundtrack Cons: Reversed movement control takes getting used to, all the swiping can get a bit tiring, visuals lack polish and look a bit tacky
