Author Archive: Gareth

Seasoned tech blogger. Host of the Tech Addicts podcast.

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By April 21, 2014 Read More →

Baldur’s Gate casts itself onto the Play Store

Screenshot 2014-04-20 21.21.44The Classic RPG Baldur’s Gate from Black Isle Studios has come to Android. Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Edition is now available for Android and can be found on the Google Play Store for £6.99. The RPG is one of the most beloved on the PC, many will have played it and shall rejoice at the news.

Here’s a quote from the Google Play Store with a full game description:

The dawn is especially cruel this morning…

For as long as you can remember, your view of the world has been limited to the heavily fortified walls of Candlekeep. Your foster father, Gorion, has done everything in his power to protect you and keep you out of harm’s way.

All of that is about to change. Forced to leave your home under mysterious circumstances, you find yourself drawn into a conflict that has the Sword Coast on the brink of war. An iron shortage of unknown origin threatens to plunge the city of Baldur’s Gate into conflict with Amn. Meanwhile, there is something else at work, far more sinister than you can even begin to fathom…

Since its release in 1998, this classic saga of mystery, intrigue, and adventure has set the standard for Dungeons & Dragons™ computer roleplaying games. Customize your hero’s traits and abilities, recruit a party of brave allies, and explore the far corners of the Sword Coast in your search for adventure, profit… and the truth.

Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition contains the original 60-hour epic, as well as the following expansions:

* Tales of the Sword Coast: Explore the fabled Durlag’s Tower and more locations from the original Baldur’s Gate expansion.
* The Black Pits: You have been captured and forced to fight in Baeloth’s marvelous arena. A myriad of monsters await, as well as countless other adventurers who face the same fate. Maim, murder, and maul your way to freedom… if you can!
* Discover countless improvements we’ve made to the original game, including high-resolution fonts, an improved interface, dynamic zooming, and more!

Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition also offers the following premium content available for purchase:

* Brothers Lost: Lend your aid to Rasaad yn Bashir, the Sun Soul monk, as he scours the Cloud Peaks in search of his lost brother.
* Neera and the Red Wizards: Save the wild mage Neera from the cruel machinations of Thay’s dreaded Red Wizards.
* Path of the Bloodied: Join the blackguard Dorn Il-Khan in taking revenge against those who betrayed him in Luskan.
* Gallery of Heroes: Reimagine your character with eleven never-before-seen character portraits from acclaimed Icewind Dale artist Jason Manley!
* New professionally recorded voice sets to choose from to further customize your character.

 

Posted in: Apps & Games, Retro Tech
By April 20, 2014 Read More →

The Quest for E.T. is on

atari-2600-et-the-extraterrestrialLegend has it that Atari buried a massive stock of unsold E.T. cartridge alongside Atari hardware and other games in an Alamogordo, New Mexico landfill after the famous 1983 video game crash.  The Alamogordo Daily News reported in September 1983 that between 10 and 20 semi-trailers from an Atari facility in El Paso, Texas were buried at the landfill. Sounds like an urban legend and you would wouldn’t be alone in thinking that. However, the story even appeared in The New York Times, and an Atari spokesman confirmed the report at the time.

No specific Atari merchandise was mentioned to have been dumped, many reports have stated that upwards of 3.5 million copies of the 2600 game E.T. The Extra Terrestrial be found in the mythical landfill. It seems entirely probable that the Atari dump contains a wide variety of Atari game consoles and computer hardware not to mention unsold video game cartridges.

Fuel Entertainment has received permission from the city to excavate the site on April 26, 2014. They plan on creating a documentary film surrounding the myths, facts and exploration of this legend. The general public has been invited to attend this dig, so if you’re an Atari fan and in the area, be sure to attend! 

2014 would appear to be the biggest year of the E.T. game since 1983 as the Angry Video Game Nerd has also based his first feature film about the landfill with an outlandish quest to discover it.

Posted in: Retro Tech
By April 20, 2014 Read More →

SanDisk Connect Wireless Flash Drive Unboxing

sandisk-SDWS2-032G-A57-9-lThe SanDisk Connect Wireless Flash Drive is a simple little USB peripheral that opens a wifi connect and allow off device storage with streaming capabilities. The big bonus here is allowing the user the ability with swap out the MicroSD card inside creating limitless possibilities for storage on the go. 

Here I’m unboxing and setting up the SanDisk Connect Wireless Flash Drive…

 

 

 

SanDisk Connect Wireless Flash Drive features:

  • Wirelessly store, share, stream movies, photos, music, and documents across your smartphones, tablets and computers

  • Simultaneously connect & access data stored on up to 8 devices via Wi-Fi

  • No internet connection, cables or router required, works on all Wi-Fi enabled devices

  • Up to 4 hours of video streaming on a single charge

  • Access with free app, compatible with iOS 5.0 or later, Android 2.3 or later and Kindle devices

  • Access with internet browser, compatible with all Wi-Fi enabled devices

  • Charging and accessing with USB 2.0 connection interface or higher

  • Optional Wi-Fi password protection and 128-bit AES encryption

 

 UK stockists are Amazon (£41.90)  Currys (£49.99) and PC World (£49.99). Those prices relate to the 16GB size. 

The 32GB size is priced at £59.99 whilst the 64GB size is priced at £99.99.

Posted in: Gadgets, Storage Devices, Videos/Unboxings
By April 19, 2014 Read More →

Sony Xperia Z1 Compact unboxing

xperia-z1-compact-gallery-02-1240x840-dad66cd05b7d66abf67ab3f1e7cee212Sony released the Xperia Z1 Compact a little before the Z2 and the it seems to be a happy medium between the Z1 and Z2 in a smaller form factor.

Here we take an initial look at Sony’s modestly priced, smaller, high-end phone. This device has almost everything you would expect from the Z1 and more, combined into a smaller handset. Also features the water resistant technology, Walkman software and and elegant design.

 

 

 

Sony Xperia Z1 Compact specification:

  • Dimensions -127 x 64.9 x 9.5 mm (5.0 x 2.56 x 0.37 in)
  • Weight – 137 g
  • Display – 720 x 1280 IPS LCD
  • Data – HSDPA, 42 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.8 Mbps; LTE, Cat4, 50 Mbps UL, 150 Mbps DL
  • Wi-Fi – 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot
  • Camera – 20.7 MP, 5248 х 3936 pixels, autofocus, LED flash + 2 MP, 1080p@30fps
  • Processor – Qualcomm MSM8974 Snapdragon 800 Quad-core 2.2 GHz Krait 400
  • Internal memory – 16 GB, 2 GB RAM

 

Posted in: Phones, Videos/Unboxings
By April 18, 2014 Read More →

Mobile Tech Addicts Podcast 224: Cellular modular interactive ovular

Podcast-Logo.jpgGareth, Dan and Phil are back for more phone and tablet chit chat from the UK

In this week’s show we discuss Windows Phone 8.1 developer software, Google Camera going standalone on Google Play, The Amazon Phone, Project Ara and much more.

Google release Chrome Remote Desktop app for Android

Project Ara reveals some interesting prospects

 

Featuring Gareth, Matt and Phil

 

Posted in: Podcast, Videos/Unboxings
By April 17, 2014 Read More →

Project Ara reveals some interesting prospects

project-araFor those who are not aware Project Ara is the fruition of a much fabled modular phone, a phone with interchangeable parts. The idea of being able to add functionality to your phone by purchasing a module, be it a larger screen, better camera or some such and clicking it into the appropriate bay. Project Ara developers’ conference is currently taking place at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. An exciting announcement yesterday was their first Project Ara “gray phone” will launch in January of 2015 for $50. Quite a bit aways although it’s great to have is on the map, for now.

To spice things up there is $100,000 up for grabs for one lucky developer who comes up with the best module. Obviously the will really help as an incentive to push creativity beyond standard bluetooth, camera and wifi modules. Developers will be judged on novelty, functionality, elegance, quality, impact, and commercial potential. Two runner ups will be receiving all-expense paid trips for up to 3 people to the next Project Ara devcon and will be guaranteed hardware for their project.

The challenge will kick off in May, Google will make available around 100-200 units of the prototype hardware to developers and it will draw to a close in mid- September.

Posted in: Phones
By April 17, 2014 Read More →

Google release Chrome Remote Desktop app for Android

chromeGreat news, Google today released the official Chrome Remote Desktop app for Android. This has a short run as an invite only beta however here is the free full version. Chrome Remote Desktop allows users to remotely access another computer through Chrome browser, a Chromebook and now Android.  Computers can be made available on an short-term basis for scenarios such as ad hoc remote support, or on a more long-term basis for remote access to your applications and files.  All connections are fully secure. Once installed and configured, This app can connect to your Windows, Linux or OSX computers from Android. 

Posted in: Apps & Games
By April 15, 2014 Read More →

The Mobile Tech Addicts Show Pilot Episode

vlcsnap-2014-04-14-17h44m50s213Tracyandmatt.co.uk present this quick look at the technology news for the last week. Gareth Myles comments on some of the more interesting stories including the Samsung Galaxy S5 launch, an unboxing of the HTC One (m8,) a slew of Lenovo tablets and much more.

Free iPhone 5c at £23.99 pm on EE – with voucher IPHONE5C99 normalls £34.99

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (Black) £368.40 Amazon.de

Pre Order Oppo Find 7a free 32GB SD card,Spare battery and Easy-Cover £330.00 @ Oppo

This is the essentially a technical demo for a proposed series. If you have any tips or suggestions let us know.

Posted in: News, Videos/Unboxings
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By April 14, 2014 Read More →

The Amazon Phone with Holograms?

amazon-smartphone-tmc-1The Wall Street Journal are reporting that online superstore Amazon is finally ready to make a smartphone, with a release scheduled for this summer. In the wake of their set top TV box, Amazon will be covering pretty much all bases when it comes to tech aside from a phone. Sources say Amazon has already started showing off the phone to developers, and is planning to announce the phone in late June, with a release in September. Rumour has it that Amazon are hoping to turn some heads by using retina-tracking and will feature 3D-like holograms that seemingly jump off the display.

When I hear 3D holograms and phones I can’t help but think “Help me Obi One Kenobi, you’re our only hope.” A 12″ holographic projection of an incestious princess standing in the palm of your hand. I’m sure this is still a long ways off yet, however an announcement in a couple of month will hopefully get the Rebel Alliance hot.

Posted in: News, Phones
By April 13, 2014 Read More →

Gigaset SL930A Unboxing

91VRAGXPpZL._SL1500_Putting a smartphone’s functionalities into landline phone is the name of the game here. The Gigaset SL930A not only handles your home phone responsibilities but connects to the Internet and allows you to download apps from the Google Play store is Android is running the show. The Gigaset SL930A has a 3.2″ capacitive touchscreen with a full-touch user interface for quick, easy navigation. One of the interesting features is the included HDSPTM sound performance. With a standby time touted of up to 140 hours the Gigaset SL930A also comes with a preinstalled answering machine app with up to 55 minutes recording time.

 

 Gigaset SL930A specification:

  • 3.2″ (TFT-VA 320×480 )capacitive touchscreen
  • 1GB Storage
  • MircoSD card support
  • 1GB RAM
  • ECO Mode – manual reduction of transmitting power by 80%
  • Expandable to up to 6 handsets
  • Dimensions handset (H x W x D in mm) 134 x 58 x 16
  • Dimensions base station (H x W x D in mm) 105 x 132 x 46
  • Standby time: 200 hours
    • Talk time: 20 hours
Posted in: Phones, Videos/Unboxings
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