Point-and-click adventure game Machinarium

Back in the day, indie video games have not been quite that popular on Android, but things started to change not long ago, especially due to initiatives like the Humble Bundle. Android users began to realize that indie does not necessarily mean poor quality or glitchy. So it should come as no surprise that several promising independent games are making their way to Google Play.
Machinarium is the latest indie game to be made available for Android. While its name might not say much to some of you, Machinarium is a pretty successful game for PC, PS3, and the iPad 2. In fact, it has won quite its share of awards back in 2009, when it was, for example, a PC Game of the Year runner-up in Kotaku’s prestigious annual competition.
Designed especially for tablets, Machinarium should run smoothly on slates with high-resolution screens (1024 x 600 pixels and up), as well as on newer phones with large high-res displays (the Galaxy Nexus or the Note, for example). You should also know that you might encounter glitches and bugs even on newer phones with high-res screens, issues that should be solved soon enough, according to the developer’s claims.

I’m not going to run you through the entire Machinarium plot, but I won’t spoil anything by telling you that the main target of the game is to solve puzzles and “brain teasers”. The puzzles are linked together by an overworld consisting of a traditional “point and click” adventure story.
The game might look basic and simple at a first glance, but some of the puzzles are actually pretty difficult to solve, while the hand-drawn graphics are retro-looking and beautiful. If you’re expecting special effects, explosions, and spectacular shootings, though, I hate to disappoint you, but Machinarium is not the game for you.
Machinarium for Android is unfortunately (or maybe not) not a freemium title, so you’ll have to pay a few bucks to install it on your device. However, you won’t have to dig deep in your pockets (it’s just $3.99 in Google Play right now) and chances are that you’ll fall in love with the game almost instantly.
Before purchasing and downloading Machinarium for Android, check out the short trailer below and make sure that your tablet (or phone) is on the list of supported devices.  Have fun and don’t forget to check back to us with a comment telling us what you think of this new retro-looking, but addictive Android game!

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Lenovo B50 Review and Ratings

Introduction & Features

The Lenovo B50 is an all-in-one desktop with modest aspirations. It doesn't boast the sleekest, thinnest design. It doesn't include a battery that would let it act as a giant tablet. It doesn't lie flat for tabletop use, although it features a touch-screen display. And despite the presence of dedicated graphics—a rarity among all-in-ones—it's not a gaming powerhouse.
What the B50 does do, however, it does well. The 24-inch (all right, 23.8-inch) display is an in-plane switching (IPS) panel for wide viewing angles and features 10-point multi-touch support, both of which mean the system can be enjoyed while seated in front, to the side, or next to others. And edge-to-edge glass lends a touch of luxury to an otherwise ordinary look. Below the display, two JBL speakers pump out impressive sound. Lastly, a useful collection of ports and a DVD burner lend the B50 some PC bona fides in an area where many all-in-ones sacrifice in an effort to compete with tablets and other consumer electronics.

On the inside, a fourth-generation Intel Core i7 processor, 12GB of memory, Nvidia GeForce graphics, and a 2TB hybrid hard drive deliver ample application performance and modest 3D gaming capability at the right settings. The whole package can be yours for $1,099, while penny-pinchers can choose a lower-end model with a Core i5 CPU and integrated graphics for $849.
With its crisp display and surprisingly powerful audio, the Lenovo B50 works well for entertainment pursuits such as watching movies and YouTube videos. And in a small to medium-sized room, it might suffice for music playback, something we don't typically recommend with the integrated speakers of an all-in-one.
For general office use, its internals are overkill, though they should give you a leg up in the race against obsolescence—an important consideration for any PC purchase, but even more so with an all-in-one that forces you to junk the display along with the computer when it reaches its end. Although its mid-range GeForce GT 840A graphics processor won't make the Lenovo the belle of the frag party, when paired with a Core i7 it makes the B50 capable of media creation and editing chores, smooth HD video playback, and serious multitasking. This is one all-in-one you won't soon outgrow.

Design

The Lenovo B50 won't turn heads, but it's not without its charms. It comes dressed in business black, making it a fit for either home or office. Edge-to-edge glass covers the display on the front, and a speaker bar runs the width of the system along the bottom edge. A textured plastic cover hides the internals behind the display. A sturdy, V-shaped stand offers steady support and some tilt adjustment.
The display offers every feature you could want. Besides providing IPS technology for wide viewing angles and 10-point multi-touch support, it features 1,920x1,080 resolution for 1080p HD playback. Images looked crisp and bright, and the touch support felt accurate and responsive. We also like the size of the display; at roughly 24 inches, it's not so big as to overwhelm you when seated directly in front of it in desktop mode, but it's big enough that the gang can gather around without needing to be crowded right up front when watching a movie.
The two front-facing JBL speakers pumped out the jams, as it were. We've grown accustomed to all-in-one audio that suffices for movie dialogue but falls short of the depth and power required for anything approaching fulfilling and enjoyable music playback. Not so with the B50. Its speakers emit full, loud sound that can fill small to medium-sized rooms, and it remains clear at maximum volume with a decent bass response.

A 2-megapixel Webcam sits above the display and produces a clear image with accurate colors and skin tones for videoconferencing, yet it's actually a possible reason to postpone your B50 purchase: Lenovo says it will soon introduce a version of the all-in-one with a 3D Intel RealSense camera, which will let you scan objects in three dimensions and interact with games and other apps by moving your hands and head in front of the camera.

Features

The B50 lacks the onboard battery that smaller all-in-ones such as the Dell XPS 18$1,299.99 at Dell and Lenovo Horizon 2s$944.89 at Amazon provide so that you can unplug them and use them as you might a tablet, curled up on the couch or sitting at the kitchen table. Instead of entertaining tablet aspirations, the B50 stays true to its desktop roots and provides a wealth of ports and connections where smaller all-in-ones offer a stripped-down collection.
On the back panel, you'll find both HDMI-in and -out ports, three USB 2.0 ports, and an Ethernet jack. Most systems include an HDMI-out port, which lets you connect a second screen. The HDMI-in port, ideal for cramped apartments or dorm rooms, lets you use the B50 as a display with a game console, cable box, or other device with HDMI out put.

On the left edge are a pair of USB 3.0 ports, headphone and microphone jacks, and a flash card slot. On the right you'll find a tray-loading DVD burner, the power button, and a button to switch between PC mode and HDMI-in mode. The Lenovo also has you covered for wireless communication with 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0.
By contrast, you don't get the latest technology with the bundled peripherals; the keyboard and mouse are both wired. For a system priced north of $1,000, we expected a cordless set to be included, or at least a higher-quality one: The mouse is your basic ambidextrous rodent with an optical sensor. The keyboard feels light to the point of being cheap and sounds clacky when typing.

We were also shocked by the amount of bloatware Lenovo added to the system. You'll find dozens of preloaded apps on the Start screen, from Amazon to Zinio, with a large number of Lenovo's own apps as well. Thankfully, the company confirmed for us that the Superfish adware package that posed a security risk is not included.

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Apple iMac with Retina 5K Display (2015) Review

The finest display in desktop computing is now $500 cheaper. And it still comes with a first-class computer.
Last fall, Apple quadrupled the resolution of its 27-inch iMac, soaring from an already impressive 2,560x1,440 pixels to a phenomenal 5,120x2,880. With seven times the sharpness of a full HD 1080p screen, the iMac with Retina 5K Display blew away even some dual-monitor setups for image and video editing, letting users work with full-sized 4K video with plenty of room left for timelines and toolbars. We not only raved about the all-in-one desktop in our October 2014 review; we called it fairly priced at $2,499.
Well, fair has gotten fairer. First, the system we reviewed has received a $200 price cut (model MF886LL/A, now $2,299). Second, the new configuration seen here (model MF885LL/A) keeps the dazzling display, but trims the price to $1,999.
What do you sacrifice? Actually, not a lot. The under-$2K 5K has a slightly slower (3.3GHz versus 3.5GHz) quad-core Intel Core i5 CPU. It has slightly slower graphics—AMD's Radeon R9 M290 versus the R9 M290X.

The only cutback we'll complain about is that the $1,999 iMac with Retina 5K Display replaces Apple's nifty 1TB Fusion Drive with a plain 1TB hard drive. The Fusion Drive combines a 1TB hard drive with 128GB of flash storage, intelligently and invisibly managed so the solid-state cache swiftly serves up the operating system and your most frequently used apps and files, leaving the slower platter drive to store less often accessed data.
We think a high-end desktop nowadays ought to have a hybrid drive, or better yet a full-fledged SSD, and we were dismayed to find the new iMac took a leisurely one minute to boot up from off, the first 40 seconds of which are spent staring at a blank screen. You can order a Fusion Drive when buying the new all-in-one from the Apple site, but it's so expensive you might as well spring for the $2,299 config instead.
But with that gripe on the record (and half a star lopped from our review rating), we'll admit that the new $1,999 model is otherwise the best buy among Apple's three 27-inch iMacs. The $2,299 Retina 5K isn't sufficiently faster to justify its $300 higher price, as the performance section of this review will reveal. And the 2,560x1,440 original, still on sale at $1,799, isn't inexpensive enough to justify its lower resolution; you can get the same pixel count from Dell's XPS 27$1,927.48 at Amazon for a couple of hundred bucks less.

Design

The new iMac looks like its predecessor and its predecessor's predecessor, with edge-to-edge glass covering an aluminum unibody that curves gently at the rear and tapers to an ultra-svelte 5mm at its edges. Glossy black when switched off, the display has an attractive finish that reduces glare and reflections in use.
The simple stand, which allows ample tilt but no height adjustment, has a hole in it for routing the white power cable. We continue to be impressed that Apple fit the power supply inside a case that's thinner than some all-in-ones with laptop-style external power bricks.
As you sit facing the iMac, the flush-fitting power button is on its backside at lower left. It's easy enough to find by feel, but you can't say the same for the four USB 3.0 ports also located at the rear. Ports located up front or on the side would be much handier for flash drive users, but would spoil the iMac's elegant symmetry.

Also located around the back are two Thunderbolt 2 ports, an SD card slot, a headphone jack, and a Gigabit Ethernet port if you'd rather not use the system's 802.11ac Wi-Fi. Bluetooth 4.0 wirelessly connects the iMac to its mouse and keyboard.
Alas, Apple still hasn't followed many competitors in offering an HDMI-in port so space-efficient apartment or dorm dwellers can use the iMac's display with a game console or cable box. But at least the 27-inch system (unlike the 21.5-inch iMac) does have a rear hatch that lets users add or replace SO-DIMM memory modules to boost the standard 8GB to a maximum of 32GB.

Features

 

We'll spare you a full-length repetition of our raptures about the Retina 5K Display from our October review. Suffice it to say that, at 27 inches, it's as big and immersive as anything short of a 30-plus-inch curved monitor, and it's well worth getting immersed in: Details are so sharp and colors are so vivid that even our mediocre amateur photos were mesmerizing; skilled photographers and videographers will find the 5K screen—with 78 percent more pixels than a 4K panel—takes their work to a new level.

Even text-heavy Web surfing and word processing are spectacular, with inky-black text with no jaggies to be seen at any size. Watching 4K videos is a revelation comparable to seeing your first Blu-ray, helped by the excellent audio produced by the iMac's down-firing stereo speakers with twin 20-watt amplifiers.
The iMac's petite keyboard and Magic Mouse are, perhaps, showing their age a bit—coming from Windows PCs, we find ourselves missing things like dedicated PgUp and PgDn keys and a mouse Back button for a few minutes—but remain smooth and comfortable. An extra $69 at order gets you both the Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad.
No extra dough is required to get Apple's sensational software bundle, which teams OS X Yosemite with apps ranging from the friendly, flexible Mail and Safari to the productivity troika of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote (which last for life, unlike, say, Windows PCs' common one-year subscription to Office 365). Three years of AppleCare support, replacing the standard one year's warranty and 90 days' phone support, is $169.

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Computer Terms

The computer terms and definitions listed below are relevant to this website only. This is because I have noticed that many people have made up their own meanings to certain computer terms. I have compared all of these computer terms and their meanings on the Internet and have come up with the best that makes sense to me. I have also consulted a large group of professional IT people to confirm this list of computer terms.
You Are very welcome to add your own favorite computer terms to our list. Simply comment below, adding your computer term in there, and I will add it to this list.
Also read A Guide To Basic Computer Terminology, my communal Computer Dictionary,  Vista Computer Terms (funny), Router networking terms.
PLEASE NOTE: If you find this section useful and would like a 30+ page Computer Terms dictionary (PDF format) for you to download for free….All you have to do is go to the Tips4pc Forum to the computer dictionary page and on the first post there will be a link to download a book called C is for computer.

Computer Terms A to Z

A
ADSL: Short for asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL), a new technology that allows more data to be sent over existing copper telephone lines. See more..
Affiliate: An affiliate is a person or company that advertises and promotes another companies products in order to make a sale.  Sometimes you can lead customers to the company website, and if a product is sold you will receive an agreed share of the sale price. Popular affiliate sites include Clickbank.com, Commission Junction, and Ebay.com. Affiliate marketing is a popular way to make money now days and it almost seen as a legitimate job.
AGP: (Accelerated Graphics Port) is usually located near the white PCI slots on a Motherboard. This is where you install a video card for better graphical performance. Most motherboards now come with on-board sound and video which is top quality, however when you install AGP video it removes pressure from the computers resources.
Application Software: Or simply application is a computer program that performs tasks that the user wishes to perform. Application software could be Microsoft word and you might use it to write a letter or Adobe Photoshop to edit a photo.
Animation: A simulation of movement created by displaying a series of pictures, or frames. All of these pictures put together can make a computer animated gif, which will be a moving picture. You can also animate writing, banners, and even entire websites. A cartoons on television is one example of an animation.
Attachment: This refers to a file attached to an e-mail message. For example you could attach a picture or photo to send with your e-mail. Most email programs allow attachments in email to be sent, however there may be a size limit.
Auto responder An e-mail utility that automatically replies to an e-mail message with a pre-written response. Read More…..
Autostart This is when a program or application starts without you having to double click on the icon to start. For example, if you insert a cd into the cd drive on your computer it could be set to autostart. If it is it will automatically open the disc to view or start the program it holds. You can also plug your digital camera in and a program will appear to extract the photos from the camera. This means that the program was set to autostart if a camera was attached to the computer.
Archive Archives are files that contain other files. The files in an archive can be compressed or simply stored away for easy access at a later date. Read more..
B
BCC: This stands for blind carbon copy and allows you to send to multiple email recipients but not share their email addresses between them.
Broadband: This usually refers to a high speed internet connection like DSL or cable. To use this connection you would also need a broadband modem. Broadband is a far cry from the good old Dialup internet. I am especially glad to see the internet speeds are improving day by day.
Bios: Basic input output system. You can access this when you start-up a computer. It will say on the screen “To enter setup press …..key”. It lets you change whether the CD-ROM or hard drive boots first. There are also settings to overclock some computer systems.
Bit: (binary digit) This is the smallest unit of information on a machine and can hold only one of two values: 0 or 1. Consecutive bits can be combined to form larger units such as a byte (8 bits = 1 byte). See What is 64-bit.
Black Screen: A black screen is when your computer monitor is black and your computer will not start.
Boot sequence: The order of drives that a system’s BIOS follows when looking for the operating system. It can also be called boot order. For example it can go to the hard drive, the floppy drive, or the Cd rom.
Broadcast: To simultaneously send the same message to multiple recipients. Broadcasting is a useful feature in e-mail systems. You can send a blind carbon copy BCC to many people at the same time without everyone else seeing each other email addresses.
Browser: A program to allow you to view and browse web pages on the internet. I use Internet Explorer. There is also Firefox, Google Chrome, and many more.
Bandwidth: This is the term we use to measure the amount of data and its speed through an internet connection. The more bandwidth you have, the faster the internet connection. Bandwidth is limited by the line it travel through. Your internet service provider can reduce or increase your bandwidth according to you internet plan.
C = computer terms

Capacity: (hard drive capacity) Basically means what size is the hard drive, how much data can it hold, etc. “My hard drive capacity is 500GB.” You can now buy hard drives that are 2TB. Western Digital 2 TB SATA Hard Drive for $79
Case Sensitive: A term used to describe if it is of importance to use upper or lower case letters. See how to change uppercase to lowercase in MS Word.
Computer: This a general term for all the included components that make up a computer. When people say the word computer they generally mean the whole system.
Cookie: A text information message that is stored on your computer when you visit a web page. When you return to the page the cookie is used to recognize you. What is a cookie?
CPU: (Central Processing unit) This is the brains of the computer. It is a chip attached to the motherboard and controls and calculates data and is a vital part of your computer. Sometimes known as the Processor, the CPU comes in different speeds. I have a 2.8ghz processor. You can also have a 32 bit or a 64 bit processor.
CTRL: Stands for control button. Found on both sides, bottom left and right, of the keyboard. Used to perform special functions such as selecting all (Ctrl-A).
D
Data: A collection of facts, information, photos, text, anything, on a computer or on the internet.
Database: A Database is a structured collection of data that is stored on a computer or server, the most used model of database is a relational database.
Data compression: Compressing data so it does not take as long to transfer from one place to another. For example data is compressed when you upload a file to the internet because this file is usually travelling through cables and phone lines.
Debugging: Locating bugs (defects and problems) in a software program to repair and eliminate them.
Decryption: What you do when you decrypt something. This could be removing a security password or breaking a code to get access.
Default Search Provider: A default search provider is a search provider that you have chosen to use through your browser. For example in Internet Explorer when you first set the program up it asks you to choose a default search provider. This means if you choose Google, then you will be using Google’s search services.
Default settings: A preset condition in something. For example in Windows a picture will by default be saved to the pictures folder on your computer.  All programs and websites have default settings to start with and remain there until you choose to change these settings.
Defragmentation: Defragmentation re-allocates all files and compacts then into a neat, organized sections together therefore removing wasted space between the individual files. This brings the frequently used files to an area for easier and more efficient access and therefore making your computer run faster.
Desktop: It is everything you see when you start your computer except the task bar. Your desktop has the icons on it that are shortcuts to programs and folders.
Desktop Background: A picture or graphic you display on your computer desktop (screen). If you have icons on your desktop the background will be behind these. People usually decorate their desktop backgrounds with desktop wallpaper.
Download: To download something is to get it from the internet to your computer through your internet connection. For example, when you receive email to your computer the new emails are downloaded from your mail server. Now days people download everything including documents, information, music files, movies, games, cracks, cheats, and more.. To upload is the opposite of download.
E
Edit: Meaning to alter, improve or change an original document, image, video, sound or any other digital file. Editing is the modification of data.
E-mail: (Electronic mail) A document or message sent to an email server to deliver to a recipient over the internet.
Email Client: An email client is a program that lets you read, create emails, send, reply to, read, and manage your emails. Some examples of Email Clients include Outlook Express, Thunderbird, Incredimail, Pegasus and many others.
Email Signature: An email signature is a bit of personalized text (such as your contact information or a favorite quote) that is automatically inserted at the bottom of every message you send.
Email Server: An email server collects your email and delivers it to your chosen email client. Same with sending an email. It gets taken to the email server to distribute to the appropriate email recipient. It is a bit like a post office in the real world and the email client is your letter box.
Embed: To merge data or files together to become one package. For example you might embed an uncommon font type into a word document. This way when the document is opened on a foreign computer it will still contain the font. If you do not do this, and the foreign computer doesn’t hold the font, it will be replaced with a generic one and your document might look different.
Emoticons: Because people cannot always see you when chatting on the internet we have symbols and pictures that relay our emotions. If you type this : ) it means you are smiling or happy. Sometimes when you type this a program will convert it to a smiley face icon.
Ergonomic office chair: This refers to a chair purposely designed to fit the comfort needs of the user with considerations such as surrounding environment taken into account.
F
File: In the old days a file used to be a section category that was kept in a filing cabinet, however now we have less paper to file away. Now the term file can mean anything on your computer. Everything on your computer is made up of files. Folders and directories have files stored in them. Programs are made up of certain files that make the program work. A file on a computer can mean any file unless you specify which type. For example there are music files, picture files, system files, and so on. See Creating, saving, copying, pasting, and moving files or folders on your computer.
File Extension: A file extension classifies what category a file falls into. If it has .txt as a file extension then you know it is a text file. If it has .jpeg it is a picture. Here is a detailed article about file extensions.
Firewall: A personal firewall is a computer program that protects your computer from malicious users by blocking incoming and outgoing unauthorized access. Windows Xp comes with a built in firewall.
Format: (Hard drive, re-writeable disks) To clear of all data. Clean to the original state of empty. A hard drive has to be formatted and partitioned to install an operating system. To format Windows means you are reinstalling the operating system. It can also mean to format text by changing the font, color and size.
Forward: Forward is an option found in an e-mail client, which allows you to forward a received e-mail to another recipient?
Forum: This is a member based website, usually free to join, where people gather to chat and converse on a particular subject. Forums can be used as a very useful learning tool for most subjects as people share their knowledge and experiences with others. You can find computer help forums, money saving forums, child birth forums, and more..
G
Gigabyte: 1 gigabyte = 1,000,000,000 bytes for hard drive capacity or 1 gigabyte = 1024 megabytes for computer memory and files sizes.
Glitch: A hardware problem much like a software bug, that causes a computer to malfunction.
Google: The number one search engine on the planet. You can go to http://www.google.com.au/ or http://www.google.com/ to type in a search query and then see results.

Google Search: People search in Google for information. They usually type in some keywords related to their query. For example. to find this page people might type in computer terms and meanings, computer terms/ concepts meanings, basic coump terms and there meaning, common computer terms and their definitions, computer terms and their definitions. Yes they might even make a spelling mistake.
Graphics: Usually anything that is displayed by the computer is known as a graphic display (graph because it uses a pixel graph to place colors).
Graphics Accelerator:Computer display device specially configured to provide enhancedperformance.
Graphics Card: An add-on component that can be installed into your computer to improve or enhance graphics that you see. This facility can also be built in and is then know as onboard graphics.
Graphics Driver: A small piece of software needed to run both onboard graphics and a graphics card. All devices have a driver to help them communicate with your computer or laptop. See more about what are device drivers.
H
Hardware: The basic parts that make up your computer. A list of computer hardware with explanations is on our computer terminology page.
Html: (hyper text markup language) This is coding used to develop webpages. You can start from scratch, writing HTML or you can use a HTML editor like Frontpage that has a template to start with.
I
IP Address: A unique address that each computer has. If you have a home network your modem will have an ip address, so will your router, and any computers that are attached.
ISP: (Internet service provider) Your ISP is the company that supplies your internet connection to you. It could be a local phone company or even a pay tv company. You internet service provider usually sends you a bill for your internet connection.
J = Computer Terms ?

There are more terms listed in the free computer terms dictionary that you can download below.
K
Keypad: The set of numbers on the right hand side of the keyboard.
L
LAN: Local Area Network.
M
Message Rules: Rules that you can set in Outlook Express to filter your email messages.
Motherboard: The central circuit board that provides electrical connections so the other components of a computer can communicate with each other. It is the main part to a computer. Everything is connected to it.
Malware: Malware is a software program that has bad intentions. It can either be installed by the computer user accidentally or it can sneak into your computer through various avenues. See the difference between malware, spyware and viruses.
N
Net: Short for the internet.
Netiquette:Manners to use for the internet, derived from the word etiquette.
Network: A group of computers connected together either by cables or an internet connection. This allows them to share things such as information, files, and more.
Norton Antivirus: Antivirus protection program that is available to buy. This is the most well known Virus program out there.
Notebook Computer: A portable computer fully self-contained. Also known as a laptop computer. Notebooks can operate from batteries or AC Power unlike a desktop computer.
O
Organic Search: Search results in a search engine that that come up naturally and are not paid advertisements. For example if you search for “computer tips” in Google you will see this website in the top 10 results.
OS: (Operating System) Is the main program that runs your computer. Windows is probably the most popular.
OSK: On screen keyboard. Windows has a built in OSK. You can type OSK in the run command window and it will appear.
P
Page Impressions: This can also be known as Page Hits or Page Views. This measures the number of times a webpage is visited. This is also a broad term and can be further categorized into unique visitors and page loads.
Peripherals: Peripherals are those pieces of hardware that you add on to your computer. For example a mouse, keyboard, modem, monitor, etc.
PCI: (peripheral component interconnect) These are slots on the motherboard, usually white, where you can add cards onto your computer. You can add sound cards, internal modems, TV cards, and more…
Power Supply: This is a component of the computer that supplies power to all of the other components. You plug power into the back of the computer.
Print Screen (Key): The key between the letters and the keypad labelled “Prt Sc/Sys Rq”. Commonly used to take photographs of the screen.
Partition: When you divide your hard drive into parts, each section of data is called a partition. A hard drive must have at least one partition on it for Windows to be installed.
Q
R
Remote Desktop: This feature enables you to connect to your computer across the Internet from virtually any computer anywhere. You need to know your computers IP address and its password and username.
Registry: This is where the very important settings for your computer are stored. This includes software serial numbers and passwords, email settings and accounts and a lot more information.
S
Safe mode: When you computer is started in safe mode the computer loads only the files necessary to run the basic Windows services. It is the NO-frills version of Windows, which allows you to diagnose problems by process of elimination.
Screen shot: A photograph of a computer screen or a portion of it. Tips4pc uses screenshots of the computer screen to explain step by step instructions.
Screen Resolution: It refers to the amount of pixels (little colored dots) you have on your screen. The most popular resolution nowadays is 1024×768. That suits a 17 inch monitor perfectly. If you set your screen resolution to 800×600 the writing will be bigger and easier to see.
SEO: Search Engine Optimization. The art of optimizing your web site for the search engines. I have some SEO techniques that I use on all of my websites.
Self Extracting Zip File: A self-extracting Zip file is an executable program file (.EXE file) that includes both a Zip file and software to extract or “unzip” the contents of the Zip file. Users can extract the contents of a self-extracting Zip file by simply running it.
Shareware: Shareware is a software program that you can download or try for free, usually for a set trial period. After that time is up you can buy the software program to continue using it. A lot of software is sold this way as the user gets attached to using the program and ends up buying it.
Snail mail: Normal postal mail, where an actual physical letter or package is delivered. The term didn’t exist until electronic mail (e-mail) came along.
Software: Refers to all of the programs on your computer. Software helps you get things achieved, like writing letters, sending emails, and surfing the internet. See what is software.
System Properties Box: Contains information about your computer. What speed is your processor, how much memory you have, automatic updates settings, your computer name, and more..
T
Task Bar: The Blue (default colour) bar with the start button on one end and the time on the opposite
Task Manager: A program (taskman.exe) in which you can view all running programs and services. You can also shutdown a program non-responding program from here.
Trojan: Named so after the Trojan Horse of mythology. It does the same thing. It slyly gets into your computer and releases its soldiers when you least expect it.
Tweak: To make small changes that fine-tune a piece of software or hardware. There are many programs that help you do this. For example XP tools, Tweak u, Ashampoo. This is one of those computer terms that was developed as slang.
U
User: Referring to a computer user. A user can have a username and password to login to a computer.
User Interface: This is how a computer user interacts with a computer. There are two types of user interfaces, the command line interface (CLI) and the graphical user interface. An example of CLI is to type a command into the Windows Run box. An example of GUI is to perform a command by choosing a link on a menu in Windows or starting a program from the start menu.
User-friendly: Anything on a computer that makes it easier for the computer user to use. For example you can make a website more user-friendly. This might mean the user can navigate the website easier or even login quicker.
User’s Manual: When a person buys something like a device or software it is usually accompanied by a set of instructions for the “user”. This is a user’s manual. For example if you buy a printer it will come with a user’s manual, either printed or on a compact disc.
Utility: A software program that is almost like a tool for your computer. A utility program can help you defragment, clear files, fix errors in your registry, and more. Now days there is a utility program for everything.
URL: Universal Resource Locator is the global address of a web page or document. Domain names are used in URL’s. This URL is http://www.tips4pc.com.
V
Virus: A man made file that infects a computer in order to sabotage its files.
W
Wallpaper: The monitor pattern or picture or other graphic representation that forms the background onto which all the icons, menus and other elements of the operating system are displayed.
Web Server: A computer that holds a web page and makes it available on the internet.
Web Host: A web server that hosts web site space on the internet to companies or individuals. Basically you pay a web server to use their space to host your website. When a visitor requests a webpage from that site, the request will be sent to the web server that is hosting the site.
Wireless router: The router converts the signals coming across your Internet connection into a wireless broadcast, sort of like a cordless phone base station.
X
Y
Youtube: Worlds largest video sharing website. Free to join, upload, and watch.
Yahoo: A global internet services company. It operates an Internet portal and provides a full range of products including email, search, chat, and more…
Z
Zip: A zip file is a compressed file that may contain one or more files compressed into it for better storage. Compressing a file makes it smaller in size and therefore takes up less space. It is like a storage box. You can unzip or unpack the zip file to see the contents of it. Zip files can be compressed or decompressed using a computer program like Winzip or Winrar. See how to compress a file using Winzip.
Go to our computer terms dictionary page on the forum and get a 39 page computer terms Ebook. This is a fantastic resource for anyone that wants to learn about computers and brush up on the latest computer terms. We all know how fast technology is moving and you have to keep up with the times.

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Save iPad Battery Life 7 Easy Tips

If you love your iPad and use it 24 hours a day, you’ll want your iPad battery to last as long as it possibly can. Small tweaks on your iPad settings can definitely save a few hours of battery life and keep you playing or working longer on your iPad. There is nothing worse than seeing a low battery message pop up just when you’re in the middle of something really important. The funny thing is, all these tips are very similar to saving your laptop battery life but of course the settings are in a different place completely.
Here are 10 Simple Tips To Prolong iPad Battery Life

#1. Turn iPad Screen Off When Not Using

When you walk away from your iPad you want it to log out and go to sleep to save your iPad battery life. If you don’t tweak this simple setting your iPad battery can quickly fade away.
Here are two easy options:
#1. Lock The iPad When Cover Is Closed
1. Go to your iPad settings.

2. Scroll down the menu and click on general.
3. You will see the the option to Lock/Unlock. If you turn this on your iPad will be auto locked when you close the iPad case.

#2. Auto Lock iPad Without Closing Case
Depending on the case you have, the first option may not work for you or you might forget to close your case. So this is the backup auto lock iPad option.
1. Open settings as above.
2. Tap on general in the settings menu.
3. Tap on the Auto-Lock option to set a time on this locking option. For example I have chosen 2 minutes so this means if I am not using my iPad, after two minutes it will log out and therefore save power.

#2. Turn down The Brightness  – Save iPad Battery Life

This option is a killer for me, especially if I leave my iPad open and it’s not set to sleep if I leave it, the brightness can really suck the life out of my iPad.
There are a few ways to turn down the brightness on an iPad. One way is to swipe one finger upwards from the bottom of the screen to open the Control center on the iPad.

When you have opened the control center you can simply turn the brightness down, along with the sound and a number of other options.
The second way to turn down the brightness is to enter the Ipad settings.

1. Go to the main apps desktop and look for the settings icon.
2. Scroll down and tap on Display & Brightness.
3. You will see the brightness options right there.

Also watch out on the auto-brightness option. Your brightness may to adjusted without you even knowing.

#3. Turn Airplane Mode ON

Look what happens when you enable Airplane Mode on an iPad. You will see that it actually disables all communication in and out. The Wi-Fi and the Bluetooth are both disabled and therefore not wasting your iPad battery.
If you’re not using your internet or Bluetooth then shutting them off is not only good for your iPad battery life but it will also keep your iPad secure.

#4. Install Minimal Apps

Imagine an iPad with loads of Apps downloaded and compare this to one that has basically none. Of course the one with all the Apps will be an active and probably slow iPad. All of those Apps would require updating at different times
You can simply avoid installing Apps, but if it is too late then you can just as easily remove the ones you have.

#5. Disable Background App Refresh

Updating Apps that you have installed uses your bandwidth and battery power and sometimes your iPad is updating Apps that you don’t even use often. To stop background App refresh off you only need to enter the settings, go to general settings, scroll down to background App refresh. Tap on this option to either turn this feature off completely or just stop individual Apps from refreshing.
If we use the Facebook App as an example, if left open it would be refreshing with new content continually. This is sucking your iPad battery power without you knowing.

#6. Turn Off Siri – Save iPad Battery Life

Siri is that fantastic feature on an iPad where you can ask questions and give tasks to your own personal assistant. If you have IOS 8 you can also enable the “Hey Siri” option where Siri will start when you say “Hey Siri”.
Basically if you have no use for this feature you should turn it off as any App or feature running all the time will use battery power.

#7. Turn Off Apps That Are Still Running

Sometimes we get carried away and have all the Apps we have recently used still open. We forget they are there, still running and still using your precious iPad power.
To see what Apps are running, simply press the home button on the iPad twice. Then you will be able to see all open Apps and swipe from left to right to see more. If you want to close one simply flick it towards the sky or up and it will be gone.

Extra Tips To Save iPad Battery Life

1. Let your battery run out completely ever so often and then charge it completely to 100% without disturbance.
2. Don’t leave your charger plugged in when your iPad is already charged.
3. Disable GPS location services. Simply enter settings, scroll down past general settings until you get to privacy. Tap that then you will see location services.

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Final update – Android Market celebrates 10 billionth download with 10-cent app sale

So the 10-day 10 Billionth download celebration sale ended in the Android Market over the weekend. Now, the 10-cent sale page takes you to a listing of all of the apps that were available for 10-cents along with their normal pricing. If you bought any apps during the sale, scroll through the multiple pages to find your app and see how good of a deal you got. It feels good to confirm recent purchases were a good idea: find out that you’ve saved %90 or more and you’ll feel great about spending those dimes. I’m going to wrap up my coverage of the sale by reviewing the last two games I purchased during the sale. TileStorm HD is a cute little puzzle game that looks great on even my somewhat outdated screen, and Apparatus is a fun physics-based game that will increase your thumb-brain coordination.

TileStorm HD is a great puzzle game with a simple goal: assemble a continuous path such that the robot can make it from one side of the screen to the next. Remember those plastic puzzles that had a jumbled picture of a character or animal, and you had to move tiles, one at a time, to get them in the right order to display the picture? Well TileStorm HD is a lot like those childhood Anger/Boredom inducers because there is a limited amount of space available to move tiles around. Right now, I’m stuck on level 7 because I can’t see any way of moving the tiles around with only 2 open spaces and 2 unmovable blocks making things complicated. In the video above, you can see exactly how the game works. It’s easy as can be. The other thing I noticed and enjoyed about TileStorm HD is the music for the game: it’s awesome. Playing the game makes you feel like you’re in one of the good raves from the 90’s (there were probably just as many bad ones as good ones). The music in TileStorm HD would be great studying, partying, gaming, or anything-your-brain-will-be-focused-on-whilst-repetitive-sounds-are-thumping-in-the-background music. Graphics are great and the screen feels very responsive to touch. The game will normally cost you $2, and at that price, I’d surely never buy it. Especially considering getting hung up on one early-ish level is all it takes to make you quickly forget about this game. Like me stuck at level 7, I can’t imagine picking this game back up and struggling with it for hours to be able to keep playing through level after level. Frankly, it’s just not fun enough to justify being difficult. Ignore the last three sentences if you are one of those types of people who feel a compelling need to problem solve.

 Oooooooooo, look at that! The picture above could depict my early mental representations of how to solve a simple task. Or, it could be a screenshot from the game Apparatus. Fellow Rubes (Goldbergers?) will salivate at the idea of hammering away at boards and nails and plugging in a network of battery-powered levers and wheels, even if it is only on your phone or tablet screen. Apparatus takes an extremely fun and thought-provoking stance on the common task of getting the ball in the basket. Like in any classic Rube Goldberg contraption, a series of simple machines become a complex, and likely over-designed, setup charged with an extremely mundane task. I’ve played around with the game for a while, and I haven’t even gotten to the most complex builds. Yet, every time a new building element is introduced (such as ropes for swinging planks, and batteries and cables to provide power for rotating motors) the player can determine its function and how it works by tapping the question mark in the upper left-hand corner of the screen. Unlike with TileStorm HD, when I get stuck on a level in Apparatus, I’m inclined to try new and different ways of solving my problem of having a ball that is nowhere near it’s home (remember how frustrated Happy Gilmore got with his out-of-place ball?). That’s because there is nothing that feels static with this games. Sure the task stays the same throughout, and many of the actions and materials don’t change, but every level feels like a new challenge with no one right way to go about solving the puzzle. This game scores high marks in my book in graphics, music, and design. It’s really beautiful to play. I think this game would be awesome on a big tablet or even on an HDTV via GoogleTV. The only real downside I notice is  that the controls aren’t as easy as they should be. For example, to nail two boards together, or to use a wrench to connect a board to a rope, the player has to make sure the two items to be joined are touching at the site of connection. A hammer or wrench will show up when the materials are touching each other. However, almost every time, I’m left to re-position the boards many times, as the hammer and wrench icons will often disappear after removing a finger from the screen. Every time I get something in place and the icon appears to join the objects, it’s gone as soon as I pull my finger away. If the controls were more precise, the game would recognize when the player wants to join two objects, and wouldn’t register miniscule movements that occur while taking a fingertip away from the screen. Still, I’d say this game is a great choice for those looking for a little spacial-logical challenge. At $2.45 plus tax, this game is actually probably worth its premium price, especially if you like a fun, visually appealing challenge that doesn’t get old.
******* First part of post from 12/7/11
I realize that many of you probably don’t have an Android device, but this current offering is so great, that I don’t think anyone with an Android phone should miss it: thanks Dave for reminding me! Also, if any of the other mobile marketplaces or app stores do something similar, I’ll be sure to keep you guys in the know. I’m an equal opportunity mobile technology consumer

.
 The Android Market is celebrating it’s ten billionth app download by hosting a 10-day 10-cent premium app sale. The sale is currently in its third day, so you’ve still got a whole week of buying apps at a steeply discounted rate. I’m starting this post now, but over the next week, I’ll be sure to keep you guys posted with the apps I buy and my brief impressions on each.

I’ve got to recommend picking up Beautiful Widgets today at the steep discount of 95% off. This was the first app I paid for on my original Motorola Droid two years ago, and it usually costs $1.99, or double the price of a normal app. I actually suggest you get this app on every non-HTC Android phone (as HTC devices have a free included clock widget that closely resembles this one, but without all of the customizing options), and it can’t hurt to include it on your HTC device either. From the screenshot above, you can see that this app is basically just a bunch of widgets displaying time and weather information. The whole thing is very customizable: you can choose from a bunch of different widgets, with hundreds of different skin and font packs to make it all your own. You can even assign actions to specific zones of the widgets. Touch the date, and you’ll be redirected to your calendar. Select the current weather display to be launched into beautiful widgets’ wonderfully animated weather information pane. This app is a great value for $1.99 and an absolute steal for 10 cents. After installing one or more Beautiful Widgets on your home screens, you won’t be able to imagine, or likely even tolerate, a smartphone without them.

I can only aspire to be this good

The first app I bought during this 10-cent sale was the wildly popular game Fruit Ninja. This game has sold over 3 million copies across iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and even on your Xbox 360 with Kinect. The game has one of the simplest ideas since Whack-a-Mole: when you see fruit fly up into view, you swipe your finger across the screen to slice the fruit in half. Sound easy enough. Well turns out I’m terrible at it. After you’ve missed slicing three pieces of fruit, it’s game over for you wannabe samurai. There are several different game modes, but they’re all basically just a cover for your serial produce violence. Check out that video in the link above of someone scoring over 1000 points in arcade mode (the standard). My high score is 12 by the way…

Stay tuned for a review of Reckless Racing. The page describes this game as, “THE MOST VISUALLY IMPRESSIVE DIRT-ROAD RACER YOU’VE BEEN WAITING FOR!” I didn’t know I was waiting for a dirt racer, but apparently we all have been for centuries. I’m going to have to give this one a better test drive before turning it loose on you guys.

Well it looks like this app can’t even run without downloading some additional files to your SD card. I’m in a 3g signal hell right now with no wi-fi available to my phone, so these downloads are going to take a very long time as long as I stay at my desk in the office. It’s been going for an hour so far and hasn’t even completed downloading packet 1/2, yikes!

Don’t fear though, because I will definitely update with my impressions as soon as the game finishes downloading its extras and I’ve had time to play it a few times.

 So I’ve finally been able to play Reckless Racing for a bit, and let me tell you, it is the dirt racing game I’ve been waiting for. I assume that the only difference between a regular mobile racing game and a mobile dirt-racing game is that your cars spin out a whole lot more, and the vehicle are more off-road-centric. The gameplay controls are fairly easy, there are right and left turn arrows, a brake/reverse button, and triangle with an exclamation point button that will reset your vehicle on the track, but you’ll have to start from stand-still. Really, the game isn’t too hard (at least on beginner mode and going through bronze cup races) but I’m sure it gets pretty hard pretty quick. Like all good mobile competitive games, there are online leaderboards. However, this game also features an online multiplayer, so you could race your friends if you wanted. I must not have friends, so I played the single player version. There are three game modes in single player: dirt rally, which is a standard race against opponents; hot lap, which is you trying to beat a ghost version of yourself around the track; and my favorite, deliver, wherein the player drives around to pick up items, and drops them off at future locations for points, and more time on the clock. Really, with all of the different modes, this games is like mario kart meets crazi taxi with the graphics and top-down perspective of GTAII. If you’re in to racing –specifically off-road racing– or multi-player mobile games, then this is a no-brainer purchase. For me, on the other hand, I much prefer games like Angry Birds when I choose to play games on my mobile devices. With that said, this is probably the best racing game I’ve played for a mobile device: definitely worth 10-cents, but questionable at $1.00

The 10-day app sale is still going on in the Android Market. If you head over to the the web page for the market, you’ll find  ticker across the top advertising current featured apps, books, music, and movies. When you first navigate to the page, you’ll see the above image as the centerpiece of the top ticker. Clicking this picture on the site will take you to the page listing all of the current 10-cent app offerings. Of course, you could also access the list by going into the market from your Android Device, and that’s probably a better idea since that’s where you’re going to downloading the apps anyway.

Also worth noting: it appears that the 10-cent app offerings is setup on a 24-hour clock that changes at 12-noon eastern time. I’ve been downloading the apps in the morning, which is right before their price goes back up. If you check back in the afternoon each day, you’ll see the list of fresh offerings for the day.

So you know how when you were younger, you would try to justify that all of those video games were actually making you smarter, improving your reaction time, and increasing your coordination? Well maybe you didn’t play video games, or maybe you played too many and they rotted your brain and you couldn’t think up such a strong argument. Space Physics is actually one of those games where you could really make the case that you’re getting smarter, quicker, and more precise as you play it. The premise is as simple as it gets: guide the green ball to the multi-colored star. Thing is, every level you’re faced with a unique layout that, in one way or another, prevents you from getting to the goal. So what does a waiting-room genius do with his time? He draws shapes to facilitate overcoming the obstacles that stand in your ball’s path. You can draw circles, lines,closed shapes, open shapes, and a lot of different objects, to help your ball reach its goal. The tutorial for the games is actually very good, and the beginning levels do a good job of teaching you which shapes are best suited for specific scenarios. In the above example, you’ll see the player has made a stair-climbing car out of two circles and a line. I’ve learned the hard way tho that the better touchscreen artist you are, the better you will do. I’ve made some rather caveman-looking first-wheel attempts that definitely didn’t roll the way they should. The better your design and the quicker you can think of a solution, the more points you get, as the game keeps track of how long it takes you to complete each level, starting the moment your finger touches the glass.

Toki Tori Gameplay

The next game I purchased was Toki Tori. In the market, the pictures promised a good graphics presentation, and it definitely does not disappoint in that department. How ever, what really sold me were the comments and reviews pegging this platformer as an Angry Birds killer. Well I have never… The game is good, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve already played through a few levels and I don’t feel any special attachment to the game. After two levels of the first play through of Angry Birds, I was worried I’d never leave the waiting room again. Really though, Toki Tori is a great mobile game that’s definitely worth 10 cents and probably a dollar. In the video above you can see someone playing this game on their ipod touch. That’s right, this game is available for iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, and even on your Steam cloud-computer-gaming portal. I really like the progression of difficulty in this game, and like in Space Physics, the developers do a great job of teaching you how to play and solve puzzles as you go. I can’t say that this will be the first game i reach for on my phone, but after I beat all of the others, this is sure to provide several hours of fun. I guess you should get it while it’s only 10 cents, I mean come on.

Oh what a weekend I’ve had with these apps I’ve purchased recently. I spent some time playing around with each of my previously reviewed purchases, and I can say that, for the most part, my initial reviews still hold up. The only big difference I see between my initial reviews and my update impressions involve the difficulty of Fruit Ninja. If you watched the video I included in my post, you could see a player achieving a score of over 1000 pieces of fruit sliced. At the time, i believe my high score was six. It’s now in the 40’s after playing for only about another 30 minutes, so the game is actually much easier and rewarding than I initially thought.  Still, it was two apps I haven’t reviewed yet that really dominated my mobile time this weekend: Jelly Defense and Paper Camera.

Jelly Defense is, without question, my favorite purchase so far during the 10-day Android Market sale. Now before you go out and buy this app at the $2.99 regular price, you should know a few things about my mobile game preferences. First: tower defense games are my absolute favorite genre of mobile games. Also, I love original character creations: instead of choosing zombies, soldiers, dinosaurs, or any other known-and-overused attacking group, the team at iDREAMS created a bunch of original monster/alien blobs. There are two colors of aliens, and each color has different types such as slow and strong individuals and smaller and faster individuals that group together. Your objective is to eliminate each of the little blobs as they make their way on the path to your loot. From the shot above, that I obtained from Jelly Defense’s page on the Android Market, you can see a round of the game taking place. On the left of the screen, see the path ending at a pool of floating jewels: those are the jewels you want to protect, keep aliens away from those Jewels! Every monster that reaches the jewels will take one from your stock. If all of your jewels are stolen during a round, you lose that round. The more jewels you have left at the end of a round, the more points you’ll get for clearing that level.

     In this shot, you can also see a long line of creatures making their way through the path, and passing colored objects on the sides of the path. The red, blue, and red/blue creatures on the sides of the path are your towers. At the bottom-right corner of your screen, you can see three types of towers (one is covered by the character in this screenshot). Each tower fires upon enemies in a different way, and can be placed on any of the small targets, or concentric circles, around the outside of the path. Red towers only fire on red enemies, and blue on blue. The two-toned tower can fire on either type of enemy. Each enemy leaves behind a little bit of coin when they die. Just run your finger across the coins to pick them up. Money is used to build and upgrade towers. To build a new tower, simply drag the tower of your choice from the bottom corner to any available target-zone. You can also upgrade towers (to make them more powerful) or sell them back for more cash by touching any tower on the  map, and holding your finger on the upgrade option to the left, or the sell option to the right.

I love this game because it has everything a good tower defense game should have, in a really great design. The controls and gameplay are intuitive and consistent. The characters, menu design, and graphics are beautiful and original. This has already become my go-to Android game, and I can imagine it will provide hours of fun. If you want a really fun and high quality Android game, this is definitely a safe bet. And if you don’t like it, you’ve always got fifteen minutes to try it out and get a refund from the Android Market.

Cameras on cell phones became the norm around 2003. Actually, according to Wikipedia, camera phones outsold digital  cameras in 2003. Since then, cameras have made their way in to just about every single cellular phone, smartphone, tablet, and even other digital devices like Nintendo’s GameBoy line and Apple’s Ipod Touch. On smartphones  especially, lens and sensor technology for the cameras on phones followed closely behind that of digital cameras to the point where Nokia released a 12 megapixel camera on its N8 smartphone this year. It isn’t enough for a phone to be able to snap pictures and video anymore, the devices now feature apps allowing for artistic, photoshop-like effects on the fly.

     Paper Camera is exactly what Dr. 2011 ordered for his patients who no longer felt the WOW effects of 5, 8, 10 and even 12 megapxel camera phones. With this app, everything you see is seconds away from looking like it came out of a Indie girl’s scrapbook, or Diablo Cody movie intro. Look at the picture above. That is what it looks like to frame up a shot in Paper Camera: the white, paper-like background fills all the unused screen real estate; left and right arrows on the top right allow the user to cycle through the list of effects; a big camera button to take your shot, and the green menu button that will take you to your gallery. Also, you’ll note the sliders and refresh button to the right of the view-window. Those sliders allow the user to customize any shot he or she wishes. If you completely mess up the levels, you can just click the little refresh wheel to take you back to something more familiar. Underneath the view-window is displayed the current effect setting.

Here are a few of the pictures I took with Paper Camera, with various filter settings. My favorite is the first picture you see. In that one, I felt the effects made a real difference and added something to the photo. That isn’t to say the other effects filters felt superfluous or gaudy, they just seemed more like a novelty, a fun and entertaining novelty. The app is extremely easy to use: if you can use your phone’s camera app, you can use Paper Camera. It’s actually probably even a little easier than your phone’s normal camera app. If you’d like to compare how different effects handle lighting, look at my last two pictures. The one with the lattice-work supports was taken with the effect called Granny’s paper. The one below it was taken in the same spot at the same time with the same amount of light, but the sketchup effect soaks up much more light. T
Paper Camera is a great app and I’d say its even worth the $1.99 you’ll pay if you buy it today. At the very least, you can upload the cutest and most artistic cat pictures ever to your photo blog

Alright guys and girls, there are some awesome apps available now in the Android Market. Doodle Jump is my favorite game ever for iOS and it usually costs $2 for Android. Beautiful Widgets and Sound Hound are both great apps, and I bet Block Breaker 3 HD is a great one to have as well.

So if you’ve been following the Android Market 10 Billionth Download 10 day sale, then you know that the offerings have somewhat repeated themselves. Specifically the better of the admittedly non-WOWing games and apps. If you haven’t been following, well I guess I just told you so.  I’ve bought about an app a day over the past couple days, but none one day. First, if you’re reading this and ezPDF Reader is still on sale, stop reading it and buy it. If it’s not still on sale for ten pennies, you might still consider buying it after my review, or purchasing and trying it out withing the 15-minute refund period. The others I purchased were GLWG or Great Little War Game, a WORMS-like turn-based battle game; Doodle Jump, An incredibly addictive, easy game I LOVED on my ipod touch for $1, but refused to purchase from the Android Market for $2.12 (with Indiana’s sales tax); and Zenonia, a self-proclaimed JRPG that reminds me of a simpler version of most of my car rides as a child.

Alright so Zenonia… where to begin. Actually this game could probably be covered adequately in 2000+ words. Maybe I’m exaggerating based on my relatively short time with the game. Or maybe I’m wordy. I do like it. and if it’s available still, you might as well buy it, because you might have a long, lonely train ride one day. Somehow everything I can think to say about this game can also be taken negatively, an that’s not because it’s a bad game, but there are a lot of better ones. The intro takes too long, feels like ten minutes, and really only shows you that the translation is kind of labored. You also have the option of skipping it. The controls are great on my 4.3 inch screen: there are d-pads on both the left and right side of the screen by default. The left one controls your movement and the right one controls the direction of your attack. Also on the left side, you find an interaction button, something that only works when you’re next to a person or sign or something. Really, the controls maybe even better than some JRPGs for Game Boy because you can also utilize multi-directional movements with your attacks, rather than just a B button. The graphics are better than they were on my Game Boy color, and really all you need for this kind of 32-bit game. In most ways, Zenonia doesn’t at all feel like a smartphone game app, rather it is of the same breadth and quality of most thin cartridges my parents used to pay $10 to $30 bucks for. I’m sure it wouldn’t take as long to beat as a classic Final Fantasy game, but I don’t think you’d want it to. If you’re used to games like these, but this one. I doubt there are better JRPGs on Android, but then again I’ve never looked, or wanted to.  If you’ve never played a game like this and want to know more, here’s a good place to start. Be prepared to talk to a lot of people, go to strange places they want you to go to to get strange things and complete strange tasks. You’ll also face many strange enemies of varying difficulty. Buy it. You’ll probably play it one day. You’ll play it sooner if you travel alone.

EzPDF Reader is the reason I told my mom I wanted a Nook Color for Christmas last year. Well actually, ezPDF Reader’s features are the reason I wanted as Nook Color, but I had to Root it to run a ROM of Android 2.2 and purchase an app for $2 to get it to have all of the features I desired. As a college student I read lots and lots of journal articles, book selections, and literature in the form of PDFs. Instead of printing each and everyone of them out, I preferred reading them on my nook color. With a paper copy, you get to take notes, highlight portions of the texts, and even draw all over the document if you want. With the Nook’s built-in PDF reader and even Adobe’s offering in the Android Market, you won’t be so lucky. EzPDF Reader allows you to do pretty much whatever you need to do to the documents. This is a great utility to have on any Android device that ever fills its screen with a PDF document type. The app is very easy to use: opening the program brings you to a list of available PDF documents with tabs for My Docs, Recent Docs, All Docs, and Web Docs. When you bring up a document you’ll have a tool box along the top. Tapping the screen brings up additional options including a scrollable quick-view of all of the pages of the document, menu and bookmarking buttons, and the title of the document across the top. The app design isn’t necessarily the prettiest one, and the color schemes aren’t quite pleasing to the eye. It looks like some very smart, but not-so-creative men built the program without asking any very smart females for design advice. However, when your primary goal is looking at documents full screen, the menus don’t take up much of your eye-time. When it comes to annotating, highlighting, or drawing on documents, pressing and holding on words and letters brings up a menu of options of things to do to the selected text and a sliding curser to widen or narrow your selected text field. In order to draw or add notes on the document, the program will ask you if you want to make a copy of the document for annotation, it just gives you the ability to keep the original document intact rather than saving your markings to the original. I purchased this app a year ago at full price knowing I was getting the best PDF reader available to Android. Today, it’s still true, and with updates regularly, eazyPDF Reader only gets better.
I LOVE DOODLE JUMP!!!!!!11!!!!!!!!!1!!!!!!!! Wait one second I’m going to go play it some more. … 38 minutes of time was just wasted on Doodle Jump. I wanted to play once life, then come back. I showed it to my roommate, who has never played a mobile game to my knowledge, and he went at it for close to ten minutes. I watched for some reason. The point is: this game is addicting! It’s perhaps simpler than it is addictive, if that’s possible. You’re an alien with lots of feet that like to jump. You jump higher on each platform you land on. Platforms disappear as the reach the bottom of the screen.  Tilt your phone back and forth to control your movement in the air. You can get jetpacks and helicopter hats to make you fly. Springs and trampolines bounce you extra high. Weird aliens and holes will kill you if you touch them. At lest you can shoot aliens (by tapping the screen) to kill them and free up your ascension path. If you think this paragraph seems rushed, it’s because I want to go play more Doodle Jump.

Great Little War Game. That’s the title. and the review. Really, it’s a great marketing strategy. If you’ve ever played WORMS on PC or any console, you know how awesome turn-based shoot-em up games can be. You just take turns moving players around a board and shooting at each other to take over one another’s bases. It’s like a very, very basic version of Starcraft, or Warcraft, before you only controlled one character. Takes turns fighting for control over a plot of ground with the precarious Red Army. There is a story to it, but honestly I never pay attention to it — it’s probably good though. You operate a base that produces different types of soldiers, featuring infantry, snipers, bazooka men, Sgts, engineers, that’s all I’ve seen so far. Every time it’s your turn, you get to move each soldier, and fire at any opponent within range. Each different type of soldier has a different range and damage area. In similar representations of the GLWG genre, your only objective is to eliminate all of the enemies. In GLWG, each mission gives you a different main objective; defeat the opponent, use an engineer to take over the enemy’s base, protect your Sargent for eight days. The developers do a good job of making you thing you’re doing something different each time. And frankly, even if it were repetitive in its turn-based-war-gameness, t’s a good representation.Graphics, audio, controls, menus, design: everything about this app says premium. It runs wonderfully on the HTC Evo, which is outdated by Android standards. Apparently it costs $2.99 normally, and I wouldn’t pay that because I don’t use my phone for games much . Yet before this sale, I had really lost touch with my love for mobile gaming. Decisions yours. It’s really good though…
Stay tuned for my next purchases after the store updates for the final two days. I hope Google’s got something great waiting for us!

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