As the huge South by Southwest conference approaches on the horizon (I'm flying out for the eighth time on March 6th), the growing influence of the 'off-schedule' unofficial parties and meetings cannot be avoided. Countless invitations and tickets to organise, and many of them using the web 2.0 ticketing service Eventbrite. Which is where Metrobrite comes in.
It seems to be the norm, at least for me, that the flagship Windows Phone 8 device from a manufacturer is just a little bit too big for me, a little unwieldy, and while it has the best specifications, that's not what I'm looking for in my smartphone. Just as everyone else on the All About team went for the Lumia 920 while I had my eye on the Lumia 820, the same is true of the HTC Windows Phone 8S. The smaller brother of the 'signature' Windows Phone 8 device from HTC (the popular in the office 8X), the HTC 8S was the one I wanted to get my hands on.
I've been a huge pinball fan in real life, which hopefully helps me appreciated the sterling job the developers have done with simulating a pinball table in Dr Pickaxe. The physics are downright perfect, the gameplay always interesting, plus mini-game/mini-tables extend the gameplay even further. Add in a generous 'trial' version and you've got a title that every Windows Phone gamer should have installed and (hopefully) bought.
Putting aside the issue of Skulls of the Shogun being an oasis in a drought of new Xbox Live releases, 17-Bit's strategy game is a wonderful and accomplished title on the Windows Phone platform (which is where this review is focusing, even though it's also on Surface RT and Windows 8). It takes the simple question of 'what happens to all the shoguns who die?' and answers it with 'they never stopped fighting'. Now all you need to do is help them to victory.
Just before Christmas, we posted news about 'Starcrossed' from Kajak Games Osk, one of the winners of the 2012 Dare to be Digital contest run by a number of Scottish Universities. Since then I've been dipping into this title frequently, and it's about time this arcade puzzler had a full review.
Following on from our review of Nokia's DT-900 wireless charging plate, we now turn our attention to the DT-910, which takes the charging plate design and turns it into a desk stand for your Qi enabled phone. Before you read either review, you should check out our discussion on how wireless charging and the Qi standard actually works. Read on to see whether a desk stand that wirelessly charges your phone is worth the hefty price tag.
The eternal experiment in how best to case one's expensive smartphone - the Lumia 920 is a little on the slippery side, plus it's quite wide (and thus you can't get your fingers and thumb round it to grasp it securely). I've already reviewed the Case-Mate Barely There sleeve, but the Noreve one opts to also cover the front, courtesy of a padded fold-down flap. See below for photos and my thoughts on the Tradition Leather.
When the team behind the second James Bond film 'From Russia With Love' settled on a marketing message, they went for the simple idea of a 'bigger, better, Bond'. Firemint have gone for the same approach with their sequel to the genre defining line drawing game Flight Control. Released as an Xbox Live exclusive title by Nokia, Flight Control Rocket moves the action into space, and asks you, once more, to marshall the approaching craft into a safe landing.
You probably saw our review of HDR Photo Camera a few weeks ago? It's fair to say that David's test shots were limited more by him not using a tripod than the software itself. And now, just like London buses, you want one HDR application and then two come along at once. This time it's Tequnique's HDR Camera and I tried it both with and without a tripod. In summary, images can look spectacular if you're careful, though purists will rightly point out that real life colours can't match up to this HDR version of reality.
Robotek is an unlikely mix of cuteness, post-apocalyptic futures and fruit machine gameplay. See, told you it was unlikely. Not only that though, it throws in a dash of strategy too, forcing you to use your grey matter rather than just how well you can time stopping the spinning symbols to activate your various activities. Besides the fun factor of Robotek, it's also a title that shows signs of the future of the Windows Phone ecosystem, as this game was recently released on Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8, which, of course, is the promise of the common kernel between Microsoft's desktop and mobile operating systems.
