GeekwithEnvy

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Cycloramic Brings a Unique “Twist” to the iPhone

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Cycloramic is a cool little app that records video while it actually rotates your iPhone by using vibration. Seems like it could be pretty useful, but it would make me a little nervous to use this app in certain locations where the phone could become damaged. Another issue I have with this app is that it doesn’t take panoramic photos, which would be a nice addition. Overall, I like the idea, it’s a pretty clever little trick and it’s sure to get you some attention at a party, but I just wonder how useful it actually is.

 

Featured App: Berzerk Ball 2

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Warning, this is a highly addictive game that will make you keep playing until you can score as many points as possible. The GEEK is back in Berzerk Ball 2 and it has never been more fun to smash something over and over again while racking up points and experience.

This game is pretty straightforward, go as far as you possibly can by beating the internet Geek over and over. You can customize your Geek then customize your character to beat him with. Along the way you will gain points and experience that you can then use to increase the power of your weapons and learn new moves. As you continue you level up you will also become much stronger allowing you to blast the Geek even farther.

BerzerkerBallSS1 BerzerkerBallSS2 BerzerkerBall2SS3

Berzerk Ball 2 is really well made and offers a ton of reasons to keep playing, including unlocking new attacks and forging items to make better weapons. The artwork is fantastic, the music is epic and you will likely find yourself playing a lot longer than you thought you would. Once I began to play, I seriously spent about an hour playing and trying to level up my other characters The game just gets more and more interesting as you continue to play.

The best part about this game is you don’t have to play it alone. You can invite your Facebook friends to join you on your quest to blast the Geek all the way into oblivion!

You can play the game directly in your web browser by visiting BubbleBox or by downloading it for a Free for a limited time from the App Store and Google Play.

Thanks to Mooky for reminding me that this games exists !

Windows 8 Feels Like a Dud

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product_win8-startscreen_Web

I have been tinkering around with Windows 8 since the developer preview and I was pretty excited initially about it’s release, but now that it’s finally here, I am feeling like something is majorly wrong with this version of Windows.

One only needs to spend 60 seconds with Windows 8 to realize that it’s not Microsoft’s best work. I have been working with people just about everyday trying to help them easily transition to the new operating system and it’s proven to be quite a challenge. You know something is wrong with your shiny new OS when PC hardware manufacturers, like Gateway, need to place an icon somewhere on the screen to help you shut down your computer. In case you missed it, we have put together a brief how-to that shows you how to make such an icon for yourself.

Windows 8 dosen’t fully commit to one user-interface and that alone will drive you crazy. You will find yourself wanting to exist in one space or the other but ultimately you will need to switch between both. This issue leaves Windows 8 feeling disconnected from itself and it’s just downright frustrating. There a many aspects of the new tile UI that I enjoy but it’s just not built to be productive. Many of the applications that I use day-to-day require me to move to the legacy desktop and therefore I spend almost all of my time there.

There are hidden menus in each corner and once they are open, they frequently disappear unexpectedly. When the menus do stay open, I have trouble fumbling through a poorly designed search system to find files or applications that I need. Changing settings or just trying to obtain Windows updates through the new tile based UI is buggy and most of the time I end up, once again, heading back to the legacy desktop.

Your design should be intuitive and new users should feel welcome when they first see Windows 8. Even though you shouldn’t have too, there is almost no attempt to guide the user in the right direction besides a small animation toward the end of the Windows 8 installation that explains how to bring up the hidden menus that are at the edge of the screen.

Even app developers don’t seem confident in the new OS. The lack of a solid app base is killing Windows 8 more than anything, we need a reason to enjoy our new tile system with full screen applications. Many major software companies have avoided making Windows 8 apps that work with the new tile UI, and those who have adapted have buggy applications that don’t feel like their worth the hard drive space.

I believe Windows 8 is the worst release of Microsoft’s OS software to-date. I would consider myself to be advanced user with knowledge of many different operating systems and yet I find it difficult to perform routine tasks. This one screams out “I’m a DUD!”. What’s worse is that I am starting to feel like the guinea pig here and I am just waiting for Microsoft to ask me to shell out more money for a rushed copy of  Windows 9 due to the failure of Windows 8’s poor design.

Honestly, Windows 8 is a mess and we can only hope that Microsoft will do the right thing and fix many of the issues that plague the new OS today, with the release of a service pack in the near future. I am trying to remain optimistic about Microsoft’s ability to create a next-gen OS that’s sleek, functional, easy-to-use, and that works seamlessly across all of my devices, but I’m loosing faith.

Featured App: GifBoom

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Animated GIF’s were one of the best things about the internet in 90’s and now it seems that they’re making a strong comeback. Websites like Tumblr frequently use animated GIF files for content and simply put, they look awesome. So how can you join in on the fun and create your own animated GIF files? There’s a simple solution and it’s GifBoom.

GifBoom ScreenShot

GifBoom is an app that helps you easily create your own unique animated GIF files by using your built-in camera or saved photos from your library. After you have chosen the photos you want to use you can then create your animated GIF, it’s really that simple. Once you make your new GIF you can then easily share it with your friends via Email, MMS or Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr. This app is really fun to use and your only limit is your own creativity. GifBoom is available for Free on the App Store and Google Play.

GifBoom Features:

  •  Create animated GIFs that you can share to anywhere from your camera or photos.
  •  Auto and Manual mode: Change speed of your auto timer in camera shooting or use “Manual” mode. You can control whatever speed you want to take photos.
  •  Import from Videos and Photos in Gallery
  •  One Tap Instant sharing to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Email and MMS
  •  Save GIFs to camera gallery
  •  Change the speed of your GIF with live preview
  •  Rotate the GIFs with live preview
  •  Add Text to Your Gifs!

 

Another Cosmic Catastrophe Avoided

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Eros
Eros (Credit: NASA/JPL/JHUAPL)

It seems that we have survived several “end-of-the-world” scenarios but now you can add another reason to celebrate to your list. Another massive asteroid named ‘2011 AG5’ was expected to possibly hit Earth sometime around the year 2040. The asteroid was discovered early in 2011 and ever since we have been keeping track of it’s movement to see if it really could be a world-ender.

Space is a massive place and it can be truly difficult to pinpoint whether or not a single chunk of space rock will hit Earth, but University of Hawaii at Manoa astronomers along with the help of NASA, can safely say that the asteroid is not on a collision course with Earth.

It’s good to know that somebody is watching the skies above us. Now we can only hope that when we are in the path of a giant, we can do something about it. There are a few methods being drawn up about how to avoid an impact. Some of these ideas include crashing spacecraft into astroids to alter their course and steer them away from our planet. However, there are not any solid plans in place at this time to help avoid such impacts.

If there are any space projects that are going to be put together, you would hope that one of the top priority missions would include saving our planet. I would like to see missions that focus on landing on asteroids and studying them, with the ultimate goal being to understand how to alter their trajectory. It sounds simple enough but it takes a lot of force to move these giant and all of this would have to be controlled over long distances. Again, it’s a case of us knowing so much but knowing so little. For now it seems that we have a little more time to figure things out, let’s hope we do before we absolutely have to.