GeekwithEnvy

Apps

Blizzard Introduces HearthStone: Heroes of Warcraft

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Blizzard Entertainment has introduced a brand new game, HearthStone: Heroes of Warcraft. The game is a TCG (Trading Card Game) style game that is free-to-play and features all of our favorite Warcraft characters. Build Decks and Challenge players, the core of any good card game, and that’s exactly what HearthStone is all about.

It’s exciting to see Blizzard doing something that shakes things up a bit. I can’t wait to jump in and check it out. The game will be available for Windows PC, Mac, and iPad. You can sign up to be a part of the beta and get even more information by heading to the official site, HearthStone: Heroes of Warcraft.

We’ve always loved collectible card games at Blizzard, so it’s been exciting to bring everything we love about the genre to life in Hearthstone, we’re putting a lot of focus into creating a fun new game that’s easy to pick up and play, but also has a lot of depth. We can’t wait to share it with everyone.”– Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment

HearthStoneSS
HearthStone: Heroes of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment)

Featured App: Lemon Wallet

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I came across this app and thought why would this be good? Having all your information that can be stolen so easily all in one place? Looking further into it, I realized that this is a great idea! Here’s why:

Lemon Wallet allows you to store a digital copy of all of your cards—ID, insurance, loyalty and payment cards—so you always have a backup in case your wallet is misplaced, lost or stolen. Lemon Wallet digitizes your cards in a smarter way with interactive balance updates, personalized offers and a simple way to communicate with brands and merchants.

1.Take a picture of your cards

Getting started is as easy as snapping a photo of every card in your wallet. Lemon Wallet captures the important information and stores your cards in your phone and on our servers.

2. Safer than your wallet

All your data is safely stored and encrypted, and a PIN is required to access your cards. If you lose your phone, you can remotely unlink it from your Lemon account.

3. Access anywhere, anytime

Have you ever forgotten your wallet? With Lemon Wallet, you can access your information when you need it. Plus you can always have a backup in the cloud in case your wallet is lost or stolen.

4. Store your receipts

You can also store all your receipts in case you need to make a return, for tax purposes or to track your spending. Just take a picture of your receipt, and we will digitize key information.

 

These are just a few features of this app. So far it seems safe to use and very convenient. Imagine if you go to the store and you forgot the credit card you wanted to use at home? This app makes it so you can pull that card right up on your phone and still be able to use it right in the store, without having to go back home and get it! To get more info about Lemon Wallet go here

 

 

Available for iPhone  Android and Windows Phone 

Get Your Apple ][ Fix Without the Hardware

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OregonTrailSS

The Apple ][ and the the Apple IIgs were great machines and can spark up some serious nostalgia. The only issue is that today, they are a bit hard to find. Let’s not forget to mention that you will probably have to drop some decent cash to get one that’s in good shape as well.

There’s no need to worry though, there’s still a way you can play almost every Apple ][ and Apple IIgs game ever made and it’s in your browser. Yep, the awesome people at VirtualApple have made it so simple to load up any of your favorite games in seconds. It even makes the old drive seek sound when the emulation starts!

One game that I couldn’t resist loading up right away was Oregon Trail. This game was one of my favorites growing up and now I don’t have to buy old Apple hardware to enjoy it. Even if you have never used an Apple ][ or IIgs, I highly recommend you check out the emulator and the games they are offering. It’s interesting to look at older games and see how much things have changed, it really puts things into perspective. Besides it can definitely help cure some boredom.

All you need to do is download a simple plugin that’s compatible with most versions of Windows and Mac OS X and most web browsers.

Featured App: ILoveFilm

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Looking for an iPad app that acts as a small light box for tracing?

I discovered ILoveFilm while searching for a free light box app. Even though the name and purpose of this app was to be able to look at negative images from a camera, I have found that using it as a light box to trace my sketches was the best one I could find.

The way it works is super simple, you open the app and you touch the little button to turn on the light. You also have a bar to move up or down to adjust the brightness. Thats it!

ILoveFilm

The one thing that bothers me about using an iPad as a light box, is when you rest your hand on it, the touch screen goes a little crazy and sometimes closes the app and then opens other things due to the multitouch gestures. I found that if you go into Settings>General>Turn OFF Multitasking Gestures, this turns off the ability to use four or five fingers to: pinch to the home screen, swipe up to reveal multitasking bar, and to swipe left or right between apps. Now that the gestures are turned off, resting your hand on the screen while tracing, will not give you anymore problems. Now just make sure the brightness is turned up all the way on the iPad and you are ready to trace!

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I recommend this app for small artwork due to the screen size. Other then that, it’s free and extremely simple to use!

Only available on Apple iPad.

A Great Free Alternative to Photoshop

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Adobe Photoshop is an incredibly useful tool and it seems that the only limitation is your imagination. The only set back to using such powerful software could be it’s price tag.  The full version of Adobe Photoshop retails for $699 and if you want you can “rent” Photoshop for $19.99 per month but you must commit to a year long subscription or you will have to pay $29.99 per month. That’s a lot of money to throw down, especially for non-professional use, but there’s no need to fear, there are other options.

There is a really good alternative to Photoshop and it’s called GIMP which is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. GIMP offers up many of the same features as Photoshop and what’s even better is that it’s free!

GIMP Screenshot
GIMP UI

GIMP is loaded with features and you can export your images to many different file formats including TIFF, JPEG, GIF, PNG, PSD and many more. What I have found to be one of the best features is the ability to download plugins. If there’s a feature or format that you need, you can usually always find a plugin to take care of your needs. You can perform many of the same common tasks that you would expect to find in any other modern image software, including photo retouching and enhancement, resizing/cropping, colorizing, filters and much more.

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GIMP UI

Although most users will be able to jump right into it, those who are used to Photoshop may take a little while to get used to a different user interface. I use both Photoshop and GIMP but I do all of my work in GIMP on my laptop, including most of the photos you see on GeekwithEnvy. If you do get stuck or just want to learn more you can head over the the tutorials section to get up to speed.

GIMP is primarily written in C and was originally intended to to be a reasonably priced or Free image manipulation program for GNU/Linux and UNIX. Today, you can download the software for Mac OSX, Windows, Sun OpenSolaris, FreeBSD and of course GNU/Linux. For complete information you can head here.