With the Galaxy Note 20 launch just a week away, all eyes will be on what upgrades Samsung brings to the table. While the chipset might remain unchanged, there might be a silver lining. While Samsung flagship like the Note series and the S series are powered by Snapdragon chipsets in the US and European markets, they come with Exynos chipset in Asian markets such as India. It often tends to lose out on the performance front against Qualcomm Snapdragon counterparts. However, a new leak suggests some good news in this regard. Samsung Galaxy Note 20 release date, price, news and leaks Upcoming smartphones in India: Specs, launch date, price (Image credit: Samsung/WinFuture) According to a tweet by Anthony, a Youtuber, Samsung Galaxy Note 20 will continue to be powered by the Exynos 990 chipset, but with major improvements in terms of the performance and efficiency. These optimizations should bring it closer to the Snapdragon 865 series. He even suggested that it is almost li...
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Huawei shows its 5G arsenal with the multi-mode Balong 5000 chipset
Thu, 31 Jan 2019 12:05:05 +0000
Huawei has officially launched its 5G multi-mode chipset Balong 5000 in China last week that supports a broad range of 5G products such as smartphones, home broadband devices, vehicle-mounted devices, and 5G modules. Huawei also revealed its first commercial 5G device, the Huawei 5G CPE Pro hotspot device.
"The Balong 5000 will open up a whole new world to consumers," said the CEO of Huawei's Consumer Business Group, Richard Yu. "Powered by the Balong 5000, the Huawei 5G CPE Pro enables consumers to access networks more freely and enjoy an incredibly fast connected experience. Huawei has an integrated set of capabilities across chips, devices, cloud services, and networks. Building on these strengths, as the leader of the 5G era, we will bring an inspired, intelligent experience to global consumers in every aspect of their lives."
With a small form factor and high degree of integration, Balong 5000 supports 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G on a single chip. It effectively reduces latency and power consumption when exchanging data between different modes, and will significantly enhance user experience in the early stages of commercial 5G deployment.
At Sub-6 GHz (low-frequency bands, the main spectrum used for 5G), Balong 5000 can achieve download speeds up to 4.6 Gbps. On mmWave spectrum (high-frequency bands used as extended spectrum for 5G), Balong 5000 can achieve download speeds up to 6.5 Gbps – 10 times faster than top 4G LTE speeds on the market today.
Balong 5000 is also the world's first chipset that supports both standalone (SA) and non-standalone (NSA) network architectures for 5G. With non-standalone, 5G network architecture is built on top of legacy 4G LTE networks, whereas standalone 5G, as the name implies, will have its own independent architecture.
And finally, Balong 5000 is the world's first multi-mode chipset that supports Vehicle to Everything (V2X) communications, providing low-latency and highly reliable solutions for connected vehicles. Huawei's 5G smartphones powered by Balong 5000 will be showcased at this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Powered by Balong 5000, the Huawei 5G CPE Pro supports both 4G and 5G wireless connections. On a 5G network, a 1-GB HD video clip can be downloaded within three seconds, and 8K video can be streamed smoothly without lag. This sets a new benchmark for home CPEs. In addition to homes, the Huawei 5G CPE Pro can also be used by small and medium-sized enterprises for super-fast broadband access.
Adopting new Wi-Fi 6 technology, the Huawei 5G CPE Pro delivers speeds of up to 4.8 Gbps. It is the first 5G CPE that supports HUAWEI HiLink protocols, bringing smart homes into the 5G era.
We're excited to learn more about the future of 5G, especially in smartphones. Huawei will be hosting a conference at the upcoming Mobile World Congress show and has promised to reveal a handful of handsets that support 5G connectivity.
Moto G7 Plus release date, price, news and leaks
Thu, 31 Jan 2019 11:59:54 +0000
The Motorola Moto G7 Plus is tipped to be the most premium of a rumored four new handsets to bear the G7 name this year.
With an expected Moto G7 Plus launch date of February 7, there's not long to wait and details are coming in thick and fast about the handset.
Extensive Moto G7 Plus leaks have revealed pretty much everything you need to know about the upcoming affordable Android phone, and we've got all the details right here.
Update: Leaked images appearing to show a box-ready Moto G7 Plus has revealed additional features.
When Lenovo acquired Motorola in 2014, it shook the Moto G line up a little. Gone was the single phone, instead multiple models were launched, and of these the 'G Plus' model was arguably the most important addition.
With specs that were distinctly not budget, but a price tag that certainly was, this moved the G line up into the bourgeoisie of the smartphone world. In 2018, the Moto G6 Plus was no exception to the rule, balancing a refined design, enough power and a quality experience to superb results.
The Moto G7 Plus is now on the horizon, promising more goodness at the point where budget meets mid-range, and expectations are running high.
You’ll also find information about the price and release date below, as well as all the Moto G7 Plus rumors, leaks and analysis.
Cut to the chase What is it? Moto's next big-screen budget phoneWhen is it out? Launch date rumored to be February 7What will it cost? Up to around £300/$400/AU$500 Moto G7 Plus release date and priceThe Moto G7 Plus launch date could be as early as February 7, as Motorola is holding an event in Brazil - the location for the launch of the G6 series in 2018.
If February 7 is the launch date for the Moto G7 Plus, it would be much earlier than the previous year when the G6 range were announced in April 2018.
There’s no word on the Moto G7 Plus price just yet, but seeing as Moto G6 Plus launched for £269 / AU$499 (about $380), we expect the G7 Plus to cost around the same.
We got a good look at the Moto G7 Plus quite early on, courtesy of the leaked render below.
This particular render suggests the G7 Plus will feature a teardrop notch, a bezel below the screen and a dual-lens camera along with what looks to be a fingerprint scanner on the back.
Could this be the Moto G7 Plus? (credit: MySmartPrice)
According to the same source, the Moto G7 Plus will come in red (pictured above) and blue.
More recently, however, we've seen what appears to be a box-ready Moto G7 Plus photographed, again showing a small water-drop notch, dual rear cameras and a fingerprint scanner.
The Moto G7 Plus could look like this (credit: TuboCelular)
According to the image leak, and a comprehensive spec leak, the Moto G7 Plus will pack a 6.2-inch (or 6.24-inch to be exact) Full HD+ display, which considering this is set to be a budget handset is quite simply huge.
This goes against an earlier rumor which suggested the G7 Plus will have a 6.4-inch display, but this is now looking unlikely with a number of more recent Moto G7 Plus leaks sticking with 6.2 inches.
Moto G7 Plus power and perfomanceEarly Moto G7 Plus rumors predicted the handset would pack a Snapdragon 660 chipset, although more recently it appears it may actually come with the mid-range Snapdragon 636 chip instead.
That should give you enough power, and paired with a rumored 4GB of RAM, Android should run smoothly.
The same leaks also point towards the Moto G7 Plus running Android 9 Pie (the latest version of the operating system) and packing at least 64GB of storage, although a 128GB variant may be available in some regions.
There are conflicting reports when it comes to the battery and front facing camera, with one source saying the G7 Plus will have a 3,500mAh power pack, while another claims 3,000mAh.
What appears to be agreed on though is the dual camera setup on the rear, which is said to feature 16MP and 5MP sensors above a fingerprint scanner.
What we want to seeBased on our usage of the range we’ve collected a few thoughts on what we would like to see in the next incarnation of the handset.
1. A HDR-enabled screen
A high-quality screen could help the Moto G7 Plus stand out
HDR tech is all the rage at the moment, supported by Netflix, YouTube and more, this fancy add-on is featured by a growing number of smartphones – allowing improved color, contrast and clarity when viewing optimized video.
Given that the screen size of the Moto G series, the Plus in particular, is always growing, we’d really like to see Lenovo go all out and bring a truly quality panel to the sub-£300/$400 price range, with HDR, AMOLED and all the other lovely flagship features.
2. Better audio outputAt the high end of the smartphone market, teaming up with a known audio brand has become all the rage. Some have Dolby tuning, Samsung has its fingers wrapped around AKG. As such we’d like to see the Moto G7 Plus come with a powerful DAC in tow – maybe one tweaked to perfection by a famous audio brand.
This would allow those privileged few who own fancy headphones to rock out a little harder, but would also provide a better listening experience overall for the average Joe and his out-of-the-box earbuds. Perhaps the company could even follow HTC’s lead and offer a slightly fancier pair with the phone itself?
Paying some serious attention to the musical chops of its premium budget offering could really help Lenovo to draw attention to the G7 Plus in what is becoming an increasingly competitive segment.
3. Better biometrics
More and better ways to unlock the G7 Plus would be appreciated
At the moment, and there is nothing wrong with this, the Moto G Plus range comes with a standard fingerprint sensor beneath the display. It is functional, but nothing more – just another way to log in to your phone.
There’s also basic facial recognition on the G6 Plus, but we’d like to see a more advanced option from the Moto G7 Plus, something more like Apple’s Face ID or Samsung’s Intelligent Scan.
Certainly if the new device will make its way to us with a notch in tow, Lenovo could do little better than to add in an infrared biometric sensor – or indeed a fingerprint sensor embedded underneath the display itself.
The options are many, however a greater variety of options for logging in would provide some needed versatility to the security of the device.
4. A truly powerful chipsetFor years now, what has really established budget phones as, well, budget, has been their choice of chipset. Although fine in general with the day-to-day business of swiping away notifications and general promenading around the UI, when things get tough these processors never really get going.
By adding a chipset with a little more oomph, something equivalent to the Snapdragon 660 found in the Nokia 7 Plus, or one of Qualcomm’s new 710 chips, Lenovo could really cause the average buyer to question the sanity of laying down over a thousand dollarpounds for the latest iDevice.
Adding such an chipset would also serve to future-proof the Moto G7 Plus against new updates and more, especially if tuned properly.
5. Moto mod support
The Polaroid Insta-Share Printer is one of many Moto Mods
Refining the design of the Moto G7 Plus and adding the necessary Moto mod connectors would open up the device, and a legion of consumers, to the weird and wacky world of Moto mods.
Style covers, pico projectors, boom boxes and more abound, this is a differentiator that only Lenovo has access to – and could be a real draw, especially as it has traditionally been confined to the flagship Z series. As such this would perhaps be at the expense of the Z Play series, but only a few would likely mourn the loss.
6. A brave new designLenovo is many things, but daring in design it is not. While the G series is dependably utilitarian in its looks, it isn’t what James Bond would take to a high-stakes poker game.
If the boat were to be pushed out a little, incorporating new materials, or a different design inspiration, the results could be what takes the Moto G7 Plus to new heights of success.
The glass sandwich is tried and true, but the time is right for something with a little more confidence and pizzazz, rather than relatively conservative and staid.
7. A more refined camera experienceWhen it comes to photographic quality, the Moto G6 Plus is no slouch. It produces lively, interesting images – but there is always room for improvement.
The camera app on Moto phones is renowned for having the same general responsiveness as the average person after a record Christmas dinner. Processing times are slow, for taking images as well as composing them.
Tightening up the software would do a great deal to improve the experience on the Moto G7 Plus.
We’d also like to see refinements to the image processing, which could use a little more nuance in low light scenes. Adding optical image stabilization would help a great deal to improve the imaging skills of the handset.
The standard Moto G7 is also likely on the way
The best Android games
Thu, 31 Jan 2019 11:50:42 +0000
There are loads of great games available for Android, but how can you pick out the gems from the dross, and amazing touchscreen experiences from botched console ports? With our lists, that’s how!
We cover the best titles on Android right now, including the finest racers, puzzlers, adventure games, arcade titles and more.
We've tried these games out, and looked to see where the costs come in - there might be a free sticker added to some of these in the Google Play Store, but sometimes you'll need an in app purchase (IAP) to get the real benefit - so we'll make sure you know about that ahead of the download.
Check back every week for a new game, and click through to the following pages to see the best of the best divided into the genres that best represent what people are playing right now.
Android game of the week: Hyper Sentinel ($2.49/£1.99/AU$3.49)
Hyper Sentinel finds you zooming back and forth across a giant dreadnought, blowing up its gun turrets, and weaving between the various ships it sends in your general direction with murderous intent.
This is a zippy game – and a vibrant one – which feels and looks rather old-school in nature. That’s perhaps no surprise, as its roots go all the way back to Uridium, a 1986(!) hit on the Commodore 64 home computer.
Fortunately, Hyper Sentinel isn’t as punishing as that old game – although that doesn’t mean you have things easy. There are 60 medals to win across its dozen stages, and hard-as-nails bosses to beat. Depth? Nuance? Well, there’s not much of those things, but who needs them when you’re immersed in a dazzling, pumping bout of pure arcade blasting?
The best racing games for AndroidOur favorite Android top-down, 3D and retro racers.
If you're fed up with racing games paying more attention to whether the tarmac looks photorealistic rather than how much fun it should be to zoom along at insane speeds, check out Horizon Chase. This tribute to old-school arcade titles is all about the sheer joy of racing, rather than boring realism.
The visuals are vibrant, the soundtrack is jolly and cheesy, and the racing finds you constantly battling your way to the front of an aggressive pack.
If you fondly recall Lotus Turbo Esprit Challenge and Top Gear, don't miss this one. (Note that Horizon Chase gives you five tracks for free. To unlock the rest, there's a single £2.29/US$2.99 IAP.)
Anyone expecting the kind of free-roaming racing from the console versions of this title are going to be miffed, but Need for Speed: Most Wanted is nonetheless one of the finest games of its kind on Android. Yes, the tracks are linear, with only the odd shortcut, but the actual racing bit is superb.
You belt along the seedy streets of a drab, gray city, trying to win events that will boost your ego and reputation alike. Wins swell your coffers, enabling you to buy new vehicles for entering special events.
The game looks gorgeous on Android and has a high-octane soundtrack to urge you onwards. But mostly, this one’s about the controls – a slick combination of responsive tilt and effortless drifting that makes everything feel closer to OutRun 2 than typically sub-optimal mobile racing fare.
The first two Riptide games had you zoom along undulating watery circuits surrounded by gleaming metal towers. Riptide GP: Renegade offers another slice of splashy futuristic racing, but this time finds you immersed in the seedy underbelly of the sport.
As with the previous games, you’re still piloting a hydrofoil, and racing involves not only going very, very fast, but also being a massive show-off at every available opportunity.
If you hit a ramp or wave that hurls you into the air, you’d best fling your ride about or do a handstand, in order to get turbo-boost on landing. Sensible racers get nothing.
The career mode finds you earning cash, upgrading your ride, and probably ignoring the slightly tiresome story bits. The racing, though, is superb – an exhilarating mix of old-school arcade thrills and modern mobile touchscreen smarts.
Mini Motor Racing is a frenetic top-down racer that finds tiny vehicles darting about claustrophobic circuits that twist and turn in a clear effort to have you repeatedly drive into walls. The cars handle more like remote control cars than real fare, meaning that races are typically tight – and easily lost if you glance away from the screen for just a moment.
There’s a ton of content here – many dozens of races set across a wide range of environments. You zoom through ruins, and scoot about beachside tracks. The AI’s sometimes a bit too aggressive, but with savvy car upgrades, and nitro boost usage when racing, you’ll be taking more than the occasional checkered flag.
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit exists in a world where the police seem to think it’s perfectly okay to use their extremely expensive cars to ram fleeing criminals into submission. And when they’re not doing that, they belt along the streets, racing each other to (presumably) decide who pays for the day’s doughnuts.
It’s a fairly simple racer – you’re basically weaving your way through the landscape, smashing into other cars, and triggering the odd trap – but it’s exhilarating, breezy fun that echoes classic racers like Chase H.Q.
And once you’ve had your fill of being one of the nitro-happy fuzz, you can play out a career as the pursued as well, getting stuck into the kind of cop-smashing criminal antics that totally won’t be covered by your car manufacturer’s warranty.
Final Freeway 2R is a retro racing game, quite blatantly inspired by Sega’s classic OutRun. You belt along in a red car, tearing up a road where everyone’s rather suspiciously driving in the same direction. Every now and again, you hit a fork, allowing you to select your route. All the while, cheesy music blares out of your device’s speakers.
For old hands, you’ll be in a kind of gaming heaven. And arguably, this game’s better than the one that inspired it, feeling more fluid and nuanced. If you’re used to more realistic fare, give Final Freeway 2R a go – you might find yourself converted by its breezy attitude, colorful visuals, and need for truly insane speed.
Rush Rally 2 is a curious rally racer, in part because it at first comes across as an unforgiving and simulation-oriented affair. It initially feels too easy to crash, and you too often find yourself pointing the wrong way or rather inconveniently having embedded your car in a tree.
As ever, though, Rush Rally 2 is about clicking with the feel of the game. Slow down a bit and take a touch more care and you’ll figure out how the physics works, and the layout of the courses.
The game will reveal its fun side – an arcade edge that won’t allow you to zoom along without ever using the brake pedal, but that nonetheless is quite happy for you to use other cars in rally cross skirmishes for slowing down instead. For the tiny outlay, it’s a bargain.
Motorsport Manager Mobile 3 is a racing management game without the boring bits. Rather than sitting you in front of a glorified spreadsheet, the game is a well-balanced mix of accessibility and depth, enabling you to delve into the nitty gritty of teams, sponsors, mechanics, and even livery.
When you’re all set, you get to watch surprisingly tense and exciting top-down racing. (This being surprising because you’re largely watching numbered discs zoom around circuits.) One-off races give you a feel for things, but the real meat is starting from the bottom of the pile in the career mode, with the ultimate aim of becoming a winner.
It’s all streamlined, slick, and mobile-friendly, and a big leap on from the relatively simplistic original Motorsport Manager Mobile.
The best Android adventure gamesOur favorite Android point and click games, RPGs, narrative stories, choose your own adventures and room escape games.
Telltale has made a name for itself with story-driven episodic games and The Wolf Among Us is one of its best. Essentially a hard boiled fairy tale, you control the big bad wolf as he hunts a murderer through the mean streets of Fabletown.
Don't let the fairy tale setting fool you, this is a violent, mature game and it's one where your decisions have consequences, impacting not only what the other characters think of you but also who lives and who dies. Episode One is free but the remaining four will set you back a steep £9.59 / $14.99 / around AU$18. Trust us though, you'll want to see how this story ends.
Of all the attempts to play with the conventions of novels and story-led gaming on mobile, 80 Days is the most fun. It takes place in an 1872 with a decidedly steampunk twist, but where Phileas Fogg remains the same old braggart. As his trusty valet, you must help Fogg make good on a wager to circumnavigate the globe in 80 days. This involves managing/trading belongings and carefully selecting routes.
Mostly, though, interaction comes by way of a pacey, frequently exciting branched narrative, like a Choose Your Own Adventure book on fast-forward.
A late-2015 content update added 150,000 words, two new plots and 30 cities to an adventure that already boasted plenty of replay value — not least when you've experienced the joys of underwater trains and colossal mechanical elephants in India, and wonder what other marvels await discovery in this world of wonders.
In Her Story, you find yourself facing a creaky computer terminal with software designed by a sadist. It soon becomes clear the so-called L.O.G.I.C. database houses police interviews of a woman charged with murder.
But the tape's been hacked to bits and is accessible only by keywords; 'helpfully', the system only displays five search results at once.
Naturally, these contrivances exist to force you to play detective, eking out clues from video snippets to work out what to search for next, slowly piecing together the mystery in your brain.
A unique and captivating experience, Her Story will keep even the most remotely curious Android gamer gripped until the enigma is solved.
There’s more than a hint of Zelda about Oceanhorn, but that’s not a bad thing when it means embarking on one of the finest arcade adventures on mobile.
You awake to find a letter from your father, who it turns out has gone from your life. You’re merely left with his notebook and a necklace. Thanks, Dad!
Being that this is a videogame, you reason it’s time to get questy, exploring the islands of the Uncharted Seas, chatting with folks, stabbing hostile wildlife, uncovering secrets and mysteries, and trying very hard to not get killed.
You get a chapter for free, to test how the game works on your device (its visual clout means fairly powerful Android devices are recommended); a single IAP unlocks the rest. The entire quest takes a dozen hours or so – which will likely be some of the best gaming you’ll experience on Android.
Initial moments in point-and-click adventure Milkmaid of the Milky Way are so sedate the game’s in danger of falling over. You play as Ruth, a young woman living on a remote farm in a 1920s Norwegian fjord. She makes dairy products, sold to a town several hours away. Then, without warning, a massive gold spaceship descends, stealing her cows.
Fortunately, Ruth decides she’s having none of that, leaps aboard the spaceship, and finds herself embroiled in a tale of intergalactic struggles. To say much more would spoil things, but we can say that this old-school adventure is a very pleasant way to spend a few hours.
The puzzles are logical yet satisfying; the visuals are gorgeous; and the game amusingly provides all of its narrative in rhyme, which is pleasingly quaint and nicely different.
Samorost 3 is a love letter to classic point-and-click adventure games. You explore your surroundings, unearth objects, and then figure out where best to use them. Straightforward stuff, then (at least in theory – many puzzles are decidedly cryptic), but what sets Samorost 3 apart is that it’s unrelentingly gorgeous, and full of heart.
The storyline is bonkers, involving a mad monk who used a massive mechanical hydra to smash up a load of planetoids. You, as an ambitious space-obsessed gnome, must figure out how to set things right.
The game is packed with gorgeous details that delight, from the twitch of an insect’s antennae to a scene where the protagonist successfully encourages nearby creatures to sing, and starts fist-punching the air while dancing with glee. Just two magical moments among many in one of the finest examples of adventuring on Android.
Love You To Bits is a visually dazzling and relentlessly inventive point-and-click puzzler. It features Kosmo, a space explorer searching for the scattered pieces of his robot girlfriend, bar the lifeless head that’s still in his clutches. Which is a bit icky.
Don’t think about that too much, though, because this game is gorgeous. Through its many varied scenes, it plays fast and loose with pop culture references, challenging you to beat a 2D Monument Valley, sending up Star Wars, and at one point dumping you on a planet of apes.
Now and again, you’ll need to make a leap of logic to complete a task, and puzzles mostly involve picking things up and using them in the right place – hardly the height of innovation. But this game’s so endearing and smartly designed you’d have to be lifeless yourself to fail to love it at least a little.
Thimbleweed Park is an adventure that sends you back to the halcyon days of 1987. Mainly because that’s when it’s set, in the titular Thimbleweed Park, and there’s been a murder. But also, this game recalls classic PC point-and-clicker Maniac Mansion, in everything from visual style to interface.
That doesn’t mean this is a crusty old relic. Industry veterans Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick have written a winning script (which gets increasingly weird as you play), and come up with dozens of cunning, tricky puzzles to keep your brain fizzing throughout the game’s 15-to-20-hour length.
Now and again, it perhaps gets a bit too obtuse. But mostly, this is a game that knows it’s a game - and that also wants you to know it’s a take-no-prisoners puzzle title. One that features plumbers who are also paranormal investigators, dressed as pigeons. (We did say it was weird.)
Bury Me, My Love is another game in the Lifeline mold – a branching narrative akin to a Choose Your Own Adventure book, which plays out in real time.
What’s different is this game’s narrative draws from the real-life stories of Syrian refugees. You play Majd, whose wife Nour is trying to reach Europe. She contacts you via a messaging app, and you respond with advice – which may have a very big impact.
This kind of adventure can be tense, leaking into your real life as you await responses, but Bury Me, My Love takes this to the extreme – for example, when it’s been 24 hours since you heard from Nour, who was heading to a heavily armed border.
This kind of topical subject matter won’t be for everyone, but if you want a game that will make you think a bit, it comes recommended.
Superbrothers Sword & Sworcery is an adventure game that’s about discovery and exploration. It’s a relentlessly beautiful experience, with rich retro-infused artwork and a lush soundtrack. The game encourages you to breathe everything in, take your time, and work at your own pace.
Unlike most adventures, which tend to be obsessed with inventories, Sworcery is mostly concerned with puzzles that are confined to one screen. Solutions are frequently abstract, involving manipulating your environment or even time itself. You may free woodland spirits with musical prowess, or discover a solution requires playing at set points during the lunar calendar.
It might come across as a bit worthy at times, and there are some missteps, such as the awkward, ungainly combat, but Sworcery is evocative and expressive, and full of pay-offs that tend towards the magical, unless you happen to be dead inside.
Minecraft on Android is the hugely popular sandbox PC game based around virtual blocks, right in the palm of your hand. Sort of.
In effect, it’s a stripped-back take on the desktop version, although you still get different ways to play. In creative mode, you explore and can immediately start crafting a virtual world. With survival mode come the added complications of gathering and managing resources during the day – and then battling against enemies during the night.
Although it’s a mite more limited than the full desktop release, Minecraft on Android still gives you plenty to do, and the randomly generated nature of the world provides potentially limitless gaming experiences. It’s certainly more than just a load of blocks.
The Room: Old Sins finds you investigating the disappearance of an engineer and his wife. The trail leads you to a spooky attic. On getting the lights working, you see a strange dollhouse, which then sucks you inside.
You discover the toy is in fact a full reconstruction of a mansion, with a side order of Lovecraftian horror. Unraveling the mystery at the heart of the game and its impossible world then happens by way of devious, complex, tactile logic puzzles.
Old Sins looks and sounds great, and moving around is swift – there’s none of the dull trudging you find in the likes of Myst. Of course, if you’ve played The Room, The Room Two, and The Room Three, you’ll know all this already. If you haven’t, grab Old Sins immediately – and its predecessors, too. They’re some of the finest games on Android.
The best arcade games for AndroidOur favorite Android arcade titles, fighting games, pinball games and retro games.
There's a great sense of freedom from the second you immerse yourself in the strange and futuristic world of Power Hover. The robot protagonist has been charged with pursuing a thief who's stolen batteries that power the city.
The droid therefore grabs a hoverboard and scythes across gorgeous minimal landscapes, such as deserts filled with colossal marching automatons, glittering blue oceans, and a dead grey human city.
In lesser hands, Power Hover could have been utterly forgettable. After all, you're basically tapping left and right to change the direction of a hoverboard, in order to collect batteries and avoid obstacles. But the production values here are stunning.
Power Hover is a visual treat, boasts a fantastic soundtrack, and gives mere hints of a story, enabling your imagination to run wild. Best of all, the floaty controls are perfect; you might fight them at first, but once they click, Power Hover becomes a hugely rewarding experience.
(On Android, Power Hover is a free download; to play beyond the first eight levels requires a one-off IAP.)
At its core, Forget-Me-Not is Pac-Man mixed with Rogue. You scoot about algorithmically generated single-screen mazes, gobbling down flowers, grabbing a key, and then making a break for the exit.
But what makes Forget-Me-Not essential is how alive its tiny dungeons feel. Your enemies don't just gun for you, but are also out to obliterate each other and, frequently, the walls of the dungeon, reshaping it as you play.
There are tons of superb details to find buried within the game's many modes, and cheapskates can even get on board with the free version, although that locks much of its content away until you've munched enough flowers.
If there was any justice, Forget-Me-Not would have a permanent place at the top of the Google Play charts. It is one of the finest arcade experiences around, not just on Android, but on any platform - old or new.
Coming across like a sandbox-oriented chill-out ‘zen’ take on seminal classic Boulder Dash, Captain Cowboy has your little space-faring hero exploring a massive handcrafted world peppered with walls, hero-squashing boulders, and plenty of bling.
Much like Boulder Dash, Captain Cowboy is mostly about not being crushed by massive rocks – you dig paths through dirt, aiming to strategically use boulders to take out threats rather than your own head. But everything here is played out without stress (due to endless continues) and sometimes in slow motion (when floating through zero-gravity sections of space).
The result feels very different from the title that inspired it, but it’s no less compelling. Tension is replaced by exploration, and single-screen arcade thrills are sacrificed for a longer game. As you dig deeper into Captain Cowboy’s world, there are plenty of things awaiting discovery, and even tackling the next screen of dirt and stones always proves enjoyable.
There’s a distinct sense of minimalism at the heart of Edge, along with a knowing nod to a few arcade classics of old. Bereft of a story, the game simply tasks you with guiding a trundling cube to the end of each blocky level. Along the way, you grab tiny glowing cubes. On reaching the goal, you get graded on your abilities.
This admittedly doesn’t sound like much on paper, but Edge is a superb arcade game. The isometric visuals are sharp, and the head-bobbing soundtrack urges you onwards. The level design is the real star, though, with surprisingly imaginative objectives and hazards hewn from the isometric landscape.
And even when you’ve picked your way to the very end, there’s still those grades to improve by shaving the odd second off of your times.
Still not sure? Try out the 12-level demo. Eager for more? Grab Edge Extended, which is every bit as good as the original.
Super Samurai Rampage is a manic swipe-based high-score chaser, featuring a samurai who has - for some reason - been provoked into a relentless rampage.
Said rampage is dependent on you swiping. Swipe left and you lunge in that direction, slicing your sword through the air. Swipe up and you majestically leap, whereupon you can repeatedly swipe every which way, fashioning a flurry of airborne destruction akin to the most outlandish of martial arts movies.
Along with dishing out death, you must ensure you don’t come a cropper yourself. And attack is your only form of defense, because when you’re moving, you’re also deflecting incoming projectiles. You’re also likely racking up quite the body count, which accumulates in bloody retro-pixel form at the foot of the screen.
It’s of course entirely absurd, and without much nuance; but Super Samurai Rampage is an arcade thrill that’s entertaining, and where repeat play is rewarded with gradual mastery – or at least lasting a few seconds longer before your inevitable demise.
Part Time UFO is a physics-based stacking game featuring a cute UFO that has crash-landed on Earth and now has to eke out a living. That’s right – in this era, aliens aren’t sent to Area 51, and instead scour job ads to earn some cash.
Fortunately, this little UFO is made of stern stuff and has a massive claw to pick things up. This proves handy for part time jobs, doing everything from stacking deliveries on a truck, to assisting a circus elephant’s grand finale – balancing on a tightrope, with five animals precariously plonked on a pole.
Since Part Time UFO embraces the frustration of claw machines, it can infuriate – not least when you topple a structure as the clock ticks down. Mostly, though, this is a charming and very silly game that’s loads of fun.
Pumped BMX 3 might initially give you the wrong impression. Colorful visuals and basic controls have it initially come across as a casual take on a BMX trials outing. But pretty rapidly, it bucks any complacency from the saddle and leaves it a shattered mess on the floor.
Whereas Pumped BMX 2 (also recommended) went for a more relaxed take on hurling a BMX into the air with merry abandon, this sequel is all about mastery. Try to wing it and you’ll be crushed, but properly learn course layouts and timings, and you’ll gradually work your way through each level.
That’s rewarding enough, but with confidence you can start peppering your runs with stunts to boost your scores, with routines that would make even seasoned BMX pros break out in hearty applause.
Holedown is an arcade shooter that has you blast strings of balls at numbered blocks. When blocks are hit enough times, they blow up, allowing you to dig deeper. Some blocks hold up others, and should be prioritized – as should grabbing gems that allow you to upgrade your kit (more balls; new levels; a bigger gem bag) when you run out of shots and return to the surface.
The mechanics are nothing new on Android – there are loads of similar ball bouncers. What is new is the sense of personality, polish and fun Holedown brings to this style of game. This is a premium title and a labor of love. There’s still repetition at its core, but Holedown feels hypnotic and encouraging, rather than giving you the feeling that it’s digging into your wallet – in contrast to its freebie contemporaries.
Osmos HD is a rare arcade game about patience and subtlety. Each unique level has you guide a ‘mote’, which moves by expelling tiny pieces of itself. Initially, it moves within microscopic goop, eating smaller motes, to expand and reign supreme.
At first, other motes don’t fight back, but the game soon immerses you in petri dish warfare, as motes tear whatever amounts to each-other's faces off. Then there’s the odd curveball, as challenges find you dealing with gravity as planet-like motes orbit deadly floating 'stars'.
It’s a beautiful, captivating game, with perfect touchscreen controls. And if you can convince a friend to join in, you can battle it out over Wi-Fi across six distinct arenas.
Since Pac-Man graced arcades in the early 1980s, titles featuring the rotund dot-muncher have typically been split between careful iterations on the original, and mostly duff attempts to shoe-horn the character into other genres. Championship Edition DX is ostensibly the former, although the changes made from the original radically transform the game, making it easily the best Pac-Man to date.
Here, the maze is split in two. Eat all the dots from one half and a special object appears on the other; eat that and the original half's dots are refilled in a new configuration.
All the while, dozing ghosts you brush past join a spectral conga that follows your every move. The result is an intoxicating speedrun take on a seminal arcade classic, combined with the even more ancient Snake; somehow, this combination ends up being fresh, exciting and essential.
The best endless runners for AndroidOur favorite Android games where you hoverboard, jump, sprint, or even pinball to a high score – or a sudden end.
Boson X is an endless runner that features scientists sprinting at insane speeds inside particle accelerators in order to generate the high-speed collisions required to discover strange new particles. And if you’re thinking that’s probably not entirely scientifically accurate, that’s true; fortunately, Boson X gets away with this by virtue of being breezy and intoxicating fun.
It comes across like Canabalt in 3D, mixed with Super Hexagon, as you leap between platforms, rotating the collider to ensure you don’t plunge into the void or smack into a wall. From the off, this isn’t exactly easy, but later colliders are truly bonkers – abstract and terrifying contraptions that shift and morph before your very eyes. Brilliant stuff.
People who today play mobile classic Canabalt and consider it lacking due to its simplicity don't understand what the game is trying to do. Canabalt is all about speed — the thrill of being barely in control, and of affording the player only the simplest controls for survival. ALONE… takes that basic premise and straps a rocket booster to it.
Instead of leaping between buildings, you're flying through deadly caverns, a single digit nudging your tiny craft up and down. Occasional moments of generosity — warnings about incoming projectiles; your ship surviving minor collisions and slowly regenerating — are offset by the relentlessly demanding pressure of simply staying alive and not slamming into a wall. It's an intoxicating combination, and one that, unlike most games in this genre, matches Canabalt in being genuinely exciting to play.
This one's all about the bling - and also the not being crushed to death by falling rocks and dirt. Doug Dug riffs off of Mr Driller, Boulder Dash and Dig Dug, the dwarf protagonist digging deep under the earth on an endless quest for shimmering gems. Cave-ins aren't the only threat, though - the bowels of the earth happen to be home to a surprising array of deadly monsters.
Some can be squashed and smacked with Doug's spade (goodbye, creepy spider!), but others are made of sterner stuff (TROLL! RUN AWAY!). Endlessly replayable and full of character, Doug Dug's also surprisingly relaxing - until the dwarf ends up under 150 tonnes of rubble.
One of the most gorgeous games around, FOTONICA at its core echoes one-thumb leapy game Canabalt. The difference is FOTONICA has you move through a surreal and delicate Rez-like 3D vector landscape, holding the screen to gain speed, and only soaring into the air when you lift a finger.
Smartly, FOTONICA offers eight very different and finite challenges, enabling you to learn their various multi-level pathways and seek out bonuses to ramp up your high scores. Get to grips with this dreamlike runner and you can then pit your wits (and thumbs) against three slowly mutating endless zones.
One of the most exhilarating games on mobile, Impossible Road finds a featureless white ball barreling along a ribbon-like track that twists and turns into the distance. The aim is survival – and the more gates you pass through, the higher your score.
The snag is that Impossible Road is fast, and the track bucks and turns like the unholy marriage of a furious unbroken stallion and a vicious roller-coaster.
Once the physics click, however, you’ll figure out the risks you can take, how best to corner, and what to do when hurled into the air by a surprise bump in the road.
The game also rewards ‘cheats’. Leave the track, hurtle through space for a bit, and rejoin – you’ll get a score for your airborne antics, and no penalty for any gates missed. Don’t spend too long aloft though - a few seconds is enough for your ball to be absorbed into the surrounding nothingness.
Run-A-Whale is a sweet-natured endless runner. Well, endless swimmer, given that its protagonist is a friendly whale giving a lift/thrill ride to a shipwrecked pirate.
There’s no tapping to leap here, though; in Run-A-Whale, you hold the screen to make the whale dive. When you let go and he breaks the surface, he soars (very) briefly into the air, before returning to the water with a splash.
As ever, the aim in Run-A-Whale is survival – and that in itself isn’t simple. The game’s one failing is it sometimes makes it really tough to avoid hazards, which can include whale-stopping walls someone’s carelessly built beneath the waves.
Mostly, though, this one’s a gorgeous romp through beautiful landscapes, grabbing coins, occasionally being fired into the sky by a cannon, and regularly fending off giant crabs and octopodes.
Super Hexagon is an endless survival game that mercilessly laughs at your incompetence. It begins with a tiny spaceship at the center of the screen, and walls rapidly closing in. All you need to do is move left and right to nip through the gaps.
Unfortunately for you, the walls keep shifting and changing, the screen pulses to the chiptune soundtrack, and the entire experience whirls and jolts like you’re inside a particularly violent washing machine. It seems impossible, but you soon start to recognize patterns in the walls.
String together some deft moves, survive a minute by the skin of your teeth, and you briefly feel like a boss as new arenas are unlocked. And although complacency is wiped from your face the instant you venture near them, Super Hexagon has an intoxicating, compelling nature to offset its mile-long sadistic streak.
Ridiculous Fishing is appropriately named, in that it’s – vaguely – about fishing, and it’s certainly ridiculous.
The game begins with you bobbing about in your open-topped boat, casting a line into the inky depths. You then tilt your phone to guide your hook, scooping up fish, and avoiding hazards. When you reel everything in, it’s hurled into the air, whereupon – for some reason – you blast it with a shotgun.
It’s all very silly, and there’s a smart compulsion loop: over time, you buy longer lines, and higher-powered weaponry, and can therefore snag more fish. And the more you shoot, the more cash you make. Clearly, in this world there’s a big market for seafood that has been airborne and almost atomized. As we said: ridiculous!
The best platform games for AndroidOur favorite Android platform games, including side-scrolling 2D efforts, exploration games and console-style adventures.
see/saw hints at the troubles ahead for its protagonists in a note from the professor running a series of tests: “Die to succeed.”
The subjects probably shouldn’t have signed up for these trials, frankly, given that they’re sealed in rooms packed with massive spikes and saw blades, and tasked with collecting coins. Black humor abounds when you realize some can only be reached by killing the subject and cunningly hurling their corpse in the appropriate direction.
The controls are superb – two thumbs are all you need – and the game feels perfect as well. So whether you’ll crack all 150 levels is mostly down to your dexterity, and whether your inner vicious streak will figure out how to chop and impale your character in a manner that will – posthumously – allow them to achieve their goal.
Spitkiss is a mashup of arcade shooty larks and platforming action, where you aim to get the bodily fluids of one Spitkiss to another. That might sound a bit grim, but this is actually a sweet-natured game played primarily in cartoonish silhouette.
Even so, your emission, once it’s hurled through the air and gone splat on a platform, starts to gloop downwards. You can then make it leap again, and – several hops later – splatter on your intended love.
Especially on larger screens, Spitkiss works really nicely. The visuals are vibrant, and the basics are easy to grasp. But as you get deeper into the game’s 80 levels, the twists and turns required to win get tougher to pull off – even when you hold down the screen for much-needed Matrix-style slo-mo.
If you've played Laser Dog's previous efforts, PUK and ALONE…, you'll know what you're in for with HoPiKo. This game takes no prisoners. If it did take them, it'd repeatedly punch them in the face before casually discarding them. HoPiKo, then, is not a game to be messed with. Instead, it feels more like a fight. In each of the dozens of hand-crafted tiny levels, you leap from platform to platform via deft drags and taps, attempting to avoid death.
Only, death is everywhere and very easy to meet. The five-stage level sets are designed to be completed in mere seconds, but also to break your brain and trouble your fingers. It's just on the right side of hellishly frustrating, meaning you'll stop short of flinging your device at the wall, emerging from your temporary red rage foolishly determined that you can in fact beat the game on your next go.
The term 'masterpiece' is perhaps bandied about too often in gaming circles, but Limbo undoubtedly deserves such high praise. It features a boy picking his way through a creepy monochrome world, looking for his sister. At its core, Limbo is a fairly simple platform game with a smattering of puzzles, but its stark visuals, eerie ambience, and superb level design transforms it into something else entirely.
You'll get a chill the first time a chittering figure sneaks off in the distance, and your heart will pump when being chased by a giant arachnid, intent on spearing your tiny frame with one of its colossal spiked legs. That death is never the end — each scene can be played unlimited times until you progress — only adds to Limbo's disturbing nature.
The bar's set so low in modern mobile gaming that the word 'premium' has become almost meaningless. But Leo's Fortune bucks the trend, and truly deserves the term. It's a somewhat old-school side-on platform game, featuring a gruff furball hunting down the thief who stole his gold (and then, as is always the way, dropped coins at precise, regular intervals along a lengthy, perilous pathway).
The game is visually stunning, from the protagonist's animation through to the lush, varied backdrops. The game also frequently shakes things up, varying its pace from Sonic-style loops to precise pixel-perfect leaps.
It at times perhaps pushes you a bit too far — late on, we found some sections a bit too finicky and demanding. But you can have as many cracks at a section as you please, and if you master the entire thing, there's a hardcore speedrun mode that challenges you to complete the entire journey without dying.
There are varied mobile takes on limbless wonder Rayman's platform gaming exploits. The 1995 original once existed on Android, but was ill-suited to touchscreens and has mercifully vanished from Google Play; and Rayman Adventures dabbles in freemium to the point it leaves a bad taste.
But Rayman Jungle Run and Rayman Fiesta Run get things right.
They rethink console-oriented platformers as auto-runners – which might sound reductive. However, this is more about distillation and focus than outright simplification.
Tight level design and an emphasis on timing regarding when to jump, rebound and attack forces you to learn layouts and the perfect moment to trigger actions, in order to get the in-game bling you need to progress.
Both titles are sublime, but Fiesta Run is marginally the better of the two - a clever take on platforming that fizzes with energy, looks fantastic, and feels like it was made for Android rather than a 20-year-old console.
Harking back to classic side-on platformers, Traps n' Gemstones dumps an Indiana Jones wannabe into a massive pyramid, filled with mummies, spiders and traps; from here he must figure out how to steal all the bling, uncover all the secrets, and then finally escape.
Beyond having you leap about, grab diamonds, and keep indigenous explorer-killing critters at bay, Traps n' Gemstones is keen to have you explore. Work your way deeper into the pyramid and you’ll find objects that when placed somewhere specific open up new pathways.
But although this one’s happy to hurl you back to gaming’s halcyon days, it’s a mite kinder to newcomers than the games that inspired it.
Get killed and you can carry on from where you left off. More of a hardcore player? Death wipes your score, so to doff your fedora in a truly smug manner, you’ll have to complete the entire thing without falling to the game’s difficult challenges.
You might have played enough automatic runners to last several lifetimes, but Chameleon Run nonetheless deserves to be on your Android device. And although the basics might initially seem overly familiar (tap to jump and ensure your sprinting chap doesn’t fall down a hole), there’s in fact a lot going on here.
Each level has been meticulously designed, which elevates Chameleon Run beyond its algorithmically generated contemporaries. Like the best platform games, you must commit every platform and gap to memory to succeed. But also, color-switching and ‘head jumps’ open up new possibilities for route-finding – and failure.
In the former case, you must ensure you’re the right color before landing on colored platforms. With the latter, you can smash your head into a platform above to give you one more chance to leap forward and not tumble into the void.
Anyone who thought Nintendo would convert a standard handheld take on Mario to Android was always on a hiding to nothing. But that’s probably just as well – Nintendo’s classic platformers are reliant on tight controls, rather than you fumbling about on a slippy glass surface.
Super Mario Run tries a different tack, infusing plenty of ‘Marioness’ into an auto-runner, where you guide the mustachioed plumber by tapping the screen to have him perform actions.
You might consider this reductive; also, Super Mario Run is a touch short, and the ‘kingdom builder’ sub-game alongside the main act falls flat. Still, really smart level design wins the day, and completists will have fun replaying the world tour mode time and again to collect the many hard-to-reach coins.
Hero of the hour Dennis finds himself unicycling naked in this gorgeous platform game best described as flat-out nuts. In iCycle, you dodder left or right, leap over obstacles, and break your fall with a handy umbrella, all the while attempting to grab ice as surreal landscapes collapse and morph around you.
The mission feels like a journey into what might happen if Monty Python’s Terry Gilliam were let loose on game design. One minute, you’re entering a top-hatted gent’s ear to find and kiss a ‘reverse mermaid’ on a levitating bike; the next you’re in a terrifying silhouette funfair that might have burst forth from a fevered mind during a particularly unpleasant nightmare.
Some of the levels are tough, and there’s a bit of grinding to unlock new outfits. But if you want something a bit more creative on your Android, you can’t do much better than iCycle.
In platform adventure The Big Journey, fat cat Mr. Whiskers is on a mission. The chef behind his favorite dumplings has disappeared, and so the brave feline sets out to find him. The journey finds the chubby kitty rolling and leaping across – and through – all kinds of vibrant landscapes, packed with hills, tunnels, and enemies.
The game comes across a lot like PSP classic LocoRoco, in you tilting the screen to move, the protagonist’s rotundness increasing over time, and several of the landscape interactions (oddball elevators; smashing through fragile barriers).
But The Big Journey very much has its own character, not least in the knowing humor peppered throughout what might otherwise have been a saccharine child-like storyline about a gluttonous cartoon cat.
As it is, The Big Journey isn’t terribly challenging, but it is enjoyable, whether you drink the visuals in and just dodder to the end, or simultaneously try to find every collectible and beat the speed-run time limits.
Mushroom 11 finds you exploring the decaying ruins of a devastated world. And you do so as a blob of green goo. Movement comes by way of you ‘erasing’ chunks of this creature with a circular ‘brush’. Over time, you learn how this can urge the blob to move in certain ways, or how you can split it in two, so half can flick a switch, while the other half moves onward.
This probably sounds a bit weird – and it is. But Mushroom 11 is perfectly suited to the touchscreen. The tactile way you interact with the protagonist feels just right, and although your surroundings are desolate, they’re also oddly beautiful, augmented by a superb ethereal soundtrack.
There are moments of frustration – the odd difficulty wall. But with regular restart points, and countless ingenious obstacles and puzzles, Mushroom 11 is a strange creature you should immediately squeeze into whatever space exists on your Android device.
Sonic Runners Adventure tries to pull the same trick as Super Mario Run, distilling the essence of a much-loved traditional console platform game into a one-thumb auto-runner. The difference with Sonic is that he blazes along at breakneck pace, resulting in a colorful effort that has more in common with Canabalt than the precision leapy nature of Nintendo’s game.
That’s not to say there’s no case for care and accuracy though. Sonic Runners Adventure features carefully designed multi-level landscapes, each with its own rhythm.
Crack the choreography and you’ll grab the rings, bonk the monsters on the head and give the evil Dr Eggman a serious kicking. If not, you can at least take solace that this game’s mobile-friendly levels aren’t terribly expansive, and so are geared towards immediately having another go.
The best puzzle games for AndroidOur favorite Android logic tests, path-finding games, match puzzlers and brain-teasers.
Chuchel is an exploratory puzzler that when played comes across like you’re watching a series of a distinctly weird cartoon. The titular protagonist, a ball of fluff, wants nothing more than to get a cherry – but it’s cruelly snatched away the second he gets near. Each single-screen challenge therefore tasks you with finding the convoluted route to Chuchel’s goal.
Packed with the heart, humor, and animated smarts evident in previous Amanita Design games, Chuchel is a joy to watch as you tap hot-spots, make decisions, and watch events play out.
Some canned animations are lengthy, and logic isn’t always prized, which means it can sometimes get tedious to trudge through a section until you nail the precise sequence to finish it. Still, this is more than offset by a game that frequently surprises and delights.
Persephone is a puzzle game set in tiny isometric worlds, packed with clockwork hazards, such as spikes and poison darts. Your aim in each is to reach the exit. Often, that involves triggering switches and pushing objects around. Persephone, though, has a rather unconventional take on how these things are achieved.
If you get killed, your corpse remains on the screen and you are reincarnated at the most recently accessed restart point. You can have up to three corpses available at any one time, unceremoniously using them to cross spiked pits, or shoving them into switches so to avoid being shot by a nearby projectile. It’s an amusingly dark comic twist, and one that makes Persephone stand out among a slew of ostensibly similar puzzlers.
The sort of silly maths game you might've played in your head before mobile phones emerged to absorb all our thought processes, Threes! really does take less than 30 seconds to learn.
You bash numbers about until they form multiples of three and disappear. That's it. There are stacks of free clones available, but if you won't spare the price of one massive bar of chocolate to pay for a lovely little game like this that'll amuse you for week, you're part of the problem and deserve to rot in a freemium hell where it costs 50p to do a wee.
It's not often you see a game about the "joy of cultivation", and Prune is unlike anything you've ever played before. Apparently evolving from an experimental tree-generation script, the game has you swipe to shape and grow a plant towards sunlight by tactically cutting off specific branches.
That sounds easy, but the trees, shrubs and weeds in Prune don't hang around. When they're growing at speed and you find yourself faced with poisonous red orbs to avoid, or structures that damage fragile branches, you'll be swiping in a frantic race towards sunlight.
And all it takes is one dodgy swipe from a sausage finger to see your carefully managed plant very suddenly find itself being sliced in two.
This is one of those 'rub your stomach, pat your head' titles that has you play two games at once. At the top of the screen, it's an endless runner, with your little bloke battling all manner of monsters, and pilfering loot. The rest of the display houses what's essentially a Bejeweled-style gem-swapper. The key is in matching items so that the running bit goes well - like five swords when you want to get all stabby.
Also, there's the building a boat bit. Once a run ends, you return to your watery home, which gradually acquires new rooms and residents. Some merely power up your next sprint, but others help you amass powerful weaponry. Resolutely indie and hugely compelling, You Must Build a Boat will keep you busily swiping for hours.
It turns out what makes a good snowman is three very precisely rolled balls of snow stacked on top of each other. And that's the core of this adorable puzzle game, which has more than a few hints of Towers of Hanoi and Sokoban about it as your little monster goes about building icy friends to hug.
What sets A Good Snowman apart from its many puzzle-game contemporaries on Android is a truly premium nature. You feel that the developer went to great efforts to polish every aspect of the production, from the wonderful animation to puzzles that grow in complexity and deviousness, without you really noticing — until you get stuck on a particularly ferocious one several hours in.
You probably need to be a bit of a masochist to get the most out of Snakebird, which is one of the most brain-smashingly devious puzzlers we've ever set eyes on. It doesn't really look or sound the part, frankly - all vibrant colors and strange cartoon 'snakebirds' that make odd noises.
But the claustrophobic floating islands the birds must crawl through, supporting each other (often literally) in their quest for fruit, are designed very precisely to make you think you've got a way forward, only to thwart you time and time again.
The result is a surprisingly arduous game, but one that's hugely rewarding when you crack a particularly tough level, at which point you'll (probably rightly) consider yourself some kind of gaming genius.
Some people argue programming is perhaps the best ‘game’ of all – and a brilliant puzzle. Those might be people you’d sooner avoid at parties, but Human Resource Machine suggests they could have a point. In this compelling and unique puzzle game, you control the actions of a worker drone by way of programming-like sequences.
The premise is to complete tasks by converting items in your inbox to whatever’s required in the outbox – for example, only sending zeroes. Like much programming, success often relies on logic, with you fashioning loops, and using actions such as ‘jump’, ‘if’ statements, and ‘copy’. These are arranged via drag and drop on a board at the right-hand side of the screen.
That might all sound impenetrable, but Human Resource Machine is in fact elegant, friendly, and approachable, not least due to developer Tomorrow Corporation’s penchant for infusing games with personality and heart.
That game where you cast a shadow on the wall and attempt to make a vaguely recognizable rabbit? That’s Shadowmatic, only instead of your hands, you manipulate all kinds of levitating detritus, spinning and twisting things until you abruptly – and magically – fashion a silhouette resembling anything from a seahorse to an old-school telephone.
The game looks gorgeous, with stunning lighting effects and objects that look genuinely real as they dangle in the air. Mostly though, this is a game about tactility and contemplation – it begs to be explored, and to make use of your digits in a way virtual D-pads could never hope to compete with.
Linelight is a gorgeous, minimal puzzler that pits you against the rhythmic denizens of a network of lines levitating above a colored haze. Your aim is simply to progress, inching your way along the network, triggering gates and switches, and collecting golden gems.
Early puzzles are content to let you get to grips with the virtual stick (one of the best on Android). Soon, you’re faced with adversaries that kill with a single touch. But these foes aren’t merely to be avoided – they must also be manipulated into position to trigger switches that open pathways that enable you to continue.
Now and again, new mechanics keep things fresh, as do abrupt changes in pace, such as a memorable several-screens-long pursuit/dance with an enemy towards the end of the game’s first section. In all, Linelight’s an enchanting, vibrant, superbly designed experience – an essential purchase for your Android device.
Monument Valley 2 is the follow-up to landscape-bending puzzler Monument Valley. As in its predecessor, you fashion impossible pathways by manipulating Escher-like constructions in order to reach goals.
This is a gorgeous game. The minimalist architecture is dotted with optical illusions. Imagination abounds throughout, and the color palette dazzles, half making you wish you could print every level out as a massive poster to stick on the wall.
The actual puzzles are slight and the game itself has been criticized for being short, but thoughts of brevity evaporate when you’re confronted by one of Monument Valley 2’s many spectacular, beautiful moments, such as a side-on level that resembles modern art and a section where trees explode from pots when bathed in sunlight. In short, this is a mobile experience to savor.
Framed 2 follows in the footsteps of Framed – a puzzle game based around rearranging panels of an animated comic book.
The story features a mysterious ship, smuggling, and quite a lot of sneaky spies. As you play a scene, something inevitably goes horribly wrong for the protagonist and you must swap frames around to make things play out differently. Like the original, this is all wonderfully tactile, but the puzzles are better this time around, with more emphasis on reusing panels.
It’s even fun when it goes wrong. You don’t often get to be entertained when failing in a puzzle game, but here you’ll want to fail each level if you succeed first time, just to see what amusing japes Framed 2’s cast would have got into otherwise.
Zenge is a sliding puzzle game whose early levels almost insult your intelligence, merely asking you to slide a few shapes into place. Don’t be fooled, though – Zenge is devious in a way that should make even the most jaded puzzle game fan grin.
At first, it’s just the cut of the shapes that thwarts efforts to shove them into place, but every now and again, new mechanics enter the mix, such as pieces that stick to each other, or buttons that flip shapes over.
All this plays out within a no-stress environment. There are no timers, move limits, shops, points or stars - it’s just you and the puzzles. Zenge’s purity alone would make it interesting, but the quality of the puzzles makes it a must-have.
Hidden Folks is a hidden object game with a soul. It’s reminiscent of those mass-produced posters where you scour a massive, cluttered scene, trying to find the one person with a silly hat. The difference is that everything here has been made with love and care, from the hand-drawn interactive illustrations to the amusing oral sound effects.
The basics are admittedly much as you’d expect: scour the screen to find specific objects or characters, and move on when complete.
We realize that might not sound like much, but there’s a charm and humor to Hidden Folks that sets it apart from any of its contemporaries. On a larger Android phone or a tablet, this is a particularly relaxing, absorbing game to lose yourself in for a few hours.
.projekt is a relaxing and brilliantly designed minimal puzzler that twists your brain by forcing you to think in two and three dimensions simultaneously. At the center of the screen is a five-by-five grid, which you tap to build blocky structures from cubes. The aim is to have the shadows they project match patterns on two visible walls.
At first, this is simple stuff, but .projekt subtly ramps up the challenge as you move through its levels. You’re forced to spin the canvas multiple times, and often to destroy your structure and rebuild as an approach turns out to be a dead end.
Never does .projekt become a frustrating experience, however. You’re not on the clock, there are no move limits, and there are no IAP lurking. It’s just about you and the blocks, and imagining how an object looks from two points of view.
ELOH is a puzzle game that wants you to experiment. It’s based around a strict grid that features masks, loudspeakers that emit colored blobs, and goals. The idea is to get the blobs to the goals, ensuring they’re the right color by bouncing them off of relevant masks along the way.
That might sound chaotic, but ELOH has a clockwork setup. Everything bounces at precise right angles, and shots are fired to the rhythm of a background soundtrack. But your approach to solving challenges can be like sculpting: set the blobs on their way and you can move puzzle pieces live, just to see what happens.
ELOH is therefore a pressure-free but engaging title – there’s no clock, and there are no ads. It’s just you, over 80 puzzles, and some cracking visuals and audio.
Layton: Curious Village in HD (US/RoW) is a slice of gaming history. Originally released for the Nintendo DS, Curious Village was the first Layton game; it sold over 17 million copies, and launched what’s since become a beloved series.
Lesser developers would have done a straight port to mobile and be done with it, but Level-5 acknowledges technology has moved on – and the clue is in the title. All of the game’s visuals have been spruced up for modern displays, and augmented with new animations.
Of course, the puzzles remain the real draw – and even some of the early ones are proper brain-thumpers. Add to this an engaging story (despite the iffy voice work) and Curious Village is a superb update, one that you should take time with and savor.
In The Dog House is a sweet-natured puzzler featuring a ravenous pooch and a bizarre house with moving rooms, floors, and corridors. Unfortunately for the dog, its dinner’s on the other side of said house, and you need to figure out how to get over there.
The mechanics of the game are a classic sliding puzzler, with a few twists. The house’s components can be slid and sometimes rotated, but you also need to use a bone to urge the dog toward the goal. The snag is any room the pooch is planted in cannot be moved.
In The Dog House rapidly becomes quite the brain-smasher, and it’s irritating that there’s no level-skip option when you’re stuck. Still, perseverance reaps rewards, because after the more arduous tests you’ll feel like a champ when you reach that bowl.
Dissembler is a match-three game with a difference. Instead of presenting you with a wall of gems that’s replenished when you make matches, Dissembler levels are akin to modern art – abstract creations comprising colored tiles.
You still swap two elements to try and match three (or more), but here matches vanish. The idea is to end up with a blank canvas. At first, this is easy, but Dissembler soon serves up challenges where you end up isolating tiles unless you’re very careful.
This shifts the game more heavily into strategic puzzling territory – and it’s all the better for it. You’ll feel like the smartest person around on figuring out the precise sequence of moves to clear the later levels. And even when you’ve finished them all, there’s a daily puzzle and endless mode to keep you occupied.
The best shooting games for AndroidOur favorite Android FPS titles, twin-stick shooters, scrolling retro shoot ’em ups and artillery games.
A young boy hurls himself down a massive well, with only his ‘gunboots’ for protection. There are so many questions there (not least: what parent would buy their kid boots that are also guns?), but it sets the scene for a superb arcade shooter with surprising smarts and depth.
At first in Downwell, you’ll probably be tempted to blast everything, but ammo soon runs out. On discovering you reload on landing, you’ll then start to jump about a lot. But further exploration of the game’s mechanics reaps all kinds of rewards, leading to you bounding on monsters, venturing into tunnels to find bonus bling, and getting huge scores once you crack the secrets behind combos.
The game might look like it’s arrived on your Android device from a ZX Spectrum, but this is a thoroughly modern and hugely engaging blaster.
In the late 1970s, Space Invaders invited you to blast rows of invaders. In the mid-1980s, Arkanoid revamped Breakout, having you use a bat-like spaceship to belt a ball at space bricks. Now, Arkanoid vs Space Invaders mashes the two titles together – and, surprisingly, it works very nicely.
Instead of a ball, you’re deflecting the invaders’ bullets back at them, to remove bricks and the invaders themselves. Now and again, Arkanoid is recalled more directly in a special attack that has you belt a ball around the place after firing it into action using a massive space bow.
Increasingly, though, the game is laced with strategy, since your real enemy is time. A couple of dozen levels in, you must carefully utilize powerful invaders’ blasts and onscreen bonuses to emerge victorious – not easy when neon is flying everywhere and the clock’s ticking down.
No Stick Shooter is a single-screen shoot ’em up that marries the best of old-school retro blasters with modern touchscreen controls.
As its name suggests, there are no virtual D-pads to contend with. Instead, as the aliens menacingly descend towards your planet, you tap their general location to fling something destructive their way.
The key to victory doesn’t involve tapping the screen like a lunatic, though. Your weapons need time to recharge, and specific armaments work well against certain foes. In a sense, it all plays out like a strategy-laced precision shooter on fast-forward, with you clocking incoming hostiles, quickly switching to the best weapon, and tapping or swiping to blow them away.
There are just 30 levels in all, but only the very best arcade veterans are likely to blaze through them at any speed – and even then, getting all the achievements is a tough ask.
Death Road to Canada is a zombie movie smashed into a classic retro game. Little pixelated heroes dodder about a dystopian world, bashing zombies with whatever comes to hand, looting houses, and trying to not get eaten.
The road trip is staccato in nature. The game constantly tries to derail your rhythm and momentum. In Choose Your Own Adventure-style text bits, the wrong decision may find you savaged by a moose. Elsewhere, intense ‘siege’ challenges dump you in a confined space with zombie hordes, often armed only with a stick. Handy.
These abrupt elements can grate – as can the slightly slippy controls that aren’t always quite tight enough; but otherwise this is an ambitious mash-up of RPG and arcade gaming, with generous dollops of black humor – and BRAIINNZZZ.
ATOMIK: RunGunJumpGun finds a nutcase blasting his way through corridors of extremely angry, heavily armed aliens, while he himself is only armed with a really big gun. That might sound fine, until you realize the gun is also his means of staying aloft.
This means to go higher, he must blast downward, temporarily becoming vulnerable to incoming fire. If he shoots forward, he starts to plummet towards the hard, deadly ground. ATOMIK therefore becomes a manic, high-octane balancing act of finger gymnastics, with the potential to get killed very frequently.
On every death, the game rewinds the level so you can try again, and wallow in your failure to complete challenges that are a mere 20 seconds long without dying dozens of times first. But when you crack one, you really do feel like a boss.
Super Crossfighter is essentially a neon Space Invaders played at breakneck pace. Your little craft sits at the foot of the screen, darting left and right, blasting the aliens above. But the foes you face aren’t doddering critters from 1970s gaming – they come armed to the teeth, hurling all manner of instant laser death and bullet hell your way.
Fortunately, you’re not wanting for firepower either. Your speedy craft can leap from the bottom to the top of the screen, scooping up gems that can subsequently be used to upgrade the ship in an in-game shop. There’s no IAP, note, for extra cash – this intense blaster is all about the skill you have in your thumbs, and your ability to survive wave after wave of neon-infused shooty action.
Jydge riffs off of Robocop and Judge Dredd, having you control the titular cybernetic law enforcer, eradicating crime in the megacity of Edenbyrg.
The game’s no-nonsense approach is typified by the ‘Gavel’ in this case being a massive gun. Jydge’s approach to dealing with bad guys mostly involves stomping about, shooting enemies, pilfering bling, and rescuing unfortunate hostages caught in the crossfire.
Initially, something about the game’s visuals and approach may make you play as if entering a neon-soaked outing that’s escaped from stealth shooter master and X-Com creator Julian Gollop’s brain, but really Jydge mostly plays out like a frantic twin-stick shooter. Tactics only really enter the equation when you realize you can nip back to earlier missions and tackle them again with new kit or approaches, in order to meet tricky challenges. Either way, it’s ballsy fun.
Implosion finds Earth having been given a beating by nasty aliens, leaving humans on the brink of extinction. As this is a videogame, humans have pinned all their hopes on you and your natty battlesuit.
Fortunately, said suit can dish out serious damage. As you stomp about Implosion’s gleaming environments, you blast, slash, and dash your way through hordes of identikit alien drones. Occasional boss battles then shake things up in terms of pacing and challenge. Between levels, you customize your suit, to unlock new combos.
The game’s creators call Implosion a AAA console-style title, and it looks superb and feels the part. Even the complex controls (for a touchscreen game) work well. A sticking point for some might be the price, but you can play six missions for nothing. If you then balk at a one-off IAP for a premium title, don’t subsequently wonder why we can’t have nice things.
Lichtspeer is a trippy take on tower defense – like a single-lane Plants vs Zombies, only you’re fending off deranged futuristic Nordic and Germanic foes, are armed with an endless supply of glowing javelins (the titular Lichtspeer), and act under the watchful eye of an angry, demanding heavy metal god.
So, yes, this one has a veneer of weird, but the underlying mechanics are straightforward enough: aim your spear Angry Birds-style, lob and repeat. Get in some headshots, and the game rewards you. Miss too often and the god’s wrath briefly freezes you, making you temporarily vulnerable.
The main downsides to the game are repetition and brevity. However, gradually acquired special moves shake things up (and are a godsend on packed levels), and when you’re in the neon Lichtspeer zone, it has a focused, hypnotic quality – along with a pleasing dash of madness.
The best sports games for AndroidOur favorite Android soccer, tennis, golf and management games.
Football Manager Touch 2019 is one of the most ambitious games on Android, aiming to cram as much of the desktop PC soccer management game into your device as possible. Although a streamlined take on the original computer game, this is still fully-fledged management, enabling you to delve into all kinds of leagues, teams, tactics and set-ups.
There is a smattering of automation for people who can’t spend the equivalent of an entire soccer season playing the game; and pre-set tactical styles give you a leg-up to success. Make sure you examine the compatibility list prior to buying; if your device isn’t up to scratch, or you just prefer something simpler, be mindful the impressive Football Manager 2019 Mobile also exists.
You might narrow your eyes at so-called 'realism' in mobile sports titles, given that this usually means 'a game that looks a bit like when you watch telly'. But Touchgrind Skate 2 somehow manages to evoke the feel of skateboarding, your fingers becoming tiny legs that urge the board about the screen.
There's a lot going on in Touchgrind Skate 2, and the control system is responsive and intricate, enabling you to perform all manner of tricks. It's not the most immediate of titles - you really need to not only run through the tutorial but fully master and memorize each step before moving on.
Get to grips with your miniature skateboard and you'll find one of the most fluid and rewarding experiences on mobile. Note that for free you get one park to scoot about in, but others are available via IAP.
Table Tennis Touch brings the glory of ping pong to your Android device. You can partake in mini-games for training, or a full career mode, where you aim to smack a tiny white ball past the usual eerily floating bats of your opponents.
Visually, the game’s a treat with its gorgeously rendered locations. Most importantly, it feels great, recreating the high-octane nature of the sport, even if you do perhaps eventually get to the point where many matches are won by smashing super-fast shots diagonally across the table.
Even so, when you do get that winning point, at the end of a game where the lead’s shifted back and forth between you and an opponent, the game’s never less than invigorating.
Desert Golfing is an almost brutally minimalist take on golf. You start out in a side-on landscape, featuring a ball and a hole. You drag to aim, let go to smack the ball, and hope your aim is true. One or more shots later, the hole becomes the next tee, and a new challenge is presented.
That is basically the entire game. You get a score, although when you’re 50 holes in, it’s hard to know whether the number is meaningful. But the actual playing takes golf to a strangely relaxing and zen place. If you want realism or action, this one’s perhaps not for you; but if you fancy something golf-like to chill out with, Desert Golfing is great.
Football Manager Touch 2018 is an ambitious mobile title, in that it attempts to bring the full-fat Football Manager experience from PC to your Android tablet. (Sorry, phone users – you’ll have to make do with the cut-down Football Manager Mobile).
The good news is that this is a hugely detailed, feature-rich game, enabling you to delve into every aspect of your team, watch matches, and get very angry when your team blows a two-goal lead deep into stoppage time.
The bad news is that this is a game that will demand many hours of your time. After all, you’re not going to finish and win an entire league during a 30-minute bus ride. A single game in your ongoing campaign, however…
Kevin Toms Football * Manager is what happens when the man who created the original Football Manager game (the one released in 1982 for computers with 16k of RAM) brings the same pick-up-and-play ethos to Android. It’s crude. It’s simplistic. It’s also – as it turns out – an awful lot of fun.
Ultimately, the game mostly involves basic team selection/management, a smattering of tactics, and tense match highlights. It might seem prehistoric to anyone who cut their teeth on modern football management games, but it’s a delight for anyone hankering after immediacy from a management game, rather than something with so much depth it threatens to take over their life.
The best strategy games for AndroidOur favorite Android real-time strategy and turn-based games, board games, card games and map-making games.
Twinfold takes the basic tile-merging mechanic of mobile puzzling classic Threes!, adds a massive dollop of dungeon crawling, and then drops the result into a procedurally generated maze. This mixture shouldn’t work, but it’s fantastic.
As you move, so do golden idols and enemies. Munch idols and they replenish your energy, but merge them and they grow in value – all the better for your XP when they’re finally eaten. But removing both in either case causes the entire maze to be redrawn.
With regularly spawning monsters and the very landscape being upended on a regular basis, Twinfold certainly keeps you on your toes. And although it can grate when the randomness leaves you in a terrible position, the potential for devising strategies – not least when you roll in regularly supplied power-ups – and longevity is immense.
Lara Croft games have landed on Android to rather variable results. The original Tomb Raider just doesn't work on touchscreens, and although Lara Croft: Relic Run is enjoyable enough, it's essentially a reskinned Temple Run.
Lara Croft GO is far more ambitious and seriously impressive. It rethinks Tomb Raider in much the same way Hitman GO reimagined the Hitman series.
Croft's adventures become turn-based puzzles, set in a world half-way between board game and gorgeous isometric minimalism. It shouldn't really work, but somehow Lara Croft GO feels like a Tomb Raider game, not least because of the wonderful sense of atmosphere, regular moments of tension, and superb level design.
A massive upgrade over the developer’s own superb but broadly overlooked MegaCity, Concrete Jungle is a mash-up of puzzler, city management and deck builder.
The basics involve the strategic placement of buildings on a grid, with you aiming to rack up enough points to hit a row’s target. At that point, the row vanishes, and more building space scrolls into view.
Much of the strategy lies in clever use of cards, which affect nearby squares – a factory reduces the value of nearby land, for example, but an observatory boosts the local area. You quickly learn plonking down units without much thought messes up your future prospects.
Instead, you must plan in a chess-like manner – even more so when facing off against the computer opponent in brutally difficult head-to-head modes. But while Concrete Jungle is tough, it’s also fair – the more hours you put in, the better your chances. And it’s worth giving this modern classic plenty of your time.
There’s a disarmingly hypnotic and almost meditative quality to the early stages of Mini Metro. You sit before a blank underground map of a major metropolis, and drag out lines between stations that periodically appear.
Little trains then cart passengers about, automatically routing them to their stop, their very movements building a pleasing plinky plonky generative soundtrack.
As your underground grows, though, so does the tension. You’re forced to choose between upgrades, balance where trains run, and make swift adjustments to your lines. Should a station become overcrowded, your entire network is closed. (So...not very like the real world, then.)
Do well enough and you unlock new cities, with unique challenges. But even failure isn’t frustrating, and nor is the game’s repetitive nature a problem, given that Mini Metro is such a joy to play.
The original and best of the GO games, Hitman GO should never have worked. It reimagines the console stealth shooter as a dinky clockwork boardgame. Agent 47 scoots about, aiming to literally knock enemies off the board, and then reach and bump off his primary target.
Visually, it’s stunning – oddly adorable, but boasting the kind of clarity that’s essential for a game where a single wrong move could spell disaster. And the puzzles are well designed, too, with distinct objectives that often require multiple solutions to be found.
If you’re a fan of Agent 47’s exploits on consoles, you might be a bit nonplussed by Hitman GO, but despite its diorama stylings, it nonetheless manages to evoke some of the atmosphere and tension from the console titles, while also being entirely suited to mobile play.
In the fantasy world of Solitairica, battles are fought to the death by way of cards. The foes barring the way to your quest’s goal set up walls of cards before them, which you smash through by matching those one higher or lower than the one you hold.
Then there are spells you cast by way of collected energies. Meanwhile, the creatures strike back with their own unique attacks, from strange worm-like beings nibbling your head, to grumpy forest dwellers making your cards grow beards.
In short, then, a modicum of fantasy role-playing wrapped around an entertaining and approachable card game. And on Android, you have the advantage of the game being free – a one-off IAP only figures if you want to avoid watching adverts, and have access to alternate decks to try your luck as a different character.
If you never thought a solitaire-like card game was an ideal framework for a tense stealth title, you’re probably not alone. But somehow Card Thief cleverly mashes up cards and sneaking about.
The game takes place on a three-by-three grid of cards. For each move, you plan a route to avoid getting duffed up by guards (although pickpocketing them on the way past is fair game, obviously), loot a chest, and make for an exit.
Card Thief is not the easiest game to get into, with its lengthy tutorial and weird spin on cards. But this is a game with plenty of nuance and depth that becomes increasingly rewarding the more you play, gradually unlocking its secrets. It’s well worth the effort.
First Strike is an oddball combination of territory-snagging board game Risk, and classic defense arcade title Missile Command. You pick a nuclear power and set about building missiles, researching technologies, annexing adjacent states, and – when it comes to it – blowing the living daylights out of your enemies.
The high-tech interface balances speed and accessibility, although games tend to be surprisingly lengthy – and initially sedate, as you gradually increase your arsenal, and shore up your defenses.
Eventually, all hell breaks lose, including terrifying first strikes, where enemies lob their entire cache of missiles at an unlucky target. If that’s you and your defenses aren’t strong enough, prepare more for ‘the end’ than ‘game over’ as the screen shakes amid all the destruction.
It’s thoughtful and clever (and often chilling), but First Strike never forgets it’s a game – and a really good one for real-time strategy fans.
Miracle Merchant has you mix potions for thirsty adventurers, fashioned from stacks of colored cards. Each customer asks for a specific ingredient, and mentions another they like. Across 13 rounds, you must manage your deck to ensure everyone goes away happy. Fail once and your game ends.
Decisions must be made carefully, because once cards are placed, they can’t be moved. Combinations prove vital for success: pairs of cards boost your score, as does matching cards to the colored icons found on those already in play. There are also ‘evil’ cards with negative values to overcome.
The game doesn’t feel as refined as the developer’s own Card Thief, but we enjoyed its elegance. There’s no messing about with special powers and leveling up – it’s just you, cards, and a set of rules. There’s perhaps a touch too much reliance on card counting and luck, but Miracle Merchant’s nonetheless a simple, engaging, unique stab on solitaire.
Card Crawl mixes solitaire and dungeon crawling, and does an awful lot with a four-by-two grid of cards.
In each round, an armor-clad ogre deals four cards, which may include monsters, weaponry, potions, and spells. Beneath sits your adventurer’s card, two spots for items to hold, and one to stash a card for later.
To progress to the next draw, you must use three of the cards dealt to you. For example, you might grab a sword, use that to kill a demonic crow, and then quaff a potion.
Getting through the entire deck requires strategy more than luck. For example, down health potions when you don’t need to, and you may not survive later when weaponless and battling multiple enemies.
Generously, the basic game is free; but we recommend buying the one-off IAP to unlock the full set of cards and game modes.
Freeways is one of those games that doesn’t look like much in stills, but proves ridiculously compelling from the moment you fire it up. In short, it’s all about designing roadways for autonomous vehicles.
It comes across a bit like a mash-up of Mini Metro and Flight Control. You link roads together, often by designing monstrous spaghetti junctions, only you’re armed with tools that make you feel like an urban planner drawing with chunky crayons while wearing boxing gloves.
The game’s crude nature is part of its charm. It’s more about speed and immediacy than precision, a feeling cemented when you realize there’s no undo. When your road system gets jammed, your only option is to start from scratch and try something new.
In truth, the inability to remove even tiny errors can irk, not least when roads don’t connect as you’d expect. Otherwise, Freeways is a blast.
Meteorfall is a ‘roguelike’ role-playing adventure masquerading as a card game. You choose a hero, and then set out on a semi-randomized journey, which largely involves hacking your way through a horde of monsters. Only instead of swiping a trusty sword, or moving about a turn-based grid, your actions, attacks and strategy all revolve around cards.
With each card you’re dealt, you choose, Tinder-style, to swipe left or right. Each direction has its own outcome, which may involve smacking your foe in the face, or replenishing energy. Over time, you build up your deck, gradually increasing your strength and skills – until the moment you overstretch and are horribly killed.
Given the simple interface, there’s loads of depth here. And with every game being unique, Meteorfall is an Android title that should keep you playing for months.
Reigns: Game of Thrones follows Reigns and Reigns: Her Majesty in marrying kingdom management with swipe-based interaction borrowed from Tinder. Only this time, there’s a massively popular TV show fused to its core.
You plonk your behind on the Iron Throne, as one of several major characters from the TV series, and set about imposing your will on the Seven Kingdoms. As you swipe left and right to make decisions, your fortunes with the people, army, church and bank fluctuate. Fill or deplete any one meter, and your reign will come to an abrupt – and likely bloody – end.
Given the basic interface, Reigns: Game of Thrones has surprising depth. It also has great writing, loads of content to find, and plenty of puzzles to solve, making it ideal mobile gaming fodder.
The best word games for AndroidOur favorite Android games that involve anagrams, crosswords and doing clever things with letters.
Sidewords is a rare word game that isn’t ripping off Scrabble or crosswords. Instead, you get blank grids with words along two edges. You must use at least one letter from each edge to make new words of three or more letters. Each selected letter blasts a line across the grid; where lines meet become solid areas filled with your word. The aim is to fill the grid.
On smaller levels, this is simple, but larger grids can be challenging – especially when you realize a massive word (that on discovery made you feel like a genius) leaves spaces that are impossible to fill. Fortunately, Sidewords encourages experimentation, and so you can remove/replace words at will.
It’s clever and a bit different; and if you tire of the main game, you can fire up mini-game Quads, which marries word-building and Threes!-style sliding tiles. Two for the price of one, then – and both games alone are worth the outlay.
Dropwords 2 mixes up well-based match games like Bejeweled and word games like Boggle. You’re faced with a grid of letters and must drag out words that snake across the board. When submitting a word, its letters disappear, and new tiles fall into the well to fill the gaps.
As ever in this kind of game, speed is of the essence. But also, you can gain extra seconds by submitting longer words – something that becomes increasingly important as you get deeper into the game.
Smartly, much of the game can be customized, including the board’s theme; and if you want to just chill, rather than be hassled by a relentless game-ending countdown, there are untimed modes too.
Blackbar is fundamentally a game about guessing words. Yet it’s also a chilling commentary on the dangers of a dystopian surveillance society.
The game begins with you receiving letters from a friend who’s started work at the Department of Communication. Anything from them considered controversial or negative is censored – a ‘blackbar’ – which you must correctly guess to continue.
Over the course of a number of communications, the story escalates in a frightening manner, and you find yourself feeling like you’re beating the system (man), despite ultimately just tapping in words to best a basic logic test.
If nothing else, this showcases the power of great storytelling; and filling in Blackbar’s blanks feels a lot more fulfilling than chucking more hours at a run-of-the-mill Scrabble clone.
Letterpress merges Boggle-like finding words within a pile of letters with Risk-like land grabs. You and an opponent (an online human or computer players of varying skill levels) take turns to tap out words on the five-by-five grid. Letters you use turn your color – and those you surround cannot be flipped by the other player during their next turn.
Winning therefore isn’t just about big words – not least if its letters are scattered about. Instead, you must carefully protect your territory and gradually eat into your opponent’s land. Battles can become tense and thrilling – not usually concepts associated with a word game. But then Letterpress is no ordinary word game – it’s much better than that.
Supertype is a word game more concerned with the shape of letters than the words they might create. Each hand-designed level finds you staring at a setup of lines, dots, and empty spaces in which to type. Tap out some letters, press the tick mark, and everything starts to move.
The aim is to get the letters you type to the dots. In some cases, the solution may be fairly obvious – for example, placing a lowercase l on each ‘step’ towards an out of reach dot at the top of a staircase, then having a p at the start tip over to set everything in motion. More often, you’ll be scratching your head, experimenting, trying new approaches, and then grinning ear to ear on cracking a solution.
Typeshift rethinks word searches and crosswords. You get a tactile interface of jumbled letters within draggable columns. Your aim is to change the color of every tile – and tiles only change when they’re part of a word you make in the central row.
The game occasionally heads further into traditional crossword territory, adding clues to the mix, which you must match to the words you find. Either way, it’s a brain-smashing touch-optimized word-game experience.
There are joyful animated and audio touches throughout, too, and everything feels hand-crafted, rather than you being sent endless algorithmically generated puzzles. Naturally, such polish costs money – beyond the free download, you pay for packs of puzzles. But they’re worth every penny.
Now TV deals: save over 40% on a Sky Sports pass
Thu, 31 Jan 2019 11:45:42 +0000
Now TV deals are a great way to access Sky's excellent content without signing up to a long contract. You can pick and choose access to packages like Entertainment, Sky Cinema, Sky Kids and of course Sky Sports channels on a rolling 30-day deal. We've gone into greater detail on all of these options in our regular Now TV passes and offers page.
If Sky Sports is on your New Year's Most Wanted list though, this might be the best deal for you as you save a whopping 41% on the monthly price if you sign up before February 4.
This pass gets you access to the full selection of Sky Sports channels including: Sky Sports Premier League, Sky Sports Football (for Football League, La Liga and more), Sky Sports F1, Sky Sports Racing, Sky Sports Cricket, Sky Sports Golf, Sky Sports News, Sky Sports Mix, Sky Sports Action, Sky Sports Arena and Sky Sports Main Event.
Don't forget the big game from across the pond this weekend and tune into the Super Bowl live stream.
We know plenty of people that use the Now TV service as a beta test to see what's available on Sky's channels before signing up to a regular Sky TV deal with options for even more channels, recording live TV options, HD and 4K viewing and potentially bigger savings with a longer contract. If you'd like to check out these options, be sure to take a look at our guide below:
Sky TV deals, packages and Sky Q offers
The cheapest Huawei Mate 20 Pro SIM-free deal: O2 has you covered
Thu, 31 Jan 2019 11:37:32 +0000
This January has been a brilliant time to get Huawei Mate 20 Pro deals. We've seen endless offers ranging from big data to low monthly costs. But the one thing we hadn't seen was a good SIM-free offer...until now.
O2 has filled that gap, offering up the device for a one time fee of £650. That puts this deal at around £140 cheaper than the next nearest reputable retailer and £249 below the average price for a brand new Mate 20 Pro handset. You can find sites like Laptops Direct and Appliances Direct offering it cheaper on our Huawei Mate 20 SIM-free buying guide. But these are refurbished offers and only manage to drop the prices by about £10 anyway.
You do have to add a Pay As You Go plan to get it at this price but that can be as cheap as paying a tenner for a one-off top up. After that you can track down a SIM only deal to complete your cheap phone contract.
Check out all of today's best Huawei mobile phone deals This cheap Mate 20 Pro price in full: The best Mate 20 Pro contract dealsDon't love the idea of paying a hefty fee upfront for the Mate 20 Pro? Well lucky for you there are a tonne of great contract deals floating around on this device right now.
Mobiles.co.uk has released a host of top Mate 20 Pro deals recently. Our favourite is definitely this £190 upfront and £32 a month contract with 10GB of data. That is a brilliant price for a phone that commonly sits in the £50 a month region and sometimes higher, and you can even save an extra tenner by entering the code 10OFF at the checkout.
Our hands down best pick for the device is from Mobile Phones Direct. No upfront fees, just £41 a month and a whopping 75GB of data has won this deal our Editor's Pick and a strong recommendation from us.
West Indies vs England live stream: how to watch 2nd Test cricket from anywhere
Thu, 31 Jan 2019 11:30:19 +0000
In a cricket year busy with the Ashes and a home World Cup, 2019 hasn't exactly got off to the best of starts for England. They'll be eager to bounce back from the thrashing they suffered last week at the hands of the West Indies, as they go in to the second leg of their three-match Test series. Series success for either team would be the perfect preparation for the year and we'll tell you how you can watch a West Indies vs England live stream no matter where you are in the world.
After a gruelling - and largely successful - summer of Test cricket against Pakistan and India, Joe Root's men travelled to Sri Lanka at the start of winter for more. Now they end up on the beautiful shores of the Caribbean to see if they can retain the Wisden Trophy that they've now held for nearly 10 years. To do so, they'll have to mentally overcome an absolute thrashing in the first Test and show some real courage and quality.
The big team news for the second Test is that Stuart Broad returns to the bowling attack and Joe Denly will make his Test debut, replacing Keaton Jennings at the top of the order. The West Indies are expected to be unchanged and will absolutely brimming with confidence after such a strong showing in Barbados. Facing England often brings out the best in their players, and captain Jason Holder will be trying to use his double century as a launchpad in to even better things here.
It's all poised to be another fascinating cricket Test match. So make sure you follow the instructions below to live stream the matches between West Indies and England.
NFL fan? See how to live stream Super Bowl LIII for free and without commercials
Below we have details of where you can watch West Indies vs England in certain territories.
Simple tech tweaks can make a big difference
Thu, 31 Jan 2019 11:30:09 +0000
With consumer behaviour and customer experience expectations rapidly changing, the retail sector must strive to keep up. It is crucial for businesses to embrace digitalisation and new technologies to remain competitive in today’s market, or it could mark the end for a business. With retailers like Coast nearing collapse, it is vital for brands to work towards – and stay – at the top of their game, to survive against market fluctuations and competitors.
Brands that fail to offer good customer experiences could, as a result, face struggles in the challenging retail landscape, which is taking no prisoners. One victim is longstanding womenswear retail chain Bonmarché – shares in the company recently dropped 18% after a warning that profits would fall short due to weak consumer demand. It is becoming clear brands now need to innovate to survive. Incorporating simple but impactful technological changes could be the answer, as these can make a big difference to a business’ operations – and its profits.
Improving the customer experienceDigital transformation doesn’t always require huge business model changes and drastic process shake-ups. However, as it becomes clearer that customer experience is the key to driving sales, businesses should not overlook the benefits of making small changes that can greatly enhance the experiences of their customers. This is especially crucial, given that a majority of adults (56%) would choose digital resources over their significant others for recommendations on products and services. This puts the value of ‘word of mouth’ into a wider online experience perspective.
Artificial intelligence (AI) can help retailers analyse customer behaviour and journey data and assist in identifying their individual needs – so they can then be met. By starting to predict what customers want, and need, AI – in tandem with machine-learning – can elevate the whole shopping experience to another level. As it stands, only 7% of retailers currently use AI to enhance their services, and this should increase as retailers see the benefits that AI-driven technology can provide.
One successful example is Thread, an online start-up that has used AI to assist men in selecting clothes – and subsequently raised £16.7 million from investors. This demonstrates that retailers should look to new, AI-driven technologies to stay competitive. Interactions and conversations between humans and brands become more productive for both parties with AI-enabled technologies. This is because these technologies combine artificial intelligence and data to provide analytics – learning from and responding to a slew of data points in a way that no human ever could.
With these analytical insights available, high street retailers can provide the empathetic, responsive service that customers appreciate and increasingly demand. It’s a win-win: consumers get a customised service, and retailers benefit from their improved customer satisfaction, which builds brand loyalty and ultimately helps boost market position.
Despite what retailers might think, AI doesn’t always have to mean going as far as installing a team of robot workers to keep up with the digital landscape. However, robot-driven technologies can certainly help. When it comes to the specific technology elements that retailers can implement to start reaping the benefits that digital transformation can offer, dynamic call numbers are just one example of how simple elements can offer huge growth benefits. Simply put, these are unique phone numbers, assigned to each visitor, that are automatically displayed on a brand’s website or in a digital advertising campaign. This simple feature gives businesses the ability to track a specific customer’s journey, and provides extended data insights into that customer, helping to deliver a tailored customer experience.
Using a dashboard to analyse customer insights and enabling call tracking are also simple functionalities that businesses can utilise to drive growth. For example, enabling customers to text customer service departments, instead of having to call them (and most likely be put on hold or stuck in a long queue) can help speed the process up – both for customer service teams and for customers themselves. One example of a recent success is Ted Baker’s new chatbot, which is facilitating shopper communication and helping boost engagement thus maximise sales and customer loyalty. These customer-centric technologies are showing to be at the heart of recent retailer successes and are especially effective when targeting key audience demographics.
By putting customers at the heart of a business’ operations, retailers are able to use data insights to not only enhance customer experiences, but spend money better in the long run and increase customer loyalty. For example, Allclear, an insurance specialist, freed up £20k of their marketing spend based simply on customer insights within three weeks – a prime example of how small tech tweaks truly can make all the difference.
In the extremely competitive marketplace of today, business should be looking to use every tool they have to reduce risk of failure, while increasing their chance of success. This doesn’t necessarily mean spending huge amounts of money – it simply means embracing the right technologies effectively to enhance customer experience in order to reap maximum business benefits.
Anne de Kerckhove, CEO of Freespee
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Best iPhone lenses 2019: transform your smartphone photos
Thu, 31 Jan 2019 11:27:56 +0000
Cameras on smartphones have transformed the way we take and share images, but they're still far from perfect. What about zoom? What about macro? Packed with algorithms and clever AI they might be, but what use is object recognition if the object in question is miles away?
Despite the arrival of smartphones with multiple lenses, these fixed lenses aren't suited to every subject we point our smartphone at.
You could reach for compact camera or DSLR, but given the connectivity and ease of use of your iPhone (or other smartphone), and the fact that you're more likely to have it with you most of the time, getting better results from your phone is preferable to lugging a camera around as well.
The good news is that there are now a host of iPhone lens accessories that you can attach or connect to your device, whether you're using an iPhone XS or iPhone XR or an older model, enabling you to push your photographic skills even further, without losing the ability to easily upload and share your images.
From affordable lens adaptors that convert the field of view of your iPhone's lens, to more advanced (and expensive) pieces of kit that not only have greatly improved lenses, but even their own built-in sensors to deliver better image quality, there's an option to suit any budget.
Here's our pick of some of the best options around…
When it comes to known brands dedicated only to making smartphone lenses, Olloclip is the last one standing. It makes a dizzying array of lenses, all of which ride on its new Connect X Lens System clip that slides on the top of an iPhone XR (a little cheaper than the XS Max version) and the XS (a little more expensive). It’s easy to use, but requires a case-less iPhone.
This 60mm focal length telephoto lens has a robust, premium feel to it, making it a heavy option but with the advantage of being wider than the lens of most phone cameras, which helps to reduce vignetting and distortion around the edges of shots and amounts to better quality images overall.
The included mounting plate easily attaches using a clean adhesive rather than a magnet, which can sometimes interfere with optical image stabilization. It also supports 25 different iOS and Android devices. Moment is now shipping plates for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, too.
What's more, the attachment system avoids the need for a special phone case, which gives it a distinct advantage over many other lenses on the market. A nice microfiber lens bag is included that doubles up as a cleaning cloth.
American firm Fellows has teamed up with renowned lens maker Zeiss to partner its ExoLens iPhone bracket with some high-end optics, and this wide-angle model reduces the iPhone camera's effective focal length to around 18mm.
The entire casing is made out of black anodised aluminum, while the detachable lens is reassuringly weighty. Inside there are aspherical elements to combat distortion, and an antireflective coating to minimize reflections and improve light transmission.
Quality is excellent, but the casing is a little cumbersome, and you're certainly paying a premium for the pleasure.
Read the full review: ExoLens with Optics by Zeiss Wide-Angle
If you have the iPhone, you probably think you have virtually the last word in photographic quality a smartphone can offer. Think again. This all-in-one set includes three 'essential lenses' – fisheye, super-wide and macro – that ride on Olloclip's clip-on Connect X interchangeable lens system.
It's all easy to use, though you do need to know about a workaround for the iPhone X's dual camera, which involves using portrait mode for close zooms. However, like most such clip-ons, it works with screen protectors, but not phone cases. It also blocks the flash.
The CamKix for iPhone 6/6s is our entry-level pick for anyone exploring camera lens attachments for the first time. The kit comes with four lenses that offer plenty of variety, including a fish-eye lens and a combination macro/wide-angle lens.
They may feel a bit plasticky, but shooting performance is surprisingly good for this price point, although don't go in expecting top-quality results or entirely distortion-free shots.
The lenses screw into the included proprietary case. You even get a mini tripod with extendable legs, and a universal phone holder that offers a secure base to attach to the tripod socket. All in all, this is a decent gift set for the beginner.
In essence, Sony has taken the guts from its WX150 compact camera and placed them in an even more compact body, save for the rear screen. The QX10 can be attached to your iPhone via an adaptor, or used on its own to capture shots from more unusual vantage points, connecting via Wi-Fi or NFC.
Image quality is a noticeable jump up from that of an iPhone, while the 10x zoom offers much greater coverage compared to the lens in your iPhone. For those looking for even better image quality, check out the Sony QX100.
Read the full review: Sony QX10
If a clip-on lens is handy, so is one that works with any phone. The Nelomo is a kit of various lenses that each attach separately to a clip that fits over the top of any phone. There are three lenses – 0.65x super-wide angle lens, a 15x macro lens and an impressive 230° fisheye lens – which covers all the bases.
The kit ships with a small case for storing all three lenses and the clip, and there's a carabiner to attach it to a belt that’s handy for out-in-the-field travel.
If you're off on safari and you want to get close-up of The Big Five there are some space-saving alternatives to lugging around a DSLR and a telephoto lens. This machined metal iPhone adaptor snares whatever model of iPhone you choose (iPhone 6 upwards), and screws on to a PA Adaptor Ring affixed to a pair of high-power binoculars.
The catch is that those binoculars (or spotting scope) must be made by Swarovski Optik, which makes some of the very finest (and most expensive) binoculars available. Just make sure you focus first with the binoculars before using your smartphone’s camera.
With a fixed and fast 32mm f/1.8 combined with a large 1-inch 20.2MP sensor, there's plenty to like about DXO's One. Because it connects directly to an iPhone, there's no waiting about for a Wi-Fi connection and it won't lose the connection.
The camera also fits almost seamlessly into the operating system, and images can be stored on your phone – plus there are raw files on the card if you want them for post-processing.
That said, the One's connectivity is also a weakness. You have to remember to unlock your phone or go to the home page before you connect the One in order for the app to open correctly, and then there's a second or two delay before you can start shooting.
The One produces great-quality images for a compact camera and it makes a fun, if expensive, iPhone accessory.
Read the full review: DxO One
Getting some magnification from a pocket-sized lens gets you only so far, so why not aim for the stars? This adaptor for any brand of phone puts the sensor directly over an eyepiece. That might sound rather manual, but that's really all it takes to take images with a phone through a telescope, and yet it’s something that’s almost impossible to do using a hand-held phone.
However, there are some limitations. As well as the steadiness of the mount relying on the quality of your telescope as much as the mount itself, it's really only possible to take images of the moon. That's an incredible thing to do the first time, but the novelty may wear off.
Samsung Galaxy Sport release date, price, news and leaks
Thu, 31 Jan 2019 11:20:24 +0000
Update: Samsung's Galaxy Sport may actually be called the Galaxy Watch Active when it hits shop shelves. Plus we've just seen the new wearable certified in Taiwan.
The Samsung Galaxy Watch is notable for a lot of reasons, not least of which being that it’s a highly capable smartwatch that doesn’t run Wear OS or watchOS, relying instead on the Tizen operating system.
With a stylish design, long battery life and loads of tracking skills it does enough to compete with any wearable running those better-known operating systems, but it isn’t perfect by any means, so we’ve come up with a list of improvements that we want to see on the next Samsung smartwatch.
Originally we wrote these expecting them to be improvements we'll see on a Samsung Galaxy Watch 2, but since then we've heard rumors of a product called the Samsung Galaxy Sport instead.
You'll find what we want to see as well as everything we've learnt so far about Samsung's next smartwatch. That includes possible release timing, price and features.
Cut to the chase What is it? The next smartwatch from SamsungWhen is it out? Maybe February 20, or later in 2019What will it cost? Probably at least $329 / £279 / AU$499 Samsung Galaxy Sport release date and priceThe Samsung Galaxy Watch landed on August 9, 2018, alongside the Samsung Galaxy Note 9, so there’s a fair chance that the Samsung Galaxy Watch 2 will land in or around August 2019, possibly at the same event as the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.
That said, rumors of the Samsung Galaxy Sport are now heating up so we may instead see that a touch earlier as a line of devices that sits separately to the Samsung Galaxy Watch.
A device we believe to be the Samsung Galaxy Sport has been spotted in an FCC filing, which may mean it's nearly ready to be released. It's also been certified in South Korea and Taiwan.
If this is the Galaxy Watch Active, we expect to hear more about it alongside the Samsung Galaxy S10 that is set to be announced on February 20.
However, there’s no guarantee of that and there are no exact release date details yet. If this is in fact the Samsung Galaxy Watch 2, we may be waiting until later in 2019 to see it released.
There aren’t any price rumors yet either, but the Samsung Galaxy Watch launched for $329 / £279 / AU$499 for the 42mm version or $349 / £299 / AU$549 for the 46mm model, with prices going up if you want a version with LTE. So we’d expect the Samsung Galaxy Sport will cost at least that much and it may cost more.
The Samsung Galaxy Sport is sure to be a fairly expensive wearable
What will it be called?The next smartwatch from Samsung is unlikely to be called the Galaxy Watch 2 - that's probably a name reserved for a follow-up to the original watch and we'd expect that to launch late in 2019 or perhaps even later.
Rumors suggest this will be called the Samsung Galaxy Sport, but there's also another rumor saying it'll be the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active. That suggests an adventure-led design with a more rugged look, and it may eventually be the final name of this next Samsung wearable.
Samsung Galaxy Sport news and rumorsThere aren’t yet any whispers about the Samsung Galaxy Watch 2, but there are some renders seemingly showing the Samsung Galaxy Sport, which may well show us some of what to expect from the Galaxy Watch 2.
You can see these below. The main change being that the bezel is smooth rather than toothed and looks like it might not be rotatable. The two buttons on the right edge are also a different shape.
All that aside, it’s very likely that Samsung is working on the Galaxy Watch 2, and we can take some educated guesses as to certain features that it may have.
For example, it’s sure to retain most or all of the features found on the Samsung Galaxy Watch. That includes GPS, a heart rate monitor and NFC, along with tracking for various sports, sleep and stress.
It’s also likely to have a circular face and a rotating bezel, especially as the likes of the Gear S3 also have those things.
The Samsung Galaxy Watch can track a lot of activities
What’s less certain but still very likely is that the Galaxy Watch 2 will run Tizen. Samsung has been using Tizen on wearables for a while and although a move to Wear OS was rumored for the Galaxy Watch, no such change happened in the end.
It’s possible that Samsung will switch to Wear OS for the Galaxy Watch 2, especially as Google’s smartwatch operating system has a healthier app ecosystem. But there are plenty of reasons to like Tizen and Samsung hasn’t shown any real sign of giving up on it.
What we want to seeThe Samsung Galaxy Watch is a great smartwatch but one with plenty of room for improvement. The following seven features are things we’d really like to see on the Galaxy Watch 2 / Galaxy Sport.
1. More third-party appsThe Samsung Galaxy Watch runs Tizen, rather than one of the big-name wearable operating systems, and one downside of that is that there are fewer apps available than you’ll find on Wear OS or watchOS.
So by the time Samsung launches the Galaxy Watch 2 we’d like to have seen it work with developers to get key apps like WhatsApp, Google Maps and Facebook Messenger on the platform.
2. Better stress tracking
The Galaxy Watch tracks most things well, but not stress
The Samsung Galaxy Watch tracks a lot of things and mostly does a good job, but stress tracking is definitely a weak link.
While it’s available, it required us to manually measure our stress levels rather than tracking them automatically in our tests (despite claiming that it can do it automatically), and its accuracy could be questionable, since the data seems mostly based just on heart rate. So we’d like to see this feature overhauled for the next model.
3. Group challengesCompeting with friends can be a big motivator to get more active and handily the Samsung Galaxy Watch lets you do this. Your friends don’t even need a Galaxy Watch of their own – a Gear watch or the Samsung Health app will do just fine.
However, you can only challenge friends individually, rather than having a group competition. It seems like this would be an obvious and easy feature to add, so hopefully Samsung will.
4. Compatibility with more wireless chargers
The Samsung Galaxy Watch uses a proprietary charger
The Samsung Galaxy Watch charges wirelessly, but not just any wireless charger will do, you need a proprietary one that comes with it. This is inconvenient and if you’re ever without your charger means you’re likely to soon have a dead watch (though the Galaxy Watch at least has good battery life).
So for the Samsung Galaxy Watch 2 we want it to work with standard, everyday wireless chargers. That way if you’re at the office or a friend’s house without yours there’s at least a chance someone will have one you can borrow.
5. Big improvements to BixbyAnother downside of using Tizen rather than Wear OS is that the Samsung Galaxy Watch is reliant on Bixby rather than Google Assistant.
This is a problem, because Bixby is nowhere near as good as Google Assistant (or Siri or Alexa for that matter), with one particularly major issue being that it simply struggles to understand us.
While you don’t have to use Bixby to interact with the Galaxy Watch, it has the potential to be a major feature, but until it gets a lot better it won’t be.
6. Better iOS compatibility
Interaction is limited when using the Galaxy Watch with iOS
The Samsung Galaxy Watch works with both Android and iOS, but it’s definitely better with Android, because while you can read notifications on the watch when paired with an iPhone, you can’t reply to them or initiate communications, making it a lot more limited.
This may not be something Samsung can solve, as it would likely require a change on Apple’s end, but it’s something we’d like to see nonetheless, as it could make the Galaxy Watch 2 a real alternative to the Apple Watch 5, or whatever we’re up to by then.
7. Wider LTE availabilityThere are versions of the Samsung Galaxy Watch that support LTE, but only on select networks, which won’t suit everyone. For the Samsung Galaxy Watch 2 we’d like to see an LTE model available on more or less all networks, so it’s an option for everyone.
Don't want to wait for the Watch 2? These are the best smartwatches out now
Boeing and Bell's 'flying cars' will be the first of many
Thu, 31 Jan 2019 11:19:38 +0000
Everybody hates traffic, but would you get in a flying car to avoid it? What about an autonomous helicopter, or a drone aircraft piloted remotely? Welcome to the world of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft that, semantics aside, is getting some serious support from both manufacturers and governments.
Could we soon see flying cars in our cities? Aircraft-maker Boeing announced last week that it's just tested a prototype of a 'flying car' to advance the safety and technology of urban air mobility vehicles that until recently have been a pipe-dream. At CES 2019 a few weeks ago, Bell Helicopter showed-off a full-scale 'air taxi' named Bell Nexus that will – you guessed it – "redefine air travel".
Picture credit: Boeing. Boeing recently tested its first ‘flying car’
How many flying cars are there?There are multiple companies working on ‘urban air mobility’ vehicles, including Boeing’s rival Airbus, Ehang, Volocopter, Kitty Hawk, Uber Elevate, Terrafugia and PAL-V. With over 100 prototypes and some serious interest by governments around the world, aerial taxis and deliveries by flying car look to be on the cusp of reality.
Some think such vehicles – which have a range of about 50 miles and are resolutely electrically powered – are the next-but-one step where autonomous electric vehicles get off the roads and into the air. In the short-term they could change the way we get around smart cities, particularly to and from airports, and how deliveries are made in urban areas.
Picture credit: Bell Helicopter. Bell's concept includes passenger pods
What are Bell and Boeing doing?Last week, Boeing successfully completed the first test flight of its autonomous passenger air vehicle prototype in Manassas, Virginia. Called Boeing NeXt, this urban air mobility project saw a 9x8-metre craft complete a controlled vertical takeoff, hover and landing during a flight that also tested the vehicles autonomous functions and ground control systems. Further tests are scheduled, with the electrically propelled vehicle designed to travel 50 miles.
"This is what revolution looks like, and it's because of autonomy," said John Langford, president and chief executive officer of Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences. "Certifiable autonomy is going to make quiet, clean and safe urban air mobility possible."
Meanwhile, the Bell Nexus is powered by a hybrid-electric propulsion system that features a powered lift concept using six tilting ducted fans. The system also includes 'pods' for passengers that can be attached to the propulsion structure.
"As space at the ground level becomes limited, we must solve transportation challenges in the vertical dimension – and that’s where Bell’s on-demand mobility vision takes hold," said Mitch Snyder, president and CEO of Bell. "The industry has anticipated the reveal of our air taxi for some time."
Are flying cars for passengersYes, but although this flight of Boeing's eVTOL aircraft is designed to carry passengers, the Boeing NeXt portfolio also includes an unmanned fully electric cargo air vehicle (CAV). Designed to transport up to 500lb, Boeing's CAV completed its first indoor flight last year and will transition to outdoor flight testing in 2019.
"Boeing was there when the aviation industry was born and in our second century, we will unlock the potential of the urban air mobility market," said Steve Nordlund, vice president and general manager of Boeing NeXt. "From building air vehicles to airspace integration, we will usher in a future of safe, low-stress mobility in cities and regions around the world."
Picture credit: Boeing. Boeing successfully completed the first test flight of its autonomous passenger air vehicle prototype
What about 'flying trucks'?Amazon's crazy idea to deliver parcels by drone is quickly becoming a mainstream ambition. Take Yamato in Japan, a company famous for its cat-and-a-kitten logo on its delivery trucks. As reported by the Japan Times last October, Yamato has agreed to develop an unmanned cargo aircraft – ‘flying truck’ – with none other than Bell Helicopter. The vehicle could carry 453kg. and travel at 160kph, take-off and land vertically, and cruise horizontally.
“Companies are scrambling to figure out last-mile delivery, sometimes even incentivizing the customer to pick up from the store,” says Ravi Shanker, equity analyst at Morgan Stanley covering the North American transportation industry. “Drones and VTOLs could be part of the evolving solution of last-mile parcel delivery challenges.”
Why Japan could see flying cars and trucks firstThe Japanese government appears to be getting serious about autonomous aerial vehicles in cities. Could Tokyo's skies by buzzing with aerial taxis and delivery trucks by the mid-2020s? That's the goal, with terrible traffic around Tokyo the main impetus, though better serving Japan's many hard-to-reach mountain and island communities is another reason why flying cars could be worth investing in.
Picture credit: Bell Helicopter. The Bell Nexus flying car shown off at CES in Las Vegas earlier this month
Are flying cars really a serious proposition?Morgan Stanley thinks so. Its research paper last week predicted that a US$1.5 trillion global autonomous urban aircraft industry is possible by 2040.
“We’re seeing opportunities for a growing fleet of electric, shared, and autonomous VTOL aircraft or other large terrestrial drones,” says Rajeev Lalwani, lead analyst at Morgan Stanley covering US airlines, aerospace and defense, and aircraft lessors
“The market could likely begin as an ultra-niche add-on to existing transportation infrastructure, similar to how helicopters operate today [and] could later transform into a cost-effective, time-efficient method of traveling short to medium distances, eventually taking share from car and airline companies.”
Why is this happening now?As well as an impetus to use the clear skies above our heads to transport goods, and possibly people, much more quickly and efficiently as cities become gridlocked, the current interest in developing flying cars and trucks is all about technology.
A lot of complementary tech is now under development; think artificial intelligence, drone technology, drone package delivery tests, more efficient batteries, autonomous driving systems, satellite communications, 3D printing, computer processing power – it's all coming together. However, if you think electric cars have a problem of 'range anxiety', that goes double (at least) for electrically-powered air vehicles.
Picture credit: Boeing. Are flying cars for people or freight?
Flying cars' biggest challengeBoeing claims that it went from design to working prototype in just one year, and with multiple other companies working on passenger and cargo-capable ETOLs, so-called flying car' may seem to be on the horizon. However, no ETOL will get off the ground containing test crew, let alone members of the public, unless regulatory bodies are 100% happy about safety. That will take a lot of time. So will creating flying cars that are whisper-quiet, carry a lot of weight, hover without problems, and have a range that far exceeds their planned journey time.
Even more challenging is that a new mobility ecosystem will have to be created that caters for the coexistence of both autonomous and piloted air vehicles. "Urban air travel is coming closer to the masses through recent advancements in technology and software," says Bell's press release. "The critical last step is designing a flight control ecosystem that allows individuals to safely and efficiently operate urban air vehicles."
It’s a common refrain among the flying car community. “The challenge has always been to develop a commercially viable flying car not simply a futuristic concept,” said Robert Dingemanse, CEO of PAL-V. “The journey is much more challenging than simply designing a flying car since the regulatory framework demands safety of each and every manufacturer.”
So expect to see Amazon's drones first, followed by flying trucks buzzing around city skies delivering packages long before people can take a robotic ride.
Driverless cars: everything you need to know
MWC 2019: what to expect from the biggest mobile show of the year
Thu, 31 Jan 2019 11:03:56 +0000
MWC (Mobile World Congress) is the biggest mobile tradeshow of the year, and the next installment - MWC 2019 - is fast approaching.
MWC 2019 kicks off in Barcelona on February 25 (though some companies will hold keynotes a day or two before) and runs through to February 28.
Update: Both LG and Huawei have confirmed they will be launching 5G phones at MWC 2019, and rumors suggest LG will announce two flagships.
But what can you expect? While not much is yet confirmed there are a number of things that we’re likely to see at MWC 2019, including high-profile handsets such as the Sony Xperia XZ4 and LG G8.
We've put together this guide highlighting all things mobile that might be on show and we'll add to it as soon as we hear anything new.
Samsung
We were expecting the Samsung Galaxy S10 to be announced at MWC 2019, but the company has now confirmed that in fact it will land a week earlier on February 20, at an event in San Francisco.
However, that doesn't mean there won't be anything from Samsung on show, as there's a chance we'll get a closer look at Samsung's foldable phone at MWC 2019, with some rumors pointing to a proper announcement in February.
This could land as the Samsung Galaxy X, Galaxy F or Galaxy Flex, and is rumored to have a 7.3-inch screen when unfolded. It may also have a 6,200mAh battery and a triple-lens camera.
Samsung could also use MWC 2019 as a platform to launch a refreshed line-up of its mid-range A series of devices, while there's an outside chance of a tablet or wearable - but don't hold your breath for either of these.
Sony
Sony often announces one or more new phones at MWC and the next flagship we're expecting is the Sony Xperia XZ4, so that may well make an appearance.
The Sony press conference is set for February 25 at 8:30am CET (7:30am GMT, 2:30a, ET, which is 11:30pm PT on Sunday 24 February).
Not much is known about it yet, but we have seen leaked renders supposedly showing the phone and revealing a triple-lens camera on the back. That would be a big jump since other Sony handsets only have one rear camera.
Based on this leak, the Sony Xperia XZ4 also appears to have a 6.5-inch display with a 21:9 aspect ratio, which would make it even more widescreen than most handsets. There’s no notch and no sign of a headphone jack, while the back appears to be glass and there are bezels above and below the screen.
Not the most modern design then and while three cameras is novel for Sony it’s something other companies already offer, so it remains to be seen if or how the XZ4 will stand out – assuming this leak is even accurate.
We might also see the Sony Xperia XZ4 Compact at the show. Renders of that have leaked too, revealing an even more dated, bezel-heavy design, a roughly 5-inch screen and just a single rear camera.
LG
The LG G8 will land at MWC on February 24, according to South Korean media. LG itself has now also confirmed that it will be launching a phone on February 24, though the G8 isn't mentioned by name.
What LG has said, is that it will announce a 5G phone at the event, one with a 4,000mAh battery, a vapor cooling chamber, and a Snapdragon 855 chipset.
This however may not be the G8, but rather the LG V50 ThinQ according to other reports, which say both phones will land at MWC, but only the V50 will support 5G.
As for the LG G8, rumors point to a 4K LCD screen and potentially a 'sound-emitting display', which could allow the earpiece to be built into the screen. That in turn might allow LG to shrink or eliminate the top bezel, though renders show it sporting a notch with a dual-lens front-facing camera.
Huawei
The Huawei P20 didn’t land at MWC in 2018 but the Huawei P10 did back in 2017, and both phones were announced early in the year, so MWC 2019 may well be where we get an official look at the Huawei P30.
We don’t know much about the phone yet, though there has been the vague and unsurprising claim from Huawei’s CEO that it will be better than the P20 or the Huawei Mate 20.
It's also rumored to have three or even four rear cameras, and one of the lenses could be as high as 38MP.
Beyond that, we can take some educated guesses. For one thing, it’s likely to use the same Kirin 980 chipset as the Huawei Mate 20 Pro, since Huawei usually debuts a chipset in the Mate range then uses it again in the P range.
That’s no bad thing as the Kirin 980 is perhaps the most powerful Android chipset of 2018, though by the time the Huawei P30 launches it will be competing with some of 2019’s chipsets.
Based on the Mate 20 Pro, there’s also a high chance that the Huawei P30 will have a fingerprint scanner built into its screen. It will probably also have at least a triple lens camera (or at least the Huawei P30 Pro will) and it will likely have a notch.
However, the Huawei P30 if it arrives won't be the only notable announcement from the company at MWC 2019, as it’s also confirmed to be bringing a 5G foldable phone to the show.
HTC
We might well see one or more new handsets from HTC at MWC 2019, though we’re not yet sure what.
The company reduced its smartphone output during 2018 but has confirmed that new handsets are on the way, some of which should arrive in early 2019, making MWC 2019 a possible venue.
One handset that’s apparently on the way is an updated version of the mid-range HTC U12 Life, with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, so perhaps that will appear at MWC.
However, we wouldn’t count on seeing an HTC U13, or whatever the company’s next flagship is called, as there’s no real news on that and the HTC U12 Plus only landed in May.
OnePlus
While the OnePlus 7 is unlikely to launch until mid-2019, we might see the beginning of a new range from the company at MWC 2019.
Specifically, we already know that OnePlus is working on a 5G handset for launch in 2019, and according to a report it could land at MWC 2019.
We don’t know much else about the handset, but apparently OnePlus has chosen to launch it separately from the OnePlus 7 as the addition of 5G could push the price up beyond what it typically charges.
In other words, this phone might not be as much of a bargain as the company’s main flagship range.
Motorola
While the Moto G7 range is rumored to land before MWC 2019, we might get something even more exciting at the show, namely a foldable Motorola Razr V4. It's rumored to launch in February, so MWC would be an obvious venue.
Other than it being able to fold we don't know much about the Razr V4 yet, though it's expected to be very expensive.
Honor
The Honor 11 probably won’t be ready in time for MWC given that the Honor 10 didn’t land until May, but you never know, and there’s a good chance the company will have something to show (though notably it didn’t last year). Then again, the Honor View 20 has just landed, so Honor might keep things quiet at MWC.
Nokia
We saw lots of Nokia-branded phones at MWC 2018, so we may well see some more at MWC 2019. The highlight of the bunch might be the Nokia 9 – a long-rumored flagship phone which some sources say will land at the event. It’s a believable claim too, since the high-end Nokia 8 Sirocco landed at MWC 2018.
However, it wasn’t the only Nokia phone in attendance. The Nokia 7 Plus, Nokia 1 and more were also announced, so don’t be surprised if there’s a whole range of new handsets present at 2019’s event.
Rumors of the Nokia 9 PureView have been circulating for a long time now, and we're hearing conflicting reports on whether it'll be launching at MWC or before the show.
At the previous two shows, Nokia has also launched a rebooted handset, with the 3310 and 8110 pumping a sense of nostalgia into the halls at MWC. Will it repeat the trick at MWC 2019? There aren't any rumors just yet, but we're not ruling it out.
5G phonesMWC 2019 could be where we first start seeing 5G handsets, as a number are expected to land in 2019.
We’ve noted above that 5G OnePlus and Huawei phones might be announced, but don’t be surprised if we see others too.
LG for example also has a 5G phone in the works for the first half of 2019, as does Oppo, so those might make an appearance.
Xiaomi
Xiaomi has officially started selling products in the UK at the end of 2018, while it's been established in other parts of Europe for a while, and in 2019 we might see it do the same in the US. So don't be surprised if we see phones from the Chinese giant at MWC 2019.
What we might see is unclear for now, but Xiaomi is known for delivering great value handsets, including flagships that massively undercut most rivals, so it might launch some bargains.
Oppo
Oppo has revealed that it plans to announce a folding phone at MWC 2019, so that could be worth keeping an eye out for.
We now also know that Oppo will hold an "innovation event" on February 23 in Barcelona, Spain ahead of MWC 2019, where it could show off some new technology.
While some Oppo products never make it out of China, an announcement at MWC suggests that its folding phone might be more widely available, though we don’t know where specifically it will land.
There may be other Oppo announcements beyond that. The company is also working on a 5G phone for example, so that could be shown too.
Vivo
Vivo showed off the Vivo Apex Concept at MWC 2018. This was a prototype device with an in-screen fingerprint scanner (before this tech became mainstream) and a pop-up selfie camera, leading to an almost completely bezel-free screen. You couldn’t buy it, but the similar Vivo Nex launched later in the year.
It’s entirely possible that Vivo will have another prototype device ready to show at MWC 2019. What that might be is unclear.
The company is rumored to be launching the Vivo Nex 2 soon, a phone which is said to have a screen on the back which you can use to frame selfies, so there’s no need for a front-facing camera. However, reports suggest this will land in December, ahead of MWC 2019.
Just care about Samsung? Everything you need to know about the Galaxy S10
5G phones: these are going to be the first next-gen handsets
Thu, 31 Jan 2019 10:46:36 +0000
Update: Both LG and Huawei have confirmed that they'll show foldable phones at MWC 2019 in February. The LG one will reportedly be the LG V50 ThinQ, while Huawei's will fold.
In much of the world – including the US and UK - we will see 5G networks launch in 2019. They'll be far faster than 4G, but you won't be able to utilize the new speeds with your current handset.
In fact, the majority of phones launching in the near future won't support the fifth generation network.
That's not a huge problem because 5G coverage won't be widespread for a while, but if you want your next phone to be future-proofed then you'll want it to work with 5G.
However, chipmaker Qualcomm revealed during CES 2019 that it expects to see over 30 5G devices launched in 2019, with most of those being smartphones. If you're keen to jump on the 5G wagon early, there's a good chance you'll have a choice of handsets.
With that in mind we've created this guide to the various confirmed and rumored 5G handsets.
You'll find everything we know about these phones, including when and where they’re likely to launch, and we'll be constantly updating our 5G phones list with all the latest information.
Samsung Galaxy S10 XSamsung is known to be working on a 5G phone and it's heavily rumored that the company's first 5G handset will be a version of the Samsung Galaxy S10, possibly dubbed the Samsung Galaxy S10 X.
This could be one of the most exciting – not to mention most expensive – 5G phones of 2019, with rumors additionally pointing to it having a 6.7-inch screen, four rear cameras, two front-facing snappers, a 5,000mAh battery and 10GB or 12GB of RAM.
The Galaxy S10 X is currently rumored to go on sale in South Korea on March 29, with a US launch also likely at some point, but it may not be available anywhere else according to reports.
We should learn more about it soon, as it's likely to be announced alongside the rest of the Galaxy S10 range on February 20.
Huawei
Huawei has confirmed that it will show off a 5G foldable phone at MWC 2019 at the end of February.
Nothing else is confirmed, but this doesn't come as a surprise, since the company had previously said that it's working on a 5G foldable phone.
This seems to be a slight change of plan though, as back in 2018, Huawei revealed that it planned to launch a 5G phone in June 2019.
Shortly after that revelation an exec told T3 that either the Huawei P30 or Huawei Mate 30 would support 5G, though that doesn't entirely line up with claims that it will fold, as we wouldn't expect the company's main flagships to do so.
There's no word on which countries Huawei's first 5G phone will be available in, but don't count on being able to buy it in the US, since most recent Huawei phones aren't available there.
OnePlus
OnePlus has talked numerous times about a 5G handset, and it could be one of the first to launch one, as the company wants to be the first to launch a 5G phone in Europe.
We also know specifically that it will be coming to the UK, as OnePlus has confirmed that UK network EE will stock it.
We'd expect to see it in the US too, given that OnePlus phones typically land there, but it might not be officially launched in Australia. It's not clear exactly when the phone will launch, but to be the first in the UK it would likely need to land within a few months.
If OnePlus launches its 5G phone as the OnePlus 7 then we might see it in or around May based on the company's past releases, but some rumors say that the 5G phone will be the start of a new line.
Either way, it's going to cost more than you might expect a OnePlus handset to. The company's CEO has confirmed that it will be around $200 (roughly £155/AU$275) to $300 (approximately £235/AU$415) more than a typical OnePlus handset.
LG
LG could also be one of the first companies to launch a 5G handset, having said that it's aiming to make the first one available in the US.
The phone is set to be a Sprint exclusive in the US, and will land at MWC 2019 on February 24, complete with a Snapdragon 855 chipset and a 4,000mAh battery. That much is confirmed.
Beyond that, it's rumored that this will be the LG V50 ThinQ, and that it will go on sale in March in the US and Europe.
The V50 ThinQ is said to have a 6-inch screen and may retail for between 1.3 million won (around $1,170/£890/AU$1,600) and 1.5 million won (roughly $1,350/£1,025/AU$1,850).
What the phone probably won't be is the LG G8, as a rumor suggests that will only support 4G.
HonorGiven that Huawei is working on a 5G phone it's not overly surprising to hear that Honor is too, given that this is a sub-brand of the company.
Honor's president said – according to Android Authority – that not only will Honor launch a 5G phone in 2019, but that it will be the first to market with a 5G handset.
It has a lot of competition for that achievement, but it certainly sounds like the phone will be coming soon then, though we have no idea which countries it will be sold in.
iPhone 12
Apple will of course eventually launch a 5G phone, but it's not likely to be one of the first companies to do so.
Rumors suggest that Apple won't put 5G support in the iPhone 11 and that instead we'll have to wait until 2020 and the iPhone 12 for 5G.
As of January 2019, the latest news on that front is that Apple is currently deciding which company's 5G modem chips to use, which further suggests a 5G handset is a way out, as that's a decision we'd expect to be made way before launch.
The good news though is that whenever Apple launches its 5G iPhone it's likely to be globally available, since iPhones are sold in most countries.
Motorola
Motorola has taken an odd approach to 5G, as initially rather than a 5G phone from the Lenovo-owned company we're going to see a 5G Moto Mod, one which would be compatible with the already-available Moto Z3.
We don't know exactly when the 5G Moto Mod will land, but the vague window of early 2019 has been put forward, which could in a sense make the Moto Z3 one of the first 5G phones once the Mod does launch.
Note however that the Moto Z3 is a US and Verizon exclusive, so even once the 5G Moto Mod lands there won’t initially be a widely available 5G Motorola handset.
Xiaomi Mi Mix 3
The Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 has already been announced, and while the standard version doesn't support 5G, a 5G model is set to arrive sometime in mid-2019. There's no news on US or Australian availability, but you will be able to buy it in Europe, so the UK might well get it.
Other specs of the phone include a Snapdragon 855 chipset, up to 10GB of RAM, up to 256GB of storage, and a 3,200mAh battery.
The Mi Mix 3 also has a 6.39-inch Full HD+ display with almost no bezel, a slide-out dual-lens selfie camera, and a dual-lens rear camera. So this is a high-end phone, yet it's likely to undercut most early 5G handsets in price.
Oppo
Oppo is yet another company that claims to be aiming to launch the first 5G handset, so based on that we'd expect to see one from the company in early 2019.
Back in December the company even showed off a 5G prototype, one which used the high-end Snapdragon 855 chipset. However, we don't know much else about the phone, or where it will be available. It very possibly won’t be sold globally, since Oppo doesn’t have a big presence in much of the world.
ZTE
ZTE is also likely to launch a 5G phone in 2019 but it probably won’t be one of the first, with the company saying it will land in the second half of 2019, according to Android Authority. We don’t know much else about the phone, or what countries it will be available in.
Vivo
Vivo is also known to be working on a 5G phone, but as yet we don't know much about it and it won't be one of the very first, with the company aiming for a commercial launch in 2020, according to GadgetsNow.
We also wouldn't count on the phone being widely available, since most Vivo handsets aren't.
10 ways 5G will change daily life
Outgoing BT CEO delivers positive final results
Thu, 31 Jan 2019 10:33:58 +0000
Outgoing BT CEO Gavin Patterson says he is handing over the reins to a business with “good momentum” behind it following better than expected figures for Q3.
Delivering his final set of results before stepping down as CEO tomorrow, Patterson revealed strong progress in rolling out ultrafast broadband and reiterated the wider group’s plans for launching 5G later this year.
Openreach has now covered 1.7 million premises with G.Fast, which speeds up copper connections, and 900,000 with Fibre to the Premise (FTTP). More than 2.6 million properties can now receive ultrafast services, bringing BT closer to its target of 5.7 million by the end of the decade. Meanwhile 5G will go live in parts of 16 cities in 2019.
BT Q3 resultsBut investors will be pleased at quarterly revenues of £5.98 billion – down one per cent – as continued growth in its consumer division offset declines elsewhere. Earnings fell by three per cent to £1.88 billion, but both these figures were more than what was expected.
“We have continued to deliver consistently against our strategic objectives in a tough market, resulting in another sound quarter of operational and financial performance,” declared Patterson. “I am handing over the business with good momentum behind its ongoing transformation programme and wish my colleagues all the best for the future.”
Patterson’s handover marks the end of 15 years’ service to the company. He assumed the role of chief executive in 2013 and oversaw the launch of BT Sport and the £12.5 billion acquisition of EE.
However, an accounting scandal at BT Global Services’ (BTGS) Italian division, declining business revenues and spats with regulator Ofcom were regarded as contributing factors to his departure.
His successor, former Worldpay co-CEO Phillip Jansen, has spent the past month working alongside Patterson in order to get to grips with the business. He formally assumes control tomorrow, tasked with implementing Patterson’s restructuring of the company, including job cuts, and the launch of new network services.
There’s also the issue of Brexit, although BT says it has contingency plans for the event of a ‘no-deal’ that will focus on delivering uninterrupted services to customers and to ensure it is able to transfer data to and from the EU.
It does however admit there could be a damaging impact on consumer and business confidence, the extent of which is difficult to predict.
Check out our guide to the best broadband deals for January 2019
PlayStation Plus subscribers now get 100GB of cloud storage space
Thu, 31 Jan 2019 10:14:36 +0000
It's a big month for PlayStation Plus subscribers, as Sony's PS Plus service is going through some major changes from February 2019 onwards.
We already knew that, after February 2019, PlayStation Plus subscribers would no longer be getting free PS3 and PS Vita games as part of their monthly subscription packages. And Sony has now announced the final games coming to those consoles as part of the deal. Seeing the PS3 element of PS Plus off in style, you'll be able to download Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots to your PlayStation 3 this month, along with Divekick. Gunhouse and Rogue Aces will both also hit PS Vita and PS4.
So, with the older consoles being removed from the service, what's Sony offering to balance out the difference? 100GB of cloud storage for game saves. It's a considerable jump from the 10GB currently offered.
It's a useful tool, but unless you've got multiple consoles dotted around your home, are expecting your PS4 to die, or load up saves on a friend's console regularly, we can't imagine it exciting too many players.
February 2019 PS4 games on PS PlusStill, if you are a PS4 owner, when taking into account the above plus the PS4 games being delivered this month, it's a bumper offering.
As well as all the items listed previously, you'll also be getting stealth murder simulator Hitman: The Complete First Season, and medieval hack-and-slash-athon For Honor, where knights, vikings and ninjas go toe-to-toe in multiplayer melee combat.
The PS4 games will be available until March 5, while the PS3 and Vita titles get extra send off time until March 8.
The removal of games will undoubtedly anger some players, and it'll be interesting to see if Sony does anything else to appease them.
The cheapest PlayStation Plus prices: get on the subscription service for less
LG G8 release date, news, price and leaks
Thu, 31 Jan 2019 10:10:15 +0000
Update: The LG G8 is landing on February 24 and it might not be alone. Plus, we've now seen detailed renders seemingly showing the phone, along with hints of a new gesture-based interface.
The LG G8 release date will be announced at MWC 2019 in late February, but we're already hearing about the smartphone's new features and price ahead of time.
New LG G8 ThinQ leaks suggest that LG is making a flagship handset with a second screen attachment. How the two screens attach, and if it's a feature truly intended for the LG G8, remains a mystery as of today.
This is supposedly LG's take on the soon-to-be-trendy foldable phone idea that will take off in 2019. However, it should prove to be cheaper than something like the Samsung Galaxy X that uses a single display that flexes down the middle.
Cut to the chase What is LG G8 The next flagship in the LG G rangeWhen does LG G8 release? February 24What will LG G8 cost? Similar to the LG G7 launch priceOther LG G8 rumors suggest it'll abandon the traditional speaker grille in favor of the Sound on Display technology seen in some LG televisions. This means the audio would come out of the screen through vibrations.
Since we don't know a lot about the LG G8, we've also outlined features it could really use in the year-over-year upgrade.
LG G8 release date and priceThe LG G8 is being readied for a late February launch event at MWC 2019, specifically on February 24. An event invite has now specified that date, following rumors of the same.
This may not be the only LG smartphone in attendance at the mobile conference. That's why we're unsure if the LG G8 will be the one with the leaked second screen attachment, or if that feature will come to a separate phone.
Indeed, we've now heard reports that the LG V50 ThinQ, complete with 5G and a higher price than the G8, will also land at MWC.
You can expect the LG G8 to release in late March. LG usually takes a month from the date of the announcement to roll its phone out to the US and UK, and a rumor specifically talks about a March on sale date.
Rumors about the price come from a report out of South Korea that suggest it'll be in line with current premium-tier flagship phone pricing. The LG G7 ThinQ cost $749 / £619 / AU$1,099, so prices for the G8 may be similar.
LG G8 news and rumorsThe LG G8 isn't destined for a foldable phone future, according to the latest leaks out of South Korea, but it may get a unique second screen attachment. That's rumored to be coming to at least one LG phone at MWC 2019.
This is said to be an effort to rival the Samsung Galaxy X without ballooning the cost of the phone for price-hike-weary smartphone consumers.
However, there's no obvious sign of that in leaked renders, which you can see below. Sets from two different sources have leaked and they look much the same as each other, with a large notch housing a dual-lens camera, a slim bezel below the screen, and a dual-lens camera and fingerprint scanner on the back.
You can also see that there's a 3.5mm headphone port and a button likely to launch Google Assistant. However, it's worth noting that Ken Hong, head of LG Electronics' global corporate communications, has stepped in to say the renders are "speculative" and "not real".
In other news, the LG G8 may get new touch-free gesture controls of some kind. This was hinted at in a teaser, though another report suggests these might be for the LG V50 ThinQ instead.
The G8 might also get an audio boost. A source claims that LG use ‘sound-emitting displays’ in its phones from early 2019, essentially allowing the earpiece to be built into the screen.
Currently the earpiece is one of the main components that prevents a truly bezel-free phone, so with this solved it’s possible that the LG G8 will have no bezel and no notch, though that’s just speculation for now.
A separate report from OnLeaks has also suggested the phone itself won't include a speaker grille as it adopts Sound on Display technology. That's tech that debuted in LG's range of TVs at CES 2018, and that uses the display itself to vibrate to make sound rather than a traditional speaker.
We’ve also heard from leaker @UniverseIce that the LG G8 will have a 4K LCD screen. That’s up from a 1440 x 3120 LCD screen on the LG G7 ThinQ and would be more in line with the likes of the Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium if true.
While the resolution boost would be appreciated it’s unlikely to be that noticeable outside of VR – which may therefore be a focus for the G8.
However, it’s disappointing that the phone is apparently sticking with LCD, given that OLED is generally considered to be better and is increasingly being used by high-end phones, including the LG V35 ThinQ.
The only other rumor so far states that the LG G8 will have a teardrop notch and a front-facing camera with 3D skills. However, the same source says the phone won't support 5G. It's worth noting though that the renders above don't show a teardrop notch, so we'd take this with a pinch of salt.
We can also guess that the LG G8 will probably have a Snapdragon 855 chipset. This chip has been announced by Qualcomm and is likely to be used in many of 2019's phones.
It should be an improvement in a lot of ways - it's made on a smaller 7nm process than the 10nm Snapdragon 845 and could offer up to 45% improved performance.
One report has said the phone won't be capable of 5G despite sporting the super-fast internet compatible Snapdragon 855 chipset. We've since heard again that it won't support 5G, with the V50 ThinQ instead getting the tech.
We don't know many specifics about the camera, but a leak from Korean site ET News has said the phone's shooter will feature 3D technology.
We expect that'll be to improve augmented reality experiences as well as a few general upgrades to normal shooting performance.
What we want to seeWhile we wait for more rumors about the LG G8 to roll in, here’s a list of what we hope the phone will offer.
1. Exciting innovations
The LG G7 ThinQ played things a bit too safe
More than anything, we hope that the LG G8 will have some innovative features that we’ve not seen before.
LG has done this in the past with the likes of its rear keys on older handsets and the modules it launched for the LG G5, but the LG G7 ThinQ is fairly safe and ordinary in comparison.
It gets many of the basics right, but for the LG G8 to stand out from the crowd it’s going to need to do more than that, so we want LG to surprise us.
2. A big batteryOne disappointing aspect of the LG G7 is its small 3,000mAh battery, a battery which can last the day but won’t go beyond that for most users.
That’s roughly in line with many other phones, but they in many cases have much bigger batteries so we’d love to see what LG could do with a big one of say around 4,000mAh.
3. Stereo speakers
Two speakers are better than one
The LG G7 already has a very good speaker, but the key word there is ‘speaker’, not ‘speakers’. For the LG G8 we’d like to see all the fancy Boombox tech return, but for it to be used in a pair of speakers rather than one, so it can offer stereo sound and is less in danger of being accidentally covered.
4. A lower priceThe LG G7 ThinQ is an expensive phone, but oddly in the US it’s a very expensive phone, launching at a higher price than even the Samsung Galaxy S9.
That’s a tricky position for LG to be in, because it’s not as big a name in phones as Samsung, so it can’t really afford to price its handsets higher, at least, not unless they offer a drastically better experience, which the LG G7 ThinQ doesn’t.
So for the LG G8 we want a lower starting price, particularly in the US, but keeping it as low as possible everywhere will make it more widely appealing.
5. No notchWe see notches as something of a stopgap before phones eliminate bezels altogether. But some handsets, such as the Vivo Nex and Oppo Find X, are already getting very close to doing that, and with LG rumored to be building the earpiece into the screen for the G8 it’s not out of the question that the phone could have no notch and virtually no bezels.
6. A braver design
The LG G7 ThinQ is a fairly plain phone
The LG G7 ThinQ has a premium but slightly plain build, lacking the curves of the Galaxy S9 or the striking finish of the Huawei P20 Pro or HTC U12 Plus.
We’d like to see a bolder, braver look from the LG G8, making it a phone that can stand out even at first glance.
If the Honor 10 can pack a color-changing back that light dances across for half the cost of most flagships then LG should be able to come up with something.
7. OLED rather than LCDEarly rumors suggest the LG G8 will have an LCD screen, with the company likely keeping OLED for the V range, but we hope that’s not the case, as with OLED offering superior contrast among other benefits it’s something we’d like to see offered by all flagship phones.
The G8 will have the Samsung Galaxy S10 to compete with
Criterion's streaming service for film buffs is relaunching in April
Thu, 31 Jan 2019 10:03:33 +0000
Who needs new content? Criterion, the online streaming service for classic films, is relaunching in the US and Canada on April 8.
Criterion offers a curated library of over 1,000 classic movies - including the works of Hitchcock, Bergman, and Jean-Luc Gogard, among many others - for $10.99 a month, or $100 for the year.
The select few of you with a Charter Pay TV subscription, however, will still be able to view one free movie each week offered through the Criterion platform. The entire Criterion catalogue will also form part of the incoming Warner Bros. streaming service set to launch later in 2019.
Criterion will be available on Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV devices, Roku streaming sticks, and both iOS and Android.
Black and whiteWith a selection of over 1,000 classic movies, including the likes, Criterion is looking to keep a foothold in a burgeoning market for online TV and film production.
Netflix is a notable example, as a streaming platform that spent literally billions producing its own in-house content throughout 2018. More and more services are cropping up as companies look to host their own properties, such as Disney+ and DC Universe, and the rush to offer new and relevant titles may mean that older classics are often left behind.
If you're looking to keep your classic film knowledge alive, then, Criterion may offer something different enough to keep you interested.
Disney+ explained: everything you need to know about Disney's upcoming streaming serviceVia Engadget
Google+ will start shutting down on February 4
Thu, 31 Jan 2019 09:59:16 +0000
Google has announced its timeline for closing its social network Google+, and the process is starting very soon. For example, if (for some reason) you were thinking of signing up to experience the ailing social network before it's gone for good, you'll have to do it before February 4, when Google will remove the ability to create new profiles, pages, communities and events.
The Google+ comment feature will disappear from Blogger on February 4, and Google+ comments on all sites will begin vanishing into the ether on April 2. Google+ sign-in buttons will also vanish from sites over the coming weeks (being replaced by regular Google login buttons in some cases).
You can download your own Google+ data using Google Takeout, which lets you grab your personal information from all of Google's sites and services. If you're a community owner or moderator, you'll also be able to grab the author, body text and photos for every community post from early March.
On April 2, the doors will close for good, with all accounts and pages shutting down. Google will begin deleting content from accounts, including photos and videos from users' Album Archive and Google+ pages. Anything you've backed up to your Google Photos account will be safe.
Insert heading hereGoogle announced the impending demise of Google+ in October 2018, seven years after it first launched.
The decision followed a catastrophic data breach, which left the personal data of 500,000 users exposed to third-party app developers. The bug was patched in March 2018, but after the discovery of another security flaw later in the year, the company decided to shut the service down.
Despite the bugs, Google has said that it found “no evidence that any developer was aware of this bug, or abusing the API” and that is has “found no evidence that any Profile data was misused”.
Via Android Police
How to back up to Google Photos
Unloved Windows 10 October 2018 Update installed on only 12.4% of PCs
Thu, 31 Jan 2019 09:59:05 +0000
It looks like Microsoft is having problems getting people to install the Windows 10 October 2018 Update, with a recent report suggesting that it’s only installed on 12.4% of PCs.
The number comes courtesy of AdDuplex, which found that out of 100,000 PCs surveyed, only 12.4% were running Windows 10 October 2018 Update at the end of January 2019.
While this is an improvement on December’s numbers, where it was on only 6.6% of PCs, it’s a long way off the previous major update, the April 2018 Update, which is installed on 80.2% of PCs.
While this is only a small sample, we’re not too surprised by these findings, and it’s likely that it reflects the general unpopularity of the Windows 10 October 2018 Update.
Bad startThe Windows 10 October 2018 Update has been plagued by problems since it launched late last year. A number of serious issues, including reports of the update deleting users’ files, meant the update was delayed until December.
The almost constant stream of bad news about the update is very likely the reason why people have been putting off installing the update.
With the Windows 10 April 2019 Update coming soon, we might see many people skip the October 2018 Update altogether and simply wait for the next update. The April 2019 Update should bring all of the features (and hopefully none of the problems) that came with the October 2018 Update.
Want to test the next big Windows 10 (19H2) update? You can sign up nowVia WinCentral
Lumix S1R and Lumix S1 specs and prices leaked
Thu, 31 Jan 2019 09:56:59 +0000
With an official announcement expected imminently, core specs and prices for the full-frame Lumix S1R and S1 have been leaked online.
The Lumix S1R will be Panasonic's flagship full-frame model, and will feature a 47.3MP sensor without a low-pass filter. As we've reported, it will also have a high-resolution photo mode that captures 187MP (16,736 x 11,168 pixels) images.
The ISO has an extended range of 50-51,200 (with a native ISO ceiling of 25,600), while supporting this is a 5-axis image stabilization system with up to 5.5 steps and the ability to shoot 4K video at up to 60/50p.
Burst shooting tops out at 9fps, but for continuous AF this is capped at 6fps, and as it's a Panasonic camera there's also a 6K photo mode that sees 30fps shooting, and a 4K photo mode at 60fps.
The viewfinder looks like it will have the highest resolution of any camera out there, at 5.76 million dots, while rumors suggest that the magnification can be adjusted from 0.78x to 0.74x or 0.7x – although we can't work out why you'd want to reduce the magnification. There's also a movable rear display (we're assuming this will offer touchscreen functionality) with a 2.1-million dot resolution.
Weighing in at 898g and measuring 148.9 x 110.0 x 96.7mm, the Lumix S1R will be priced at £3,399 (about $4,370 or AU$6,150), or £4,199 (about $5,400 or AU$7,600) with the standard zoom kit lens.
Lumix S1 spec and pricesThe Lumix S1 has a 24.2MP sensor, and like the S1R has a high-resolution mode, which in this case can produce 96MP (12,000 x 8,000 pixels) images. The ISO range is a bit broader than the S1R's, thanks no doubt to the less densely populated sensor, with an expanded range running from ISO50 to 204,800 (the maximum standard ISO is 51,200).
The body-only price is expected to be £2,199 (about $2,830 or AU$3,970), while the standard zoom kit will be £2,999 (about $3,850 or AU$5,420).
Panasonic Lumix S1R and S1: everything we know so far
Ruark’s R5 Hi-Fi Music System promises superior sound and sophisticated design
Thu, 31 Jan 2019 09:56:49 +0000
British audio company Ruark has launched its latest product, the R5 High Fidelity Music System, in an effort to appeal to music and design enthusiasts alike.
Designed to act as an all-in-one music system, the Ruark R5 features a multi-format CD player, DAB/FM and internet radio tuners, as well as support for aptX HD Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi streaming. You can even hook it up to your turntable thanks to a dedicated RIAA turntable input, or charge your devices using the USB playback/charging port.
Like previous Ruark devices, the top of the music system features a ‘Rotodial’ controller, which allows you to control playback. It also features an remote control that’s identical to the inbuilt Rotodia controller, so you can control your music without having to get out of your seat. you don’t even have to point the remote at the system as it works via radio communication.
You can control the R5 uses Ruark’s ‘LINK’ app, which is free to download on iOS and Android devices.
The Ruark R5 promises to deliver a fantastic level of audio quality, thanks to Class A-B amplifiers in a 2:1 stereo configuration. The speakers use a neodymium magnet system – that's the most powerful naturally occurring magnet in the world - allowing for potent drivers that displace a large volume of air when they vibrate. This means the R5 should deliver powerful bass frequencies, particular when coupled with the systems built in long-throw subwoofer.
The cabinet that houses all this audio tech is similarly designed to provide a high level of sound quality, having been specially tuned and damped. It’s not all about the audio though; thanks to its gently curved shaped and fabric grille, the R5 has a mid-century quality to it that should look super stylish in the home.
It comes in two finishes, a ‘Rich Walnut’ wood design or a more modern-looking ‘Soft Grey’ lacquer (both look great, but we like the look of the wood/fabric combination best). There’s no word yet on an official release date, but Ruark says the R5 will be available to buy in the next few months for £999 (around $1300 / AU$1800 based on current conversion rates.)
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