LUSARAP

Samsung could launch the Samsung Galaxy S5 and its new version of the Touchwiz UI at a Samsung Unpacked 2014 event at MWC.

THE MOST COMPLETE MMO EXPERIENCE AVAILABLE IN A MOBILE GAME:
• Use the advanced character creation system to customize your heroic avatar, in true MMORPG fashion.
• 5 classic fantasy races available: Elves and Humans fight for Order; Orcs and Undead for Chaos, while our newly added Mendels are neutral. You can have no less than 4 different characters in our game.
• Choose your gender, appearance, class and talents. With over 1,000 skills and 2,000 pieces of equipment to assist you through your quest, your game will not be over soon.

INTERACT WITH THE COMMUNITY:
• Explore the world of Haradon solo, or unleash the true multiplayer game experience: Make friends or enemies, trade, duel, communicate and more. A wide range of interactions makes each player a living part of this fantasy universe.
• Join a party or guild to become stronger and coordinate with your teammates to overcome the most challenging part of MMO games: our Legendary dungeons.
• Take part in epic multiplayer fights and try to lead your guild to the very top of Haradon.

THE WORLD IS YOURS:
• Travel through the most majestic settings of this deep fantasy world -- from dark forests to deserts, jungles, mountains and more -- on foot or by magical means.
• Talk and interact with hundreds of characters to find over 1,200 quests to perform.

With flagship Android phones continuing to grow in size, latest reports have claimed the iPhone 6 will launch with a larger, 4.7-inch display.


With a raft of iPhone 6 rumours having previously hinted Apple is preparing to introduce a larger screen to its upcoming iPhone 5S follow-on, reports out of Taiwan have now suggesting the Cupertino-based company has opted for a 4.7-inch panel.

At present the iPhone 5S features a 4-inch Retina display, down in size considerably on its flagship rivals such as the 4.7-inch HTC One, 5-inch Samsung Galaxy S4 and 5.2-inch LG G2.

Although it has been suggested that the iPhone 6 will make the jump to a 4.7-inch screen, this increase would still make Apple’s flagship phone smaller than the continually growing Android contingent. According to latest rumours, the imminent HTC One 2 will host a new 5-inch panel while the Samsung Galaxy S5 and Sony Xperia Z2 have both been tipped to offer up 5.25-inch displays.

The latest rumoured iPhone 6 details, which are said to have emerged through supply chain sources, are far from official and so should be taken lightly.

Pegging the iPhone 6 for a Q3, autumn release, the reports have suggested the handset will 441 pixels-per-inch image density. This feature casts doubts over the rumoured claims as it is off the expected PPI of a handset with a 16:9 aspect ratio.

The iPhone 5S currently has a 4-inch 1136 x 640p resolution screen with a 326ppi image density.

On top of a larger iPhone 6, the claimed insiders have suggested that Apple will ditch the cheaper iPhone 5C in order to make way for Apple’s first phablet-sized handset.

While it has been suggested that the 5.6-inch handset will not fall under iPhone branding, it is unlikely that Apple would class the product within the iPad family either. Again, take these leaks with a sizeable serving of salt.

If youre getting a little ill over Apples continued success quarter after quarter, we suggest you turn away from the rest of this story now. However, you can jump to the end for a little schadenfreude.


The company reported Q1 2014 results today (covering October 2013 - December 28, 2013), and among its high notes was word Cupertino set an all-time quarterly iPhone sales record with 51 million units sold.

Thats up from 47.8 million in the year-ago quarter.

During the companys earnings call, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer didnt break down iPhone sales by model. He did note the iPhone 5S faced supply constraints, yet the line as a whole still managed to top 50 million. Theres no word on how the iPhone 5C (which may be the last of its plastic kind) fared.

Other tech 

iPads also hit the all-time quarter record mark, striking upon 26 million compared to 22.9 million a year ago.

Oppenheimer called the last three months "one of the best Mac quarters ever." Apple moved 4.8 million Macs compared to 4.1 million during the same quarter last year. Not bad for a 30-year-old piece of tech.

iPod plummet

On the hardware front, iPods took a significant plunge.
The music tech dropped 52% during the quarter, and Oppenheimer said the decline is expected to continue in March.

Toy Defense: Feast on this bird’s eye view tower defense!  If you’re familiar with Balloon Defense and enjoyed it then don’t  miss out here!

Gameplay

In your average tower defense games you simply build, upgrade and destroy.  Soon enough you become bored and you fast forward knowing that you’ve achieved maximum domination… you have the game in the palm of your hands whilst the enemy units are barely crossing half the map.  However, Toy Defense is different here – it features an original idea whereby you upgrade your defense system outside of the battle. Improving your facilities outside enables you to upgrade your towers within the warzone. In other words, your towers will remain weak unless you develop them outside of warfare.

You also get special abilities which can save you in tight spots, like repairing all towers for free, or reviving your defeated units.  These fancy skills make the game that little bit more interesting, but don’t assume you can abuse these abilities because these have to be bought outside of battle.  You’re only given three to start off with, and you have to decide whether you want to spend your points on these abilities or upgrading your towers.

Never underestimate your enemy

Your towers have life bars, and unless you repair or upgrade them, they will be bombed to smithereens, thus leaving behind a grave stone which will obstruct you from building.  Make sure you’re alert when you hit that fast forward button… it is FAST.  If you look away for a moment then you can lose all your towers around your enemy’s route.  It’s almost as if your fingers have to move three times as fast because you’re forced to repair continuously.  This makes the game really challenging so don’t get cocky and hit that fast forward button or else your game will turn into a complete mess when you can’t keep up!

100 lives for gold

Most gamers will consider this immensely difficult, but those who strive to reach that 100%, that gold badge, that perfection, will welcome this with open arms.  It’s undoubtedly easy to pass the game with flying colours of silver and bronze, but to achieve gold is a hideously difficult task.  The loss of just one person can lose you your trophy, so imagine this: you get single stray enemies crawling along the map throwing grenades at you… the enemy trucks which are loaded with troops explode sending their platoon out into the open.  So you have to focus fire down on the squad, but to make things worse, the enemy tanks are still in motion like they’re invincible!  In the late game, either the computer or the game designers really hate you because they unleash mob after mob of units in your face making it almost impossible to surpass.
 

Game Stylisation

It’s a military themed tower defense game, which features soldiers, trucks, and tanks. As for air units, you have what looks like bombers from the sky. Your towers include troops that physically turn themselves into miniature battery guns, flame throwers, and you can buy the strongest defense unit (a tank).  Then there are the cursory anti-air cannons too. What I really like is the military march intro music, it’s up-beat, cutish in a way and extremely catchy as well.  Overall it really does energise the player… (I’m starting to tap my feet already!)

Some control issues

You have 24 levels to play and each level is a large piece of land where you navigate via touch controls of swiping left and right, zooming in and out via pinching with two fingers. However the main problem is that you need to be very precise when tapping on the unit you want and you need to be careful whilst selecting the option to either upgrade/repair /sell a unit.  The buttons are impractically small for even my own not-so-chubby fingers.  Playing on a bigger screen would help but without that option it’s just discouraging when your intentions are to repair the tower above instead of the one below, thus leading to the death of the tower above…

4/5 Rating: Toy Defense is a satisfying game that emits blissful joy right from the start. The awesome challenge and thrill you get when you push the fast forward button is fantastic.  Personally I find the unique and original gameplay makes this great to play, and it’s an essential “must have” in your download history. Furthermore, it’s free!  The only reason I deducted a point from perfection was simply due to the controls but that can easily be forgotten when you’re completely immersed in the game!

The forthcoming Moto X phone may kickstart the new Google-owned era for the company, but Motorola is still planning to keep its existing brands alive, judging by leaks this weekend.


Just yesterday we published a purported leaked press image of the Motorola Droid Maxx, scheduled to arrive later this year.

On Sunday, a photo of a second device emerged, courtesy of the XDA Developers forum, which may showcase the Motorola Droid Ultra.

The white-hued handset, which features capacitive hardware buttons within the bezel rather than on the screen, is thought to be coming to the Verizon network in the US before the year is out

Little else to go on...

Beyond the snap, theres no further information on specs or size. All that we can tell is that the bezel is quite thin and the volume rocker and power button sits on the size of the handset.

Last week, the company sort-of announced the Droid Ultra on its website, advising interested parties to think thin but didnt reveal anything else in the process.

Of course, the device could just be a leaked prototype and nothing like the real thing, but well keep our noses to the ground on this one?

Samsung will launch four new tablets in the first quarter of 2014, aiming to grab a larger segment of the tablet market.

The first smartphone to run on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 805 CPU will be out in May, which has led  many to speculate that it could be the Samsung Galaxy S5.

Google scooped up Quickoffice back in June 2012, then made the iOS and Android document editor free in September of 2013.


Now the app has been bundled with KitKat, giving Android 4.4 users the ability to create and edit Microsoft Office files without even having to open up the Play Store. Google Drive is still present and correct, of course, and 4.4 users will also notice a new file upload/open system that makes it easier to get at files stored in the cloud.

Creating and opening files

Launch Quickoffice from the apps page and youll see a list of your recent files together with options for opening and creating new ones.

The same open and create options are available from the toolbar at the top. Opt to open a file and you can pick from recent documents, your Google Drive account and your devices Downloads folder. Other options may appear in the list depending on the other apps you have installed, and heres a bonus tip -- open up the file picker settings from the menu, enable the "Display advanced devices" option and you can browse your devices internal storage.

Choose to create a new Word document, Excel spreadsheet or PowerPoint file and youll be met with a blank canvas to work with. Tap and type anywhere to begin making edits. Unlike Google Drive, changes arent saved immediately, and youll need to tap on the chunky floppy disk icon (still going strong in 2013) to save your updated file.

Making changes

The Word, Excel and PowerPoint sections of Quickoffice each have their own separate ways of working, but there are some common features. Tap anywhere in a document, spreadsheet or presentation box to make changes. On the toolbar at the top of the screen are options for formatting your text, undoing changes and inserting new elements (like a chart or link).

As word processing is the simplest task to do on a small screen, its worth learning the ropes here. Press and hold or double-tap to select. Use the large "A" icon to bring up text formatting controls, and the plus icon to drop in images and tables. From the app menu you can switch between reading and page view, and youll need to be in page view to resize pictures and tables.

Spreadsheets have the same formatting and insert icons available. Tap a cell to bring up its handles -- use the blue ones to expand the selection and the green one to fill a series of cells with the same value. Functions can be built using the fx button just below the toolbar, and its also possible to drop in charts and freeze particular blocks of cells. The app menu enables you to insert rows and columns where required.

Finally, the presentation section of Quickoffice. Tap the plus icon on the slide thumbnail previews (at the bottom in portrait view, on the left in landscape view) to create a new slide, and you can choose from a set of sample layouts. The editing options are fairly limited, but you can drop in text boxes, pictures and shapes, resize and rotate elements, and change the text formatting as before. The play button on the toolbar lets you show off your presentation.

Saving and syncing

As weve mentioned already, files arent automatically saved as they are in Google Drive. Try and get out of a document, spreadsheet or presentation with unsaved edits and Quickoffice will ask you if you want to keep or discard your alterations. Google Drive is used for storage by default, though the same alternatives appear as when youre opening files, including your devices internal storage if youve activated the feature.

Google Drive can accept and convert Microsoft Office files into its own native formats, of course, so this is another option for editing files on the move (Google Drive presentations can only be viewed and not edited on Android for the time being). Open an unconverted Office file from Google Drive on Android, however, and Quickoffice takes over editing responsibilities. Remember, Quickoffice is freely available on Google Play, though only KitKat users get it included with Android.

The mooted Samsung Galaxy S5 fingerprint scanner has become the subject of yet more rumours, with latest reports claiming the biometric sensor will be located within the phone’s home button.


















In a move that heavily echoes Apple’s iPhone 5S and its TouchID sensor, it has been suggested that the Samsung Galaxy S5 fingerprint scanner will be found in the handset’s physical home button, not built within the phone’s display as previously suggested.

Citing unnamed sources with knowledge of Samsung’s plans, serial tipster SamMobile has claimed that although the Samsung Galaxy S5 fingerprint scanner will be located similarly to that found in the iPhone 5S, Samsung’s offering will be considerably less advanced.

“The sensor itself works in a swipe manner, which means that you would need to swipe the entire pad of your finger, from base to tip, across the home key to register your fingerprint properly,” the insider sources have reported.

A feature that looks set to reach back to the days of clunky laptop-based fingerprint scanners, rather than the sleek implementation of Apple’s TouchID, the tipsters added: “You would need to keep your finger flat against the home key and swipe at a moderate speed or else it won’t recognise your fingerprint.

“The fingerprint sensor is sensitive to moisture, as well. So, don’t try to use it with wet fingers because it will, literally, give you an error and tell you to dry your fingers first.”

With the phone reportedly set to offer visual representations of your digital fingerprint while scanning, it has been suggested that the Samsung Galaxy S5 will allow users to register up to eight separate fingers which can be used to unlock the phone.

While an integrated fingerprint scanner has long been rumoured to feature on the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S4 follow-on, it is far from the only Samsung Galaxy S5 feature to be prematurely touted.

With a 5.25-inch 2K display tipped to be the star of the show, the Samsung Galaxy S5 specs sheet will be reportedly bolstered by a 16-megapixel rear-mounted camera, 3GB of RAM and a 2.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor.

The Samsung Galaxy S5 release date is expected to be announced next Monday, February 24, during the company’s MWC 2014 press conference.

Samsung has sent out invites for an event that should see the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S5.