Evernote Launches New iOS App Focused on Speed and Simplicity
January 18, 2017 by RSS Feed
Recently, Evernote found itself in the spotlight over some controversial decisions regarding its privacy policy.
Now, looking to change gears, Evernote has officially debuted its brand new iOS app, bumping the version number up to 8.0. With the new app, Evernote has outlined that it is looking at a more minimalistic approach to its mobile app, bringing over several elements of its desktop experience in the process.
Evernote is focusing on being able to get things done, faster, and with a much more simple method. The app makes it possible for users to find notes faster, launch a new not with just a single tap, and even spice things up with color and styles.
“One of the first things you’ll notice is that we’ve improved the overall navigation structure so you can get to your notes quicker. We’ve removed the home screen so you’ll have immediate access to your most recently updated notes. This way, you can start working from where you last left off. No extra taps required.”
There’s an organized view of all the user’s notebooks, and simply tapping on the alarm clock at the top of a note will show the user all of their notes that have been tagged with a reminder. There are four buttons at the bottom of each note, to add voice clips, photos, drawings, and other files.
It’s all been streamlined, and the ability to add color to certain notes to make them stand out, as well as different sizes and styles for text to make them stand out.
“Sometimes, plain black text isn’t enough. Evernote 8.0 gives you more ways to style your text. Use different colors and sizes to create headers and subheaders, call attention to key points, or make it easier to recall information. We make it easy by offering several pre-defined text colors and font sizes for you to choose from.”
Evernote 8.0 is available now, and it’s a free download, which is linked below.
Download:
[via Evernote Blog]
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Save the World From Rampaging Mutant Zombies in Sonny
January 17, 2017 by RSS Feed
Sonny ($2.99) by Armor Games Inc is a turn-based combat RPG that is filled with lots of action and zombies. For those who are unaware, the original Sonny games are cult-hit classics that are Flash-based and you could play them in your browser. This version of Sonny, though, has been completely reimagined for iOS and is well worth your time and money, even if you’ve never played Sonny before in your life.
It seems that ever since “The Walking Dead” became a worldwide phenomenon because of the AMC television series, zombies have risen in popularity among those who usually aren’t into them in the first place. Nowadays, you can’t really find someone who isn’t into the zombie apocalypse thing, or at least knows enough about it. I’ve been a fan of zombies and vampires long before they became popular, but hey, I welcome the trend with a warm embrace. So naturally, when I saw Sonny on the App Store, I was intrigued because for once, you get to fight as a zombie who still has their humanity — that’s definitely something you don’t see every day. Plus, it’s a turn-based RPG style game, which is one of my favorites, so how can I say no to this gem? Needless to say, I’m not in the least bit disappointed with it.
Visually speaking, Sonny is gorgeous and immersive with the bizarre and dangerous world that it takes place in. If you’re a fan of gritty graphic novels and comic books, then you will love the art style of Sonny, as it features comic strip style cutscenes that explain the in-depth story behind the game. And it’s not just the cutscenes that are done up in this fantastic art style, because the rest of the game falls in line with it too. The character models of Sonny, as well as the other characters and enemies that you encounter, are all rendered beautifully and have incredible amounts of detail in their sprites that it makes it feel like you’re just in a giant graphic novel that has come alive. While the tone of the game is dark and gloomy, and most of the environments that you’ll find yourself in reflect this, the game still makes use of bright and vibrant hues that contrast nicely. This is most noticeable with the attacks that will be exchanged between Sonny and his foes, because these can be rather flashy as you get further into the game. All animations are buttery smooth and fluid on my iPhone 7 with no lag, and a captivating and engaging soundtrack. There’s also some great voice acting that is done during the dialogue exchanges. Armor Games have knocked it out of the park with the visuals and audio behind Sonny.
When you first start Sonny, you’ll go through a few cutscenes that explain the origins of Sonny. Essentially, Sonny was on a ship and died, but there’s Louis, who finds him and happens to have this awesome serum that can revive the dead and keep their mind intact but without their memories. But there’s not much time to explain it all, because as soon as Sonny comes back to life, there are other zombies who are trying to kill him and Louis. The only key to survival is to fight, of course.
As the game goes on, you’ll find Sonny and yourself in new zones that reveal the story through character dialogue and cutscenes. While you’re in each new zone, you can just tap on the “Fight” button to begin the multi-stage combat sequence for each level in that area. Each battle consists of several waves of foes, and may have a boss battle during the last phase.
Since the game is also an RPG, you will gain experience points from each successful fight, and it’s possible to find new equipment that you can use, which can increase your power, speed, defense, vitality, critical chance, and hit bonus stats. When you level up, you gain a skill point that can be used to acquire a new active or passive skill in the tree, or you can spend it to upgrade an existing skill to make it even more powerful. Since the points only come as you gain levels, it’s important to think about what you’re putting them into if you want a good character build. Fortunately if you make a mistake, or change your mind, there is a re-spec option so you can distribute the points from scratch, but this will cost you money, and it gets more expensive the more skill points you’ve accrued. Sonny can only have up to eight active abilities to use in battle, so make your decisions wisely.
The combat system in Sonny is pretty simple and straightforward. Everything is turn-based, and each character has their speed attribute that affects how fast their blue “focus” bar fills up. When the focus bar is full, that character can take their turn and time is frozen to indicate this, so it’s not like Active Time Battle like in some Final Fantasy games. When it’s Sonny’s turn, you can tap on the foe that you want to target, and then select the skill that you want to use on them. You can have basic attacks that are fast and simple, or go for your stronger abilities that do more damage, but do have cooldown periods. If you need to heal, you can tap on yourself and select your healing ability. When the focus bar on enemies or your teammates fill up, they will take action on their own, so you don’t have to worry about them.
The difficultly level in Sonny is pretty gradual, though I am reading from iTunes reviews that things get pretty tough starting in Zone Three. This may be the point where you might need to reconsider re-speccing Sonny for a more suitable build, but there is another option available as well: training. From the game’s main menu, you can opt to go train, which features one wave of weaker foes that you can easily take out for some easy experience points. This is a good and quick way to get some extra experience points if you feel that the main story levels are getting a bit too hard and blocking your progression towards better skills and items.
When Sonny advances in the game, he will find some characters that join him on his journey to figure out what’s going on. You can manage your party members from the game’s main menu screen, and even pick what items to equip on them in the Items view. If you’re ever low on cash, and have items that you doubt will be of use anymore, you can sell them for some cash and re-spec when needed. The only bad thing about the teammates that you’ll have is the fact that you’ll have no control over how they perform in battle, so you may get annoyed with the AI during critical moments.
I’m new to the world of the Sonny games, but so far I’m enjoying this iOS release a lot, despite only being in the beginning of the game still. I love the art style, the original soundtrack score is fascinating to listen to and sets the mood perfectly, and the voice acting is well done. As a big fan of turn-based strategy RPGs, I think the combat system is awesome in Sonny, and the game is rather punishing if you make a mistake, so it keeps you on your toes. I do wish that it was possible to control how your teammates fight, but I suppose that the way it is now just means you have to plan out your every move, just in case your teammate can’t throw a heal your way. Still, this is a solid release for iOS and a game that I will be keeping around on my device.
I highly recommend giving Sonny a try if you’re into action-packed turn-based combat RPGs that are filled with zombies and dystopian worlds. You can find Sonny on the App Store as a universal download for your iPhone and iPad for just $2.99. There are no in-app purchases.
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Free Apps to Download TODAY ONLY 01/17/2017
January 17, 2017 by RSS Feed
BusyBox - Track your time, focus on what matters , Yeti Pie , WeatherWheel and more
iPhone:
Tower of Fortune ( $0.99 → Free ) Game Stew Play as a retired hero who is forced to draw his sword once again when his daughter is taken by an unknown power. Spin the wheel to battle opponents, earn gold, and obtain special items. The game includes 39 different enemies, 37 types of equipment, 39 combat quests, 12 tavern quests, and three different endings.Universal:
BusyBox - Track your time, focus on what matters ( $2.99 → Free ) Claire Reynaud BusyBox comes highly recommended today thanks to its wide range of uses. Whether you’re looking to track your workouts or time spent on the job, BusyBox will help you get it done. You’re able to create as many different activities as necessary. They can also be color-coded for quick reference. Then when it’s time to start the activity, select it from your list and start the timer. The app will keep a running log of all of the time spent on each activity, and the data can be exported and shared via email.
Yeti Pie ( $0.99 → Free ) Joe Macirowski Yeti Pie is about as relaxing of a casual game as you’ll find in the App Store. Yetis apparently love pizza pie. They love it so much that they’re willing to steal it from windowsills. You must help them move the stolen pizzas through the forest by tossing them from Yeti to Yeti. Simply pull back and release to launch the pizzas. Pizzas can hit the ground, because Yetis aren’t all that picky about the cleanliness of their food, but they must reach the next Yeti for the transfer to be counted.
WeatherWheel ( $0.99 → Free ) Lukas Boehler Today only: Get WeatherWheel Pro for free! Simply tap the “+” button in the bottom-right corner of the screen, tap “Get Pro,” and then confirm your action. WeatherWheel allows you to set up multiple locations around the world and view them in a scrolling list. But that’s just the beginning. Drag your finger across the screen to move through time and watch as not only the weather changes in real-time, but also the sunrise and sunset. Tap on the “Play Forecast” button to automatically play through three day’s worth of weather. WeatherWheel also includes metric and imperial support.
Sago Mini Babies Dress Up ( $2.99 → Free ) Sago Sago Sago Mini Babies Dress Up is oozing with cuteness. Your child can choose any one of the four Sago Mini Babies: Harvey, Jinja, Robin, or Jack. They can then assemble outfits by swapping out different hats, glasses, shirts, and other accessories. After each baby has been dressed up, you can take a group photo and share it.Source link: http://appadvice.com/apps-gone-free
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Become the Ultimate Duelist in Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links
January 16, 2017 by RSS Feed
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links (Free) by KONAMI is the latest Yu-Gi-Oh! game for the mobile platform and it is based more on the anime series than the real-life trading card game. If you enjoy digital versions of trading card games like Hearthstone or grew up with the Yu-Gi-Oh! series and cards like I did, then you will like what Duel Links brings to the platform.
When I was in middle school going into high school, one of the things that I became obsessed with at the time, aside from Pokémon, was the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime series and card game. In fact, the card game is pretty much how I got started with my first two relationships, so it’s been a rather big part of my life growing up. I participated in Yu-Gi-Oh! events as a teenager and participated in several tournaments and even high school clubs, usually ranking at least in the top three. I believe I even picked up one or two of the video game versions of Yu-Gi-Oh! when I had the money to, but I always preferred the physical card games due to my collective personality. Needless to say, Yu-Gi-Oh! was one of my favorite things as a teenager, and while the obsession has waned a bit as I got into my twenties, I was still excited when I saw Duel Links hit the App Store. Now I get to relive my high school years that were filled with the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime in all of it’s cheesy, corny glory.
If you’ve ever watched the anime, then you’ll feel right at home in Duel Links. The game features shiny and vibrant anime artwork that seem like they’ve been pulled directly from the show. On top of that, the characters have rather expressive faces that change with their dialogue and taunts, and the cards themselves include original artwork from the real trading card game, even though this is based on the anime. Just like the anime, there are plenty of flashy visuals and graphics, and the dialogue from the characters are hilarious, complete with original voice acting. Animations are smooth and fluid so I had no issues with lag on my iPhone 7, and the background tunes just add another layer of excitement and nostalgia to the game. If you were a fan of the show, then you’ll love how Duel Links looks and feels.
When you start the game, you’ll be asked to pick one of two characters: Yugi Moto or Seto Kaiba. Choosing your character grants you access to their starting deck, which includes their signature cards, the Dark Magician or the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, respectively. Don’t worry about commitment though — you’ll eventually unlock the other character you missed out on later in the game. As you make your way through Duel World, you’ll encounter other familiar duelists from the anime, which you can also unlock as playable characters once you defeat them. Once you unlock other characters, you’ll also get their signature cards in their deck, such as Red-Eyes Black Dragon for Joey Wheeler or Harpy Lady Sisters for Mai Valentine.
Even if you’ve never played Yu-Gi-Oh! before, the game is pretty easy to understand how to play since each phase is clearly introduced before you enter it, and you’ll have to manually enter or exit a phase before you end your turn. The basic phases are as follows: Draw, Standby, Main, Battle, Main 2 (optional), and End phase. Each game starts off with a coin toss to determine who goes first, and the one who does go first does not get to draw a card in the first turn. When you do draw, you just tap or swipe on the deck to get a card, and you can tap on any card in your hand to view their effect. To use a card, just drag it on the field and you’ll get options for normal or special summons for monsters, setting it face-down in defense position, activating or setting magic and trap cards. If you can activate a trap card during the opponent’s turn, the game prompts you so you don’t forget about it. When tribute summoning a level five or higher monster, the game makes it easy to select the monsters you want to sacrifice to bring out the bigger and badder monster out. To attack in the Battle Phase, just drag your finger from your monster card to the opponent’s creature that you want to attack, or directly attack them if they have no defenses. You can tap on a card on the field at any time to view the effect as well, in case you aren’t sure what something does.
The structure behind Duel Links is pretty simple: you’ll navigate through Duel World and battle other duelists that are hanging around. There are also missions that you’ll want to complete for rewards, such as more gems or more gate keys, which you need for accessing some Legendary Duelists from the television show. Eventually you will also unlock PVP mode where you can duel with random players or your friends once you’ve added them, but don’t expect to be paired up with equally matched people all of the time, as some balancing needs to be worked on in future updates.
As I stated before, Duel Links is based more on the anime than the traditional card game. This means that instead of each player having 8000 life points, you only have 4000, and rather than five spaces for monster and magic/trap cards, there are only three. Your deck must also contain between 20 to 30 cards, versus the normal 40 to 60. It’s a watered down version of the anime series, but it works surprisingly well for mobile.
Like other card games, the real fun behind Duel Links is your ability to collect cards and customize each deck that you acquire. At the moment, Duel Links includes cards from three sets that are based on the real card game, and you can purchase booster packs with gems. As you just start the game, KONAMI has decided to give players a hefty amount of free gems to start with, so you can acquire a slew of new cards right from the get-go. And even after you spend the initial amount of gems, it’s pretty easy to acquire more as you play the game constantly and level up your characters and collect daily login bonuses. If you are out of gems and really need more cards, you can always purchase more gems or boosters through in-app purchases.
When you acquire more cards from booster packs and rewards, you’ll want to customize your deck for better synergy and strategy. You can access the deck editor from the game menu, and there are a few ways to go about editing your deck. You can do it manually by going through your deck and card collection and adding or removing whatever you want, or you can go the lazy way and have the game auto-generate a deck for you with some of your best cards, but don’t expect the best synergy from this method. While this is not a full TCG experience, there’s still a good amount of depth and strategy involved for veteran Yu-Gi-Oh! players.
I’ve been playing Duel Links over the past few days and have been enjoying it greatly. It’s a nice nostalgic throwback for me personally, and the visuals look great and the music is fun. The dialogue has been giving me a ton of laughs because of how corny it can be, and the controls are great for touch screen devices. Even though it’s a free game, I feel like it’s pretty generous with the gems and you can get a ton of cards for your decks right from the start, so that’s nice to see. I will definitely be spending time with Duel Links for a while, though I wish that the difficulty in the beginning duels was a bit more challenging.
I recommend checking out Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links if you’re a fan of cheesy anime dialogue, Yu-Gi-Oh!, or card games in general. You can find Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links on the App Store as a universal download for your iPhone and iPad for free with in-app purchases. The game is also available on Google Play for your Android friends.
Source link: http://appadvice.com/reviews
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Free Apps to Download TODAY ONLY 01/16/2017
January 16, 2017 by RSS Feed
Vima - GPS Bike Ride Tracker , InstaPlace , Week Cal Widget for iOS calendar and more
iPhone:
Vima - GPS Bike Ride Tracker ( $1.99 → Free ) 30 South LLC Vima helps you keep track of your bike rides without allowing a bunch of unnecessary features to get in the way. Just hop on your bike and hit the record button. The app will keep track of your speed, distance, altitude, and route while also providing audio feedback. If you own an Apple Watch, you can start, pause, resume, and save rides without ever having to access your phone. The app also includes split times, routes that are color coded by speed, and the ability to share your workouts.
InstaPlace ( $1.99 → Free ) byss mobile It allows you to place your current location, the local time, captions, and other custom data over the top of your photos and videos. You're able to capture a new photo or video in-app or import one form your library. Skins can be added by swiping through the vast library, and you can reposition them at either the top or bottom to avoid blocking your subject. Your new creations can be shared via Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. InstaPlace has more than 70 built-in skins, including dynamic ones that adapt to your day.Universal:
Week Cal Widget for iOS calendar ( $1.99 → Free ) Crater Tech LLC Week Widget isn’t a standard calendar app in any way, shape, or form. It taps into your iDevice’s native calendar app in order to populate a Today view widget with everything that’s coming up on your schedule. When you launch the app itself, you’re greeted with ways to customize the look and content of the widget. Week Widget includes a day timeline, a week timeline, and the ability to scroll through days and weeks.
Data Widget ( $1.99 → Free ) Jerry Jee Data Widget is so simple yet so effective. Launch the app, set your data cap, set your start and end date, and record any usage you may already have. Then swipe down to bring up Notification Center and add the widget by tapping the “Edit” button found all the way at the bottom. After that, any time you want to check your current data usage in real-time, just swipe down. You can also now check your usage via Apple Watch.
Nonagon Pro - Mathematical brain training ( $1.99 → Free ) Daniel Sadjadian Nonagon will put your math skills to good use. It offers four different modes: Normal, Timer, Negation, and Impossible. In all four modes the goal is generally the same: hit the target number within nine turns. You’re able to accomplish this seemingly simple task by punching numbers on the pad and adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing them. You’re limited to the numbers on the pad, so there is quite a bit of strategy involved, especially since you can’t undo entries.Source link: http://appadvice.com/apps-gone-free
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