Gamer Chick: October 2011

Monday, October 17, 2011

Super Mario 3D Land

My first request: Super Mario 3D Land!!! A definite must-buy for any true Mario fan, or anyone for that matter... It incorporates 2D gaming with a 3D twist! Read on to find out more! TRAILER AT THE END :)

Video Game Releases Oct 16th - Oct 22nd

Batman: Arkham City

Release: October 18, 2011
ESRB: T - Teen (Blood, mild language, alcohol reference, suggestive themes, use of tobacco, violence)
Genre: Action, Adventure
Platforms: 360, PS3, PC
Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive
Developer: Rocksteady Studios

One of the most anticipated game coming out this week is Batman: Arkham City. A spin off of Arkham Asylum, Arkham City offers puzzles, drama, and plenty of fighting. With over 250 collectibles and upgrades, it's a game you will have to play through twice with the New Game Plus, which allows you to play the game again with all of your gadgets and your Riddler Challenge data.

Rocksmith

Release: October 18, 2011
ESRB: T - Teen (Lyrics, Mild Cartoon Violence)
Genre: Music
Platforms: 360, PS3
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft

The best way to describe it: a REAL guitar game. While other music games have you play on a plastic guitar and pushing buttons, with Rocksmith you play a real guitar. The game comes with a jack that allows you to plug in your real guitar into your console. It actually teaches you to play a real guitar and it learns your abilities and gently pushes you along. Definitely a game for anyone actually wanting to learn to play a guitar.

The Sims 3: Pets

Release: October 18, 2011
ESRB: T - Teen (Crude humor, sexual themes, violence)
Genre:
Platforms: 360, PS3, PC
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer:

The latest in the Sims games, Sims 3 Pets allows you to either have pets for your Sims or play as the pet themselves. You can play as a dog, cat, or if you have the PC version a horse. Sims 3 Pets lets you customize the look and personality of pets, giving you endless possibilities.

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Thank YOU

I had to post this because it really made my day. I found out today that I had a couple people who read every blog post I did. To all of you who read my blog, don't be afraid to tell me! It makes me extremely happy to hear. Also, do NOT be afraid to write and give criticism. It is what makes us better, and I REALLY want to know what I can improve on. Also, tell me what you want to see written about! How do I know what you want to see if no one gives me their opinion?

To all who read and who have read my previous blog, I give you my thanks. It means a lot to me.

P.S. Currently working on 5 posts for all of you :) Let me know what you want to read about!

Sunday, October 9, 2011

iPod Nano & iPod Touch

iPod Touch

First let me start of saying that this is now the #1 portable game player as well as music player. The iPod Touch now has many new and cool features. Along with having Face Time, HD video recording, and a retina display, the iPod touch will now come with iOS 5, iCloud, iMessage, Game Center, etc. It also can be used with Wi-Fi for free (nothing new there). Oh did I mention that it also now comes in white?

Prices:

8 GB $199

32 GB $299

64 GB $399

iPod Nano

The iPod Nano now has many new updates. It is much easier to navigate now that they made bigger icons that you swipe between. It also has an improved fitness experience. It now tracks walks and runs straight out of the box. You also can upload the data from your walks and runs onto your computer, you can compete against your friends and try to gain achievements. It also comes with 16 new clock faces and accessories like watchbands. It is also available in 7 colors.

Prices:

8 GB $129

16 GB $149

iPhone 4S

iPhone 4S

Many people were really disappointed that Apple released the iPhone 4S instead of an iPhone 5. At first I was one of those people who was upset by it. But the more I looked into the features of the iPhone 4S, the more I am beginning to like it. Alot.

Let's start with the processor. Apple now put the A5 chip from the iPad 2 into the iPhone. The A5 chip is a dual core processor with a CPU that runs up to 2 times as fast, and it has dual core graphics that run up to 7 times faster. That is not just a tiny difference. That is as much difference as the top speed of an Elephant (10 - 15 mph) and the top speed of a Cheetah (70 mph). Back onto the topic.

While the iPhone 4S has better graphics, you would worry that it would dramatically cut into the battery life. Here is a little chart to show you the battery life of the iPhone 4S.

Mind you this is in hours. I don't know about you, but I am not on my phone for 8 hours a day, and even then 40 hours of music play in more then enough for most people. Wasn't as bad as I was expecting.

The iPhone 4S now has 2 antennas to transmit and receive that it can switch between, even in the middle of a call. This also means that you can download things 2 times faster. It also makes the iPhone 4S a world phone, meaning it can be used anywhere in the world.

The camera on the iPhone 4S has 8 megapixels. It runs 3264x2448 and can print 8x10 photos that are pixel perfect. I don't remember a single phone that I had that could do that. The iPhone 4S has 60% more pixels, and has a backside illumination system that gathers 73% more light per pixel and captures the picture 33% faster. I know that it sounds like I'm just spitting up a bunch of numbers, but this means that this camera is faster and more powerful than a lot of phone cameras. It also has better color accuracy.

They put 5 lenses into the iPhone 4S camera, meaning you get sharper images and better low light performance. You also now get Face Detection and faster photos. The iPhone 4S also comes with a 1080p HD video camera, video image stabilization, and temporal noise reduction.

Airplay is also included in the iPhone. You can stream photos, music, and movies wirelessly onto your Apple TV. If you don't have an Apple TV there is an HDMI cable you can directly hook up your device to.

Also included in the iPhone: iCloud and Siri.

I strongly recommend reading the Siri article.

Main points:

* 2 times faster downloading

* 2 antennas to not lose calls

* up to 2x faster CPU

* up to 7x faster graphics

* 8 megapixel, 3264x2448 camera

* 1080p HD video camera

* Siri & iCloud

Rating: NEED IT

Apple Event

The Run Down!

In case you didn't hear (I'd be surprised if you didn't), Apple held a release event this October and announced a bunch of new features. Continue reading for a brief run-down of the announcements.

iCloud

iCloud

I am going to sum this up. What iCloud does is it "pushes" all of your photos, documents, apps, and music to all of your other iOS 5 devices. No syncing is needed. When you download something onto one of your devices, iCloud automatically starts loading it on your other devices. Say you have to get a new iPod Touch. You can go into the app store, click on purchased, re-download your apps for no additional cost. iCloud also pushes all of your books, contacts, calenders, mail, and find my iPhone. You can also now share your Calenders with other iCloud users.

iCloud also has a little convienient thing called Backup. Once a day, all of your data is backed up to iCloud.

iCloud is free. There is unlimited storage for music, TV shows, apps, and books. You also get 5 GB of free storage for mail, documents, and backup. There are storage upgrades available for a cost of course.

New Apps: Cards, Find My Friends, iTunes Match

New Apps

At Apple's release event this October, they introduced three new apps: Cards, Find My Friends, and iTunes Match.

iOS 5

iOS 5

iOS 5 has over 200 new user features. 10 of these were featured in the Apple release event.

Notifications

Notifications is a new center. All you have to do from the home page is swipe down with your finger. No longer do notifications block your screen. You can also view notifications from the lock screen. From there, just swipe across on a notification and it will automatically take you to the app that sent the notification.

iMessage

iMessage is a new messaging service between iOS devices, like the iPhone, iPad, and the iPod Touch. With iMessage, you can send text, videos, and photos. Other features that are included are delivery and read receipts, and typing indications. Also messages get pushed to all devices and are sent over 3G or Wi-Fi, and also are sent over a secure encryption.

Reminders

With iOS 5 you can now create reminders. The thing that sets this apart from others is that you can create reminders based around a location. For example, you can create a reminder to call your mom when you get home. Later when you arrive home, the reminder will appear on your iOS 5 device. Your reminders are also synced with iCloud, so your reminders will be pushed to all of your devices.

Twitter
Twitter is now integrated with all apps. You can now tweet photos, websites, youtube, maps, etc.

Newsstand
Newsstand was created to keep all of your newspapers, magazines, subscriptions, etc in one place. All of your subscriptions are kept in the Newsstand on the home screen. A nice feature to come with Newsstand is background downloads. Now when you are sleeping or off doing something, all of your subscriptions download on their own so you have it available right away.

Camera/Photos
The camera now has a lock screen shortcut. All you have to do is double click the home button and a little camera pops up. You don't have to enter a pass-code to get to the camera making it easier and faster to take pictures. You can also use the volume up button to take pictures. Other new features of the camera are grid lines, pinch to zoom, an auto-exposure and auto-focus lock (just hold your finger on a part of the screen that you want it to adjust to), edit, crop, rotate, red-eye removal, and one tap enhance. All of that in one little app.

Game Center
Currently Game Center has over 67 million users. You can now post pictures, over all achievement points, friend discovery, and game discovery. It is now easier than ever to discover new and exciting games.

Safari
There were some major changed to Safari. The first one is Reader. Reader, which is featured on the iPhone and iPad, takes a story and formats it to the device to where it only shows the story. Stories can also be saved in the Reader List where you can come back to it later, even on a different device. And instead of flipping through multiple pages in a story, you can now scroll through the story.

The other major change is tabbed browsing. Instead of flipping through pages, you can now flip through tabs that are shown on the top of the browser.

Mail
A couple new features to Mail was introduced. Now while in Mail you have rich text formatting. For those who don't know what rich text formatting is, it includes italics, bold, underline, etc. You also now have indentation control, draggable addresses, you can flag messaged, search through an entire messages, and on the iPad you can swipe over to view your inbox.

PC Free
The biggest announcement on iOS 5 is PC Free. And can I say finally!!! You now no longer have to hook up your new Apple device to a computer to set it up or to get updates. This frees up so many more people to get Apple devices.