Thursday, August 30, 2012

Free Ringtones, SMS Notifications and Wallpapers with Zedge

Back in the day when I still had my Sony Ericsson phone, I used to visit the Zedge website to get themes and stuff like that for it. Ahh fond memories hehe...

I have seen the Zedge app in the Play store a couple of times, but never really bothered to check it out, but this morning I decided to download it and see what they have, and I was not disappointed.

I now have a new ringtone that sound exactly like the theme song for the very awesome Game of Thrones!!

Also got a bitchin new wallpaper or two, and I just scratched the surface! Here are a few screen shots:





You can not only get ringtones, but also regular wallpapers, live wallpapers, notification alerts and even some games.

If you like customizing your phone with sounds and stuff like that, this app looks like the perfect one stop shop to satisfy your uncontrollable need to change your ringtone and/or wallpaper on a daily basis :)

Get it here

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

My top 5 daily used Android apps

I decided to make a post to show which apps I tend to use on an almost daily basis.

1. Whatsapp

If you don't know what Whatsapp is, then you're missing out - it's a free messenger, which allows you to send IM's (instant messages) to any of your contacts who also has the app installed. The nice thing though, is that you get Whatsapp on different platforms as well, for example Android, iOS, Blackberry, Nokia and Windows Mobile 7 and up.

Not only very handy for quickly, and best of all, CHEAPLY (uses only a little bit of data), sending messages to anyone, you can also send photos and videos, and, if your phone has a GPS, your exact location at that time, which the recipient can open on their maps app.

If I were to get a new phone, this would pretty much be the first app I install!

Get it here

2. Steam

I like playing games on my PC, and one of my favourite things on my PC is Steam - it's a game delivery platform, through which you can legally buy games, which you can then download and play. The best part of Steam is that they have constant specials on various games. Plus there's the yearly Steam Summer Sale, which tend cost me too much money every time!

Steam on Android is basically just a mobile version of the desktop app (though you can obviously not play your games on your phone...), so you can quickly see what's on sale when you're out and about, chat with your friends on steam and all kinds of stuff like that.

As you can see below, Homefront is on sale for less 75% - I've never played the game, but I'm very tempted to actually buy it! $5 for a mainstream game like that sure is a bargain in anyone's book!



You can get Steam here

3. Tweetdeck

I used to like using Tweetcaster, but I wasn't that fond of viewing tweets of the people I follow on that. Then I did some searching, and discovered Tweetdeck. I now use this everyday to see what the people are saying. The other nice part about it is I've linked my Facebook feed to it as well, so I can view both of those updates on the one platform :)




The blue posts in the bottom screenshot are Facebook updates.

Only thing I'm not that fond of with this app is to tweet to certain people isn't very easy, I remember in Tweetcaster when you use the # or @ symbols it opens up a list of people you can choose to tweet to. Other than that, to stay up to date on what's going on in my Twitter stream, this is the app I prefer.

A last thing I want to add, it loads ALL the people you follow's tweets in the list, so if you are following lots of people, and you haven't checked it in a few days, it can take quite some time to scroll up to the latest tweets :)

Get it here

4. News24

This will probably only be for South Africans, since it's our biggest local news website's accompanying app. It has basically the exact same articles as the website, although you cannot view and make the comments on the articles, which isn't a bad thing. Most people tend to just share hate on any article.

I also find myself not liking to use this app, since the news is 98% of the time something bad, but I keep coming back for more to see what's going on in South Africa, and the rest of the world...



A very straightforward app, which does exactly what it is supposed to. Share all the bad news :(

Anyway, get it here

5. Google Chrome Browser

Last but not least, Chrome is probably my favourite new feature of the ICS update a few months back. It's Google's own browser, and boy does it just work!

As you saw above, I use Tweetdeck to stay up to date with my Twitter account, and a lot of the people I follow tend to post links to website, tapping on them always opens the link up in Chrome, and I haven't had a single issue on any website where I couldn't read the text or something like that.

If you are one of the lucky ones to have upgraded to Chrome, then this is a total must to replace the stock browser.

Get it here

To conclude this post, I'd like to invite you to post your favourite daily used apps below in the comments section, I am forever finding myself on the Google Play store to check out what's new on the market.

(sorry that I disabled Anonymous commenting, I was just getting too many spam comments!)

Just for Fun: Zombiebooth

Ok, this is not the most useful app out there, but a fun thing to fiddle around with anyway...

Ever wanted to see how you would look if you were a zombie? Get Zombiebooth, take a picture of yourself, and the app will turn you into you. Not just a still photo either, you move around, make zombie sounds and when you touch the screen, your zombie self will start munching on your finger!



Very pretty hey? Shaking the phone generates a different zombie, and you can take a photo with the app itself, or select an existing photo on your phone.

Yup, useless indeed, but fun to show to your friends :)

Get it here

Game Review: Dungeon Village

Hi guys, it's been quite a long time since I posted something, so I decided to get right back to it again. A few weeks ago I was a bit bored, and decided to give Dungeon Village a try, luckily they have a demo version available as well.

A while back, I did a review on Game Dev Story, and Dungeon Village is made by the same developer. You can almost immediately see the similarity on how the game looks and so on.

After playing it for about 10 minutes, I just couldn't resist and bought the full version.

Here are a few screen shots:





These are just some of the many things that can happen in the game.

You are basically the mayor of a small town, and adventurers come to your town to fight monsters, level up and spend gold.

There are so many aspects to this game, I find it hard to decide on where to begin.

When you start, you only have a handful of buildings, and almost immediately an adventurer wanders into your little town to come and check it out. They wander into the wilderness on a regular basis, and fights with the various kinds of monsters the game features. As they win battles, they level up, making them stronger, and increasing their satisfaction and stuff like that.

Every time they kill a monster, you get some more money to spend on new buildings and items.

Then all of a sudden a quest pops up, and you can, for a fee, recruit some adventurers to go on this quest. It might be something like old ruins they go and explore, or a monster mob just outside your town walls that they must defeat.

If one of your adventurers succumb, they don't die permanently, but slowly regain their health, after which they'll fight on. While recovering, if another adventurer happens to walk past, he will pick up his fallen comrade and take him back to the inn, where he can recuperate a lot quicker.

While on a quest, a bar at the bottom of the screen appears, which represents the linear path of the quest. On the bar you'll find chests that contain loot, as well as monsters that need to be defeated before carrying on. It's as simple as that!

The loot can be given to your adventurers as presents (boosting their stats and satisfaction), or even to your buildings to increase their appeal, how much they charge and the quality of their wares. Even the buildings can level up, they simply need to get a certain amount of visits from your adventurers!

As you go about managing all this, your town will increase in popularity, which in turn will attract more adventurers. Eventually, if your adventurers are satisfied enough in your town, they'll request for you to build them a house, and you can start earning taxes from them!

Later on you can hold events as well, which either boosts stats of your people, or popularity of the town. Every now and then you'll even get to fight against a boss, which not only gives lots of experience to those who take part in the battle, but also a nice big pile of gold! You even get medals that you can award your people at the end of each year, boosting their stats even more.

Now, I've already written quite a lot above, but this is barely touching what this game is all about! It has a very similar feel to Game Dev Story, but that is definitely not a bad thing. I'm glad I paid the $4.99 for it, it was money well spent!

Get the demo, or Lite version here

Or buy the full version (which you'll do after playing the Lite version) here

Till next time (I promise it will be quicker this time!)