Tag: Smartphone »

Would you like to get your hands on a brand new Honor 8 Pro? Well now’s your chance with Pocket Gamer’s biggest ever competition to date.

Let us know what you look for most from a gaming phone and you could be in with a chance of winning one of five brand new Honor 8 Pro smartphones.

The Honor 8 Pro is the brand new iteration of the Honor 8 device, which looks to build on all the best qualities of the former and more, boasting two 12 megapixel cameras, a stunning Quad HD display and an ultra sleek design.

With a 5.7 inch screen, you will be immersed for hours in your favourite games and videos which you can enjoy in superb cinematic quality. But that's not all, with the 4,000 mAh battery you won’t be left constantly thinking of your charger, letting you enjoy your pocket size accomplice wherever you go.

How to enter

To enter simply reply to the tweet below letting us know your requirements for a perfect gaming phone, followed by #PGamerWishlist, #honor8pro and @honorglobal. We'll look at all entries and decide on 5 lucky winners that will receive a new Honor 8 Pro

Win one of 5 brand new Honor 8 Pro smartphones in our biggest giveaway yet. To find out how to enter go to: https://t.co/tkWOBCYp3x pic.twitter.com/QAXI5pqssm

— Pocket Gamer (@PocketGamer) June 9, 2017

You’ve got until midnight on Monday 19th June to enter which is open to readers’ worldwide!

Competition rules

• The competition closes on Monday 19th June, at midnight BST, and no entries will be accepted after this date.
• You must use the hashtags #PGamerWishlist, #honor8pro and include @honorglobal in your reply for your entry to be considered.
• The winners will be notified by Twitter or Facebook shortly after the closing date of the competition – make sure you are following Pocket Gamer so your account can receive direct messages, or opened your Facebook account so you can receive inbox messages.
• The competition is open to readers worldwide.
• The winners will be the persons who the judges deem has answered the challenge in the most appropriate fashion.
• Pocket Gamer parent company Steel Media's decision is final, and no correspondence will be entered into regarding the winners of the competition.
• The competition is not open to employees of Steel Media or Honor or any of their agents involved in setting up this competition.
By entering, you agree to the official rules and Steel Media's Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

“Pro” by name and “pro” by nature, in almost every way Honor’s latest upgrade to its smartphone series intends to provide the hardcore mobile gamer with all the features they could ever need to maximize their fun. Not only is it packing much more power thanks to the addition of a 4,000mAh high density battery, but it also ups the display resolution of an already striking 5.7 inch display screen. Both allow the Honor Pro 8 to cater for longer play sessions on the go, however intense a game’s graphics may be.

The clever chaps over at Honor have even designed their latest device while keeping the future of gaming in mind. The Pro’s VR integration means that those who prefer to experience their worlds from the inside as well as out can look forward to being fully immersed without it ever feeling weighty, a handy side-effect of such a sleek yet comfortable outer case design.

Talking with the fine folk over at Honor, we recently discussed the Honor Pro 8’s various new systems and features which seem determined to remedy some of mobile gaming’s biggest drawbacks.

What key differences separate the Honor 8 Pro from the previous Honor 8 model?

• The three products under Honor 8 series are equipped with different features and made available to meet users’ evolving needs and different preferences.

• The Honor 8 Pro is our super flagship product in 2017, it is the highest qualified and best performing smartphone ever created by Honor. It boasts the most outstanding features that a premium phone carries at only EUR500 price range: ultra-thin 6.97mm body with flush 12MP dual-lens camera, Kirin 960 and 6GB RAM, EMUI5.1, 4,000mAh high density battery and so on.

• The Honor 8 is our 2016 flagship product which boasts a futuristic design with 2.5D glass-made body with a 3D grate design on the back, carrying powerful features such as 12MP dual-lens camera, Kirin 950 and 4GB RAM, 3,000mAh battery.

What aspects of the phone make it ideal for gamers?

Users of the Honor 8 Pro could enjoy remarkable gaming experience even with the most demanding games, because:

• Games look better than ever on the Honor 8 Pro’s stunning display
The Honor 8 Pro’s 5.7-inch Quad HD display boasts the highest levels of color accuracy and detail, featuring a high resolution of 515ppi and support for 94.5% of the NTSC color gamut, displaying 16700K colors. Professional calibration brings the best out of the display, with color enhancement technology, sharpness enhancement in the display engine and a 2D image detail enhancer.

• Maximum performance with industry-leading hardware and software
The Honor 8 Pro is the best performing Honor smartphone ever, ready for the most demanding games and applications. Its octa-core Kirin 960 chipset boosts single-core and multi-core performance by 10% and 18% respectively, while the Mali-G71 GPU exceeds its predecessor in graphic rendering by 180%.
The industry leading Vulkan API delivers significant improvements to the Honor 8 Pro over its predecessor Open GL by relieving the CPU’s strain processing image gallery and UI effects, raising the device’s graphical and data processing capabilities. All-round graphic performance is enhanced up to 400%. The device also ships with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage.

• Gaming Performance Cruise, an exclusive industry-first feature pioneered by Honor
Game performance is often not primarily hindered by raw processing power, but by heat-related issues. When the processor begins to overheat, the CPU will run at a lower clock rate, impacting performance. Honor’s engineers have developed Gaming Performance Cruise in EMUI 5.1, the first feature to ship on any smartphone that intelligently maintains consistent performance, while reducing power consumption and thus heat issues – all to deliver a smoother gaming experience.

Gaming Performance Cruise reduces performance loss and power consumption by 20–30% during gaming and extends smooth playing time by 25–42%*.

Can you tell us a little more about the dual camera system. What are the benefits of this over a single camera lens?

• The Honor 8 Pro is packed with two 12-megapixel lenses, one monochrome and one RGB, which capture images simultaneously. The monochrome lens captures a black-and-white image with impressive details, while the RGB lens focuses on capturing color, leading to great color reproduction.

• The Honor 8 Pro blends in cutting-edge hardware and software. With data processed by the Prime image signal processor (ISP) and merged by a proprietary algorithm, the phone allows you to capture shots with superior detail, depth and color.

One of the big talking points of the Honor Pro 8 is the battery. Could you share some details on it?

• Long Battery Life: The 4000mAh high density (710 Wh/L) battery working alongside the advanced power saving features of the 16nm Kirin 960 chipset brings ultra-long battery life. Honor 8 Pro’s battery life can last 2 full days of regular use, almost 1.44 days of heavy use, enough for 108 hours for music streaming, 18 hours of video streaming, 10 hours of video playing on Youtube, and 7 hours of VR streaming on Jaunt.*

• SmartPower 5.0: The intelligent power saving technology can optimize power consumption of front office applications while ensuring their smooth operation; with its intelligent management of back office applications, SmartPower 5.0 can automatically identify and terminate processes with exceptionally high power consumption, preventing back office applications from activating the entire system too frequently, hence reducing the overall back office power consumption. In the meantime, it manages alerts to optimize power consumption when the phone is on standby.

*Data based on Honor lab tests. Battery life may vary based on usage patterns and network conditions.

This article is sponsored as part of Steel Media Preferred Partners.

Winding Down July With 148Apps

How do you know what apps are worth your time and money? Just look to the review team at 148Apps. We sort through the chaos and find the apps you're looking for. The ones we love become Editor’s Choice, standing out above the many good apps and games with something just a little bit more to offer. Take a look at what we've been up to this week, and find even more in our Reviews Archive.

NINE

NINE is an appealing and convenient twist on the typical To-Do list format. Focused on providing visual reminders rather than text based ones, you simply snap a photo of something then tag it and you have an instant reminder to do or buy something. It’s a nice idea.Much of NINE’s convenience comes from its flexibility. Rather than being tied into dull lists reminding you of what you need to do, you can use it to remember things you want to buy come pay day, or simply as a visual list of things/people you love. Recipe ideas can be formulated through taking snaps of foo that inspires you. It’s all pretty varied in terms of what can be accomplished. --Jennifer Allen

To-Fu Fury

Somehow making an incredibly boring kind of food fun, To-Fu Fury isn’t the most original of physics puzzle games, but it is solidly dependable. You control a sentient piece of Tofu as he has to leap around various platforms, dodging spikes, collecting gems, and even fending off aggressive enemies. Each level is relatively brief but it’s quite challenging. You can drag the Tofu around, fling it across the screen in an Angry Birds style manner, or you can crawl along the ground with a pinch of two fingers. Various challenges arise, such as the need to carefully get around spikes, learn to ricochet off metal plates, and also negotiate tricky moving platforms. --Jennifer Allen

Baffles Classic Puzzles

Baffles Classic Puzzles reminds me a little of the puzzle books that my parents would give to me on a long journey to keep me busy. They’d be simple-looking logic puzzles but often they’d take a while to figure out. This game is just full of those, and that’s a good thing. Offering 76 puzzles in all, with a further 24 coming soon, there’s no shortage of challenge here. Each puzzle is offered to you with a description of what needs to be accomplished, along with some historical context, explaining the origins of the puzzle. Baffles Classic Puzzles takes its inspiration from many different eras, including ancient Rome and China. --Jennifer Allen

In Churning Seas

In Churning Seas is a physics-based puzzler in which players attempt to assemble randomly-shaped crags into an island that successfully persists above a constantly rising sea level. The difficulty in making high quality physics-based puzzle games is in balancing the inherent challenge of the mechanics and tools with the physics. In Churning Seas makes an interesting, though perhaps not entirely successful, attempt at striking this balance while providing a really excellent atmosphere and general aesthetic.Controlling In Churning Seas is easy enough. At the start of any game players have a randmoized base island to start from, a rising sea below, and random shapes appearing above for them to tap to drop into their desired place. The goal is to piece together enough shapes and have them hold together long enough to reach new heights. Along the way players may hit a specific height goal, which provides the benefit of locking the other pieces in place to create a more stable structure to continue building off of. In the event that players need some stability when a height goal is out of reach, they can double-tap a limited amount of blocks to lock them in place as well. --Campbell Bird

Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers 20th Anniversary Edition

There’s a reasonable argument against the need for HD remakes as it is. Do we really need to return to so many old games, all for the sake of some shinier graphics? Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers 20th Anniversary Edition really reinforces that concept by somehow disrupting some of the key visual and audio flourishes of the original. Throw in the fact that the game is often quite obtuse, and the past doesn’t seem so great any more. The foundations are pretty solid, at least. Ritualistic killings are occurring in New Orleans, and it’s down to struggling author, Gabriel Knight, to figure things out. True Detective fans are going to like this. At least they will until they realise that Gabriel is a fairly obnoxious womaniser. Arrogance is fair enough at times, but this character takes it too far. --Jennifer Allen

Other 148Apps Network Sites

If you are looking for the best reviews of Android apps, just head right over to AndroidRundown. Here are just some of the reviews served up this week:

AndroidRundown

inStream SeptimusB 7 Port USB Charging Station

As we like to say, more mobile devices, more problems… power problems to be specific. Even as batteries get better, there is always a need to keep our power units powered.Yeah, one can plug in a charging peripheral to every outlet at work or at home, but then, one needs to walk all over the place to retrieve them. It’s just better to have all of them in one place, especially for those of us with a healthy helping of OCD.And then, here comes the wordy inStream SeptimusB 7 Port USB Charging Station.Alrighty.--Tre Lawrence

Zero Punctuation: Hatfall

If one must know, Zero Punctuation: Hatfall is a story of loss and redemption. Sometimes, folks get really attached to headgear, and this game tells the tale of a dude driven mad by loss.Oh dear.At first glance, one might be a bit dazzled by the sharp yellow background; we don’t get a lot of colors, but that is okay, as the game works with the color contrasts within. Visually, it works.--Tre Lawrence

NU2S Smartphone

There are many reasons folks dabble into Android.Love of the OS, appreciation for the extended Google ecosystem… even a hyper anti-Apple sentiment get cited as reasons. Critically, one can enjoy the diversity of product as well as as apps availability across carriers.One element that increasingly becomes part of the device ownership narrative is price; the ability to get a device at just about any price point is, well, priceless. And, to be fair, we are not talking about just anything at any price; we expect quality, even when we pay what might be considered a good price for an Android smartphone. Now, obviously, the ability to have OEMs battle to bring the best devices to market at the lowest cost is a function of the Android landscape, but we’re not complaining.--Tre Lawrence

All this, plus news, game guides and even more reviews than we can share here!

BiteMyApple.co has announced that they will begin shipping their new iblazr today. iblazr is a synchronized flash for iPhone, iPad, and Android that allows users to take better illuminated shots.

Chris Johnson, Founder of BiteMyApple, said “Smartphones and tablets allow us to take high-quality photos anywhere, but the built-in flash isn’t enough during low-light settings. The iblazr provides users with the same illumination capabilities that a high-end camera provides. You can use the small external flash with your front or back camera so you’ll get the perfect shot or selfie every time.”

The iblazr has its own built-in, rechargeable 200mAh battery that provides more than 1,000 flashes or up to 40 minutes of constant light mode for videos. This means it won't kill your phone's battery while you take a video of your cat doing something ridiculous.

The Iblazr is available now for $49.99 on BiteMyApple.co.

This week at 148Apps.com, everything was about end of the year wrap-ups and countdowns. Carter Dotson compiled an extremely helpful multi-part 148Apps Top Apps of 2012, and he also gave us his Favorite Things of 2012: "In particular, Super Crate Box and Super Hexagon both left me in states of constant desire, wanting to get that high score while tackling the immense difficulty both games presented. Yet there was one consistent thread in both: failure was usually my fault, the factor of poor execution rather than random chance. It makes success feel all that more empowering. The byproduct of it is constant failure, and frequent profanity usage."

Oprah has nothing on Carter. Read his full list of Favorite Things on 148Apps.

What's a New Year's celebration without pizza? Is it any wonder, then, that Amy Solomon at GiggleApps.com reviewed Bamba Pizza: "This is the fourth year my son will receive play food as a large part of his holiday and birthday gifts from my husband and me. Although he has different hobbies as well that are demonstrated in the other toys he plays with, not a day goes by that it isn’t a birthday for a doll or stuffed animal where pizza is always served, along with cake, cookies and many other selections.

Although I would never expect Bamba Pizza or other apps like it to take the place of playing with toys in the real world, my son also enjoys playing with these types of apps when away from the house or when lying in bed before or after a full night’s sleep, when play food items are not welcome."

Read all of Amy's review at GiggleApps.

The holidays also present endless opportunities for taking photos. AndroidRundown.com reviewer Tre Lawrence showcases a venerable iOS photo app, now making the transition to Android: "There was a time, not all that long ago, when cameras on phones were not too hot. The hardware was rudimentary, and the accompanying software bordered on the silly. Pictures were not that great.
Since then, it has gotten better… much better. So much so, that for many people, their smartphone cameras are the cameras for everyday use.

Snapseed (from Nik Software) is an app that looks to perfect the picture-taking experience. It is a photo-editing title that incorporates a lot of the features people have come to expect with apps of this type. Being chock-full of fan favorite filters definitely makes it an interesting offering."

Read Tre's full review at AndroidRundown.

By this time next week, we will be in 2013, so all of us at 148Apps would like to take this moment to thank you for your constant readership throughout 2012. Without you, loyal reader, we simply wouldn't exist! Thank you, and Happy New Year from 148Apps!

This week at 148Apps.com, site editor Rob LeFebvre took an in-depth look at the new Logitech Wireless Boombox. LeFebvre writes, "Logitech’s newest addition to the device genre is by far the best I’ve played with. The sound is amazing for such a small footprint; the lows are deep and rich, the highs successfully bright without becoming too brittle.

The hardware itself is smooth, sleek and rounded. The dip in the middle, where an old school boombox would have held a tape deck, is just right for a hand to grasp it, obviating the need for an extruded handle. The unit feels solid, like it would hold up to some roughness in handling. The plug and line-in jacks are thoughtfully covered with a rubber flap, protecting from dust or mist. In the back of the unit sits a flip out stand, one that folds flat against the boombox for easy travel."

Read the full review on 148Apps.com.

GiggleApps.com celebrated what's left of winter with Amy Solomon's review of Into the Snow: A Stella and Sam Adventure. Solomon states, "Not only are these puzzles fun and interactive, but I appreciate how Stella creates a motif around each puzzle once created, also showing as a faint gray drawing in the snow, demonstrating what one can do with one’s imagination, as the stick man turns into a soccer player or as the additional details are added to the sailboat which are also made from sticks. They then include an ocean full of waves and a “show shark” that moves with the tap of a finger as well as birds seen in the distance. I really enjoy the basic style of art used in these snow drawings, childlike and reminiscent of the illustrations found in Harold and the Purple Crayon."

Read more at GiggleApps.com.

And last, but certainly not least, 148Apps.biz writer Brad Hilderbrand reported on a recent agreement regarding smartphone customer privacy: "In a potentially landmark move Apple, Google, HP, Microsoft, and Research in Motion (RIM) have come to an agreement with California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris to strengthen and enhance user privacy. The companies have agreed to create and prominently display a privacy policy detailing what information they collect from consumers and how exactly they plan to use it. App Store curators such as Apple and Google will also have to keep a close eye on how the apps sold in their stores handle user privacy, and both the developers and distributors of offending apps could be hauled into court."

Read more on this developing story at 148Apps.biz.

That's a wrap on another week that was. Join us next week for another week that has passed....or something like that. In the meantime, keep up to date on the latest app reviews, news and contests by following us on Twitter or liking our page on Facebook. Bye now!

Facebook announced today the addition of both social reporting and password reset to their mobile apps.

Social reporting, a feature available on the web-version of Facebook since March, allows users to submit a report on content they are unhappy about both to the posting user and Facebook. "Safety and child psychology experts tell us that online issues are frequently a reflection of what is happening offline. By encouraging people to seek help from friends, we hope that many of these situations can be resolved face to face," says the social reporting page itself. This feature will now be available on mobile devices, as Facebook reports that almost 70% of these reports result in the original poster removing the offending content on their own. Makes sense why they'd want this on mobile apps, as many of us do our Facebook activities from our iPhones.

The second feature, mobile password reset, seems like a no brainer in a world with continuous access and private information coming and going from websites and iPhone apps like Facebook's. If the comments to the announcement are any indication, many users will benefit from this enhanced security precaution.

[Via: ReadWriteWeb]

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