Have you switched from a handheld gaming device to game apps on your phone or tablet? This is the newest trend in gaming. Handheld devices are not nearly as popular as they were in years past. What is causing this change in gaming?

01. Apps are Cheaper

Have you looked at the price of handheld device games? A new game can range from $20-40. A used game will cost about $10 if you buy it from a game dealer. Apps, when they aren’t free, are generally in the $1-3 range. The saving is significant. For the same price you pay for one game in Gameboy, you can get 10+ games for your mobile device.

02. Play a Game Quickly

Getting a handheld game up and going can take a while. Smartphone and tablet apps on the other hand are quick and easy to get started with. With just the touch of a button, you can be playing. This is a huge draw for anyone who only has a few minutes here and there. Casual games that only require minimal time and effort have always been popular, but they are becoming more important to the gaming industry.

03. Carry one Device or Many?

One of the biggest detriments handheld games have in this arena is that they require a separate device. Who wants to carry around their Playstation Vita when you can play on your phone or tablet? On top of hauling the gaming device around, you also have to bring all of its peripherals – games, charging cord, etc. However, if you play on your phone or tablet, you have one device on which you can play, work, and more.

04. The Sense of Touch

As humans, we like to use all of our senses as often as possible. Because of that, touch screen games are extremely popular. The fact that your phone or tablet can be played using touch is a big draw for many people. Along these lines, the option to use either a finger or a stylus on many mobile devices is helpful for many who like as many options as possible.

05. Fun New Games – Fast

Are you constantly looking for something new and exciting? Then mobile device gaming is for you. There are always new games to try. These games are created and produced much faster than games for handheld gaming devices. Instead of a new release once a month (if you’re lucky), you can find fun new ways to spend your time weekly.

06. Try Before you Buy

Have you ever bought a game and decided you didn’t like it? Generally, you are out of luck. You might be able to resell the game, but you can’t return games that have been opened. However, with app games, there is frequently the option to try before you buy. Many of the most popular app games have free or demo versions that let you decide if you like the game before spending money on it.

Handheld gaming devices and app games are at war. Which side do you think will win?

About The Guest Writer

Angela is a freelance tech, travel and health writer. When she isn’t writing she is cooking, hiking and researching the latest tech news on her Android tablet.

Tags: #Gaming #Smartphone #Tablet

2012 was a busy year for Android Tablet makers. There were lots of unique Android tablets introduced in several events around the world. Most of those were having amazingly powerful hardware muscle, almost same as a Laptop computer and powered with Android 4.0 Ice Cream sandwich.

In 2012 January at Consumer Electronic Show held in Las Vegas Wikipad Inc introduced a very unique kind of android Tablet named Wikipad. This is the world’s very first Android Gaming Tablet as well as Glassless 3D Tablet. They were expecting to release this to market by end of 3^rd quarter and official specification is already out. Wikipad is under NOG spotlight today.

Device Configuration

Design

Design of the tablet is standard single block type. You can find stereo speakers and camera at rear panel while other connectors are placed at sides. Wikipad could be docked (slide in) in to a gaming cradle. There you can find the entire standard gaming controllers such as joy sticks, direction pads and other buttons. This dock converts the whole device in to high performance gaming consol.

Processor and Storage

Processor in Wikipad is 1.4 GHz Quad Core Cortex A9 running on Nvidia Tegra 3 chipset. 12 Core GeForce GPU is there to turn Wikipad in to the best Android gaming tablet. This comes with 1 GB DDR2 RAM and 16 GB internal storage. You can add another 64 GB through microSD card slot.

Display

Wikipad is having 10.1” IPS panel with resolution 1280 X 720 which will give you 145 ppi of pixel density. This is pretty much standard configuration, yet display is stereoscopic. On this display you will be able to enjoy 3D visuals without wearing any glasses. This makes Wikipad, the world’s very first tablet with 3D display.

Operating System

In the very first display, Wikipad had Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. But they are going to ship the device with latest Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. Of course there will be some customization and pre installed applications to support the gaming environment.

Camera

There is an 8 MP primary camera which can record 1080p videos. Front facing camera is 2 MP and could be used for video chatting.

Connectivity and Interfaces

I could not find any official record about connectivity features in Wikipad. However having 3G or LTE connectivity is very unlikely. There will be Wi-Fi connectivity for internet access and multiplayer games. In side panel you can file 3.5 mm audio out and microUSB port. Through USB you could connect the device to a computer for data transferring.

Battery Life

There is a 23.46Wh battery which is enough to have good 6 hours of gaming with this device. If you are using this for video playback it will extend to 8 hours.

Wrapping Up

Android Gaming Tablet is a brand new concept and will have good chance in market. Device comes with good hardware and nice built. However, if you forget the Gaming cradle, rest of the device is just an average android tablet which you can already purchase in market. One good example is Google Nexus 7. So Wikipad will face very tight competition once it comes to the market, especially with price labels.

According to latest news, tablet will be priced at $199 and another $50 for gaming cradle. This is a competitive price, but still I have no reason to buy a separate tablet only for gaming. I’d be happy if Wikipad inc could come up with Gaming cradle for Google Nexus 7.

Tags: #Android #Nvidia #Tablet

Era of optical drivers is almost gone. It’s the time of USB storage devices. With improvement of data transfer rate in USB 3.0, ease of use, expandability and reduced cost they are getting extremely popular. Today there are lightning speed terra devices you can easily carry in your pant pocket.

However still some people are facing problems when using USB devices. Mainly USB pen drives. One major problem is unusual longer time they take when you are coping large files or large number of small files. I gave you a tip to solve that problem up to a certain extent using TeraCopy.

Today I’m going to clarify another major issue you might face when using a USB storage device. It’s “what is the best file system to use to get maximum out of it?”

When you plug the USB drive and then try to format it, there you will be able to see list of file systems. If your drive is lesser than 32GB, there you can find FAT, FAT32, NTFS and exFAT. If it’s bigger than 32GB you have only NTFS and exFAT. Those file systems have different capabilities and different compatibility issues.

What Are The Common File Formats?

FAT and FAT 32

FAT is the most common and most compatible file format. Its very light weight and works great with all OS and platforms. If you have any compatibility issue when you plug your USB drive in to your car audio, try formatting it with FAT file system.

But remember in order to use FAT, the device storage must be lesser than 2GB. It doesn’t have any in built security mechanism such as file encryption.

FAT32 is the advanced version. It has smaller cluster size and support up to 2TB. However in Windows it’s restricted to 32GB and this works only with Windows 9X and latest operating systems. Still this doesn’t have built in security.

NTFS

This is not a new thing for Windows users. Most of the times internal HDD are formatted with this file system. It has smaller file allocation unit size and advanced security features built in such as encryption and user permissions. It’s allowed device size and maximum file size is practically unlimited and works with Windows platform.

exFAT

This is my personal favorite. This has practically unlimited storage size and file size support. It works great with all the common OS and platforms. If you need data encryption it provide that as well.

Conclusion

After studying the above file systems, you must have figured out that there is no common file system which works for all the devices. It’s highly subjective and below are the rules I’m using.

• If the USB drive is lesser than 2GB use FAT. It will give you maximum compatibility.
• If drive is greater than 2GB and I need maximum compatibility, go for exFAT.
• If you need maximum Windows based security, such as permissions and encryption, go for NTFS.

I hope this clarifies all your issues about selecting the right file system for your USB drive. Our comment forum is open for your feedback or any further help.

Tags: #Files #Storage #USB

One of the major problems you will face with Android tablet is lack of apps. If you go to Apple’s App Store you have a wide variety of tablet optimized applications and that is the success factor of iPad, not the technology or OS.

However Android tablet applications are also slowly growing like they did for Smartphones. Though the number of tablet optimized Android applications are thousands not millions, still there are few cool apps which will give you great tablet experience. Here I’m pointing you out few.

Adobe Photoshop Touch

If you are using PC version or Mac version of Adobe Photoshop you know what kind of magic it can do.  With this application Adobe PS is extending its territory to Android world giving you most of the core Photoshop functions to Android Tablets. The best part here is it is utilizing the large display space in Tablets and gives almost PC like photo editing experience.

Click Here to buy the application at Google Play.

SketchBook Pro

If you are an artist and you love to draw, you can use your Android tablet as your canvas. Unlike the real canvas you can take your tablet where ever you go and share the drawing you just made with your facebook friends etc.

Click Here to buy the application at Google Play.

Kindle

Since your Tablet is having a large display than a Smartphone, it’s an ideal platform to read eBooks. Amazon Kindle is a great Android application you can use for eBook reading, downloading and sharing. It provides you important features such as orientation, font size, and screen contrast and brightness adjustment to avoid eye strain.

Click Here to download the application at Google Play.

Google Earth

I’m pretty sure that you have enjoyed the Google Earth on your computer. Now you can enjoy the same with your Tablet. Same as all the above apps Smartphone display is way too tiny to run this kind of application. But in tablet you can enjoy almost PC like experience with Google Earth’s cool features. In addition you didn’t have photorealistic 3D building in Smartphone application. But here with Tablet you can access those as well.

Click Here to download the application at Google Play.

Angry Birds

The favorite game of iPhone users and then became the same in Android Smartphone as well. However playing angry birds in large display in tablet is not even comparable with the gaming experience in Smartphone. You can play latest edition of Angry Birds on your Android Tablet’s large screen and utilizing it’s great graphic performance.

Click Here to download the application at Google Play.

Tags: #Android #Tablet

Notes Of Genius is an online tech magazine that provides you an insight on latest achievements, trends and issues related to cutting edge technology. Since the founded day, 1st January 2010, NOG has come a long way and has gained a great deal of popularity among readers of all kinds.

The best thing about NOG is, we share first hand information as well as tried-and-tested solutions in a way that could be perceived by all readers irrespective of their technical competency.

Content

All content in our magazine are categorized under different topics. Software, Gadgets, WWW, Transportation, Games contain reviews and hands-on experiences of the writers. Tech category is dedicated for technological developments and insightful explanations whereas emerging technologies, possible future advancements and new concepts will be featured under Future Trends. How-To category consist number of tutorials to provide practical solutions to your Tech problems.

Contributors

We possess an editorial panel who are well equipped with knowledge and are very keen on sharing them among our readers. But we also do believe in fresh blood! Which is why NOG has become an excellent platform for emerging writers to express their views.

Contact Us

• Editor: malinda [at] notesofgenius [dot] com
• Write For Us:  writers [at] notesofgenius [dot] com

Couple of decades ago mobile phones were having physical keyboard to operate it. It worked so well for a long time. It was designed to dial a number and with 2G technology type text messages as well. After some time with complex features in mobile operating systems handset manufactures included direction pads and joystick as well.

In early time of new millennium mobile phones leaped ahead and became Smartphone. Most of the Smartphone get rid of conventional physical controllers and move towards touch inputs. Using them they could let the user to use very complex features on modern mobile operating system effortlessly.

Today Smartphone are having processing power as good as desktop computer and multi touch displays. Millions of handsets are being sold with advanced touch input and it has become a day to day item in general public. Next generation of human civilization will never know a mobile handset with actual physical buttons. This is the evolution of mobile handset from physical buttons to touch input.

The next question which comes to you mind is, what is the next big step in mobile handset evolution? There are several thoughts coming to mind as answers to this question. Among all my favorite idea and most probable implementation is “Holographic Displays”.

What is a Holographic Display?

Generally Holograms are 2D canvas which can display 3D objects. You can find them in many places in real life such as your credit card and driving license. There you can see 3D object in 2D sticker and depending on the angle you look at it you can get different views, same as in real 3D object. Those holographic stickers are difficult to reproduce and used to indicate originality of products.

Using the same underlying fundamental concept laser devices can create 3D images in thin air. This is a brand new experience to us. Every time we see a reproduced image its 2D and there is a screen. Even if you experience Wi-Max 3D, still there is a screen. But with Laser hologram there is no physical screen. It juts appear 3D objects in air.

However the technology is not yet sophisticated enough to generate complex graphics and created images are not realistic enough to use for commercial purposes.

How to Use Holographic Display in a Smartphone?

Normally in a Smartphone we see images in 2D display and touch responsiveness is also limited to 2D surface. Yes, some applications are capable of displaying 3D images, but still they are virtual 3D and displayed on 2D surface.

The day engineers equipped a Smartphone with a Holographic display, the images stuck in 2D display will pop out of the phone as real 3D objects. Smartphone home screen will spread out in air and menu item will start floating near them. Once this becomes reality it will be the next big thing in Mobile handset evolution.

Display real 3D images in air won’t be adequate to deliver a great user experience. There has to be motion sensor which can understand hand gestures and control the UI accordingly. When you combine this kind of motion sensor to a Holographic display, you will be able to actually touch a 3D object which popped out from your phone and turn it around with your fingers. Same concept will work even better with large screens in tablets.

Technical Challenges

Smartphone displays are mainly used for information presentation such as web browsing, multimedia application and Games. In those case color reproduction need to be accurate and frame refresh rate need to be greater. And the holographic display should be able to display 2D images whenever necessary.

Current laser hologram technology needs to go a long way to meet the above requirement. Current state is color reproduction quality is very low and refresh rate is average. When it comes to hardware, it’s not ready to live in tiny Smartphone body. If you consider the power consumption laser hologram will kill the most powerful Smartphone within seconds. Therefore we need to polish up hologram display technology before it’s plugged in to a Smartphone.

When it comes to 3D motion sensors, the situation is way better than holographic display. Technology already produced few 3D motions sensors and some of them are already in the market such as Microsoft Kinect. Still the technology needs lots of polishing up to miniaturize the hardware to place them in Smartphone body.

In our life we have experienced speed of technology many times. Back in 1990s we were using 2G mobile phones for sending text messages. After 10 years we have Smartphone with multi-touch displays, high speed data connectivity, GPS and HD displays. Today it might sounds like a day dream to embed holographic displays and 3D motions sensors in Smartphone, but technology will surprise us within couple of years with way advanced technology for sure.

Tags: #Smartphone #Tablet

Short message service came in to mobile phone world with the era of 2G technology. With in very short time it went viral and became day to day activity for most people. With this trend mobile handset manufactures also came up with smart ideas to let the people type text in their mobile phones.

Predictive text was there for very long time and BlackBerry made a huge market for physical QWERTY keyboard. With the development of capacitive touch screens QWERTY keyboard became on screen. But it was never like typing in real physical keyboard.

But no doubt, the best way to type message is computer keyboard. But can you really send a SMS using full size keyboard. Yeah, some computers come with GSM SIM card slot, but it’s a very rare case. If you have a android phone with you, by simply installing and app, you can make it happen. The app you have to install it MightyText and it’s under NOG spotlight today.

How to Setup MightyText?

On Your Android Smartphone

• As the first step you have to go to Google play and Install MightyText on your Android Smartphone.
• On installation you have to grant required permissions as well.
• This mobile application work as client to link your phone to computer.
• If you go to settings you will be able to see three options, better to check them all.
• Now your phone is ready to work with your computer. Now move to your computer.

On Your Computer

• On your computer you have several options depending on your browser.
• For Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox there is a browser plug-in.
• For above two and Safari you can use web application. According to my experience this is the best way.
• Same as the mobile application you have to use your Google sign in and grant required permissions.
• Now you are good to go and MightyText will take you to it SMS panel.
• In left panel you will be able to see all the SMS threads in your phone.
• Sync Google contacts to see the names along with SMS threads.
• You can compose new SMS by pressing the button at the left top. SMS will be sent through your phone.
• Through web application you can start voice conversation, get notified for incoming as well.
• MightyText work for MMS as well.

MightyText works as a remote controller for your phone and letting you to control SMS through web interface. The best part here is you can use full size physical keyboard to type SMS. This would be great news for SMS junkies.

The web interface is carefully designed and work as a rich internet application. So you can put it in a SSB (Site specific browser) for better performance.

Quick Catch-up

Try this great application on your Android Smartphone, enjoy typing SMS on your computer keyboard and never forget to share your MightyText experience with NOG community.

Tags: #Android #Smartphone

Almost all of the Laptops are coming with Wi-Fi adapter inbuilt. Using that, you can easily access internet when you are in Wi-Fi hotspot. It’s not only about accessing internet, you can transfer files and various other communications through Wi-Fi. Sometimes you may be using wireless broadband with USB dongle. In that case can’t other devices connect to your laptop through Wi-Fi and share internet.

Unfortunately Wi-Fi doesn’t work that way. It requires Wi-Fi access point to connect two compatible devices. Your next question, “Can’t I turn my laptop in to Wi-Fi access point?”. Yes! You can since hardware in Wi-Fi access point is pretty much similar to one in your laptop. But you will need special software running on your Laptop. This is where Connectify comes to the picture.

Connectify is piece of software which can convert your laptop in to Wi-Fi access point or a hotspot. Then you can connect any other Wi-Fi devices in to your laptop, share internet, transfer files or run any other Wi-Fi application.

How to Setup Connectify?

• Download and Install Connectify
• After installation wizard will ask you to reboot the computer. Proceed with that.
• Once reboot completed it will show you a windows with steps that you have to do to configure Connectify.
• It will ask you to add Connectify to windows firewall as exclusion. If you have any other firewall installed you will have to do the same there.
• There will be an icon placed on system tray. Click on that.
• It will open a panel where you can enter hotspot name and password.
• Then you can select the source of internet if you need to share it.
• Finally click start hotspot.
• It will take some time and it will notify you once it started working as a Hotspot.
• Now Connectify Wi-Fi hotspot is activated. Any other Wi-Fi device can now connect to your laptop through Connectify.
• All you have to do is go Wi-Fi settings in device you want to connect to your laptop, search for Wi-Fi networks, locate Connectify hotspot by given name, enter password and connect.
• If you share your internet connection it also will be shared among connected devices.

Wrapping Up

This is a perfect solution for you to setup personal area network with couple of Wi-Fi enabled laptops without having Wi-Fi router. All you have to do is install and setup Connectify in one Laptop and it will act as the access point for all the other laptops. Same way you can share internet as well. In that case you have to plug a Broadband dongle to the Laptop which is acting as Wi-Fi access point. It’s simple as that.

Recently I introduced an android application which let you to control your computer through your Smartphone. It uses Wi-Fi and in the case you are not using Wi-Fi router, you can use Connectify to let the Unified Remote to connect to computer.

Quick Catch-up

• Unified Remote – Control Your PC with Android Smartphone

Connectify is a commercial software application, so you can use only the Lite version for free. If you need advanced features such as Drag and drop file transfer, repeater functionality and premium support you must purchase the PRO version. Hats off for the development team for adding most of the important features to Lite version.

There could be lots of creative applications of Connectify. Try this piece of software and share your experience with NOG community.

Tags: #Notebook #Wi-Fi

Gmail is the most popular and best online email service which is offering you complete set of features. Now most of the individuals and organizations have stopped using installed mail clients due to capabilities in Gmail.

But one of the major missing features in Gmail is scheduling. If you need to send a email in a given time, there is no inbuilt feature to get it done. Previously I introduced you Boomerang and Web browser plug in which is adding feature Schedule email to Gmail.

Quick Catch-up

• Add Scheduling to Gmail with Boomerang

Today I’m going to introduce you another tool which is going beyond email scheduling and offering your Email tracking as well. This comes as a web browser plug-in same as Boomerang and its name is RightInbox. This plug-in is specially designed to work with Gmail and after successful installation it will add new options to Gmail mail composer.

How to Install RightInbox?

• Go to RightInbox from your browser. It supports only FireFox, Chrome and Safari.
• Click on install now there.
• Proceed with the installation step by step and finish installing it.
• After the installation you will have to grant required permissions for RightInbox.
• Now you are done and you can start using RightInbox with Gmail.

• After installation refresh your Gmail page.
• Click on compose you will be able to see two new options in the mail composing window.
• Fill the other fields as usual and click Send later button.
• It will give you few options to select the time of sending.
• Choose available shortcuts of specify the exact time.
• Once you select the time it will go to drafts with altered subject indicating scheduling details. Don’t worry, only the original subject will be send to recipient.
• Before the scheduled time you can go to drafts and alter the scheduled time, change email or discard it as you want.

• Go to Gmail composer to fill the other field of email.
• You can find check box right next to send later button labeled as track. Check it in.
• Then send the email to recipient. You could use send later feature as well.
• Once the recipient opens the email you will get notified by another email from RightInbox.
• Once recipient click on any of URLs in the email, you will get notified again.

This is the first question that came to my mind once I tried RightInbox. I won’t be able to tell you what is the exact underlying technology they are using, but I have a good guess. For the email scheduling they must be using details in email subject. Once you schedule it alter the subject with sending time and save in draft. RightInbox could come in to my drafts and send it in given time. That’s why we have to grant access permissions in the first place.

When it comes to tracking they are using very simple technology.

They are inserting html img tag at the end of each tracking enabled email. Once the recipient open the email, img tag will get interpreted and given src URL will get accessed. The URL is unique and through that they can figure out the opened time of email. Since HTTP request contain IP adddress of origin RightInbox can get that data and give the location of recipient. Then they generate email notification and send it to you. Entire URLs in the email also modified to go through RightInbox server, so they can track them easily as well.

Wrapping Up

The RightInbox plug-in worked great with Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. I didn’t test it with Safari, yet I expect the same. The additional options are getting integrated with Gmail seamlessly. You will never feel that they are not original options in Gmail.

Reliability of scheduling and tracking are at its optimum level. This comes in hand for many business people to schedule their email and even track them. RightInbox email tracking is not only for opening, but for clicking on its links as well. So you can get a very clear picture about recipient actions.

However, the free version of RightInbox is giving you limited number of emails per month to schedule and track, If you need unlimited version you must purchase the PRO version.

Try this great plug-in to schedule and track your email and never forget to share your experience here with NOG community.

Tags: #Email #Gmail

Whenever you try to perform an action in Android OS, it’s giving you the option to select the application which you need to complete the action with. Down there you can see the check box to make this option the default option. Then it won’t show you the dialog box. Instead it will open the default application straightaway.

After sometime you need to change the default application for a specific action. Most of the applications are instructing you to go to Settings -> Applications -> Manage applications to change defaults. If you are using latest Android 4 ICS when you go to Settings surprisingly there is nothing call manage apps. Instead there is a section call Apps, but it’s only listing downloaded, running and all applications in the section running application, there is an option for you see the cached application as well.

How to Change Default Applications?

Seems in the apps section in settings, there is no option to change default application. But you came to the right place and here is how to do it. In this example, let’s assume that you set Chrome browser as default over android browser. Now you need to set Android browser again as default.

• Go to settings -> apps and then go to tab all.
• There you can see a list of applications which are installed on your Smartphone.
• Find chrome and tap on it.
• Then find the section Launch by default. If you have no default action related to this application this part would be deactivated.
• Click on the button clear default.
• Then go to some other application and click on URL. Now it won’t directly go to Chrome and again it will ask you to select the application.

This is how you have to change default applications in Android 4 Ice Cream Sandwich.

Tags: #Android #Ice Cream Sandwich