Nokia Puts Four Unofficial Game of Thrones Apps in the Spotlight

Nokia’s blog is now featuring four different Windows Phone fan made apps for the popular HBO series Game of Thrones. With season 3 ending, it’s a great time to catch up on old episodes or beef up on your fan knowledge of the intricate Game of Thrones world.

The first app, Game of Thrones DB, provides a database with almost everything you’d want to know about the series. The app even comes with the latest news, ringtones, links to what others are saying about the series on social media, and custom backgrounds for your phone. Game of Thrones DB is 99 cents and available now.

The second featured app is Game of Thrones Trivia. Fans can keep their show knowledge sharp and compete with other fans to see who can answer the most trivia without a mistake. There is even a mode to play against a friend locally with a timer. Game of Thrones Trivia is free on the Windows Store.

The third one is Game of Thrones Fan App, which features a Twitter feed, and a solid collection of official YouTube videos about the show. There is a great episode guide as well. Game of Thrones Fan App is also free on the Windows Store.

Finally, Game of Thrones – Just a Fan is 99 cents and similar to Game of Thrones Trivia in features but with a great bonus of being able to stream the soundtrack inside the app. The entire Game of Thrones soundtrack is also available on Nokia Music for a fee.

If you’re one of those rabid, diehard fans of Game of Thrones, check out these apps to enhance the fan experience and join the community discussion!

 [Image Credit: Windows Phone Store]

Taskbar – Windows 8 Style for Android

For fans of the Windows Start button and menu, a new app for Android devices from Root Uninstaller has you covered. The aptly named Taskbar – Windows 8 Style, brings a very Windows like overlay to the standard Android interface. The app creates a permanent start button on the bottom right of the screen. When tapped, it displays the start menu and a highly customizable set of views of specific apps and device setting menus. If you’ve ever used the start button and menu on a Windows PC, you’ll be comfortable with the experience immediately.

You can customize the menu to suit your needs and pick specific apps to appear in the start menu for easy access. This is especially helpful if you have hundreds of apps sitting on your device and they aren’t particularly well organized. Many devices also provide their own skins beyond the standard Android interface to adjust settings. Taskbar – Windows 8 Style brings a consistent ability to change device settings to the standard interface. Adding apps to the menu is as easy as opening the start menu, selecting the app to add, and dragging it to the spot on the menu where it should go.

There is also a taskbar overlay, again very much like the one on a Windows PC for accessing frequently used apps at a single tap. The taskbar can be customized with whatever apps or settings you desire and is great for quickly opening up the most commonly used apps.

Taskbar – Windows 8 Style is available free on Google Play today. If you’ve been wanting more of a Windows experience on your Android device, try it out.

[Image Credit: Google Play Store]

Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom Announced With Zoom Ring Feature: price, release date

Finally Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom is now official. The Galaxy S4 already has two species with name Galaxy S4 Active and Galaxy S4 Mini. The SamMobile has already unveiled leaked images of Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom. So Galaxy S3 Zoom confirming rumours about leak images. Samsung galaxy zoom included 4.8 inch touch screen, 21x zoom lens and mobile connectivity as well. No doubt Galaxy S4 is an Android based smartphone, so lets find out its features:

  • Corning Gorilla Glass 3 with Native Damage Resistance
  • 4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED display (960 x 540 resolution)
  • Weight: 208g
  • Size: 125.5 x 63.5 x 15.4mm
  • 8GB of internal memory (user memory approximately 5GB)
  • 1.5GB of RAM
  • 1.9-megapixel front-facing camera
  • microSD support up to 64GB
  • 16-megapixel camera with 10x Optical Zoom, enhanced SMART Modes, OIS 24-240, F3.1-F6.3, Xenon Flash
  • A-GPS + GLONASS
  • 1.9-megapixel front-facing camera
  • Bluetooth
  • NFC
  • Android 4.2 Jelly Bean with TouchWiz on top
  • 2330mAh battery

The Galaxy Zoom Smartphone brings fantastic features like a Zoom Ring, which allow users to easily access camera. The Photo suggest feature “instantly connects you to huge libraries of images taken by fellow photographers”  help you to photo compassion and photo location.

The Galaxy S4 Zoom smartphone will be available in this summer, but  Samsung did not share Galaxy S4 zoom price tag.

MacBook Air 2013 With All-Day Battery

Apple has announced the refreshed, upgraded version of its MacBook Air for 2013. It offers several notable improvements over its predecessor, including purported all-day battery life, 802.11ac WiFi, Intel HD 5000 graphics, and the latest Haswell chips from Intel. Even more surprising, it’s available right now, with no delay!

The biggest upgrade of course is the inclusion of the powerful but efficient i5 and i7 Haswell chips from Intel, which provide a boost in speed and extend battery life. The 11-inch MacBook Air claims 9-hours of continuous battery life while the 13-inch model comes in with a great 12-hours of battery to keep you going the whole day. No more plugging in after a few hours of binge watching some show while you should be working.

Another important update is the upgrade in WiFi speed with an 802.11ac adapter. Apple has promised to release an updated router to handle the speed boost with the newest hardware. Apple has added Intel HD 5000 graphics to the mix, which should also give a noticeable speed boost to more graphics intensive applications.

The 11-inch model comes with 128GB of flash memory and the 13-inch model include 256GB, starting at $999, and $1199 respectively.

With forthcoming updates to Mac OS X and all Apple devices, it looks to be an exciting time for Apple fans. For those who have been holding out for Haswell, now’s your chance to own the latest and greatest from Apple. Not only is the newest MacBook Air light in your hands, it’s proving to be lighter on your pocketbook than expected.

 

BBC Weather App For iOS and Android in the UK

For fans of a quick glance at the weather on the go, BBC has you covered with their new, slick weather app for smartphones on both iOS and Android platforms. The app is nothing revolutionary but it does a great job of presenting everything you’d want to know about your local weather in one eye pleasing format. When you first start the app, it uses your location to load current weather conditions from temperature, humidity, and wind speed to pollen counts and UV levels. BBC Weather offers up to a 5-day forecast for your area which is more than enough, especially if you check the app often.

The app continues the march of native apps that make accessing online data with a smartphone even easier. Yes, the same information is available on the BBC’s website which is optimized for phones, but the app produces a condensed and more attractive version without having to go through a browser.

BBC Weather looks great and is very straightforward to navigate and use. The iOS and Android versions look identical and the BBC has graciously released both versions simultaneously. The Android version has a widget feature for the homescreen and can share location with another Android device but besides that it is no different from the iOS version.

BBC Weather is available free for iOS and Android in the UK, check it out.

[Image Credit: Apple iTunes Store]

Bing Translator Now For Windows 8/RT

Bing Translator has arrived for Windows 8 and RT devices. Originally available on Windows Phone only, the app is a dedicated translation machine with pretty incredible augmented reality features. Bing translator can translate between 40 languages and offers downloadable language packs for translating without a data connection. This is useful for travelers who might find themselves without reliable internet access or who don’t have the time to set up their own connection while abroad. It’s also handy for cutting down on data usage if that is a problem.

There are a couple of ways to use Bing translator. The first is simply typing the text in the original language that you want to translate and then selecting the language that you want it to be translated to. You can choose default input and output languages or easily swap them on the fly. The other, very sleek feature is camera translation that features augmented reality overlays. You simply point the camera of your device at the text you want to translate and the app automatically overlays the translated text on top of it. Even if you change the orientation of the device, the app adjusts and shows the text exactly as it would appear in view. The competing translation app from Google forces you to manually highlight the text from a camera so this feature is a major advantage for Bing Translator.

Another great feature is using Bing Translator for text from other apps or the web. Bing Translator can be accessed using the Share menu and very easily provides translation for any Windows app that might need it.

Bing Translator is available on the Windows Store now. If you haven’t experienced the power of modern translation, you’re in for a pleasant shock.

Source: Bing Translator for Windows Phone

[Image Credit: Windows Phone Store]