Doggins pits a time-traveling canine against a devious squirrel

They say that the Internet is like ancient Egypt, with people writing on walls and worshipping cats. There are, fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your proclivities, no cats in this game. Rather, this simple-looking but aesthetically beautiful game is all about a dog. Well, a dog and human history. Or actually a dog, human history, and the maniacal plot of a dastardly monocled squirrel to change the story of human invention. And of course, there will be time traveling involved. No phone booths though.

It would be like a Dr. Who kind of thing, but without TARDIS. Instead, you've got a time-traveling house of sorts. Despite the seemingly action-packed plot of the game, there will be no finger twitching or button mashing in here. In fact, quite the opposite. The game is officially described as a "quiet little adventure game". Those familiar with that genre would know that it's a type of game that involves more gray matter than muscle, especially since it involves item-based puzzles, the types where you try to pick up items and use them on other objects or mix them up to solve a problem.

Doggins was designed and developed by husband and wife team David and Brooke Condolora under the Brain & Brain brand, working on the game in addition to, or sometimes in place of, their full-time jobs. As such, don't expect lush 3D environments or sophisticated gameplay. But instead of being a liability, that is the game's actual appeal. Visually speaking, the game is laid out like a child's story book, with a more graphic art style than one that aims for realism. The user interface is all touch-based and is minimal to go with the overall feel of the game. The effect is that the game looks and plays out to be calming, relaxing, and something that won't get you sweating excessively. And that seems to have struck a chord with many in the gaming community, as it has been nominated for various awards, such as the 2014 SXSW Gamer's Voice Award and Casual Connect USA's Best Mobile Game.

After making its debut on iOS in March, Doggins is now available on Android, both from Google Play Store and Amazon Appstore. The game, however, carries a $3.99 price tag, which might scare off those who aren't that much into the adventure game genre or the game's particular art style. But Play Store's new 2-hour refund window might be enough to give those interested in the game a taste of what's to come.

VIA: Gamasutra

Virtually conquer other countries in Age of Civilizations

If you've always had that megalomaniac tendency that you've been trying to suppress in a bid to play nice with others, then you know that board games, and later on mobile games may be your only outlet to let loose. The classic board game Risk revealed our deepest wishes to conquer other countries, and now a new Android game may also help you with that dream, virtually at least. Age of Civilizations has one goal and that is to make your country take over the world.

Age of Civilizations is a turn-based strategy game where you are the leader of a country that would like to be the topdog of the entire world. It doesn't mean though that all other countries are just content to roll over for you. You need to defend your capital city and if you fail to do so in 3 turns, you stand to lose everything to the invaders. It's not a game where you can just swipe to shoot all your enemies. It takes real-time strategy and a lot of brain flexing to figure out your next move.

Before each round, you give your orders, depending on your Movement Points for that round. The civilizations then execute the orders and at the start of each round, the turn order is randomized. The game has two kinds of maps: Earth, which has 324 provinces and Kepler-22b, which has 404 provinces. Normal view orders include move, recruit, build, disband and annex while with the Diplomacy view moves, you can call for an alliance, a pact, declare peace or war on a civilization. You earn money through the very exciting process of getting income tax, depending on your civilization's population and what they do for a living.

If you're looking for an action-packed war game with state-of-the-art 3D graphics, then this is definitely not what you should play. But if you want to exercise your brain and strategize as practice for taking over your boss' job or another company, then you should buy Age of Civilizations for just $1.89 from the Google Play Store.

VIA: Droid Life

HTC RE camera re-imagines the mobile camera experience

HTC is indeed trying to venture out into new markets and, as expected, digital imaging is just one if its first stops. With the announcement of a slew of new products, including version 1.0 of the Zoe collaborative video editing app, a new EYE imaging experience, and the HTC Desire EYE, HTC is showing that it means serious imaging business. But perhaps nowhere does it look more serious yet at the same time somewhat "amusing", to put it nicely, than with the RE, what it bills as a "remarkable" little camera.

Of course, you can cue "re-" jokes about this, but you have to admit, this diversion from its regular path definitely requires some guts considering this is HTC. While its smartphones have been critically acclaimed, sales and profit figures don't usually reflect the interest surrounding its devices. Jumping into a new market, at least as a far as HTC is concerned, is a leap of faith. Especially when one of the standard bearers is a quaint, weird-looking camera.

There's a reason for that strangeness in form, at least according to HTC. The RE camera has been designed, it says, to fit snuggly into your hands. The premise is that it is natural to hold and will make taking photos and videos easier and faster. The RE's motion sensor automatically detects when it's picked up and turns on the camera automatically, so no more need for waiting for it to power up from sleep. A single tap on the shutter button takes a still while a longer press starts recording video. That's all there is to it. No worries, no fuss. And it's IPX7 certified, giving it the ability to operate in water for a depth of 1 meter for 30 minutes.

As far as camera specs go, the HTC RE straddles the "decent" side of the equation, with a 16 megapixel 1/2.3-inch CMOS sensor. The lens has an aperture of f/2.8 and an ultra-wide angle of 146 degrees. It is able to record 1080p videos at 30 fps, but for a 4x slo mo capture, you'll have to settle for 720p. Of course, the camera is a smart one, so integration with mobile devices is a given.

It can connect to such devices with Bluetooth, WiFi, or even USB. Smartphones can serve not only as remote controls and viewfinders, they can also act as backup storage, though the RE comes with an 8 GB microSD card, which you can replace with something up to 128 GB. That same RE app will soon allow live streaming of videos from the RE camera to YouTube as well.

The goal of the HTC RE is to remove obstacles between the viewer and the object, removing the need to look through viewfinders and screens. That said, the RE doesn't seem to have a window of its own, so it just presumes you instinctively know how to position that perfect shot or are not worried about shaky videos or rotated photos. Either that or you will be left relying on a smartphone for staging the shot, which sort of defeats the RE's entire purpose.

The HTC RE camera will be available in the US late October, with other markets to follow. There will be some accessories available for the camera as well, including a car charger, a charging dock, lanyards, and several types of clips for mounting the RE in every situation imaginable.

TimeTable++ Schedule helps students manage study life

While your calendar started filling up when your work started taking over your life, can you remember that a few years back, your life may have been a little more complicated, at least schedule-wise? Yes, when you were still a student, whether high school or college, balancing your life was not that easy, with classes, homeworks, projects and a social life. Fortunately for students, there are now apps to help them take hold of their academic life (wherein we just used to do it on pen and paper).

One of those helpful tools is TimeTable++ Schedule, a full calendar app that is specifically targetted for students to help them not just keep track of their class schedule. It will also help plot out and remind them of their homeworks, quiz schedules, projects. It can also help the kids monitor their class performance by letting them input their exam results. And yes, cancellation of classes and free time and days can also be inputted to give them something to look forward to.

There are an unlimited number of timetables that can be put in the app, and these are also easily shareable with their classmates and friends. They can share it through social networks but also through email if they want to be more private. Another great feature of the app (well, great for teachers we guess) is that you have the option to mute it during classes scheduled in the calendar, just in case you forget to manually mute it or turn it off.

All of the features of TimeTable++ Schedule is available in the free version. But if you want to get rid of the ads, you can upgrade in-app. Otherwise, just download the free app from Google Play Store.

MyNBA2K15 Lands for Android gamers

2K Games has returned to the mobile gaming market with its latest sports game called NBA 2K15 and its companion app called MyNBA2K15. The companion app gives gamers the ability to earn VC and stay linked to the console version of the full game at home while you are out.

MyNBA2K15 is a NBA themed card battle game that has over 1000 player cards with new backgrounds and photos. The My Team Mobile game offers improved season matchmaking that lets you be paired with opponents of equal skill for a competitive season.

The mobile game also has Quick Game Reward Tiers that give you better rewards as your team gets better. Each of the cards in the game has 1 to 3 slots that can be customized to boost the card's strength. Cards also have five attributes to give more specialization to the players.

Bonuses are now given for playing players in their proper positions. A chat feature in the game allows players to text each other from within the game to meet up in the game park. The game launched this week and is 50MB in size, Android 2.3 or higher is required to play.

SOURCE: Google Play

Chrome OS update for Stable Channel released with MTP

Chrome OS’ Stable Channel has recently been updated for all Chrome OS-powered, Chromeboxes excluded. The 38.0.2125.101 update is released for Stable Channel and is expected to roll out in most Chrome devices the next few days.

Some changes the update will bring include MTP support in the Files app. This means you can simply connect your Android phone to get files. Touch screen accessibility has also been enhanced for a better Chrome OS experience. Google also made some security fixes to the platform.

Google has been giving developers, researchers, and ordinary people the chance to help out in building Chrome OS by accepting fixes. Monetary rewards are generously given to people for helping Google and spotting the bugs. One smart and lucky person is Jüri Aedla for letting Google know of a combination of V8 and IPC bugs, which the search giant believes will ‘lead to remote code execution outside of the sandbox’. Google gave Jüri Aedla a total $27633.70 as cash reward.

Google’s Chromium Security team wants to bring a more secure platform for Chrome and Chrome OS users so it launched a program and asked interested parties to discover and fix the bugs, as well as, implement and improve security features and security hardening measures. All you need to do is find and report security bugs you encounter. You may quality for a cash reward through Google’s Vulnerability Rewards Program. Google will certainly appreciate your report and recommendations.

SOURCE: Chrome Releases

Story Timeline

• Chrome OS Dev update recognizes tethered devices


• Chrome OS update improves window management, adds onscreen keyboard


• First Android apps for Chrome OS are now available