Smartwatches are still trying to answer a lot of questions, chief among them being, "What do people actually what to do with them?" Their small size means many platforms will need to be reimagined to fit their screens, and Microsoft Research is trying to tackle the most important one—texting.
In an Android world filled with racing games, you guessed, Road Smash 2 is yet another one of those games following in the grand old tradition of Need For Speed and Gran Turismo, where the games carry real-life licensed cars that gamers use for their road racing fetishes.
The game is developed by Creative Mobile’s Fun Factory, who spared no expense in getting these real-life car licenses just to place them in the game and into your mobiles. We have to warn you though that this is a 3D game, and will eat up resources like a hungry lion – the game is optimized for higher-end Android devices like the Samsung Galaxy S3 or better, the Nexus 4 or better, and the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 or better. If your device’s specs is within the vicinity of these, then you can give this a spin.
The game focuses on arcade racing of course, with locations featured from around the globe. There’s a single player campaign mode with 75 missions and some bonus side missions as well. And what is a car game without the customization? Boring, of course, so the developers made sure you get tons of upgrading and painting and re-painting.
Lastly, there is also an online/social portion where you can compete with your friends. Grab the game at the Google Play Store via the source link, which like the developer’s other games is a free download with IAP. Take it for a spin and tell us what you think.
SOURCE: Google Play Store
If some of you are not familiar with SuperSU, that’s probably because you haven’t gotten around to gaining root access to your device. Most of the users who root their phones will know about SuperSU (and enjoy the naming redundancy) – an app that allows you some management and control as to which apps and aspects of your device will be granted root access.
Chainfire, developers of the app, have been toying around with betas for a while now, but has finally released version 2.13, with a nod to preparing for Google’s big and anticipated Android L release which coming pretty soon. Chainfire says that a lot of work has gone into making SuperSU work with the curren AOSP builds and ROMs you’ll find out there – hinting that these might be the same security features that could turn up in the first Android L release.
So what’s new in this version? Well, first up – and majorly – there might be a chance that supers will work with the Nexus devices that will carry Android L out of the box. Slim chance, but just maybe. This version of SuperSU now comes with architecture specific binaries for ARMv5, ARMv7, ARMv8, Intel x86 and x64. You might notice that there’s support for 64-bit already, but they have not been tested on working products yet.
You want to give this one a try? Check out the download link of the flashable ZIP via Chainfire here. The developers also said that apart from the normal download via Google Play Store, the Amazon App Store will also start carrying SuperSU.
SOURCE: Chainfire on Google+
Ok, we’re not necessarily in agreement with Square Enix’s decision to put Arsenal’s long-serving manager on the cover – being that they haven’t exactly won any major silverware lately – but hey, it’s your game. Champ Man 15 – short for Championship Manager, we suppose – is Square Enix’s attempt at getting into the football management simulation game market.
Arsene Wenger’s face notwithstanding, you have to understand that the serious football management genre has always been dominated by the big boys (a.k.a. Electronic Arts), although there are some alternative cartoon-y sims that do the job as well. Square Enix has always been known for its great action games, and so to venture into the realm of sports games is a bit odd.
That said, it seems that Champ Man 15 meets all the requirements for a football management sim. As a user, you can choose from over 400 teams across an impressive 23 leagues. You get to have access to players from England, Scotland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Russia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands, and Portugal – all the ones with big football leagues. You get to pick formations, training regimens – all standard stuff.
The game is available as a free download with IAP via the Google Play Store, so check out the source link if you’re interested. And then give us a holler if you’v tried it. I’m still on the fence with this one. Maybe your opinion about it can finally convince me to download a game with Wenger’s famous frown up front.
SOURCE: Google Play Store
The LG G3 is truly a flagship device in all senses of the term. It’s stylish and elegant, and the Korean manufacturer spared no cost on the specs and hardware. That is why we like it so much. And the software – well, we think LG does one of the best versions of tweaked Android out there, bar none. One small issue may be that the LG G3 comes with a locked bootloader, hence custom ROMs used to be close to impossible to install. Not anymore.
The LG G3 was finally rooted in August, and just recently, another group of XDA developers have now provided for us a modified TWRP recovery that should enable users to flash custom ROMs. The project is dubbed as “Bump!”, and what it does is take advantage of the same vulnerability that the initial root used to be able to flash modified images.
The process is still a bit roundabout, maybe even a tad bit complicated, for non-savvy users. But for those who are comfortable around tweaking their devices, this should be pretty straightforward. The process requires that your LG G3 must be rooted, firstly. Then you need to copy the modified recovery image onto the internal storage of your device, then run a few commands to flash the image to your phone’s firmware. After that, it is just a matter of booting into the TWRP recovery.
Sounds complicated? Maybe the official thread will help you out – click on here, especially if you have questions. One thing is clear though, the bootloader tweak works – as evidenced by the video linked on the thread. If you give this a try, ping us back on the comments section.
SOURCE: XDA
Just to push the issue a bit more, HTC has just released new tutorial videos to coincide with the launch of its new HTC Desire EYE smartphone, which is probably has the world’s most powerful selfie camera at the moment. The new videos - seen on HTC's YouTube channel - range from the informative tutorial to the “what were you thinking?!?” – so allow us to share these with you.
The first video show one of the Desire EYE’s very innovative features – that is, Face Tracking while on a video call. The video also gives instructions on how to share your screen if you want to show it over a video call. Pretty nifty.
The second video shows the Split Capture feature which enables the user to capture video (and take pictures, we suppose) using both front-facing and back camera. This gives you “both sides of the story”, HTC says.
The third video tells of the Auto Selfie and the Voice Selfie – two ways of easily taking photos of yourselves with the Desire EYE’s powerful 13MP front-facing camera. These features have been seen on other phones before – like priming your phone to automatically take a picture when you smile, or when you say “Cheese!”
The fourth video is where we begin to venture into strange and “why why why?!?” If you’ve ever wanted to “photoshop” your face for a selfie, then HTC gives you Live Makeup – a chance to smoothen your face before you selfie. Watch the video while we facepalm.
The fifth video is a cringefest, to be honest. HTC somehow thinks that it is “cool” to mix your face with someone else’s. Why would you do that? But if you ever wanted to, HTC has that for you, too. Oh dear.
If you currently using one of the HTC latest device like the One M8, the "EYE Experience" enhancement will be also made available to HTC's recent models soon.
SOURCE: HTC on YouTube
If you spend any amount of time reading or hanging out in the XDA Developers Forums, you will hear people talking about bricking the device. They warn you to be careful because doing this wrong could brick your device. Developers always mention that they are not responsible if you brick your device. There are questions with people asking how to fix their brick. Do the XDA members have a stonemason fetish?
In this episode of XDA TV, Producer and XDA Recognized Contributor rirozizo gets real about the topic of device bricks. He defines what a brick is, what the difference between a hard brick and a soft brick are. Also, he talks about your options if you devices is in one of the many “bricked” states. So, if you want to learn about brick-laying, find a different video, but if you want to learn about mobile device bricks, check out this video.
Be sure to check out other great XDA TV Videos
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