Werewolf Tycoon lets you gobble people up digitally

There was a time at the height of vampire fandom because of the Twilight series (and before that, Underworld) that werewolves were trying to be the alternative bad boy in pop culture and for a time, they were a little successful. Well if you've always preferred your Jacob Blacks to your Edward Cullens (wait, why do we even know these things?) then this new Android game should appeal to you.

Werewolf Tycoon is a stealth stimulation game that lets you live your dream to become half man half lycan, at least digitally. The rules of the game are pretty simple. You're a werewolf and you need to eat people up. That's it. Oh, except you need to remain hidden while doing so. You hide behind bushes and pounce on unsuspecting passers by in Werewolf Park (now why you'd want to walk through a park that is thus named is beyond us).

If any of your victims escape, the media will arrive. And if they manage to take pictures of you in your werewolf form, then there will be consequences and you will be the hunted one. Don't expect amazing graphics or complicated gameplay from this game. Their creators, developers Joe Williamson and Sam Twidale, actually came up with this game in their last year at university, and now it's here for your howling enjoyment.

Werewolf Tycoon is available for download from Google Play Store. And the good news is that it's absolutely free. So go ahead and enjoy being A/An (insert nationality here) Werewolf in Werewolf Park. Just don't expect to find your Bella Swan here (again, why do we keep referencing Twilight. Ugh).

GAMEVIL’s Elune Saga mixes cards and RPGs in your phone

Arriving a day early, GAMEVIL pushed the international release of its new game titled Elune Saga. What makes this "hybrid strategy RPG" somewhat unique from the rest of the bunch is in how it meshes together two popular mobile gaming genres. While you do follow a fixed plot and build up your motley crew of adventurers, battles aren't boring since elements of collectible card games inject a bit of strategic thinking into the mix.

In terms of overall mechanics and plot, Elune Saga doesn't stray far from the sometimes overused tropes of mobile games. The story and plot points are laid out in piecemeal pieces, where each point serves to unlock the next. Everything is point and click, so those already familiar with how mobile games work need not feel out of place. Building up your army of characters plus building up your own "deck" of cards (souls) is pretty much the same as any other, which means using up some resource (which you can buy in-game) and "fusing" them together to upgrade.

The real meat of Elune Saga, however, is in the combat mechanics. Battles are turn-based so you can give your fingers a bit of a rest. However, the game does require a bit of brain over brawn, as a number of combinations can spell either victory or defeat. First, there are the cards, the souls that you can collect to embue your characters with more power. And depending on where you place them or how you combine them, you can end up with different powers. The game claims to have 200 cards/souls ready for the taking and for mixing and matching. Then there are the four elements of fire, earth, wind, and water, with each element having a weakness against another, which adds to the required strategic thinking for each battle.

Graphics-wise, Elune Saga isn't completely high-end, but it won't bury you in pixel art either. It's just good enough to keep your eyes from hurting, with some bits and pieces of JRPG-style dialogs and portraits. Elune Saga is free to grab on Google Play Store, but if you haven't figured it out yet, it comes with a ton of in-app purchases.

Download: Elune Saga

Google replaces Captcha with “No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA”

There is no more Captcha, it's now just "No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA". Wait, is that as confusing as typing in a captcha garbled letter/number combination? Well, Google simplified it for us, just like they're trying to make protection from bots and scripts simpler but no less secure.

Instead of asking you to type out a sometimes confusing and indecipherable combination of letters and texts to prove that you're human, the No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA lets you verify that you're not a bot just by clicking on a checkbox. You just need to fill out a few boxes the first time, but when you've proven you're not a robot, then you won't need a captcha anymore.

Mobile users, who are the ones mostly affected by the difficult garbled text you need to type out, can also get a more visual CAPTCHA challenge and all it would take is to click on the appropriate image.

While the previously difficult process was a necessary evil to protect the site from spams and bots, Google realized that Artificial Intelligence technology has become more, well, intelligent. Distorted text is now solvable, with at 99.8% accuracy (hey, that's even more accurate than most of us humans!). So they developed an Advanced Risk Analysis for reCAPTCHA that relies less on typing out distorted text but more on how a user interacts with the site. However, if the system still can't "confidently predict" that you are indeed human, then the CAPTCHA will still come out, just to be sure.

Some sites like Snapchat, WordPress, and Humble Bundle have already adapted the API and have seen an increase in traffic, or rather the users get to their sites faster due to No CAPTCHA. You can visit Google's micro-site to find out how you can adapt it to your website.

SOURCE: Google

Android 5.0.1 OTA for 2013 Nexus 7 (WiFi), Nexus 10 are here

Google pushed, rather silently if not for a few keen observers, a minor update to Android Lollipop yesterday. While details on the nature of this update is still unknown, factory images for Android 5.0.1 are already available for Nexus tablets and for those who feel a bit more adventurous. But for those who are caught in between waiting for the OTA update, there is an option available to them now that the update files are available to the public.

Unlike a factory image, an OTA update is applied on top of an existing system, so it doesn't involve a complete wipe of your device. However, it still does require a bit of know-how, especially familiarity with the ADB tool. The process is straightforward and yet still nerve-wracking especially for the uninitiated. Using ADB, one need to reboot the device into bootloader first, hit the recovery option, and then choose to "apply update from ADB". Then from your computer's command line, you use the command

adb sideload [filename].zip

to start the actual update process.

The links below provide the OTA zip files for the WiFi only 2013 Nexus 7 (razor) and the Nexus 10 (mantaray). No OTA for the Nexus 9 yet.

• Nexus 7 2013 (WiFi)

• Nexus 10

The files comes from Google's servers so you are more or less assured of their authenticity (barring any download corruption). Of course, given the procedures involved, it might be wiser to wait a while for the OTA to land, especially considering it's likely to be a very minor update. Still, if you want it here and now, at least you have the option.

Digital tattoos being turned into thermometers

Can you still remember back when the only purpose of digital tattoos was to unlock your smartphone? Well, as its makers VivaLnk promised us, there are more uses to this cool bit of technology than just indulging our lazy inclination to input passwords. An upcoming product has turned the tattoos into kid-friendly thermometers to monitor their temperature when they're sick.

One of the most annoying things for kids when they're sick is to endure the digital thermometer that their parents place under their tongue for around eight seconds. But for the VivaLnk eSkin Thermometer, you need only stick the tattoo onto your child and it will give you a read time in just 1-2 seconds. The sticker is soft and flexible and is designed with cute characters to make the young ones actually excited to have their temperature taken.

The information is passed to a smartphone app which you can actually use to record their temperature over time, especially for recurring fever. All you need to do is place your smartphone running the app over the sticker. You can even let other kids do this so they can feel they're participating in curing their siblings. It will also give you an alert if the findings indicate a dangerous level already for the child.

Unfortunately, all this is still just in the survey stage and there isn't any indication yet if it will reach consumers, although it is a pretty nifty idea. If it does, we also don't have any idea yet as to how much it will cost. But to give you an idea, the original Digital Tattoos cost $10 per pack of 10.

VIA: SlashGear

Story Timeline

• Digital Tattoo can now officially unlock your Moto X


• Digital Tattoos to have more non-Moto X functions soon


• Digital Tattoo now available for NFC-enabled phones

Google News and Weather for Android is now searchable for stories has rather pretty forecasts.

Google News and Weather for Android is now searchable for stories has rather pretty forecasts. So now you might actually use it!

Read more...

New Bluetooth 4.2 standard pushes for security and speed

Even with the advent of NFC technology, Bluetooth remains the go to wireless solution for quick and shorter range connectivity. And now that the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has ratified version 4.2 of the standard, it is poised to become prevalent even more, especially in the so called Internet of Things era. While Bluetooth 4.0 was most famous for bringing Low Energy to the table, 4.2 will perhaps be known for addressing privacy and security issues and answering the need for speed.

With Bluetooth being used everywhere, it naturally becomes a fertile breeding ground for invasions of privacy. That is why Bluetooth 4.2 focuses so much on protecting the privacy of users. Devices that are eavesdropping on Bluetooth connections cannot just simply connect without the user's explicit permission. And those who are already connected to you cannot keep on tracking you without your consent either. The latter scenario is important now that a good number of establishments are looking to Bluetooth for more pervasive (and invasive) advertisement, also known as "beacon" technology.

Speed and Internet connectivity is also of the essence, especially since Bluetooth is no longer just used for small, one-off data transfers. The new Internet Protocol Support Profile would allow Bluetooth Smart sensors to connect to the net via IPv6, for example. Data transfer is also boosted to be more than twice as fast as previous versions of the standard. These properties are essential for Bluetooth devices that connect to each other and connect to the Internet to make up your smart home.

While all these might sound rather delicious, in the end it will be up to device manufacturers to implement the new standard, especially with regard to security and privacy. And in some cases, it might not exactly be easy for them. While features like privacy can be delivered simply via a firmware update, depending on the manufacturer implementation, speed benefits will only come via a hardware upgrade, which is harder (no pun intended) to pull off on existing devices. That said, new devices complying with the Bluetooth 4.2 standard are expected to arrive as early as Spring next year.

VIA: SlashGear