Why the marriage between cheap smartphones and ICS just ain't working! Tweet

According to Miriam Webster  dictionary “upgrade” is defined as “to improve or replace especially software or a device for increased usefulness“

But in the case of HTC One V and ICS, I have no clue what the hell is going on!..

I’m wondering if some Thai dude with a sense of humor wanted to play a practical joke in the android market and released a Hotplate with a processor [I present to you proudly my phone, HTC One V]

I would have been much happier with an Ice Cream sandwich in my hand and a Nokia 1100 in the other rather than an HTC with ICS inside!

Today’s market is so fierce and volatile [look at Nokia going down!] the only way to stay afloat is by satisfying the customer needs, or whatever the mirage they are experiencing. However when that is not possible, they can always sell u a soap-box with a screen on it and a half-baked OS and yea! People would still buy it. That’s what happened to me. Pleased that I held in my hands, the phone that would push me to a certain stature, only to realize it pushed me to suicide!

It was all fine till there were no third party apps installed on it...

I started with my favorite game fruit ninja... it ran super smooth and that really impressed me. It pushed me to a delusion that my phone was better than Apple [One doesn’t simply compare a phone to Apple!]. That was the level of my confidence during the first week from the day I bought it.

Now starts the “Lament of the creamed phone”… 

2^nd week

I kept on installing more and more apps like some 30 more than the inbuilt apps.. Confident that it would take that much, considering that dual core phones support more than hundred 3^rd party apps and still run smooth..

When I reached that mark my phone literally started choking, nothing worked. I could hear it writhing as it muffled “kill me, please!”, Even the message notification popped up only after some half an hour (I’m not exaggerating). Similarly the contacts which is a built in app in HTC stopped showing my own contacts when someone called me as a caller ID. During that time I had no clue which bugger was calling me until I lifted the phone.

And then it struck me ‘what is the basic use of a phone?’

To make calls in the first place and then comes messaging which is really necessary.

Being a smart phone if my phone cannot tell me when I got a message or who’s calling then obviously it aint a smartphone no more… that word has lost all its meaning right there. I would say Nokia’s 1100 is doing a much better job that this piece of crap [I only wish it has an AMOLED screen!]

Priced at 18k rupees when I bought it ,it was pretty decent phones at my price range. And my phone couldn’t fulfill the minimum requirements for being a phone.

Pissed  off that I now became Jack who bought the beans from a hag [in this case HTC] only to find the beans never sprouted [in my case, sadly] I started removing all the 3^rd party apps except for temple run (another favorite app of mine) and still found some 15 boring and irritating apps which you’ll never use in your life time, and I couldn't remove them (the worst part!). The preloaded apps were like little douche bags weighing my phone down and slowly killing its soul.  Hmm, some would say the phone got Ice Creamed! But heck! Why is this happening to the flag ship series [the One series]?!

So as usual I got fed up with the ICS and started disabling the apps due to which it got even slower. (You can’t even imagine how slow it is).

Now that you know that it has got flaws right in the basic features,It got me thinking, is this because of the RAM I got for this phone?.. and found out it was one of the best explanations.

HTC claims the One V comes with a 512 MB RAM. I believed it…but nobody told me the accessible RAM was only 365. Whichever doomed hell the ICS sent the rest of the 147 MB to!.. And to add fire to the already burning spit, I was enraged to find the Samsung Ace came with a 420MB RAM, precious memory that could have saved my phone from such a disastrous state.  If you are reading this and you work in HTC, I would suggest you to please go sodomize yourself with a retractable baton. Cheap advertising tactics to attract market sentiments has costed your company my wrath!

Recently when I thought I could compete with Ace Plus, we started the temple run app on both the devices with all the background apps closed. It took me 30 seconds extra for my phone to show up that play page of the game when compared to Ace Plus which took only 30 seconds to start-up (which is far better).

Why did I buy this phone? God why me?

Okay now something good to make myself feel good.

From WWII till Vietnam War, the US Army had, among its plethora of personnel weaponry a very basic kit item, The M1 Helmet. Made from a single piece of steel it offered more of a morale support rather than the actual purpose of deflecting any bullets. Although the same construction enabled it to be used as cooking pot sometimes. I could say my views on the HTC One V is very similar to this. It does everything except what it was actually meant to. 

The camera –awesome it is, but if you due to some reason forget to close the app it will drain your battery in just one hour max, and because One V comes with a aluminum body (which is a good thing) it heats up to a level where you can literally have a bull’s-eye on it and that is sad. And also thanks to its so sought after aluminum body, my phone has got a knick name “pressure cooker”. Hats off to all HTC engineers out there, in which ever commie sweatshops you are assembling this piece of elegant crap!

Some of the inbuilt apps crashes which request for a feedback, I even tried that and still don’t know what they are doing with that.

And then I asked my friends with Sony Ericson and Xperia phones who recently got upgraded from ginger bread to ICS ,they complained that even the contact list is scrolling with a lag and they could readily tell the difference.

So I ask whether there is a necessity to give an ICS update for 1 GHz and 512mb RAM (actually 365 in my case). I would say no please do an upgrade only if it is necessary and if the device can hold it. [I would prefer you revisit the first line of this post again!]

And if you are still going to buy HTC One V after reading this, why don’t you kiss my ass!

Lets just hope the jellybean update for phones preloaded with ICS don't take much time...

|<\/|3

Prototype 2 - Why the bloodshed, people? Tweet

The game is a true master piece and for all you people out there who haven't played Prototype, this game is bound to amaze every single mind there.
The graphics is fluid as ever and the game is nimble on any computer. The controls are real simple although using combos needs a little practice. However, its an immersive gameplay and one can get lost in the realm of killing infected.. oh just for the fun of pulping some meat!

This game features a new protagonist James Heller, who is in a mad rage to kill the antagonist Alex Mercer (yes that's right!). At the beginning of the game, the two characters meet and Alex transfers a part of his virus onto Heller turning him into a mutant just like Alex. As he proceeds with missions he recieves assistance from certain characters such as Father Guerra and Dr Keonig and Sabrina (from Gentek). Its better I take moment here before I start spewing spoilers.

Now for all you players out there who is having their first encounter with the prototype franchise, this game is bound to rock your world. Maybe have some disturbing effects in your ethos considering all the blood and gore. However for all the people out there enjoying the massacre, I'd suggest all of you to buy a gun and shoot yourselves... ya'll are a threat to mankind.

'Nuff said, what about people who have embodied the character of Alex Mercer. Hmm well there are certain plus and minuses in the game very noticeable. 
As always let me start with the Cons:
The game prototype always gave us the god factor, the good feeling of tearing up harmless zombies just for kicks. Now, the very same is possible here however certain characters such as hunters have been removed and replaced with Brawlers. The brawlers make hunters look like pussycats. So in short, you lose the 'oomph factor'. Players now have to work harder to kill the beast after his ass.
Also the paraphernalia of mutations have been reduced in the power wheel and rather than having an exo-skeletal armor the new player is equipped with double shield that deploys with a key stoke. Here, all the loss i can think of is the 'look' of the player. However the new shields look menacing with the spike upgrade.

But its sad to notice the game got a lot more easier than the usual prototype, with all the new powers Heller acquired [the challenges are simpler as the player need not think too much tactics...his powers will help the gamer make the best moves]. However fly-kicks to the chopper and tanks feel weak and unresponsive at times. And the Hammer-fist and claw power feels weaker than earlier Prototype. But of course special combos to break them do come in handy [as shown in the video!]
And oh no! there is neither patsy nor artillery strike in this new game. But there is one new power...




But the Pros just outweigh it all. 
For beginners, He is black! I am no racist but an Afro-american character really adds to the personality. Actually, Heller makes Mercer quite a boring character. The dialogues in this game are definite keepers. 




I specifically remember one between a Sergeant and a Major

"Major: The infected are running around everywhere, I need the situation un-fucked!
Sargent: The situation will be un-fucked sir!"

The Black-watch troopers look really futuristic with their new suits [unlike their flimsy previous counterparts] while the military looks the same. The weaponry are the same except for the new TOW missile array and chain-guns and rocket pods one may break off a tank or a chopper. This greatly increases the player lethality [Woohoo!]

The absolutely mind-blowing parts are how every character one meets in the game are a mutant with their own super powers. This kinda increases the heat a player may face. And well proves my point that the gamer ain't god no more! And the hydras appear real early in the game and they can be a real pain. No more hives, you now get underground lairs which you gotta hunt for and destroy.

An awesome new feature is the "Hunt". A viral Sonar than u ping and the return ping lets you know the location of your POI [Person of Interest]. This new power also helps the player a lot in stealth kill, but reduces the challenge you feel [something that was comparable to Hitman in the earlier game]. The game just screams at you "consume me! consume me!"
Players will also be able to dismember enemies, a force that will become more useful as the game progresses.
Go-Bloody!!




New powers include Tendril which sprouts from the players hands and create something called "The Black hole". With this power the tendril bore down a victim and spread out more tendrils pulling every object into the victim in the entire vicinity. It would be a crime if i forgot about the Bio-bomb [inject the virus and throw the victim and watch him pop and devastate the whole frigging place!]. 

This is great against Tanks and Helos [not as powerful as ones we saw in Prototype]. The player also can "dodge" attacks from the monsters he encounters and this can be really handy at times. And also the new dodge move looks really cool in Slow-mo. And well the new power I aforementioned was Heller can summon and Control brawlers, which looks super cool against the Black-watch.

The player gets double air-dash right from the start and he may slowly upgrade them. The upgrades are really interesting and the combos are pretty neat compared to the earlier game. [I haven't actually finished the game properly though]. A new Black-net system is introduced in the game and once a POI is consumed his profile can be used to hack into the Black-net and start new side missions. The earlier side missions have been replaced by these new ones and are actually much more fun to play.  Also, players have a lot of collectibles such as Black-boxes which have interesting recordings and Field ops teams which you may kill to stall Black-watch's operations in Bio-warfare.

Once in a while you may find Brawlers in captivity containing DNA vital for evolution. Consuming them increases your Exp points. Also soldiers with extra talents in specific weaponry can be consumed to increase your skills. 

The new super soldiers dubbed Orion Phase 1 and Orion Phase 2 are challenging and new opponents such as Juggernauts are a real pain to kill. For all you hemophiliacs this game is definitely gonna please you.

However it gets me wondering why does a government want to try some life threatening drugs on its own citizens? Does it make sense to try some biological weaponry on its own soil and find that its gone out of control! Shouldn't they have seen it coming? This aspect makes the whole game feel like its a desperate attempt to drag the franchise. And also the comic states the virus spread everywhere and after 2 years of Mercer's relentless effort to eradicate it [which he finally succeeds] he is betrayed by his lover and to vent his anger again re-releases the virus into New York making it NYZ. God? Why!. Mercer starts a new plan for building an army of mutants to combat the Black-watch... but are they really that powerful? Are the Black-watch worth all this pain? I don't feel so...
Its a game of unquestionable and perhaps disturbing ethos, but for whatever its worth, this game really delivers what you expect from seeing the Front cover...



Now for the spoilers...

Coming this year! To knock the crap outta your ass! Tweet

Maybe this list might leave some of you out there spasmodic from sheer orgasms but for all you gamer fans out there i have one message!

If the world is going to end this year.. i don't think we will die disappointed

Maybe I'll start with the games that are out and bringing smiles on peoples face.

The ones that hath cometh!
Top of the List:

Max Payne 3

Was it ever a doubt? It was as if God wanted to spread his messages about happiness and did so with Rockstar games [North or South i don't give a shit!]

So just all the good things that take time to incubate, The Max Payne franchise took a hell lot of time to get their asses back in the game business. And they did that in style. They sure did spend quality time on this one and I can see why that's keeping me from finishing this whole article completely.

The game play is so smooth that one may wonder "is it a game? or is it a movie that i can enact?". Its no illusion and the game has something to offer which no other gaming franchise can provide us. The "stardom" feel. Amusing the player with countless sarcasms and one helluva story [in style] this game definitely made me realize how good it was to be alive.

Max Payne: King Of Sarcasm!!

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldiers

Well it might not be the flashiest game in the graphics department but for the game play i gotta give it to them. With the myriad paraphernalia of technological goodness that i carry with me, i finally got to play god on my victims [definitely going medieval on their asses]. And the crew just makes things so much more fun!! Folks ya'll gonna hate me for sure and may never return to this website ever again but this game just owned Call Of Duty in game play [Mostly because its from Tom Clancy.. from the biggest fan]. My eyes welled up when i got to customize the tech and gear in the game. Definitely, this game makes u feel like one of those Special forces [..u can never be]. I guess this means the game is doing its job very well. Although the story might not be as good as COD this one is a definite keeper for the Guerrilla and Multiplayer mode.

Spec Ops: The Line

What if in my virtual world the games got to cross breed and Just Cause 2, Uncharted 3 and Rainbow Six had a threesome? The resultant mutation would be Spec Ops: The Line [for PC..and yea i have a filthy mind, thank you!]. An amazing game that ended too soon, but the psychopathic story made up for all the disappointments. It showed me how 3 men can easily destroy an entire army but also how easily that team can be reduced to a single person [of course the protagonist]. But hey, we always wanna stay alive! The real beauty of this game is the user interface and the LAN. Well this game is one of them, that run on any crappy comps with a decent graphic card and RAM. Which means one can include all his friends to play LAN [a very important criterion]. But the bullets just aren't enough!!!! [was that for extra fun?]
Detailed Review

Prototype 2:

Here is a detailed review! 

Games To Be!!

These are the game i am expecting [err sorry! we are all expecting] to see in the near future. You could also say, its the hope of them releasing, is one of the reason for me to stay alive. Without them I would rather shoot myself in the head with college being such a pain in the ass... Oh wait! how would i know how to shoot if not for those very games!!

Oh man! where do i begin.. it would be disrespectful if i dont start with..

Hitman Absolution:

From the moment i saw the game play trailer, my eyes were transfixed on this mystery man who made stalking so much fun! There were days when i was absorbed into Hitman so much that i used to crouch up behind my friends and surprise them [as if i was using the rope]. Eidos, if you are seeing this post or not...You did gamer-kind a huge favor, we will never forget you.

Crysis 3:

This has to come next!! Again, this is one of those games that screwed up with my head, made me feel invincible. Armor activated! was my cry before my friends and i started friendly fights. The game literally makes one feel mechanical, something no other game can offer. Its a believable concept, more like Batman [with advances in nanotechnology]. This game doesnt disappoint us in the graphics section as u can evidently make out from the video. This game is definitely gonna take gaming to another level [dont forget multiplayer]

Splinter Cell: Blacklist

 

Hmm where do I begin? I need to measure each word i type for this game out of respect to what I am talking about. One of the best shooter franchise, its getting better than ever. If some people on the earth are to stay immortal, then Tom Clancy should be one of them [i wished Heath Ledger made that list! Damn!!]. This game is just getting better and better with improved game play. New characters and an amazing story of terrorism in native soil [USA], shits pretty bad with the new fourth echelon replacing the Third.

Unlike other franchise with their new releases being an improvement to the graphics and game engine, Splinter cell: Blacklist has considerable upgrades in game play as well. Ubisoft is kicking into high gear with some amazing games and its very evident from Black List. Blacklist introduces a new game play mechanic called killing in motion, allowing the player to highlight targets and take them out in quick succession, with a new fluidity while on the run.

Check out this trailer for more!

Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2

This game franchise never failed us, which is something really difficult to do considering the vast number of games that get released every year. One may realize the investment Treyarch made to get this game on a platform way above the others when considering the fact that they got David S Goyer to write the game plot. For all those who are befuddled by magnitude of this news - He is the guy who wrote the script for Batman Trilogy! And well the addition that some key characters in the game are not dead, makes you really want to pounce on that DVD case.

Battlefield 4




Well there is little known about this sequel, however there are news that its bringing way more fire power in the graphics department that its all time competitor COD. DICE has been working on an improved Frostbite engine [most probably upgrading version 2] and the game is being targeted for the next gen consoles [Xbox 720,Sony PS4,Nintendo Wii U]. Lets hope the PC fans aren't disappointed. However the game play video looks surreal, we can expect more of the videos soon.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Patriot



Well well well..what have we got here!
Finally someone realized! hey look, we need that game back in the charts. And so i finally hear the Rainbow Six series is bringing out the new sequel of its franchise - Patriot. The usual terrorism deal but come on! its Tom Clancy we are talking about, aint gonna be like those Call Of Duty or Medal Of Honor! Its gonna be way different.. very noticeable from the trailer itself. 



The story for the single-player experience will deal with a terrorist American populist group calling themselves the 'True Patriots' which is the inspiration for the game's subtitle. On December 10, 2011, this trailer was released revealing the "True Patriots" to be in New York City. After taking control of a bridge, they approach a civilian strapped with a dead man switch and realize its too late to save him. They throw the civilian off the bridge.

Counter Strike:Global Offensive




If ya'll miss the old days when a bunch of your friends got together in your basement, hooked up their laptops and rigs on a switch one of em brought along and played Counter Strike 1.6 as if ya'll were waiting for the Four Horsemen to come knock on the door and announce the world has ended [phew!] then this game is gonna add four more players into the game [maybe even 8..if its not too far fetched to include the horses..]




This game is bringing more than just the usual bomb planting and diffusion. Global Offensive is planned to launch with Bomb Defusal, Hostage Rescue and two new game modes called Arms Race and Demolition. These new modes are collectively referred to as "Arsenal mode" and just like the ones in Counter Strike and Counter Strike: Source. Unlike other game modes Arms Race is a death-match-based mode where each player is rewarded for each kill with a new weapon, with the first player to get a kill with every weapon in a predetermined set winning the game. Demolition is a round based mode that removes weapon and equipment purchasing, instead challenging players by giving a set of progressively weaker weapons for each kill.

Global Offensive adds new weapons and equipment not seen in previous installments, most notably the Molotov cocktail which temporarily covers a small area in fire, making it impossible to pass through without taking damage.

Woohoo!! The Russian's influence all the games!

Far Cry 3:

"Jason! Look at this game! Unbelievable!! "



If you ever venture into the Oceans and get stuck on an island clambering with crazed inhabitants, you need practice to get out of there. Far Cry 3 will help you with just that! As always this game is about survival [which we all are proficient in - thanks to Bear Grylls]. Anyway, with such amazing graphics this game is going to be a hoot and a half! Oh, its going to be way more than that! With better stealth mech and take-down in melee [thanks to demo] and a map about ten times Far-cry 2, its definitely gonna be kick ass! The trailer does the rest of the talking..

Dead Space 3:

Writing the title gives me goosebumps, this game can make a grown man wet his pants...and well it makes amnesia look like the screen saver game of windows 98. I don't want to get too rough on the other games but i am still perplexed about how they can make the game more scary when they are actually adding a character [John Carver] to accompany Issac Clark. This is going to be fun!! No other game could ever make me feel absorbed like this one. From the way the menu screen looks, Dead Space 2 stunned me to the core. Oh god, have mercy on my soul.. don't give me a heart attack when i play dead space 3...

Medal Of Honor: War fighter

Everything about the game causes Deja vu. Firstly, the game engine is Frostbite 2 which is.... same as Battlefield Bad Company 2. So the so-called features they boast about are all what everyone has seen and experienced. The micro destruction, the high def audio, realistic graphics of BF etc. nonetheless this game can still be a keeper if the story is good. So lets hope they have done something as stunning as Medal Of Honor [2011]. Godspeed gentlemen! One can never overlook the fact that MOH always have true incidents as their story line... and a very interesting info about this game is the inclusion of almost all the special forces in the world [for multiplayer].

I don't want to get too jumpy but there is something that these games can offer which i bet your girlfriends can't. At least mine didn't... the satisfaction that we can change the world, if not real then at least the virtual ones and that we have control and whatever happens we will always be the last surviving person in a raging battle [never works with GF, see? told ya!]...

Share and Enjoy! @n!

Enabling WiFi file transfer on phones without WiFi direct Tweet

Well we see phones today enabled with WiFi Direct and you may find yourself sitting like a goof with an ancient piece of junk in your hands [in my case my galaxy SL i9003] and wondering "god why me?!' why no WiFi direct?

well if  god didn't answer u ..maybe he didn't love u so much.. but as always ill give u an idea buster!
well if u can't beat em.. find a way through them
and i found just that through an app..well 2 apps..




Air droid  and UC browser

Android is nothing but a dumbed down version of Linux in your phone. and so using ways to get through is easy once you have the tools... in this case the apps

So we essentially need some sort of FTP(File Transfer Protocol) between 2 phones. And now ill explain the step by step procedure.
With this kind of connection you can be assured a connection of up to Mbps and well that's enough for most of the transfers.

Continue...

Spec Ops The Line.... Special Oops! Tweet

Ah!

After a long time, i finally have the freedom to write again, and well enough motivation to continue considering i made only 10 bucks from this site this year. But i can't complain for the eternal web always provides me with the fodder to write anytime, all the time..

And so i am breaking my silence with a wonderful game i could lay my hands on, Spec Ops: The Line.
The thing about this game is that, by the time you read this far, u might have already finished the game. Its so saddening, just the fact that the game is like a hamster you got for your Christmas gift that couldn't survive till spring break. The game was shorter than, well 2 episodes of Sherlock... but so much enjoyable!!

You start off with a torn american flag in the middle of the Saudi desert and the first level puts you at the edge shooting choppers off the skies only to be treated to a cliched "the flashback" game play.A thrilling 3rd person that ended like a premature ejaculation of a 16 year old, amazing yet screwed up experience for him..as the same with the game.

However the game surprised the crap out of me with the vivid ambient object, environment, occlusion and well... player models and gun textures and almost everything. The control felt fluid and the game ran like butter on a hot pan.

Every moment of this game would have been enjoyable, but just when things feel comfortable I realize that if I were a guy with just one key on my keyboard, this game would have been my one and only choice. Everything is controlled with a couple of keys, double tapping almost every key which is so irritating. We all got used to the COD and Counter Strike and game of such liking and a total transitioning in the controls is just impossible for our brains. Unless you have a controller. which is a different issue altogether. As for spec tactics the whole place is full of sand so throwing grenades throws up sand and blinds your enemies and you may shoot glass panels holding huge amounts of sand to wash away your enemies.

The lunatics in their ranking include the bayonets who charge at u with a knife like a hippie on drugs and the heavy [freakishly close to Yuri's costume in COD:MW3 ending] packed with armor. Grenades are of three types and all are scarce while you may command your team mates to help you by locking targets for them and ordering grenade lobbing.

The levels are challenging and one could stop in the middle and admire the scenic vistas in the game "which i did coz i didn't want the game to end too fast".
they say ammo is equivalent to gold [which is so fucking true in this game] however i felt crippled when i found that every time i restarted a checkpoint [coz i died] i got a little extra ammo... "i don't need your charity motherfucker!!" but it helped and well if u replay same checkpoint one too many times a dialogue box asks u if u wanna level down [that's an order Walker!]

Spoiler Alert!