Android based Ouya gets updated again, fixes many bugs

Ouya the bestseller Android based gaming console has gone for update again bumping up the version number to  1.0.346.  Remeber the Ouya was launched only weeks earlier and there are many bugs which are yet to be reported to the makers.  

The new update fixes many bugs and gives a whole new game details page.  The changelog for version 1.0.346 is as under :

1. Game Details page has been re-designed:

2. Images and buttons now easier to navigate

3. Selecting (Pressing the (O) button on) an image will show it full screen

4. Description text no longer flows off screen.

5. “More Info” button allows user to read full description text

6. Longer titles now accommodated better

7. Queued downloads now display as “In Queue…”

8. Ratings system has been updated to use a more intuitive system of age ranges

9. Founders Icon for games now appears on the Game Details page. 

10. Game downloads can now be cancelled!

11. Downloads have been limited to 1 to increase performance while navigating during a download

12. Downloads are paused when a game is running to maintain best performance while playing. They resume automatically when exiting the game

13. Downloads now start in the order they were queued

14. Downloads give a clear indication when there is not enough space left to accommodate them

15. Added the ability to set a PIN code for purchases. Parents rejoice! This can be found in under MANAGE -> ACCOUNT -> PARENTAL CONTROLS

16. Added support for redeeming pre-paid cards. They can be redeemed when creating a new user, or from the MANAGE -> ACCOUNT -> PAYMENTS screen

17. Re-flowed in-game purchases to accommodate pre-paid cards. 18. Allows the user to fix purchase errors without leaving the game.

19. Logging out now allows users to log in or create a new user

20. PLAY category now sorts by most recently played or downloaded

21. Changed background image. Style points +1

22. Changed layout of Network screen to match the new user experience.

23. Changed the look of more dialogs to have the OUYA theme

24. Fixed bug that could cause the account screen to appear to not respond to user input

25. Fixed a bug that could occur when getting a system update while out of space

26. New repository with 3rd party game engine

27. Fixed changing passwords through Gamers Portal blocking users 

28. Fixed purchases not working when changing to a Dev account 

29. Fixed simultaneous button presses not registering in some MP games.

A long list from the makers but is a necessity considering it is a newly launched hardware.  

MEGA storage comes to your Android devices with MEGA, save upto 50GB of encrypted data online

Remember Kim.com's Mega, the big big online storage or cloud storage provider.  Well MEGA has acquired a third party App for Android and made it a default App for MEGA.  With this you can save upto 50GB of encrypted data on clouds.  

What actually happens with this App is that you get to control your data saved on MEGA servers from within this App.  The App lets you download, sync, and do every bit thing you do on the PC. Here is the current feature list:

Browse your MEGA storage account

Fast upload and download files from your Android device

Camera Sync, upload your photos and videos to MEGA automatically

Search for files within your MEGA account

Create public link to files in your MEGA account

Download

Delete files

Rename files

Move files

Create folders

Interested, well head over to Google Play and download it.   A word of caution, MEGA has had run ins with the authorities in the past and the site may go down any time in future.  But 50GB space till that comes about is pretty fingerlicking good!

Buy a new SIM for your phone now, Government to make fingerprinting a mandatory requirement soon

If the Home Ministry and Department of Telecommunications (DoT) have it their ways, you will soon need to go to your service providers premises and get your finger prints scanned to receive a new SIM for your mobile.  The issue of verification has again reared its head with the address verification system failing to keep the check on dud SIMs.

If you remember, last November, the Government had made it mandatory for verification of the address of new applicants for SIM.  The move has failed to stop the flow of fake SIMs being used by unscrupulous elements and in a bid to prevent further endemic rise in fake SIM, the Home Ministry has instructed DoT to evolve a fool proof finger printing process for new SIM applicants.  It has advised DoT to maintain a central database comprising biometric features of all subscribers and link t with the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) for further surveillance if necessary.

The issue came to head when a retailer was arrested for issuing 400 SIMs using fake and forged documents.  The retailer in nexus with the service provider by passed the regulatory requirement of address verification.  The order in November proposed a penalty of Rs.50000.00 per subscriber in case of issue of pre-activated SIMs without address verification.

However the Home Ministry feels that the penalty has failed to deter potential forgers and criminals from using the pre-activated SIM for their malicious intent.

What is in it for us, well the red tape get tighter with the finger prints.  If you apply for a new SIM after the notification is issued, you may have to wait till the DoT gives a go ahead to your service provider.

One of the best newspapers in US, the USA Today comes to your screen through an Android App

This is one website I always keep the track of to know the news and happening is United States and now it has launched a Android App. The best known reporter cover for it and it brings the news as it happens with nice perspective.  

I had followed the entire Boston Marathon Bombing and subsequent coverage of the bombing arrests on USA Today's website.  

The App launched by the newspaper is for Android devices and gives the news from the US  24/7 on your smart phone or tablet.

The news included the following 

Headlines - Browse the latest headlines in our News, Sports, Life, Money, Tech, Travel and Opinion sections. Stories are updated 24/7 and can be shared via e-mail, Twitter, Facebook or any sharing app you download on your device.

Scores - Check out the latest sports scores for the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, MLS, college football and college basketball.

Weather - Get current conditions, forecasts, and radar maps, and save them for up to ten locations.

Photos - Enjoy beautiful photo galleries, including the Day in Pictures, Day in Sports, and Day in Celebrities—you can flip through the day's best photos or play them back as a slideshow and share your favorites with friends. We’ve also added the Editorial Cartoon gallery to the Opinion section.

Snapshots - Check out our signature Snapshots in News, Money, Sports, and Life, and vote to see Quick Question results in each one.

Offline Reading — Save and read USA TODAY content offline, even when you don't have a connection.

Breaking News – Sign up for Breaking News alerts, and never miss another emerging story that sparks the nation’s conversation.

Download the App now from Google Play and start surfing for news.

QWOP the sprint games available for download for Android devices for $0.99 (Rs.56.00)

QWOP the original flash based sprint game has fallen to the lure of Android.  Noodlecake today launched the Android version of the game on Google Play for Rs.56.00    The game is a very good entertainment combined with skills and is a must have if you are into gaming especially on mobiles.

You play Qwop in the game and have to finish a race.  There are two touch pads given on the Android version as seen in the image above.  Your objective is to control Qwop's movements with these two controls and at the same time use the thumb in a clock work motion to keep Qwop running forward.  Beware if Qwop falls down you your finished.  

Those who have used the flash based version of the game will remember that the controls on PC were through the keys Q and W for Qwop's right leg and O and P for left.  The participation is very very entertaining as you will fall for umpteenth time till you get the hang of controlling Qwop.  In the meantime you may forget that Qwop has a race to finish.  

The Android version has five game modes

1.  100 meters sprint

2. Hurdles

3. Long Jump

4. 50 Km walk

Noodle has integrated the game with Google's Play Game service which makes it even more fascinating because you have a global leaderboard.

After the Temple Run and Angry Birds kinds of games this is welcome change because it is funny, requires skills with touch pad and addictive as well.

Remember it cost $0.99 (Rs.56.00)  and is worth every penny.  Download the game from Google Play now.

Happy Independence Day to my US visitors!!! Long Live Independence of humanity

Tomorrow is the fourth of July, the Independence Day of United States of America so first of all my wishes to all my US vistors.  I have posted the Star Spangled Banner below as a mark of respect for the great leaders who made United States of America what it is today.  

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?

Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,

O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?

And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.

Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,

Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,

What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,

As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?

Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,

In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:

'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore

That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,

A home and a country should leave us no more!

Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.

No refuge could save the hireling and slave

From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:

And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand

Between their loved home and the war's desolation!

Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land

Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,

And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Though I can't relate to United States history very much as I do to United Kingdom (after all they colonized us for more then 100 years!) but I can relate very well to the aspirations of American people.   I was brought up on a steady diet of  books like Uncle Tom's Cabin, Huckleburry Finn and the story of the Mayflower which gave a vision of a independent state where you can chase your dreams and then live peacefully to cherish them.

Every individual from the north pole to the south pole dreams of a very happy and blissful life for himself and his family but not many get to fulfil the dreams.  The Americas was described as the 'New World' by Columbus and his countrymen and rightly so!  Because it is there, where millions of people aspire to go if they want to live a life they cherish.  Years ago or rather generations ago, the US Civil War taught the world the true meaning of slavery and black and white and yet as of today we find the world mired in the cesspool of ethnic classification and cleansing as the latest issue of Time magazine shows us.     As the world civilisational order gets older and older we are becoming more and more intolerant as more and more nations fight it out to find/alter/add their own individuality among the league of nations.  The more you read into it, the more you feel that the United Nations has become a redundant body with no real powers and a new world order is the necessity of the day.  

Though the 4th of July celebrations may be slightly muted on account of the Boston Marathon Bombings, but I wish that all countries unite like the United States of America in the common aim of bringing safe and secure place to its citizens so that they can laugh, play and breathe the same air without fearing about anything.  No distinctions should be there between caste, creed, gender or sexual orientation.  People should be able to pursue the dream of their life with rightful earnest and live happily ever after to cherish for what they have worked so hard.  Can we change? Yes We Can!

Happy Independence Day

Morsi's War : Mohamed Morsi going down and taking Egypt with him?

Egypt has erupted again and brutally.  As I am typing this article, Morsi has been barred from leaving the country.  As the world prepares itself for the Independence Day of United States of America, we see one of the oldest civilisations slowing going down the pit.  

Egypt as we all know is one of the ancient civilisations.  Over the years from  1952 it was ruled with a iron hand first by Gamel  Abdel Nasser.  It was known as Nasser's Egypt during the time he ruled but it prospered under the iron grip of its Army and Nasser.   After Nasser, Anwar Sadat came to power and shifted his allegiance from US to the USSR of cold war era.  He had opted for USSR due to the continuous aid and  back channel help US gave to Israel in the United Nations General Assembly.   

He rule extended for over a decade and through out his rule he spend maximum time fighting with Israel.  In 1977, Israel and Egypt ended their differences and signed a peace pact.  But Anwar's days were numbered.  In 1981 he was assassinated by a military soldier.  

After Sadat, Hosni Mubarak came to power and rode it strong till 2011. And then it began, the Arab Spring.    The revolution bugle had been sounded in neighbouring Tunisia  and slowly and surely the revolution song had reached the ears of ordinary Egyptians who cared more about Egypt then Mubarak.    They gathered at Tahrir Square and began their demonstrations which were rather peaceful as the Egyptian military took a semi neutral stance.  Mubarak was toppled and people started celebrating the victory with marches and fireworks.  But is was too soon to assume that everything was peaceful.  

Elections happened and Morsi from Islamic Brotherhood was elected with huge majority riding on the wave of change.  But the first thing Morsi did was to expunge the military diktat of dissolving the law makers and making them ministers again.  When the courts overruled his decree, he came out with another decree overruling the courts powers and orders.  

This started the revolution ball rolling again.  El Baradei from secular Constitution Party tweeted that "Morsi today usurped all state powers & appointed himself Egypt's new pharaoh"  People took to street again and protest were more fierce then the 2011 ones.

A new power centre emerged.  The Egyption Army which had maintained a slightly indifferent approach to Mubaraks regime took the Morsi decrees as a blot on its uniform.  And now they are a logger heads.  The Army has given Morsi until tonight to absolve himself of the Prime Ministership but Morsi is diffident.   Such is the glue of power.   The people who elected him want him out of office now but he seems to be worse then Mubarak.  Where is he taking Egypt, to hell?

As I have written above, a coup seems imminent in Egypt and hopefully the Army will hand over the reins of power to a democratically elected government like it did the last time.  My only hope is that the next leader doesn't try to become a 'Pharoah' of Egypt.  What is really needs is a good leadership at the helm for at least 15 years to make a smooth transition to true democracy.  As and when the divisive politics will enter the Egyptian leadership there will be another Tahrir Square waiting to happen.

PS Morsi has met his fate and Egypt stands liberated today, but is it really liberated?