It’s happening! The mighty have fallen. In the same we be brought you news of the impending battle between the Samsung Galaxy S7 and the iPhone 5SE, news has emerged that Apple have fallen behind Google’s Alphabet as the world’s most valuable company.
Google’s parent company pipped Apple to become the world’s most valuable company, ending a four year reign enjoyed by the California smartphone manufacturer. Alphabet’s shares rose 4.7% as consumers and the markets react. Currently, Google’s parent group are valued at $548 billion while Apple trail at a measly $534 billion (poor dears). While the gap between the two giants is currently rather small, Deutsche Bank expect this gap to increase during the coming years.
It would appear the sharp rise in share price comes as a direct result of increased transparency of the Alphabet business. Alphabet only came into being in August as an umbrella term for Google, YouTube, Android and other various projects including Project Ara, self-driviyng cars, bio-tech and high speed internet.
Even more interesting is the fact that Alphabet intends to continue heavy investment in future tech development. On Monday, investors were made privy to accounts showing long term bets versus core business. The main business, such as YouTube and the likes, pushes out an astonishing $66.5 million profit a day (JAYSUS). What’s referred to as “other bets”, or fancy new shiny toys, lost around $3.6 billion, but a dip down the many couches of the Docklands offices will surely turn up most of this money. At least they are investing their money in improvements, rather than becoming Illuminati-esque, living by their mantra of “don’t be evil”.
Since 2012, Apple enjoyed the title of most valuable company largly due to the return of Steve Jobs in 1997 when the company was in near collapse. Apple still remain largely successful, but worrying times are afoot as demand for the iPhone has waned massively, and share prices showing up to a 20% drop. With no big blockbusters on the horizon but the iPhone 5SE, it’s possible Apple could be in trouble.
Have you ever found yourself thinking that all that smart technology in your life is a little stupid? Goos3D is on a crusade to make technology relevant in your life and we truly believe that IFTTT is the key to unlock that relevance. All you need is a desire to make things a little easier and a smartphone. Leave your questions in the comments below and let’s get started.
What does IFTTT stand for
IFTTT, which rhymes with gift, stands for “If This Then That”, and does exactly what is says on the tin. If one thing happens, make something else happen.
In this diagram you’ll see that there is a trigger and an action. One way of using IFTTT is to makes things, like a message or tweet, happen on a certain date. In this case, the trigger is the date and the tweet is the action. By using IFTTT you can schedule a tweet to say “Happy St. Patrick’s Day” on March 17th every year. In fact, here is that very recipe.
What I want to happen now is for you to see the possibilities beyond saying Happy Paddy’s Day. Pop in your other half’s birthday or anniversary and set it to send a message with greetings; both romantic and avoiding fights thanks to technology. You could create a recipe on your child’s device that sends you a text message once they reach home. While IFTTT is in it’s infancy, there is a huge range of uses you’ll find for this free app, but you have to take the leap, get curious and give it a go.
Why should I use IFTTT?
We’ve hinted at some uses above, but what’s the benefit? Well as IFTTT say themselves, it’s all about putting the internet to work for you. Impressively, it works on both Android and iOS, with the former having a few extra options, and while most smart phones have some sort of back up functionality, what if you lose your phone and the battery is quickly depleting. Thanks to IFTTT, you can have your phone email you its location when the battery reaches 15%. Here’s the recipe you’ll need for that (currently limited to Android).
Not a penny to set this up, but it could save you a few shillings should your phone be left in the park or hairdressers.
What are the best IFTTT recipes?
Recipes refers to the gallery of already created scenarios that can trigger actions. There is a seemingly infinite number of combinations and uses for IFTTT, but we’ve picked out our top five useful recipes that you could get started with today – without spending a penny! Recipes you’ve seen so far, and these next five are known as IF recipes. We’ll be looking at DO recipes in a later article.
Mute your phone at work (or anywhere)
There is nothing worse than when you sneak into the office late, seeing there is a big update on or something and then in the franticness of it all, your phone starts to ring and the entire place stares at you. Well, worry no more. To safe yourself and workplace decorum, you can automatically silence your phone based on your location. These are both available on Android and iOS. You can also set your phone to unmute again when you get home.
Share links posted to Facebook on Twitter
Do you have a Twitter account you never use? Having more than one social media platform can actually be tough work. You can set IFTTT to be your personal assistant, and push anything you post on Facebook to Twitter as well. This is a great recipe for both the average internet user and social media professionals.
Track your work hours with IFTTT
If you work in an area that requires you to clock in and out, chances are you keep your time fairly well. However, if you do not have one of these systems, you could be working much longer hours than you realise. If you combine IFTTT with Google Calendar, you can see for yourself just how many hours you are working every day. This recipe will log your comings and goings to a certain location into your calendar.
Send a text based on location
This one will help reduce your mammy’s blood pressure on those Sunday evenings. Have you ever driven to college after the weekend only to land in uni and be brought straight out for pints, completely forgetting to tell the mammy you’ve arrived safely even though it was that ham of a young lad driving you the back roads? You know yourself this is not that unlikely a scenario. Fear no more Irish mammy, location based text messages are a god send for situations just like this. Once you and your phone land back into a certain area, you can trigger a text message to a particular person stating you’ve arrived safely.
Do you have automatic gates that are activated by a call or SMS message? You got it, you can have those incredibly slow gates open by the time to get home. This is just as good if you are collecting the missus but she is never ready. Once you exit a certain area, you can automatically send a text message stating you’re on the way to pick her up.
Just don’t make the mistake I made. I set the location to trigger a message to the other half, but was caught sneaking off to the chipper on my lunch.
Updates on your favourite teams’s game by SMS
Picture this. You’re away in the sticks or abroad with no data connection, but you still want to receive notifications of the important stuff right? You can have IFTTT keep an eye on certain items when your away, falling back to good old SMS updates while you’re away from data connectivity.
This particular example will use the ESPN sports channel to trigger in game updates to a selected mobile phone number via SMS. Another practical use for a similar situation is to send Twitter mentions to you via SMS, so on and so forth.
We hope to have sold you on IFTTT as this could be the one thing that makes adopting technology relevant. If you have any questions or recipe requests, leave them in the comments below. Be sure to follow us on Twitter and like us on facebook, as we’ll be looking at various connected devices within the home, such as lights, cameras and, well, action actually.
In recent years, Samsung have become one of the most sought after premium smartphone manufacturers. The South Korean giants have made such an impact on the market, Apple are bucking trends and releasing a mid-season special in the iPhone 5SE to coincide with the launch of the latest Samsung Galaxy S range. So just what will Apple be competing with? All will be revealed at the upcoming Samsung Unpacked event, as Samsung plan to announce the Samsung Galaxy S7.
Last year Samsung went back to the drawing board and completely reinvigorated the smartphone industry with the S6 and S6 Edge/Edge Plus. This gathering of flagships brought with it a fresh new approach to design, some fancy added features, curved edges in some cases, wireless charging and an affiliation with the Marvel Avengers franchise to boot. Samsung will have to do a lot to replicate the success and sex appeal of the S6, but with that said a lot remains that could be improved. We’ve rounded up all the rumours, rants and ridiculousness to give you a breakdown on what to expect from Samsung’s latest flagship.
Samsung Galaxy S7: Leaked pictures
It was late on Friday evening when the news landed that Samsung are going to host their latest Unpacked event in the Centre de Convencions Internacional de Barcelona on Febraury 21st, a full day ahead this year’s Mobile World Congress event hosted in the same location. Along with this announcement, Samsung has released a small teaser trailer, reviving the hashtag #TheNextGalaxy for the launch.
So with the looks out of the way, what’s under the hood?
Samsung Galaxy S7: Specs
You can expect to find a 5.2″ AMOLED display within the Galaxy S7 powered by a 20% bigger battery than the Galaxy S6, jumping from 2550 mAh to 3000 mAh. It appears that the Galaxy Edge, Galaxy Edge Plus and Galaxy Note are likely to be combined into one 5.5″ AMOLED handset powered by a 3600 mAh battery. Galaxy Edge users will rejoice given the poor battery life experienced in the first models. All that screen quality and no power makes Jon a dull boy, or at least gives Jon a dull screen. The expected battery capacities are a clear attempt to drive the iPhone 7 into the ground before it even appears.
Samsung Galaxy S7: Design
There may be a few tweaks and changes to the design of the S7, but nothing too crazy, remembering that last year Samsung pulled a complete 180 with the design of the Galaxy S6 after introducing waterproofing for the Galaxy S5. With that said, there are rumours that the Galaxy S7 will indeed be IP67 certified (totally dust proof and water resistant up to 1 meter).
Yet, while those who’ve had a few pints only to see their smartphone land in the jax, most will be celebrating the return of Micro SD memory. Following widespread criticism at the exclusion of expandable memory in the Galaxy S6, Samsung have listened and will reintroduce the memory slot, expected to allow expansion up to 200GB.
Samsung Galaxy S7: The camera
So with expandable memory back on the table, you can go mad taking photos, but just how good will those shots be? We’d be shocked and appalled if the rumours of a 12MP camera are true and hope the Galaxy S7 comes with no less than a 16MP camera. Should the 12MP option come to fruitition, you can expect the focus (pardon the lazy ass pun) to shift towards low-light performance alá HTC.
Parting ways is the Samsung Galaxy Edge and Edge Plus (quite possibly the Note too), making way for a once size fits all solution in the new 5.5″ AMOLED Edge version
Samsung Galaxy S7: What’s new?
You’d be forgiven for thinking this is all a little underwhelming, but there is more. Samsung do appear to be favouring the inclusion of a USB Type C port over micro USB, meaning no more looking for the mystic third side of the USB port when trying to get a charge as it works either way first time round. The future is here people. Once you’ve dried your phone from it’s fall in the toilet, you’ll be able to charge it much quicker after plugging in on the first attempt (please note, we do not recommend plugging your phone in after it gets wet).
Samsung Galaxy S7: The verdict
Waterproofing, expandable memory and a first time plug in charger might not be enough to win this round of phone launches for Samsung. Consumers want a little more magic, that stuff that the crowd with the half eaten fruit on their device has been doing for years. The vavavoom factor can only be found in the ever building excitement coming up to launch day, the hype. This hype still seems to elude the South Korean phone manufacturers, but will they get it right this time? Find out on February 21st.
Ever since it was announced at MWC 2015, the Huawei Watch became one of the most talked about wearables before cooling off and taking months to emerge onto the market. It finally landed and I’ve gotten my hands on one to see if it meets the hype or not.
Huawei Watch: First impressions
Right from the get go, it’s hard not to be impressed with your purchase. The Huawei Watch comes in a sleek display box on par with high end traditional watches. Indeed this is a trend that is present throughout your experience with the Huawei Watch as the manufacturer sought to design a watch more like an actual watch rather than a wearable.
The build of the watch screams quality from the stainless steel frame and genuine leather strap to the sapphire crystal, high quality screen. While there were some murmurs within online threads stating the watch as heavy, I personally found it rather light compared to my stainless steel Fossil watch. The most important part of the design is that when you wear the Huawei Watch it just feels like a normal watch and doesn’t intrude with your day until you want the watch.
The only design flaw I could find in the whole experience was the charger. The “hockey puck” charger can sometimes fool you into thinking the Huawei Watch is charging away, only to have you wake up to a 25% battery. This is caused by the charging port not sitting into the watch correctly. Simply make sure you feel the vibration when you connect the charger to the watch and you can avoid this.
You can watch the full unboxing video below.
Huawei Watch: Best features
The best feature of the Huawei Watch is simply its design. While wearing the watch, once someone catches a glace at it, you do need to remind them where your eyes are! People will ask you what it is and how it works as it is a gorgeous piece of kit. With that in mind the watch does offer plenty of other great features and innovations.
OK, Google…
Siri made it cool, but people talking to their phone like a best friend is slowly becoming more popular. The Huawei Watch will await your command upon hearing “OK, Google…”. From here you can say “text my girlfriend” or “what time is the Liverpool game on at” to which you’ll get the answer to your query. It’s just like Michael Knight having a chat with KITT.
Wireless connectivity
This is one of the features that sets the Huawei Watch aside from the rest of the Android Wear market; it comes with built in WiFi. Should you make your way to work but leave your phone at home, you will still receive notifications to your watch once your phone maintains a WiFi connection and your watch is connected to WiFi in work. You can even respond to text messages, WhatsApp messages or emails and the like through the reply function coupled with Google Now voice recognition.
Heart rate monitor
Over the Christmas break, there was plenty of craic knocked out of the heart rate monitor, as the watch was passed between friends drinking Red Bulls and pints to see who had the best heart rate. Whether or not you would actually wear the Huawei Watch to the gym or out jogging is questionable, but nonetheless the feature is there.
Android and iOS: Take your pick
This is rare, but also not the first time Huawei have pulled it off. Just like the Huawei Talkband, the Huawei Watch is compatible with both Android and iOS. Granted, iOS will be slightly more limited for the time being, it’s an impressive feat nonetheless.
Watch faces to bate the band
While there is a haype of watch faces loaded onto the Huawei Watch as stock, you can download even more from the Google Play Store. The range is astonishing, varying from analogue to digital watch faces and traditional to ultra modern. In fact, some of the biggest traditional watch makers, such as Rolex, have been cracking down on knock off watch faces mimicking their finest work.
If all these don’t cut if for you, the option to get hands on remains. You can create your own using Watch Maker, which comes in both free and premium versions.
Huawei Watch: The worst features
Charging
As mentioned above, there is really only one irritating thing and that’s the minor inconvenience that comes with making sure the watch is sitting correctly on the charger. Other than that the minor annoyances or water hitting the screen and the phone thinking it’s a touch slowly go away as you adapt to having a responsive device on your wrist.
Price
While this is perhaps the most complete and best looking smart watch on the market, many consider the price to simply be too high. Within context, the price of the Huawei Watch at €380, isn’t all that bad. The Moto 360 2 weights in a shade cheaper while this is the same price you would be looking to spend on Apple Watches. While I was more than happy to fork out the cash for the Huawei Watch, the price tag at which this piece of jewellery comes as an acquired taste.
Performance
The battery in the Huawei Watch is pretty decent considering it’s default set to “Always On”. Most smart watches, such as the Moto 360 and Fossil’s latest addition have that silly looking flat tyre on the bottom which turn the screen on and off. Doing away with these, meant the Huawei Watch screen is always on, but does go to sleep, waiting to be spun awake.
With that in mind, the Huawei Watch gives an awkward amount of power. I’m quite a heavy user and would get a day and a half from the watch, meaning I really get a day and just charge every night regardless. It’s likely a lighter user would get two days from a single charge.
Connectivity is another strong point. I often have the watch, WiFi and Bluetooth headphones all connected at once (here’s to my health) and the device never drops connection. My previous wearable of choice was the Pebble Kickstarter Edition which regularly dropped connected despite consistent firmware updates.
Huawei Watch: The verdict
While the price will deter all but the tech saavy early adopters, the Huawei Watch is a fantastic piece of kit. Unlike the Apple Watch, Android Wear does not really have the loyal brand following to drive sales. What Huawei have created might be one of the pricier wearables on the market, but they have also bridged the gap between wearable and fashion accessories. The Huawei Watch is likely to be the nicest and most functional smart watch on the market for quite some time to come, which might just justify that price tag.
Where to buy the Huawei Watch in Ireland
We picked up this watch from Amazon.co.uk. If you’re the impatient type, try out Amazon Prime’s 30 day trial and get free delivery to the Ireland via Parcel Motel.We ordered on a Saturday, with the Huawei Watch arriving into Parcel Motel on the Monday night. Insanely fast!
In the past couple of weeks, rumours have emerged surrounding the possible release of the Apple iPhone 5SE. Apple sources have stated that the iPhone 5SE, apparently code named ‘N69’ internally, suggest that the phone will be an upgraded version of the iPhone 5, rather than a budget version like the iPhone 5c. These reports have surfaced a couple of weeks after it was rumoured that Apple will be releasing an iPhone 6c, but these reports have been deemed false by internal sources. So why are Apple going back to the smaller screens rather then going with a 6c and a bigger screen? It’s simple; market share.
In recent years, popularity in bigger screens have grown, with all manufacturers. Let’s look at arguably Apples biggest competitor, Samsung. The Samsung S series began its life with the Samsung S with a 4″ display, versus Apples iPhone 1 with a 3.5″ display. The S II immediately upgraded its screen size with a 4.3″ screen and gradually getting larger and larger with each new model, with 4.8″, 4.99″ and 5.1 for the S5 and S6. Apple kept the 3.5″ screen for 4 years before upgrading to 4″ with the iPhone 5. The main reason behind this was Steve Jobs. He believed that people didn’t want big phones, instead opting for small, powerful compact models. It wasn’t long after his death that Tim Cook, Jobs’ successor, realised that people did want bigger screens, and with the iPhone 5, Apple increased their screen size to 5″. 2 years , later upgrading again to 4.7″ with the 6 and 6s. Still 0.3″ smaller then the S5 and S6 but making up for it with incredible screen resolution and a slick curved screen.
The difference between Apple and Samsung is that Apple have seen themselves as a premium brand since day one. They have no interest in bringing out budget phone like the Samsung Pocket Neo or the very successful Samsung Core Prime. However, just this week, reports have been released that sales of the Apple iPhone are in decline. Maybe the iPhone 5SE is their answer. Forecasters within the company could have spotted this 6 months ago and saw that something urgent needed to be done. It is unclear what the price is going to be, but by looking at the rumoured specs, it’s still going to be a premium price. With that in mind, it won’t be as steep as the iPhone 6s and the upcoming iPhone 7.
Apple are looking at their competitors and seeing that not everyone wants big screens even though most flagship phones these days have approximately 5″ screens. With the iPhone 5SE, Apple are scaling it back to 4″ again, similar to the iPhone 5, iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c. This new model will be more appealing to customers who like Apple devices but don’t like the largely screens. From my experience within the mobile phone industry, I can say that this will be appealing to the older generation of customers who got their iPhone 5s on a two year contracts and want to upgrade to a new iPhone. The larger, modern screens might be too much of a change for this generation, leaving the door wide open for the iPhone 5SE to be a success. Going back to Apple possibly forecasting this, it is rumoured to be released in March or April, which is strange for Apple as they usually release their new models in September/October. Between the reports of sales loss and the release date, it’s hard to believe that Apple aren’t trying to salvage their sales before they lose their competitiveness with Samsung.
Anyway, enough about the business side of the iPhone 5SE, let’s talk about what we can expect from it.
iPhone 5SE screen size
The 4″ screen. More appealing to customers. Also it will be curved. Not in the sense of Samsung’s S6 Edge, but more closely similar to the curve screen we see on the iPhone 6s.
iPhone 5SE camera
They are supposedly scaling back the camera features to 8MP main camera and 1.2MP frontfacing camera, which we can see on the iPhone 6. It will also support Panoramic pictures, auto focus and video recording. No major surprises there, but it gets better as it also supports Live Photos, which we saw in the latest iPhone 6s model.
iPhone 5SE connectivity and brain
Expect the iPhone 5SE to have NFC, making it compatible with Apple Pay. The iPhone 5s was not able to use Apple Pay without an Apple Watch, so this is a nice upgrade for the users of iPhone 5s.
iPhone 5SE users will also get a built in Barometer which they can use in the Health App, again an upgrade from the iPhone 5s. The main feature the 5SE will not see from previous models is the 3D touch we saw in the 6s. But when you put it all together, this seems like an incredible phone so we’ll take the loss off the 3D touch.
In terms of the brain power within the iPhone 5SE, it was initially rumoured that it would come with an A8 and M8 chip, which we saw in the iPhone 6, but recent updates on the rumours have reported it will have an A9 and M9 chip, as seen in the iPhone 6s. This is an incredible amount of power coming from a relatively small phone in comparison to other phones in the market that support this kind of power – the Galaxy S6, LG G4′ and HTC One M9.
iPhone 5SE colours
You can expect to find the iPhone 5SE in all the colours available in the 6s range, gold, silver, space grey and rose gold.
If Apple did see this loss in sales coming and this is their strategy turn this around, I have to say, bravo Apple. They have managed to put some very powerful technology into this small compact device. The A9/M9 chips tells us that alone, but to be able to put technology from the iPhone 6s into it is an achievement in itself. The only other phone on the market that I think could compete with the iPhone 5SE, besides flagship phones with 5″ + screens, is the Sony Xperia Z5 compact. It is no secret that Apple’s market share in the phone industry is greater than Sony’s, so it’s possible it could very much compete with it.
I think Apple know exactly what they are doing. I think they will come out of this potential crisis before it even gains legs. And I think this will set up even more anticipation for the new iPhone 7 expected to be released in October. And I also think other companies, including Samsung, should be worried, because Apple could come out of this stronger than ever.
It may be one of the lesser known international holidays, but data privacy has grown in importance right alongside the increase in online usage. With our individual online presence growing ever larger, you’d think we would all be security crazy and struggle to remember all our passwords.
Online behaviour
Email provider TopMail has surveyed internet users on their password usage, and while none fell for the old “type your password here to continue” trick, they did provide some rather worrying insights into online behaviours. While it’s unclear if the mails were sent to African Princes or not, but 68% of users have sent personal information such as bank details, passwords or security question answers through email. 47% of users completed full transactions on unsecured public WiFi and an astonishing 15% have fallen victim to some sort of scam online with their bank details.
Knowing your passwords
In the same study, it was uncovered that 83% of participants recycled passwords across several different sites. Of course, it’s easy to see why people sync their passwords but this leaves users extremely vulnerable to attacks. It’s also important to ensure your password is secure to begin with and not too easy to guess.
Security group SplashData investigated the most popular passwords of 2015 and unveiled that the most popular passwords are terribly guessable. If you recognise any of these, we beg you to sort it out. The recent Ashley Madison hack, however deplorable, also provided interesting supporting evidence to the below passwords as “123456”, “12345” and “password” were the most popular passwords.
The 25 most common passwords
1
123456
2
password
3
12345678
4
qwerty
5
12345
6
123456789
7
football
8
1234
9
1234567
10
baseball
11
welcome
12
1234567890
13
abc123
14
111111
15
1qaz2wsx
16
dragon
17
master
18
monkey
19
letmein
20
login
21
princess
22
qwertyuiop
23
solo
24
passw0rd
25
starwars
What WiFi
Nothing says “social evening out” like sitting in a restaurant with your face buried in your smartphone. For this reason, if you are out for dinner or walking around a built up area you are probably connected, or at least able to connect to public WiFi. These internet connections are generally unsecured and provide a hotbed for undesirables to attempt accessing your private data or redirecting users to bogus sites, where they phish for your data.
One such way to overcome these kind of data privacy issues is to use mediums such as Invizbox GO (left). Invizbox GO, a recently funded Irish Kickstarter campaign, utilised VPN technology which secures your data and provides a convenience side effect where you an access other services like US Netflix.
All in all, as consumers shift more and more towards online shopping and our data becomes increasingly digitised, everyone must take it upon themselves to secure their own data as ultimately, no-one will do it for you.
Whether it’s O’ Leary versus Timofte or McGregor versus the world, we tend to back Irish. There is another to add to the list as Playnets by Irish gaming house Dakido has rip roared through the iTunes charts, being downloaded in over 40 countries and cracking top 10 and top 20 charts across Europe.
Playnets is a simple romp that’s sure to help pass those awkward few moments in the toilet when you have nothing to do. The game creators describe it as a tower-defence/whack-a-mole hybrid, which is a fair description. At the centre of your game, quite literally, is your Playnet (Planet). You’re job is to defend that planet from a relentless gang of space-invaders.
To achieve this, you poke, tap and time your screen pressing to perfection to destroy the threats to your Playnet. All the while you’re doing this, you’ll be enjoying a funky gaming soundtrack and glorious graphics, made all the more impressive by the fact that this Playnets if the first dip into the gaming pool by Dakido.
Speaking via a LinkedIn, Playnets co-creator David Donnellan outlined how the initial launch ‘far exceeded expectations’ given how ‘incredibly competitive the gaming industry is’.
Founded in 1982, Electronic Arts (EA) have survived more than a few changes in the gaming industry. One of the most recent shifts in the industry has been towards direct purchases from your console. Spotting the trend shift, EA created EA Access, a hybrid between Netflix and popping down to your local GameStop.
Only Xbox One users need apply
So the name might be a little ironic as access to EA Access is a little limited. This is a uniquely Xbox One only affair. The Xbox 360 was never included, simply because it’s coming to the end of its life. Sony made the decision to proceed without the service, believing “the EA Access subscription offering […] does not bring the kind of value PlayStation customers have come to expect”. You’ll have to make your own mind up on whether or not Sony were right to exclude themselves from EA Access.
What being a member of EA Access gets you
EA Access consists of three main parts.
EA Access: Early access
EA Access members get early trials off the latest Electronic Arts games. These are usually full version games for a limited time. Recently, EA Access members could try out Star Wars: Battlefront for ten hours prior to purchasing. These trials usually first appear a few days before games even launch.
EA Access: Discounts
Every time an EA Access member purchases the likes of the latest FIFA title from the Xbox store, they save 10%. Better still, this 10% discount applies to full games, pre-orders, expansion packs and in-game purchases.
EA Access: The Vault
This is the biggest and best part of EA Access membership. The Vault consists of some of EA’s top sellers from days gone by, so by being a member you have access to a range of full titles. As long as you are a member, you can download and play games from the Vault, leaving only two more things you’ll need to work out if this is good value or not.
EA Access: What games are in The Vault?
Effectively, this is one of the most important things along with cost. Here are a list of games in the EA Access Vault along with their rating (courtesy of IGN):
Title
Rating
Madden NFL 25
8.5
FIFA 14
9
Battlefield 4
8
Need for Speed Rivals
7.9
Peggle 2
9
Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare
7.8
Titanfall
8.9
EA Sports UFC
6.8
Madden NFL 15
8.7
NHL 15
7
FIFA 15
8.3
NBA Live 15
5.5
Dragon Age: Inquisition
8.8
Battlefield Hardline
8
That’s thirteen games you can play with your EA Access membership, which weigh in with an average IGN rating of 8 our of 10. EA have also committed to keeping the games in The Vault, so they won’t vanish after you sign up. They will also add a few games a year, meaning there is a certain excitement associated with being a member.
EA Access: How much does EA Access cost?
It boils down to this. You get loads of high quality games, discounts and exclusive playing time with EA Access membership, but what does it all set you back? There are two payment options, offering you a choice between monthly and annual payments. If you choose monthly, it will set you back €3.99 per month, with the annual option costing you €24.99 for the year. The annual approach saves you about a euro a month.
Simply put, if you were considering buying any of the games on the above list, chances are they would’t be a million miles away from being €25 so the EA Access membership makes sense to us. Follow Goos3D for the latest EA Access news, including the possible inclusion of Xbox 360 games from February.
Are you an EA Access member? What do you think of it?
We’ve been waiting for this baby to land since MWC 2015 and land it has. I’ve been living with the watch for a while, but first off let us introduce you to the Huawei Watch in an unboxing video. If you are looking to buy the Huawei Watch in Ireland, your best bet is to get the Huawei Watch over on Amazon using Parcel Motel. You can even sign up to a free Prime trial and get it ridiculously fast with free delivery.
Check back for our full hands on review, which will be available shortly.
Ever since Damien Duff graced Asian soils in 2002 with his famous Predators and showed the world how the sport is played , the Irish public have had a somewhat of a love affair with Adidas. From the heroic and much adored Predator range to the new Evo and Ace ranges that have replaced the iconic boot, the fine folks of Adidas really know what it takes to make a football boot.
Now we know, Goos3D is a tech site so why are we waxing lyrical over a pair of shoes? The answer is simple, technology can not only be found in handheld devices like tablets, or phones. Nor is it limited to 3D printing or wearables. Adidas are not afraid to push the boundaries when it comes to implementing technology in their products, from 3D printed running shoes, integrated technology with the miCoach or football boots that look more like socks. The German giants have spent many years and millions of Euros to redefine the footy boot, by adding and removing particular elements to give players more control on the pitch and this time they have outdone themselves.
In creating the Ace 16+ PureControl, they have ditched the simplest element of any shoe – the lace, and have created something which is partly crafted from the same material used in smartphone cases. Yes you heard us correctly boots without laces, inspired by phone cases….genius! Lotto were originally the first manufacturer’s to attempt a lace-less boot and we think it’s safe to say here that they made a balls of it, but Adidas have managed to create a boot which is not just smart but is also sexy.
The Ace 16+ PureControl, the newest set of wheels, have ditched the conventional laces by using something called thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU to you and me) to secure the middle part of the foot, while an interlocking system across the upper section is created from a combination of open and loose knit structures in a feature called Primeknit, something which Adidas have been featuring in an all-in-one boot/sock hybrid as well as their 3D printed shoe range since 2014. TPU is an amazing substance that has already been used in cushioned soles for running shoes, but its main use to date has actually been in the humble smartphone case, due to its energy absorbency and elastic properties. Who would have thought the piece of rubber around your phone could have so many uses?
The reason for this material selection, according to Adidas, was to create a football boot that fits like a glove and offers closer control to the players thanks to the larger surface area on the platform of the foot due to the absence of laces which in turn will allow the player to “generate more power and accuracy”. Basically from that chap at your six a side to the likes of Christian Benteke, who keeps blaming his laces for his poor touch. Or Wayne Rooney looking down at his boots after an erratic shot has nowhere to hide.
If that’s not enough the makers promise the boots require no time to wear the boots in, meaning no more annoying blisters. This boot essentially fits like a sock, with a layer of thin raised dots on the Primeknit section of the boot for closer control no matter what type of pass you’re making or receiving. On the flipside, the PureControls are using something called the Sprintframe outsole, which allows for better grip on the playing surface thus aiding the player reach their full speed faster (not a problem for any of the Goos3D team I can assure you), while for added protection an oversized heel cup providing stability which is essential in the modern day football boot. Expected to release in the near future with a RRP of €250 these won’t come cheap, however players such as Mesut Ozil and Ivan Rakitic will be wearing these from next weekend onwards (as if they need the help).
“My whole career I have tried to minimise the impact of laces on my strike and ball control,” says Ozil.
“I revealed to Adidas in 2014 that in the changing room I knot the laces over and over again and then tuck in the ends – that way they do not interfere with my touch.” Well Mesut, Adidas listened and once again they delivered, but just what are you doing in that pictures at the top of the page?
Anyway, the next time your Sunday League gaffer tells you to “Put your laces through it”, just simply remind him that you really can’t.
It’s happening! The mighty have fallen. In the same we be brought you news of the impending battle between the Samsung Galaxy S7 and the iPhone 5SE, news has emerged that Apple have fallen behind Google’s Alphabet as the world’s most valuable company.
It would appear the sharp rise in share price comes as a direct result of increased transparency of the Alphabet business. Alphabet only came into being in August as an umbrella term for Google, YouTube, Android and other various projects including Project Ara, self-driviyng cars, bio-tech and high speed internet.
The build of the watch screams quality from the stainless steel frame and genuine leather strap to the sapphire crystal, high quality screen. While there were some murmurs within online threads stating the watch as heavy, I personally found it rather light compared to my stainless steel Fossil watch. The most important part of the design is that when you wear the Huawei Watch it just feels like a normal watch and doesn’t intrude with your day until you want the watch.
While there is a haype of watch faces loaded onto the Huawei Watch as stock, you can download even more from the Google Play Store. The range is astonishing, varying from analogue to digital watch faces and traditional to ultra modern. In fact, some of the biggest traditional watch makers, such as Rolex, have been cracking down on knock off watch faces mimicking their finest work.
. If you’re the impatient type, try out Amazon Prime’s 30 day trial and get free delivery to the Ireland via Parcel Motel.We ordered on a Saturday, with the Huawei Watch arriving into Parcel Motel on the Monday night. Insanely fast!
