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Ember Review: Do You Need A Smart Temperature Controling Travel Mug

Marty
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Ember Review: Do You Need A Smart Temperature Controling Travel Mug

There are quite a few gadgets on the market which bring the world “notions” to mind. None have made the term spring into mind quite like the Ember Travel Mug. I’ve been testing one out that Ember sent over and while a little pricy, I’m sold on it being very good indeed.

What is the Ember Travel Mug?

In short, the Ember Travel Mug is a travel mug for coffee and tea. It’ll do that most basic task rather well. The real beauty of the Ember comes from the fact it can also detect the heat of your beverage and keep it at the perfect heat for about three hours.

ember coffee by the river

Traditional travel mugs are generally either just made of simple materials or have some kind of material to retain as much heat as possible. The Ember has smarts inside to actually heat your drink and to keep your drink at the perfect temperature. It’s not about heat retention, but heat regulation and this is the feature I nerded out about most.

What’s the perfect temperature for your drink?

I’m a cappuccino man. I’m not a coffee nerd, but I enjoy a decent cuppa joe. I like knowing a nice bean has been roasted and served to me at the right temperature. The Ember Travel Mug means I can pop into the local coffee shop, order my cappuccino and have my mug actually hold the drink at the right optimal temperature. For this drink, the mug keeps my coffee at 56.5 degrees. You can easily change this in the app or directly on the cup itself and it can reach temperatures from 48.9°C to 62.8°C.

Does the Ember Travel Mug work?

This is nice and simple. Yes. The Ember Travel Mug is amazing at doing exactly what it says on the tin. The perfect example was the day I forgot about my coffee for about an hour after buying it. Thanks to my Ember the coffee was still at the perfect temperature.

There are also some additional benefits with a coffee cup like this. One of my favourite things is that there’s no more burning the mouth off myself when coffee is served too hot. I don’t even think about drinking my coffee until the Ember app tells me it’s at the perfect temperature. I can either trust the app or adjust the temperature regulation myself on the mug.

Another feature I like is rather simple. The lid. The lid promises to be leakproof and lets you drink from every side. The simple things in life make me happy.

While the Ember Travel Mug does have a battery built-in, it also comes with a special charging “saucer”. That means I can pop the Ember onto a spot of my desk where it’ll charge away keeping my coffee warm for even longer.

The downsides of Ember

As much as I love my Ember, it’s not perfect. First of all, when I grab a coffee from the local coffee shop, they nearly always fill it up too high. That’s because the Ember itself isn’t the biggest coffee mug in the world, holding 355ml. I don’t drink Starbucks, but that’s a Tall coffee in Starbucks language. The design of the lid means that you need to leave a lot of space at the top, something baristas seem to have a problem with. As a result, I’ve got to take one or two mouthfuls of scalding coffee to make space.

a full cup of coffee

Let’s be honest though. That’s not exactly Ember’s problem.

A far more pressing barrier to you going out and buying one of these right now is the price. I reviewed the first Ember, which you can buy directly from Apple Ireland for €170. It’s also available from Amazon.co.uk where you’ll also find the newer Ember Travel Mug 2. The newer mug seems to have changed how you manually adjust the temperature with little other changes so if you’re in the market for something like this or want to gift it to the coffee fan in your life, the first version is more than adequate. Yes, it’s very pricey but this is a very new technology. Early adopters always pay a tax.

Ember Travel Mug: The Verdict

It’s a unique product and I love it. Will many see the value with such a price tag? I’d wager not. It’s really cool (pardon the pun) and it works fantastically well but it’s peak notions with that pricetag. I do have to stress that I really love mine and it’s actually got me back into drinking coffee.

While it might not be for everyone, it’s probably the perfect gift for someone and possibly yourself.

YouTube Rewind 2019!

Jon
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0
YouTube Rewind 2019!

After a bit of abuse this year YouTube decided to take a brand new approach with this years mashup video. Instead of their usual clip, YouTube created montage of the biggest moments and milestones from around the world on YouTube. Funnily enough it comes of the back of last years YouTube Rewind being their most-disliked video ever! Kevin Allocca, head of culture and trends at YouTube had this to say:

“We heard a lot of feedback that the video last year didn’t reflect people’s experience on YouTube. Rewind has always been a moment to celebrate the big things that happened on YouTube and document the end of the year. People feel a real sense of ownership of what they create on the platform.”

This year YouTube Rewind goes about highlighting a range of categories like most viewed creator, most liked overall video, dance video, beauty video, most viewed games, top new creators of the year and of course most watched music videos. You may notice that these categories are really prioritizing the native YouTubers rather than celebs. Well that’s because Rewind 2018 got 17million dislikes vs 2million likes and it was accused of being tone deaf to the YouTube community, highlighting the likes of Trevor Noah over Pewdiepie, despite having more viewers. It was so bad they actually reference and accept their 2018 in the into of this years YouTube Rewind. Anyway give it a gander and let us know what you think.

SVP Go Contactless for Donations

Jon
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SVP Go Contactless for Donations

In just a few short years, how we pay for goods and services have changed dramatically. We all know it, really how often are people carrying cash let alone loose change these days? More and more people, like me use mobile payments. It’s really convenient until you think about how charities are losing out on the donation of till-side loose change.

Think about it, when you buy stuff in the shop you’d happily throw the loose 5-10-20cent into the bucket. But that’s now a thing of the past. In the not so distant past though the church began trialing contactless payments for donations.

They did this because dodging charity boxes has become easier in modern times and charities are loosing thousands worth of donations. Well, thankfully and more desevingly than the church, St Vincent de Paul (SVP) are set to become the 1st Irish charity to introduce digital collection boxes. These e-buckets called CollecTin were developed by SumUp and Visa and are basic enough electronic card readers which will allow donors to contribute with their debit or credit cards if they have no cash. Boom, no excuse to not toss that change to a good cause during holiday season. Plus i’m almost certain the theory is you miss a euro less when you don’t see it- hence tap and go with you good cause.

Image result for svp tap to donate

In a recent interview, the head of SVP fundraising Nichola Mullen had this to say:

 

‘We’re starting with 80 buckets and it’s a strategic roll-out to facilitate donors in every way.’

Using these e-buckets is also really simple, just choose the amount you want to donate on the card reader, tap and go. That’s it. SVP hope this new technology will remove barriers and encourage people to donate without the issues that may have prevented them in the past. Oh and before we forget, the card reader sits inside the bucket, so it will still act as a normal collection point but needs to be charged up on occasion.

There are other ways to donate!

Image result for change donations

Change donations is an Irish donations service and the modern answer to popping your twenty cent change from your grocery shop into the charity box beside the till. Say you buy a few bits and bobs worth €19.60. Back in the day, you’d get two twenty cent pieces back and you might have been tempted to pop them into the charity box for a worthy cause. These micro-donations generally make little or no impact on your own pocket, but with thousands of them taking place around Ireland daily, they added up to a significant bit of cash for charities.

Today, you’re much more likely to tap your card and pay the exact amount for your transaction. Sure enough, you’re back up forty cents, but you likely won’t even notice that few cents. Charities, on the other hand, do miss the thousands of these transactions taking place daily and this is the gap Change Donations is trying to close.

Change Donations is a service where you connect your bank account and your bank card. The Change Donations service then looks at your card transactions, rounds up to the nearest euro and donates your digital loose change to a charity of your choice.

Effectively, it’s the exact same as donating the loose change that the shop keeper would have handed back to you.

Essentially here’s the deal, right now we know Ireland has it’s issues with homelessness and poverty, with these two options alone there are ways and means to donate to worthy charities without needing a pocketful of coin on the high street. Seems as its December why not try one of these nifty tech solutions while doing a good deed for those in need or If you wish to donate, visit www.svp.ie/donate or call 01 8848200.

Trending on Twitter: Is the Queen Dead?

Marty
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Trending on Twitter: Is the Queen Dead?

Tonight you may have noticed that The Queen is trending on Twitter. Every couple of months, David Attenborough trends on Twitter and I have a minor heart attack myself. It’s usually a new documentary or something but there’s always that brief moment I fear the worst.

Tonight, when I saw “The Queen” trending, my first thought was the royal Netflix series, The Crown, but this trend really is about the Queen. But is there any truth to it? Is the Queen really dead? Most likely not. Here’s what we know.

Where have rumours of the Queen’s death come from?

Ok, so first of all you’re probably wondering why Goosed.ie is writing about this at all. Simply, this is a fascinating insight into social media, fake news and how to construct the perfect lie to go viral. It may also be true but I’m assuming it’s not.

Talk of the Queen’s demise has been sparked by a screenshot from a WhatsApp group. Honestly, there’s not much more to it.

In this group, Gibbo has forwarded a message he’s apparently received from a member of the Queen’s guard. They’ve all been informed to ready themselves for the duties that come with a Royal funeral.

But is there any truth to it?

Picking apart the screenshot

I need to start this with a caveat which explains this could very well be the truth and we’ll only find out tomorrow if it is. But here’s my opinion as to why it’s not true.

To start, this is just a screenshot from a WhatsApp group. It could be anyone. The lads nicknames might not lend much to their credibility but the fact the group’s icon is a penis certainly kills off the last bit of trust I’m going to afford these lads.

Also, I’ve had a quick look online and couldn’t find any record of news of the Queen Mother’s death being suppressed, though admittedly I’m writing and researching this on the fly on my mobile.

Regardless, for me it seems a perfect construct. There’s the apparent credibility of who this third party source is. There’s a gap to finding out the truth – tomorrow at 9.30am. There’s apparently more credibility added by the knowledge of procedures upon the Queen’s death.

However, I look at all of this and see the perfect bit of fake news. In fact, the process of what happens next it’s fairly public knowledge. It’s called “Operation London Bridge” and it outlines what everyone will do when Queen Elizabeth dies.

Now, I could be totally wrong but should this all transpire to be fake news, this screenshot should be studied. It’s got everything to make a story go viral.

Update: The rumours are not true

According to a well-informed Royal insider, this is all nonsense and should be ignored. I’m going to go with this because he seems more reliable than Gibbo.

Deskmate: A Brilliant Cheap Standup Desk For Working From Home

Marty
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0
Deskmate: A Brilliant Cheap Standup Desk For Working From Home

Working from home is great. Well, it’s great if you have space at home to work from. Sometimes I work from home. I live in a one-bed apartment, so do the maths on the space that I have. In a previous life, I worked in an office with standup desks and I loved them. That left me looking for a logical solution. How could I fit a standing desk into my tiny one-bed apartment? The solution, as it turns out, is called Deskmate.

What is Deskmate?

Well, as you might have guessed, Deskmate is a standup desk. The difference between this and a standing desk that you might get somewhere like Ikea is price and convenience.

I’ll keep with that Ikea example. If I had a dedicated home office, I wouldn’t hesitate for one second to pick up an Ikea stand up desk. They’re probably some of the best value ones on the market. But I don’t have that space. I needed a solution that could, ideally, fold away to nothing when I didn’t need it and be popped onto the dinner table when I needed a workspace.

Deskmate is a cardboard standup desk converter. That means you use this on top of a normal desk or, in my case, on top of the dinner table at home. This gives me a perfect workspace in my apartment, something I was missing badly.

Here’s my exact setup at home. Mandatory glass of beer to boot.

deskmate cheap standing desk alternative

I was shocked at how good my Deskmate was and here’s why.

Benefits of Deskmate

There were plenty of positives with my standing desk alternative. Here’s are my favourite points.

It’s a Folding Standing Desk

As I mentioned, I’m beyond being tight one space. In my head, I envisioned a standing desk which I could fold away behind the couch or something. I do a lot of video work in the apartment too so that’s why I have a pop up green screen. Convenience is one of the most important things to me. I wanted the same from my standing desk.

Because the Deskmate is made from cardboard, it’s not only super-light but it’s also foldable. It’s actually not just foldable. It’s foldable down to a tiny depth of 3cm. That means I can fold it away and hide it behind the couch.

It’s The Perfect Size

It’s all well and good being tiny when folded away, but I need the desk to be pretty spacious when I’m using it. If you’ve got a pretty tidy keyboard, there’s nothing to worry about here. If I was to place a bet, I would imagine all product testing of the Deskmate has been done with Apple products. I use an Apple laptop, a 15-inch Macbook Pro with an Apple Magic Keyboard and Logitech MX Master mouse. I’ve got plenty of space, largely because the Apple keyboard is tiny. Some larger keyboards might struggle but if this is your setup you’re laughing.

If you’re using a bigger keyboard, drop me a line in the comments below and I’ll try give you an idea of what to expect. Here’s another setup I tested with a keyboard which has a Numpad. This doesn’t work as it means there’s no space for your mouse. Unless you’re a hardcore, keys-only coder.

deskmate keyboard test

Improved Posture and Productivity. And It’s Cheap.

I’ve always felt super productive at a standing desk. I’ve no idea what it is but it feels great. Maybe this is silly, but I’ve even felt myself working up a bit of a sweat just from standing while I work. And that brings me onto an important point. The Deskmate is great because you can use it with your normal desk which, of course, means you can just revert to sitting down. Standing all the time isn’t a great idea either so Deskmate gives you a handy alternative. Unless you have a massive monitor or big Mac which probably shouldn’t be moved that much.

Most importantly for your wallet, the Deskmate is a really cheap alternative to fixed desks and electronic tabletop standing desk converters. If you want to dip your toe into the world of standing while you work, you can buy the Deskmate for just £29.90. At the time of writing that works out as €35.

Shopping Tips: How To Find The Best Black Friday Deals

Marty
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Shopping Tips: How To Find The Best Black Friday Deals

Where the bloody hell has November gone. We’re staring down the barrel of Black Friday with Christmas just around the corner. It’s been a rollercoaster year but don’t let that all distract you. This is the time of the year where you can all to often part with money a little easier that you should as we all get caught up in the sales furore. With Black Friday being spread across longer sales periods than ever before, how can you make sure you’re able to find the best Black Friday Deals?

Black Friday Shopping Tips

To get the ball rolling, here are some of my favourite Black Friday shopping tips.

Always Check PriceSpy.ie

Retailers can get very creative around Black Friday and Christmas. And sometimes, they get a little too creative with their pricing. It’s not unheard of to see retailers inflating prices or the discount amounts to make their propositions to you look all the sweeter. I’ve called our CeX in the past for their terrible pricing, but they’re just expensive. Other retailers are far closer to conning the consumer during these greedy periods.

With this in mind, I always recommend that you give PriceSpy.ie a quick look before you make a purchase. PriceSpy.ie scrapes as many websites as possible to get product pricing from a wide range of retailers. It’s not always perfect but it will give you an idea of some other places you could pick up that gadget you want to buy at a similar price – maybe even cheaper. I’d check nearly any gadget purchase I make before handing over the cash.

PriceSpy.ie has even set up a Black Friday price tracker for you. How handy is that?

Be Ruthless? – Shopping in the UK

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I do want as many people as possible to support Irish businesses. Next week, I’m buying myself a shiny new drone and I’m buying it from an Irish-based retailer. Why? Well, the price is all the same to me so I may as well support a retailer who employs people in Ireland.

That’s not always the case. Sometimes I can’t get products in Ireland and then other times shopping on a website like Amazon.co.uk is just much cheaper. We’ve carried out our own research which shows 32% of people in Ireland have shopped on Amazon.co.uk in the past twelve months and PriceSpy.ie often highlights Amazon.co.uk as the best spot to make a purchase. I do need to emphasise that shopping with the world’s biggest online retailer can itself is a bit of a minefield. That’s why I’ve already put together the ultimate guide to shopping on Amazon.co.uk in Ireland.

Do You Really Need It?

I bought a drill during the last Black Friday sale on Amazon. It was a great deal. I’ve never used that drill. Learn from my mistakes.

The Best Black Friday Deals So Far

Ok, so Black Friday isn’t until November 29th but still, there’s a load of retailers in Ireland and, of course, Amazon.co.uk who’ve launched into Black Friday sale mode. Here are some of the best deals I’ve spotted so far.

Amazon Echo Devices

As you might expect, there’s no shortage of discounts on Amazon Echo devices. I love the Echo Show 5-inch and the Amazon Firestick to name but two products with massive savings on them for the next week or so.

Pop on over to Amazon and check out the full range of Black Friday deals. It might be worth checking back a few times too as they do add more bits and pieces as the week goes on.

Harvey Norman Tablets and More

Sorry, I’m keeping it vague again but that’s because I’ve no idea what you’re in the market for. With that in mind, if you’re after a telly, phone, headphones, fridge, washing machine, laptop or even a mattress, it might be worth popping over to Harvey Norman. Every year, they take Black Friday very seriously going so far as to promise they’ll match the price of any competitor.

Three’s Black Tag Sale

Like I said earlier, retailers are going all-in on Black Friday making the sale much more than just a day. Three running a Black Tag sale across bill pay phones, prepay phones and accessories. If you’re not sure what to buy they even have an automated chatbot to help you find what you’re looking for. One of the best deals I’ve spotted is the iPhone 8 on bill pay. You can pick that up for €29 on their €45 per month plan.

Vodafone Broadband Offer

Thinking of switching broadband provider? Black Friday might be the time to do it if you want to nab yourself a pretty cool gadget at the same time. Right now, if you sign up online you’ll get their broadband for €25 per month for the first 6 months along with a free Google Home Hub. It’s a 12-month contract with the second 6 months being €40 per month.

I’ll be monitoring my inbox for the rest of the week for the latest offers that appear on the market as different retailers wake up. So do check back here for updates. I’ve also contributed to a Sunday Times article to try keep your Black Friday shopping on the straight and narrow.

Need For Speed: Heat – Hot Stuff Coming Through?

Jon
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Need For Speed: Heat – Hot Stuff Coming Through?

Need For Speed, a gaming staple for almost 25 years finally started feeling a little dead after the 2017 Payback edition. Gamers around my age will always hark back to the days of NFS Underground and Underground 2 as being the level that the series needs to be at. Gone are the days of NFS getting the big E3 treatment and coming into this review I wasn’t sure that Need For Speed: Heat would have was it takes to be the series salvation. What I can say is this… Heat feels like we are back on track it is fast, fun, and streets ahead of 2017’s properly disappointing Need for Speed Payback.

Need For Speed: Heat feels a lot more like a throwback to the days of Underground and Most Wanted with some modern tweaks. This results in a wide variety of car modifications available alongside mad cop car chase in an open-world arena. I found that Heat was built on a back to basics approach with new modifications and thankfully this stripped back and almost “old school” ethic works.

Palm City: A Day & Night Apart

Image result for need for speed heat

As with any Need For Speed, we need a playground. Enter Palm City, a map designed of the Miami skyline and drenched in neon. Perfect you might say for a classic NFS. It’s not about interactive detail, it’s about having something sexy to look at as you drive by at high speed and this delivers. Sure the map is small in comparison to the Crew but its a totally different experience.

NFS Heat is basically split into two different zones, day and night. By day this city is full of sanctioned street races that earn you cash monies while by night the world is all about that illegal, underground racing and taking sketch away from the guard’s life that builds up rep points. To progress in the game you will need a fair amount of both to get anywhere, which is grand because the story mode is very loose and it’s more of an occasional diversion from Heat’s regular racing events.

Put it like this, if you want to race for new cars and parts you need to get out during the day to make that money. But to get the reputation needed to unlock the better packages and missions its the nightlife for you. To be honest, the night mode is visually far superior, the races feel faster…probably due to the traffic and wild cop chases.

Get to the Chase

Image result for need for speed heat

Unlike games of yesteryear, the cop chases are more GTA with no set time limit and they are fair feisty until you get better vehicle upgrades. Your car is also equipped with a damage meter so going tit for tat with the police isn’t much of an option so when you can
get instant repairs from gas stations up to three times a night, too much damage and you’ll be arrested.
Remember the cops are king in this game, they can’t always outmanoeuvre you so sometimes the game will spawn the boys in blue nearby and their burst of speed is something else. If and when you do get caught you’ll lose a fair amount of bank and rep so it’s a tad bothersome when the busted meter starts once the guards are in striking distance if I can knock him aside and get ploughing on without writing of the car… just let me, please. Apart from that minor gripe, the cop races are challenging but very good.

Choice of Vehicles

Image result for need for speed heat car choices

There are plenty of cars to choose from in Need For Speed: Heat. To be honest, if you were unlucky enough to have played payback you’ll notice is mainly the same roster. It’s good to see Ferrari back on board but we are yet to see the return of Toyota. The cars are worked in fine detail doing every model great credit and there is a great selection of modern supercars but sadly there are no modern classics or old school street racers, especially in a game that seems built for them.

Throughout the game, as you progress through the levels, more cars unlock, of course at premium prices. As ever your starter car will only get you so far and buying a new motor will be required. Remember with drift, drag and sprint races all part of the game you will want a selection of cars fine-tuned to the specifics of each race type. But that will take a bit of time. Other than that the cars really are brilliant to look at but funnily enough, despite the brilliant detail such as animated raindrops trickling down side panels, nobody animated the windscreen wipers.

Driving

The driving in Need For Speed: Heat does feel a little different than usual. Drifts seem to be more automatic when you lift off the accelerator and pump it again at the corner. It takes some getting used to and I found myself accidentally skidding into some bends. You can change it yourself to brake to drift so maybe try both and see what takes your fancy.

The cars feel like they are a bit slow to get going and if I’m honest the starter cars aren’t the best demonstration of the games true driving dynamics, things get better as the cars do…naturally you might say.

Upgrades

Image result for need for speed heatNFS Heat’s upgrade system is a major improvement over previous generations. Outside of a limited number of special rewards, there are no more stupid Poker Machine styled speed cards to randomly tune up your motor. Thank be to the lord himself because that was painful. I really like the fact they went back to basics with a want a part by a part dynamic.

Need For Speed: Heat also includes engine swaps, a nice new feature that increases overall vehicle horsepower. You can even fine-tune your exhaust sound which is fun, subtle but seriously cool for petrol heads. Other car goodness comes in the editor where you can modify car body, stance, lights and pretty much everything you can think off.

The Goosed Verdict

Need For Speed: Heat, as we mentioned, feels like a throwback to the golden ages of the series with a minimal storyline and maximum action. By scraping together the best ideas throughout the generations we get something that probably isn’t the best arcade racer ever but surely the best NFS in about a decade. That kind of says more about how poor some of the games have been. Put it like this, Forza Horizon is probably the title to beat but this is as close as Need For Speed has come in a long time. It’s a great racer, beautiful, simple and fast…sure it doesn’t reinvent the wheel but I dare anyone who enjoyed the golden generation to not play this with a smile.

Using Drones & AI For River Rescue

Jon
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Using Drones & AI For River Rescue

Two students Eoghan Mulcahy and Ciaran O’Meara from the University of Limerick started a final year engineering project that aimed to use drones and artificial intelligence to make river rescues a faster operation in the future. The company called, Deepseek was founded after Eoghan witnessed a 1st hand river rescue:

“I witnessed someone enter the water in Limerick city and I witnessed the aftermath of the rescue attempt. It was very much a kind of frenzied rescue attempt, because the response was very quick but it was a ground-based rescue team.”

On average there are over 130 known drownings in Ireland every year and already the idea of using drone and artificial intelligence to help the search-and-rescue teams to cover the initial window of the rescue has been awarded €7,000 investment from Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur programme.

Related image

Right now there are already drone systems in use within the rescue services in Ireland, and Deepseek is focusing on cutting out the human operating the drone. The idea here us that the drone will work alongside the search and rescue team, more like a teammate rather than a piece of equipment.

“We are trying to automate the whole drone system so there is no human interaction – its completely autonomous – that’s where the AI comes in, it uses thermal and visual light and then it essentially automates the search component out of the search and rescue so when the rescue teams arrive in their boats they know exactly where to go and they can make the rescue a lot more efficiently.”

Deepseek now co-ordinates with Limerick Search & Rescue and the coast guard to figure out how to best integrate their software. While the company focus on the river rescues while they develop the AI, they are already being sought after by other areas. For example, right now a helicopter takes up to 20 mins to get off the ground after a call during the day while that number increases to 45 mins at night but an unmanned drone could potentially have a much faster response rate.

LEAF 2020 – Limerick Electronic Arts Festival March 2020

Jon
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LEAF 2020 – Limerick Electronic Arts Festival March 2020

Limerick’s a mad old city at times, fresh off the back of the new University of Limerick Campus in the City Centre getting greenlit, the city loses RTE Lyric FM. Maybe not a big deal to most but in a time when the city is moving forward losing the station to Cork and Dublin, is a bit of a bother. But there is some good news today as a brand new electronic arts festival will launch in the city in March next year.

The Limerick Electronic Arts Festival (LEAF 2020) will run from 5-8th March and will attract over 20,000 participants across several venues. We were lucky enough to attend the launch last Friday in St. Mary’s Cathedral in the city which same the Glasshouse Ensemble present an orchestral interpretation of the music and visuals of Aphex Twin.

Image result for Limerick Electronic Arts Festival 2020

LEAF 2020 will debut in March welcoming some international artists, social media innovators, E-Sports and tech innovators in a world-first event to showcase the intersection of technology and artistic expression. Laura Buckley of CWB explained:

 “electronic arts are everything from Ed Sheerin to Super Mario – music videos – virtual reality – gaming. We have 4,000 students studying electronic media in Limerick. We want LImerick to be able to ride the electronics entertainment wave which is the growth field of the future”.

 

From video games to projection mapping, performance art to content creators, LEAF will become the catalyst for the exploration of electronic arts to the world. The event will be curated by futurist Anne Lise Kjaer, a Ted speaker, entrepreneur and Copenhagen Goodwill ambassador.

The festival will also see Cleeve’s Factory on O’Callaghan Strand will transform into an urban festival setting with house installations, events, and workshops.  Across the four days, there will be music from electronic artists and digital artists.

The Business of Electronic Arts conference – a one-day event on Friday 6th March – will see leading content creators join discussions, keynote interviews and talks. LEAF 2020 aims to provide a platform for people to discuss how technology can and should be used for generations to come.

A Youth Conference and workshop will be held on the Saturday where Limerick College of Further Education will play host to talks, panels and demonstrations for our digital future. With every Irish teenager now a digital native, the day will comprise of talks and panels on E-sports, YouTube, music creation and the world of online collaboration and monetisation from Debop to Spotify.

Alongside these different events there will also be a series of workshops throughout the weekend with the idea of bringing participants on a journey of learning with pioneers in the field of music production, digital art, performance and monetising art. We will also see the multi-generational Chime Out choir will join Limerick people from all walks of life and unite them in song and the project will conclude with an outdoor event where the choir will perform classic dance anthems with visual projections and a light show.

LEAF 2020 will also deliver a free music trail showcasing some of the most cutting-edge artists in Ireland today. Curated by prominent music blogger Nialler 9, venues across the city will welcome the many performers taking part in this world-first festival.Tara Stewart of 2fm radio will also be involved.

With a host of fringe events, from a discussion on ATARI’s early days in the mid-west to the links between LK and LA, LEAF 2020 is a festival Limerick can call its own – positioning the city as a world leader in electronic arts.

Plants Vs Zombies Review

Jon
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Plants Vs Zombies Review

Ah Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2, a good game ruined by EA’s greed, a perfectly good game until the shameless money-grabbing micro-transactions wrecked what could have been a potential game of the year contender. It was a fun, engaging and downright enjoyable game that was perfect to jump in and just have some fun. Thankfully we now have Plants vs Zombies: Battle for Neighborville a game that seems to be truer to the series and feels more like a live-service game done right, with Popcap and EA using early access as a proving ground to start rolling things out.

A new lease of life?

Plants vs Zombies: Battle for Neighborville is relatively similar to the previous titles in that it builds on the popularity of the 3rd party shooter, Backyard battleground and has added a number of hubs to play through with a decent selection of missions, collectables, hidden features and some other bits.

As ever it’s insanely colourful and the characters are so well designed its not even funny. Every character is so detailed that you already know that when the microtransactions kick off this is where the money is going to be made. Every playable character has 5 components that are customisable with a range of cosmetics, plus Plants Vs Zombies includes emotes and icons that you can unlock or buy throughout the game.

While the game itself is really good, games that are based on the microtransaction model bother the bollox out of me. Pay €45 quid for the game to spend premium currency, purchasable by using real-money and obtainable in-game, no doubt in very limited quantities, that will then be used to purchase rarer cosmetics. Na not for me, just let me play the game. No doubt Deano as an avid Forniter will say different.

Alongside the brilliant graphics, the game is rather fun. Both the plants and the zombies have a wide selection of characters, based on a 5 tier system with each tier unlocking new abilities. This works through upgrade points. There are 7 upgrade points, some cost 1 other costing up to 3. How you set that up is totally up to you.

Game Modes

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With PvP mode the roster of 20 characters you are sure to find the ones you prefer and undoubtedly stick with them. It’s basically just a streamlined version of Garden Warfare. Personally I’ve enjoyed this even it wouldn’t be my personal favourite genre. Honestly, you’ll find nothing non-traditional. It’s simple, fast and fun, even on the losing side.

PvE is probably the game mode that is the main selling point of Plants vs Zombies. Plants and Zombies both have their own zones to explore where you can upgrade your characters, do little mini-games, find some other secrets and more. The zones are just enemy-infested areas with a core number of missions, a variety of side missions and more gnomes than you can decorate a lawn with. Simples.

Collectables

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As with most games, collectables are a big thing, gnomes, tapes, dogs and audio logs are the catch of the day with each map containing its own secondary currency you get from completing quests or downing enemies. These can then be used in the specific zones on cosmetics or maps that display the chests, gnomes or other collectables that you’ve both found and yet to find. There’s something enjoyable about finding a gnome relaxing in a kiddy pool, while you wrack your brains on how to actually get to it.

What I liked

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I may have said this already but aesthetically Plants vs Zombies: Battle for Neighborville is very very pleasing. It has its own style and charm across every hub area. These are fun in their own right to explore and collect goodies until you’ve seen it all, and there isn’t much else to do.

I also like that every character is detailed and unique even though they fit across three classes, attack, defence, and support. Credit must go to PopCap for this as they ensure no 2 characters play the same way. Another bit of credit must go to them as they did something most developers don’t, a voice-over narration for the main menu. It’s a simple but essential accessibility feature that will be tremendously beneficial to some players.

Between the games modes Team Vanquish, Battle Arena and Garden & Graveyard Ops there is enough variety of games but it does feel a tad shallow. They all play in a similar way, either defending something or attacking something…also known as shoot on sight. If you’ve played Garden Warfare 2 already, I don’t see any meaningful reason to pick this one up.

While battle royale games are everywhere nowadays I feel Plants Vs Zombies would have been better suited to this genre, but it can’t be done due to and I quote “underlying restrictions with how the brand’s core gameplay works”. AKA They don’t want zombies vs zombies but that just seems like a stupid reason if you ask me.

Also, my main gripe and it’s something I’ll be sure to rattle on about going forward but microtransactions can go and do one. Seriously especially in games like this that are targeted at a younger audience, it’s a predatory practice and shouldn’t be allowed. EA are known fans of microtransactions and we know they are coming to Plants Vs Zombies. There’s not much more to say about it but if you buy a game like this just take your card details of the console and save yourself a potential accidental whopper of a charge.

The Goosed Verdict

Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville is a grand game, nothing too special but a good laugh for a time. It offers enough content upfront to keep you busy for a bit, but the enjoyment is fleeting once you realize how shallow the game really is. Like a lot of these kinds of games, you’ll end up using the same character over and over again.

However, for fans of the genre it’s engaging and fun and thanks to the new content from the early access it seems that Plants vs. Zombies is getting the live service right. So would I recommend the game? Unlike Anthem another EA release this is already worth the entrance fee.

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