C’mon, you know you’ve always wanted to blast away extraterrestrial life on foreign planets with space age technologies and ships. However, going to space is too expensive and dangerous for your average citizen in today’s world. So, why not do it from the comfort of your house…on an iPhone?
What is it?
The point of BattleStar Commander is to beat out enemies on a foreign, uninhabited planet in order to win it over and move life there from Earth as it has lost its ability to sustain life. Each level involves you moving around as a space ship attacking enemy bases and ships in order to advance to the next level.
The game consists of a series of turns, during which you attack the enemy, then they attack you, and so on. Each move is timed.
How does it work?
You move your ship around by flicking it with your finger. When you get close enough to an enemy ship, the game will automatically shoot straight forward for you. When you get close enough to a base, the plane will drop a bomb on it for you. The first person to first run out of health, you or the enemy, loses the match. The winner advances to the next level.
Is it contagious?
This game is put together very well and is pretty fun to play. The difficulty level isn’t too easy, yet isn’t too hard, too, which is nice. If you’re into spaceships and saving the Earth, this game would be perfect for you.
After the successful launch of the World's First Independent Produced GeForce GTX 580 V-Go Graphics Card, SPARKLE Computer Co., Ltd., the professional VGA card manufacturer and supplier, today announced the GeForce GTX 570 V-Go Graphics Card, becoming the world's first manufacturer who can independently produce high-end graphics cards using Fermi 2.0 architecture. "V-Go, the series is represent the independent produced graphics cards, inherit the expertise spirit on graphics cards manufacturing for 16 years" said Kevin Wang the General Manager of SPARKLE ."We are pleased with the new high level of SPARKLE R&D and production capabilities. As another masterpiece of V-Go series, GeForce GTX 570 V-Go Graphics Cards inherit the blood of Fermi 2.0 Architecture also has a better price advantage."
The Sanyo Xacti VPC-CA100 is a waterproof “dual camera” as Sanyo puts it. Using the pistol grip form factor, it is called a dual camera because it claims to offer not only Full HD video capture traditionally associated with this sort of design, but also?respectable?still image capture, thanks to its 14-megapixel CMOS sensor.
The CA100 is fairly lightweight for a camcorder at 242g, but the weight and dimensions can’t compete with compact camera that now offer similar capture opportunities. Whereas you’ll be able to slip the latest Canon IXUS into your pocket, the Xacti is more troublesome. That said, the pistol grip form factor does make it more positive to shoot video with, it is easier to keep stable whilst handheld and you get a flip-out screen, which smaller compact cameras won’t offer you.
The display folds flat down the “grip” of the device, covering a selection of the controls. On the rear of the grip is a locking flap offering up a Micro-USB and mini HDMI connectors, the former allowing for connection to your PC or charging the battery, the latter letting you hook-up to a display. Internally the grip houses the SD card and battery, both accessed by removing a locking flap. Given this camcorder’s waterproof claims, you’ll find things lock down nice and tight.
On the rear are a selection of controls that fall under the thumb offering both still and video capture, zoom and a “zoom range” button. The latter is a live button that switches between “wide” and “tele” modes whilst filming, meaning you can instantly jump closer to a subject with a single press. Effectively it means you can switch between 40-240 mm wide and 80-480mm tele modes.
The zoom range feature works by changing the sensor area in use whilst filming. It is an almost instantaneous, a slight pause as it moves in, but it keeps focus, which we found useful – in some instances the CA100 takes a little time to resolve focus and using the manual zoom in the same circumstances left us with a blurry picture for a while. It is sensitive button and placed a little too close to the zoom controls, so you might find you press it accidentally.
Lifting the screen powers the CA100 on. The screen can then be swivelled to give you a range of shooting options meaning high or low angle shots are easily captured. The placement of the controls isn’t the best, but given the design, most will probably find it is an acceptable layout. The rear cluster are perhaps a little too tight, meaning you need to make a very definite stab for the feature you want, and the action is a little too indistinct, especially when it comes to still image capture. The menu navigation is handled by controls on the inside face of the handgrip.
Navigating the menus is via the fairly small four-way controller with central “set” button. As these aren’t facing you, it does take a little of time to get used to. It isn’t exactly speedy to change things on the fly, although you can switch to a simple menu that only offers resolution, focus mode and flash control if you prefer. You’ll need to use the menus to take advantage of some of the features of the CA100, because as we’ve already mentioned, in terms of physical buttons you get zoom and record and that’s it.
Lurking in the full menu you’ll find controls for the digital stabilisation, the metering, focusing, ISO (auto to 1600), white balance, exposure mode, target tracking, digital zoom and so on. There are a wealth of options dealing with both stills and video, and you can dive in and find the likes of aperture and shutter priority modes, but it is neither obvious or easily accessed.
So viewed as a compact camera alternative, it does sort of fall down when it comes to stills shooting, although we suspect that it won’t be a replacement for a camera, rather an opportunistic alternative. The provision of a Xenon flash does mean that you can grab a low light shots as you would on a regular camera, which some camcorders wouldn’t offer you. Of course, you don’t then get an LED illuminator, so in low light you’re left with whatever the sensor can interpret.
Stills suffer from the rather indistinct button action. Pressing the button switches from the video mode to stills capture, followed by focusing and finally grabbing the shot. Like a regular camera, a half press should take you all the way up to focusing, but as we’ve said, the action is so sloppy it becomes a little hit and miss.
The stills results aren't anything to get excited about, but will give you a good return in good conditions. The flash directly under the lens results in a good deal of red-eye, but gives better results than LED alternatives. There is a noticeable delay in the capture process when using the flash. However, the CA100 is aware of things like shutter, ISO and aperture, so if a shot is crucial, you can take control and get a better result, if you have the patience.
Taken as a camcorder first and foremost, the simplicity of controls makes much more sense. You can pretty much just point and shoot once you’ve sorted through the menus and decided what you want your settings to be. The electronic stabilisation seems effective, with hand-held walking shots not encountering the sort of wobble that smaller models suffer from, so is worth playing around with.
The stereo mics are placed on the front of the display, far enough away from the working parts to avoid capturing zoom or focusing noise. A wind reduction option is available as its exposed position is prone to environmental noise, and it is surprisingly sensitive. There is no option for an external mic and we did find that all video had a level of hiss and that the mic and easily pick up hand noises if you are adjusting your grip or altering the screen angle.
Focusing seems to be one of weaknesses. Although the CA100 will often find a target and stick to it, there is the occasional pulse as it confirms focus. Zooming, especially in lower light can see focus lost, and the Xacti flounders for a while before it figures out where it is supposed to be. Used slowly and deliberately, however, it is much less of a problem.?
Low light capture isn’t great and you’ll find noise appearing in shadows indoors, with more noise crashing in as things get darker. The same applies to still capture.?
The Sanyo Xacti CA100 offers up a wide range of resolutions and frame rates, from the top setting of 1920 x 1080 60fps (16Mbps), down to 30fps (12Mbps) and 60 (12Mbps) or 30fps (9Mbps) at 720, with an additional 640 x 480 30fps (3Mbps) setting. The results are good, with the HD settings delivering the detail you’d expect, and a result that looks good played back directly on a large screen.?
The other ace up the CA100’s sleeve is the waterproofing. It is certified to IPX8 standards, meaning it is suitable for continued submersion in water, with Sanyo citing a depth of 3 metres. We didn’t test it underwater (other than an exploratory dunk) but we did have it out in the snow where it got wet – not that it cared. Aimed at those hitting the beach or slopes, it means you don’t have to worry about ruining your video camera should it start raining, or you drop it.
There is no lens cover so you need to ensure that you protect the CA100 in storage and transit. Although the glass is recessed in the housing, it wouldn’t take much to scratch it. The screen is bright enough, but the resolution isn't always sharp enough to determine that you have your subject perfectly in focus. Sometimes we found it settled on an adjacent subject, especially in close-ups.?
The battery is good for about 60 mins of full HD video capture, which sounds a little on the short side, especially if this is your sole camera and you are taking it out for a full day, although you could buy an additional battery and simply?swap?them over. It will alternatively offer you 200 still shots.
Verdict:
We’re not entirely sold on the “dual camera” billing. Although the CA100 is capable of a range of more advanced features above just capturing a simple still image, in practical use it is a little too fiddly to use unless you really have to have that shot. Compared with a compact camera, you’ll probably find yourself wanting more for stright photography, but the form factor makes it better for video than your average compact.
Great looking sharp footage with plenty of detail and realistic colours, it isn’t the best shooter in low light, but you can’t have everything. The RRP of ?349 does make it looks a little more expensive than it perhaps should be, but it is widely available at over ?100 less, where it looks more appealing.
Overall we’re impressed with the Sanyo Xacti CA100. The convenience of waterproofing in a compact package will appeal to those who are a little more adventurous and the pistol grip design makes for easy shooting.?
New iPhone, iPod touch and iPad product announcements for December 28, 2010:
New iPhone, iPad and iPod touch apps
The Times Square Alliance and Countdown Entertainment, organizers of Times Square New Year’s Eve, along with their partners, Toshiba and Livestream, have launched the first official Times Square Ball App, specially designed for Apple and Android mobile devices. The free app is designed to put you in the middle of the legendary New Year’s Eve festivities in Times Square, no matter where you are in the world.
Great Bear Auto Repair & Body Shop has announced a sale on What Women Auto Know for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Geared towards female automotive novices, this app serves as a full mobile reference tool to help orient users when diagnosing car problems, finding mechanics, and solving simple mechanical problems. The app includes a full automotive glossary as well as a handy acronym guide to help novice users decode and understand the many abbreviations apparent in the automotive industry.
Nate Games has announced Let’s Find It for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Created to help non-native English speakers improve their English speaking skills, Let’s Find It provides users with an entertaining game-based platform from which to learn new words and correct pronunciation. Let’s Find It includes a variety of customizable and interactive features to ensure that users stay continually entertained as they learn new words through the game.
iHanWel, creator of the multi-award winning iBody app, has introduced BackDoctor 1.0 for iOS, a video instruction and exercise course to alleviate and prevent back pain. Developed by physicians and physiotherapists, the app includes a Beginner Program, Advanced Program, Speed Program, Cervical Spine Program, and Lumbar Column Program. The app features a video demonstration of each exercise with optional timer function, 3 educational videos, an exercise calendar, and tips on specific problems.
MultiEducator has introduced JFK Historymaker 1.0 for iOS, their encyclopedic, multimedia biography of JFK 50 years after taking office. Featuring 36 chronologically ordered chapters, there are 250 high resolution photographs, the full text of over 200 speeches, more than 60 pages of biographical information, and over 35 video clips. The reference app is fully searchable, and reveals in fascinating detail the upbringing, education, personal life, and public service of America’s 34th President.
Independent developer James Hollender has released his iCals Lite app for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. The iCals Lite app is based on the USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference. It allows users to easily find out the Calories in a large number of food servings, which is critical for those trying to keep their weight down. The foods servings are rated from extremely low in Calories all the way up to extremely high.
Pyrosphere has announced Last Fish 1.0, their new action/arcade tilt-based game for iPhone and iPod touch. Featuring minimalist, yet stylish monochromatic graphics and addictive game mechanics, Last Fish is an action/arcade game about the survival of a tiny fish in toxic water. Providing a captivating gaming experience, each of the 45 levels has a specific objective to complete. Players are able to compete for the highest survival time on 5 different stages with OpenFeint leaderboards.
Moog Music has announced a major update to Filtatron; the real-time audio effects engine and powerful studio tool, available for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Recently featured in iTunes REWIND 2010 covering hot new trends in apps, Filtatron is already taking the music world by storm and this update propels it to new levels of musicality.
New accessories
Redpark Product Development has announced that it has started to ship its initial serial cables for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. The cables are being released as Redpark products and under other brands. The cables make it possible to connect to serial devices such as point of sale devices, scientific instrumentation, industrial process control equipment, networking equipment, and devices used in home and office automation.
MSI announced a partnership with Bigfoot Networks, the company behind the Killer NIC series of accelerated network interface cards (NICs). The immediate results of this would be the motherboard major bundling Killer NICs with some of its high-end motherboards. MSI also hinted that it could work to integrate the Killer NIC logic onto motherboards. Knowing how MSI was the first to be out with a LucidLogix Hydra Engine motherboard, the idea of integration of Killer NIC onto one of its future motherboards doesn't seem far-fetched.
"We are pleased to be working with MSI," said Michael Howse, CEO of Bigfoot Networks. "The Killer 2100 gaming network card is a perfect complement to the MSI Big Bang family of mainboard solutions that will give gamers a competitive edge in online play." Andy Tung, VP of MSI USA says "MSI mainboards with Military Class components provide a great backbone for any gaming system and the Killer 2100 network card is a way to improve performance and get one step ahead of the competition."
TechPowerUp today introduced version 0.5.0 of GPU-Z, our popular graphics subsystem diagnostic utility that provides you with detailed tech-specs of your installed graphics processors, and lets you monitor clock speeds, voltages, temperatures and fan speeds. Version 0.50 adds full-support for Radeon HD 6950 and Radeon HD 6970. It fixes several stability and reliability issues, including fillrate roundoff errors, improved voltage monitoring support for GeForce GTX 570, some crashes and freezes.
FROM GAMERTELL - Despite massive holiday sales on all sorts of gaming apps and the torrent of the previous week’s update, the App Store still has managed to unleash a healthy bundle of apps for this week… MORE »
New iPhone, iPod touch and iPad product announcements for December 28, 2010:
