From the creator of Streetfood Tycoon, Elevator Joe is a fast-paced mobile game for Android and iOS, putting you as the commander of an … elevator. Your job is to ferry tenants to and fro in the most efficient way possible. The elevator you man can only accommodate a limited number of tenants and the hook, really, is to find the most efficient floor route to take when managing very impatient tenants. Points are awarded for high satisfaction ratings which you can use to buy upgrades such as more building floors, faster elevator movement and even more space inside the elevator.
“Thanks!” I say. Then I go, “Did you know it can tell me if I have text?”
Then they tell me I’m bolero daw.
As someone who has been closely associated with gadgets for most of his adult life, to be told that a piece of technology you’re showcasing isn’t geeky is a rather strong statement. And that’s precisely what I love about the Cookoo Smart Watch.
Last week I wrote an introductory guide to buying a new flat screen TV. The 8-point buying guide covers the basics, from choosing the right sized screen based on the physical qualifications of your living room or mini home theater space to paying attention to the decals stuck on the screen advertising “Full HD” or “HD Ready” devices. In this piece, I give you three more pointers to consider when choosing your new flat screen.
1. Understand the Soap Opera Effect
You’ve seen it all in the demos but can’t quite define what it is. It’s when images on the screen are super smooth, it almost looks like real life — like a soap opera. Watching your favorite action flick can get a tad distracting when all of a sudden all the characters look all too perfect. I’ve personally gotten used to it (it looks especially great when watching CGI) but a lot of viewers tend to find this feature rather distracting. The good news is that you can actually turn this option off. The industry term for this feature is ‘motion interpolation’ but really, everyone calls it the soap opera effect. Different manufacturers have specific terms for this feature. For instance a Samsung TV from Richer Sounds calls this feature Auto Motion Plus and all flat screen TVs should have this feature to turn it off.
Peter Jackson shot The Hobbit to accommodate the Soap Opera Effect.
2. Upscaling, Explained
In the previous article, I pointed out that 4K TV sets are the wave of the future but there’s a huge disparity between the hardware and the media that is being produced to fully enjoy the 4K experience. The videos you see being played in stores are more often that not, demo reels. But, one of the best features of the 4K TV, at least in my opinion, is the way they upscale your old media. I actually have a detailed account of my experience with Sony’s new 4K Bravia line but if you’re too lazy to read that, I’ll summarize it into this: modern TV’s have a tendency to upscale the quality of your content to better the viewing experience, especially for bigger screens. A movie in 720p that is upscaled to 1080p looks great but a movie in 1080p upscaled by a 4K TV is quite an amazing feat. Although it doesn’t refresh the quality to four times the resolution of 1080p, it does a great job of pushing the quality to 2K resolution, which is two times better than 1080p. To the naked eye I actually could not tell the difference and if you’re on one of the smaller 4K screens, it won’t even matter. So yes, if you’re opting to buy a 4K TV< you will be able to enjoy your old media repackaged into 2K awesomeness.
3. There's a way around Flat Audio
If your concern is audio, flat screen TV's, by nature have had this as their waterloo compared to their CRT precursors. Old cathode ray tube TV sets are their own subwoofers because of the nature of their construction. There's enough bass to resonate inside that square box. With flat screen TV's, there's none of that so audio might seen a bit flat especially for the low bass notes. Luckily, we've been seeing innovation in this field with some manufacturers addressing this concern. The Bravia line for instance incorporates NASA-inspired technology to create the surround sound experience with a set of specialized speaker ducts along the hidden perimeter of the TV to produce the bass.
Looking for elegant cord wrappers? Just Mobile, the artisans of tech accessories who tend to carve stuff out of blocks of aluminum, have products that are now being officially distributed in the Philippines. The AluCube Mini is really a single block of aluminum on the outside with cozy rubber insides to keep your wires snug. Each pack comes with 2 sets of AluCubes that come with adhesive patches so you can stick them permanently to your office wall or desk.
Just Mobile AluCube Mini is priced at PHP 795.00 and is distributed by MSI-ECS. For availability please email [email protected].
Flashback to 2011. I SO wanted a Lytro if not for the novelty, at least my photos won’t be blurry again. It’s hard to explain in words why one would want this camera — more so trying to elaborate its unique feature: being able to define different focal points. Since the Lytro comes with a fixed f/2.0 lens, focal points define the depth of field. Whatev. Just … look at the photo above and use your mouse to click on its different elements:
