Android – Iphone – Applications

The folks out at Proporta sent over their USB TurboCharger 5000 for us to review, and though the device itself sounds like a bad plot device from a bad children’s cartoon show, it’ll do its job well and pretty easily to boot.

The USB TurboCharger 5000 is pretty much what it says on the box: a big battery for your various portable devices. It charges via USB, and puts out its resulting charge largely the same way. You’ll have three different ports to use–one for input (putting power to the device) and two for output (a low output power port for your MP3 players and the like, and a high output for larger USB devices like the iPad. You’ll be able to charge two devices at the same time, and charging can be accomplished for most any small device via  a handful of various charge adapters, which are pictured below. It even comes in a really nice carrying pouch that I’m guessing is a kind of velvet–I’m no fabric expert, but it’s pretty nice.

If you’re a big portable device user, you know how hard it is when your device suddenly runs out of power mid-stream. You’re hunting around for a plug and sometimes that’s easier said than done, even when you’re not in some remote location. But with this, you can get your device some extra juice most anywhere. It charges pretty quickly–think it took under two hours to go from out of the box to fully charge–and it even has an LED display on the side that gives you visual cues as to how much juice you’ve got left in the package.

It’s easy to use, does its job well, and offers an incredible variety of products that it’ll actually work with, giving you plenty of utility. Sure, it doesn’t offer a built-in flashlight like the RichardSolo charger did, but still–if you need power on the go, this is a great place to look. Especially since the crew out at Proporta is looking to get $67.95 for one of these, which is not half bad for external battery packs, but still quite a bit more than “find a plug” or “cigarette lighter adapter”.

Sure, all it does is recharge batteries, but it does it very well, and as such, is a product you’ll want to consider.

The Good

Wide variety of adapters for all your devices

Charges two devices at once quickly

The Bad

A little pricey

Just charges batteries

Score 8 / 10

written by djandleo \\ tags: accessories, adapter, battery-pack, cell phones, device, digital, external battery pack, Iphone, leather, package, permanent-link, proporta, proporta-impact, review

Heroes Lore 3 is about as big as it gets for mobile gaming – in Korea. In the land of many RPGs and Starcraft celebrities, the Heroes Lore series has been absolutely dominating the mobile gaming market. Ever since EA’s announcement that they would be porting the game to the American market, the question has been whether or not the title would translate well to our fast paced 3D market.

If you’ve ever seen a screenshot of Heroes Lore 3, you’ll know right off the bat that you are looking at an RPG that belongs on the Super Nintendo. The graphics are all cutesy and static, the sound is decidedly retro, and the little dialogue bits just reek of 1993. Many gamers loved that classic era of gaming though, so it’s not a stretch to understand the popularity of the series.

Like any epic-RPG, the story in Heroes Lore has rival factions, sinister villains, plot twists, conflicting internal dialogue, and a strong female character. The game also has a decidedly political stance against guns, war, and the like, but it’s all wrapped so nicely into the game that folks on either side of the debate won’t notice. Missing in the game though are huge lapses in knowing what to do, overly confusing upgrade systems, and impossible level bosses. Thankfully, the creators of Heroes Lore tidied up the package and created a simple menu system and a world that is easily navigable, but still large enough to seem, well, large.

There are some gripes that detract from the experience a bit, most of which involve an annoying movement system. The on screen action is controlled with a virtual D-Pad and virtual buttons. In theory, everything works quite well (the buttons are a bit small, but that’s only a little gripe), but the character movement is annoyingly sticky. In tight spaces, you tend to stick to walls, unable to progress until you figure out exactly where the game wants you to walk. After some plugging away you’ll always get to where you need to go, but these sticky walls really need to be fixed in an update. Also annoying is the all-to-often combat that occurs at the beginning of the maps. Once you enter a map in Heroes Lore, the only way you want to go is forward, as side to side movement will often take you to the previous map, and an enemy hit or a combo that makes you back up a bit will do the same.

Aside from the few nagging issues, Heroes Lore is an incredibly deep RPG experience (over 30 hours of gameplay) that will surely satisfy anyone who appreciates a good, old school RPG. It doesn’t have isometric views or Unreal Engine graphics, but it does have a solid story (only slightly hokey), great RPG elements, and a ton of game to play. While it probably won’t catch on quite like it did in Korea, I’ll bet that there will be a solid following that will eagerly be anticipating a Heroes Lore 4 (and maybe parts 1 and 2).

[ Heroes Lore 3 Review is a post from 148Apps ]

written by margs \\ tags: Game, heroes lore, heroes lore 3, Iphone, iphone apps and games, maps, mobile, overall-rating, package, price, rpg

written by nhiepphong \\ tags: desktop, extracted, firmware-bundle, firmwarebundles, from-the-menu, Iphone, minimal, package, pwnagetool

written by nhiepphong \\ tags: Application, blue, desktop, from-the-pwnage, image, Iphone, package, phone, power, pwnagetool, Unlock

Golf Cart Ranger is a great looking little game for the iOS devices. It promises simple gameplay with a friendly, golf cart approach and a native control scheme that should deliver easy control. The premise is straightforward: drive a cart over a driving range and pick up balls while avoiding obstructions and snagging fuel.

But then that’s it. The game doesn’t really evolve too much from the onset. Courses get stranger, but the initial principles remain throughout the entire experience. Great games based on simple mechanics should dynamically change over the course of the experience. The core gameplay should remain in place, of course, but the game should add layers of creativity and difficulty as it moves along.

The control scheme is simple. The cart automatically moves and players touch the right or left side of their device in order to turn. It would have been nice to see some form of til control, but it’s understandable that this may have been tough to achieve. The game takes on a top-down perspective, so rotating through tilt may have wound up disorienting.

This package has 36 levels to start, with the option to buy more once in the game. Within the 36 levels are three different course types. But, really, it all comes down to picking up balls with a golf cart. The charm is high for the first few tries… then it settles into monotonous. And the monotony degrades into being downright boring. That’s this game’s fatal flaw; beyond some nice leaderboards and a simple presence, there’s nothing here to attract addiction.

That all said, this game does deliver a strong visual display. Golf Cart Ranger packs clean, sharp graphics. The textures are a bit muddy, but the rich color scheme makes up for it. The gopher on the title screen art is present, but he’s really just about the only “cute” portion of the title.

The game is on sale right now, during its time of release, so it may be worth the $0.99 entry price. Once it hits $2? How much can one person love driving over little white dots?

[ Golf Cart Ranger Review is a post from 148Apps ]

written by nimajuni \\ tags: $1.99, arcade, based-on-simple, device-reviewed, Iphone, iphone apps and games, over-the-course, overall-rating, package, price, ranger, rating