Microsoft unveils Windows 10

Earlier this week, at a small press conference San Francisco, Microsoft unveiled the Windows 10 (yes, they've skipped Windows 9). Its predecessors, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 were heavily scrutinised and even the latest update to Windows 8.1 which made the software more mouse and keyboard friendly, earlier this year, didn't make the operating system more popular.

Windows 8 was introduced two years ago and put focus heavily on touch devices however still leaving a desktop mode so it was like having two user interfaces in one. This made Windows 8 too complicated for many users which is one of the factors for Windows 8's unpopularity.

Microsoft has pushed to make Windows 10 more appealing to businesses as many still use older systems such as Windows XP which came out over a decade ago. Microsoft planned to stop offering support and updates for Windows XP earlier this year however after a mass amount of security concerns Microsoft has extended the support life to 2016.

The Windows 10 start menu with both a list of programs and live tiles.

Anyway, Windows 10 looks aesthetically a hybrid of Windows 7 and Windows 8. If you are on a desktop PC you are automatically taken to the familiar Windows desktop with the start button in the bottom left corner and your open programs along the bottom. However, once you open the start menu you will see two columns: one of ye olde programs, the other one with Windows 8 live tiles. The Windows 8 apps are updated so they work in the desktop however they will still work on tablets also.

In Windows 10 you can set up multiple desktops so you can have completely different spaces for work and home despite being on the same PC. This is a feature that Windows fan-boys have been wanting for a while now. In the Windows 10 desktop you can also now snap up to four apps/programs - one in each corner. Also, despite looking no different, Microsoft says that command prompt has been updated a lot so it now supports pasting in directories and other new features.

Moving from one app/program to another has been made easier too with a new program manager which lets users seamlessly move from one app/program to another. Despite this, the Windows charm bar which debuted in Windows 8 remains for now, it is uncertain whether this will still be there when Windows 10 goes on sale sometime in Spring 2015.

When you're using a Windows 10 tablet the experience will be optimised slightly for touch (with the option still to return to the Windows 10 desktop). The transition and difference is shown clearly in this video:

Windows 10 is one operating system that will run across all of your Windows devices; from your Windows Phone and Surface, to your Windows desktop and XBOX One. Microsoft is boasting how there will be one universal app marketplace for all of these devices and each form-factor will just have its own slight modifications to cater specifically to that type of device.

I predicted this a year ago (sort of): Microsoft One

What's in my box?

I go camping at least five times every year. Sometimes for just a weekend somewhere local, sometimes for a whole week somewhere many miles away. One thing that I have taken camping with me, every time without fail since 2010, is my box - notoriously known by my friends as 'the-box-of-many-things'.

It is my camping life support machine; without it I would be lost. If it was up to me, it would be mandatory for anyone who goes camping to take a box-of-many-things with them.

I found it in early 2010 when it was going to be thrown away after dozens of years in service as a first aid kit and, like what you may do to a stray dog, I rescued it, took it in and declared it my own.

Essentials
The essential things in the box are torches - I take two so I can see what I am doing when I return to the tent at night, a pocket/pen knife - for cutting sisal after I've tied a knot, sun glasses - on the off chance that there is sunny weather, these can come in very useful, a spare woggle - this is less of a necessity now, however when I was a Scout I was always losing my main one so a spare would always come in handy, and finally, string - not any string though. This string is specifically from your Nana's house. It somehow always comes in handy and only Nanas ever seem to own it.

Enjoyment
Once all of your jobs are out the way it is nice to sit down with mates and have a game of FHM* Top Trumps or another card game. (*Other types of Top Trumps are available.) One of my favorite games which we have started playing this year is 'Cards Against Humanity' (not pictured). If you've never heard of it, you should Google them because it is a great game and has made us laugh until the brink of wetting ourselves.
I also pack chocolate in my box, but any type of sweet will do for when you feel like rewarding yourself.

Documenting
Camp is great. The people who I go camping with are great. That's why I always carry my camera around with me at camp in a pocket. Hilarious things that I want to photograph at camp are often spontaneous so having my camera with me at all times is extremely useful. Earlier this year I discovered that the camera has a front facing screen as well, which is perfect for taking selfies.
I also have a notebook packed in my box so I can write down anything I need to remember about camp for the Scout log or magazine. There is also a pencil case in my box to store the pens and pencils which I might need.

Optional Extras
$wag glasses are paramount for those situations where you think some swaggy banter is needed. Just slip them on and boom... You're now #dench.
For under £3 you can purchase some fairy lights which are perfect for wrapping around tent poles to give your tent a more comfortable and homey atmosphere.



And that concludes the contents of my box; my lifeblood of camps.

Why are teenagers so lazy?

Have you ever been angrily woken up by your parents in the early afternoon and called lazy because they think you sleep too much? Well, according to recent scientific studies, this may not be your fault.

When you’re a teenager your body clock gets messed up; you don't want to go to sleep early however you love to have a lie-in in the morning, this is because of a hormone called Melatonin aka 'the darkness hormone'. This hormone is produced in the brain and is the thing which helps you fall asleep. In adults, Melatonin is usually produced at around 10PM however among teenagers it is 1AM!

Out of children, teenagers and adults, teenagers are actually the ones who need the most sleep because it is whilst we sleep when hormones are released which are essential if we want to grow. So, technically, the more sleep you get, the more likely it is you will have a growth spurt.

Stereotypical teenagers are seen by both adults and children as moody, depressed and quite impulsive. These are all side effects of being sleep deprived. This is why a few schools in America have pushed back the time of their morning lessons so teens can get a couple more hours in bed. Not only did the students become more enthused, the school also saw an improvement in grades!

Threes!

‘Threes!’ is a simple yet fun game for iOS and Android. All you need to do it push and slide multiples of three together to make bigger multiples on a 4x4 grid. Every time you slide a number tile along the grid another number appears from the same direction. The game ends when you run out of space on the grid because you can’t put any more multiples together.

The addictive game, which isn't as mathematical as described, only came out on iOS at the beginning of February however has been a success from the start topping the app charts despite costing £1.49 (which is a pretty hefty price for an app) even with a “33.33333333% discount for a limited time”.
The game feels extremely seamless, with its own soundtrack which complements the attractive art work. Everything from its palette of colours to the type of cute, animated emoticons used at the bottom of the number tiles seem to have been taken into consideration when building this game. Undoubtedly, this attention to detail had paid off.

‘Threes!’ for Android launched at the beginning of March for the marginally cheaper price of £1.20 (still with the 33.333% discount of course) and, on the whole, it runs well however Android phones with smaller processors may struggle to keep up, so there might be some lag. Also, the loading time isn’t ideal when you want a quick game when you are queuing however I’m sure this will be sorted out in future updates.

I’m usually against paying for smartphone games however ‘Threes!’ is an exception that I would recommend you to purchase. The game’s slickness, high built quality and simplicity ensure once you’ve started playing you won’t be able to stop.

Sony, Asus and LG smartwatches rumoured to be announced at IFA 2014

At least three more smartwatches powered by Android Wear are due to launch at IFA in Berlin later this week. Hardware manufactures such as Sony, Asus and LG have all teased the press in these last few days leading up to IFA with trailers and ambiguous pictures of their future watches.




The LG G Watch R

The smartwatch LG has teased boasts a completely circular display - something that people were expecting to see on the much anticipated Moto 360 earlier this year however a small straight edge at the bottom where there are screen components disappointed many. The device from LG will be called the 'G Watch R' (R presumably standing for round) and it will be the successor to the LG Watch G which is a square Android Wear device launched at the beginning of summer. It has a retro yet sophisticated look which means at first glance could be confused for a regular watch. The device has a 1.3-inch plastic display, a snapdragon processor and, according to LG, is dust and water resistant. The LG G Watch R should launch before the end of this year. 

So far manufactures can only make limited customisations to Android Wear so making stylish and attractive hardware is paramount... And some dinky watch faces.

Sony, a popular hardware manufacture, is rumoured to announce their first smartwatch running Android Wear at IFA. In the past they have made smartwatches running a customised version of Android however these have been far from ideal. The device from Sony, apparently called the Sony 'Smartwatch 3', will have a 1.68-inch display however that is all we know about it. Its shape, style, colours, processor and additional features are still a mystery.

Sony is also rumoured to be launching the 'SmartBand Talk' alongside the 'Smartwatch 3'. This fitness tracking watch will apparently feature a curved e-ink display however there are doubts about whether it will be powered by Google Wear or not.

Finally, earlier today Asus released a trailer video for the 'ZenWatch'. The video isn't very clear however it looks like the smartwatch will have a square face in a rounded body. There are also rumours spreading that this device will be less than £120 which makes it great value for money.

Both the LG Watch R and the Sony Smartwatch 3 will have 340p displays. These are less than half of HD however this is high pixel density considering that the smartwatches less than 2-inches big. Pricing is also unknown for these devices but chances are we'll find out later this week at IFA.

My adventure in Kenya

Mzungu!

Facebook aims Slingshot at Snapchat

This week Facebook has launched a new app in the US called 'Slingshot' to directly compete with, the picture messaging app, Snapchat. So should the makers of Snapchat be worried?

Snapchat, if you didn't already know, is a free picture and video messaging and sharing app for iOS and Android mostly used by teenagers. Users are able to send pictures and videos they take to their friends, or people who they don't know if they so wish, for a maximum of 10 seconds before the snap is gone to never to be seen again (unless it is replayed - which can be done once every 24 hours). Pictures and 15 second videos sent can have an overlay of filters, text and colourful drawings. The more you snapchat, the higher your snapchat score gets.

Snapchat, sadly, is quite unreliable; its servers have been hacked in the last year leaving thousands of user's data exposed on the internet for anyone to see, it has run into legal issues because of user's ability to screenshot snaps and it has also needed to deal with many complaints over ethics as studies show that many use the app for sexting.

Facebook had an app similar to Snapchat called 'Poke' which was retired earlier this year because it lacked engagement from users. Facebook then offered to buy Snapchat for $3 billion however the company surprisingly declined this. So, Facebook tried again to compete with Snapchat late last year when they added Snapchat like features into 'Instagram' so users could message other users with a photo or video. However this week Facebook has upped their game and have launched a stand-alone app to directly compete with Snapchat as a last effort to drag users away from Snapchat and get them using a Facebook service. This app is called 'Slingshot'.

'Slingshot' is scarily similar to Snapchat in the sense that you take pictures or videos, send them and they disappear after a specified number of seconds however Facebook has done this is an overly complicated way. The app is hard to navigate; users need to swipe all directions for different functions which, frankly, is just irritating however a price you are forced to pay for the stunning animations in the app.

The biggest issue with 'Slingshot' though is that in order to open a message, you need to send one back first which makes conversations very hard as you can't reply to someone if you don't know what they've said. Maybe 'Slingshot' isn't supposed to be a messaging app but more of a feed of temporary updates... which is fine as long as you have something to say yourself or the app will become very boring very quickly.

The only real positive I can find with 'Slingshot' is the 'select all' button which allows you to send your picture or video to all of your contacts at once. This is a feature which Snapchat addicts have been desperate for.

So will Slingshot be able to crush Snapchat - or even steal some of the 30+ million active Snapchat users? The app is very new - it isn't even out in the UK yet - and opinions haven't fully formed however it will only take weeks until we see if Slingshot's attack on Snapchat was a success.

Download 'Slingshot' here: sling.me

'Medium' blogging platform

The 'Medium' home page

Medium is a beautiful, sleek blogging platform which will makes content look outstanding. Easy to read fonts, big beautiful images and unique page design all complement each-other perfectly like how blogging websites should be to make posts look crisp and clean - with nothing to distract readers from the words.

The clean layout of posts

Medium.com was founded in Summer 2012 by a man who used to work for Twitter. Since then it has became one of the most popular blogging platforms.

Once you've signed up with your Twitter account you are presented with a simple blank page with few options. You write a heading, subheading, select a picture for the title background and then write your story. There are also various formatting tools you can use before clicking the 'Publish' button to let anyone in the world read what you've got to say. You can also submit your words into a category so there is a higher chance of more people going to read it. 

A differentiation from other blogging sites is that on Medium posts are sorted by category rather than author. This has its advantages and disadvantages. Advantages: if you are a reader who wants to read up on a specific topic it is a brilliant tool and the collections are monitored by fellow users of the website. Disadvantages: all of the blogger's home page displaying only their articles can not be modified much apart from a header and profile picture. Medium is a gimmick free blogger's dream.

An example of the design language used for posts

You are engrossed in stories on Medium about whatever interests you and the site works a little like a news website with the most popular stories and your personal recommendations being displayed on the home screen. All pages follow the same design code as well. This means, unlike Blogger, WordPress, Tumblr and other blogging sites, your space on Medium looks rather impersonal. So if think you can manage having a blog without widgets, advertisements and links; if you are just about the pure content, then Medium is definitely for you.

Everything on the website is simple yet powerful at the same time. Things are displayed in a very basic manor however it still gives you everything you need. For example, under the 'Stats' menu, you are not bombarded with as much information like what you might get with other sites - however it is all there and displayed elegantly.

If you are looking for a modern way to share your stories on the internet, Medium is definitely the way to go. The site seems to have an awesome community and is straight forward to use. What more could you want from a blogging website?  

Taking a photograph does not make you a photographer

Summer time: good weather and people in good spirit. Facebook is overflowing with selfies of happy people and their friends however some over-ambitions, professional photographer wannabe has uploaded some pictures that have no significance to themselves - or anyone for that matter. The photo is just of a landscape. Why have they uploaded this?

Uploading pictures of hills, fields or dunes is only acceptable if the 'photographer' has taken into consideration focus, aperture, shutter speed, lighting and other variables, or if it is taken with a SLR camera because at least then it means the quality of the pictures are high. However, if a person has just pointed their mobile phone's camera at a landscape and pressed 'capture' without thinking, the photos should no be going on Facebook or any social networking site (apart from Flickr - because nobody really uses that any-more).

The quality is low (most of the time anyway), which means that even if your view is good, you're not capturing colours correctly and when enlarged the photo can become pixelated. But most importantly, nobody cares; even the people who were with you at the time are more lightly to 'like' and comment on the photos that they are in rather than some landscape which may have well have just been found on Google Image Search. If it is a decent landscape you're photographing, there will be hundreds - if not thousands - of pictures of it which are easy to find with a simple image search - which makes the image very impersonal - however if it's not a good landscape, don't take the photo at all. And if you do take it and upload it, do not have the courage to call yourself a photographer... because your not... not even close to armature photographer!

To conclude, when having a whale-of-a-time walking through the countryside or at the beach, feel free to upload thousands of pictures of you and your friends/family however don't upload random pictures with no human subject; nobody wants to see it.

Monument Valley Review

Monument Valley is a trippy puzzle game for iOS and Android. You play as a princess named Ida and need to navigate your way though a Valley of impossible objects. There are 10 beautifully designed, colorful levels which encapture your imagination however they require lateral thinking to complete. As you progress through the addictive game platforms which can rotate, manoeuvrable columns and other creatures are added to add some complexity.

The 10 levels are sadly short and for £2.49 I would expect a lot more however all of the levels are a treat to your eyes and the sense of achievement you get once you have completed a hard level is inimitable.

The game costs £2.49 on both iOS and Android devices. It can be downloaded on smartphones however for optimal gaming experience, I would recommend you play on a tablet. If you do decide to play on your smartphone though, do not worry about the game lagging or crashing; surprisingly the heavy graphics don't take a toll on even low end smartphones.