We all love our data and back in the day there was a stupid amount charged per MB! So, wouldn’t we all like to save MB’s where possible? We all don’t like that dread text message towards the end of the month that you’re about to run out of data. Therefore wouldn’t you like to know which apps are sucking the life out of your data plan? Well we’ve got some data for you! (See what we did there) A study, conducted by Mobile Phones Direct, explored the data usage of a number of apps that hurt your data balance.
First of all, daily video and music streaming is doing you more harm than good and it’s hitting your data, HARD. If you use BBC iPlayer and Channel 5’s My 5 then you’re gonna have to cut back. As they’ve been named as the worst offending video apps for data drainage. Taking up to a gig, a GIG of data for an hour of streaming. Suprisingly Netflix uses very little data at 314mb. See the handy chart below for more:
Quick Tip:
Download on Netflix to allow videos to be played offline to save data. However, if you don’t wish to download videos, let the show buffer whilst you are on WiFi network and then watch on your mobile network. Therefore you aren’t using any data as the file has already buffered on your phone! Furthermore on YouTube you can head into settings and make sure that the ‘limit mobile data usage’ option is ticked. This will force the app to only watch videos in HD when connected to a WiFi Network.
Music Streaming however, there may be a different way to save data, if you’re a Spotify user. Tthere’s a way to help limit the way that it uses your data! As well as changing the quality of the music, making the music available offline, or downloading the music that Spotify (and many other apps) offer you, you can do more.
With Spotify only there’s an app called Spotify Lite (Currently only available on Android). This version of the app only takes up 15mb of memory compared to 100mb. Most of all, the app doesn’t allow HQ music to be played. If you’re an Apple Music or a Tidal user however, then they take up the most data when listening for an hour. Tidal gobbles up 184mb compared to Spotify using almost 100mb less.
*Mobile Phones Direct watched 5 minutes of content from each app and multiplied it to determine the total data usage over an hour. Each video was watched on both an iPhone 7 plus and XR in HD using 4G. Results may vary.
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The #10YearChallenge has only just finished sweeping the world. However, what would the #10YearChallenge look like if our smartphones undertook this challenge instead? CompareMyMobile have undertook a really cool study on how the smartphone world looked 10years ago. It’s very suprising to be fair! We’ve come a very long way!
For example 10 years ago only 17% of adults had a smartphone, compared to a whopping 78% of adults currently. Which as a result we are more addicted to our smartphones than we ever were. They’ve also changed in a number of other ways
Costs – the mobile phones of today are in some cases 7 times more expensive than they were in 2009
Memory capacity – it has increased 16 times in some cases
Display is twice as big (or more!) compared to mobile phones in 2009
Camera – smartphone cameras today have at least 3 times (or more pixels) than in 2009
CompareMyMobile.com has compiled a list of the most talked about phones in 2009 and compared them to their 2019 rivals from the same manufacturer. They also took a look at what contracts were on offer to punters in 2009 too!
Contracts
They discovered that in 2009, upfront costs for phones and monthly payments were a lot cheaper (unsurprisingly) however, what is shocking is that some of the 2019 prices compared to their 2009 equivalent have TRIPLED! Whereas mobile devices were affordable in 2009 when looking at upfront costs. While in some cases monthly payments are fairly similar. The one thing that is surprising. If you look at all of the contracts today for smartphones. It’s normal to expect Gigs of data. It’s crazy to think now, but in 2009, some networks were charging £5 per megabyte for internet usage!!
In 2009 500 texts per month, which was deemed as quite good. Minutes were 100-900minutes. Fast forward to 2019 and both those are often listed as unlimited. (Who calls these days anyway?)
For a much more detailed look at the #10YearChallenge Smartphone edition please click here! There’s a look at past popular smartphones developers such as Blackberry’s (remember BBM!?) and the ever favourite Nokia.
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Apple and their iPhone’s have had a dedicated podcast player for years, whilst Android users have had a plethora of podcast players there hasn’t been a dedicated app from Google themselves. Until today. Google Podcasts has recently been released. As you’d expect. As a search engine company, search is a very strong part of Google Podcasts:
Google Podcasts: Google Search
On an Android phone (unsurprisingly Google Podcasts is not available on iPhone) you can search for your favourite podcast with a Google Search. Simply type the show into Google and an auto complete box will appear. The information for your podcast(s) of choice will appear in an info card that allows you to play episodes right from within the search tab.
Tapping on “more episodes” will launch a web app for managing your podcasts. The search giant is calling this a “homebase”. Within “homebase” you can listen to new episodes and browse for more podcasts. Google’s algorithms will even show you custom recommendations based on what you listen to as well. If “homebase” recognises that you listen to a podcast more than others, it will prompt you to create a favourite for it. This will pin it to the home screen so you can head straight there. You can even use your voice to search for an podcast if you have a Google home too! Simply as it to play “Ok Google, play the How To Kill An Hour podcast” and we’ll start playing! 😉
Don’t fret either as you can listen to your podcasts on your phone and pick up right from where you left off on your Google Home!
Subscribe to our podcast on Google Podcasts by clicking here!
Alternatively you can also subscribe by scanning our QR code:
Google Podcasts QR Code
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Might and Magic: Elemental Guardians is an RPG game that is a lot of fun, when we say a lot of fun we mean alot of fun! Now I have never been a big fan of turn based RPG games myself, but I’ve always given them a go, and I’m glad that I gave Might and Magic: Elemental Guardians a go!
Why?
Addictive RPG!
As I cannot put it down, I’m always on it now! I almost missed my train earlier because I was too busy fighting the enemies and upgrading my little creatures! The aim of Might and Magic: Elemental Guardians is to battle your way through the various lands and elements to claim victory and rule over the land once more. You are tasked with taking hold of up to 4 creatures of your choosing, whilst utilising the mystic powers of your hero to help them along the way. Once you have chosen your creatures you are then tasked with choosing which magic that your character is responsible for. Furthermore, those House Magic choices are either Materia, Chimera or Anima. With each of them giving you an extra edge against your opponent be that extra attack speed, extra defence or even taking away an enemies ability. So, for example, making them more vulnerable to attacks!
Character Progression
Each character is able to be ranked up and leveled up, however, choose wisely as ranking up requires you to sacrifice other members of your team! Consequently this is where the replayability of this game comes into play, if you want to keep all of your strongest creatures. The task would be to rank up your least favourite creatures and then use them to rank up your favoured battle creatures! It’s a bit of a pain but, it allows you to keep playing for much longer! Each creature is able to hold up to 6 glyphs which allow you to increase the abilities of your creatures, so much like other RPG games you have to be tactical in what you upgrade as to best achieve success!
Furthermore with many games these days there are various tasks that you have to complete to earn achievements. Yet, this is where Might and Magic: Elemental Guardians separates itself from the pack. The achievements that you unlock unlock special tokens and other various magic elements to help you either upgrade your creatures or help them along the way to evolve into bigger better creatures! Yet, the evolving is a marathon more than a sprint as it takes A LOT to evolve them. Hence why this game is for the long haul and not for a quick 10minute play. Well you can play for 1o minutes but that 10minutes may turn into an hour. As I’ve found out more than once this week!
Might and Magic is out now! Please see below for more information and a link to download the game!
Enter the world of Might & Magic: Elemental Guardians – a fast-paced strategy RPG based on the medieval fantasy realm of Might & Magic. Journey through enchanted lands, collecting fierce and fantastic elemental creatures, and evolve a team of mighty warriors to summon to battle on the path to victory.
ENROLL IN THE ACADEMY OF MAGIC • Create, customize and level up your own hero • Choose a House of Magic: Materia, Chimera or Anima • Use the mystic powers of your House to triumph in the arena
SUMMON A LEGENDARY TEAM • Discover and collect hundreds of fantastic beasts and iconic creatures • Watch their evolution from cute companions to legendary war allies • Equip your team with arcane Glyphs to enhance their abilities
TRAIN & BATTLE • Level up your creatures to unlock their true might • Compete in the PvP Arena to rise up the league leaderboards • Participate in Live Events to win epic prizes and rare items • Ally with your friends in Guilds for mighty team adventures
LEAD YOUR TEAM TO VICTORY • Face fierce opponents in fast and strategic RPG battles • Use the elements of Fire, Water, Air and Earth tactically to gain the advantage • Cast epic spells and use magical abilities of different elements
BECOME A HERO OF LEGENDS • Journey through the fabled fantasy realms of Might & Magic • Complete diverse daily quests and earn special rewards • Enjoy beautiful graphics and unique creature designs
This app contains In-App Purchases which allow you to buy in-game currency. In-game currency can also be collected by playing the game without requiring any purchase. [Apple/Ubisoft]
To download Might and Magic Elemental Guardians please click here Apple / Android
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Facebook are trying to find out more about you in a way that looks less obtrusive. It’s called Facebook Lists and they’re totally customizable to make them whatever you wish them to be. For example you can have, ‘My 2018 Goals’ or ‘Things to do before I’m 30’ or even ‘Who inspires me the most’
Like with customizable status updates, you can change the background colour, or even add emojis to it to spruce it up a little.
To make things interesting you can copy someone else’s and make it better (or worse) or even straight up copy and see who achieves the most.
Why Facebook Lists?
The whole idea behind this relates to Facebook pushing down company pages content and promoting users content. They want their users to make more original content and thus making people engage more and more with one another. Therefore engaging less with company ‘engagement’ bait style posts.
This alongside Facebook’s recent update at the end of last year (gradually rolling out to more and more users) is the “Did you know” status or “Fun fact about me” style updates. Whereby users would write a question for example “My favourtie food is” and then listing it. Is Facebook’s push to make each other more friendly and interact more.
This is getting a huge push with Facebook allegedly promoting posts from friends and family as well as prioritising local news in the news feed. Even pushing to including a dedicated local news and events section on their site. (Though this is limited to 6 cities in the US)
Facebook Lists is currently only available to Android users. If you’re on iOS you can see lists but you cannot create them just yet. (No news on when it will arrive to iOS either)
To listen to the guys chatting about this please click here!
To download Facebook please click here Apple / Android
Books in the 21st century are changing and they’re becoming a lot more than just an e-book on an Amazon Kindle! As seen online and many different apps, books are becoming a lot more interactive and more like a movie or a tv show! Last Seen Online is just that, an interactive book on just your phone. It takes place over 7 days and is in the form of a WhatsApp style chat log.
Last Seen Online is developed and created by unrd, the BookTech company of the year 2016, it’s award winning and best of all it’s free to download!
The fictional chat style story allows users to read through messages of a missing girl. We are then introduced, in real time, messages from her friends and family as you and her friends and family discover what happened to her.
In an almost cluedo style game, the app replicates a group chat messenger experience. It is here where you can delve into relationships between each of the characters. Understand how they fit into the story of a woman’s disappearance. It can get quite thrilling and sometimes scary so, you’ll most likely be gripped to your phone!
Last Seen Online: Plot
Amy Morris was out with friends celebrating her 26th birthday. However it is the day after and she never made it home. You have access to her text messages.
Read all of her conversations she had with her friends and family before she went missing. Then start receiving messages in real time as they realise she never returned home.
Over the next 7 days you’ll receive texts, audio messages, images and even videos as you delve into the life of Amy Morris and experience a mystery thriller, in a manner which is unlike no other.
To download Last Seen Online please click here Apple / Android
To listen to the guys chatting about this please click here!
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Another month and we have another set of apps for you to check out. Here we have 4 fun apps for march 2018!
Hero Hunters
This is a HUGE RPG shooting game on mobile devices for free! It’s a lot of fun and you are sent into battle with an army of your choice of heroes. You’re able to be equipped with a bunch of guns, sniper rifles, swords and a whole lot of crazy weapons. The Energy Cannon for one!
Alongside the massive multiplayer battle games, take on the campaign mode and battle against Kurtz’s army. You can join alliance or play alongside a buddy in co-op missions. Take on daily events to get extra bonuses, play the ever crazy gauntlet mode or kill a LOT of hours with Multiplayer boss raids!
To download this game please click here Apple / Android
Goat Simulator
This game is hilarious!
Goat Simulator is basically that, a simulator in which you take on the life of a goat.
The aim of the game is all about causing as much damage as possible. It plays a lot like an old school skating game. But you destroy stuff. It’s crazy. Wacky. Hilarous. Stupid and a LOT of fun! There is nothing you cannot do. Play it and find out!
To download this game please click here Apple / Android
Star Wars Force Arena
Star Wars Force Arena is a multiplayer battle that requires a lot of strategy based gaming to fight your way to a win!
Battle teams in a 1 vs 1 or 2 vs 2 style matches. Select a squad of your Star Wars team and send them into battle, selecting a range of add on cards to help increase your chances of survival and the goal of destroying the opponents shield generator.
To download this game please click here Apple / Android
Snake 97
Snake97. This is a remake of the original snake on the Nokia’s back in the day. There is no up to date graphics or change of features. Snake97 is the same game that you know and loved back when you were younger. Be prepared to kill a lot of hours on this game!
To download this game please click here Apple / Android
To listen to the guys chatting about these games please click here!
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It’s February 2018 (unless you are seeing this before / after February 2018) so we thought we’d share with you our Top 5 Fun Apps for February 2018!
Retro Soccer
First, this game is A LOT of fun! It’s one of the best football games we have played on mobile in a long time. The gameplay is super quick and is the definition of pick up and play! Picking up and playing is the easy part. Putting the game back down again. There’s your problem.
There’s an array of different challenge matches to do, which include some of the most thrilling comebacks in history! Complete these challenges to unlock your favourite footballing legends and compile a dream team! Above all you can take on the world trophy and league competitions if you have that extra bit of time to kill!
Even share replays of your best goals to your friends!
Price: Free
To download Retro Soccer please click here: Apple / Android
Amateur Surgeon 4
From legendary adult cartoon makers Adult Swim, Amateur Surgeon returns for a 4th time!
Although, you are not just any trainee surgeon. You’re an amateur surgeon. In the truest sense of the word!
Complete surgery on over 100 patients with HOUSEHOLD tools! You’d never thought you’d need to grab a pizza cutter a start an operation!?
You take on Doctor Bleed and your task is to help solve the mystery of his very own sudden resurrection. Travel around the world looking for answers and saving lives along the way. Even recruit some teamates (doctors) with their own specific, unique and weird special abilities that you can use to help you.
Had enough of trying to solve mysteries. Take on ‘Field Hospital Survival mode’ for high speed surgery and try to beat your friends.
Haven’t played the other 3 games? Don’t worry. With Amateur Surgeon 4, you can play 1-3, with a remastered, retooled versions complete with brand new operations and each with their own unique story.
Free
To download Amateur Surgeon 4 please click here: Apple / Android
Pigeon Panic AR
This game is really simple and something utterly ridiculous and we cannot believe someone has made a game out of this. AR like this is amazing.
Pigeon Panic AR projects a flock of pigeons on to the floor that you’re standing in. Scatter some food on the ground (in AR of course).
This game comes in two versions free and paid. Table Zombies is an AR game where you play the role of a shooter based inside a helicopter. Your aim is to stop the zombie infestation from reaching the survivor base, by shooting the horde from above!
Unlike other AR Games, this one requires you to download a PDF from the link in the app store, print it out and place it down. The game will then appear from it.
There are 4 different environments to play and Zombies, being Zombies, will appear from anywhere!
The game has 4 different environment. The zombies will be from every direction and everywhere.
Price: Free
To download Table Zombies please click here: Apple / Android
Paper Bin AR
We all did this as a child, even now as adults. Throwing rolled up pieces of paper into a bin.
Have you ever put the bin farther and farther away and challenged a friend to see who could get the paper into the bin. This is exactly what Paper Bin AR is all about.
Though they’ve changed it slightly. With Paper Bin AR it’s in augmented reality (obviously) to make it more immersive, but there are added obstacles. Such as having electric fans in the way to blow the paper out of the way.
How many paper balls did you manage to get in the bin? Let us know via our socials (@howtokillanhour)
(AR version not currently available on Android)
Price: Free
To download Paper Bin AR please click here: Apple / Android
To let us know what you think of each of the Top 5 Fun Apps for February 2018, connect with us via our socials! (@howtokillanhour) on all platforms.
To listen to the guys discussing the Top 5 Fun Apps for February 2018 please click here!
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Turn your Samsung into a Gameboy with the SmartBoy by Hyperkin. Music Credit: Mate Lyons – Instrumental Hip Hop soundcloud.com/lyonsss/instrumental-hip-hop
There is not much that can be said about the Hyperkin Smartboy, apart from that it is absolutely incredible!
The device will turn your phone into a powerful handheld gaming console. The Hyperkin for the Gameboy/Gameboy colour attaches to an Android USB Type C device and even uses Gameboy or Gameboy Color cartridges. As, the device then utilizes your smartphone’s display to show the Gameboy colour games! Just pop the device into the Hyperkin Smartboy and away you go!
According to Hyperkins website the Hyperkin Smartboy is compatible with:
