Tag Archive for: How To Kill An Hour

Star Wars Jedi Challenges

Star Wars Jedi Challenges: Become a Jedi

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Star Wars Jedi Challenges: Feel The Force!

Star Wars Jedi Challenges is the piece of tech for all Star Wars fans in 2018. With the help of augmented reality you’ll be transported into the Star Wars universe! There’s an array of cool VR/AR tech coming to our homes in the coming weeks and months! However, this has got to be one of the best things we have seen here at the office! We cannot believe that someone hasn’t thought of this before. Augmented and Virtual reality is perfect for the Star Wars franchise. Helping to bring nostalgia to a lot of men and women around the world. So we think that this is going to be used a lot more by the parents than the children!

With the help of the AR headset, complete an array of challenges to become a Jedi! Train to become a Jedi Master, have Jedi Battles with the Sith, play HoloChess, complete strategic combat right from your table! This sounds absolutely incredible and we LOVED it when it came into the studio!

So, how does this become reality? By using the smartphone-powered Lenovo Mirage AR headset and a Lightsaber controller, that is all, to transport you into space and fight to save the universe! The Lightsaber controller enables you to experience what it’s like to yield a lightsaber. So you can feel your opponents attacks with the force feedback! Whilst a tracking beacon ensures accurate and detailed tracking of yourself and the lightsaber controller. Furthermore allowing the AR headset to fill your environment with an immersive universe. While not just a video image displayed in front of you.

Click here to complete the challenges and become a Jedi Master!

Click here to purchase your own!

nintendo labo

Nintendo Labo: Get Creative With Cardboard!

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Nintendo Labo

This is Nintendo Labo and they’re giving you new ways to interact with the Switch, with cardboard.

So, what exactly is it? It is designed to help you get creative with the Switch. Create all different kinds of gaming add ons with the variety kits that are available. Such as fishing kits, play piano or even the most impressive one that we have seen an AR Robot kit!

Nintendo are calling the cardboard kits, ‘Toy-Cons’ and are designed to be solely used with the Nintendo Switch. Just by following the onscreen instructions that are displayed on the Switches touchscreen.

The Toy-Cons are so versatile that you can either use the Toy-Cons independently of the screen itself and you watch what’s occuring on screen. I.e: Fishing. Where all the computing is done inside the joy-con controller, or by using the whole console itself to find new ways to play! An example of this would be the use of a motorbike, whereby the switch is placed in the center of the ‘Toy-Cons’ and ‘Joy-Cons’ are placed either side and the accelerometer acts as a steering mechanism.

The most impressive of the lot was the use of a HUGE contraption, with the Robot ‘Toy-Con’. This cardboard accessory is HUGE and is placed on a users back and utilises cables to detect a users movement. From the imagery online this game looks incredibly immersive and we cannot wait to check it out!

Nintendo Labo: Customization

Most of all, the ‘Toy-Cons’ are cardboard and come pre-printed with designs. Therefore users are able to colour them and customise them as they wish! Furthermore if you’re a computer whizz and know how to code, then you’re in luck! You can even create your very own games that interact with the Nintendo Labo! So, get those thinking caps on!

Nintendo Labo

This is Nintendo Labo and they're giving you new ways to interact with the Nintendo Switch, with cardboard.It's called the Nintendo Labo and is designed to help you get creative with the Switch. Create all different kinds of gaming add ons with the variety kits that are available. Such as fishing kits, play piano or even the most impressive one that we have seen an AR Robot kit!Find out more here:howtokillanhour.com/gadgets-tech/nintendo-laboMarcus Bronzy Nick Bright DJ Ace

Posted by How To Kill an Hour on Thursday, 25 January 2018

What do you think of the Nintendo Labo? Get in touch and let us know via our socials!

To purchase the Nintendo Labo please click here!

To listen to the guys chatting about this please click here!

Episode 266 5 Fun Apps For February 2018

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Skyfront VR

Skyfront VR: Find out who the peacekeepers are!

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Skyfront VR: Who’s the champ

Skyfront VR, it’s time to decide who really is the best shooter around.

We  love virtual reality and feel as though it’s the next best thing for gaming. (Whilst also the most logical step in next generation gameplay) There are an array of great games currently available for the various VR systems out there. However, one caught our eye recently. Skyfront VR. A team based multiplayer shooting game that’s set in the future!

An idyllic future (2300) at that and all of your favourite city’s and landmarks were once a war zone. In AD 2700, society is now rebuilt and thriving after a terrible few hundred years. A zero-gravity battle arena is formed to prevent this from happening again. Teams take each other on to determine who are the best in town. What Skyfront are calling ‘The Final War’ it is up to you as a team to help determine who are the ‘Guardians’ – otherwise known as ‘Keepers of the Peace’ To find out who exactly are the peace keepers, a challenge was set. A battle, if you will. ‘The Skyfront Tournament’ is that challenge where players take on each other to preserve the memory of a violent past.

Skyfront VR: Gameplay

While the story is a lot of fun and one of the most original we have seen. Most of all the gameplay is incredible. The movement mechanics take advantage of the characteristics of your VR motion controllers. So, for example, move your wrist left and aim the controller sideways, the hand/gun mimic this behaviour. Paving the way for one of the most innovative and immersive gaming controllers that we have ever seen. Plus the game is incredibly fast paced, you can get hit from any angle so it’s a good idea to keep your witts about you! Plus don’t forget the arena is zero gravity, which adds another layer of uniqueness to this truly amazing game.

Most of all, and those who suffer from motion sickness will like this. The game developers are claiming that it’s nausea free!

We have to say we haven’t experienced any yet!

To apply for the early access to Sky Front VR please click here!

To Hear about it on the How To Kill An Hour Podcast click here!

Hello Neighbor

Hello Neighbor: A stealth Horror

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Hello Neighbor

Thanks to the guys over at Tiny Build we were able to check out Hello Neighbor (Steam)!

What is ‘Hello Neighbor’ I hear you ask? Well it’s not a game that requires you to knock on all of your neighbors homes and introduce yourself. Nor is it a knock down ginger game.

It’s a game all about mystery. A mystery of your creepy neighbor.

You play as a young boy, playing with his ball in the street, when all of a sudden he hears a strange noise coming from his creepy neighbors home. It turns out that he’s hiding something in his basement. This intrigues you and you want to find out exactly what he’s hiding in there!

This is where you, the player, come in. It’s down to you to use your wit and problem solving abilities to maneuver yourself to discovering what is unknown.

Hello Neighbor: AI Intelligence

However, you always have to come up with new ways to get into the house and away from the creepy neighbor. The neighbor may be creepy but he is highly intelligent! If you get caught trying a potential solution one way, you’re unlikely to be able to do the same again! He remembers where you went and how you did it, so may lay down traps for you!

This adds an element of replayability as it makes you think about what you’re going to next. Therefore making the game not as linear as others as our game may not be the same as yours! He will learn and he will adapt, so it’s down to you to be one step ahead of the creepy neighbor each and every time!

To listen to the guys chatting about this on the How To Kill An Hour podcast please click here!

To purchase ‘Hello Neighbor’ on Steam, please click here!

Laser League

Laser League: Tron re-born for 2018?

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LASER LEAGUE

There’s a brand new arcade game coming out soon that we’re sure that you’re going to love! It’s a lot like Rocket League meets Tron. (If you’re old enough to remember that) It’s called Laser League!

Where the aim of the game is to stay away from the coloured beams of your rivals. (Sounds a lot like Tron huh?) Yet cause incredible damage to your opposition by blocking their path. You got to use all your speed, strength and strategy to really get ahead.

Not only that you can also use power ups of the arena floor to give you that extra edge on the battlefield. Activate differing abilities (offensive/defensive) to help your team win the battle for the control of nodes.

 

  • Over 60 characters from 5 Unique brands
  • Select from 6 unique and spectacular classes; SMASH, THIEF, GHOST, SHOCK, SNIPE and BLADE.
  • Play up to 4v4 intense offline or online matches
  • Compete on 3 packed international Stadiums and master up to 10 laser maps.
  • 16 available power ups drastically change gameplay momentum.
  • Level up to unlock over 250 character customizations.

(LaserLeague)

The game has got a plethora of praise from various gaming outlets on the web too!

Polygon: “Laser League could be the next competitive gaming hit!”

Playstation Lifestyle: “Roll7 has an absolute hit on their hands with Laser League”

Sidequesting: “Laser League will be a competitive obsession!”

We don’t know about you, but we’re super interested in Laser League and cannot wait to give it a go! Unfortunately there is no release date as of yet. However on Laser League’s product page Early 2018 is the release window.

If you’re super interested in this game you can sign up for the beta by clicking here!

 

Top Tech from CES 2018

CES 2018 TOP 5 – Top Tech from CES 2018

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Top Tech from CES 2018

GadgetsBoy joins us this week to check out his Top Tech from CES 2018!

CES Top 5 Tech Bits!

It's CES 2018 and there's lots of great tech that's being shown off! See below our Top 5 pieces of tech from #CES2018, click the link below to hear our thoughts on them from this weeks show with GadgetsBoy here:howtokillanhour.com/shows/ep265Marcus Bronzy Nick Bright Funk Butcher DJ AceVideo Credits:RazerSamsung TVTheverge.comDJILaCieMobilegeeks Deutschland

Posted by How To Kill an Hour on Wednesday, 17 January 2018

Lacie DJI CoPilot

Top Tech from CES 2018 Lacie DJI

Top Tech from CES 2018 Lacie DJI

Lacie’s DJI CoPilot is basically a rugged external hard drive. But for the videographer’s out there. It’s a lot more than that. Who doesn’t want 2TB’s, a back up battery and a SD card reader in one?

Not got USB C? The CoPilot has got you! Use the regular USB or MicroUSB ports. Plug in any piece of media and the CoPilot does the rest, it’s automatically backed up. There’s also a small screen on the front to tell you how much storage is left. Making it great for videographers who don’t want to carry around their laptop ‘just in case’ they run out of space on all their SD cards.  The CoPilot will also charge devices and daisy chain other drives off of it. Simply plug another external HDD into it and your lappy will be able to read and write to it!

 

Samsung’s ‘The Wall’

Top Tech from CES 2018 The Wall

Top Tech from CES 2018 The Wall

Samsung announced at CES a breakthrough in home television technology. A world first. A modular, yes you read that right, a modular. 146-inch TV, that utilizes MicroLED technology. What’s beneficial of MicroLED’s over normal LED’s is that they are much much smaller than them and can serve as their own source of light. Thus vastly reducing the chance of backlight bleeding (as there isn’t a backlight) and burn-in. As well as creating darker blacks and much brighter colours on screen. Plus they draw a lot less power and can save you a lot of money in the long run! Bigger Tv Cheaper to run. Win Win in our books!

 

What’s even more intriguing is the fact that it has a modular design. This allows for a screen that is completely bezel-less and fully customisable to suit a consumers needs. Make the TV as big or as small as you like. You really are only stopped by how big your wall is!

Razer’s Project Linda

Top Tech from CES 2018 Project Linda

Top Tech from CES 2018 Project Linda

Razer’s Project Linda is a Lapdock. Don’t know what a Lapdock is? Basically it’s a laptop that has no internals and basically runs off of your mobile phone. What we’re about to tell you is really cool, but it’s just a prototype at the moment and it may or may not see the light of day. But one can hope!

Project Linda will run off the latest Razer Phone and it looks incredible and fits in well alongside other traditional gaming laptops. The phone sits where a trackpad would be and then you use the laptop traditionally but with a mouse.

Whilst being connected to Project Linda, games will take advantage of having an extra display and display vital stats and other information on the phone’s screen whilst the main action on the laptop screen.

When docked the phone will be charged by Project Linda and whilst the laptop doesn’t have internals per say there is 200gb of internal storage on the device. To store apps, games, media and phone backups. The aim of the device is to bridge the gap between handheld entertainment experience and laptop convenience.

Stats:

  • 13.3” Quad HD 120Hz touchscreen
  • 5.7″ Razer Phone screen can act as a touchpad, second display for stats or touch display for fine editing
  • Keyboard powered by Razer Chroma (Fully customizable laptop keys)
  • 200gb internal storage
  • o.59 inches thin
  • 3.5mm headphone jack

 

LG Rollable TV

Top Tech from CES 2018 LG Rollable Tv

Top Tech from CES 2018 LG Rollable Tv

 

Not to be outdone by Samsungs ‘The Wall” LG showed off a rollable 65″ TV prototype, which has a resolution of 3840 x 2160. (UHD) Much like their Wallpaper series, LG are highlighting to the world what OLED technology can actually do. When we saw the Wallpaper series we were impressed, it’s incredibly thin, yet produces some gorgeous imagery. The fact that it can now be rolled up, one saves space and two, makes it less easy to break. One small caveat of the Wallpaper series is although it was pencil thin, it looked really fragile!

 

Vivo’s In-Screen Fingerprint Reader

Top Tech from 2018 CES Vivo Fingerprint

Top Tech from 2018 CES Vivo Fingerprint (The Verge)

Whilst many of us have iPhone X’s and have got used to FaceID, (so long TouchID, we hardly knew thee) there’s just as many who LOVED touch ID. We know have the notch. The notch we don’t want. There was a lot of will they won’t they prior to the launch of iPhone X in regards to the fingerprint sensor under the screen. While many experts believe that Apple will introduce it on this years iPhone. A Chinese tech firm have beat them to the punch!

Vivo, have announced at CES 2018 a phone that does just that, a phone that’s bezelless and with a fingerprint sensor embedded into the screen. The reader is completely invisible and makes for a super sleek design. The guys over at The Verge have been testing it out for themselves. Whilst they state that the phone and the tech is slow, it works. That’s all that matters. Whether that’s just because we’re used to super quick fingerprint sensors on Apple and Samsung devices is another matter entirely.

The Vivo is using a Synaptics optical sensor. The tech works by looking at the gaps between the pixels on an OLED display and scanning your prints that way. (LCD’s won’t work due to the tech needing a backlight.) The guys over at The Verge did state that whilst this is a breakthrough in tech, no phone has been announced. BUT. An announcement is due imminently.

 

To read more about GadgetsBoy please click here!

Listen to the guys chatting about this by clicking here!

Google Bikes

Google’s Sheriffs Google Bikes saviour!

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Something’s afoot at Google HQ. At Google’s headquarters there are 1,100 Google Bikes also known as “Gbikes”. An estimated 250 of which are being stolen each week.  The Google Bikes are intended to help employees get around on campus quickly and elegantly.

Launched in ’07, Google created a $5M grant to help more cities become more bike-conscious and help the environment. Most notably Google’s home city of Mountain View and make it commuter friendly!

Yet people are stealing the Gbikes, not only that, they’re not even employees of Google! Furthermore the Gbikes aren’t cheap coming in at $300 each.

The bikes are simple, with a Google branding colour scheme, a basket and 1 gear. So they’re not top of the range, but as they cannot be purchased by the public and are exclusively for Google employees they’re highly sought after. Hence why they are being stolen so often, they’ll fetch a pretty penny online!

Google Bikes Saviours!

As a result of the constant theft, Google wish to crack down on the theft. Therefore to combat people stealing the Gbikes, the search engine giant have employed a team of 30 freelancers to get the bikes back. Helping crackdown on theft, Google are too testing GPS trackers and locks to help employees access bikes through their phones. Therefore, those who have Google’s bikes better think twice!

Which does make you think why, Google, one of the worlds most advanced tech companies. A company who produce amazing hardware such as the Google Pixel, Google Home and of course Google search. Didn’t put tracking software into the bikes as standard? $300 is a drop in the ocean for such a huge company, so why didn’t they put security measures in? No one likes to lose money at the end of the day. Money is money. Regardless if you have millions, trillions or hundreds. Plus the bikes are perks for their employees! Come on guys, stop stealing Gbikes!

Would you like to ride a Gbike? (Remember to give it back though!) Let us know by reaching out to us via our social channels! We are all over the social media space, so can contact us at either our Facebook, Twitter or Instagram pages! Our social handle is @howtokillanhour across all platforms.

Listen to the guys chatting about this please click here!

Gadgets Boy

Episode 265 Top Tech from CES 2018 w/Gadgets Boy

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Black Mirror

Black Mirror

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Black Mirror

Black Mirror is back to scare the life out of you. Put down your phone. It’s watching you.

 

Season 4 has just begun and we cannot recommend it enough!

If you haven’t seen the show before, fear not. As the episodes aren’t interlinked and you can watch a different episode from any season and not need to know whats happened.

“Black Mirror” is at its heart a contemporary reworking of ‘The Twilight Zone’ Created by Charlie Brooker, each episode is a stand alone drama, that aims to tap into the technological paranoia of modern society. It’s sharp, suspenseful and often shocking, but it’s incredibly gripping drama.

To download Netflix please click here Apple / Android

To listen to the guys chatting about this please click here!