Fallout 4 Companion Application

Just recently, on November 10th, a new game from Bethesda Game Studios, Fallout 4, was released. Along with the game, an app was released on the Apple App Store, and Google's Play Store called Fallout Pip-Boy. In the game, a Pip-Boy is a computer that is on the wrist of your character. You access your inventory, quests, map location, and other resources through the interface of the pip-boy. What's cool about the app is that it allows you to view this interface on another device, such as a phone and tablet, while playing the game. This works over your network that is hosted by your router. The router assigns every device on the network, like a computer or a phone, an address, which is commonly referred to as an IP address. Any device in the home network that makes a request for some data off on another server, will have to go through the router. When the reply of data comes back, the router is able to send that data to the correct device because of it's assigned IP address. The device and computer send requests and data through the router to each other and that's how you have a constant updated pip-boy on your phone. Able to view and interact with your inventory, able to view and follow your current location on the map, and everything else the pip-boy interface can do in game, in real time. 

When I first heard about the app, I had a suspicion that this was just a way to view your inventory, and you wouldn't be able to interact with it. After trying it, I was surprised at how fast the game reacts to you action on your phone or tablet. It only took a few minutes of finding the setting, and now I'm able to launch the game on my computer, launch the app, and start playing.

When Fallout 4 was announced, there was also an announcement for a Pip-boy addition to the game. This special package had a copy of the game, a replica Pip-boy, and a few other posters and booklets. What's special about this replica is that your are able to wear it on you wrist, just like your character in game, and you're able to place your phone into the pip-boy where it's screen would be, and it would just be like the pip-boy in game. This special addition of the game quickly sold out after it was announced, as the higher price didn't deter the many fans of the Fallout series to have their own functional pip-boy. This was the main reason for development of the pip-boy companion app.

Links:
Fallout Companion App:
Play Store
App Store

Fallout 4 Pip-Boy Addition

The Master Race?

The master race. I'm not talking about Hitler’s idea for a perfect world, but a group of people who believe that PC gaming is the best form of gaming. PC master race, or PCMR, is a community of people who believe in just that. Their claims are backed up by a long series of facts, but they are still criticized by many “console peasants” that claim that they, have the superior gaming experience. Besides this constant argument by headstrong people on both sides, I believe that the PCMR, is much more than an argument. This community is primarily based on their subreddit, but also hosts servers on many games.

What’s so attractive to me is the idea of a community. It is a group of people that I can join a server with, and know that I’ll be enjoying a game along with everyone else. There is a level of respect with each other, therefore little trolls or lures. Sure there are the people who claim to be part of PCMR, and do theses things, and others who are there to have a good argument. But behind that wall of annoyingness, is a community of people who just enjoy playing games on their computer, and are available to ask advice from people who have a further understanding of a game or computers.

Qualities to Look for When Buying a Phone

When that time comes around, when your old phone dies, screen is destroyed, or your contract is up, or you are simply wanting something new, you’re debating what your next phone will be. For some it might be easy, going for the newest and the greatest. Some might have a hard time looking through all the options. While others are concerned with their price range. In any case, you should all be aware of what you should look for in a phone. What makes the phone the best and the greatest? What qualities should I look for to narrow down the choices? What qualities should I look for while comparing price? All good questions when looking for a new device.

When looking at a phone, what makes a phone “great”? A great phone can be down to opinion, but I always like to compare specs to determine what is the best phone. Phonearena is a website that I like to use to compare specs. It allows you to few the specs of the device, that could be found around on the manufacturer's website, and compare them side by side to find that perfect phone. For example, if I would want to compare some of this year's flagship phones, I’d start searching for phones like the iPhone6s, Nexus6p, OnePlus2, and compare their specs.

Specs are not everything though. If you looked, most iPhones have no where near the power that Android phones have, yet most would argue that they are just as fast. On top of specs, I always like to see someone else’s opinion of the phone after they’ve used in in their daily lives for a while. Sometimes software and other features/bugs can have a big impact on the performance of the device. Fortunately, YouTube has many of such reviewers, one that I trust, MKBHD. When I find a device that I’m interested in, I’ll search YouTube and find a review of the phone, looking for the performance of the device, the battery life that they were getting out of the device, and their general opinion of the device.

I know that not everyone is able to spend whatever is needed to get the newest, best, flagship phone every year. Some people might barely have the money to get a phone, yet want some sort of smartphone that just works. Of course you’ll have to make compromises, but instead of buying some cheap phone, I’d recommend looking back to a few years old flagship phones. Often you might be buying some used phone, and if you’re cool with the potential risk, then there’s a cheap solution for you, but if you’re concerned, a lot of manufacturers are producing a cheaper version of their flagship phones. Apple with their C model phones, Motorola with their Moto G series phones, and until recently, the nexus line phones. All have been cheaper phones, yet still a functional and fairly nice phone.

Having a Tablet and a Phone

When I first was thinking of getting a tablet, I wondered for a second what I’d really do with it. At first glance, a tablet to many people is just a phone with a big screen that lacks the ability to call people. I’d agree that roughly that is what a tablet is, but from my experiences, I still use my tablet a lot even alongside my phone. It hasn’t become a replacement to my phone, and it hasn’t been completely ignored.

One of the things I most commonly use my tablet for is videos. I greatly enjoy watching Youtube videos, streams, and movies in my freetime. I’m able to do this on my computer and phone, but I’m not always in the mood for sitting at my computer desk, and on my phone, I’m watching the videos on a really tiny screen. With a tablet, all theses dilemmas are solved. I’m able to lay in my bed and watch a video on a decent size screen with ease. Also, if you’re tablet, like mine, has front facing speakers, then your experience will be even better.

Another thing I use my tablet for is another battery. Like I’ve said earlier, many people believe that tablets are just a bigger phone, as they’re able to do the exact same things. This is true, and I take advantage of this. Instead of using my phone to browser twitter in a long stretch of free time during school, I’ll take out my tablet instead and use it. It allows me not to exclusively use my phone throughout the day, saving me some battery life that I can use later if I’m unable to charge my phone in between activities.

The third thing I enjoy using my tablet for is reading. Often, when I read books, I enjoy using a digital copy over a physical paper copy because of all the features available along with the digital reader. Sure the program is available on my phone, but it’s so hard to read on the tiny screen. Using my tablet, I’m able to read all the books I need to, for school and for my own enjoyment, with ease.

Games are another thing that I enjoy having a tablet for. All the games that I have on my tablet are available on my phone, but I’ve chosen not to download them on there. Only playing games on my tablet greatly saves my phone’s battery, and the memory on my phone.

One final convenience of my tablet is typing. Often during school, I’ll come across a time where I’d rather not write out a paper, and would rather type it. I’m able to pull out my tablet and type it right there in class. There are even bluetooth keyboards available for tablets to make typing even easier if you would want to.

Overall, buying a tablet is worth the investment. Even though you might have a phone, there are many circumstances that it is beneficial having a tablet.

Technological Singularity.

Technology has progressed a lot in the past 10 to 20 years. You may not notice but technology has been developing at an almost exponential rate. Before computers used to take up a whole entire rooms but now the computer fit easily and comfortably in your pocket. We have more powerful computers today in our pockets then what the spacecraft that landed on the moon had. Some people may wonder where technology is now leaving to, and frankly we just don't know for sure. But if I had to guess I would say we're moving from an age of computing to the age of robots and AI.

Some may not know it right now but we already use robots in everyday life. Robots are used in assembling products such as cars, and are used to speed up the production of other manufactured products. These are all controlled by programs that have been programmed to tell the robot what task it should do. The only way but it could hurt you if you stopped in the way of what it's doing. Even then their safety measures designed to shut down the robot in case of that happening. What you also might not know about robots are currently being used in militaries around the world. The most commonly used robots in battlefields are a big gun strapped to a set of treads. They are controlled by operator with a set of controls on them away from the battlefield. They often have a camera so the operator can be even farther away. There was even robots using in WWII. Germans experimented with putting high explosives on a little robot and then driving it remotely.  

Computers are getting very fast, faster than you might think. Though a normal computer might not have the best computing power, there are supercomputers being used to run massive simulations such as world weather. One of the best constructed computing devices that we know, for size and ability, is our own brains. We’ve been studying our brains, and trying to design computers based on that. Research isn’t too far, but some people have made some breakthroughs, though nowhere near the same, but have made brain like chips with massive amounts of computing power compared to anything else we have.

We already have some basic AI’s, and it might be in your pocket right now. On your phone, you might have a “personal assistant” called Siri or Google Now. These programs are able to detect when you talk, and the understand what you’ve said, do the said task, and say a response.  Relative to movie level AI, this is rudimentary. But we’ve created something that’s able to understand our speaking.

So we have a few things right now. Basic motor functions of a robot, super computers that are on the way, and software that is able to communicate and understand us. Now just think on what would happen if we hit that supercomputer level processing. We’re not to far off from self thinking programs, and with a brain like or possibly even better computing power, we’re in a dangerous situation potentially.

Apple and Android

It's a big thing, bigger than some people might know. With a world full of smartphones, companies have set a standard in the software in their phones. Companies like Motorola, Asus, Samsung, and LG to name a few, put in a software that is based on Android. They add their own changes, tweaks, and visual appearance to the software before they ship it out on their products. Though now visually different, this software is still called Android. To get a truly original experience of vanilla Android, you use to have to get a Nexus phone, a series of phones endorsed by Google, but now companies are producing phones by themselves with vanilla Android software.

Apple set their own standard by making their own software. iOS is their software they used for all their products. It's a refined software that has a large appeal to many. It's has a fairly simple UI that is standard throughout almost every version of iOS and any device that runs it. Therefore, if you're using an iPad and an iPhone, the way you will navigate to a website or app will be the same, counting out the screen size difference. Apple products themselves are typically well built. Every phone so far has been relatively the same appearance wise. If you look deeper into the phone into the specs you'll find some specs that some tech savvy people might find queer, but in practice these specs are just fine, and most products run fast.

Many people like to bring up the argument on the internet whether Android or Apple is better. It's usually heavily debated and then the debaters go away frustrated and influenced no one to change their mind. Truth be told, it's just an opinion, as what qualities do you judge that makes one better over another product. If you want to judge by quality off the device, a few years ago an Apple advocate would of won that argument, but now it is now so simple. Apple has always made a good quality devices at their time. Android devices were behind, as many manufacturers were producing many products over a short span of time, there were only a few devices some would say we're amazing quality. But now the focus of manufacturers has turned to that quality of a high value “flagship” phone. If you want to look at features of the software, you're heading into a heavily debated subject. Some would say Android clearly has more features, and I wouldn't say they're wrong. The whole premises of Android is that it's open sourced. Google developed Android and puts it out there available for manufacturers use on certain terms. Following the terms Google has set in place, manufacturers can alter and add what they want. This on top of Google’s future looking development means there's a lot of features built in there. If you look at Apple, they might not have every feature that an Android device might have,  but they have what's need, some cool features, but it's all refined, and works really well.

If you go with Apple, you get what you pay for, high quality, guaranteed to work for 1 to 2 years, and simple product. It works, has the basic features of the year, and reliable. If you go with an Android device, you'll get a large selection to choose from, wide price range, but you still have the ability to get a high quality product, with a large range of possibilities and customization. Either way, if you choose to invest in an Android or Apple device you’ll be happy with your experience.

Chinese Smart Street Lamps

Recently the Chinese government has unveiled a new project, a smart street lamp. So far, only Shanghai has these smart lampposts along some of their streets. The lamps offer services with the design of being green. One big feature is an electric car car charging port. Electric cars can be a great replacement to conventional cars with in city driving. Though the only charging place in your city might be your house. These smart posts might be a start to change this, and promote the use of electric cars.

Another feature of these smart polls is a free WiFi hotspot. This is a great idea to help people stay connected wherever they go, especially with the increasing number of smartphone users in Chinese, but I don't know how practical it is. There's going to be a lot of traffic around these posts. Plenty of cars and even more pedestrians walking past at all times. Having a router that can handle all that traffic would have to be powerful, and expensive.

These posts are not the cheapest. If this product would be put into place in full effect, that would mean replacing many light posts in the city. That all adds up really fast.

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Links:

Photos of Street Lamps