Best Indian Online Shopping Deals & Loot offers from Flipkart, Amazon
Grab the Best Indian Online Shopping Deals & Loot offers from Flipkart, Amazon
Sunday, March 31, 2019
Sony PlayStation Celebrates 25th Anniversary With “Special” Collectors Edition Keychains
In conjunction with Sony PlayStation’s (PS) 25th anniversary, the Japanese console maker announced via Twitter that it would be releasing some “very limited” Collectors Edition merchandise. The products in question? Keychains made with every PS console the brand has made in the last two and a half decades.
To be precise, the consoles attached at the end of the keychains aren’t miniature versions of the consoles, but actual, real life-sized consoles. Repurposed specifically into accessories to be used in everyday life.
The variety listed in the embedded video shows the original PS One, PS2, PS3 and the current PS4. Not only are the consoles a 1-to-1 scale to the actual consoles, but they also weigh the same as the originals.
We’re celebrating 25 years of PlayStation with the release of our very limited collectors’ edition merchandise. If you’re a fan, you don’t want to miss out on this. pic.twitter.com/qphK7XoeH0
Sony goes on to say that its PS Memorabilia keychain collection can be purchased via its official gift store. Also, if you haven’t already figured it out; this advertisement is nothing more than an April Fool’s prank. To be fair, there are actual PS-themed keychains available on the store, however, none of them are as epic or as cumbersome as the PS console keychains.
Black Shark 2 Officially Lands In Malaysia; Retails From RM2499
Just as we heard during the global launch, the Black Shark 2 has indeed launched on 1 April 2019. As for the variants that we’ll be getting, it looks like it reflects what the retailer Mobile 2 Go shared earlier on.
As a quick recap, the Black Shark 2 comes in two variants. One packs 8GB RAM and 128GB of internal storage, while another variant comes with a 12GB RAM and 256GB internal storage configuration. Both are priced at RM2499 and RM2999, respectively.
Colour variants for the Black Shark 2 is limited to either in Shadow Black and Frozen Silver. There is a blue variant of the phone, it seems that that won’t be made available here officially, at least for now. On another note, the Frozen Silver variant is the model that is available with the phone’s maximum RAM and internal storage configuration.
The 8GB/128GB variant of the Black Shark 2 is already available for purchase. The 12GB/256GB variant, on the other hand, is now open for pre-order from today until 5 April 2019. Black Shark has also announced that it will be a Shopee exclusive, and that the e-commerce store is throwing in some bonuses for the first 200 purchases.
If you’re interested in the Black Shark 2 but can’t yet decide if you want to get it, check out our hands on experience with the phone.
To the uninitiated, Game of Thrones may come off as a tad bit soap operatic. Especially when its followers come running up the way to express their utter shock to folks who know nothing of the series. I was once the latter before I saw the light of good television! Since the very first season, Game of Thrones has consistently delivered jaw-dropping moments that have left audience members in near-catatonic states by the end of its many, many episodes.
So with the final season just around the corner, we figured now is as good a time as any to recap all the crazy stuff that went down over the course of the show’s seven seasons. So grab a barf bag and a roll of paper towels because we’re running the ten most outrageous moments in HBO’s Game of Thrones.
10. A Family Affair
Season 7 Episode 7: The Dragon and the Wolf — It seems apt that our first choice on this list come from the latest season of the series. The series is no stranger to the subject of incest from Craster’s many daughter-wives to Jaime and Cersei’s not-so-secret relationship. But never in all my years watching the series would I have ever guessed Jon Snow joining the inbreed club!
Near the end of the episode, we hear Brandon Stark and Samwell Tarly discussing Jon’s true lineage as the one true heir to the Iron Throne. Interspersed between that conversation is another scene in which Jon sheepishly approaches Daenerys’ bedroom before getting intimate with the young conqueror. It is then revealed by Bran that Jon is actually the son of Lyanna Stark (Ned’s sister) and Rhaegar Targaryen (Dany’s brother)!
I have never been so confused and conflicted in my entire life. On one hand, I’m thinking, “Yes! Finally, they’re making some sweet music together…definitely a song of ice and fire (hehe).” While at the same time just cringing at the fact that Jon is screwing his aunty. It was just the perfect blend of romance, tragedy and melodrama to cap off the season. To be fair, a lot of us figured this out a long time ago but that certainly didn’t do much to downplay the shock factor. Well, at least we know one thing…Jon’s a family man.
9. Dragon Down
Season 7 Episode 6: Beyond the Wall — When Jon and company decide to head up North to retrieve a wight to negotiate an alliance with Cersei, things go south pretty quickly. At some point, the entire situation becomes the fantasy version of Black Hawk Down, as the remaining expedition crew, which includes Jorah, the Hound and Beric, fight on a small island on a frozen lake against an innumerable wave of the undead.
All seemed lost when suddenly (like really just out of nowhere) Daenerys arrives with her three dragons to wreck house on the horde of zombie soldiers. Things are looking up for our heroes, that is until the Night King decide to intervene.
He launches an ice javelin into the air and takes down one of Dany’s dragon, Viserion. It is a brutal sight as the javelin just shreds through the creature’s neck. Blood and fire was spraying out of his wound! For the longest time, we’ve thought Dany’s dragons invincible, that nothing could ever seriously hurt them.
This right here truly is a demonstration of the Night King’s power. No one is safe and death is coming for everyone. The best part is the guy is still not done, he just casually goes for another javelin to make it make 2 for 3. There was only one thing going through my mind at the time: ice dragon. The message is clear, do not mess with the Night King.
8. Right Through Rickon
Season 6 Episode 9: Battle of the Bastards — Ramsay bolton is an awful human being. Perhaps the most vile character in all the show. He has done many a sordid deed. From his continuous torture of Theon Greyjoy to the rape of Sansa Stark but none of them quite measure up to the horror we witnessed at the Battle of the Bastards. Ramsay played an utterly sick mind game that well should have been the end of Jon Snow and his Northern rebellion.
Before engaging them in open combat, Ramsay decides he’s going to release a hostage. It turns out to be Rickon Stark, Jon’s adoptive brother. He lets Rickon go only to start shooting arrows into the air in an attempt to pin the poor boy down. Jon realizing this rides out to meet Rickon in the open, to catch him before Ramsay can get to him.
The first arrow barely misses Rickon. The second is not even near the boy. We see the camera closing in on Ramsay as he takes his final shot, only to miss again. The visual language and the rule-of-three in tension structure implies that the danger is over. Then out of nowhere, in one loud sickening “splat”, we see a fourth arrow run right through Rickon, just a few seconds away from safety.
Knowing Game of Thrones, we should have expected this but the show in all its brilliance played with conflicting cinematography to give us a measure of false hope, much like Ramsay did. It’s ingenious, sick and revolting at the same time, not unlike that bastard.
7. Baby’s Got Blue Eyes
Season 4 Episode 4: Oathkeeper– For the most part, the first five seasons of Game of Thrones have mostly adhered to George R.R. Martin’s books. So for the longest time, fans of the book series have lorded over us TV plebeians. Annoying us to death by foreshadowing events in the book that have yet to make it to the show. However, the end of the episode “Oathkeeper” gave us a moment that NONE of us saw coming.
Earlier in the episode, one of the Night’s Watch mutineers left a baby in the woods with the purpose of appeasing the White Walkers into leaving them alone. One of the Walkers pick up the baby and brings him back to their ice fortress. At this point, I looked over at my friend, Janelle as she frantically searched for this scene in the books. Her mouth hanging open, without a single clue.
Then the White Walker places the crying baby upon an altar of ice as one of the thirteen figures gathered it walks towards the babe. The camera reveals the figure to be a White Walker with horns protruding from his skulls, distinguishing him from the others we’ve seen throughout the series. He is, you guessed it, the Night King. He places his finger on the child as his eyes turn into a dark, cold blue. The internet went nuts that night, speculating all over the place on who that horned being could have been.
For three seasons, the show has been parceling tiny morsels of information on the enigmatic White Walkers. Furthermore, the previous scenes with them were extremely brief. So to have this scary ass White Walker-turning-demon show up on screen seemingly out of nowhere came as a bit of shocker. It reminded us all that there is a greater threat going on beyond the War of the Five Kings at the time.
6. Bent and Broken
Season 4 Episode 8: The Mountain and the Viper — When Tyrion is placed on trial-by-combat for a crime he did not commit, he finds a defender in Prince Oberyn Martell of Dorne. The court has chosen Gregor Clegane aka The Mountain as their champion, which is exactly what Oberyn wanted. Long ago Clegane raped and murdered Oberyn’s sister Elia Martell before butchering her children. So for justice for Elia and Tyrion, Oberyn will duel the Lannister’s most deadly combatant.
Let me tell you something, that duel was crazy tense. At first, Oberyn taunts his prey, even taking some time to dazzle the crowd with a few flips and tricks, Then, he begins to go for the kill, jabbing and maneuvering with fantastic speed. All the while chanting “You raped her. You murdered her. You killed her children.” He manages to get the jump on Clegane, impaling him right on the chest. Things are looking good and then…he doesn’t finish the guy off.
He struts around the giant (not literally), demanding that he admits his crime only to get himself tripped up and right into the monster’s hand. Clegane bashes Oberyn’s face in with a single punch. It is some brutal ass shit with teeth flying everywhere. Then he gets on top of the guy, jamming his thumbs into his eyes before literally exploding the Dornish prince’s head. His face had more in common with a smashed watermelon than the sexy Pedro Pascal. Believe me friends, pillows were ripped that day. We’ve seen some crazy effed up things in Game but this is some next level Mortal Kombat stuff.
5. Snowfall
Season 5 Episode 10: Mother’s Mercy — the fifth season finale had some of the most gut wrenching moments in the entire show. From Cersei stripping down for her Walk of Shame to Myrcella Lannister getting poisoned by a Dornish kiss to Arya going blind for a period of time. That being said, there’ just one scene that edged them all out in the “What the hell!” department. As much as we believe in Valar Morghulis, there are just some characters we think untouchable. Chief among them being Jon Snow, the would-be king of Westeros and main protagonist.
Leave it to Game of Thrones to kick you in the balls and tell you that you’re wrong. In the final scene of the series, we see Olly (Jon’s trusty kid steward) call him down to inform him of a Wildling knowing the location of his missing uncle, Benjen Stark. Jon follows Olly but doesn’t find the Wilding.
He finds a sign reading “traitor” as Ser Alliser Thorne, Olly and three other members of the Night’s Watch proceed to take turns stabbing their Lord Commander. All while whispering into his ear: For the Watch. Jon falls over from his sustained injury, lying in a pool of his own blood. Jon’s lifeless eyes staring into the ether.
Back then, no one knew whether Jon was gonna freaking come back or not so you can imagine the panic and terror that washed through our faces. The last upstanding, righteous man in this all gods-forsaken continent had bitten the dust! People actually paused at the end to truly identify whether Jon was dead. That’s how much we needed him alive and how much we loved the guy.
4. Purple Wedding
Season 4 Episode 4: The Purple Wedding — Now we would be remiss to not mention everyone’s favourite punching bag, the asshole King Joffrey Baratheon. Long may he spin in his grave full of dragon shit. Before Ramsay made his hideous debut, Joffrey was the one everybody loved to hate. The boy had reached the climax of his dickery however on his wedding day to Margaery Tyrell.
The boy humiliates Tyrion, having him be his cupbearer, tripping him over as poor Tyrion tries to stomach the whole affair. It finally ends with Joffrey demanding that his uncle take a knee before him, to further add insult to injury. Margaery in an effort to quell her fiance’s rage, proposes that they all raise a glass to their wedding day. The whole thing just left us fuming with anger at that little shithead and then the most wonderful thing happened.
Joffrey begins choking and convulsing after he has a drink from his cup. It’s not the alcohol that’s getting to him though. He falls to the ground, unable to breathe as the Strangler, the poison in his drink, wrings the life out of him. Blood flows out of his nose as his face swells up. Cersei cradles that little turd in her arms as life leaves his bloodshot eyes. Thank the Seven, the king is dead!
Do you how long we’ve been waiting for this to happen? The answer: too long. So to see Joffrey go down at his most triumphant was such an unexpected and amazing catharsis. It was a nice change of pace to have the bad guys take a fall for once. I don’t say this much but…thanks George.
3. Eddard’s Execution
Season 1 Episode 9: Baelor — “The man who passes the sentence, should swing the sword.” Of all the tragedies to have befallen our favourites in Game of Thrones, Ned Stark’s unwarranted execution has got to be one of the greatest. The man was honourable in everything he did. Selfless, caring and most importantly, just. A rare breed of man in a world full of snakes and vultures. When Game of Thrones’ first season came out, we didn’t really know what to expect. All we knew was this was a show with plenty of fascinating court intrigue and entertaining power plays.
Nonetheless, I still assumed that this would be our standard medieval fantasy series. What happened in “Baelor” would set the tone for the rest of the show. Worried for the safety of his daughter in Lannister care, Ned falsely confesses to conspiring against the Lannisters in an attempt to seize the throne for himself. At first Joffrey decides to have Ned take up the black and join the Night’s Watch, as agreed upon with Cersei and Sansa. Then out of nowhere, the little asshole changes his mind!
Much to the disapproval of Sansa and his mother, he calls for Ned to be beheaded in front of the crowd. The sentence is carried out and a good man dies. This single act of cruelty would further claim more lives in the many battles and conflicts it would spark. The worst part is that the “king” didn’t even have the balls (or the muscles) to pass the sentence himself. This was an excellent way for the show to tell its audience what kind of program Game of Thrones is going to be. There is no room for honourable men in this game, only the most Machiavellian of the lot will live to see the next day. Rest in peace old friend and may the Old Gods give you the justice you deserve.
2. The Red Wedding
Season 3 Episode 9: Rains of Castamere — What is it with George R.R. Martin and weddings?! Does the guy just hate the whole concept of it? When Robb Stark, the former King in the North, arrives at House Frey to secure an alliance against the Lannisters, things seem to be going well. Frey, being a grumpy git, was offended at first that Robb would break his promise to marry his daughter, being betrothed to another. But ultimately he accepts the Young Wolf’s apology and counter offer to marry Edmund Tully, a royal of the Riverlands.
And so the two houses are united and celebrations are in order. For a time, the laughter is genuine and exchanges warm but right off the bat, there’s something sketchy about the whole thing. The band isn’t exactly playing a merry tune but rather the Rains of Castamere, an ancestral Lannister song to commemorate the time the Lannisters brutally slaughtered a rival family. Oh shit.
Lord Walder Frey stands up to give some meandering speech. Catelyn approaches one of Robb’s military advisor, Roose Bolton whom Robb has scorned in past instances. She pulls back his sleeve to reveal chainmail. Double oh shit! The bloodbath begins with a soldier stabbing Robb’s pregnant wife in the belly, killing both her and their unborn child! The Stark forces are ambushed and in moments, they’re all dead. Archers from the balcony rain darts down on them as the Freys and Boltons slit the throats of the Starks and all their allies.
It was ungodly. The Red Wedding has become a one of the most infamous scenes in TV history and solidified Game of Thrones’ cultural impact in media. After that episode, we thought there was no way the show could ever top the shock and awe of the Red Wedding. We were wrong.
1. Gone Home
Season 5 Episode 8: Hardhome — In my humble opinion, Season 5 was one of the weakest seasons for the show. It just seemed like the writers and showrunners were trying to drag out the final chapters of the book for as long as they could. So I didn’t really think much of it when Jon and the Night’s Watch were making their way down to the last remaining bastion of the Wildlings, Hardhome.
The Free Folk have been driven back by the ever growing army of the undead, so they gathered there to discuss the best course of action. Some of them opted to stay behind while others decided to go with Jon back to Westeros. Beyond a few brief altercations, nothing of much value happened and then…a storm came. It started off with a simple snow storm engulfing the outskirts of Hardhome as Wildlings fled the encroaching cold to enter through the refuge’s gate. There was muffled screaming before finally…silence. Then like lightning out of nowhere, the dead came rushing at the gates! That’s when the panic began.
The whole scene is a masterclass in suspense from the way they built tension with the weather before lighting the whole damn powder keg with desperate Wildlings fighting to get a spot on the boat as the Night’s Watch defend their post. And when things seemed at their worst…it got worse. He arrived. Like the freaking Horsemen of the Apocalypse, four white walker on mounted steeds watched from a cliff as the massacre occur down below. Among the four was the Night King, cold and fearsome.
By the end, Jon barely escaped with his life, watching from the ship as the other wildlings perished at the hands of the wights. Then, the Night King strode forward, staring dead at Jon from the shores. What happened next, chilled me to the very bone. He raised his arms and along with it with them, all the fallen had risen with eyes blazing blue. The episode ends with the survivors drifting off with the entire coast filled with the army of the dead. There was nothing but the sound of cold wind.
No moment since has ever come close to the shock, horror and sheer badassery of that scene. What a phenomenal way to make up for a lackluster season! What a bloody comeback, man! Scenes like Hardhome are the reason why I love Game of Thrones.
Game of Thrones Season 8 will premiere on HBO / HBO On Demand (uncensored version) on April 15 at 9am (MYT).
Snake is an iconic game that many people have spent time playing on their Nokia devices back in the good old days. In celebration of April Fool’s Day, the cheeky people at Google has now converted the game directly into Google Maps.
What made the implementation rather interesting is the fact that the Google Maps version of Snake takes place in selected major cities across the globe. Furthermore, the character you play in the game is actually the public transport vehicle that would change according to the starting city that you choose.
For example, you would become a double-decker bus in London while your character would then change to a bullet train if you choose Tokyo as the starting city for the game. All the maps are being presented in 8-bit design which is quite a homage to the original Snake game.
There are six different cities that you can choose including London, Tokyo, Sydney, San Francisco, Cairo, and São Paulo. According to Google, the game will be available through the menu in Google Maps’ Android and iOS app for “about a week”. After that, the game can be played through its dedicated website right here.
Sony Mobile To Focus Less On Southeast Asia; Workforce To Be Reduced By 50 Percent
Sony is reportedly already planning on slashing its smartphone workforce by 50% by next year. The company blames diminishing sales of its Xperia smartphones due to an increasingly difficult and extremely competitive global market.
The Japanese electronics giant may lay off up to 2000 of its 4000 global staff count by March next year. As part of its on-going cost-cutting exercise and “procurement reform”. Further, Sony will reportedly be limiting smartphone sales in the Southeast Asian region. In order to focus its attention on East Asia and Europe, where the reception for the Xperia is marginally better.
Sony’s market share in the smartphone market has dwindled severely, from more than 3% to below the 1% mark at current. Its lacklustre sales are primarily caused by its inability to keep up with current market leaders like Samsung, Huawei, and Apple. All of whom are currently in to produce devices capable of running on the new 5G network standard.
This isn’t the first time Sony has had to cut back on its number of employees and undergo a restructuring. Prior to this, the company reduced its 800 strong workforce at its Swedish office by 25%.
Huawei MateBook 13 To Launch In Malaysia Alongside P30 Series
This week marks yet another big week for the folks at Huawei Malaysia as the company will be launching its brand-new flagship smartphones, the P30, and P30 Pro tomorrow. However, they are not the only new product that Huawei will launch in Malaysia this week as the new MateBook 13 will also be making its debut in our market at the same time.
Originally revealed to the world at CES 2019 before making its global debut at MWC 2019 alongside the Mate X foldable 5G phone, the new laptop was built upon the foundation left by MateBook X Pro. Featuring a 13-inch FullView IPS touchscreen with 3:2 aspect ratio, the display on MateBook 13 also has a native resolution of 2160 x 1440 alongside 300 nits maximum brightness, pixel density of 200ppi, and 100% sRGB color gamut.
Based on its global specs, the MateBook 13 can be obtained with up to 8th Gen Intel Core i7-8565U processor, 8GB LPDDR3-2133 RAM, NVIDIA GeForce MX150 with 2GB GDDR5 VRAM, and PCIe 512GB solid state drive. Alongside a 42Whr battery that provides the laptop with up to 10 hours of 1080p video playback, the MateBook 13 comes standard with a Quick Charge charger that allows the laptop to achieve 2.5 hours of operational time with just 15 minutes of charging.
Together with Dolby Atmos enhancement for its headphones output and built-in fingerprint scanner in its power button, the MateBook 13 also supports Huawei Share 3.0 that allows users to quickly transfer files from their phone with just a tap. That being said, this particular feature is currently supported by only a handful of Huawei and Honor phones with NFC and EMUI 9.0 or later.
In terms of how much the new laptop will cost in Malaysia, you have to wait till the Huawei Malaysia’s P30 series launch event which is scheduled to take place tomorrow. So, stay tuned.
TechMalak What Are Robotic Therapy Pets? As social robotics technology improves and progresses, these robots’ interactions with people — and perhaps more importantly, humans’ willingness to interact with them — has also advanced. The combination of social robotics and behavioral therapy is helping people with a wide range of social and psychological disorders, from dementia to autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Robotic […] What Are Robotic Therapy Pets? Kate Harveston
Interesting-Paying Crypto Accounts Are This Year’s Leading Trend
2019 has witnessed a Cambrian explosion of crypto interest schemes. Previously, the only way to make a passive income on your cryptocurrency was through hodling and hoping it would rise in dollar terms, or to operate a masternode for a dubious altcoin. Today’s investors have it a whole lot easier thanks to a string of new savings programs that promise annual interest simply for locking up digital assets.
Crypto Companies Are Borrowing From the Fiat Banking Toolbox
Last week, Nexo became the latest crypto company to introduce interest to its customers, with the provision of up to 6.5 percent annually on stablecoins DAI, PAX, USDC, USDT, and TUSD. Interest will be compounded daily and funds will be protected by custodial insurance. Unlike most of the crypto interest schemes to have emerged this year, Nexo enables its clients to withdraw any amount of cryptocurrency at any time. As such, their crypto account essentially becomes a checking account, stocked with dollar-pegged tokens, but bolstered by the promise of annual interest that exceeds that of most fiat saving accounts.
Nexo is by no means alone in incentivizing customers to secure their crypto in a custodial account and be rewarded. Blockfi will disburse 6 percent annually to clients who store ETH or BTC deposits. Ledgerx introduced its own interest-bearing BTC account last year for U.S. investors, while Compound provides up to 4.2 percent annually for assets such as DAI. At the start of March, Universal Protocol Alliance announced a stablecoin that would pay interest of up to 10 percent per year.
Cryptocurrency users have never had more options in terms of where to store their digital assets. Having had it drummed into them for years that noncustodial wallets are the best place to stash their coins, long-term hodlers now find themselves torn on account of the attractive interest rates offered by third parties. Even with the promise of full custodial cover, cryptocurrency owners face a dilemma: to seek the sanctity and privacy of storing funds in a noncustodial wallet, or to raise the risk a little in return for a generous 6 percent.
Balancing the Risks and Rewards of Interest-Bearing Crypto Accounts
When Blockfi announced its crypto interest scheme, eagle-eyed readers scrutinizing the terms and conditions spotted that the assets would not be insured against losses. While offerings from the likes of Nexo and Coinbase Custody are fully insured, consumers should nevertheless familiarize themselves with the small print before committing. Coinbase hasn’t begun offering crypto interest accounts per se, it should be noted: rather, it’s added staking as a service, which obliges hodlers to lock up qualifying Proof of Stake coins such as tezos (XTZ). The end result to clients is much the same as receiving interest however; by the time Coinbase has taken its 2 percent, stakers will be left with an annual yield of around 6 percent.
Staking and interest are not the same, as industry commenters such as Meltem Demirors have been keen to stress. For the end user, however, be it an institutional client who doesn’t want to “get their hands dirty” with the technical side of staking, or a retail client who doesn’t want to assume custody for their crypto, the outcome can appear indistinguishable. “Financialization of Bitcoin is inevitable and vitally important,” argued Zane Pocock in a Medium post on March 29. He continued:
Financialized structures allow for much better liquidity, debt structures, and other benefits that mean institutional custody and lending can be good for Bitcoin.
Pocock urged investors to do their own research into the interest accounts being offered by crypto companies and not to “fall for the illusion of free money. Bitcoin is our emergency exit from the outcomes of precisely that fallacy.” Crypto interest programs remain an alluring proposal, however, and their number is set to multiply over the coming year. As Shapeshift’s Erik Vorhees pointed out, once the inflationary nature of central bank currencies is factored in, crypto interest accounts become significantly more appealing than their fiat counterparts.
When comparing crypto-denominated interest/yield to fiat-denominated yields, remember to subtract 2-3% of the fiat yield due to inflation. Stated differently, compare the real yield of fiat returns to the nominal yield of crypto returns. The delta is what central banks r stealing
What are your thoughts on interest-paying crypto accounts? Let us know in the comments section below.
Disclaimer: Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the mentioned companies or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com and the author are not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article. This editorial is forinformational purposes only.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock.
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Action game ‘FlipChamps Reloaded’ will have you flippin’ and tappin’ [Game of the Week]
FlipChamps Reloaded is fast. Too fast, at least, for my thumbs.
This crazy, 16-bit mobile game locks you into furious combat that will have you tapping like you’ve never tapped before.
The premise is simple: eliminate your opponent. To do so, you’ll need to collect some power orbs to charge up your attack. You can collect orbs by leaping — or flipping — between four different platforms in the top and bottom corners of the screen.
When you’ve collected enough energy, you can unleash a devastating attack to kill your opponent and take the win.
Various characters have different attacks. Pinky, for example, shoots a vertical laser beam that can hit opponents above and below you, while Melon launches a plasma ball that travels diagonally. There are plenty of other characters you can unlock as well, including a ninja, viking and more.
Whatever character you choose, playing FlipChamps becomes an exercise in quick timing and on-the-fly strategy. You can flip from one platform to any of the other three, which you’ll need to master to collect orbs quickly. Your opponent can as well, making each battle a hectic game of cat and mouse.
Both of you flip about collecting orbs until one of you has enough for an attack. Then you dodge about, trying not to get zapped, or trying to do the zapping.
Many ways to play, including with friend
FlipChamps offers several different ways to play the game.
If you’re flying solo, you can enjoy ‘Championship,’ ‘Arcade’ or ‘Challenge’ mode.
Championship has you fight through a roster of 10 opponents to become the champion.
Arcade challenges you to win as many times as you can. Every time you defeat an opponent, you get a new one. If you lose, you can ‘continue’ playing two times. Once you’re out of continues, that’s it.
Finally, Challenge mode gives you a challenge to beat. For example, it’ll ask you to score so many points in Arcade mode with a specific character. Beating these can sometimes earn you a new character.
If flying solo isn’t really your thing, you can challenge a friend to play FlipChamps with you. While playing against a friend is an excellent addition, I found the playing surface a tad small for playing on my phone.
Two player gives both participants a small virtual control pad to move around. The problem is, it’s tiny. I’d avoid this unless you have little hands or a bigger device to play on.
All in all, FlipChamps Reloaded is a fun and challenging little battle game. There’s just something crazy fun about leaping around like a ninja, collecting orbs and finishing off your opponent.
FlipChamps is available for free on the App Store. Ads support the game, but in my brief testing, I never saw one. You can purchase it for $2.79 to turn off ads.
Daylio helps track your mood and organize your life [App of the Week]
Let’s be honest: balancing the many tasks required in life can be difficult and often results in creating messy and stressful situations.
Most of us have to manage work, school, hobbies, activities and goals every day. Sometimes, you could even end up forgetting or sacrificing your daily routine, which is a great way to guilt-trip yourself.
You might also feel interested in your mood during the week and want to document your feelings on a certain day. Daylio aims to organize this by being your own personal life manager, acting as a diary, journal and a mood tracker.
Hey Daylio, what was my mood like this week?
One of Daylio’s main goals is to keep mood and activity tracking simple and easy.
To do this, the user simply taps what moods they’re feeling and what activities they’re doing, with the option to write a note when adding a new entry. First, you have to select the mood that you’re in, ranging from ‘rad’ to ‘awful.’
Next, Daylio will ask what activity the user is doing at that moment, in which there is a number of activities to choose from.
Users can also add more moods and activities to the pre-selected options to help with overall accuracy.
After adding an entry, this information will be documented to produce charts, statistics and interesting findings correlating with your activities and moods.
For example, Daylio creates a chart where it shows your average daily mood on a certain day, which is useful if there are any cool personal trends with different days.
Creating a better you
If you’re struggling to manage personal goals, such as studying, Daylio helps remind you of your seemingly abandoned resolutions.
Setting a goal is easy since it’s similar to picking an activity in your daily entries. You can either create a new activity, try Daylio’s suggested actions or reinforce habits already documented in an entry.
Once you set a new goal, there’s a variety of options to help keep your personal promise.
You can choose when to repeat the goal (whether it’s every day or every Thursday), allow push notifications, set specific times to accomplish your activity and choose the start date.
Overall, Daylio helps create “a better you” by being an accessible and informative life tracker.
Not only can it help you change aspects of your life for the better, but it can also help keep you more organized in life’s never-ending events.
Daylio is free on iOS and Android devices. However, there is a premium version that costs $9.99 CAD, which adds more mood selections, allows an unlimited number of goals and eliminates ads.
New BCH Apps and a Special Giveaway in This Week’s Video Update From Bitcoin.com
In addition to learning about the latest developments in the world of Bitcoin Cash, you can take part in a special giveaway in this week’s video news update from Bitcoin.com. Streamed live and hosted by Roger Ver, the weekly show is shared on Bitcoin.com’s Youtube channel every Sunday.
This week’s show features a special giveaway enabling viewers to win prizes such as hardware wallets, cool BCH t-shirts and other swag. To participate all you have to do is subscribe to the Bitcoin.com Youtube channel and leave a comment on the video regarding which Bitcoin Cash news item you are most excited about. 10 winners will be randomly selected by Wednesday and their names will be announced on next week’s show.
Among the topics discussed this week are the launch of the Cashshuffle coin mixing protocol on Electron Cash, a new Simple Ledger Protocol (SLP) explorer that lets users browse tokens built on the BCH blockchain, and a new app for customers to order menu items with their phones and pay with an integrated point-of-sale system using QR codes. Additionally features is the Peaceful Warrior online shop created by a group of female entrepreneurs from within the crypto space as well as the BCH community raising funds for young people in need from South Sudan.
Make sure to subscribe to the Bitcoin.com Youtube channel and leave a comment on the latest video for your chance to win.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock.
Verify and track bitcoin cash transactions on our BCH Block Explorer, the best of its kind anywhere in the world. Also, keep up with your holdings, BCH and other coins, on our market charts at Satoshi’s Pulse, another original and free service from Bitcoin.com.
Apple iPhone 11 Schematic Appear Online; Shows Off Alleged Square Triple Camera Design
While the iPhone XS, XS Max, and iPhone XR haven’t been around for that long, rumours for the next iPhone are already surfacing. One of the most heated topics regarding the upcoming iPhone 11 is the camera design.
Recently, a supply chain schematic was leaked by SlashLeaks. The image is from a welding pattern that appears to be the iPhone 11, and while details are scarce, it further reinforces the idea of the camera design.
That said, the schematic does seem to line up with an earlier report. That the iPhone 11 will sport a square camera bump housing a triple camera setup. On a side note, The camera housing looks remarkably identical to the Huawei Mate 20 series, but the individual sensors are arranged differently.
Apple has not released any official announcement for the next generation iPhone yet. Until then, we do advise you to treat this new as hearsay and take it with a grain of salt.
Sega Mega Drive Mini Is Finally Coming To The Market This September
Considering the successes of Nintendo’s miniature classic consoles, Sony was the next gaming company to release its own. Not long after, Sega is also trying to cash in on the nostalgia-baiting by announcing the Mega Drive Mini and its US twin, Genesis Mini last year.
However, the release of the console was withheld by the company due to quality issues. Things have changed this week though as gamers can now look forward to getting their hands on the Mega Driver Mini and Genesis Mini later this year.
One of the modern day improvements to these consoles includes four quick save slots for each of its built-in 40 games. For the Mega Drive Mini, there’s also the option to change its system language, and upon doing so, some games with different names across regions will also be switched to reflect respective regions.
For example, Castlevania: Bloodlines will be called Vampire Killer when the language is changed to Japanese. It is not known whether the same implementation will appear on US’ Genesis Mini.
Apart from that, both consoles will come with HDMI output, and they also feature USB-based connectors. Nevertheless, the remake of these Sega classic consoles will reportedly mimic the original versions in many aspects, including sliding switches and a cartridge slot cover that can be pushed down.
Available starting from 19 September onwards, the Sega Mega Drive Mini will be released release in Japan for JPY6980 (~RM257) with one controller, or you can choose to have two controllers for JPY8980 (~RM331). In the US, the Sega Genesis Mini will go for USD 80 (~RM 327) with two controllers.
Cryptonaut Is an Easy to Use Portfolio Management App
Closely following market movements and price fluctuations is something every trader and investor in the crypto space must do in order to take advantage of opportunities and avoid losses. Cryptonaut is a portfolio management app that allows you to track your holdings in multiple cryptocurrencies.
The Cryptonaut mobile app, available for both Android and iOS devices, has gathered positive reviews thanks to its intuitive interface and smooth performance. It lets you add virtually any coin or token you can think of and track the value of your crypto holdings in a number of fiat currencies, including major ones such as the U.S. dollar, the euro, and the British pound, but also Indian rupee, Russian ruble, and Turkish lira among others. Price charts for different time periods – hour, day, week, month, and year – can be displayed in BTC and ETH as well.
The option to set price alerts for the digital assets crypto traders are interested in is other useful feature. Each time the price of a particular coin moves above or below a preset level, the app sends a push notification that allows investors to adapt their trading strategy. They can also use the application to calculate the return on their cryptocurrency investments.
Cryptonaut is quite flexible in terms of registration requirements. Once the app is downloaded and installed, users are prompted to create a new account and log in or opt for a more private experience. They can either link an exchange account or simply input their portfolio data manually to protect their information. Accounts can be deleted from the Settings menu at any time.
Another positive to the portfolio management app is its availability in multiple languages. Cryptonaut has English, Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Portuguese and other versions.
Are you using a mobile app to track your crypto holdings? Let us know in the comments section below.
Disclaimer: Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the mentioned companies or any of their affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Cryptonaut.
At Bitcoin.com there’s a bunch of free helpful services. For instance, have you seen ourToolspage? You can even lookup the exchange rate for a transaction in the past. Or calculate the value of your current holdings. Or create a paper wallet. And much more.
Noxinfluencer- Your One Stop Analytics Tool to Track YouTube Data
The advent of modern technology, use of mobile phones, and internet has given a rise to digital marketing. These advancements require companies to track each aspect of their digital presence and operations in real-time.
Are you a digital marketer and own a YouTube Channel? Do you handle YouTube marketing campaigns for your clients? We practically used several YouTube analytic tools to determine the best fit for an ideal YouTuber. In this regard, NoxInfluencer can be your one-stop shop to finding everything about a YouTube Channel.
NoxInfluencer – The Complete YouTube Analytics Tool
NoxInfluencer is a free YouTube Channel Analytics tool to help YouTube influencers enhance their YouTube SEO and stand out of the competition.
NoxInfluencer make use of statistical algorithms, functions, and mathematical figures to help people do YouTube Channel analytics with little to no effort at all. A dashboard or a measurement tool is necessary to analyze your current marketing strategy, employ new elements, and determine the results in real time.
Pros
Easy to use
A free YouTube Channel Analytics tool
Available in different languages
Wide range of features
Real-time tracking
Cons
None
Special Features
NoxInfluencer is certainly an efficient platform for both YouTube Influencers and Brands. Though it comes with dozens of features, following are some of its special features to get started with your YouTube SEO:
1. YouTube Channel Calculator
Are you having trouble calculating a YouTube Channel’s net value? This is where NoxInfluencer’s YouTube Channel Calculator tool comes in handy. You can easily check any channel’s estimated monthly earnings within seconds.
As a YouTube influencer, this tool will help you find estimated cost of any YouTube channel you’re looking to buy or match against your personal brands. Sounds fair enough?
2. Top YouTuber List
The Top YouTuber List feature of NoxInfluencer provides a real-time list of top 100 or 250 YouTube Channels. Users can further filter the top 100 channels by Countries as well as the categories. Thus, it becomes easy to filter channel per your niche.
For instance, if you have a US based gaming YouTube Channel, you can easily look for top 100 US based gaming channels to analyze top trends.
3. Most Viewed Videos
Similarly, you can get a grasp of top most viewed videos within last 24 hours. These videos can be further categorized by location and categories. As a YouTube influencer, this NoxInfluencer feature can help you analyze latest trends to target your potential audience.
When you click on a video, you’ll be provided with the video analytics showcasing views ration, estimated earning, views, comments, likes ratio, and engagement ratio. Thus, tracking all data with a single click.
4. YouTube Channels Compare
Comparing YouTube channels has never been easier than NoxInfluencer’s YouTube Channels Compare feature. This feature lets you compare YouTube channels in 5 dimensions. The comparison data includes daily followers, total views, daily views, and informational infographics to compile a high-end YouTube SEO strategy.
5. YouTube Live Sub Count
Noxinfluencer’s Real-time Live Sub Count feature updates every second. Have you been following PewDiePie Vs. T-Series race to 100 Million Subscribers? Well, bookmark this feature and enjoy real-time sub count 24/7. Moreover, compare any to every YouTube channel’s live sub count increments.
6. YouTube Video Analytics
The YouTube Video Analytics tool of NoxInfluencer has made YouTube SEO easier than ever. Just paste the video link to the NoxInfluencer’s search bar and get instant analytics right away.
Final Verdict
In a nutshell, NoxInfluencer is certainly an all-in-one YouTube Channel Analytics tool to help YouTube influencers win big in 2019. One can easily compile effective YouTube marketing campaigns, avoid past mistakes, and get past the marketing goals in no time.
In case of further questions or suggestions, feel free to leave a reply or contact us. We’ll be more than happy to assist.
Indian Supreme Court Takes Too Long on Crypto Case – Another Exchange Shuts Down
The inaction of India’s supreme court to end the prolonged banking restriction has forced another cryptocurrency exchange to shut down. The exchange has given its users 30 days to withdraw funds at increased fees, prompting several other exchanges to offer to refund these fees for customers switching to them.
Indian crypto exchange Coindelta announced its service termination on Saturday. The exchange wrote, “we will no longer be able to provide exchange services for cryptocurrencies,” elaborating:
The curb on the bank accounts by RBI has made us handicapped in order to provide seamless deposit and withdrawal services. There has not been any significant progress in the supreme court case which makes it difficult to predict when we will see the regulation.
The central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), issued a circular in April last year banning banks from providing services to crypto businesses including exchanges. The ban went into effect in July and banks closed the accounts of crypto exchanges at that time.
The banking restriction has put many crypto businesses in limbo. Zebpay, formerly one of the largest crypto exchanges in India, was forced to close down its exchange operations in the country in September last year.
A number of industry participants have filed writ petitions against the ban which the supreme court originally scheduled to hear in September last year. However, the case has repeatedly been postponed. During the most recent hearing which took place on Friday, the court adjourned without addressing the ban until at least July.
Expensive to Run an Exchange
The team at Coindelta, an 18-month-old exchange, explained that “Running the exchange is very expensive in such [an] unfavourable environment.” Noting that “We have been operating at a minimal trade fee, bearing all the costs ourselves ensuring that your trading experience remains unaffected in the current unregulated environment,” the team admitted:
It has been really difficult for us to operate Coindelta exchange for the last 6 months … Economically, it’s no longer viable to continue with the exchange.
According to Saturday’s announcement, Coindelta’s exchange services were suspended and all open orders canceled in all markets at 2:00 p.m. (Indian time) on March 30. However, the wallet services will continue until April 29.
Customers Forced to Withdraw Funds at High Fees
Coindelta has requested that its customers withdraw all their funds within 30 days of the suspension, after which all requests must be submitted to support. “There will be a fixed fee applicable on all the withdrawals,” the exchange warned.
According to the Indian crypto community, these fees are high compared to what other exchanges are charging. For example, “they increased the XRP withdrawal fees to 10 XRP,” Coindcx CEO Sumit Gupta told news.Bitcoin.com, emphasizing that this fee is “a lot” since his exchange charges 0.01 XRP for withdrawals. Coindelta’s BTC withdrawal fee is 0.002 BTC, worth about $8.19 at the time of writing.
Nischal Shetty, CEO of crypto exchange Wazirx, tweeted that he “Got many messages that withdrawal fees from Coindelta have been increased,” adding that his exchange is offering Coindelta’s users 100 percent refund of withdrawal fees if they switch to Wazirx.
Another Indian exchange, Bitbns, has made a similar offer. “We are waiving off/refunding any fee incurred while depositing funds to Bitbns from any other cryptocurrency exchange across the world. This means you can now transfer your funds from any crypto exchange to Bitbns without bearing any transfer charges,” the exchange announced on Sunday.
What do you think of the Indian supreme court taking so long to end the RBI ban that Coindelta has to shut down? Let us know in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock.
Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section.
As mentioned in my review, Us is an engrossing, atmospheric and utterly terrifying piece of pure cinema. While Jordan Peele’s first feature film, Get Out was more of a psychological thriller, here, he plants his feet firmly in the realm of pure horror. What I love about the film is that it works almost flawlessly on two separate levels, both as an entertaining and scary home invasion picture and also as a deeper sociopolitical commentary.
There’s no denying that the film consists of plenty of underlying subtexts and metaphors. And if you’ve watched the movie you probably would have a lot of interpretations and burning questions. In an interview with Empire Podcast, Jordan Peele discusses what he had in mind while making the movie.
“This movie’s about maybe the monster is you. It’s about us, looking at ourselves as individuals and as a group. The protagonist in the movie is the surrogate for the audience, so it felt like at the end of the day, I wasn’t doing my core theme any justice if I wasn’t revealing that we have been the bad guy in this movie.
We’ve been following the villain. I say villain lightly because I think there are many experiences of the film, and I think a lot of people go through a question of what is good and evil? Does that even exist? Both characters are lovable and terrifying, based on the lives they’ve led they’ve just sort of inverted the paths.”
On top of that, Peele also mentions that Us is about opportunities and love and how it can affect one’s life.
“I think one of the questions that’s raised is ‘privilege’, and the neglect that sort of presumption of deserved privilege requires. And when people are on the other side of it, when people have received the rough end of the nurture argument, and they rebel or act in violence or commit crimes on that side, is that evil or is that circumstance?”
One thing that had a lot of us wondering as we walked out of cinemas was what exactly the ending meant for the Wilson family. Does little Jason know that his mom is a tethered? If so, what does it mean? Here’s what Peele said:
“Adelaide and Jason sharing that moment at the end, I’m purposefully leaving it a bit vague as to what exactly he knows or how far he’s come in figuring out what, if anything, he’s figured out. I think the little smile she gives him is a lot of things. I think it’s a connection to the evil smile she once had as a little girl, but also a sort of understanding that her family unit was stronger from this experience.”
Peele’s conversation on Empire Podcast definitely helps to put things into perspective. Us is easily one of, if not the best film of 2019 so far. An absolutely unmissable theatrical experience that is just as entertaining as it is absolutely thought-provoking.
The Darknet’s Largest Marketplace Is Closing – But a Replacement Is on Its Way
After more than five years of business, Dream is preparing to close its doors. The darknet marketplace (DNM) will shut up shop within a month, before relaunching under a new name and onion domain. The move has caused jitters within the darknet community, with buyers seeking reassurances that the site hasn’t been compromised by law enforcement.
In the post-Silk Road era, Dream has came to be known as the darknet’s most reliable marketplace, both in terms of uptime and vendor reputation. It appeared to be impervious from law enforcement and from hackers seeking to extort money from the marketplace. In the last few weeks, however, Dream has suffered from intermittent service, with a determined DDoSer knocking the site offline. In a post shared on Reddit-like darknet forum Dread, Dream admins explained they were being extorted for $400K by the DDoSer, who has persisted with his attack for the past seven weeks.
Urging everyone to ignore the FUD suggesting the site had been compromised by law enforcement, Dream admins promised that the new-look market will be “as good as Dream.” As an infographic by the EU Drugs Agency shows, the number of scammy darknet markets has vastly exceeded the number of legitimate ones over the years. The loss of Dream has been hard to stomach for users, even if its replacement is promised to be every bit as good. Many customers rushed to withdraw their funds from Dream following the announcement, only to find the site had been knocked offline again, with pages loading sporadically.
While Dream Winds Down, Other Markets Prosper
The uncertainty over Dream’s impending closure has proved a boon to other DNMs, which have enjoyed an influx of buyers and vendors. Wall Street Market appears to have been the prime beneficiary; Point marketplace, meanwhile, has been suffering from its own bout of downtime. “I’m heartbroken,” wrote one Redditor in reaction to news of the darknet’s largest marketplace shutting shop. “I exclusively use Dream and it has never let me down.”
TMG has closed for registration while the whole Dream thing gets sorted out. The Hub has still not come back online. It's lights off in the dark web at the moment pic.twitter.com/QBCOt1Atf3
— Eileen Ormsby (the Darkest Web) (@EileenOrmsby) March 28, 2019
While Wall Street accepts BTC and XMR, Dream is powered by the two bitcoins – BTC and BCH. It is unclear whether its successor will retain the same format, both in terms of digital assets and wares. It’s also unclear how the move to a new onion domain will mitigate the DDoS attacks that have plagued the DNM of late. Buyers, many of whom use darknet markets to purchase narcotics, recall the time when law enforcement shut down Alphabay and then funneled users to Hansa, which they had also compromised. The latter served as a honeypot, and significantly increased the number of arrests while decreasing trust in the darknet’s opaque ecosystem.
There is nothing to suggest that Dream has been compromised, but until such a time as its replacement can launch successfully and rebuild trust, speculation will continue to mount. Will the domain earmarked for the rebranded Dream – weroidjkazxqds2l.onion – show the logo of the brand new darknet market leader when it launches? Or will it, as Silk Road did on the day of Ross Ulbricht’s arrest, show the logo of the Federal Bureau of Investigation? The DNM community shouldn’t have to wait long to find out.
What are your thoughts on Dream’s closure? Let us know in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock.
Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section.
