WIN A PLAYSTATION 4 & CALL OF DUTY GHOSTS

With the next gen consoles due any day now, excited gamers are readying themselves for an awesome lead up to the Christmas season. The choice between the Xbox One and the Sony PS4 is a tough one, but the game choice for fans of first person shooters is a lot easier … with COD Ghosts being top of many a list.

The guys & girls at Music Magpie have put their generous hats on and have put together a nice prize booty. Head on over to THIS PAGE to enter and be in with the chance of winning a Playstation 4 with Call of Duty Ghosts (Hardened Edition). There are also some COD runners up prizes too. 

If you are looking to trade in some of your older game titles, check out the Music Magpie service whilst you are there.

The Best Flash Games 2013

Now that computers have made our working lives so much more efficient (ha!), what are we supposed to do with all that extra time we’ve created for ourselves? There are only so many paperclips you can unbend, only so many rubber bands to be made into a ball...

Bright Idea

Luckily, someone had the bright idea of using Adobe’s Flash technology to allow us to play games within our browsers – and now the sheer variety of instantly available, often free games means there’s very little time left to actually do the stuff we came to the office to do in the first place. Let’s have a look at a few of the best ones...

Top Games

Happy Wheels, despite the innocuous-sounding name, is a gore-soaked platformer in which you attempt to conduct your vehicle to the finish line without loss of limbs or decapitation. It’s extremely unlikely that you’ll succeed, based on my experience. Very funny; not very nice.

At the other end of the spectrum are educational games such as Eight Letters In Search Of A Word. This is one for Scrabble players and fans of Countdown; make the longest word you can from the random letters, with an eight letter anagram every five rounds.

Crashing one’s balloon in a wasteland at night, and having to fend off weird creatures with increasingly advanced weaponry: it’s something we’ve all done, and at last there’s a Flash game that reflects our experiences. It’s called Balloon In A Wasteland, as you may have guessed.

Online bingo is a good way to use up those empty office hours. At bingo.com you’ll find all the bingo-related thrills you’ll need to keep you going until hometime. Bonuses are available for new players, and there’s a chat function.

Old people (i.e. people born in 1981 or earlier, like me) will be thrilled to hear that classic shooter Doom is now available as a play-for-free Flash version. Prepare to be sacked, as the chances of you stepping away from the game are exactly the same as they were twenty years ago, i.e. zero.

Learn Stuff!

There’s a profusion of poker sites of course, but if you want to practise before you play for hard cash, you could do worse than either Poker Practise or Learn Texas Holdem, both available at Flashgamepoker.com.

Finally, another brain-tester that’ll maybe teach you something. Flags Of The World is fast and attractively designed, and really quite addictive as you battle the clock and other players to identify as many flags as possible. It’s online at Geography-map-games.com. Enjoy!

(Images via Wikipedia, totaljerkface.com, bingo.com, geography-map-games.com)

Devices for People Who Never Switch Off

The modern smartphone generation seem to be constantly attached to their gadgets and more clued up than ever before about the latest developments in the tech industrythat would have blown many of us away ten years ago, because we simply didn’t have any idea what they were on about.

Such has been the advancement in technology over such a short period of time, businesses are now able to encourage – and almost expect – their employees to use the devices at their disposal to stay on top of work-related issues even when they’re away from the office. Some people just naturally stay ‘switched on’ with emails coming through to their own devices and taking calls even when at home, while others have been allowed to get involved with the latest enterprise trend, Bring Your Own Device to help boost productivity. 

BYOD – as it is also known – is an innovation that lets employees use their own range of smartphones, tablets and laptops in the workplace rather than having to use those provided by the company, meaning that they can be much more productive because they’re not having to deal with different platforms and operating systems every time they work in a different location. Cloud computing and enterprise mobility have opened the door to all kinds of mobile business possibilities, and people who were struggling to handle technology – in any form – ten years ago, are now embracing whatever they feel can be beneficial in their professional and personal lives.

A lot of people are criticised for working too hard, sending and receiving emails at all times of day and night, but it can be argued that they’re committed to their job and trying to go above and beyond the call of duty. If they’re going to be working at all hours, they want to take advantage of the latest technology and security to make sure that they’re fully equipped, and that their data is safe. Devices would include:

Laptops

Laptops started this trend, with people able to access their files and emails from wherever they wanted to. Whether it was an important news article they were working on, a spreadsheet to present to the board, or a presentation that would help to seal a new contract for the company; employees were now able to do their work from a mobile device rather than having to sit at the office PC late into the night which ruined their family life.

Smartphones

The development of the smartphone changed a generation, quite simply. All of a sudden users were able to do just about anything from one small, handheld devicewith the BlackBerry among the first smartphones designed for business with access to emails, instant messaging and the Internet. Mobile security has had to be developed in the same way to anti-virus and firewalls on computers because of the digital data trail left behind when emails and messages are sent between devices, which has actually proven to be a huge challenge to administrators in recent years with BYOD playing a key role.

Tablets

The latest of the great innovations, tablet computers are being used in business for a variety of purposes, with apps and programmes enabling people to work from any location and even to control presentations using their device.

The Advantages of Multimode Laptops

When you look for a new laptop, you often look for a series of things such as the speed of the processor, the software provided, along with the Internet connectivity that willgive you the best browsing experience. Some people look for the latest release from the biggest name, others look for the best product they can buy according to their budget – it’s all down to personal choice and circumstance. 

We all want our lives to be as flexible and ‘free’ as possible, rather than having to live a structured life governed by working hours and other restrictions. The same is true with the products we buy – we want them to be tailored for us. Short of going into the research and development departments and presenting a series of requests, we can’t have it all our own way, but at least with laptops we know that there are tablet laptop hybrid spec computers that can be made as comfortable and user-friendly as possible.

These ‘multimode’ machines developed by the likes of Lenovo allow users to love the screen, the keyboard and even the stand, to the most comfortable position to provide the best all-round experience. Some have as many as four different methods of using the devices, so you can have it one way for doing your work, another for playing games and other positions to play your music and let your friends control the playlist (at your peril!).

Being user-friendly is key to the design of a successful laptop or tablet, enabling users to get the best experience from the device they’ve chosen. Many devices are purchased with a preference in mind such as doing work away from the office, playing games or browsing the Internet; but if you can’t use the device in the way you want to, you’re not going to be impressed. With a multimode machine, however, you can literally put it anyway you want so that you can feel comfortable working or playing and enjoying using your device so much people wonder if you ever put it down!

The touchscreen capabilities also make them particularly popular, allowing users to swipe and tap exactly what they want to use or do and they’re away without having to wait for it to boot up. All in all, this makes for a much more pleasant experience for the user as they literally have everything they’ll ever need right at their fingertips.

The Da Vinci Diamonds Slot is a Game with a Difference

Play enough slots and sooner or later they all begin to look the same. Dedicated slots fans face the unique problem of finding slot machines that will entertain them even after they’ve played a hundred variations of what is essentially the same game, so it’s just as well that the Da Vinci Diamonds slot brings something a little different to the table.

On the surface, the Da Vinci Diamonds slot looks just like any other slot game such as Rainbow Riches, Cleopatra Slot, Monopoly Plus slot and Pixies of the Forest Slot – five reels adorned with symbols based on the Renaissance period and on Da Vinci’s work in particular; beautiful antique portraits combined with bright jewels including rubies, pearls, emeralds and of course diamonds. The slot has 20 paylines which is good news for beginners who may not want to bet too much per spin, but if you’re an experienced slot player then the option of increasing your bet per line is a good idea – there’s a maximum bet of £500 per line which can yield you a whopping jackpot of 250,000 coins.

Like most slots, it also has a wild symbol which can help you complete winning combinations, and a bonus symbol that triggers a free spins round. The free spins round consists of six free spins and is able to be retriggered again and again, up to a maximum of 300 free spins.

So if it’s similar to a lot of slots, why should you choose to play Da Vinci Diamonds slot?

The difference lies in a feature called ‘Tumbling Reels’, which is something that is so inventive that players often don’t want to go back to playing regular slots afterwards! How it works is that every time you form a winning combination, the symbols that make up that combination explode, leaving room for other symbols to ‘tumble down’ from above. With those symbols in place, the slot machine recalculates to see if you’ve formed any new winning combinations. That means that with a single spin you can win multiple times with no extra effort or coins on your behalf.

It’s an incredibly interesting and lucrative game, and with the Da Vinci Diamonds Dual Play version available you can easily double your fun!

Revolutionary E-Cigarette Technology

The electronic cigarette market is expanding rapidly with new products and brands launching all of the time. There is one new e-cigarette which looks different and stands out from the crowd.

New premium e-cigarette brand Vype have released a range of realistic disposable electronic devices. Designed to both look and feel like a traditional tobacco cigarette, they are completely different to the first generation of electronic vaping devices, which were large and bulky to carry around. Aimed at current smokers, Vype have produced a lighter and more realistic looking device.    

There are many different types of electronic cigarettes on the market, but research shows that many people when they first start to use electronic devices prefer those which look more like a tobacco cigarette and less obviously like an e-cigarette.

Vype have used the latest technology to provide a lightweight electronic cigarette with a soft tip, making it similar in look and feel to a conventional tobacco cigarette. Vype e-cigarettes are the same size as a king-size tobacco cigarette and contain ECOpure e-liquid, which is manufactured and tested in the UK. It is one of the cleanest and purest e-liquids and gives users a real nicotine hit. There are currently three different flavoured Vype electronic cigarettes, these are menthol, classic regular and classic bold.

Electronic cigarettes are battery powered vaping devices containing a water based e-liquid which is available in varying strengths of nicotine and different flavours. Using the same hand to mouth action as a tobacco cigarette you inhale the e-liquid through the soft-tip filter. When you begin inhaling the e-liquid is heated until it turns into a vapour which can then be inhaled.E-cigarettes do not contain tobacco, and are not affected by the UK smoking ban.

With new revolutionary technology, Vype offers a genuine alternative to smoking while looking and feeling like a tobacco cigarette but without the tobacco. Visit http://uk.govype.com/ to find out more.

Top 5 Techy Things to do Now the Winter Nights are Drawing in

We seem to have switched pretty swiftly from a long, hot summer to a cold, blowy autumn. And that means it’s not long until the clocks change and the nights get longer.

Even if you already have your autumn and winter TV viewing set up and have plenty of hobbies and pastimes to help the long winter nights fly by, it’s always good to get a few new ideas.

Check out our top five ways to use your smartphone, laptop or tablet to do something different, fun and, sometimes, even useful. Perfect ways to spend your long evenings in front of the fire. It almost makes us glad summer’s over!

Discover your artistic side
Even if you’ve never painted before, the chances are you will get hours of joy out of one of the many and varied art apps available for tablets. You can download something like Sketchbook Pro and then, just using your finger, learn to draw, paint in all sorts of different mediums, and unlock the artist inside. It’s a phenomenal use of technology and makes learning to draw and paint clean, easy and convenient.

Cook up a storm
Yep, cook. and yep, we do mean use your technology. You know there are so many websites, forums and apps out there for cooking, so why not spend some time really studying the ones that fit in with your taste in food and then spend some time in your kitchen. There’s a reason cooking shows have taken over the night time TV schedule - and that’s because cooking is creative, enjoyable, absorbing and skilfull. Find out whether it’s for you - and you get the amazing by-product of eating your experiments!

Visit a casino
Online casinos have become hugely popular over the last couple of years as technology and internet access has improved. You can now find some truly immersive and atmospheric sites offering casino games like roulette, poker, slots and bingo. And you don’t even need to leave the comfort of your sofa! Pour a glass of wine, sign up to freebets.org/casino and find out for yourself how much fun online casinos can be.

Get blogging
Many people enjoy writing and it’s a well known fact that everyone has one great novel inside them. But writing an actual book is not something most people have time for. Blogging is free, easy and a great way to stir up debates, get your opinion noticed or report on something that interests you specifically. Are you keen on movies? Blog about it? Like shopping? Write about it. In fact, there’s an audience for pretty much anything and everything and it’s as simple as signing up to a service like Blogger or Wordpress. We highly recommend it.

Watch what you want, when you want
Netflix or Lovefilm, or any other streaming app, is an amazing way to get access to the films and TV shows you enjoy, without worrying about timings or cost. For a very reasonable monthly fee you can have access to absolutely loads of US, UK and European shows - definitely worth it.

I'm Going Phishing

OK, OK, so this is not the sort of fishing that will put dinner on the table for you and your family. However, the advice in the video below may help you avoid the criminals phishing for your personal information. Sometimes the trap is so well hidden that even the most experienced can be fooled into clicking a dubious link. Watch the video for more info.

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Smartphones Under Attack

Modern times have seen a real switch from the brick phone and flip phones from many years ago. Nowadays, your mobile phone or 'smart'phone is more like a handheld computer. With viruses, malware & phishing activites abundant on desktop & laptop computers, this means your smartphone is also vulnerable. Check out the video below to hear my thoughts on this subject.

 

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