What HearthStone needs to fix to become a great Free-To-Play game

Stuff that Blizzard straight up needs to fix in HearthStone:

1. Change disenchanting to make it easier to craft cards:

As it stands now, HearthStone players have to disenchant their precious cards to craft new ones. If you want a specific card you'll wind up trying to craft it, and you'll have to burn a small collection of cards into Arcane dust. For some cards this means burning 8 common cards, which will yield you 5 Arcane dust each. Seriously, common on Blizzard, I have to get rid of eight cards to craft just one! I hate this, and I wish you only needed to burn 4 cards and you got 10 Arcane dust for each card burned.

Why am I crying about card crafting? Well for one, you can't burn any old card you have in your collection there are only specific cards that can me mashed down into Arcane dust. Two, you'll get to a certain point in the game when you'll need to craft cards to make better decks to compete with better players. Three like I said before it's ridiculously expensive, a player like myself may burn half of his collection of cards to make one polished deck. Yeah, that's very lame, and I'm not a hard core HearthStone player because of this.

2. Change Matchmaking to include tiers of players:

Unlike most Free-To-Play games which have tiers that players play against each other depending on skill set, HearthStone has levels. The annoying thing about this level system is that every "Season" HearthStone has resets every players level. High level players face weak beginners for a few days bashing in their brains with strong legendary decks. Yeah, it's fucking shitty to face these guys who steamroll you with their awesome play and powerful cards. Having the level reset every "Season" puts newer players into this situation, and it probably drives away potential newcomers to the game.

3. Add in more multiplayer options:

Right now HearthStone is just a 1v1 game, but it could be pretty awesome to have 2v2 or 3v3 games. The trouble would be balancing the classes and figuring out synergies between them to make it a worth while addition to the game. I always loved playing Magic The Gathering with 6 or 8 friends, and it was blast to team with people to fight bloody matches.

Conclusion:

These are my three gripes about HearthStone, a game that has potential to be awesome. Blizzard's first Free-To-Play game still has some work to do, but hopefully we're an update or two away from having a fantastic all-around experience.

If I'm wrong about anything above feel free to comment and I'll correct it!

Amazon Prime Instant Videos Gets A New Look On PC

Amazon finally got rid of their clunky and flat out shitty Amazon Prime Instant Videos interface that PC users had to deal with for years. The new interface copies Netflix's look by categorizing movies by genre and it now displays the cover art of each movie in horizontal rows too. This interface isn't new for Amazon Prime Videos since Andriod and iOS users have had this layout for quite some time now and it baffles me why it took ages for the PC to get this intuitive layout.

Well I'm glad it finally happened since now I can cancel my Netflix membership because Amazon has an interface that isn't dog shit anymore. I had a Netflix these last few years alongside my Prime membership because the interface was way way way better on Netflix. Now that they're the same yay! I don't have to spend to $7.99 plus tax for Netflix and hopefully Amazon will add some more TV shows and movies to their streaming catalog.

Here are some before and after photos of what the interface looked like before and what it looks like now.

Here's what it was like before...

And this is after!!!!!!!!!!!!

Life Hack: Why You Should Refurbished Macs Over New

I recently purchased a refurbished Mac and got a smoking good deal and I wanted to share my experience with everyone, so they could learn about the value to be had. First off, not all refurbished models are broken ones that were repaired and then resold. Apple and other laptop makers don't want to tell you, but a good amount of units that are considered refurbished are actually brand new units with nothing wrong with them. The unit was for a day or two in some cases and returned because the customer didn't like it for some reason. 

My purchase story: I was browsing the web and came across Apple's refurbished store and decided to take a look at what the Cupertino tech company was offering. I found they were selling a (June 2013) 11 inch Macbook Air selling for $849 which is roughly $150 off the unit's new in box price. 

The next part will probably surprise you as much as it did me. I thought I was getting the base model with 128GBs of storage, a 1.3GHz i5 processor and 4GB of RAM, but Apple ended up sending me 128GB 11 inch with an i7 1.7GHz processor and 8GB of RAM instead. If you want the i7 processor Apple charges you $150 to upgrade to the speedier processor and another $100 for the upgrade from 4 to 8GB of RAM. Basically, I wound up paying $849 for a computer that normally retails for $1250 and found there's nothing wrong with it. The unit looked and felt brand new as there was absolutely no scratches on it and the power adapter was wrapped in Apple's signature plastic wrapping. 

Why did I get such a great deal? I assume that I purchased a custom order someone had placed and then returned, since you have to make a custom ordered Macbook Air to get the upgraded internals. So, there you have it you sometimes can get killer deals by purchased refurbished products and I know I'll be buying my next Macbook refurbished too. 

By: Jason Sullivan

Is Apple Care Worth It?

If you're wondering whether or not to make the plunge into purchasing Apple Care, I'm here to tell you my opinions on buying the extended warranty. I've debated many a nights on just sticking with the one-year warranty or getting Apple's signature extended coverage. I'm going to tell you what Apple Care is and break down each product and tell you what benefits you'll receive from the warranty service.

What is Apple Care? 

Apple Care is an extended warranty you can buy for your iPod, iPhone, Macbook Pro/Air, iMac, or Mac Pro desktop computer. The warranty extends your manufacturer warranty to two-years or three-years. You'll receive full software support during your Apple Care warranty, which can be done in an Apple Store or over the phone. If the device cannot be repaired by Apple in some cases you will receive a brand new shiny Mac, iPhone, iPod, or whatever Mac product you have under the coverage.

iPhones/ iPod

I've dropped every cell phone I've ever owned, so Apple Care for me was a no brainer and it costs $99 for two-year coverage that also insures you over accidental damage. A new iPhone 5s if broken today without Apple Care would cost at least $650 to replace, so yeah Apple Care is worth it for that. Apple will only replace your twice due to accidental damage, and you will have to pay a deductible fee of $79, but hey that's way less than $650. The warranty covers your phone's charger and headphones too.

Should you buy it? If you're prone to dropping your iPhone or iPod a ton, Yes!

MacBook Pro/ Air

For countless nights the debate has raged on in my mind of whether or not I should buy Apple Care for Macbook Air. The coverage extends the manufacturer warranty to three-years and does not cover accidental damage due to drops and spills. The warranty does give you three-years of tech support like Apple Care for an iPhone and iPod and if purchased with Apple accessories at the time of purchase it will cover them too. Accessories that can be covered by a MacBook Pro/ Air warranty include Apple's USB SuperDrive, Apple's Thunderbolt Display, or AirPort Extreme router. 

If you're getting a Macbook Air I would recommend purchasing Apple Care for one of two reasons the first the accessories are covered and two Macbook Airs cannot be serviced easily. What do I mean about serviceability? Well the Air has soldered in RAM which means you'll need to know how to use a soldering iron to replace it. The keyboard is hard to fix too, as you'll have to take the whole notebook apart to replace it. If your SSD fails it might cost $300 or more for Apple to replace it if its outside the one year manufacturer warranty. Also as stated before Apple Care covers the charger too, so that's another reason to purchase it.

Unfortunately, Apple Care does not cover battery replacement of your MacBook Air, so you'll have to fork over $129 plus tax to get it replaced.

The 13" and 15" Retina Display MacBook Pros are built very similarly to the Macbook Air so I recommend you buy Apple Care on these notebooks too. 

If you're planning on buying a non-retina MacBook Pro then you don't really need Apple Care if you're familiar servicing laptops. The non-retinal Pro is a very serviceable laptop as the RAM is not soldered to the motherboard, the hard drive is easily replaceable, and not to mention the optical drive and battery can be replaced too. On laptops the two components that fail the most are the system's RAM or hard drive and since these are easily user-repaired I don't feel that you need to buy Apple Care. 

Breaking down the costs of servicing a non-retina Macbook Pro if you wanted to replace your MacBook's RAM ($40), hard drive ($60), and battery ($60) it would cost roughly $160 in parts to replace these yourself. 

I recommend Apple Care on the Air/Retina Pro and don't recommend it on the regular Pro.

iMac/ Mac Pro

If you're planning on buying a iMac or a Mac Pro then I'd say purchase Apple Care, as these computers are hard to service just like the Air/ Retina Pro. The iMac is particularly difficult because every computer is behind the computer's glass screen. I've seen someone try to service one themselves and actually break the glass screen. The new Mac Pro is not service and has everything soldered to its motherboard, so you're going to want to get Apple Care for it unless you're again a competent solderer. Apple Care for these computers is cheap running $169 for three years, which is super cheap.

Get Apple Care for these units.

Another option I read on the internet is going through Apple's Repair Depot and paying a flat rate of $319 for repairs. The repairs you can get done can only be things that fail from normal use so if your motherboard dies, RAM gives out, or hard drive goes you can get it repaired through the repair depot. While the repair depot could save you money potentially since you can get a battery replacement from them, but its still very expensive. One person stated they had their battery replaced, hard replaced, and motherboard swapped out by using Apple's Repair Depot. If you can wait for everything to break on your MacBook and then go and have it serviced then, yes, the repair depot is a great option. If you want your out of warranty Mac to be serviced its a great option, but $319 is a pretty hefty fee to pay and they don't cover cosmetic things or repairs needed for accidental damage. Some accidental damage quotes have been reported at a whopping $1200. 

That's my spiel on Apple Care, I see it as very beneficial to users of hard to service products, but for those comfortable servicing laptops the non-retina MacBook Pro is one unit that go without Apple Care.

Written by,

John Kessler

Google Announces Chromebook 11 made by HP

Google's finally brought a new Chromebook offering to the market with HP's Chromebook 11 and this Chromebook sports a variety of color options. Unlike past Chromebooks that came in just one color option, you can get this newest version in white with either red, blue, green, or yellow accents. For those wanting a more rugged look the Chromebook also comes in glossy black too.

All of the Chromebooks feature a band of colors (blue, red, yellow, and green) on the top of the display which lights when the lid is opened. The Chromebook 11 also features a magnesium frame that is bonded its plastic shell, which in turn is supposed to give the device a more solid feel and better build quality.

The Chromebook 11 has a weak point when it comes to its I/O ports as it comes with 2 USB ports, a headphone/microphone jack, and a micro-USB charging port. I'm disappointed that HP and Google didn't include an SD card slot as this would have made it easier to add storage to the unit. Another thing that I would have liked to see in this newest Chromebook is Bluetooth which is MIA. It should be noted one of the USB ports can use an HDMI to USB adapter to display video as well.

The Chromebook comes with a micro-USB charger the same charger that most Android phones use.

The reason Google decided it didn't need an HDMI port on this new device is that they probably wanted to leverage its $35 Chromecast, their wireless HDMI streaming device. The Chromecast allows users to stream content from their Chrome browsers directly onto your living room TV or HDMI monitor.

Google and HP decided to give the Chromebook 11 an 11.6" 1366x768 IPS display with 300 nits of brightness. I'm not a fan of the old 1366x768 resolution, but its $279 so I can't really complain about this since the devices price is super low.

Now for the internals of the Chromebook 11 and what you should expect from them. Google's newest Chromebook features a Samsung Exynos 5250 dual-core ARM processor, 2GB of RAM, and a 16GB SSD. The speakers are located internally too tucked underneath the Chromebook 11's keyboard.

The processor in this device is the same one used in Samsung's Nexus 10 so it's not the newest ARM processor on the market. Laptop Mag did a few tests on the device and it seems it should be slightly faster than Samsung's Series 3 Chromebook that uses a Exynos 5 ARM processor and slightly slower than Intel based Chromebooks.

This newest Chromebook looks promising as the major problem with Samsung's Series 3 Chromebook was that it featured a flimsy design and feel. HP and Google have done their best to make a solid product with an upgraded internals and a fancy IPS screen.

7 Things Apple should change about iOS 7 in iOS 8

There are still a few things Apple can improve on

Apple released iOS 7 a few weeks ago and gave users a massive visual overhaul and added more features to their handsets. They copied a few things from Android, Blackberry, and Microsoft’s Windows Phone to give users this improved experience. I've come up with a list of things I think Apple should change when they start thinking and developing iOS 8.

#1: Allow users the ability to delete the default Apps

I still to this day don’t understand why apple doesn't let iOS users uninstall stock apps. If you look at Android phones you can uninstall any app you please and re-download it from the Google Play Store, if you regret booting it off your phone. Apple should change it so you can get rid the apps you don’t want or need and let users fully customize their personal app collection. The only app I see that Apple shouldn't let users delete is the App Store, as that’s the most important app iOS has giving users 2 million apps to choose from.

#2:       Have Apps on the Home Screen show more important information

Another gripe I have with iOS 7 is that when you look at the home screen the only apps that tell you anything significant are the Calendar and Message apps. These two apps at least tell you if you have notifications and the Calendar app changes daily telling you the date and day of the week. I wish Apple gave the same functionality to all of its other apps like its Email app would be more beneficial to users if it flashed names of those who recently emailed you. If users were given more important information more quickly on their home screens it would mean they could use their phones more efficiently and effectively. I really like how Windows Phone does exactly what I described above, but unfortunately it’s hard to recommend, as it has an anemic app market place.

#3:        Give App makers a chance to make bigger app icons so they can make live widgets

Apple should allow apps to have different sizes, as it could give the next iteration of iOS a great way to have live widgets. I wish I could have the weather app take up a quarter of my home screen on iOS and show me the 5-day forecast for the week. A few other apps that would benefit from a blow up would be the Calendar app and Social media apps or RSS feeds. Android users already have this functionality, so watch out when Apple does it because they’ll be the first ones to have created live widgets.

The only problem I see with live widgets is that they are constantly updating, which means they drain battery quickly and that means Apple probably wouldn't want to give developers the ability to make such apps, but it sure would be nice. 

#4:     Give users more color options and keyboard customization

When you use iOS there is no way to change its keyboard color or layout. If Apple implemented a few different colors for it wouldn't be that difficult to code into iOS. I also would like it if you could be change your keyboard to black or grey on black iPhones because the current white keyboard on iOS 7 gives the black phones a weird contrast as it makes the screen look smaller.  

One of my biggest annoyances with the iOS keyboard aside from the color options is that there is no .com button in Safari, which would make web surfing quicker and easier. 

#5:       Include more Power User Apps

Currently there are no apps that tell you detailed information your phone's performance on iOS when it comes to your CPU, RAM, or battery usage. Yes, I know in settings you can look up your battery usage and it will say how long you've left your on standby and how much you've used it. I’d rather have a more comprehensive battery app that showed me what apps I used the most and which ones drain the most amount of battery too.

A CPU and RAM app would be great edition to iOS as it would tell users how much they are pushing their phones while using applications. I’d like to know what really maxes out my phone’s CPU to figure out what sorts of apps I should run less often. For those who don’t know most of time at idle your phone is running at 100-300Mhz usually and when you do something intensive on it, and then you’ll see it ramp up to 1GHz or higher depending on the application and your phone’s CPU. The following scenario described above is what I saw when using Android devices when observing CPU usage.

#6:       Change what your default apps are

iOS 7 currently doesn't let users choose what apps they want to open internet links and photos. For example when you’re sent a link from someone in Messages and you click on it you’ll be bounced to Safari. One of the most used and downloaded apps on Apple mobile OS is Google’s Chrome browser, so if you could change where those links open up in that would be a big plus. There are tons of photo apps that could replace Apple’s Photos app so they would benefit from this change too. I also would like it if I when I get directions from the Yelp App that they by default would be opened in Google Maps rather than in Apple Maps. 

#7:      Let users have empty space on between apps on app pages

Whenever you have apps on a page in iOS they are always lined up in the same exact way on every page. This is a little pet peeve of mine, so I say give us the gaps! I don’t know why the gaps make a difference to Apple because it doesn't harm their OS in any way when it comes to performance. 

Conclusion:

iOS 8 probably isn't going to be around for another year or so meaning we'll have to wait and see if Apple addresses the above issues. I really like iOS 7 and its improvements to the camera and the live wallpapers are flat color design look nice even though we've seen them before on Android and Windows phones. If Apple can amp up the customization in their next iOS release I think they'll be able to win over some power Android users and those who are deeply in love with their Windows Phones. 

Nintendo’s 2DS popping up for Pre-Order

Today when I glanced at Gamestop and Best Buy I saw the 2DS was available for pre-order. These retailers have decided to start taking orders just a few days after Nintendo’s the 2DS would hit shelves October 12th.

 

For those who don’t know the 2DS is a DS console that can play 3DS games and regular DS, but the catch is it can only do 3DS games in 2D. The new handheld also doesn’t sport Nintendo’s clamshell design, so it isn’t pocket friendly, unfortunately.

The new DS also has support for Nintendo’s eShop where gamers can purchase and download both new and retro games from SNES, NES, GBC, and Gamegear.

Currently the console can be pre-ordered for $129.99 in Crimson Red or Electric Blue and comes with a 4GB SD card, the console itself of course and a wall charger.