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nouvxllev · 3 months

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skill issues

Pairing: Tara Carpenter x G!p!Reader

Summary: in which you got reeled into a bandwagon of a fps game by mindy, anika, and chad.

Words: 2.6k

Warnings: smut. just pure smut.

a/n: i just love the idea of tara carpenter being a clingy partner (also my first time writing just a chapter full of smut.)

masterlist.

The clock ticked midnight. Probably even pass that. Actually, you didn't know anymore. Whatever was on your mind was completely erased and replaced by tiny pixels moving in your screen.

Ever since you've joined Tara's friend group, you've also been reeled into a bunch of activities they do on a daily basis. To binge watching scary movies you've begged them not to drag you in, to playing games they recommended to you.

You regret participating in the latter.

It's not like you were having fun, hell, you were having too much fun with this simple FPS mobile game they pulled you in, but the deep dark circles under your eyes were starting to show and you don't really eat anything except for the meals Tara cooks for you. Which are greatly appreciated by a kiss.

"Y/n, what the fuck!? I told you to cover me!" Mindy yelled over your headphones. Actually, it was Tara's headphones desperately lent over to you after days of quiet shouting that didn't really help.

You crouched in reply, knowing Mindy was spectating your character.

You killed, not one, not two, not even four people, but six at once in a group! 3 headshots and 3 body kills. You were pretty proud of yourself, honestly. You just started the game a few weeks ago and you're only getting better and better, you wanted to brag to Tara but she was fast asleep beside you. She was always beside you whenever you play those games with the group, cuddling you as you hold your phone up in the air, but she always ends up falling asleep when you do.

Chad laughs over his mic, "damn, we should've invited Y/n a long time ago. She's good at this game."

You laugh in response, bringing your voice to a whisper. "Even I didn't know I had this in me."

Ever since you and Tara finally made it official, you packed your things and said good riddance to your home and lived together with Tara. It was unexpected, even she was surprised by the spontaneous decision, but the two of you were happy in paradise. Not until you got dragged into the whole 'gaming with those two dipshits™ (by Tara Carpenter, of course.)'

"Anika—! Anika—Wait, shit Anika!" You scream, regrettably, while shooting the opposing team down. Obviously, the luck you had earlier had worn out and you were now staring down at your dead character, groaning.

"I didn't know they were there!" Anika apologized.

"Skill issue." Mindy chimed, you could tell she was leaning back in her chair, looking smug.

"Definitely." Chad blurted, a huff of air he let out.

You rolled your eyes. "Those who didn't carry the team with their 6-kill streak should actually shut up." You went back to the home screen after gg'ing the other team

"Another round?" You exclaimed, and the others cheerfully agreed in the background.

You forgot, for a split second, you were beside one of the most lightest sleepers in the world; your marvelous girlfriend Tara Carpenter. Someone could breathe in her vicinity and she'd almost immediately wake up. Which is why she's staring you down, burning holes in your neck, unimpressed look on her face.

"Y/n," she groaned, "I thought you'd be done by now."

You turned to look at her, and you could only hope it was the darkness fooling your eyes since Tara looked like she was about to scream if not for her reminding herself that you were her girlfriend.

You muted your mic, "One more round, I promise."

"You always say that." She whispered, her arms wrapping around your waist as you were sitting up and you almost melted in her arms, a sigh you let out.

You let your other hand let go of your phone and let your hand relax on her head, soothing her worries of you being on the verge of being one of those mentally unstable gamers who discarded their whole entire life.

Tara was still awake, you could tell by how she tilted her head slightly to look up at you and back to whatever game it is you were so engrossed in.

It was only a few seconds later before Mindy, Anika, and Chad were screaming into the mic and telling eachother to "defend, defend, defend!" or just curse at eachother.

And you, of course, was just resting in paradise while your girlfriend watches over you with half-lidded eyes. But you could tell she was trying to be awake.

You were getting into that headspace where your luck with getting kills increased, and damn were you so happy you could basically convince yourself you were the next top player at this game.

That was until you fumbled over a sniper shot, your finger slipping and your character dying. Your friends were yelling, laughing, but you couldn't focus. Not when Tara's hand was placed firmly on top of your cock.

You froze in place, your eyes, not focused on the screen anymore, but focused on somewhere in the darkness of your room. Her fingers tracing lazy circles around your clothed bulge, only getting larger the more she teases you.

You muted your mic, your hands clutching your phone as you suck in a moan. "Tara, wait, I'm—"

"—Playing?" She finished, looking up at you with her doe-eyes you knew you could never resist. "I'm sure you can play perfectly fine." She replied, her fingers sliding into the waistband of your shorts. You ultimately regretting, and thanking, that you weren't wearing anything underneath.

You were big, you haven't measured it yourself, but Tara worshipped it like it was (and is) so that was enough for confirmation. The tip of your cock was immediately leaking with pre-cum, and it didn't help when Tara kept stroking it, taking her time to graze her thumb along the head.

"Aren't you going to continue playing?" She looked at you, doe eyes and all as if she wasn't giving you the most perfect and maddening handjob you've ever received.

There was something in her voice, something that made you go fucking insane. And something that made you click that respawn button, playing it off as if nothing was happening down below.

You were desperately trying to get a kill, the amount of times you've pressed that damn respawn button was embarrassing. But how could you focus when the most prettiest girl was wrapping her warm lips around the tip of your dick, her hands taking care of the inches that wasn't in her mouth. Yet.

She removed her mouth away from your cock, a soft whine escaping your lips at the loss of contact, but then she adjusted her position. Her body going in between your thighs as she spreads them apart.

You almost, almost, went to heaven when she immediately reattached her soft lips to your dick and slowly started to go deeper.

It was almost pathetic how your hips bucked and your head was thrown back, your eyes rolling in pleasure.

And only a few seconds passed until she was bobbing her head up and down on your cock, her free hand tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

Fuck, that turned you on even more.

You contemplated throwing the game, hell, even your phone, but Tara dug her perfectly manicured nails into your thighs when you were starting to put your phone down.

"Y/n, you're getting out of your game!"

"Noticed."

"I bet 20 bucks she's getting laid by Tara, right now."

The three of them, in order, Chad, Anika, and Mindy all teasing you for getting your dick sucked in the middle of the game. But you didn't care, at all. You didn't have enough trust in yourself to unmute and to deny all sayings, that were 100% true by the way, without having to hold back a moan.

"Fuck, Tara..." You manage to say in a whimper, your hand, which was supposed to be playing the game, was grabbing a handful of Tara's hair. Helping her take in what's left of you, and soon enough, her nose reached your chest, gagging a little bit in the process.

You were going crazy.

It was then you couldn't take it anymore. You grabbed her hair, a bit more forcefully, and started to shove yourself back and forth into her mouth. Your hips bucking and gradually getting speed. You could see how her eyes and jaw widened to take more of you. Spit and pre-cum dripping all over her mouth as she looked at you, tears staining her eyes while she closed them whenever she hit the base, gagging all over your cock.

You can feel your legs begin to shake, your head throwing back and your eyes rolling. But that didn't stop you from absolutely railing Tara's mouth against your dick until you've emptied yourself inside of her, forcing her to swallow all of your load.

A minute passed before you slowed down your movements, pulling an exhausted Tara out of your cock. She looked at you dumb, your own cum smeared all over her lips as a grin adorned her abused lips.

"I guess we can say I'm better than that stupid game you're always playing." She rasped, her voice hoarse.

"You did this because you were... jealous of me playing a game?" You chuckled, clearly out of breath. It was cute if you weren't so turned on by the fact Tara was looking at you like that.

She brought her hand up to her mouth, wiping away the excess cum with her thumb and licking it off. "I just wanted to tease you, baby."

You thought that was the end of it, not until Tara threw your phone and headphones away and started to climb on top of you, your still hardened cock right on top of her clit. You didn't even notice she wasn't wearing anything underneath as well until now.

"I'll get you a new one—" she breathed, "I promise. Just, please." She whimpered, god, fuck, you were going insane. "Just fuck me."

And that was everything you needed you hear.

You immediately flipped her around, "Y/n, what the FUCK!—" she screamed as you drilled your cock into her, your hips pulling out your dick and fully slamming it back into her pussy. A broken moan coming out of her lips.

"Shit... Tara, you're driving me crazy." Was all you could mutter before you went faster, your hands going to her hips to hold her steady, and your eyes were focused on your cock easily sliding in and out of her puffy folds, taking all of you at once while Tara could only moan, a new freshly coat of cum taking over your dick.

The way she squeezed around you, milking your cock for all it's worth, made you dizzy and your head start to spin. But that didn't stop you from completely destroying her bit by bit, aiming to break her down.

You pulled her closer to you, your hands going up to her shoulders and aggressively ramming her body against your shaft as if it wasn't so deep enough already. Tara couldn't say, mutter, or even speak a single sentence at this point.

You were fucking her dumb, and shit you loved it.

Your hands slithered up from her shoulders to her neck, lightly choking her before turning her head to you.

"You're so pretty like this, baby. So gorgeous and perfect." You muttered in her ear, every word coming to a hard thrust as Tara's mouth opened, attempting to say something but only coming out as a pathetic moan. "You wanna be fucked like a slut? Be fucked dumb out of your mind?"

Sliding your hands on her back, you pressed down firmly to create the perfect arch as her head was buried into the soft mattress, her hands curling up into a ball as she sobbed with pleasure. You can hear her moaning your name over and over again, screaming and sobbing muffled by the soft pillow under her.

"Answer me, Tara."

"Yes, please!" She pleaded, "God, oh my god." She gulped, her head falling back as she reached her second orgasm, her walls clamping down on your cock and cum dripping down from her abused and assaulted pussy.

Her legs gave up, but you didn't. You continued to ram into her, without a care that she was near peak exhaustion and her sobs were becoming more frequent. Your freehand that wasn't pressing down on her back going over to her clit, overstimulating her.

"Fuck, I'm gonna cum," you groaned, "Tara..."

"Cum'n me." She said, breathless, "please. Please, please, please, please—"

After that last plead, you came in her. Your body still thrusting into Tara as you lean towards her, "I love you. I love you so much, my favorite girl." You muttered, pressing kisses all over her cheeks and lips as she breathed for air. But that sweet moment didn't stop you from resuming to pound into her as if it was your last day on earth.

You kept your cock inside of her, pistoning it in and out as you stretched her pussy till it's limit. Until it recognized the shape of your dick, which, you succeeded. The both of you continued until Tara reached her actual peak of exhaustion and collapsed.

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When Tara woke up, she was sore. Sore as fuck. Everything up and down from her head to toe was just relentless pain everywhere. That is, until she turned her head to see you just gazing at her. Softly. As if you didn't ruin her to pieces just hours before.

"Hey," you greeted her, a smile gracing your lips. Tara didn't realize, but you drew her a bath the second she passed out and took care of her yourself. Even changed her to her favorite outfit whenever she just wanted to lay around.

Tara smiled. Despite her sore legs, her sore everything actually, she still managed to cling onto you like a koala. Her arms crushing you as you hugged her back. "Hey." She whispered in your ear, kissing you gently. "Thanks, by the way. For taking care of me." She hugged you even tighter, which you reciprocated.

The two of you sat there for a few minutes, basking in eachothers presence and warmthness. Until you broke the silence. "Tell me the real reason." You pulled back from Tara's tight hug. (You tried to, she was unbudging.)

"I was." She raised an eyebrow, which you also reciprocated.

You chuckled. "I've been your girlfriend and bestfriend for a total of 3 years, Tara. You can't fool me."

She could almost roll her eyes right now if she wouldn't regret it later. "We haven't had sex in a while." She confessed, avoiding your eye contact. "Like, a whole month."

The adorableness there was to Tara Carpenter, the amazing girl you're blessed with, was beyond you. "You could've told me, Tara." You tucked a loose strand between her ear, "you know I like talking with you. Especially about something personal, or maybe something about in our relationship."

"I didn't know how to like," she paused, "really, really, express it." She explained, "also I couldn't since you were on that damn video game for weeks now!"

Yeah, you had to blame yourself for that. Or maybe the crew. "I solemnly swear to not play that game. Well, atleast that often." You held up your pinky, making a pinky promise that you always, always never broken in your life.

Tara chuckled, taking your pinky into hers. "Also your phone has been buzzing like crazy for the last few minutes."

"It's just Mindy bragging about she got rich because she was betting over our sex life."

"What!?" The younger Carpenter screamed.

"Don't worry too much about it." You shrugged it off. "Just a skill issue." You joked.

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a/n: just needed to get this off my brain. idea popped into my head one random day and i've been thinking about it actually doing something about it, and it's probably something i need to do to take of my writers block!!

#tara carpenter x female reader #tara carpenter x reader #tara carpenter x you #tara carpenter #jenna ortega x reader #jenna ortega x you #jenna ortega x y/n #jenna ortega

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asterizmz · 1 year

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23 and 43 :-)

haiiii stella ^__^ thank u for the questions

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23. Introduce OC that has changed from your first idea concerning what the character would be like?

pretty much all of my main blorbos have changed pretty significantly since i made em actually but i think the biggest and funniest transition out of all of them has to be Zeal. my first idea for her was like this tiny middle of nowhere bounty hunter like DEAD SET on tracking hydra and rainier down (notably for a totally different reason than the royal family wanting to drag hydra back to be queen) just to chew them out for knocking a big monster she was hunting off a cliff as kind of like. a one-arc antagonist that ends up tagging along with them and then getting with hydra.

now she’s way more mellow of a character but i kind of like that better considering that a. the stakes against hydra running away are way higher now and beta-zeal would NOT fit tonally at all and b. public bounty hunting as a job is just... way less exciting now lol. like yes there CAN be big exciting monster hunting quests she gets assigned to go after that she is admittedly scary proficient at dealing with but shes also just the pest control and mobile slaughter lady with cool meat symbolism. yknow.

43. Do you have any certain type when you create your OCs? Do you tend to favour some certain traits or looks? It’s time to confess

REALLY tough one hrmmmmmm..... i think if i do have a type of character to Write i’m not really aware of it as i’m doing it i just tend to design a character and build their personality from there. i have very much noticed that i tend to always subconsciously want to backpedal into something more lighthearted when writing villains that are objectively horrible people and purposefully tragic characters even when i’m set on it so i guess there’s that. writing silly guys definitely comes easier to me <3

as for Designs... i have two answers. serious answer is that... i think other than skewing a bit towards beefy/muscular ladies with lots of body hair for both personal butch gender reasons and also because Its Hot i experiment with new fun designs and shapes more often than i don’t. i think Rainier, Pixel and not-corpse Collette are the only three that really... fit that bill actually and even then they’re all VERY different designs.

as for the not-serious answer...

i think you’d have to actually kill me to get me to stop putting even just the tiniest happy trails on every character i make ESPECIALLY on hot ladies it’s totally a subconscious thing at this point. this is ALSO falls into gender self-projection territory a little bit but for the most part its because its just objectively sexy as hell lol.

#ask game #hydraverse #zeal #rainier's design is ESPECIALLY indulgent in this regard for exactly that reason. i love big hairy butches. would love to be one some day #long post #cyg asks

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catnatch · 3 years

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i just think he’s neat ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#since mobile wants to kill my tiny pixels i now have #Big #markiplier #my art #should i make an animation tag when none of them are more than 4 frames long alskdfj #animation?

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markipwiwer · 6 years

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Request if you still take them: maybe anti getting too much electrical energy or glitchy energy and he goes in some sort of tunnel vision state, and it takes both wilford and dark to calm him down and tend to his wounds p.s I love reading your work some times it's the highlight of my day

So this ended up being a spiritual successor of another request and I’d link it but I’m on mobile (as always). It’s called “Backed Up” on AO3 though. I really did want to do something with this again so thank you for requesting it. And you have no idea what that means to me, there are writers that I am constantly looking up to, getting excited every time they post something new. So the idea that I could be that for someone is just…… whoa man

It had been a week since Anti had fully been restored again, with the disgruntled help of Google Red. And he’d been ‘hanging out’ a lot more with Bing. That was, there was a lot of silent sitting, holding hands, transferring of information.

It was through Oliver, Yellow, the softest of the IRL units, with which Anti had been able to find exactly which hospital that bastard was in. The stupid hacker guy that had torn Anti to literal pieces. And Oliver did have other decent information. But as Anti quickly discovered, the entire hospitals network was super outdated and wasn’t compatible with the sleek, modern IRL units.

And Bing was pretty cool to hang out with anyway.

Anti could have, if he wanted to, gotten the information he needed to go and haunt the shit out of that guy and be out in a flash again.

But there was something… hypnotising about knowing the schedules of hundreds of people. Knowing who lives and who dies according to the system. Knowing everything down to peoples eating habits in the cafeteria, or the little corners of the grounds staff go for cigarette breaks. It was empowering.

So Anti spent days on it, slowly ruminating, building a plan, down to the predictable minute.

Dark and Wilford had never seen him this hyperfocused on something before. And it was a little unnerving. On one hand, Dark was glad that Anti was slowing down a little, formulating things instead of being impulsive and erratic. On the other hand, Wilford noticed he was considerably more distant and quiet and… not that Wilford was usually the jealous type, all things considered, but he was spending an awful lot of time holding hands with Bing. Wilford wanted to hold Antis hand more often.

He was also… buzzing a lot more.Usually, Antis touch was a light tingle at best. But he’d given Wilford several electric shocks without meaning to in the past few days and Darks hairs stood on end from the static when they merely got close, let alone held each other or kissed.

It was like Anti was accumulating power. Not that Dark had any particular problem with that, it would make him more useful on missions and hunts. But if he and Wilford knew Anti at all, they knew that kind of thing could get to his head pretty easily.

One day, Anti looked… almost dressed up. As dressed up as Anti got. Clean skinny jeans, for once, despite them still being ripped, a black tshirt with the sleeves merely rolled up instead of being cut off, a clean bandage around his neck and a worn leather jacket to top it all off.

Wilford wolf whistled in his direction in the kitchen. Anti didn’t react. Wilford tried a slightly stronger approach.

“Got a fancy date, darling?”

Anti shrugged, seeming to be reflecting and concentrating on something Wilford couldn’t see.

“Somethin’ like that.”

“Is it with Bing?”

Wilfords question was simple, but it took Anti by surprise enough that he stopped looking into the distance - or right in front of him, Wilford couldn’t tell - and actually looked at the pink idiot.

“What? No. Why would… no, I’m working on somethin’.”

Wilford scooted closer, raising his eyebrows. This was allowed in their relationship, it was fine, but Wilford being himself, loved all the juicy details.

“Working your way into his robotic heart, it seems like.”

Anti rolled his eyes and focused back on… whatever he was focused on. He pulled out his phone, checking the time, before putting it back in his leather jacket.

“No. Bings been helping me with the hospitals network.”

Wilfords eyebrows furrowed.

“…Hospital? The one where -“

“Don’t even say his name. He’ll be either a shell of a man or dead soon, and no one will remember him.”

In that moment, Anti sounded an awful lot like Dark. It was disconcerting how driven he was about this one guy. Granted, this one guy took a limb and a chunk of his stomach but still. Anti promised he’d go easy. This just sounded more hardcore, maybe without the same manic tendencies that Anti usually put into things.

“…alright. Well then, have fun, cutie code, and don’t overexert yourself. We want you back home in one piece this time.”

Wilford tried to add a jovial tone but it fell on deaf ears and Anti bit back.

“Thanks.”

He didn’t like feeling weak.Anti checked his phone once more before disappearing in a chaotic mess of frayed programming.

“Bing, I need to know what Anti has planned. He was really… I just need to know, okay?” Wilford tried to reason with the Android, with limited success. Luckily, Dark happened to wander in while Bing was trying to explain how it wasn’t super easy to just give Wilford the plans since they were encrypted.

“Bing, you will explain to me what Anti has planned for his course of revenge. In a way that we can understand.”

Bing clenched up for a moment, before a light shone past his eyes.

“… Admin user detected. Dude, he’s gonna kill me for this…”

“And we can put you back together. Now explain, that’s an order.”

Bing huffed, but obeyed. He rattled off Antis plans about the hackers doctors schedules, security schedules, when things were most vulnerable, what was and wasn’t controlled by machine. Anti was going to take away his pain medication first, and instead pump him full of psychosis-inducing drugs. He’d be sent to the psych ward, they’d have a bed available later on in the day. Until then, the guy would stay tied down, hallucinating and in pain.

His restlessness would get him sent to the acute ward, where security was pretty tight. But several guards went out for cigarette breaks at the same time. Just before evening medication time, power would go out in the facility. For some there, not having medication for one day wasn’t a big deal. For others, it was a huge deal. So the guy would be hallucinating, in pain, with a bunch of undermedicated, unstable people and not enough staff to deal with so much happening at once.

Then he’d haunt. He’d access screens, monitors, emergency broadcast systems specific to the hospital and read out the guys extensive medical and criminal history. He’d flicker lights, lock doors, the whole shebang.

For most of it, he didn’t need to even be in the building.A few checks on schedules and routes, that’d be it.

Dinner would come past, and later that night, Anti would finally, FINALLY, stab the hacker with a simple butter knife.

No one would actually know how the hacker snuck the knife away, or how he managed to basically impale himself, but Anti didn’t leave fingerprints by nature. It’d be an assumed suicide.

There were some extra bits and pieces but Dark had heard more than enough. Although part of him had to be impressed, this was a very strange length for Anti to go to for one person. It wasn’t really Anti. Having that kind of knowledge, that kind of control, it was already getting to Anti. Dark knew all of the warning signs.

“Where would Anti be in his plan right now?”

Bing paused, glancing at Wilford standing behind Dark. Wilford looked… sad, in some way, though Bing didn’t understand Wilford quite enough to place the emotion exactly.

“He’d be close to cutting the power by now. The other stuff was done pretty easily outside the facility, but he wanted to… see.”

Dark turned to Wilford.

“He has a lot of power right now that he’s not fully in control of. It’s going to be an effort to bring him home safely.”

Wilford looked guilty. That was it. He had been the one to let this guy live in the first place, not wanting Anti to miss out on revenge. But this was a lot more than just seeing blood spill.

The guy had made Anti feel weak. And so he needed to see how strong Anti really was.

Wilford took Darks hand.

“Let’s bring out pet home.”

Bing hesitated before they made to move.

“W-wait! Did I.. did I do anything wrong?”

“No, Bing. You followed orders.”Dark left the reply at that before transporting with Wilford to the facility.

They returned a half an hour later, black and pink fog mixing, clashing with pixels and static and screaming. So much screaming. The guy was dead, there was no way he would have survived that pulse.

The thing about Anti was he ate up mistakes. Mistakes in programming and code, all the way up to tiny surface level mistakes of information just being put in the wrong place.

Anti had caused trouble, yeah, but he also completely freed the hospitals network of bugs. Trade that for the life of a guy that no one would mess and was dead according to the system anyway? Sure.

But Anti was surging - that was the best way to describe it - and it took both Dark and Wilford to transport him back, forcing him backwards.

Anti thrashed and clawed back, his eyes animalistic and raw and too full. Black. Just black, the way they got when he was trying to be scary, except it usually wasn’t this constant.

His form was unstable and terrifying to anyone else but Dark just held him down, kept Antis arms behind his back because he knew what this kind of power could do.

Anti would spiral like this forever if he was left unchallenged.

Wicked sat in front of the raging form, on his knees, and held Antis face in his hand. Anti was covered in blood and Wilford hadn’t even realised.

There had been more than one death. The hospital just hadn’t figured it out yet.

“Hey… you need to settle petal, alright? You’re with us now, your home…” Wilford put a hand to Antis cheek, which honestly hurt at this point, it buzzed hard on Wilfords fingertips and not in a good way, not even in a sexy way. It just hurt.

Anti screamed something that neither of them understood, too much static, but it sounded work down. He screamed again and this time it cracked.

Darks loosened his grip on Antis arms specifically and instead brought his arms around to Antis front, hugging him from behind but still keeping him firmly in place. His aura rubbed soothing circles into the glitches back.

His voice echoed, and it was something close to soothing.

“It’s alright, love. We’ve got you now. You need to let this extra energy go.”

Dark and Wilford shared a look that this wasn’t exactly the kind of thing they could wear Anti down from just by fucking him.

Antis buzzing didn’t hurt Dark nearly as much as it hurt Wilford, so he used the opportunity to wrap himself around Anti, lovingly, in a way that he wouldn’t usually. Wilford continued whispering into Antis ears, about how it was okay and how much they loved him and how he did a good job today but hat it was time to let it go.

Antis form, which had been throbbing with power and making the two stand on edge, eventually, slowly, went limp. It wasn’t a quick thing, it was gradual, and every now and then, he’d get some sort of a flash in his eyes and it was like he was inspired in the worst way again. And he’d struggle. But each time, the struggle got a little easier to contain. A little weaker. Of course, they would never tell Anti he was weak. If he thought about it too much, he might come to the conclusion that he was still weaker than the both of them at full force. That wasn’t entirely true. He just loved them and listened to them. But only them.

He’d exhausted himself in the fight, in trying to bat away their care and affection. Anti whimpered and sighed in Darks arms and Wilford stroked the side of his cheek while they transported him with a lot more ease this time around. There was a small, static-y sob that escaped his lips when Wilford shifted to hug Anti, gently, from behind, and Dark took his hands. Dark kissed as his forehead, and let his own ringing take over as the prominent sound while Wilford spoke calmly still.

#requests #Long post #dantistache #antisepticeye #Darkiplier #Wilford Warfstache

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onlinemarketinghelp · 4 years

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Cyber Monday Marketing: Is Your Store Ready For Ecommerce’s Biggest Day? https://ift.tt/2reaKC6

As an online business owner, Cyber Monday is one of the most exciting and busiest days of the year for your store – and that all comes from having an amazing Cyber Monday marketing plan.

Often coupled together with Black Friday, the two days mark the beginning of the end-of-year shopping season and a weekend where consumers are ready to part with serious cash.

In fact, in the US, the most money spent online in 2018 – $6 billion – was on Cyber Monday.

With that sort of money on offer, you’d be silly not to sit down and form a Cyber Monday marketing game plan of your own.

If you’re wondering what exactly you should focus on and how you should prepare your store, join us as we pass on some Cyber Monday tips and tricks to help you cash in on this holiday spending spree.

What is Cyber Monday and When is It?

While Black Friday shopping has been around since the early 50s, Cyber Monday – as you might guess – is a far more recent addition to the shopping calendar.

Taking place on the Monday following Thanksgiving, this year, Cyber Monday is on December 2, 2019 – the latest possible date for it to fall.

Cyber Monday made its debut on November 28, 2005. The name was coined by Ellen Davis of the National Retail Federation and former Shop.org exec Scott Silverman, and its purpose was to encourage consumers to buy online.

Although it was a fairly recent introduction, Cyber Monday was quickly embraced by consumers and has become the biggest day of the year for online sales. Cyber Monday online sales have grown from $486 million in 2005 to $6 billion in 2018, thanks to the growing adoption of online shopping and technological advances – such as smartphones.

Is Cyber Monday Different From Black Friday?

Although Cyber Monday is inextricably linked with Black Friday and they’re both focused on encouraging consumers to shop, there are differences between the two.

Black Friday has traditionally been a day for brick and mortar stores – particularly big retailers – to have huge sales. The day has become associated with people going to extremes to score deals, including camping out to be first in line. The crowds on Black Friday can be so intense that every year people get injured – or even killed – in the rush to grab a deal.

On the other side of things, we have Cyber Monday where everything is done online, rather than in a shopping mall or store. Although big retailers also have Cyber Monday campaigns, this is a day when smaller online stores have the opportunity to compete for shoppers’ attention as well.

Where Should I Focus My Cyber Monday Marketing?

While Cyber Monday is undoubtedly linked to the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday – as is Black Friday – it has become a worldwide shopping holiday.

After its 2005 debut in the U.S., online retailers around the world have steadily built Cyber Monday marketing campaigns into their yearly plans. France and Canada embraced the day in 2008, the United Kingdom got on board in 2009, and in 2010, Germany and New Zealand joined in.

The internationalization of Cyber Monday has happened to a far greater extent – and much faster – than Black Friday, making it a unique opportunity to hold a sale in any market.

As a Dropshipper, is It Worth Doing Cyber Monday Marketing?

Because Cyber Monday has been adopted globally, it’s a fantastic day to target shoppers anywhere in the world. People want to spend money on this day and as a dropshipper, you’d be silly not to try and get them to spend that money on your products.

In 2017, dropshippers Albert Liu and Jacky Chou made $5,460 in sales over the Black Friday Cyber Monday weekend with their home decor store. And almost half of their sales were made on Cyber Monday alone.

As I mentioned earlier, Cyber Monday offers small online stores the opportunity to get in on the action that was, for so long, the domain of major retailers. Black Friday might be the day for big, dominant brands, but on Cyber Monday anyone can shine – as long as they have a killer marketing plan.

Getting Your Store Ready for Cyber Monday

Alright, you’ve realized you’d be a fool to miss out on Cyber Monday, but you may be wondering where to start. Here are a few Cyber Monday tips to get you on your way.

Get Your Collections and Product Pages Primed

Now is the time to update and proofread all your product and landing pages – don’t let one little typo ruin everything! If you think your product descriptions are a little lackluster, or you just don’t know how you could improve them, look at your competitors and see if there is anything there you could learn from how they do it.

Make Sure Your Site Loads Fast

Ever left a website in a fit of rage because it took so long to load? I have. In this age of super-fast internet, we’re used to getting what we want instantly and a slow website does nothing to offer a pleasant shopping experience. To make sure your website is fast, run a few website speed tests and optimize it as needed.

Do Test Orders

You don’t want any issues on the day, so the best way to make sure everything runs smoothly is by putting yourself in the customer’s shoes. Run through a few test orders on your store just to make sure everything is working as it should.

This is especially important if you’re trying a new supplier or adding any new products. The last thing you want is one tiny detail – like the wrong shipping settings – throwing your whole Cyber Monday plan into chaos.

Get Your Apps Sorted

In an ideal world, every visitor to your store would make a purchase, but we know that’s certainly not the reality. Luckily, there are a lot of apps you can install that can help increase your conversion rate.

Take your time to browse through the Shopify app store and find what might work for you – there are a bunch of awesome apps to choose from. A countdown timer app could add a sense of urgency, while a cross-selling or upsell app might increase your average order value. Ultimately the apps that will work for your store will depend on what you sell and the vibe you’re going for. Be sure to do some research and find what works for you.

Check Everything on Mobile

While historically more sales have been made on desktop than mobile on Cyber Monday, the first interaction a visitor will have with your store is often on their phone. To make sure your store in the best possible shape, check what your store looks like on mobile. Here are a few things to keep an eye out for:

Easy navigation: Make sure your menu is clear and that any apps you’ve installed don’t overwhelm your screen or make it difficult and annoying to navigate.

Beautiful images: Check what your pictures look like and fix any that are poor quality or look strange. People will want to zoom in up close, so the last thing you want is a pixelated image.

Great text: Be sure that your text looks good on screen. Think about where sentences end and whether you need more or less text in your product descriptions.

Own Your Cyber Monday Marketing

With your store shipshape, it’s time to get your marketing sorted. And take note: This is something to start preparing sooner rather than later, so you don’t have a last-minute rush to get it all done. Here are a few tips for Cyber Monday marketing.

Know Who You Want to Target and on Which Devices

Facebook and Instagram ads are fabulous ways to make sales, but they can be especially expensive over this weekend. Make sure you get the most bang for your buck by being prepared and knowing your audience. Dive into your Facebook analytics and explore things such as age, gender, and location breakdowns, then use that information to make specific advertising material.

You should also decide what type of ads you want to use – video, images, or a mixture of both. Whichever you decide, make sure they’re engaging and high-quality. If you can’t think of any great ideas, check your competitors for inspiration.

It’s also worth thinking about which devices your ads will appear on. It may be smarter to advertise more expensive items – or items with a lot of options to choose from – on desktop because shoppers have more to consider before buying. However, if you sell products that are impulse purchases, they could be more suited to mobile advertising.

Craft Your Best Cyber Monday Emails

If you have a large mailing list, you should make use of this. After all, these people already know your store and brand so will take less convincing than new customers.

Decide on an email campaign you think will work best – this might be a one-off email on Cyber Monday revealing your big sale, or it could be a series of emails reminding your subscribers of your store and hinting at an upcoming sale in the weeks prior. Whatever you do, it will ensure your store is kept in mind when Cyber Monday rolls around and complement your

When writing your emails, be sure to think of engaging subject lines – the best Cyber Monday emails are those that stand out from the crowd. When it comes to the body of the email, don’t overthink it. Keep things clear, concise, and conversational and you’ll be onto a winner.

Capture the Buzz Early

Cyber Monday is not only a great one-off day to snag an amazing online deal, but it’s also the beginning of the wider holiday shopping season. People know what Cyber Monday means and there’s a lot of shopping and seasonal excitement in the air in the lead-up. Ideally, you want to try and capture this excitement – and you don’t have to wait until Cyber Monday to do it.

People start hunting for deals well before Cyber Monday, so don’t be afraid to launch email and ad campaigns ahead of the actual day itself. You could try tactics like offering mini-deals in the days leading up to Cyber Monday, before your big sales day on Monday. It’s great for sales and for ensuring customers keep your brand in mind.

Or maybe you could come out swinging and start your Cyber Monday sales before Thanksgiving. People are already prepared to start shopping, so why not get a jump on everyone else and swoop early.

Offer Creative Deals

When thinking about a great Cyber Monday promotion your mind probably jumps to slashing prices with hefty percentage-off deals. But there are other ways you can entice shoppers.

Offering a gift with every purchase could be the added extra that’s enough to draw people in, or in the same vein, a buy-one-get-one-free deal.

Alternatively, people love limited-edition products. Stocking an item with a limited amount available is a great idea – especially if you include a stock counter on the product page to increase the feeling of scarcity.

In fact, with shoppers being so aware of the madness that the shopping season brings, the products you sell don’t even necessarily need to be good. For example, for Black Friday 2014 the game Cards Against Humanity sold 30,000 limited-edition boxes of bull poop – marketed as “Bull**** by Cards against Humanity” – as an anti-Black Friday stunt. $180,000 worth of sales and $6000 in profit, all from the sale of poo.

As it turns out, Cards Against Humanity ended up donating the profits from the stunt to charity, which is a great idea in itself – even without the poop.

People are increasingly looking for businesses to lead the charge with philanthropic and charitable endeavors. Creating a special campaign surrounding a charity or cause could be a great Cyber Monday marketing decision – especially if it complements your products or niche.

Follow Up

Just because someone didn’t purchase on their first visit to your store on Cyber Monday, doesn’t mean you just give up on them. Think of it like a “no man left behind” situation and do your best to recover those sales.

Firstly, you should definitely have retargeting ads ready to go on Facebook. After all, if someone showed interest in your store on Cyber Monday, there’s a great chance they’ll still be interested in what you have to offer a couple of days later. Perhaps you could include a special deal on the retargeting ads that will entice shoppers, even after Cyber Monday.

One of the easiest ways to recover sales is with abandoned cart emails. You probably have these turned on already (or at least, you should), but consider spicing them up for Cyber Monday with an additional deal or offer to motivate them to purchase.

And while we’re talking about email, why not send out a post-Cyber Monday email as well? As mentioned earlier, Cyber Monday is the start of the holiday spending season so people are still very much prepared to spend in the days and weeks following it – try and capitalize on this with a special last chance deal.

Heck, you could even take things a step further and turn Cyber Monday into Cyber Week. Forget one day of deals, turn up the volume and run ads and emails offering unbeatable deals for a seven day period. This could be a great way to attract customers and make your store stick out from the crowd.

Your Cyber Monday Strategy Summed Up

With Cyber Monday rapidly approaching, don’t get panicked – get organized!

Make sure your store is prepared for traffic from all devices and looks the best that it can. Meanwhile, get creative with your campaigns and make your advertisements stand out from the crowd.

And remember, while Cyber Monday could be a massive day for your store, it’s also the start of the holiday spending season. So even if your campaigns don’t go to plan, you still have a whole month of big spending activity ahead of you.

Want to Learn More?

How You Can Use Holiday Shopping to Generate Sales

15 Creative Black Friday Marketing Ideas for 2019

How to Spy on Your Competitors’ Facebook and Instagram Ads

21 Facebook Ads Experts Share Their Winning Strategies

The post Cyber Monday Marketing: Is Your Store Ready For Ecommerce’s Biggest Day? appeared first on Oberlo.

from Oberlo

As an online business owner, Cyber Monday is one of the most exciting and busiest days of the year for your store – and that all comes from having an amazing Cyber Monday marketing plan.

Often coupled together with Black Friday, the two days mark the beginning of the end-of-year shopping season and a weekend where consumers are ready to part with serious cash.

In fact, in the US, the most money spent online in 2018 – $6 billion – was on Cyber Monday.

With that sort of money on offer, you’d be silly not to sit down and form a Cyber Monday marketing game plan of your own.

What is Cyber Monday and When is It?

While Black Friday shopping has been around since the early 50s, Cyber Monday – as you might guess – is a far more recent addition to the shopping calendar.

Taking place on the Monday following Thanksgiving, this year, Cyber Monday is on December 2, 2019 – the latest possible date for it to fall.

Is Cyber Monday Different From Black Friday?

Although Cyber Monday is inextricably linked with Black Friday and they’re both focused on encouraging consumers to shop, there are differences between the two.

Where Should I Focus My Cyber Monday Marketing?

While Cyber Monday is undoubtedly linked to the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday – as is Black Friday – it has become a worldwide shopping holiday.

The internationalization of Cyber Monday has happened to a far greater extent – and much faster – than Black Friday, making it a unique opportunity to hold a sale in any market.

As a Dropshipper, is It Worth Doing Cyber Monday Marketing?

Getting Your Store Ready for Cyber Monday

Alright, you’ve realized you’d be a fool to miss out on Cyber Monday, but you may be wondering where to start. Here are a few Cyber Monday tips to get you on your way.

Get Your Collections and Product Pages Primed

Make Sure Your Site Loads Fast

Do Test Orders

Get Your Apps Sorted

Check Everything on Mobile

Easy navigation: Make sure your menu is clear and that any apps you’ve installed don’t overwhelm your screen or make it difficult and annoying to navigate.

Beautiful images: Check what your pictures look like and fix any that are poor quality or look strange. People will want to zoom in up close, so the last thing you want is a pixelated image.

Great text: Be sure that your text looks good on screen. Think about where sentences end and whether you need more or less text in your product descriptions.

Own Your Cyber Monday Marketing

Know Who You Want to Target and on Which Devices

Craft Your Best Cyber Monday Emails

If you have a large mailing list, you should make use of this. After all, these people already know your store and brand so will take less convincing than new customers.

Capture the Buzz Early

Or maybe you could come out swinging and start your Cyber Monday sales before Thanksgiving. People are already prepared to start shopping, so why not get a jump on everyone else and swoop early.

Offer Creative Deals

When thinking about a great Cyber Monday promotion your mind probably jumps to slashing prices with hefty percentage-off deals. But there are other ways you can entice shoppers.

Offering a gift with every purchase could be the added extra that’s enough to draw people in, or in the same vein, a buy-one-get-one-free deal.

As it turns out, Cards Against Humanity ended up donating the profits from the stunt to charity, which is a great idea in itself – even without the poop.

Follow Up

Your Cyber Monday Strategy Summed Up

With Cyber Monday rapidly approaching, don’t get panicked – get organized!

Make sure your store is prepared for traffic from all devices and looks the best that it can. Meanwhile, get creative with your campaigns and make your advertisements stand out from the crowd.

Want to Learn More?

How You Can Use Holiday Shopping to Generate Sales

15 Creative Black Friday Marketing Ideas for 2019

How to Spy on Your Competitors’ Facebook and Instagram Ads

21 Facebook Ads Experts Share Their Winning Strategies

The post Cyber Monday Marketing: Is Your Store Ready For Ecommerce’s Biggest Day? appeared first on Oberlo.

https://ift.tt/34Henij November 07, 2019 at 07:30AM https://ift.tt/2rgDE4x

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velmaemyers88 · 5 years

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Tech Stocks Google, Snap, Twitter Jump Higher

Another busy day in the land of tech stocks, and the news is still (mostly) good. You’ll recall that on Tuesday, Snap impressed and on Wednesday it was Facebook’s turn. On Thursday, the good cheer spread to Google, Intel, and Expedia, though Amazon was less pleasing. And by Friday morning, Twitter was in on the party, too.

Given how much ink and/or pixels we’ve spilled on the story of the ��tech-lash” and all the regulatory problems ahead, it’s worth noting that the core businesses of the largest companies are still chugging ahead. In an economy where the U.S. gross domestic product is growing at less than 3%, Snap’s revenue grew 48%, Facebook grew 28%, and Google increased 19%. Even “disappointing” Amazon grew sales 19%. And it’s all been pretty well anticipated on Wall Street, as these same companies have (mostly) been among the best performers on the stock market as well. As of yesterday’s close, Snap’s share price was up 221%, Facebook’s 53%, and Amazon’s 31%. Google was lagging with only a 9% gain, but it’s up another 8% in premarket trading this morning.

“Like a championship boxer that had been momentarily and unexpectedly knocked to the canvas, Alphabet delivered a series of well-timed punches that returned them to previous winning form,” analyst Michael Nathanson observed.

It’s always clever to predict that things are about to change, but most of the time, they stay the same. A body in motion tends to stay in motion, as Sir Isaac Newton phrased it. The basic trends feeding the tech giants, like the shift to online entertainment and e-commerce and the proliferation of more computing power and connectivity to more people and more places, continue unbated. It will take some awfully significant regulatory changes to alter that momentum.

Next week, we hear from Apple. Wall Street analysts expect Tuesday’s report will show that sales came in around $53.4 billion, unchanged from last year (when Apple’s revenue was still growing a healthy 17%). Falling iPhone sales should be offset by rising sales of services, wearables, and maybe iPads, according to the consensus view. But apple’s stock price has also risen a healthy 32% in 2019. Let’s see if Tim Cook & Co. can keep the party rolling.

Aaron Pressman

On Twitter: @ampressman

Email: [email protected]

NEWSWORTHY

Called it. The much-rumored sale of Intel’s flailing smartphone modem business to Apple for $1 billion is finally official. The two companies confirmed the transaction on Thursday, though Intel retains the right to use the modem tech in non-phone devices likes PCs and cars. Not-so-confirmed is the closing of T-Mobile’s merger with Sprint. The latest hang-up is the Justice Department apparently trying to convince the 14 state attorneys general that have sued to block the deal to back down. That led to the bizarre situation on Thursday of Minnesota AG Keith Ellison issuing a statement blasting the deal, then pulling the statement off his web site, then having his spokesman say “it wasn’t supposed to happen.” Stay tuned. The DOJ has scheduled a mystery press announcement for 11 a.m. ET on Friday.

Called it, II. Speaking of news events you probably anticipated, Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank Group closed the fundraising for its second massive tech investing fund, dubbed the Vision Fund 2, with $108 billion commitments from investors including Apple and Microsoft.

Called it, part three. Okay, I know those last two items were fairly predictable, but this one was an absolute lock. Remember at the height of bitcoin mania in late 2017 when small-cap stock Long Island Iced Tea Corp. changed its name to Long Blockchain, sending its share price up almost 300%? Now the FBI is investigating the company for possible insider trading and securities fraud, Quartz reports. Shocker.

So called it. Predictable? This one was fated, set in stone, undeniable. the Senate finally released a redacted version of its investigation of Russian attacks on the 2016 election. You will not be surprised to learn that the attacks were far more extensive than previously reported and that vulnerabilities likely remain, even as Mitch McConnell is blocking action on a bill to bolster election security. Sigh.

A small addition. We noted yesterday that Chinese ride service Didi Chuxing created a new joint venture with Toyota. the venture also includes a third party, GAC Toyota Motor, which itself is a joint venture between Toyota and Guangzhou Automobile Group.

FOR YOUR WEEKEND READING PLEASURE

A few longer reads that I came across this week that may be appealing for your weekend reading pleasure:

Apple Music’s Next Era–And the New Leader Spurring Global Growth (Billboard) “You hear Tim talk a lot about humanity–how we’re at the crossroads between the liberal arts and technology,” says Oliver Schusser. “It’s got to be both.” The new leader of Apple Music (the Tim in question would be his boss, Apple CEO Cook) is relaxing in his sun-drenched corner office at the company’s Culver City, Calif., headquarters on a June morning, explaining–in his typically measured way–why the service he oversees hasn’t gone all-in on algorithms.

The Video Game Industry Can’t Go On Like This (Kotaku) The wheels of the games industry keep turning, in spite of the strain. So how much bigger can video games get? Video games are only getting more costly, in more ways than one. And it doesn’t seem like they’re sustainable.

Khashoggi fiancée Hatice Cengiz: ‘Jamal was not their enemy’ (The Financial Times) The doctorate student talks over the chain of events that led to the Saudi journalist’s killing in Istanbul.

Everything you ever wanted to know about the Rosetta Stone (The British Museum blog) You’ve probably heard of the Rosetta Stone. It’s one of the most famous objects in the British Museum, but what actually is it? Take a closer look…

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

With all the problems Facebook faces in Washington, D.C., it needs all the allies it can muster. Apparently, co-founder and former top exec Chris Hughes won’t be among them. Hughes, it seems, is making the rounds on Capitol Hill to explain why Facebook should be curtailed. It’s kind of…ironic, given his half a billion dollar haul from Facebook stock. But as Washington Post reporters Elizabeth Dwoskin and Tony Romm discovered, that hasn’t stopped Hughes from making the anti-Facebook case.

After House lawmakers embarked on their broad antitrust investigation of Facebook and its fellow tech giants in June, one of the first people they consulted was Hughes, said Rep. David N. Cicilline (D-R.I.), chairman of the House Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust law. Hughes quietly paid a visit to members of the House’s top competition-focused panel earlier this month, meeting with lawmakers and their staff members to pitch many of the issues he raised in his op-ed.

Hughes presented his views as a former Facebook insider, something that lent credence to his arguments, Cicilline said. “It’s remarkable and significant to me and my colleagues that someone with such a role in creating the company has the capacity and courage, really, to say, ‘We have some challenges, some things to look at.’ ”

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Proposed Federal Law Adds to the Backlash Against Facial-Recognition Technology By David Z. Morris

Netflix’s Cancellation of ‘Tuca & Bertie’ Renews Criticism of Its Perplexing Algorithm By Isaac Feldberg

‘Doesn’t Pass the Smell Test’: Investors Question Recent Developments at WeWork Ahead of IPO By Rey Mashayekhi

Why WeWork Embodies Everything You Need to Know About Investor Sentiment Right Now By Ben Carlson

3 in 10 U.S. Homes Don’t Have Broadband: Study By Chris Morris

Ripple’s CEO Worried About Regulatory Backlash Over Facebook’s Libra Plan By Jeremy Kahn

160 Million Government Records Exposed in Data Breaches Since 2014, Study Finds By Natasha Bach

BEFORE YOU GO

This edition of Data Sheet was curated by Aaron Pressman. Find past issues, and sign up for other Fortune newsletters.

Credit: Source link

The post Tech Stocks Google, Snap, Twitter Jump Higher appeared first on WeeklyReviewer.

from WeeklyReviewer https://weeklyreviewer.com/tech-stocks-google-snap-twitter-jump-higher/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=tech-stocks-google-snap-twitter-jump-higher

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randomfanposter · 5 years

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Google Pixel 3a XL review: a premium camera for the midrange

Whereas other midrange phones aim to deliver on the performance front, Google wants to let its camera do all the convincing. Its Qualcomm Snapdragon 670 may not be the fastest, but it can go toe-to-toe against other flagships in camera performance. And since it runs the bloat-free stock Android, its user experience is blazing fast and battery life is phenomenal. But despite its qualities, defeating other midrange phones is no easy feat — especially when they offer flagship hardware and premium quality materials at similar costs. Pros:

Same great camera as the Pixel 3 XL

Stock Android is the fastest, bar none

Headphone jack

Feels well-made despite its plastic unibody

Great display

3-year security patches

Fantastic battery life

Improved speaker quality

Lightweight

Cons:

All plastic/polycarbonate body

Lacks an IP rating

Dated design, looks like a brick

No front-facing speakers on thick bottom bezel

Competitors have better hardware at similar price points

Ever since Google launched its Pixel brand in 2016, it has been laser-focused on competing in the premium end. In the past three years, it has expanded its Pixel brand to include the Pixel Book, Pixel Slate, and of course, the Pixel phones — all at eye-watering price tags at launch.

The Pixel 3a series, on the other hand, seems to contradict Google’s focused market. It’s Google’s first midrange phone series since the last Google Nexus in 2016, and the first time Google has had four total devices in its phone lineup.

Google Pixel 3a XL specifications

Name Google Pixel 3a Google Pixel 3a XL Chipset Qualcomm Snapdragon 670 RAM 4GB Display 5.6″ 2,160 x 1080p OLED 6″ 2,160 x 1080p OLED Storage 64GB 64GB Camera (Rear) 12.2MP, f/1.8 Camera (Front) 8MP Battery 3,000 mAh 3,700 mAh Ports USB-C, 3.5mm headphone jack OS Stock Android Pie Price $549 $649

Design

It can be hard to distinguish the two without physically touching them, but a closer look reveals a few subtle differences. Aside from adopting a unibody polycarbonate shell, the Pixel 3a XL also has more rounded corners and is a smidge larger than the already massive Pixel 3 XL.

left: Pixel 3 XL. Right: Pixel 3a XL

Unfortunately, the Pixel 3a XL has been stripped of an IP water and dust ingress protection rating, leaving us to guess as to how water resistant it truly is.

Google applied a frosted matte grip on the Pixel 3a XL to keep its aesthetics consistent across the Pixel brand. The grip has raised concern amongst Pixel 3 users as they questioned its longevity, fearing that it would get worn out over time.

A discrete fingerprint sensor makes its return to the back of the Pixel 3a XL. I personally don’t see this as a flaw; it’s plenty fast and doesn’t deduct from anything.

A thick top bezel stretches across the phone’s width to house the front camera and the earpiece. Because there’s now just one camera instead of two, I wonder why Google couldn’t narrow the top bezel more. Maybe to reserve room for the front speaker?

The bottom speakers now point downwards instead of towards the front — a perplexing design revision considering that its chin is thicker than the original Pixel 3 XL. While they’re still punchy, stereo sound and max volume are just a bit lacking.

Audio quality, however, has improved by leagues. While my Pixel 3 XL sounded fine, many others complained of buzzing at low levels and an odd vibration when pumping bass. I can confidently say that the Google Pixel 3a XL sounds distinctively cleaner without the weird vibration.

The Pixel 3a XL’s key feature is its camera, and it remains largely unchanged from the more premium Pixel 3 XL save a tiny sensor between the camera sensor and the flash on the Pixel 3 XL.

left: Pixel 3 XL. Right: Pixel 3a XL

Sandwiched between the top and bottom bezels is a 6” 2,160 x 1,080p OLED display covered in Asashi’s Dragontrail Glass, the Japanese competitor to Corning’s Gorilla Glass. Although my assumption is that they’re cheaper, the price difference doesn’t translate into a noticeable quality disparity; they’re similarly smooth, providing equal tactility as I glide my finger across them.

Google clearly understands that most users in this price range would likely have wired headphones. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have included a headphone jack. Honestly, it would be a great addition to flagship phones as well.

All buttons are congregated to the right. Button selections are simple, consisting of only a volume rocker and a power button.

Display

A 2,160 x 1,080p resolution distributed across 6” of OLED display amounts to 401 ppi. There is a sharpness difference between it and higher-resolution displays — if you press your nose against them. At a distance where the phone’s actually useable, though, its pixel count is more than dense enough to offer a satisfying viewing experience.

OLED displays rarely have problems with black levels. Brightness, then, has become the foremost factor in determining contrast. Although it doesn’t seem to match brighter displays like the one on the LG G8 ThinQ, It’s still plenty bright for outdoor use.

Colour characteristics are similar to last year’s panel. At its default colour setting, the Google Pixel 3a XL’s display is a touch cooler than the original Pixel. If that doesn’t suit your fancy, you can adjust the saturation by selecting Natural, Boosted, and Adaptive colour profiles. I left mine on Adaptive as I enjoy the lively colours.

We can’t end the display talk without mentioning that it now kills the notch at the cost of a smaller display. The display area has shrunk to just 6” from 6.3” on the Pixel 3 XL.

Performance

The Pixel 3a XL is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 670 chipset. It was released in August 2018 to supersede the Snapdragon 660, Qualcomm’s previous midrange champion.

Despite being marked as an incremental update, the Snapdragon 670 touts some major changes. Its two performances Kryo 360 Gold cores are based on ARM’s Cortex A-75 CPU — the same ones used for the performance cores in the more powerful Snapdragon 845, Qualcomm’s previous flagship mobile chipset. The performance cores are aided by six efficiency cores based on ARM’s Cortex A-55 CPU. Qualcomm also adopted 10nm LPP FinFETs in 2018, which accounts for the majority of its power saving improvements. In addition, its graphics subsystem has been bumped from the Adreno 610 GPU to the Adreno 615. Details on these two GPUs are scarce, however.

Supplementing the processor are 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, fairly standard for phones in this price range.

Geekbench

Despite using identical CPU cores, the Snapdragon 670 trails behind the Snapdragon 845 in single-core performance due to its processor clock cap. Whereas the Snapdragon 845 can be configured to up to 2.8Hz, the Snapdragon 670 has been capped at just 2GHz. And since the Snapdragon 670 has two performance cores instead of just four, it manages a respectable, yet still trailing multi-threaded performance.

3DMark SSE 3.1 Open GL

There are no surprises here; the Adreno 615 graphics processor gets easily trounced by flagship chipsets.

PC Mark Work 2.0

Regardless of stark differences in subsystem-specific benchmarks, the overall system performance is way closer than I’d expected. The Pixel 3a XL actually scored within four per cent of Huawei’s Mate 20 Pro in PC Mark Work 2.0.

Don’t let a midrange chipset discourage you; the Pixel 3a XL is still competent at handling daily multitasking and all of today’s popular apps. Although its graphics performance seems to be its limiting factor, it still delivers solid frame rates in heavy games like Players Unknown Battlegrounds. AR apps, including Google AR directions and Pokemon Go AR camera, run well, too.

Camera

With a single 12MP rear camera, the Pixel 3a XL sports the same camera dichotomy as the Google Pixel 3 XL. That’s in no way a bad thing; as we’ve previously seen, the Pixel’s camera system is fantastic. Most of its success is driven by its Pixel Engine image processor, which enables features like Night Sight and Super Res Zoom.

Rear camera

As expected, photos taken on the Pixel 3a XL were just as impressive as the Pixel 3 XL. Shutter speed and autofocus were consistently excellent, too. In addition, AI shooting modes like Night Sight were just as fast as it was on the Pixel 3 XL. Check out my Pixel 3 XL review for more image samples.

Front camera

Without a second ultra-wide sensor, it’s a little more difficult to fit in a large group of people in a shot. Nonetheless, its quality is good enough for video calling and pretty selfies.

Software and features

When it comes to smartphone OS, less is more. Third party manufacturers tend to embellish Android with nifty features and enhancements. While they’re definitely cool and useful under specific circumstances, they can greatly impede performance. If you’re looking for speed and efficiency, then stock Android reigns supreme.

Google phones have always rocked stock Android. Omitting all the bloat alleviates processing burden on the chipset, saving battery and allocates more resources to run the more essential tasks. Stock Android’s fantastic experience is attributed by its speedy animations, which amplifies the perceived speed of the phone to pricepoints beyond the sum of its parts.

Google Pixel phones also have one of the longest software support cycles in the Android market. All Pixel phones are slated to be supported for three years from their launch date. This means guaranteed update to the latest version of Android and security updates the moment they drop. Google further hardened the Pixel 3a’s security by adding its Titan M enterprise-grade security chip in the phone.

As bare-bones as it may be, stock Android still packs all the features most users would need. With that said, my chief complaint is the lack of a system-wide dark mode, which will eventually land with the release of Android Q. In the meantime, users who want to reduce eyestrains and conserve OLED display’s battery use will have to continue to wait.

You can still quickly summon Google Assistant by giving the phone a good squeeze. Is it cool? Yes. Is it more convenient than shouting “Okay Google”? That’s debatable, especially considering you’ll be orating your commands anyway.

Battery life

With a power-sipping processor and the largest ever battery to ship in a Google Phone, endurance is the Pixel 3a XL’s forte. Add in power saving features like Adaptive Battery to the mix, and I managed to squeeze out more than 8 hours of screen-on time (SoT) on a single charge. Calling that impressive is an understatement.

Expect two days worth of battery life if email, music streaming, calling, and various social media applications are your daily go-to apps. Even with YouTube, Lightroom, and other productivity tasks added on, I never had to charge it within a single day. Most of my apps run with dark mode enabled, my screen brightness is set to auto, and I try to connect to Wi-Fi whenever possible.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 670 supports Qualcomm’s Quick Charging 4.0+, which can charge the battery to 50 per cent in 15 minutes. Charging to 100 per cent takes a lot longer, though.

Price and competition

At $649, the Pixel 3a XL is fighting an uphill battle against faster competitors at similar price points, especially ones from value-oriented Chinese phone makers. To up its appeal, Google has to compete in an area mid-range phone rarely prioritize: camera quality.

Value phones between the $500 to $800 price bracket typically follow a performance-first philosophy. In doing so, they tend to sacrifice secondary features in order to squeeze in a higher-performing processor, more RAM, and better materials. Sometimes, these phones are sold under a different brand as to not cannibalize their premium counterparts. For example, Honor phones, known for their excellent value, are owned by Huawei.

The Pixel, being consolidated under a single brand, chooses not to spin off into a new brand for its midrange. Thus, with the Pixel 3 occupying Google’s high-end, Google needed to properly segment its midtier phones. While omitting a full-glass body, wireless charging, and dual-front cameras is a sensible decision to shave cost, the trickier thing is performance. Since performance is a key differentiator between price segments, Google couldn’t utilize a flagship chipset, therefore leaving a midrange chipset as the only choice.

At this point, it should go without saying that these cost savings enabled Google to retain its prime feature — the camera — on the Pixel 3a XL. With it, Google is hoping to drive sales with a fresh strategy: by blending sufficient performance with a brilliant camera.

Conclusion

The Google Pixel 3a XL can have a profound impact on Google’s bottom line. By tucking its exceptional camera onto a more accessible price point, Google’s strategy is to drive value through features, battery life, and software support rather than competing in performance. It understands that at the midrange, many users simply don’t care if the phone has the latest and greatest chipset. As long as it runs well — and the Google Pixel 3a XL does so exceptionally — features take precedence. Even though its dated design can be a turnoff, and missing niched features like wireless charging hurt its appeal, they’re all overshadowed by its supreme shooter. With that said, some level of certified weather resistance would be more reassuring to business users who can’t afford to have their devices fail.

Ostensibly, I’m a big proponent of the Pixel 3a XL, but even I must admit the spec advantages of its competitors. Phones from China like the OnePlus 6T and XiaoMi Mi9 all offer faster chipsets and more RAM, which all help with multitasking. The tradeoff, ofcourse, is that gorgeous camera and stock Android experience. It’s also important to note the experience, rather than the spec sheet, when purchasing a phone. While I certainly would confidently recommend the Pixel 3a XL for any mainstream user, my phone review only caters to the most common business applications. Those who use specialized or proprietary applications should decide on a case-by-case basis.

source https://www.itworldcanada.com/article/google-pixel-3a-xl-review-a-premium-camera-for-the-midrange/417943

#it #iphone #andorid #pc #moblie #canada

0 notes

technicalsolutions88 · 5 years

Link

Google’s Stadia is an impressive piece of engineering to be sure: Delivering high definition, high framerate, low latency video to devices like tablets and phones is an accomplishment in itself. But the game streaming services faces serious challenges if it wants to compete with the likes of Xbox and PlayStation, or even plain old PCs and smartphones.

Here are our nine biggest questions about what the service will be and how it’ll work.

1. What’s the game selection like?

We saw Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey (a lot) and Doom: Eternal, and a few other things running on Stadia, but otherwise Google’s presentation was pretty light on details as far as what games exactly we can expect to see on there.

It’s not an easy question to answer, since this isn’t just a question of “all PC games,” or “all games from these 6 publishers.” Stadia requires a game be ported, or partly recoded to fit its new environment — in this case a Linux-powered PC. That’s not unusual, but it isn’t trivial either.

Porting is just part of the job for a major studio like Ubisoft, which regularly publishes on multiple platforms simultaneously, but for a smaller developer or a more specialized game, it’s not so straightforward. Jade Raymond will be in charge of both first-party games just for Stadia as well as developer relations; she said that the team will be “working with external developers to bring all of the bleeding edge Google technology you have seen today available to partner studios big and small.”

What that tells me is that every game that comes to Stadia will require special attention. That’s not a good sign for selection, but it does suggest that anything available on it will run well.

Google scores a custom AMD GPU to power its Stadia cloud gaming hardware

2. What will it cost?

Perhaps the topic Google avoided the most was what the heck the business model is for this whole thing.

Do you pay a subscription fee? Is it part of YouTube or maybe YouTube Red? Do they make money off sales of games after someone plays the instant demo? Is it free for an hour a day? Will it show ads every 15 minutes? Will publishers foot the bill as part of their normal marketing budget? No one knows!

It’s a difficult play because the most obvious way to monetize also limits the product’s exposure. Asking people to subscribe adds a lot of friction to a platform where the entire idea is to get you playing within 5 seconds.

Putting ads in is an easy way to let people jump in and have it be monetized a small amount. You could even advertise the game itself and offer a one-time 10 percent off coupon or something. Then mention that YouTube Red subscribers don’t see ads at all.

Sounds reasonable, but Google didn’t mention anything like this at all. We’ll probably hear more later this year closer to launch, but it’s hard to judge the value of the service when we have no idea what it will cost.

3. What about iOS devices?

Google and Apple are bitter rivals in a lot of ways, but it’s hard to get around the fact that iPhone owners tend to be the most lucrative mobile customers. Yet there were none in the live demo and no availability mentioned for iOS.

Depending on its business model, Google may have locked itself out of the App Store. Apple doesn’t let you essentially run a store within its store (as we have seen in cases like Amazon and Epic) and if that’s part of the Stadia offering, it’s not going to fly.

An app that just lets you play might be a possibility, but since none was mentioned, it’s possible Google is using Stadia as a platform exclusive to draw people to Pixel devices. That kind of puts a limit on the pitch that you can play on devices you already have.

4. What about games you already own?

A big draw of game streaming is to buy a game once and play it anywhere. Sometimes you want to play the big awesome story parts on your 60-inch TV in surround sound, but do a little inventory and quest management on your laptop at the cafe. That’s what systems like Steam Link offer.

Epic Games is taking on Steam with its own digital game store, which includes higher take-home revenue rates for developers.

But Google didn’t mention how its ownership system will work, or whether there would be a way to play games you already own on the service. This is a big consideration for many gamers.

It was mentioned that there would be cross platform play and perhaps even the ability to bring saves to other platforms, but how that would work was left to the imagination. Frankly I’m skeptical.

Letting people show they own a game and giving them access to it is a recipe for scamming and trouble, but not supporting it is missing out on a huge application for the service. Google’s caught between a rock and a hard place here.

5. Can you really convert viewers to players?

This is a bit more of an abstract question, but it comes from the basic idea that people specifically come to YouTube and Twitch to watch games, not play them. Mobile viewership is huge because streams are a great way to kill time on a train or bus ride, or during a break at school. These viewers often don’t want to play at those times, and couldn’t if they did want to!

So the question is, are there really enough people watching gaming content on YouTube who will actually actively switch to playing just like that?

Photo: Maskot / Getty Images

To be fair, the idea of a game trailer that lets you play what you just saw five seconds later is brilliant. I’m 100 percent on board there. But people don’t watch dozens of hours of game trailers a week — they watch famous streamers play Fortnite and PUBG and do speedruns of Dark Souls and Super Mario Bros 1. These audiences are much harder to change into players.

The potential of joining a game with a streamer, or affecting them somehow, or picking up at the spot they left off, to try fighting a boss on your own or seeing how their character controls, is a good one, but making that happen goes far, far beyond the streaming infrastructure Google has created here. It involves rewriting the rules on how games are developed and published. We saw attempts at this from Beam, later acquired by Microsoft, but it never really bloomed.

Streaming is a low-commitment, passive form of entertainment, which is kind of why it’s so popular. Turning that into an active, involved form of entertainment is far from straightforward.

6. How’s the image quality?

Games these days have mind-blowing graphics. I sure had a lot of bad things to say about Anthem, but when it came to looks that game was a showstopper. And part of what made it great were the tiny details in textures and subtle gradations of light that are only just recently possible with advances in shaders, volumetric fog, and so on. Will those details really come through in a stream?

Damn.

Don’t get me wrong. I know a 1080p stream looks decent. But the simple fact is that high-efficiency HD video compression reduces detail in a noticeable way. You just can’t perfectly recreate an image if you have to send it 60 times per second with only a few milliseconds to compress and decompress it. It’s how image compression works.

For some people this won’t be a big deal. They really might not care about the loss of some visual fidelity — the convenience factor may outweigh it by a ton. But there are others for whom it may be distracting, those who have invested in a powerful gaming console or PC that gives them better detail at higher framerates than Stadia can possibly offer.

It’s not apples to apples but Google has to consider these things, especially when the difference is noticeable enough that game developers and publishers start to note that a game is “best experienced locally” or something like that.

7. Will people really game on the go?

I don’t question whether people play games on mobile. That’s one of the biggest businesses in the world. But I’m not sure that people want to play Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey on their iPa… I mean, Pixel Slate. Let alone their smartphone.

Games on phones and tablets are frequently time-killers driven by addictive short-duration game sessions. Even the bigger, more console-like games on mobile usually aim for shorter play sessions. That may be changing in some ways for sure but it’s a consideration, and AAA console games really just aren’t designed for 5-10 minute gaming sessions.

Add to that that you have to carry around what looks like a fairly bulky controller and this becomes less of an option for things like planes, cafes, subway rides, and so on. Even if you did bring it, could you be sure you’ll get the 10 or 20 Mbps you’ll need to get that 60FPS video rate? And don’t say 5G. If anyone says 5G again after the last couple months I’m going to lose it.

Naturally the counterpoint here is Nintendo’s fabulously successful and portable Switch. But the Switch plays both sides, providing a console-like experience on the go that makes sense because of its frictionless game state saving and offline operation. Stadia doesn’t seem to offer anything like that. In some ways it could be more compelling, but it’s a hard sell right now.

Google’s new Stadia game controller has a few tricks up its sleeves

8. How will multiplayer work?

Obviously multiplayer gaming is huge right now and likely will be forever, so the Stadia will for sure support multiplayer one way or another. But multiplayer is also really complicated.

It used to be that someone just picked up the second controller and played Luigi. Now you have friend codes, accounts, user IDs, automatic matchmaking, all kinds of junk. If I want to play The Division 2 with a friend via Stadia, how does that work? Can I use my existing account? How do I log in? Are there IP issues and will the whole rigmarole of the game running in some big server farm set off cheat detectors or send me a security warning email? What if two people want to play a game locally?

Many of the biggest gaming properties in the world are multiplayer focused, and without a very, very clear line on this it’s going to turn a lot of people off. The platform might be great for it — but they have some convincing to do.

9. Stadia?

Branding is hard. Launching a product that aims to reach millions and giving it a name that not only represents it well but isn’t already taken is hard. But that said… Stadia?

I guess the idea is that each player is kind of in a stadium of their own… or that they’re in a stadium where Ninja is playing, and then they can go down to join? Certainly Stadia is more distinctive than stadium and less copyright-fraught than Colosseum or the like. Arena is probably out too.

If only Google already owned something that indicated gaming but was simple, memorable, and fit with its existing “Google ___” set of consumer-focused apps, brands, and services.

Oh well!

from Mobile – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2W4pca6 ORIGINAL CONTENT FROM: https://techcrunch.com/

#Technical Solutions #SEO #Online Earning #Youtube Marketing #Android Developer

0 notes

toomanysinks · 5 years

Text

The 9 biggest questions about Google’s Stadia game streaming service

Here are our nine biggest questions about what the service will be and how it’ll work.

1. What’s the game selection like?

What that tells me is that every game that comes to Stadia will require special attention. That’s not a good sign for selection, but it does suggest that anything available on it will run well.

Google scores a custom AMD GPU to power its Stadia cloud gaming hardware

2. What will it cost?

Perhaps the topic Google avoided the most was what the heck the business model is for this whole thing.

3. What about iOS devices?

4. What about games you already own?

Epic Games is taking on Steam with its own digital game store, which includes higher take-home revenue rates for developers.

But Google didn’t mention how its ownership system will work, or whether there would be a way to play games you already own on the service. This is a big consideration for many gamers.

It was mentioned that there would be cross platform play and perhaps even the ability to bring saves to other platforms, but how that would work was left to the imagination. Frankly I’m skeptical.

5. Can you really convert viewers to players?

So the question is, are there really enough people watching gaming content on YouTube who will actually actively switch to playing just like that?

Photo: Maskot / Getty Images

Streaming is a low-commitment, passive form of entertainment, which is kind of why it’s so popular. Turning that into an active, involved form of entertainment is far from straightforward.

6. How’s the image quality?

Damn.

7. Will people really game on the go?

Google’s new Stadia game controller has a few tricks up its sleeves

8. How will multiplayer work?

Obviously multiplayer gaming is huge right now and likely will be forever, so the Stadia will for sure support multiplayer one way or another. But multiplayer is also really complicated.

9. Stadia?

Branding is hard. Launching a product that aims to reach millions and giving it a name that not only represents it well but isn’t already taken is hard. But that said… Stadia?

If only Google already owned something that indicated gaming but was simple, memorable, and fit with its existing “Google ___” set of consumer-focused apps, brands, and services.

Oh well!

source https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/19/the-9-biggest-questions-about-googles-stadia-game-streaming-service/

0 notes

fmservers · 5 years

Text

The 9 biggest questions about Google’s Stadia game streaming service

Here are our nine biggest questions about what the service will be and how it’ll work.

1. What’s the game selection like?

What that tells me is that every game that comes to Stadia will require special attention. That’s not a good sign for selection, but it does suggest that anything available on it will run well.

Google scores a custom AMD GPU to power its Stadia cloud gaming hardware

2. What will it cost?

Perhaps the topic Google avoided the most was what the heck the business model is for this whole thing.

3. What about iOS devices?

4. What about games you already own?

Epic Games is taking on Steam with its own digital game store, which includes higher take-home revenue rates for developers.

But Google didn’t mention how its ownership system will work, or whether there would be a way to play games you already own on the service. This is a big consideration for many gamers.

It was mentioned that there would be cross platform play and perhaps even the ability to bring saves to other platforms, but how that would work was left to the imagination. Frankly I’m skeptical.

5. Can you really convert viewers to players?

So the question is, are there really enough people watching gaming content on YouTube who will actually actively switch to playing just like that?

Photo: Maskot / Getty Images

Streaming is a low-commitment, passive form of entertainment, which is kind of why it’s so popular. Turning that into an active, involved form of entertainment is far from straightforward.

6. How’s the image quality?

Damn.

7. Will people really game on the go?

Google’s new Stadia game controller has a few tricks up its sleeves

8. How will multiplayer work?

Obviously multiplayer gaming is huge right now and likely will be forever, so the Stadia will for sure support multiplayer one way or another. But multiplayer is also really complicated.

9. Stadia?

Branding is hard. Launching a product that aims to reach millions and giving it a name that not only represents it well but isn’t already taken is hard. But that said… Stadia?

If only Google already owned something that indicated gaming but was simple, memorable, and fit with its existing “Google ___” set of consumer-focused apps, brands, and services.

Oh well!

Via Devin Coldewey https://techcrunch.com

#TechCrunch

0 notes

kriterium3-blog · 6 years

Text

Fujitsu Amilo Pi 1505 Battery all-laptopbattery.com

Before that, there was Motorola. Its Atrix phone worked the same way, but its laptop dock cost $500, the software you used with it was half-baked, and the phone was only “strong” by 2011’s standards. Again, few people cared.Still, the dream hasn’t died. The latest group to give it a try is Andromium, a startup headed by alumni of Google and Y Combinator. Its new Kickstarter project, the Superbook, essentially flips the Atrix concept, and applies it to various Android phones. At its core, the Superbook is just a laptop shell. It’s got an 11.6-inch display with a 1366x768 resolution, a QWERTY keyboard with Android-specific keys, a multi-touch trackpad, and a battery that Andromium rates at eight or so hours of use. (Though that’ll move closer to 10 hours if Andromium reaches $500,000 in funding, which currently looks likely.) In a recent Reddit AMA, the company said the device is composed of soft plastic.In other words, it’s small and basic. It makes up for that by being cheap — it starts at $99 through Kickstarter, and the company expects it to start in the $129 range if and when it hits retailers. (If the campaign hits $1 million, the company plans to offer a slightly more expensive 1080p display option as well.)

To power it, you activate the Andromium OS app — which is available in beta form in the Google Play Store — on your phone, then plug it into the shell over microUSB or USB-C. You’re not limited to any particular model, but the company says the phone should have at least 1.5GB of RAM, a dual-core chip, and Android 5.0 or higher. (It also has to support the USB-OTG standard, but that shouldn't be an issue for the vast majority of devices.)The idea, as it’s always been, is to leverage your phone’s power with a laptop’s form factor. In Andromium’s eyes, buying a new phone then becomes akin to buying a new laptop. Now, that probably won't hold true for everyone. A cheaper phone won’t be as smooth as a pricier one. Plenty of Chromebooks are affordable and perfectly capable. And while your phone is a tiny computer, it’s not a tiny laptop — much of the Superbook’s success will come down to how well Andromium OS turns Android into competent desktop software.

That said, it does seem to have the basics down — a browser, a file manager, a taskbar, a launcher, some level of multitasking, etc. — and as we’ve seen on Chrome OS, Android itself has plenty of apps that translate well enough to desktops. You can watch videos on YouTube, write documents with Microsoft Word, and play a bunch of games. The Superbook's display isn't a touchscreen, though, which could make using those a little less natural.Andromium says it’ll open its SDK so developers can tailor their apps for Andromium, too, though how much support that gets remains to be seen.In any case, the campaign has raised more than $400,000 in a couple days of funding, way past its initial target. While the usual risk with crowdfunding projects remain, Andromium says its prototypes are finished, and that it hopes to ship the Superbook to backers by February 2017.Either way, given how strong today’s smartphones have become, the time might finally be right to make this nerd fantasy a reality. Again.

A Thursday report from The Verge points toward a major potential problem with USB-C, the new cable standard that powers an ever-expanding group of devices.The power stream through USB-C cables is reversible, meaning a laptop can power a smaller device through the same port it uses to charge. When Verge writer Dieter Bohn plugged his phone into his laptop, it drank too greedily from the computer's battery:I used a cheap cable I found on Amazon to charge my Nexus 6P and it drew too much power from my MacBook Air’s USB ports. Apple did a remarkable job engineering the MacBook’s ports — they shut down temporarily to protect themselves — but when they came back online, they only worked intermittently.I've experienced firsthand the pain of a faulty charge bricking a device, so this story resonates.Gadgets are built to pull as much juice as they can handle from power sources, and generally those sources aren't build to cap the flow through their ports. A cable's job is to let a gadget sip as hard as it can without overtaxing the source.

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Bohn found a Google engineer, Benson Leung, who destroyed his Chromebook Pixel with another faulty cord. Leung's made a small reputation for himself online as the sole qualified person reviewing USB-C cords for safety online. He posts those reviews on Amazon. Here's his review of the cord that destroyed his laptop. But those reviews are hard to find — though an enterprising group of internetters have aggregated them online here.The problem here, which Bohn identifies, is that it's too easy to buy a USB-C cable that can fry your computer, and it's not enough to simply trust a few reviews. If USB-C is to succeed at becoming the universal data/power cord for gadgets, there needs to be a simple, quick method for anyone to determine if a cable is safe or not. And Amazon has to stop selling faulty ones online.Today, Lenovo took the wraps off the Yoga Book: A new tablet/laptop hybrid, offered in both Android and Windows 10 flavors, focused squarely on helping users be productive.

Like most tablets made in the last two years or so, the Yoga Book is taking its cues from Microsoft.Unlike most of those tablets, the Yoga Book seems to be inspired not by the Microsoft Surface, which even Apple has imitated with its iPad Pro— but rather the Microsoft Courier, a hotly-anticipated tablet that was first leaked to the press in 2008, and then killed on Bill Gates' orders in 2010, before it was even officially announced.The Courier would have been a dual-screen "booklet" PC. Rather than a keyboard, it sported two 7-inch touchscreens, connected by a hinge. With those two screens, you could use it as kind of a so-called "infinite journal," sketching or taking notes with a stylus on one side while reading the news or making appointments on the other.It's billed by Lenovo as a super-thin, super-light tablet. You may have noticed already that it doesn't have a keyboard, in the traditional sense. Instead, it's a funky kind of touchscreen, called the "Halo keyboard" by Lenovo, that basically tries to recreate the feeling of typing with a regular laptop keyboard without actually being one.

The Halo keyboard also gives the Yoga Book its best, and most Courier-esque feature:The Halo keyboard pulls double duty as a sketchpad, thanks to its neat wide-open hinge. If you lay down a piece of paper on top of the keyboard, and use the stylus that comes with the Yoga Book in its ballpoint pen mode (seriously, it switches), any notes you take will instantly be digitized and put on the main screen. It does the same thing without paper and with the stylus in its normal mode, but, well, that's less fun.Either way, as you can see, the spirit of the Microsoft Courier lives on in the Yoga Book. The second screen isn't quite the full-on touchscreen promised by the Courier (the Verge reports that Lenovo tried, but the second screen degraded battery life too much), but the core concept of a dedicated sketchpad has clearly endured. There's a case to be made that despite the hype, the Courier was little more than a science project that deserved to be killed. But times have changed since 2010, and maybe the moment is right for a stylus-driven tablet after all these years.

The Yoga Book will be available by the end of October, starting at $499 for the Android version and $550 for the Windows 10 model. And while it remains to be seen if Lenovo's gamble on a more offbeat kind of tablet will pay off, it's very nice to see a company finally think a little different.The Insider Picks team writes about stuff we think you'll like. Business Insider has affiliate partnerships so we may get a share of the revenue from your purchase.Since you don't have all day to scour the web for noteworthy sales and discounts, we rounded up the best bargains for you to shop in one convenient place.Bluetooth speakers are a great way to take your music with you wherever you go. Capable of 15 hours of continuous play on a single charge, this speaker by Jawbone is a great asset for tailgates, camping trips, and when summer comes back around, days at the beach. It also has an internal microphone so you can take calls hands-free when your phone starts ringing.

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If you’re looking for a good value on a laptop, the Dell Inspiron is a solid deal today. It’s thin and light, with all of the specs you want out of a computer at this price point: a 6th generation Intel core processor, a 256GB solid state hard drive, 8GB RAM, and a 1080p display. It also features a touchscreen, which can make toggling through numerous tags a bit more convenient if you prefer the feel of a tablet. Also, for those specifically in the market for a touchscreen computer, the Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga is available at a discount at Best Buy today as well, so compare the two before you buy to make sure you find which is right for you.We are big supporters of portable chargers here at Insider Picks. They are great investments in that they will save you a lot of stress over time. Just pop one in your glove box, bag, or pants pocket and avoid the panic that can be induced when your phone dies at an inopportune time. This lipstick-tube-sized model is a great value for how much juice it holds.Everyone could use a solid backpack to travel with, whether on your daily commute to work or to fit into the overhead bin while vacationing. And of anything you might pack in your bag, it is likely that none of your worldly possessions are of higher personal value to you than your laptop. For this reason, NIID created a backpack with your computer in mind. It’s waterproof, and has a cushioned compartment for your precious tech.

The NomadPlus is perfect for those who are concerned they’ll forget to charge their charger (if there’s anything more frustrating that being stuck with a dead phone, it’s plugging in your portable charger only to discover it’s dead as well). With the NomadPlus, you can simultaneously refuel both your phone and charger through a wall outlet. When your phone is fully juiced, you can unplug the unit with the comfort that your backup charge is ready to go as well.Disclosure: This post is brought to you by Business Insider's Insider Picks team. We aim to highlight products and services you might find interesting, and if you buy them, we get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners, including Amazon. Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, is an investor in Business Insider through his personal investment company Bezos Expeditions. We frequently receive products free of charge from manufacturers to test. This does not drive our decision as to whether or not a product is featured or recommended. We operate independently from our advertising sales team. We welcome your feedback.

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saffrongamer · 7 years

Text

Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg Review Script

*To be edited and slightly trimmed down*

*Will be very different after voice-over, video, and final cuts are made*

When I was growing up in the early 2000s I rarely had any exposure to many big game mascot franchises. The only ones I had seen were Mario 64 and pokemon at my cousin’s house or my sonic 3 & Knuckles CD for our family computer that used keyboard controls. And there’s no way in hell my tiny little hands would be able to reach any sort of playability on that PS/2 port windows XP nightmare dinosaur. Nooo, the only thing I really played as a kid was Spyro the Dragon on the playstation 1.

If you’re old enough to remember anything before the Nintendo Wii, then you probably remember going down to your local walmart or target and trying the demos for the latest video games.

You know,

looking directly up,

at a 90-degree angle,

with an impossibly short cable,

trying to play a children’s game. (echo in the background: WHY? LIKE WHAT THE FU-” *cut to next clip.*

Now I’m sure it sounds like I’m just rambling, and don’t worry I’ll get to that point, but I wanted to share my magical 2003 experience with one of my favorite games. The gamecube demo had a special disc on it. This magical little disc had several games and trailers to distract kids and fathers while mom goes and picks out some socks for tomorrow's Sunday Mass. For the older crowd, this preview disc had games like Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell, Soul Calibur 2, and Viewtiful Joe. While the kids they had Sonic Adventure DX and Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg. Of course, I chose the Boy who Hatched: Billy. Hey, I was a little kid, I saw colors, a silly name, and a chicken suit. What more could peak my interest?

So I gave it a try. And I died. I died a lot. The demo starts by having you roll down a curvy path to the beach. I constantly fell into the water. I don’t even remember how far I got before I had to stop. As mom called me away, I felt a mix of disappointment and longing for more on top of my terrible neck pain.

And so I forgot about Billy and his Egg rolling adventures for the next few years. By then I had my own Gamecube and several games for it like Mario Sunshine, Sonic Heroes, and Pokemon Colosseum. Every time dad and I would go to our local gamestop, I would poke through the games and see if I could find anything. Dad would try to speed me along by suggesting a game, and I usually would have turned down whatever he chose. Until one day he grabbed billy hatcher, not because it was at a wicked good price or that he knew I would love it. He just was getting my attention with it because he liked to call me a chicken as a kid and he knew it would rile me up.

So of course, I bought it and took it home with me. First thing that got my attention was that it supported multiplayer. As the older brother I was naturally used to thrashing my younger sisters in mario party, so what was another game to feed my dominance as the eldest child? My sisters and I loved it.

We rolled around on eggs,

collecting fruit,

hatching the eggs,

collecting animals,

attacking each other with the animals after spending an hour on one round

Basically Ark: Survival Evol-*T-Rex Roaring clip*

We had names for a few of them too. We knew some of their names from the manual, but we called this one Chelk, Bunnybird, Lion, Sharky, Ostrich… We weren’t very creative children.

I guess the point I’m trying to convey is what this game was for me and my siblings and how much we enjoyed it. I was never able to get super far in the main game cause I was a kid and I sucked at video games that weren’t Spyro the Dragon or Pokemon Ruby.

So what was the reason for that build up? Why did I ramble about quality family time with a video game about kids rolling around eggs? I don’t know. I don’t have a direct focus for this video. But I would like to talk about what I think of the billy hatcher game now that I’m an adult.

So Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg… How do I begin this? You’re a young blonde boy Billy who’s overslept for his outing with his friends. He and his friends see a small chick that is being attacked by a crow, so Billy beats the fuck outta it with a stick. It is then revealed that the chick is actually the Chicken God of MorningLand. Billy and his friends are then taken to the new world to be the chosen heroes. I guess this is a new approach to the Isekai genre, so move over SAO and No Game No Life Billy’s coming to take over.

After donning the hero’s rooster outfit, Billy Hatcher and his friends Rolly Roll, Chick Poacher, and Bantam Scrambled set off to free MorningLand from the evil crows.

Each level until the final boss is structured in the same method. With a few varied level challenges moved around. You arrive in the new level with a hearty “Let’s Go!” and set off to find the trapped chicken elders, roll them over fruit, and then hatch them to obtain this game’s power star; an emblem of courage. The next level will always be a boss fight. This is what I’d usually consider what a developer would have put into place in order to keep the game kid friendly. Like allow a child to do what they’re able to do and then beat the game for their own success. While the older crowd can appreciate value in getting all of the mcguffins and beating all of the challenges. But that didn’t really happen. You see. There’s only about 6 levels. You need about 20 or so emblems to enter the final level. So if you try to move onto the final level, the game will spit you back to the stage select after you’ve trudged your way through the sand stage until you have 20 emblems. Therefore, since you only have about 12 emblems, you’ll need to go through the stages to pick some levels. Now the structure for the other stages follows a mismatched order of this for a total of 8 emblems for each stage: collect X amount of giant coins, kill 100 crows, race an NPC, find and free the 7 caged chickens, and 1 or 2 actually creative levels for that stage. 3 of the stages have you save your captured friends before they’re blown up for it’s level 4. Then allows you to play as your friends. I always liked playing Bantam as a kid cause I thought he could grab ledges better.

Stages also follow the Sonic stage tropes we all know; Forest, Pirate, Volcano, Ice, Circus, Desert, and Chicken Heaven...

Once you reach the final level you dont need to free any chicken elders, you just travel to the final boss. And I’m sorry if this is your favorite childhood game, but this final boss is terrible. And it hurts any sort of story conclusion the game was trying to have. Your final boss is I believe named Dark Raven. You use a mechanic they taught you earlier in the level in order to beat his first form. You must roll over a dark patch on the ground until it is completely gone. You dont need to get all of the circles cleared, just the one. And believe me, you’re gonna have a hard time with this. The game wants the whole circle gone with not a single pixel left otherwise the circle reforms and damages you. This becomes incredibly frustrating when there are more circles placed down and you can’t tell which circle had which darkness. This is all going on while this snarky asshole raven watches you aimlessly roll around in front of him. His final form is just another giant raven, but “spookier” I guess? At first you can’t really do anything to him and the bird just rips off your chicken suit. But then Chicken God steps in and gives you some good ol’ divine intervention with a new chicken suit. But this one has a fancy light effect thing going on. Anyways now you must dodge the raven attacks and wait for the most damning mechanic of all to screw you over. You need to stand in the direction of the raven. Wait for it to fire a ball of light at you, press the B button at the perfect frame to catch it, and then beat the fuck outta it to finish him off. I died so many times to this thing just because I missed the perfect frame grab. You have zero room for error on this one.

After you save morning land the whole chicken world sings your praise and peace returns. But now we can talk about the interesting part of the game; the gameplay mechanics. Once billy has an egg his mobility is staggering.

You can press A to jump

Tap A again to bounce jump off the ground

hold A for a ground slam

press B to smash the egg down in front of you,

Hit R in mid air to do an air dash in the direction of your choosing

Press B on the ground to roll your egg forward and watch it boomerang back to you

Press R to accelerate yourself for an egg dash

Press A while you’re dashing for a long jump to fling yourself super far

These abilities can be super well executed with the stage design allowing you to travel extremely fast and perform nifty combos.

Each stage is littered with eggs of all kinds. They either have an animal inside to help you, or a power up. You don’t need them for about 95% of the game. They’re pretty useless. You just need to use your egg to kill things. And you only need the animals for 5% just to solve a few level gimmicks or wall blockings. The power ups are pretty pointless outside of multiplayer. Sorry if that cracks your egg.

But I still love the jester hat, please don't hate me.

Each level has 5 chick coins for each stage. These are a neat thing to hunt for, but are ultimately pointless. They allow you to use that level’s sonic egg that would have been normally unobtainable. These eggs hatch into none other than big name Sega characters. These are also pointless. They’re just the normal animal powers copy/pasted onto sonic, Nights, Chu chu rocket, and PSO character models. They’re a neat thing to see when they appear in multiplayer, but they’re no more helpful than other eggs.

Which brings me into the best aspect of the game; the multiplayer. You and your friends can play in either a death match with stock or just hatch animals. However, the animal hatching only goes to a pre-set amount of points. Which you can just steal and win instantly by killing your friends. Kinda just turns into another just deathmatch. And when the screen is all cluttered from splitscreen, it feels difficult to control the camera properly. Why do I like this gamemode again? Oh yeah, nostalgia…

Scattered throughout each boss level is a special egg that allows you to demo a small downloadable game. When you connect your GBA via a cable to your Gamecube you can play several games. Easy and Hard Chicken Shoot, NiGHTS, Chu Chu Rocket, and Puyo Puyo Pop.

Chicken shoot is bad, its just a terrible top down game where billy must roll an egg over some crows. Hard isn’t hard at all. NiGHTS is entertaining, I have no experience with the games yet, but I probably should give them a shot. I can’t do chu chu rocket since I’m a little slow, but my sister is surprisingly good at the game. But puyo puyo pop was great. Lining up colored dots to clear the screen against another player is very satisfying. It reminds me of pokemon puzzle league for the Nintendo 64. I probably should get the new game for the switch…

*GBA SP joke clip*

Last thing I want to discuss is why I think this game might have been so important for Sega when it came out. It was the first full game and original IP developed by Sonic Team for another system that wasn’t a port of a previous release. Sure they probably wrote “from the creator of sonic the hedgehog” on the cover just to push sales, but Yuji Naka’s name might not work as well as it did 10 years ago. His latest title was Rodea the Sky Soldier for the Wii & Wii U which I think deserves its own video at some point. This game was exclusively available on the Gamecube while Sonic Heroes, which released a few months later, was multiplatform. And hell, I’d rather play this game than Sonic heroes any day. And the reason why is so important, is because it was during the era 2 years after the dreamcast was discontinued and Sega went permanently 3rd party. I don’t want to talk your ear off about the 90s and the “console wars”, you’ve heard that all a thousand times before. But since then, Sega has created a variety of games that are only possible because of this relationship they’ve obtained with nintendo. Fans finally got the mario and Sonic olympic games series, and while I’m not remotely interested in them they must be doing well if they keep publishing them. But we also got Sonic colors in 2009, which is a fantastic game. And while some of the sonic games on the wii U were… lackluster, Nintendo paid for the development of Bayonetta 2 from Platinum for the Wii U. A series that sega had zero interest in funding. I could keep rambling on about them even slapping in the the gba demo download functionality, Sonic getting put into smash bros, or whatever nonsense I could come up with. But I just wanted to lament about one of my favorite childhood characters.

So that’s what I think of Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg. A lovable young boy with the ability to roll eggs. Sure, the game is littered with issues and I might only like it because of nostalgia. But I think it’s an amazing platformer nonetheless. Give it a try if you ever get the chance. I’d like to hope for a sequel, but the game’s poor sales have probably doomed any chance of that ever happening. But if you ever want to play as the boy who hatched in another game, he’s playable and makes cameos in Sega Superstars, Sonic and Sega All stars racing and racing transformed, Sonic Riders and Sonic Riders Zero gravity.

#saffron #review #script #Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg #SEGA #Sonic Team #Gamecube #Nintendo #Controller #2003 #Dreamcast #Sonic #Yuji Naka #Rolly #Chicken #Morningland #Demo #YouTube

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sheminecrafts · 5 years

Text

The 9 biggest questions about Google’s Stadia game streaming service

Here are our nine biggest questions about what the service will be and how it’ll work.

1. What’s the game selection like?

What that tells me is that every game that comes to Stadia will require special attention. That’s not a good sign for selection, but it does suggest that anything available on it will run well.

Google scores a custom AMD GPU to power its Stadia cloud gaming hardware

2. What will it cost?

Perhaps the topic Google avoided the most was what the heck the business model is for this whole thing.

3. What about iOS devices?

4. What about games you already own?

Epic Games is taking on Steam with its own digital game store, which includes higher take-home revenue rates for developers.

But Google didn’t mention how its ownership system will work, or whether there would be a way to play games you already own on the service. This is a big consideration for many gamers.

It was mentioned that there would be cross platform play and perhaps even the ability to bring saves to other platforms, but how that would work was left to the imagination. Frankly I’m skeptical.

5. Can you really convert viewers to players?

So the question is, are there really enough people watching gaming content on YouTube who will actually actively switch to playing just like that?

Photo: Maskot / Getty Images

Streaming is a low-commitment, passive form of entertainment, which is kind of why it’s so popular. Turning that into an active, involved form of entertainment is far from straightforward.

6. How’s the image quality?

Damn.

7. Will people really game on the go?

Google’s new Stadia game controller has a few tricks up its sleeves

8. How will multiplayer work?

Obviously multiplayer gaming is huge right now and likely will be forever, so the Stadia will for sure support multiplayer one way or another. But multiplayer is also really complicated.

9. Stadia?

Branding is hard. Launching a product that aims to reach millions and giving it a name that not only represents it well but isn’t already taken is hard. But that said… Stadia?

If only Google already owned something that indicated gaming but was simple, memorable, and fit with its existing “Google ___” set of consumer-focused apps, brands, and services.

Oh well!

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