[cpd2009]

StarFox Zero seems promising, though the no-deaths mode seems way too much of a giveaway imo.

It's good that it's entirely optional. Even so, why would Nintendo want that in a game? It didn't get a good reaction when the feature was first revealed.

[huckleberrypie]

StarFox Zero seems promising, though the no-deaths mode seems way too much of a giveaway imo.

It's good that it's entirely optional. Even so, why would Nintendo want that in a game? It didn't get a good reaction when the feature was first revealed.

Unless if it's in the form of a cheat code, it takes away the challenge and makes the game's purpose pretty much moot.

[cpd2009]

Lately, I have been getting Greta, the laptop, back up to speed. She's largely been reserved for long road trips out of town since Pumpkin serves daily on-the-go computer needs.

Greta was once my main PC before Patsy and Ruby came along. I was thinking of upgrading her back to Win10, but it seems Nvidia hasn't really fixed the Optimus graphics issues that affect Win10 users. Thus, she is still on Win7 and I'm screening all optional updates so I can avoid installing the "Get Windows 10" thing.

That reminds me... Greta was a purchase from the HSN TV shopping channel. Her Nvidia GeForce 610m was heavily touted in the on-air presentation, but the host was careful not to mention it was actually Nvidia Optimus and the Intel GPU was used the most. They also used a tech trick to "showcase" the GPU. A video game seemed to be playing on the display laptop, but looking closer, it was actually a HD video file of a PC baseball game (likely a trailer) running in Windows Media Player. I only purchased Greta simply because of her white casing, and after doing my research and reading the actual specs on the HSN product page.

Fast forward to 2016, and they still use this deceptive trick for computer presentations, the most recent being an HP Mini PC bundle. See the video below...
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_3zZ4oTCvY[/youtube]
In short, the guy claims the HP Mini can play all the latest games by showing some racing game footage in the media player. Problem is the HP Mini has integrated Intel graphics, which can't play games at that graphic quality. At best, you can probably play these games at low settings, but even then AAA-style games will not play that great on an IGP. In essence, HSN is deceiving customers here, and if someone else has the time and money and also figures this out, they could face a class action or an FTC investigation.

At least with QVC, they live up to the on air claims when it came to the Kphone. They didn't know of the suspicious PUP, but so far, the Kphone works as advertised.

[huckleberrypie]

QVC didn't seem to mean that when they unknowingly peddled an infected phone, but HSN TV's presentation definitely reeks of deceptive advertising, only to get a free pass as most consumers don't know jack about computers.

It's no wonder why I, a technician by trade, is so ticked off at this deceitful practise.

[huckleberrypie]

Here's my Molly celebrating her birthday with some noodles and cake:

[cpd2009]

I'm still waiting for analysis on what that odd APK on the Kphone does, but this isn't really about that, but rather whether or not to switch to the Kphone despite it's obvious unsolved problem.

My current phone, Poppy, is rather wonderful even though she probably has a quad core MTK CPU hacked to run as a dual core. It's fast enough for my needs, and I can actually get through my day without having the OS freeze on me like my first Tracfone, a Samsung Galaxy Centura. There are two nitpicks though. First is the touch screen keyboard. Being a small phone, the keyboard is obviously a bit hard to use at times when writing texts or attempting to log into my online bank app which uses a complex password for security. The second nitpick is the battery meter. For some reason, it can get out of sync after being used lightly for two or three days. Like today, I was curious and decided to shut down Poppy when the battery reached 44%. When I rebooted, the battery meter suddenly dropped down to 5%. I don't think the battery is faulty since it doesn't get super hot, and most of the time, the meter is more-or-less accurate.

I haven't had Poppy for long, but I have had some itching to try the phone feature of the Kphone. Problem is, I don't know if that suspicious APK is malicious or not. Until then, that prevents me from using the Kphone as an actual phone. And the Tracfone BYOP package is $30 USD and I would have to do a lengthy transfer of my number and minutes from Poppy to the SIM card along with changing the Kphone APN and whatnot.

Then again, I did order a blue-colored rubber protective covering for Poppy off eBay....

[huckleberrypie]

Sorry if it took a while for me to send the virus sample off to XDA for further confirmation, but here's the thread in case you'd like to chime in and explain things even further:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/general/help-verifying-malware-t3371390">http://forum.xda-developers.com/android ... e-t3371390</a><!-- m -->

[cpd2009]

I was at Walmart today. I was tempted to get Star Fox Zero for Wii U.

Decided to wait since I hear a lot of people found out that the game has some forced motion/gamepad controls, and many people don't like said controls.

I got a red FC 16 GO (replacement portable SNES) instead. The SupaBoy is decent, but has no wireless controllers and no clamshell design.

[huckleberrypie]

I was at Walmart today. I was tempted to get Star Fox Zero for Wii U.

Decided to wait since I hear a lot of people found out that the game has some forced motion/gamepad controls, and many people don't like said controls.

Not unless if they amend it through a title update. :/

[cpd2009]

A few random bits and bobs for Mother's Day...

HSN is so shameless in it's product shills. They are currently hyping up an LG BluRay player with Wifi, and one of the hosts brings out an ancient DVD player from 15 years ago to entice people to upgrade. While it is true DVD players can be large and bulky, most modern-day players aren't that big at all.

I also started playing Batman Arkham Origins for the Xbox 360 (I recently acquired one complete in box for only $20). It's a rather good game so far with a mix of gameplay styles. Sometimes you fight waves of criminals and other times you use your various Bat tools and stealth technologies to solve puzzles and find hidden paths and items.

More on the Xbox 360 soon.