Shmee.Me

April 21, 2014

Shmee Visits The Seattle Museum Of Flight!

I recently got the chance to check out the Seattle Museum of Flight, and I am glad that I did. It is amazing how many planes and attractions that they pack in to this museum: They have the grand gallery, that has almost every type of plane imaginable including the SR-17 Blackbird; The Boeing exhibit, that shows how the plane maker got its start; The WWI/WWIII area, that has just about every small great war fighter crammed in to it; The air park with a Concord and an Air Force One for you to walk around in, and last but not least the Space Shuttle Trainer that the astronauts got to train for their missions on.

There are bigger air museums out there, but the Seattle Museum of Flight is very good. It filled me full of wonder around every turn. If you are in Seattle and looking for something to do, The Museum of Flight was more than worth the time and money to check out!

April 17, 2014April 17, 2014

Shadowrun Returns with Dragonfall!

Last year Hairbrained Schemes released the Kickstarter funded game Shadowrun Returns, and I loved it! This year they have released an expansion called Shadowrun: Dragonfall, and while it is still pretty much the same game mechanics wise, some small updates have made a world of difference.

The biggest change is the fact that you can save just about anywhere, and if you get the Dragonfall update it will allow you to save anywhere in Returns as well! They also did a better job of introducing a cast of characters that are with you for the entire story, so it feels more like the table top version of Shadowrun that we have all come to know and love. Also the base feels more like a base instead a random location that you show up at from time to time.

This is no small DLC mission either. It is easily the same length, if not longer, than Shadowrun Returns, so even though $15 sounds like a lot (since I backed it on Kickstarter it was free for me “Yeah Me!), at least they are giving you a lot of content.

I was kind of bummed that I had to play as a new character, but being forced to start over has allowed me to fix my leveling mistakes from before, and play this new location differently. Being from the Pacific Northwest I probably shouldn’t be saying this, but Germany has been more fun than Seattle.

This update makes Shadowrun Returns worth playing again, and it addresses one of the main issues that most people had with the game with the save anywhere feature. If they really wanted to win back players they would release the save fix for free, but people at least have the option to get it if they want it. If you are looking for a fun turn based RPG to play, Shadowrun: Dragonfall is a great option.

April 16, 2014April 16, 2014

Five Favorite Apps For Windows Phone!

With the arrival of Windows Phone 8.1, I thought it would be fun to list my five favorite apps for Windows Phone. Well at least the five apps that I use all the time, so here they are in reverse order (links to the apps are in the titles):

5: Calculator³

Windows Phone comes with a calculator, but it doesn’t come with a scientific calculator that also does currency/unit conversion, calculate tips and tax based on saved amounts, and more. This is a great app. It is worth the buck fifty they charge, but if you are cheap you can get the free ad supported Calculator².

4: HERE Drive +

It is no secret that Nokia makes great hardware, but the real reason to get a Nokia Windows Phone is all apps they make for it. The crown jewel of their app catalog is HERE Drive +. It is one of the best turn by turn navigation apps made, and if you are a Nokia user, you get it for free. Though the big news out of BUILD this year is that they are going to give this away to all Windows Phone users in the future!

3: Halo: Spartan Assault

Every smart phone needs games, so if it is a smart phone made by Microsoft it had better have Halo. Halo: Spartan Assault isn’t perfect, but it s a fun diversion, and it is always going on sale. Now that all Windows Phones have Cortana, you should have the Master Chief as well.

2: MetroTube

Watching YouTube.com on Windows Phone 8.1 got better due to in-page viewing, but if you are going to watch a lot of YouTube.com than MetroTube has got you covered. It allows you to download movies, and add them to favorites. Plus it is just easier to navigate then the browser. It costs a dollar, but the “free trial” is unlimited, so you don’t “have” to pay for it. Still, I think the devs have earned their money.

1: Amazing Weather HD

There are like fifteen million weather apps for Windows Phone, but Amazing Weather HD is the best. It has all the info you could ever need in a weather app. Plus it looks great with hi-res pictures, and customizable Live Tiles. It has a free trial, but I have never regretted the dollar and a half I spent on this wonderful app.

Bonus For Web Admins: Analytics Client

If you have a website, you are going to want to know how many people are looking at it. Analytics Client gives me all the information I need, and it is free. There are prettier Google Analytics viewers, but this one is fast, and it shows me just what I need.

Good App In The Dog House: MyFitnessPal

I used this app to loose a lot of weight, but they updated their app last year, and now it stops working all the time. They have forced me to just pin their site to my Start Screen and ignore the app altogether. If they fix their app it is the best calorie counter out there, but for now stay away, or just use the site like me.

That is my list, plus a couple extras. I hope you found it useful!

April 15, 2014April 15, 2014

Windows Phone 8.1 Is Out!

If you have been following tech news at all then you have been hearing about “Cortana”. The new virtual assistant for Windows Phone that comes with the 8.1 update, but you may have also heard that that you will have to wait until “summer” to get that update, well you heard wrong. You can get the update now if you sign up for the “Developer Preview”.

To get the “Developer Preview” just follow these steps:

1: Sign up for a free account here: http://appstudio.windowsphone.com/ with the same email address you use for your Microsoft Account.

2: Then download this app: Preview for Developers

3: Open the App and sign in with your account, and check the box that you want to get the updates.

4: Go to “Settings” -> “Phone Updates” -> “Check for Updates”

There should be two updates. A really small one that takes like ten minutes to install, and a big one that will take up to forty-five minutes to install. It is worth the wait. Remember even though this is called a “Preview” this is the final 8.1 code not a beta, and you will never have to uninstall it. You will just continue to get updates before everyone else.

There are several major additions to the Windows Phone operating system:

Cortana

She is pretty much a merge of Google Now and Siri. She has seemed to work well so far, and it is very nice to be able to control my phone with natural speech or text. She will now live on your phone’s search button, or in her App. Never fear if you just want to search, type or say it in and she will still look it up. She will just do her best to tailor the search to your interests and behaviors. Pretty much she makes Bing smarter, and that is a good thing.

Notification Center

This has taken waaaaay too long to come out to Windows Phone, and while it hasn’t always been seen as needed thanks to Live Tiles. It is great to get all your important updates in one place. To access the Notification Center just swipe down on the top of your phone.

Start Screen backgrounds

Again this is something that should have been around awhile, but now in addition to your lock screen pictures, you can have a picture be the background for your Tiles. It is a small thing that makes a major difference. It makes the phone feel more like your own.

VPNs

Are you using this phone for work, or you just want to control your home network? Then you can connect your phone to the VPN to gain access to file shares, control servers, or just play around with stuff. They have also opened up the VPN API, so programmers can make custom VPN apps for specific routers and whatnot.

More Live Tile Space

You used to have to have a 1080p screen to get another column of tiles, but you can now flip a switch in the appearance settings to give yourself more room. This is great for packing in just a little more info in to your Start Screen. Again this is a small thing that is much appreciated.

Better Default Apps

The default Windows Phone apps like the Camera and Maps have gotten a huge update. The Camera is way better, and I like it now more than the Nokia one. Bing maps can now download and save offline map data, so you are not using data when using Bing for navigation. This perfect for phone plans with small data caps.

Multitasking

This is one that I am so-so on. Apps can now stay running even when you back out of them. The new Facebook App does this. This is great for apps you use all the time, but if you are not ready for it they can drain the crap out of your battery, so be sure to hold the back button and check to see if you have any running apps from time to time.

Installing Apps To SD Cards

This is big deal to anyone that has a budget Windows Phone like a Lumia 520. You can now buy a giant SD card and install your apps to it to save space. Just be sure to buy a fast card, so those apps load quickly.

There are so many updates in Windows Phone 8.1 that I am sure that I am missing something you will find important, but the real gist is that you should update your phone to 8.1 as soon as you can. It is great, and since you can do it for free and there are very few hoops to jump through, there is no reason to wait.

April 14, 2014April 14, 2014

Marvel Kicks Off Summer With The Winter Soldier!

It is looking like Marvel’s bet to start summer in early spring is paying off. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is the sequel to 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger, and this movie is better in just about every possible way. Future Marvel movies will have to work very hard if they are going to be better than this film.

The story picks up sometime after the Avengers movie, and S.H.I.E.L.D is now a respected world counter terrorist agency. Its most famous member is Captain America, AKA Steve Rodgers (Chris Evans), but just as things seem to be going well for the agency, enemies from within and without will threaten its very existence.

There was a lot of talk before this movie came out that it was more of a 70’s spy movie than an action movie, and I wouldn’t go that far. Captain America 2 is still about beating up bad guys, but they definitely use the spy genre’s tropes to their benefit. Captain America 2 also takes on a much darker tone, not Dark Knight dark, but still much more serious than the other Marvel movies, and it is like a breath of fresh air.

While I love the witty banter and silly jokes in the other movies, it was nice to have one of the movies take itself seriously, and to deal with current issues. That is not to say there aren’t good one liners and a couple of laughs in this film, because there are, but this film has important things deal with: like the USA now being a surveillance state. Not to mention Marvel Film Universe changing events.

The cast continues to be wonderful: Chis Evan, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, and Colby Smulders (who I was underwhelmed with before) all bring this movie to life beautifully. They really know their characters well at this point, and now they can make their Marvel counterparts feel like real living people despite the fact they are larger than life superheroes. There isn’t a weak link as far as acting goes in this film.

The only problem I have with this movie is the title. You would think that with The Winter Soldier’s name being in the title, that it would be all about him, but this is a S.H.I.E.L.D movie. It really should be Captain America and The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D (Oh yeah it has The Winter Soldier in it too!) or something. Still that is a very minor quibble, and it has nothing to do with the quality of the film. It just threw my expectations for a loop a bit.

This was a big movie for Marvel because it sets up the next group of films as we head for next big Avengers flick, and so it took on a different tone and style then before. Marvel has had amazing success with this universe of films, and if they can keep pumping out movies like this, they will continue to do so. You should see Captain America: The Winter Soldier. It is fantastic.