Minecraft updates

All versions have got fantastic updates.

Mojang's first update was to their own site. It became more modern by plain white with black text. The posts also became easier to find with a recent post navigation as well as a new post tag navigation menu.  This made it really easy to find older posts about all the new updates coming up on all platforms. The help page also got a really cool server status part that allows you to see what's working. https://mojang.com/ to see the new site. https://beta.minecraft.net/en/ is the beta site for everything Minecraft. It's a simple design that takes advantage of the new HTML5  and CSS standards. This also helps with security and load times on slower connections. A welcome improvement from the sites that are 6 or more years older.

In December it was announced that Minecraft is coming to the WiiU. It was released on December 17 with off-tv play and 8-player multiplayer. Since release there hasn't been anything new with the version. The WiiU version included all of the Xbox One DLC besides the halo mashup with the purchase. Anyone got this version? Let me know in the comments how it works, especially the off-tv function.

The Xbox One and PS4 got major updates bringing the consoles to the same version of the PC. The major additions were the End creatures and the guardians. Rabbits, guardians, and endermites are new mobs for you to fear or breed. Lots of new decoration blocks were also added with the new Acacia and Dark Spruce trees as well. A lot of new biomes were added as 20 new technical biomes were introduced.  Luck of the sea, lure and depth Strider are three new enchantments for you to enjoy. While fishing you'll notice that bubble particles now float around your bobber and your catches might be a little more junk then usual. Lapis Lazuli got a new use as its consumed to enchant now, and next time you build a nether portal why not try something a little different for shape and size. Melons are now able to be found and the tutorial world got a makeover. Let me know in the comments about what you guys think of the console version now being the same as the PC. Also do you think 1.9 will come to the console soon after the PC?

On February 18 pocket edition and Windows 10 Beta got a large update. The main graphic changes were making the mobile games look like the Windows 10 game on startup. This is the redstone update giving you all the redstone features you can think of. They added some exclusive things to this version by having smoke appear when you break a loaded minecart and a new way of dying armour with cauldrons. The cauldrons can also be used to store potions and maps are created with 9 paper needing a compass only if you want your position changed. Witches have been added to annoy you with their strength now. Lots of mob changes have also happened in this update that correspond with the new PC update coming up. Are you guys enjoying Minecraft in C coding language?

The PC is about to get a very large update that has been dubbed the Combat update. This update is said to be coming out on February 25. In this update the end got a huge overhaul, the biggest being the option to resurrect the ender dragon. There's a new mob in the end that you can find on the endless islands and even ender cities and a new tree variant. Attributes and attack strength have been added for you to play around with. In this update you can now dual-wield weapons. This can be two weapons or a weapon and one of the new shields. There's also new variations of arrows for you to find out which works the best for you. You will be able to fly with the new chest piece called the Elytra. They added 13 new blocks to decorate your creations with and a few new items to accomplish all the new features. Yet again they have made skeletons harder but hopefully these new shields will help with them. There's also new statistics to look at, status effects and spectators will generate chunks if the gamerule is enabled. One thing that has not been said is if the modding API is the same as 1.8 and for every modder out there we hope it stays the same. Are you guys excited for the PC update and how many of you are using mods instead of vanilla only?

--Shutout

Windows 10 Games Incoming

Not without backlash though...

Quantum Break pre-orders were announced recently and they came with some pretty cool announcements. Anyone that pre-orders on the Xbox One will get the game on the Windows 10 Xbox app. The only problem is that Quantum Break will only be available on the app and not Steam. This means you will have to launch the app to play the game and download it. Honestly in my opinion the only thing I've actually had problems with on the app is the party functions. This will be nice for all of you Xbox gamers who like getting achievements and you'll be able to see the Xbox overlay, plus the Steam overlay if you have it set right.

Not only will you be allowed to share achievements between your Xbox and PC, you will also be able to share your saves between the two. This is Microsoft's attempt at being your in home entertainment system for your couch and computer. Microsoft isn't the first company to use these tactics. Steam had announced their Steam Machines and the Steam Link last year and just starting to take off now. Steam Link and Xbox streaming are very similar, the actual game is stored on one system and is streamed through your internet to another system. The system that the game is stored on is the one that has their hardware tied up in the game.

The new thing that both companies introduced is buying the game once and having it on multiple machines. Steam does use your Steam library to allow you to play the games you own on your Steam Machine. Xbox will use compatible games in your Xbox library to play them on your PC. Yes the similarity is two platforms for one purchase. A difference between the two is that Steam lets you play any PC release that either supports Linux or the SteamOS (which is a Linux version). However these games usually have all the settings you usually get on a PC release. Xbox will be keeping the cross-platform to their Xbox One exclusives. There's no official word yet on what hardware support will be for these games yet.

I've seen a lot of people thinking that this is signalling the end of consoles. In my own opinion it signals the start of games becoming universal. I know that custom PCs will always have the better graphics and more settings, but it'll be nice to switch from the computer to the couch seamlessly. Developers will be impacted in a positive way as they'll be able to code one game for the different platforms instead of having to need twice as many resources. However this makes me curious if Microsoft isn't developing a new console that has regular PC parts in it or if they're working on an upgraded Xbox One that plays nicer with cross-platform.

Only time will tell about what Microsoft will actually do with these cross-platform titles though. So what do you guys think. Will Microsoft give better settings on the PC version of Quantum Break? Are you pre-ordering the game and playing it on both platforms? Also let me know in the comments of what your thoughts on this announcement are.

--Shutout

Counting Cars

For car Enthusiasts without money; it's more than a game.

355, 356, 357, 358, 359... It felt impossible to find that one last car. I kept a watchful eyes over the nameplates and I felt like the last car was going to be a DLC car that never drives around. It would mean i could buy that last car and take a photo of it myself, but the immersion of driving around looking for every car in the game. For me it was pride of "winning" a huge game of hide and seek. And I finally found that last car, 360.

For those of you who are still asking what game I'm talking about, it's Forza: Horizon 2. They have this unique aspect to the game called the Horizon Promo. It starts off with the organizer  wanting specific vehicle pictures for money. But after getting the achievement for taking 100 unique car photos it becomes hunt for every car in the game. The hardest part is that the traffic counts as a unique vehicle.

My favorite part of the mechanic was how it let you take an action shot of every car in the game. I have an entire USB drive full of those amazing cars. To the average person this is sheer nonsense. But to the car enthusiast it's a dream come true. Cars are expensive, and if they weren't we'd own them all. A $60 game full of amazing cars is amazing to start when it's as good as Forza but when it adds a mechanic to enjoy those cars even more, is like heaven.

Car love to try out new cars and customize them. But what we like just as much is getting to make them look pretty too. And that new paint job needs a backdrop to go with it. That's why the location of Horizon 2 makes the photo gallery perfect. The lush green background makes the perfect backdrop. Now if only purchasing a car in game let you purchase one in real life.

--Shutout

COOKIES!!!

JavaScript and Cookies. What could go wrong?

It was three years ago, I had walked into the computer lab and i could hear furious clicking. I then hear the weird and unusual words "Dude, your grandmas just turned into aliens. Those cookies are made in outer space now!". Yes to all of you that haven't guessed it I'm talking about Cookie Clicker.

Yes that game that consumed so many people's live and had friends battling it out to see who could make the most cookies. Parents and teachers getting annoyed at the constant clicking every time you got the golden cookie. Well that game got an update to V.2 and it's just as time consuming if not more.

It's got improvements under the hood optimizing it and making it faster on slower connections. It also got a new lick of paint to be freshened up. The biggest surprise to me was defiantly the sound effects though. They weren't actually overly obnoxious but a little annoying when in a clicking frenzy. The milk for the achievements is still there and if you go on right now he's got a very Valentine's Day theme going on.

The largest difference is the new Legacy mode. After you have so many cookies you can ascend, get prestige points and heavenly chips. This go towards permanent upgrades that you can use. I'll leave you to explore them yourselves. It's really cool to see what the creator has done in the two year hiatus. My guess is he was in school and got too busy so he had to wait until school calmed down. And yes I am talking from experience.

For those of you who want to go check it out here's the link: Cookie Clicker. If you guys enjoy it don't forget to let him know if you enjoyed it. I do give caution as it's highly addictive and will consume a large amount of your time. As it is during the writing of this article I have collected enough cookies for me to ascend again. This game is a showcase of how cool JavaScript can be.

--Shutout

GTA Online Update

GTA Online gets the Valentines update.

Today GTA Online got a new update. It's called the Be My Valentine update.

I get home from school and drop my bags in my room. Grab my Xbox controller and turn on the TV. I look at the community and see the update from Rockstar: "Be My Valentine Now Live". I go to join GTA Online and i get "Timed out loading session". After many failed attempts I finally try a solo session. Finally time to see this new update!

So first up I just have to check out the new cars. First up I found the returning Albany Roosevelt. This classic car returns from the Valentine's Day Massacre Special. The car sells for $750,000 and has all the customizations it used to. The next car was the new Albany Roosevelt Valor and it sells for a hefty $982,000. There's a lot of customization for you to make it your own afterwards. 

It's now time to go for a drive. First stop is AmmuNation on Spanish ave. I walk in and there it is. The Gusanburg Sweeper. This retro style mob-boss like gun is a blast to have. It's got a large capacity clip to start and you can make that clip even larger with an upgrade. And it also comes in your standard GTA gun colors.

Next stop is the Suburban on the other end of Alta pl. This is where the meat of the update is. 20 off shoulder shirts, 17 bustiers, 23 dresses, 12 high heels, 3 necklaces, 15 stockings, 17 panties, 6 valentines formal outfits and 6 valentines underwear outfits were added today for the ladies.

Next up was my male character and the clothes he can get. 14 boxers, 12 pants, 11 suit jackets, 11 vests, 12 shoes, 12 fedoras, 6 valentines formal outfits and 6 valentines underwear outfits were added today for the gentlemen.

Next was the Vespucci mask shop were there were 7 new masks to check out. And now to wait until Friday to play the all new adversary mode "Til Death Do Us Part". I will be loading that up on friday at a friends place in the city and will be back to let you all know how that is going. This update has a lot of clothing so if you're into that kind of stuff go check it out!

I decided i would really get into the holiday spirit and got my characters into red and black lingerie. I then went with their primary vehicles and customized the vehicle to match. My female character is on Xbox One and the male is on my PC. I have however imported my female character in on PC so my brother and i can play together. It was actually really fun getting into this update and playing with my brother and other friends as we had a risque party at my house in game.

--Shutout

New Samsung Phones

New Samsung phones with better specs incoming!

I use an IPhone as my daily driver because it's what I'm used to and I like the link between it and my laptop/IPad. My next favorite phone definitely has to be the Samsung. When the 6 edge came out I was curious about how annoyed people would get by accidentally using the edge features. After using a friends for a couple of days I realized Samsung made the features right so it didn't annoy you by doing things you didn't want it to. Although that very well could have been my friend's settings as I didn't want to play with them too much.

On  February 21, 2016 Samsung has confirmed the S7 will be announced and shown to the public. There's a lot of rumors going around about the hardware and specs on it so I am going to go through them and the possibilities. However the look has reportedly not changed except maybe a new size of screen.

These new phones are to look a lot like their S6 predecessor. The rumor as of right now is that there will be a 5.5 inch S7 Edge and a 5.1 inch S7 Flat. Screen resolution is said to stay the same at 1440 x 2560. This resolution always surprises so many people because they see that their 27" has 1080 x 1920 and wonder how their phone has higher numbers. Those numbers are pixels per inch is the difference. take an inch of your screen and an inch of your phone and you have a direct comparison.

The battery of these new phones is the biggest of rumors. These phones are to have the largest battery in a Samsung phone. According to an FCC filing by Samsung these new phones are to have a 3600mAh battery. This is a large improvement over the Note 5's 3000mAh battery (mAh stands for miliAmps per hour). I know there are complaints about battery life in the Samsung S6 so this should help keep heavy users with a phone all day.

Storage in these phones are rumored to have expandable storage with the return of MiroSD card slots. Me always having an IPhone have never been able to have expandable storage. I also use my phone as just a phone so I've never needed. On that note a friend of mine is always running out of space on his phone downloading the latest emulator or the next big mobile game. This is where I can see that expandable storage being used by a lot of people. Also business people that write documents on their phone will more than likely enjoy having an easy way of transferring those documents.

Samsung has decided to keep the 3.5mm audio jack, please everyone keep it as well, and the micro-USB port looks like it could stay too. With USB-C being so new I think it would be better to keep the micro-USB. There's been a lot of cheap USB-C cables on the market recently claiming to be of high quality. These cheap cables have fried laptops and test equipment because of backwards wiring. So also please be careful when buying any type of cable and check out reviews if you're unsure.

The camera is rumored to be a downgrade which doesn't make much sense other than that it would get rid of the camera bump. The processor is up in the air whether it will be Snapdragon 820 or Samsung's own Exynos 8 Octa 8890. Samsung has used different chips in different regions depending on the cellular service provided though. There's also talks that Samsung will follow Apple with touch sensitivity. There is also the possibility of Samsung going back to water resistant phones as well.

Now remember that these are all rumors. They are however feasible rumors. Larger batteries have been asked for for many years and Samsung may be the first to deliver. I can't wait for the event on February 21 to see what all is on these new phones. Don't forget to check back here where I will cover the event and the new phones.

--Shutout

New blog site for the show!

Welcome to the blog to match the channel!

Hey guys, shutout here! I'm starting this blog to bring you more consistent news of the stories that matter to me. This blog is going to supplement the videos on my YouTube channel by bringing more in depth stories and even some I just don't have time to do on the channel.

And about that time, I don't have a lot of it at times. I'm a full time student in a computer systems course. I know a lot about computers and learning even more everyday. Technology is a passion of mine and I would like to bring that passion to you all as well.

This will also be easier on me because of my terrible internet. I live far away from the city and my internet doesn't always work. I'm not able to upload from data but i will be able to put a blog post when a major story appears. This will also help when something that comes up that should be talked about that day before it becomes irrelevant.

I hope you guys enjoy my opinions and thoughts on the posts I make and let me know what you think of the layout. Check back soon to see my first post about the upcoming Samsung event!

--Shutout