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Weather Traveler Pro is a nice alternative to the free weather apps
Why get a paid weather app when there are some really nice free ones with the layout, weather provider, and/or specific data you may want? Weather Traveler Pro is a US$1.99 app with an attractive layout and a good degree of customization. Of course, you can choose any cities you like and get a variety of weather data sourced from Weather Underground. You get current conditions as well as a UV index. A ten day forecast that can be shown in either hourly or daily increments is also on hand. The app provides a "feels like temperature", based on the humidity and temperature readings, as well as sky conditions and predicted highs and lows. A particularly nice feature is that like the Yahoo Weather app, you get a photo background that reflects the current weather and time of day, and the image can change based on your preferences every minute or down to every ten seconds. If you find a Weather Traveler Pro image to be especially attractive, the photos can be downloaded to use as your own wallpaper. Weather Traveler Pro allegedly provides local photos for each city, but I'm in Arizona and saw a lot of photos clearly not taken here, like New England fall leaves. I think the localization algorithm might need a bit of fine tuning. Those background photos did work for other cities I checked in Europe, Asia and other places in the US like San Francisco and Seattle. The only major pieces of data I found missing were sunset and sunrise times, information I personally find useful. I wouldn't mind if links to satellite images were included too. Still, Weather Traveler Pro is an attractive app, with nice customization features that let you control the layout and amount of data you want seen. A tap on the screen expands and contracts the information. Each city you enter will display its local time. Most people will be happy with Yahoo Weather and the Apple weather app, but I like the concept of Weather Traveler and think it will appeal to people who want a little something more. If you'd like the Lite version of the app, it's free. It allows only limited downloading of photos, which won't be a big deal for many people, and it limits your stored locations. The Lite version is ad supported. Weather Traveler is not a universal app, and it requires iOS 5.1 or later. It's optimized for the iPhone 5.
Sony Xperia tipo and tipo dual reach the US in unlocked form, give Americans a taste of dual SIMs
Few of us who live outside of Asia or Eastern Europe know the potential convenience of a dual SIM phone. Own one and you can globetrot, or else keep separate home and work lines without the bulk of an extra device in the pocket. Sony is gambling that enough Americans have that multi-line desire by selling the Xperia tipo dual and its regular, single-SIM counterpart in the US as unlocked GSM models. Neither of the Android 4.0 phones is what we'd call a powerhouse with the same 3.5-inch screen, 3.2-megapixel camera and 800MHz Snapdragon inside, but both can latch on to HSPA 3G on AT&T, refarmed T-Mobile coverage and 2100MHz carriers abroad, even if the single-SIM tipo curiously has 900MHz 3G support that the tipo dual lacks. It's undoubtedly price that Sony is counting on more than anything: at respective contract-free prices of $180 and $190 for the tipo and tipo dual, the pair of Xperias may be sold most often as travel-only phones for the jet set.
WSJ: Google set to acquire Frommer's from Wiley, add trusted travel reviews
Just one year after its Zagat acquisition, Google has made a move on another trusted lifestyle brand. John Wiley & Sons Inc., the current owner of the Frommer's network of travel sites and guide books, confirmed the Mountain View acquisition, with a closing expected shortly. According to The Wall Street Journal, Google hasn't made a call concerning Frommer's printed guidebooks, which don't necessarily fall in line with the company's otherwise online-only model. It's also unclear whether or not the new content arm will fall under Zagat's leadership, though a department executive did comment on the acquisition in an interview, saying that Google planned to keep Frommer's on its current path for the time being. Neither company was able to confirm pricing for the buyout, which could help Google boost its reviews portfolio, backing user-submitted travel content with professional credibility. Full details are at the source link below. Update: As it turns out, Google will reportedly be keeping the print staff on board, moving the team to its NYC offices. Online editors are less fortunate, however, with layoffs having already begun.
Wasteland Diaries: A fond farewell
Fallen Earth's Alpha County: the first installment of Sector 4 is here at long last. There was a time when the place was considered a myth by many wastelanders, but it has finally become a reality. If you want to see what it has in store, check it out for yourself. It's very likely that's what I'm currently doing. Since the patch date got pushed back a day, I wasn't able to do a piece on my first impressions of the new zone. Maybe I'll handle that next week. I've instead decided to do a retrospective on what I am leaving behind in Fallen Earth, a fond farewell to some of the things that will no longer matter. There are a great many things I will miss as I cross over into S4, and there will be a great many things I won't miss. As a creature of habit, I fear change, but I'm trying to be as optimistic as possible. With that in mind, after the cut, I'll try to concentrate on some of the changes that I'll be pleased about.
Wasteland Diaries: Faction interaction
The factions in Fallen Earth are a diverse bunch, each one bent on dominating the other five. They all have their reasons to want to impose their will upon the inhabitants of the Grand Canyon Province. They are all also very narrow-minded in their approach to rebuilding society. They are all very intolerant of the other factions and will impede and harass them at every opportunity. Some factions (those on the opposite side of the wheel) espouse downright hatred of their diametrically opposed faction and kill its members on sight. The factions also have sub-factions which usually straddle the beliefs of an allied faction. Each faction in Fallen Earth has one arch-enemy, two enemies, and two allies. The two allies are sometimes called the shoulder factions due to their position on the faction wheel. The allied factions, however, are enemies to one another. This can complicate relations in multi-factional task forces. It can sometimes lead to fighting one allied faction to appease the other. Sometimes the ally of yesterday becomes the enemy of tomorrow. Yes, it makes for some intriguing politics and some excellent canonical roleplaying situations. But when players are interjected into the politics, it can get downright confusing. After the cut, I'll describe the faction mechanics in more detail and the players' effect on the wheel as well.
Wasteland Diaries: The battle of Haietta
There are new PvP objectives in Fallen Earth. Well, the objectives are the same, but the means of achieving those objectives are now different. Conflict towns remain largely unchanged, but the taking and holding of one is now dramatically different because of a few subtle changes. No longer are the non-timed towns captured by doing repeatable missions. Timed conflict towns haven't changed at all. But the other towns had a silly mechanic: having the PvPers do PvE missions to control a town. The attackers and defenders would roam about doing missions and possibly run into one another and fight. More often than not, there was little fighting. The new system concentrates the action on a certain point -- actually, three points. The Faction Control Points (FCPs) are placed near or in the town. They are now the key to controlling the town. Of course you can still do it the old-fashioned way, but it's much quicker to control all three points at once. Controlling all three points will give the controlling faction a steady stream of faction points toward its cause. Each tower held contributes 2500 points to the controlling faction about every five minutes.If you've ever done the missions in a conflict town, you know this is a much faster method. PvP is rampant in Fallen Earth right now. Well, in Haietta, it is. After the cut, I'll give a first-hand account of what I've seen on the front lines.
Clickfree aims at the suits with Traveler for BlackBerry auto backup card
Clickfree already showcased a trio of new automatic backup devices, but it managed to save just one for dexterous crowd: the Traveler for BlackBerry. Similar in design to the Traveler SD, this 16GB microSD card is tailor made to slip inside of your BlackBerry and then backup critical information from your PC or Mac. This one's aimed primarily at business travelers, who are entirely more likely to have their BlackBerry on them than some random hard drive. If 16GB just won't cut it, the company is expected to reveal larger versions a little later in the year. The process works as such: slap the card within your phone, connect it to your PC via USB and watch as the software syncs new files and creates a backup of anything that has changed. It'll start shipping by April for a lofty $89.99 (16GB) / $149.99 (32GB), so make sure you can plop this thing on that corporate card before mashing "go."
Pharos Traveller 137 now available, can use both AT&T and T-Mobile 3G
We're not sure what kind of wilded-out party people need a single phone that can use both AT&T and T-Mobile 3G in the States, but your dreams have finally come true: the Pharos Traveller 137 is finally available. Hope you like Windows Mobile 6.1, cause that's what you're getting for your $350 on two-year T-Mo contract or $600 unlocked. Expensive, yes, but you're basically getting every feature you can think of and Pharos says the 137 is WinMo 6.5-ready, so there's an upgrade path here -- too bad no firmware will ever make that resistive touchscreen feel good.[Via PhoneScoop]
Road Tested: Tom Bihn Checkpoint Flyer laptop bag
After I traveled to Africa in February with a Tom Bihn Western Flyer bag loaded with geek gear, I wrote a post talking about how I packed that bag for the trip. It was the perfect bag on that vacation, as it allowed me to pack all of my gear into various little nooks and crannies, and it converted to a backpack for easy lugging through airports. However, it wasn't the best bag for my many business trips in the USA. Happy with the products that Tom Bihn makes, I decided to get their Checkpoint Flyer briefcase for my business travel. What makes this bag so special is that it is specially designed to take advantage of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) rules that allow you to keep a laptop inside a case as it's going through the x-ray machine, provided that case contains nothing else. That, of course, can be a huge problem if you're carrying backup drives, cables, backup cell phones, an Amazon Kindle 2, and other digital effluvia.
Pharos rolls out Traveler 137, coming this quarter for $599.95
3.5's the magic number with Pharos' new Windows Mobile-based offering: 3.5-inch display -- wide VGA, no less -- and 3.5G data. The Traveler 137 rolls deep with the best HTC has to offer (owing in no small part to their ODM partnership with Inventec, we figure) with 512MB of Flash, 256MB of RAM, AGPS, 7.2Mbps HSPA on T-Mobile USA (seriously!) and European bands, WiFi, 3-megapixel cam, and the kitchen sink thrown in for good measure. Kinda sounds like a keyboardless X1, doesn't it? Look for it to hit retailers this quarter for a nickel under $600.
One Shots: The day of rest
Today's One Shots is another wonderfully colorful shot or Lord of the Rings Online from Jose, who sent in a few different pictures for us to share with you. As today is Sunday, we thought it would be nice to share with you a sunny picture of a traveler enjoying some rest that Jose took for us. We certainly hope you're all enjoying a nice peaceful day today relaxing in whatever game world you call home! Do you have any great screenshots of people from your favorite game? Perhaps you'd like to send in a picture of your Guild, Clan or Corp triumphant over the body of a fallen enemy, or you just want to show off a cool bit of scenery you found. We happily take all those screenshots and more. Just send them to us here at oneshots@massively.com so we can feature them in an upcoming column! %Gallery-9798%
Virgin America showcases pimped out aircraft, lobbies for US flights
If you've never heard of Richard Branson before today, you just might become one of his best friends after checking his aircraft. The billionaire in charge of Virgin Atlantic wants to bring the company's "passion for innovation and technology" to America, and while we've seen glimmers of hope for air travel within the States, it seems that VA's alternatives demolish the current US-based offerings (although there's word that the Panasonic eFx system will be hitting US flights in the future). Utilizing a somewhat cheesy lobbyist website, the airline is attempting to garner public support to allow them to reverse the US DOTs decision to disallow VA from taking flight on American soil. But regardless of politics, the real news here is the plane's interior; first class riders get a plush, leather seating area with a flipout LCD, while "normal" passengers still get a fairly comfy looking chair and a seat-mounted 9-inch touchscreen LCD. Moreover, each passenger gets their own 110-volt power outlet (adapters, be gone!), USB port, and Ethernet jack. The VA-engineered RED in-flight entertainment system only rivals SIA's KrisWorld system, and delivers music, gaming, movies, and even food choices right to your screen. While some may find this tough to believe, you'll even encounter a full QWERTY keyboard, live TV via Dish Network, on-board email / IM / chat, the ability to create playlists and transfer them to connecting flights, and pretty much anything else you'd need to not want to ever reach your destination. So if you're interested in helping Mr. Branson make a few more billion, and would like to fly the friendly skies in complete and total geek heaven, be sure to hit the read link to vouch your opinion, and click on through for a YouTube demonstration of all the aforementioned niceties.[Via NewTeeVee]
"Pregnant" mother found smuggling cellphones
We already know that Wal-Mart is tightening the leash on prepaid phone purchases in a presumed attempt to slow illegitimate reselling and prevent dicey communications from arranging less-than-pleasant activities, so it's probably not the best time to be walking around airports with a stash of unclaimed mobiles beneath your jacket. Apparently an Egyptian woman wasn't notified of the heightened awareness, nor had she attended any acting classes of late, as security guards at a Cairo airport found 48 cellphones tucked under her clothing when she unsuccessfully claimed to be experiencing "labor pains." While trying to brush through customs untouched, curious personnel caught onto her scheming when they saw "too many" travel stamps in her passport "for a woman in her condition," and discovered "over $17,000 worth" of mobile phones instead of an impregnated belly. Notably, no connection was found between this smuggler and the quick-footed fellow who fled with 39 iPods in just his pants.
