Rivet and Other Cool Children Apps

May 16, 2019 by Elijah Nicolas in articles, tech, toys, software

I'm always looking for new, child friendly apps for the iPad / iPhone or even maybe Amazon's newly updated Amazon Kindle Fire 7 Kids Edition Tablet specifically when it comes to reading or math. Granted, I'm pretty sure that my children do not spend more than 20 minutes on any device per week when I'm home as I have a strict no screen time during the week and only VERY limited time on the weekend. Anyways, that's a whole different batttle these days as the Wall Street Journal points out.

Out today is Google's new Rivet app from their incubator team Area 120 called Rivet on Apple App Store or Google Play. It's a speech processing app that has over 200 books availble for children to read and learn. I played with it yesterday with my son for just over 3 minutes and it was awesome. I've also done the Apple Coding App for children called Swift Playground on the iPad but of course, Google has their own app as well, by the same group called Grasshopper. I encourage you to check them all out. Pretty intuitive and interactive stuff!

If Super Mario Run Was Free →

December 27, 2016 by Elijah Nicolas in games, mobile

Mario now only has a certain amount of energy, and the poor lad gets tuckered out whenever you play a level. If you run out of energy you'll have to pay up, wait around, or bother your social media pals to keep playing.

If Nintendo charged $9.99 up front instead of making a portion of it free, they would have less complaints. It's already an awesome free game but "unlocking" it works for me. Think of the hours that were put into development of this game. It's wonderful and enjoyable and the more I play it, the more fun I'm having. Looking forward to see what other games Nintendo has up their sleeves in 2017 and onward.

Do you Clash?

March 09, 2016 by Elijah Nicolas in games

The company made profits (before certain items) of €848 million, or $964 million, on revenues of €2.109 billion, or $2.326 billion. That compares to earnings before income tax, depreciation, and amortization of €515 million, or $592 million, in 2014, on revenues of €1.545 billion, or $1.777 billion.
Clash of Clans, which debuted in August, 2012, accounted for the bulk of that revenue, though Supercell didn’t say how much. The game was ranked at either No. 1 or No. 2 during the course of 2015 on the top-grossing list. It’s not official, but it’s pretty clear that Clash of Clans is the most successful app in the world.

And to this day, my friends and I are declaring "war" every weekend. And yes, I am also playing their new game, Clash Royale. It's addicting and still fun.

The Best Implementation of 3D Touch a la Tweetbot →

October 14, 2015 by Elijah Nicolas in articles, software

3D Touch facilitates this behavior as quickly previewing tweets and links is easier than ever. If I want to see how many faves, retweets, or replies a tweet has received I no longer have to swipe on it and then swipe back – I can just press, peek, and let go to return to my timeline. Tweets are previewed in a smaller card with the same design of a standalone detail view (which is what you get if you "pop" and choose to fully expand a tweet, entering a nested view).

Leave it up to one of the best apps on iOS to implmenet 3D Touch in the way that it's suppose to be. Way to go Tapbots team! If you haven't already, buy the latest version and best twitter client now, Tweetbot 4 only for iOS.

iOS 9 and Apple Maps →

July 31, 2015 by Elijah Nicolas in software, tech

I mapped my way to several familiar destinations to gauge whether the trains and routes Maps suggested were the quickest and most efficient ways to end up at my destination, and they were. Bonus time-saving feature: Apple Maps shows you where subway entrances are in flyover mode, which is incredibly useful. Grand Central Terminal has several entrances, but if you don’t know where the closest one is, you could end up walking several blocks out of the way. Now entrances are helpfully marked “Entrances” (so simple, so necessary) in Maps.

If there's one thing I'm excited about iOS 9 this year, it's the HUGE improvment to Apple Maps. Now how about you start unbundling all these app updates from their respective OS updates so we can see a steady upgrade / bug fix over the months instead of waiting a year? Or better yet, installing a operating system update just for app bug fixes. Thanks!

My Solution to "UnPlugging"

April 26, 2015 by Elijah Nicolas in home, tech, tv, video

I have compiled a small list of "what to get" for those wanting to "unPlug." It can seem daunting at first, but in order to stay connected to television and disconnected from the absorbently high cable bill, it's going to take a tad.

When I say tad, I mean just around $50 - $75 (more for aesthetics) for the antenna. It's going to cost a bit more if you actually want to record shows OTA (over the air) and then a little bit more in order to download them and watch them on your iPhone (which is actually pretty awesome.)

Here is the list and as always, you could help out elijahnicolas.com but using the links provided below or in my amazon store. Thanks! If anything, go with the either antenna and the Tivo Roamio first. You can get the Tivo Stream later or even if that's important at all to you.