Love Angry Birds games or hate ‘em, Rovio’s success with the franchise is undeniable. Since the original game’s debut in December of 2009, its creators have seen millions upon millions of downloads head their way on iOS, Android, PC, and Mac platforms alike. And just in case you’ve been living under a rock and have yet to play the game, last year it became available for free online , playable right in your browser. Numerous iterations have entered the series, such as Angry Birds Rio and Angry Birds Seasons, but to this point all have possessed essentially the same gameplay as the first game: pull back slingshot, fire bird, hit enemy, score points. Levels featured different decorations across games, but needless to say it was all beginning to feel a little stale for some of us. Can the latest addition to the series, Angry Birds Space, stand out on its own well enough to be truly deserving of a play, or will its only claim to fame be riding on the coattails of the first game’s success? G...

“We’re all ignorant, just about different things.” ~Mark Twain You probably know by now that I love technology. In fact, I love it so much that I make a point of knowing the fine details of all kinds of computers, smartphones, cameras, MP3 players, etc. But I’ll be honest: I hate cars. I don’t care how many cylinders are in the engine, I don’t care what material the seats are made out of, I don’t even care if it has a CD player. As long as it gets me where I need to go, that’s good enough for me. The cheaper the better, and if I have to give up a few features, fine. Just give me a heater and air conditioner--the rest is optional. Therefore, when I look for a car, I look for the thing that will cost me the least initially and further down the road (no pun intended). Now, any car expert out there is probably shaking his head by now and thinking up a list of cars I should check out to prove me wrong that I can be satisfied with the least the auto industry has to offer. See that blank in t...

We've all been there before: it's spring break, and you've got a couple relatives staying over, and unsurprisingly they brought their laptops, smartphones, and tablets with them which of course all need to connect to wifi. Normally this shouldn’t be a problem...right? Yes, but ‘normally’ is the key word here. For whatever reason, not all of the computers in your house have played nicely together over wireless, and the result is a networking conflict that effectively takes out all internet access for every computer involved. Uh oh! What do you do now? Here are a few tips and tricks: ipconfig The first tool we’ll take a look at is called ‘ipconfig’. This is a command line (or text-only) program built into the last several versions of Windows. Though the tool can be used for several purposes, the two main functions we are concerned about in this instance are a) telling us what our local IP address is (e.g. 192.168.1.1) and b) giving us a new local IP address. When you see your...

Chances are if you happen to be one of the millions of Mass Effect fans out there, you’ve heard about Mass Effect Infiltrator, a mobile tie-in game for iOS and eventually Android as well. Chances are also high you’ve heard that the game is no good, and in fact is bad enough to rival Mass Effect Galaxy, the last mobile title for the series which performed so horribly that it was eventually removed from the iOS app store completely. But after playing Infiltrator myself, I am inclined to disagree with critical opinion that this is not a title worth your time. Controls In other reviews, the biggest complaint I’ve seen is control issues. For the most part, however, I found the controls to function just as well as other mobile games of similar genre. As you might expect, the left side of the screen is used for movement, and the right side of the screen is used for aiming, but as this is a Mass Effect title, you’ll spend most of your time running behind cover, leaning out to fire, and ducking...

Now that the Windows 8 Consumer Preview has been available for download for around a month, I’ve had the time to use it and compare with the Developer Preview of late last year. Overall I have to say it is shaping up to be the most solid OS I’ve had the pleasure of using in quite some time, and provides exactly the refresh that Windows has needed in recent years. I’d encourage everyone to download the preview and see just how good the upgrade really is. But of course, rarely does anyone get big changes done right on the first try, and Microsoft is no exception. I applaud their innovations with the new OS, but during my use of it over the last few months certain things have continually stood out to me as sorely lacking. Here are the top 3 things I would like to see different in Windows 8, either by its official release later this year, in a future service pack, or if all else fails, in Windows 9. Start Screen folders While the new Start Screen may be intimidating at first, after spendin...