If your idea of “big plans” this weekend is vegging out on the couch while making the most of your streaming video subscriptions… well, first: we like your style. And second, be sure to grab Yahoo Video Guide on Android, which helps you find what’s new interesting on only the services you have access to.
It leads our latest look at new Android apps games, is joined by the public release of Microsoft’s Cortana voice assistant, as well as SwiftKey Symbols, an admirable release designed to help non-verbal individuals. If it’s games you’re after, A Good Snowman is Hard to Build is a charming, seasonally appropriate puzzle adventure, while Magic: The Gathering zzle Quest blends match-three gameplay with the collectible card classic. ad up on some new apps to help you enjoy the weekend, whatever your plans are.
Yahoo Video Guide
Yahoo’s streaming-centric app helps you find the media to match both your subscriptions mood.
As Netflix, Hulu, Amazon release more more compelling original content, it’s getting harder to resist juggling multiple streaming subscriptions. Add a cable plan to that, you may well be paralyzed by all that choice. Yahoo is here to help. The new Video Guide app is designed to filter through the services you have help you find the latest greatest movies TV shows across platforms.
Simply check the boxes for which services apps you have access to, Yahoo Video Guide will recommend new content tell you where to get it for how much (for stalone rentals or purchases). There’s also a mood selector, which lets you pick the kinds of content you’re up for tailors its recommendations in kind.
A Good Snowman is Hard to Build
There’s a certain order to your moves to make a perfect snowman: that’s the challenge.
Anyone can clump some fresh, wet powder together to make a lumpy, misshapen snowman, but a good one? ll, as this adorable indie game’s title suggests, that’s not so easy. A Good Snowman is Hard to Build ($5) creates a methodical puzzle game out of the process of building a proper three-level snow friend, with each new puzzle tweaking the challenge to some extent.
See, the balls start small, you’ll need to maneuver them into position to stack atop each other. However, rolling a ball across the snowy grass causes it to grow larger, so you must to plan out your moves to avoid ending up with too many large snowballs, or ones that you can’t get into position without boosting their size. It’s clever, not to mention delightfully drawn animated.
Cortana
Cortana can help with searches pulling up personalized info, although its best asset is to ndows 10 users.
Microsoft’s Cortana voice assistant first appeared in beta back in August, but as of this week, it’s available in a full public release. So what’s the deal with this Now alternative? It does many of the same things, letting you speak out queries for searches, find data relevant to your daily needs patterns, see cards with news, weather, other info, although it doesn’t have the seamless OS app integration of Now.
For example, it doesn’t have anything like Now on Tap, the Cortana ran sluggishly on the Galaxy S6 ge+ I tried it on. So what’s the benefit? ndows 10 integration: you can add location time-based reminders from the desktop have them appear on your phone, plus Cortana can integrate with your email to pull more data for alerts contextual cards. Most users will probably still get more out of Now, but ndows die-hards could be swayed by Cortana.
Magic: The Gathering zzle Quest
It not only looks the part, but also plays a bit like the card game as well.
’ve got Marvel zzle Quest Adventure e zzle Quest, plus plain ol’ zzle Quest 2— now there’s Magic: The Gathering zzle Quest. It’s an unexpected mixture: the iconic collectible card game meets a match-three-puzzling role-player, but the blend seems to work since Magic is more than just familiar window dressing here.
Indeed, the card-battling mechanics come into play on the board, where you’ll link together icons to generate mana to summon creatures support cards. Deck building management are likewise a part of the experience, finding a nice middle ground between the two established properties here. If you like either game’s earlier incarnations, or just want a puzzler you can really sink your teeth into, give this freebie a shot.
SwiftKey Symbols
SwiftKey Symbols will learn from your usage predict terms you might want.
SwiftKey’s Greenhouse initiative has launched a few interesting apps already, including tweaks on its flagship keyboard a hexagon-centric launcher, but Symbols is quite different. It’s an image-based communicator designed primarily to help non-verbal individuals convey emotions, let people with special needs or learning disabilities have a voice.
You’ll choose from simple symbols to create a message—like “I want wash hs”— then press the play button to have it spoken out. And thanks to SwiftKey’s predictive tech, it’ll learn from your routines, prompt frequently-used symbols at the times days you’ve used them in the past. It could be an incredibly helpful tool, so good on SwiftKey for developing it releasing it free.
