E3 2014: Giveaway; Betas, Recap

E3 2014 is in the bag, there were far too many moments to touch on in a single post so I will feature a few highlights as well as link full pressers from the event. Here are links to individual press conferences Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, Ubisoft, EA. I have picked games that I personally enjoyed from the show and I will post their trailers as well as gameplay. If you missed out on the E3 2014: Humble Bundle E3 Digital Ticket, worry not as we will be giving one away either through here or our Twitter @ConsensualTechs. Also PS4 and PC gamers can still sign up for the Battlefield Hardline closed beta. The multiplayer beta for Halo 5: Guardians will begin on December 27th and will be available by purchasing The Master Chief Collection, available November 11 for the Xbox One. The Destiny beta will begin on July 14th for PlayStation 4 and will be available with a pre-order, the alpha is currently ongoing for those that signed up through the game's website. You can currently sign up for The Crew beta for which beings July 23rd.

Destiny- Developed by Bungie, creators of Halo: Combat Evolved. Action RPG; single and cooperative missions; scheduled for release on September 9th for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

Evolve- developed by Turtle Rock Studios, creators of Left 4 Dead; first-person shooter; four-player vs one-player cooperative; scheduled for release on October 21st for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.

Assassin's Creed: Unity- developed by Ubisoft Montreal; action-adventure, stealth; single and four-player cooperative; scheduled for release on October 28th for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.

No Man's Sky- developed by Hello Games; not yet scheduled for release for PlayStation 4.

Super Smash Bros.- developed by Sora Ltd. and Bandai Namco Games; fighting game; scheduled for release on October 3, 2014 for the Nintendo 3DS and Q4 2014 for The Wii U.

Batman: Arkham Knight- developed by Rocksteady Studios; action adventure; scheduled for release 2015 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.

Kingdom Hearts 3- developed by Square Enix; action RPG; scheduled for release for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

E-Learning: Video Game Style

Neil Degrasse Tyson recently told Time magazine “I try to learn something new every day or else the day is wasted”.  I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment which is why I started this blog in the first place, technology is only going to become a larger part of our lives and it's best to equip yourself with at least a working knowledge of technology basics. Here we will look at multiple outlets that give you a variety of topics that you can learn from which also incorporate a video game style achievement and point system. All of these sites offer free e-learning and allow you to sign in using existing accounts so you don't have to sign up for them.  

•  Microsoft Virtual Academy offers "Free Microsoft Training Delivered by Experts." You can search courses by topics or by products and add them to customize your learning plan. MVA has leaderboards that track your progress and award you points for completing modules as well as bonus points for completing a course, you can see how you stack up against others on the site and in your country. In addition to the courses offered MVA also offers live events, the next of which will be from June 17th-19th on Windows 8.1 Update for Enterprise Jump Start.
• Khan Academy features much more than technology training, including multiple levels of math, science and economics. You can learn more about computer science and computer programming, and as a follow up to yesterday's post regarding Getting Started With Animation, Khan Academy currently offers a course on Introduction to Java Script: Drawing & Animation. The site even states "We're full of game mechanics. As soon as you log in, you'll start earning badges and points for learning. The more you challenge yourself, the more bragging rights you'll get."
• Duolingo is a language learning website that is also supported by an easy to use mobile application. An English speaker currently has five different languages that they can choose from including Spanish, French and Portuguese with another seven language courses currently in development including Turkish, Dutch(Netherlands) and Irish. Bilingual speakers can also offer their services in contributing towards making new language courses available. 
  
   

Amazon Fire TV: The Decision

It has been two weeks since I accepted Amazon's offer for a Fire TV, free for thirty days, and I know at this point that I will not need the additional two weeks to make my decision. If you do not have a streaming device already in your entertainment center I believe a Fire TV could be a welcome addition, but I do not see it replacing a single thing already in your collection. I personally have a PS3 and a Wii collecting dust as of right now, the Wii never made it past novelty while I filled up the PS3's hard drive and it got moved to the back burner. If you are looking for a gaming device the Fire TV is not your answer, you would have to pay extra for their gaming controller on top of purchasing the device and that will put you in the range of buying a new Xbox 360 which does everything a Fire TV does but better. While using my Fire TV I noticed that the Amazon content streamed without issue, the Netflix application on the other hand played like it was in a constant state of buffering. I previously addressed the voice command which did a great job of finding what I was looking for with the exception of "Flight of the Conchords". Again, at $99 if you are currently in the market for a streaming device then the Fire TV is a viable option but in my opinion that is where its worth lies.

Xbox's Revamped Games With Gold Goes Live

Last call for free Saints Row The Third. Xbox has extended its Games With Gold feature to the Xbox One, meaning a single Xbox Live Gold account will get you free games on your Xbox 360 and Xbox One. This month Xbox 360 gamers will receive a third free game, June's free games are as follows:

• Halo: Spartan Assault and Max: The Curse of Brotherhood for Xbox One
• Dark Souls, Charlie Murder and Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition

Games are available the first and 16th of each month. The Xbox One Games With Gold program operates a bit differently than the Xbox 360 version. The Xbox 360 Games With Gold program allows any Xbox Live Gold member to download a game and keep it essentially forever. The Xbox One Games With Gold offers games on a subscription basis, if your Gold membership lapses than you cannot play games that you already downloaded. Xbox One owners will also have access to “Deals With Gold” sales starting with Forza 5 and Ryse: Son of Rome.

Microsoft is planning a huge update for June, where the console will receive support for external storage, a Real Names feature for easily identifying your real-world friends, auto-sign-in, major updates to SmartGlass, and an expansion of TV and OneGuide capabilities to more regions. June will also see an end to the need for an Xbox Live Gold account to access popular apps such as Netflix, HBO Go and ESPN among others. Once the Xbox One and Xbox 360 system updates become available in June, Xbox Live Gold members who purchased a paid membership before that day can cancel and receive a pro-rata refund of any unused remaining days between the date of cancellation and the date their paid Gold membership ends. Cancellation and pro-rated refund requests must be made by August 31, 2014 and require six to eight weeks for processing. Free or trial Gold memberships are not eligible for a refund. To request your pro-rated refund, please click http://support.xbox.com/contact-us after the system updates become available.

My First Week With an Amazon Fire TV

I was wanting to update my prior Unboxing and Day One Impressions post that I made regarding The Amazon Fire TV. After my inability to find The Simpsons: Tapped Out on the Fire TV as well as the need for a game controller, not included, to play Minecraft, I made it a goal to find a game that I could play on the Fire TV.

My third attempt at playing a game on the device was Sonic the Hedgehog, I already owned the game and when I clicked to play it I was met with a familiar error message.







I was now 0-3 in playing games for the Fire TV, I decided that I was going to pay for a game that was not only Fire TV compatible but also one that I knew the controls would not be more difficult than the included controller. I downloaded Plants vs Zombies and when I did not receive the additional controller needed error message when I started it up I was optimistic. At the menu screen for the game I could not do anything, literally nothing. I decided I was done with trying to play a game on the Fire TV, I resigned myself to the fact that all new devices have issues and one of the Fire TV's issues was that it would not play games. I made a plan to contact Amazon the next day regarding Plants vs Zombies but before I could, they e-mailed me.

• We're contacting you about order # for "Plants vs. Zombies." We recently learned that this app isn't compatible with Amazon Fire TV. As a result, we've issued a refund to your account without revoking access to it. The app will therefore no longer be available in your Amazon Fire TV app library.
  
  This refund will be applied to the payment method used for the original purchase and should complete within the next 2-3 business days.
  
  We're very sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.
  
  We hope to see you again soon.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  Customer Service
  Amazon.com

So I can't play it on my Fire TV but they refunded me the purchase amount plus it is still accessible on my tablet and smartphone, good looking out Amazon. Still it would be nice to actually be able to play a game, I turned to a title that I own but haven't played in almost a year, Quell. Quell is a simple puzzle game where you can only move in any of the basic four directions (up, down, left right), the game looked the same as it does on my Kindle Fire tablet, then again I don't know what I was expecting given that Quell's graphics, like its controls, are very simple.

Now that I have managed to play a game on the Fire TV I can focus on some of its other features. The voice controls work for Amazon's digital library which is a good thing but when I am watching Netflix and I voice command a show it kicks me out of Netflix and moves me to Amazon's library. Keeping on the subject of Netflix, the video quality is noticeably inferior to that of Amazon's Digital library, I regularly notice that Netflix's video quality can vary from good to bad yet Amazon's featured content is always good. It also takes a while, for me at least, to get the next video to load on Netflix after the countdown ends while watching a TV series.

I did finally get voice command to work for Flight of the Conchords but searching only for "Flight of The", it was the fifth title listed. I still see no reason that the Fire TV will replace anything currently in my media center, I would say without question that my Xbox 360 does everything the Fire TV does and more, plus it does it better. I could also be a little harsh on the Fire TV because when I was watching the Mad Men midseason finale on my desktop I accidentally touched a button on the Fire TV controller and it automatically changed the video source off of my PC. This could be considered a nice feature if you don't want to have to find the TV remote to change the video source but understand, there was nothing nice about it when it happened unintentionally. I do not dislike the Fire TV but I am confident that it is not for me and I doubt that I will keep it much longer before I return it to Amazon.

Free Art Friday: Discovering New Artists Through Social Media

On the hunt for original art from local artists? Start with Facebook. Miami and Broward both have Free Art Fridays which give local artists a platform to share their creativity in a scavenger hunt manner. On Fridays, and even some "Spillover" Saturdays, local artists drop their work in various locations giving clues to where you can find it and all they ask in return for you receiving free art is for you to share your find on Facebook. The pieces do get found rather quickly but the flipside to this is that you at the very least get to discover local artists whose work you like, and you can contact them directly to see if they have any available pieces for you to purchase. I was fortunate enough to ask Registered Artist, the founder of the Miami chapter, a few questions.

• How did Miami Free Art Friday get started? "I started the group in December 2012 during the Friday of Art Basel. It was my friends that I trade art with in Chicago, California, Scotland and Australia who encouraged me to spread the worldwide movement to Miami".
• So it wasn't started in Miami? "It was started 3 years before I knew it existed, I was urged by a few of my International artist friends who had been doing for some time now...it was originated in Australia by MyDogSigh"
• How instrumental would you say that social media has been towards the success of Free Art Friday? Social Media has been crucial to FAF as its our way to expand and let people aware of whats going on. People have been doing art for free before FAF but it's more organized now. I recruited a few locals to help out and little by little started meeting more locals. They told someone, who told someone...etc"

If you wish to get involved with either Broward or Miami's Free Art Friday, look them up on Facebook and send a request to join the group, happy hunting. 

June Technology Events in Miami

June 2nd - August 29th 08:00AM - 05:00PM - Free YouthSpark Summer Camps at the Microsoft Retail store located at 7535 Dadeland Mall, Suite 2416 Miami, FL 33156 United States. RSVP NOW

• Smart Photo Taking classes are available for Jr Designers (children aged 8 to 10 years old) and Designers (aged 11 to 13 years old).
• Smart Movie Making classes are available for both Designers and Jr Designers.
• Smart Game Coding classes are available for Jr Designers while Smart Game Designing classes are available for Designers.

June 7th 09:00AM - 05:30PM - Money Trail Hackathon at Univision Noticias – Fusion Newsport located at 8551 NW 30th Terrace Doral, FL 33122 United States. RSVP NOW

• "Join Hacks/Hackers Miami for the first-ever Pan Latin American Hack Day. This free all-day event will bring together coders, journalists and designers from nine countries for a first-of-its-kind regional hackathon."

June 10th 07:00AM - 02:00PM - Yahoo’s Business & Human Rights Program at The Light Box at Goldman Warehouse located at 404 NW 26 Street Miami, FL 33127 United States. RSVP BY June 6th

• "A day of candid conversations with rising and established companies, academics, and NGOs, all passionate about putting users first. Speakers, including Juan Pablo Cappello of the Private Advising Group, Yahoo’s Vice-President of Information Security, Alex Stamos, and Dalia Topelson of Harvard’s Berkman Center, will join us to discuss what young companies should know about the intersection of privacy and free expression and technology, including policies to have in place at launch and beyond."

I will update throughout the month as new events are announced/discovered.

Amazon Fire TV Free for 30 Days

Amazon sent me an e-mail telling me that I could get a Fire TV free for 30 days, I figured why not give it a try. I do not consider myself to be an Amazon fanboy in any sense but I do have an Amazon store card; own two Kindle Fire HD's; buy most if not all of my electronics from them. With that being said, I don't know if it was my status with them or mere coincidence that got me this offer and I'm not sure that everyone didn't get this exact same offer extended to them. The Fire TV is currently priced at $99 with free shipping, the offer gave you 30 days to decide if you wanted to keep it before you are charged.

I already have a setup where I don't feel that I'm in need of a standalone streaming device as I already own an Xbox 360, Xbox One and a PS3 all of which do what the Fire TV does. I do however recognize that not everybody wants video games as the centerpiece of their device and for them a Fire HD may be able to help cut the cable cord. I am set to receive the device tomorrow and I will post my experiences with the Fire TV starting with its unboxing.

How I Cut Cable, Without Using Torrents or International Streaming Sites.

There are plenty of free sites that you can use to keep up with your favorite shows, start with the actual network sites. Content will most likely be limited to a few most recent episodes and they are usually available the same night that they air, if not the next morning.

• ABC
• CBS
• FOX
• NBC
• CW
• Nickelodeon
• Comedy Central
• MTV

Keeping with free options we should add:

• Free Movie Database - Not Hollywood blockbuster's but free nonetheless.
• South Park - Every episode
• Whose Line Is It Anyway - Every episode
• Crackle - Movies and television with some original content.
• Combat Sports - MMA, K-1 and Boxing, highlights and full fights
• NBC Sports LIVE Stream NBC Sports.

Now on to pay services:

• Netflix - I pay around $8 a month for Netflix and I think they are they best bargain for pay services. Netflix has a large library of TV shows and Movies and have their own original content not available elsewhere like House of Cards, Arrested Development and Orange Is The New Black. Netflix e-mailed me the other day letting me know their price would be going up but since I was an existing customer my increase would not take effect for two years.
• Hulu + - Hulu offers a free and pay version, neither is overly impressive. I have been sent a free month of Hulu + at least three times in the past year and I never extend the service, I cannot get on board with paying them to watch commercials. Most options on Hulu can be watched elsewhere.
• Amazon - Amazon offers streaming when you subscribe to their Amazon Prime which was recently raised to around $100 a year, or around $8.33 a month. Amazon has a decent library including some content not available on Netflix and they are moving towards creating more of the own exclusive shows. Amazon has officially partnered with HBO bringing more content not available with Hulu or Netflix.

Finally don't forget Youtube and other popular video sharing sites.