Kiran Upadhyay

In a move that left many gamers scratching their heads, Nintendo released the 2DS , a portable gaming system that removes the glasses-free 3D screen and clamshell design for which the console is known. It’s a big change, as all but one of Nintendo’s recent handheld consoles have featured a hinge (the one exception being the GameBoy Micro ). Gamers were left wondering who this console is for and why Nintendo made a non-3D console which is obviously a hassle to bring around? We’ve had the chance to play with the Nintendo 2DS for about a week now, and we have the answer to all of these questions and more. Best of all, we’re giving this Nintendo 2DS with a copy of Pokemon X away to one lucky reader! Keep reading to the bottom of the page to find out exactly how to enter for a chance to take this portable gaming system home for yourself. Introducing The Nintendo 2DS The new Nintendo 2DS is a portable handheld gaming console clearly aimed towards younger gamers, as remo

Good apps like to show off their many features. Great apps get out of the way and let you do what you came to do. And that’s what Simplenote has always been about. It has been the best note-taking app on the Web, Windows, Mac or iOS, and new owners Automattic (the same company behind WordPress) has now brought this same simplicity to Android for free. It has been three years since Simplenote first released and while there were official apps for online and iOS, other platforms weren’t as lucky. On Android, third-party apps like NotationalAcceleration , Flick Note and Glance Note did a decent job of syncing with Simplenote, but it wasn’t quite the same seamless experience. Well, all that changes with Simplenote for Android . Let’s dive right in… Keep It Simple, Stupid When on Windows, you probably use Notepad extensively to jot down notes or even as a clipboard. On Android, that’s what Simplenote can be. It’s the perfect app to just take notes, journal your thoughts, or e

Bored kids are a nightmare, and that’s why tablets were invented. Weren’t they? Much as you may love your tablet, if there are kids around you know sometimes your tablet is going to wind up in their hands. It might be that you want to keep them entertained while you wait somewhere, or maybe the kids just really love to play with it. Either way, you’re going to want to have a few apps ready and waiting. Here are a handful of apps which are perfect for entertaining little kids, from toddlers to nearly school age. There’s a paint app, a music app, connect-the-dots dinosaurs and an app full of little puzzles and skill-testers. With these apps on the ready, you’ll be able to keep a small child entertained for hours. Let’s hope it never comes to that, though! Kids Song Machine Most kids love nursery-rhyme apps, cute pictures and interactivity, and this app has all of the above. Visually, this app is like an indie game with a really stylish look. The kids turn a cog to choo

Whether it’s enjoying a nice paved trail through countryside, doing the daily commute to the grocery store to get food, or bombing through some singletrack  on a mountain side, biking is a huge passion for many. I still consider myself an amateur compared to experienced cyclists and mountain bikers, so on many occasions I turn to the Internet for improving my biking IQ. In the midst of doing that, I also discovered plenty of videos of incredible riders all around the world, even some right where I live. If Only Every Mountain Biking Video Was Shot Like This Some might argue that you shouldn’t start a meal (article) with desert (the best), but honestly, I can’t help it — this is my favorite mountain biking video of all time. One thing that always amazes me is how videographers get “those shots” – you know, the ones that seem practically impossible. And this video is full of them. That aside, the mountain bikers are extremely skilled, and how all four of them fly thr

Valve, the makers of Half-Life, have unveiled a new operating system meant for gamers: SteamOS. According to Valve, it’s meant for “living room machines”, so this could be what the touted SteamBox runs on when it launches later this month. Of course, it’s going to be all about the digital distribution platform Steam. SteamOS is built on Linux, so it won’t run all of the nearly 3000 games on the Steam store, but Steam for Linux has been around for a while and there are a few great titles already in there, like Portal and Half-Life. However, Valve announced that if you have a Windows or Mac system running in your house, then those can be streamed over WLAN to your SteamOS machine. And since it’s a living room machine, you are probably going to share it with family members. So Steam has introduced a Family Sharing mode to play each other’s games while earning your own achievements. You will also have control over which games are shown to which user, so your dad’s games don’

2013 isn’t over yet, but with Intel’s 4 th -gen Core processors and Nvidia’s GTX 700-series already out, it looks like the hardware gamers care about won’t see any major upgrades until after the holidays. Anyone looking at a laptop gaming powerhouse will find that now is a great time to buy, and some sweet deals are likely to appear over the next few months. You might be wondering, then, what laptop is best. That’s a difficult question. Processors and GPUs have become much more efficient over the last few years, and that’s made gaming hardware available in a wider range of systems, at a vast range of prices. Still, there are some laptops that stand out. ASUS G750 The ASUS Republic Of Gamers laptops have been strong value leaders since their introduction about five years ago, and the G750 is no exception. Built with the latest 4 th -gen Intel Core processors, and boasting Nvidia 700-series graphics, this laptop is equipped to handle serious gaming. Entry-level mode

You’d better train your index finger before taking this challenge. Don’t hurt yourself. The 100 Meter Scroll  is the brainchild of designer/developer Michael Vestergaard, and just could be the most fun thing you do today. Take the challenge , then tell us your best time.

The Second Punic War killed my interest in fiction. Tolkein’s fantastical Battle Of Helm’s Deep seems but a minor skirmish compared to the Battle of Lake Trasimene, where Hannibal managed to hide his entire army, surprise the Romans, and drive them into the lake, killing an estimated 15,000 with less than 2,500 causalities of his own. My mind can’t begin to comprehend what such a fight might have looked like, or the desperate thoughts that must have risen in Roman men forced to choose between drowning in their armor or dying on a Carthaginian spear. Surprisingly, most games abstract this chaos with numbers and stats. Only a few games have tackled it head-on, and of those that have, only Total War has had consistent success. When I cut my teeth on Medieval: Total War, the first game in the franchise I owned, it was a revelation. The brutal drama of war was no longer confined to the pages of history, but instead had been freed to run rampant inside my PC. In the latest i

The living room game console has become a central media hub for many, which can mean large movie downloads. Despite all the controversy surrounding DRM, digital game downloads have finally arrived too – nowadays, you can download premium AAA titles on launch day without having to wait for a piece of plastic to arrive in the mail. And if you’re a PlayStation Plus subscriber, you have gigabytes of new games literally thrown at you every month. On environmental grounds, I couldn’t be happier about the move to digital – but it means local storage needs are growing rapidly. The days of having a slot-in memory cartridge are far gone – a few hundred gigabytes would be modest by today’s standards. Let’s upgrade. Luckily, Sony made it really easy and user-serviceable to upgrade the internal storage drive – unlike Microsoft, who locked it down and demanded you buy first-party approved models only. Upgrading your PS3 drive will not void the warranty. Why Upgrade? I recently bought a ne

PC gamers are spoiled for choice when it comes to free and inexpensive games, but those who enjoy consoles are not as lucky. There’s less selection, and development is closed, so free content is rare indeed. Rare – but not entirely absent. Grabbing free games for a console requires more effort, and may force you to settle for titles that aren’t exactly AAA. But if you’re willing to spend some time, or you don’t mind signing up for certain services, there is a modest selection of free console games available. Xbox Live And PlayStation Plus Yes, both Xbox Live and PlayStation Plus are paid services. But you need Xbox Live to play games online or use many other features, and the same will be true of PlayStation Plus on the PlayStation 4. If you own either console, there’s a very high chance you’re going to have one of these services. You may as well make the most of it. Xbox Live’s Games With Gold is a rotating promotion that puts a digital copy of a game up for free. T