Belgian teacher creates game for hunting books same style as Pokémon GO

Belgians are hunting books, instead of Pokemon

Inspired by the success of Pokémon Go, a Belgian primary school headmaster has developed an online game for people to search for books instead of cartoon monsters, attracting tens of thousands of players in weeks.

Players post pictures and hints about where they have hidden a book and others go to hunt them down. Once someone has finished reading a book, they "release" it back into the wild.

Aveline Gregoire is a primary school headmaster who put together an online game that’s similar to Pokemon Go. But rather than running an app on iPhone that uses the GPS and camera to send you around time chasing for objectives, this game only needs Facebook for communication purposes.

Called Chasseurs de livres, or Book hunters, the game is about hunting books in a Pokemon Go manner.

“While I was arranging my library, I realized I didn’t have enough space for all my books. Having played Pokemon Go with my kids, I had the idea of releasing the books into nature,” Gregoire told Reuters.

The game is pretty simple: all you have to do is look for hints and hunt the books. As soon as you read the captured book, you release it into the wild and post about it on Facebook.

Created a few weeks ago, the game already has more than 40,000 people following it on Facebook.

Gregoire is apparently thinking about developing a mobile app for the game, given its huge popularity.

Why 4K smartphone?

It's been hinted at for some time, but now we've got our first report of a smartphone rocking a 4K display.

The phone in question is the ZTE Star 3, which GizmoChina reports packs a 5.5-inch screen with a staggering 2160 x 3840 resolution, resulting in a pixel density of 808ppi.

That's a huge step up from the 5.5-inch 2K display on the LG G4, which boasts a resolution of 1440 x 2560 and 538ppi.

This news comes via sources of the Chinese media, so take it with a pinch of salt, but we wouldn't be surprised if a China based manufacturer was the first to stick a 4K panel in a phone.

Overkill?                         

While it's impressive to squeeze a 4K display into a smartphone, there are many who wonder whether the humble human eye will see any real difference between a 4K offering and rival 2K and 1080p screens.

Add to that the fact the battery is going to take one hell of a beating and we're left wondering if the inclusion of a 4K screen is really worth it.

There's no release date mentioned for the rumoured ZTE Star 3, while other 4K handsets are expected to arrive in 2016.

Super Simple app That Every Home Internet Router Needs

Changing your SSID. Keeping track of devices connected to your network. Turning off those annoying blinking lights. To some, tasks like these can be daunting as our routers aren't exactly the most user-friendly.

Vodafone is looking to change that though with its new Connect router, launched yesterday alongside its new broadband service.

The white, square box is palatable, but it's the accompanying smartphone application (available on Android and iOS) where the magic happens.

You can easily change the name of your network (no more SKY135A1, BTHub3-KLDE or TALKTALKD839D2) and the password to something a little more memorable than the random selection of letters and numbers that comes pre-set.

Total control

That's just the basics though. You can keep an eye on how many devices are connected to the router, be them wired or wireless, and there's a boost button to prioritise signal for a set time to one device over the others - perfect if you're streaming a movie on your TV.

You can also switch on a Guest network to allow visitors to jump onto your web connection without having to give out the password to your network.

There's the choice to have a password on the guest network too, plus you can set a timer so it switches itself off after a certain time - a great way to suggest to party goers it's time to leave, or let the kids know it's time to go to bed.

If your router lives somewhere prominently in your home, the continuously blinking lights may drive you a bit mad. With the Connect feature you can switch off the red LED bar at its base from the app, while the status lights on top automatically turn off, only coming on when you wave your hand over a motion detector.

It's worth noting that you can't use the router and its app with any other internet service - you have to be signed up to Vodafone's broadband ADSL or fibre offering.

The Connect router sports five antennas, supports 2.4GHz and 5GHz and packs in AC Wi-Fi and mimo.

The Vodafone Connect router is free when you sign up to the network's broadband offering, but be careful with it as a replacement will set you back £130.

World’s first 6TB SSD will be available to buy in July

If you want terabytes of storage inside your PC or laptop, then the traditional hard drive is still the obvious choice. 6TB drives are now common, and 8TB and even 10TB drives are set to arrive and go mainstream very soon. They’ll also cost significantly less than even a 1TB SSD. However, that doesn’t mean we aren’t getting larger SSDs, and the world’s first 6TB SSD is set to launch in July.

Japanese manufacturer Fixstars is planning 3 new 2.5-inch SSDscarrying the names 1000M, 3000M, and 6000M. The 1000M and 3000M models will use 19nm flash memory, a 6Gbps interface, and offer 1TB and 3TB of storage respectively.

It’s the 6000M SSD that’s the most interesting, though. It will use 15nm flash memory to offer 6TB of storage while retaining the 2.5-inch drive footprint. Read speeds are expected to be 540MB/s and write speeds of 520MB/s, which is typical of any high-end 6Gbps SATA SSD today.

Pricing has only been announced for the 1TB drive, which is set at $820. We can expect a large premium on the 3TB model, and an even larger premium on the 6TB drive. It’s also unlikely Fixstars has any intention of offering the 6TB drive to consumers. There’s a growing demand for large SSDs in the datacenter, and that’s where Fixstars’ focus will be, at least initially.

As we’ve seen repeatedly, the cost of SSDs is coming down while the sizes on offer increase. 120GB and 250GB SSDs are now affordable. True, they still carry a much higher price than hard drives, but the benefits in terms of speed and power use are clear, and in a lot of cases worth the added cost.

These Apps Can Help You Stay Safe Through the Tornado Season

Tornado season is getting into full swing, as witnessed by this week's series oftwisters in the Plains, which means anyone in a storm-prone area should be making preparations to stay safe if one comes their way. Here are a few apps that will alert you to storms in the area and give you tips on how to stay safe before, during and after a tornado hits.

RED CROSS / JUSTIN GRAHAM

The Red Cross Tornado app, left, and TornadoSpy+, right.

TORNADO BY RED CROSS (FREE, IOS AND ANDROID)

This is the go-to app for basic tornado information. Tornado has weather radar, official alerts from NOAA and a nice loud siren that should wake you up if danger strikes while you're asleep. It also has a guide to help you prepare, listing resources to keep on hand, items to keep in an emergency kit and the locations of nearby shelters. If you were to only install one app from this list, make it this.

NOAA WEATHER RADIO ($1-$4, IOS AND ANDROID)

Strictly speaking, you ought to have a plain old weather radio to get these region-specific broadcasts (along with everything else on this list) but it can't hurt to have a backup option. Apps for iOS and Android let you check in on NOAA stations around the country, letting you not only stay informed for your own sake but keep updated on areas where family and friends are. There are a few options for each platform — just make sure you get one that supports live broadcasts for your region.

TORNADOSPY+ (FREE-$3, IOS)

If you want a few more options and don't mind the idea of crowd-sourcing your safety, TornadoSpy for iOS might be a good buy. It lets anyone with the app report tornado sightings and upload pictures — which means you could get warnings well before they're confirmed by official sources. Just don't get caught up dialing in the particulars of the storm you're watching when you ought to be going as fast as you can in the other direction.

RADARSCOPE ($10, IOS AND ANDROID)

Want to do some storm chasing of your own? RadarScope is what the pros have. "Every storm chaser and TV meteorologist I know has the RadarScope app," says says Bill Karins, NBC News' chief meteorologist. "It costs $10 but is worth every penny. [It] lets you know exactly where you are in relation to the storm and tornado." There's even an Apple Watch version.

NIXLE / GOTENNA

A Nixle alert, left, and a network-free chat via GoTenna, right.

LOCAL WEATHER APPS (FREE, IOS AND ANDROID)

Lots of local news stations have apps that include local weather predictions and city-level alerts, as well as more general news that may be relevant. In Oklahoma, you can't do better than KFOR's 4WarnMe, which sends alerts for earthquakes and other disasters as well. NBC Nebraska Storm Tracker (Android/iOS download) offers similar capabilities in the Cornhusker State, andStorm Team 12 will serve you alerts in Kansas.

NIXLE (FREE, IOS)

This app isn't Tornado-specific, but it lets local public safety officers and fire departments send out general alerts for your city or area. That means that if schools are closing, if there's a big pile-up on the highway out of town, or if debris is inhibiting rescuers or fire trucks, you'll get a notice. After all, NOAA and tornado spotters won't tell you about gas leaks or escaped tigers.

Samsung now rolling out fix for Galaxy S6 memory issues

Samsung’s Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge have secured a spot for themselves as two of the best Android phones ever released, but the launch hasn’t been entirely without problems. Since the devices appeared in-market, a number of complaints and videos have surfaced demonstrating that the device’s memory management was more than a little problematic. Samsung listened to the complaints and has responded in near-record time.
This information comes courtesy of GSMArena, which notes that the update (at least on European carriers) uses Android 5.0.2, and is billed as G920FXXU1AODG. Samsung isn’t offering much information on what it fixes, but GSMArena reports that the device seems snappier, with better overall performance characteristics. Footage of the original problem is shown below (skip to 40 seconds to see the benchmark begin)

It’s not clear if Samsung was simply bitten by the Android 5.0 memory leak bug that was discovered some months ago, or if the company’s custom software or other Android personalization efforts introduced an additional problem. Users reported that while the Galaxy S6 featured fast initial application loads, the phone aggressively shut applications down as soon as the user changed to a different window. The end result of this was that the Galaxy S6 won single application tests against competing devices, but would lose if the reviewer cycled through the same group of tests a second time. Other phones kept the apps cached in background, while Samsung’s device had to open them again from scratch. This isn’t a game-changing bug by any means, but if you multi-task frequently, sitting through the browser relaunch for the 50th time was undoubtedly annoying.

It’s possible that Samsung’s aggressive application shutdowns were actually the manufacturer’s way of avoiding the memory leak bug until it could issue its own patch for the problem. The update is only starting to hit devices, and may take several days to roll out completely. But if you have a Galaxy S6 or S6 Edge that’s been affected by this issue, drop by and let us know if the new software solves the situation.

The Galaxy S6 Edge isn’t the only device that’s just been updated with a (hopefully) performance improving patch. Google’s own Nexus 9, which is based on the 64-bit custom Nvidia CPU known as Project Denver, also got an Android patch this week. The Nexus 9 had languished for an unusually long time by Google standards while waiting for its update, so if you’ve got one of those devices, make sure you patch it up as soon as possible.