itel S31 Review: Good Looks, Decent Performance

itel s31

itel S31 in an entry-level smartphone and a successor of the itel S11 which was announced/launched on November 7th, 2016, and made available in market on November 14th, 2017.

The smartphone doesn’t have much since most of the specification as the same as it’s predecessor. However, right now the all the itel S-series smartphones are being marketed as Camera phones, where ‘S’ simply means selfie. This would better suit first time smartphone owners who get to have a feel of taste on owning a smartphone.

After using the phone thoroughly, he’s our final review.

Design
Itel S31 comes in three color variants; Black, Rose Gold, and Champagne Gold. It has rounded edges at the back which make the phone easier to grip. The front is dominated by a 5.5-inch IPS HD screen display and touch keys below it. Above the display is the 3.5mm audio jack, and the usual array of sensors.

The lower bezel has no physical keys on the front, but rather has the touch keys. The volume rocker and power key are on the right. At the bottom there’s a microUSB port. The rear panel has the protruding camera setup, with the itel branding just at the bottom, and the speaker grille at the bottom left.

Interface
The phones start with the lock screen, the battery alert appears on top, while the time & date visible on the bottom-left of the lock screen, with a default camera shortcut at the right bottom where users are able to use the camera without/minus unlocking the screen. Slide as preferred to unlock the screen, you’re opt to unlock with a password or a 4-pin digit number or a pattern – only if you have a screen lock available.

Hardware
Itel S31 is powered Mediatek MT6580, Quad-Core 1.3 GHz, Cortex A7 processors with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage (ROM) with an expandable slot of up to 32GB. The hybrid dual-SIM slot means users have to choose between expandable storage and dual-SIM functionality, the first slot being for a Full sim-card, the second slot being for a Micro sim-card, will the expandable microSD card comes in between the two sim slots.

There’s a 2,400mAh Li-ion removable battery with a limited charge voltage of 4.35V as well that can last for at least 24 hours on talk time and 3 hours on standby time.

During our short time with the device, we found it to be decent enough. General performance is overall satisfactory and there are no lags or freezes. The phone handles random app switching and multitasking quite efficiently.

Software
Itel S31 runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow topped. No mentions if itel mobiles will receive the Android 7.0 updates. The UI is pretty clean and easy to use. There are a few apps that come pre-installed but most of these can be uninstalled.

Camera
The Itel S31 rear 5MP camera is setup at the top-left with a LED flash just below it. It can also record Full HD videos at 30fps. The front-facing 5MP camera is setup at the top-right and the flash is on the left.

During our testing, we found the overall picture quality to be quite good (Not Bad and Not Good) producing quite pretty good colored pictures. Front camera is decent as well, comes with all standard camera modes like HDR, Face beauty modes and Panorama.

Ghost Recon Wildlands Review

courtesy of ubisoft

Ubisoft's Ghost Recon games have traditionally been about precise military tactics. Previous entries have favored considered, cover-based approaches to enemy situations over run-and-gun bravado. Even when the series dabbled with borderline sci-fi scenarios – as in 2012's Future Soldier – the franchise has maintained a mostly serious tone.

Ghost Recon: Wildlands is not cut from that same cloth. Not only does it adopt an open world, it's bigger and brasher than its predecessors with a mood that, at times, borders on the farcical.

Forget Band of Brothers; this is more 'Soldiers Gone Wild South of the Border!' The game puts you in command of a four-member squad of elite US soldiers, on a shadowy mission to take down the Bolivian Santa Blanca drug cartel. The country has been turned into the heart of a new cocaine industrial complex, with the operation governed by a couple of dozen unlikely characters and led by the brutal El Sueño.

The problem is, what attempts to be a serious exploration of the drug trade – and even has the potential to be a realistic examination of the failed War on Drugs and the problems it brings – ends up feeling comedic. El Sueño's lieutenants are often hilariously over the top, particularly an early doctor and nurse duo. A twisted Romeo and Juliet, the characters gave up their medical careers and now take sadistic glee in being Santa Blanca's torturers-in-chief. They're meant to be chilling; instead they're more like a knock-off Joker and Harley Quinn.

Wildlands attempts to keep some semblance of the tactical combat of its precursors, but with mixed results. Your main character – designed by you, with an array of customizations – is joined by three AI-controlled squad mates. They're mostly forgettable, aside from one that constantly cracks bad jokes about the military while you're scrambling through the Bolivian overgrowth, but they can be assigned to perform specific tasks in the field.

in-game shot

Matters improve when it comes to the multiplayer. Having human players at your side livens the game up dramatically. Being able to coordinate your attacks on a cartel's deal or a hostage situation is much more natural than merely pointing artificial teammates in the right direction and hoping they don't ruin a raid. The benefit of team-focused stat boosts are highlighted in co-op. Skills that support regeneration or revival, or boost allies' attributes under certain conditions, feel more relevant and useful when you have real players to collaborate with. In single player, it's hard to tell when, or if, anyone is being aided.

Co-piloting vehicles works wonders, too, with one player driving and others targeting foes. This doesn't compensate for terrible flight controls, though, and it ended up being easier to parachute out of a helicopter than trying to land it.

There are still problems to be found in multiplayer, but they come more from enemy AI. Cartel guards tend to over-react to the slightest movement, or swarm specific hotpoints and refuse to engage with divide and conquer tactics. It's frustrating, and often leads to missions becoming slow, sniper-lead stakeouts rather than the rapid actions of an elite military response unit.

Ultimately, Wildlands feels like it's trying to fit between two worlds – military tactical shooter and open-world free-for-all – but doesn't quite manage to bridge the divide. Its multiplayer is its greatest strength, and with a little polish could fill the same niche as Rainbow Six: Siege, but its single-player feels like a frivolous distraction.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands launches for PS4, Xbox One, and PC on March 7.

Four Ugandan Startups Win $10000 Seed Fund in Up Accelerate Program

A photo of the winners

At least four Ugandan start-up groups have been awarded USD 10000 each, to assist them in the development of trans-formative solutions to tackle persistent sexual and reproductive health bottlenecks in the country.

The four groups were revealed on Tuesday January 17th after a pitching session in the Up Accelerate program at Outbox hub in Kampala.

Launched in November 2016, a total of sixty-two (62) teams submitted their solutions to the program. The solutions would later be subjected to a public voting and shortlisting by an expert panel of judges who selected a team ten (10) semi-finalists.

“We were impressed by the response and level of engagement of young people despite the complexity of the problem areas within which we wanted them to propose solutions,” said Richard Zulu, Outbox Team Lead.

“The amount of conversation, feedback and effort exhibited during the application period is testimony to the demand of programmes like Up Accelerate among the young people in Uganda,” he added.

The four winners include

Teheca is a mobile app that enables one to find the closest and most qualified caretaker that best suits their care needs from a pool of qualified caretakers.

Snap HMIS is a mobile application that helps hospital data clerks compile health management information system (HMIS) reports accurately and in real time.

IDrain is an improved chest drainage system which removes the pleural effusion contents of mothers.

Drug Dash is an information system to help health centres and distribution centers manage essential medicines and health supplies (EMHS) stock levels through analytical dashboards that support quick decision making.

Outbox Hub Receives $19000 Grant to Support Open Government Initiatives

Ugandan Technology incubation, collaboration and innovation hub, Outbox has secured a USD 19,581 from Indigo Trust, a UK based grant making foundation that funds technology-driven projects to bring about social change, largely in African countries.

The funds which are meant to support Open Government initiatives will be used to launch Manifesto Tracker, a web based data management and visualization platform that leverages on open data to track electoral commitments and accomplishments by tracking each manifesto against its related project.

The platform, according to sources, will maintain a list of all Government and individual promises made to the public. Each promise will subsequently be tagged to a Government project or multiple projects that lists the timelines, resources and budget required to realize each project.

In December 2016, the Government Assurance Committee raised concerns about the many promises made to the public during campaigns and through manifestos by especially President Museveni and other officials in different sectors which end up unfulfilled.

The platform will make sure each manifesto’s success can be measured by the success of each Government project to which it relates.

Statements made by political leaders can be fact-checked against the project facts that are accurately curated, thereby ensuring that leaders are held accountable to service delivery.

The manifesto tracker will also seek to work with journalists to support with the fact-checking of claims made by Government officials, politicians, or other individuals against the verified progress of promises and projects.

For Honor Beta Review

For Honor game play throws warriors from three factions into a battle for supremacy 

You can't have epic duels without expert combatants, so For Honor plucks three distinct factions of the hardiest warriors who ever lived to duke it out in historically inaccurate (but undeniably magnificent) clashes. You've got your choice between Samurai, Vikings, and Knights, who are known in For Honor's universe as the Chosen, Warborn, and Legions, respectively.

Whether you decide to fight as the noble Knights, cunning Samurai, or resilient Vikings, you're never locked into your allegiance; picking a side is more about which faction resonates with your aesthetic and combative sensibilities. What truly determines your play style is your chosen hero class, with all three factions having their own distinct variation of four basic archetypes. There's the middle-of-the-road Vanguard that balances offense and defense, the slow-but-resilient Heavy, the all-out aggression of the Assassin, and the adaptable, technical style of the Hybrid. No matter who you choose, you're going to charge onto the battlefield swinging.

On the multiplayer side, you can battle on the small scale with the no-respawn, best-of-five rounds of 1v1 Duels or 2v2 Brawls, or engage in the extended all-out wars of the Dominion's point-based 4v4 (which I'll explain in a bit). Contrary to what you might assume, these modes let heroes from any faction team up, so Knights, Samurai, and Vikings could fight side by side in the same four-person squad. Then there's the story campaign, which can be played solo or with a co-op buddy. And wouldn't you know it - the campaign actually infuses some context into this fantastical world of endless melee warfare. 

For Honor's clashes feel fantastic, courtesy of some incredible animations and the intuitive Art of Battle system. If you're familiar with the dueling in War of the Roses, where the direction of your sword swings is crucial, For Honor's mechanics feel similar (if more streamlined). At any given time, you can square off with an enemy by holding the left trigger, angling the camera to focus on your opponent (who can choose to engage you in turn or flee to another fight). In this stance, your right stick controls the angle of your weapon: up, left, or right.

The trick is that these three stances determine the direction of your attacks (including light and heavy swings, as well as riskier guard breaks) and blocks (which are automatic so long as you're matching the direction of an incoming swing). Both you and your opponent are able to clearly read the other's stances when locked in a duel, so each standoff becomes an intense game of rock-paper-scissors as you both try to guess and counter the other's plan of attack in real-time. It's like the graphically gorgeous successor to Bushido Blade (minus the one-hit kills), and the weighty animations convey a real sense of heft with every laborious swing or last-second deflection.

Your chosen hero determines your fighting style 

When you start factoring in each faction's version of the four hero archetypes, things start to get complicated. See if you can remember all these names, listed by Knight, Samurai, and Viking roles respectively: Vanguards (Warden, Kensei, Raider), Heavy (Conqueror, Shugoki, Warlord), Assassin (Peacekeeper, Orochi, Berserker), and Hybrid (Lawbringer, Nobushi, Valkyrie). Every hero in the game has their own distinct look and a particular weapon they've mastered - and better yet, they've all got unique animations and combo strings. Then, as if that wasn't already enough to remember in terms of weapon types and combat specialties, each hero has their own set of Feats of Strength - four slots, with three possible options per slot.

Feats of Strength are special abilities that offer fleeting of power (all mapped to the D-pad) that unlock once you've leveled up, which is done by scoring kills, assists, and objectives. Tweaking this aspect of your hero's loadout offers a staggering number of possibilities; Feats of Strength let you do anything from the aggressive (calling in a volley of arrows or temporarily debuffing an enemy) to the defensive (buffing your movement speed for escapes or healing yourself) and everything in between. With all the possible team compositions you can piece together with the various hero classes and their Feats of Strength, it's a ridiculous amount to remember - so let's hope For Honor does a supremely good job of teaching players how to prepare for all those buffs, debuffs, and abilities that get layered on top of the frenetic combat.