CSCI 412 Mobile Development

Assn 01: Critical Analysis

Roberto M Vergaray
April 7, 2014

0.1

Intel Software Adrenaline

Intel Corporation

0.1.1

Key Features

Intel Software Adrenaline is an electronic magazine by the people at Intel. This app is meant to
provide access to the articles and videos from the magazine about Intel technology. For example, current articles available online are Embedded Development: Advancing the Internet of
Things and Assembling the API Puzzle. Recently, there were also articles about concurrent
programming and big data.

0.1.2

Target Audience

The target audience of the Intel Software Adrenaline app is software developers and members of
the software industry. It is especially relevant for people who rely on Intel technology and want
news on new Intel APIs. Primarily it is for people who subscribe to the magazine and want to read
the articles without waiting for the email notification of their existence.

0.1.3

Pros and Cons

Pros

Cons

Articles are interesting and often highly

relevant (if it had worked)

0.1.4

Must read in vertical orientation

Unable to retrieve articles

Evaluation

I opened the application with the tablet sitting on my desk propped up horizontally. When it
opened, the view rotated to a fixed vertical orientation automatically. The screen was blank except
for a generic title-bar and the text Unable to retrieve articles at this time. I know that I was
connected to the Internetso, that wasnt the problem.
I tried various swipe-gestures to search for any menus or options, with no response. Then
tapped the title-bars menu icon. A pane opened from the left with a search field and vertical tabs

labeled: Latest, Articles, Videos, Topics, Favorites, and About. There was also a
settings cog-wheel at the bottomwhich I tapped first.
This replaced the side-pane with tabs labeled Login, Font Size, Notifications, and Offline. I tapped Offline and set Download Image Galleries to on, but left Cellular Downloads
off. This didnt appear to change anything. Next, I used LinkedIn to loginwhich opened a tab
in Chrome. After clicking Sign in and allow I was returned to the app and a little notification
popped up near the bottom reporting that the login was successful.
I looked through the rest of the tabs. Latest and Favorites just closed the side-pane.
Topics, Videos, and Articles were all empty. I tied android in the search bar: No search
results found. The last thing I tried was to click the About tab and then repeatedly taped a
FAQ link until it finally opened in Chrome. Unfortunately the link didnt lead to an FAQ, but just
to an advertisement for the app.
I was disappointed that this app didnt work, I had been looking forward to using it for a
while now.

0.2

Star Trek Text Game

Slade

0.2.1

Key Features

This is a conversion of the classic text-based Star Trek game, which was originally written in
BASIC. In the game you are the captain of the USS Enterprise, searching through an 8x8 grid
of quadrants (each further subdivided into 8x8 sectors). The object of the game is to locate and
destroy invading Klingon warships using phasers and torpedos, before a time limit expires.
Your ship has a certain amount of energy which can be used for the ships shields, for combat,
or to navigate via impulse or warp drive. Starbases are randomly distributed in the galaxy which
can be used to recharge the ships energy.
This version of the game includes sound effects from the original Star Trek and navigational
calculatorsboth of which were not featured in the original game.

0.2.2

Target Audience

The audience of this game is Star Trek fans. Also, anyone who has played any of the numerous
versions that have come into existence over the past 50 years or sosince it was first created for the
SDS Sigma 7 computerwould enjoy it.

0.2.3

Pros and Cons

Pros

Cons

Original Star Trek Sound Effects

Mostly Non-Graphical

Classic Gameplay

Annoying Background Sound

(Though toggleable)

Modernized
Navigation and Targeting Interface
(while still retaining original system)

Small Instruction Text

Randomized Setup for Replayability

Easier to beat than original

0.2.4

Evaluation

When I opened the application, I was surprised and delighted to hear the Original Star Trek theme
song. I rotated the view from landscape to portrait, in order to view the entire Starfleet Report
without scrolling.
The classic ASCII art welcoming screen displayed the data for this instance of the game: 24
Klingons need to be destroyed before stardate 2355 (30 days); there are 5 starbases; and, I will
begin in the Canopus I quadrant. Two buttons allow me to either Accept Orders or learn How
To Play.
I tapped How To Play and a window popped up to the top of the screen and began shaking
back and forth. All I saw of its contents were a button labeled Done. After a few seconds the
pop-up window unfurled and the scrollable instructions appeared in very tiny text. Attempting to
zoom in made the text glitches but didnt increase text size. I glanced through the section headings:
Objective, Start of Game, Short Range Sensors, Tactical Commands, Library Computer
Commands, Status Reports, Klingon Warships, When Klingons Attack, Bad Navigation,
Shield Energy, Starbases, and End of Game.
I clicked Done and then looked at the menu options: Settings, About, and How To
Play. The How To Play option opened the same pop-up window as before. The About option
opened a similar window except that that in that view I was able to zoom.
Next, I looked at the Settings which provided some check-boxes: Background Sounds,
Fix Bug in Background Sounds, Sounds, Text to Speach Voice-Over, Vibrate, Direction
From Tail, More Klingons, No Time Limit, and Green Text. Of these, only Background
Sounds, Sounds, and Vibrate were checked on by default. There were also options for changing
Galaxy Map Font Size, and Normal Font Size.
I increased both font sizes to the maximum (20pt). Then checked for a change in the How
to Play text. There was none. I changed it back, then selected Text to Speech Voice-over
and More Klingons. Upon selecting More Klingons the theme song started over and a female
voice read the beginning of the Starfleet Report. I closed the Settings window and reviewed
the changed game data: 64 Klingons warships to be destroyed before stardate 2401 (85 days); 7
starbases in Galaxy; and, beginning in Anteres II quadrant.

I accepted the orders and immediately heard the Red Alert sound effect followed by one of
the original Star Trek computer beepsthe one with four whistles. The beeps droned on in a loop.
I fired a photon torpedo, using a rotating blue arrow overlaying the classic 1.00-8.99 directional to
aim. In the original you would type in the number indicating the direction; here you could see the
number that would result from the direction indicated or enter the number in a field as desired.
Killing the Klingon didnt stop the incessant beeping sound, so I went back to the settings
and turned off Background Sounds. I went around killing a few more Klingons. When opening
the Tactical: Fire Photon command, a window pops up which covers the map. So, you need to
remember where the Klingon was relative to your ship to select the proper trajectory. This makes
it not too easy. However, whenever one of these windows opens up the status text in the main area
of the game is cleared. I would have preferred a running log, but its no big deal. Perhaps I am
misremembering, but it seems that the shields take

1 th
10

of the energy they do in earlier versions.

There is also a feature that if you are hit before raising shields, the shields will automatically be
raised by 200 or more. Perhaps this helps to prevent instant death in some casesbut, I seem to
remember that there should be a hull damage capacity in addition to variable shields. However, in
this implementation the hull damage is not used. This, in addition to damaged subsystems being
automatically repaired pretty quickly, made the game a bit easier to beat.

0.3

DJ Master - Dubstep

Music Apps Free

0.3.1

Key Features

This app provides two virtual turntables and music pads. It is used to create dubstep music. The
description claims that the pad fx can replaced with your own. There are three sets of 6 pads,
and a 8-key keyboard. The left set of pads have togleable beats to play with. The middle pads
each have a vocal phrase: Check, Ha, Here we go, Lets go, Free your mind, and another
unintelligible one. The right pads each have a percussion or synth sound.

0.3.2

Target Audience

This app is geared toward people who like dubstep music and want to make their own mixes. Once
the user realizes that the app is useless for music creation, perhaps young children (under 8) are
the target for retaining the app. They could be content to play with the buttons and once in a
while accidentally click an add.

0.3.3

Pros and Cons

Pros

Cons

Six Dubstep Beat Tracks

One button useable at a time

Each Turntable effectively just
another vocal pad
Unable to modify fx as claimed

0.3.4

Evaluation

When I opened the app it flipped by horizontal view, forcing me to rotate the device 180-degrees.
A banner add occupies the lower

1 th
8

of the screen. Two buttons are available on the welcoming

screen below the title of the app: a play button and a cog-wheel. The only setting under the
cog-wheel was a volume bar.

I clicked back and then play. The turntables were rotating clockwise, and when I tried scratching them the rotation didnt change, and it played the same sound effect no matter how I rubbed it.
Indeed, I just tapped it and it played the exact same effect. Additionally, both the pseudo-scratch
sound effect contained a vocalization. The left turntables vocalization was identical to one of the
vocal pads effect.
I tried playing with the keyboard and pads and realized that only one button would sound
at a time. This made the application completely useless for mixing dubstep or any other kind of
music. I held one of the pads for a few seconds to see if a menu would pop up for changing the fx,
but nothing happened. Then I looked in the tablets settings: apps menu for the app and looked
through the options for another way to modify it. But there was no such option, as was claimed in
the description.
While the tablet was sitting on my desk, without anyone touching it, Chrome suddenly opened
and closed and then the play store popped upas if the advertisement link in the app had been
selected. I went to the app store, gave it a one-star review, and uninstalled it.