Hijinks Inc.

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  • iPad Car Mount

    Potentially more dangerous than texting while driving, it’s the iPad car mount!

    iPad Car Mount

    For myself, I’m primarily using it as a ridiculously large GPS and for some sweet cover flow music navigation (notice the audio out cable at the top right), but I could see some serious problems arising if someone decided to try and watch a video while driving. Although I must admit that I’ve used the 3G to stream the audio version of Tech News Today on my drive home.

    Is it legal? I don’t really have a definitive answer and it likely depends on where you live and how you use it, but I talked with a local law enforcement officer here in Lincoln, NE and he seemed to think everything was kosher with my car mount as long as I wasn’t using it for playing videos, email, etc. That’s here in Nebraska, your mileage might vary depending on local and state laws.

  • Hijinks Reviews: Listal.com

    Do you have a large collection of DVDs, video games, books, or music and you wish there was a an easy way to track it all, preferably online so you can access it anywhere? Well, you could take the boring route and use a google spreadsheet, but what’s the fun in that? What if you could manage your collections, have all the information that IMDB offers, have user feedback and reviews similar to Rotten Tomatoes, have an enormous collection of images to sort through, and have Facebook integration to boot? Welcome to Listal!

    I’ve tried many of the collection tracking websites to catalog my substantial DVD collection, and I found something I really didn’t like with every website. Listal will track your collections, and complement it with a nice layout, both visually and for ease of use. It also incorporates a social network aspect, which excites some people, whereas it can be a total buzzkill for others. There’s pros and cons to this website and guess what, we’ll cover those after the jump! (more…)

  • NCAA Football 11 Rosters Download and More

    NCAA Football 11 released today (or yesterday depending on where you are reading this), I haven’t  had enough time to check it out quite as much as I’d like to give you a full review yet, but we seem to have had quite a bit of traffic from my NCAA 11 TeamBuilder post, so since that went over so well, I’ll provide you with a few more links to fill out your college football experience.

    Rosters File Download: C’mon, nobody likes to play a football game with #18 passing to #86 with #21 on the coverage. So head over here and download the free rosters file. Every player on every team is named, and in most cases they’ve taken the time to update the roster over what EA released initially. Don’t get tricked into paying for this, it’s available for free all over the place by download from the correct EA Locker. Thanks to the forums at operationsports.com for this tidbit:

    Q: How do we get the roster from the EA Locker?

    A: Thinking that the EA Locker works the same as last year…..Go to the EA Locker, select download, input the correct gamertag into the input roster file name. (NOTE: YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE ON THEIR FRIENDS LIST TO GET THESE ROSTERS) Once downloaded go to file management and reload the roster you just downloaded.

    Xbox 360 Rosters – CcAaRrSsOoNn3
    PS3 Rosters – buckeye02     or gamingtailgate

    (PLEASE NOTE that they are finalizing the rosters as we speak, they will post a new thread notifying everybody of a completed upload, but if you don’t want to wait for that and just want to get started, feel free to download the file from their EA lockers. Also, if you happen to find a missing player, or someone out of position on your favorite team, be sure to let them know in the Roster Correction Thread so they can get it fixed right away!)

    *Edit: If you don’t have a connection to the internet, check out my tutorial on downloading the roster file and using a flash drive to transfer it to your console

    For information on Custom Stadium sounds, follow me through the jump: (more…)

  • To Root, or not to Root?

    SuperUserOne of the biggest questions that Android power users must face is whether or not to root their device.  The majority of Android devices have been rooted, and those that haven’t will probably be rooted soon.  Rooting your device can be risky, but there are several benefits to doing so.  These include themes, screenshots, backups, wireless tethering,  overclocking, and custom ROMs.  Read on past the break for more details.

    Disclaimer: Rooting your device is risky.  It may void the manufacturer’s warranty, and may ruin your device – even if done properly.  Hijinks, Inc. and myself take no responsibility for any damages that may occur by doing so. (more…)

  • I tried to review Osmos for iPad

    I tried, I really did. I bought the game before it was even in the top 100 (its now #1 in popularity and gross sales). I beat the Odyssey campaign in about two hours, and I even logged a couple hours in arcade mode. This was the middle of last week. Since then I’ve tried to play it every day, and every day I shut it off a minute later and go play more Small World.  I get that its trippy, I get that. I also understand that if I habitually used LSD, this game would be AWESOME. Here’s the thing: I don’t, and this game gets really boring, really fast.

    The core concept is proven. You absorb things and get bigger. Yeah, like that game, and that one, also this one. I could go on. It falls apart about the time you beat the Odyssey and realize that whats left is the exact same thing you just played, only ten times harder. I don’t have a problem with challenging games, but I do have a problem with turning a casual arcade game into a hardcore puzzle game without any kind of a learning curve. I have a feeling the developers finished the core game, polished it, realized they needed to add more content, and then piled on a bunch of gameplay modes and additional levels without properly tuning them.

    I want to give Hemisphere the benifit of the doubt and believe that they will continue to update the game into a better experience. Frankly though, I doubt I’ll have the motivation to pick it up even if they do.