Civilization on iPad

I have been a fan of Sid Meier since I started playing videogames. The first of his games which I enjoyed was Pirates! back in 1988/89. The next one I picked up was Railroad Tycoon before Civilization came into the picture.

Over the years, there had been many iteration of the classic game. In 2015, the sixth installment of Civilization came to the market and it was a surprise that a year later a working iPad version of the game was available. And I wasn't talking about a watered down version of the game a la Civilization Revolution. It was a full on version and since it was hard on the processing power, it took some time to get used to the slower phase of the portable game.

But on the whole, I was impressed. I was able to play the standard-sized world game at a steady pace in my iPad Pro and had not missed any of the features available on my Mac. Even the sound and atmosphere were comparable. I only wished that I had more time to kill playing that game.

Highly recommended. Yes, it drained the battery somewhat and it was not available on the iPhone - maybe due to the resources needed. A great effort and hopefully it would open the door to more desktop-level game onto the iPad.

Morning Update to #iOS11

The much touted iOS 11 finally came out. I wasted no time this morning in getting the update up. All my iPads and my phone had been updated. Maybe I will do the same for Anita later tonight.

The update process had been super smooth. Clearly Apple had sorted out the links before the final version were released and I was able to get my phone updated within 20 minutes.

So far there had not been any glitches and a full day of use might just reveal any issues, but I was sure it would just be a small app update after that to get everything running again ...

Let's see how the thing fare for the rest of the day!

Update Time

As Apple was gearing up to their next iteration of the iOS, the iOS 11, the 10.3.3 update came out. I didn't waste much time doing the update and the process seemed to be straightforward enough. No hiccups.

Let's hope that it brought some improvements ...

Reading Material

I was forced to stay in tonight. I will be driving to Penang tomorrow to be with my parents and Aunt who would be flying off to Mecca. I planned to attend a talk with dinner at KL Sentral, but Anita felt that I should have a rest at home since I would be driving up tomorrow and back on Friday.

How thoughtful of her.

Irfan finishing his homework. Good boy!So, I was with the boys just now when they were slogging through their homework. After it was done, it was time for some reading. Guess what book Irfan picked up?

Good to know that at least he could help me just in case my brain needed protection ...

I have Candy

After a couple of days with the new update - the iOS 7 - I must say that it was better than I expected. Much better actually. The new interface grew on me. And everything felt snappy with no compromise in the battery life.

The actual updating process was also straight forward. I did it during my morning clinic - guilty of using staff WiFi. The actual software download was around 800 MB in size, took me just under an hour. But that was not the main wait.

It took longer to update the ROM once the software was downloaded and the phone had to be connected to a charger since ny battery power was low. The ROM flashing lasted close to 45 minutes including the booting up.

Then I was up and running. Took me a couple of hours to get my bearings. I was especially smitten at the new calendar, the email interface and the SMS app. Everything appeared flat and intuitive.

First, download the updater software700+ MB later, then you press the install now buttonThen came the varificationThen came the long wait of the actual installation. This is the scary part when the ROM was being flashed.The shortcuts - by swiping you finger upwards from the bottom - was also a welcomed change. Yes, it was Android-esque, but that's no crime. Steve Jobs might take that as an insult, but it looked like Sir Jonny was all cricket with the idea.

The camera app was also a welcomed change but nowadays, I used my HTC One for picture taking most of the time. Maybe when I upgrade to the 5S later, I might be using that a bit more.

Even my iPad was also updatedSo, the long and short of it, the iOS 7 was more than just eye-candy. It looked like Apple did the changes from the ground up. To appreciate it more, you should try the update on a bigger device. It looked gorgeous on my retina third generation iPad.

Good luck updating .....