news | Stone Marshall-Author

Kids can play Minecraft at Clinton Library

by Stone Marshall | Dec 8, 2014 | Minecraft News | 0 comments

Minecraft gaming for Teens! Every Thursday, (when the library is open) come to the Teen Loft to participate in Minecraft multi-player gaming from 4 to 6 p.m. This program is for teens in seventh through 12th grades. Registration is required. Please call the library 243-5436 to register.

Minecraft for kids! On Monday afternoons from 4 to 6 p.m., kids in grades first through sixth can come to the library to play Minecraft. There are no challenges or competitions, just fun. Registration is required. Sign up at the children’s desk or call 243-5436.

Minecraft program for kids! Every Tuesday from 4 to 6 p.m., kids in grades fourth through sixth can face Minecraft challenges and competitions. The computers will be available first come, first served.

Story time. Toddler Time will be held on Tuesday, Dec. 9, at 9:30 a.m. The preschool story times will be held on Wednesday, Dec. 10, and Thursday, Dec. 11, at 10 a.m. The theme for preschool story times is Cuddle Up and Stay Warm! If you have questions, please contact children’s staff at 243-5436.

There’s an App for That! The Android edition will be held in the library board room on Tuesday, Dec. 9, at 1 p.m. For your session, bring your device and your Android login. The library will provide the free WiFi. We’ll discuss getting started with your device and share some great apps for beginners. Call the library at 242-8441 to register.

Afternoon Adventures! Join us on Wednesday, Dec. 10, from 2:30 to 4 p.m. for Afternoon Adventures for kids!

Surf the Net class for beginners. I will present a one hour instructional class designed to make users more comfortable using the computer to surf the internet. This class will be held in the Teen Loft in the main branch of the library on Wednesday, Dec. 10, at 2 p.m. The class is free but class size is limited. Registration is required. Call the library at 242-8441 to register.

ACA Healthcare event at the Lyons branch library. Need health coverage? On Wednesday, Dec. 10, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. make an appointment to stop into the Lyons branch at 105 Main Ave. in the Lyons district of Clinton to work with a health care navigator from the Visiting Nurse Services of Iowa. These professionals are available to help you navigate the Health Insurance Marketplace! Please call (515) 288-1516 to reserve your spot.

Teen Video Games. Join YA coordinator Kendra Evers for video games for teens in the library boardroom from 2:30 to 4 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 10.

Read Original Article Here:

Minecraft for Xbox: Star Wars Classic Skins Exclusive for Xbox One and Xbox 360

by Stone Marshall | Dec 5, 2014 | Minecraft News | 0 comments

Yes, Minecraft players can now download Star Wars classic skin packs which will only launch for Xbox One and Xbox 360.

If you are a Minecraft player as well as Star Wars fan, then you will have real fun placing blocks while building anything you can imagine. It’s up to you if want to take Minecraft’s unending adventures in the character of Luke Skywalker or the ruthless figure of Darth Vader.

According to EuroGamer, the latest skin pack contains 55 skins featuring the characters in the original trilogy, including the furred biped Ewok and short rodent-like Jawa. PlayStation fans might get a little upset because the deal is only between Disney and Microsoft for now. And it’s not the last X-box exclusive Star Wars-theme because Microsoft is promising gamers some major updates stating that fans can “look forward to even more downloadable Star Wars content releasing in the future.” Players can expect the addition of “ridable horses, along with enemies such as bats, witches and the Wither, plus new items such as beacons, hoppers, haybales and fireworks.” Microsoft just bought Mojang and Minecraft last September in an incredible $2.5 billion.

Other characters included in the Star Wars Classic Skin Pack DLC are Leia, Han, Chewbacca, Tusken Raider, Stormtrooper, C-3PO, Blockade Runner Soldier, Ben Kenobi, Greedo, Governor Tarkin, Boba Fett, Bossk, Dengar, Yoda, Rancor, Rancor Keoer, Oola, Zuckuss, R2-D2, Scout Trooper, etc. Which character do you like best? Still you can choose to recreate your top Death Star moments, Endor and Hoth moments, if you are in the mood.

According to Inquisitr, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia dominate the exclusive skin pack with seven different gears for each of them. Han Solo has three outfits. The new skins are now available in Xbox Store for $2.99 and you can find the complete list of your adored characters of Star Wars in there. When the new trilogy arrives in December 2015, another marketing opportunity may come along the way. Microsoft and Disney probably saw the perfect timing.

Meanwhile, wind of reports say that the first teaser trailer of the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens will be released Friday in the U.S. theatres. The film officially opens December 18, 2015.

Read Original Article Here:

Minecraft Gets Some New Stars: Dennis And Gnasher From The Beano

by Stone Marshall | Dec 4, 2014 | Minecraft News | 0 comments

Dennis the Menace and his dog Gnasher have been playing pranks in print form since 1951, but now they’ve found a new, entirely digital playground: Minecraft.

The Beano publisher DC Thomson has collaborated in an official “mod” for the popular game, replacing default characters and items with Dennis and Gnasher, as well as catapults, rotten tomatoes, stink bombs and Dennis’ nemesis Walter.

Read Original Article Here:

‘Minecraft’ for PS4 & Xbox One Gameplay Update: Bug Fixes, New Model Building Mod and Pocket Edition Update Released [Video]

by Stone Marshall | Dec 1, 2014 | Minecraft News | 0 comments

A lot of news concerning “Minecraft” happened on Monday. Mojang, the video game’s maker, released the last 1.8 update, an update for the mobile version, and mod maker released a mod for “Minecraft” that allows players to create models within the game.

Mojang developer Johan Bernhardsson announced on Twitter that “Minecraft Pocket Edition’s” last update had been uploaded. The 0.10.4 update will be the last one of the 0.10.x version.

We just uploaded 0.10.4 which fixes the issue with the beds. This should be the last 0.10.x version! New features today. 🙂
— Johan Bernhardsson (@jbernhardsson) November 24, 2014

According to the game’s Tumblr account, another update was released on Monday: 1.8.1 for “Minecraft.” “We have released a new version of Minecraft, 1.8.1, which brings a bunch of new optimizations and bug fixes,” the statement said. “It’s 100% compatible with 1.8, and comes with extra hugs.” On Twitter, developer Nathan “Dinnerbone” Adams also announced the release. “Minecraft 1.8.1 is now available to download in your launcher,” the tweet said. Aside from the updates’ releases, PC Gamer reports there is a new mod for “Minecraft.” Created by iChun, the mod called Tabula will allow users to create models within the game. Although he does not explain much about the “in-game Minecraft modeler,” iChun uploaded a video (below) on YouTube about what it can do. Although it is not meant as a “proper replacement for third-party modelers such as Blender or Maya,” the software is based off Techne, intended as a replacement. To operate Tabula you will need Minecraft Forge and iChanUtil software. Aside from the updates, “Minecraft” and Mojang celebrated winning the BAFTA Kids award for best video game of the year. Developer Jens Bergensten celebrated on Twitter.

Read Original Article Here:

Microsoft Strategy Vice President Teper: ‘Minecraft is a development tool’

by Stone Marshall | Dec 1, 2014 | Minecraft News | 0 comments

Those who’ve been puzzling over why Microsoft spent $2.5 billion on Minecraft developer Mojang may need to puzzle no more.

Jeff Teper — the “father of SharePoint” and (as of earlier this year) Corporate Vice President of Corporate Strategy at Microsoft — explained the thinking behind Microsoft’s Minecraft acquisition quite succinctly during a recent tech conference.

“Minecraft is a development tool,” Teper told attendees of the UBS Global Technology Conference in Sausalito, Calif., last week. “People build worlds out of it. If we can get eight-year-old girls and boys building worlds and getting inspired by creating content digitally, as they grow up they’ll want to create in PowerPoint, or Visual Studio. And in addition to being one of the few gaming franchises that doesn’t have to be freemium, Minecraft can actually charge money. It turns out it’s a great business with lots of upside.”

The full transcript of Teper’s remarks from November 19 is worth a read. He provided his two cents on everything from Microsoft’s need to redefine mobile, to why he believes Microsoft can’t always listen to its customers, especially when it comes to the cloud.

Teper also confirmed that Microsoft is now placing “bigger bets on fewer things” — something CEO Satya Nadella hinted recently when he told some reporters that Microsoft’s key investment areas could be pared down to three major buckets: Windows, Office 365 and Azure.

A few other Teper tidbits:

Dual use (in reverse) key to the rebranding of Lync as “Skype for Business”: “Lync business as it transforms to Skype for Business is an enormous business opportunity. Part of the go-to-market for it is going to be that a bunch of people are using Skype free, and they come into the office and they’re familiar and they love it. The consumer scenarios have a play in these dual-use applications.”

Unlike HP, Microsoft “bought the right one” (Fast Search) for intra-company search: “In 2008 I said, look, search is just like on the Internet, an intranet search is going to be a big deal and there were three or four companies out there. We bought the right one. HP unfortunately bought the wrong one (Autonomy)…. And the Fast team that we bought in 2008 is still the leader in enterprise search. People may have seen this announcement we made a few months ago about this concept called the Office Graph and this Delve module for Office that lets you, based on all the activity in your organization, it shows you relevant content regardless of where it lives. It’s a pretty amazing experience. Satya has sometimes called it Pinterest for documents.”

When it comes to the cloud, don’t take your cues from your IT customers: In 2011, Microsoft asked 100 of its Technology Advisor Partner customers whether they planned to move to the cloud in three to five years. Most said no. “That’s when it hit me, that sort of innovator’s dilemma story, that our customers were going to be a trailing indicator on the market, that the IT people in the room were not going to tell us when the market had turned, they were going to tell us after it turned and we actually — that motivated us to go invest (in the cloud) even faster. We literally after that meeting had to not listen to our customers’ right-now discussion….”

If you can’t beat them in mobility, redefine mobility: “I think first, we have to redefine mobility is the mobility of the user across all devices and not just necessarily our mobile platform. We have a great mobile platform. We’re investing in it. But, I think if somebody has a Windows PC and an iPhone and they love our software, when they go buy their next PC, tablet, phone they’re going to say, you know, the new version of Office is amazing, I love it, or the new version of Skype, wow, they’ve done some unique things on the Surface, on the Lumia phone, let me think about that.

Why “gaming” is still considered part of Microsoft’s core: “If you look, video, books, music are not so much of a focus” for Microsoft, unlike Google and Amazon. “But there is one other category that we’ve called out special which is gaming. We have an incredible franchise in gaming… How does gaming relate? And there are really two things. One is, if you look on PCs and phones people spend an enormous amount of time on gaming. They spend a lot of time on communications and productivity and surfing the web, but gaming is pretty key.”

Read Original Article Here:

Minecraft: Pocket Edition is better than ever in version 0.10.0

by Stone Marshall | Nov 30, 2014 | Minecraft News | 0 comments

Have you heard about this cool game called Minecraft? It’s made of blocks!

Kidding. It’s abundantly clear that anyone with the faintest interest in video games is surely well aware of Mojang’s lo-fi smash hit. Google Play claims between 5-10 million downloads of Minecraft: Pocket Edition ($7), which had sold more than 54 million copies across all platforms. Let that sink in: fifty-four million.

There’s a good chance you’ve already bought Minecraft on Android, but it may have been ages since you last played—the game launched in 2011 in a pretty meager state. So why cover it now? Because Pocket Edition may be the ultimate example of a mobile game worth investing in for the long haul, as the premium sandbox game has been majorly enhanced over that span. And this week’s version 0.10.0 update offers as great an opportunity as any to jump back in—or start fresh.

Make mine Minecraft

minecraft mobs — Enemies appear at night in Survival mode and are incredibly persistent. Luckily, the rising sun sets them ablaze.

If you’ve somehow missed out on the Minecraft phenomenon, it’s a very simple indie game that lets you collect an array of materials in a randomly-generated block-based world, concoct tools and items, and build freeform structures. You can also try to survive the night in an unforgiving environment filled with aggressive monsters, or connect to online servers and construct cooperatively with others.

It fits the “sandbox” definition well because there’s little here to motivate you: the world is very much what you make of it, and you’ll discover intriguing minerals, tools, and even portals to another land as you experiment and hopefully thrive. Minecraft can look mighty boring at a glance, but there’s plenty of fun hidden below the surface—figuratively and literally. (Seriously… start digging.)

Pocket Edition isn’t a complete port of the PC original, but the Android version has evolved tremendously from its skimpy 2011 debut. It began as a proof of concept, to show that Minecraft could work on mobile, but now it’s a truly robust, engaging experience that rivals the bigger versions in allure. Version 0.9.0, launched in July, was the biggest update by far, bringing infinite worlds, generated structures like caves and villages, and a huge array of new blocks and environment types. All of that added some much-needed variety and personality to the experience.

By contrast, this week’s Version 0.10.0 update is all about polish. After expanding the world, the latest free enhancement focuses on improving performance across all devices (while adding 64-bit support), slaying lingering bugs, and lightly enhancing the graphics. In Mojang’s own words, that means “more watery-looking water,” along with things like tinted lighting and particle effects. Small tweaks, sure, but the end result is the best-running Minecraft you’ve ever seen on a smartphone.

Deep Pocket

Creative mode lets you chuck the shackles of gravity at any moment to soar through the sky. While that allows you to build structures more freely (especially with the infinite inventory of items), it also provides an opportunity to catch a great view.

One of the best parts of going online—search Google to find loads of free public servers to join—is seeing the elaborate structures that others have poured hours into. This one’s pretty tame compared to some of the others out there!

It’s important to get to know the wildlife around you. Not just for companionship in this cold, quiet world, but because you’ll inevitably need to bash them into parts—like meat and wool—at some point. It’s a sad fate for a block buddy.

Minecraft has an online deathmatch mode? Believe it: fans have used the sandbox setting to create their own game modes. Here, you’ll make a mad dash to treasure chests to quickly secure items, and then use those to bludgeon others.

Why it’s worth your money

Had Mojang left Minecraft: Pocket Edition in its original state, it still probably would have sold millions. It is Minecraft, after all. But that $7 investment has been rewarded time and again with a routinely improved and ever more valuable game experience. Sometimes it’s a big content addition, while other times it’s a push towards improved performance and making sure it runs great on your latest device. Either way, Pocket Edition keeps growing, but you don’t have to pay another cent.

Having a game of this depth and replayability with you at any given time is a wondrous thing, and with multiple modes, online play, and plenty of surprises to uncover in each new world, there’s reason to keep coming back. Microsoft’s acquisition of the franchise this fall hasn’t stopped forward progress, as evidenced by the new 0.10.0 update and more on the way. It’s rare piece of mind to know that you can spend a little extra for a great mobile game that will only get better and better. That’s why Minecraft: Pocket Edition is a game well worth paying for.

Read Original Article Here:

« Older Entries

Next Entries »