To play Ingress, go to Berlin

I’m sure that playing Ingress is great fun everywhere, and also, this whole topic is very subjective – but I’m certain that this place adds a lot to the experience. I have at least three reasons why.

1. Awesome scenery

The ugliness of Berlin is a significant plus to the game experience: every building here looks like a scene from your favourite first person shooter. And now that I pay more attention to statues, I know that most of them are pretty weird too.

playing Ingress in Berlin - from Wimagguc, a geek blog

2. Perfect language

Everything sounds more serious in German. My communication field is full of texts like ‘Der grosse Stern – Gefangen I’m netz der Schlumpfe‘. I don’t even know what that means, but it does look scary.

3. You are not weird

The whole place is full of geeks and other weirdos, so no one gives you the look when you are running back and forth between portals. (Not unless you are holding your phone out to watch those commands about establishing control fields and destroying links – in the circle of an elementary school group. Yeah, maybe try to avoid that.)

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Touchscreens with something more to touch

Right after we got used to touchscreen keyboards and threw away our old devices full off buttons, a company wants to bring those keys back. Tactus Technology invented a user interface, where completely transparent physical inputs rise up from the touch-screen surface on demand, all controlled by the applications.

Tactus Technology Introduction from Tactus Technology Inc. on Vimeo.

One could say that for everyday users it’s completely useless to have buttons or physical feedback while typing: most of the people even switch off the haptic feedback while typing on Android. Nevertheless, it could be of use for people who need assistance, or work in a less ideal environment – say, a DJ playing and using an iPad on the stage, and with the Tactile Layer finds all the controls without looking.

We will see. Based on what the guys write on their webpage, the technology could come into our lives as soon as by tomorrow:

With the buttons enabled, users can push and type or rest their fingers as they would with any physical button or keyboard. When the buttons are disabled, they recede into the screen, becoming invisible and leaving a smooth, seamless flat touch-screen with maximum viewing area.

Our Tactile Layer technology easily integrates with today’s touchscreen-based devices (smart phones, tablets, personal navigation systems, gaming devices, etc.) by simply replacing the front layer of the display stack, known as the “lens”, “window” or “cover glass”. Our dynamic Tactile Layer component is the same thickness as the layer it replaces and requires no change to the underlying display or touch sensor.

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