Hasta La Gadget!

Svetlana Logunova is living the dream in Zelenogradsk, Russia.

We will not sit down and shut up. We will share our brave, bold vision for this country.

Last week, Amazon stunned critics by announcing a $15-per-hour pay floor for all employees and temps across its own facilities and those of its subsidiaries like Whole Foods Market. Excitement gave way to confusion among workers operating with scant details as to how these raises would impact hourly employees making…

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Nintendo has set a strange new precedent with the release of Legend of Zelda SP on the Switch: it’s essentially the original NES game but with Link starts loaded up with good gear and cash. In a way it’s no different from a cheat code, but the way it’s executed feels like a missed opportunity.

The game itself (SP stands for “special”) is described by Nintendo in the menu as a “souped up version” of the original: “Living the life of luxury!” It’s a separate entry in the menu with all the other NES games you get as part of the company’s subscription service.

You’re given the white sword, big shield, blue ring and power bracelet, plus 255 rupees to replace that shield when a Like-like eats it. Basically they’ve given you all the stuff you can find on the overworld (including max bombs and keys), but no items you’d get from inside a dungeon. You also have six hearts, and traveling around a little bit I determined these were awarded by raiding nearby hidden areas, not simply assigned. Secret passages are already revealed, and so on.

Because it skips the title screen and save game selection it seems like someone must have essentially played through the game to this point (or more likely edited the values in game RAM) and then walked to the classic starting point and made a save state that automatically loads when you start or reset the game. This means the only way to save is to use the Switch’s built-in save states, not the rather inconvenient save method the game used.

It’s plain enough that this will be a less frustrating way to explore this famously difficult game, but it seems untrue to Zelda’s roots. I understand perhaps gifting the player some of the impossible to find things like a heart hidden inside a random block here or there. Getting some bombs to start is great too, and maybe even the rings (warping is helpful, and the game is pretty punishing, so damage reduction is nice). But the white sword?

For one thing, a player experiencing the game this way misses out on one of the most iconic moments in all gaming — “It’s dangerous to go alone. Take this!” Then the ritual lifting of the wooden sword. And then setting out into the world to die again and again.

And for me, the white sword was always sort of a rite of passage in the game — your first big step toward becoming powerful. You earned it by finding those extra heart containers, perhaps after asking in vain after it before you were ready. Once you have it, you’re cutting through enemies like butter.

To make it the default sword and to skip these steps seems like it causes the player to miss out on what makes Zelda Zelda.

To be fair, it’s not the only version of the game you can play — the original is available, too. But it seems like a missed opportunity. Why not just have a save game you can load with this stuff, so you can continue playing as normal? Why not have the option baked into the launch of the original Zelda — have a couple secret save states ready with differing levels of items?

Nintendo has the opportunity to introduce a new generation to classic NES games here, having provided a rather bare-bones experience with the NES Classic Edition. Why not enhance them? Include the manual, god mode, developer commentary? This is the legacy the company has been stewarding for decades, and what better than to give it the respect it deserves?

I’m probably overthinking it. But this Zelda SP just seems like a rushed job when players would appreciate something like it, just not so heavy-handed. It’s not that these games are inviolable, but that if they’re going to be fiddled with, we’d like to see it done properly.

If you are like yours truly, then you most likely spend a lot of time online while being on the go. Whether it is checking email or watching YouTube videos on the sub, one’s monthly data consumption can take off without even realizing it, leading to a potential “bill shock”.

In this tutorial, we are going to be showing you how to find and manage your data usage on Android smartphones and tablets.

Method #1: From your phone’s Settings apps

Most manufacturers include data usage info within the phone’s Settings app.

1. Open Settings
2. Find and open the ‘Data usage’ tab
3. There you will find daily, weekly and monthly data usage stats

Some manufacturers include data restriction options, which allow users to set a specific consumption limit for every month, depending on one’s data plan.

Once you’ve consumed the specified amount of MBs or GBs, data will be automatically turned off and a relevant message will be displayed alerting you of so.

Beside raw data consumption numbers, more comprehensive details are also available, such as how much data each app consumes.

Social networking apps such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and the like, usually account for the largest chunk of the usage pie. That’s because they feature lots of video and photo-based content and they constantly run in the background to deliver notifications in real time.

Method #2: Data usage monitor apps from Play Store

In the unlike event that your phone does not support data usage information, you can always try one of the many free options available on Play Store. In this guide, we used an app called ‘My Data Manager’.

1. Download the app from the Play Store and open it
2. (Optional) You can provide info about your current data plan for an improved experience
3. Enable ‘Permit usage access’ for My Data Manager to be able to measure data consumption for each app
4. Done!

In the homepage, users can see how much data they have consumed up to that point of the month.

For more specific metrics, tap on the hamburger menu located on the top left-hand corner, and select apps. From the same menu, you can access the app’s settings, where you can adjust the theme and notifications.

Feel free to also check out our guide on how to seamlessly reduce data usage.

If you encounter any problems while trying out the above or have a recommendation to make, feel free to shoot a comment down below.

How To Find Data Usage On Android , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.