Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Star Walk Goes To New Heights In Version 4.4
Astrology fans worldwide are going to love what Vito Technology has done with their latest Star Walk v4.4 update. They have taken their highly popular and award winning Star Walk app for the iPad and iPhone and made it even better. So let’s get down to business, what’s new in Star Walk 4.4? Arrow Guides [...]
Aluratek's E-reader Cracks the $100 Barrier
The price of an e-reader from Aluratek has dropped to under $100, escalating the price war between makers of e-readers.
E-book - Readers - Aluratek - Borders Group - Barnes & Noble
E-book - Readers - Aluratek - Borders Group - Barnes & Noble
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Apple to Offer Live Stream of Sept. 1 Music Event
If you've clamored to see Steve Jobs in action at one of Apple's press events, your typical modus operandi has been to bide your time until Apple posts a...
Apple - Steve Jobs - Macintosh - Pioneers - History
Apple - Steve Jobs - Macintosh - Pioneers - History
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Skype & Google Could Be Next On India?s Watch List
Only a few hours after RIM managed to avoid the Indian ban hammer, it now looks like Google and Skype could be the next target. India's Home Ministry, the country's interior ministry (think police force and other domestic policy matters), has told the BBC that ?any company with a telecoms network should be accessible? to the country's security services. India says it needs to be able to be able to tap into such communications in order to thwart potential terrorism threats.
Google adds more official themes for Chrome -- to the Extensions Gallery?
Filed under: Google, Browsers
I've asked about this before, and I'll pose the question one more time: if you're not going to put Chrome themes where the other Chrome themes go, shouldn't you at least create a category, Google?
Google has introduced half a dozen new official Chrome themes, but you won't find them if you click the get themes link on your Personal Stuff menu. No, like the scores of user-created themes out there these new themes from Google have been dropped into the Extensions Gallery.
I'm sure the plan is to list everything in the Gallery at some point (possibly once it's re-branded as the Web Store?), but it really shouldn't be hard to give themes their own section on the existing Gallery. Or, you know, post them on the page Chrome takes you to when you click get themes.
The new themes are called Modern, Adaptive, Vibrant, Inventive, Fresh, and Orkut_Hudson. They're artist-created, and generally not for those of you who like Chrome's interface to be as unobtrusive as possible -- some are downright loud.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder of course -- tell us what you think of the new themes in the comments.Google adds more official themes for Chrome -- to the Extensions Gallery? originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 28 Aug 2010 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments
I've asked about this before, and I'll pose the question one more time: if you're not going to put Chrome themes where the other Chrome themes go, shouldn't you at least create a category, Google?
Google has introduced half a dozen new official Chrome themes, but you won't find them if you click the get themes link on your Personal Stuff menu. No, like the scores of user-created themes out there these new themes from Google have been dropped into the Extensions Gallery.
I'm sure the plan is to list everything in the Gallery at some point (possibly once it's re-branded as the Web Store?), but it really shouldn't be hard to give themes their own section on the existing Gallery. Or, you know, post them on the page Chrome takes you to when you click get themes.
The new themes are called Modern, Adaptive, Vibrant, Inventive, Fresh, and Orkut_Hudson. They're artist-created, and generally not for those of you who like Chrome's interface to be as unobtrusive as possible -- some are downright loud.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder of course -- tell us what you think of the new themes in the comments.Google adds more official themes for Chrome -- to the Extensions Gallery? originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 28 Aug 2010 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments
Businessweek says new Apple TV to include Netflix streaming, WSJ says 99-cent TV rentals from Fox and ABC
Well here's an interesting wrinkle to the next-gen iOS-based Apple TV rumors in the leadup to tomorrow's event: Bloomberg Businessweek says the new box will offer Netflix streaming, presumably in addition to whatever cheap TV content deals Apple's planning to offer through iTunes. That would be a first of sorts for Apple; although Netflix has apps for the iPhone and iPad, Steve Jobs isn't exactly in the habit of preloading services that compete with iTunes. That said, Netflix does have critical mass, and it makes a certain amount of sense for Apple to try and leverage that subscriber base to generate momentum for its own product -- a lot of people might buy a $99 Apple TV just for Netflix and wind up hooked on Apple's other offerings like apps, movie rentals, and purchased content. We'll see what happens tomorrow -- won't you join us?
P.S.- Businessweek also says a new iPod Touch with a higher-resolution screen and a revamped version of iTunes are due tomorrow, but like, duh.
Update: And just to add to tonight's rumorfest, the Wall Street Journal now says Apple will in fact announce 99-cent TV show rentals from Fox and ABC tomorrow as well. ABC seems like a obvious partner, since Jobs is on the board of corporate parent Disney, but the Fox angle is a little more interesting: the WSJ says not everyone at Fox is so happy about the deal, and the network's offerings will be limited to shows that it both produces and broadcasts. That means nothing from Fox's cable networks like FX, and no shows like American Idol to which Fox doesn't hold all the rights. So why the partnership at all? The WSJ says it's because News Corp wants Apple's help with the iPad version of the WSJ itself and other digital news projects. Clever, Rupert -- clever.Businessweek says new Apple TV to include Netflix streaming, WSJ says 99-cent TV rentals from Fox and ABC originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Bloomberg Businessweek, Wall Street Journal | Email this | Comments
P.S.- Businessweek also says a new iPod Touch with a higher-resolution screen and a revamped version of iTunes are due tomorrow, but like, duh.
Update: And just to add to tonight's rumorfest, the Wall Street Journal now says Apple will in fact announce 99-cent TV show rentals from Fox and ABC tomorrow as well. ABC seems like a obvious partner, since Jobs is on the board of corporate parent Disney, but the Fox angle is a little more interesting: the WSJ says not everyone at Fox is so happy about the deal, and the network's offerings will be limited to shows that it both produces and broadcasts. That means nothing from Fox's cable networks like FX, and no shows like American Idol to which Fox doesn't hold all the rights. So why the partnership at all? The WSJ says it's because News Corp wants Apple's help with the iPad version of the WSJ itself and other digital news projects. Clever, Rupert -- clever.Businessweek says new Apple TV to include Netflix streaming, WSJ says 99-cent TV rentals from Fox and ABC originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Bloomberg Businessweek, Wall Street Journal | Email this | Comments
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Speck Fitted Case for iPad ? accessory review
The Speck Fitted Case for iPad is a hard shell case with a soft fabric backing. It snaps together from two parts — the plain black bezel that wraps around the top and outlines the ports, and the textured, pink and black plaid that covers the back plate.
Two part cases are typically more secure [...]Speck Fitted Case for iPad – accessory review is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
Two part cases are typically more secure [...]Speck Fitted Case for iPad – accessory review is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
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As E-Book Wars Heat Up, Borders Drops Prices Of Kobo And Aluratek Devices
As competition in the e-books device market heats up, Borders is cutting the prices of its leading eReading devices, the Kobo and Aluratek to $129 and $99.99 respectively. The Kobo was previously priced at $149.99 and the Aluratek was priced at $119.99.
Borders is also announcing that Velocity Micro's Android-based Cruz Reader R101 and Cruz Tablet T103 are now available for preorder on Borders.com for $199 and $299 respectively. Borders is currently offering 1.5 million titles through its e-book readers.
Borders is also announcing that Velocity Micro's Android-based Cruz Reader R101 and Cruz Tablet T103 are now available for preorder on Borders.com for $199 and $299 respectively. Borders is currently offering 1.5 million titles through its e-book readers.
T-Mobile G2 official shots break loose, corroborate rumors of wanton awesomeness
The T-Mobile G2 -- which will likely be known as the HTC Desire Z outside the States -- is shaping up to be one of the more anticipated Android launches of 2010, and a handful of smaller-than-we'd-like official press shots that have just leaked over on Cell Phone Signal are doing nothing to make us believe otherwise. The site says it believes silver (pictured) will be the only color offered, and considering that we haven't seen any leaks in any other shades, that seems like a reasonable assumption. Then again, a white, red, or black version of this would be pretty neat, wouldn't it?
[Thanks, Nam]
Update: Turns out these images are chilling on T-Mobile's servers right now -- check the source links below. Whoops!
Update 2: And we've now got the clearest shot yet of a G2 in the wild, casually browsing Facebook as a laptop looks on with a mixture of curiosity and contempt; follow the break to check it out. Thanks, Sebastian!Continue reading T-Mobile G2 official shots break loose, corroborate rumors of wanton awesomenessT-Mobile G2 official shots break loose, corroborate rumors of wanton awesomeness originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Aug 2010 14:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink His and Her Android | Cell Phone Signal, T-Mobile (1), (2), (3) | Email this | Comments
[Thanks, Nam]
Update: Turns out these images are chilling on T-Mobile's servers right now -- check the source links below. Whoops!
Update 2: And we've now got the clearest shot yet of a G2 in the wild, casually browsing Facebook as a laptop looks on with a mixture of curiosity and contempt; follow the break to check it out. Thanks, Sebastian!Continue reading T-Mobile G2 official shots break loose, corroborate rumors of wanton awesomenessT-Mobile G2 official shots break loose, corroborate rumors of wanton awesomeness originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Aug 2010 14:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink His and Her Android | Cell Phone Signal, T-Mobile (1), (2), (3) | Email this | Comments
MICROSOFT MILLICOM INTL. CELLULAR MOBILE TELESYSTEMS NANYA TECHNOLOGY
Chrome now has hardware acceleration, brings phenomenally faster fishes
Filed under: Google, BrowsersI'm not sure when the changes actually landed, but Google has announced that an early implementation of hardware acceleration is now available in developer versions of Chrome 7.
Early testing suggests that performance is still worse than Internet Explorer 9, but the gap has definitely been closed a bit. The '1000 fish test' now clocks in at about 10 frames per second, which is definitely an improvement from last time -- but still some way short of IE9's 45 FPS.
The Chromium blog post says that only some content is being accelerated, so the Fish Tank might not be a fair comparison of the browsers. I'll try to find a better test or benchmark and share my findings later today. You can enable hardware acceleration in Chrome with the --enable-accelerated-compositing flag -- and if you discover anything interesting, please share your findings in the comments!
Update: you might need a nightly build of Chromium to take advantage of this hardware acceleration. It would be nice if Google could explicitly state when the changes were made...Chrome now has hardware acceleration, brings phenomenally faster fishes originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 30 Aug 2010 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Early testing suggests that performance is still worse than Internet Explorer 9, but the gap has definitely been closed a bit. The '1000 fish test' now clocks in at about 10 frames per second, which is definitely an improvement from last time -- but still some way short of IE9's 45 FPS.
The Chromium blog post says that only some content is being accelerated, so the Fish Tank might not be a fair comparison of the browsers. I'll try to find a better test or benchmark and share my findings later today. You can enable hardware acceleration in Chrome with the --enable-accelerated-compositing flag -- and if you discover anything interesting, please share your findings in the comments!
Update: you might need a nightly build of Chromium to take advantage of this hardware acceleration. It would be nice if Google could explicitly state when the changes were made...Chrome now has hardware acceleration, brings phenomenally faster fishes originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 30 Aug 2010 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
TAKE-TWO INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE SYNTEL SYNTAX-BRILLIAN SYNOPSYS
Windows Live Sync dies, zombie Live Mesh is reborn
Filed under: Utilities, Windows
When Microsoft revealed the first beta version of Windows Live Essentials, a number of Live Mesh users were a little miffed. In addition to dropping the name, Microsoft dialed back the free storage space from 5GB to 2GB.
Today, however, they've announced that they're going to take a mulligan and un-re-name Live Sync. It's going to be called Live Mesh after all, and more importantly you're also going to get that extra 3GB of space back.
Mesh probably makes more sense anyway, what with Sync including the desktop remote functionality. But hey, who gives a rat's patoot about the name when you can now cram in more than double the digital crud? Who knows, maybe some day they'll open the floodgates and let us have Mesh access to the whole 25GB SkyDrive theoretically offers...Windows Live Sync dies, zombie Live Mesh is reborn originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 27 Aug 2010 16:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
When Microsoft revealed the first beta version of Windows Live Essentials, a number of Live Mesh users were a little miffed. In addition to dropping the name, Microsoft dialed back the free storage space from 5GB to 2GB.
Today, however, they've announced that they're going to take a mulligan and un-re-name Live Sync. It's going to be called Live Mesh after all, and more importantly you're also going to get that extra 3GB of space back.
Mesh probably makes more sense anyway, what with Sync including the desktop remote functionality. But hey, who gives a rat's patoot about the name when you can now cram in more than double the digital crud? Who knows, maybe some day they'll open the floodgates and let us have Mesh access to the whole 25GB SkyDrive theoretically offers...Windows Live Sync dies, zombie Live Mesh is reborn originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 27 Aug 2010 16:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
LINEAR TECHNOLOGY . LEXMARK INTERNATIONAL LEVEL 3 COMMUNICATIONS LAWSON SOFTWARE
Pogoplug adds printing support, wireless adapter and Biz start shipping
Neat little update for Pogoplug owners today: the latest firmware update adds printing support, allowing iPhones, Android devices, and anything else that can hit the diminutive home server's web interface to print files. Any HP or Epson printer from 2005 or later is supported over USB -- network printers just need to be on the same network -- and the firmware is rolling out now. Pogoplug is also shipping that 802.11 b/g/n wireless adapter it announced earlier this month today, as well as the more enterprise-focused Pogoplug Biz. We're also told the new firmware will enable some other features, but there's no breakdown yet -- we'll let you know when we find out. PR after the break.Continue reading Pogoplug adds printing support, wireless adapter and Biz start shippingPogoplug adds printing support, wireless adapter and Biz start shipping originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Aug 2010 12:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | | Email this | Comments
DIRECTV GROUP ELPIDA MEMORY EMC FIDELITY NATIONAL INFORMATION SVCS.
Samsung Fascinate launching on September 8?
We've seen these kinds of Verizon launch decks before, so we tend to believe the September 8 date we're seeing for the Fascinate here is legit -- granted, Wednesday is an odd day to launch a phone, but not a lot weirder than the Thursday, September 9 date we'd had before. Either way, it's looking like a sure thing that we're going to see this on shelves come next week, completing Sammy's impressive four-way coup to get its high-end Galaxy S line launched on all of the US nationals. Like the Droid 2 and Droid X, the Fascinate will feature Blockbuster Mobile to let you download full-length movies on the go -- in other words, that's a feature that won't be a Droid brand exclusive -- and Bing search will be installed out of the box, giving Microsoft a fun little foothold in Google's kingdom. So, who's buying? And while we're on the subject, why isn't this thing called the "Droid Fascinate?"
[Thanks, Bryan]Samsung Fascinate launching on September 8? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Aug 2010 17:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Android Does | Email this | Comments
[Thanks, Bryan]Samsung Fascinate launching on September 8? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Aug 2010 17:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Android Does | Email this | Comments
Chartbeat Raises $3 Million From Index, Conway, Sacca, Clavier, Lerer, And Dixon
In a short amount of time since its launch in April, 2009 and its redesign a year later, realtime analytics startup Chartbeat has gained an impressive following of more than 2,500 paying corporate customers. All of this was done so far with 5 employees, led by general manager Tony Haile.
Now, the betaworks-incubated company has gained an impressive roster of investors in a $3 million Series A financing. The round was led by Index Ventures, and includes some serious superangels such as Ron Conway's SV Angel, Chris Sacca's Lowercase Capital, Chris Dixon's Founder Collective, Lerer Ventures, O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, Freestyle Capital, betaworks, Jeff Clavier's SoftTech VC, and Jason Calacanis. With the funding, Chartbeat will be spun off as its own separate company, just as betawork's bit.ly was before it.
Now, the betaworks-incubated company has gained an impressive roster of investors in a $3 million Series A financing. The round was led by Index Ventures, and includes some serious superangels such as Ron Conway's SV Angel, Chris Sacca's Lowercase Capital, Chris Dixon's Founder Collective, Lerer Ventures, O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, Freestyle Capital, betaworks, Jeff Clavier's SoftTech VC, and Jason Calacanis. With the funding, Chartbeat will be spun off as its own separate company, just as betawork's bit.ly was before it.
Proudly Show Off Your Inner Math Nerd With the Pi Necklace [Jewelry]
The Pi Necklace lists the first 100 decimal places of everyone's favorite irrational number, pi. It's the perfect accessory for Pi Day, or any other day, for that matter. [RGB Laboratory via Craziest Gadgets] More »
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LG to show first 3D THX-certified plasma at IFA alongside 180-inch 3D plasma prototype
Insanely thin LCDs not enough for you? LG is doing some wild stuff with plasma as well at IFA this week, with its new PX950N (pictured) to supposedly be the first to nab the new 3D THX certification, and a monstrous 180-inch plasma prototype nearby to devour any other unimpressed eyeballs. Unfortunately, details are super short on the 180-inch display, which would be the world's largest if LG is really doing this with one panel (it's hard to tell from LG's scant PR), but there are a few extra PX950N scraps to hold on to. The 600Hz Max Sub-field Drive plasma will support the Multi Picture Format for plugging in 3D cameras and camcorders, and has wireless AV link, DLNA, and NetCast as well. No word on sizes or prices just yet, but IFA kicks off on Wednesday, so there's not long to wait.LG to show first 3D THX-certified plasma at IFA alongside 180-inch 3D plasma prototype originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Aug 2010 08:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Akihabara | Email this | Comments
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Proudly Show Off Your Inner Math Nerd With the Pi Necklace [Jewelry]
The Pi Necklace lists the first 100 decimal places of everyone's favorite irrational number, pi. It's the perfect accessory for Pi Day, or any other day, for that matter. [RGB Laboratory via Craziest Gadgets] More »
Historious lets you easily recall where you browsed, but the price tag is a killer
Filed under: Utilities, Browser Tips
Historious tries to fill an incredibly tiny niche in the world of online bookmarking, archiving, and saving text for later perusal.
It's a browser bookmarklet, and its claim to fame is that it involves just a single click. There's no tagging or anything like that. Once you click the bookmarklet, Historious adds the site to your "personal history." You can then search your personal history for anything in the text of the article that you wanted to read. The search engine that's used seems to be a rebranded version of Google Custom Search.
Let's say that you've read an article about honey bees, and months later, you think to yourself, Hmm, where was that article about the bees? You can just go to Historious, search for bees, and voila - there's your article.
The reason that I feel Historious has a very slim chance of making it big time is that they want money. I mean, there's nothing wrong with wanting some money, but their business model makes it a paid service.
Delicious, Diigo, Read It Later, Instapaper and Google Web History are all services that could be used for doing much the same thing; they provide richer functionality and are completely free. Most of these won't let you search the entire text of the page, though (with the exception of Web History, which is a bit creepy in its own way). But, that aside, I am just not convinced that being able to save my pages without tagging them first is worth US$19.85 per year (they do offer a free option, but it's just up to 1,000 links).Historious lets you easily recall where you browsed, but the price tag is a killer originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 26 Aug 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Historious tries to fill an incredibly tiny niche in the world of online bookmarking, archiving, and saving text for later perusal.
It's a browser bookmarklet, and its claim to fame is that it involves just a single click. There's no tagging or anything like that. Once you click the bookmarklet, Historious adds the site to your "personal history." You can then search your personal history for anything in the text of the article that you wanted to read. The search engine that's used seems to be a rebranded version of Google Custom Search.
Let's say that you've read an article about honey bees, and months later, you think to yourself, Hmm, where was that article about the bees? You can just go to Historious, search for bees, and voila - there's your article.
The reason that I feel Historious has a very slim chance of making it big time is that they want money. I mean, there's nothing wrong with wanting some money, but their business model makes it a paid service.
Delicious, Diigo, Read It Later, Instapaper and Google Web History are all services that could be used for doing much the same thing; they provide richer functionality and are completely free. Most of these won't let you search the entire text of the page, though (with the exception of Web History, which is a bit creepy in its own way). But, that aside, I am just not convinced that being able to save my pages without tagging them first is worth US$19.85 per year (they do offer a free option, but it's just up to 1,000 links).Historious lets you easily recall where you browsed, but the price tag is a killer originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 26 Aug 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
LAWSON SOFTWARE LAND SOFTWARE LAM RESEARCH L-1 IDENTITY SOLUTIONS
Daily Crunch: Hip Pad Edition
Bag Week Reviews: Timbuk2 Extra Credit Messenger Review: Orb Home Theater Speakers The Google Store, Now With A Fresh Supply Of Android Merchandise Just a Dr. Marten Limited Edition USB Drive Bag Week Review Blitz, Back To School Edition
Roku lowers prices across the board: HD box now $69, $99 HD-XR to get 1080p support
Looks like Roku's going aggressive on price with its lineup of streamers in response to Sony's new $130 Netbox streamer, the upcoming Google TV launch, and rumors that we'll see that rumored $99 iOS-based Apple TV arrive on Wednesday. The SD box is down to $59 from $79, the standard HD is now $69 from $99, and the HD-XR with dual-band 802.11n and soon-to-be-enabled USB playback support is now $99 from $129. The HD-XR is also due to get 1080p streaming support later this year; it'll be focused on USB playback at first since most of the streaming channels are 720p right now.
Those prices are definitely getting close to impulse-buy territory, especially since a Roku is now one of the cheapest ways to get Netflix and Amazon VOD on a TV, along with other channels like MLB and UFC. In fact, Roku says its goal is to put three streamers in every house -- one next to every TV in the average American home. We applaud the ambition, but we've got a feeling this entire market is about get turned upside down once Apple and Google launch their initiatives.Roku lowers prices across the board: HD box now $69, $99 HD-XR to get 1080p support originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Aug 2010 23:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | | Email this | Comments
Those prices are definitely getting close to impulse-buy territory, especially since a Roku is now one of the cheapest ways to get Netflix and Amazon VOD on a TV, along with other channels like MLB and UFC. In fact, Roku says its goal is to put three streamers in every house -- one next to every TV in the average American home. We applaud the ambition, but we've got a feeling this entire market is about get turned upside down once Apple and Google launch their initiatives.Roku lowers prices across the board: HD box now $69, $99 HD-XR to get 1080p support originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Aug 2010 23:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | | Email this | Comments
Playboy Goes Non Nude For iPad
Soon the official Playboy iPad App will be revealed but certain other elements won’t be. What we’re trying to say is that in order to follow Apple’s very strict anti-obscenity rules Playboy has agreed to keep their app for the iPad tablet device entirely non-nude and tasteful. With no nudity allowed Playboy may just have [...]
TECHNITROL TAKE-TWO INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE SYNTEL SYNTAX-BRILLIAN
Verizon Bringing Live TV to the iPad
Verizon announces a new app that will allow FIOS users to stream live television to their iPads--so long as they're home, of course.
IPad - Verizon FiOS - Television - Verizon Communications - Arts
IPad - Verizon FiOS - Television - Verizon Communications - Arts
Screen Grabs: Turtle gets his Kinect on
Screen Grabs chronicles the uses (and misuses) of real-world gadgets in today's movies and TV. Send in your sightings (with screen grab!) to screengrabs at engadget dt com.
The producers of Entourage have already shown their tech savvy with a littering of BlackBerry, Jawbone and iPad use, but how about some unreleased hardware? Turtle was spotted doing a bit of cardio in last night's episode, nothing too shocking about that, but he did it using Microsoft's Kinect peripheral as a workout buddy. Last time we checked, that motion-controlled goodness wasn't supposed to be out for another two months -- we can only guess that good old Sal Assante managed to get his name on that top-secret beta tester list.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]Continue reading Screen Grabs: Turtle gets his Kinect onScreen Grabs: Turtle gets his Kinect on originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Aug 2010 08:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | | Email this | Comments
The producers of Entourage have already shown their tech savvy with a littering of BlackBerry, Jawbone and iPad use, but how about some unreleased hardware? Turtle was spotted doing a bit of cardio in last night's episode, nothing too shocking about that, but he did it using Microsoft's Kinect peripheral as a workout buddy. Last time we checked, that motion-controlled goodness wasn't supposed to be out for another two months -- we can only guess that good old Sal Assante managed to get his name on that top-secret beta tester list.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]Continue reading Screen Grabs: Turtle gets his Kinect onScreen Grabs: Turtle gets his Kinect on originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Aug 2010 08:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | | Email this | Comments
Monday, August 30, 2010
iPad live podcast #19: Sumos and Sammys
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We’re talking Apple’s upcoming special music event, asking if we’ll ever get that iOS 4 update, wondering about Sumos and Samsungs, and getting all up into the iPad’s business. It’s a girl, folks. And this is iPad live!
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Thanks [...]iPad live podcast #19: Sumos and Sammys is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
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We’re talking Apple’s upcoming special music event, asking if we’ll ever get that iOS 4 update, wondering about Sumos and Samsungs, and getting all up into the iPad’s business. It’s a girl, folks. And this is iPad live!
Credits
Thanks [...]iPad live podcast #19: Sumos and Sammys is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
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Time Waits for No One: 'Leap Seconds' May Be Cut
Problematic for computers, the leap second may be banished
Leap second - Time - Business - Supplies and Equipment - Business Services
Leap second - Time - Business - Supplies and Equipment - Business Services
Play Starcraft II From Your iPhone [IPhone]
Developer Daniel Hellerman has let us know about an interesting little project he's working on: an app that promises to let you control Starcraft II from your iPhone (or iPad). More »
Firefox 4 Beta 4 is out, with Panorama and Sync
Filed under: Mozilla, Open Source, Browsers
"Tab Candy" has finally come into its own in this most recent iteration of Firefox, Beta 4. The feature is now called "Panorama". Not all of Raskin's envisioned features made it, but it's still pretty dang cool.
Panorama now lets you group tabs and optionally name the groups. You can resize the groups, and when you shrink a group down to its smallest size, it becomes a "pile" and you can zoom into it by clicking a button next to it.
Another major addition is Firefox Sync. It works with its own accounts, "Firefox Sync accounts." Interestingly, it prompts you for a pass phrase in addition to a password. It's a service which syncs your history, open tabs, bookmarks, Awesomebar, etc. Sounds identical to what Google already does with Chrome, but now Firefox has it, too.
These are the two new major features in the Beta 4. The inclusion of Panorama is a big deal - it's Firefox's most innovative UI feature by far, and I think it signifies the release cycle rapidly moving to maturity for this version. You should definitely go give it a try, even if it's not ready yet for use as a full-time browser (due to lack of add-ons).Firefox 4 Beta 4 is out, with Panorama and Sync originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 25 Aug 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
"Tab Candy" has finally come into its own in this most recent iteration of Firefox, Beta 4. The feature is now called "Panorama". Not all of Raskin's envisioned features made it, but it's still pretty dang cool.
Panorama now lets you group tabs and optionally name the groups. You can resize the groups, and when you shrink a group down to its smallest size, it becomes a "pile" and you can zoom into it by clicking a button next to it.
Another major addition is Firefox Sync. It works with its own accounts, "Firefox Sync accounts." Interestingly, it prompts you for a pass phrase in addition to a password. It's a service which syncs your history, open tabs, bookmarks, Awesomebar, etc. Sounds identical to what Google already does with Chrome, but now Firefox has it, too.
These are the two new major features in the Beta 4. The inclusion of Panorama is a big deal - it's Firefox's most innovative UI feature by far, and I think it signifies the release cycle rapidly moving to maturity for this version. You should definitely go give it a try, even if it's not ready yet for use as a full-time browser (due to lack of add-ons).Firefox 4 Beta 4 is out, with Panorama and Sync originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 25 Aug 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
NATIONAL SEMICONDUCTOR NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS MOTOROLA MOODY’S
Xperia X10's Android 2.1 update unchanged, still on track for September
We'd like to say we're excited at the news that Sony Ericsson on Twitter confirmed "that the upgrade to Android 2.1 [for the Xperia X10] is due for release before the end of September this year."OK, it's not that we're not excited, it's just that it's not new. It was way back in June that SE announced a change to the Xperia upgrade timeline, from early Q4 to late Q3. As September is the last month in the third quarter, it looks like we're still on that schedule.Hang in there, folks. Your phones will be upgraded to an operating system that's not the newest in the next month or so. In the meantime, you can check out our latest (and second) hands-on with the X10 for AT&T. [Twitter via Engadget]Posted originally at Android CentralSponsored by Android Cases and Accessories
Nintendo dropping DSi and DSI XL prices on September 12
Nintendo is slashing the DSi to $149.99 and the DSi XL to $169.99 (that's down $20 apiece) on September 12 in North America, after dropping prices in the UK and Japan in June. We still don't know what the 3DS will be going for or when it will land, that announcement is still slated for the end of this month, but we're sure at this price (or any) Nintendo will manage to sell a good many million of the current crop between now and then. PR is after the break.Continue reading Nintendo dropping DSi and DSI XL prices on September 12Nintendo dropping DSi and DSI XL prices on September 12 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Aug 2010 10:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink Joystiq | | Email this | Comments
ON SEMICONDUCTOR NVIDIA NUANCE COMMUNICATIONS NOVELLUS SYSTEMS
Angry Birds 1.4.1 and Angry Birds HD 1.4.1 hit App Store
Angry Birds for iPhone and its big brother, Angry Birds HD for iPad, have been updated to make it even birdier and, I fear, angrier. New features in version 1.4.1 consist of:
15 levels have been reconstructed
A new golden egg has been added
Fresh new achievements are included
And, um… fantastic feathered fun is plentiful
The iPad version hit [...]Angry Birds 1.4.1 and Angry Birds HD 1.4.1 hit App Store is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
15 levels have been reconstructed
A new golden egg has been added
Fresh new achievements are included
And, um… fantastic feathered fun is plentiful
The iPad version hit [...]Angry Birds 1.4.1 and Angry Birds HD 1.4.1 hit App Store is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
This Little iPad Stand Can Still Do a Lot of Standing [Ipad]
There's a good number of nice iPad stands—most recently Twelve South's Compass—but at some point you have to ask yourself how much stand is too much. The PadFoot does the job and stays out of the way. More »
Apple iPod Classic: Gone in a Flash (Maybe)
Retiring the iPod Classic makes sense only if another device can take the high-capacity throne with flash storage.
iPod - Apple - Consumer electronics - Shopping - Digital Portable Players
iPod - Apple - Consumer electronics - Shopping - Digital Portable Players
TRIDENT MICROSYSTEMS TRANSACTION SYSTEMS ARCHITECTS TOTAL SYSTEM SERVICES TNS
Cyanogen Mod 6 -- the one with Froyo -- hits target list of devices, first stable release
If 6.0.0 RC1 just wasn't cutting it for ya, CyanogenMod-6.0 has released what's being touted as the "first stable release based on Android 2.2" and has hit the target number of supported devices, which by our quick count includes EVO 4G, Slide, Nexus One, Dream / Magic, Aria, and Droid -- and we might be missing a few.. You know the drill; if you need a bit of Froyo in your mobile life.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]Cyanogen Mod 6 -- the one with Froyo -- hits target list of devices, first stable release originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Aug 2010 00:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Cyanogen | Email this | Comments
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]Cyanogen Mod 6 -- the one with Froyo -- hits target list of devices, first stable release originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Aug 2010 00:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Cyanogen | Email this | Comments
Windows DLL exploit could cause problems, and there's no immediate fix available
Filed under: OS Updates, Security, Windows
It seems an old, well-known Windows DLL issue might soon find its way into a virus near you!
I wouldn't worry too much though. As I said, it's a very old issue that hasn't been fixed in a long time. Basically, DLL files are libraries of functions. Most programs load a bunch of DLLs when they start-up, and if you can infect those DLLs -- or replace them with malicious counterparts -- then you can very easily hack the system. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that one DLL might call any number of other DLLs. Still, the problem remains that you have to get those bad DLLs onto the user's system, which isn't easy.
CNet has more information, direct from Microsoft:
"At this time, we encourage customers to review and apply the guidance in Security Advisory 2269637. Also, it should be noted that DLL planting requires significant user interaction and cannot be exploited by simply browsing to a web page. An attacker would have to convince a user to click a link to their SMB (Server Message Block) or WebDAV (Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning) share and then convince the user to open a file from that share which would trigger additional dialogs prompting the user to OK the action."
As you can see, you and I aren't going to be fooled by this new attack vector -- but it might be worth telling your friends and family about it! This nasty little bug won't be going away for some time, and dozens of very popular Windows programs like Office 2007, µTorrent, and Firefox 3.6.8 are vulnerable.
For further reading, here's a published example of how you might exploit iTunes on Windows. Offensive Security even has a video of the exploit in action! Again, don't worry too much -- just don't click any odd links from people you don't trust and you'll be fine.Windows DLL exploit could cause problems, and there's no immediate fix available originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 25 Aug 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
It seems an old, well-known Windows DLL issue might soon find its way into a virus near you!
I wouldn't worry too much though. As I said, it's a very old issue that hasn't been fixed in a long time. Basically, DLL files are libraries of functions. Most programs load a bunch of DLLs when they start-up, and if you can infect those DLLs -- or replace them with malicious counterparts -- then you can very easily hack the system. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that one DLL might call any number of other DLLs. Still, the problem remains that you have to get those bad DLLs onto the user's system, which isn't easy.
CNet has more information, direct from Microsoft:
"At this time, we encourage customers to review and apply the guidance in Security Advisory 2269637. Also, it should be noted that DLL planting requires significant user interaction and cannot be exploited by simply browsing to a web page. An attacker would have to convince a user to click a link to their SMB (Server Message Block) or WebDAV (Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning) share and then convince the user to open a file from that share which would trigger additional dialogs prompting the user to OK the action."
As you can see, you and I aren't going to be fooled by this new attack vector -- but it might be worth telling your friends and family about it! This nasty little bug won't be going away for some time, and dozens of very popular Windows programs like Office 2007, µTorrent, and Firefox 3.6.8 are vulnerable.
For further reading, here's a published example of how you might exploit iTunes on Windows. Offensive Security even has a video of the exploit in action! Again, don't worry too much -- just don't click any odd links from people you don't trust and you'll be fine.Windows DLL exploit could cause problems, and there's no immediate fix available originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 25 Aug 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Daily Crunch: Memento Edition
Another Canon Lens Mug! Want So Bad! Now You Wily Terrorists Will Be Subject To Long-Range Skeleton Analysis Grease: The Video Game What?s This Disgraced Former Apple Exec Doing With $150,000 Inside Shoe Boxes? Interesting Read: Reality Check On Nanotechnology
How One Man Accidentally Invented Electronics in 1906 [Inventions]
When Lee de Forest accidentally created the first electronic audio amplifier—the Audion—he "inaugurated the age of electronics." You can learn about it in this excerpt from Nicholas Carr's book What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. [Gizmodo] More »
SYKES ENTERPRISES INORATED SYBASE SUN MICROSYSTEMS STANDARD MICROSYSTEMS
Educational Chemistry Crayons: "Hey Mom, Pass the Barium Nitrate Flame" [Crayons]
At least that's what the creator of this product hopes your child will say when they get these crayons, which are labeled with the actual chemical used to give each colored wax stick its hue. More »
TweetUp Now Includes Updates From LinkedIn And Facebook; Changes Name To PostUp
Twitter search and advertising startup platform operator TweetUp has announced today that its search engine for Twitter will be expanding to include bios and updates posted to other social networks, including LinkedIn and Facebook. Because the company will no longer be solely based on Twitter, TweetUp is changing its name to PostUp.
In April, TweetUp, which was incubated by incubated by idealab, opened registration for its bidded marketplace for real-time search, and in May the company launched its search capabilities on a number of sites at the TechCrunch Disrupt event, including at TechCrunch, Topix.com, and Businessinsider.com.
In April, TweetUp, which was incubated by incubated by idealab, opened registration for its bidded marketplace for real-time search, and in May the company launched its search capabilities on a number of sites at the TechCrunch Disrupt event, including at TechCrunch, Topix.com, and Businessinsider.com.
Nokia C6-01 is a Symbian^3 touchscreen candybar with 8 megapixel camera?
The nerds over at Mobile Geek Inc did a nifty investigative piece revealing more details about Nokia's mid-level C6-01 candybar. After making an awkward early appearance on Nokia's Dutch online storefront, more pics along with the user agent profile have been located thus confirming its lack of QWERTY, 8 megapixel camera, and Symbian^3 OS. A nice alternative to the C6-00 slider shackled to S60 5th and a 5 megapixel camera. Look for the new C6 to get official with a very nice price either at, or around, Nokia World 2010 which kicks off September 14th in London. One more front-side pic after the break.Continue reading Nokia C6-01 is a Symbian^3 touchscreen candybar with 8 megapixel camera?Nokia C6-01 is a Symbian^3 touchscreen candybar with 8 megapixel camera? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Aug 2010 07:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Mobile Geek Inc | Email this | Comments
The Sonar Image Of The Titanic's Debris Field Is Bigger Than Expected [Titanic]
The first sonar images of the Titanic have been mapped and the ship's debris field is much larger than scientists anticipated. Here's what the dots in the sonar image is actually showing. More »
The Fast Track From Code to Cloud
Over the past decade, software development has undergone several transformations that have led to the new practices and methodologies such as agile development. Combining emerging technologies -- including dynamic language platforms, cloud computing, and agile development practices -- offers a paradigm shift away from traditional software development methods.
Onslaught is a fast-paced, HTML5 Time-Waster
Filed under: Fun, Games, Time-Wasters
Onslaught is a fairly simple "defence" style game, but it's very fast-paced and lots of fun. You're a blocky Viking-looking dude in a dungeon. Waves of enemies enter, and you have to kill them all with a variety of weapons.
You use the arrows to move, and Space to shoot. You can just keep Space pressed down permanently, too. You can use Z and X to switch weapons, and you don't have to stop firing to make the switch. That's pretty neat.
As your enemies die, they leave all sorts of fun bonuses. My favorite weapon so far is the "fireballs." You get a whole bunch of fireballs that provide 360 degree fire all around you; they provide perfect coverage.
Some of the levels have "bosses" that fire at you. (The other enemies only come at you; they don't have any projectile weapons.) One of those bosses is what killed me and ended the game that you see in the screenshot. It's quite a neat little distraction!Onslaught is a fast-paced, HTML5 Time-Waster originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 24 Aug 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Onslaught is a fairly simple "defence" style game, but it's very fast-paced and lots of fun. You're a blocky Viking-looking dude in a dungeon. Waves of enemies enter, and you have to kill them all with a variety of weapons.
You use the arrows to move, and Space to shoot. You can just keep Space pressed down permanently, too. You can use Z and X to switch weapons, and you don't have to stop firing to make the switch. That's pretty neat.
As your enemies die, they leave all sorts of fun bonuses. My favorite weapon so far is the "fireballs." You get a whole bunch of fireballs that provide 360 degree fire all around you; they provide perfect coverage.
Some of the levels have "bosses" that fire at you. (The other enemies only come at you; they don't have any projectile weapons.) One of those bosses is what killed me and ended the game that you see in the screenshot. It's quite a neat little distraction!Onslaught is a fast-paced, HTML5 Time-Waster originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 24 Aug 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
FIDELITY NATIONAL INFORMATION SVCS. FISERV GOOGLE GRUPO IUSACELL
iPad now shipping in 24hrs
Apple’s online store now lists both iPad Wi-Fi and iPad Wi-Fi + 3G as shipping in 24hrs, and not just in the US but in international stores from Canada to the UK as well.
Supplies of Apple’s “magical and revolutionary” new device have been highly constrained since launch, leading delays in international rollouts and concerns that [...]iPad now shipping in 24hrs is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
Supplies of Apple’s “magical and revolutionary” new device have been highly constrained since launch, leading delays in international rollouts and concerns that [...]iPad now shipping in 24hrs is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
HP's Phil McKinney teases three mystery prototypes on Twitter
Well, this is certainly interesting -- that's HP CTO Phil McKinney pictured above in a pair of redacted shots that were posted to Twitter by HP's Mark Budgell. Described only as "early protos" by McKinney himself, the pictures show what appears to be phone-sized device, a tablet-sized device and, perhaps most curiously, something on McKinney's wrist (all mysteriously blacked out). Before you get your hopes up too much about a new wave of webOS devices, however, you might want to take a look at the second part of Budgell's tweet, which encourages folks to vote for McKinney's SXSW 2011 panel -- a panel in which McKinney promises to make some "bold predictions for the future - backed up with a number of breakthrough prototypes," and specifically talk about what the future will look like in "5 to 10 years." Now, we can't be certain of course, but that doesn't exactly suggest these are right around the corner. Head on past the break for a slightly bigger image.Continue reading HP's Phil McKinney teases three mystery prototypes on TwitterHP's Phil McKinney teases three mystery prototypes on Twitter originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 29 Aug 2010 16:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | @philmckinney, @MarkatHP (Twitter) | Email this | Comments
Vimeo Releases Embeddable HTML5 Player, Roku Channel
This week, Vimeo is attempting to make iPhone, iPad, and Roku set-top box owners very happy.
iPhone - IPad - Vimeo - HTML5 - Smartphone
iPhone - IPad - Vimeo - HTML5 - Smartphone
SYBASE SUN MICROSYSTEMS STANDARD MICROSYSTEMS SRA INTERNATIONAL
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Behind The Bidding War: The Real Reasons Why HP And Dell are So Desperate For 3Par
As I was writing this, news of the HP / Dell bidding war for 3PAR broke on the front page of Yahoo. This made me laugh, as it typified just how crazy this story has become?few things outside of a bidding war will make a storage acquisition sexy enough to make mainstream news.
At $30, HP?s current offer is the sixth bid, a 200 percent premium over 3PAR?s previous $10 share price. Not only is this insane, but it?s also nearly unprecedented in M&A history. And since 3PAR is trading above $32 the market thinks Dell will bid even higher.
At $30, HP?s current offer is the sixth bid, a 200 percent premium over 3PAR?s previous $10 share price. Not only is this insane, but it?s also nearly unprecedented in M&A history. And since 3PAR is trading above $32 the market thinks Dell will bid even higher.
Apple Expected to Launch New Products on Sept. 1
Apple is holding an event on Sept. 1 to launch new products.
Apple - IPod - IPod Touch - AppleTv - Steve Jobs
Apple - IPod - IPod Touch - AppleTv - Steve Jobs
Paul Allen sues Apple, Google, Facebook, puppy dogs, all things good and decent (not Microsoft)
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has dropped the patent suit hammer on Apple, Google, Facebook, AOL, eBay, Netflix, Office Depot, OfficeMax, Staples, Yahoo, and YouTube, accusing them of violating his lab’s innovations in internet commerce. According to the Wall Street Journal:
For Mr. Allen, the lawsuit marks new terrain. He is aggressively going after companies, [...]Paul Allen sues Apple, Google, Facebook, puppy dogs, all things good and decent (not Microsoft) is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
For Mr. Allen, the lawsuit marks new terrain. He is aggressively going after companies, [...]Paul Allen sues Apple, Google, Facebook, puppy dogs, all things good and decent (not Microsoft) is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
New ARM architecture (likely Eagle) better suited for OS virtualization
Looks like that fake Pre with the iOS / BlackBerry OS split personality is a little ahead of its time, but ARM -- supplier of the architecture that underpins most of the world's smartphones -- likes the idea. In a recent talk at Stanford, ARM program manager David Brash talked up some of the highlights of new "extensions" to the existing ARMv7-A platform, and though he apparently never mentioned Eagle by name, it seems safe to assume that he was referring to the capabilities that Eagle would bring to the table when it launches in the next couple years. Notably, the extensions will break through ARM's current 4GB RAM limit by mapping 4GB windows of memory to each virtualized operating system, which dovetails nicely -- suspiciously nicely, in fact -- with VMware's recent talk of wanting virtualized phones capable of seamlessly switching between multiple platforms without any hacky bootloader solutions. We're definitely game for that, but considering that Eagle is still years away from retail reality, we're not bothering to clear space on our credit limit just yet.New ARM architecture (likely Eagle) better suited for OS virtualization originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Aug 2010 18:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink Phone Arena | Linux for Devices | Email this | Comments
TECHNITROL TAKE-TWO INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE SYNTEL SYNTAX-BRILLIAN
Wow. If You Think Quitting Booze Freaks People Out, Wait ?Til You Quit Twitter
I promise this is my last word on the subject.
I had already promised myself, actually, that I wouldn?t write any more about my decision to quit Facebook, Linkedin, Foursquare, Blippy, Yammer, Dopplr and every other social network other than Twitter. But then I added Twitter to the list - deleting my 10,000+ follower account and returning to more traditional blogging - and suddenly all (social media) hell broke loose.
For reasons I can?t quite understand - it?s not like I?ve quit food or oxygen - my inbox has since been flooded with emails. Some are just standard notes of congratulations for cutting the cord while others scream that I?m a Luddite who doesn?t ?get? Twitter (by and large these are the same people who describe themselves as ?social media ninja?s on their profiles: the modern day equivalent of those ?My other car is the Batmobile? bumper stickers).
The majority of messages, though, are from people who are strongly considering following my lead, but are worried that their body or mind might not be able to cope with the shock. How do I feel since quitting? Can I offer them any advice?
I had already promised myself, actually, that I wouldn?t write any more about my decision to quit Facebook, Linkedin, Foursquare, Blippy, Yammer, Dopplr and every other social network other than Twitter. But then I added Twitter to the list - deleting my 10,000+ follower account and returning to more traditional blogging - and suddenly all (social media) hell broke loose.
For reasons I can?t quite understand - it?s not like I?ve quit food or oxygen - my inbox has since been flooded with emails. Some are just standard notes of congratulations for cutting the cord while others scream that I?m a Luddite who doesn?t ?get? Twitter (by and large these are the same people who describe themselves as ?social media ninja?s on their profiles: the modern day equivalent of those ?My other car is the Batmobile? bumper stickers).
The majority of messages, though, are from people who are strongly considering following my lead, but are worried that their body or mind might not be able to cope with the shock. How do I feel since quitting? Can I offer them any advice?
TAKE-TWO INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE SYNTEL SYNTAX-BRILLIAN SYNOPSYS
Ugly iPhone 4 Case Comes With Built-In Dual-SIM Adapter [Iphone 4]
This transparent iPhone 4 case doesn't exactly look great, but it comes with a clever feature: A dual-SIM adapter. It means that you can keep two SIM cards attached to your iPhone and toggle between them using a menu setting. More »
MICROSEMI MICROS SYSTEMS MICRON TECHNOLOGY MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY
It's official: Google Voice comes to Gmail -- phone booths on the way
Filed under: E-mail, Google, VoIP
As predicted, Google Voice has now become a part of Gmail. You'll need to install the Google voice and video chat plug-in for your browser and you'll also need a U.S. based Gmail address. Sorry, everyone else alive who uses Gmail (and tech-savvy zombies) -- we're out of luck for the time being.
But there's a twist to the voice calling story. It seems Google plans on giving new users the first hit free, as it were -- by installing Google Voice phone booths in airports and on university campuses. Here's how their plan breaks down:
Install phone booths in public locations
Get users to fall in love with the service
...
Profit!
Google's official blog post is here. I heartily encourage all non-U.S. Gmail users to make with the expansion requests there starting... Now.
Also, Skype killer, etc.
It's official: Google Voice comes to Gmail -- phone booths on the way originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
As predicted, Google Voice has now become a part of Gmail. You'll need to install the Google voice and video chat plug-in for your browser and you'll also need a U.S. based Gmail address. Sorry, everyone else alive who uses Gmail (and tech-savvy zombies) -- we're out of luck for the time being.
But there's a twist to the voice calling story. It seems Google plans on giving new users the first hit free, as it were -- by installing Google Voice phone booths in airports and on university campuses. Here's how their plan breaks down:
Install phone booths in public locations
Get users to fall in love with the service
...
Profit!
Google's official blog post is here. I heartily encourage all non-U.S. Gmail users to make with the expansion requests there starting... Now.
Also, Skype killer, etc.
It's official: Google Voice comes to Gmail -- phone booths on the way originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
ELPIDA MEMORY EMC FIDELITY NATIONAL INFORMATION SVCS. FISERV
Researchers set new record for ferroelectric data storage
Ferroelectric isn't just a ridiculously fun word to say, it might just also be the future of computing. While that possibility is still a ways off, researchers have been making considerable progress in recent years, and a team from Japan's Tohoku University has now set a new record for ferroelectric data storage. That was accomplished with the aid of a scanning nonlinear dielectric microscope, which allowed the researchers to hit a data density of 4 trillion bits per square inch. As you might expect, the exact process is a bit complicated -- involving a pulse generator that's used to alter the electrical state of tiny dots on the ferroelectric medium -- but the researchers say that the technology is a leading candidate to replace magnetic hard drives and flash memory, or "at least in applications for which extremely high data density and small physical volume is required." Unfortunately, they aren't going so far as to speculate when that might happen.Researchers set new record for ferroelectric data storage originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Aug 2010 02:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Gizmag | Email this | Comments
NewsBlur is a slick, impressive, undocumented RSS reader
Filed under: Utilities, Blogging, web 2.0
NewsBlur is a very beautiful feed reader that's laden with tons of JavaScript, but it utterly lacks any form of documentation.
It's an open source project by the talented Samuel Clay, who has been working on it for 15 months now. He's currently working on an iPhone version, but the regular version is very impressive in itself.
The sources are hosted over on GitHub, and the project uses the Django Web framework for Python. This means that you can probably install it on your own server and break free from the big G. But unlike Fever, which is another server-based reader, NewsBlur has built-in multi-user support, and it's free. So, you don't have to install it on your own server to use it; you can just go to the NewsBlur site and open an account.
NewsBlur lets you import your current feeds from Google Reader. It lets you vote articles up and down, and it uses your input to figure out what you might like to read in the future. It then marks articles appropriately so that you can (hopefully) read just the stuff that you're interested in out of the sea of RSS feeds that you've been reading.
To really see if the intelligence works, you have to use it for a while, which is something I haven't done. This is a very impressive project, but I feel that the lack of documentation (not even an About page) is holding it back. I would have given you a complete screenshot tour of it, but it's very difficult when you don't know what anything does.
Share TweetNewsBlur is a slick, impressive, undocumented RSS reader originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 23 Aug 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
NewsBlur is a very beautiful feed reader that's laden with tons of JavaScript, but it utterly lacks any form of documentation.
It's an open source project by the talented Samuel Clay, who has been working on it for 15 months now. He's currently working on an iPhone version, but the regular version is very impressive in itself.
The sources are hosted over on GitHub, and the project uses the Django Web framework for Python. This means that you can probably install it on your own server and break free from the big G. But unlike Fever, which is another server-based reader, NewsBlur has built-in multi-user support, and it's free. So, you don't have to install it on your own server to use it; you can just go to the NewsBlur site and open an account.
NewsBlur lets you import your current feeds from Google Reader. It lets you vote articles up and down, and it uses your input to figure out what you might like to read in the future. It then marks articles appropriately so that you can (hopefully) read just the stuff that you're interested in out of the sea of RSS feeds that you've been reading.
To really see if the intelligence works, you have to use it for a while, which is something I haven't done. This is a very impressive project, but I feel that the lack of documentation (not even an About page) is holding it back. I would have given you a complete screenshot tour of it, but it's very difficult when you don't know what anything does.
Share TweetNewsBlur is a slick, impressive, undocumented RSS reader originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 23 Aug 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
10+ invaluable Android apps for the freshmen and back-to-schoolers
Filed under: Fun, Utilities, Windows, Education, Android
First up, let me congratulate you on buying an Android smartphone instead of an iPhone. You've just saved a few hundred dollars that could be better spent on beer, bitches/blokes and books. And if you have a little money left after that, you could buy a few Android apps too!
Having said that, most of the apps in this list are free with the option to pay some money if you want bonus features or you want to get rid of the ads. One or two only have paid versions, but there is almost always a free alternative.
I've broken them down into categories -- Study, Recreation and WTF?! -- just for your viewing pleasure.
Study
Yes, study comes first. You might disagree with me -- especially if you're starting your first year at university -- but I have to maintain some scruples. Remember, kids, school is all about learning! All the fun stuff begins after you graduate! In your office cubicle! For the next 40 years of your life!
Yeah right...
Note: to download an app you need to open Android Market on your phone and type in the app's name!
EverPaper (free)
EverPaper is like a glorious mix of both Evernote and Instapaper. Evernote has its own official app, but EverPaper works just fine, and it's nice to have access to both services from the same app. Both Instapaper and Evernote are 'read it later' tools, incidentally. If you're poring through Wikipedia on campus and want to save some interesting links for later, or if a lecturer gives you a link to read after class, EverPaper can help.
RepliGo Reader ($3.99) and GDocs (free)
Do you need to access your Google Docs on the move? Or perhaps your lecturer or classmate sent you a PDF attachment that you need to view? In either case, these two apps are great. Android PDF Viewer is a free alternative to RepliGo, but it's nowhere near as useful or responsive.
NewsRob (free, or $4.99)
Google Reader does have a mobile version of its website, but NewsRob is a far better solution. It's so good that you probably want to spend $4.99 on the pro version! Just type in your Google account details and watch as all of your unread RSS feeds synchronize. By default it downloads the body of stories too (including images), for offline use.
As an aside, does anyone know why this thing's called NewsRob? I bet it was developed by someone called Rob...
Barcode Scanner (free) and Document Scanner ($3.98)
Two different apps, but both equally awesome. Barcode Scanner lets you scan almost any barcode -- books, CDs, QR codes -- and then look up prices, reviews and so on. Really, download it and give it a go on a book you own; it's so, so cool. Imagine scanning a book at the university bookshop and finding out it's cheaper on Amazon...
Document Scanner converts photos of your paper documents into PDFs, which you can then email to wherever you like. It doesn't do text recognition though -- it's just a PDF with an image in, I think.
Swype (free, but closed beta) and SwiftKey (free)
If you're going to do any kind of data entry on your phone, you need Swype or SwiftKey. Swype is about 1000 times better than SwiftKey, but it's still in beta testing. SwiftKey is still a lot better than Android's default on-screen keyboard, though.
Swype is so fast that you could probably take notes in classes with your Android phone quite effectively. Who needs paper nowadays, anyway?
Fun & Recreation
Of course, after all that hard studying stuff, you need to unwind! Relax! Most students opt for the Xbox-and-beer method of unwinding, but what if you spent all your money on beer and forgot to buy the Xbox? Or maybe you like to go out and drink beer, or go to the cinema? Well, there are plenty of apps that can help you!
Fandango and IMDb (both free) (Flixster is pretty good, too)
Use Fandango to find out what films are on in your area, and IMDb to check if they're good or not! You can also book tickets with the Fandango app, which is rather handy. The IMDb app has exactly the same data as the free website, so if you ever find yourself in the pub or playground and need to break a tie, or wow your friends with an encyclopadic knowledge of film, this app's for you.
Incidentally, even if you're not into films, IMDb also does TV listings!
Yelp and Google's Places Directory (both free)
Both of these great apps can help you find somewhere to eat, drink or relax in your local vicinity -- and if Yelp doesn't return enough results, try the Places Directory! Generally you'll get the best results if you live in the USA, but most of western Europe also has good coverage.
Cab4me (free)
This app is as awesome as you think. No longer will you be tempted to drink and drive -- and no longer will one poor sod play the designated driver!
Cab4me works out either your network-based or GPS location, displays a pretty Google Map of your location, and then prompts you with the local taxi companies. For some companies it just shows a number (which you can dial directly), while for some it even shows which cars they have available and the tariffs. I've only tested it in south England, but I'm sure it's good for the entirety of America and western Europe.
Google Sky Map (free)
I wasn't sure if this one counted as educational, recreational or WTF -- to be honest, it depends if you find the sky interesting or not! Google Sky Map is new (it's still in beta), but it's one of those wondrous apps that makes the smartphone crusade a little more tolerable. If only there was a Sky Map for every app that takes photos of your friends and makes them look fat. It would all balance out...
Anyway, install Google Sky Map, go outside at night, and hold your phone up to the sky. Trust me, you'll make all sorts of odd, awed noises (or simply 'totally awweeesssome!!!', if you live on the West Coast).
WTF?!
Finally, when all's said and done, when you're laying semi-comatose on a friend's bed waiting for the sun to rise, or stuck at a bus stop in cold, driving rain, you instinctively reach for your phone and look for something to do. These apps don't really have a use, other than to put a smile on your face, or to waste a few minutes.
Twitter and Facebook (both free)
If by some divine tragedy you don't check Twitter and Facebook enough from your desktop computer, there are two very nice Android apps that you can use. They let you post updates (and pictures), or browse your friends' profiles (and pictures, in Facebook's case).
How better to while away half an hour at the bus stop than by posting 'I'm standing at a bus stop' on Facebook?
Bump (free)
The concept behind this app is great, and I can see how it might be really cool in a social setting like school or university. Basically, you just bump two phones together (both running the Bump app), and they then share some information -- a photo, your contact details, calendar events, etc. It works like a door knock -- the devices only send data out when both are knocked at the same time.
Unfortunately I haven't been able to try it out, but I can imagine it becoming the Next Big Thing at night clubs and bars. Don't shout your phone number like an enraged orangutan into his or her ear! Just bump your phones! (And later... your hips...)
Tricorder (free, of course!)
I leave you with one of the most-downloaded (250,000+!) and highest-rated (4.5 out of 5!) apps on the Market. The great thing is, it's not even a novelty app! It's a REAL APP! Tricorder actually uses real data from your phone's sensors to provide information about your acoustic environment, your location (and orientation), local cellular and Wi-Fi signals -- even solar radiation!
If that wasn't enough, it makes lots of original-series Star Trek noises. I'm not even a proper Star Trek nerd, yet Tricorder brought a huge, stupid grin to my face.
Share Tweet10+ invaluable Android apps for the freshmen and back-to-schoolers originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 19 Aug 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments
First up, let me congratulate you on buying an Android smartphone instead of an iPhone. You've just saved a few hundred dollars that could be better spent on beer, bitches/blokes and books. And if you have a little money left after that, you could buy a few Android apps too!
Having said that, most of the apps in this list are free with the option to pay some money if you want bonus features or you want to get rid of the ads. One or two only have paid versions, but there is almost always a free alternative.
I've broken them down into categories -- Study, Recreation and WTF?! -- just for your viewing pleasure.
Study
Yes, study comes first. You might disagree with me -- especially if you're starting your first year at university -- but I have to maintain some scruples. Remember, kids, school is all about learning! All the fun stuff begins after you graduate! In your office cubicle! For the next 40 years of your life!
Yeah right...
Note: to download an app you need to open Android Market on your phone and type in the app's name!
EverPaper (free)
EverPaper is like a glorious mix of both Evernote and Instapaper. Evernote has its own official app, but EverPaper works just fine, and it's nice to have access to both services from the same app. Both Instapaper and Evernote are 'read it later' tools, incidentally. If you're poring through Wikipedia on campus and want to save some interesting links for later, or if a lecturer gives you a link to read after class, EverPaper can help.
RepliGo Reader ($3.99) and GDocs (free)
Do you need to access your Google Docs on the move? Or perhaps your lecturer or classmate sent you a PDF attachment that you need to view? In either case, these two apps are great. Android PDF Viewer is a free alternative to RepliGo, but it's nowhere near as useful or responsive.
NewsRob (free, or $4.99)
Google Reader does have a mobile version of its website, but NewsRob is a far better solution. It's so good that you probably want to spend $4.99 on the pro version! Just type in your Google account details and watch as all of your unread RSS feeds synchronize. By default it downloads the body of stories too (including images), for offline use.
As an aside, does anyone know why this thing's called NewsRob? I bet it was developed by someone called Rob...
Barcode Scanner (free) and Document Scanner ($3.98)
Two different apps, but both equally awesome. Barcode Scanner lets you scan almost any barcode -- books, CDs, QR codes -- and then look up prices, reviews and so on. Really, download it and give it a go on a book you own; it's so, so cool. Imagine scanning a book at the university bookshop and finding out it's cheaper on Amazon...
Document Scanner converts photos of your paper documents into PDFs, which you can then email to wherever you like. It doesn't do text recognition though -- it's just a PDF with an image in, I think.
Swype (free, but closed beta) and SwiftKey (free)
If you're going to do any kind of data entry on your phone, you need Swype or SwiftKey. Swype is about 1000 times better than SwiftKey, but it's still in beta testing. SwiftKey is still a lot better than Android's default on-screen keyboard, though.
Swype is so fast that you could probably take notes in classes with your Android phone quite effectively. Who needs paper nowadays, anyway?
Fun & Recreation
Of course, after all that hard studying stuff, you need to unwind! Relax! Most students opt for the Xbox-and-beer method of unwinding, but what if you spent all your money on beer and forgot to buy the Xbox? Or maybe you like to go out and drink beer, or go to the cinema? Well, there are plenty of apps that can help you!
Fandango and IMDb (both free) (Flixster is pretty good, too)
Use Fandango to find out what films are on in your area, and IMDb to check if they're good or not! You can also book tickets with the Fandango app, which is rather handy. The IMDb app has exactly the same data as the free website, so if you ever find yourself in the pub or playground and need to break a tie, or wow your friends with an encyclopadic knowledge of film, this app's for you.
Incidentally, even if you're not into films, IMDb also does TV listings!
Yelp and Google's Places Directory (both free)
Both of these great apps can help you find somewhere to eat, drink or relax in your local vicinity -- and if Yelp doesn't return enough results, try the Places Directory! Generally you'll get the best results if you live in the USA, but most of western Europe also has good coverage.
Cab4me (free)
This app is as awesome as you think. No longer will you be tempted to drink and drive -- and no longer will one poor sod play the designated driver!
Cab4me works out either your network-based or GPS location, displays a pretty Google Map of your location, and then prompts you with the local taxi companies. For some companies it just shows a number (which you can dial directly), while for some it even shows which cars they have available and the tariffs. I've only tested it in south England, but I'm sure it's good for the entirety of America and western Europe.
Google Sky Map (free)
I wasn't sure if this one counted as educational, recreational or WTF -- to be honest, it depends if you find the sky interesting or not! Google Sky Map is new (it's still in beta), but it's one of those wondrous apps that makes the smartphone crusade a little more tolerable. If only there was a Sky Map for every app that takes photos of your friends and makes them look fat. It would all balance out...
Anyway, install Google Sky Map, go outside at night, and hold your phone up to the sky. Trust me, you'll make all sorts of odd, awed noises (or simply 'totally awweeesssome!!!', if you live on the West Coast).
WTF?!
Finally, when all's said and done, when you're laying semi-comatose on a friend's bed waiting for the sun to rise, or stuck at a bus stop in cold, driving rain, you instinctively reach for your phone and look for something to do. These apps don't really have a use, other than to put a smile on your face, or to waste a few minutes.
Twitter and Facebook (both free)
If by some divine tragedy you don't check Twitter and Facebook enough from your desktop computer, there are two very nice Android apps that you can use. They let you post updates (and pictures), or browse your friends' profiles (and pictures, in Facebook's case).
How better to while away half an hour at the bus stop than by posting 'I'm standing at a bus stop' on Facebook?
Bump (free)
The concept behind this app is great, and I can see how it might be really cool in a social setting like school or university. Basically, you just bump two phones together (both running the Bump app), and they then share some information -- a photo, your contact details, calendar events, etc. It works like a door knock -- the devices only send data out when both are knocked at the same time.
Unfortunately I haven't been able to try it out, but I can imagine it becoming the Next Big Thing at night clubs and bars. Don't shout your phone number like an enraged orangutan into his or her ear! Just bump your phones! (And later... your hips...)
Tricorder (free, of course!)
I leave you with one of the most-downloaded (250,000+!) and highest-rated (4.5 out of 5!) apps on the Market. The great thing is, it's not even a novelty app! It's a REAL APP! Tricorder actually uses real data from your phone's sensors to provide information about your acoustic environment, your location (and orientation), local cellular and Wi-Fi signals -- even solar radiation!
If that wasn't enough, it makes lots of original-series Star Trek noises. I'm not even a proper Star Trek nerd, yet Tricorder brought a huge, stupid grin to my face.
Share Tweet10+ invaluable Android apps for the freshmen and back-to-schoolers originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 19 Aug 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments
SONIC AUTOMOTIVE SKYWORKS SOLUTIONS SILICON LABORATORIES SI INTERNATIONAL
Motorola's Droid 2 Needs a Better User Interface and Camera
While the Motorola Droid 2 ships with latest version of Android and has an improved design, the phone's proprietary Motoblur interface gets in the way of a few native Android apps. Also, the camera is mediocre.
Android - Motoblur - Motorola - Motorola Droid - User interface
Android - Motoblur - Motorola - Motorola Droid - User interface
COMPAL ELECTRONICS COSMOTE MOBILE TELECOM. D-LINK DIGITAL CHINA HOLDINGS
Why Tech Warriors Give Up: A Closer Look At Built To Flip (TCTV)
There's a growing debate in Silicon Valley as to whether the rise in angel investors coupled with robust deal activity (from the likes of Google, Facebook, Zynga, etc.) is fostering an unhealthy environment for the industry.
It's not that founders aren't making money (indeed many are cashing out early) the real issue, as posited by our editor, Michael Arrington, is if this new dynamic is stifling the next Zuckerberg or Brin---- the entrepreneur that doesn't just want to sell to Google, but wants to be Google. On Thursday, we explored this issue further, inviting David Hornik and Howard Hartenbaum of August Capital to sit down with Arrington on TechCrunch TV, to discuss the state of investing and why once-bold tech warriors seem to be giving up. See video ahead.
It's not that founders aren't making money (indeed many are cashing out early) the real issue, as posited by our editor, Michael Arrington, is if this new dynamic is stifling the next Zuckerberg or Brin---- the entrepreneur that doesn't just want to sell to Google, but wants to be Google. On Thursday, we explored this issue further, inviting David Hornik and Howard Hartenbaum of August Capital to sit down with Arrington on TechCrunch TV, to discuss the state of investing and why once-bold tech warriors seem to be giving up. See video ahead.
Outside the U.S. ? Don't try to upgrade Voice in Gmail
Filed under: Google, VoIP
Now that I -- like a number of our international readers -- have the voice calling feature in my Gmail inbox, I fully intend to use it at least occasionally. Which is why I'm thankful this handy tip was posted over at Google OS this morning.
If you're outside the U.S. do not click the upgrade your account button. As you can see, the results are less than thrilling -- you'll lose access to the feature.
Hopefully Google will hide the button from non-U.S. users in the near future, but for now just resist the temptation to click and you should be OK!
Outside the U.S. ? Don't try to upgrade Voice in Gmail originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 27 Aug 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Now that I -- like a number of our international readers -- have the voice calling feature in my Gmail inbox, I fully intend to use it at least occasionally. Which is why I'm thankful this handy tip was posted over at Google OS this morning.
If you're outside the U.S. do not click the upgrade your account button. As you can see, the results are less than thrilling -- you'll lose access to the feature.
Hopefully Google will hide the button from non-U.S. users in the near future, but for now just resist the temptation to click and you should be OK!
Outside the U.S. ? Don't try to upgrade Voice in Gmail originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 27 Aug 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
More details, plus a new color, on the AT&T Motorola Flipout
We brought you the first pictures of the AT&T version of the Motorola Flipout, and now it's time to drop off a truckload of info on the device. Let's do so in handy bullet form, shall we? The phone runs the updated version of Motoblur 1.5 -- but it's not what you find on the Droid X and Droid 2. The operating system is Android 2.1 (update1, we presume). Widgets are resizeable, like on the Droid X and Droid 2. There are filtering options for your social networks, so you're not completely deluged with information. The 2.8-inch screen (at the old-school 320x240 resolution) is described as "garbage" with a low, low 120 pixels per inch. (Hey, it's not mean to be high-end.) That said, the body of the phone and build quality are said to be top-notch, which is no surprise for Motorola. We may not like the design, but, dammit, they can certainly build things well. Benchmarks: 26FPS on nenamark, 444 on quadrant, 5.8MFlops on linpack, but it's topping out on gears and 2dfps at 30FPS. The phone is pretty speedy, with its OMAP processor running at 720MHz and PowerVR SGX 530 GPU. This is AT&T we're talking about, so there is no app sideloading, but like the Backflip and Aria and Captivate, you can use ADB or the Android Sideload Wonder Machine to install the .apk files. Google Navigation is in, and Google is the default search, unlike on the Backflip. Yahoo is the homepage, but that is changed easily enough. So there you go, folks. We're looking at a small, speedy, pocketable Android phone. We've got a couple more pictures after the break, including one with a blue backing -- perhaps there will be interchangeable battery covers?
Posted originally at Android CentralSponsored by Android Cases and Accessories
Posted originally at Android CentralSponsored by Android Cases and Accessories
VERIFONE HOLDINGS VEECO INSTRUMENTS VARIAN SEMICONDUCTOR EQUIPMENT ASSOCIATES UNITED ONLINE
Vampire Hunters: Devices Reduce Energy Waste
Specially designed surge protectors and gadget chargers promise to help cut your power consumption.
Energy - Business - Technology - Electronics and Electrical - Surge protector
Energy - Business - Technology - Electronics and Electrical - Surge protector
Those crazy Taiwanese have done it again: 'Google Does Evil' (video)
Filed under: Fun, Google
From the same news agency that produced that fantastic iPhone 'Antennagate' video comes a brief one-minute synopsis of Google's apparent abandonment of its don't be evil mantra. If you haven't been following the news (we haven't really covered it here on Download Squad), Google is coming to terms with having to be a little more ruthless to maintain its market lead. In turn, this has sparked a lot of commentary about Google being evil.
I don't think this is as funny as the iPhone video -- and it could certainly do with some English subtitles -- but it does feature, rather succinctly, all of the pertinent facts. I only really laughed out loud at the dead girl (see image after the break), which pays homage to a British news story from last week. I guess it's pretty awesome that these guys can pump animations out in just a few days!
[via Gizmodo]
Those crazy Taiwanese have done it again: 'Google Does Evil' (video) originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 20 Aug 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
From the same news agency that produced that fantastic iPhone 'Antennagate' video comes a brief one-minute synopsis of Google's apparent abandonment of its don't be evil mantra. If you haven't been following the news (we haven't really covered it here on Download Squad), Google is coming to terms with having to be a little more ruthless to maintain its market lead. In turn, this has sparked a lot of commentary about Google being evil.
I don't think this is as funny as the iPhone video -- and it could certainly do with some English subtitles -- but it does feature, rather succinctly, all of the pertinent facts. I only really laughed out loud at the dead girl (see image after the break), which pays homage to a British news story from last week. I guess it's pretty awesome that these guys can pump animations out in just a few days!
[via Gizmodo]
Those crazy Taiwanese have done it again: 'Google Does Evil' (video) originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 20 Aug 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
NewsBlur is a slick, impressive, undocumented RSS reader
Filed under: Utilities, Blogging, web 2.0
NewsBlur is a very beautiful feed reader that's laden with tons of JavaScript, but it utterly lacks any form of documentation.
It's an open source project by the talented Samuel Clay, who has been working on it for 15 months now. He's currently working on an iPhone version, but the regular version is very impressive in itself.
The sources are hosted over on GitHub, and the project uses the Django Web framework for Python. This means that you can probably install it on your own server and break free from the big G. But unlike Fever, which is another server-based reader, NewsBlur has built-in multi-user support, and it's free. So, you don't have to install it on your own server to use it; you can just go to the NewsBlur site and open an account.
NewsBlur lets you import your current feeds from Google Reader. It lets you vote articles up and down, and it uses your input to figure out what you might like to read in the future. It then marks articles appropriately so that you can (hopefully) read just the stuff that you're interested in out of the sea of RSS feeds that you've been reading.
To really see if the intelligence works, you have to use it for a while, which is something I haven't done. This is a very impressive project, but I feel that the lack of documentation (not even an About page) is holding it back. I would have given you a complete screenshot tour of it, but it's very difficult when you don't know what anything does.
Share TweetNewsBlur is a slick, impressive, undocumented RSS reader originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 23 Aug 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
NewsBlur is a very beautiful feed reader that's laden with tons of JavaScript, but it utterly lacks any form of documentation.
It's an open source project by the talented Samuel Clay, who has been working on it for 15 months now. He's currently working on an iPhone version, but the regular version is very impressive in itself.
The sources are hosted over on GitHub, and the project uses the Django Web framework for Python. This means that you can probably install it on your own server and break free from the big G. But unlike Fever, which is another server-based reader, NewsBlur has built-in multi-user support, and it's free. So, you don't have to install it on your own server to use it; you can just go to the NewsBlur site and open an account.
NewsBlur lets you import your current feeds from Google Reader. It lets you vote articles up and down, and it uses your input to figure out what you might like to read in the future. It then marks articles appropriately so that you can (hopefully) read just the stuff that you're interested in out of the sea of RSS feeds that you've been reading.
To really see if the intelligence works, you have to use it for a while, which is something I haven't done. This is a very impressive project, but I feel that the lack of documentation (not even an About page) is holding it back. I would have given you a complete screenshot tour of it, but it's very difficult when you don't know what anything does.
Share TweetNewsBlur is a slick, impressive, undocumented RSS reader originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 23 Aug 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
TRIQUINT SEMICONDUCTOR TRIMBLE NAVIGATION LIMITED TRIDENT MICROSYSTEMS TRANSACTION SYSTEMS ARCHITECTS
Silicon Valley?s Dark Secret: It?s All About Age
An interesting paradox in the technology world is that there is both a shortage and a surplus of engineers in the United States. Talk to those working at any Silicon Valley company, and they will tell you how hard it is to find qualified talent. But listen to the heart-wrenching stories of unemployed engineers, and you will realize that there are tens of thousands who can?t get jobs. What gives?
The harsh reality is that in the tech world, companies prefer to hire young, inexperienced, engineers. And engineering is an "up or out" profession: you either move up the ladder or face unemployment. This is not something that tech executives publicly admit, because they fear being sued for age discrimination, but everyone knows that this is the way things are. Why would any company hire a computer programmer with the wrong skills for a salary of $150,000, when it can hire a fresh graduate?with no skills?for around $60,000? Even if it spends a month training the younger worker, the company is still far ahead. The young understand new technologies better than the old do, and are like a clean slate: they will rapidly learn the latest coding methods and techniques, and they don?t carry any ?technology baggage?. As well, the older worker likely has a family and needs to leave by 6 pm, whereas the young can pull all-nighters.
The harsh reality is that in the tech world, companies prefer to hire young, inexperienced, engineers. And engineering is an "up or out" profession: you either move up the ladder or face unemployment. This is not something that tech executives publicly admit, because they fear being sued for age discrimination, but everyone knows that this is the way things are. Why would any company hire a computer programmer with the wrong skills for a salary of $150,000, when it can hire a fresh graduate?with no skills?for around $60,000? Even if it spends a month training the younger worker, the company is still far ahead. The young understand new technologies better than the old do, and are like a clean slate: they will rapidly learn the latest coding methods and techniques, and they don?t carry any ?technology baggage?. As well, the older worker likely has a family and needs to leave by 6 pm, whereas the young can pull all-nighters.
FIDELITY NATIONAL INFORMATION SVCS. FISERV GOOGLE GRUPO IUSACELL
CrunchGear Week in Review: Interrupting Animals Edition
Here are some stories from the past week on CrunchGear: Test Drive: Nissan Leaf CERAMICA: Japanese Designer Mini Speakers You Will Be Punched With An Alligator Halo 2600: Halo Redone For the Atari 2600 In Which The Parlour Cannon?s Adventures Continue Contest: Win a Ghostbusters Proton Pack*
Outside the U.S. ? Don't try to upgrade Voice in Gmail
Filed under: Google, VoIP
Now that I -- like a number of our international readers -- have the voice calling feature in my Gmail inbox, I fully intend to use it at least occasionally. Which is why I'm thankful this handy tip was posted over at Google OS this morning.
If you're outside the U.S. do not click the upgrade your account button. As you can see, the results are less than thrilling -- you'll lose access to the feature.
Hopefully Google will hide the button from non-U.S. users in the near future, but for now just resist the temptation to click and you should be OK!
Outside the U.S. ? Don't try to upgrade Voice in Gmail originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 27 Aug 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Now that I -- like a number of our international readers -- have the voice calling feature in my Gmail inbox, I fully intend to use it at least occasionally. Which is why I'm thankful this handy tip was posted over at Google OS this morning.
If you're outside the U.S. do not click the upgrade your account button. As you can see, the results are less than thrilling -- you'll lose access to the feature.
Hopefully Google will hide the button from non-U.S. users in the near future, but for now just resist the temptation to click and you should be OK!
Outside the U.S. ? Don't try to upgrade Voice in Gmail originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 27 Aug 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
iPhone live podcast 114: What?s that guitar mean anyway?
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Apple announces annual special music event for Sept. 1, Jobs says iOS 4 on iPhone 3G is getting fixed, More on LiquidMetal, and Facebook releases 3 updates in a week. And what does that guitar mean anyway? This [...]iPhone live podcast 114: What’s that guitar mean anyway? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
Download Directly
Subscribe via iTunes
Apple announces annual special music event for Sept. 1, Jobs says iOS 4 on iPhone 3G is getting fixed, More on LiquidMetal, and Facebook releases 3 updates in a week. And what does that guitar mean anyway? This [...]iPhone live podcast 114: What’s that guitar mean anyway? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
Crudbox Turns Any Gadget Into an Electronic Sequencer
An ingenious hacker has created a device that can turn any electrical device into a musical sequencer.
Music sequencer - hack - sequencer - Multimedia - Music and Audio
Music sequencer - hack - sequencer - Multimedia - Music and Audio
Color Theory is a retro-tastic platformer - Time-Waster
Filed under: Fun, Games, Time-Wasters
You've gotta love those retro games! Color Theory is an 8-bit style platformer, wherein your blocky character jumps all over the screen and hits colored "tokens."
Each level is composed of platforms in a number of colors. As soon as you hit a colored token, all of the matching platforms become transparent. So, if a blue wall is blocking your way, just find a blue token, hit it, and the blue wall becomes transparent.
It quickly gets complicated, though; some platforms have spikes, and there are Pacman-style "ghosts" that move around and get in your way. Also, there's a "gravity-shifter" token, which flips gravity in the game - up becomes down and vice versa. It's pretty confusing!
You can't always see where you're jumping, but the designer helpfully included arrows and other hints. If you aim for the arrow, you'll land wherever you need to land in order to keep going.
Some of the levels require very precise timing, like level 12 (shown in the screenshot); that's where I got stuck. It's not a very difficult game, though, and it's lots of fun. How far did you get?Color Theory is a retro-tastic platformer - Time-Waster originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
You've gotta love those retro games! Color Theory is an 8-bit style platformer, wherein your blocky character jumps all over the screen and hits colored "tokens."
Each level is composed of platforms in a number of colors. As soon as you hit a colored token, all of the matching platforms become transparent. So, if a blue wall is blocking your way, just find a blue token, hit it, and the blue wall becomes transparent.
It quickly gets complicated, though; some platforms have spikes, and there are Pacman-style "ghosts" that move around and get in your way. Also, there's a "gravity-shifter" token, which flips gravity in the game - up becomes down and vice versa. It's pretty confusing!
You can't always see where you're jumping, but the designer helpfully included arrows and other hints. If you aim for the arrow, you'll land wherever you need to land in order to keep going.
Some of the levels require very precise timing, like level 12 (shown in the screenshot); that's where I got stuck. It's not a very difficult game, though, and it's lots of fun. How far did you get?Color Theory is a retro-tastic platformer - Time-Waster originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
The Patents Paul Allen's Suing the Whole World Over [Patents]
If you haven't heard, Paul Allen, mostly famous for his early role at Microsoft, has sued basically the entire tech world over patents filed by his former company, Interval. The WSJ has a more in-depth look at the patents, and who he's suing for what. Spoiler: One of them is basically a news aggregator, and another is a real time newsfeed—say, running across the top of CNN.com. [WSJ] More »
Saturday, August 28, 2010
The Lowdown on Garmin's Nuvi Recall
Company said faulty devices have batteries that can "in rare circumstances, increase the possibility of overheating, which may lead to a fire hazard."
Garmin - Business - Batteries - United States - Consumer electronics
Garmin - Business - Batteries - United States - Consumer electronics
Website owners: Opera users are the most valuable, in terms of ad clicks
Filed under: Browsers
An interesting report, titled 'Are Opera Users the Most Valuable?' has been making the rounds this week. The commentary has been opinionated and fiery and, truth be told, we're still no closer to working out why Opera users click the most ads.
If you don't want to click through, the basic gist is this: Opera users are 50% more likely to click ads than Chrome users. Internet Explorer are the next-most likely to click ads, followed by Firefox. Safari users actually click the least ads!
The difficulty comes from trying to analyse these figures. A nascent analysis, perhaps citing Internet Explorer, would state that the lack of ad-blocking is to blame. Both Chrome and Firefox have excellent ad-blocking extensions, that's why their users click so few ads. But Opera has ad-blocking! And if it was only about blocking ads, wouldn't Internet Explorer be at the top?
So, Opera has ad-blocking, yet its users still click the most ads. Curious. (Incidentally, is there a popular ad-blocking add-on for Safari? As in, one that even non-power users would know of?)
Perhaps it's the users themselves. Are Opera users more inquisitive? This report uses in-line text ads as a sample set, so maybe... Opera users are more literate? Perhaps Safari and Chrome users merely scan text, rather than actually reading it? The problem with this argument is Internet Explorer -- it's right up the top with Opera! Can we really say that the average Opera user is comparable to an IE user? Surely they are at the opposite ends of the spectrum!
What's the answer, then? I'm guessing that the sample set is from a biased set of websites -- perhaps from a forum that's frequented by a lot of Opera users? Internet Explorer should be at the top, with its lack of ad-blocking and its 'newbie' user base. Still, I'm going to suggest to my chief that we write more Opera news...Website owners: Opera users are the most valuable, in terms of ad clicks originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 18 Aug 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
An interesting report, titled 'Are Opera Users the Most Valuable?' has been making the rounds this week. The commentary has been opinionated and fiery and, truth be told, we're still no closer to working out why Opera users click the most ads.
If you don't want to click through, the basic gist is this: Opera users are 50% more likely to click ads than Chrome users. Internet Explorer are the next-most likely to click ads, followed by Firefox. Safari users actually click the least ads!
The difficulty comes from trying to analyse these figures. A nascent analysis, perhaps citing Internet Explorer, would state that the lack of ad-blocking is to blame. Both Chrome and Firefox have excellent ad-blocking extensions, that's why their users click so few ads. But Opera has ad-blocking! And if it was only about blocking ads, wouldn't Internet Explorer be at the top?
So, Opera has ad-blocking, yet its users still click the most ads. Curious. (Incidentally, is there a popular ad-blocking add-on for Safari? As in, one that even non-power users would know of?)
Perhaps it's the users themselves. Are Opera users more inquisitive? This report uses in-line text ads as a sample set, so maybe... Opera users are more literate? Perhaps Safari and Chrome users merely scan text, rather than actually reading it? The problem with this argument is Internet Explorer -- it's right up the top with Opera! Can we really say that the average Opera user is comparable to an IE user? Surely they are at the opposite ends of the spectrum!
What's the answer, then? I'm guessing that the sample set is from a biased set of websites -- perhaps from a forum that's frequented by a lot of Opera users? Internet Explorer should be at the top, with its lack of ad-blocking and its 'newbie' user base. Still, I'm going to suggest to my chief that we write more Opera news...Website owners: Opera users are the most valuable, in terms of ad clicks originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 18 Aug 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Motorola Backflip gets rooted [FWIW]
The Motorola Backflip is the latest phone to get rooted, and it's using the same exploit as was used on the Droid 2 and the Evo 4G. This makes things really interesting, as any root method that works across different models and manufacturers is a very welcome change. And we all should encourage the rooting of all Android phones on AT&T, even if only to uncripple them let them run the OS as designed.The standard disclaimer that this breaks warranties, can brick your phone, and maybe even make your dog run away still stands. If you decide that this is for you, hit the source link and have at it. [ModMyMobile.com]Posted originally at Android CentralSponsored by Android Cases and Accessories
G-Mate Mag Gun controller for Xbox and PS3 gets FCC approval; we'd like to see them try and stop it
digg_url = 'http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/27/g-mate-mag-gun-controller-for-xbox-and-ps3-gets-fcc-approval-we/';
Hopefully you had your Campbell's Chunky Fully Loaded Beef Stew this morning, because it takes a Man to look down the barrel of the G-Mate Mag Gun and live. The weapon just passed through the FCC unscathed, and now it's gunning for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. The basic operation is simple enough, with triggers, face buttons, a d-pad and everything else you'd need to ape a modern console controller. There's only one analog nub, but that's of course because the gun's own motion is meant to emulate the second. G-Mate isn't so clear on how that part of the gun works, but from what we can glean, it's basically an accelerometer and / or gyroscope, which you calibrate to the center of your particular screen with a dedicated button. A sensitivity knob completes the Mag Gun-specific functionality -- which probably won't revolutionize the FPS genre, but certainly might give those suspicious of the Move or too masculine for the XCM Fire something to watch out for. Check out some videos of it in action after the break.Continue reading G-Mate Mag Gun controller for Xbox and PS3 gets FCC approval; we'd like to see them try and stop itG-Mate Mag Gun controller for Xbox and PS3 gets FCC approval; we'd like to see them try and stop it originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Aug 2010 12:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink Wireless Goodness | HKCC | Email this | Comments
Hopefully you had your Campbell's Chunky Fully Loaded Beef Stew this morning, because it takes a Man to look down the barrel of the G-Mate Mag Gun and live. The weapon just passed through the FCC unscathed, and now it's gunning for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. The basic operation is simple enough, with triggers, face buttons, a d-pad and everything else you'd need to ape a modern console controller. There's only one analog nub, but that's of course because the gun's own motion is meant to emulate the second. G-Mate isn't so clear on how that part of the gun works, but from what we can glean, it's basically an accelerometer and / or gyroscope, which you calibrate to the center of your particular screen with a dedicated button. A sensitivity knob completes the Mag Gun-specific functionality -- which probably won't revolutionize the FPS genre, but certainly might give those suspicious of the Move or too masculine for the XCM Fire something to watch out for. Check out some videos of it in action after the break.Continue reading G-Mate Mag Gun controller for Xbox and PS3 gets FCC approval; we'd like to see them try and stop itG-Mate Mag Gun controller for Xbox and PS3 gets FCC approval; we'd like to see them try and stop it originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Aug 2010 12:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink Wireless Goodness | HKCC | Email this | Comments
Foursquare Takes Over Times Square With A Massive Display Ad
In terms of brand recognition, it's hard to top a huge live display billboard in Las Vegas. But Foursquare has managed to do it. As you can see above, they now have a massive, multi-level and multi-angle display practically screaming about the service to all those in Times Square in New York City.
"Check in, find your friends, unlock your city," the ad reads. In smaller print at the bottom it talks about checking in to American Eagle for some kind of special. Foursquare head of business development Tristan Walker confirms that American Eagle is behind the ad, which he says is the "largest digital billboard in Times Square."
"Check in, find your friends, unlock your city," the ad reads. In smaller print at the bottom it talks about checking in to American Eagle for some kind of special. Foursquare head of business development Tristan Walker confirms that American Eagle is behind the ad, which he says is the "largest digital billboard in Times Square."
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Toshiba's Tegra 2-powered Android Smart Pad to be called Folio 100?
A Smart Pad? That's just Toshiba's product category, according to Netbook Italia's latest post on the tablet (it's previously shown off some apparent imagery). The publication has published new renders -- including a dock peripheral -- and some purported specs. Here's what's being said: Android 2.2, NVIDIA Tegra 2 (both of which we've heard in other whispers), a 10.1-inch 1024 x 600 screen, 16GB internal memory, 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth, 3G, SD and MMC card readers, HDMI and USB 2.0 ports, a 1.3 megapixel webcam, and a 1020mAh battery with a battery life of up to 7 hours with mixed use (browsing and video playback). Software-wise, it's got Opera mobile browser, Flash 10.1, an e-book reader, and some office applications. The doubting Thomas in us still remains hesitant until Toshi gives the official word, but nothing here seems too crazy for the tablet mania most companies seem to have this year. One thing's for sure, its claimed official name -- Folio 100 -- is a few degrees to close to some bad memories of ours.Toshiba's Tegra 2-powered Android Smart Pad to be called Folio 100? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Aug 2010 14:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Notebook Italia | Email this | Comments
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