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

ALLIANCE DATA SYSTEMS
ALLTEL
AMAZON.COM
AMERICA MOVIL
AMKOR TECHNOLOGY

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

AT&T
AUTODESK
AUTOMATIC DATA PROCESSING
AVNET
BHARTI AIRTEL

Filed under: Google, Browsers
Google had originally pegged December 2010 for the first release of Chrome OS, but it’s been looking like a fall release is now a safe bet. It’s certainly netbook-ready at this point, though some missing features (like an on-screen keyboard) may mean that tablet devices arrive slightly later.

Developers keep plugging ahead, however, and continue to work on tablet-friendly features. Two code revisions have landed in the past couple days which will definitely make Chrome more at home on tablets. The first is device orientation support (think auto-rotating content on your Chrome OS tablet and accelerometer-enabled games) and the other is speech input (hello, voice commands!).

Both features have been part of the Chromium code for a while now, but they’re now enabled by default and it’s typically a very short amount of time between a new Chromium feature being defaulted and its arrival in the official Google Chrome builds. It’s also worth noting that voice input support is only on by default for Chromium’s Windows users — Mac and Linux users would need to add the ?–enable-speech-input switch to their shortcut for the time being.

Developer Jeremy Selier has posted a simple-yet-cool demo video of device orientation using his Macbook Pro — check it out after the break!

Device orientation demo from Jeremy Selier on Vimeo.Two more tablet-friendly features on their way to Google Chrome originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 28 Aug 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments

INVENTEC
KDDI
KLA-TENCOR
KONINKLIJKE KPN
LAM RESEARCH

Apple bought mobile ad network Quattro Wireless. Quattro confirmed the purchase, which AllThingsDigital said was worth $275 million. The deal could accelerate the growing war between Apple and Google, friends quickly turned enemies in the pitched battle for the mobile Web. Chris Dixon, co-founder of decision engine Hunch and an investor in multiple properties, argued that Apple’s interest in Quattro must be about ads in mobile apps. –

Apple has acquired mobile ad network Quattro Wireless in
a deal worth a reported $275 million, or roughly one third of what Google bid
to buy mobile ad provider AdMob.
Andy Miller, formerly Quattro CEO and co-founder but now
Apple’s vice president of mobile advertising, confirmed t…

ANIXTER INTERNATIONAL
APPLE COMPUTER
APPLIED MATERIALS
ARIAN SEMICONDUCTOR EQUIPMENT
ARROW ELECTRONICS

Filed under: Fun, Utilities, Mobile
Augmented reality, at the moment, is a bit kitsch. It’s a technology that’s been threatening to emerge for years but, like “virtual reality,” it’s always been held back by technological constraints. Until the last year or two, most AR and VR implementations involved you wheeling around a laptop (or strapping it to your back!) — and VR still requires a silly pair of glasses. That’s all about to change, however, with the gigahertz-in-our-pocket smartphones.

In the next few years, almost everyone in the Western world will have a handheld device that’s capable of displaying rich 3D graphics. GPS will pinpoint your location and elevation in real-time, and 3G and 4G (5, 6, 7 …) networks will make both topological data and the Internet’s wealth of contextual data available at any time and any place. But enough talking, let me show you what I’m talking about: check out the Marmota project. It hides behind such subtitles as “visual environment monitoring” and “semantic image labelling,” but in essence, it’s the next step in augmented reality.

The best thing would be for you to read through the Marmota website and check out the pictures, but I’ll give you an example of what Marmota will let you do. Right now, you can pull down Flickr photos from a given geolocation — that’s pretty cool, … but that’s also about it for the current state of augmented reality. With Marmota, you point your camera at a landscape (or cityscape!), and the server sends you topological and contextual information for the scene you’re looking at. So, if you hold your smartphone up in front of a mountain, the mountain’s name and elevation are shown on the screen (here’s a larger version of the image above) — the software can also show you roads, landmarks, and so on. Using topological information, the 2D image on your phone can even be converted into a 3D image (watch the video, it’s very cool), and presumably you can then see over a range of mountains and down into the valley beyond!

The coolest thing is, this technology is actually ready to go. The project has used Android phones as its test bed, and the app should be available in the “immediate future.” I’ll keep you updated and bring you a proper review as soon as possible.

[via ReadWriteWeb]The Marmota project shows off what we can expect from augmented reality in the next few years originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 24 Aug 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

SES
SHAW COMMUNICATIONS
SIEMENS FAIR ISAAC
FACTSET RESEARCH SYSTEMS

Transmedia has introduced the new Glide OS 4.0, a cloud-based operating system that is ad-free, full of great productivity apps and best of all is compatible with the Apple iPad. It has great syncing capabilities and runs right from your iPad’s browser. It operates like an online mobile desktop. With Glide OS you can share [...]

CISCO SYSTEMS
COGNIZANT TECH. SOLUTIONS
COMCAST
COMMSCOPE
COMMUNICATIONS HOLDINGS

The tenth annual Debian Developer Conference has opened in New York City. DebConf 2010 is the first time the event has been held in the United States. – The tenth annual Debian Developer Conference has opened in New York City.
The Debian Developer Conference, the world’s
largest GNU/Linux distribution developers conference, is taking place
at Columbia University Aug. 1-7.
The Debian Project, the team behind the free
Debian GNU/Linux operating…

NOKIA
NVIDIA
ORACLE
POWERCHIP SEMICONDUCTOR
PRICELINE.COM

Filed under: Google, BrowsersIt’s Chrome’s second birthday today, and in addition to posting some fancy-schmancy images to celebrate Google Chrome’s stable channel has been bumped to version 6. For those of you still keeping tabs on version changes, it’s only been four months since Chrome 5 went stable.

The update means that all Chrome users can now take advantage of extension and autofill sync — both important parts of Google’s desire to keep your ‘browsing platform’ uniform across all the computers you use.

Version 6 also brings the new consolidated menu, richer content settings (JavaScript, plug-ins, notifications, and the like), and the first-run search engine selection screen. There’s also a faster V8 JavaScript engine under the hood.

No announcement yet from the Chrome Blog, but we’ll add a link once their official post has gone live. In the meantime, the Chromium blog has a breakdown of some of the more important security updates and feature additions.
Share TweetGoogle Chrome 6 goes stable, 2nd birthday celebration brings extension and autofill sync originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 10:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments

ARROW ELECTRONICS
ASML HOLDING
ASUSTEK COMPUTER
AT&T
AUTODESK

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

AMPHENOL
ANIXTER INTERNATIONAL
APPLE COMPUTER
APPLIED MATERIALS
ARIAN SEMICONDUCTOR EQUIPMENT

Filed under: E-mail, Google
Before I get into this too far, let’s start with the usual disclaimer. Yes, Google is rolling out a new feature to Gmail users. No, you might not have it yet — in which case, you’ll have to wait just like always.

Now, on to the good stuff!

Google has apparently been hard at work teaching an old dog (the Gmail spam filter) some new tricks. Well, one new trick: learning how to automatically prioritize incoming messages. In keeping with the processed meat metaphors, the new feature separates “bologna” from your new messages — mail which isn’t quite junk but doesn’t require your immediate attention — in addition to spam.

Many of you have probably been doing this manually for quite some time using Gmail’s filters and stars, which I use to pull out less urgent messages like comment notifications as well as keeping family correspondence separate from my work-related mail. The advantage with Priority Inbox is that Gmail does it all for you, and the more you use it the better it gets at filtering.

Yes, within weeks of activating the new feature Gmail will be sorting your mail mystery meat into neat stacks: important and unread messages first, starred items next, and bologna at the bottom. You’ll also be able to click a plus or minus flag to let Gmail know whether a thread or message is or isn’t important.

Priority Inbox is rolling out to Google Apps customers as well, so your enterprise users should be able to utilize its organizational wizardry by the end of the week as well. More details are available at the Gmail blog, for those of you who are interested.Gmail learns to prioritize your inbox — automatically! originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 31 Aug 2010 00:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

APPLE COMPUTER
APPLIED MATERIALS
ARIAN SEMICONDUCTOR EQUIPMENT
ARROW ELECTRONICS
ASML HOLDING

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 [...]

HYNIX SEMICONDUCTOR
INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES
INVENTEC
KDDI

If Steve Jobs announced that iOS 4.2 would be coming to iPhone during his keynote a the special music event yesterday, I missed it, but that’s what Apple.com’s new preview page says:

Look for iOS 4.2 coming in November for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.1

(That footnote reads “not compatible with all models” so likely [...]iOS 4.2 coming soon for iPad… and iPhone is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

AMERICA MOVIL
AMKOR TECHNOLOGY
AMPHENOL
ANIXTER INTERNATIONAL
APPLE COMPUTER

SocialDeck has become the latest addition to Google’s Hall of Acquisitions. The creators of the popular iPhone game Shake and Spell have also produced Spark, which allows mobile gamers to challenge or chat with friends, recommend games, save games in the cloud, and more.

In their own words, SocialDeck are “super excited to announce that someone found our social games as fun as you have – in this case, that “someone” is Google.” They’ll even have a nice group of friends with common interests to play with now that they’re part of the Google collective.

Earlier this month, Google acquired Jambool — who created the Social Gold virtual currency platform. Back in April they picked up Lab Pixies, who specialize in social and casual gaming widgets. And let’s not forget Google is also a major investor in casual game maker Zynga — the demons behind the game you love to hate, Farmville.

What does it all mean? Clearly Google sees gaming (and social gaming in particular) to be an area worth getting involved in. With Android picking up momentum and Google TV and Chrome OS both on the way, there are going to be a whole lot more Google hardware users looking to kill some time destroying pixelated zombies or spelling their way to a high score.

That means money spent on games, on virtual goods, and, of course, delicious, delicious ad impressions.

[via Inside Social Games]Google buys mobile game dev SocialDeck originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 30 Aug 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

AMAZON.COM
AMERICA MOVIL
AMKOR TECHNOLOGY
AMPHENOL
ANIXTER INTERNATIONAL

So you’ve heard about the Apple iPad and you’re heading back to school soon. Chances are you’re probably wondering if it’s a smart choice to invest your money towards purchasing an iPad for college. In this article we’ll help explain a few of the many benefits there are for college students who own, or will [...]

AMERICA MOVIL
AMKOR TECHNOLOGY
AMPHENOL
ANIXTER INTERNATIONAL
APPLE COMPUTER

News Analysis: Nothing less than Java’s status as an open-source technology is at stake in an Oracle lawsuit against Google for the use of Java on the Android mobile OS platform. – Oracle has long held a unique
position in Californias Silicon Valley. It is to some the most reviled
company in the valley. The lawsuit against Google for its use of Java
technology in its Android smartphone software is just the latest
example of Oracle’s determination to crush any company it be…

ALLIANCE DATA SYSTEMS
ALLTEL
AMAZON.COM
AMERICA MOVIL
AMKOR TECHNOLOGY

eWEEK Labs Technical Director Cameron Sturdevant’s year of using and covering Apple products in the enterprise has come to an end with a newfound respect for Mac hardware and the resistance of Mac OS X 10.6.3, code-named Snow Leopard, to hacks and viruses. For executives and high-value creative content users he sees Apple’s appeal. But as we enter the cloud computing age, Sturdevant is less enamored of fat clients of any variety for routine office workers. – For just over a year I’ve used a variety of Apple
devices from the Xserve and Mac Pro to the iPhone and MacBook Pro and even a Mac
Mini as my primary work systems in a Windows-oriented IT shop.
I made the switch because Apple PCs and iPhones and now
iPads are coming into the enterprise. I wanted…

APPLE COMPUTER
APPLIED MATERIALS
ARIAN SEMICONDUCTOR EQUIPMENT
ARROW ELECTRONICS
ASML HOLDING

Filed under: Fun, Utilities, Mobile
Augmented reality, at the moment, is a bit kitsch. It’s a technology that’s been threatening to emerge for years but, like “virtual reality,” it’s always been held back by technological constraints. Until the last year or two, most AR and VR implementations involved you wheeling around a laptop (or strapping it to your back!) — and VR still requires a silly pair of glasses. That’s all about to change, however, with the gigahertz-in-our-pocket smartphones.

In the next few years, almost everyone in the Western world will have a handheld device that’s capable of displaying rich 3D graphics. GPS will pinpoint your location and elevation in real-time, and 3G and 4G (5, 6, 7 …) networks will make both topological data and the Internet’s wealth of contextual data available at any time and any place. But enough talking, let me show you what I’m talking about: check out the Marmota project. It hides behind such subtitles as “visual environment monitoring” and “semantic image labelling,” but in essence, it’s the next step in augmented reality.

The best thing would be for you to read through the Marmota website and check out the pictures, but I’ll give you an example of what Marmota will let you do. Right now, you can pull down Flickr photos from a given geolocation — that’s pretty cool, … but that’s also about it for the current state of augmented reality. With Marmota, you point your camera at a landscape (or cityscape!), and the server sends you topological and contextual information for the scene you’re looking at. So, if you hold your smartphone up in front of a mountain, the mountain’s name and elevation are shown on the screen (here’s a larger version of the image above) — the software can also show you roads, landmarks, and so on. Using topological information, the 2D image on your phone can even be converted into a 3D image (watch the video, it’s very cool), and presumably you can then see over a range of mountains and down into the valley beyond!

The coolest thing is, this technology is actually ready to go. The project has used Android phones as its test bed, and the app should be available in the “immediate future.” I’ll keep you updated and bring you a proper review as soon as possible.

[via ReadWriteWeb]The Marmota project shows off what we can expect from augmented reality in the next few years originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 24 Aug 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

LM ERICSSON
LOGITECH INTERNATIONAL
MEMC ELECTRONIC MATERIALS
MICROSOFT
MILLICOM INTL. CELLULAR

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

DELL
CYPRESS SEMICONDUCTOR
ACCENTURE
ACER
ADOBE SYSTEMS

Filed under: Mozilla, Browsers
Broken extensions are nothing new when it comes to Firefox updates — pretty well every Minefield version I’ve played with over the years has shut down one or two of my add-ons. Still, there are some major changes under the hood in Firefox 4 which could cause a little more breakage than normal — something which has Erez a little concerned.

… But you can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs — and Firefox 4 is definitely a better omelette, as it were. As it turns out, plenty of developers have already begun adapting their extensions to work with the new version. Mitch Keeler of Firefox Facts points out that there are already at least 1,000 (the maximum number of results which the add-on site search will return) extensions which work with Firefox 4.

That’s a pretty small chunk of the total you’ll find on the add-ons site, but consider how many haven’t been touched in years. The site is rife with outdated extensions and at some point they’ve got to fall by the wayside. More popular and actively developed extensions will update in time for the release — so the vast majority of Firefox 4 users won’t have to worry about breakage.

The final release is still a ways off, of course, so there’s plenty of time for developers to make the necessary changes. If you’re getting impatient, you can always follow Erez’ example and offer the developer a little financial motivation to get the ball rolling!Thousands of Firefox add-ons already work on Firefox 4 originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments

HIGH TECH COMPUTER
HON HAI PRECISION IND.
HYNIX SEMICONDUCTOR
INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES

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

ELECTRONIC DATA SYSTEMS
ELECTRONIC ARTS
ECLIPSYS
EASTMAN KODAK CO
EARTHLINK

The tenth annual Debian Developer Conference has opened in New York City. DebConf 2010 is the first time the event has been held in the United States. – The tenth annual Debian Developer Conference has opened in New York City.
The Debian Developer Conference, the world’s
largest GNU/Linux distribution developers conference, is taking place
at Columbia University Aug. 1-7.
The Debian Project, the team behind the free
Debian GNU/Linux operating…

KLA-TENCOR
KONINKLIJKE KPN
LAM RESEARCH
LIBERTY GLOBAL
LM ERICSSON

ARM, IBM, Samsung, ST-Ericsson and Texas Instruments have together created Linaro, a not-for-profit company focused on supporting the development of open-source products for devices powered by ARM’s chip designs. Along with Android, other open-source ventures such as LiMo, MeeGo, Ubuntu and WebOS stand to profit from the project, which could help unify a fragmented Linux mobile operating system market. – IBM and chip designer ARM, with
partners Freescale, Samsung, ST-Ericsson and Texas Instruments, have created
Linaro, quot;a not-for-profit open-source software engineering company quot;
focused on speeding the development of Linux-based mobile devices powered by ARM-designed
processors.

I…

CYPRESS SEMICONDUCTOR
ACCENTURE
ACER
ADOBE SYSTEMS
ADVANCED SEMICONDUCTOR ENGINEERING

Every iPad owner understands the importance of keeping their device both protected and clean. It takes very little time for oil from your hands to build up on the iPad’s screen, leaving plenty of unwanted smudges. There is an affordable solution though thanks to the iShine Microfiber iPad Sleeve. The iShine Sleeve is a must [...]

CISCO SYSTEMS
COGNIZANT TECH. SOLUTIONS
COMCAST
COMMSCOPE
COMMUNICATIONS HOLDINGS

Apple bought mobile ad network Quattro Wireless. Quattro confirmed the purchase, which AllThingsDigital said was worth $275 million. The deal could accelerate the growing war between Apple and Google, friends quickly turned enemies in the pitched battle for the mobile Web. Chris Dixon, co-founder of decision engine Hunch and an investor in multiple properties, argued that Apple’s interest in Quattro must be about ads in mobile apps. –

Apple has acquired mobile ad network Quattro Wireless in
a deal worth a reported $275 million, or roughly one third of what Google bid
to buy mobile ad provider AdMob.
Andy Miller, formerly Quattro CEO and co-founder but now
Apple’s vice president of mobile advertising, confirmed t…

GOOGLE
GRUPO IUSACELL
HARRIS
HCL TECHNOLOGIES
HEWLETT-PACKARD

Filed under: E-mail, Google
Before I get into this too far, let’s start with the usual disclaimer. Yes, Google is rolling out a new feature to Gmail users. No, you might not have it yet — in which case, you’ll have to wait just like always.

Now, on to the good stuff!

Google has apparently been hard at work teaching an old dog (the Gmail spam filter) some new tricks. Well, one new trick: learning how to automatically prioritize incoming messages. In keeping with the processed meat metaphors, the new feature separates “bologna” from your new messages — mail which isn’t quite junk but doesn’t require your immediate attention — in addition to spam.

Many of you have probably been doing this manually for quite some time using Gmail’s filters and stars, which I use to pull out less urgent messages like comment notifications as well as keeping family correspondence separate from my work-related mail. The advantage with Priority Inbox is that Gmail does it all for you, and the more you use it the better it gets at filtering.

Yes, within weeks of activating the new feature Gmail will be sorting your mail mystery meat into neat stacks: important and unread messages first, starred items next, and bologna at the bottom. You’ll also be able to click a plus or minus flag to let Gmail know whether a thread or message is or isn’t important.

Priority Inbox is rolling out to Google Apps customers as well, so your enterprise users should be able to utilize its organizational wizardry by the end of the week as well. More details are available at the Gmail blog, for those of you who are interested.Gmail learns to prioritize your inbox — automatically! originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 31 Aug 2010 00:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

EARTHLINK
DST SYSTEMS
DISCOVER FINANCIAL SERVICES
DIODES INORATED
DIEBOLD

Mozilla has launched the initial beta of Firefox 4, and promises additional beta versions of the open-source browser every few weeks as it refines features. Although Firefox holds a healthy portion of the browser market, it faces a growing challenge from Google Chrome as well as pressure from Internet Explorer. – Mozilla has launched the initial beta of Firefox 4, promising additional
beta versions every few weeks as it works on refining the browser. And
refinement is crucial, given the increasingly competitive nature of the Web browser
market.
quot;Your feedback is essential to help shape the product,…

FIDELITY NATIONAL INFORMATION SVCS.
FISERV
GOOGLE
GRUPO IUSACELL
HARRIS

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, OpenOffice.org
Miranda IM is pretty much the most versatile, customizable, powerful, minimalistic and down-right sexy IM client on the planet.
I know that sounds like a lot, but I’ve been using it for years, and I’ve tried pretty much everything else Windows and Linux have to offer. I never tried Adium, so maybe Adium’s better – but for Windows, nothing beats Miranda. As you can tell, this application is a prime candidate for one of my What the Zuk columns, so I will save the rest of my admiration for later and get to the news already:
Miranda 0.9.0 is now out! Miranda is very actively developed, but the release cycle isn’t exactly lightning-fast. So 0.9.0 means something, and here’s a few features off the list:

New improved protocols engine with full Unicode support
New high quality icon theme
First official x64 version
Added Windows 7 taskbar icon support

The weirdest feature added to this release was support for file transfers of over 4GB in size. I mean, who the heck transfers over 4GB of files over IM? This release also brings strong Unicode support across the board, so if you happen to be a non-English user this may come in handy. I just installed it myself, and the myriad of add-ons I use seem to work just fine.
And of course, Miranda keeps all of its existing goodness, including support for an insane number of protocols. I currently use it for IRC, ICQ, MSN, GChat, and Olark. One client to rule them all! If you’ve never used Miranda, now would be a great time to give it a spin!Miranda IM 0.9 is now out — new icons, better Win7 support, and lots more! originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 25 Aug 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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News Analysis: There is consensus building that the Apple tablet will be a gaming device geared to support basic social gaming applications of the type people use on Facebook, as well as multiplayer games. Jeff Scott, founder and publisher of the 148Apps blog, says publications that cover the gaming arena have been invited to the upcoming special Apple event. He also says a screen resolution of at least 640 by 800 and a stronger processor than the one powering Apple’s iPhone 3GS will make the tablet well suited for games. – Apple executives will take the stage at Yerba Buena Gardens in San
Francisco Jan. 27, and are expected to unveil the
anticipated Apple tablet computer.
There is a lot of information seeping through the reality distortion field
around the device, the official name of which (iSlate? iPad? iTablet…

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eWEEK Labs Technical Director Cameron Sturdevant’s year of using and covering Apple products in the enterprise has come to an end with a newfound respect for Mac hardware and the resistance of Mac OS X 10.6.3, code-named Snow Leopard, to hacks and viruses. For executives and high-value creative content users he sees Apple’s appeal. But as we enter the cloud computing age, Sturdevant is less enamored of fat clients of any variety for routine office workers. – For just over a year I’ve used a variety of Apple
devices from the Xserve and Mac Pro to the iPhone and MacBook Pro and even a Mac
Mini as my primary work systems in a Windows-oriented IT shop.
I made the switch because Apple PCs and iPhones and now
iPads are coming into the enterprise. I wanted…

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The Linux Foundation announces the launch of its Open Compliance Program, which includes tools, training and a standard format for reporting software licensing information. – The Linux Foundation on Aug.
10 announced the launch of the Open Compliance
Program, which it described as quot;a comprehensive initiative that
includes tools, training, a standard format [in which] to report software
licensing information, consulting and a self-assessment checklist that will h…

COGNIZANT TECH. SOLUTIONS
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If you’ve been waiting for the GSM version of the Droid 2, you’re in luck — Motorola has shown off the Milestone 2 in two minutes of video.  With the same sliding keyboard, same camera with dual LED flash, same 1 GHz processor, same as we’re used to from the original Droid / Milestone team.With one big difference — apparently if you change the colors of the launcher, not-blur becomes Blur, and Moto isn’t afraid to call it such this time around.  We like the resizable widgets, and other cool things the Motorola home offers, so we won’t complain too much.  Be sure to check out the video after the break.  Thanks Albert!Update: Annnnnnd … It’s gone. Guess it was more of us showing it off than them. :p
Posted originally at Android CentralSponsored by Android Cases and Accessories

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News Analysis: Nothing less than Java’s status as an open-source technology is at stake in an Oracle lawsuit against Google for the use of Java on the Android mobile OS platform. – Oracle has long held a unique
position in Californias Silicon Valley. It is to some the most reviled
company in the valley. The lawsuit against Google for its use of Java
technology in its Android smartphone software is just the latest
example of Oracle’s determination to crush any company it be…

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Filed under: Utilities, Productivity
Usually, when I need to focus in a distracting environment I just put on my earbuds and head over to SimplyNoise. But SimplyNoise is a bit too simple at times; it just generates a “wall” of white, brown, or pink noise. It can oscillate the volume a little bit, but that’s just about it. That’s not a flaw – it’s how SimplyNoise was designed.
But what if I want some atmosphere to go with my custom noise? What if I want it to have a certain “vibe,” or I want it to inspire me? Plus, some people simply dislike the monotony of a noise generator.
Introducing Nature Sounds. This beautifully simple Flash tool provides you with four audio channels. You populate each channel with a looping sample that you can choose from a vast palette. You’ve got sounds of whales, the beach, fire crackling, crickets, a heartbeat, drums thumping in the distance, etc. The palette is extensive.
You populate each of the channels with the sample of your choice, and then you can set the volume and the stereo balance (left/right). You can also have the volume oscillate; the continuous bar that you see at the bottom of each channel shows that, for my soundscape, I wanted all sounds to simply continue. There are four different patterns that you can select for each channel, or you can have the sound periodically fade out and start up again.
By adding and removing samples and tweaking the various settings, you can come up with a complete soundscape that really conveys a certain “feel.” Once you’re done, you can download your creation or save it under its own URL. Then, just access that URL whenever you want to listen to it again (or send it to friends). I saved mine under the classy title Whales and Stuff.Nature Sounds is an awesome ambient noise generator originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 24 Aug 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Internet detectives are dredging up details around Apple’s tablet computer. The Wall Street Journal noted the device aims to change the personal computing experience. Meanwhile, blogger Joe Wilcox argued that the world does not need another tablet, at least not one when the world has smartphones such as Apple’s iPhone. He was quickly eviscerated in digital ink by TechCrunch blogger and Apple devotee MG Siegler and blogger/pundit Robert Scoble. If this Apple tablet proposes to dramatically alter the computing experience as we know it and ends up costing $500 or less someday, I will reconsider buying it or something of its ilk. – News Analysis: Just as blogger sleuths gradually unearthed the fine
points surrounding Google’s Nexus One smartphone, Internet detectives are dredging up
details of Apple’s tablet computer.
The Wall Street Journal reported (paywall) that the tablet will ship in
March, quoting sources briefed by …

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A couple weeks ago, we reported that Oracle was suing Google over patents dealing with Java used in Android. While the magnitude of this suit is big and there are large implications resting on the decision, I don’t think anybody expected it to have negative effects this quickly. However, Google has announced today that they will not participate in JavaOne this year, which is an annual conference held to discuss Java.Here is a quote from Joshua Bloch from Google’s Open Source Program Office:"Like many of you, every year we look forward to the workshops, conferences and events related to open source software. In our view, these are among the best ways we can engage the community, by sharing our experiences and learning from yours. So we’re sad to announce that we won’t be able to present at JavaOne this year. We wish that we could, but Oracle’s recent lawsuit against Google and open source has made it impossible for us to freely share our thoughts about the future of Java and open source generally. This is a painful realization for us, as we’ve participated in every JavaOne since 2004, and I personally have spoken at all but the first in 1996."Oracle’s lawsuit seems to have already had a negative impact on the open-source community. [Google Code Blog via @TimBray]Posted originally at Android CentralSponsored by Android Cases and Accessories

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Filed under: Photo, Utilities, web 2.0
When Adobe released an updated Photoshop app for iOS devices, I was more than a little green with envy. I own an Android phone, y’see — and I wanted in on the action! I needn’t have worried though, because as of today, Adobe has released an updated and shiny Photoshop Express for Android app. I’ll review it later today.

Also released on Photoshop.com today are the redesigned Express Editor, Organizer and Uploader. As you can see from the screenshot above, the Editor is both beautiful and full of functionality. The Organizer is very neat, allowing you to sort all of your uploaded photos into albums — plus you can also connect it to Facebook, Flickr, Photobucket and Picasa! The Uploader is a desktop AIR app that basically replicates the Organizer’s uploading capabilities, but it lets you drag-and-drop images into its window. Apparently it also lets you upload PSD files, though I haven’t tried that yet.

I’ve only touched on the features provided by these new tools, and obviously I need to investigate further. If you have a go with them, report your findings in the comments!
Share TweetAdobe updates Photoshop.com, releases Express Editor, Organizer and Android app originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 25 Aug 2010 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Today’s the day, folks. The Sprint Epic 4G is now available online, and stores open at 8 a.m. local time for the launch of the second 4G-capable phone in the United States. And judging from our initial hands-on and all the excitement going on in our Epic 4G forums, this one’s going to be a biggie. So let’s up the ante, shall we? Head into the aforementioned Epic 4G forums and comment your little heart out. Contest ends at 5 p.m. EDT Thursday. We’ll pick a post at random* to win an Epic 4G and announce the winner live Thursday night during the Android Central Podcast, which starts at 9 p.m. EDT / 6 p.m. PDT. So get to it, and good luck! * When we say "at random," we mean any post other than "I’m just posting this for the contest." Slackers.Posted originally at Android CentralSponsored by Android Cases and Accessories

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Filed under: Games, P2P
I bring you news that won’t shock but will surely delight! Just over 40% of Steam users have a BitTorrent client installed — and 75% of those are using uTorrent. Mainline is second with about 10%, with Vuze and BitComet coming in third and fourth place respectively.

These delicious statistics have emerged thanks to Steam’s hardware and software survey which now includes a breakdown of installed applications on each user’s computer. With up to 25 million users being polled in the survey, the accuracy is really second to none — at least when it comes to gamer-specific trends! It’s worth noting that the survey is completely automated too — Steam scans your hard disk and hardware configuration to produce these figures.

In non-BitTorrent-related news, Firefox is by far the most popular browser amongst gamers with 63% of Steam users having it installed (Chrome is almost at the bottom with only 11.5%). Almost everyone has Adobe Flash, 73% have Acrobat Reader, and a rather large 57% have Microsoft Office installed. I wonder how many of those Office installations were downloaded via BitTorrent… Perhaps Steam gamers spend so much money on games that they don’t have enough left to spend on Microsoft Office…?

Incidentally, these figures are only for Windows installations. Here’s something for the Mac crusaders, though: iTunes is actually installed on more computers than uTorrent (but only just), and QuickTime is installed on 44% of computers!

(Note: the above image is snipped, or I would never have fit it all in!)
Share TweetMore than 40% Valve’s Steam user base are also avid users of BitTorrent originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 24 Aug 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Filed under: Windows, Productivity, Browsers
Erez loves crunching data in Excel. And he loves making sure he’s not getting off track and being unproductive in his browser when there’s work to do. I haven’t asked, but I’m thinking Historian would be right up his alley.

It’s a free, portable tool for Windows which can export history data from all the major web browsers to delimited text file. Once saved, you’re free to open the file in your favorite spreadsheet or database app so that you can go over it with a fine-toothed comb.

One important note for non-German speakers: when you first launch the app, head to extras > sprache and select English (or Japanese, if needed).Historian exports your browser history to .CSV for easy analysis originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 27 Aug 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Filed under: Business, Utilities
Ever since I started working with Olark, I have come to realize the value of real-time customer interaction. Being able to talk to customers and help them out when they need something gives me a very real sense of both what people are looking for on the site and who our customers are.
Zingaya takes this idea one step further. You get a “Call” widget for your site. Users can simply click the widget, and your Skype starts ringing. The user doesn’t need anything besides a browser (which must support Flash, I think) and a microphone.
Zingaya also works with regular landlines and mobile phones, but of course, then you have to pay calling rates. Still, it’s kind of interesting. I mean, most reputable sites have contact information along with a real phone number. But being able to simply click a button on the home page and suddenly find yourself talking to a real live human is a different thing altogether. You can also filter calls by time of day (allow incoming calls only at certain hours) or by country (i.e., enable incoming calls only from certain locations).
I don’t think I’ll be installing Zingaya on my own site, but the concept is certainly intriguing. I also like that they’re freemium — they have a free, non-expiring plan for one operator.Zingaya lets website visitors voice call you instantly originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 26 Aug 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Google’s Gmail calling threatens Skype because it copies its service for initiating and receiving free or cheap calls over IP. Gmail and Skype offer trade-offs, and analysts and industry experts have different takes on how these services match up. – When Google launched its Gmail calling service Aug. 25, the top
question was how the VOIP service would impact Skype.
Gmail calling threatens Skype because it copies its service for initiating
and receiving free or cheap calls over IP. However, Gmail and Skype offer trade-offs,
and analysts and …

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ARM, IBM, Samsung, ST-Ericsson and Texas Instruments have together created Linaro, a not-for-profit company focused on supporting the development of open-source products for devices powered by ARM’s chip designs. Along with Android, other open-source ventures such as LiMo, MeeGo, Ubuntu and WebOS stand to profit from the project, which could help unify a fragmented Linux mobile operating system market. – IBM and chip designer ARM, with
partners Freescale, Samsung, ST-Ericsson and Texas Instruments, have created
Linaro, quot;a not-for-profit open-source software engineering company quot;
focused on speeding the development of Linux-based mobile devices powered by ARM-designed
processors.

I…

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ELECTRONICS FOR IMAGING

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

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Filed under: Utilities, Features, Productivity, web 2.0
I’m an avid Dropbox fan. I’ve been using it for a long time now, and it’s one of a handful of applications that I think of as “mission critical” on my system.
But there are a couple of things that have always irked me about Dropbox. First and foremost, there are the rates. It’s US$9.99/month for 50GB. Really? With online backup solutions such as Backblaze and Mozy offering unlimited storage for just $5/month, Dropbox’s price tag seems quite steep.
True, it’s not a backup solution, but space is space. I understand that Dropbox may experience more traffic than a normal backup provider (which is usually upload only), but I really don’t think it justifies twice the price.
That’s one thing. The other thing is more subjective: Dropbox is very simple. In most scenarios, that’s a very positive thing. In fact, I’m sure that, had it been more complex, less people would be using it. It’s elegant, simple, and slick. But when someone uploads a 500MB video file onto a shared folder, while your boss is putting a 70KB DOC file onto another shared folder, and then they wonder why you aren’t getting it, Dropbox’s simplicity gets in the way of productivity.
Enter IDriveSync. This is pretty much the antithesis of Dropbox. It’s only for PC (as compared to Dropbox’s multitude of supported platforms). It doesn’t have an API, and it doesn’t have 10 percent of Dropbox’s sex appeal.
But it does offer fine-grained control and status information, and it lets you easily (if not elegantly) sync files that are outside of its folder. And best of all, $4.95/month will get you unlimited sync space. That’s just the way it should be.
I took IDriveSync for an extensive spin, and I have started using it alongside Dropbox for some of the heavier lifting (video files, etc.). To see the tour, keep on reading after the fold.First of all, let’s talk about the status window. If a file is syncing, you can see exactly what the file’s name is, if it’s uploading or downloading, what the transfer rate is, and the time estimation (which you get on Dropbox, too). The “Switch to IDriveSync Explorer” button kind of looks like an in-program banner, but it’s not; it’s a button that opens up Windows Explorer within your IDriveSync folder (C:\IDriveSync by default – a bit of an odd location).

Moving on, we see the built-in Bandwidth Upload Test. You also get a Download Test. That’s a nice touch. I think they work directly against IDriveSync’s own servers, so you get a good estimation of how fast or slow program operation would actually be (as opposed to using a third-party bandwidth test with another server).

This is the main program window. They call it “Classic” for some reason. Perhaps that’s because it’s based on IDrive’s existing PC backup solution. It’s a simple, technical-looking interface, where you can see all of your files and their status.

Here’s a view of the file list itself (while a file is uploading). You can see exactly what file is uploading, its current progress, and the queue. I’m not sure if you can modify the queue, though (i.e., push things up or down).

Again, just like Dropbox, you get versioning support. IDriveSync keeps 30 versions of each file, and you can easily restore them from within the program (unlike Dropbox, which forces you to use the Web interface).

Here’s a Session Log window. Again, there are no frills, and it’s very technical. Each transaction is a “session,” and you can see when it happened, what it was, and view session details. It’s very transparent and easy to dig into.

This “Browse My Computer” dialog lets you select any folder for syncing. The way it works isn’t elegant, though. It simply creates a symlink to that folder within your IDriveSync folder; it’s just like what you can do with Dropbox. Here it’s integrated into the program, but it still feels clunky.

This is a young product, and it does have its quirks. I encountered one bug where the Classic interface told me my files weren’t in sync, but they actually were (per the logs and Status window). It also doesn’t have Explorer overlay icons, which let you see what files are in sync.
It will never be as sexy as Dropbox, and I don’t think it will ever be multi-platform or have Dropbox’s wide API support. I am certainly not dumping Dropbox for IDriveSync, but as a second solution, it is very, very good. Also, if these guys can provide unlimited storage for $5/month, why can’t Dropbox do it? They are certainly at least as successful.DLS Review: IDriveSync is a cheaper, more powerful, Dropbox competitor for Windows originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 25 Aug 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Microsoft and Polycom are entering an alliance that will include jointly developing, selling and marketing unified communications products based on Polycom endpoints and Microsoft’s Communications Server 14. – Polycom, which already has partnerships with the likes of Hewlett-Packard
and Avaya
as it ramps up its competition with Cisco Systems in the unified communications
space, is now hooking up with Microsoft.
The two companies announced a partnership Aug. 9 in which they
will jointly develop and ma…

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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

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Filed under: Fun, Utilities, Mobile
Augmented reality, at the moment, is a bit kitsch. It’s a technology that’s been threatening to emerge for years but, like “virtual reality,” it’s always been held back by technological constraints. Until the last year or two, most AR and VR implementations involved you wheeling around a laptop (or strapping it to your back!) — and VR still requires a silly pair of glasses. That’s all about to change, however, with the gigahertz-in-our-pocket smartphones.

In the next few years, almost everyone in the Western world will have a handheld device that’s capable of displaying rich 3D graphics. GPS will pinpoint your location and elevation in real-time, and 3G and 4G (5, 6, 7 …) networks will make both topological data and the Internet’s wealth of contextual data available at any time and any place. But enough talking, let me show you what I’m talking about: check out the Marmota project. It hides behind such subtitles as “visual environment monitoring” and “semantic image labelling,” but in essence, it’s the next step in augmented reality.

The best thing would be for you to read through the Marmota website and check out the pictures, but I’ll give you an example of what Marmota will let you do. Right now, you can pull down Flickr photos from a given geolocation — that’s pretty cool, … but that’s also about it for the current state of augmented reality. With Marmota, you point your camera at a landscape (or cityscape!), and the server sends you topological and contextual information for the scene you’re looking at. So, if you hold your smartphone up in front of a mountain, the mountain’s name and elevation are shown on the screen (here’s a larger version of the image above) — the software can also show you roads, landmarks, and so on. Using topological information, the 2D image on your phone can even be converted into a 3D image (watch the video, it’s very cool), and presumably you can then see over a range of mountains and down into the valley beyond!

The coolest thing is, this technology is actually ready to go. The project has used Android phones as its test bed, and the app should be available in the “immediate future.” I’ll keep you updated and bring you a proper review as soon as possible.

[via ReadWriteWeb]The Marmota project shows off what we can expect from augmented reality in the next few years originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 24 Aug 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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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

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News Analysis: Although Gizmodo editor Jason Chen may not have done the most ethical thing by paying $5,000 for an AWOL prototype of the next iPhone, the California task force that forced open his door in apparent violation of the terms of its search warrant (to say nothing of state law) just turned his case into a test of journalistic freedoms. – Legend has it that one of the first things taught in journalism school is
that an honest journalist never pays for a story. I suppose that’s true, but
you see, I never went to j-school. Does that let me off the hook?
I can argue either side of whether checkbook journalism is ethical, or if
techn…

ASUSTEK COMPUTER
AT&T
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AVNET

Filed under: Security, Google, Browsers
When Google began working on a built-in Flash plug-in for Chrome, they cited a handful of key motivations. They wanted a more hassle-free web experience for end users, more modern alternative to the aging NPAPI architecture, better security, and an easier way to deliver updates.

According to the SecBrowsing blog, their update aspirations have been a smashing success.

The traditional Flash updater is easy enough to avoid — I often work on end users systems and see the beleaguered Flash updater crying out for attention from the system tray. Sadly, its cries often go ignored. Chrome’s internal updater, however, can’t be ignored. When there’s a update to the browser or an internal plug-in, by Odin’s beard, you’re going to get it!

Within just two days of the most recent Flash update, fewer than 30% of SecBrowsing visitors were running an out-of-date version. That’s compared to 14 days with the previous release — a substantial improvement.

No comparisons to other browsers are given, but I’ve got to think that Chrome users are well ahead of the curve here.SecBrowsing: Chrome’s bundled Flash is making out-of-date plug-ins history originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 23 Aug 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Filed under: Utilities, Windows, OpenOffice.org
Miranda IM is pretty much the most versatile, customizable, powerful, minimalistic and down-right sexy IM client on the planet.
I know that sounds like a lot, but I’ve been using it for years, and I’ve tried pretty much everything else Windows and Linux have to offer. I never tried Adium, so maybe Adium’s better – but for Windows, nothing beats Miranda. As you can tell, this application is a prime candidate for one of my What the Zuk columns, so I will save the rest of my admiration for later and get to the news already:
Miranda 0.9.0 is now out! Miranda is very actively developed, but the release cycle isn’t exactly lightning-fast. So 0.9.0 means something, and here’s a few features off the list:

New improved protocols engine with full Unicode support
New high quality icon theme
First official x64 version
Added Windows 7 taskbar icon support

The weirdest feature added to this release was support for file transfers of over 4GB in size. I mean, who the heck transfers over 4GB of files over IM? This release also brings strong Unicode support across the board, so if you happen to be a non-English user this may come in handy. I just installed it myself, and the myriad of add-ons I use seem to work just fine.
And of course, Miranda keeps all of its existing goodness, including support for an insane number of protocols. I currently use it for IRC, ICQ, MSN, GChat, and Olark. One client to rule them all! If you’ve never used Miranda, now would be a great time to give it a spin!Miranda IM 0.9 is now out — new icons, better Win7 support, and lots more! originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 25 Aug 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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ALLTEL
AMAZON.COM
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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

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When it comes to online privacy while using your iPad you need all the protection you can get. Luckily Golden Frog provides a service called VyprVPN that keeps your data safe. You may not be aware but your surfing as well as other online activities are constantly being tracked and recorded by your ISP and [...]

EMC
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ELECTRONIC DATA SYSTEMS
ELECTRONIC ARTS
ECLIPSYS

This week in Boston, the Linux Foundation held the second annual Linuxcon, a gathering of the developers, administrators, users and executives that call Linux home. All told, the conference touched on nearly every corner of computing&#151an indication of how broadly Linux has spread. Check out these highlights from the conference. – …

EASTMAN KODAK CO
EARTHLINK
DST SYSTEMS
DISCOVER FINANCIAL SERVICES
DIODES INORATED

Little-known SmartPhone Technologies files lawsuits against Apple, AT&T, Research In Motion, Samsung, Sanyo, LG Electronics and Motorola accusing them of violating patents owned by the company. – The smartphone patent lawsuit derby continues with a company named
SmartPhone Technologies suing Apple, AT amp;T, Research In Motion, Samsung,
Sanyo, LG Electronics and Motorola, accusing them of violating patents owned by
the company. Filed in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of T…

EASTMAN KODAK CO
EARTHLINK
DST SYSTEMS
DISCOVER FINANCIAL SERVICES
DIODES INORATED

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

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Google now gives users the option to post a link to a Google profile at the bottom of name-query search pages, meaning that anyone searching for a user online can view information that the user wants the world to see. This potentially allows Google to use its search engine to create more of a social networking presence online, similar to Facebook and Twitter….

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Avaya officials are following through on promises to aggressively integrate technologies acquired from Nortel to build up its enterprise communications offerings. The newest UC and contact center offerings are the latest examples. – When Avaya officials last year announced their intention to buy
struggling Nortel Networks enterprise business for $915 million, both
they and some analysts believed that would push the company toward the top of the enterprise telephony market.
And thats a market that includes the likes of
techn…

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 Just one more thing to add to the list of what makes Android so awesome. Scientists performing complex calculations often need to book time on a supercomputer to solve problems for their research. The problem with this is that time on a supercomputer has to be scheduled in advance, and it can be expensive. Not only that, but they’re not portable, so if the researcher is in a remote location, he or she may not be able to quickly enter the data for a calculation.Enter Android. Some of these newer smartphones can be powerful enough to quickly solve complex problems. Of course it’ll be many years before we have the power of a supercomputer in our pockets, but with the help of a supercomputer a model can be generated that allows a handheld computer to come close enough to the answer a supercomputer would give to be useful to the researcher. The details are a little bit over my head, but it just goes to show you that Android as a computing platform is as amazing as it is a smartphone platform. [Wired]Posted originally at Android CentralSponsored by Android Cases and Accessories

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Filed under: Utilities, Productivity, web 2.0
Sad Steve is a single-purpose search engine with a fairly familiar mascot. It is completely devoid of advertising, and it makes no money at the moment (according to the informatively-titled What? page).
It’s run by a guy named Joe Huttner, and it does just what it says on the tin. You feed it with the name of a band or a song that you like and it comes up with an MP3 of said song (usually, a bunch of MP3s). Then, you can listen to the song or download it.
Sad Steve also features some indie-looking bands, and it even has profile pages for them (check out Halo Stereo). It’s no Muxtape or Bandcamp, but for some bands I suppose the format works. If you have an account on Sad Steve, you can pledge money for bands that are listed on the site (I suspect that “pledging” is probably not the same as actually paying, but I’m not sure).
All in all, I’ve seen more polished efforts in the online music/search/indie band page space, but Sad Steve combined all three functions and it’s been around for a while. It’s certainly handy as an occasional search engine, but if you don’t have a problem with Flash, I would go for an app like Grooveshark.Sad Steve is a minimalistic, easy-to-use MP3 search engine originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 20 Aug 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Filed under: Photo, Utilities, web 2.0
When Adobe released an updated Photoshop app for iOS devices, I was more than a little green with envy. I own an Android phone, y’see — and I wanted in on the action! I needn’t have worried though, because as of today, Adobe has released an updated and shiny Photoshop Express for Android app. I’ll review it later today.

Also released on Photoshop.com today are the redesigned Express Editor, Organizer and Uploader. As you can see from the screenshot above, the Editor is both beautiful and full of functionality. The Organizer is very neat, allowing you to sort all of your uploaded photos into albums — plus you can also connect it to Facebook, Flickr, Photobucket and Picasa! The Uploader is a desktop AIR app that basically replicates the Organizer’s uploading capabilities, but it lets you drag-and-drop images into its window. Apparently it also lets you upload PSD files, though I haven’t tried that yet.

I’ve only touched on the features provided by these new tools, and obviously I need to investigate further. If you have a go with them, report your findings in the comments!
Share TweetAdobe updates Photoshop.com, releases Express Editor, Organizer and Android app originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 25 Aug 2010 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments

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AT&T is now extending voice-over-IP services to enterprise VPN customers. The carrier’s VOIP portfolio is designed to be compatible with various IP-PBX systems, including Microsoft’s. – Customers of AT amp;T’s VPN can now take advantage of voice-over-IP services
over the network cloud, according to the carrier.
The converged offering, AT amp;T announced Aug. 24, will enable customers to
consolidate voice and data networks, reduce equipment and maintenance costs, and
ultimately…

ALLTEL
AMAZON.COM
AMERICA MOVIL
AMKOR TECHNOLOGY
AMPHENOL

So you’ve heard about the Apple iPad and you’re heading back to school soon. Chances are you’re probably wondering if it’s a smart choice to invest your money towards purchasing an iPad for college. In this article we’ll help explain a few of the many benefits there are for college students who own, or will [...]

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Filed under: Mozilla, Browsers, Op-Ed
I’m stoked about Firefox 4; I think many of us are. It’s a beautiful browser, and with the addition of Tab Candy (now “Panorama”), it’s even cooler.
Whenever Mozilla release a new version of Firefox, add-ons break. It’s become routine, so nobody’s overly worked up about it by now. The Mozilla add-ons site is littered with yesteryear’s great extensions, including such crowd pleasers as Hit-a-Hint, which has not been updated since 2007.
Okay, … so with every iteration, some add-ons get left behind, and some are updated by their creators and live on. That’s just how the system works, right?
In the past, whenever a new Firefox version came out, the blogosphere was soon full of posts showing how to disable the add-on compatibility check. You just make Firefox stop checking for compatibility, and all of your add-ons work again. Great!
But with Firefox 4, something has changed: Mozilla has made bold, significant, lasting changes that may drastically impact the amount of work the average coder needs to put into their extension to make it compatible with Firefox again.
That’s a gutsy move. I mean, when you see a blog post aimed at developers that includes language such as “The nsIExtensionManager interface is no more, along with its RDF backend,” you can tell they’re not taking any prisoners in their quest for modernizing the aging browser, which now seems kind of sluggish when compared to Chrome (and even Opera 10.61).
You can see it in the adoption rate, too. I have 22 add-ons on my own system, including massively popular ones like Read it Later, Greasemonkey, Adblock Plus, Delicious Bookmarks, … you get the picture. Firefox is now in its 4th Beta, and none of these extensions are compatible yet (at least on my system.
That’s definitely an indication, at least to me. And that’s a change as compared to past release cycles, where add-on compatibility updates were much swifter (and easier).
Right now, Firefox 4 is kind of like Opera. It’s very neat, very sexy, and completely lacking in add-ons. Chrome definitely has the upper hand on Firefox 4 right now in terms of “working extensions.”
It seems like Mozilla is taking a large step back in hopes of taking an even bigger one forward. I hope this dance move works.Is Mozilla making a huge mistake by breaking add-ons so badly on Firefox 4? originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Filed under: Fun, Utilities, Mobile
Augmented reality, at the moment, is a bit kitsch. It’s a technology that’s been threatening to emerge for years but, like “virtual reality,” it’s always been held back by technological constraints. Until the last year or two, most AR and VR implementations involved you wheeling around a laptop (or strapping it to your back!) — and VR still requires a silly pair of glasses. That’s all about to change, however, with the gigahertz-in-our-pocket smartphones.

In the next few years, almost everyone in the Western world will have a handheld device that’s capable of displaying rich 3D graphics. GPS will pinpoint your location and elevation in real-time, and 3G and 4G (5, 6, 7 …) networks will make both topological data and the Internet’s wealth of contextual data available at any time and any place. But enough talking, let me show you what I’m talking about: check out the Marmota project. It hides behind such subtitles as “visual environment monitoring” and “semantic image labelling,” but in essence, it’s the next step in augmented reality.

The best thing would be for you to read through the Marmota website and check out the pictures, but I’ll give you an example of what Marmota will let you do. Right now, you can pull down Flickr photos from a given geolocation — that’s pretty cool, … but that’s also about it for the current state of augmented reality. With Marmota, you point your camera at a landscape (or cityscape!), and the server sends you topological and contextual information for the scene you’re looking at. So, if you hold your smartphone up in front of a mountain, the mountain’s name and elevation are shown on the screen (here’s a larger version of the image above) — the software can also show you roads, landmarks, and so on. Using topological information, the 2D image on your phone can even be converted into a 3D image (watch the video, it’s very cool), and presumably you can then see over a range of mountains and down into the valley beyond!

The coolest thing is, this technology is actually ready to go. The project has used Android phones as its test bed, and the app should be available in the “immediate future.” I’ll keep you updated and bring you a proper review as soon as possible.

[via ReadWriteWeb]The Marmota project shows off what we can expect from augmented reality in the next few years originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 24 Aug 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Vonage introduces an app that lets Facebook friends place free calls to each other over WiFi or 3G/4G networks using Apple iPhones, iPod Touches or Android smartphones. – Voice-over-IP provider Vonage is giving Facebook a voice, announcing Aug. 4 the
availability of an application that lets owners of iPhones, iPod Touches and
Android-running smartphones place free calls to Facebook quot;friends. quot;
Free to use and download it’s available in the Android Market…

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ANIXTER INTERNATIONAL

Filed under: Google, Browsers
In general, I prefer Chrome extensions which don’t try to do too much. Do one thing, and do it well is a good general rule, after all. However, once in a while a Swiss-knife extension crops up which is filled to overflowing with useful features and just begs to be installed.

Enter Chrome Pig. Yes, it’s weirdly named. Yes, it includes a somewhat random mish-mosh of features, but dang, are they handy ones. Chrome Pig can:

Screenshot an entire page, the viewable portion, or a selected region
Check Gmail for unread messages (you must be signed in)
Open supported files types in the Google Docs previewer
Edit a page’s CSS to your liking
Re-enable right click on sites which disable it
Search the site you’re currently browsing
Open the current page in IE
Set a clipboard image to your desktop wallpaper

I’ve put the last one in bold because it’s a feature which you would think should be included by default in a Web browser. Firefox, Opera, and IE can all do this, but Chrome can’t? Why? At any rate, problem solved! With Chrome Pig installed, just right click and copy an image, click its browser action button, and set the clipboard image to your wallpaper — it will even resize, center, or tile.

Some of Chrome Pig’s features — lyric search, form fill, and translate, for example — I can do without. The configuration page offers checkboxes to disable unwanted items, though they still appeared in the drop-down after multiple disable/enable attempt and a browser restart. Hopefully the developer will address this issue in a coming update.

That shortcoming aside, I’m happily adding Chrome Pig to my extensions — it’ll replace two other and add a couple additional features which will come in handy.Chrome Pig extension checks Gmail, takes screenshots — and lets you set clipboard images as wallpaper! originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 25 Aug 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Filed under: Google, Browsers
In general, I prefer Chrome extensions which don’t try to do too much. Do one thing, and do it well is a good general rule, after all. However, once in a while a Swiss-knife extension crops up which is filled to overflowing with useful features and just begs to be installed.

Enter Chrome Pig. Yes, it’s weirdly named. Yes, it includes a somewhat random mish-mosh of features, but dang, are they handy ones. Chrome Pig can:

Screenshot an entire page, the viewable portion, or a selected region
Check Gmail for unread messages (you must be signed in)
Open supported files types in the Google Docs previewer
Edit a page’s CSS to your liking
Re-enable right click on sites which disable it
Search the site you’re currently browsing
Open the current page in IE
Set a clipboard image to your desktop wallpaper

I’ve put the last one in bold because it’s a feature which you would think should be included by default in a Web browser. Firefox, Opera, and IE can all do this, but Chrome can’t? Why? At any rate, problem solved! With Chrome Pig installed, just right click and copy an image, click its browser action button, and set the clipboard image to your wallpaper — it will even resize, center, or tile.

Some of Chrome Pig’s features — lyric search, form fill, and translate, for example — I can do without. The configuration page offers checkboxes to disable unwanted items, though they still appeared in the drop-down after multiple disable/enable attempt and a browser restart. Hopefully the developer will address this issue in a coming update.

That shortcoming aside, I’m happily adding Chrome Pig to my extensions — it’ll replace two other and add a couple additional features which will come in handy.Chrome Pig extension checks Gmail, takes screenshots — and lets you set clipboard images as wallpaper! originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 25 Aug 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Filed under: Utilities, Productivity
Dear diary,
Today I found OhLife. It’s an interesting service for maintaining a private journal. It aims to do the same thing Penzu does, but offers a different take on things to help people journal more consistently: Writing is done over email.
Once you sign up, you get a nightly email, asking how did your day go. You simply reply and jot down whatever it is you have to say about the day. OhLife receives your email and files today’s entry into your private archive.
This is not very different from setting up a daily reminder and using a Gmail label as a journal. But what’s nice about OhLife is that it includes a random “blast from the past” with every email you receive. Meaning, you get prompted to write what’s new today, but you also see a random entry from some time in the past, and so are instantly reminded of the value of maintaining a diary. After all, today’s routine becomes tomorrow’s memory.
I think this is a brilliant way to maintain a personal diary. It’s simple, it’s free, and you don’t even have to log on to the site to write.
The site itself is a study in simplicity. Beautiful design, bold text, and an overall welcoming vibe. If I ever want to maintain a journal, this will certainly be one candidate.
Share TweetOhLife helps you maintain a personal diary over e-mail originally appeared on Download Squad on Sun, 22 Aug 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Little-known SmartPhone Technologies files lawsuits against Apple, AT&T, Research In Motion, Samsung, Sanyo, LG Electronics and Motorola accusing them of violating patents owned by the company. – The smartphone patent lawsuit derby continues with a company named
SmartPhone Technologies suing Apple, AT amp;T, Research In Motion, Samsung,
Sanyo, LG Electronics and Motorola, accusing them of violating patents owned by
the company. Filed in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of T…

FISERV
GOOGLE
GRUPO IUSACELL
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U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart closes the 7-year-old case — from the federal district perspective, anyway — by reaffirming that SCO’s claims against Novell in the long-running litigation over ownership of Unix operating system copyrights were unconvincing. – Is the 7-year-old intellectual property lawsuit between Unix server maker SCO
Group and Novell finally at its end? If it isn’t officially over, then it’s
very, very close.

Salt Lake City U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart on June 10 closed the case from
the federal district perspective, anyway by…

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Filed under: Design
Drips is a fun Flash application that was inspired by the art of legendary American artist Jackson Pollock.
Its functionality is very basic — you splash random colors on the canvas and that’s about it. You can select a specific color or allow Drips to randomly rotate colors every time you let go of the mouse. You can also change the background color (again, either randomly or by selection).
There’s no undo, of course, but I take that to be in the spirit of Pollock himself. One feature that is missing is control over brush size. I’m pretty sure that Pollock would have approved of such a feature.
I don’t think it’s a tool for creating masterpieces, but I like its lack of features. It captures some of the raw fun of just painting (or doodling), without messing about with too many features, brushes, toolbars, etc. I also like the strong, bold, random colors.Drips is a Flash-based painting app that lets you pretend you’re Jackson Pollock originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 20 Aug 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Filed under: Google, Browsers There’s a big crop new extensions showing up which take advantage of Google Chrome’s new context menu API, and that’s great news for those of you who can’t live without your right-click menu.

You can see a pair of newer extensions in my screenshot — and while I’m not certain I’ll be using the tab switcher, Copy Short URL is probably here to stay.

Just right-click a link and left-click and a bit.ly or tinyurl shortened link is copied to your clipboard for hassle-free sharing on your favorite social sites. That’s it. Nice and simple, just how I like my extensions!

The developer states that more truncators will be added soon, which would be a welcome improvement. API and account support would be a nice touch as well — perhaps that will be tacked on as well.Context Menu URL Shortener for Google Chrome puts bit.ly sharing links close at hand originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 27 Aug 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Well look at what we have here? An unknown HTC Android device that looks very similar to the Evo 4G, except this one will be making its way to the Verizon network.  This device, which could be part of the leaked Verizon roadmap we saw a few weeks ago appears to bring some great things to Verizon customers. a 4.3 inch display, dual LED flash, front facing camera along with an 8MP rear facing camera and a kickstand to top it all off, the device appears to be a replica style device of the Evo 4G. Unfortunately, the processing power, battery size, or version of Android it will be running at launch are all still unknown, but we are excited to see the specs as they surface. Hit the source link to view a few more shots of this beautiful device. [BGR]Posted originally at Android CentralSponsored by Android Cases and Accessories

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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

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Filed under: Video
It looks like Google isn’t stopping at free phone calls to the U.S. and Canada In their never-ending quest to win new fans. They’re also going to let you watch all the free, full-length movies you can handle over on YouTube! That’s good.

The selection, however, doesn’t include current releases and there aren’t a lot of big-name films. That’s bad. But you can watch loads of classic horror films, Three Stooges, Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee, Hitchcock, and a nice selection of Bollywood titles and documentaries. That’s good!

It also comes with a free frogurt! No, not really. I was just having a Treehouse of Horror flashback.

Speaking of terror, why not go watch The Brain That Wouldn’t Die!?
YouTube adds free, full-length movies originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 27 Aug 2010 08:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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News Analysis: Nothing less than Java’s status as an open-source technology is at stake in an Oracle lawsuit against Google for the use of Java on the Android mobile OS platform. – Oracle has long held a unique
position in Californias Silicon Valley. It is to some the most reviled
company in the valley. The lawsuit against Google for its use of Java
technology in its Android smartphone software is just the latest
example of Oracle’s determination to crush any company it be…

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Back in July we saw an Apple labeled 1.5″ touchscreen and wondered if it would be for a tiny, multitouch nano. Now some new cases, purportedly for the same device, makes us wonder much the same again.

Would it run iOS? Could it, with a screen that small? You could fit, what, 2×2 icons for a [...]Will the next iPod nano be a little square? 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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Apple bought mobile ad network Quattro Wireless. Quattro confirmed the purchase, which AllThingsDigital said was worth $275 million. The deal could accelerate the growing war between Apple and Google, friends quickly turned enemies in the pitched battle for the mobile Web. Chris Dixon, co-founder of decision engine Hunch and an investor in multiple properties, argued that Apple’s interest in Quattro must be about ads in mobile apps. –

Apple has acquired mobile ad network Quattro Wireless in
a deal worth a reported $275 million, or roughly one third of what Google bid
to buy mobile ad provider AdMob.
Andy Miller, formerly Quattro CEO and co-founder but now
Apple’s vice president of mobile advertising, confirmed t…

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Filed under: Utilities, Productivity, web 2.0
Sad Steve is a single-purpose search engine with a fairly familiar mascot. It is completely devoid of advertising, and it makes no money at the moment (according to the informatively-titled What? page).
It’s run by a guy named Joe Huttner, and it does just what it says on the tin. You feed it with the name of a band or a song that you like and it comes up with an MP3 of said song (usually, a bunch of MP3s). Then, you can listen to the song or download it.
Sad Steve also features some indie-looking bands, and it even has profile pages for them (check out Halo Stereo). It’s no Muxtape or Bandcamp, but for some bands I suppose the format works. If you have an account on Sad Steve, you can pledge money for bands that are listed on the site (I suspect that “pledging” is probably not the same as actually paying, but I’m not sure).
All in all, I’ve seen more polished efforts in the online music/search/indie band page space, but Sad Steve combined all three functions and it’s been around for a while. It’s certainly handy as an occasional search engine, but if you don’t have a problem with Flash, I would go for an app like Grooveshark.Sad Steve is a minimalistic, easy-to-use MP3 search engine originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 20 Aug 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

COMMUNICATIONS HOLDINGS
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Filed under: Google, Browsers
Those of you who have been waiting patiently to see what Google’s Native Client is all about shouldn’t have to wonder much longer. With yesterday’s bump to version 7, Google Chrome dev now comes with the NaCl plug-in enabled by default — and as we’ve seen countless times before, once a feature is turned on it doesn’t take long for Chrome developers to pounce on it.

So, what is Native Client all about? It’s Google open source tech which allows native code (the kind of code which powers your favorite desktop apps) to run inside your browser. Assuming that browser is Google Chrome, of course, because no one else sports NaCl support yet. Native code in the browser should mean the arrival of Web apps that truly compete with desktop apps in terms of performance — which could be a big boost to things like online media converters and photo editors. At the very least, you’ll be able to play Quake in Chrome.

If you want to see Native Client in action, Google has a gallery of NaCl demo ports you can check out — or at least you’re meant to be able to check them out. Both Chrome dev and Canary responded with a “missing plug-in” message when i tried to load them, even though Native Client was enabled (as you can see in my screenshot).

The dev channel update was actually quite a major one, though it mostly contained bugfixes and cleaned up code. The full log of revisions is available here.

update: as reported in the comments, you need to add the –enable-nacl flag to your shortcut. I’ve done that, and the demos still don’t load, however. The missing plug-in message did disappear at least…
Share TweetGoogle Chrome dev channel hits v7 — get ready for native code in Web apps! originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 26 Aug 2010 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Back in July we saw an Apple labeled 1.5″ touchscreen and wondered if it would be for a tiny, multitouch nano. Now some new cases, purportedly for the same device, makes us wonder much the same again.

Would it run iOS? Could it, with a screen that small? You could fit, what, 2×2 icons for a [...]Will the next iPod nano be a little square? 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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Filed under: Mozilla, Browsers, Op-Ed
I’m stoked about Firefox 4; I think many of us are. It’s a beautiful browser, and with the addition of Tab Candy (now “Panorama”), it’s even cooler.
Whenever Mozilla release a new version of Firefox, add-ons break. It’s become routine, so nobody’s overly worked up about it by now. The Mozilla add-ons site is littered with yesteryear’s great extensions, including such crowd pleasers as Hit-a-Hint, which has not been updated since 2007.
Okay, … so with every iteration, some add-ons get left behind, and some are updated by their creators and live on. That’s just how the system works, right?
In the past, whenever a new Firefox version came out, the blogosphere was soon full of posts showing how to disable the add-on compatibility check. You just make Firefox stop checking for compatibility, and all of your add-ons work again. Great!
But with Firefox 4, something has changed: Mozilla has made bold, significant, lasting changes that may drastically impact the amount of work the average coder needs to put into their extension to make it compatible with Firefox again.
That’s a gutsy move. I mean, when you see a blog post aimed at developers that includes language such as “The nsIExtensionManager interface is no more, along with its RDF backend,” you can tell they’re not taking any prisoners in their quest for modernizing the aging browser, which now seems kind of sluggish when compared to Chrome (and even Opera 10.61).
You can see it in the adoption rate, too. I have 22 add-ons on my own system, including massively popular ones like Read it Later, Greasemonkey, Adblock Plus, Delicious Bookmarks, … you get the picture. Firefox is now in its 4th Beta, and none of these extensions are compatible yet (at least on my system.
That’s definitely an indication, at least to me. And that’s a change as compared to past release cycles, where add-on compatibility updates were much swifter (and easier).
Right now, Firefox 4 is kind of like Opera. It’s very neat, very sexy, and completely lacking in add-ons. Chrome definitely has the upper hand on Firefox 4 right now in terms of “working extensions.”
It seems like Mozilla is taking a large step back in hopes of taking an even bigger one forward. I hope this dance move works.Is Mozilla making a huge mistake by breaking add-ons so badly on Firefox 4? originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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SATYAM COMPUTER SERVICES

Filed under: Utilities, Features, Op-Ed
What the Zuk is a (very) occasional feature, in which I review software that I have been using for many years, and which is instrumental for my work. These are the first tools I install on every new system, the reliable work-horse applications I turn to for every need. In every installment I will try to explain what makes this particular program special, and why I find it so vital for my computing experience.
Today’s What the Zuk is about Stickies, which is an utterly fantastic sticky note program which has been an essential part of my workflow for years. So, here we go:
Remember the Milk, Google Tasks, GQueues, Toodledo … I could go on. The number of ways I have tried to keep track of my sprawling to-do list over the years is truly massive. After all, trying to figure out what’s the best way to manage one’s tasks is an advanced form of procrastination. So I’ve ended up trying just about any task management system I was able to lay my hands on – some for just an hour or two, and some for weeks or even months.
And somehow, I always find myself going back to the cluttered simplicity of sticky notes. I don’t know – maybe it’s just me, but there’s something about the visual nature of sticky notes which works very well for me.
I have a dual-monitor setup. My secondary monitor usually carries at least 4-5 sticky notes, if not more. If a note becomes urgent, I can make the font larger. If I have a ton of notes and I want to make one stick out, I can change its color.
There’s something deceptive about a to-do list, for me. Sometimes the mere act of putting an item on a to-do list is almost like doing it. I mean, the list is so nice and orderly, and now that the item is there, it is “no longer bugging me”. It can rest in peace in the cozy nest of the list, until it’s completely forgotten.Conversely, there is something irritating about a sticky note taking up precious wallpaper space. It’s always right there, in front of me. I don’t have to look at the to-do list to see that it’s there – the task is calling out to me, “come on, get this over with already!”
After all, I usually don’t need reminders for the stuff I feel like doing. The tricky things are those I don’t really feel like doing, but have to do anyway. Hiding them in some to-do list which I have to actively look at is really not workable for me.
Okay, but so far I have only touched upon the concept of sticky notes and why use them. But there are numerous sticky notes programs on the market, some of them free. Why go for Stickies?
In a nutshell, this is an absolutely incredible sticky-note program. It does everything I could possibly wish for (save for just one thing — at the end of this post), and is very graceful. I won’t list all of its numerous features, just list those I personally use time and again, and find invaluable.

Lightweight and fast: Stickies is super-fast, despite being powerful. It never lags on me, no matter what I do. Creating a sticky note is instantaneous – I can create it just as soon as I think of it. Very responsive.
System-wide hotkeys: Again, speed is key in catching fleeting ideas or even jotting down tasks. Thanks to Stickies’ system-wide hotkeys, it’s so convenient to use I never want to switch to any other solution. Win+S creates a new sticky note in the middle of the primary monitor, no matter what window is currently active. So I just hit Win+S, type whatever I want, and I’m done with it. And if the screen is too cluttered and I want some peace and quiet, Win+Shift+S hides all of the stickies instantly. There are several other hotkeys, all configurable, but these are the two I use.
Sticky-specific hotkeys: Ctrl-D closes a sticky; Ctrl-Shift-A sets a reminder for later. Ctrl-T sets it to always-on-top … there are many others, but you get the picture. You almost never need the mouse. Again, the whole thing is optimized for speed.
Reminders: Ah, the cornerstone of my personal time management system. You can set a reminder as soon as you create the sticky, and optionally set the sticky to sleep until the time comes. It then vanishes from view, only to pop up right when you need it, with a very irritating (and effective) “vibrating” effect that simply cannot be ignored. Once it has popped up, you can right-click it and “snooze” it for ten minutes (configurable). You can set the reminders to a specific date and time, or set them for a certain interval (“in 10 minutes”). It even supports recurring reminders!
Keeps closed stickies: This is a very handy feature. When I close a sticky (Ctrl-D), it’s not gone for good. For quite some time after I closed it (30 days, I think, or more), I can still go into the Manage Stickies window and search for it. It’s all right there, and I can easily restore it. It keeps its original position, size, and formatting.
Sticky storage: This is a fairly rare use, but sometimes there’s a tidbit of information I just need to have on hand. Maybe it’s a tracking number I will need in a week, or anything else I just need to have handy but I don’t want cluttering my workspace. I can create a sticky note and then store it in any number of categories. Stored notes are never deleted, and are always searchable and accessible from the Manage Stickies window.
Rich Text and RTL support: RTL means Right-to-Left, the way Hebrew and Arabic go. Stickies handles Hebrew without a hitch, which is a nice bonus for me. Also, its support for rich text means I can make any text bold, italic, underlined etc. and play with font sizes so as to create the exact visual impact I wish to convey. It’s like making a bumper sticker for myself.
Support for Hyperlinks: Related, but somewhat different, is the fact Stickies support Web links. It makes them clickable. You can’t link to other Stickies like you do with Tomboy notes on Linux, but still, it’s a very handy feature.
Image Stickies: A few weeks ago, I had to remember a small range of cells in an Excel sheet. The whole table was the result of a calculation, and I wanted to keep it for a week or two. I just copied it, hit Win+S to create a new sticky, and pasted it. What got pasted was a screenshot of that range of cells in Excel! Beautiful, elegant and smart. Rather than messing about with OLE or trying to link into the Excel sheet, I just got a screenshot. Of course, when I copy/paste from Word or from the Web I get editable text. But it’s very handy to be able to paste an image right into a sticky.
Sticky titles: You can easily (Ctrl-Shift-T) set the title for any sticky you’re working with. Then you can double-click the sticky’s title bar to collapse it, and you’re left with just the title. The visual reminder is still there, but it’s not as obtrusive.
Sticky styles: What if I always mark my “urgent” stickies with a red background and a large font size, and my “personal” stickies with a light blue background? No problem! Stickies supports up to 9 visual styles, each with its own hotkey (1-9, I believe).

There’s a ton of other features I haven’t touched on, such as text highlighting (changing the background of just part of the text), other hotkeys (Ctrl + or Ctrl – to change font size), custom skins, setting per-sticky opacity … really, this is a powerhouse. But still, there was one feature I really needed, which was missing:

I work in several distinct “contexts” using the same machine. There’s the day job, there’s Download Squad, there are my own projects … so at any given time, at least several stickies taking up space on my monitor were reminding me to do things which are not relevant – things which I actually should not do right this minute.

I wrote Tom Revell, Stickies’ developer, and asked for his advice on this. Stickies has an open, powerful API, and I was looking for a way to only show a subset of stickies, appropriate for a given context.
In response, Tom released a great add-on called Scoop. It’s a utility which “scoops” stickies according to certain properties. As you can see on the screenshot, it lets you perform batch operations based on a number of sticky properties. It’s not just hide or show, either – you can roll them up or down, set their skin, etc. Want to hide all of your always-on-top stickies in one fell swoop? No problem!
When you run Scoop, one more thing happens: the context menu for each sticky gets a new entry, titled Set Category which does just that. There’s no category list or key-binding yet (remember, this is bleeding-edge stuff) but you can set a category and then hide/show all stickies in a given category, or do anything else you want to do with them. Beautiful!
Share TweetWhat the Zuk: Stickies is the best sticky-note application money can’t buy originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 23 Aug 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

HEWLETT-PACKARD
HIGH TECH COMPUTER
HON HAI PRECISION IND.
HYNIX SEMICONDUCTOR
INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES

CNET is reporting that Microsoft’s Hotmail will finally gain support for… Microsoft’s Exchange ActiveSync protocol. Sure, even Google’s had that for a while now, but better embarrassingly late than embarrassingly never, right?

So Hotmail users, very soon you’ll be able to type in your username and password as an Exchange account and enjoy full push support [...]Hotmail to gain ActiveSync support for iPhone and iPad. Finally. 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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Filed under: Fun, Mozilla, Browsers
A recent Mozilla Test Pilot study has shone light on an uncomfortable truth: people are using their lunch breaks to masturbate.

Entitled “Understanding Private Browsing,” the findings are remarkably clear; there are four very well-defined peaks in our Private Browsing habits, and most of our Private Browsing “sessions” are around 10 minutes long. Those four peaks are lunch break, after work/school, after dinner, and late at night.

But how did I get to the rather sticky conclusion of people masturbating in their lunch hour? Well, why else would people use Private Browsing Mode for just 10 minutes? Surely checking Facebook, Twitter, and email takes longer than 10 minutes. I mean, I want to believe that people only spend 10 minutes on their computer during lunch, but really, let’s face it, … that can’t be the case.

The other factor that hasn’t been addressed by Mozilla (or Mashable in their diagnosis), is that we must consider who opted into this Test Pilot study. I would guess that most Test Pilot users are bearded geeky types, academics, and students. I don’t think there will be many Test Pilot users that work in secluded office cubicles. Mind you, university lecturers usually have their own offices, right …? Ew…

Having said that, the idea of millions of Firefox users shutting their office doors at lunch break for a quick 10-minute stress reliever is completely disgusting. If anyone has another possible hypothesis about what people are doing with that 10 minute window, please let me know.
Share TweetFinally, a reputable study from Mozilla highlights our Firefox porn-surfing habits originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 24 Aug 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES
INVENTEC

Filed under: Google, Browsers
Yesterday, Google announced on the Chromium blog that they were introducing two changes affecting the Chrome Extensions Gallery: a $5 registration fee for new developers, and domain verification. The measures are designed to provide a level of quality assurance and security which was previously lacking.

Domain verification is the big security addition. If you read our posts on how to install Chrome Web Apps right now, you might have seen part of Google’s plan in action already. For example, if you tried to install the Google Reader app from our server by simply clicking it with your left mouse button, you would see the dialog above: “Apps must be served from the host that they affect.”

That provides a very simple but effective defense against malicious apps. Worried that a Gmail app might steal your credentials or log your conversations? No problem — unless the app is served up from Gmail itself Chrome won’t let you install it.

It’s not perfect, obviously. The apps on our post could be installed anyway by simply right-clicking, choosing save as, and dragging the app from your download bar back into the main Chrome window. To the average user, however, that’s probably complex enough to be a deterrent. Pair this with Google’s new domain verification stamp, and you’ve got a decent way to assure users they’re installing safe apps from a trusted source.

Every little bit helps when it comes to security, and I can certainly see domain verification being something even my least technical friends and family can understand — and appreciate.How Chrome Extension Gallery domain verification will help protect users originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 20 Aug 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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HIGH TECH COMPUTER
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Verizon this morning made it official: The update for the original Droid that will enable you to officially run Adobe Flash is being pushed out. Here’s the word: Verizon Wireless has begun pushing an update today to the DROID by Motorola (introduced November 2009) that will allow customers to download Adobe Flash 10.1 via Android Market. Flash Player 10.1 provides access to millions of sites with rich content including animations, casual games, videos, rich internet applications, audio and much more. Get your update yet? Let’s hear it in the forums.Posted originally at Android CentralSponsored by Android Cases and Accessories

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Steve Jobs’ keynote address at the Apple WWDC 2010 event in San Francisco included the announcement of the iPhone 4 along with a new version of the mobile platform operating system. – …

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INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES

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

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COMMSCOPE
COMMUNICATIONS HOLDINGS
COMPAL ELECTRONICS
COSMOTE MOBILE TELECOM.

Filed under: Utilities, Google, web 2.0
Today I had a quick play with the Google Docs drawing tool. It’s awesome, but yet there’s a strong chance that you didn’t even know it existed! Just head over to docs.google.com > Create New > Drawing and give it a go. Don’t forget to Insert > Image — a whole wealth of Google Images await your artistic meddling! Poke around with the tools; they’re very easy to use.

OK, drawn something fun? Now I can tell you about cool bits that I really didn’t expect to see in a browser-based drawing tool. Hit Ctrl-Z to undo your last action — Ctrl-Y to redo works as well. Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V are available for copying and pasting. Because it’s vector-based, you can click anything you’ve scribbled and grab a corner to stretch or scale it.

There’s more! The Drawing tool has a complete set of flow chart symbols (and other shapes) that you can drag and drop into place — and because this is Google Docs, you can collaboratively work on the same chart or diagram! I’m sure there’s a plethora of potential organizey-businessy applications for that kind of functionality.

Finally, there’s a ton of ways in which you can export your Google Drawings. There’s a new ‘Web Clipboard’, which lets you select your image and then paste into another Google Doc. This clipboard is associated with your Google account, so you can store something there and retrieve it from any Web-attached computer if you desire. You can also download your finished image as a JPEG, PNG, SVG or PDF file.

I told you it was awesome! Die, MS Paint, die.
Share TweetGoogle Docs Drawing tool removes any reason to use MS Paint ever again originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 18 Aug 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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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

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ELECTRONICS FOR IMAGING
ELECTRONIC DATA SYSTEMS
ELECTRONIC ARTS
ECLIPSYS

ROM legend Conflipper may be in retirement, but that doesn’t mean there’s not still magic to be had, as a new ROM for the Droid Incredible has surfaced, and guess what — it purportedly is Android 2.2 Froyo. And that’s nice to see, as the Sept. 1 rumor that Droid-Life started late last night was quickly retracted (don’t say we didn’t warn you). Sing out if you’re brave and gave it a shot. [Shipped-ROMs via Android Central Forums and XDA Developers] Update: A couple of screen shots posted after the break. (Thanks, Jim!) Plus, here’s a link to a method to load and root.
Posted originally at Android CentralSponsored by Android Cases and Accessories

AMPHENOL
ANIXTER INTERNATIONAL
APPLE COMPUTER
APPLIED MATERIALS
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Avaya officials are following through on promises to aggressively integrate technologies acquired from Nortel to build up its enterprise communications offerings. The newest UC and contact center offerings are the latest examples. – When Avaya officials last year announced their intention to buy
struggling Nortel Networks enterprise business for $915 million, both
they and some analysts believed that would push the company toward the top of the enterprise telephony market.
And thats a market that includes the likes of
techn…

SIEMENS FAIR ISAAC
FACTSET RESEARCH SYSTEMS
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EPICOR SOFTWARE

Filed under: Utilities, Search, AndroidIt’s such a fantastic concept: a database of customer service numbers with the buttons you need to push to skip the computers (and Indian call centers) to talk to a real, boner fidee Ameerikin who’s just positively thrilled to be helping you with your problem. Unfortunately, while one of the best ideas I’ve ever seen, Dial Zero utterly fails in its implementation.

It makes you wonder if the developer was under the effects of crack — I mean, how hard is it to make a search box that actually searches? How about removing banner ads that obscure one of the most vital parts of the program? Don’t get me started on the Latest Comments and Head-To-Head sections either — I can’t even begin to guess at their purpose.

The sad thing is, Dial Zero for iPhone has a veritable feast of good reviews — probably because it doesn’t include hideous ads on every page of the app. Or maybe because the search function actually works.

But the thing is, despite its abject awfulness, Dial Zero for Android still has a big list of customer service phone numbers. It still has some great tips for skipping the automated service, or how to get a USA-based representative. It even has a few UK numbers (but God help you if you think searching for ‘UK’ will bring them up…)

And of course it’s free. Being free shouldn’t excuse submoronic interface design, though.
Share TweetDial Zero for Android is a great idea (you can skip automated customer service systems!), but so, so poorly implemented originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 23 Aug 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments

MOBILE TELESYSTEMS
NANYA TECHNOLOGY
NII HOLDINGS
NIKON
NINTENDO

After months of infringement lawsuits and countersuits filed by Nokia and Apple, Nokia takes its case to the International Trade Commission. Nokia claims Apple is infringing on seven of its patents involving virtually all Apple iPhones, computers and iPods. – Nokia escalated its legal battle with Apple Dec. 29, filing a complaint with
the International Trade Commission claiming Apple’s mobile phones, computers
and portable music players all infringe on Nokia patents. The ITC complaint
follows a Nokia patent infringement lawsuit against Apple earlier t…

ALLIANCE DATA SYSTEMS
ALLTEL
AMAZON.COM
AMERICA MOVIL
AMKOR TECHNOLOGY

Apple released the all new Apple iPad April 3rd. Already over 300,000 have been sold, with lines forming around the country. Apples pitch is that its the best way to experience the web, email, photos and video. The thin, and light iPad (its only 1.5 pounds) features a 9.7 inch high resolution screen that enables users to watch HD movies, TV shows, podcasts and music videos. It also features a vivid LED-backlit IPS display, ideal for photo slideshows or Keynote presentations. You can surf the web, listen to music or even read a book with it. The iPad also has built-in 802.11n wireless capabilities and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, which lets you connect to devices like wireless headphones or the Apple Wireless Keyboard. So well take a in depth look at it. Evaluate its pros and cons and let in on what the reviewers are saying from across the web. – Video Content.

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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

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 Waiting for the G2 to release on T-mobile and feeling impatient?  If you’re into the hackery fun, you can download and check out what looks to be the leaked engineering test ROM right now.  The ROM is Android 2.2 (Froyo), has a HSDPA 14.4M + HSUPA 5.76M radio file, and is running the 2.6.32 Linux kernel.  You can grab the leaked file here (site’s in Han Chinese, use Google translate FTW).  Looks like the G2 will be the hackers dream that it’s little brother the G1 was, and everyone involved should love that! [HTC 911 via AndroidGuys]Posted originally at Android CentralSponsored by Android Cases and Accessories

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Filed under: Photo, Utilities, Adobe, AndroidFrom the outset, a smartphone photo manipulation app is a fantastic idea. Thanks to the turtleneck mafia, awful-and-noisy-built-in-camera photography has become something far bigger than most of us expected — who could’ve predicted that the iPhone would become the most popular camera on Flickr in under two years? But now, ladies and gentlemen, it ’s the turn of the Android. With dozens of new Android handsets emerging every month, and with the Android market share creeping ahead of the iPhone, it’s now time to talk about Android photography.

There’s a bit of a problem, though: most photo manipulation software for Android phones smells worse than a Titan’s loincloth. Mashable has a list of them, but they’re all plagued with inadequacies and bugs; some are slow and some simply don’t work on newer phones!

Enter Photoshop Express for Android. From Adobe you’d expect nothing short of a photo editing miracle app, but alas that isn’t the case. Photoshop Express is certainly useful — and it is a very polished, professional app that’s free of bugs — but I just wish it did a bit more. I wish it wasn’t so annoyingly devoid of obvious, easy-to-implement features.From the outset, Photoshop Express is very smart. You’re welcomed with a pretty, blue Adobe splash screen, and then you’re shown all of the photos currently on your phone. You can start editing right away, or choose a photo to upload.

You also have the option of viewing your online photos (those stored at Photoshop.com), but here’s my first gripe: you can’t download photos to your phone! I wanted to edit one of my Photoshop.com photos, but the app simply won’t let me. I have no idea why Adobe has locked it down in this way — perhaps to provide a ‘new feature!!1′ for the next release? (Also, look at the Phone/Online tabs in the image above — notice how the ‘depressed’ look indicates which tab you’re on. I don’t like it!)

Back to editing, then. Either select a photo already on your phone, or push the hardware camera button to take a new photo. This is the screen you’ll see:

Beneath those four headings there are a variety of functions. Here’s a complete list (don’t worry, there aren’t many): crop, straighten, rotate, flip, exposure, saturation, tint, black & white, contrast, brightness, soft focus, effects, and borders. Most of these are self-explanatory, and they all do the same thing as their desktop software equivalent. The ‘effects’ are nice, providing you with a bunch of pre-programmed filters that’ll make your mundane on-the-way-to-work photos less boring.

There’s a couple of handy undo/redo buttons at the bottom — and no, you can’t make those two annoying bars disappear while you edit the photo. The only way to see the final result is to save the image (thus losing your undo/redo history… awesome!)

Finally, the app has the ability to upload your edited photos to Photoshop.com, Facebook and TwitPic. You can also set it to ‘auto upload’ your photos, which is a rather cool way of keeping your phone synchronized with your Interwebs. [If you're interested, you can see my awesome full-size photo on Photoshop.com!]

Photoshop Express for Android Tech Specs

Installed Size — 2MB, but it has a cache that will grow as your library of images expands!
Speed/Responsiveness — Snappy and smooth (Android 1.6 @ 600 MHz, LG GT540 Swift)
User Interface — Pretty and very intuitive, except for the complete lack of buttons on the ‘Online photos’ tab, grrr
Configurability & Extensibility — Nope, nothing like that (but being able to upload to other non-Photoshop.com services is cool)
License — Free, closed-source

Share TweetAdobe Photoshop Express for Android taken for a spin, leaves me a little unsatisfied originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 25 Aug 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Well, that didn’t take too long. The Motorola Droid 2 (read our full review) has been rooted. We’re not quite in one-click territory yet — you’re going to need to do a tiny bit of command line work, but really nothing more scary than following directions and copying and pasting. And that’s not so bad, now is it? [XDA Developers via Android Community]Posted originally at Android CentralSponsored by Android Cases and Accessories

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eZuce’s OpenUC is a software-only, SIP-based enterprise product that is designed to be a less expensive alternative to Microsoft’s UC offerings. – A startup called eZuce is offering an open-source, software-only unified
communications solution that company officials say is an alternative to
Microsoft’s UC offerings.
eZuce, which launched Aug. 12, is rolling out OpenUC, which
officials say is aimed at midsize to large enterprises of 200 to …

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Filed under: Security, Windows
I’ve mentioned before that Norton 2010 is a big improvement over Symantec’s releases of the last few years — and the results from AV-Test’s Q2 testing certainly seem to bear that out.

Norton Internet Security posted a total score of 16/18, a mark equaled only by Kaspersky. Norton bested Kaspersky in 0-day detection, catching all 59 samples while Kaspersky missed ten. Both apps posted similar usability scores and showed impressively low marks for system slowdown — their 134 seconds beat even Microsoft Security Essentials at 163 seconds.

NIS 2010 only threw two false positive warnings to Kaspersky’s three in the three months of testing. Not bad when you consider that’s out of more than 600,000 test cases!
Share TweetNorton, Kaspersky share top spot in Q2 testing of antivirus apps on Windows 7 originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 19 Aug 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Oracle sues Google for patent and copyright infringement over Google’s use of Java in its Android operating system. The suit could halt Android development on phones, tablets and other platforms. – Oracle Aug. 12 sued Google for patent and copyright infringement over Google’s
use of Java in its open-source Android operating system.
Oracle, which purchased Sun Microsystems and renamed it Oracle America
in January, accused Google of infringing seven Java patents and other
copyrights.
Sun …

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News Analysis: Although Gizmodo editor Jason Chen may not have done the most ethical thing by paying $5,000 for an AWOL prototype of the next iPhone, the California task force that forced open his door in apparent violation of the terms of its search warrant (to say nothing of state law) just turned his case into a test of journalistic freedoms. – Legend has it that one of the first things taught in journalism school is
that an honest journalist never pays for a story. I suppose that’s true, but
you see, I never went to j-school. Does that let me off the hook?
I can argue either side of whether checkbook journalism is ethical, or if
techn…

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  Here at Android Central, we don’t just report the Android news and review the new gear. We actually use Android phones, so we’re always searching for apps and tools that make our own phones work better for us. Lately, it seems like security issues (or overblown non-issues) are crawling out of the woodwork, so the search was on for a solution that takes care of any concerns, without getting in the way.After all was said and done, Lookout seemed to rise to the top.  Not only does Lookout address any concerns you may have with malware, it turns out that it’s an excellent backup and tracking solution.  Follow after the break, while I take a good look at Lookout and even put it through the paces a bit.

appid: 

com.lookout

Posted originally at Android CentralSponsored by Android Cases and Accessories

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Filed under: Games, Linux
Well, so much for hints, Linux users. While it initially looked as though Valve’s gaming behemoth was headed your way when the Mac client arrived, that may not actually be the case.

In an interview with Gamesindustry.biz, Valve’s VP of Marketing Doug Lombardi has bad news for Linux gamers: “There’s no Linux version that we’re working on right now.”

Sorry to take the Steam out of your locomotives. But hey, look on the bright side — Lombardi didn’t say they weren’t going to work on it in the future or that they had never worked on a Linux version. If you like reading into things, his phrasing leaves plenty of room for speculation.

[via Web Upd8]Valve VP: We’re not working on Steam for Linux originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 23 Aug 2010 09:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Avaya officials are following through on promises to aggressively integrate technologies acquired from Nortel to build up its enterprise communications offerings. The newest UC and contact center offerings are the latest examples. – When Avaya officials last year announced their intention to buy
struggling Nortel Networks enterprise business for $915 million, both
they and some analysts believed that would push the company toward the top of the enterprise telephony market.
And thats a market that includes the likes of
techn…

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 Google has responded to an article written this week by Android Police that teaches how to subvert the new Android Market licensing server, issuing a quick acknowledgement, and a promise to revisit the situation soon. The story clearly stated that it wasn’t intended to show how to pirate apps, though it included directions (and even a video) telling how to hack your way around the new application security measures Google enabled in the Market recently.Here’s want Google is saying about the subject for now, as written by Tim Bray:The licensing service, while very young, is a significant step forward in terms of protection over the plain copy-protection facility that used to be the norm. In the how-to-pirate piece, its author wrote: “For now, Google’s Licensing Service is still, in my opinion, the best option for copy protection.”The licensing service provides infrastructure that developers can use to write custom authentication checks for each of their applications. The first release shipped with the simplest, most transparent imaginable sample implementation, which was written to be easy to understand and modify, rather than security-focused.Some developers are using this sample as-is, which makes their applications easier to attack. The attacks we’ve seen so far are also all on applications that have neglected to obfuscate their code, a practice that we strongly recommend. We’ll be publishing detailed instructions for developers on how to do this.The number of apps that have migrated to the licensing server at this point in time is very small. It will grow, because the server is a step forward.100% piracy protection is never possible in any system that runs third-party code, but the licensing server, when correctly implemented and customized for your app, is designed to dramatically increase the cost and difficulty of pirating.The best attack on pirates is to make their work more difficult and expensive, while simultaneously making the legal path to products straightforward, easy, and fast. Piracy is a bad business to be in when the user has a choice between easily purchasing the app and visiting an untrustworthy, black-market site.We have to agree here.  While the current system is not perfect, it’s far better than no protection for developers at all.  And as Bray points out, the GLS is a place to start and a framework that developers on which developers can improve. Software piracy is always going to be a big concern for application developers, and tutorials about how to circumvent it will only keep the big software houses away from the Market.  Make no mistake — we promote and encourage hacking your phone, provided it’s the "good hacking" we’re talking about.  But unlocking, rooting and customizing hardware you paid for is very different from software theft.  We applaud Google for facing this one head on, and look forward to their follow up.  [Android Developers Blog]Posted originally at Android CentralSponsored by Android Cases and Accessories

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 If you haven’t checked them out, you really need to take a gander through the Android Central Forums. They hold many many wonders, a few of which you can see below:Once Dad gets one, resistance is futile for the rest of the family.Some people seem to think iPhone users chose… poorly. One user is on his fifth Droid Incredible. But, it might have been the battery all along.Sometimes, it’s worth it to get that insurance. Tired of laggy apps on your Captivate? Do something about it.Getting rid of carrier bloatware requires root, risk *sadface*.Posted originally at Android CentralSponsored by Android Cases and Accessories

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Tweet One of the big questions many consumers are faced with today is whether to purchase a laptop or an iPad. We hope to take some of the pressure off and help make that decision easier for you in this guide. Since many of you are already more than well aware of what laptops can [...]

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TechCrunch has tantalized users for months with the idea that Google is building a desktop client of its Google Voice phone management application using its Gizmo5 assets. Reports that Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are shelving the product have given rise to a grass-roots petition for people who desire a desktop VOIP client for Google Voice. – Google just made free phone management application Google Voice available to the general public June 22
While that release is a Web-based program that lets users route calls to home,
work and mobile phones through a special number provided by Google, TechCrunch
has tantalized users for months wit…

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Filed under: OS Updates, Hardware, Google
digg_url = ‘http://www.downloadsquad.com/2010/08/18/google-verizon-chrome-os-tablet-on-sale-november-26-2010/’;
The title pretty much says it all on this one, folks.

Yes, our source tells us that Google is building a Chrome OS tablet. It’s real, and it’s being built by HTC. No surprise there, since HTC churned out the Nexus One for Google.

Yes, they plan to offer it in conjunction with Verizon — which probably doesn’t come as a shock to anybody at this point. The two recently tag-teamed that Net Neutrality proposal and they’ve had plenty of discussions in the past about cooperating in some capacity.

As for the launch date of November 26th, well, that’s all kinds of brilliant. It’s Black Friday 2010 and the busiest shopping day of the year in the U.S. — so what better day to have a shiny new tablet in the cabinet at Verizon kiosks and stores all over the country? You can bet Google’s Chrome OS tablet will be heavily subsidized, and I’d go so far as to say it will be substantially cheaper than the iPad — if not totally free — with a Verizon data contract.

So what will the Google tablet pack for hardware? While our source didn’t provide any specifics, my guess is that the device could be based on NVidia’s Tegra 2 platform and sport a 1280×720 multitouch display, 2GB of RAM, minimum 32GB SSD, WiFi/Bluetooth/LTE connectivity, GPS, webcam, and possibly expandable storage via a multi-card reader. Again, these were not given to us by our source, but expect it to be every bit as geek-tastic as the Nexus One — Google won’t want to disappoint its early adopters.
Share TweetGoogle launching a Chrome OS tablet on Verizon, goes on sale November 26 originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 18 Aug 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Filed under: Security, Windows
I’ve mentioned before that Norton 2010 is a big improvement over Symantec’s releases of the last few years — and the results from AV-Test’s Q2 testing certainly seem to bear that out.

Norton Internet Security posted a total score of 16/18, a mark equaled only by Kaspersky. Norton bested Kaspersky in 0-day detection, catching all 59 samples while Kaspersky missed ten. Both apps posted similar usability scores and showed impressively low marks for system slowdown — their 134 seconds beat even Microsoft Security Essentials at 163 seconds.

NIS 2010 only threw two false positive warnings to Kaspersky’s three in the three months of testing. Not bad when you consider that’s out of more than 600,000 test cases!
Share TweetNorton, Kaspersky share top spot in Q2 testing of antivirus apps on Windows 7 originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 19 Aug 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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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

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ARM, IBM, Samsung, ST-Ericsson and Texas Instruments have together created Linaro, a not-for-profit company focused on supporting the development of open-source products for devices powered by ARM’s chip designs. Along with Android, other open-source ventures such as LiMo, MeeGo, Ubuntu and WebOS stand to profit from the project, which could help unify a fragmented Linux mobile operating system market. – IBM and chip designer ARM, with
partners Freescale, Samsung, ST-Ericsson and Texas Instruments, have created
Linaro, quot;a not-for-profit open-source software engineering company quot;
focused on speeding the development of Linux-based mobile devices powered by ARM-designed
processors.

I…

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CYPRESS SEMICONDUCTOR
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News Analysis: There is consensus building that the Apple tablet will be a gaming device geared to support basic social gaming applications of the type people use on Facebook, as well as multiplayer games. Jeff Scott, founder and publisher of the 148Apps blog, says publications that cover the gaming arena have been invited to the upcoming special Apple event. He also says a screen resolution of at least 640 by 800 and a stronger processor than the one powering Apple’s iPhone 3GS will make the tablet well suited for games. – Apple executives will take the stage at Yerba Buena Gardens in San
Francisco Jan. 27, and are expected to unveil the
anticipated Apple tablet computer.
There is a lot of information seeping through the reality distortion field
around the device, the official name of which (iSlate? iPad? iTablet…

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Tweet So you’ve heard about the Apple iPad and you’re heading back to school soon. Chances are you’re probably wondering if it’s a smart choice to invest your money towards purchasing an iPad for college. In this article we’ll help explain a few of the many benefits there are for college students who own, or [...]

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Filed under: Mozilla, BrowsersReleased with nary a muted fanfare, you’d be forgiven for having never seen or used the Mozilla Add-ons Builder. The Builder is a Web-based add-on SDK (and yes, you need to use Firefox to get the most out of it!)

This new tool, which is obviously aimed at boosting both educational and commercial adoption of Firefox’s new add-on architecture, is actually constructed from two technologies that we’ve discussed before: Jetpack and Bespin. Jetpack is the future of Firefox add-on development and promises simpler, more powerful and ‘restartless’ extensions. Bespin is Mozilla’s new Web-based text editor (which I’m not a huge fan of).

The Add-ons Builder basically tacks on a rather pretty (albeit nascent and not-very-useful) ‘file explorer’ interface to Bespin. It works, but only just. While the SDK helps you find libraries, there’s no auto-complete for library methods. The tutorial suggests you look at the source code of other add-ons for inspiration, but there’s no way of searching through them — just a big, page-after-page directory. The only desirable feature of the Add-ons Builder has to be its rapid prototyping; the ability to test your new code with a single click is very cool. I’d much rather use a desktop SDK though!

Still, if you’re looking to noodle around with the Jetpack API, or just practice your JavaScript, the Add-ons Builder is a great place to start. I’m building a menu bar out of widgets at the moment… exciting..!Now’s the time to make your first Firefox add-on with the Mozilla Add-ons Builder originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 16 Aug 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Skype filed for an initial public offering Aug. 9, with a prospectus that offered a glimpse into the company’s current structure and plans for future growth that include Skype for Business products. – VOIP vendor Skype filed for an IPO Aug. 9, but offered no indication of
when potential shareholders would be able to purchase stock in the
Internet-calling company.
Skype’s
preliminary prospectus estimates the initial offering’s value at up to $100
million, but the company declined to reveal …

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KONINKLIJKE KPN
LAM RESEARCH
LIBERTY GLOBAL
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MeeGo Linux will need considerable investment to succeed, according to a report from market research company Ovum. Novell plans to release SUSE MeeGo for netbooks. – Despite new support from Novell, the fledgling MeeGo
Linux project needs quot;major investment quot; to catch up to other competing
solutions, according to a report by market research company Ovum.
On June 1, Novell announced that it would quot;release SUSE MeeGo as a
fully supported operating…

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So help us, we’re not even going to try to avoid the whole "epic" thing when it comes to the Sprint Epic 4G. It just is. After the break, check out one of the latest commercials (and be sure to check out our hands-on) for the latest from the Samsung Galaxy S class, coming Aug. 31. Thanks, "it."
Posted originally at Android CentralSponsored by Android Cases and Accessories

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LOGITECH INTERNATIONAL

Apple executives could be "nimble" on pricing for the iPad tablet PC, according to a Credit Suisse analyst, should the device fail to achieve sufficient marketplace traction following its release in two months. Prices for the iPad currently range from $499 to $829, depending on options such as Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity. In addition, a job posting on the Apple corporate site adds fuel to rumors that Apple could be planning to integrate a camera module of some sort into the iPad. – Apple may be quot;nimble quot; on its price point for
the upcoming iPad tablet PC, according to Credit Suisse analyst Bill Shope, if
customers refuse to flock to the device during its initial rollout within the
next two months.

Shope met with Apple executives about the device sometime last w…

CDW
CHINA MOBILE
CISCO SYSTEMS
COGNIZANT TECH. SOLUTIONS
COMCAST

Filed under: Features, Productivity, web 2.0
I first got word of Live Documents via our trusty tipster, Forboden (Thanks!). And I have to say that it’s impressive!
The idea of an online office suite is far from new; Google Docs is the largest player in this market, but of course there’s Zoho and Microsoft Office Live. So, what’s Live Documents’ claim to fame?
Basically, they say that their solution is “more powerful than Microsoft Office” and offers “better collaboration than Google Docs.” Those are a couple of hefty statements to make, and I must disagree with one.
Still, the product is certainly powerful. It’s Flash only, and it offers several productivity applications. Rather than skim over all three (presentations, word processing, and spreadsheets), I decided to take the spreadsheet application on an extensive tour. I mean, everybody can do word processing, but Web-based spreadsheets are something different altogether. Keep on reading to see the detailed review, with a gazillion (well, more than ten) screenshots.Like most other Web office suites, Live Documents starts you off with a desktop. This one is decidedly Mac-like, all the way down to the icons and a dock at the bottom (which was off for some reason when I took this screenshot, but it’s there, … honest). By the way, to log onto the system, you don’t need to open an account; you can use your Yahoo! or Google account.

I promised that I would focus on the spreadsheets, so let’s jump right to document creation. This is decidedly different than any other application that I know of. With most applications (Web or otherwise), creating a new document is pretty much the easiest thing you can do. File > New, and bam, you find yourself staring at a blank screen (or spreadsheet). That’s not the case here! Live Documents makes you go through a three-step Wizard for every new document you wish to create. First you have to select the file name and type (Presentation, Spreadsheet, or Document). Then, you have to pick collaborators (which don’t necessarily have to be registered with the service; that’s neat). Then, you’re given the chance to feed in some metadata, such as the title, description, language, and tags for the document. After all of that, you finally get to your document. Most of the parameters are optional, and you can hit Finish at any point, but that’s still a fairly tedious process.

Oh, and speaking of collaboration, Live Documents says that it lets you collaborate with anyone, in real-time, on your documents. That’s kind of what Google Wave (RIP) used to do, and it’s what Google Docs still does. I didn’t get a chance to test this, but they boast some powerful functionality, which includes fine-grained permission management that is supposedly more powerful than Google’s.
Alright, let’s move on now! We’re finally in our spreadsheet, and this is what it looks like:

As you can see, there’s a very Ribbon-esque combined toolbar/menu control at the top of the document, but it doesn’t minimize to a slim bar like the Office one does. Other than that, it’s your standard spreadsheet fare. One thing I’d like to note is that they’ve got support for Named Ranges; you can see the box to the right of the formula bar (right under the menu). That’s a very important feature for power users, and it can make your formulas far less cryptic (since you’ll be referring to legible variable names instead of cell adresses). That’s nice, and that’s just one powerful Office feature that they bring to the table.
Now, let’s talk about one feature that Live Documents has, which MS Office doesn’t have: Spark Lines/Charts. Sparklines are basically in-cell graphs. They’re tiny line, bar, or dot charts that fit into one single cell and convey a whole bunch of visual information very quickly. They can be very powerful tools. There is an Office add-on for sparklines, and it’s even free, but I could never get it to work very well for me. Here, it comes right out of the box, and it works effortlessly. That’s a really cool feature, and it really is “more powerful than MS Office” in this one particular area.

By the way, the one claim that I take issue with is “more powerful than MS Office.” Call me a fanboy, but no office application that I know of is more powerful than MS Office. For starters, there’s VBA, and I have done some really awesome things with VBA, and I’ve done them very easily. This thing doesn’t even come close. The keyboard shortcuts are a major weakness as well. Even basic stuff like pressing F2 for changing cell contents doesn’t work, and you can’t remap hotkeys at all. So, … while I accept that the collaboration capabilities may be better than those of Google Docs, the “more powerful than Office” claim is absolutely bogus. That’s a poor marketing choice if you ask me; this product really is very powerful, and positioning it next to Office does more harm than good for the product’s image.
Okay, we’re moving on now! On the subject of collaboration, there’s also a collaborative TODO feature. The list is empty because I had no one to play with, but basically, you can create tasks that are related to the current document and assign them to your colleagues. This can be very handy for formulating large documents in the word processor. For instance, when you’re working with RFPs or other industry-specific documents, each person may take charge of one section, but it still has to read as one document. So, that’s a great collaboration tool.

There’s an incremental keyboard! Do you remember Clippy? Seriously though, this is a neat feature. It used to be on by default with Office, and it annoyed the hell out of me (very irritating UI back at that time). I think they toned it down or completely eliminated it. Anyway, Live Documents has it. You get easy clipboard history, so you can easily paste whatever you copied during your session, even if you’ve since copied other things.

Okay, here’s a great feature: conditional formatting. If I could pick one Microsoft Excel feature as my favorite, this would be it. Conditional formatting is awesome! I use it all the time, and Google Docs doesn’t have anything like it. Live Documents’ conditional formatting is almost as powerful as Excel’s; you get data bars, icon sets, color scales, plus a new one that Office doesn’t have called “data pie.” This is very neat stuff!

Another feature right out of Google’s book is Forms, which you can integrate into your spreadsheet. Again, this one is better than Google’s. There’s a form builder (the “Layout” tab), which is very detailed and seems to give you better control over your form. I haven’t gone through the whole process, so I can’t tell you how well the end product works, but the creation process is certainly more powerful.

Like Google Docs, your document is constantly autosaved. But again, Live Documents one-ups Google with the “Rollback Point” feature. This one is kind of similar to how you can save a specific point in time in EtherPad, and then you can “rewind” to that specific point. It’s a “milestone version” of your document, in other words.

Another interesting feature that I was unable to test was Funky document views. You can view your document as a map (and, I guess, see where each collaborator comes from? That could be useful for forms), a heat map, or a calendar. The “heat map” view, I am guessing, would show you the most frequently-updated cells in a document that has multiple collaborators. As I said, I was unable to test these, so I may be completely off base, but they certainly seem promising for people doing actual collaborative work.

This is another feature from Excel’s book: limiting a cell to a “Pick list” so that you get a drop-down box with only the permitted values. This is a direct functional copy, and it gives you the exact same level of control as Excel. You can get the list from a range of cells, or you can directly specify criteria.

This is a tiny in-cell widget called a “value scroller.” Once you enable it, all cells that contain numbers can get a little pop-up box with scroller control. It’s actually kind of irritating. That must be why it’s off by default.

The last dialog that I’d like to show you is another powerful feature: Data validation. As you can see, once again, this provides all of the power of Excel with the same exact interface. You can validate cell values as whole numbers, verify by data type (number, date/time, boolean, or string – Excel doesn’t have this), provide a range of cells containing permitted values, or use one of several other validation methods.

This is just one application (out of three) in the suite, and I haven’t begun to scratch the surface yet. There are workflow management features, document statistics, sharing features, and a whole bunch of stuff that I haven’t touched on. This is one powerful product, and the Free version is quite nice. If you have no Flash issues, I highly recommend checking it out.
One last note: Microsoft Office 2010 now includes something called Groove, which is supposed to enable some pretty kick-ass collaboration. I haven’t had anyone to test it with, so anything that I said about (the lack of) collaboration options in Office doesn’t include what Groove brings to the table. It may quite possibly be a game changer, but so far I haven’t seen much excitement about it.
Share TweetDLS Review: Live Documents is almost like Office, but for the Web originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 17 Aug 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

KDDI
KLA-TENCOR
KONINKLIJKE KPN
LAM RESEARCH
LIBERTY GLOBAL

Filed under: Text, Web services

[UPDATE:] As it turns out, wrttn.me is a clone of wrttn.in. I have now amended the links in the screenshot to point to the original tool, after verifying the fact. The review below is still valid for the original tool (all the more so, in fact). Thanks to alert commenter nuttendorfer!

When I first laid eyes upon Wrttn.me, I couldn’t help but notice how spartan it all was. There was nary an image in sight and no flashy CSS3 effects, much less any Flash. The whole thing was just … text.
And then I started digging in, and I discovered a surprisingly powerful, well-thought-out tool for sharing notes (with optional embedded images and videos), collaborating on them, and getting feedback on your work.
Wrttn.me doesn’t require you to log in. Much like PiratePad, you just start writing. I should mention, though, that it doesn’t have synchronous real-time editing a la Wave, PiratePad, or Gobi (or all of those other apps that I like so much).
What it does have is built-in support for custom CSS, support for Markdown, Textile, raw HTML or plain text, and a way to allow people to comment on your note (again, without signing in) by using a third party service called DISQUS.
Of course, there’s an API, so you can easily create notes from your own services or embed notes into your own site. The whole thing feels incredibly well-thought-out. It’s like the developer spent a lot of time pondering the question, “what’s the least annoying and most open way to do this thing?”
Support multiple markup types, don’t require logging in, provide an open API, and produce both a public URL (view only or comment if enabled) and an “admin” URL for editing your note as needed. It’s all there!
Now, if it only had EtherPad-style editing, this thing could blow most existing notes solutions out of the water. Kudos!
Share Tweet[Updated] Wrttn.me is an awesome Web notepad, supports Markdown originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 18 Aug 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

QIMONDA
QUALCOMM
QUANTA COMPUTER
RESEARCH IN MOTION
ROGERS COMMUNICATIONS

Virgin Mobile has just upended the entire US mobile internet market. While other carriers continue to limit data and charge per Gigabyte, Virgin has just revealed a new unlimited plan for $40-per-month.
Revealed on Virgin’s Facebook page, the new “Broadband2Go” plans will be condensed down to just two options from the current four: $10 for 100MB [...]DIEBOLD

The number of mobile VOIP minutes will double every year, according to Juniper Research, reaching 470.6 billion by 2015. Traditional mobile operators need to address the trend, the analysts say. – The number of mobile VOIP minutes that will be carried on 3G and 4G
networks every year will double annually over the next five years,
according to Juniper Research, which will be a boon to such companies
as Skype and Nimbuzz.
In a report issued July 1, Juniper analysts said the
annual mobile V…

ASUSTEK COMPUTER
AT&T
AUTODESK
AUTOMATIC DATA PROCESSING
AVNET

I let my wife borrow the $50 M-Edge Flip Jacket after I had finished testing it. I’m still waiting for her to give it back. I can understand why: it’s an…

M-Edge – Apple – Testing – IPhone – M-Edge Flip JacketNINTENDO
NOKIA
NVIDIA
ORACLE
POWERCHIP SEMICONDUCTOR

eZuce’s OpenUC is a software-only, SIP-based enterprise product that is designed to be a less expensive alternative to Microsoft’s UC offerings. – A startup called eZuce is offering an open-source, software-only unified
communications solution that company officials say is an alternative to
Microsoft’s UC offerings.
eZuce, which launched Aug. 12, is rolling out OpenUC, which
officials say is aimed at midsize to large enterprises of 200 to …

NIKON
NINTENDO
NOKIA
NVIDIA
ORACLE

The history of Metroid! This little gem reveals the history of Metroid and the Other M, all from Samus’s perspective.CYPRESS SEMICONDUCTOR
ACCENTURE
ACER
ADOBE SYSTEMS
ADVANCED SEMICONDUCTOR ENGINEERING

Filed under: Fun, Games, Time-Wasters
Rotate and Roll is a game about balls. However, it can rapidly turn into a game about balls plummeting towards inevitable doom, unless you play it wisely.
The balls in question are on a plank. Sometimes it’s just one lonely ball per level, and sometimes there are as many as four. When you press the arrow keys, the entire level rotates. Obviously, the board tilts, and the ball starts rolling.
If it rolls off the screen, you’re out. You’re trying to get it to roll into that large ball that you see at the bottom of the screenshot. When it gets there, you win, and you get to go on to the next level.
Sometimes your ball needs to collect something before it can go on to the next level. For instance, you may need to pick up that coin-like thing, which you can see toward the upper right corner of the screenshot (on the right plank). So, you’d have to rotate the level to the right, collect the coin, gently tilt back to the left until your ball falls onto the lower plank, and go from there to the big ball.
Of course, this being a physics game, velocity matters. You don’t want to rotate too quickly, but you can do some neat tricks by rotating very fast and “bouncing” the balls off of level elements.
The atmosphere is pretty soothing; there’s nice acoustic guitar in the background, and the whole thing is pretty serene. It’s quite a fun little game!Rotate and Roll is a liquid physics Time-Waster originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 19 Aug 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

NII HOLDINGS
NIKON
NINTENDO
NOKIA
NVIDIA

A Skype app for BREW-based Verizon Wireless handsets, such as the Samsung Reality and LG enV Touch and Chocolate, is now available. Verizon already offers such an app for Android and BlackBerry devices. – Verizon Wireless and Skype are expanding the handsets options on which
Verizon customers can download and run Skype’s voice-over IP (VOIP) mobile
application.
Following the launch ofthe
Skype app for BlackBerry and Android-running handsets, the two have announced
the availability of the Skype …

APPLE COMPUTER
APPLIED MATERIALS
ARIAN SEMICONDUCTOR EQUIPMENT
ARROW ELECTRONICS
ASML HOLDING

Just Mobile, maker of fine mobile stands and accessories for Apple products, has released the UpStand–a sleek aluminum stand for the iPad.

Apple – IPad – IMac – Business – IPhoneYAHOO
XILINX
WESTERN DIGITAL
VOLT INFORMATION SCIENCES
VISHAY INTERTECHNOLOGY

Filed under: E-mail, Google, Microsoft
Using Outlook 2010 and wish you had an easy way to keep it in sync with your Google Calendar? Good news! Google has just released an updated version of Google Calendar Sync which works with the latest version of Microsoft’s enterprise workhorse… well, mostly anyways.

Sync only works with 32-bit installs of Outlook 2010, though to be fair even Microsoft recommended that users roll with that version to prevent plug-in compatibility issues. 64-bit support will likely come later on — when 64-bit Office installs are a bit more commonplace.

The updated app supports both two-way and one-way syncing, meaning you can push items from your Google Calendar to Outlook or vice versa, or keep them running in unison. Check out the official blog post for more details and the download link!
Share TweetGoogle Calendar sync now (mostly) works with Outlook 2010 originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 17 Aug 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

LM ERICSSON
LOGITECH INTERNATIONAL
MEMC ELECTRONIC MATERIALS
MICROSOFT
MILLICOM INTL. CELLULAR

Filed under: Fun, Games, Time-Wasters
Whenever I cover a time-waster, of course, I have to test it in order to see if it’s any good. I wouldn’t want to recommend any crappy or boring games, right? I’m always very professional about it, though. I approach it with the mindset that I’m here to test the game. I’m not here to have fun or waste time! This is strictly business, right?
Usually, that approach works. However, every now and then a time-waster comes along that compels me to “keep testing.” So, I go on and on, … and then I do a little bit more, just to make sure that it’s good, you know.
Space Ninja is one such time-waster. That’s a surprise, at least for me. The soundtrack is kind of irritating, and the graphics are decidedly low-fi. But the gameplay is just so much fun that I couldn’t stop playing!
I have no idea why you’re a “ninja” in the game, because you don’t do anything very ninja-like. You run and jump, sure, but you also shoot laser beams! And if you die, you’re instantly resurrected for as many times as you want – you never run out of lives.
Sure, Space Ninja is your basic platformer. You run around, shoot the baddies, get the gold, and find the door. But something about it is just very satisfying. I highly recommend it!Space Ninja is a highly addictive 8-bit Time-Waster originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 20 Aug 2010 12:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsVERIFONE HOLDINGS
VEECO INSTRUMENTS
VARIAN SEMICONDUCTOR EQUIPMENT ASSOCIATES
UNITED ONLINE
UNISYS

Filed under: Productivity, Google, Browsers
Stylebot is a Chrome add-on that provides a point-and-click interface for customizing the CSS on any page, and then it saves your customizations for next time — and if you have bookmark sync turned on, it even syncs them for you!
The way that it works is very simple. In Selection mode, each element on the page gets a highlighted frame when you hover over it. As soon as you get the element that you want, just click it. Any CSS declarations that you then specify are applied to that element.
“Specifying CSS declarations” sounds pretty technical, but it’s basically clicking a bunch of buttons. You need to know a bit of CSS to make good use of the add-on, but it’s also a very good way to learn. Of course, if you do know your CSS, you can just switch to Advanced mode and hand code it instead.
A few missing features:

Up/down keys do not work for incrementing/decrementing values. That’s a must-have Greasemonkey feature!

Existing font sizes (and other properties) are not displayed. This means that, if I want to increase the font size of an existing element, I need to start by guessing what the current size is. Then, I need to nudge it up by entering (say) 12, deleting, entering 13, deleting, entering 17, deleting, entering 15, etc. It rapidly gets annoying. Up/down keystroke support + showing the currently selected font size would go a long way towards alleviating this.

There’s no simple way to undo a single change. You can either reset everything you’ve done, or you can manually edit the CSS in order to remove the change (if your CSS chops are up to the task).

Other than those few things, it’s certainly a handy add-on for customizing the Web. I like that it saves your settings automatically and syncs them. I’ve embedded the add-on’s “intro video” after the break.Stylebot for Chrome lets you easily customize Web pages originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 17 Aug 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

ASUSTEK COMPUTER
AT&T
AUTODESK
AUTOMATIC DATA PROCESSING
AVNET

Residual fingerprint oils on smartphones, ATMs, and other devices may reveal passwords and other confidential data, find security researchers.

PEROT SYSTEMS
PALM
OSI SYSTEMS
ORACLE
OPENWAVE SYSTEMS

News Analysis: Oracle’s suit against Google over Android is only the first shot in a war to end open-source software in all of its forms. – There’s no question that Oracle just hates the very idea
of open-source software. The suit against Google over its use of Java in the
open-source Android mobile operating system is really just part of a
pattern.
If you look at what’s happened already, the pattern has
become clear. Oracle ha…

DIODES INORATED
DIEBOLD
DELL
CYPRESS SEMICONDUCTOR
ACCENTURE

One of the biggest challenges to expanding a virtual server infrastructure is dealing with the storage challenges that often come with the deployment. The way storage is used in the virtual infrastructure is unlike most use cases. In this environment we want the same storage area to be accessed by almost every connecting server and each of those servers may have dozens of workloads trying to access that storage at the same time.

MICRON TECHNOLOGY
MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY
METHODE ELECTRONICS
MENTOR GRAPHICS
MCAFEE

Derek Kessler over at sibling site PreCentral.net let us know that developer logs are showing traces of webOS 2.0 supporting the same 960×640 resolution as Apple’s iPhone 4 Retina Display:

This time the developer was Killin? It, and the app was the relatively popular game Cloud Hopper, As before, it?s entirely possible that somebody has [...]Palm to go Retina Display with webOS 2.0, next generation handsets? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

AMKOR TECHNOLOGY
AMPHENOL
ANIXTER INTERNATIONAL
APPLE COMPUTER
APPLIED MATERIALS

Face it, consumer loath digital rights management restrictions on content. Here are some ways the latest Hollywood DRM scheme, Ultraviolet, can suck less.

Digital rights management – Apple – Intellectual Property – Sony – Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem INTERNATIONAL GAME TECHNOLOGY
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES (IBM)
INTERDIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS
INTEL
INSIGHT ENTERPRISES

Filed under: Google, Browsers
As I’ve mentioned before, there are a few pieces missing from the Google Chrome browser sync puzzle: passwords, history… and your currently open tabs. Password sync code has actually been in the Chromium code for some time, and the rest of the missing functionality will no doubt be added — it’s a vital part of Google’s “your platform everywhere” attitude toward Chrome browsing.

Today the underpinnings of session sync have arrived has well. Surf in Chrome on your desktop, sign off to head for the bus, whip out your tablet, and pick up right where you left off. It’ll be an especially welcome feature once early adopters have their hands on that snazzy Google/Verizon Chrome OS tablet due out in November.Tab sync code on its way to Google Chrome originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 18 Aug 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

QUALCOMM
QUANTA COMPUTER
RESEARCH IN MOTION
ROGERS COMMUNICATIONS
SAIC

Filed under: OS Updates, Windows, Microsoft
Remember back when Windows 7 was first being talked about? We’d all gotten wind of that mysterious “MinWin” feature, which had scores of people thinking Microsoft was going to build in some sort of stripped-down instant-on computing option. That, of course, turned out not to be the case.

A new patent filing uncovered by Manan Kakkar seems to indicate that Windows 8 will, however, include instant-on capabilities. Dubbed the Direct Experience Platform (or DEX), the patent describes a system which closely resembles what you can already find today on a number of systems running Splashtop: press a button, see a splash screen, log in and check out your media.

The patent (and diagram above) also spells out that a sandbox mode will be part of DEX. Sandboxing is also a feature in the upcoming Windows Phone 7, so it’s not too surprising to see Microsoft incorporating its security-boosting potential for Windows 8.Microsoft’s Direct Experience Platform could bring instant-on to Windows 8 originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 17 Aug 2010 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsSYNTAX-BRILLIAN
SYNOPSYS
SYNNEX
SYMANTEC
SYKES ENTERPRISES INORATED

Microsoft and Polycom are entering an alliance that will include jointly developing, selling and marketing unified communications products based on Polycom endpoints and Microsoft’s Communications Server 14. – Polycom, which already has partnerships with the likes of Hewlett-Packard
and Avaya
as it ramps up its competition with Cisco Systems in the unified communications
space, is now hooking up with Microsoft.
The two companies announced a partnership Aug. 9 in which they
will jointly develop and ma…

AUTODESK
AUTOMATIC DATA PROCESSING
AVNET
BHARTI AIRTEL
BT GROUP

Julian Assange’s organization will received free hosting and bandwidth from a Swedish political party that advocates copyright reform and abolishing the patent system.

JDA SOFTWARE GROUP
JACK HENRY & ASSOCIATES
IXYS
ITRON
IRON MOUNTAIN INORATED

Filed under: Productivity, Google, Browsers
Stylebot is a Chrome add-on that provides a point-and-click interface for customizing the CSS on any page, and then it saves your customizations for next time — and if you have bookmark sync turned on, it even syncs them for you!
The way that it works is very simple. In Selection mode, each element on the page gets a highlighted frame when you hover over it. As soon as you get the element that you want, just click it. Any CSS declarations that you then specify are applied to that element.
“Specifying CSS declarations” sounds pretty technical, but it’s basically clicking a bunch of buttons. You need to know a bit of CSS to make good use of the add-on, but it’s also a very good way to learn. Of course, if you do know your CSS, you can just switch to Advanced mode and hand code it instead.
A few missing features:

Up/down keys do not work for incrementing/decrementing values. That’s a must-have Greasemonkey feature!

Existing font sizes (and other properties) are not displayed. This means that, if I want to increase the font size of an existing element, I need to start by guessing what the current size is. Then, I need to nudge it up by entering (say) 12, deleting, entering 13, deleting, entering 17, deleting, entering 15, etc. It rapidly gets annoying. Up/down keystroke support + showing the currently selected font size would go a long way towards alleviating this.

There’s no simple way to undo a single change. You can either reset everything you’ve done, or you can manually edit the CSS in order to remove the change (if your CSS chops are up to the task).

Other than those few things, it’s certainly a handy add-on for customizing the Web. I like that it saves your settings automatically and syncs them. I’ve embedded the add-on’s “intro video” after the break.Stylebot for Chrome lets you easily customize Web pages originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 17 Aug 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

QIMONDA
QUALCOMM
QUANTA COMPUTER
RESEARCH IN MOTION
ROGERS COMMUNICATIONS

Intel has confirmed that it’s killed its discrete graphics processor, codenamed Larrabee. However, the multi-core GPU technology may see the light of day in the HPC market.

Larrabee – Intel Corporation – Graphics processing unit – Hardware – Multi-core processorSIEMENS ZORAN
ZIONS BAN
YAHOO!
YAHOO

Filed under: Google, Browsers
Get ready, Google Chrome users — version 7 is now a little more official, with Chromium’s snapshot builds making the leap today.

While the number has changed, I didn’t notice any significant changes at first glance — other than a broken sync window which was totally blank (and will no doubt be fixed immediately). Google’s accelerated release schedule for Chrome means you’re likely going to see version bumps more frequently. Anyone want to place bets on where we’ll be at this time next year? 9? 10?

Chrome’s dev channel will likely be bumped in the coming days. If you want to make the jump now, grab a Chromium snapshot build.
Share TweetChromium hits version 7 originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 17 Aug 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsKLA-TENCOR
KONINKLIJKE KPN
LAM RESEARCH
LIBERTY GLOBAL
LM ERICSSON

Demand for slate-style tablets and eReaders driving opportunity for semiconductor suppliers, says iSuppli.

D-LINK
DIGITAL CHINA HOLDINGS
DIRECTV GROUP
ELPIDA MEMORY
EMC

Additional details for the top carrier in the United States were revealed today and no one will be shocked to see it is full of Android devices. WebOS and Blackberry also have some slots on the list, but no mention of the much rumored Verizon iPhone and Windows Phone is nowhere to be seen.

SANDISK
SALESFORCE COM
SAIC
ROCKWELL AUTOMATION
RF MICRO DEVICES

Users of Chrome’s beta version now have access to Autofill and improved synchronization capabilities.

SONUS NETWORKS
SONIC AUTOMOTIVE
SKYWORKS SOLUTIONS
SILICON LABORATORIES
SI INTERNATIONAL

Robot Parade from Jared Foster on Vimeo, via the TMBG Facebook page.
COMMSCOPE
COMMUNICATIONS HOLDINGS
COMPAL ELECTRONICS
COSMOTE MOBILE TELECOM.
D-LINK

TweetMeme, providers of a "retweet button" with similar functionality, co-developed the feature intended to make sharing links via the microblogging service easier.

COMMSCOPE
COMMUNICATIONS HOLDINGS
COMPAL ELECTRONICS
COSMOTE MOBILE TELECOM.
D-LINK

1913: English metallurgist Harry Brearley casts a steel alloy that’s resistant to acidity and weathering. Because his sponsor names it “stainless steel,” Brearley will often be credited as the inventor, but there are more metallurgists than metals in this story.
Even the hometown British Stainless Steel Association acknowledges that Brearley was not alone.
English and French researchers [...]ACER
ADOBE SYSTEMS
ADVANCED SEMICONDUCTOR ENGINEERING
ALLIANCE DATA SYSTEMS
ALLTEL

IDT
IBASIS
HYPERCOM
HEWLETT PACKARD CO
HEARTLAND PAYMENT SYSTEMS

Filed under: Productivity, Google, Browsers
Stylebot is a Chrome add-on that provides a point-and-click interface for customizing the CSS on any page, and then it saves your customizations for next time — and if you have bookmark sync turned on, it even syncs them for you!
The way that it works is very simple. In Selection mode, each element on the page gets a highlighted frame when you hover over it. As soon as you get the element that you want, just click it. Any CSS declarations that you then specify are applied to that element.
“Specifying CSS declarations” sounds pretty technical, but it’s basically clicking a bunch of buttons. You need to know a bit of CSS to make good use of the add-on, but it’s also a very good way to learn. Of course, if you do know your CSS, you can just switch to Advanced mode and hand code it instead.
A few missing features:

Up/down keys do not work for incrementing/decrementing values. That’s a must-have Greasemonkey feature!

Existing font sizes (and other properties) are not displayed. This means that, if I want to increase the font size of an existing element, I need to start by guessing what the current size is. Then, I need to nudge it up by entering (say) 12, deleting, entering 13, deleting, entering 17, deleting, entering 15, etc. It rapidly gets annoying. Up/down keystroke support + showing the currently selected font size would go a long way towards alleviating this.

There’s no simple way to undo a single change. You can either reset everything you’ve done, or you can manually edit the CSS in order to remove the change (if your CSS chops are up to the task).

Other than those few things, it’s certainly a handy add-on for customizing the Web. I like that it saves your settings automatically and syncs them. I’ve embedded the add-on’s “intro video” after the break.Stylebot for Chrome lets you easily customize Web pages originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 17 Aug 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsVIEWSONIC
VERISIGN
VERIFONE HOLDINGS
VEECO INSTRUMENTS
VARIAN SEMICONDUCTOR EQUIPMENT ASSOCIATES

Agency administrator Charles Bolden said innovation will come only through partnering with and following the example of the private sector.

ARROW ELECTRONICS
ASML HOLDING
ASUSTEK COMPUTER
AT&T
AUTODESK

1839: With a French pension in hand, Louis Daguerre reveals the secrets of making daguerreotypes to a waiting world. The pioneering photographic process is an instant hit.
Using chemical reactions to make images with light was not quite new. Doing it fast was. Inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niepce created a rough image using silver salts and [...]QLOGIC .
PROGRESS SOFTWARE
PLANAR SYSTEMS
PEROT SYSTEMS
PALM

TIBCO SOFTWARE
THQ
TEXAS INSTRUMENTS
TERADATA
TELETECH HOLDINGS

HP can’t afford to buy every one of our Desirable Dozen, but in the post-Mark Hurd era, the world’s largest computer maker needs to consider acquiring more than a few of these companies. Here’s who — and why.

INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES
INVENTEC
KDDI
KLA-TENCOR

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES
INVENTEC
KDDI
KLA-TENCOR
KONINKLIJKE KPN

Nokia said on Friday it is killing Messaging for Social Networks and instead will use what it has learned in the upcoming N8.

Nokia – Services – Social network – Telecommunications – Business and EconomyNETGEAR
NCR
NATIONAL SEMICONDUCTOR
NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS
MOTOROLA

Do you complain loudly if the Wi-Fi on the airplane fizzles out? Gripe if a YouTube stream falters? Own an HDTV bigger than your couch? If so, you might be spoiled by technology. Read on for more warning signs.

High-definition television – Wi-Fi – Business – YouTube – 1080pELECTRONIC ARTS
ECLIPSYS
EASTMAN KODAK CO
EARTHLINK
DST SYSTEMS

What ever happened to food pills, sexbots and ray guns? Will Ferrell reveals “The Future That Never Happened” for Wired Magazine.DIODES INORATED
DIEBOLD
DELL
CYPRESS SEMICONDUCTOR
ACCENTURE

Castlevania and Frogger are among the classic titles headed to Microsoft’s forthcoming smartphone platform.

JDS UNIPHASE
JDA SOFTWARE GROUP
JACK HENRY & ASSOCIATES
IXYS
ITRON

Red Cross finds that in a disaster many people would post cries for help on Facebook and Twitter, assuming they’d be answered.

MEMC ELECTRONIC MATERIALS
MICROSOFT
MILLICOM INTL. CELLULAR
MOBILE TELESYSTEMS
NANYA TECHNOLOGY

E-commerce growth will be fueled by sites optimized for handheld devices, finds Adobe survey.

COMCAST
COMMSCOPE
COMMUNICATIONS HOLDINGS
COMPAL ELECTRONICS
COSMOTE MOBILE TELECOM.

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 – Television – Verizon FiOS – Verizon Communications – ArtsMCAFEE
MAXIMUS
MANTECH INTERNATIONAL
MANHATTAN ASSOCIATES
LSI

Tweet Most people around the globe have heard of the iPad by now, even in areas where it’s not yet being sold. The iPad no longer needs an introduction but it will become available in 9 more countries this Friday. Apple’s trend setting gadget, tablet computer, or whatever you’d like to refer to it as, [...]KEY
JDS UNIPHASE
JDA SOFTWARE GROUP
JACK HENRY & ASSOCIATES
IXYS

Thanks to a Gmail Labs experiement, Gmail users now have the option of searching their Docs and Sites files along with their messages.

DIRECTV GROUP
ELPIDA MEMORY
EMC
FIDELITY NATIONAL INFORMATION SVCS.
FISERV

In a sign that RIM recognizes that it cannot live off of the enterprise market alone, it is making moves to get into the mobile advertising market. In doing so, RIM is pitting itself squarely against the same companies making its life rough in the smartphone world – Apple and Google.

FORMFACTOR
FISERV
FIRST SOLAR
FINISAR
FEI COMPANY

The $549 device, which boasts entertainment features, Symbian^3 operating system, will be delivered in late September.

TRANSACTION SYSTEMS ARCHITECTS
TOTAL SYSTEM SERVICES
TNS
TIBCO SOFTWARE
TIBCO SOFTWARE

The Sprint Epic 4G is the third of the Samsung Galaxy S-class phones to be released in the United States. And it comes with a few additions over its already-released cousins, the AT&T Captivate and T-Mobile Vibrant. Initial thoughts and hands-on video are after the break, folks. (And we know you have questions, and we’ll have answers. Ask ‘em in this forum thread, and we’ll make you famous.)
Posted originally at Android CentralSponsored by Android Cases and Accessories

HIGH TECH COMPUTER
HON HAI PRECISION IND.
HYNIX SEMICONDUCTOR
INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES

Filed under: Google, Social Software, Browsers

Full disclosure: AOL is indeed our benevolent overlord. However, Download Squad bloggers are under no obligation to speak kindly of their products or applications.

AOL Lifestream is an excellent app — and it’s certainly a far cry from the clunky, over-designed browser and dial-up software you used to see given away on floppy disks. Ahh, the good old days — which are gone, and really weren’t that great if you’re comparing dial-up to DSL, cable, or fiber. Moving on!

Lifestream is a solid social networking aggregator. With support for key social sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, Digg, Delicious, and now Foursquare, Lifestream presents a clean, simple way to keep tabs on all your friends’ activity in one centralized location. While Lifestream might be a bit underpowered for social superstars, It’s an excellent choice for average users — as well as savvy users who don’t need a more complex app.

Already available via the web and in the App Store, AOL has now added an extension for Google Chrome. While it’s not going to transform Chrome into the super-social browsing experience that Flock 3 presents, the Lifestream extension is still a very handy way to keep your entire stream within easy reach without being distracted by it.

Let’s start with my one gripe about the extension: it’s slow to load. Pretty much every other Google Chrome extension I’ve tried out appears instantly after I click its icon. Lifestream, on the other hand, takes between three to five seconds to appear. That needs to be addressed — users don’t like to wait, and they don’t like it when UI elements don’t respond the way they want them to.

Beyond that, the Lifestream extension is pretty slick. Your stream is presented in a scrollable window with filtering and sharing options. You can post multi-network updates and share URLs, view trending topics, and view your account settings. Currently there’s no support for files, so you can’t share pictures or videos via the extension — hopefully that will come later. Lifestream does allow you to comment on/reply to updates that appear in your stream, and retweeting is supported as well.

For users who are looking for a way to keep the conversation going on multiple networks and don’t require some of the heavyweight features you find on apps like Seesmic Web, Lifestream is a good option — I just hope they do something about the sluggish startup.AOL Lifestream continues to evolve with release of Google Chrome Extension originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 13 Aug 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsD-LINK
DIGITAL CHINA HOLDINGS
DIRECTV GROUP
ELPIDA MEMORY
EMC

The not so secret Droid Pro now is said to be a Droid 2 with GSM and CDMA radios inside — aka a "World Phone," according to an Engadget tipster. No word on a price point yet, though, it is safe to presume that a similar device with global capabilities will probably cost you a little more than $200 with a two year contract (plus whatever happens on the data side). In terms of release, Engadget’s source is claiming that we should see it within the next few weeks.If one inside tip wasn’t enough, there is also word of LG releasing a successor to the popular LG enV Touch; named, well — you probably already guessed it — the LG enV Touch 2. Quite a mouthful, eh? Unlike its orginal make, this enV will be preloaded with Android 2.1 and will rock two touch screens — with full QWERTY keyboard. And if one global Android device wasn’t enough this holiday, the enV Touch 2 is also to be a global device. [Engadget]Posted originally at Android CentralSponsored by Android Cases and Accessories

COMPAL ELECTRONICS
COSMOTE MOBILE TELECOM.

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Verizon rumors explode, would you switch? Could the iPhone replace your wallet? Sony and Android teaming up to take on iOS. Apple reviewers making fart apps? And what’s the deal with iAds? Line up for your podcasts now, [...]iPhone live podcast 113: Who reviews the reviewer? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
FISERV
GOOGLE
GRUPO IUSACELL
HARRIS
HCL TECHNOLOGIES

Filed under: Mozilla, BrowsersAccording to Computerworld (they don’t cite a source, however), Firefox 4.0 will feature the same ’silent’ updating as Google Chrome. Minor updates, say from Firefox 4.0 to 4.0.1, will be carried out in the background after the user opens the browser. Major revisions to 4.5 or 5.0 will still prompt the user before being installed.

This could be reactionary — a recent report [PDF] found that a massive 97% of Chrome installations are up-to-date, compared to Firefox’s mediocre 85% and Safari’s meager 53% — or, more likely, this is just a move to keep Firefox as secure and easy-to-use as possible. Personally I hate those ‘do you want to update now?’ boxes. I’m always in the middle of something and loathe to close all my tabs.

Firefox isn’t merely copying Chrome, however. In true, fluffy-purple-dinosaur Mozilla fashion, the behind-the-scenes auto-updater will be configurable. For those that simply want to browse, you can disable any and all update notifications — your browser will always be kept up-to-date. Alternatively, if you’re a power-user, you can simply turn the auto-updater off. Neat!Hot on the heels of Chrome, Firefox 4 will support ’silent’ in-the-background updating originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 09 Aug 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

APPLIED MATERIALS
ARIAN SEMICONDUCTOR EQUIPMENT
ARROW ELECTRONICS
ASML HOLDING
ASUSTEK COMPUTER

iPhone users who are also U-verse subscribers can use the app to download TV episodes over a Wi-Fi connection , but not AT&T’s 3G wireless network.

AVNET
BHARTI AIRTEL
BT GROUP
CANON
CDW

Apple experienced a strong 2009 despite the recession but may make substantial changes to its product lines and strategy in 2010 in order to counter direct competition from Google, Microsoft and other players. Those strategies could include opening the iPhone to multiple carriers, introducing an iPod Touch with a camera, expanding its retail footprint, releasing the long-rumored tablet PC, imposing increased regulation on the App Store, and even introducing the Beatles catalog to iTunes. – In contrast to many tech companies dampened down by the recession, Apple
experienced rising revenue and profits throughout 2009, buoyed by strong sales
of its various product lines. But those sorts of shareholder-heartening numbers
rely on a constant base of innovation, and Apple will likely need…

PRICELINE.COM
QIMONDA
QUALCOMM
QUANTA COMPUTER
RESEARCH IN MOTION

Filed under: Google, How-Tos, Browsers
Google Chrome’s sync features can be incredibly handy for those of use who run the browser on multiple computers. Every now and then, however, you may run into a problem. In my case, I had certain bookmarks which kept popping back up even though I’d previously deleted them.

Today I got an email from a reader, John, who was having a similar issue with his extensions. “Recently LastPass has found a way to stay in there, but all my other extensions are gone, no where to be found, not even at chrome://extensions,” he wrote.

So, how does he fix this? I’ve tried a couple things in the past which seem to help.

Sign out of Chrome Sync and sign back in. To do this, click the wrench menu icon and then click options. Once the window appears, click the Personal Stuff tab and press Stop syncing this account. Confirm by pressing Stop syncing.

This method will work best when you’re not signed in to Chrome elsewhere — so remember to close your browser on your secondary machine before you begin.

Change your Google account password. Also recommended as a quick way to kill 3rd-party app access to your Twitter account, a quick change of your Google password will break sync and give you a chance to start fresh. This link should take you to the password change page, or you can visit your Google Dashboard.

This will prevent all your systems from re-syncing, regardless of whether or not you closed the browser first.

If you’ve been having issues with Chrome sync, let us know if either of these solutions worked for you!How to reboot Google Chrome sync when you’re having problems originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 13 Aug 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | CommentsLSI
LINEAR TECHNOLOGY .
LEXMARK INTERNATIONAL
LEVEL 3 COMMUNICATIONS
LAWSON SOFTWARE

Filed under: Web services, Browsers

Foreword: My dear American brethren and sistren, stop reading now: Spotify isn’t available in your country. Rdio should be out soon though!

Spotify Chrome Extension is a bit of a misnomer. It’s not an official extension, nor does it really utilize any of Spotify’s functionality, but it is a whole lot more useful than any other Chrome extension out there. Once it’s installed, you can select some text (an artist’s name), hit the new Spotify button on your browser chrome and BOOM! you’re rewarded with search results from Spotify’s extensive music database. Click a result and the song starts playing in Spotify. Neat.

The problem is, you can only search by artist. You can’t select the name of an album and search for that — neither can you do the same for record labels. Also, there’s no way to push the button and enter your own search string — you’re only given that option if a previous search returns no results.

So, it does one thing and it does it well; I just wish it did a bit more. It would be a few seconds’ work to add album searching. But hey, perhaps I’m being a little unfair: the extension is brand new. I just hope the developer hasn’t abandoned this neat little extension — it has promise!Spotify Chrome Extension is handy, but could certainly be a lot better originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 06 Aug 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

NOKIA
NVIDIA
ORACLE
POWERCHIP SEMICONDUCTOR
PRICELINE.COM

Filed under: Social Software, Microblogging, webOSSpaz — probably the best free Twitter (and Identi.ca) app for webOS — has just been bumped to version 1.2 and the upgrade is a dandy.

One of the biggest improvements is right on the main screen: you can now switch between Twitter accounts by tapping your username, a welcome change for users who need to keep tabs on multiple feeds.

There’s also beefed-up OAUTH support, both for Twitter logins and OAUTH ECHO support for image uploads to sharing sites like Twitpic, Twitgoo, and Drippic. Spaz has also upgraded to jQuery 1.4.2, which brings better overall performance.

Spaz is one of my must-have webOS apps, and it just keeps getting better.

As always, if there’s a feature you want added just follow funkatron’s advice: write a patch yourself and submit it, or post it to the forums! Spaz is open source, and community involvement is an extremely important part of its development process.webOS Twitter app Spaz gets even better with 1.2 update originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 13 Aug 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsVIRGIN MEDIA
VIEWSONIC
VERISIGN
VERIFONE HOLDINGS
VEECO INSTRUMENTS

Avaya officials are following through on promises to aggressively integrate technologies acquired from Nortel to build up its enterprise communications offerings. The newest UC and contact center offerings are the latest examples. – When Avaya officials last year announced their intention to buy
struggling Nortel Networks enterprise business for $915 million, both
they and some analysts believed that would push the company toward the top of the enterprise telephony market.
And thats a market that includes the likes of
techn…

ASML HOLDING
ASUSTEK COMPUTER
AT&T
AUTODESK
AUTOMATIC DATA PROCESSING

Research In Motion’s latest smartphone costs a total of $183.05 to build, compared with $187.51 for Apple’s iPhone 4, according to iSuppli.

APPLE COMPUTER
APPLIED MATERIALS
ARIAN SEMICONDUCTOR EQUIPMENT
ARROW ELECTRONICS
ASML HOLDING

We’re shifting our focus from iOS 4 compatibility updates to any iPhone or iPad app or game, new or updated, that seems especially awesome.   So if you guys see anything you think deserves some special attention, let us know in the comments and we’ll look at including it in a future roundup!  Continue on [...]Awesome iPhone and iPad apps and updates – August 19, 2010 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

FAIR ISAAC
FACTSET RESEARCH SYSTEMS
F5 NETWORKS
EPICOR SOFTWARE
EMULEX

Department of Health and Human Services honored Text4baby messaging service, which has more than 64,000 subscribers.

ELECTRONICS FOR IMAGING
ELECTRONIC DATA SYSTEMS
ELECTRONIC ARTS
ECLIPSYS
EASTMAN KODAK CO

How does a high school student use his iPhone to get the job done and what iPhone apps help get him through his day? TiPb?s iPhone at work contest aims to bring you just such slices of the iPhone life. Here?s michaelchang516’s answer and as a small token of thanks we?re sending him a $20 [...]iPhone at Work: high school student is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

AVNET
BHARTI AIRTEL
BT GROUP
CANON
CDW

Android apps can only be sold in 13 countries, leaving developers wondering why Google isn’t doing more to help them profit on its platform.

MCAFEE
MAXIMUS
MANTECH INTERNATIONAL
MANHATTAN ASSOCIATES
LSI

Facebook has launched their own location-based check-in service called Places, and updated their iPhone app to support it, but will you be using it?

Some people maintain sharing your life, and your location, allows for “serendipitous” discovery — people who you may never otherwise know or meet see you’re nearby and take the opportunity to [...]So will you be using Facebook Places? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

QIMONDA
QUALCOMM
QUANTA COMPUTER
RESEARCH IN MOTION
ROGERS COMMUNICATIONS

Cross-platform apps such as Firefox Portable Edition, OpenOffice.org Portable, and Audacity Portable will give your phone full PC capabilities.

OpenOffice.org Portable – Personal computer – Mozilla Firefox Portable Edition – OpenOffice.org – Office SuitesTRIMBLE NAVIGATION LIMITED
TRIDENT MICROSYSTEMS
TRANSACTION SYSTEMS ARCHITECTS
TOTAL SYSTEM SERVICES
TNS

Filed under: Mobile, AndroidIn news that plays like heavenly, August music upon the ears of disenfranchised Android users throughout the world, a PayPal checkout option may soon appear on the Android Market.

It seems Bloomberg is running with an anonymous tip, and the story goes on to say that the deal is by no means confirmed — but it sure would make a lot of sense if it’s true! Currently you can only buy Android Market apps with Google Checkout, a rather lacklustre service that has failed to gain International traction.

As of today, four years after Google Checkout’s launch, you can still only buy Android apps if you live in one of only thirteen lucky countries (not to mention, you can’t even download free apps from more than half of the world!) If a PayPal option became available, at least twice as many Android users would suddenly find themselves able to buy apps — take a look at PayPal’s list of supported countries!

As an aside, I wonder what Microsoft has planned for paid app and game sales on its upcoming Windows Phone 7 devices. We’re a few years into the smartphone surge, and as yet only Apple has successfully tapped the market with iTunes. The market is wide open, and if Microsoft can finally launch a successful mobile platform…

And thus concludes your dose of possibly-maybe-might-happen-in-the-next-few-weeks-or-months morning news.

[via Ubergizmo]
Share TweetPayPal rushes in to save Android Market originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 18 Aug 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

ORACLE
POWERCHIP SEMICONDUCTOR
PRICELINE.COM
QIMONDA
QUALCOMM

Filed under: OS Updates, Google, Beta, Browsers
We’ve known about Google Chrome’s “Chromoting” feature for some time. Many blogs reported it as a way to “run Windows apps on Chrome OS,” which is, of course, a bit of a stretch. Now relabeled “Remoting,” the feature is probably closer to running an application via Terminal Services or by first connecting to a host machine by using RDP or VNC.

Any way you look at it, Remoting is a very key component of Google’s enterprise ambitions for Chrome OS (and the Chrome browser). It could very well allow inexpensive nettops, netbooks, and tablet devices running Chrome OS to easily interact with a business’ existing enterprise apps.

As those devices inch closer to reality, Chrome OS code continues to mature and new features — like Remoting — begin to appear. You can see in the screenshot above that Remoting is now taking shape more visibly in Chromium. It’s currently hidden behind the –enable-remoting flag, and the setup function under Chrome’s wrench menu points to a page which is unavaiable.

It’s a start, and it’s certainly going to be interesting to watch Google’s plans for Remoting unfold.

Thanks, Dinu!Google Chrome’s Remoting feature shows up in Chromium with enterprise implications originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 13 Aug 2010 23:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES
INVENTEC
KDDI
KLA-TENCOR
KONINKLIJKE KPN

A compromised widget accessible from Network Solutions, Inc.’s small business advice site turned out to be dealing in drive-by malware, and doing so for quite a while.

LM ERICSSON
LOGITECH INTERNATIONAL
MEMC ELECTRONIC MATERIALS
MICROSOFT
MILLICOM INTL. CELLULAR

The number of mobile VOIP minutes will double every year, according to Juniper Research, reaching 470.6 billion by 2015. Traditional mobile operators need to address the trend, the analysts say. – The number of mobile VOIP minutes that will be carried on 3G and 4G
networks every year will double annually over the next five years,
according to Juniper Research, which will be a boon to such companies
as Skype and Nimbuzz.
In a report issued July 1, Juniper analysts said the
annual mobile V…

FAIR ISAAC
FACTSET RESEARCH SYSTEMS
F5 NETWORKS
EPICOR SOFTWARE
EMULEX

Want to stretch your tech equipment’s life? Here’s how to properly clean and care for your HDTV, smartphone, and digital camera.

Digital camera – High-definition television – Photography – Shopping – SmartphoneEASTMAN KODAK CO
EARTHLINK
DST SYSTEMS
DISCOVER FINANCIAL SERVICES
DIODES INORATED

Filed under: Developer, Web services
Large websites (like DownloadSquad or any other major blog/site) have full-time sysadmins, dedicated hosting facilities, and a ton of fail-safe mechanisms to ensure that they’re always up and available.
However, if you have a small site that’s running off of a shared host you may sometimes be surprised to discover that it’s down. That rarely happens, but when it does happen you usually discover i