Thursday, September 30, 2010
PlayBook Aims to Cut Off iPad at Enterprise Pass
RIM announced its entry into the tablet computer space on Monday with the introduction of the BlackBerry Playbook. At its unveiling, RIM President and Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis intimated that business users would be the PlayBook's target market, but he also went to great lengths to point out specific features of the PlayBook that are not available on the consumer-oriented Apple iPad.
16 Year Old Internet Addict Beaten to Death in Chinese Boot Camp [Internet Addiction]
After refusing a direct order, 16 year old Chen Shi was beaten to death at a boot camp for troubled youth in China. And it's not the first time this has happened to teenage internet addicts. More »
L�o Apotheker Appointed HP's New CEO and President [Hp]
HP has named L�o Apotheker as its next Chief Executive Officer and President, effective November 1st. Apotheker was previously the CEO of SAP, the world's largest business software applications corporation. More »
LOGITECH INTERNATIONAL INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES
Daily Crunch: The Operating Theater Edition
SteelSeries Shift Keyboard Lets You Switch Between Differet Keysets Kindle for Android Update Adds Voice Search, Wikipedia Dictionary The CitrusSaw: You Know, For Citrus CrunchDeals: Many Drives, Many Discounts Beautiful ?Naked Radio? Repurposes Parts, Looks Amazing
Fennec re-versioned to bring it in line with desktop Firefox
Fennec, the codename for Mozilla's mobile version of Firefox, is getting a bit of a name change to bring it in line with the current version of Firefox. Fennec 2.0 is currently in alpha and is still being updated with nightly builds, but the "web rendering engines used in both browsers are the same" according to lead developer Mark Finkle. As such, Fennic will be now have its official name changed to "Firefox 4 for Android and Nokia N900" for it's eventual release. The current 4.0b1 version is identical to the 2.0b1 version apart from the version number change. These changes should help Mozilla out with marketing the browser so people aren't confused as to why Firefox mobile is only 2.x, but their desktop version is 4.x. [Mark Finkle's Blog]Posted originally at Android CentralSponsored by Android Cases and Accessories
iStudiez Pro or iPhone- app review
This week I’m taking a look at iStudiez. A new school year is upon us and as I begin the journey of own Master’s degree I thought taking a look at one of the leading school and course management apps in the App Store was in order.
iStudiez is a very comprehensive course management application for [...]iStudiez Pro or iPhone- app review is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
iStudiez is a very comprehensive course management application for [...]iStudiez Pro or iPhone- app review is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
Internet Explorer 9 overtakes IE6 on Downloadsquad!
Filed under: Microsoft, Browsers
Our regular readers probably wouldn't expect Downloadsquad to be the kind of place where Internet Explorer users account for the majority of visits. Generally speaking, tech-savvy users are more likely to be using an alternative browser like Google Chrome, Firefox, or Opera.
Internet Explorer 9, however, is another story. It's been well-received by bloggers and power users alike and has already been downloaded more than two million times. It's not surprising, then, to look at our Internet Explorer stats and see that IE9 has already caught up to (and now likely passed) IE6.
Not surprising, but definitely exciting. We're glad to see that Microsoft delivered a competitive browser with IE9, and here's hoping it makes that nasty green line disappear from our chart for good. I hear you, admins... No, that's probably not going to happen any time soon, but we can dream, right?Internet Explorer 9 overtakes IE6 on Downloadsquad! originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 27 Sep 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments
Our regular readers probably wouldn't expect Downloadsquad to be the kind of place where Internet Explorer users account for the majority of visits. Generally speaking, tech-savvy users are more likely to be using an alternative browser like Google Chrome, Firefox, or Opera.
Internet Explorer 9, however, is another story. It's been well-received by bloggers and power users alike and has already been downloaded more than two million times. It's not surprising, then, to look at our Internet Explorer stats and see that IE9 has already caught up to (and now likely passed) IE6.
Not surprising, but definitely exciting. We're glad to see that Microsoft delivered a competitive browser with IE9, and here's hoping it makes that nasty green line disappear from our chart for good. I hear you, admins... No, that's probably not going to happen any time soon, but we can dream, right?Internet Explorer 9 overtakes IE6 on Downloadsquad! originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 27 Sep 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments
INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES INVENTEC
Gmail lets you ditch Conversation View if you prefer an old school inbox
Filed under: E-mail, Google
A while back, Henry Blodget caused a bit of a stir by informing the world that he really wasn't a big fan of Gmail's Conversation View. At the time, however, it was love it or leave it -- Gmail didn't have an option to return to an old-fashioned, unthreaded inbox.
That's all changed, however, with Google announcing today that you can now go threadless if you so choose. Just head to your Gmail settings page, tick the 'Conversation view off' radio button, and away you go! Email just the way I remember it looking in Pine when I first headed off to the University of Kentucky in 1994...Gmail lets you ditch Conversation View if you prefer an old school inbox originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 29 Sep 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
A while back, Henry Blodget caused a bit of a stir by informing the world that he really wasn't a big fan of Gmail's Conversation View. At the time, however, it was love it or leave it -- Gmail didn't have an option to return to an old-fashioned, unthreaded inbox.
That's all changed, however, with Google announcing today that you can now go threadless if you so choose. Just head to your Gmail settings page, tick the 'Conversation view off' radio button, and away you go! Email just the way I remember it looking in Pine when I first headed off to the University of Kentucky in 1994...Gmail lets you ditch Conversation View if you prefer an old school inbox originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 29 Sep 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
HTC's Mondrian Windows Phone 7 Handset Looks Great [Windows Phone 7]
This is the same phone that leaked in Microsoft's puzzling Windows Phone 7 ads, with the square corners and three-button bottom. With Microsoft's WP7 unveil slated for the 11th, we're sure HTC will be revealing all then. More »
INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES INVENTEC
Kobo Updates E-Reader with Wi-Fi, Price-Drop
Kobo, the independent e-reader company that could, has updated its popular e-book. It gets a price-drop, a few tweaks and one big new feature.
Kobo started out as client-software on mobile devices and now exists on everything from the iPad to the PC to the upcoming Blackberry PlayBook. It has also been selling well in its [...]
Kobo started out as client-software on mobile devices and now exists on everything from the iPad to the PC to the upcoming Blackberry PlayBook. It has also been selling well in its [...]
DIY Laptop Repairs and Upgrades: Fixing a Screen or Going Headless [Video]
Is there life for laptops after a screen goes dead? Absolutely. You can replace a laptop screen for much less than official service or a full replacement, or turn your laptop into a very space-efficient desktop computer with a cheap monitor. More »
INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES INVENTEC
Choosing Between a laptop and an iPad: A guide
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 be [...]
INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES INVENTEC
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Ukrainian Parents Put Kid Into Airtight Plastic Ball and Shove Her In a Lake [Video]
I love putting kids in plastic as much as the next guy, but I don't understand why she needs all that air. When I was a young Soviet we had to share our air with everyone in the vysotki. More »
Daily Crunch: Out Of The Frying Pan Edition
Round-up: Our Take On Apple?s New Media Devices Post-Apple Palate Cleanser: Beautiful Cast-Iron Skillets Schools Now Tracking Your Kids? Bus Rides Using GPS Boxee Box Gets Priced: $199 iTunes 10 Features New Logo And Social Media Sharing Service, Ping Hands-On With The New Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse
evercookie: the one cookie that you... just... can't... DELETE!
Filed under: Security, BrowsersLimping and dripping from the maws of incorrigible security bod Samy Kamkar comes evercookie. As the name suggests, deleting an evercookie isn't easy -- in fact, once you've taken a nibble, that's it: you can't delete it.
Of course, no benevolent person would ever use evercookie -- you'd have to be a nefarious money-grabbing megalomaniac! -- but the sheer number of clever hacks, cheap tricks and snarky ingenuity employed to make evercookies invulnerable makes this project very interesting indeed. All told, evercookie uses eight different storage locations for its cookie, ranging from HTTP and Flash cookies through to HTML5's new storage methods and 'RGB values of auto-generated, force-cached PNGs using HTML5 Canvas tag to read pixels (cookies) back out' (really!).
If the cookie can be found in any one of those locations, it can be rebuilt (and then stored in all eight places again!) Basically, unless you know exactly what you're doing (and you have a lot of spare time to hunt down all of the cookies), you can forget about ever deleting an evercookie.
It's horrible, really, but I feel I must bring this project under the scorching eye of public scrutiny. This is, after all, the work of a security expert -- rather than thinking of this as an evil piece of code that will be bent to the evil, omnipresent will of Google, think of it as the inoculation that strengthens us for what will surely follow. As it stands, evercookie could be deployed on any server.
Evercookie is open source, and I encourage anyone that values their privacy to see exactly how and where it stores its cookies. For now it's only in eight locations, but Samy already has plans for two more: Silverlight Isolated Storage and a Java method based on your NIC's details.
The worst thing is, such a cookie implementation might already be in the wild. Samy might not be the first person or corporation to try such a crazy, but fundamentally brilliant, idea!evercookie: the one cookie that you... just... can't... DELETE! originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 21 Sep 2010 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Of course, no benevolent person would ever use evercookie -- you'd have to be a nefarious money-grabbing megalomaniac! -- but the sheer number of clever hacks, cheap tricks and snarky ingenuity employed to make evercookies invulnerable makes this project very interesting indeed. All told, evercookie uses eight different storage locations for its cookie, ranging from HTTP and Flash cookies through to HTML5's new storage methods and 'RGB values of auto-generated, force-cached PNGs using HTML5 Canvas tag to read pixels (cookies) back out' (really!).
If the cookie can be found in any one of those locations, it can be rebuilt (and then stored in all eight places again!) Basically, unless you know exactly what you're doing (and you have a lot of spare time to hunt down all of the cookies), you can forget about ever deleting an evercookie.
It's horrible, really, but I feel I must bring this project under the scorching eye of public scrutiny. This is, after all, the work of a security expert -- rather than thinking of this as an evil piece of code that will be bent to the evil, omnipresent will of Google, think of it as the inoculation that strengthens us for what will surely follow. As it stands, evercookie could be deployed on any server.
Evercookie is open source, and I encourage anyone that values their privacy to see exactly how and where it stores its cookies. For now it's only in eight locations, but Samy already has plans for two more: Silverlight Isolated Storage and a Java method based on your NIC's details.
The worst thing is, such a cookie implementation might already be in the wild. Samy might not be the first person or corporation to try such a crazy, but fundamentally brilliant, idea!evercookie: the one cookie that you... just... can't... DELETE! originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 21 Sep 2010 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
A photo tour of the Mozilla offices in Mountain View, California
Filed under: Mozilla, BrowsersLast week, while I was in San Francisco for the IE9 beta thing, I was fortunate enough to also visit the Mozilla offices in Mountain View, California. I was mostly there to interview three big-wigs from the Firefox development team, but I also managed to take a few photos! This means that this week's Firefox Friday takes the form of a photo tour.
I have provided extensive commentary for each photo in the gallery, so take your time and enjoy the brand new, beautiful offices of Mozilla.
Note: After you click through to a photo, hit 'Hi res' at the top.
Gallery: A tour of the Mozilla offices in Mountain View, CaliforniaA photo tour of the Mozilla offices in Mountain View, California originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 24 Sep 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments
I have provided extensive commentary for each photo in the gallery, so take your time and enjoy the brand new, beautiful offices of Mozilla.
Note: After you click through to a photo, hit 'Hi res' at the top.
Gallery: A tour of the Mozilla offices in Mountain View, CaliforniaA photo tour of the Mozilla offices in Mountain View, California originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 24 Sep 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments
Size Matters to Students, Says 14-Inch Tablet Maker
Tablet startup Kno has a message for all the other tablet makers out there: Bigger is better.
The company is counting on two things to set it apart from the increasingly heated competition in the tablet space: a clear focus on students as potential consumers — and a massive 14-inch screen size.
“From the students’ perspective you [...]
The company is counting on two things to set it apart from the increasingly heated competition in the tablet space: a clear focus on students as potential consumers — and a massive 14-inch screen size.
“From the students’ perspective you [...]
LOGITECH INTERNATIONAL INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES
BlackBerry Doesn't "Need 200 Fart Apps in App World" [BlackBerry]
Been wondering about BlackBerry's app strategy? Never have I been so infuriated with a phone than when I look at their undernourished App World. According to RIM however, they "aren't focusing on, say, hitting the 50,000 app mark." More »
Beejive for Android now available
Beejive IM is finally out of beta, and is now available on the Android Market. Beejive is a very popular, cross platform multiple service IM client that's safe (128-bit encryption on all over-the-air data), easy to use, and uses Google's new push services (see our Chrome to Phone demo about them) to stay easy on the battery. It also integrates seamlessly with all of the popular chat clients, with group chat support for AIM, Yahoo, MSN, Gtalk, and Jabber. Possibly the best feature -- file transfers between users is supported, something many of us have been waiting for.It's good that Beejive is so feature rich, because it's going to cost you $10. That's not really surprising, as Beejive is an expensive app on other platforms as well. What I found most dissapointing, is that while Beejive offers license transfer between BlackBerry devices, I see no method to transfer my license from BlackBerry to my Android device, nor any method to transfer license between Android phones. And it appears that each installation is tied to the device it was purchased from, using a unique device identifier, so Beejive will have to facilitate the transfer. Hopefully all this is an oversight or in the works -- I've reached out to Beejive for some more clarification.But if you've been longing for Beejive, or just need a good (and it's very good, I've been participating in the beta as well) cross platform, multi-client chat application go for it -- you won't be disappointed in anything other than the price and/or licensing scheme. Download link and some more screen shots are after the break.
appid:
com.beejive.im
Posted originally at Android CentralSponsored by Android Cases and Accessories
appid:
com.beejive.im
Posted originally at Android CentralSponsored by Android Cases and Accessories
Use VPN On Your iPad To Protect Privacy | Plus Special Giveaway Inside
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 [...]
INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES INVENTEC
Minnesota, powered by Microsoft, becomes first US state to move into the cloud
Filed under: Internet, web 2.0In a first that has been deemed "historic," though by who I do not know, Minnesota has become the first US state to move its communications and collaboration suite into the cloud.
Last year, Los Angeles switched to the enterprise version of Gmail, but this is the first entire state to move into the cloud. (We should point out that LA has a larger population than Minnesota, however...) The announcement mostly reads like a press release, highlighting and extolling the benefits that await other governments that decide to make the move to the Microsoft Cloud. It's more secure, it's cheaper, it's easily upgradeable and expandable, ... and so on.Minnesota, powered by Microsoft, becomes first US state to move into the cloud originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 27 Sep 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Last year, Los Angeles switched to the enterprise version of Gmail, but this is the first entire state to move into the cloud. (We should point out that LA has a larger population than Minnesota, however...) The announcement mostly reads like a press release, highlighting and extolling the benefits that await other governments that decide to make the move to the Microsoft Cloud. It's more secure, it's cheaper, it's easily upgradeable and expandable, ... and so on.Minnesota, powered by Microsoft, becomes first US state to move into the cloud originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 27 Sep 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
LOGITECH INTERNATIONAL INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES
Android ad impressions have grown 996 percent on year, Millennial says
The sales numbers keep pouring in, and it is nothing but good news for Android. Backing that up are ad impression statistics from mobile ad firms, and Millennial Media is reporting huge growth for Android. Overall, Android devices accounted for 26 percent of all devices that viewed ads, and increase of seven percent month-over-month. As for ad impressions, Android saw a 39 percent jump month-over-month, which would indicate that people are using their phones to browse the web more than ever. The most striking number is that Android ad impressions have exploded by a whopping 996 percent since the beginning of the year.In addition, the Motorola became the third largest manufacturer and the venerable Droid became the phone with the second highest mobile impressions with nine percent, presumably losing the top spot to the iPhone. Any way you cut it, these numbers are great and show the strength of the Android browsing experience across all the carriers. Also, it reinforces just how vital the Droid and Verizon's marketing push have been to Android's successes as a platform. Click past the link for some additional bits of information. [Millennial Media]Posted originally at Android CentralSponsored by Android Cases and Accessories
Daily Crunch: Dropped From The Sky Edition
Be Sure To Wish Super Mario A Happy 25th Birthday Today Just In Time For Halloween: The iPazzPort Bluetooth Mini Keyboard Back To School 2010: Storing Your Data $400,000 Garage Robot Is Now Available For Purchase Video: New Amazon Kindle Ad Shows How Impossible It Is To Read The iPad In Direct Sunlight
PlainText: iPad Text-Editor from the Makers of WriteRoom
Hog Bay Software, maker of the cult-favorite distraction-free text-editor Writeroom, has released its long-awaited iPad app, PlainText. When it was first announced, I was very excited to see a Dropbox-syncing, Textexpander-expanding writing app for the iPad. Now, though, it launches into a crowded field.
PlainText has two tricks. It has folders, which apps like Elements don’t [...]
PlainText has two tricks. It has folders, which apps like Elements don’t [...]
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Kindle Breaks Into Browsers
Amazon on Tuesday cracked the cover of its new book-in-a-browser service designed to make it easier for readers to discover new reads. "Kindle for the Web," as the service is called, doesn't allow customers of Amazon's e-bookstore to read their purchases within a browser window -- Amazon already has a software download for that purpose.
Toshiba, Blio Jump In With Enhanced E-Books For Laptops
Today, Toshiba will announce its entry into the e-book market with Toshiba Book Place, a Windows application developed by K-NFB, to both purchase and read enhanced e-books. The application will be bundled with all of Toshiba’s laptops, and will also be available as a free download from their website. The library will initially offer 6,000 [...]
LOGITECH INTERNATIONAL INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES
Google shutting down Reader's page change tracker for sites with no RSS feed
Filed under: Web services, Google
You may not have known about it, but Google Reader has a pretty slick feature that allows you to subscribe to any page -- even one without an RSS feed. When the page is updated, it'll appear in your unread Reader items. At least, it will until September 30th.
Google has announced that they're shutting down the tracker service, and it's not a complete shocker. My results with it were never that good -- pages I had subscribed to often changed multiple times, and I never received an alert.
If you're looking for an alternative, check out Jay's post -- he rounded up 10 ways to keep tabs on a Web page without using RSS a while back.Google shutting down Reader's page change tracker for sites with no RSS feed originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 23 Sep 2010 08:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
You may not have known about it, but Google Reader has a pretty slick feature that allows you to subscribe to any page -- even one without an RSS feed. When the page is updated, it'll appear in your unread Reader items. At least, it will until September 30th.
Google has announced that they're shutting down the tracker service, and it's not a complete shocker. My results with it were never that good -- pages I had subscribed to often changed multiple times, and I never received an alert.
If you're looking for an alternative, check out Jay's post -- he rounded up 10 ways to keep tabs on a Web page without using RSS a while back.Google shutting down Reader's page change tracker for sites with no RSS feed originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 23 Sep 2010 08:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Apple releases Remote 2.0 for iPhone and iPad
Apple has finally updated their Remote app to version 2.0, and included support for iPhone 4 and iPod touch 4 Retina Display, and for the iPad. It will also support shared libraries for iTunes and, of course, the new Apple TV (2010) that’s just started to hit the streets. AirPlay is also supported, currently for [...]Apple releases Remote 2.0 for iPhone and iPad is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
Daily Crunch: Night Tests Edition
Meet Grig. He?s Going To Help You Win A Samsung Galaxy S Phone Concept: The Moon Watch Is A Watch Where You Watch The Moon Orb MP-1 Streams Your Music Over Wi-Fi To Any Stereo Hands On With The Sarcos XOS 2 ? The Real Life Iron Man 40% Of Homes Now Have DVRs
INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES INVENTEC
Tablet Wars: How the BlackBerry PlayBook Measures Up
When Research in Motion introduced its tablet, the PlayBook, on Monday, it was diving into a market already dominated by Apple’s iPad.
But there’s other competition too, either already on the market or soon to be: The 5-inch Dell Streak, which is available now; and Samsung’s 7-inch Galaxy Tab, which isn’t.
Since the iPad started shipping in [...]
But there’s other competition too, either already on the market or soon to be: The 5-inch Dell Streak, which is available now; and Samsung’s 7-inch Galaxy Tab, which isn’t.
Since the iPad started shipping in [...]
Second status indicator on the HTC Evo 4G? [From the forums]
Having come from a BlackBerry device where I was able to customize the LED indicator color for each type of message, coming to an Android device that only had the standard red for all of the messages was a bit of a change. While browsing our forums I noticed I was not the only one to dream of an application for this type of functionality, and while some third party developers have incorporated this, one post stood out above the rest. It appears as though the HTC Evo 4G has a second LED indicator that can be used with other colors besides the standard red, therefore giving users the option to set that in addition to the standard red indicator. If you own an HTC Evo 4G you will want to check this thread out, and let us know what you think of it!Posted originally at Android CentralSponsored by Android Cases and Accessories
Admin templates for Google Chrome make it more enterprise-friendly
Filed under: Google, Browsers
System admins generally aren't fond of rolling out new software to their users if they don't have a measure of control over what those users can and can't do with the app in question. Google knows that, and they've been working for a while now to add enterprise-friendly policy support to Chrome.
Now, Google has made policy templates available for download which provide a measure of lockdown functionality. As you can see, after importing the .ADM files into the Windows Group Policy Editor you'll be able to manage a handful of Chrome settings via a local machine policy.
A default home page and proxy settings can be configured and Chrome Sync can be blocked, but the bulk of the options are related to background communications with Google (alternate error pages, DNS prefetch, crash reporting, suggestions, etc.). There are a few things missing right now. For example, while I can choose to disable certain plug-ins, there's no switch to disallow extension installs. I'd also like to disable Chrome's autofill feature, but it, too, is missing.
Google has also provided a separate template for managing Google Update options, which provides policy-based control over which Google Apps can install via the updater.
Providing this type of application control was a key step if Google had any hopes of wresting away enterprise market share from Internet Explorer. Now that it's here, it will be interesting to see if Chrome can make inroads in the workplace.Admin templates for Google Chrome make it more enterprise-friendly originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 25 Sep 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
System admins generally aren't fond of rolling out new software to their users if they don't have a measure of control over what those users can and can't do with the app in question. Google knows that, and they've been working for a while now to add enterprise-friendly policy support to Chrome.
Now, Google has made policy templates available for download which provide a measure of lockdown functionality. As you can see, after importing the .ADM files into the Windows Group Policy Editor you'll be able to manage a handful of Chrome settings via a local machine policy.
A default home page and proxy settings can be configured and Chrome Sync can be blocked, but the bulk of the options are related to background communications with Google (alternate error pages, DNS prefetch, crash reporting, suggestions, etc.). There are a few things missing right now. For example, while I can choose to disable certain plug-ins, there's no switch to disallow extension installs. I'd also like to disable Chrome's autofill feature, but it, too, is missing.
Google has also provided a separate template for managing Google Update options, which provides policy-based control over which Google Apps can install via the updater.
Providing this type of application control was a key step if Google had any hopes of wresting away enterprise market share from Internet Explorer. Now that it's here, it will be interesting to see if Chrome can make inroads in the workplace.Admin templates for Google Chrome make it more enterprise-friendly originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 25 Sep 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Behold The Levytator: a Bendy, Swooping Escalator
Meet the Levytator, the world’s first escalator that can go around corners. Thanks to its curved, interlocking steps, the Levytator can snake across hillsides, departure lounges and shopping malls in any shape the architect likes.
It gets better. Normal escalators runs the steps back up or down by pulling them underneath the steps you’re standing on. [...]
It gets better. Normal escalators runs the steps back up or down by pulling them underneath the steps you’re standing on. [...]
SteriShoe Fixes Your Festering Feet
Oh man. I just found out why my sneakers smell so bad. Warning: look away now if you are eating.
Each human foot has more than 250,000 sweat glands and sweats up to eight ounces per day. This sweat causes your shoes to become breeding grounds for the fungus and bacteria that cause toenail fungus, athlete’s [...]
Each human foot has more than 250,000 sweat glands and sweats up to eight ounces per day. This sweat causes your shoes to become breeding grounds for the fungus and bacteria that cause toenail fungus, athlete’s [...]
Helmet-Cam Mount for Last-Gen iPod Nano
When it lopped the click-wheel and camera off the iPod Nano, Apple sent a clear message: it hates you, sports fans. The video-shooting iPod was tough and light, and unlike the iPod Touch, almost unbreakable. That made it perfect for wearing whilst doing sports. It also made it perfect for recording sports.
If you have a [...]
If you have a [...]
Monday, September 27, 2010
Ask Mozilla a question
Filed under: Mozilla, BrowsersInstead of my usual abode deep in the lush green forests of south England, I'm currently in San Francisco. I was here for the Internet Explorer 9 beta launch (which was very cool!) Yesterday I visited Google -- and later today I will be seeing the wonderful people at Mozilla.
I have a lot of things I want to ask them, but I figured you guys might also have a few clever questions up your sleeves! So, if there's something you've always wanted to ask Mozilla, leave a comment and I'll do my best to pose your questions to the right people.Ask Mozilla a question originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 17 Sep 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments
I have a lot of things I want to ask them, but I figured you guys might also have a few clever questions up your sleeves! So, if there's something you've always wanted to ask Mozilla, leave a comment and I'll do my best to pose your questions to the right people.Ask Mozilla a question originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 17 Sep 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments
Intel Lab Fashion: Miniskirts, Bunny Suits and Hippie Flare [Retromodo]
A sterile microchip clean room is just about the last place you'd expect to find juicy cultural remnants. That's why Intel's photo archive is all the more interesting. More »
Quadriplegics Prefer Robot Arms on Manual, not Automatic
Aman Behal’s automated robotic arm functioned perfectly. Outfitted with sensors that could “see” objects, grasp them with enough force to hold but not crush them, and return them to the user, it easily outperformed the same arm under manual control on every quantitative measurement.
Except one. The arm’s users — patients with spinal cord injuries [...]
Except one. The arm’s users — patients with spinal cord injuries [...]
Apple Cracks Ping's Door a Little
Apple has updated its social network for music, Ping, which it released at the beginning of the month to less than rave reviews. The changes address a major complaint from users upon its initial rollout -- the dearth of social features. To be sure, Apple hasn't addressed all the issues -- or even the main one -- with Ping.
iPad live tonight! 6pm PT/9pm ET/2am BST
You know the drill. Come time, we’ll be talking about everything iPad. We’d love to talk with you, so come by, chat, and share you views.
We’ll be talking iOS 4.2. Be there!
6pm PT/9pm ET/2am BST
We’ll be live on:
http://www.tipb.com/live/
So click on through, we start setting up 15 min. before show time. Chat with you soon!
iPad live [...]iPad live tonight! 6pm PT/9pm ET/2am BST is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
We’ll be talking iOS 4.2. Be there!
6pm PT/9pm ET/2am BST
We’ll be live on:
http://www.tipb.com/live/
So click on through, we start setting up 15 min. before show time. Chat with you soon!
iPad live [...]iPad live tonight! 6pm PT/9pm ET/2am BST is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
64-bit Linux kernel exploit in the wild, allows local user root escalation
Filed under: LinuxIf you're running a 64-bit Linux kernel, update it now.
There's a new local root exploit, and it seems like Ksplice has yet again managed to get their advertisement fix onto the front page of Slashdot. Normally such an arcane bug wouldn't be an issue, but the example exploit leaves an open backdoor even after the bug has been patched -- lovely.
It's an escalation exploit, so a user still needs to gain local user access to the system -- but still, you're encouraged to update any and all 64-bit Linux systems that you own, especially if they're public, shared servers.64-bit Linux kernel exploit in the wild, allows local user root escalation originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 21 Sep 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
There's a new local root exploit, and it seems like Ksplice has yet again managed to get their advertisement fix onto the front page of Slashdot. Normally such an arcane bug wouldn't be an issue, but the example exploit leaves an open backdoor even after the bug has been patched -- lovely.
It's an escalation exploit, so a user still needs to gain local user access to the system -- but still, you're encouraged to update any and all 64-bit Linux systems that you own, especially if they're public, shared servers.64-bit Linux kernel exploit in the wild, allows local user root escalation originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 21 Sep 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Best of Smartphone Experts, 26 Sept 2010
[...]Best of Smartphone Experts, 26 Sept 2010 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
Food Week Is Over: Go and Make Yourself a Low-Tech (But Amazing) Grilled Cheese [Video]
The grilled cheese is usually a humble affair. Bread. Butter. Cheese. Not for Eleven Madison Park's Daniel Humm, who turns the plebeian snack into an supersandwich—using only an 8" serrated knife and a simple broiler. More »
Apple releases iTunes 10.0.1, gives Ping a boost
Apple has released iTunes 10.0.1,and 86.4MB update that, in addition to bug fixes, brings the new Ping social music network its own sidebar and allows you to start Ping activities right from your library.
iTunes 10.0.1 makes it easier to share your favorite music with your friends on Ping. You can now Like [...]Apple releases iTunes 10.0.1, gives Ping a boost is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
iTunes 10.0.1 makes it easier to share your favorite music with your friends on Ping. You can now Like [...]Apple releases iTunes 10.0.1, gives Ping a boost is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
Serendipitor Gives City Navigation A Gaming Layer
We usually freak out at the idea that computer algorithms might tell us what to do. Yet we’re constantly asking them for instructions: how to contact person X, find document Y, or move from point A to point B. We just pretend that we’re in control. What if, instead, we made that submissive experience explicit, [...]
Massive Mousetrap Hunts Taxi Crab Prey [Mouse Trap]
Looks like the Make Faire had a taxi problem this weekend, which is probably why organizers invited Life Size Mousetrap creator Mark Perez to the event to do what he does best: Destroy them as elaborately as possible. More »
LOGITECH INTERNATIONAL INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES
Daily Crunch: Home Axe Movie Edition
Extrude the Light: Britons Make 3D ?Holograms? With The iPad Hands-on With The Lumus See-Through Wearable Display: Real 3D, Real Augmented Reality 3M Releases New Pico Projectors And Camcorder-Projector A VHS Skin For Your Notebook, iPhone, & Blackberry Slow Motion Axe Porn? Wait, It?s Not What It Sounds Like
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Daily Crunch: Home Axe Movie Edition
Extrude the Light: Britons Make 3D ?Holograms? With The iPad Hands-on With The Lumus See-Through Wearable Display: Real 3D, Real Augmented Reality 3M Releases New Pico Projectors And Camcorder-Projector A VHS Skin For Your Notebook, iPhone, & Blackberry Slow Motion Axe Porn? Wait, It?s Not What It Sounds Like
CrunchGear Week in Review: Death Drives A Stick Edition
Here are some stories from the past week on CrunchGear: New Display Tech Could Have Eight Times The Pixel Density As Retina Display Immortality Via Valve?s Team Fortress 2 Hat-Describing Contest Now You Wily Terrorists Will Be Subject To Long-Range Skeleton Analysis I?d Live In It. Bufalino Camper Combines Car, Bedroom, Office Science! Viral Batteries [...]
Get Schooled: Gizmodo University [DIY]
OK, we're calling it: Computers are more than a passing fad. We're so convinced of this, that we've teamed up with Sparkle Labs to teach you about electricity and electronics prototyping with series of interactive video classes. More »
INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES INVENTEC
Gadget Lab Podcast: Facebook Phone, Pod Wars and Athletic Robots
In this week’s Gadget Lab podcast, the crew speculates about the rumored Facebook phone, aka Mark Zuckerberg’s plan for world domination. Adding to the rumors, yours truly blurts out a tip from a source about Facebook developing an all-in-one virtual identity that you’ll use not just to connect with friends, but maybe even buy things. [...]
Titanium Foam Builds Wolverine Bones [Titaniumfoam]
Eat your heart out, Wolverine. The X-Men superhero won't be the only one with metal fused into his skeleton if a new titanium foam proves suitable for replacing and strengthening damaged bones. More »
Gadget Lab Podcast: Facebook Phone, Pod Wars and Athletic Robots
In this week’s Gadget Lab podcast, the crew speculates about the rumored Facebook phone, aka Mark Zuckerberg’s plan for world domination. Adding to the rumors, yours truly blurts out a tip from a source about Facebook developing an all-in-one virtual identity that you’ll use not just to connect with friends, but maybe even buy things. [...]
This Shattered Clock Doesn't Let You Know What Time It Isn't [Clock]
The Shattered Clock only shows the hour that the time currently is on, every other number is broken apart. It looks like chaos but the idea is to find what's important above the mess. Above is 3:55. Well, I think. More »
Microsoft Security Essentials now provides free antivirus protection for Small Businesses
There are a lot of great, free antivirus programs for Windows -- as long as you're using those programs at home. When it comes to options for the workplace, there's really nothing available for free.
At least, not until now. Starting in October, Microsoft is opening up the licensing for Security Essentials and will allow small businesses up to 10 users to utilize one of the top-rated, free antivirus apps on their systems. Dollar-wise, you're not talking about a gigantic savings -- 10 users would run around $270 per year for the customers I support who use NOD32 -- but it all adds up.
Still, that's money you could be spending elsewhere -- like a few small hardware upgrades or faster Internet access. Anyway you slice it, free MSE for your small business computers is great news!Microsoft Security Essentials now provides free antivirus protection for Small Businesses originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 22 Sep 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
At least, not until now. Starting in October, Microsoft is opening up the licensing for Security Essentials and will allow small businesses up to 10 users to utilize one of the top-rated, free antivirus apps on their systems. Dollar-wise, you're not talking about a gigantic savings -- 10 users would run around $270 per year for the customers I support who use NOD32 -- but it all adds up.
Still, that's money you could be spending elsewhere -- like a few small hardware upgrades or faster Internet access. Anyway you slice it, free MSE for your small business computers is great news!Microsoft Security Essentials now provides free antivirus protection for Small Businesses originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 22 Sep 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
LOGITECH INTERNATIONAL INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES
Scrabble Is First Paid Game App for Kindle
This might be the happiest chapter in Scrabble’s short digital history: Electronic Arts has released an official version of Scrabble for Kindle. This is the first paid game — or application of any kind — available for the e-reader.
Scrabble fits in well with Amazon’s existing game offerings, as it’s a word-based game that requires simple, [...]
Scrabble fits in well with Amazon’s existing game offerings, as it’s a word-based game that requires simple, [...]
New 11.6-inch MacBook Air Coming This Fall? [Unconfirmed]
It looks as though Apple's long-neglected MacBook Air may finally be getting an overhaul. According to DigiTimes, an 11.6-inch Air is going to be on sale before the end of the calendar year. More »
Hey You! Why Everyone Should Own a Rice Cooker [Rice Cooker]
Don't take it from me, a guy who was basically birthed, then incubated inside a rice cooker, take it from Roger Ebert, whose love of the rice cooker translated into a full-length book on why everybody needs one. More »
INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES INVENTEC
Apple releases iTunes 10.0.1, gives Ping a boost
Apple has released iTunes 10.0.1,and 86.4MB update that, in addition to bug fixes, brings the new Ping social music network its own sidebar and allows you to start Ping activities right from your library.
iTunes 10.0.1 makes it easier to share your favorite music with your friends on Ping. You can now Like [...]Apple releases iTunes 10.0.1, gives Ping a boost is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
iTunes 10.0.1 makes it easier to share your favorite music with your friends on Ping. You can now Like [...]Apple releases iTunes 10.0.1, gives Ping a boost is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Zune Pass expanding to U.K. and Europe, more nations get movie rentals and purchases
Filed under: Audio, Video, MicrosoftMicrosoft has announced a new expansion for Zune services. The news is a touch bittersweet for me, since it didn't involve the arrival of Zune Pass in Canada. Maybe next time...
Those of you who live in the U.K., France, Italy, and Spain, however, can now enjoy the Zune Pass music subscription service for £8.99 or 9.99 Euros per month. That's only a tad pricier than the $14.99 U.S. residents pay for all-you-can-eat music via Zune. The "keep 10 MP3s per month" option remains U.S. only, unfortunately.
Those four countries -- along with Germany -- can also now buy music via Zune, and movie rentals and purchases have been extended to even more countries. Here's how the video expansion breaks down:
Rentals: U.K., France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Netherlands, Switzerland, Mexico, Canada, Australia and New Zealand
Purchase: U.K., France, Germany, Canada, Australia and New Zealand
This is great news for anyone who owns an Xbox 360 or plans on purchasing a Windows Phone 7 device -- but it's also good news for Windows users in general. There's plenty of good content to be had on Zune, and it never hurts to have one more option for purchasing downloadable music and video content.
Hit up the official Microsoft press release for full details.Zune Pass expanding to U.K. and Europe, more nations get movie rentals and purchases originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 20 Sep 2010 22:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Those of you who live in the U.K., France, Italy, and Spain, however, can now enjoy the Zune Pass music subscription service for £8.99 or 9.99 Euros per month. That's only a tad pricier than the $14.99 U.S. residents pay for all-you-can-eat music via Zune. The "keep 10 MP3s per month" option remains U.S. only, unfortunately.
Those four countries -- along with Germany -- can also now buy music via Zune, and movie rentals and purchases have been extended to even more countries. Here's how the video expansion breaks down:
Rentals: U.K., France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Netherlands, Switzerland, Mexico, Canada, Australia and New Zealand
Purchase: U.K., France, Germany, Canada, Australia and New Zealand
This is great news for anyone who owns an Xbox 360 or plans on purchasing a Windows Phone 7 device -- but it's also good news for Windows users in general. There's plenty of good content to be had on Zune, and it never hurts to have one more option for purchasing downloadable music and video content.
Hit up the official Microsoft press release for full details.Zune Pass expanding to U.K. and Europe, more nations get movie rentals and purchases originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 20 Sep 2010 22:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Netflix now streams unlimited TV and movies in Canada for $7.99 per month
Filed under: Video
As a Canadian living about 600 miles from the nearest metropolitan center, this is huge news: Netflix has opened its doors in Canada. The service is streaming-only -- no rentals by mail as in the U.S. -- but I'll take it.
For $7.99 a month, Canadians can watch all the TV shows and movies they want via their Wii, PS3, or PC -- Xbox 360 support is coming soon. Better still, your first month of Netflix viewing won't cost you a cent. The selection here in Canada isn't nearly what it is in the States, but that will certainly improve in time.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go watch Waterworld. No, not really.Netflix now streams unlimited TV and movies in Canada for $7.99 per month originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 22 Sep 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
As a Canadian living about 600 miles from the nearest metropolitan center, this is huge news: Netflix has opened its doors in Canada. The service is streaming-only -- no rentals by mail as in the U.S. -- but I'll take it.
For $7.99 a month, Canadians can watch all the TV shows and movies they want via their Wii, PS3, or PC -- Xbox 360 support is coming soon. Better still, your first month of Netflix viewing won't cost you a cent. The selection here in Canada isn't nearly what it is in the States, but that will certainly improve in time.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go watch Waterworld. No, not really.Netflix now streams unlimited TV and movies in Canada for $7.99 per month originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 22 Sep 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
How to manually set your iPhone, iPad carrier APN using the iPhone Configuration Utility
With the iPhone Configuration Utility you can set your iPad or iPhone carrier’s APN (access point name) manually in case your 3G networking isn’t working properly, which can sometimes happen for developers running beta versions of iOS. It’s a workaround to be sure, but if you need your device on-network for testing and can’t wait [...]How to manually set your iPhone, iPad carrier APN using the iPhone Configuration Utility is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
DLS Review: Dropbox for Android, now you have access to your cloud storage wherever you go
Filed under: Utilities, Android
Note: Dropbox for BlackBerry was released today -- and an updated version for iOS was also released. This is a review for the Android version, but I believe all three are functionally very similar.
Using Dropbox on a mobile device is an odd amalgam of emerging technologies. On the one hand you have the cloud --and everyone loves the flexibility that the cloud brings -- but on the other, when you're on the move, head hunkered over your smartphone, do you really need access to anything other than documents?
Having said that, there are certainly unconventional uses for Dropbox on your smartphone. You can stream music and video straight from your Dropbox, for example -- but why not just load up your phone before you leave? Streaming high-quality content over public Wi-Fi or costly 3G isn't the best idea in the world.
Still, despite an inherent lack of real-world usefulness, Dropbox for Android definitely works, and it works well. You can upload photos, videos, music and text files directly from your phone, and immediately share them with the db.tt URL shortener.
Dropbox for Android is so tidy and full-featured, that it's best if I start with a big over-arching statement that sets the tone: Dropbox for Android does everything a Dropbox user could want. Now I will work backwards and explain the few things that are missing, or that don't quite work as they should.
First of all, you can't move files from your main folder into the Public folder. You'd think that it would just be a matter of selecting 'Move to...' from the context menu, but no cigar.
Then, for some odd reason, you can't view the basic 'Getting Started' or 'How to use the Public folder' RTF files. It says the 'ROM file type not supported' -- why...?
Uploading files direct from your phone seems to work for new text files, and videos shot with your camera -- but not photos. Instead, you get a rather unhelpful '0 of 1 files uploaded successfully' error message.
Other than that, the app works fantastically. You can share short URLs to files in your Dropbox, and you can also upload files to Dropbox using Android's contextual 'Share' option. You can upload music straight from your media player, for example. You can't upload Gmail email attachments directly, however -- you have to save them first.
All in all, if you have a valid reason for accessing your Dropbox on the move, this Android app (and its BlackBerry and iOS brethren) could be very handy indeed.
Dropbox for Android Tech Specs
Installed Size -- 2.12MB, but it caches some files (images? text files?)
Speed/Responsiveness -- Excellent, no slow-down registered (Android 1.6 @ 600MHz, LG GT540 Swift)
User Interface -- Very minimal, but full-featured (except for not being able to move files!) Also has a 'search' function; neat
Configurability & Extensibility -- Very few settings can be changed, but then again, Dropbox isn't a very configurable service...
License -- Free, closed-source
DLS Review: Dropbox for Android, now you have access to your cloud storage wherever you go originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 22 Sep 2010 19:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments
Note: Dropbox for BlackBerry was released today -- and an updated version for iOS was also released. This is a review for the Android version, but I believe all three are functionally very similar.
Using Dropbox on a mobile device is an odd amalgam of emerging technologies. On the one hand you have the cloud --and everyone loves the flexibility that the cloud brings -- but on the other, when you're on the move, head hunkered over your smartphone, do you really need access to anything other than documents?
Having said that, there are certainly unconventional uses for Dropbox on your smartphone. You can stream music and video straight from your Dropbox, for example -- but why not just load up your phone before you leave? Streaming high-quality content over public Wi-Fi or costly 3G isn't the best idea in the world.
Still, despite an inherent lack of real-world usefulness, Dropbox for Android definitely works, and it works well. You can upload photos, videos, music and text files directly from your phone, and immediately share them with the db.tt URL shortener.
Dropbox for Android is so tidy and full-featured, that it's best if I start with a big over-arching statement that sets the tone: Dropbox for Android does everything a Dropbox user could want. Now I will work backwards and explain the few things that are missing, or that don't quite work as they should.
First of all, you can't move files from your main folder into the Public folder. You'd think that it would just be a matter of selecting 'Move to...' from the context menu, but no cigar.
Then, for some odd reason, you can't view the basic 'Getting Started' or 'How to use the Public folder' RTF files. It says the 'ROM file type not supported' -- why...?
Uploading files direct from your phone seems to work for new text files, and videos shot with your camera -- but not photos. Instead, you get a rather unhelpful '0 of 1 files uploaded successfully' error message.
Other than that, the app works fantastically. You can share short URLs to files in your Dropbox, and you can also upload files to Dropbox using Android's contextual 'Share' option. You can upload music straight from your media player, for example. You can't upload Gmail email attachments directly, however -- you have to save them first.
All in all, if you have a valid reason for accessing your Dropbox on the move, this Android app (and its BlackBerry and iOS brethren) could be very handy indeed.
Dropbox for Android Tech Specs
Installed Size -- 2.12MB, but it caches some files (images? text files?)
Speed/Responsiveness -- Excellent, no slow-down registered (Android 1.6 @ 600MHz, LG GT540 Swift)
User Interface -- Very minimal, but full-featured (except for not being able to move files!) Also has a 'search' function; neat
Configurability & Extensibility -- Very few settings can be changed, but then again, Dropbox isn't a very configurable service...
License -- Free, closed-source
DLS Review: Dropbox for Android, now you have access to your cloud storage wherever you go originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 22 Sep 2010 19:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments
Daily Crunch: Hula Runner Edition
Make A LED Hula Hoop For Fun and Profit Video: Panasonic?s Mini Robot To Travel 500KM On Batteries Blockbuster, She Is Dying My Netgear Router Came Swathed In Dishonesty Adobe Plenoptic Lens Tech Lets You Change The Focus In Your Images
How To Make Crispiest, Crunchiest, Perfect Potato Chip [DIY]
Potato chips might come in every flavor under the sun these days, but all the jalape�o-cheddar dust in the world won't make up for a soggy bag of tater goodness. And here's the secret to the DIY crunch you crave. More »
How to manually set your iPhone, iPad carrier APN using the iPhone Configuration Utility
With the iPhone Configuration Utility you can set your iPad or iPhone carrier’s APN (access point name) manually in case your 3G networking isn’t working properly, which can sometimes happen for developers running beta versions of iOS. It’s a workaround to be sure, but if you need your device on-network for testing and can’t wait [...]How to manually set your iPhone, iPad carrier APN using the iPhone Configuration Utility is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
Apple releases iTunes 10.0.1, gives Ping a boost
Apple has released iTunes 10.0.1,and 86.4MB update that, in addition to bug fixes, brings the new Ping social music network its own sidebar and allows you to start Ping activities right from your library.
iTunes 10.0.1 makes it easier to share your favorite music with your friends on Ping. You can now Like [...]Apple releases iTunes 10.0.1, gives Ping a boost is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
iTunes 10.0.1 makes it easier to share your favorite music with your friends on Ping. You can now Like [...]Apple releases iTunes 10.0.1, gives Ping a boost is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
Use VPN On Your iPad To Protect Privacy | Plus Special Giveaway Inside
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 [...]
Planting Child Porn On Boss's PC Gets Evil Prankster 12 Years In Jail [Justice]
Remember that guy who planted over 400 images of child pornography on his boss's computer to get him fired? He just got sentenced to over a decade in prison. Oh, and the boss got his job back. Oops? More »
LOGITECH INTERNATIONAL INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES
Let's Talk Adventure! The Nanny Drove The Cruiser [Adventure]
It only took 630 miles of motorcycle riding, four wires cut in my tow harness, and one near death experience sliding through a film of invisible pig shit to bring her home. May I introduce you to the Nanny? More »
Mulve is a fast, free, non-P2P way to download music
Filed under: Audio
There isn't much else to say: Mulve is just a single 2MB, portable EXE that lets you download music. There's no UI to speak of, and it's completely unconfigurable. You just type in a band name or song title and... download.
The thing is, despite being free and tiny, the selection of music is insane. Lee found a bunch of crazy bands like The Wonderstuff, Mind Bomb, and Johnny Socko -- and for me, it even turned up plenty of hits for classical music by Mahler, Beethoven, and Mozart. All of the generic pop crap is there, too.
And it's fast! TorrentFreak reports that the servers might be located in Russia, but that didn't prevent Lee and I from maxing out our connections -- 600KB/s for him, and 2MB/s for me. There's no peer-to-peer in sight, either; these are just direct, fast downloads. If you need some more convincing, check the short video after the break.
For a service supported by just a single banner ad, it's surely too good to be true (and almost certainly unlicensed). It'll get shut down -- it's just a matter of whether it'll be thanks to Interpol, or due to too much traffic.
Mulve is a fast, free, non-P2P way to download music originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 23 Sep 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
There isn't much else to say: Mulve is just a single 2MB, portable EXE that lets you download music. There's no UI to speak of, and it's completely unconfigurable. You just type in a band name or song title and... download.
The thing is, despite being free and tiny, the selection of music is insane. Lee found a bunch of crazy bands like The Wonderstuff, Mind Bomb, and Johnny Socko -- and for me, it even turned up plenty of hits for classical music by Mahler, Beethoven, and Mozart. All of the generic pop crap is there, too.
And it's fast! TorrentFreak reports that the servers might be located in Russia, but that didn't prevent Lee and I from maxing out our connections -- 600KB/s for him, and 2MB/s for me. There's no peer-to-peer in sight, either; these are just direct, fast downloads. If you need some more convincing, check the short video after the break.
For a service supported by just a single banner ad, it's surely too good to be true (and almost certainly unlicensed). It'll get shut down -- it's just a matter of whether it'll be thanks to Interpol, or due to too much traffic.
Mulve is a fast, free, non-P2P way to download music originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 23 Sep 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Friday, September 24, 2010
Daily Crunch: Reach For The Stars Edition
Dell?s Convertible Netbook-Tablet Actually Looks Really Cool Glass Speakers? What Are You, Crazy? Video: Geek Builds Awesome 10 Feet Tall Gundam Statue Out Of Trash Of Course Steve Jobs Was Detained For Carrying Ninja Stars Halo: Reach: Pretty Much The Definitive Halo Experience (For Good Or Bad) Back To School: Play Back Your Media Wherever [...]
64-bit Linux kernel exploit in the wild, allows local user root escalation
Filed under: LinuxIf you're running a 64-bit Linux kernel, update it now.
There's a new local root exploit, and it seems like Ksplice has yet again managed to get their advertisement fix onto the front page of Slashdot. Normally such an arcane bug wouldn't be an issue, but the example exploit leaves an open backdoor even after the bug has been patched -- lovely.
It's an escalation exploit, so a user still needs to gain local user access to the system -- but still, you're encouraged to update any and all 64-bit Linux systems that you own, especially if they're public, shared servers.64-bit Linux kernel exploit in the wild, allows local user root escalation originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 21 Sep 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
There's a new local root exploit, and it seems like Ksplice has yet again managed to get their advertisement fix onto the front page of Slashdot. Normally such an arcane bug wouldn't be an issue, but the example exploit leaves an open backdoor even after the bug has been patched -- lovely.
It's an escalation exploit, so a user still needs to gain local user access to the system -- but still, you're encouraged to update any and all 64-bit Linux systems that you own, especially if they're public, shared servers.64-bit Linux kernel exploit in the wild, allows local user root escalation originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 21 Sep 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Stuxnet Suspicions Rise: Has a Cyberwar Started?
The Stuxnet worm, which made headlines last summer when it hit one version of a system that controls critical infrastructure systems governing power grids and industrial plants, is once again creating a buzz. This time, there's speculation that it was created by Israel to target Iran. However, security experts remain divided on the origins of this troublesome bit of malware.
The Kindle's First Paid App: Scrabble [Amazon]
The Amazon Kindle isn't exactly what comes to mind when we think of apps, but there are a few available for the device—including a brand new $5 Scrabble app. More »
Daily Crunch: The Operating Theater Edition
SteelSeries Shift Keyboard Lets You Switch Between Differet Keysets Kindle for Android Update Adds Voice Search, Wikipedia Dictionary The CitrusSaw: You Know, For Citrus CrunchDeals: Many Drives, Many Discounts Beautiful ?Naked Radio? Repurposes Parts, Looks Amazing
INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES INVENTEC
Adobe Illustrator HTML5 add-on pack released, lets you export CSS3, SVG and HTML directly
Filed under: Developer, Adobe, Browsers
A new beta 'Labs' add-on from Adobe adds a ton of HTML5-specific features to Adobe Illustrator CS5. This follows the release of an HTML5 add-on for Dreamweaver CS5 that shipped at the end of August.
This add-on actually allows users of Illustrator to export their designs directly into HTML5 code. Instead of shipping off finished designs to be re-rendered in HTML and CSS by a Web designer, Illustrator can now export images as a combination of SVG and CSS3. The exported Web resource, according to Adobe, will be compatible with Chrome, Firefox, Safari and hopefully IE9.
Technologizer, presumably extrapolating from the add-on's download page, says that the HTML5 code produced by Illustrator will work seamlessly across the platforms; on PCs, tablets and smartphones. I guess that has something to do with the infinite scalability of vector graphics, but as I don't have a copy of Illustrator I can't confirm it.
This marks a major deviation for Illustrator, and it definitely shows that Adobe, despite its huge investment in Flash, is trying its best to stay contemporary -- or at the very least, ensuring the customers of its Creative Studio cash cow stay happy.Adobe Illustrator HTML5 add-on pack released, lets you export CSS3, SVG and HTML directly originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 13 Sep 2010 07:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
A new beta 'Labs' add-on from Adobe adds a ton of HTML5-specific features to Adobe Illustrator CS5. This follows the release of an HTML5 add-on for Dreamweaver CS5 that shipped at the end of August.
This add-on actually allows users of Illustrator to export their designs directly into HTML5 code. Instead of shipping off finished designs to be re-rendered in HTML and CSS by a Web designer, Illustrator can now export images as a combination of SVG and CSS3. The exported Web resource, according to Adobe, will be compatible with Chrome, Firefox, Safari and hopefully IE9.
Technologizer, presumably extrapolating from the add-on's download page, says that the HTML5 code produced by Illustrator will work seamlessly across the platforms; on PCs, tablets and smartphones. I guess that has something to do with the infinite scalability of vector graphics, but as I don't have a copy of Illustrator I can't confirm it.
This marks a major deviation for Illustrator, and it definitely shows that Adobe, despite its huge investment in Flash, is trying its best to stay contemporary -- or at the very least, ensuring the customers of its Creative Studio cash cow stay happy.Adobe Illustrator HTML5 add-on pack released, lets you export CSS3, SVG and HTML directly originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 13 Sep 2010 07:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Fingers-On: TabToolkit for iPad Has More Cowbell
If you play the guitar, and you have an iPad, you should buy TabToolkit. Short of having a teacher with you all the time, it’s probably the best way I have seen to learn new music.
Guitar Tab is a way of writing down music specifically for the guitar. It’s not as information-rich as standard musical [...]
Guitar Tab is a way of writing down music specifically for the guitar. It’s not as information-rich as standard musical [...]
Direct3D 10 and 11 API now natively supported by Linux via Gallium3D
Filed under: Developer, Games, Linux, MicrosoftIn one fell swoop, it seems like proper, contemporary 3D gaming could be coming to a Linux distro near you.
Unlike Wine, this implementation of Direct3D under Gallium3D is an actual, native port of the DirectX APIs. There's no emulation involved -- Gallium3D just acts as a 'very thin wrapper,' allowing developers easy access to Direct3D's goodies.
Luca Barbieri, the developer behind this new code commit, has a lot to say about Direct3D versus OpenGL, which might pain some open source advocates: "Thanks to a very clean and well-though design done from scratch, the Direct3D 10/11 APIs are vastly better than OpenGL and can be supported with orders of magnitude less code and development time."
Then speaking about why Direct3D will be the graphics API of choice, when developing for Linux, Luca continued the barrage: "A mature Direct3D 10/11 implementation is intrinsically going to be faster and more reliable than an OpenGL implementation, thanks to the dramatically smaller API and the segregation of all nontrivial work to object creation that the application must perform ahead of time."
As I understand it, Wine can't yet take advantage of this new development -- but as it stands, you can now leap right in and start programming a 3D Linux application using Mesa and the Direct3D state tracker. Direct3D 10 and 11 API now natively supported by Linux via Gallium3D originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 22 Sep 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Unlike Wine, this implementation of Direct3D under Gallium3D is an actual, native port of the DirectX APIs. There's no emulation involved -- Gallium3D just acts as a 'very thin wrapper,' allowing developers easy access to Direct3D's goodies.
Luca Barbieri, the developer behind this new code commit, has a lot to say about Direct3D versus OpenGL, which might pain some open source advocates: "Thanks to a very clean and well-though design done from scratch, the Direct3D 10/11 APIs are vastly better than OpenGL and can be supported with orders of magnitude less code and development time."
Then speaking about why Direct3D will be the graphics API of choice, when developing for Linux, Luca continued the barrage: "A mature Direct3D 10/11 implementation is intrinsically going to be faster and more reliable than an OpenGL implementation, thanks to the dramatically smaller API and the segregation of all nontrivial work to object creation that the application must perform ahead of time."
As I understand it, Wine can't yet take advantage of this new development -- but as it stands, you can now leap right in and start programming a 3D Linux application using Mesa and the Direct3D state tracker. Direct3D 10 and 11 API now natively supported by Linux via Gallium3D originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 22 Sep 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Should the Command Line Be Deep-Sixed?
In what's surely a testament to Linux's increasingly mainstream-ready graphical user interfaces, it seems to be par for the course that every once in a while someone will suggest that there's no longer any need for the command line. Last week, it happened again. "Is it finally time to do away with the command line?" TuxRadar asked in a recent podcast.
Netflix Lies to Canadians, Insults Americans, Still Looks Good
Oh, Netflix. We can’t stay mad at you. Even though you clearly think we’re all a bunch of idiots.
Netflix just launched Watch Instantly in Canada with a big press event. Unfortunately, apparently they were also (for reasons unknown) simultaneously, at the same location, shooting a corporate video with hired extras who (according to Netflix’s official [...]
Netflix just launched Watch Instantly in Canada with a big press event. Unfortunately, apparently they were also (for reasons unknown) simultaneously, at the same location, shooting a corporate video with hired extras who (according to Netflix’s official [...]
Toccata iPad Case With Bluetooth Keyboard
Earlier today Padacs announced the release of their new Toccata iPad case which conveniently comes with a built-in Bluetooth 2.0 keyboard. If you’re the type who prefers using a physical keyboard over tapping letters on your iPad screen then this stylish new accessory is especially for you. The QWERTY keyboard is powered by a Lithium [...]
Thursday, September 23, 2010
iPhone live 118: Got voice?
Our podcast feed
Download Directly
Subscribe via iTunes
Google Voice returns to the App Store and brings some Basic and some Ringtones along for the ride. We’re talking Facebook phones, Verizon rumors, Apple buying Faces and Guides, and more. Get social folks, it’s iPhone live.
Credits
Thanks to [...]iPhone live 118: Got voice? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
Download Directly
Subscribe via iTunes
Google Voice returns to the App Store and brings some Basic and some Ringtones along for the ride. We’re talking Facebook phones, Verizon rumors, Apple buying Faces and Guides, and more. Get social folks, it’s iPhone live.
Credits
Thanks to [...]iPhone live 118: Got voice? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
Photoshop Elements 9 and Premiere Elements 9 bundle for Mac and Windows released
Filed under: Photo, Utilities, Video, AdobeAt a rather awesome price of $149 (or $119 after mail-in rebate!!!), the latest cut-down versions of Photoshop and Premiere are now available for both Windows and Mac as a bundle. Individually, each app costs $99.
Photoshop Elements 9 is adapted from Photoshop CS5, and it features the delicious 'Content Aware' Fill and Spot Healing that photographers the world over have no doubt been waiting for. According to the press release, Photoshop Elements 9 will also walk you through the creation of those flavor-of-the-month '3D effect' Out of Bounds photos.
The latest Premiere Elements, which hasn't seen a Mac OS X release before, features the usual slew of one-click solutions for shaky footage, audio problems, and so on.Photoshop Elements 9 and Premiere Elements 9 bundle for Mac and Windows released originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 21 Sep 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Photoshop Elements 9 is adapted from Photoshop CS5, and it features the delicious 'Content Aware' Fill and Spot Healing that photographers the world over have no doubt been waiting for. According to the press release, Photoshop Elements 9 will also walk you through the creation of those flavor-of-the-month '3D effect' Out of Bounds photos.
The latest Premiere Elements, which hasn't seen a Mac OS X release before, features the usual slew of one-click solutions for shaky footage, audio problems, and so on.Photoshop Elements 9 and Premiere Elements 9 bundle for Mac and Windows released originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 21 Sep 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Stuxnet Suspicions Rise: Has a Cyberwar Started?
The Stuxnet worm, which made headlines last summer when it hit one version of a system that controls critical infrastructure systems governing power grids and industrial plants, is once again creating a buzz. This time, there's speculation that it was created by Israel to target Iran. However, security experts remain divided on the origins of this troublesome bit of malware.
The most common words used in 1-star and 5-star App Store reviews
Filed under: Fun, Apple, MobileI'm not quite sure if this one counts as 'news', and you'll probably want the 30 seconds of your life back afterwards, but anyway: Marco Arment (of Tumblr and Instapaper fame) has compiled a list of the most commonly used words in 1- and 5-star App Store reviews.
In true American style, awesome and worth are at the top of the 5-star list. As Marco points out, it's very nice to see simple so high in the 5-star list, but words like ever, never and done are a bit odd. I don't have an iOS device, so I can only guess, but are people writing reviews that read 'This app is awesome. I don't know how I ever got along without it. I will never leave home without it'? And where does touch figure into positive reviews? I hope it comes from 'it also works on my iPod touch!'...
The bad-review list reads like a litany of woe: waste and money come first, quickly followed by crashes, useless, deleted and stupid.
Interestingly, both lists emphasize cost and value: i.e. when an app works well, it's 'worth its weight in gold', but when it doesn't work, an app is 'a useless waste of money'. As Marco highlights, though, talking about the price when you've paid hundreds of dollars for the device itself is a little silly.
My favourite word, if you're wondering, is right at the end of the 1-star review list: Apple.
The most common words used in 1-star and 5-star App Store reviews originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 13 Sep 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
In true American style, awesome and worth are at the top of the 5-star list. As Marco points out, it's very nice to see simple so high in the 5-star list, but words like ever, never and done are a bit odd. I don't have an iOS device, so I can only guess, but are people writing reviews that read 'This app is awesome. I don't know how I ever got along without it. I will never leave home without it'? And where does touch figure into positive reviews? I hope it comes from 'it also works on my iPod touch!'...
The bad-review list reads like a litany of woe: waste and money come first, quickly followed by crashes, useless, deleted and stupid.
Interestingly, both lists emphasize cost and value: i.e. when an app works well, it's 'worth its weight in gold', but when it doesn't work, an app is 'a useless waste of money'. As Marco highlights, though, talking about the price when you've paid hundreds of dollars for the device itself is a little silly.
My favourite word, if you're wondering, is right at the end of the 1-star review list: Apple.
The most common words used in 1-star and 5-star App Store reviews originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 13 Sep 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
China Withholds Valuable Materials Needed for Electric Cars From Japan [Electric Cars]
Unless China and Japan can sort out their shit and the exportation of rare earth elements can proceed into Japan, the future of electric cars could be thrown into jeopardy. Production of cars like the Prius could slow down dangerously. More »
MetroPCS Beats the Big Boys to LTE
Texas-based wireless provider MetroPCS announced Monday that it has turned on the first LTE network in the U.S., beating upmarket rivals Verizon and AT&T in deploying what is widely expected to be the next generation of wireless network technology. The company also announced a new Samsung LTE-enabled phone designed to feature LTE's advantages in carrying multimedia content as compared to existing 3G networks.
Solve Media's CAPTCHA replacement might have ads, but they're still an improvement
Filed under: News
At times, fighting with multiple CAPTCHA codes is more painful than having to hear "Party in the U.S.A." playing on the radio for the umpteenth time in a single day. I understand the point of a CAPTCHA, but there have just been too many times where the squashed, skewed letters are far too mangled to comprehend.
Enter Solve Media, who think they've got a solution which is not only superior, but profitable. Instead of letter soup, Solve wants websites to display their ad-powered codes. "Browse Safer." Yep, I can read that -- and I'm not bothered at all by the advertisement.
That's a trade-off I'd be willing to make every time. What about you?
Full disclosure: AOL is an investor in Solve Media.Solve Media's CAPTCHA replacement might have ads, but they're still an improvement originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 20 Sep 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
At times, fighting with multiple CAPTCHA codes is more painful than having to hear "Party in the U.S.A." playing on the radio for the umpteenth time in a single day. I understand the point of a CAPTCHA, but there have just been too many times where the squashed, skewed letters are far too mangled to comprehend.
Enter Solve Media, who think they've got a solution which is not only superior, but profitable. Instead of letter soup, Solve wants websites to display their ad-powered codes. "Browse Safer." Yep, I can read that -- and I'm not bothered at all by the advertisement.
That's a trade-off I'd be willing to make every time. What about you?
Full disclosure: AOL is an investor in Solve Media.Solve Media's CAPTCHA replacement might have ads, but they're still an improvement originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 20 Sep 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Write Notes and Audio-Search for Text on Android's Kindle App [Android Apps]
The free Kindle app for Android phones has been updated today, bringing it more in-line with the iPhone app for full text searching, scribbling notes and highlighting sentences. It can even look up unknown words in Wikipedia. More »
Google shutting down Reader's page change tracker for sites with no RSS feed
Filed under: Web services, Google
You may not have known about it, but Google Reader has a pretty slick feature which allows you to subscribe to any page -- even one without an RSS feed. When the page is updated, it'll appear in your unread Reader items. At least, it will until September 30th.
Google has announced that they're shutting down the tracker service, and it's not a complete shocker. My results with it were never that good -- pages I had subscribed to often changed multiple times and I never received an alert.
If you're looking for an alternative, check out Jay's post -- he rounded up 10 ways to keep tabs on a web page without using RSS a while back.Google shutting down Reader's page change tracker for sites with no RSS feed originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 23 Sep 2010 08:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
You may not have known about it, but Google Reader has a pretty slick feature which allows you to subscribe to any page -- even one without an RSS feed. When the page is updated, it'll appear in your unread Reader items. At least, it will until September 30th.
Google has announced that they're shutting down the tracker service, and it's not a complete shocker. My results with it were never that good -- pages I had subscribed to often changed multiple times and I never received an alert.
If you're looking for an alternative, check out Jay's post -- he rounded up 10 ways to keep tabs on a web page without using RSS a while back.Google shutting down Reader's page change tracker for sites with no RSS feed originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 23 Sep 2010 08:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
iPhone live tonight, 6pm PT, 9pm ET, 2am BST
You know the drill, come 6pm PT, 9pm ET, 2am BST, we’ll be live over at:
http://live.tipb.com/live/
Be there, and be ready to chat. We want to hear from you.
iPhone live tonight, 6pm PT, 9pm ET, 2am BST is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb - The [...]iPhone live tonight, 6pm PT, 9pm ET, 2am BST is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
http://live.tipb.com/live/
Be there, and be ready to chat. We want to hear from you.
iPhone live tonight, 6pm PT, 9pm ET, 2am BST is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb - The [...]iPhone live tonight, 6pm PT, 9pm ET, 2am BST is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store. TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
DLS review: System Ninja complements CCleaner, doesn't replace it
Filed under: Utilities, Windows
Using the word "ninja" in the name of an application is a good way to grab a geek's attention. Enter System Ninja, a CCleaner-like cleaning and tune-up utility for Windows. After reading about System Ninja this morning on Freeware Genius, I decided to give it a go.
In addition to performing file clean-ups, System Ninja includes a handful of other utilities. However, I don't need to use a startup manager or process manager very often, and the included tools aren't really an improvement over those which are already a part of your Windows install like MSConfig and Task Manager. To me, it's really all about cleaning up the digital junk I leave scattered about my hard drive -- and CCleaner located almost 50 times more than System Ninja. That's a pretty substantial difference.
I'm also not keen on "borrowing" icons from successful apps -- and System Ninja does just that (image after the break).
Does that folder junk cleaner icon look familiar to anyone else? Moving on...
The Folder Junk Cleaner is somewhat interesting, however, in that it looks everywhere for certain types of files that might not be needed. CCleaner, on the other hand, only checkS pre-defined locations out of the box. That means System Ninja could theoretically find and remove more cruft -- except that you can add custom folders and file types to CCleaner (which is what I'd recommend doing).
System Ninja can also download and run MalRun Destroyer, a malware and spyware tool. Upon downloading the tool and running a scan, however, I found that the MalRun .INI file currently only sports 93 known processes -- not quite the comprehensive coverage I'm looking for in a malware cleanup tool. It could, however, prove useful for taking care of certain common, easy-to-remove malware.
Need to check check a file's MD5 or SHA checksum? I've never really had the need, but System Ninja has the ability to do so built-in. There's also a boot log generator, but again -- you can do this quite simply using MSConfig.
The Good:
Portable
Lightweight and fast
Finds some files that CCleaner won't without customization
Decent assortment of system tools
The Bad:
Didn't find anywhere near as much junk as CCleaner in my testing
Process and startup manager aren't really an improvement over Windows' built-in tools
No option to customize file types to search for
Bottom Line: It never hurts to give a new clean-up application a try, and System Ninja may work better for you than it did for me. If not, all you've got to do is delete the files and move on -- there's really nothing to lose except for a few minutes of your time. System Ninja definitely has potential and will be worth keeping an eye on.
DLS review: System Ninja complements CCleaner, doesn't replace it originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 22 Sep 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Using the word "ninja" in the name of an application is a good way to grab a geek's attention. Enter System Ninja, a CCleaner-like cleaning and tune-up utility for Windows. After reading about System Ninja this morning on Freeware Genius, I decided to give it a go.
In addition to performing file clean-ups, System Ninja includes a handful of other utilities. However, I don't need to use a startup manager or process manager very often, and the included tools aren't really an improvement over those which are already a part of your Windows install like MSConfig and Task Manager. To me, it's really all about cleaning up the digital junk I leave scattered about my hard drive -- and CCleaner located almost 50 times more than System Ninja. That's a pretty substantial difference.
I'm also not keen on "borrowing" icons from successful apps -- and System Ninja does just that (image after the break).
Does that folder junk cleaner icon look familiar to anyone else? Moving on...
The Folder Junk Cleaner is somewhat interesting, however, in that it looks everywhere for certain types of files that might not be needed. CCleaner, on the other hand, only checkS pre-defined locations out of the box. That means System Ninja could theoretically find and remove more cruft -- except that you can add custom folders and file types to CCleaner (which is what I'd recommend doing).
System Ninja can also download and run MalRun Destroyer, a malware and spyware tool. Upon downloading the tool and running a scan, however, I found that the MalRun .INI file currently only sports 93 known processes -- not quite the comprehensive coverage I'm looking for in a malware cleanup tool. It could, however, prove useful for taking care of certain common, easy-to-remove malware.
Need to check check a file's MD5 or SHA checksum? I've never really had the need, but System Ninja has the ability to do so built-in. There's also a boot log generator, but again -- you can do this quite simply using MSConfig.
The Good:
Portable
Lightweight and fast
Finds some files that CCleaner won't without customization
Decent assortment of system tools
The Bad:
Didn't find anywhere near as much junk as CCleaner in my testing
Process and startup manager aren't really an improvement over Windows' built-in tools
No option to customize file types to search for
Bottom Line: It never hurts to give a new clean-up application a try, and System Ninja may work better for you than it did for me. If not, all you've got to do is delete the files and move on -- there's really nothing to lose except for a few minutes of your time. System Ninja definitely has potential and will be worth keeping an eye on.
DLS review: System Ninja complements CCleaner, doesn't replace it originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 22 Sep 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
LOGITECH INTERNATIONAL INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES
Firefox Friday: can Firefox hold off Internet Explorer 9 and Chrome?
Filed under: Internet, Mozilla, BrowsersHappy Firefox Friday, friends! In the lead up to an exciting winter, things have been heating up at Mozilla.
There's strong competition from all sides. The IE9 beta launches next week and we'll soon see whether Microsoft can transform its excellent developer previews into something which can make the end-user salivate. Chrome's hardware acceleration currently leads the pack, and will presumably find its way to the beta build very soon. Does Firefox 4 have what it takes to hold onto its wavering market share?
This war, kicked off by Google's intent to push Chrome from nerdy obscurity into the mainstream, has forced Mozilla to roll with the blows. After almost completely avoiding innovation with Firefox 3.6 -- yay, Personas! -- we're now seeing a delicious glut of additions rolling out with each and every beta build of Firefox 4.
These past two weeks have been the busiest I've ever seen Mozilla, in terms of bug fixes, new features, and new out-reach and research projects. Let's tuck in!
Firefox debuts new JagerMonkey JavaScript engine, now on the tail of Chrome and IE9
JavaScript has long been a weakness of Firefox -- or rather, it became a sore point after the initial release of Chrome showed the world just how fast JavaScript can be. With JagerMonkey, Firefox 4's JS performance will be very close to the competition.
From conversations with developers at Mozilla, I also get the feeling that raw JavaScript performance isn't their prime concern. Benchmarks are notoriously bad at depicting real-world applications -- and JavaScript can still only perform as fast as the layout engine lets it.
It's safe to say that FF4 will run your JavaScript-intensive games and Web apps just fine.
The outlook of in-the-browser 2D and 3D games is sunny
JavaScript performance certainly isn't the only measure of what a browser can do, but it is very important when it comes to browser games and calculation-intensive Web apps. Which brings me neatly on to this week's release of Mozilla Labs Gaming. Mozilla usually manages to drum up a lot of interest with its competitions and design challenges, but usually these take the form of concept brainstorms, or mock-ups for new browser features. I'm not sure whether the slower-moving and slightly-less-hip-than-it-used-to-be Mozilla can pull off a gaming competition -- but I hope I'm wrong.
Mozilla certainly has plenty of academic ties, and what with it being the start of a new school year, perhaps Open Web Gaming will be on the curriculum? In fact, looking at the sheer number and variety of today's 'open' technologies, you could create an entirely open-source curriculum! Are you listening, universities? Open video, audio, WebGL, JavaScript, SVG, geolocation.
Gamers and developers, you should take a look at Rocket Engine
I intend to do a full write-up of Rocket Engine, but in the meantime here are my initial thoughts: OMG. The website is intentionally vague, but it looks like it's a pure JavaScript games engine with an in-the-browser SDK and editor. Watch the video and have your mind blown.
It should be immediately apparent how potentially awesome a JavaScript games engine is. Rocket Pack (the developer) pulls no punches by showing the same game running on a PC, netbook and iPad -- apparently you can even design games on an iPad.
But that's not the best bit: Rocket Engine can be used to build MMOs like FarmVille. I've seen a few HTML5 and JavaScript game engines, but this is certainly the first to offer such a wide range of features. Just scroll down and have a look at what's on offer -- crazy.
Which reminds me... what's happening to that Mozilla Web App Store?
What can developers do with their games after they write them? Self-publish? Publish their game on Steam?
Everyone and their mother is working on an app store at the moment -- but not Mozilla. All of this talk of building upon Open Web technologies and shunning proprietary platforms like Native Client, yet the only outlet Firefox developers have is AMO! And that's for add-ons!
I'm certain Chrome's Web Store will open first -- not to mention the tie-in it will have with Google TV and Chrome OS installations! -- and Microsoft has spent the last few months pushing developers to write apps for IE9... but Mozilla is still only testing the waters.
If Mozilla built it, game developers would come.
This week's Firefox release round-up
To finish, here are the latest Mozilla releases, along any significant changes:
Firefox 3.6.9 -- the stable build of Firefox received a ton of bug fixes (67!) and patched no less than 14 security vulnerabilities
Firefox 3.5.12 -- yup, tons of people are still running Firefox 3.5. Some security and stability issues were fixed
Firefox 4.0 beta 5 -- and finally, FF4 beta 5 was released this week, with hardware acceleration turned on by default and the inclusion of the new Audio Data API. The hardware acceleration -- if it can be called that -- actually doesn't seem to work right now. I've asked Mozilla about it, but I haven't had a response yet
Thunderbird 3.1.3 -- yes, Thunderbird is still going! This is just a standard point release that fixes some bugs and stability issues
Firefox Friday: can Firefox hold off Internet Explorer 9 and Chrome? originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 10 Sep 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments
There's strong competition from all sides. The IE9 beta launches next week and we'll soon see whether Microsoft can transform its excellent developer previews into something which can make the end-user salivate. Chrome's hardware acceleration currently leads the pack, and will presumably find its way to the beta build very soon. Does Firefox 4 have what it takes to hold onto its wavering market share?
This war, kicked off by Google's intent to push Chrome from nerdy obscurity into the mainstream, has forced Mozilla to roll with the blows. After almost completely avoiding innovation with Firefox 3.6 -- yay, Personas! -- we're now seeing a delicious glut of additions rolling out with each and every beta build of Firefox 4.
These past two weeks have been the busiest I've ever seen Mozilla, in terms of bug fixes, new features, and new out-reach and research projects. Let's tuck in!
Firefox debuts new JagerMonkey JavaScript engine, now on the tail of Chrome and IE9
JavaScript has long been a weakness of Firefox -- or rather, it became a sore point after the initial release of Chrome showed the world just how fast JavaScript can be. With JagerMonkey, Firefox 4's JS performance will be very close to the competition.
From conversations with developers at Mozilla, I also get the feeling that raw JavaScript performance isn't their prime concern. Benchmarks are notoriously bad at depicting real-world applications -- and JavaScript can still only perform as fast as the layout engine lets it.
It's safe to say that FF4 will run your JavaScript-intensive games and Web apps just fine.
The outlook of in-the-browser 2D and 3D games is sunny
JavaScript performance certainly isn't the only measure of what a browser can do, but it is very important when it comes to browser games and calculation-intensive Web apps. Which brings me neatly on to this week's release of Mozilla Labs Gaming. Mozilla usually manages to drum up a lot of interest with its competitions and design challenges, but usually these take the form of concept brainstorms, or mock-ups for new browser features. I'm not sure whether the slower-moving and slightly-less-hip-than-it-used-to-be Mozilla can pull off a gaming competition -- but I hope I'm wrong.
Mozilla certainly has plenty of academic ties, and what with it being the start of a new school year, perhaps Open Web Gaming will be on the curriculum? In fact, looking at the sheer number and variety of today's 'open' technologies, you could create an entirely open-source curriculum! Are you listening, universities? Open video, audio, WebGL, JavaScript, SVG, geolocation.
Gamers and developers, you should take a look at Rocket Engine
I intend to do a full write-up of Rocket Engine, but in the meantime here are my initial thoughts: OMG. The website is intentionally vague, but it looks like it's a pure JavaScript games engine with an in-the-browser SDK and editor. Watch the video and have your mind blown.
It should be immediately apparent how potentially awesome a JavaScript games engine is. Rocket Pack (the developer) pulls no punches by showing the same game running on a PC, netbook and iPad -- apparently you can even design games on an iPad.
But that's not the best bit: Rocket Engine can be used to build MMOs like FarmVille. I've seen a few HTML5 and JavaScript game engines, but this is certainly the first to offer such a wide range of features. Just scroll down and have a look at what's on offer -- crazy.
Which reminds me... what's happening to that Mozilla Web App Store?
What can developers do with their games after they write them? Self-publish? Publish their game on Steam?
Everyone and their mother is working on an app store at the moment -- but not Mozilla. All of this talk of building upon Open Web technologies and shunning proprietary platforms like Native Client, yet the only outlet Firefox developers have is AMO! And that's for add-ons!
I'm certain Chrome's Web Store will open first -- not to mention the tie-in it will have with Google TV and Chrome OS installations! -- and Microsoft has spent the last few months pushing developers to write apps for IE9... but Mozilla is still only testing the waters.
If Mozilla built it, game developers would come.
This week's Firefox release round-up
To finish, here are the latest Mozilla releases, along any significant changes:
Firefox 3.6.9 -- the stable build of Firefox received a ton of bug fixes (67!) and patched no less than 14 security vulnerabilities
Firefox 3.5.12 -- yup, tons of people are still running Firefox 3.5. Some security and stability issues were fixed
Firefox 4.0 beta 5 -- and finally, FF4 beta 5 was released this week, with hardware acceleration turned on by default and the inclusion of the new Audio Data API. The hardware acceleration -- if it can be called that -- actually doesn't seem to work right now. I've asked Mozilla about it, but I haven't had a response yet
Thunderbird 3.1.3 -- yes, Thunderbird is still going! This is just a standard point release that fixes some bugs and stability issues
Firefox Friday: can Firefox hold off Internet Explorer 9 and Chrome? originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 10 Sep 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Growing Up Nintendo: A Self-Portrait [Image Cache]
If you grew up in the 1980s and owned a Nintendo—which might be redundant—this likely captures your childhood than any laser-backdropped middle school photo ever could. More »
The Best Cooking Apps [Appbattle]
Listen, cookbooks are great. That's fine. But do you know what else is great? Friggin' apps. With the right apps, your smartphone or tablet is your new cookbook—and cooking instructor, and sous chef. Here are the best. More »
LOGITECH INTERNATIONAL INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES
Microsoft's Secret Plan to Take Over the World
Here in Silicon Valley, otherwise known as drama central, we live for conspiracy theories, have vampire CEOs who are rewarded for bleeding their companies dry, and even have executives who have their own fighter planes and are at war with each other. You would think we would have a few good conspiracy theories as well.
INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES INVENTEC
Microsoft's Secret Plan to Take Over the World
Here in Silicon Valley, otherwise known as drama central, we live for conspiracy theories, have vampire CEOs who are rewarded for bleeding their companies dry, and even have executives who have their own fighter planes and are at war with each other. You would think we would have a few good conspiracy theories as well.
Toccata iPad Case With Bluetooth Keyboard
Earlier today Padacs announced the release of their new Toccata iPad case which conveniently comes with a built-in Bluetooth 2.0 keyboard. If you’re the type who prefers using a physical keyboard over tapping letters on your iPad screen then this stylish new accessory is especially for you. The QWERTY keyboard is powered by a Lithium [...]
New BlackBerry Tablet May Debut Next Week
The tablet wars are set to heat up. BlackBerry maker Research In Motion may announce its tablet next week at the company’s developer conference, which starts Monday in San Francisco, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
RIM has already trademarked ‘BlackPad’ and ‘SurfBook,’ and it is likely that the new tablet from [...]
RIM has already trademarked ‘BlackPad’ and ‘SurfBook,’ and it is likely that the new tablet from [...]
Use Your iPad To Manage Your Finances In Style
When it comes to budgeting and managing your finances on your iPad there are several apps to choose from, but very few compare to Checkbook by iBear LLC. This newly released app has everything you could want or even ask for when it comes to both style and functionality. Easily keep track of your mortgage, [...]
INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES INVENTEC
10 Reasons You Need An iPad For College
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 [...]
Halp, Apple Genius! There's a Hamster in My iMac and it's Chewing All the Bits! [Apple]
Of the few iMac hamster cages we've seen before, this one just takes the seed-biscuit. Gutted and then added with a Rotastak-like tube, its hamster-tenant turns the cogs and occasionally eats some bits. Watch the video here: [Gizmodo Japan] More »
NCC-1701 Pizza Cutter [Star Trek]
Mozzarella: The Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Pizza-Prize. Its ten-second mission: to divide strange new pies, to cut new slices and new portions, to boldly separate where no cutter has gone before. *Cue music* [Think Geek] More »
INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES INVENTEC
What Would Happen if You Stuck Your Hand in the Large Hadron Collider Stream? [Science]
The Large Hadron Collider is slinging 300 trillion protons at 99.9999991% of the speed of light. It could answer momentous scientific mysteries of our universe. But what if you jam your hand into it? Watch scientists struggle to answer. More »
VLC arrives on the iPad, iPhone version coming up!
Filed under: Video, iPhone
VLC lovers, rejoice! Well, VLC lovers who own an iPad, anyway. Applidium has announced that VLC for iPad has been approved and is now available for download from the App Store.
In case you were wondering about the open source implications of the release, good news on that front: Applidium states that the code will be released before the end of the day. The blog also states that they've begun work on a version for the iPhone and iPod touch as well, so you'll soon be able to enjoy VLC viewing on your pocket-sized device.
The rest of you who love VLC can still party if you want to -- it's a celebration-worthy app, even if you don't have an iPad to play with!
update: Have a look at Iyaz Akhtar's review over at Mobiputing... overall, VLC on the iPad looks pretty darn good -- DivX and Xvid worked well, though it did struggle with a large M4V (not a complete shocker) VLC arrives on the iPad, iPhone version coming up! originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 20 Sep 2010 15:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
VLC lovers, rejoice! Well, VLC lovers who own an iPad, anyway. Applidium has announced that VLC for iPad has been approved and is now available for download from the App Store.
In case you were wondering about the open source implications of the release, good news on that front: Applidium states that the code will be released before the end of the day. The blog also states that they've begun work on a version for the iPhone and iPod touch as well, so you'll soon be able to enjoy VLC viewing on your pocket-sized device.
The rest of you who love VLC can still party if you want to -- it's a celebration-worthy app, even if you don't have an iPad to play with!
update: Have a look at Iyaz Akhtar's review over at Mobiputing... overall, VLC on the iPad looks pretty darn good -- DivX and Xvid worked well, though it did struggle with a large M4V (not a complete shocker) VLC arrives on the iPad, iPhone version coming up! originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 20 Sep 2010 15:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Firefox Friday: can Firefox hold off Internet Explorer 9 and Chrome?
Filed under: Internet, Mozilla, BrowsersHappy Firefox Friday, friends! In the lead up to an exciting winter, things have been heating up at Mozilla.
There's strong competition from all sides. The IE9 beta launches next week and we'll soon see whether Microsoft can transform its excellent developer previews into something which can make the end-user salivate. Chrome's hardware acceleration currently leads the pack, and will presumably find its way to the beta build very soon. Does Firefox 4 have what it takes to hold onto its wavering market share?
This war, kicked off by Google's intent to push Chrome from nerdy obscurity into the mainstream, has forced Mozilla to roll with the blows. After almost completely avoiding innovation with Firefox 3.6 -- yay, Personas! -- we're now seeing a delicious glut of additions rolling out with each and every beta build of Firefox 4.
These past two weeks have been the busiest I've ever seen Mozilla, in terms of bug fixes, new features, and new out-reach and research projects. Let's tuck in!
Firefox debuts new JagerMonkey JavaScript engine, now on the tail of Chrome and IE9
JavaScript has long been a weakness of Firefox -- or rather, it became a sore point after the initial release of Chrome showed the world just how fast JavaScript can be. With JagerMonkey, Firefox 4's JS performance will be very close to the competition.
From conversations with developers at Mozilla, I also get the feeling that raw JavaScript performance isn't their prime concern. Benchmarks are notoriously bad at depicting real-world applications -- and JavaScript can still only perform as fast as the layout engine lets it.
It's safe to say that FF4 will run your JavaScript-intensive games and Web apps just fine.
The outlook of in-the-browser 2D and 3D games is sunny
JavaScript performance certainly isn't the only measure of what a browser can do, but it is very important when it comes to browser games and calculation-intensive Web apps. Which brings me neatly on to this week's release of Mozilla Labs Gaming. Mozilla usually manages to drum up a lot of interest with its competitions and design challenges, but usually these take the form of concept brainstorms, or mock-ups for new browser features. I'm not sure whether the slower-moving and slightly-less-hip-than-it-used-to-be Mozilla can pull off a gaming competition -- but I hope I'm wrong.
Mozilla certainly has plenty of academic ties, and what with it being the start of a new school year, perhaps Open Web Gaming will be on the curriculum? In fact, looking at the sheer number and variety of today's 'open' technologies, you could create an entirely open-source curriculum! Are you listening, universities? Open video, audio, WebGL, JavaScript, SVG, geolocation.
Gamers and developers, you should take a look at Rocket Engine
I intend to do a full write-up of Rocket Engine, but in the meantime here are my initial thoughts: OMG. The website is intentionally vague, but it looks like it's a pure JavaScript games engine with an in-the-browser SDK and editor. Watch the video and have your mind blown.
It should be immediately apparent how potentially awesome a JavaScript games engine is. Rocket Pack (the developer) pulls no punches by showing the same game running on a PC, netbook and iPad -- apparently you can even design games on an iPad.
But that's not the best bit: Rocket Engine can be used to build MMOs like FarmVille. I've seen a few HTML5 and JavaScript game engines, but this is certainly the first to offer such a wide range of features. Just scroll down and have a look at what's on offer -- crazy.
Which reminds me... what's happening to that Mozilla Web App Store?
What can developers do with their games after they write them? Self-publish? Publish their game on Steam?
Everyone and their mother is working on an app store at the moment -- but not Mozilla. All of this talk of building upon Open Web technologies and shunning proprietary platforms like Native Client, yet the only outlet Firefox developers have is AMO! And that's for add-ons!
I'm certain Chrome's Web Store will open first -- not to mention the tie-in it will have with Google TV and Chrome OS installations! -- and Microsoft has spent the last few months pushing developers to write apps for IE9... but Mozilla is still only testing the waters.
If Mozilla built it, game developers would come.
This week's Firefox release round-up
To finish, here are the latest Mozilla releases, along any significant changes:
Firefox 3.6.9 -- the stable build of Firefox received a ton of bug fixes (67!) and patched no less than 14 security vulnerabilities
Firefox 3.5.12 -- yup, tons of people are still running Firefox 3.5. Some security and stability issues were fixed
Firefox 4.0 beta 5 -- and finally, FF4 beta 5 was released this week, with hardware acceleration turned on by default and the inclusion of the new Audio Data API. The hardware acceleration -- if it can be called that -- actually doesn't seem to work right now. I've asked Mozilla about it, but I haven't had a response yet
Thunderbird 3.1.3 -- yes, Thunderbird is still going! This is just a standard point release that fixes some bugs and stability issues
Firefox Friday: can Firefox hold off Internet Explorer 9 and Chrome? originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 10 Sep 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments
There's strong competition from all sides. The IE9 beta launches next week and we'll soon see whether Microsoft can transform its excellent developer previews into something which can make the end-user salivate. Chrome's hardware acceleration currently leads the pack, and will presumably find its way to the beta build very soon. Does Firefox 4 have what it takes to hold onto its wavering market share?
This war, kicked off by Google's intent to push Chrome from nerdy obscurity into the mainstream, has forced Mozilla to roll with the blows. After almost completely avoiding innovation with Firefox 3.6 -- yay, Personas! -- we're now seeing a delicious glut of additions rolling out with each and every beta build of Firefox 4.
These past two weeks have been the busiest I've ever seen Mozilla, in terms of bug fixes, new features, and new out-reach and research projects. Let's tuck in!
Firefox debuts new JagerMonkey JavaScript engine, now on the tail of Chrome and IE9
JavaScript has long been a weakness of Firefox -- or rather, it became a sore point after the initial release of Chrome showed the world just how fast JavaScript can be. With JagerMonkey, Firefox 4's JS performance will be very close to the competition.
From conversations with developers at Mozilla, I also get the feeling that raw JavaScript performance isn't their prime concern. Benchmarks are notoriously bad at depicting real-world applications -- and JavaScript can still only perform as fast as the layout engine lets it.
It's safe to say that FF4 will run your JavaScript-intensive games and Web apps just fine.
The outlook of in-the-browser 2D and 3D games is sunny
JavaScript performance certainly isn't the only measure of what a browser can do, but it is very important when it comes to browser games and calculation-intensive Web apps. Which brings me neatly on to this week's release of Mozilla Labs Gaming. Mozilla usually manages to drum up a lot of interest with its competitions and design challenges, but usually these take the form of concept brainstorms, or mock-ups for new browser features. I'm not sure whether the slower-moving and slightly-less-hip-than-it-used-to-be Mozilla can pull off a gaming competition -- but I hope I'm wrong.
Mozilla certainly has plenty of academic ties, and what with it being the start of a new school year, perhaps Open Web Gaming will be on the curriculum? In fact, looking at the sheer number and variety of today's 'open' technologies, you could create an entirely open-source curriculum! Are you listening, universities? Open video, audio, WebGL, JavaScript, SVG, geolocation.
Gamers and developers, you should take a look at Rocket Engine
I intend to do a full write-up of Rocket Engine, but in the meantime here are my initial thoughts: OMG. The website is intentionally vague, but it looks like it's a pure JavaScript games engine with an in-the-browser SDK and editor. Watch the video and have your mind blown.
It should be immediately apparent how potentially awesome a JavaScript games engine is. Rocket Pack (the developer) pulls no punches by showing the same game running on a PC, netbook and iPad -- apparently you can even design games on an iPad.
But that's not the best bit: Rocket Engine can be used to build MMOs like FarmVille. I've seen a few HTML5 and JavaScript game engines, but this is certainly the first to offer such a wide range of features. Just scroll down and have a look at what's on offer -- crazy.
Which reminds me... what's happening to that Mozilla Web App Store?
What can developers do with their games after they write them? Self-publish? Publish their game on Steam?
Everyone and their mother is working on an app store at the moment -- but not Mozilla. All of this talk of building upon Open Web technologies and shunning proprietary platforms like Native Client, yet the only outlet Firefox developers have is AMO! And that's for add-ons!
I'm certain Chrome's Web Store will open first -- not to mention the tie-in it will have with Google TV and Chrome OS installations! -- and Microsoft has spent the last few months pushing developers to write apps for IE9... but Mozilla is still only testing the waters.
If Mozilla built it, game developers would come.
This week's Firefox release round-up
To finish, here are the latest Mozilla releases, along any significant changes:
Firefox 3.6.9 -- the stable build of Firefox received a ton of bug fixes (67!) and patched no less than 14 security vulnerabilities
Firefox 3.5.12 -- yup, tons of people are still running Firefox 3.5. Some security and stability issues were fixed
Firefox 4.0 beta 5 -- and finally, FF4 beta 5 was released this week, with hardware acceleration turned on by default and the inclusion of the new Audio Data API. The hardware acceleration -- if it can be called that -- actually doesn't seem to work right now. I've asked Mozilla about it, but I haven't had a response yet
Thunderbird 3.1.3 -- yes, Thunderbird is still going! This is just a standard point release that fixes some bugs and stability issues
Firefox Friday: can Firefox hold off Internet Explorer 9 and Chrome? originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 10 Sep 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments
30 Impossible Scenes That Actually Happened [Photography]
The photos that follow are impossible. But they actually happened. The entries for this week's Shooting Challenge are composites, stacking subjects from the same place at different moments in time. The results will bend your brain in the best ways: More »
MIUI ROM for the Nexus One and Desire
Here's a neat twist for folks using the Nexus One or Desire, MIUI -- a "from-source" ROM from a Chinese group that takes the best things from vanilla Froyo (Android 2.2), TouchWiz, and of all things, Apple's iOS and bastardizes them into something tha really shows some promise. It's full of features you wouldn't expect, like dedicated SMS and dialer buttons on the lock screen that unlock the phone and takes you right to the app, working FM radio, a built in screenshot function, and a launcher with an adjustable bottom bar, notification shade controls, and home screen changes much like we see on the new TouchWiz.It's also full of bugs, and a good portion of the ROM is in Chinese. The developer is quick to point out that this is not ready for prime time by any means, and they never intended for it to be localized in other areas. But (and it's a big but) if you like to tinker you should give it a look, because someone else has shown interest in the ROM ... a fellow who goes by the handle Cyanogen. Hit the break to see a video demo of the ROM and some screenshots from my own Nexus. For more info, and downloads, hit the source link. [MIUI via XDA-Developers] Thanks teleknEsis!
Posted originally at Android CentralSponsored by Android Cases and Accessories
Posted originally at Android CentralSponsored by Android Cases and Accessories
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)