Saturday, April 30, 2011

Google Brings Video Chat to Android, But You Probably Can?t Get It Yet

Google announced the debut of video and voice chat for the Android operating system Thursday afternoon.
In other words, you’ll soon be able to make calls through Google Talk over Wi-Fi, 3G and 4G data networks (if your carrier supports it) to connect with other Android users as well as people using Google Chat on [...]

Source: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/04/android-video-chat/

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Monteverde One-Touch Stylus Ballpoint Pen

The Monteverde One-Touch Stylus Ballpoint Pen has the features you expect from a refillable ballpoint – one-hand click to open, and it can accept standard ink, gel ink, or liquid ink ballpoint refills.� What you don’t expect is that you can also use this ballpoint to write on capacitive touch screens.� The clicker has a [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2011/04/28/monteverde-one-touch-stylus-ballpoint-pen/

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Words With Friends for Android updated, promises "smoother game experience"

wordswithfriends
As several of you noted in the comments to our post asking for cross-platform iOS/Android games, Words With Friends for Android does not provide the smoothest gaming experience... and that's being rather charitable.

You might be happy to hear that a couple of days ago Zynga released an update which promises to solve many of the Android-specific issues, such as notifications not popping up.

Sadly, installing the update is not a smooth experience; you have to manually uninstall the previous version, and then go to the Android Market and install it. What's nice is that it doesn't lose your saved games - this screenshot shows a game I've started before the update and continued after updating.

How's the new update working out for you? Let us know in the comments!

Words With Friends for Android updated, promises "smoother game experience" originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 04 Mar 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/04/words-with-friends-for-android-updated-promises-smoother-game/

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DropSpace adds real Dropbox sync to Android

dropspace
Dropbox offers a lovely client for Android, but it's lacking true "sync" functionality. You can merely browse your Dropbox, pull files into the device, and manually upload specific files.

DropSpace is a little Android app that makes Dropbox on Android work like Dropbox - that is, you get real folder synchronization in the background.

When you run the app you're prompted for your Dropbox credentials. After logging in to Dropbox, you get to select which device folders you'd like to sync to the cloud. It's a straightforward mapping process: You select a folder on the device, and then specify where in Dropbox it should go.

The interface is rather clunky, at least for now. The biggest annoyance is that you can't edit your "sync list": if you add a folder and then wish to remove it, you must delete the entire list of folders and start over.

In terms of functionality, it works quite well. I tested it with the camera folder, and it was nice to be able to take my photos using the lean default Camera app and have them sync up to the cloud instantly.

DropSpace adds real Dropbox sync to Android originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 04 Mar 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/04/dropspace-adds-real-dropbox-sync-to-android/

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Yahoo! Messenger now censors the links you share

Yahoo Messenger Big Brother censorshipWe've all thought it, but never dared think it could be true: what if Microsoft, Yahoo, and AOL actively monitor our instant messenger chats? What if mentions of 'bomb' and 'underage' are tracked and sent to law enforcement agencies? What if chat providers don't agree with the things we say, or the links we share, and filter or censor the content of our transmitted messages?

Well, it looks like our fears may actually have some basis in reality: Yahoo Messenger strips FilesTube links from instant messages. It doesn't tell either party that a URL has been removed from chat -- it just deletes it. Poof. FilesTube, in case you were wondering, is one of the largest file hosting meta search engines on the Web -- it indexes RapidShare, Megaupload, Mediafire, and many other 'cyberlocker' services.

It's fairly obvious why FilesTube links are being removed -- the Censor General at Yahoo is probably one of those perplexed primates who think all uses of BitTorrent are illegal -- but this situation poses a far more important question: is Yahoo censoring messages on the client side, or the server side. Does the messenger client itself maintain a list of 'blacklisted' words -- and if so, why are we not told that FilesTube links are banned? What other words and terms does Yahoo protect us from?

Continue reading Yahoo! Messenger now censors the links you share

Yahoo! Messenger now censors the links you share originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 05:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/30/yahoo-messenger-now-censors-links-raises-serious-privacy-issue/

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Philips O?Neill Specked Earbuds Review

In the middle of my commute last week, my trusted Sennheiser CX-300 earbuds decided they were finished with this world. �Needing a quick replacement, I found a nifty pair of earbuds at Target–The Specked by Philips/O’Neill. �The primary feature to catch my attention was the cord. �It’s wrapped in nylon, matches the color of the [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2011/04/27/philips-oneill-specked-earbuds-review/

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In-app payment support arrives on Android

Right on cue, Google has launched in-app payment support for Android applications. Developer testing began last week, and now many popular apps -- like the ones pictured above -- can begin charging users for add-on functionality, content, or whatever the heck else they feel is worthy of additional bits of your pocket change. If you were wondering, Google will take the same 30% cut that Apple takes from in-app purchases.

At last we can buy individual issues in Comics with minimal fuss!

In-app payment support arrives on Android originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/30/in-app-payment-support-arrives-on-android/

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Daily Crunch: Birdlime Edition

Video: Talking Parakeet Toy Repeats What You Say, Randomly Blurts Out Phrases This LEGO Lunchbox Wants Nothing More Than To Hold Your PB&J Lexon?s Buro Collection, For Design-Conscious Desk Jockeys Homemade Tron Board Game Glows With Nerdy Fun Why Is This Plain Wall Clock So Compelling?

Source: http://www.crunchgear.com/2011/04/07/daily-crunch-birdlime/

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9 Handy Places to Hide During an Air Raid [Architecture]

When explosives begin raining from the sky, it's generally recommended that one find a sturdy, preferably covered, area to wait. Our friends at Oobject.com have some great examples. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/L_ieypPF3mM/oobject-bunker-post

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Zen Coding high-speed HTML shorthand plug-in updated

zencoding
Zen Coding made quite a splash when we first covered it almost a year ago. For those who aren't familiar, Zen is a fantastic form of shorthand for quickly hand-coding HTML. And today, a new version is out!

Here are some of the goodies version 0.7 brings to the party:
  • Text nodes: Writing something like a[href=/]{Click here} now works, and puts "Click here" within the link.
  • New actions added: Increment/decrement number under cursor, evaluate math expressions, and more.
  • Wrap with Abbreviation was upgraded.
There are several other improvements but they're all rather technical. If you use Zen Coding (or are intrigued by the concept) go ahead and read the release notes for this new version.

Zen Coding has official implementations for a ton of editors, including TextMate, Apatana, Coda, E2, Komodo, Notepad++, PSPad, and more. It also has unofficial builds for Vim, UltraEdit, Visual Studio and more.

If you want to play with Zen Coding without installing it, you can use the online demo to see some of its magic in action.

Zen Coding high-speed HTML shorthand plug-in updated originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 15 Mar 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/15/zen-coding-high-speed-html-shorthand-plug-in-updated/

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Panasonic, Yahoo, more admit defeat, sign deal with Klausner

It's easy to mock the little guy when he takes a handful of giant corporations to court. Such litigious overzealousness usually gets tangled up or tossed out altogether -- Klausner Technologies, however, is laughing all the way to the bank, with a stellar track record taking on some of tech's biggest names over the past few years. To date, the company has scored wins in visual voicemail patent battles with Apple, Google, Verizon, LG, and Vonage -- the company also struck a deal with Sprint, though presumably with less teeth-pulling. This week, Klausner added four more big wins to the list, inking deals with Panasonic, Yahoo, Qwest Communications, and Avaya in the wake of suits against the tech firms. The company still has ongoing battles with RIM and Cisco that will hopefully stay civil. We'd hate to see someone send a visual voicemail they'd regret later.

Panasonic, Yahoo, more admit defeat, sign deal with Klausner originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Apr 2011 13:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/BMG3oxRCfLE/

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IE9 and Firefox 4 post top marks in Web browser power use comparison

Over on the Internet Explorer Blog, Microsoft has posted results from an extensive comparison of the top five Web browsers. The goal: to determine whether Internet Explorer 9, Firefox 4, Chrome 10, Safari 5, or Opera 11 is able to squeeze the most life out of your laptop's battery.

A baseline was determined with test systems sitting idle, and then browsers were pointed at about:blank, a news site, the HTML5 Galactic demo, and the IE9 fish tank demo. Perhaps unsurprisingly, IE9 came out on top -- though Firefox 4 was a very close second on nearly every test. As you can see, the other browsers didn't necessarily fare quite as well, with Google Chrome, Safari, and Opera all posting significantly worse scores. In Opera 11's case, a laptop battery would last over one hour more with Internet Explorer 9 installed.

But what we'd really like to know is where did Microsoft find the dilithium crystals required to run a Galactic Total Power Consumption test...

IE9 and Firefox 4 post top marks in Web browser power use comparison originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 07:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/30/ie9-and-firefox-4-post-top-marks-in-pc-power-use-comparison/

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Friday, April 29, 2011

Gadget Lab Podcast: iPhone Tracking Controversy, Exercise Gear

In this week's Gadget Lab podcast, the crew waxes geeky on phones, bikes and exercise gear.

Source: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/04/podcast-113/

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Spotify Says Movie Streaming Service Rumor is False [Video]

Despite a rumor we heard yesterday, Spotify says it will not be launching a Netflix-esque streaming movie service. It was disproved by the company's co-founder, Daniel Ek. As he so eloquently put it: "It ain't true." [GigaOM] More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/EHXJSlc8a5c/spotify-says-movie-streaming-service-rumor-is-false

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Booq Viper Slider Case for iPad 2

The Gadgeteer has reviewed a lot of Booq cases over the years.� They make cases and bags for Apple products, so it’s no surprise they’ve introduced the Viper Slider Case for iPad 2. This two-piece case slides over the back of the iPad 2; the bottom half slides off so you can use the iPad [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2011/04/27/booq-viper-slider-case-for-ipad-2/

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Google's Blogger platform adds five new HTML5 Dynamic Views

Google Blogger Mosaic Dynamic View
Google, as part of its ongoing and much-needed overhaul of its popular Blogger platform, has just enabled five dynamic, HTML5ish, AJAXy 'Dynamic Views'. There's a video introducing the new layouts after the break.

The five new views provide fresh and interesting ways to explore your favorite Blogger blogs. The Mosaic view, for example, creates a wall of thumbnails -- click one, and it zooms to fill the screen; click it again and it minimizes. Flipcard is similar to Mosaic, but not quite as eclectic. Sidebar, Timeslide and Snapshot round off the new views, with each one obviously targeted at different types of content, from photo blogs, to text-only philosophy blogs, and everything in between.

For now, you have to visit a Blogger blog and add /view to the URL to enable the new Dynamic Views. If you own a Blogger blog, you can disable the new views -- and really, why weren't they disabled by default?

If feedback is positive -- which we're sure it will be -- these Dynamic Views will soon be enabled by default. You'll also be able to edit the views in much the same way as current Blogger templates.

Continue reading Google's Blogger platform adds five new HTML5 Dynamic Views

Google's Blogger platform adds five new HTML5 Dynamic Views originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 10:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/31/google-blogger-platform-introduces-five-new-html5-dynamic-views/

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GNOME 3 released, ushers in an interesting amalgam of iOS and OS X

GNOME 3 desktop manager
GNOME 3, after more than two years of development, has been released into the wild. GNOME 3 is not merely the logical successor of GNOME 2: it is an entirely new project, started from scratch, to create a "completely new, modern desktop designed for today's users and technologies."

The best way to check out GNOME 3's new features -- and it has lots of new features -- is to run a live version of openSUSE or Fedora, or simply head over to the GNOME 3 website and watch the (rather pretty) introductory videos. If you want a synopsis, though, here it is: GNOME 3 looks a lot like Mac OS X, with a healthy dollop of iOSesqueness for good measure, but yet it still somehow retains an underlying feel of Linux.

The overall aesthetic is very simple, very elegant, and despite being slightly out of fashion, there are plenty of rounded corners, too. The main addition, workflow-wise, is the addition of an app-launcher-cum-alt-tab screen, where you can launch apps, or flip through your open windows. For a complete list of the new features and changes, check the GNOME 3 release notes.

Despite GNOME 3 being officially launched, there aren't actually any releases for existing, stable Linux distros -- it's the live CD/USB images, or Ubuntu users will have to wait for the launch of 11.04 for a GNOME 3 PPA, but it will break Unity in the process. Fedora users will have to wait for for the May 24 release of Fedora 15. Of course, if you're feeling crazy, you can always build GNOME 3 from source.

GNOME 3 released, ushers in an interesting amalgam of iOS and OS X originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 07 Apr 2011 06:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/07/gnome-3-released-ushers-in-an-interesting-amalgam-of-ios-and-os/

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Shocker! Free Android apps outnumber free iPhone apps


Good news for Android users who hate paying for stuff: according to new numbers from Netherlands-based mobile analytics group Distimo, there are now more free apps available for Google's mobile OS than the iPhone, at 134,342 to 121,845. There are a few things to consider here: first, when one adds free iPad-only apps, the total number of gratis iOS apps increases to a more competitive 132,239. And then there's Apple's sometimes rigorous vetting process, which has probably played a role in its numeric slippage -- after all, this report doesn't highlight things like legality, repetition, or the overall number of apps dedicated to making farting noises. Also, Apple has a lot more premium apps, giving it the overall lead at 333,124 to 206,143 -- but between Android's rapid growth and what the report terms iOS's relative stagnation, Distimo expects Google to take the top spot in five months' time, outnumbering iPhone and iPad apps combined -- a rough scenario for Cupertino to stomach, no doubt, but at least the company will still have Windows Phone to kick around a while longer. [Source link requires registration]

Shocker! Free Android apps outnumber free iPhone apps originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Apr 2011 22:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/Pon17b-9Myw/

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Mobile Health Apps, Part 3: On the Cutting Edge

The future of mobile healthcare apps is already here, and it readily conjures images of "Star Trek" and Dr. "Bones" McCoy's medical tricorder. Take for example, a new app system developed by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital that detects cancer. The palm-size nuclear magnetic resonance device, which mimics the gigantic MRI machine, sits on a patient's bedside table.

Source: http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/72348.html

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Android 3.1 gets namechecked by Adobe Flash Player 10.2, will be required to enjoy accelerated 720p video

Remember how Adobe said Flash 10.2 wasn't living up to its full hardware-accelerated potential on Honeycomb thus far? Well, it seems the company's found a solution by the name of Android 3.1. We've been inundated with tips (and have confirmed with Adobe) that there's a sticky-sweet new build of Android on the way for the recent crop of slates that OEMs and carriers are rolling out, and that -- just like last time -- you'll need that software to take advantage of all the hardware rendering and compositing that your Tegra 2 silicon can afford. With any luck, 720p playback won't burn our eyeballs this time around. By the way, the Android Market item above was updated this morning to read "requires an upcoming release of Android 3" rather than "Android 3.1," but it's unclear whether the original number was inaccurate or whether Adobe got in trouble.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Android 3.1 gets namechecked by Adobe Flash Player 10.2, will be required to enjoy accelerated 720p video originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Apr 2011 19:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/fM3AL6gwFvE/

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