Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Facebook Music Coming September 22nd? [Facebook]

File this one under rumor, but CNBC just tweeted that Facebook is preparing to launch a new music service on September 22nd, which just happens to be the date of their annual f8 developer conference. What a coinkidink. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Ypw9klsoNaQ/facebook-music-coming-september-22nd

Mila Kunis Milla Jovovich Minka Kelly Minki van der Westhuizen

May the Force Be With Your iPad

ClamCase makes a line of keyboard cases for iPad and iPad 2, and they’ve just introduced a special limited edition Trooper case. �The case is in Imperial White with black accents. �The case is made of polycarbonate to protect your iPad 2. �It has a 360-degree black hinge that supports the iPad 2 in typing [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2011/08/31/may-the-force-be-with-your-ipad/

Erica Leerhsen Erika Christensen Estella Warren Esther CaƱadas

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/

Britney Spears Brittany Daniel Brittany Lee Brittany Murphy

Google Chrome now uses SPDY HTTP replacement, halves page load time

SPDY in Google Chrome
We're not entirely sure of the time line here, but it looks like Google has now rolled out the SPDY HTTP replacement to its full bevy of Web services, including Gmail, Docs, and YouTube. If you're currently using Google's Chrome browser you're probably already using SPDY.

We originally reported on SPDY way back in November 2009, when Google introduced it as yet another experiment in making the Web faster, like Go, Native Client and speculative pre-connections. Over the last 18 months, though, SPDY support has found its way into the stable build of Chrome.

SPDY is basically a streamlined and more efficient version of HTTP. At its most basic, SPDY introduces parallel, multiplexed streams over a single TCP connection -- but at the same time, SPDY allows for prioritization, so that vital content (HTML) can be sent before periphery content (JavaScript, video). All in all, the SPDY protocol can halve page load times, which is obviously rather significant.

The best bit, though, is that SPDY is an open-source project. HTTP 1.1 is a lumbering beast that needs to be replaced before low-latency real-time computing really becomes a reality, and SPDY is one of the best options currently on the table. To be honest, we're not sure why SPDY hasn't received more coverage -- it's awesome in every way. At the moment, though, the only way to help speed up SPDY's proliferation, is with an experimental Apache mod.

As far as actually 'trying it out,' your best bet is downloading Chrome, hitting up some Google sites, and then checking chrome://net-internals to see your active SPDY sessions. SPDY is a transparent replacement for HTTP, though, and as such it's rather hard to see its effects. Google's sites definitely feel fast in Chrome, but there are more technologies than just SPDY at work.

Google Chrome now uses SPDY HTTP replacement, halves page load time originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/11/google-chrome-now-uses-spdy-http-replacement-halves-page-load-t/

Emilie de Ravin Emma Heming Emma Stone Emma Watson

YouTube Live now streaming select partners in real time

Not content with limiting its dominance in streaming uploaded videos, YouTube is now ready to take on competitors like Justin.TV and Ustream. The new YouTube Live service is being rolled out to select YouTube partners and will enable real-time broadcasting. In its official announcement, Google states that "The goal is to provide thousands of partners with the capability to live stream from their channels in the months ahead."

You can check out live broadcasts at http://www.youtube.com/live, where you'll also find a schedule of upcoming episodes from beta partners like Revision3 and Destructoid. You're also able to subscribe to YouTube Live broadcasts -- which will ensure you're notified when a new episode is coming up.

YouTube Live now streaming select partners in real time originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 08:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/11/youtube-live-now-streaming-select-partners-in-realtime/

Nadine Velazquez Naomi Watts Natalie Imbruglia Natalie Portman

Google bids $900 million for Nortel's patents to protect against litigation trolls

Nortel, once one of the biggest telecoms company in the world but now in the death throes of bankruptcy, has selected Google's $900 million bid for its patent portfolio as the stalking horse bid. This doesn't mean that Google will automatically win Nortel's massive array of telecoms patents, but it does mean that Google is the preferred buyer.

Google, which has a history of lobbying for patent law reform, has been the target of many patent litigation suits. Google's relative infancy means that it has a lot less patents in the vault than big-hitters like Microsoft, Oracle and IBM, and buying Nortel's portfolio of 6,000 patents could provide better protection against patent litigation in the future. It's worth noting that both Apple and RIM have showed interested in the portfolio, too.

Mashable speculates that the patents -- which are nearly all telecoms-related -- will be used to defend against Oracle's attacks on Android's use of Java. We reckon that Google is simply looking to cover its future endeavors in the world of networking. In the absence of patent law reform, and continued threats to net neutrality, owning a bunch of telecoms patents sounds like a very sensible move.

Google bids $900 million for Nortel's patents to protect against litigation trolls originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 04 Apr 2011 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/04/google-bids-900-million-for-nortels-patents-to-protect-from-li/

Raquel Alessi Rebecca Mader Rebecca Romijn Reese Witherspoon

How Secure is My Password lets you know just that

howsecureismypassword
We've all heard it before; you need to select a lengthy password, one that's hard to guess. Not a dictionary word. And it has to have some capital letters in it too, and some digits, and a symbol or two won't hurt either.

That's a handy set of rules to keep in mind, but How Secure is My Password helps us understand why they're important.

It's basically like a full-screen version of one of those password-strength meters websites sometimes use. But instead of showing you a bar going from "weak" to "strong", it shows you an estimation of how long your password would take to crack. That's a much more visceral way to understand why your password is strong.

For example, when I entered "rabbit", it came back with "your password is one of the 500 most common passwords. It could be cracked almost instantly". "rabbit5" would take two hours, "$rabbit5" would take 38 days, and "$rabbitZ5" would take 237 years. It's quite enlightening to see what a difference three simple characters can make.

How Secure is My Password lets you know just that originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 05 Mar 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/05/how-secure-is-my-password-lets-you-know-just-that/

Kim Kardashian Kim Smith Kim Yoon jin Kirsten Dunst

Google demands veto on OEM Android changes, stretches definition of 'open source'

Google, according to reports from "a dozen executives working at key companies in the Android ecosystem" is finally locking down the open source and easily-fragmented Android operating system.

As it currently stands, Google hands over the 'final' code for each version of Android, and OEMs and developers then spend some time customizing the OS to fit their hardware, and to create a unique and marketable flavor. That's all set to change, however.

Over the last few months, according to several people familiar with the matter, Android licensees such as HTC, Motorola and Facebook, have been asked to sign 'non-fragmentation clauses.' This new contract caveat will give Google the right to review and pass judgment on all changes to the Android OS. Two executives at Facebook say that they're unhappy that Google gets to review its changes to Android -- which is understandable, given Facebook and Google are direct competitors -- and there have also been allegations that Google is preventing some Verizon devices from shipping because they include Microsoft's Bing instead of Google search.

Continue reading Google demands veto on OEM Android changes, stretches definition of 'open source'

Google demands veto on OEM Android changes, stretches definition of 'open source' originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 07:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/31/google-demands-veto-on-android-changes-stretches-definition-of/

Hayden Panettiere Haylie Duff Heidi Klum Heidi Montag

Google Chrome and Chromium add protection against malicious downloads

google chrome malicious download
Google Chrome already sports a number of security-minded features, from Incognito mode to a software sandbox which makes exploiting the browser a Herculean task. Now, Google has announced additional protection for Chromium and Chrome users.

Built upon the Safe Browsing API, the new feature introduces protection against malicious downloads. If a download link appears in the Safe Browsing blacklist, Chrome and Chromium will warn users against downloading -- a save button is still presented, of course, in case you're convinced a file is perfectly safe to download.

We'd like to see something a bit more eye-catching than the red warning icon -- like perhaps painting the entire bar red. Many of the people a feature like this aims to protect probably won't notice the icon or change in wording as they'll be focused on clicking the save button.

Google is initially making download protection available to Chrome dev channel users, and you'll likely see it in Canary and Chromium snapshot builds as well. After thorough testing, beta and stable users will be next in line.

Google Chrome and Chromium add protection against malicious downloads originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/05/google-chrome-and-chromium-add-protection-against-malicious-down/

Ashlee Simpson Ashley Greene Ashley Olsen Ashley Scott

iTunes Match Gets Dev Release, Video Preview

Apple released iTunes Match to those enrolled in its developer program. Tuesday's announcement included a short video tour of the service, which is available only to those who are running iOS 10.5 Beta 6.1 and were quick enough to grab one of few beta subscriptions Apple offered.

Source: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/08/itunes-match-video/

Kate Bosworth Kate Groombridge Kate Hudson Kate Mara

Amazon Appstore for Android Test Drive hands on: surprisingly cool, but still US-only

Amazon Appstore for Android Test Drive
When Amazon Appstore for Android launched last week, one of its primary features -- Test Drive -- was disabled just a few minutes after it opened. With no try-before-you-buy, no refund process, and 1-Click purchasing ready to strike at any moment, this caused some problems. Anyway, don't despair: Test Drive is now enabled.

Before you get your hopes up, Test Drive doesn't work with every app. The IMDb app works fine -- you can even watch movie trailers on it! -- but the Angry Birds games are sadly not enabled. Some games work surprisingly well, though, like Bubble Buster. There's very little latency, and the framerate is really rather good. The Test Drive experience is so true to life that you even get ads; how cool is that?

Continue reading Amazon Appstore for Android Test Drive hands on: surprisingly cool, but still US-only

Amazon Appstore for Android Test Drive hands on: surprisingly cool, but still US-only originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/28/amazon-appstore-for-android-test-drive-hands-on-surprisingly-co/

Jamie Gunns Jamie Lynn Sigler Janet Jackson January Jones

United Airlines Doesn't Give a Damn What You Lost on Their Planes [Airplanes]

Steve Silberman suffered through a flight from Hell. Not only did United attendants ask him to switch seats when the woman next to him irrationally demanded so, but after forgetting his Kindle on the plane, the attendants refused to grab it. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/JEeFYqr-gAE/united-airlines-doesnt-give-a-damn-what-you-lost-on-their-planes

Mischa Barton Missi Pyle Missy Peregrym Molly Sims

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

VMware adds Mozy to its cloud and virtualization empire

mozy vmware
Mozy is one of the most popular cloud backup services around, with more than one million users storing around 70 petabytes of data. Its popularity apparently put it on the acquisition radar of VMware -- which has now made Mozy part of its virtualization empire.

VMware's official blog post makes it clear that the company wasn't so much interested in Mozy as a consumer offering. Rather, it's the inner workings of Mozy which piqued VMware's curiosity. CTO Steve Herrod says, "Over the past 5 years, Mozy has built one of the best examples of a globally distributed, large-scale cloud offering." He adds that the move will allow VMware to "further ramp our own cloud-related learning and accelerate new IP, scale, and capabilities" of its existing offerings.

Existing Mozy customers don't need to worry, of course. VMware has pledged to continue running Mozy's service without interruption.

VMware adds Mozy to its cloud and virtualization empire originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/05/vmware-takes-over-operation-of-mozy/

Shakara Ledard Shakira Shana Hiatt Shania Twain

Xiaomi Phone hands-on redux: dual partition system explained (video)


Not long ago Xiaomi, a Beijing-based company with around 250 staff, shocked the industry with the announcement of its conveniently named Xiaomi Phone. We're looking at a well-built device packing a 1.5GHz dual-core SoC, 1GB RAM and 4GB ROM, 4-inch LCD, GPS plus GLONASS, and a generous 1,900mAh battery. Set at an extremely competitive price point of around $310 for October, this has no doubt made other local manufacturers -- Meizu in particular -- think twice about their current strategy.

But let's ignore the competitors for now and focus on Xiaomi. Many Android enthusiasts might already recognize this small startup as the star behind the popular MIUI, an Android ROM that offers a vast range of user customization along with the promise of great performance. Alas, we only had a glimpse of this at the Xiaomi Phone launch. Worse yet, it turned out that due to some miscommunication, the prototype unit we handled with actually had a very old firmware, which didn't do justice for the developers. Luckily, we were offered a second chance to take a closer look at a much more up-to-date device. Read on to see what we discovered.

Continue reading Xiaomi Phone hands-on redux: dual partition system explained (video)

Xiaomi Phone hands-on redux: dual partition system explained (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Aug 2011 15:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/6uAJ9zQCnrM/

Dita Von Teese Dominique Swain Donna Feldman Drea de Matteo

HP: TouchPad will receive OTA update for added 'functionality'

HP may have abandoned the TouchPad, but that apparently won't stop the company from issuing a post-mortem OTA update for its webOS tablet. Yesterday, an HP spokesperson confirmed to CNET that "HP TouchPad owners can look forward to an over-the-air update that will enhance the platform and add functionality and a growing applications catalog." The rep didn't offer any specifics, but reaffirmed that HP remains "fully committed to the ongoing support and service of customers who purchased webOS devices." The news comes on the heels of a Quickoffice HD update that dropped yesterday, and at a time when TouchPads are selling like hotcakes -- which probably explains HP's decision to issue a tweak. Indeed, the company went on to say that it's seen "huge spikes in activations and between 3-5X downloads of apps," since the TouchPad fire sale first launched.

HP: TouchPad will receive OTA update for added 'functionality' originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Aug 2011 08:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/30/hp-touchpad-will-receive-ota-udpate-for-added-functionality/

Thandie Newton The Avatars of Second Life The Pussycat Dolls Thora Birch

The World Trade Center Was a Hollywood Star [Video]

Before their destruction, the two towers of the World Trade Center were immortalized in film. They were iconic as sets, backdrops, or giant ape toys—massive creations synonymous with the concrete below. Dan Meth's montage is a wonderful tribute. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/k516A9DU4wQ/the-world-trade-center-was-a-hollywood-star

Kelly Rowland Kerry Suseck Kim Kardashian Kim Smith