Friday, September 30, 2011

CrunchGear Week in Review: Animal Shots Edition

Here are some stories from the past week on CrunchGear: ?Rotary Mechanical? Cell Phone Concept Isn?t Practical, But It Looks Great Lomo?s New La Sardina Camera Is Cheap And Sardine-Can-Like Panda Itazura Bank: Super-Cute Piggy Bank (Video) Meet The Robostir, A Robotic Soup Stirrer SugarSync Adds Mobile Device Management To Send Files To Devices From [...]

Source: http://www.crunchgear.com/2011/06/20/week-in-review-animal-shots/

Karen Carreno Karolína Kurková Kasey Chambers Kat Von D

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/

Uma Thurman Vanessa Hudgens Vanessa Marcil Vanessa Minnillo

Facebookers Are Not In Hawaii

hawaiiAloha! You know where I wish I were right now? That's right, Maui! You know who else is in Maui? Some of the Google Social team. Note: I am really jealous of anyone who is a Googler in Maui right now, because it sure beats being someone who has to write about being a Googler in Maui right now. According to unpaid blogger Michael Arrington, I'm not alone in my jealousy, as some other people who worked on Google+ apparently weren't included in the Maui offsite, and "wish they were." Makes sense.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/dhGfRC4yWws/

Whitney Port Willa Ford Xenia Seeberg Yamila Diaz

Prime time, Skype video calls [From the Forums]

From the Forums

We've finally reached the weekend and for those of you not headed out to Texas for the Big Android BBQ, we've got plenty of content for you to catch up on both here and in the Android Central forums.

If you're not already a member of the Android Central forums, you can register your account today.


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/rOuBhFE0NJA/prime-time-skype-video-calls-forums

Ali Campoverdi Ali Larter Alice Dodd Alicia Keys

Torus is an impressive 3D Tetris game powered by HTML5

torus
As far as Tetris goes, most variations look quite similar. You're usually looking at a "wall" of bricks directly from the front. Torus takes that notion and throws it away; as you might have guessed from the name (or screenshot), this Tetris clone is played on a ring-like 3D surface.

You rotate the ring itself with the arrow keys, while a Tetris-like piece slowly (excruciatingly slowly, in fact) descends from the top. As soon as you make a solid line, it disappears.

Not all pieces are Tetris-like; some of them wouldn't really work with a regular Tetris game but are a good fit for Torus' 3D format.

Torus is ideal for playing at the office, because it has absolutely no soundtrack. The game is dead-quiet. It's also very very slow (slow enough for me to mention it twice in one post) so you can safely look away for a moment and then keep playing. Also, as soon as the game loses focus, it automatically pauses.

Bottom line: It's an impressive demo of the power of HTML5; if it were a bit faster, it would have some serious addictive potential.

Torus is an impressive 3D Tetris game powered by HTML5 originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 17 Feb 2011 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/02/17/torus-is-an-impressive-3d-tetris-game-powered-by-html5/

Veronica Kay Veronika Vaeková Victoria Beckham Victoria Pratt

Lacie LaPlug Will Turn Your Hard Drive into a NAS [LaCie]

Lacie's LaPlug is identical to the Pogoplug in concept: plug in any USB HDD and it magically transforms into a Time Machine-compatible NAS drive that's accessible from outside your home network. This is a product trend I like. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/xFT1qqxAt6w/lacie-laplug-will-turn-your-hdd-into-a-nas

Tara Reed Tara Reid Taryn Manning Tatiana Zavialova

CrunchGear Week In Review: Independent Edition

Here are some stories from the past week on CrunchGear: Weekend Giveaway: Toshiba 47-inch TL515 Series 3D LED TV Starbucks Merges Their Two iOS Apps, Lets You Gift Your Friends Coffee From Your Phone Warn Friends And Foes With These Nine Aperture Science Test Chamber Labels SocialBicycles Bike Sharing Is Now A Kickstarter Project Ricoh [...]

Source: http://www.crunchgear.com/2011/07/04/week-in-review-independent/

Samantha Morton Samantha Mumba Sanaa Lathan Sara Foster

Mommy Bus Pet Carrier

Oh Paris Hilton, eat your heart out! I attended a local “Puptoberfest” (yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like) �last weekend and came across this vendor– the Mommy Bus. �The bus�is a fashion pet carrier designed for small dogs and cats up to 15 pounds, 15″ in length, and 13″ tall. �It’s a top-entry carrier [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2011/09/29/mommy-bus-pet-carrier/

Shana Hiatt Shania Twain Shanna Moakler Shannon Elizabeth

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/

Megan Ewing Megan Fox Melania Trump Melissa George

How to Turn a Nook Into a Great Android Tablet

Amazon's $199 tablet will be one of the first sub-$300 tablets with a decent specification. However, if you can't wait until November, don't necessarily want a book vendor's skin on your device, and haven't ponied up for an iPad yet, you can get a solid base-Android tablet for around $250 today -- or a lot less, if you already happen to have a Nook Color 7-inch e-reader.

Source: http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/73386.html

Shana Hiatt Shania Twain Shanna Moakler Shannon Elizabeth

Install the Windows Phone 7 NoDo update regardless of your carrier

windows phone 7 nodoSome of you who own Windows Phone 7 devices are still waiting for your pre-NoDo preparation update -- never mind NoDo itself. A few workarounds have been posted, but unfortunately they didn't work unless your carrier had completed testing and was ready to schedule the update.

Now, however, the Chevron WP7 team's Chris Walshie has delivered a handy little utility that will allow you to update any Windows Phone 7 device -- regardless of your carrier.
  1. Download and install the Windows Phone Support Tool (x86 or x64) and the ChevronWP7 Updater (x86 or x64)
  2. Launch ChevronWP7 Updater and select your language. If your language isn't listed, stop and do not update.
  3. If were running WP7 build 7004 (you can verify in Zune) then run the updater twice.
Once the process completes, you should be able to copy and paste to your heart's content. Let's just hope all this update foolishness gets sorted out before we're supposed to receive Mango.

Install the Windows Phone 7 NoDo update regardless of your carrier originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 04 Apr 2011 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/04/install-the-windows-phone-7-nodo-update-regardless-of-your-carri/

Chandra West Charisma Carpenter Charli Baltimore Charlies Angels

Daily Crunch: Power Supply Edition

Behind The Scenes At The Impossible Project?s Resurrected Polaroid Facility ?The Best Chance To Beat Gasoline:? An Excerpt From Seth Fletcher?s Bottled Lightning The ZEHST Is The 3,000 MPH, Zero Emissions Airplane Of 2050 Japan Takes Top Spot From China: Fujitsu?s ?K? Is The World?s Most Powerful Supercomputer Finally, A Solar Powered Netbook Comes To [...]

Source: http://www.crunchgear.com/2011/06/21/daily-crunch-power-supply/

Willa Ford Xenia Seeberg Yamila Diaz Yvonne Strzechowski

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Daily Deal: Incipio Executive Folio for iPad 2, iPad only $19.95

For today only, the TiPb Store has the�Incipio Executive Folio for iPad 2, iPad in luxurious leather for only $19.95 ? Get it before it?s gone! Shop Incipio Executive Folio for iPad 2, iPad now!

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/NfswPbMsC3I/

The Avatars of Second Life The Pussycat Dolls Thora Birch Tila Tequila

Sony to stop paying for movie theater 3D glasses, theater owners fire back


As if going to the movies wasn't getting expensive enough, now theater owners and studios are fighting over the cost of 3D glasses -- again. Sony Pictures sent out a letter indicating that starting in May 2012, it won't foot the bill for moviegoer's 3D glasses anymore, pushing the charge onto the theater instead. The Hollywood Reporter uncovered the letter and indicates the total pricetag for a major movie like the ones Sony has planned for next summer -- Men in Black III and The Amazing Spider-Man -- can run as high as $5 to $10 million in total. Studios have been covering the cost to help push 3D so far but Sony's declaration could lead to other studios following, and changing to a model where moviegoers buy and keep their own 3D glasses. It'd be nice to think keeper pairs could reduce the surcharge -- or for 3D haters, switch more showings to 2D -- but with a half-full box of candy apparently worth its weight in gold, we're not optimistic.

Sony to stop paying for movie theater 3D glasses, theater owners fire back originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Sep 2011 10:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceThe Hollywood Reporter  | Email this | Comments


Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/7_Xi0OmuxFA/

Kristen Bell Kristin Cavallari Kristin Kreuk Kristy Swanson

Pastebin updated to V3, releases Windows app

pastebin
Pastebin is a very popular website aimed at coders and other nerdy types, which allows them (or should I say, us) to paste and share snippets of code with lovely syntax highlighting.

It has recently undergone a major overhaul which includes the release of a brand new Windows client. The new client lets you create new "pastes" and manage your existing ones. It joins a host of other tools from Pastebin, such as the Google and Chrome extensions, OS X widget and the mobile apps.

If you're currently using Pastebin, the new client is a great addition. And if you haven't tried it before, next time you have a piece of code you want to share or get some feedback on, you could do worse than try out Pastebin.

[Thanks, Jeroen!]

Pastebin updated to V3, releases Windows app originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 04 Mar 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/04/pastebin-updated-to-v3-releases-windows-app/

Sarah Mutch Sarah Polley Sarah Shahi Sarah Silverman

Boomshine is a soothing-yet-frustrating time waster

boomshine
One click; just one single well-aimed click. That's all you get in Boomshine.

That single click triggers a chain reaction; circles start exploding, and other circles colliding with the shockwaves explode as well, creating their own shockwaves, which then catch other circles.

It's been done before, yes, but this one is a great iteration. The soundtrack is mellow, with lots of piano and some nice percussion (not electronic - it sounds like drums).

At each level you need to make a certain number of circles explode to go on to the next level. I got up to level 12, where you get 60 circles and need to make 55 of them explode. And then I kept trying and trying, but simply couldn't get it. I did get to 54 circles a couple of times, but as they say, you don't get points for trying.

There's no time limit, so you can carefully study the pattern of motion and place your click at the exact right place to create the best chain reaction. I've found that clicking near the middle of the screen works quite well, especially if the balls are slowly moving in that direction. By the time the first shockwave dies off, the oncoming balls usually hit it and the chain reaction continues.

What level did you reach? Screenshots please!

Boomshine is a soothing-yet-frustrating time waster originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 16 Feb 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/02/16/boomshine-is-a-soothing-yet-frustrating-time-waster/

Alice Dodd Alicia Keys Alicia Witt Amanda Bynes

Intel and Samsung Breathe New Life into Neglected OS

MeeGo OS, the bastard love child of Intel and Nokia, isn’t dead yet. The operating system is being re-packaged as “Tizen,” as Intel and Samsung shack up with a host of partner companies on the mobile OS front.
Tizen is based on Linux and will be an open-source operating system hosted by the Linux Foundation. Also [...]

Source: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/09/intel-meego-os-tizen/

Leelee Sobieski Leighton Meester Leila Arcieri Lena Headey

Daily Crunch: Scope Edition

Nikon Displays Mysterious Prototypes At French Exhibition Sweet-Looking Bike Tool Roll Made From My Favorite Material, Waxed Canvas Dodocase Puts Out Some J. Crew Exclusive iPad 2 Cases SocialBicycles Bike Sharing Is Now A Kickstarter Project Thanko Starts Selling The USB Butt Cooler Cushion (Ver. 2)

Source: http://www.crunchgear.com/2011/06/28/daily-crunch-scope-edition/

Jennifer Love Hewitt Jennifer Morrison Jennifer ODell Jennifer Scholle

OWC updates its Mercury Extreme Pro 3G SSD lineup, offers 30GBs for just $68

Say hello to Other World Computing's latest 2.5-inch SSD, the 30GB variant of its Mercury Extreme Pro 3G series (3Gb/s, of course). This SandForce-driven SSD may not have loads of storage, but priced at a wallet-friendly 68 bucks, it's certainly tempting if your optical drive's been gathering dust. Whether you're running an ungodly amount of Firefox tabs on a Mac or Windows machine, you'll be covered with "sustained data rates of over 275MB/s," keeping your tasks speedy. Ready to ditch the beach balls and hourglasses? It's available now from OWC and you'll find more info in the PR past the break.

Continue reading OWC updates its Mercury Extreme Pro 3G SSD lineup, offers 30GBs for just $68

OWC updates its Mercury Extreme Pro 3G SSD lineup, offers 30GBs for just $68 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Sep 2011 01:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceOther World Computing  | Email this | Comments


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

Larissa Meek Laura Harring Laura Prepon Lauren Bush

The Dead Sea Isn't Really Dead After All [Science]

The Dead Sea earned its name because its 33 percent salinity prevents the growth of most organisms. It's one of the world's saltiest bodies of water which is why microbiologists were surprised to find thick biofilms on its sea floor. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/KCKwkJCtODI/the-dead-sea-isnt-really-dead-after-all

America Ferrera Amerie Amy Cobb Amy Smart