Dienstag, 30. November 2010
The Best Smartphone on Every Platform [Smartphones]
Winamp Wants To Be The iTunes Of Android; Now Out Of Beta With Wireless Sync
Today Winamp for Android is coming out of beta, a month after its initial launch and more than 500,000 downloads later. The public Android release lets you manage your music downloads on your Android and will offer a couple new features, including wireless syncing over WiFi with Winamp on your desktop computer and the addition of Shoutcast radio stations. (Both Winamp and Shoutcast are owned by AOL, as is TechCrunch). The wireless syncing requires a new desktop version for Windows computers, which is also available today. Winamp is a popular music management software for Windows, with 60 million users predominantly overseas. In fact, only about 5 percent of its users are in the U.S. But AOL is making a big push with Android, hoping to attract a lot of new U.S. mobile users and become the iTunes for Android devices. AOL has no plans right now to release Winamp for iPhone where it is pretty much impossible to compete with iTunes. "There is a lot of inertia around the iPhone. We have to nail this first," says Jeff Bronikowski, the new VP of AOL Music who was hired away from Yahoo Music earlier this month. 
Voogle brings Google Voice to webOS
Been waiting for a solid Google Voice app you can use on your webOS smartphone? Check out Voogle, which has just landed in the App Catalog at the bargain price of $1.99.Voogle supports all the important Google Voice features you'd expect. You can make voice calls, send text messages, playing recorded calls, and check voice mail. If you so desire, you can even use Voogle to replace your carrier's built-in voicemail with your own from Google Voice (slick!). Future plans include the addition of MMS support and real-time notifications.
If you're a Google Voice fan and you own a Pre or Pixi, Voogle is a must-have app.
[via PreCentral]
Voogle brings Google Voice to webOS originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 19 Nov 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Warpia SWP100A Wireless TV Display Adapter Review
The difference between a computer monitor and a TV screen seems to be becoming more irrelevant every day. Whether because we dropped cable or want a second computer display, more and more of us are connecting our computers to TVs. Devices like�Warpia’s SWP100A Wireless USB PC to TV Audio/Video Display Adapter claim to let you [...]
Aviary adds awesome HTML5 photo editor to its burgeoning arsenal
Citing its super-simplicity and embeddableness, Aviary seems to be rather proud of its new creation -- and justifiably so. The editor, no doubt because of its slim feature set, is very quick to load. The interface is snappy, and none of the manipulations or photo filters seem to create any kind of 'lag'. There aren't many functions, mind you (but Aviary says more are coming).
The idea behind the new editor, according to Aviary, was to create a cut-down and customizable editor that could easily be embedded across the Web, on its partners' websites. Of course, while you can just embed the editor, you could just take the code and install it on your own server -- and hack some new functionality into it while you're at it. That's the joy of open HTML5 Web apps, folks! Pure HTML means that it will work on next-generation mobile browsers like Firefox for Android, too.
All in all, the Aviary HTML5 photo editor is nothing short of excellent. If you need to do a quick bit of editing and don't want to play with a Flash editor that's larger and more cumbersome than a rusty forklift truck, try out Aviary's HTML5 editor.
Aviary adds awesome HTML5 photo editor to its burgeoning arsenal originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 24 Nov 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
RSS Live Links for Chrome lets you monitor news feeds in real-time
Not everyone uses Google Reader; some people (a dying breed, perhaps) like to consume their RSS feeds locally, using a desktop feed reader. Firefox has long had a Live Bookmarks feature that gave it some of those "desktop feed reader" powers: Live Bookmarks understands RSS, and it can always show you a list of a website's most recent headlines.
RSS Live Links brings just that sort of functionality to Google Chrome, along with a nice extra feature: instant notifications.
Whenever one of the feeds you've subscribed to updates, you get a nice sound effect (a human voice going "Boing!"), the icon shakes, and an unread count appears. When you then click the icon, you can see a list of the unread items in each feed, and hover over them to see a preview. Naturally, clicking an item opens it in a new tab.
This is a powerful add-on; it has a very rich configuration interface, with no less than 20 different options (I counted!). You can also configure the color scheme, select one of several different notification sounds, and customize it in a myriad other ways. Slick!
Filed under: web 2.0, Browsers
RSS Live Links for Chrome lets you monitor news feeds in real-time originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 17 Nov 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Winamp for Android beta with SHOUTcast integration and improved UI released
A month after the release of its first beta, Nullsoft has just released the next beta version of Winamp for Android. The main new feature is SHOUTcast Internet radio integration, but there's also a host of yummy little changes. Your best bet is to click through the gallery -- but otherwise, read on.For the most part, the SHOUTcast experience hasn't changed much since I looked at an alpha build a couple of weeks ago. It's a bit prettier, and it's now a lot easier to Favorite a station. Most importantly, SHOUTcast integration just works -- you search by genre, or keyword, and start listening to music within seconds.
On the smaller-but-still-juicy changes front, the main addition is integration with AOL Music. It's now just a matter of two clicks to see a band's discography, biography or photos. You can also pop open a Google search for your currently-playing song, if you're looking for a YouTube video, lyrics, or more information.
UI-wise, there's now a slimmer (4-by-1) home screen widget, which should be much easier to fit in between all of your app icons. The lock screen widget seems to be unchanged, however. Some icons have been altered, and there's a new context menu that lets you set songs as your phone's ring tone (very cool).
In other news, Winamp 5.6 for Windows has also been updated, with most of the changes targeted at improving its new Wi-Fi library sync feature. When combined with the updated
[Download Squad and Nullsoft, the developers of Winamp, are both owned by AOL.]
Winamp for Android beta with SHOUTcast integration and improved UI released originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 30 Nov 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Skinnyo helps you lose weight using peer pressure and challenges
For many people, the holidays mean food. Nom nom nom, chomp chomp chomp, and suddenly you've gained a few extra pounds. Skinnyo is a social website that tries to help you stage a preemptive strike in your struggle against chubbiness. At the core of the site is the weight graph, somewhat similar to the graph used on FitDay. Once you create an account, you can join all sorts of "challenges," or you can even start your own challenge.
Some of the public challenges at the time of writing are "Christmas Countdown," "Let's make the world 20 lbs lighter," and "2kgs in 4 weeks" (the loser buys the winner an HTC Desire HD!).
A challenge can have a limited number of participants, and it can also be private. The profile page, shown in the screenshot above, lets you micro-blog your way to a skinnier bod. Each update has your latest weight trend prominently displayed right next to your image.
Most of the people I know don't even like knowing their own weight, much less making it a public announcement. But if you're socially-inclined, Skinnyo is one interesting way to lose some weight.
Filed under: Utilities
Skinnyo helps you lose weight using peer pressure and challenges originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 26 Nov 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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BridgeURL lets you send a tour of several websites in one link
Sometimes you may want to send someone a whole list of websites to look at. Maybe you even want them to look at the sites in a given sequence, like when you're sharing the results of a search for a new car or a vacation spot.
BridgeURL is a fairly elegant service that accepts a list of links, and spits out a single bit.ly link. When you click this link, you're taken to the first website on the list, but it has subtle semi-transparent overlays on both sides. The left one leads to the previous site on the chain, while the right leads to the next site. (They're not semi-transparent on the screenshot because when you hover over them, they turn solid.)
There's also a bottom bar, but it's fairly unobtrusive. There were no banners or pop-ups as far as I was able to see. The only annoyance with the service is that for some odd reason, it forces you to feed it URLs starting with http:// or https:// - meaning, you can't write "downloadsquad.com" or even "www.downloadsquad.com". I have no idea why it's not smart enough to figure out the http:// on its own. Other than that, it's a fairly handy service.
Filed under: web 2.0
BridgeURL lets you send a tour of several websites in one link originally appeared on Download Squad on Sun, 28 Nov 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Publisher: Apple Banned My Android Mag App
Apple banned an iPhone magazine app because it contained content related to using Android phones, according to the app’s creator.
Apple refused to approve the magazine Android Magasinet, a publication about Google’s Android OS, according to Brian Dixen, managing editor of Danish magazine publisher Mediaprovider.
Dixen said when he asked why, an Apple executive replied, “You know… [...]
Apple refused to approve the magazine Android Magasinet, a publication about Google’s Android OS, according to Brian Dixen, managing editor of Danish magazine publisher Mediaprovider.
Dixen said when he asked why, an Apple executive replied, “You know… [...]
Protect Your iPad With iShine Microfiber Sleeve
Every iPad owner understands the importance of keeping their device both protected and clean. It takes very little time for oil from your hands to build up on the iPad’s screen, leaving plenty of unwanted smudges. There is an affordable solution though thanks to the iShine Microfiber iPad Sleeve. The iShine Sleeve is a must [...]
Enterprise Social Networking Platform Yammer Grabs $25 Million In New Funding
Enterprise social networking platform Yammer, has just raised $25 million in new funding led by U.S. Venture Partners with Emergence Capital, Charles River Ventures and Founders Fund also participating. This brings the startup's total funding to $40 million. Additionally, U.S. Venture Partners' Principal Mamoon Hamid will be joining Yammer's board. Yammer, which launched as the "Twitter for businesses" at TechCrunch 50 in 2008, recently expanded to become a more comprehensive platform for social networking within the enterprise. 
Beginner Tip: How to create an iTunes allowance for your kids
Thinking about creating an iTunes allowance for your kids this holiday season? If they’ve got an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad you may not want to give them unfettered access to your own iTunes account (Justin who–!?! Smurfberry what–?!?!) but do want to let them learn a little about personal finances and opportunity cost. iTunes [...]Beginner Tip: How to create an iTunes allowance for your kids is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.
TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
Virgin?s iPad-Only Project Hits The App Store; $2.99 Per Issue, iOS 4.2 Required
As expected, Virgin's new iPad-only magazine Project has hit the App Store. Most had been anticipating it at some point later today, but it actually went live in the U.S. store right around midnight PT. We've just managed to snag a copy after a pretty lengthy download (these magazine makers really need to get these file sizes under control). We'll do a more thorough walk-through once we've actually sat down and read the thing. But at first glance, Project looks nice. The interactive movie cover reminds me a bit of the newspapers in the Harry Potter films. Of course, once I got past the cover, it took me a bit of time to figure out how to navigate through the damn thing. But I eventually got the hang of it.
Google Wave looks set to be rescued by Apache
The Apache Software Foundation, that is, not an ominously portentous, Wagner-blaring helicopter.The beleaguered Wave project, which Google has ceased developing, will soon shut down. Last week, Google gave us the ability to export our existing waves as Zip files, and now, thanks to Apache and the Wave in a Box off-shoot, you may soon have somewhere to import them to. It won't be exactly the same as Google Wave, but it could be pretty damn close.
The Register is reporting that the Apache Software Group is looking to roll Wave in a Box into its current management and build systems. It's currently only in the incubator phase, but the the full proposal for Apache Wave reads like a serious, concerted effort. There are a ton of Googlers on the list of code committers, at any rate.
If all goes to plan, you may soon be able to easily set up your very own Wave server, for internal collaboration efforts. Who knows, maybe big-name email and instant messaging providers like Microsoft, Yahoo and Google will one day provide an end point for our waves!
Google Wave looks set to be rescued by Apache originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 24 Nov 2010 07:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Why Google
The Google-Groupon acquisition rumors are coming in hot and heavy now. The day began with a rumored price of $2.5 billion, which was way too low. Now it ends with a more likely price somewhere between $5 billion or $6 billion. Whatever the price, it will likely be Google's largest acquisition ever if it goes through (beating out DoubleClick's $3.1 billion, and certainly YouTube's $1.65 billion price tags). But why is Google even interested in Groupon? It is essentially an e-commerce site, bringing consumers daily deals from local and national merchants. Google doesn't do e-commerce very well (although it is trying through sexier product search). Buying Groupon would be a very risky $5 billion bet for Google in an unproven area outside its sweet spot of search I won't even get into valuation, which at $5 billion would be somewhere in the neighborhood of ten times whispered revenue run-rate of $500 million. But Groupon is the clear market leader in the fastest growing new category on the Internet, and Google seems willing to pay whatever it takes to buy market leadership. As one CEO in the local commerce industry put it to me on Monday, "I think the way Google will evolve is they will want to control everything significant on the Internet."
Publisher: Apple Banned My Android Mag App
Apple banned an iPhone magazine app because it contained content related to using Android phones, according to the app’s creator.
Apple refused to approve the magazine Android Magasinet, a publication about Google’s Android OS, according to Brian Dixen, managing editor of Danish magazine publisher Mediaprovider.
Dixen said when he asked why, an Apple executive replied, “You know… [...]
Apple refused to approve the magazine Android Magasinet, a publication about Google’s Android OS, according to Brian Dixen, managing editor of Danish magazine publisher Mediaprovider.
Dixen said when he asked why, an Apple executive replied, “You know… [...]
Droid X case review: Body Glove Snap-on Case
The Motorola Droid X is no wimpy phone, but that's not to say it couldn't use a little protection. If you're looking for a form-fitting case that's as stylish as it is effective, check out the Body Glove Snap-on Case for the Droid X.
The case itself comes in two parts -- a thin plastic front and more substantial rear enclosure. The Droid X fits neatly inside, and the two parts snap together for a snug fit. (Take your time and make sure all of the sides of the case are snapped tight.) The inside of the case is lined with a felt-type material, so you shouldn't have to worry about your Droid X being scratched. The outside of the case is a textured rubber. That does a couple of things: You get a good grip on the phone, so you're less likely to drop it, and it's less likely to slide off a table or car dash.
You'll definitely notice when the case is on the phone, but it's still very form-fitting, and you get the feeling that it's protected. The case is just thick enough to keep the screen from touching the surface when it's placed face-down. Same goes for the camera. The are cutouts for all of the usual ports, buttons and camera lens, so you don't lose any functionality.
You also get a detachable belt clip with the Body Glove Snap-on Case. There's a little cutout in the rear of the phone that snaps off, so you can replace the belt clip nub with a flat back. The belt clip snaps onto the nub and has a spring-loaded catch. The short version is that you're unlikely to accidentally trigger it and drop your phone.
We've got more pictures after the break. The Body Glove Snap-on Case for the Motorola Droid X is available now for $24.95 in the Android Central Store.
Droid X case review: Body Glove Snap-on Case posted originally by Android Central
Sponsored by Android Cases and Accessories
BearExtender PC USB Wireless Adapter Review
All too rarely we get to see a product that does exactly what it promises for a fair price, with good support and a solid design. The BearExtender N3 is that kind of product but only for folks running Mac OS X. They’ve now released the PC version, called the BearExtender PC, and we’re going [...]
Keurig Platinum Single Cup Brewer Review
Quite simply, the Keurig Platinum Single Cup brewer is the last coffee brewer you’re ever going to need.�� In my household, we’re coffee and tea drinkers…iced tea, hot tea, hot chocolate, lattes, hot apple cider….we drink it all. We just don’t drink the same thing at the same time. Every morning, I make coffee. I [...]
15+ free Windows apps to help you tackle Thanksgiving tech support
To make your holiday tech duties a bit easier, I've put together a list of some of my favorite troubleshooting apps for Windows.
Where download links for the files aren't on the application's main page, I've included a link to the appropriate download page. I've provided a handful of FileHippo links as well -- they're an excellent mirror site and they don't surround download links in advertisements or "recommendations."
Continue reading 15+ free Windows apps to help you tackle Thanksgiving tech support
Filed under: Features, Troubleshooting, Lists
15+ free Windows apps to help you tackle Thanksgiving tech support originally appeared on Download Squad on Sun, 21 Nov 2010 10:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
7-Zip version 9.20 released, still the best tool for compressed files
7-Zip, one of the most active and mature open source projects, has just reached version 9.20. Work on Version 9 only begun last year, in 2009, but it's already far ahead of the old version (4.65) in terms of speed and functionality.If you've never used 7-Zip before, now's the time to start. In one fell swoop it removes any need for other compressed file managers. It's faster and slimmer than WinZip, and lacks the nag screens of WinRar -- and it supports more file formats to boot! After installing, 7-Zip (or '7z') sits innocuously in your right-click context menu, ready to decompress almost every archive under the sun.
With version 9.20, you can even decompress some EXE, FLV and SWF files, peek inside NTFS, FAT and VHD files, and the command-line tool has been beefed up considerably. There's also localizations for Hindi, Gujarati, Sanskrit, Tatar, Uyghur and Kazakh, meaning there's more than 70 supported languages.
Download 7-Zip for Windows, Mac and Linux
7-Zip version 9.20 released, still the best tool for compressed files originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 23 Nov 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Windows Live Spaces Transition To WordPress Creates 1 Million New Blogs
Last September at TechCrunch Disrupt, Microsoft announced that all 7 million Windows Live Spaces blogs would be transitioning to Wordpress.com. It turned out that number was inflated, and a subsequent internal email put the real number of transitioned blogs at 300,000. Well, the number of Windows Live Spaces blogs which have transitioned over to Wordpress.com is now at "over half a million" and another half a million new Wordpress blogs have been created by Windows Live users. So that brings the total new Wordpress blogs created as a result of the partnership to one million.
Discover Windows Phone 7 apps with Bing Visual Search
The Visual Search itself is beautiful. The app icons slip and slide around the screen, and panels fade in and out with consummate smoothness -- it's powered by Silverlight, of course. Unsurprisingly, it looks and feels a lot like Zune -- and indeed, you can click through from any app to the Zune. From there you can install apps onto your phone.
The thing is, this tool in itself is nothing special -- but look at the competition! Apple's Web presence is alright, but it's hardly a joy to navigate -- it simply functions as a "preview" for those without iTunes. Google... well, take a look at the Web-based Android Market and decide for yourself. Microsoft's WP7 visual search seems positively awesome by comparison.
Filed under: Windows Mobile, Microsoft, Search
Discover Windows Phone 7 apps with Bing Visual Search originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 18 Nov 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Maybe FBI Surveillance Vans Should Have Invisible Wi-Fi Networks [Image Cache]
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