Royal wedding livestream breaks hearts, records

No frogs transformed into princes and no wicked stepmothers were vanquished -- not on camera, at least -- but today's royal wedding managed to capture the world's imagination. Thanks to partnerships with CBS, the Associated Press, UK Press Association, and Entertainment Tonight, the marriage between Prince William and Kate Middleton broke viewing records on Livestream.com, maxing out at 300,000 simultaneous viewers and a total of "at least 2 million" unique users, according to Max Haot, the site's CEO. We reached out to YouTube and Facebook to see how they did on the streaming front, but neither site has a final tally -- though a Facebook spokesperson did tell us that 6,819,072 people have commented on the wedding in the past 24 hours. We don't want to rain on anyone's parade, but we hear News Corp. has secured the rights to the Royal Divorce -- just in case.

Royal wedding livestream breaks hearts, records originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 30 Apr 2011 06:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Square to add encryption to mobile card reader, skimmers put on notice

It's only been a couple days since we first heard about Visa's involvement with Square, but the credit card giant is already making its mark on the mobile payment startup. At the Visa Global Security Summit on Wednesday, Square Security Lead Sam Quigley revealed that the company will distribute an encrypted card reader this summer, which will work exclusively with its mobile payment app. The current reader theoretically scans credit card data to any app, but the encrypted version will only work with Square, which should alleviate VeriFone's concern that the company was essentially distributing "card skimmers" to anyone with a social security number. Luckily, the new encrypted reader will remain free, giving Square a colossal advantage over VeriFone's Payware Mobile product, which carries a $49 activation fee, in addition to standard merchant fees. Not to mention, it isn't available in white.

Square to add encryption to mobile card reader, skimmers put on notice originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Apr 2011 16:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Torus is an impressive 3D Tetris game powered by HTML5

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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FCC opens floor for public comment on AT&T / T-Mobile deal

Since the world's engineers haven't yet come up with a way to read minds over the internet (or at all, last we checked), we're not sure what you think about the proposed marriage of T-Mobile to AT&T. We're pretty sure you do have an opinion of some sort, though, and if you want it to be heard, now's the opportunity to let the Federal Communications Commission read your thoughtful, reasoned take on how a GSM monopoly in the United States might or might not work. (Speak now or forever hold your peace, in other words.) To comment, simply visit the source links below, where the FCC has some handy forms -- one for short comments, one for long comments (where you have to attach a PDF document) and one with the magic number of the related proceeding, which is 11-65. Let 'em know just how you'll be impacted if the deal goes through, for better or for worse.

[Thanks, Jeff]

FCC opens floor for public comment on AT&T / T-Mobile deal originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 30 Apr 2011 16:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Clippy is Back... But As a Game, Which is Still Bad [Bad Ideas]

I remember hating it when Clippy popped up for no good reason while working. Now, even after Microsoft officially put him to rest, he's doing it again. Only this time it's in game form. Which is marginally better, I suppose? More »

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eBay: Searches For Royal Wedding Products Up 1,815 Percent In 2011

The Royal Wedding is finally over, and William and Kate are hitched. The wedding goes beyond just a ceremony, the event is actually a huge business. Between replicas of Kate Middleton's engagement ring and Royal Wedding china, retailers are profiting off of the nuptials. And eBay and its merchants are part of this business. Here are a few stats related to the searches and purchases of wedding-related items on the marketplace.

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Daily Tip: How to move multiple apps at once [Jailbreak]

Trying to rearrange one of your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad home screens and curious how to move multiple apps around at once? Well, if you’re Jailbroken, you can! Multiiconmove allows you to move multiple icons so you can get your home screen exactly how you want it, as fast as possible. We’ll show you [...]

Daily Tip: How to move multiple apps at once [Jailbreak] is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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