Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Diaspora Alpha hands-on: a video review of Facebook's competition

Diaspora

So, Diaspora started sending out invites. Jay got one and invited me in! Rather than bore you with a lengthy text description, I've decided to bore you with a video instead, so you can at least see for yourself what it looks like while I rattle on and on.

The aesthetic is different than what we've seen in past screenshots. It doesn't look as good, at least to me. At any rate, you're welcome to watch the video after the break and judge for yourself!

What do you think? Can this venture even get off the ground?

Continue reading Diaspora Alpha hands-on: a video review of Facebook's competition

Diaspora Alpha hands-on: a video review of Facebook's competition originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 24 Nov 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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UberTwitter beta arrives on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch

UberTwitter for iPhoneUberTwitter, the definitive BlackBerry Twitter app, has finally made the leap to iOS. The app bears the beta moniker, but Engadget seems to think that the final release will be as soon as December.

UberTwitter, other than being a very polished app, only really has one unique feature: UberView (please forgive my continuing lack of umlauts). UberView, with a quick flick of the phone into landscape orientation, shows you a preview of links contained in tweets -- handy for when you don't want to open up a browser, or indeed expose your iDevice to potentially malicious websites.

Other than that, UberTwitter for iOS provides the usual slew of Twitter miscellany: tweet pictures, add your location, change your avatar, send Direct Messages (!!!) and more.

UberTwitter for iOS [iTunes] -- Free

Gallery: UberTwitter

UberTwitter beta arrives on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 24 Nov 2010 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Office Depot welcomes 10-inch ViewSonic G Tablet into the fold, slaps $399 sticker on it

If your tablet wishlist includes things like Tegra 2, Android 2.2, and 1080p video playback, you might want to drop by your nearest Office Depot some time soonish. ViewSonic's G Tablet has just been made available for purchase at the store's many outlets across the US and is also supposed to be up for grabs at its online portal. We say "supposed" because we can't find it anywhere on officedepot.com, but that's probably just a temporary issue. The main point is that $399 will buy you a seat on the Froyo tablet bandwagon, a very glossy 10-inch seat with 1024 x 600 resolution. Skip past the break for the full PR.

Continue reading Office Depot welcomes 10-inch ViewSonic G Tablet into the fold, slaps $399 sticker on it

Office Depot welcomes 10-inch ViewSonic G Tablet into the fold, slaps $399 sticker on it originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Nov 2010 10:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Basic Secrets Behind Popular Circus Acts [Video]

While we don't recommend running into your backyard and trying to recreate silly circus routines on your own, it's still fascinating to know the general methods behind the tricks. So here are the basic "secrets" behind some popular circus acts. More »


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Shortcut Manager for Chrome lets you execute JavaScript with hotkeys -- and more!

shortcutmanager

I've recently been spending more and more time in Chrome, and I'm very impressed. One of the things I needed was a way to execute arbitrary bits of JavaScript (bookmarklets and other tidbits) using keystrokes. This is useful because it lets me control Chrome using AutoHotkey, and do all sorts of other things.

The solution I found is called Shortcut Manager, and it's a Chrome extension that goes above and beyond what I need. It lets you assign hotkeys to execute existing browser operations (switch tabs, scroll, etc.), but also lets you paste in any bookmarklet code or other JavaScript for the hotkey to execute. You can also assign site-specific hotkeys -- meaning a certain hotkey would do something on one site, and something else (or nothing at all) on another site.

Last but not least, having worked so hard on your customizations, Shortcut Manager lets you easily export and import your settings (sync support would be a nice addition). This is a a must-have extension for me, and probably for other JavaScript-loving nerds as well.

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Shortcut Manager for Chrome lets you execute JavaScript with hotkeys -- and more! originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 17 Nov 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorola Olympus hitting AT&T in 'December or January,' says now-deleted Facebook post

Excited for Tegra 2 to finally take the Android smartphone world by storm? Recent leaks out of LG and Motorola certainly suggest that NVIDIA's finally going to make some inroads with its silicon somewhere around the Gingerbread or Honeycomb time frame -- and that might happen sooner rather than later if a posting on Facebook is to be believed. Remember that shiny black Olympus (pictured above) that leaked last week? Someone in the captain's chair of one of AT&T's official Facebook accounts responded to a question about availability of the phone earlier today, matter-of-factly reporting that "the Motorola Olympus should be available in December or January." We would've been willing to chalk it up to confusion on an employee's part, but the post was later removed without a trace, and a follow-up with AT&T elicited a standard "we don't have any information to share about upcoming devices" response. The company claims the posting was made "erroneously," and we'll agree with them on at least one level: neither AT&T nor Motorola intended for that information to slip out today.

Motorola Olympus hitting AT&T in 'December or January,' says now-deleted Facebook post originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Nov 2010 16:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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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 [...]

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Malwarebytes 1.5 detects and cleans more malware faster than ever

Malwarebytes is one of the most trusted and effective tools for removing all kinds of malicious software. Over at the Malwarebytes forums, there's big news today: MBAM 1.5 has been released, and it's faster, smarter, and better than ever. Startup time has been trimmed to just a few seconds and scanning speed improved by as much as 500%. There's also a host of new detection algorithms which allow MBAM to better detect all the frustrating, shifty malware floating around cyberspace.

Users can now manually add files and folders to the Malwarebytes ignore list, too. If you own the pro version, you'll get enhanced command line tools, a smarter, faster "Flash scan" which takes as little as 10 seconds to complete, and one-touch automatic updating.

Download Malwarebytes 1.5

Malwarebytes 1.5 detects and cleans more malware faster than ever originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 30 Nov 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ViewMarks for Firefox makes bookmarks visual and huge

viewmarks

In these days of social bookmarking, ViewMarks is a Firefox add-on that sticks with the old-fashioned way of storing your bookmarks on your own computer. But this is the default behavior for Firefox anyway, so why should you get excited about ViewMarks?

It's all in the graphics -- basically, ViewMarks saves a thumbnail along with each bookmark. The result looks kind of like the Speed Dial feature used by Opera and Chrome (and Firefox, too, if you install an extension). But it applies across all of your bookmarks and folders, not just the select few that you use every day.

If you already have existing bookmarks (and who doesn't, really?), ViewMarks will not poll all of them for screenshots upon installation. Instead, as you visit each website, ViewMarks will capture its screenshot and then use it. Any new bookmarks that you add will get a screenshot the moment you add them, of course.

One odd quirk on my system was that ViewMarks kept resizing the browser window to a certain size. I suspect it did that in order to get the screenshot just right, but it really shouldn't do this. Except for this one annoyance, this can be a nice add-on if you're the visual sort.

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ViewMarks for Firefox makes bookmarks visual and huge originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 22 Nov 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Droid X case review: Body Glove Snap-on Case

Body Glove Snap-on Case for Droid X

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

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Humans Can Only Walk In Circles and We Don't Know Why [Video]

Humans can't walk in straight lines. If there's no fixed point of reference, we just walk in circles and inevitably get lost. Nobody knows why, but researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics have confirmed it in several experiments. More »


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