sabato 31 marzo 2012

Weibo services 'punished' for Beijing coup rumors, comments temporarily disabled

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For a country who doesn't really do April Fools' Day, you know China means business when it lays the smackdown on its weibo services. Here's the background story: about a week ago there was a rumor on the Chinese web about a military coup on one of the main streets in Beijing, and coincidentally I was in town around the time (for the Windows Phone launch). Funnily enough, I wasn't aware of this at all until my taxi driver in Hong Kong asked me about my visit, as he claimed that the passenger he picked up beforehand was actually a Chinese military officer who had several intense phone calls about said coup.

But of course, nothing actually happened. In fact, the guards at Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City were pretty relaxed when I visited on that very day. As for the rumormongers, the Chinese government announced through Xinhua that 16 websites have been shut down and six people have been detained, while local microblogging platforms Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo have been "criticized and punished accordingly," though it didn't elaborate on the details. All we know is that comments under each weibo post are now disabled until local time 8pm on April 3rd, during which these two companies can, in their own words, clean up the mess. Well, at least we now know where to draw the line for China's April Fools'.

Weibo services 'punished' for Beijing coup rumors, comments temporarily disabled originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 31 Mar 2012 22:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Craigslist Buyer Asks to Use Bathroom, Takes a Shower [Video]

The people from Replyboard—a service that claims to eliminate Craigslist trouble—wanted "to make the point that you have no idea what will happen when you meet a complete stranger from Craigslist." So they went to visit four sellers with a hidden camera. More »


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People Going Splat, One Really Large Cat, and Plasma Bongs—Because It's Friday (NSFW) [Video]

Roll that spliff phatly, pack some fresh ice into the binger, and set the Volcano to "toastify." It's time for tonight's Stoner Channel. We've collected our best high-times material for the discerning pothead so sit back, relax, and pass that shit on the left, yo. More »


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Razer confirms plans to release left-handed Naga gaming mouse

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It promised that it would do so if it received enough Likes on Facebook, and now Razer has confirmed that it is indeed proceeding with plans to release a left-handed version of its Naga gaming mouse. That comes after it received the required 10,000 Likes in less than a week -- a full three weeks ahead of its April 21st deadline. Unfortunately, there's no indication of a release date just yet, but you can rest assured that the MMO-focused mouse will be otherwise identical to its right-handed counterpart. The complete specs can be found in the press release after the break.

Continue reading Razer confirms plans to release left-handed Naga gaming mouse

Razer confirms plans to release left-handed Naga gaming mouse originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 31 Mar 2012 02:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mozilla publishes name and shame list of slow Firefox add-ons, cracks down on tardy devs

Firefox slow-addons list
Mozilla, continuing its year-long crusade to speed up Firefox startup and shutdown times, has published a name and shame list of the Firefox's slowest add-ons.

The list is just one part of Mozilla's new efforts to highlight slow add-ons, and to help developers make their add-ons more efficient. Over the next two weeks, 'slow performance warnings' will be introduced in the add-on gallery so that users can see, before installation, which add-ons will slow down their browser. If that isn't enough to spur developers into cleaning up their add-ons, Mozilla has also begun reaching out to developers of slow add-ons with tips on how to improve add-on performance. Finally, add-on developers will soon have the ability to perform 'on-demand performance testing,' so that they can test their add-on before it's deployed publicly.

Mozilla reports that the average Firefox add-on slows down Firefox's start-up time by 10% -- which means, if you install 10 add-ons, you will double your start-up time. On fast desktop PCs that kind of slowdown might be negligible, but on older computers, laptops and smartphones, it could be the difference between a 5 and 10 second startup. Mozilla has obviously realized that while massive performance gains might've been made with Firefox 4, the addition of third-party add-ons can destroy any user-perceived improvements.

In other news, Mozilla says that a future build of Firefox will block the installation of add-ons (such as toolbars) by third-party software. Add-ons and toolbars that are bundled in this way will require explicit approval when you next open up Firefox. Hooray!

Mozilla publishes name and shame list of slow Firefox add-ons, cracks down on tardy devs originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 04 Apr 2011 05:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New iPad 3 Retina Display

The new iPad 3‘s retina display has caused a real stir amongst those anxiously awaiting the new tablet PC. The Retina display features the best display ever available on a mobile device. Many consider the upgraded display the single biggest selling point when moving from the iPad 2 to the new model. Apple definitely feel this way as they made the new display the subject for the first commercial for the new iPad 3. All this has probably left you [...]

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Personal Activity Monitor tracks time you spend using desktop apps

personalactivitymonitor
Up until a couple of years ago, I used to turn to RescueTime to figure out how I spend my time online. Then it got too complex, and I stopped using it. Personal Activity Monitor is like a vastly dumbed-down version of RescueTime, and I mean that as a compliment. It's free and bare-bones -- all it does is track what applications you're using and for how long.

A big drawback at this point is that it doesn't integrate with Web browsers to help you analyze how you spend your time on the Web. Still, if your work doesn't require constant Web app use, knowing how long you've used a browser overall might be enough to help you manage your time.

This is far from the only application in this space -- alternatives such as Slife and Chrometa are full-featured and impressive -- but PAM is good option for those who want a nice, simple tracker.

Personal Activity Monitor tracks time you spend using desktop apps originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 05 Mar 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Keen On? Chad Mureta: How Apps Can Change Your Life [TCTV]

MuretaBack in 2009, Chad Mureta was an 18-hour a day real estate salesman living from one paycheck to the next. Driving home after a basketball game one evening, he hit a deer, flipped his truck over four times, mangled his arm and almost killed himself. Then, recovering in his hospital bed, Mureta - who knew nothing about technology or the Internet - was introduced to the app economy by a friend who gave him a newspaper article about how apps can generate significant revenue. When he got out of the hospital, Mureta borrowed $1,800 from his stepfather, built an app called Fingerprint Security Pro which eventually generated $800,000 in revenue. Mureta is now an app entrepreneur and, in good Tim Ferris style, travels around the world as a member of what he calls "the new rich".

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DoubleTwist adds Google Music support, gets an alarm clock app

DoubleTwist Alarm Clock
DoubleTwist is certainly still one of the better music management options for Android, and it just keeps improving. Two days ago the player app got an update and now it can hook into Google Music, though, it only recognizes songs that you've checked for offline access from within the Google app. An unfortunate restriction, but at least your tracks don't disappear into the ether if you prefer to play back your tunes via DoubleTwist. There's also new functionality coming to what is now less an app than an ecosystem, thanks to the just released DoubleTwist Alarm Clock. The functionality is pretty much what you'd expect -- set a time and pick a song from your DoubleTwist library to gently rouse you from your slumber (or kick your butt out of bed). The Alarm Clock is just $0.99 in the Play Market right now for the first 10,000 customers. After that it'll go up to $1.99. So don't waste any time, go download it now.

DoubleTwist adds Google Music support, gets an alarm clock app originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Mar 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Farragomate is a social fridge magnet game where you make up sentences

farragomate
You know those fridge magnet kits composed of a whole bunch of words? The ones you put all over your fridge door and then try to arrange into all sorts of juvenile and/or amusing sentences. Well, Farragomate is the social, webby version of that very same pastime.

You get to play with a bunch of random strangers in real-time, and make up sentences out of a pre-set collection of words, including some fairly naughty ones, and all players' nicknames. As you can imagine, some of the results are not child-friendly.

There are ten rounds to a game. Once a round is done, players get to vote for their favorite sentence from that round. You can't vote for your own creation, of course. There's in-game chat, too.

I think the vocabulary could be made a bit more eclectic, but even as it is, it's a nice way to spend a few minutes and meet random strangers on the Internet (always a thrilling experience).

Farragomate is a social fridge magnet game where you make up sentences originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 25 Feb 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Windows 8 now available to OEMs via Microsoft Connect

windows 8Select Microsoft Connect partners -- major players like HP -- have been given their first taste of Windows 8. According to various sources, the build string currently sits at 7971.0.110324-1900, which is the third milestone build of the successor to Windows 7.

So far, there haven't been many details revealed about Windows 8. An actual System Restore -- which is being referred to as History Vault -- has been reported, and the feature will allow users and administrators to completely roll back a system to a previous state. A factory reset option is also said to be included.

We've also seen Windows Live integration taking shape on the desktop. It's believed that you'll be able to log in to Windows 8 using your Windows Live credentials, not just a traditional offline Windows username and password.

All that's left now is for a leaked Windows 8 build to show up on a torrent site. Feel free to tip us if you see that happen.

Windows 8 now available to OEMs via Microsoft Connect originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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F-22 Failure Investigation Results: 'We Have No Clue' [Airplanes]

After spending seven months in costly research, the Air Force scientific board investigating the F-22 life support system failure has turned in their conclusions. The findings: they have no idea about what's going on. The USAF's press release reads like a joke to American taxpayers. More »


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venerdì 30 marzo 2012

Microsoft, Google Race to Speed Up the Web

This may come as news to owners of 4G smartphones, but the Internet apparently isn't fast enough and needs to speed up. Google and Microsoft have submitted separate proposals to accomplish this. Google's SPDY proposal defines and implements an application-layer protocol that reduces latency and seeks to replace parts of the HTTP protocol. It is already being used by Mozilla and Twitter.

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Jailbreak iOS 4.3.1 on OS X or Windows with PwnageTool or Sn0wbreeze

iOS 4.3.1 jailbreakA jailbreak of iOS 4.3.1 is now possible with both PwnageTool on Mac, and Sn0wbreeze on Windows. RedmondPie -- who else? -- has some handy guides that you can follow for all iOS 4.3.1 devices on Windows, for iPhone 4 on OS X, iPad 1 on OS X, iPhone 3GS on OS X, and iPod touch 4G and 3G on OS X.

All iOS 4.3.1 jailbreaks are still tethered, meaning you'll have to jailbreak your device after every reboot. An untethered jailbreak is slated for release sometime in the next week -- but 4.3 was meant to have an untether, too, and that never emerged.

Maybe Apple's updated security mechanisms will finally keep hackers at bay!

Jailbreak iOS 4.3.1 on OS X or Windows with PwnageTool or Sn0wbreeze originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 06:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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11 New Lives for Dead Tennis Balls—None of Which Involve Tennis [11 Uses]

Old tennis balls may not be able to bounce around the court, but they can be incredibly handy around the house. Here are eleven second acts for the Wilsons. Just give the balls a chance. More »


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