Feed your Angry Birds addiction with these table top speakers

Back in June, Janet posted a news item announcing these speakers. At that time they weren’t yet available. Now they are! If you’re still flinging birds at pigs, then you need one of these uber cute Angry Birds speakers. Available in Black bird, Pig and Red bird styles, these speakers from Gear4 range in price [...]

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Internet Explorer 9 nears 4% share on Windows 7, IE6 extinction countdown picks up steam

Microsoft has shared some news about the state of its most and least loved Web browsers -- Internet Explorer 9 and 6, respectively. Even with IE9 only recently exiting beta, Microsoft reports that 3.6% of Windows 7 users are now running the new browser (no mention of Vista... what's with that?). The post also reveals that the adoption rate is almost five times what IE8 garnered in the early going.

It's also interesting to note that there are now more than 1,000 sites utilizing Internet Explorer 9's Windows 7 integration features -- like the new desktop notification support we showed you in Hotmail.

But perhaps the best news of all is that Microsoft's IE6countdown.com now has more than 400 partners and is generating nearly two million pageviews per month, helping to lure users away from the woefully out-of-date browser. Can the end come soon enough, DS readers?

Internet Explorer 9 nears 4% share on Windows 7, IE6 extinction countdown picks up steam originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 01 Apr 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google's Blogger platform adds five new HTML5 Dynamic Views

Google, as part of its ongoing and much-needed overhaul of its popular Blogger platform, has just enabled five dynamic, HTML5ish, AJAXy 'Dynamic Views'. There's a video introducing the new layouts after the break.

The five new views provide fresh and interesting ways to explore your favorite Blogger blogs. The Mosaic view, for example, creates a wall of thumbnails -- click one, and it zooms to fill the screen; click it again and it minimizes. Flipcard is similar to Mosaic, but not quite as eclectic. Sidebar, Timeslide and Snapshot round off the new views, with each one obviously targeted at different types of content, from photo blogs, to text-only philosophy blogs, and everything in between.

For now, you have to visit a Blogger blog and add /view to the URL to enable the new Dynamic Views. If you own a Blogger blog, you can disable the new views -- and really, why weren't they disabled by default?

If feedback is positive -- which we're sure it will be -- these Dynamic Views will soon be enabled by default. You'll also be able to edit the views in much the same way as current Blogger templates.

Continue reading Google's Blogger platform adds five new HTML5 Dynamic Views

Google's Blogger platform adds five new HTML5 Dynamic Views originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 10:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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VMware adds Mozy to its cloud and virtualization empire

Mozy is one of the most popular cloud backup services around, with more than one million users storing around 70 petabytes of data. Its popularity apparently put it on the acquisition radar of VMware -- which has now made Mozy part of its virtualization empire.

VMware's official blog post makes it clear that the company wasn't so much interested in Mozy as a consumer offering. Rather, it's the inner workings of Mozy which piqued VMware's curiosity. CTO Steve Herrod says, "Over the past 5 years, Mozy has built one of the best examples of a globally distributed, large-scale cloud offering." He adds that the move will allow VMware to "further ramp our own cloud-related learning and accelerate new IP, scale, and capabilities" of its existing offerings.

Existing Mozy customers don't need to worry, of course. VMware has pledged to continue running Mozy's service without interruption.

VMware adds Mozy to its cloud and virtualization empire originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Corel releases VideoStudio Pro X4, we go hands on (video)

Corel seems to be on a roll lately; after releasing WinZip System Utilities just last week, this morning the company announced VideoStudio Pro X4.

VideoStudio Pro is aimed at home users and small business professionals who want to create professional-looking videos, but without the hassle, steep learning curve and price of Adobe Premiere Pro and the likes.

This new version introduces several features:

• Stop motion animation: You can now capture still frames using a webcam, camcorder or DSLR and use them to produce an animation. Tools such as "onion skin view" let you compare the previous image in the sequence with the current one and make the animation as smooth as possible.
• Processor optimization: Corel says the app is optimized for Intel's new Sandy Bridge systems, and have shown us some graphs with very impressive numbers. We've been unable to test this particular point, but if you have a recent-generation Intel or AMD Fusion system, VideoStudio performance should be blazing. Even on our older test system performance was quite impressive.
• Customizable workspace: You can drag the video preview window to your secondary monitor (if you have one) and tweak just about any other element in the window layout. Once done, you can save your ideal workspace in one of three slots.
• Share-to-Web: VideoStudio Pro X4 hooks directly into YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook and Flickr, so you don't even have to launch a browser to upload your final product. Edit, produce and share from within the app itself.
• Smart Package: Video projects typically consist of many files; Smart Package lets you bundle all video assets for a given project into one ZIP file which you can password-protect and keep in a safe place once you're done editing.

I've had a chance to play around with a pre-release version for a few days, and have put it through its paces editing a short video for my day job. Overall, I've been impressed with how easy it was to create pro-looking results. If you do any sort of video editing but are leery of the investment other apps require (both in dollars and effort), VideoStudio Pro is well worth checking out. To see a bit of the interface itself and what the app can do, watch the video after the jump.

Note: We'll be running a give-away of ten VideoStudio Pro X4 licenses later today, each worth $100 USD. Keep your eyes peeled for the giveaway post!

Continue reading Corel releases VideoStudio Pro X4, we go hands on (video)

Corel releases VideoStudio Pro X4, we go hands on (video) originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 22 Feb 2011 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A Bench That's Part See-Saw, Part Slinky [Design]

This fun and flexible furniture is called a polymorphic bench and it has a unique mechanical design that will change shape when someone sits down on it. More »

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Corel VideoStudio X4 giveaway

This morning, Corel released VideoStudio X4. We've already published a quick overview and hands-on of the application, and now is the moment you've all been waiting for: We're giving away ten full licenses of this new version, each worth $99.99!

To enter our random draw, you just have to leave a comment. Full terms and conditions are after the break.

Continue reading Corel VideoStudio X4 giveaway

Corel VideoStudio X4 giveaway originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 22 Feb 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Staying in the Loop with iPad?s Top Social Apps

In this day and age, where access to Internet connectivity is basically at your disposal, juggling your personal, corporate and social life is hardly an issue. The Apple iPad, probably the most sought-after Internet-enabled device in the market today, combined with these social networking apps could help you find just that work-play balance for you. Keeping up with the world has never been easy.   With the vast array of social networking apps available, ranging from fun to practical, you [...]

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Galaxy cluster research supports Einstein's Theory of Relativity on a cosmic level

In one small win for Einstein, one giant win for mankind, scientists at the Niels Bohr Institute have proved his General Theory of Relativity on a cosmic scale through their research of large galaxy clusters. Accordingly, the clusters -- which are the largest known gravity-bound objects -- have such a strong pull that they should cause light to "redshift," or proportionally increase in wavelength, shifting towards the red end of the visible spectrum. To test it, researchers measured beams from 8,000 clusters, revealing that they do indeed cause a change in light's wavelength, supporting Einstein's theory to a T. One good turn deserves another, right Albert? Armchair cosmologists can hop on over to the source link to learn more.

Galaxy cluster research supports Einstein's Theory of Relativity on a cosmic level originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Sep 2011 02:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Classic Shell now makes Internet Explorer 9 look like IE8

If you used Windows XP for a long time (who didn't?), one of the biggest changes when moving to Windows 7 or Vista was the massively-altered Explorer. While the new Explorer introduces some useful new features, it also removed just as many -- which is where Classic Shell comes in!

We've covered Classic Shell before, but here's the crib note: Classic Shell restores almost every Windows XP-era Explorer feature. The best change, in our opinion, is the reemergence of the 'up' arrow, meaning you now navigate without using the Windows Vista/7 'breadcrumbs' address bar. The status bar yet again shows the total size of your selection, and -- praise be! -- the diabolical Windows 7 Copy File 'copy and replace?' dialog has been replaced with a Windows XP lookalike (image after the break).

New to the most recent version of Classic Shell is the ability to make IE9 look like IE8. With Classic Shell the title bar yet again has a caption, so you can see the full title of Web pages. The current security zone and loading progress indicator have been put back into the status bar, too. If you enable 'Show tabs on a separate row,' it's almost like using IE8.

Finally, Classic Shell replaces the omnipotent Windows 7 Start Menu with the age-old 'classic' Windows 2000/XP-style Start Menu. Classic Shell makes the Start Menu skinable, too, if you're into the kind of thing.

As awesome as it sounds, we've only touched on a small section of Classic Shell's feature set. Check the Classic Shell site for a complete list. There's a few more images of Classic Shell in action after the break.

Download Classic Shell for Windows

Continue reading Classic Shell now makes Internet Explorer 9 look like IE8

Classic Shell now makes Internet Explorer 9 look like IE8 originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 04 Apr 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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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)

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What Computer Problems Would Look Like If They Were Literally Real [Video]

Can't open folders. Logged out. Firewalls. Windows crashed. Reboot. What do those sayings even mean? This video shows you what the world would look like if those computer problems were taken, like, literally. It's hilarious. [Awkward Spaceship via The Awesomer] More »

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Daily Crunch: Floor Tour Edition

A Visit To The Indie Games Pavilion At E3 Videos And Gallery: Nintendo?s Booth, Wii U, And New 3DS Games Mad Catz And Tritton Say Their Warhead Is The Ultimate Wireless 360 Headset 15 Minutes Of Battlefield 3 Multiplayer Gameplay Voting Now Open For Linux Foundation T-Shirt Contest

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Daily Crunch: Moon Phase Edition

The Legend Of Zelda: A Generation?s Awakening Sega Toys? R2-D2 Homestar Planetarium Shows The Death Star Surveillant Society ?Rotary Mechanical? Cell Phone Concept Isn?t Practical, But It Looks Great 11 Great Last Minute Geeky Father?s Day Gifts Weekend Giveaway: Man Cave Gear For Pops

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Microsoft Cracks Down On Spammy Windows Phone App Submissions

There may be more than 20,000 apps in the Windows Phone Marketplace now, but it seems as though some "developers" are intent on fiddling with the cool-to-crap ratio. As low-quality, low-functionality apps flood the marketplace, Microsoft will be limiting developers to 10 app submissions per day starting tomorrow.

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Google Analytics Catches Up With Real-Time, Launches Enterprise Tier

Google Analytics, the�immensely�popular suite of tools that Google offers to help webmasters track their site traffic, is getting a big boost this week: the service has launched a real-time dashboard that updates with user events as they happen. That's a big deal, as it brings Google more in line with popular real-time analytics products like Chartbeat, which allows�you to track things like how many people are currently on your site, and how much traffic each individual article has gotten in the last few minutes. Prior to today's launch of real-time, Google Analytics reports typically had a delay window upwards of three hours (and often longer), which meant this kind of tracking wasn't possible.

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Nokia Preparing New ?Meltemi? OS For Low-End Phones

It's no secret that Nokia has put their faith in Windows Phone 7 to carry their future smartphones, but they haven't forgotten the millions of customers who count on them for their lower-end handsets. A new report from the Wall Street Journal suggests that Nokia is hard at work on a Linux-based OS codenamed "Meltemi."

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Shazam Ditches The Monthly Tagging Limits For iOS And Android Devices

Back in late 2009, then-free music identifying service Shazam made a rather drastic change to their business model: they went freemium. Everybody got 5 free song identifications per month... but after that, they'd have to cough up for premium app, "Shazam Encore". That worked well enough for a while ? then the competition rolled in, and gave away what Shazam was trying to charge for. Shazam responded with an experiment: they'd remove the tagging limits in their app, with a single "sponsor" covering their costs in exchange for ad placement ? but only for Android, and only until the end of the year. Seems that worked well enough: Shazam has just removed the tagging limits in their iOS and Android apps indefinitely.

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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.

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Google Latitude check-in deals now available across the US

Recently, Google has been busy beefing up Latitude to make it more competitive with other location apps -- and more fun to use. Location history was added recently, iOS users can post check-ins via Latitude, and now Google has begun rolling out location-based deals which are tied to the service.

If you're in the U.S., you can now score local savings at participating merchants by checking in with Latitude. Google will also be offering "status deals," which users can unlock by visiting a particular merchant on a regular basis. Mashable notes three status levels: regular, VIP, and guru -- though partners can apparently customize those titles if they choose.

Right now deals are available from merchants like American Eagle Outfitters, Arby's, Finish Line, Macy's, Quiznos, and RadioShack.

Google Latitude check-in deals now available across the US originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 08 Apr 2011 08:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Amazon Silk browser spins a faster mobile web, courtesy of cloud servers (video)

Part of Amazon's new Kindle Fire pitch is its promise of Amazon Silk -- a "split browser" exclusive to the tablet that gets the heavy lifting done on its EC2 cloud servers and promises faster access as a result. Dubbed Silk to represent an "invisible, yet incredibly strong connection", it takes advantage of Amazon's existing speedy connections, and that so many sites are already hosted on its servers to speed up web access. Another feature is its ability to learn from previous web surfers and use their data to determine how to render a page, and which sites to precache on the device before you even select the next link. While mobile browsers like Skyfire and Opera have offered speed boosting proxies before, Amazon thinks its AWS prowess and the addition of "dynamic decisions" about what to render locally or in the cloud takes it to another level. Read our live blog of the event for more details, or check out the video explanation and press release after the break.

Continue reading Amazon Silk browser spins a faster mobile web, courtesy of cloud servers (video)

Amazon Silk browser spins a faster mobile web, courtesy of cloud servers (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Sep 2011 10:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorola Xoom finally getting its 4G LTE upgrade starting Sept. 29

Xoom 4G LTE starts shipping Oct. 13 for $499

We're starting to get word that the Motorola Xoom is finally getting ready for its upgrade to 4G LTE on Verizon. If you'll recall, the Xoom was the first Honeycomb tablet, announced at CES in January. At the time, we knew it was going to launch as a 3G-only device, with a hardware upgrade to come sometime later. And later. And later.

Many moons came and went. Scores of other excellent Honeycomb tablets have been released. Samsung released a 4G LTE version of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 on Verizon. And there still sat the Xoom, with its promise of an upgrade looking more and more tarnished. Add to that the fact that you'll still have to actually relenquish your Xoom and send it in for the upgrade, and the whole thing was looking even sillier than it did at first blush.

But that brings us back to now. Starting Thursday, you can go to Verizon's website for complete instructions on how to get your upgrade. You'll have to part with your Xoom for six days. The upgrade is free, and you don't have to change your data plan.

Also of note: Motorola Xooms with 4G LTE baked in -- aptly named the Xoom 4G LTE -- will start shipping Oct. 13 for $499.

Full press release is after the break.

More: Motorola Xoom forums

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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)

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Gladinet maps Amazon Cloud Drive to your Windows desktop

Amazon's recently-introduced Cloud Drive is a great place to store your files online. It offers 5 gigs of totally free space, and U.S. users also get access to the handy Cloud Player app (for Web and Android!) which streams music you upload to your Cloud Drive.

The service could be a little easier to use, however. Until Amazon releases a desktop client, Windows users might want to take another look at Gladinet. The multi-service cloud connector has now added Amazon Cloud Drive support and will let you map a network drive letter to your account with minimal fuss.

Once you've added your credentials to Gladinet, just pick the letter you want to assign to the drive and you're good to go. You can then copy files to and from your Cloud Drive, rename items, and manage folders like you would any local hard drive in your system.

The only downside is that the free version of Gladinet gives you a limited number of cloud interactions. Once you use those up, you'll need to upgrade to the paid version, which costs $49.99. If you work with a number of cloud-based storage providers, however, it could be well worth the price tag.

Gladinet maps Amazon Cloud Drive to your Windows desktop originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 04 Apr 2011 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Amazon Kindle Fire tablet unveiled: Android-based, 7-inch display, $199 price tag

Okay, so it wasn't much of a surprise, but Amazon finally has a tablet, and as expected its name picks up where the Kindle left off: Fire. Of course, rumors of an Amazon tablet date back to this time last year (if not before), but it seems that Jeff and co. have wisely chosen to get this thing out on the open market before having yet another wild and wacky holiday quarter. Bloomberg has curiously reported on some of the details before the event itself kicks off, noting that the 7-inch device will run a version of Android while acting much like a "souped-up Kindle." The real kicker, however, is the price -- at just $199, it's bound to turn heads, regardless of whether you were interested in a slate before. Naturally, that bargain-bin sticker explains the lack of an embedded camera and microphone, though consumers will find WiFi (no 3G, sadly) and a 30-day trial of Amazon Prime. It's also quite clear that Amazon's hoping to make a bigger splash on the content side of things than has been made already by Apple, and with the deals flowing like wine, we wouldn't be shocked if it does just that.

Update: Itching for specs? How's about a 7-inch IPS (!) panel, Gorilla Glass coating, a 1GHz TI OMAP dual-core CPU, 512MB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage and a chassis that weighs 14.6 ounces. There's also access to things you'd expect to have access to: Android Appstore (though no access to Google's Android Market!), Kindle books, magazines, etc. -- all stored for free via Amazon Cloud Storage. Per Jeff: "Delete it and get it back when you want." Oh, and Whispersync now works with movies and TV shows! "When you get home, switch to your big screen TV. Your movie will be right where you left it." While it's clearly Android underneath, the actual UI looks effectively nothing like it -- considering TechCrunch's intel that Amazon went and did its own thing without Google's blessing, we guess that makes some level of sense. Oh, and pre-orders are set to start today (but only for Americans... boo), with shipments heading out on November 15th.

Update 2: We've added the first commercial video after the break.

Update 3: Check out our hands-on impressions right here!

Keep up with the unveiling at our liveblog of the Amazon event.

Gallery: Amazon launches Kindle Fire tablet in NYC!

Gallery: Amazon Kindle Fire

Continue reading Amazon Kindle Fire tablet unveiled: Android-based, 7-inch display, $199 price tag

Amazon Kindle Fire tablet unveiled: Android-based, 7-inch display, $199 price tag originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Sep 2011 09:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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