British royal family announces iOS and Android wedding app

To celebrate the imminent marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton, the Royal Collection will release an Android an iOS app that chronicles the last seven royal marriages, including Queen Victoria's marriage to Prince Albert in 1840.

Ironically, the app won't actually feature anything to do with William and Kate's marriage -- rather, it will focus on the "tradition, splendor and romance" that are intrinsic to British royal marriages. "[The app] will share the stories of past royal weddings and offer a wealth of historical context for the ceremony on April 29."

Unfortunately, the app, which has been lumbered with the fantastically creative name of 'Royal App,' won't be available until April 18 -- just 11 days before Kate's big day. It won't be free, either: it'll cost the rather princely sum of £1.79, or three of your Tea Party-loving dollars. The money will go to the Royal Collection, though, which is a good cause!

British royal family announces iOS and Android wedding app originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Daily Crunch: Guard Tower

Here are some of yesterday’s stories on TechCrunch Gadgets: Evul Todai: A Relaxation Lighthouse Lamp For The Living Room Nike Apologizes For Nike+ Issues, Promises Fixes, New Platform Soon Terrahawk?s M.U.S.T. Is A Mobile Guard Tower In A Shady-Looking Van Video: ?Der Kritzler,? An Automatic Scribbling Machine Amazon?s Kindle Tablet Is Very Real. I?ve Seen It, Played With It.

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ComScore: US smartphone share leveled off in September, Android and iPhone continued their reigns

We're so used to constant flux in smartphone market share that it's a surprise when things don't move. Yet that's what we're facing today. ComScore found that the US smartphone field in September was virtually unchanged from where it was in August, even down to smaller players like Symbian and Windows Phone. Accordingly, Android still ruled the roost at 52.5 percent, while 34.3 percent were iPhone adopters. It's difficult to say whether or not the iPhone 5 had a tangible impact -- while Apple had banner sales in the last several days of September, we don't know to what extent that was offset by people holding off from buying an iPhone 4S.

Overall cellphone sales showed some of that more reassuring give and take. The positions remained the same, but the US was once again a painful market to be in for anyone that isn't Apple or Samsung. Apple crept up to within a stone's throw of toppling LG at 17.5 percent to its rival's 17.7, while Samsung's successful shift to smartphones helped it keep exactly 26 percent of the mobile sphere. We're most curious to see how October shakes out: between a full month of iPhone 5 sales and the Droid RAZR HD, we may learn that the calmness of September was just a momentary illusion.

Continue reading ComScore: US smartphone share leveled off in September, Android and iPhone continued their reigns

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Apple, Samsung, HTC, Nokia, Google, LG

ComScore: US smartphone share leveled off in September, Android and iPhone continued their reigns originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Nov 2012 12:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Decades That Invented the Future, Part 3: 1921-1930

Since 2007, Wired.com’s This Day In Tech blog has reflected on important and entertaining events in the history of science and innovation, pursuing them chronologically for each day of the year. Hundreds of these essays have now been collected into ...

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Take Your Wine for a Spin with this Wine Aerator’s Tiny Turbine By Eric Limer If you’re...

Take Your Wine for a Spin with this Wine Aerator’s Tiny Turbine

By Eric Limer

If you’re looking to properly aerate some red wine, a decanter will work just fine, but if you don’t have a decanter, and you want to get that party juice ready right away, the Vinaerator and it’s wine-whipping turbine might be able to help you out.

Nikon nudges Q2 net earnings to $203 million, DSLRs and Nikon 1 get all the credit

Nikon might be treading water in Q2 2013 (its fiscal year is time-shifted) with a slight gain to $203 million from Q1, but in the current imaging market climate, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Revenue fell $200 million to $3 billion for the period, which Nikon chalked up to a "sluggish" economy and poor performance in its business, chip and science divisions, along with a rapidly shrinking compact camera market (smartphones, anyone?). Fortunately, the company fared better in the interchangeable lens game, singling out the Nikon 1 mirrorless brand as a "solid performer" as well as its popular DSLR line. Nikon predicts more of the same for the rest of the year, with interchangeable lens camera sales growing while other divisions waffle, resulting in a $750 million profit for the year -- a mirror-image of 2012.

[Image credit: Wikimedia Commons]

Filed under: Cameras, Nikon

Nikon nudges Q2 net earnings to $203 million, DSLRs and Nikon 1 get all the credit originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Nov 2012 03:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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March 31 is World Backup Day 2011

Those benevolent armchair philanthropist Redditors are at it again! Four days ago a 'self' post extolling the potential virtues of a Backup Day exploded with 2500 upvotes and 1000 comments -- and now World Backup Day 2011 is actually happening.

On March 31, as part of the global data-saving initiative, you are encouraged to back up all of your cherished photos and videos, and important documents. If you've ever had a hard disk fail, and not had a backup to fall back on, you'll know that it's a bit like losing a sizable fragment of your soul. If you've never backed up your important files -- or if you only back up sporadically -- do it on World Backup Day!

It's not hard to back up your data, either. A 2TB drive costs only a fistful of dollars, and it takes just a few minutes to set SyncToy for Windows, or Time Machine for Mac, to mirror your data every night. If you prefer a cloud-based solution, there's always SugarSync and Dropbox. Finally, don't forget that Bundlelytic has a charity giveaway for three excellent data-backup-and-recovery tools -- $160 of software for only $25, and 100% of the proceeds to go the Japanese Red Cross.

For even more backup options, for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, check our list of 13 great backup programs.

March 31 is World Backup Day 2011 originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 07:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Translate gets new features, makes sure you choose the right words

Google has added functionality to the web version of its Translate service, now making it even easier for us to use and understand foreign tongues. Instead of a single result, you'll be presented with a list of the most common translations, ordered and labeled by how frequently each one is used. What's more, synonyms are also displayed next to the assortment of results, but this particular feature only works when translating into English, although more languages are expected to be supported soon. We've had a quick play around with it, and suggest you head over to the Google Translate page and try out the new elements for yourself. Now, if only the website translator could make those Japanese pages a little easier to read.

Filed under: Internet, Software, Google

Google Translate gets new features, makes sure you choose the right words originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Nov 2012 05:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Daily Crunch: Eye Array

Here are some of yesterday’s stories on TechCrunch Gadgets: Video: ?Eyeborg? Replaces Eye With Functioning Wireless Video Camera IBM Assembles Record 120-Petabyte Storage Array Japanese Company Develops World?s Smallest And Lightest Chargers For Electric Vehicles Hey, Ladies, Would You Like To Look At My VR-Controlled RC Car? Kickstarter: Kammok, A Hammock For Outdoorsmen and City Folk Alike

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Windows 8 getting a built-in PDF reader, Metro-style

For what seems like an eternity, Download Squad readers have reacted to news of security exploits targeting Adobe Reader with a common sentiment: why doesn't Microsoft build its own secure PDF reader into Windows? Apparently the Windows 8 team agrees, and they're working away at an application called Modern Reader which is exactly that.

From the handful of screenshots Paul Thurrott has shared, it's clear that Modern Reader has been built with Metro in mind. You can see the Reader back button in the top-left corner of the yellow image and the minimal page navigation bar on the right. We've posted some larger images we managed to scrape from Google's cache after the break.

Thurrott also mentions that Modern Reader is the first program spotted which is built using AppX -- a packaging technology that may allow developers to roll a single build to both Windows 8 desktops and Windows Phone 8 mobile devices.

Continue reading Windows 8 getting a built-in PDF reader, Metro-style

Windows 8 getting a built-in PDF reader, Metro-style originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 04 Apr 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Distro Issue 64: Is Apple's iPad mini the next big thing?

Among the truckload of devices that Apple unpacked at its press event a few days ago was a gadget that we had heard rumblings about for a long time. The iPad mini graces the cover of our weekly and we put it through the full review treatment to see how it stacks up with other slates that sport a smaller stature. If Cupertino's latest doesn't grab your eye, we also take a good, long look at Windows 8, ASUS's PadFone 2 and HTC's 8X before offering in-depth analysis. Weekly Stat recaps earnings season, Eyes-On visually fondles a pair of Slingboxes, and video producer Freddie Wong visits the Q&A. The usual download repositories are just below, so mosey on to yours and snag a copy.

Distro Issue 64 PDF
Distro in the iTunes App Store
Distro in the Google Play Store
Distro APK (for sideloading)
Like Distro on Facebook
Follow Distro on Twitter

Filed under: Announcements, HD, Mobile, Apple

Distro Issue 64: Is Apple's iPad mini the next big thing? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Nov 2012 09:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Now Facebook Employees Have Had Their $3.1 Billion Stock Payday, Will They Quit Or Keep Hacking?

Silicon Valley might be in for a big weekend. The Giants won the World Series. Oh, and quite a few new Facebook millionaires were minted. The social network's employees got a $3.1 billion bonus this week as their RSUs turned into shares they can actually sell. COO Sheryl Sandberg scored about $400 million herself, and just sold off $7.4 million. Now the question is whether Facebook employees will stay, or take off for a start up or Hawaii.

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Google's Nexus 10 Hits Apple Where It Lives

Google canceled its New York press event Monday due to the impending arrival of Hurricane Sandy on the East Coast, but that didn't stop it from announcing its new Nexus 10 tablet, along with the Nexus 4 smartphone and Android 4.2, an update to Jelly Bean. A step up in size from the Asus-made Nexus 7, released in July, the Samsung-made Nexus 10 will be available beginning Nov. 13.

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Google Chrome now uses SPDY HTTP replacement, halves page load time

We're not entirely sure of the time line here, but it looks like Google has now rolled out the SPDY HTTP replacement to its full bevy of Web services, including Gmail, Docs, and YouTube. If you're currently using Google's Chrome browser you're probably already using SPDY.

We originally reported on SPDY way back in November 2009, when Google introduced it as yet another experiment in making the Web faster, like Go, Native Client and speculative pre-connections. Over the last 18 months, though, SPDY support has found its way into the stable build of Chrome.

SPDY is basically a streamlined and more efficient version of HTTP. At its most basic, SPDY introduces parallel, multiplexed streams over a single TCP connection -- but at the same time, SPDY allows for prioritization, so that vital content (HTML) can be sent before periphery content (JavaScript, video). All in all, the SPDY protocol can halve page load times, which is obviously rather significant.

The best bit, though, is that SPDY is an open-source project. HTTP 1.1 is a lumbering beast that needs to be replaced before low-latency real-time computing really becomes a reality, and SPDY is one of the best options currently on the table. To be honest, we're not sure why SPDY hasn't received more coverage -- it's awesome in every way. At the moment, though, the only way to help speed up SPDY's proliferation, is with an experimental Apache mod.

As far as actually 'trying it out,' your best bet is downloading Chrome, hitting up some Google sites, and then checking chrome://net-internals to see your active SPDY sessions. SPDY is a transparent replacement for HTTP, though, and as such it's rather hard to see its effects. Google's sites definitely feel fast in Chrome, but there are more technologies than just SPDY at work.

Google Chrome now uses SPDY HTTP replacement, halves page load time originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iMore show 323: iPad buyers guide (late 2012)

Rene and Georgia present the 2012 iPad buyers guide. Again. This time it's for the new iPad mini and the newly updated iPad 4. Should you buy an iPad, which one, what color, what capacity, and which carrier? This is the iMore show.

• Subscribe via iTunes: Audio | Video
• Subscribe via RSS: Audio | Video
• Download directly: Audio | Video

Show notes

• iPad buyers guide (late 2012 edition)

Hosts

• Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie)
• Georgia (@GeorgiaTiPb)

Credits

You can reach all of us on Twitter @iMore, or you can email us at podcast@imore.com or just leave us a comment below.

For all our podcasts -- audio and video -- including the iMore show, ZEN and TECH, Iterate, and more, see MobileNations.com/shows

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ipad mini buyers guide

Ipad Buyers Guide

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Add a PAK to your EDC kit

The PAK personal accessories kit isn’t exactly a gadget, but it could be an important part of your everyday carry kit. �There are three sizes – the Original, Mini, and Micro – that are packed with an assortment of things that you might need on a daily basis or in an emergency. �Each kit comes [...]

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Google Talk Guru answers questions via your IM app

Bots -- like the kind which automate IRC rooms and Google Wave -- are a good thing to know about. There are plenty of useful bots worth knowing about, too, including the Google Talk Guru.

Just add guru@googlelabs.com to your GTalk buddies, and you can start firing off questions. Lifehacker suggests that the same types of queries supported by Google SMS will work, though we didn't have any luck getting a response out of the Guru with phrases like "score detroit red wings" or "sushi R3N 1Y1."

Still, Guru does answer a good variety of questions and it works right within your favorite IM app. It's well worth adding to your friend list, especially for getting answers on the go on your mobile device of choice.

Google Talk Guru answers questions via your IM app originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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