Leaked Android Music app images and hands-on review

This morning, an updated version of the stock Android Music app was leaked along with a new version of Android Market. The new Music app, which is labeled 'version 3', is similar to the leaked build from December, but it has received a ton of polish -- and indeed, it looks almost ready for prime time.

If you don't have Android 2.3 -- or don't want to root your phone to install the leaked Music app -- take a look through our gallery, and then read on for our initial hands-on impressions.

Gallery: Leaked Honeycombish Android Music app

Continue reading Leaked Android Music app images and hands-on review

Leaked Android Music app images and hands-on review originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TripAdvisor app for Windows Phone 7 now available

TripAdvisor, the popular travel planning tool, has just launched an app for Windows Phone 7. Just like the mobile website, the app allows you to search for anything travel-related -- from hotels and flights to restaurants and points-of-interest to visit once you reach your destination.

Geolocation is supported, which allows TripAdvisor to quickly locate places nearby. But while that's a neat feature, it's also a bit of a downer -- because, really, it's about the only feature TripAdvisor for WP7 brings to the table that its mobile Web app doesn't already offer (its browser-based geolocation doesn't work with WP7 at the moment).

While it's nice to see Windows Phone 7 users getting some big-name apps, it'd be even nicer if we saw some packing a bit more swagger.

Still, TripAdvisor for WP7 might just be worth installing on your device if you're frequently on the go -- at least until a better browser arrives with the Mango update.

Gallery: TripAdvisor for Windows Phone 7

TripAdvisor app for Windows Phone 7 now available originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung spending ludicrously amounts of money to advertise Galaxy phones against Apple and the iPhone

What does it take to try and push more Samsung Galaxy devices than Apple iPhones and iPads? An incredible amount of advertising and marketing money, apparently. When compared not only to Apple and Microsoft, but even ad-heavy companies like Coca Cola, Samsung's run rate looks even more ludicrously large. Horace Dediu of Asymco put together the following chart:

While Apple isn't spending anything close to what Samsung is in advertising, Apple has an iconic brand and enormous mind-share. What's more interesting is wondering how other Android manufacturers, ones that don't have the ancillary businesses Samsung has, and can't spend as much on advertising as Samsung can, will keep up?

What happens when Samsung becomes synonymous with Android? Is that better or worse, competitively, for Apple?

Check out the rest of Dediu's article for more charts and analysis.

Source: Asymco

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Former head of iPod, Tony Fadell, talks about his early days at Apple, his feelings about Scott Forstall, and the future

Tony Fadell, former head of iPod at Apple, recently did an interview about his new product, the Nest thermostat, but also touched on the challenges of bringing the original iPod to market. The interviewer, Leo Kelion, pushed Fadell hard on his feelings about recently ousted senior vice-president of iOS, Scott Forstall](http://www.imore.com/tim-cook-apple), which whom Fadell is rumored not have gotten along, and about how Apple will fare now, sans-Forstall. Here's the's horrible BBC video embed:

So, in sum, Fadell seems to be enjoying his schadenfreude spritzers, thinks Apple will be just fine, and likes where he's going with the Nest.

Source: BBC

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Just a couple logos shy of a NASCAR uniform ...

Plenty more going on in our Verizon Galaxy Note 2 forums.

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500px for iPhone and iPad review

500px is a premium photo sharing platform for professional and aspiring photographers for the web and iPad that has now made its debut to the iPhone, and the iPad version got a nice upgrade as well. It's beautiful. 500px for iPhone and iPad lets you scroll through your friends' activity in Flow, discover gorgeous photography in Popular, browse through photographers' profiles, and more.

500px is marketed for professional and aspiring photographers, so to keep that spirit within 500px, mobile uploads are not available on the iPhone and iPad; all photos must be uploaded through the web. However, you can browse through all the photos and view them on the gorgeous Retina displays of the iPhone and iPad as well as like, mark as favorite, and leave comments.

The iPhone version of 500px has three main sections: Home, Photos, and Your Account (named after you). From Home, you can go to Flow, Following, and Favorites. Everything except Flow is displayed as a grid making it easy to see up to 15 photos at once so you can specifically choose which ones you want to see bigger. Flow is a stream that displays all the recent activity of the people you follow and displays one photo at a time.

In the Photos section, you can find the Popular, Editors' Choice, Upcoming, and Fresh feeds. The are displayed in a grid making it easy to casually browse through what's available.

In Your Account, you can access your Profile or Flow. Profiles show one of the user's most recent photos at the top as a header. I actually don't like this because since the most recent photo is at the bottom of the initial screen, profiles usually look rather repetitive and boring. 500px should either allow users to choose their header image or automatically choose a photo that is further down the user's profile.

The iPad version of 500px is a little different and features a sidebar that gives access to Popular, Editors' Choice, Upcoming, and Fresh. Although the iPad version doesn't have Flow, it does include the 500px Market where you can purchase and download your favorite photos for personal use.

When you sign up for 500px, you are automatically granted a 14-day trial to experience all the available features. Once your 14 days are up, you can choose to continue using a free account or sign up for a premium account that gives you unlimited uploads and collections, a personal portfolio, advanced statistics, and more. A free account allows 10 uploads per week and the ability to sell your photos in the Market. A premium account costs $20/yr and $49.95/yr for the Plus and Awesome memberships, receptively.

The good

• A world of incredible images in your pocket: the greatest photos, anywhere.
• Stay up to date on your friends' activity using Flow (iPhone only)
• Browse through incredible community-selected galleries and editor-curated selections.
• Interact with the community by commenting on photos, liking them, or adding them to your favorites for later viewing.
• Receive notifications when the community members interact with you and your photos.
• Purchase and download gorgeous high-resolution digital versions of your favorite photos on the 500px Market (iPad only).
• Gorgeous on Retina displays

The bad

• Flow is not featured on the iPad
• Cannot make purchases with iPhone
• Header images for profiles are often times the same photo as the user's most recent photo. This makes the profile too repetitive.

The conclusion

The iPhone and iPad app for 500px is absolutely gorgeous and a great way to browse though photos on the platform. Even if you're not a professional or aspiring photographer, you can still use 500px as a way to discover and enjoy fabulous photography.

Free - Download Now

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Panasonic ST50 Plasma Television Review: Good Picture, Great Value

Dropping two grandon a high-end television simply isn't possible for most households. Does that mean you should suffer with some $100 off-brand Fony set. No way. As Panasonic's second-best option in plasma reminds us that even if you can't get the VT50 you want, you can still go for the ST50 you need. More »

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PSX games now available in the Android Market, if you own an Xperia Play

If you're lucky enough to own an Xperia Play -- Sony Ericsson's new Gingerbread-powered smartphone-cum-gamepad -- you can now buy PlayStation (PSX) titles from the Android Market.

There are five titles currently available, all priced at £3.99: Syphon Filter, MediEvil, Cool Boarders 2, Destruction Derby, and Jumping Flash. They don't have an American price yet, but that will surely change once the Xperia Play launches in the States.

Two important questions remain unanswered: How big are these games? The Market descriptions say the games are only 5MB, but that sounds incredibly unlikely -- and more importantly, will it be possible to 'spoof' the Xperia Play and download PSX games onto other Gingerbread-powered phones, like the Nexus S?

In other news, the PlayStation emulator PSX4droid was recently removed from the Android Market. This obviously has nothing to do with today's release of first-party PlayStation games.

PSX games now available in the Android Market, if you own an Xperia Play originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 01 Apr 2011 04:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Windows 8 wallpaper available to download, Jupiter and Twin UI spotted

With Windows 8 milestone 3 now up for grabs for select Microsoft Connect partners, it's inevitable that leaked bits and pieces will start popping up around the Web. In fact, the first "official" wallpaper image from the still-brewing OS is already making the rounds.

As you can see, it's got a similar feel to the good ol' Windows 7 default background, but features a more subdued smattering of cerulean hues. Those of you who want to use the Windows 8 wallpaper on your current desktop can download it from our file dump.

A few other details have been revealed, too. According to ZDNet's source, the Windows 8 Jupiter libraries and Twin UI are starting to take shape -- though all that's been located thus far are "[various files] scattered throughout the OS" and the aptly-named twinui.dll.

Windows 8 wallpaper available to download, Jupiter and Twin UI spotted originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 10:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Opera 11.10 includes improved power saving features

Just recently, the Opera 11.10 release candidate was made available for download. It brought a handful of important feature additions -- like HTML5 File API support and IMAP enhancements -- and loads of bugfixes. Nestled in amongst the other details in the Opera team's announcement is one more interesting tidbit: Opera 11.10 offers improved battery optimizations.

The timing here is certainly interesting, what with Microsoft's recent report on how much power the top five Web browsers consume. In its findings, Opera 11 was fairly low in the standings. While we've not seen any new benchmarks yet, we're curious to know whether the Opera 11.10 RC offers any significant gains.

If you're running Opera 11.10 on a laptop, let us know if you're seeing an improvement in your battery life while browsing!

Opera 11.10 includes improved power saving features originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 07 Apr 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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