Success

Verizon’s LG Spectrum phone — equipped with 4G LTE, a great 4.5-inch screen, and a dual-core, 1.5GHz processor — provides speed and impressive battery life, according to this eWEEK review. However, author Clint Boulton adds, the touchscreen was sometimes unresponsive, and the customizations LG has layered on Android 2.3 aren’t much of a success….

Source: http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/News/Verizon-LG-Spectrum-review/?kc=rss

PLANAR SYSTEMS EPICOR SOFTWARE ALLIANCE DATA SYSTEMS MISCROSOFT OFFICE IKON OFFICE SOLUTIONS MICROSOFT YAHOO

Here’s one for our knowledgeable commenters: I recently bought my girlfriend an iPad. I, on the other hand, own an Android device. And now we’re looking for games we can play using both devices.

There’s no dearth of multiplayer games either for Android or for iOS. But finding multiplayer games that can cross the platform boundary is an entirely different matter.

Jay recently posted Words with Friends which is one such game. It’s actually an ideal example, because it’s turn-based so you don’t necessarily both have to be next to your device at the same time (great for long-distance gaming).

But what other examples are there? What multiplayer games are there that let iOS users play with Android users?

[Why am I now humming 'Ebony and Ivory'? -Ed]

Ask DLS: Cross-platform multiplayer games that work on Android and iOS originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 02 Mar 2011 14:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/02/ask-dls-cross-platform-multiplayer-games-that-work-on-android-and-ios/

SPSS NETWORK APPLIANCE ASML HOLDING SAIC GOOGLE NATIONAL SEMICONDUCTOR NOVELL

AT T says it will begin pre-sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Note mini-tablet/smartphone on Feb. 17 for $300 plus contract. To be hyped during the Super Bowl via video shot on its own eight megapixel camera, the Android 2.3-based gadget features a 5.3-inch HD Super AMOLED display, a 1.5GHz, dual-core processor, and a stylus….

Source: http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/News/ATT-annnounces-Galaxy-Note-pricing/?kc=rss

FISERV SONIC AUTOMOTIVE F5 NETWORKS HARRIS RACKABLE SYSTEMS LEVEL 3 COMMUNICATIONS AUTODESK

Motorola device owners have been pretty vocal about their want for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on their devices. Motorola in response to that, has kept an ICS rollout schedule updated and recently they made some changes to it that will either excite you or upset you, depending on which device you own.

Droid RAZR, Droid RAZR MAXX and XOOM 3G/4G owners have the most to be excited about as ICS updates for those devices should be rolling out at just about any moment right now. Atrix, Atrix 2, Droid Bionic, Droid 4 and XYBOARD owners will be waiting until the next quarter for their updates.

Own a Droid 3 or Droid X2 though? Looks as though you better start looking towards some ICS compatible ROM's as those devicse will be stuck on Android 2.3 Gingerbread for the remainder of their lifecycle, minus some bug fix and maintenance releases.

Source: Motorola, Android Central Forums

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/PEz_Xvqrcc0/story01.htm

SHAW COMMUNICATIONS APPLE COMPUTER BT GROUP FIRST SOLAR EMC NINTENDO MOBILE TELESYSTEMS

Bellroy, a company that specializes in Better Ways to Carry, have developed a Travel Wallet that’s small enough to fit in your pocket.  The Travel Wallet is made of midnight or cocoa leather, and it has multiple pockets to organize your tickets, cards, and passport.  (Doesn’t hold the double-thickness passports, only standard ones.)  It holds [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2012/05/18/organize-your-travel-papers-with-the-bellroy-travel-wallet/

ALLIANCE DATA SYSTEMS MISCROSOFT OFFICE IKON OFFICE SOLUTIONS MICROSOFT YAHOO EMC INFOCUS

Internet radio purveyors from Spotify to Rdio keep upping the ante with more playlist features and design overhauls, and the competition for your ears’ attention is only getting fiercer. One of the newest players is Thefuture.fm (formerly known as Dubset), which launched last month with a focus on DJ-curated mixtapes. Today the service outed its iPhone app, which includes a “smart search” feature for finding mixes by song or artist and lets users sync their web accounts with saved playlists for listening on the go. Looking for a new online-listening destination? Head past the break for a look at the press.

Continue reading Thefuture.fm launches iPhone app for discovering DJ mixtapes, hopes to steal Spotify’s thunder

Thefuture.fm launches iPhone app for discovering DJ mixtapes, hopes to steal Spotify’s thunder originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 May 2012 06:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/18/thefuture-fm-launches-iphone-app/

DELL SYNNEX NVIDIA ORACLE AMKOR TECHNOLOGY SATYAM COMPUTER SERVICES MICROSEMI

Solid State Drives are a fabulous way to boost a system’s performance, but for all their strong points, they aren’t an easy upgrade for a lot of people. Performance can vary significantly between manufacturers, only the most expensive drives can replace the need for an HDD in an enthusiast / data-heavy system, and reinstalling a full suite…

Source: http://hothardware.com/News/Hard-Drive-Overdrive-Corsairs-Accelerator-SSD-Cache-Reviewed-/

MANHATTAN ASSOCIATES IOMEGA FINISAR SKYWORKS SOLUTIONS INTERNATIONAL GAME TECHNOLOGY FISERV SONIC AUTOMOTIVE

Having the right programs and hardware to keep the information on your display safe from prying eyes is never a bad idea, and new software from Oculis Labs offers a very interesting take on how to do just that. It’s called PrivateEye, and it utilizes facial recognition to automatically pixelate the contents of your display when you look away.

If you step away from your system and someone else decides to sit down and poke around, PrivateEye will present a confusing jumble of garbled text. It’ll even notify you if someone tries to peek over your shoulder — and display a picture of your peeping Tom, throw up an alert, or sound an alarm.

Check out the video embed after the break, and share your thoughts in the comments!

Continue reading New software uses facial recognition to defend against prying eyes

New software uses facial recognition to defend against prying eyes originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 07 Apr 2011 13:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/07/new-software-uses-facial-recognition-to-defend-against-prying-ey/

AUTOMATIC DATA PROCESSING MENTOR GRAPHICS ACCENTURE HIGH TECH COMPUTER ELPIDA MEMORY ELECTRONICS FOR IMAGING VERISIGN

The crew in Oslo keeps plugging away at Opera 11.10, and the latest snapshot build includes a number of improvements to Opera’s built-in email client — as well as HTML5-related additions.

On the IMAP front, Opera now supports special folders like sent items, spam, and trash. It also better handles duplicate items in Gmail — such as those which appear in all mail and under your custom labels.

Opera 11.10 now partially supports the HTML5 File API as well, which means your favorite Web apps (like Gmail) may soon begin adding Opera to the list of supported browsers.

You can download the latest Opera 11.10 snapshot for Windows, Mac, or Linux from the official release post.

Update: The Opera 11.10 RC is now available, as pointed out by SlashZaku in the comments. Thanks!

Opera 11.10 gets HTML5 File API support, IMAP improvements originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/06/opera-11-10-gets-html5-file-api-support-imap-improvements/

ACER ITRON SALESFORCE COM MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL RECTIFIER OPENWAVE SYSTEMS DST SYSTEMS

I’m looking for a replacement for my laptop. It’s not broken, just since starting this working-online thing, I’ve become feeble. I need something light to carry around with me. I’d be more than happy to just leave it all up to my phone, but there’s only so much typing I can do on such a tiny screen. I’m in serious need of something now. And that one company’s tablet looks great, but isn’t it just a little pricey? Yeah. That’s right. I’m cheap. It’s OK. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Oyhy-ae72Ow/this-hp-touchpad-is-your-fire+sale+reborn-deal-of-the-day

NOVELLUS SYSTEMS FEI COMPANY GRUPO IUSACELL SILICON LABORATORIES NOKIA IMATION ELECTRONIC ARTS

Apple has reportedly sent out a shiny brochure to their new neighbors, detailing aspects of the futuristic campus they’re planning to build on the old HP lot.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/_qoNS9Pgnmc/story01.htm

SANDISK HEARTLAND PAYMENT SYSTEMS LEXMARK INTERNATIONAL INTERSECTIONS AUTOMATIC DATA PROCESSING MENTOR GRAPHICS ACCENTURE

I’ve reviewed the Drift HD and the Swann Freestyle HD action cameras (see related links), and while I haven’t been able to give you any extreme sports footage, hopefully the reviews have been useful to those considering a POV camera.  The GoPro range of POV cameras have become the de facto standard by which most [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2012/05/18/gopro-hd-hero2-outdoor-edition-pov-camera-review/

LM ERICSSON JACK HENRY and ASSOCIATES TOTAL SYSTEM SERVICES AMERICA MOVIL CDW RADISYS CISCO SYSTEMS

Continue reading BlackBerry Messenger 6.0 screenshots leak

BlackBerry Messenger 6.0 screenshots leak originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/06/blackberry-messenger-6-0-screenshots-leak/

IOMEGA FINISAR SKYWORKS SOLUTIONS INTERNATIONAL GAME TECHNOLOGY FISERV SONIC AUTOMOTIVE F5 NETWORKS

Tech Jay points us to an interesting report by Matt Stoller arguing that, in the US, “corruption” is responsible for 80% of your mobile phone bill. Unfortunately, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. However, it does raise some useful points about problems of US competition in the market. The key point Stoller uses is that we pay a hell of a lot more for mobile service in the US than elsewhere:

You see, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, people in Sweden, the Netherlands, and Finland pay on average less than $130 a year for cell phone service. Americans pay $635.85 a year. That $500 a year difference, from most consumers with a cell phone, goes straight to AT&T and Verizon (and to a much lesser extent Sprint and T-Mobile). It’s the cost of corruption. It’s also, from the perspective of these companies, the return on their campaign contributions and lobbying expenditures. Every penny they spend in DC and in state capitols ensures that you pay high bills, to them.

There’s an unfortunately big leap in logic there, in not exploring any other possible reason for the difference in bills. Some of it likely is due to lobbying, but not necessarily all of it. The real issue that seems to come out in the piece is the significant lack of competition in the market — some of which is due to lobbying efforts and consolidation by the market, but not all of it.

The Stoller piece keys off of the regulatory fight over Lightsquared, arguing that it was blocked due to massive incumbent lobbying against this potential upstart competitor. That tells part of the story. It’s absolutely true that the telcos did not want to see new entrant competition from the likes of Lightsquared, but it also completely ignores the fact that the technological issues around Lightsquared are real and the project was blocked not just because of incumbent lobbying, but because of significant problems in avoiding interference. To not even admit that is pretty bad.

However, as we did note in our discussion over Lightsquared, the real problem in the market is the lack of real competition in the space. For years and years, we’ve been arguing that the market needs more competition in this space to keep dominant players from charging monopoly rents, while decreasing their investment in innovation. In fact, Stoller does a nice job showing how investment as a percentage of revenue has clearly decreased as consolidation has shrunk the number of competitors:

So, we agree that the real problem here is competition, and there’s little doubt that massive lobbying by AT&T and Verizon has been used to try to limit competitors, but that’s not the only reason for the lack of competition in the space, and it’s certainly not the sole reason for our mobile phone bills being higher in the US than in Scandanavia. There are certainly many other issues including coverage and population density, standards lock-in and other aspects. Certainly, though, there are things like spectrum reform, antitrust enforcement and related issues that are heavily lobbied.

Finally, it’s a bit silly to argue that all lobbying is “corruption.” As we’ve noted lobbying can often go in the other direction — and plenty of “lobbying” is perfectly reasonable. One of the key complaints we have about politicians regulating the internet is that they’re regulating something they don’t understand. One way that they can and do actually learn about things they don’t understand is through lobbyists. The problem is the imbalance in lobbying, where you have some lobbyists with excessive influence, and those who represent the public interest often having much less exposure (public interest lobbying groups, obviously, don’t have as much money).

Lack of competition is a huge issue in the mobile world. The crony capitalism of companies getting regulations they want through lobbying is a huge issue. The fact that we pay more for weaker service is a real issue. But to lump all that together and claim that 80% of our mobile phone bills are due to corruption is a huge and exaggerated logical leap.

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Source: http://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20120410/23381218447/is-corruption-responsible-for80-yourmobilephonebill-no-not-really.shtml

EMC NINTENDO MOBILE TELESYSTEMS INFORMATICA FISERV TELETECH HOLDINGS HON HAI PRECISION IND

Tech Jay points us to an interesting report by Matt Stoller arguing that, in the US, “corruption” is responsible for 80% of your mobile phone bill. Unfortunately, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. However, it does raise some useful points about problems of US competition in the market. The key point Stoller uses is that we pay a hell of a lot more for mobile service in the US than elsewhere:

You see, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, people in Sweden, the Netherlands, and Finland pay on average less than $130 a year for cell phone service. Americans pay $635.85 a year. That $500 a year difference, from most consumers with a cell phone, goes straight to AT&T and Verizon (and to a much lesser extent Sprint and T-Mobile). It’s the cost of corruption. It’s also, from the perspective of these companies, the return on their campaign contributions and lobbying expenditures. Every penny they spend in DC and in state capitols ensures that you pay high bills, to them.

There’s an unfortunately big leap in logic there, in not exploring any other possible reason for the difference in bills. Some of it likely is due to lobbying, but not necessarily all of it. The real issue that seems to come out in the piece is the significant lack of competition in the market — some of which is due to lobbying efforts and consolidation by the market, but not all of it.

The Stoller piece keys off of the regulatory fight over Lightsquared, arguing that it was blocked due to massive incumbent lobbying against this potential upstart competitor. That tells part of the story. It’s absolutely true that the telcos did not want to see new entrant competition from the likes of Lightsquared, but it also completely ignores the fact that the technological issues around Lightsquared are real and the project was blocked not just because of incumbent lobbying, but because of significant problems in avoiding interference. To not even admit that is pretty bad.

However, as we did note in our discussion over Lightsquared, the real problem in the market is the lack of real competition in the space. For years and years, we’ve been arguing that the market needs more competition in this space to keep dominant players from charging monopoly rents, while decreasing their investment in innovation. In fact, Stoller does a nice job showing how investment as a percentage of revenue has clearly decreased as consolidation has shrunk the number of competitors:

So, we agree that the real problem here is competition, and there’s little doubt that massive lobbying by AT&T and Verizon has been used to try to limit competitors, but that’s not the only reason for the lack of competition in the space, and it’s certainly not the sole reason for our mobile phone bills being higher in the US than in Scandanavia. There are certainly many other issues including coverage and population density, standards lock-in and other aspects. Certainly, though, there are things like spectrum reform, antitrust enforcement and related issues that are heavily lobbied.

Finally, it’s a bit silly to argue that all lobbying is “corruption.” As we’ve noted lobbying can often go in the other direction — and plenty of “lobbying” is perfectly reasonable. One of the key complaints we have about politicians regulating the internet is that they’re regulating something they don’t understand. One way that they can and do actually learn about things they don’t understand is through lobbyists. The problem is the imbalance in lobbying, where you have some lobbyists with excessive influence, and those who represent the public interest often having much less exposure (public interest lobbying groups, obviously, don’t have as much money).

Lack of competition is a huge issue in the mobile world. The crony capitalism of companies getting regulations they want through lobbying is a huge issue. The fact that we pay more for weaker service is a real issue. But to lump all that together and claim that 80% of our mobile phone bills are due to corruption is a huge and exaggerated logical leap.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

Source: http://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20120410/23381218447/is-corruption-responsible-for80-yourmobilephonebill-no-not-really.shtml

ARROW ELECTRONICS LAM RESEARCH UNITED ONLINE VIRGIN MEDIA IDT DIEBOLD LAM RESEARCH

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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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/05/vmware-takes-over-operation-of-mozy/

MILLICOM INTL CELLULAR MEMC ELECTRONIC MATERIALS ASUSTEK COMPUTER STANDARD MICROSYSTEMS MANHATTAN ASSOCIATES IOMEGA FINISAR

Vendors are beginning to accept the idea that women like, need, and use gadgets, too.  While we can use the same gadgets that men do, sometimes we’d like our bags and accessories to be a bit different – perhaps smaller, maybe a bit more colorful.  knomo London makes “perfect urban accessories to carry your devices,” [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2012/05/15/knomo-london-aurora-zip-tote-review/

FINISAR SKYWORKS SOLUTIONS INTERNATIONAL GAME TECHNOLOGY FISERV SONIC AUTOMOTIVE F5 NETWORKS HARRIS

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee plans to examine allegations that Microsoft is giving its own Internet Explorer Web browser preferential treatment over competing Web browsers in a version of its upcoming Windows 8 operating system. “This is a preliminary inquiry,” said Lynn Becker, communications director for Sen. Herb Kohl. Kohl is a member of the Judiciary Committee.

Source: http://ectnews.com.feedsportal.com/c/34520/f/632000/s/1f627e92/l/0L0Stechnewsworld0N0Crsstory0C751190Bhtml/story01.htm

LEXMARK INTERNATIONAL INTERSECTIONS AUTOMATIC DATA PROCESSING MENTOR GRAPHICS ACCENTURE HIGH TECH COMPUTER ELPIDA MEMORY

Toshiba’s Canvio 3.0 and Canvio Basics 3.0 portable hard drives now offer up to 1.5TB of storage and also feature Mac compatibility on select models. The drives feature USB 3.0 connectivity for fast data transfer speeds. With the 1.5TB model, you’ll get a NTFS driver for Mac computers that makes it easy to swap data between Macs and PCs without…

Source: http://hothardware.com/News/Toshiba-Bumps-Canvio-30-External-Drives-To-15TB-Adds-Mac-Compatibility/

UNISYS EMULEX SPANSION SES VIEWSONIC LM ERICSSON JACK HENRY and ASSOCIATES

With so many apps running around the Windows playground, Microsoft wants the grown-ups to be in charge of Metro. Programs for the new interface will be available only through the Windows Store, which will allow one-click installs, user feedback and crash monitoring. Developers shouldn’t worry too much, as the heavy lifting for those features will all be handled by the OS. Redmond’s demanding some tit-for-tat, however, asking programmers to resist the temptation to invoke APIs not included in the development kit. All the software will be vetted, App-Store style, while access to devices like GPS and cameras must be granted by users before the apps can grab them. We’ve already seen that the old BSOD is gone, so hopefully this new course plotted by Metro will keep those frowny faces away.

Microsoft sets sandbox boundaries for Metro developers originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 May 2012 14:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/18/microsoft-windows-8-apps-developer-sandbox/

WESTERN DIGITAL TECHNITROL KONINKLIJKE KPN VARIAN SEMICONDUCTOR EQUIPMENT ASSOCIATES TEXAS INSTRUMENTS NANYA TECHNOLOGY PEROT SYSTEMS

As much as we all complain about trolls, have you ever really taken the time to get to know one? Or, better yet, to get to know Patton Oswalt’s hilarious rendition of real-life, under-the-bridge type internet trolldom? You should! You can: More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/XBK_5AtoHAQ/this-weeks-top-web-comedy-video-internet-troll

LAM RESEARCH UNITED ONLINE VIRGIN MEDIA IDT DIEBOLD LAM RESEARCH BHARTI AIRTEL

No one will like you if in college if you don’t have a laptop. Kidding! But seriously, in college, a laptop is your life. Microsoft wants to help you kiddies out: Just like last year, if you buy a Windows PC, it’ll throw in a free Xbox 360. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Vj5Zs2A9Rvk/microsoft-will-give-students-a-free-xbox-360-if-they-buy-a-windows-pc

COGNIZANT TECH SOLUTIONS KDDI COMMSCOPE VEECO INSTRUMENTS GOOGLE LOGITECH INTERNATIONAL SYMANTEC

There’s a big IPO coming up that should create a few more Silicon Valley billionaires. Back when Google went public, there were lots of folks joking about how business models were all going to be based on advertising. Just add ads, and your last step would most definitely be “profit.” That joke got old, but it doesn’t look like business models based on ads have. (At least, not for Facebook.. or Twitter.. or Foursquare…)

• GM hasn’t been impressed by the performance of its Facebook ad campaigns. Is it always the poor musician who blames his instrument? [url]
• A bunch of Facebook advertisers say that it can be difficult to pinpoint all the benefits of social networking ads, but getting more “likes” seems to quantify improving brand awareness in an easily-understood way. This is why there will never be a “dislike” button, though. [url]
• Small businesses are still trying to figure out whether or not Facebook ads are worthwhile. Either way, there appears to be more publicity in having a nice story about how Facebook ads don’t really have a great return on investment… [url]
• To discover more interesting advertising-related content, check out what’s floating around on StumbleUpon. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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Source: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100606/2307009703/dailydirt-facebook-facebook-facebook.shtml

ACCENTURE HIGH TECH COMPUTER ELPIDA MEMORY ELECTRONICS FOR IMAGING VERISIGN LAWSON SOFTWARE QUANTA COMPUTER

Rejoice! No longer will you have to fork over $700 for a Photoshop CS5 license! Adobe has unveiled a new subscription scheme where you can rent the entire Creative Suite, or individual packages, by the month, or for an entire year.

Adobe Photoshop can be yours for $35 per month if you agree to rent it for 12 months, or $49 per month if you require its services for a shorter period. Dreamweaver can be had for even cheaper, at just $19 per month. The entire Master Collection is still rather expensive, though, at $125 per month.

Today, Adobe also ushered in the release of Creative Suite 5.5, and simultaneously upped its release cycle from 18 months to 24 months. This means, if you rent Photoshop for two years, it’s actually the same cost as buying it outright. There’s no rent-to-own option, though — so you wouldn’t have access to the cheaper upgrade price once Creative Suite 6 rolls around next year. Still, if you need access to Photoshop, After Effects or Premiere for a one-time project, the new rental scheme could be exactly what you’re looking for.

In other news, Adobe has announced that it will be launching three rather exciting iPad apps that work in conjunction with Photoshop: Eazel, Nav, and Color Lava. Eazel lets you five-finger paint on your iPad, and export the result into Photoshop; Nav acts as some kind of workspace, brush and menu extension, and the hopefully named Color Lava is a paint mixing palette. The apps are expected to appear in the App Store in the next 30 days.

You can now rent Adobe Photoshop for $35 per month, CS 5.5 available soon originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/11/you-can-now-rent-adobe-photoshop-for-29-per-month/

IXYS MILLICOM INTL CELLULAR MEMC ELECTRONIC MATERIALS ASUSTEK COMPUTER STANDARD MICROSYSTEMS MANHATTAN ASSOCIATES IOMEGA

The market share battle between Android smartphones and iPhones may be turning a corner. The latest data from StatCounter on Web usage in North America shows the iPhone beating Android smartphones for the first time, though a variety of research firms say Android continues to best the iPhone in unit sales. When you factor in the iPod Touch — enjoying steady Web traffic for a year — the margin between iOS and Android handheld devices becomes significant.

Source: http://www.infoworld.com/t/web-browsers/iphone-beats-android-top-mobile-browsing-device-193453

TECHNITROL KONINKLIJKE KPN VARIAN SEMICONDUCTOR EQUIPMENT ASSOCIATES TEXAS INSTRUMENTS NANYA TECHNOLOGY PEROT SYSTEMS NCR

No one will like you if in college if you don’t have a laptop. Kidding! But seriously, in college, a laptop is your life. Microsoft wants to help you kiddies out: Just like last year, if you buy a Windows PC, it’ll throw in a free Xbox 360. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Vj5Zs2A9Rvk/microsoft-will-give-students-a-free-xbox-360-if-they-buy-a-windows-pc

INTERDIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS SYKES ENTERPRISES INORATED FAIRCHILD SEMICONDUCTOR INTERNATIONAL SAIC EARTHLINK ARIAN SEMICONDUCTOR EQUIPMENT L1 IDENTITY SOLUTIONS

Like most folio cases, the Pad Stash case from Nau opens like a book, holds your iPad in a frame, and folds into a viewing stand.  Unlike most other cases on the market, the Pad Stash gives back 2% of every sale to humanitarian and environmental Partners for Change.  They also “source natural, renewable fibers produced [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2012/05/15/nau-pad-stash-adds-storage-to-your-ipad/

ELECTRONICS FOR IMAGING VERISIGN LAWSON SOFTWARE QUANTA COMPUTER ATandT QLOGIC FORMFACTOR

When someone tells me about a “platformer”, my first thought is that it’s probably a simple game that mainly revolves around running and jumping around, with a minimal plot. [Play a Zelda game! -Ed]

Elephant Quest is one platformer that managed to prove me completely wrong. Yes, you do run and jump around, and you also shoot at stuff. But the game has much, much more going for it.

Basically, as you run, jump and shoot, you gain experience points and level up. Hitting Space brings you into an interface where you can convert your experience points into Charisma, Intelligence, Agility and Dexterity points. Once you’ve “specialized” your points, you then get to pick what exact skills you’d like to enhance in each field. For example, you could use your dexterity to enhance your weapons or increase your swiftness.

The game is played in a huge maze; you go through rooms using doors, and there’s a large map. As the name implies, there are quests you can take, too. For example, one quest had me searching all over the place for ten balloons.

The bottom line is that this is a surprisingly deep game that just might ensnare you for a good bit longer than you intended to play. Beware!

Elephant Quest is an addictive, deep platformer originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 25 Mar 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/25/elephant-quest-is-an-addictive-deep-platformer/

INFORMATICA FISERV TELETECH HOLDINGS HON HAI PRECISION IND SONUS NETWORKS VERIFONE HOLDINGS IXYS

There are a lot of photographs out there. Photo sharing and album network Flickr alone reckons it hit the 6 billion image upload mark last year. If you consider Picasa, Facebook, and the current darling known as Instagram, we’re talking gazillions of images floating around — all freely downloadable. It may be time to start protecting your work.

Source: http://ectnews.com.feedsportal.com/c/34520/f/632000/s/1f716718/l/0L0Stechnewsworld0N0Crsstory0C751350Bhtml/story01.htm

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Android blogger Ron Amadeo has a great post over at Android Police where he tries to explain the design of the new Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphone, which many people have deemed pretty hideous. In his opinion, it all comes down to legal tiptoeing.

As you may recall, last year Apple sued Samsung over earlier products in the Galaxy line, claiming infringement of all sorts of different rights, among them some broad trade dress registrations involving basic design choices like black borders and rectangles with rounded corners. Amadeo walks through the many notable aesthetic elements of the S3 (including the stark changes from previous Galaxy phones) and compares them to Apple’s list of trade dress claims, noting how several aspects of the phone seem designed to counter specific complaints—and the case he makes is pretty compelling. These are just a few examples (bolded portions are quotes from the Apple trade dress complaint):

A rectangular product shape…
… A rectangle needs to have parallel sides; the GSIII sides aren’t straight at all. The outmost part is about 1/3rd of the way down, with serious curves leading to the top and bottom. So it’s very much not a rectangle, or a rounded rectangle, or even horizontally symmetrical. It’s more of an amorphous blob.

…with all four corners uniformly rounded;
Nope. The top and bottom corners are not the same shape. Observe the outlines of the top-left and bottom-left corners. Note how they are different.

The front surface of the product dominated by a screen surface with black borders
Having a giant screen on the front is kind of unavoidable. The only colors available though, are white and dark blue. Neither of those colors are black. The lawyers can sleep easy.

Substantial black borders above and below the screen having roughly equal width
Apple’s use of “roughly” is really obnoxious, but just in case they get into minutia (lawyers love minutia!), the top and bottom borders are not the same size. These to-scale measurements show the top bezel is about 16% smaller than the bottom. Also, they’re not black!

In the past, some people have argued that this sort of thing is an example of intellectual property doing its job and encouraging innovation, because competitors come up with new and different ways of doing things—but, as we have pointed out, the innovation being encouraged is the wrong kind. Instead of letting market demands dictate what engineers and designers spend their time on, their effort is wasted reinventing the wheel over and over again. The result is often an inferior product that lacks overall vision, as some are saying about the S3, at least aesthetically speaking. If a camel is a horse designed by a committee, what’s a horse designed by a committee of lawyers? Some horrific Darwinian accident from the deep ocean, I’d wager.

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Source: http://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20120507/06530818813/did-apples-claims-over-rectangles-corners-lead-to-first-smartphone-designed-entirely-lawyers.shtml

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We largely steer clear of companies going public here at Engadget, but Facebook and its zillions of users warrants an atypical tip of the hat. The outfit has announced that starting tomorrow, 421,233,615 shares of its common stock will be up for grabs at a price to the public of $38 per share. It’ll trade on the NASDAQ under the symbol “FB,” with the outfit offering 180,000,000 shares of Class A common stock and selling stockholders offering 241,233,615 shares of Class A common stock. Closing of the offering is expected to occur on May 22nd, subject to “customary closing conditions.” And with that, we’d like to congratulate a plethora of new billionaires on… well, being billionaires. Don’t work too hard, guys and girls.

Celebratory video is after the break.

Continue reading Facebook IPO is official: $38 per share, on sale tomorrow under ticker symbol ‘FB’

Facebook IPO is official: $38 per share, on sale tomorrow under ticker symbol ‘FB’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 May 2012 16:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/taQVz-2VcjY/

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Even if you’re not a guitar nerd, you know what Electro-Harmonix’s Big Muff guitar pedal sounds like. Since 1969 it has been the dirty fuzz coating countless guitar solos and backing tracks on songs by everyone from Santana to Dinosaur Jr. Today, Electro-Harmonix hand-assembles and tests 75 different effects pedals in its New York headquarters. This is also where the company’s perpetually innovative effects are designed. Premier Guitar got a guided tour of the facility from EHX founder Mike Matthews. [Electro-Harmonix] More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/wcZBHz67fZ0/this-is-the-nyc-factory-where-legendary-guitar-tone-is-made

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All the way back in 2001, we wrote about how the brilliant satirists at Despair Inc. successfully trademarked and announced that they planned to sue 7 million internet users for violating the trademark. The actual announcement was pretty funny — even though not everyone got the joke. In 2006, we also had a story that mentioned a whole bunch of patents and patent applications related to emoticons.

It appears that one of those is now being used in a lawsuit against Samsung and RIM for having the gall to create a button that makes it easy to pick an emoticon without typing it in. The patent in question (US Patent 7,167,731) really is for having a button that lets you pick emoticons. How this is possibly patentable is beyond me. But, for some reason, examiner Lee Nguyen thought it was somehow non-obvious. The patent was originally assigned to Wildseed, a mobile accessories firm that AOL bought in 2005. The patent itself then went to Varia Mobil, who moved it to Varia Holdings to Varia and back to Varia Holdings. It’s Varia Holdings bringing the lawsuit. Varia appears to just be a trolling operation (of course).

It’s fairly stunning that anyone considered this a valid patent at any point. That it’s now being used as the basis for a lawsuit should (once again) raise significant questions about the USPTO’s approval process for patents.

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Source: http://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20120316/15200318145/samsung-research-motion-sued-making-it-easy-to-use-emoticons.shtml

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