Thursday, June 2, 2011
Zoom R8: A Recording Studio for the Travelling Minstrel [Audio]
Help Bob make money in Sticks, a fun physics game
Then, on his way back home from another grueling day at the office, he passes a huge sign which says "Sticks." This is where the game starts.
Each level has a number of coins hovering in mid-air, and your goal is to place sticks that lead those coins to Bob -- but you only have a limited amount of wood to play with. As soon as you're done placing your sticks strategically, hit the big Play button and let nature, or rather gravity, run its course. The coins will drop down, and if you place your sticks correctly, they will roll all the way to Bob.
The soundtrack is soothing and playful, and didn't get on my nerves even after playing for quite a while. All in all, a very cute game, especially for a day at the office.
Help Bob make money in Sticks, a fun physics game originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 18 Feb 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/02/18/help-bob-make-money-in-sticks-a-fun-physics-game/
Dodge is a space-shooter in which you have no weapons
Your vector-looking spacecraft is the fastest thing on the screen, most of the time. And as the header implies, you have absolutely no weapons; you can't get any, either. All you have is agility and maneuverability.
Your opponents shoot heat-seeking missiles at you; the missiles lock on and start tracking you. The trick is to dodge the missiles while putting them in the path of one of your enemies, thus letting them have a taste of their own medicine.
There are three types of enemies, at least in the first few levels: "simple" spaceships which fire slow projectiles, "tanks" which seem to be more serious and take more hits to destroy, and "circles." The circles simply explode, spewing twenty or thirty very fast projectiles. This sounds dangerous, but is actually great once you learn to use them; they are very destructive for tanks, and can even blow up other circles.
The soundtrack is very techno, but it meshes very well with this type of game. Intense fun!
Dodge is a space-shooter in which you have no weapons originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 01 Mar 2011 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/01/dodge-is-a-space-shooter-in-which-you-have-no-weapons/
Farragomate is a social fridge magnet game where you make up sentences
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.
Survival Lab is a fun pixelated game where dying doesn't matter
In most games, dying is a bad thing. You have to start all over again, or at least revert to the last save point and lose some progress. Not so in Survival Lab: in this pixelated gem you play as a lone individual pitted against ruthless weapons in a sealed chamber. You have to run, jump and duck, collecting little yellow things (I have no idea what they're called).
For each donut-like yellow thing you pick up, you gain a bit of experience. If you manage to collect several in a row without getting hit, this counts as a combo. You can see my mad combo skills in the screenshot, of course. Collecting combos is a good thing, because a ten-point combo gives you for more experience than just collecting ten dounts one by one (getting hit in-between).
Having experience is useful, because once you die, you get to a screen where you can upgrade your skills. You can learn to run faster, double-jump (and then double-jump higher), and duck. You can also gain more armour so that getting hit won't kill you so quickly.
What makes this simple game so addictive is that when you die, your experience doesn't reset. You just go back to the same level, or another level of your choosing, and keep accumulating more and more experience. Lots of fun, especially if you're into the whole retro-gaming thing.
For each donut-like yellow thing you pick up, you gain a bit of experience. If you manage to collect several in a row without getting hit, this counts as a combo. You can see my mad combo skills in the screenshot, of course. Collecting combos is a good thing, because a ten-point combo gives you for more experience than just collecting ten dounts one by one (getting hit in-between).
Having experience is useful, because once you die, you get to a screen where you can upgrade your skills. You can learn to run faster, double-jump (and then double-jump higher), and duck. You can also gain more armour so that getting hit won't kill you so quickly.
What makes this simple game so addictive is that when you die, your experience doesn't reset. You just go back to the same level, or another level of your choosing, and keep accumulating more and more experience. Lots of fun, especially if you're into the whole retro-gaming thing.
Survival Lab is a fun pixelated game where dying doesn't matter originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 28 Feb 2011 16:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
O'Reilly helps Japan, offers entire e-book catalog for 50% off, today only
O'reilly make some of the best computer books in the world. They also sell them as DRM-free e-books in a bunch of formats, including PDFs and Mobi for Kindle.
They usually offer one "Deal of the Day", which is a 50% discount code for a book chosen for that one day. But just for for today, they've created a discount code -- DDJPN -- that gives you a 50% discount on their entire catalog, and they give a part of the proceeds to aid Japan relief efforts.
So far they've raised over $60,000, and the day is still young. So if you've been recently hankering after some nerdy book (or three), now would be a great time to grab one.
They usually offer one "Deal of the Day", which is a 50% discount code for a book chosen for that one day. But just for for today, they've created a discount code -- DDJPN -- that gives you a 50% discount on their entire catalog, and they give a part of the proceeds to aid Japan relief efforts.
So far they've raised over $60,000, and the day is still young. So if you've been recently hankering after some nerdy book (or three), now would be a great time to grab one.
O'Reilly helps Japan, offers entire e-book catalog for 50% off, today only originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 22 Mar 2011 14:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Ashley Fiolek Extends Contract With American Honda Racing Factory Team For 2011
American Honda is proud to announce that two-time WMA Women’s Motocross Champion and two-time X Games Gold Medal winner Ashley Fiolek will be racing once again in 2011 with the American Honda Racing factory team. Fiolek will join American Honda Racing teammates Trey Canard and Josh Grant and will campaign for a third WMA title in 2011 on Honda’s CRF250R.
Google Cloud Print comes to HP ePrint printers
We're curious, though -- how many of you are still printing? Like our pals at Engadget, our printers have been mostly gathering dust for the last few years.
Google Cloud Print comes to HP ePrint printers originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 01 Apr 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/01/google-cloud-print-comes-to-hp-eprint-printers/
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Bing begins roll out of HTML5-enhanced search interface
The most notable addition to the new interface is is smooth page transitions -- the fade in and out -- and navigation tabs (maps, images, videos, etc.) now persistently float at the top of the page. WinRumors is also reporting that a feature reminiscent of Google Instant search is being added to Bing, with page elements smoothly transitioning in and out as you type in your search query.
If you want to try out the new Bing UI, your best bet is to set your locale to United States - English and pray that you're part of the initial roll out. Alternatively, just wait a few days until MIX 2011, Microsoft's Web developer conference, which is when the new Bing UI should be officially launched.
Bing begins roll out of HTML5-enhanced search interface originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 08 Apr 2011 06:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Interview: AMA Women's Motocross Champion Jessica Patterson
Jessica Patterson is the 2010 AMA Women's National Motocross Champion. Here is Supercross.com's latest interview with JP$.
Jessica, congratulations on your 2010 AMA Women's National MX Championship. You walked away with some amazing trophies from this summer's race wins .... where do you put all those great awards, and what does it mean to you when you see them?
Thanks Annj. I usually go straight to my parents house and drop them all off and let my mom decorate the house with them. But recently she told me that I have started to bring home too many, and to figure out where to put them at my place because her place is now full.
Her suggestion to me was to rent a storage unit if I didn?t want to keep them all over the house. They are all just hanging out at her house right now, and eventually when I decide where I want to move, then I will take them with me and start the decorating.
To see the trophies is pretty cool. It is what I have been working so hard for, and after struggling for for two years and now coming back and winning the championship in 2010, it makes it that much better. Seeing that I have all those number 1 trophies from each race except for two, it reminds me of how good of a year it really was, so it makes me really happy and makes me want to keep pushing.
Source: http://www.supercross.com/mxgirls-feature/interview-ama-womens-motocross-champion-jessica-patterson
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Google Chrome and Chromium add protection against malicious downloads
Built upon the Safe Browsing API, the new feature introduces protection against malicious downloads. If a download link appears in the Safe Browsing blacklist, Chrome and Chromium will warn users against downloading -- a save button is still presented, of course, in case you're convinced a file is perfectly safe to download.
We'd like to see something a bit more eye-catching than the red warning icon -- like perhaps painting the entire bar red. Many of the people a feature like this aims to protect probably won't notice the icon or change in wording as they'll be focused on clicking the save button.
Google is initially making download protection available to Chrome dev channel users, and you'll likely see it in Canary and Chromium snapshot builds as well. After thorough testing, beta and stable users will be next in line.
Google Chrome and Chromium add protection against malicious downloads originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Twitter Might Be the Most Important Photo Sharing Service in the World Now [Video]
Creator of World's Most Simple Video Camera Now Creator of World's Most Complicated Grilled Cheese [Food]
GNOME 3 released, ushers in an interesting amalgam of iOS and OS X
The best way to check out GNOME 3's new features -- and it has lots of new features -- is to run a live version of openSUSE or Fedora, or simply head over to the GNOME 3 website and watch the (rather pretty) introductory videos. If you want a synopsis, though, here it is: GNOME 3 looks a lot like Mac OS X, with a healthy dollop of iOSesqueness for good measure, but yet it still somehow retains an underlying feel of Linux.
The overall aesthetic is very simple, very elegant, and despite being slightly out of fashion, there are plenty of rounded corners, too. The main addition, workflow-wise, is the addition of an app-launcher-cum-alt-tab screen, where you can launch apps, or flip through your open windows. For a complete list of the new features and changes, check the GNOME 3 release notes.
Despite GNOME 3 being officially launched, there aren't actually any releases for existing, stable Linux distros -- it's the live CD/USB images, or Ubuntu users will have to wait for the launch of 11.04 for a GNOME 3 PPA, but it will break Unity in the process. Fedora users will have to wait for for the May 24 release of Fedora 15. Of course, if you're feeling crazy, you can always build GNOME 3 from source.
GNOME 3 released, ushers in an interesting amalgam of iOS and OS X originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 07 Apr 2011 06:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Acer W4 Windows Phone Mango handset eyes-on (video)
Anyhow, you'll also find the usual radios like 802.11 b/g/n plus Bluetooth 2.1 here, but interestingly enough, it looks like the W4 will be coming in two SKUs: one with HSPA 850 / 1900, and one with HSPA 900 / 2100 -- obviously a potential problem for globetrotters. As for look and feel the W4's well within the comfort zone of Acer's smartphone ID, and the curved back felt nice and solid in our hands, but we shall save our final judgement for the real deal. When we hear a release date, you'll know it as soon as we do.
Continue reading Acer W4 Windows Phone Mango handset eyes-on (video)
Acer W4 Windows Phone Mango handset eyes-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Jun 2011 08:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/01/acer-w4-windows-phone-mango-handset-eyes-on-video/
New Firefox Nightly and Aurora logos unearthed, and how to enable channel switching
Shortly thereafter, Firefox's new channel system will be implemented. Firefox 5a2 will be introduced as the first Aurora build, and we should also see a Firefox 6 Nightly build. While we we're not sure where they came from, one Sören Hentzschel seems to have unearthed the new Nightly and Aurora logos (see above), along with new About Firefox dialogs (after the break).
In other news, if you want to take a sneak peek at the new 'channel changing' technology that will be introduced in upcoming Firefox builds, head to about:config and create a new string called app.update.desiredChannel -- the value doesn't matter. Then open Help > About Firefox and you'll be able to switch channel, but it doesn't do anything just yet (image after the break). Here's hoping that Firefox channel switching is smoother than Chrome.
Continue reading New Firefox Nightly and Aurora logos unearthed, and how to enable channel switching
New Firefox Nightly and Aurora logos unearthed, and how to enable channel switching originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 07:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
uBeam wireless power startup shows prototype at D9 (video hands-on)
The goal? To get uBeam transmitters installed in as many locales as possible, and then to hit critical mass from a device standpoint. Imagine walking into a restaurant with uBeam transmitters in the ceiling, and watching your handset magically recharge as you await your appetizer. Granted, the outfit's a long way from that -- its first product will be a small charging puck that'll connect to a bevy of USB devices. That'll pair with an enterprise or consumer-level transmitter, a device that will ideally be situated in a ceiling. For now, things are strictly line-of-sight, but the shipping system will be able to detect a uBeam puck in the room and charge it if it's anywhere within a 20 to 30 foot radius. We're told that the consumer version will be suitable for piping power to just a handful of devices, whereas the enterprise build will be able to juice up an undisclosed amount more. Care to learn more? Head on past the break.
Continue reading uBeam wireless power startup shows prototype at D9 (video hands-on)
uBeam wireless power startup shows prototype at D9 (video hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Jun 2011 08:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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uBeam | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/01/ubeam-wireless-power-startup-shows-prototype-at-d9-video-hands/
Security firm RSA attacked using Excel-Flash one-two sucker punch
The exploit, which used specially-crafted Flash embedding in Excel spreadsheets, was first reported on March 15 and has since been fixed. RSA was hacked sometime in the first half of March when an employee was successfully spear phished and opened an infected spreadsheet. As soon as the spreadsheet was opened, an advanced persistent threat (APT) -- a backdoor Trojan -- called Poison Ivy was installed. From there, the attackers basically had free reign of RSA's internal network, which led to the eventual dissemination of data pertaining to RSA's two-factor authenticators.
The attack is reminiscent of the APTs used in the China vs. Google attacks from last year -- and indeed, Uri Rivner, the head of new technologies at RSA is quick to point out that that other big companies are being attacked, too: "The number of enterprises hit by APTs grows by the month; and the range of APT targets includes just about every industry. Unofficial tallies number dozens of mega corporations attacked [...] These companies deploy any imaginable combination of state-of-the-art perimeter and end-point security controls, and use all imaginable combinations of security operations and security controls. Yet still the determined attackers find their way in."
What we'd like to know, though, is whether the attack on RSA was caused by Adobe's lackadaisical approach to patching Flash -- or was it the other way around? Was it the RSA attack that first brought the zero-day vulnerability to Adobe's attention?
Security firm RSA attacked using Excel-Flash one-two sucker punch originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 06:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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