Sign Bond

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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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/31/download-windows-8-wallpaper/

Susan Ward Susie Castillo T.A.T.u. Talisa Soto

Moments ago, Mozilla stripped the release candidate moniker from Firefox 4 Mobile and pronounced it fit for public release. If you have a Nokia N900 phone, or a fairly-modern Android 2.0-or-later device, go ahead and install it from the Market, by using scanning the QR code after the break, or by visiting Firefox.com/m.

Accompanying the release is the launch of Spark, a cute social game that’s designed to fuel the adoption of Firefox 4 Mobile, much like last week’s use of Glow and Twitter Party during Firefox 4 PC’s release.

While the browser still feels a little rough around the edges, it’s definitely worth trying out if you’re still using Android’s stock browser. Its JavaScript performance is significantly better than any other Android browser, and if you use Firefox on your PC, its built-in Sync functionality is awesome.

Over the next few days we’ll have plenty of tips and tricks for Firefox 4 Mobile, and a list of the best add-ons available for the new browser.

Continue reading Firefox 4 Mobile officially released for Android and Maemo devices

Firefox 4 Mobile officially released for Android and Maemo devices originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 11:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/29/firefox-4-mobile-officially-released-for-android-and-maemo-devic/

Desiree Dymond Diane Kruger Dido Diora Baird

Cleaners vs Chemicals | How do home brew cleaning concoctions stack up against name brand chemicals?

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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/9Ya5OKeCv0U/top-stories-monday-june-13-2011

Blu Cantrell Bonnie Jill Laflin Bridget Moynahan Britney Spears

This is curious: InfiniteApple is saying they’ve confirmed that iCloud is powered by Microsoft’s Azure, at least for the moment. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/jfYwX_ztt7s/is-microsoft-azure-powering-apples-icloud

Sara Spraker Sarah Gellman Sarah Michelle Gellar Sarah Mutch

This big, ugly gadget is the LifePlayer, and it can change people’s lives. It’s a solar-powered five-band radio and MP3 player designed to be used as a teaching aid in the developing world. Currently, the units are being tested in Rwanda where the government has decided to switch the nation’s language from French to English. [...]

Source: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/06/lifeplayer-a-wind-up-mp3-player-for-developing-countries/

Melissa Rycroft Melissa Sagemiller Mena Suvari Mia Kirshner

In theory, metamaterials are all kinds of awesome — they can boost antenna strength, focus lasers, and create invisibility cloaks. But, they’ve been limited to day dreams lab experiments because producing the light-interfering materials in any practical quantity has been difficult and time consuming. John Rogers, a professor at the University of Illinois has figured out a way to print a layered, nano-scale mesh that bends near-infrared light in much larger amounts than previously possible. The new method, based around a plastic stamp, has been used to create sheets of metamaterial measuring a few square inches, but Rogers is confident he can scale it up to several feet. Who knows, by the time the second installment of The Deathly Hallows hits theaters in July you could get the best Harry Potter costume — one that lets you sneak in without shelling out $13.

[Thanks, Plum G.]

Metamaterial printing method inches us closer to invisibility cloaks originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Jun 2011 19:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/13/metamaterial-printing-method-inches-us-closer-to-invisibility-cl/

Leslie Bega Leslie Bibb Lil Kim Lily Allen

Atten-shun, Senators and Congresspeeps and everyone else with a bundle of loving meat hanging between their legs: Here’s an extremely useful flowchart that will help you decide if it’s ok to tweet a your dick pic or not. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/69bXZyIU3bk/the-weiner-flowchart-will-help-you-decide-when-to-tweet-your-dick-pic

Brittany Snow Brittny Gastineau Brody Dalle Brooke Burke

As several of you noted in the comments to our post asking for cross-platform iOS/Android games, Words With Friends for Android does not provide the smoothest gaming experience… and that’s being rather charitable.

You might be happy to hear that a couple of days ago Zynga released an update which promises to solve many of the Android-specific issues, such as notifications not popping up.

Sadly, installing the update is not a smooth experience; you have to manually uninstall the previous version, and then go to the Android Market and install it. What’s nice is that it doesn’t lose your saved games – this screenshot shows a game I’ve started before the update and continued after updating.

How’s the new update working out for you? Let us know in the comments!

Words With Friends for Android updated, promises “smoother game experience” originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 04 Mar 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/04/words-with-friends-for-android-updated-promises-smoother-game/

Aki Ross Alecia Elliott Alessandra Ambrosio Alexis Bledel

If you wander out into a gaggle of fellow humans in total darkness, chances are you’re going to bump into one or two. Such is not the case for bats, which do much of their hunting after the sun sets. Boston University‘s Intelligent Mechatronics Lab launched operation Batcopter to better understand how bats can fly in clusters large enough to be detected by radar without colliding. Equipped with a GoPro 3D HD camera, GPS, and OpenPilot’s CopterControl system, the 1.8-pound quadcopter UAV joined Brazilian free-tailed bats in the skies of South Texas, capturing some pretty cool footage along the way. A trio of high-speed infrared cameras positioned on the ground photographed the aircraft’s interactions with the flying mammals, which seemed to maneuver around the man-made intruder without incident, until a rotor failure resulted in a Batcopter inversion and subsequent ground collision. Even so, the craft still managed to take to the skies. Jump past the break to see the crippled UAV in action, and hit up the source link for some awesome infrared footage and stills.

Continue reading Batcopter UAV observes anti-collision bat behavior, crashes into ground (video)

Batcopter UAV observes anti-collision bat behavior, crashes into ground (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Jun 2011 10:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/14/batcopter-uav-observes-anti-collision-bat-behavior-crashes-into/

Simone Mütherthies Sofía Vergara Soft Cell Sophia Bush

The WWDC keynote has come and gone, but strangely enough, Apple gave us no new toys to go out and buy. There were no new iObjects gracing the stage this time around at the opening of its developer conference — guess iPhone 5 will just have to wait until fall. But WWDC is technically a software conference, and there was a lot Apple wanted to talk about in that category.

Source: http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/72637.html

Georgianna Robertson Georgina Grenville Gina Carano Gina Gershon