Windows 8 welcome screen revealed, looks very Metro

It's not really a secret the Microsoft had planned on bringing bits of Windows Phone 7's Metro UI to Windows 8, but we haven't seen a lot of really telling evidence. However, with the Windows 8 milestone 3 build now available to Microsoft Connect partners, it was really just a matter of time before we started to get a peek.

Thanks to Rafael Rivera and Paul Thurrott, we've now had a glimpse at what the Windows 8 welcome screen will look like. As you can see, the typography is very Metro indeed. Within Windows also mentions that the background image is customizable, and we're wondering if it might not pull from your current Windows 8 theme. This particular shot shows the CTRL + ALT + DELETE login option, but we imagine you'll still be able to log in by clicking your account picture tile as well.

Rivera and Thurrott also mention that the tablet version of the welcome screen will allow you to log in by swiping a pattern on the screen -- as you can on current Android devices.

Windows 8 welcome screen revealed, looks very Metro originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 01 Apr 2011 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/01/windows-8-welcome-screen-revealed-looks-very-metro/

ACER

Tasty Planet is a fun flash game where you eat everything in sight

So this professor comes up with a new toilet cleaner that works by "eating" the dirt; or so he thinks. That's how the plot starts for Tasty Planet. You play the role of the toilet cleaner, but you're not really a toilet cleaner after all -- you're a blob of gray goo that can eat anything that's smaller than yourself.

As you chomp away, you grow -- and as you grow, you can eat bigger and bigger stuff. The first level pits you against microscopic particles; by the time I stopped playing, I got all the way to eating cats and dogs. I know that sounds disturbing, but it's a really cute game, and there's no gore or anything like that.

Supposedly you keep growing and growing until you're able to eat whole planets (hence the name). The challenge factor comes when you realize you can't touch any critter larger than yourself - you'll get "bitten" and become smaller. In the beginning you're so small, that a single touch can kill you. Later on, you're big enough that touching larger animals doesn't kill you on the spot, but it does reduce your size. Each level is timed, so if you're not large enough by the time your clock runs out, you need to start again. As long as you don't touch the larger animals, you should be fine.

All in all, a fun, addictive little game. It's available for iOS, too.

Tasty Planet is a fun flash game where you eat everything in sight originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 08 Mar 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/08/tasty-planet-is-a-fun-flash-game-where-you-eat-everything-in-sight/

SILICON LABORATORIES

Google Voice Search learns Latin American Spanish, Indonesian, and Malaysian

Google Voice Search has just introduced localizations for Latin America, Indonesia and Malaysia, enabling native language search for hundreds of millions of users.

Google's official blog post offers some interesting insights into the process of collecting and analyzing the speech data needed to expand support. Thousands of hours were spent gathering voice samples and choosing key regional accents to analyze, and International Program Manager Linne Ha is clearly very appreciative of the Google users who helped the company complete the expansion. Without an enthusiastic base of users to lend a hand, Google Voice Search's polyglot powers would have been nearly impossible to deliver.

Google Voice Search learns Latin American Spanish, Indonesian, and Malaysian originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/31/google-voice-search-learns-latin-american-spanish-indonesian-a/

TRIDENT MICROSYSTEMS

The Entire $1.65B Acquisition Of YouTube Took A Week, Was Negotiated At Denny?s

In an interview at TechCrunch Disrupt Beijing today, YouTube co-founder Steve Chen reminisced about selling his company to Google. ?Was there any way you could not have sold?? Sarah Lacy asked? Hindsight is 20/20 Chen replied. Chen revealed that the entire $1.65 billion YouTube acquisition was completed in one week?s time. Chen met with executives from both Google and Yahoo, including Yahoo?s Jerry Yang, at a Denny?s in Palo Alto, ?We didn?t want to meet at offices, so we were like, ?Where?s a place that none of us would go???

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Mr3b8enDiWo/

LAWSON SOFTWARE

Daily Desired: Cool Your Bubbly in this Cylinder From a Hot Engine [Desired]

Happy people are always celebrating. Your laptop battery is charged! You actually put on pants today! But everyone really needs to find cause to keep a classy bottle icy now that Porsche has unleashed this bottle cooler on the universe. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/lMMZOXdlGug/daily-desired-cool-your-bubbly-in-this-cylinder-from-a-hot-engine

ROGERS COMMUNICATIONS

webOS 3.0 beta now available to developers

With the webOS 3.0 SDK available for almost two months, HP has now given developers access to a beta download of webOS 3.0 -- which powers the upcoming TouchPad and will likely ride along on HP desktops and laptops in the form of an emulator.

Right now, the webOS 3.0 beta is only available to Early Access developers. The crew at PreCentral states that HP appears to have eased up on access restrictions, however, so hopefully more devs will get on board and those of you who are planning to buy a TouchPad in the next couple months will have plenty of slick webOS 3.0 apps to install on your new tablet.

webOS 3.0 beta now available to developers originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 09:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/31/webos-3-0-beta-now-available-to-developers/

DIEBOLD

Classy: Google Is Running Zagat Ads Against Mobile Searches For ?Yelp?

If you search for "Yelp" on Google from your mobile phone the top paid result, even above the organic result to Yelp.com, takes you to Zagat. �While it is a common practice for companies to advertise against their competitors' names in search advertising, in this case it is Google itself which is bidding for that search term and taking the top spot. �A classy move. Google bought Zagat last September to shore up its local reviews for Google Places, which is its answer to Yelp. �Google Places and Yelp have a contentious history, with Google borrowing liberally from yelp to help build up its local directory. �Now with Zagat, Google finally has a large corpus if its own review, in addition to the ones people are slowly adding to Google Places. �By redirecting some of the people who are looking for Yelp to Zagat, Google is keeping up its pattern of punching Yelp in the face every chance it gets.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/3R2K4eTVq1I/

ASUSTEK COMPUTER

What HTML5 Hath Wrought

"Build once, run everywhere" has been the goal of many platforms, although most recently the motto was used for Java. It has rarely been completely true. In Java's case, "build once, test everywhere" was closer to the mark. A true universal platform offers many financial benefits.

Source: http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/73618.html

TRANSACTION SYSTEMS ARCHITECTS

How Secure is My Password lets you know just that

We've all heard it before; you need to select a lengthy password, one that's hard to guess. Not a dictionary word. And it has to have some capital letters in it too, and some digits, and a symbol or two won't hurt either.

That's a handy set of rules to keep in mind, but How Secure is My Password helps us understand why they're important.

It's basically like a full-screen version of one of those password-strength meters websites sometimes use. But instead of showing you a bar going from "weak" to "strong", it shows you an estimation of how long your password would take to crack. That's a much more visceral way to understand why your password is strong.

For example, when I entered "rabbit", it came back with "your password is one of the 500 most common passwords. It could be cracked almost instantly". "rabbit5" would take two hours, "$rabbit5" would take 38 days, and "$rabbitZ5" would take 237 years. It's quite enlightening to see what a difference three simple characters can make.

How Secure is My Password lets you know just that originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 05 Mar 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/05/how-secure-is-my-password-lets-you-know-just-that/

ADOBE SYSTEMS

The Engadget Mobile Podcast, live at 5PM ET!

Nokia, Nokia. Who's there? Lumia. Lumia who? Stay tuned this afternoon to learn the answer, even though we're not promising the funniest punchline in the world. What we can promise you, however, is in-depth coverage of Nokia World 2011 and everything else that happened in the wireless industry over the past week. Each week seems to be as crazy as the last, which always makes for an entertainment podcast. Special guest Steve Litchfield and Host Myriam Joire are delivering the rants in a British accent, and co-host Brad Molen may toss out a beef or two in his own native western US dialect. Sadly, it's the same dialect he uses every week. Regardless, reconvene here at 5PM ET (2PM PT, 10PM UK)!

The Engadget Mobile Podcast, live at 5PM ET! originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Oct 2011 16:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/WIEhgpdh2w4/

EARTHLINK

Mixbook Personalized Printed Photo Books Review

A Mixbook collects your photos and lets you share them with others. Mixtapes (or mixCDs, if you’re of the younger generation that didn’t have to use tape), those custom-designed soundtracks of your life from high school and before, were ubiquitous. If you liked someone, or wanted to celebrate a special memory or event, you’d make [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2011/10/25/mixbook-personalized-printed-photo-books-review/

ORACLE

Sand Trap is a fun and difficult physics maze game

Sand Trap is one of those games that at first seem too hard to bother with, but when you try to stop playing it you discover you're hooked.

The goal is to get as much sand as you possibly can out of the maze and into the bucket at the bottom of the screen. You need to rotate your maze every which way to get the sand rolling around it. You then try to direct the sand to one of the exits of the maze, and hopefully into the bucket. It took me several tries to actually get sand into the bucket, but that might be due to the fact that I didn't even realize the bucket was there at first. Things improved significantly after that.

As you level up, the mazes get more complicated, with moving parts and other things making your life more difficult. Once you manage to get through all these obstacles and get enough sand into your bucket, you can move on.

As I mentioned, this is not an easy game, but it's highly addictive. The graphics remind me of some long lost game from the 80s, but this just proves that you don't need super graphics and crazy sound to make a game work. There's a soothing guitar track playing in the background and that's it, as far as I could hear, and you can enjoy it just as much with no sound at all.

If you like a fun physics challenge, don't miss out on this one!

Sand Trap is a fun and difficult physics maze game originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 04 Apr 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/04/sand-trap-is-a-fun-physics-maze-game/

QUANTUM

Firefox 4 Friday: 25 million downloads, anti-aliasing, and how to make it look like Firefox 3

If you've had your head under a rock for the last few days, here's this week's Firefox news in brief: Firefox 4 was finally released.

Yes, 13 months after the initial release of Firefox 3.7 alpha 1 and four more alpha builds, a renumbering to 4.0 and 12 beta releases, and finally a release candidate (or two), Firefox 4 has been released into the wild.

Just like every other Firefox release, initial reception for the new browser has been nothing short of insane. 7.1 million downloads were registered in the first 24 hours and the download rate continued to accelerate, clocking in more than 15 million downloads after two days. At the time of writing, three days in, Firefox 4 has been downloaded over 25 million times. In case you're wondering, the United States accounts for 7 million of those downloads, just beating out Germany's Firefox-downloads-per-capita.

But now that you've installed Firefox 4 (you have, right?), what do you do now? Well, obviously, in true Download Squad fashion, it's time to tweak Firefox 4 using add-ons and about:config hacks!

First up is an add-on called Stratiform that lets you change every aspect of the Firefox 4 browser chrome -- including the color of that orange button!

Continue reading Firefox 4 Friday: 25 million downloads, anti-aliasing, and how to make it look like Firefox 3

Firefox 4 Friday: 25 million downloads, anti-aliasing, and how to make it look like Firefox 3 originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 25 Mar 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/25/firefox-4-friday-25-million-downloads-anti-aliasing-and-how-t/

GOOGLE

Firefox 4 Mobile officially released for Android and Maemo devices

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/

L1 IDENTITY SOLUTIONS

Android Kids App: Barnyard Dance! by Sandra Boynton

If you have young kids, chances are you've got a Sandra Boynton book or two. A third Boynton book -- "Barnyard Dance!" -- is now available for Android smartphones and tablets. It's going for $2.99 in the Android Market and sits along side "Moo, Baa, La La La!" and "The Going to Bed Book." We've got demo video and download links after the break.

See more Android kids apps

read more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/CEO6ucjO6-c/android-kids-app-barnyard-dance-sandra-boynton

PEROT SYSTEMS

How Alaskan Mining Led To the Invention of the Electric Razor [Objectified]

When you're in Alaska staking a mining claim for months on end and it's the early 20th century, shaving is a major drag. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/p4O3-yqa5NY/how-alaskan-mining-let-to-the-invention-of-the-electric-razor

METHODE ELECTRONICS

Interlocked is a three-dimensional brain teaser

Back when I was a kid, I used to love crafting ornate puzzle boxes out of Lego. There would be just one way to open the box, by carefully shifting and rotating a bunch of pieces. Well, either that, or breaking the box in frustration.

Interlocked takes that spirit and turns it into a beautiful Flash game. It's a good thing the soundtrack is soothing, because the game itself can get pretty frustrating.

At the start of each level, you're presented with a box built out of blocks in different colors. You can click and drag the mouse to rotate the box any which way. Once you decide you want to shift a part of the box, hit SPACE to switch into "move" mode. You can then click any part of the box and drag it. Of course, you can only move a part as long as nothing is in its way. So it becomes a matter of understanding how the box is built, and what parts you need to move around so you could eventually take the box apart.

It's a tricky, difficult game, but it's a great brain teaser -- and definitely a keeper.

Interlocked is a three-dimensional brain teaser originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 17:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/29/interlocked-is-a-three-dimensional-brain-teaser/

NII HOLDINGS

The Air Force's Rocket-Killing Megawatt Laser Runs on Rocket Fuel [Video]

Until that Missile Defense Shield I've heard so much about is realized, we'll just have to rely on this megawatt laser mounted on the front of a Boeing to blast warheads out of the sky. Works for me More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/NuT2x_Egbls/the-air-forces-rocket+killing-megawatt-laser-that-runs-on-rocket-fuel

AUTODESK