Skype 5.3 for Windows released, improves mobile video call quality

Version 5.3 of Skype for Windows has just been released, with the main emphasis of the new release being improved call quality, and the quality of video received by mobile Skype users. Presumably one party of the video call must be using Skype for Windows 5.3, though.

Beyond improved call quality, not much has changed. You can now see your friends' presence icons when contact cards are collapsed, and the topic editing button is now always visible on the conversation header. For a complete list of changes, hit up the Skype Garage blog.

Download Skype 5.3 for Windows

Skype 5.3 for Windows released, improves mobile video call quality originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 07 Apr 2011 12:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/07/skype-5-3-for-windows-released-improves-mobile-video-call-quali/

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HP's webOS joins Android in the land of open-source operating systems

Android just got a new friend in the open-source playground. HP today announced that the beloved-but-floundering mobile operating system will released to the open-source community.

"HP plans to continue to be active in the development and suppport of webOS," the company said. Like the core Android OS, webOS will be made available under an open-source license.

Exactly what that means in regards to webOS as a competitor to Android? We'll just have to see. Certainly it's great news for anyone who likes to tinker -- and you know how Android folks like to tinker. Will it overtake Android as the current embedded OS of choice? We will see some sort of mutant Android-webOS hybrid emerge from these murkey depths? (And how cool would that be?) We'll just have to see.

There's loads more, including the official announcement, at the link below.

More at PreCentral.net

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/ySZ5U_MqmsE/story01.htm

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Android Market Celebrates 10 Billionth Download

The Android Market Place sure is growing and it has just reached it’s 10 billionth download. �To celebrate, for the next 10 days the little green ‘Droid will �have 10 Premium apps available for 10 cents each ( see a pattern here ? �). Day 1 Apps: Fruit Ninja BB ? Bedtime Battle AirSync by [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2011/12/07/android-market-celebrates-10-billionth-download/

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Splash Down for the Orion: NASA Prepares For Manned Deep Space Exploration

You are getting ready to travel to the deepest parts of space to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.� What is your ride of choice?� Unfortunately not the Starship Enterprise; we have to wait a few 100 years or so before that bad boy is [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2011/12/08/splash-down-for-the-orion-nasa-prepares-for-manned-deep-space-exploration/

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Gladinet maps Amazon Cloud Drive to your Windows desktop

Amazon's recently-introduced Cloud Drive is a great place to store your files online. It offers 5 gigs of totally free space, and U.S. users also get access to the handy Cloud Player app (for Web and Android!) which streams music you upload to your Cloud Drive.

The service could be a little easier to use, however. Until Amazon releases a desktop client, Windows users might want to take another look at Gladinet. The multi-service cloud connector has now added Amazon Cloud Drive support and will let you map a network drive letter to your account with minimal fuss.

Once you've added your credentials to Gladinet, just pick the letter you want to assign to the drive and you're good to go. You can then copy files to and from your Cloud Drive, rename items, and manage folders like you would any local hard drive in your system.

The only downside is that the free version of Gladinet gives you a limited number of cloud interactions. Once you use those up, you'll need to upgrade to the paid version, which costs $49.99. If you work with a number of cloud-based storage providers, however, it could be well worth the price tag.

Gladinet maps Amazon Cloud Drive to your Windows desktop originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 04 Apr 2011 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/04/map-amazon-cloud-drive-to-windows-local/

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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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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/05/tripadvisor-app-for-windows-phone-7-now-available/

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Chocomize personalized chocolate: giveaway and discount code

Okay, I know what you're thinking: chocolate on Download Squad? That's right! That's because Chocomize is one of the nerdiest ways to get chocolate online: it's a website where you customize your own bar using a multi-step process.

We've covered Chocomize before in our holiday gift guide, so when they reached out to us offering to do a giveaway, we really couldn't resist.

Chocomize is giving away ten gift certificates, each worth $50, for you to create your own customized chocolate. They sent us some pictures of their recent creations, which you can find in the gallery below.

Regardless of the giveaway, you can use the discount code switched to get 10% off any Chocomize order. The code is valid through April 20th - just in time for Easter!

To participate, simply leave a comment. Fine print is after the jump.

Gallery: Chocomize personalized chocolate

Continue reading Chocomize personalized chocolate: giveaway and discount code

Chocomize personalized chocolate: giveaway and discount code originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/06/giveaway-and-discount-code-chocomize-personalized-chocolate/

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Airport Kiosk Prints Custom Welcome Home Banners [Printers]

Portable devices might have replaced paper tickets, but holding up your smartphone to welcome home a loved one just doesn't have the same emotional impact as a large banner that can now be printed on demand at Amsterdam's Schipol Airport. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/KYtXWNRz6io/airport-kiosk-prints-custom-welcome-home-banners

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Verizon's 4G Service Back Up, but Users Still Miffed

A technical issue disrupted 4G LTE network service from Verizon Wireless for some customers between late Tuesday and late Wednesday, but the issue is now resolved. That's according to the company, which issued only a terse statement on Thursday morning. The term "outage" is "not entirely accurate" as a description of what occurred, said spokesperson Tom Pica, but he declined to provide further detail.

Source: http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/73927.html

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Party Vest Straps an 8-Inch Subwoofer To Your Back [Speakers]

The Christmas party season is in full swing, and if you really want to make a great impression with your boss and co-workers you'll certainly be noticed if you wear this self-powered speaker vest instead of a sweater and khakis. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/TOZOGIpaZDg/party-vest-straps-an-8+inch-subwoofer-to-your-back

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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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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/05/leaked-android-music-app-hands-on/

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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/

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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/

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Sphero shipments delayed due to high demand, won't be here-o until January

Our hearts were aflutter with anticipation when the Sphero went up for pre-order last month, but that excitement has since been supplanted by a big knot of disappointment, because the smartphone-controlled robotic ball won't be hitting the market until after the holiday season. In a letter published yesterday, Orbotix CEO Paul Berberian attributed his company's setback to a fundamental economic quandary. "Demand has been greater than expected and our production capabilities are slower than we planned," Berberian wrote. "What that means is only a handful of orders are going to be fulfilled before the holidays and the majority of orders will be fulfilled in January." Writing on behalf of the manufacturer, Berberian went on to accept full blame for the delay, with rather admirable honesty: "We simply underestimated the number of units we'd need to make and, more importantly, we miscalculated how long it would take to bring up the production line." To make up for it, Orbotix is offering free expedited shipping to all customers who pre-ordered the device in time for the holidays, along with a free Sphero t-shirt.

Sphero shipments delayed due to high demand, won't be here-o until January originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Dec 2011 17:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/09/sphero-shipments-delayed-due-to-high-demand-wont-be-here-o-unt/

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ThinkGeek Drum Machine bangs out block-rockin' beats wherever you go (video)

Here it is -- the final piece in your all fabric New Order cover band. This $30 wearable drum machine brings a much needed edge to ThinkGeeks existing collection of soft-circuit "instruments." You can choose from seven different drum kits, including the ubiquitous 808 and a palette of chip tune effects. The T-shirt's integrated recorder lets you build loops up to three minutes long and endlessly layer on the sounds. Just keep piling 'em on until your old-school hip hop homage has become an impenetrable wall of noise that washes over you as you walk down the street, proclaiming your geekdom in rhythm. And, of course, the included mini amp cranks all the way up to 11. Check out the videos after the break to see MC Lars and Dex Fontaine demo the capabilities of the personal percussion pullover.

Continue reading ThinkGeek Drum Machine bangs out block-rockin' beats wherever you go (video)

ThinkGeek Drum Machine bangs out block-rockin' beats wherever you go (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 10 Dec 2011 20:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/icpNi1i6ihA/

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