Latest Posts from Download Squad

With all the hoopla that surrounds the iPhone OS it's hard for some to imagine that some geeks...don't have (or want) an iPhone. Android, Google's mobile platform has been getting a lot of credit and recognition, especially as their app store continues.

Once you get past the cheesy games and fart machines, Android offers some great tools to people when they aren't tied down to a desk. For server and IT administrators, Android may have all the tools you need to become even more mobile. Here's a rundown of some of the best IT applications for Android:

ServerUp ($2.99)
As an IT administrator, the only way to keep your clients happy is to keep them up and running. ServerUp is a simple (yet remarkably feature-packed) server monitoring tool. You can configure the application to run tests on your server as often or as little as necesary and a simple UI makes it easy to know when something is wrong. In addition, ServerUp gives you the ability to disable hosts and turn off your network remotely if you need to do some work.

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YouTube has a video on just about anything you'd want to watch -- and some things you don't. While the company claims that this diversity makes them who they are today, other users are looking for a safer and more "clean" experience. To this end, YouTube has announced a new opt-in feature known as Safety Mode.

Safety Mode allows users to filter out "objectionable content" that they don't want to view. In addition, it helps to protect family computers from exposing children to content that isn't suitable for them. With very few "checks" when uploading videos, a lot has slipped through such as raunchy music videos, bits of nakedness and blood and guts kind of stuff.

YouTube knows there's no way to filter out 100% of all seedy content, but claims this is just another step in their plan to improve the popular video community.

If you're looking for an easy way to port some of your favorite Apple fonts over to Ubuntu, here it is! I've just started to get exposed to alternative OSes like Ubuntu and was really excited to find a way to easily get some of my favorite fonts over to it quickly and easily. TechSource has provided a really great tutorial on how to access those fonts without a lot of fuss.

To get started, open up the Linux terminal and download the required font files with this command:

$ wget http://ubuntu-debs.googlecode.com/files/macfonts.tar.gz

Next, you'll need to extract the files:

$ tar zxvf macfonts.tar.gz

Move the fonts to the /fonts directory:

$ sudo mv macfonts /usr/share/fonts

Then just reload the font cache to start using them:

$ sudo fc-cache -f -v

That's it. To use or test the fonts, head over to System > Preferences > Appearance > Fonts.


Since it's introduction last week, people have been clamoring for more information on the iPad. Apple has released a video and has posted some basic specs and pricing, but more information has been hard to come by. Scammers have started to pick up on this and have been looking for ways to exploit users searching for iPad websites.

BBCNews reports that handful of security firms have been spotting attempts to "trick" search engines into providing people with rogue links. People that click these links will be redirected to pages that scan their computer looking for holes and vulnerabilities.

So how is this happening? People have started crafting fake websites that will show up high in search results for "Apple" or "iPad", etc. Users will be redirected to sites peddling fake security software, asking them to sign up for credit cards and claiming that more information and rumors on the iPad are just a few clicks away.

The same common sense rules apply for preventing this from happening. Be careful when opening links and as always, make sure you're computer has the latest security patches and updates.

Scamming and exploitation of users is nothing new, especially around high profile "trending" events. A similar scam recently occured involving the earthquake in Haiti.

YouTube began testing the waters with a movie rental service late last month. Starting small, they offered a collection of five films from the Sundance Film Festival. The movies were offered for ten days to see how users would respond to a paid movie rental service.

Charging only $3.99, the films picked up 2,684 views and pulled in only $10,709 total. While the "big guys" in the movie rental business such as NetFlix, Apple and Amazon are certainly not intimidated by such a paltry sum, YouTube says it's happy with the outcome of the test. According to Google, the results "exceeded our expectations given all the barriers" and it looks like we can expect a larger movie rental presence from YouTube in the future.

While nothing is finalized, YouTube says it will be pulling in new video partners and start offering rentals on various sections of their website on a short-term basis. It'll be interesting to see how they fares up against larger companies if their rental service grows.

[via NYTimes.com]

You'd think Google would have had this search thing down by now, but the search functionality within Gmail lacked some much needed (and requested) features. A recent addition to Gmail Labs hopes to fix this and make searching within mail much, much better.

In April, Google announced that you could search the web from Gmail without leaving the page. You could even add the search results you find to a message. The feature was a great addition to the Lab and made life much easier than switching browser windows to find results. The changes made recently add some awesome features such as dictionary definitions, spelling correction, news, weather and even local results.

Google search within Gmail is now also accessible via a icon from the compose window. I never thought I'd need a feature like this, but it's come in handy quite a few times. Even for quick functions like definitions, it's certainly an improvement. If you haven't already, head on over to Gmail to get searching.

While there's no shortage of alternatives in web browsing, it looks like Internet Explorer 8 still has some pull out there. Net MarketShare, a company that monitors usage and market share of major web browsers, has released their January report.

According to the report, IE (all versions) holds a solid 62.12% of all browser usage. In addition to a 27% share on Windows, it has also taken a pretty big bite out of other operating systems as well. All these numbers translate to one thing: people are still using IE8...a lot of people. Sure, part of this has to do with the fact that it's the default browser for Windows and used by many large companies but it's still a pretty big deal.

The folks at the Windows software team are humbled, having only released version 8 of IE less than a year ago. They also reported that the popular browser was responsible for blocking over 80 million malware attacks. It will be interesting to see how long the streak will last given the rising popularity of browsers such as Firefox.

ed note: StatCounter currently pegs IE8's individual share at 22.1%, just ahead of Firefox 3.5 at 21.7%

Hulu, the online video service that allows users to watch television shows for free, is thinking about charging. Yeah, it sounds kind of strange to me too. In an effort to increase revenue, it looks like Hulu may put a premium price tag on some popular shows and exclusive web content.

It doesn't look like it's going to be all bad though. Hulu is going about this the right way and has taken the time to research what people are willing to pay for and what they expect to get for free. One plan is to allow free access to the five most recent episodes of certain shows but charge for older content. This is no real surprise as talks about a subscription service have been around since June.

Some of the shows that are in the hot seat to become "premium" include "30 Rock", "House" and "Modern Family". As of now, Hulu isn't commenting on their plans, or when this service may begin.

I'm always looking for a good distraction when I'm sitting in classes I don't care about... which tends to be almost all of them. Rockface Rescue is a great, addictive game that I found on the BBC's website. From what I understand, the show followed a fictional rescue helicopter service that is plagued with disaster and love triangles. The show was cancelled in 2008. Luckily, the game is nothing like the show.

In the game, you're a helicopter pilot tasked with finding and rescuing hikers (and the occasional baby cow) stranded in the mountainous landscape of Glenntannoch. Each level gets a little longer and the terrain gets a little more challenging. To add to the realism, each hiker has a life meter that can be either green, yellow or red. As you can imagine, a good strategy might be to get all the red guys first since they're probably pretty critical.

Be careful not to knock your rescuer around too much or run out of fuel or you're going down too. The controls are really simple - left, right, up and down are all you really need to know. The training and five individual missions are addictive and I'm yet to get through the entire game. Check it out!

When you delete files on your computer, they're really not gone for good. Only once it's been emptied from your recycle bin is the file truly deleted. People tend to make mistakes and by saving fragments of the file it can be retrieved in a desperate "whoops moment".

This has always been a pretty straightforward process on your computer, but USB drives and removable media makes it a little trickier. When you delete a file from a flash drive, those fragments are actually stored on the device itself until deleted manually or when you delete your entire system trash. This isn't always the best method - especially if you want to let someone borrow your drive or want to free up some extra space.

That's where Curb comes in. It's a free application available for Mac from MRR Software that makes file removal a snap. Just drag your drive's icon onto Curb and it will find and delete those fragments and files you no longer wish to have. Curb comes with a variety of settings and secure methods to delete your files easily and safely. In my testing, Curb was great. A simple idea executed well, Curb got rid of a lot of the random unreadable files and text documents that were left after deleting some folders.