Download Squad http://downloadsquad.switched.com Download Squad. http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/downloadsquad.switched.com/media/feedlogo.gif Download Squad http://downloadsquad.switched.com prods@weblogsinc.com (Weblogs, Inc. Producers) support@weblogsinc.com (Weblogs, Inc. Web Support) en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. View our terms of service here: http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/ Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/ <![CDATA[New Gizmo Project beta adds N810 support]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/12/01/new-gizmo-project-beta-adds-n810-support/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/12/01/new-gizmo-project-beta-adds-n810-support/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/12/01/new-gizmo-project-beta-adds-n810-support/#comments If desktop VoIP calling program Gizmo Project previously had a reputation as a Skype Killer, it's now official: Skype is dead. Gizmo has always done things Skype couldn't--like custom on-hold music, SIP compatibility, meta-IM with support for Yahoo, MSN, and Google Talk, and a slew (that means dozens) of other things. Indeed, some of us here at Download Squad haven't had Skype in our startup items for a year or more.

Gizmo Project 4.0 beta just hit the wild. New in this edition are a reworked avatar system, tabbed text chatting, a totally redesigned user interface, and video calling, a feature that we got a first look at with an earlier beta release last month.

Ordinarily, Gizmo Project's creator, SIPPhone Inc., does a good job of getting features to their Mac and Linux editions in a hurry (though 4.0 beta isn't yet available for Mac). In this case, however, the Nokia N800/N810 version is also ready to rock, which really excites us, since Nokia's Internet Tablets have built-in cameras that are ideal for video calling.

As with previous versions of the Project, you can still make outgoing (and receive incoming) telephone calls, and make yourself reachable via a sipphone.com URI. So, with the last nail in Skype's coffin being hammered in by the good folks at SIPPhone, we're asking ourselves if we'll ever need to run Skype again. After all, with services like GrandCentral supporting Gizmo Project, and with the availability of a native Gizmo Project client for mobile phones, it looks like Gizmo Project is ready to bury eBay's redheaded stepchild.

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New Gizmo Project beta adds N810 support originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 01 Dec 2007 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> freewaregizmo projectGizmoProjectnokiavideovoip Ted Wallingford Sat, 01 Dec 2007 09:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Quick photo editing (through Dashboard?)]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/29/quick-photo-editing-through-dashboard/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/29/quick-photo-editing-through-dashboard/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/29/quick-photo-editing-through-dashboard/#comments Sometimes you need to process, crop, clip, or otherwise edit an image file in a hurry--and Photoshop takes longer to launch than most folks are willing to wait when a simple image modification is all that's needed. That's why we were pretty excited to find out about Photo Drop, a Mac Dashboard widget that really seems to speed up quicky image edits.

Since Photo Drop is a widget, you can drag files to it from other widgets or even from your desktop (drag the file to a hotcorner to activate Dashboard and then drop it on the Photo Drop widget). When you're done with your edits, drag it back out to the Finder and off you go.

Photo Drop provides several handy manipulations including cropping, resizing, borders, and some tasty eye candy like "1-bit", which will convert your photo into a strictly black and white image. We're digging it.

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Quick photo editing (through Dashboard?) originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 29 Nov 2007 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> editingimagephoto Ted Wallingford Thu, 29 Nov 2007 20:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Voxcall enables VoIP on Facebook]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/29/voxcall-enables-voip-on-facebook/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/29/voxcall-enables-voip-on-facebook/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/29/voxcall-enables-voip-on-facebook/#comments
Facebook is attracting more and more developers due to its exploding user population and the relative ease of creating Facebook applications--snapins which provide narrowly-focused functionality on a Facebook user's profile page. So it's no surprise that the venerable Voxalot service has brought their VoIP calling solution to Facebook.

Voxcall lets you click to call Facebook buddies, as well as field calls from them, as long as you both have a SIP URI (that's a VoIP address that acts like a phone number and looks like an e-mail address). Of course, if you don't have a SIP URI, you can enroll in the Voxcall Premium service, which supports placing calls to ordinary telephone numbers. And if you're worried about abuse or phone spam, as many click-to-call users are, Voxcall has implemented a PIN code verification which will stop malicious users from registering your SIP URI without your permission. The way it works, once you register, Voxcall places a VoIP call to your URI--and then you enter your PIN code.

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Voxcall enables VoIP on Facebook originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 29 Nov 2007 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> facebookvoip Ted Wallingford Thu, 29 Nov 2007 14:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[What Google would do with Skype that eBay won't]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/20/what-google-would-do-with-skype-that-ebay-wont/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/20/what-google-would-do-with-skype-that-ebay-wont/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/20/what-google-would-do-with-skype-that-ebay-wont/#comments Skype for sale?Yeah, we know this is just a rumor, but it has quickly bubbled to the top of the VoIP blogosphere, and the ramifications are looming large. Skype may be on eBay's auction block (no pun intended). Among the potential buyers for such a property are the usual suspects--Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, and even Facebook if they could afford it. But the excitement about Google seems to be the most fervent. Here's why.

Google is a platform company. Their platform is all about monetizing other people's content. They do it by providing self-service solutions that capture revenue generated on the backs of other content producers. One of their clarion calls has always been--increase use to increase revenue. And nobody does this better than Google.

It was for this reason--increasing use--that eBay invested in Skype. But post-merger politics ruined the exciting possibilities. We never got widespread adoption of Skype on eBay because in order to promote Skype, eBay must also have allowed Skype's competitors (or at least refrain from blocking their use on the site). That was never going to work. The 1.0 mentality at eBay was just too pervasive, even with such a future-bright asset like Skype.

Google, on the other hand, opens just about everything up. So Google's idea of competing is to show the competition exactly what they're holding, source code and all. And that's the crux of it--if Google does get its hands on Skype, count on getting access to Skype you previously never dreamed of: full-blown APIs, web service models, the specs for the Skype signaling protocol, and yes, almost certainly, source code.

What Google would do with Skype that eBay won't originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 20 Nov 2007 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> ebaygoogleskypevoip Ted Wallingford Tue, 20 Nov 2007 14:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Packet8 joins the mobile minute stealers]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/20/packet8-joins-the-mobile-minute-stealers/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/20/packet8-joins-the-mobile-minute-stealers/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/20/packet8-joins-the-mobile-minute-stealers/#comments
The long-time VoIP phone service provider Packet8 just threw its hat into the cellular minute-stealing arena with its new service, MobileTalk. But before we can share about MobileTalk, it would be helpful to know what minute-stealing is. The idea is simple: use your phone's IP data service to transport costly long distance calls using Voice over IP instead of the traditional way--through the cell carrier's grossly expensive long distance interconnects.

MobileTalk is a software download that runs on a variety of phones. Like its contemporaries TalkPlus, Gizmo for Mobile, and Jajah, MobileTalk can be sent directly to your phone via a media message when you sign up for the service. Packet8 gets ten bucks when you sign up, ten bucks every month you stay signed up, and 2 - 6 cents per minute for every call you place. If you make a lot of calls across the pond, that *should* save you a fair amount of dough.

Of course, there's no value-add for existing Packet8 customers (like, say, a discount), and Packet8 still hasn't fixed the original set of problems with its service--for example, their soft phone (a PC program to let you make phone calls) still can't share a phone number with another Packet8 phone line. But if you make a ton of international calls on your wireless and you want the benefit of a single bill from your phone provider, MobileTalk is the way to go.

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Packet8 joins the mobile minute stealers originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 20 Nov 2007 13:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> long distanceLongDistancemobilepacket8voip Ted Wallingford Tue, 20 Nov 2007 13:02:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[LouderVoice lets you tell the world how good stuff is]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/20/loudervoice-lets-you-tell-the-world-how-good-stuff-is/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/20/loudervoice-lets-you-tell-the-world-how-good-stuff-is/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/20/loudervoice-lets-you-tell-the-world-how-good-stuff-is/#comments
What do you get when you mix a Digg-esque ranking scale, a Twitter-like SMS roll, and a focus on amplifying the public opinion? You get LouderVoice, a review-anything web site that seems to have caught on. Opinions aplenty abound here, so whether you're looking for more XBox fanboy ammo or just a recommendation on a skateboard to get to work (hey, I ride my skateboard to work--don't you?), LouderVoice indexes somebody's opinion on just about every subject.

LouderVoice gets its content in one of several ways--by aggregating reviews from blogs (which any blogger can take advantage of, a la Twitter), by pulling in a review you've posted on your MySpace page, or by allowing you to submit a review via SMS on your mobile device. Needless to say, SMS reviews are really short and often suffer from typically poor cellphone grammar.

So is LouderVoice worthwhile for review bloggers? Perhaps, as it may drive some traffic to your blog. But, at least to us, it looks like LouderVoice is gaming bloggers for free content in order to (someday) profit from product-specific Amazon sell-thrus. Not a bad business model, if the site becomes popular enough.

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LouderVoice lets you tell the world how good stuff is originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 20 Nov 2007 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> loudervoicereviewssmstwitter Ted Wallingford Tue, 20 Nov 2007 11:30:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[When MySpace isn't black enough: BlackPlanet.com]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/16/when-myspace-isnt-black-enough-blackplanet-com/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/16/when-myspace-isnt-black-enough-blackplanet-com/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/16/when-myspace-isnt-black-enough-blackplanet-com/#comments BlackPlanet

There's no denying the appeal of demographically focused media outlets like BET, Lifetime, and SpikeTV to potential advertisers. So whether you're selling products for black people (BET) , women (Lifetime), or gangly teenage boys (SpikeTV), you can exploit a specific vertical media outlet that will expose your product to more of the people you are concerned with selling to.

As we enter the age of social networking, we begin to look at demographic focus in a slightly different manner. Because of database and user profile technologies, it's possible for a single social media outlet, such as MySpace, to provide access to many different tightly-defined demographic consumer groups who are participants in the social network.

Now, instead of dedicating the entire media property to a particular interest group, the social network operator can identify communities of special interest, of a specific race or gender, or of a particular religious background, making very appealing advertising opportunities available. Those who are pushing products aren't so much advertising any more, as they are merely participating in the network that serves their vertical.

Nevertheless, somebody at a company called Community Connect has decided that the approach employed by television network BET (that is, branding an entire media property around a certain race) remains the way to go. And apparently, over one million American blacks agree with them. BlackPlanet.com is a social networking site that is patronized primarily by African-Americans. The site has little to differentiate it from other social networking sites, although there are certainly a few cute innovations here (like BlackPlanet's Secret Admirer feature, a twist on Facebook's "poke").

Community Connect also runs MiGente.com, which is being pushed towards Latino-Americans, and AsianAve.com, which is being pushed towards Asian-Americans. Can these vertically-oriented social sites survive in a Facebook world? Having a million members is certainly a good start. So is carving out a meaningful niche--it appears BlackPlanet has done both.

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When MySpace isn't black enough: BlackPlanet.com originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 16 Nov 2007 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> blacksocial networkingSocialNetworking Ted Wallingford Fri, 16 Nov 2007 13:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[GameBoy Advance emulator for your hacked iPhone]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/15/gameboy-advance-emulator-for-your-hacked-iphone/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/15/gameboy-advance-emulator-for-your-hacked-iphone/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/15/gameboy-advance-emulator-for-your-hacked-iphone/#comments gpSPhone is a GameBoy Advance emulator for the iPhone and iPod Touch. To use it, of course, you'll need an iPhone that's been hacked to use third-party apps, but that's a small price to pay for quality time with such memorable Nintendo classics as Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga and Mega Man Battle Network. The emulator was co-developed by the guy that made gpSPhone's cousin, a classic NES emulator.

Once you have gpSPhone installed, assuming you're willing to jump through the hoops required to unlock your iPhone, you'll need to get your hands on some games. Since the iPhone doesn't have a GBA cartridge receptable (those short-sighted Apple engineers!), you'll need to grab ROMs instead. ROMs are firmware images of cartridge games that can be downloaded and copied to the iPhone for use with the emulator. Only watch it, distributing copyrighted games in this fashion is mostly illegal.

That said, there are quite a few home-brew games available as ROMs, like our new favorite, Qwak. Now, if only an Amiga emulator would show up on the iPhone so we can play Lemmings.

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GameBoy Advance emulator for your hacked iPhone originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 15 Nov 2007 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> gameboy advanceGameboyAdvancegamesgpsphoneiphoneqwak Ted Wallingford Thu, 15 Nov 2007 16:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[UK iPhone reactions mixed, loud]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/14/uk-iphone-reactions-mixed-loud/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/14/uk-iphone-reactions-mixed-loud/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/14/uk-iphone-reactions-mixed-loud/#comments
With UK-based Carphone Warehouse estimating first-day sales of Apple's iPhone at 10,000 or more, observers in England are beginning to gripe about the same things American iPhone consumers have been griping about since last spring. Where to begin? The servers used to activate the phones can't handle the massive swell of eager consumers unboxing and activating their iPhones. There's no Skype. Lack of 3G network support. Incomplete Bluetooth support. A persistent inability to develop anything besides web-based apps for the thing.

Apple took steps to rectify at least some of these concerns by announcing a Software Developer's Kit, a seemingly tardy bit of news. Some believe this tardiness had more to do with the timing of Leopard's release than with the eventuality of third-party apps on the iPhones. We just think Apple got caught off guard and made an error in judgment by telling the world, "hey, it has Safari and that's enough." (As if.) Apparently, even Chinese phone hackers demonstrate that a better development environment is needed, despite having no 'official' network to connect their iPhones to.

Now the rumor mill is really crackling with promise, though. It seems that O2, the mobile operator who plays AT&T in the British iPhone analogy, may not be gifted with the same tolerant regulatory attitude that greeted the exclusive AT&T deal in the United States, meaning there are people in the UK pushing for an actual legislative termination of the O2 exclusive. And, while everybody's been waiting to hear what content partnerships Apple has up its sleeve for this touchscreen-enabled golden goose, it appears YouTube may be among the first to pony up a tasty third-party add-on for the iPhone.

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UK iPhone reactions mixed, loud originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 14 Nov 2007 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> appleiphoneo2ukyoutube Ted Wallingford Wed, 14 Nov 2007 18:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Do-It 1.0: Major iCal time-saver]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/14/do-it-1-0-major-ical-time-saver/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/14/do-it-1-0-major-ical-time-saver/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/14/do-it-1-0-major-ical-time-saver/#comments
iCal is a great calendaring app, but if you're a heavy user, you'll sympathize with us when we say it drives us nuts. Really, the most troublesome part of using iCal is adding events. Lots of unnecessary clicks and options that you can hide and show combine to slow you down when you're creating an event. Something that should take ten seconds takes forty.

So we went in search of something to speed the process up--and we found it. Do-It is an Automator app that has a single screen for entering iCal events, and it is much faster that iCal itself. Almost every option is there, though recurring events aren't implemented. Do-It is definitely going in our dock.

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Do-It 1.0: Major iCal time-saver originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 14 Nov 2007 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> automatoricalmactime-saver Ted Wallingford Wed, 14 Nov 2007 16:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Verizon FIOS customers getting searchjacked]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/09/verizon-fios-customers-getting-searchjacked/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/09/verizon-fios-customers-getting-searchjacked/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/09/verizon-fios-customers-getting-searchjacked/#comments Searchjacked recently?
It appears that Google and Yahoo aren't the only game in town when it comes to search, though they may be the only ones not benefiting from an arguably underhanded tactic called searchjacking. When you key in a typo on Google, you're often given a suggestion, a la "did you mean to say" followed by what Google thinks is the actual keyword you fat-fingered.

But, if you're a Verizon FIOS customer, you may have ended up at a Verizon-branded search page without even trying, because the big telco sometimes takes a different approach with your typos. That is, if you mistype a URL into your browser on the high-speed fiber service, there's a decent chance you'll end up at Verizon's search page instead of the familiar 'Page Cannot be Displayed' message.

The term searchjacking was first used to describe Internet Explorer's tendency to redirect user's to a Microsoft-branded search page when they've mis-typed a URL or experience a DNS name lookup failure. Well, it looks like Verizon has decided to take the low road as well. The objective, of course, is to sell ads on Verizon's customer portal. But one wonders just how large the accidental content delivery market really is.

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Verizon FIOS customers getting searchjacked originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 09 Nov 2007 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> searchverizon Ted Wallingford Fri, 09 Nov 2007 10:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[MS Home Server bundles video messaging, Sightspeed]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/07/ms-home-server-bundles-video-messaging-sightspeed/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/07/ms-home-server-bundles-video-messaging-sightspeed/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/07/ms-home-server-bundles-video-messaging-sightspeed/#comments Microsoft's new product, Home Server, promises to make mundane tasks like media sharing and backup simpler for Joe Six Pack to deal with, but we've been wondering--is this really just a product for geeks? XP Media Center Edition was embraced by at least a portion of the geek populace, but outside the ranks of the nerdy, it never really got much attention. The entertainment industry didn't see it as appliance-like enough, we suppose.

But Home Server is different--it's the piece of software that should have existed before Media Center Edition was ever produced, because it provides some of the nuts and bolts that, if coupled with Media Center Edition, could've made the latter a truly great offering. Lest we digress, Home Server fans now have one more reason to get excited: the addition of video conferencing and video-mail using Sightspeed.

First off, if you've never used Sightspeed, you should give it a shot. It's the most grandma-friendly video-conferencing app we've ever seen. With Home Server, Sightspeed will archive call recordings and video mail messages into the Home Server, making them reviewable from another PC, Mac, or even your XBox. The only thing that could top that would be video-conferencing on the XBox itself. Sightspeed says they have no plans to bring their client to Xbox, but we have a feeling it's coming.

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MS Home Server bundles video messaging, Sightspeed originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 07 Nov 2007 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> home serverHomeServersightspeedvideowindows Ted Wallingford Wed, 07 Nov 2007 08:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Make a Facebook app or widget from any web site]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/06/make-a-facebook-app-or-widget-from-any-web-site/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/06/make-a-facebook-app-or-widget-from-any-web-site/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/06/make-a-facebook-app-or-widget-from-any-web-site/#comments WidgetBox
It's really easy to add an RSS feed to your start page or desktop, but we were looking for an easy way to let people add an RSS feed from their favorite sites to their own home pages or social profiles. We came across a really great tool: WidgetBox. Instead of coding our own Flash RSS widget that we could give our visitors to embed on their home pages, we found a ton of cool options for widgetizing lots of existing content.

What's even better, WidgetBox lets you turn any widget-sized HTML web page into an embeddable widget that can be shared with users in a friendly manner. Sadly, these widgets still aren't MySpace-friendly. But the WidgetBox does offer an intriguing wizard for creating Facebook apps out of your widgets.

WidgetBox also offers a very simple but flexible "blidget", an RSS-reading widget with options for size, colors, and presentation. Just type in the URL of your blog and WidgetBox produces a blidget. Check out the one we made for Download Squad.

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Make a Facebook app or widget from any web site originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 06 Nov 2007 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> facebookmyspacewidget Ted Wallingford Tue, 06 Nov 2007 08:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Nokia's music store is online]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/02/nokias-music-store-is-online/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/02/nokias-music-store-is-online/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/02/nokias-music-store-is-online/#comments

Music lovers, rejoice. Yet another online music store has appeared. The latest to try selling songs online is Nokia, the king of the cell phone. The differences between Nokia's store and iTunes are few--but at this early stage, there's nothing being offered by Nokia's music store that iTunes doesn't already have... Well, except for Microsoft DRM. Yes, downloaded tracks from Nokia's music store are Microsoft-DRM'd and in Windows Media format.

That said, we tried to fire up the Nokia music store and ran into a few obstacles. First off, we realized that unless you live in the UK, you won't be buying any music at Nokia, for the time being. They've yet to launch in other countries. Second, don't bother with it if you're on a Mac, on Linux, or using Firefox, as the site only supports Internet Explorer.

We were also humorously rejected from the site when we tried to browse it on our N-Series Nokia phone, an N95. The N-Series is the centerpiece product line of Nokia's entire media experience, so getting an 'unsupported platform' message on the Symbian browser gave us a chuckle. This despite the N95 being listed on the music store's compatibility page.

So if you've got a Windows PC with Internet Explorer and live in the UK and can play Windows Media and don't mind DRM and own a Nokia N-Series phone, this place is right up your alley. Rock on, Nokia.

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Nokia's music store is online originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 02 Nov 2007 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> itunesmusic Ted Wallingford Fri, 02 Nov 2007 09:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[NetZero will soon pull plug on voice calling service]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/01/netzero-will-soon-pull-plug-on-voice-calling-service/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/01/netzero-will-soon-pull-plug-on-voice-calling-service/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/11/01/netzero-will-soon-pull-plug-on-voice-calling-service/#comments My NetZero
NetZero, the one-time free ISP, which, in recent years has elevated itself to a discount dial-up provider, added voice service to its offering a few years go. This enabled its customers to make and receive phone calls over VoIP in much the same way Vonage and Packet8 provide such service.

Apparently, as Vonage discovered, it's not as easy as it looks on paper to make money competing with the local Bell. So hard in fact, that NetZero is canning their voice offering after many months of unsuccessfully trying to sell off their customer base to a competing interest. This is a harbinger of things to come in the fixed-location voice business, as even telco monster AT&T is losing wireline customers like crazy to cable companies and on account of people who have settled on a mobile phone as their "one solution".

So what's a NetZero customer to do? Well, there's always Vonage, if you must have a traditional phone in your home. But here at DownloadSquad, we prefer software-driven solutions like Gizmo Project, because it follows you wherever you go--on your laptop and on your cell phone.

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NetZero will soon pull plug on voice calling service originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 01 Nov 2007 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> netzerovoicevoip Ted Wallingford Thu, 01 Nov 2007 12:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Halloween goodies on the web, hold the candy corn]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/31/halloween-goodies-on-the-web-hold-the-candy-corn/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/31/halloween-goodies-on-the-web-hold-the-candy-corn/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/31/halloween-goodies-on-the-web-hold-the-candy-corn/#comments It was once considered unconventional to mess with your corporate logo, as if modifying it for a particular event was somehow degrading to your corporate image. But Google's been doing it every holiday (and even Earth Day) for the last ten years or so. Today's Google logo is a spooky-looking house, obviously inspired by Halloween. But Google's not the only online powerhouse celebrating All Hallow's Eve.

Hauntworld.com offers a directory of haunted houses all around the U.S. Like being scared? Get your fright game on at 7floorsofhell.com or Terror Town. Besides a directory of places you can pay to involuntarily pee, Hauntworld has a blog run by scare fans, too.

If you'd rather trick or treat than go to one of those exhibitions, you can still make the most of the web to plot your goody-gathering course. Want to avoid sex offenders? No sweat. Trying to find out where the most frequented neighborhoods are, or where the candy is "full size"? Check out Kidcounter. This site is limited in geography but serves as a model for tracking Treat Distribution online. The site is designed to count the number of trick or treaters an the amount of candy handed out, so next year, you'll know what neighborhoods to plunder, and which to avoid like the plague.

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Halloween goodies on the web, hold the candy corn originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 31 Oct 2007 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> candyhalloween Ted Wallingford Wed, 31 Oct 2007 14:30:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Google's social net to launch tomorrow]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/31/googles-social-net-to-launch-tomorrow/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/31/googles-social-net-to-launch-tomorrow/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/31/googles-social-net-to-launch-tomorrow/#comments If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. In this case, the "them" is Facebook. Microsoft joined them. Google wants to beat them.

Tomorrow, Google will launch its new social networking API, called OpenSocial, with a host of high-value social networking players already at the party. The most significant of these players are LinkedIn, Salesforce, and Orkut, who've all been around quite a while and have substantial vertical popularity: LinkedIn in the business work, Salesforce in CRM applications, and Orkut as a South-American MySpace-killer. Even Friendster, which has become a sort-of also-ran with a great brand name, has joined the party. Perhaps these relatively peripheral social nets see Google as their ticket to competing with MySpace and Facebook.

Like Facebook, Google's API will provide participants with options for dealing with user profiles and events. But unlike Facebook, OpenSocial will really on commonplace JavaScript to do the API's bidding. Facebook uses it's own "FBML" specification, which means it can't be used off of the Facebook system. Google's intention is to get as many third-party social nets supporting OpenSocial as possible. And developers will flock to anything that saves them from having to re-develop their widgets for a dozen different social nets.

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Google's social net to launch tomorrow originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 31 Oct 2007 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> facebookgooglemyspaceopensocialsocial networkingSocialNetworking Ted Wallingford Wed, 31 Oct 2007 12:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Paying cash for that iPhone? Not any more.]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/30/paying-cash-for-that-iphone-not-any-more/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/30/paying-cash-for-that-iphone-not-any-more/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/30/paying-cash-for-that-iphone-not-any-more/#comments No more cash for iPhone purchases.Apple has decided to stop accepting cash payments for iPhones purchased from retail Apple stores. Instead, they're only taking credit and debit card payments, ostensibly in an effort to keep track of everybody who buys them. But why would Apple do such a thing? After all, isn't cash legal tender for all debts public and private?

Apparently not when the item being tendered is an Apple iPhone. It seems Apple is trying to cut down on unlocking and bricking, practices which, when employed together, allow the phone to be used more or less permanently with carriers other than AT&T, the firm with the exclusive (restrictive) distribution deal for the vaunted device. AT&T requires a two-year commitment just to purchase the iPhone, and unlocking/bricking lets customers out of that deal. So Apple has upped the ante on iPhone purchasers by making sure that they know each customer's identity.

Apple estimates that about 250,000 iPhone have been sold to non-AT&T customers. This means people are either unlocking them and then activating them personally on other carriers, or they're simply selling the unlocked units to folks who want to use them on another carrier. Apple is claiming 4.5 million bucks in lost revenue as a result of unlocking. Of course, we don't think the majority of iPhone purchasers were using cash to begin with, so the likelihood of this debit/credit thing having a negative impact on legitimate iPhone sales is pretty slim. Still, one wonders if there's a precedent for retailers not accepting cash for a sale. Don't think we've heard of that one before.

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Paying cash for that iPhone? Not any more. originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 30 Oct 2007 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> applehardwareiphoneretail Ted Wallingford Tue, 30 Oct 2007 16:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Look, I are programmer]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/26/look-i-are-programmer/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/26/look-i-are-programmer/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/26/look-i-are-programmer/#comments LOLCats
We don't know whether this is more an indicator of some hacker's bountiful free time or of the popularity of exploiting cats and kittens for cheap laughs online. Either way, we think it's gnarly. A user of the photo-sharing, feline-themed web site LOLCats.com has built a programming language using the preferred dialect of LOLCats users: which is a cross between toddler talk and l33tspeak. The formula for LOLCats photo captions is to apply this odd way of writing, and the result is usually hilarious. Ie. my "kugfu" iz stronger.

Inspired by such sayings as "do you want karate" and "I'm in ur chair ignorin ur seetin reqwirmnts", the .NET language is called LOLCat. Take a look at this code snippet:

IM IN UR LOOP
IZ APPLE BIGR THAN CHEEZBRGR
BTW comment here.
YARLY
DIAF 1 "Can I haz apple plz"
NOWAY
DIAF 1 "Can I haz cheezbrgr now"
KTHX
[....]

Who knows? LOLCat might end up bigger than Java.

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Look, I are programmer originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 26 Oct 2007 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> .netlolcatprogramming Ted Wallingford Fri, 26 Oct 2007 14:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[New Leopard bits on release day (that's today, fanboys!)]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/26/new-leopard-bits-on-release-day-thats-today-fanboys/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/26/new-leopard-bits-on-release-day-thats-today-fanboys/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/26/new-leopard-bits-on-release-day-thats-today-fanboys/#comments To inaugurate Apple's latest Mac OS X release, version 10.5, we grabbed all the latest news we could find to answer some of the outstanding questions floating around the web:

Q. Can Time Machine backup to network shares?
A. Yes, but only using the Apple File-sharing Protocol (AFP). Jeers. And Macworld agrees with us that Time Machine is Leopard's most important new feature.

Q. Is Time Machine visible on screen during backups when the external hard disk is connected?
A. No, backups occur automatically in the background.

Q. The new screen sharing feature is VNC-based. Does this mean I can use my other VNC-equipped machines with Leopard?
A. Yup, only not with iChat's screen sharing feature; that only works with iChat clients.

Q. How long does this puppy, er kitty, take to install?
A. According to Engadget, about one hour on a Macbook Pro with 2GB of RAM.

Q. Have any improvements been made to file systems or disk partitions?
A. Well, the most underhyped improvement is this: According to MacWorld, disk partitions can now be resized on the fly. Nifty.

More after the jump.

Continue reading New Leopard bits on release day (that's today, fanboys!)

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New Leopard bits on release day (that's today, fanboys!) originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 26 Oct 2007 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> mac os xMacOsXosupdates Ted Wallingford Fri, 26 Oct 2007 10:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Verizon tees up 20 mbit residential fiber]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/24/verizon-tees-up-20-mbit-residential-fiber/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/24/verizon-tees-up-20-mbit-residential-fiber/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/24/verizon-tees-up-20-mbit-residential-fiber/#comments Uverse speed test
If you want more Internet access speed, your options are getting more and more. Thanks to services like AT&T's UVERSE Elite offering, next-generation broadband over copper cables is beginning to show up as a legit service (as opposed to the do-it-yourself approach), giving its users effective speeds of up to 6 mbits/second downloading and 1 mbit uploading, or about double what most users can expect out of a standard residential DSL service.

But for the true bandwidth junky, there's nothing (yet) that can come close to Verizon's symmetrical FiOS service, which doesn't place a speed limit on uploading. This is a big shift of attitude for a telco-based ISP like Verizon. Even better, FiOS users will enjoy 20 mbits/sec of unadulterated speed delivered using fiber, not copper. The only catch is that Verizon's FiOS network footprint is still tiny. Only pockets of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut are able to jump on board at this point.

In the meantime, those of us in flyover country will just keep shleppin' it with our 1.5 mbit DSL.

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Verizon tees up 20 mbit residential fiber originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 24 Oct 2007 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> dslfiberfiosuverseverizon Ted Wallingford Wed, 24 Oct 2007 17:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Salesforce.com coming soon to an iPhone near you]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/23/salesforce-com-coming-soon-to-an-iphone-near-you/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/23/salesforce-com-coming-soon-to-an-iphone-near-you/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/23/salesforce-com-coming-soon-to-an-iphone-near-you/#comments iphoneThough NASA and other large enterprise institutions have previously decried the iPhone as "not enterprise ready", it appears Salesforce.com has a different opinion of the buttonless cell phone device. Even as Apple reported a substantially positive quarter, the avant-garde CRM company let it slip that they're working on adding iPhone-specific support to their hugely popular web application suite.

CNN's analysis speculates that Salesforce.com users may be looking to the iPhone as they grow weary of their traditional Blackberry and Windows Mobile devices. This is consistent with Salesforce.com's user demographic. Though they count some Fortune 500 clients, Salesforce.com's customer base is comprised mainly of small to medium sized businesses, where enterprise grade development tools (which the iPhone lacks) are less important than out-of-the-box functionality (which Salesforce.com prides itself on).

One wonders if Salesforce.com is one of those recipients of an advance iPhone SDK, or if the Salesforce.com integration is going to be online and web-based, as other third-party iPhone "apps" have been thus far.

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Salesforce.com coming soon to an iPhone near you originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 23 Oct 2007 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> crmiphonesalesforce.comsdk Ted Wallingford Tue, 23 Oct 2007 17:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Truphone adds global WiFi access]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/23/truphone-adds-global-wifi-access/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/23/truphone-adds-global-wifi-access/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/23/truphone-adds-global-wifi-access/#comments Truphone
Truphone, the UK-outfit that puts bread on the table by allowing cell-phones to make VoIP calls while saving cell service subscribers access charges, has just announced a partnership with WiFi network provider Quiconnect. This means that Truphone users will be able to hop onto WiFi hotspots all around the world, as long as those hotspots participate in Quiconnect's network.

While there still aren't enough hotspots to replace your cell provider (WiMax, anybody?), this is a step in the right direction, especially for those of us who do a lot of international roaming. The old "call me when your plane lands" reminder has been the trigger of millions of one-minute-long, six-dollar phone calls over the years, so we're glad Truphone is helping us save our money. This announcement also represents the first significant push into commercial WiFi access for iPhone users by a service provider, as TruPhone, just a few weeks ago, became the first to offer VoIP calling on the iPhone.

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Truphone adds global WiFi access originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 23 Oct 2007 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> hotspotiphonemobileminutetruphonevoipwifi Ted Wallingford Tue, 23 Oct 2007 16:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[TalkPlus welcomes iPhone users]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/23/talkplus-welcomes-iphone-users/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/23/talkplus-welcomes-iphone-users/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/23/talkplus-welcomes-iphone-users/#comments TalkPlusIt's pretty easy to have more than one phone number for folks to call you on your cell phone, but it's not so easy to place calls from more than one number. Enter TalkPlus, now available for iPhone. This service gives you a second local number that can be used to place calls on your cell phone, courtesy of the TalkPlus service. TalkPlus' software masquerades your outgoing telephone number by transmitting your call using VoIP, and their data center does the rest.

iPhone users can access TalkPlus' suite of messaging and privacy features, which include a web-based visual voicemail and voicemail screening, which lets you listen while somebody is leaving you a message. Now that's just creepy cool. But the most useful feature is the second number, which needn't be in the same area code as your original cell phone number--so if you toggle between New York and London as a way of life, TalkPlus has you covered.

TalkPlus welcomes iPhone users originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 23 Oct 2007 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> iphonetalkplusvoip Ted Wallingford Tue, 23 Oct 2007 13:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[New features in Leopard: Quick Look and Parental Controls]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/23/new-features-in-leopard-quick-look-and-parental-controls/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/23/new-features-in-leopard-quick-look-and-parental-controls/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/23/new-features-in-leopard-quick-look-and-parental-controls/#comments
When Apple said they were going to redesign the Finder, we though, oh, we've heard that before. But with Quick Look and Cover Flow, Leopard introduces the most significant upgrades to the Finder since the 10.1 to 10.2 transition. One of the most time-consuming aspects of using the finder is previewing files. If you're thumbing through a folder looking for a file you need, and the only way to identify the right file is by peeking into it, OS X can really slow you down, at least until Friday when Leopard arrives.

Quick Look is a system-wide technology that the Finder takes advantage of in order to give you fast previews of a file's content within the file system browser. Unlike thumbnail views, which were sloppily implemented and didn't actually work all the time on previous iterations of the OS, Quick Look actually supports all kinds of files, from movies to Keynote presentations and images. Plus, Quick is the name of the game, as anybody who has used Cover Flow on in iTunes will attest.

The other new feature we looked at this morning is Parental Controls, which Apple has amped up by adding to the Preferences window. Historically Apple has done pretty well by allowing parents to designate which applications children can run (and even which web sites they can visit), but with so many cool kid-oriented web sites popping up all the time, it's hard to keep up with the demand. Echoes of, "Hey Dad, can you unlock this web site for me?" can drive a parent bonkers, especially when it's happening five or six times each time your kid sits down to surf.

For the first time, Apple has implemented some content filtering in Safari. They've adapted the anti-spam filter from Apple Mail as a web content analyzer, and apparently it works well enough for blocking "no-no" sites on your kids' behalf. Of course, if you still want to totally lock down your kid's browser, Safari will still allow you to permit only those sites you've approved ahead of time.

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New features in Leopard: Quick Look and Parental Controls originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 23 Oct 2007 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> appleleopardmac os xMacOsXosupdatesparental controlsParentalControls Ted Wallingford Tue, 23 Oct 2007 11:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Time Machine: Leopard's best feature?]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/20/time-machine-leopards-best-feature/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/20/time-machine-leopards-best-feature/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/20/time-machine-leopards-best-feature/#comments
After having a peek at Apple's new guided Quicktime tour of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, we're convinced that Time Machine alone is worth the upgrade price. Time Machine is Apple's new backup and recovery software, but it's actually quite a bit more than that. The program makes use of external storage devices (like, say, a USB 2.0 hard disk) to create backups of your entire file system.

You can later browse the Time Machine copy of any folder by navigating a useful timeline. In this way, you can regress through previous versions of the folder. This is a fantastic way to keep from losing files or just do a simple form of revision control. If you need more time range in your Time Machine, it's only a matter of slapping on a new external drive.

Now, we realize this kind of backup and recovery has been done before, but when you see how sell it integrates with Finder and Spotlight, we think you'll be just as anxious as we are to get your hands on the new OS X.

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Time Machine: Leopard's best feature? originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 20 Oct 2007 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> backupleopardmactime machineTimeMachine Ted Wallingford Sat, 20 Oct 2007 09:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Need money? Get your friends to 'ChipIn']]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/19/need-money-get-your-friends-to-chipin/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/19/need-money-get-your-friends-to-chipin/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/19/need-money-get-your-friends-to-chipin/#comments
ChipIn
When Jammie Thomas got slapped with a $220,000 judgment by a jury friendly to the recording industry, the entrepreneurs at a little company called ChipIn had no idea how much free publicity they were going to receive. That's because Jammie is using their donation-tracking widget to raise money for her legal defense.

ChipIn lets you park their widget in your web site, MySpace page, and so on, in order to collect money for any cause you choose. ChipIn will handle the credit card transactions needed to bring in the funds. The more money you collect, the higher your 'progress meter' indicates on your widget, until you've hit your goal.

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Need money? Get your friends to 'ChipIn' originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 19 Oct 2007 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> charitychipindonationjammie thomasJammieThomasweb Ted Wallingford Fri, 19 Oct 2007 16:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[CBS experiments with streaming ad-laden Price is Right]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/19/cbs-experiments-with-streaming-ad-laiden-price-is-right/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/19/cbs-experiments-with-streaming-ad-laiden-price-is-right/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/19/cbs-experiments-with-streaming-ad-laiden-price-is-right/#comments Price is Right
Drew Carey isn't the only thing new about the Price is Right, CBS's long-running daily game show. While Bob Barker may have skipped into retirement, it seems CBS is using its beloved game show as an experiment in streaming network content online--in this case, all sixty minutes of Price every day, just four hours after the original air time. That's 3 p.m. eastern time at CBS.com.

Now, this makes total sense. We don't expect this show to end up on iTunes. ($39.95 for the Price is Right Entire Thirty-Fifth Season? Um, no...) But giving the show away free on the web is the perfect way to demonstrate how to monetize commercial content without charging the consumer a dime. In this case, the (very) commercial content is all those prize placements seen on the show. How else can the Ridgeway Company expect people to get excited about owning their grandfather clock if not by surrounding their product with beautiful Price model-girls and two-hundred onlookers ooh-ing and aah-ing when prompted?

Indeed, it's the commercial content that's embedded in Price that makes it so much fun. Price is the original TV 2.0 concept--making an hour-long advertisement seem fun. And now that fun is available online. Come on down...

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CBS experiments with streaming ad-laden Price is Right originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 19 Oct 2007 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> cbstvvideo Ted Wallingford Fri, 19 Oct 2007 15:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[MS Office 2008 for Mac: new screens and first impressions]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/18/ms-office-2008-for-mac-new-screens-and-first-impressions/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/18/ms-office-2008-for-mac-new-screens-and-first-impressions/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/18/ms-office-2008-for-mac-new-screens-and-first-impressions/#comments Microsoft Office 2008 for the Mac, due sometime after Macworld San Francisco this winter, has been the subject of much obsession among Mac folk ever since Apple started the Intel transition, mostly because the current incarnation of Mac Office, 2004, runs like a dog on Apple's Intel machines and hasn't seen a code change in over four years. While we're satisfied that at least Microsoft is consistent (they often go 4 years between Windows Office releases, too), we were really hoping Office 2008 would've been Office 2007 (or Office 2006).

Lest we digress. There's a new gallery of Office 2008 screengrabs here. We were given an opportunity to see the new software demonstrated, and the rumors about the speed increase are very true. This thing runs circles around its predecessor on Intel hardware, and we're especially geeked about the speed and zest of Microsoft Word. Paginating a 500+ page document on our 2 gHz Macbook Pro only took about 8 seconds. The other thing that's immediately obvious about this new Office is the addition of "object insertion bars" in all the apps, allowing you quick access to objects usually dealt with in other parts of the suite--for example, rapidly inserting a chart into a Word document. Entourage still has a case of the IMAP hiccups, sadly, but its interface has been improved as well. That immobile navigation bar that clogs up the top-left corner of the 2004 version is gone, gone, gone, and we couldn't be happier. All in all, this update appears to be coming along great.

Gallery: MS Office 2008 Mac Beta

Entourage Splash ScreenMicrosoft Word publishing layoutsExcel chart browserPowerPoint object art

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MS Office 2008 for Mac: new screens and first impressions originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 18 Oct 2007 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> betacommercialmacmicrosoftoffice Ted Wallingford Thu, 18 Oct 2007 13:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[MySpaceIM adds Skype support]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/17/myspaceim-adds-skype-support/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/17/myspaceim-adds-skype-support/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/17/myspaceim-adds-skype-support/#comments MySpaceIM, an instant messaging app for Windows that allows MySpacers to send each other on-screen text-messages, will be the first to integrate officially-sanctioned third-party support for Skype. This is precisely the kind of cross-network integration many Skype detractors have been calling for (including us). What's more, it's one less application we have to keep running in order to keep in touch with all our buddies.

This move is almost certainly more beneficial for Skype than it is for MySpace, as the addition of voice to MySpaceIM is only appealing to a limited number of users--a group of folks who are probably already using a voice-equipped I.M. client. But giving Skype access to the MySpace community. Now that's a big deal. The only way Skype will grow beyond the confines of the viral network is to start promoting through partners, and we can think of no better partner for growing Skype than MySpace.

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MySpaceIM adds Skype support originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 17 Oct 2007 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> myspaceskypevoip Ted Wallingford Wed, 17 Oct 2007 11:30:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Hands-on: GPS with Maemo Mapper on the N800]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/17/hands-on-gps-with-maemo-mapper-on-the-n800/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/17/hands-on-gps-with-maemo-mapper-on-the-n800/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/17/hands-on-gps-with-maemo-mapper-on-the-n800/#comments took a look at the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet, we showed how to do some fun, if easy, stuff with it--like setting up custom RSS news sources, placing VoIP calls, and even playing a little Quake 2. Now, we've assembled a new video demonstrating one of the most quirky hacks you can pull off with Nokia's little handheld computer: assembling a functional GPS tracking system using a Bluetooth GPS receiver and freely-available software.

In this feature, we'll show you how to set up Maemo Mapper, the open-source navigation software, and how to obtain and install the map tile images you'll need to equip your N800 with both street maps and satellite imagery. We'll also see how the N800 compares to Nokia's N95 smart phone, which carries onboard GPS hardware and mapping software.

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Hands-on: GPS with Maemo Mapper on the N800 originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 17 Oct 2007 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> gpshardwarehowtointernet tabletInternetTabletmapn800navigation Ted Wallingford Wed, 17 Oct 2007 10:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Leopard's new iChat features are actually useful]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/16/leopards-new-ichat-features-are-actually-useful/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/16/leopards-new-ichat-features-are-actually-useful/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/16/leopards-new-ichat-features-are-actually-useful/#comments
iChat was once a leader in the instant messaging and VoIP space, but players like Gizmo and Skype arrived on the scene and just absolutely buried Apple's offering in quiet mediocrity. So it's good to know that Apple's still peppering iChat with new features as they release their OS updates... and this time, with Leopard, some of iChat's new features are actually worthwhile. And while several of these have been available on third-party chat clients for a while, we've never seen them in quite this combination:
  • Background images. You can now appear to be sitting in front of one of your iPhoto photos, so a really cool landscape like the Great Wall of China could be the venue for your next video conference. What can we say; that's just neat.
  • Tabbed chats. 'Nuff said.
  • SMS forwarding. OK, we admit there could be a time when we might use this.
  • Quick Look support. This is Leopard's extensive new document-previewing feature. Now you can show a Keynote slideshow or a QuickTime movie remotely through an iChat conference. In fact, you'll be able to share anything that adds Quick Look support.
  • Recording. You can now save audio and video conferences. This is ideal for podcasting.
Really, we aren't using iChat much these days, but we might have to dust it off. Our AIM buddies will be happy to hear from us after so long when Leopard is released in ten days.

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Leopard's new iChat features are actually useful originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 16 Oct 2007 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> aimichatimvoip Ted Wallingford Tue, 16 Oct 2007 16:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Netvibes offers universal widget approach]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/16/netvibes-offers-universal-widget-approach/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/16/netvibes-offers-universal-widget-approach/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/16/netvibes-offers-universal-widget-approach/#comments
Netvibes has been working on a way to give widget makers the ability to run their widgets on any widget platform, whether it's Vista, Mac Dashboard, Opera, iGoogle, or Windows Live. Now the fruit of their labor, the Universal Widget API, is in the wild, and it promises to increase exposure for widgeteers whose artful output was previously stunted because "it's not available for <x-widget-platform>".

Today, there are only about a thousand UWA-based widgets, but the number grows daily. Netvibes promises support for Yahoo Widgets in a forthcoming release, too. It makes us wonder if there's really such a thing as a killer widget, one that plays into the strengths of a particular desktop platform. Since most web widgets are RSS-based and limited in platform-specific functionality, we suspect most UWA widgets will be simplistic. So many widgets will likely still be limited to a particular platform, since they often have to talk to platform or app-specific applications in order to do their jobs, like, say an XBox remote control widget.

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Netvibes offers universal widget approach originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 16 Oct 2007 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> netvibesweb 2.0Web2.0widget Ted Wallingford Tue, 16 Oct 2007 14:30:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[iPhone open SDK coming after all?]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/16/iphone-open-sdk-coming-after-all/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/16/iphone-open-sdk-coming-after-all/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/16/iphone-open-sdk-coming-after-all/#comments
When Apple introduced the iPhone at this year's Macworld Expo, there was a great sigh of disappointment when Steve Jobs informed his developer community that only web-based applications would be supported on the iPhone. That is, no Software Development Kit (SDK) to create native programs. Among other things, this letdown limited developers' ability to harness the iPhone's coveted multi-touch user interface features.

But that may soon change. Business Week has a hunch that Apple has been waiting for the right moment to throw down with an iPhone SDK, and not for the reasons you might think. Instead of avoiding ticking off their wireless partner, instead of trying to maintain quality control, instead of assuming Dashboard-quality applications would keep iPhone code junkies happy, it seems Apple may've had a different reason altogether for the long wait: Leopard.

If Leopard is the official development platform for the iPhone (and who would expect Apple to release an iPhone development environment for Windows?), then the wait may've been warranted after all. After all, we've not seen any multi-touch technology from Apple except on the iPhone, and one wonders if multi-touch is hanging out in the background of Leopard somewhere, waiting to get called to duty. Meanwhile, Business Week openly speculates that Electronic Arts has already received the SDK, but this hasn't been confirmed. Madden 2009 on the iPhone? Sounds good to us.

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iPhone open SDK coming after all? originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 16 Oct 2007 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> appleeahackiphonesdk Ted Wallingford Tue, 16 Oct 2007 13:30:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Apple dropping DRM-free tunes to 99 cents]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/16/apple-dropping-drm-free-tunes-to-99-cents/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/16/apple-dropping-drm-free-tunes-to-99-cents/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/16/apple-dropping-drm-free-tunes-to-99-cents/#comments
This really can't be a case of "we told you so", but when Amazon is selling music for 89 cents a track and DRM-free tracks seem suddenly to be fashionable as they were before the heady early days of Napster, it only makes sense. Apple is dropping the price of its DRM-free iTunes Plus music downloads to 99 cents apiece. Until now, the Plus tracks cost $1.29.

Ars Technica speculates that this move is driven by cost-competitiveness concerns, but we think the "risky" DRM-free experiment worked. After all, Apple said the Plus tracks were selling well, which proves the point that people don't want third parties to govern their use of information, even if it costs them less to live with such restrictions. Come October 17, restrictions or not, it will just cost them less.

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Apple dropping DRM-free tunes to 99 cents originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 16 Oct 2007 07:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> amazonappleitunesmp3music Ted Wallingford Tue, 16 Oct 2007 07:30:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Microsoft VoIP & conferencing server ready to rock]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/15/microsoft-voip-and-conferencing-server-ready-to-rock/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/15/microsoft-voip-and-conferencing-server-ready-to-rock/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/15/microsoft-voip-and-conferencing-server-ready-to-rock/#comments The New York Times' Bits blog reports that tomorrow, Bill Gates will be unveiling Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 in the company's first unpretentious bid to dominate the PBX phone system space. Only one problem with the Times' angle: Office Communications Server is not a PBX system. It certainly supports the use of VoIP phones and software like Office Communicator, allowing you to do a lot of what a PBX system does. But VoIP alone a phone system does not make.

Not only that, but OCS doesn't support connecting to public telephone network lines without outside media gateway equipment--which means it will work great next to your phone system, filling in some important functionality blanks like desktop conferencing, but probably can't replace the old phone system altogether. Well, at least not yet. That said, what can OCS do?

Office Communications Server uses SIP (session initiation protocol) to set up all types of collaborative media streams on behalf of an enterprise user group-- supported media types include instant messaging, file transfer, VoIP calling, video-conferencing, and desktop sharing and collaboration. Plus, OCS is tied to Microsoft's Active Directory, allowing you to use your existing security and directory from your Windows network.

But if you want to call for a pizza using the Microsoft Office Communicator VoIP client, you'll still need a phone system, or at least have your Office Communications Server connected to one via SIP. We invite the excitable folks at the New York Times to calmly read about all the mature, competing products to whom OCS is only now catching up: Cisco MeetingPlace, WebEx, Scopia, and, yes, to some extent, even Skype. Then again, nothing's really new until Microsoft announces it.

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Microsoft VoIP & conferencing server ready to rock originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 15 Oct 2007 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> microsoftnew york timesNewYorkTimesocsreinventing the wheelReinventingTheWheelvoip Ted Wallingford Mon, 15 Oct 2007 17:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Equipping the WiFi tool belt]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/15/equipping-the-wifi-tool-belt/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/15/equipping-the-wifi-tool-belt/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/15/equipping-the-wifi-tool-belt/#comments JiWire widget for the MacA recent trip to a coffee house had us thinking--why isn't WiFi everywhere yet? Well, at loss for the answer to that one (though opinions explaining WiFi's utter lack of ubiquity differ widely), we decided to ask another one--how can the wireless road warrior equip himself for navigating the mostly-uncharted seas of WiFi?

The first tool for your wireless toolbelt is NetStumbler, a Windows app for discovering and probing WiFi access points. There's also a Windows CE/Mobile version of NetStumbler that you can fire up on your Windows Mobile cell phone, if you're really packing light. Mac users will want to try out JiWire, available in compact widget version for OS X, shown here. If none of those options do you any good, visit WiFinder, a site that's sort of a MapQuest for WiFi hotspots. Though our initial test didn't reveal a number of local spots we're sure are actually there, we did uncover a few we never noticed before. WiFinder even knows where a few spots are in the Vatican.

Now if it's hardware that really turns you on, take a look inside your cell phone. Dual-mode cell phones like our Nokia N95 can detect and browse WiFi hotspots, too.

Of course, if the hotspots you detect are WEP-encrypted to prevent unauthorized access, you'll have a hard time getting to the Net. Not much you can do about that without getting yourself in trouble. But if you like living on the edge, have a peek at AirCrack NG. Just don't do anything illegal--you don't want to end up like this poor dude from Michigan who was arrested for stealing WiFi (from an open access point).

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Equipping the WiFi tool belt originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 15 Oct 2007 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> aircrackhotspotjiwirewifiwireless Ted Wallingford Mon, 15 Oct 2007 08:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Fobfire lets you "slip her the fob"]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/12/fobfire-lets-you-slip-her-the-fob/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/12/fobfire-lets-you-slip-her-the-fob/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/12/fobfire-lets-you-slip-her-the-fob/#comments Ever do online dating? Come on, fess up to that match.com subscription you've been meaning to cancel for the last six months, and we'll get you hooked up with another 2.0 social site that's, well, different. Consider one of the testimonials from Fobfire:

I only had a few seconds. I was getting off the subway and she was getting on, but our eyes met and it clicked. So I slipped her a fob!

The way this web site works, you get a set of tokens, called "fobs", which you can hand out to people in order to hook them up with one of your several fobfire identities: there are fobs for business, fobs for personal, and fobs for dating. The theory goes, when you meet somebody with whom you want to socially network, you hand them a fob, sort of like a key to get into the correct Fobfire profile, so they only see the info you want to see, depending on the kind of relationship you want to set up with them.

Ah, the potential for fun. Imagine accidentally handing a dating fob to a potential business client. Of course, as our own Brad Linder put it in a discussion we had earlier, "Once you hand somebody anything called a fob I don't think you really need to worry about them visiting your dating profile."

I couldn't agree more.

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Fobfire lets you "slip her the fob" originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 12 Oct 2007 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> datingfobfinderfunny brad linder quoteFunnyBradLinderQuotesocial networkingsocial-networkingSocialNetworking Ted Wallingford Fri, 12 Oct 2007 13:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Rapleaf adds 'Hover and Discover']]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/12/rapleaf-adds-hover-and-discover/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/12/rapleaf-adds-hover-and-discover/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/12/rapleaf-adds-hover-and-discover/#comments The online reputation site Rapleaf provides a way for peers and previous business associates to contribute to an online reputation rating--the sort of thing the Better Business Bureau would've thought of if only they'd had a Web 2.0 nerd on staff. But since we first took a look at Rapleaf, the fellas from the Bay Area have added a new feature, something called "Hover and Discover".

When you hover over a Rapleaf attribute with the mouse pointer, Rapleaf will now show you where it got the information that makes up an element in your Rapleaf rating--whether it was gleaned from a social networking site such as MySpace or provided by a peer who claims to know you. Yeah, all these factors contribute to Rapleaf's estimation of your reputation, and now you can tell where the info actually came from. Useful... especially if Rapleaf got some detail wrong about you!

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Rapleaf adds 'Hover and Discover' originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 12 Oct 2007 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> rapleafreputationweb 2.0Web2.0 Ted Wallingford Fri, 12 Oct 2007 11:00:00 EST Download Squad <![CDATA[Current drops the "TV"; ready to re-launch]]> http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/12/current-drops-the-tv-ready-to-re-launch/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/12/current-drops-the-tv-ready-to-re-launch/ http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/10/12/current-drops-the-tv-ready-to-re-launch/#comments
What do you get when you mix user-submitted video, the news judgement of NPR, and user-community of seemingly all single, unmarried, childless democrats? Well, in a word: Current.tv. This cable channel wasn't so much news as reality video, and it was created to compete for mind share with XBox and YouTube, not with CNN and Fox News. Developed by Al Gore, the TV network was ridiculed early on for airing user-submitted video, but the idea turned out to be a profitable one, if only to a painfully tiny TV audience. Airing a ton of essentially unknown, royalty-free content has a way of doing exactly those things--lowering costs and viewership at the same time.

The problem Current ran into was that people who watch cable don't generally get too excited about user-submitted video (unless it's reruns of AFV). That's the domain of YouTube, and the young, liberal audience targeted by Current probably spends more time online than they do parked on the couch. Gore's development specialists noticed this shortcoming quickly and redeveloped Current.tv into Current.com, which launches October 16.

The new site doesn't prop up the Current TV network as much as the old one does, though that's not the biggest change: Current is now a sort of Digg-for-social-media, with an obvious emphasis on video and video commentary threads, a la YouTube or Vlip. The new Current has wisely hidden the raw number of up or down Digg-style votes a particular item receives, instead opting to show percentages and hide the actual trends.

If Al Gore wants to transform the typically-cynical, MySpacing, twenty-something demographic into a group that actually cares about politics and social issues, the new Current might be the ticket. But enabling discourse through what is basically indy film-making? The notion of mixing art and issues is great for entertainment, but will it service Al Gore's mission? It will be interesting to see if Current sits in the happy median.

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Current drops the "TV"; ready to re-launch originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 12 Oct 2007 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> al goreAlGorecurrentdemocratpoliticsvideovlipyoutube Ted Wallingford Fri, 12 Oct 2007 09:00:00 EST Download Squad