DropSpace adds real Dropbox sync to Android

Dropbox offers a lovely client for Android, but it's lacking true "sync" functionality. You can merely browse your Dropbox, pull files into the device, and manually upload specific files.

DropSpace is a little Android app that makes Dropbox on Android work like Dropbox - that is, you get real folder synchronization in the background.

When you run the app you're prompted for your Dropbox credentials. After logging in to Dropbox, you get to select which device folders you'd like to sync to the cloud. It's a straightforward mapping process: You select a folder on the device, and then specify where in Dropbox it should go.

The interface is rather clunky, at least for now. The biggest annoyance is that you can't edit your "sync list": if you add a folder and then wish to remove it, you must delete the entire list of folders and start over.

In terms of functionality, it works quite well. I tested it with the camera folder, and it was nice to be able to take my photos using the lean default Camera app and have them sync up to the cloud instantly.

DropSpace adds real Dropbox sync to Android originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 04 Mar 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/04/dropspace-adds-real-dropbox-sync-to-android/

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Google tightening the reins on Android

Google apparently has changed its approval process for devices to use its software (that'd be Android), cracking down on the way the software is changed and how third-party partnerships will be handled, according to the folks at Bloomberg.  Now, companies that want access to the latest version of Android will need approval of the things they want to do to it. And that approval will come from none other than Andy Rubin.

Google says it is going to tighten and enforce "non-fragmentation clauses," that intend to limit things like customization of the interface, and how manufacturers can partner with other services like Facebook or Microsoft.  Bloomberg tells us that things have already gotten heated, with complaints to the U.S. Justice Department being lodged.  There's also mention that Google has tried to hold back the release of devices on Verizon because they make use of the Bing services. Hello, HTC Merge, maybe that's why you disappeared for a while.

While I'm all for keeping crappy software away from hot, new devices like the Evo 3D, I'm certain that this doesn't mean the end of manufacturer skins.  And it shouldn't -- many enjoy the extras that come with manufacturer enhanced user interfaces, and a bit of curation by Google should make for an easier upgrade path.  But I fear this is going to greatly affect the release cycle of the source code for the AOSP project, and not for the better.  We'll just have to wait and see how this develops. [Bloomberg BusinessWeek] Thanks, everyone who sent this in!

Google tightening the reins on Android posted originally by Android Central

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/E0my4M8qNfI/google-tightening-reins-android

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How to: download and change themes for SBSettings [jailbreak]

SBSettings is a wonderful little jailbreak app that adds tons of quick toggles to your iOS springboard. The one thing I don’t care for in SBSettings is the default theme. It’s just downright ugly. I get tons of questions on whether or not you can theme SBSettings like you can the rest of your springboard. [...]

How to: download and change themes for SBSettings [jailbreak] is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/hCXSghR0JRc/

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Ubuntu Software Center to offer install-free application test drives

Sure, installing and removing applications in Ubuntu is a breeze -- tools like Synaptic, apt-get, and the Ubuntu Software Center are all very easy to use. Canonical thinks there's room for improvement, however, and it's delivering an interesting new feature to the Software Center: application test drives.

Find a program you'd like to try out -- but don't necessarily want to install just yet -- and click the test drive button. With the qtnx package installed and your Internet connection at the ready, the program will "buffer" and then launch, giving you an install-free look at what it can do.

Check the video after the break to see Software Center test drives of AbiWord and Chromium in action -- it really is quite slick. This feature, incidentally, will make its debut in Ubuntu 11.04, which is due to be released next month.

Continue reading Ubuntu Software Center to offer install-free application test drives

Ubuntu Software Center to offer install-free application test drives originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/28/ubuntu-software-center-to-offer-install-free-application-test-drive/

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Interlocked is a three-dimensional brain teaser

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

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

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

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

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

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

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How Secure is My Password lets you know just that

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

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

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

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

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

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

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One Month Later, Android Tablet Platform Has 50 Apps

Motorola’s Xoom tablet is the first promising alternative to Apple’s iPad, but the sickly condition of Android’s tablet app ecosystem may end up stalling the platform’s progress.
One month after its launch, the Xoom currently has about 50 native apps available for Android 3.0 Honeycomb, Google’s version of Android optimized for tablets.
That’s pitiful compared with the [...]

Source: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/03/android-tablet-honeycomb-apps/

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Fox asks Time Warner to stop streaming its channels to customers' iPads

While we'd heard many networks were unhappy with Time Warner's decision to release its live TV streaming iPad app and there have even been whispers of cease-and-desist letters in the offing, Fox has put a request to have its channels excluded in writing. At issue is whether or not their agreement allows Time Warner to provide the channel on devices other than the TV -- while TWC is confident it does since it only works within the customer's home, the networks would apparently like to renegotiate before conceding anything. Senior VP of Fox Networks Group Scott Grogin confirmed the letter was sent but did not reveal any details about its contents. Following the battle plan of its last battle with Fox, Time Warner Cable has preemptively put up a IWantMyTWCableTVApp site asking customers to show support for the TWCable TV app against the networks. We'll wait to see who blinks first and remember that Dish is already slinging channels to tablets with wild abandon while Comcast and Cablevision have plans for similar implementations on the way.

Fox asks Time Warner to stop streaming its channels to customers' iPads originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 20:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/30/fox-asks-time-warner-to-stop-streaming-its-channels-to-customers/

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Google holds back on open-sourcing Honeycomb, heralds massive shift for Android

Google, in an interesting but not entirely unexpected twist, will not be open-sourcing Android 3.0 Honeycomb for the foreseeable future.

Historically, Android is usually open-sourced via the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) a few days or weeks after the code is finalized. While this departure from the norm won't affect OEMs like HTC and Motorola that have access to internal builds of Android, small-time developers will likely have to wait months before rolling their own distributions.

As to why Google is holding back Honeycomb, its reasons are actually rather rational. Honeycomb, while originally intended to run on all mobile form factors, is only ready for deployment on tablets. "To make our schedule to ship the tablet, we made some design tradeoffs," says Andy Rubin, the head of Google's Android group. "We didn't want to think about what it would take for the same software to run on phones. It would have required a lot of additional resources and extended our schedule beyond what we thought was reasonable. So we took a shortcut."

In other words, Google wants to prevent OEMs and homebrew developers like Cyanogen from rolling their own smartphone versions of Honeycomb -- it doesn't want to see the same bitter-tasting tabletified bastardization that occurred with Android 2.1 and 2.2 last year.

Continue reading Google holds back on open-sourcing Honeycomb, heralds massive shift for Android

Google holds back on open-sourcing Honeycomb, heralds massive shift for Android originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 25 Mar 2011 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/25/google-holds-back-on-open-sourcing-honeycomb-heralds-shift-android/

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Dell Pulls ?Business? Card to Trash-Talk the iPad

The iPad is doomed to fail because it doesn’t appeal to business users. That’s what Dell dreams, at least.
Dell’s global head of marketing for enterprises Andy Lark claims Dell will have an edge because it entered the tablet PC market with an enterprise approach, whereas Apple’s iPad has a consumer approach.
?Apple is great if you?ve [...]

Source: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/03/dell-enterprise-ipad/

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Deal of the Day ? Lenovo ThinkPad T420s 14? Ultrathin 2nd Generation Core i5 Laptop

Today?s LogicBUY deal offers 42% savings on the Lenovo ThinkPad T420s with the 2011 Intel Core i5 cpu. Cheapest T420s:� $1855 – $656 off ? 10% web-use stackable coupon code = $1079.10 with free shipping This deal expires April 2, 2011 or sooner. Check the above link for more details on this deal, and check [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2011/03/30/deal-of-the-day-%e2%80%93-lenovo-thinkpad-t420s-14%e2%80%9d-ultrathin-2nd-generation-core-i5-laptop/

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Six Months of Tracking Someone's Cellphone, Visualized [Factoid]

How much information does a phone company collect on you? Given that they know which tower your phone pings every time you use it, try "all of it." That's what one German politician discovered when he sued his carrier, Deutsche Telekom, for all of the data they'd archived for six months of his cellphone usage. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Py7YIEBU2ic/six-months-of-tracking-someones-cellphone-visualized

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How Secure is My Password lets you know just that

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

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

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

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

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

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

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White-Label App Marketplace Platform Appia Raises $10M At $100M Valuation

White-label mobile app platform Appia (formerly PocketGear), is announcing that it has secured $10 million in new funding from Venrock. According to sources familiar with the matter, the startup was valued at $100 million in the round. This latest investment brings Appia's total funding to $30 million. Dev Khare, Vice President at Venrock, has joined the company?s board of directors. Until February, PocketGear wss an independent marketplace that billed itself as the ?World?s Largest Mobile App Store which sold apps for Blackberry, Android, Windows Mobile, Palm, Symbian, and Java phones. The company rebranded and shifted focus as Appia, powering a white-label content and commerce platform for everyone and anyone who needs an app store. The company now powers mobile app storefronts for more than 40 partners, including four of the world's top five handset manufacturers (Samsung, T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon Wireless).

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/v2lrSsQ-cZQ/

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Google Voice comes to Sprint customers, no app or porting required

Google has made a pair of announcements concerning a tighter partnership with Sprint in the U.S. First, the Nexus S has arrived on Sprint's 4G network. Second, the two companies have worked together to deliver a seamless, app-free Google Voice experience to Sprint customers.

Current Sprint users can now make a painless switch to Google Voice. No number porting is required -- existing Sprint phone numbers will just work. That brings the whole enchilada, including ringing multiple phones from a single number, voice mail transcriptions, and the ability to answer calls in Gmail. Other features include cheap international calling rates, per-caller customized voicemail greetings, call blocking, and call recording.

Interested Sprint customer can flip the Google Voice switch by visiting this page. There's a video that demonstrates the new service after the break.

Continue reading Google Voice comes to Sprint customers, no app or porting required

Google Voice comes to Sprint customers, no app or porting required originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 21 Mar 2011 09:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/21/google-voice-comes-to-sprint-customers-no-app-or-porting-required/

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Bubble Motion Raises $10M For Social Voice Blogging Service

Bubble Motion, which offers a popular a Twitter-like voice blogging service in India, Japan, and Indonesia, has raised $10 million in new funding led by SingTel Innov8 with participation from Singapore?s Infocomm Investments in addition to insiders Sequoia Capital, Palomar Ventures, and NGC. This brings Bubble Motion's total funding to $45 million. Bubble Motion?s Bubbly platform is a voice-blogging phone service that allows people to share status updates in their own voice with fans and followers. It essentially takes Twitter's model and applies this to voice blogging and mobile phones. These ?bubblers? record their voice update into their phone, and their followers everywhere are notified by SMS and prompted to click and listen.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/vjYVazFZi0o/

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Shooting Challenge: LEGO [Photography]

For every single Shooting Challenge, at least one or two participants include a LEGO photo. Well for this week, we give in. We're celebrating LEGO and only LEGO. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/rZJcCqVF6FM/shooting-challenge-lego

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Crippled Phones Reveal AT&T Isn?t Ready for 4G

After Texas resident Keith Geissler noticed his new Motorola Atrix wasn’t offering the fast “4G” download and upload speeds that AT&T promised, he filed a complaint to the Better Business Bureau, asking the wireless company to “uncap” his data connection.
AT&T’s response was surprising. While the company assured Geissler it “has not capped the upload speeds [...]

Source: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/03/att-crippled-4g/

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BP Employee Lost Laptop Containing Personal Data of Oil Spill Victims [Security]

Uh oh! During some "routine business travel," a BP employee managed to lose a laptop which contains the personal data of the thousands of Louisiana residents who filed compensation claims after the Gulf oil spill: More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/ffcuE3xyruA/bp-employee-lost-a-laptop-containing-the-personal-data-of-oil-spill-victims

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Complete Browser for webOS offers tabs, private browsing

If you use a webOS smartphone and want a more desktop-like browsing experience, head to the App Catalog and check out Complete Browser. The app builds on the default webOS browser core and provides a handful of useful additional features like tabbed browsing, a private browsing mode, and easy access to clearing browsing data. There's also an anonymized Google search option built in.

The tabs give the app a somewhat non-webOS feel, and we quite like flicking through browser windows using the cards interface. Still, for 99 cents the privacy features alone might be enough to justify purchasing Complete Browser.

Complete Browser for webOS offers tabs, private browsing originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 21 Mar 2011 12:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/21/complete-browser-for-webos-offers-tabs-private-browsing/

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Visualized: Mercury

It may look like a spotty, monochromatic water melon, but we're taking NASA's word on this one -- the image above is the very first taken from an orbiting spacecraft of our solar system's innermost planet. Mercury has been snapped by NASA's MESSENGER probe, which is currently preparing itself to start on its elliptical trajectory around the planet and commence collecting data about it in earnest. Hit the links below to learn more about this bold exploration project.

Visualized: Mercury originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 20:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/29/visualized-mercury/

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