Frank Lloyd Wright’s reputation for being a bit of an egotistical prick is well-documented and well-deserved. But that doesn’t mean he was all bad—the man had his soft spots. Like the time he designed a dog house for a 12-year-old admirer. More »

JACK HENRY and ASSOCIATES

UNISYS TRIQUINT SEMICONDUCTOR TRIMBLE NAVIGATION LIMITED TRIDENT MICROSYSTEMS TRANSACTION SYSTEMS ARCHITECTS

Rob Beschizza over at BoingBoing put together this awesome video that runs through more or less every iteration of every design Apple’s ever done. It’s mesmerizing how even the retro Apple stuff is so obviously ancient but still abides by the same tenets of design as today’s stuff. More »

ACER ADOBE SYSTEMS ADVANCED SEMICONDUCTOR ENGINEERING ALLIANCE DATA SYSTEMS ALLTEL

Right on cue, Google has launched in-app payment support for Android applications. Developer testing began last week, and now many popular apps — like the ones pictured above — can begin charging users for add-on functionality, content, or whatever the heck else they feel is worthy of additional bits of your pocket change. If you were wondering, Google will take the same 30% cut that Apple takes from in-app purchases.

At last we can buy individual issues in Comics with minimal fuss!

In-app payment support arrives on Android originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

NANYA TECHNOLOGY NII HOLDINGS NIKON NINTENDO NOKIA

Using some early numbers from both StatCounter and Net Applications, Mozilla’s noisiest hominid, Asa Dotzler, has illustrated Firefox 4′s meteoric rise to around 5% of Web browser global usage share. Internet Explorer 9, which launched two weeks ago, seems to be enjoying a much more casual stroll in the park with just 1.5% of the global Web usage share.

Interestingly, we can see IE9 dipping between March 20 and 21, just before the ‘Important’ Windows Update rolled out. It’s hard to say whether IE9 is only growing because of the installed-by-default Windows Update, but that small dip definitely sticks out — did excitement peter out? Did people download IE9, try it out, and summarily uninstall it? Perhaps, given their close proximity, the stats show an attention shift from Microsoft to Mozilla?

Numbers-wise, if the bottom left corner of the graph shows 2.3 million downloads for IE9, we can guesstimate that that it has now been downloaded 5 million times. Firefox is clocking in at 37 million downloads after five days of public availability.

We wonder whether Microsoft knew its release schedule would coincide so closely with Firefox 4. Internet Explorer 9 — a great browser by almost every metric — was never going to do well against anything emanating from the maws of Mozilla. The main thing, though, is that Microsoft has now shown that it’s serious when it comes to the Open Web. If Internet Explorer 10 is good, and 11 and 12, then we might finally see it compete with the zealous Mozillan horde.

Firefox 4 rockets to 5% global usage share, IE9 wallows at 1.5% originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 05:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

INGRAM MICRO INFORMATICA INFOCUS ZORAN ZIONS BAN

Sony's Honeycomb-powered clamshell device, the Tablet P, isn't what you'd call a conventional Android tablet. So it should come as no surprise that it had a fittingly unconventional path to release, with a variety of different sizes and form factors being considered before everything was finalized.

According to Engadget Chinese, which was recently given a tour of some early Tablet P prototypes, the device started life as a mock-up made out of a cheap wallet, before a host of more practical designs were considered. These included various 5 to 7-inch setups, and during the height of the netbook craze, Sony was even considering going with a Windows/Intel x86 combo for the device's hardware and software base.

Eventually, due to battery life and heat dissipation issues, that idea was dropped, paving the way for the Tegra and Honeycomb-based device that we're all familiar with today. The Tablet P may not have set the world alight just yet, but at least the story of its development shows how Android's versatility can leads to all kinds of unique products finding their way into being.

Source: Engadget Chinese

TIBCO SOFTWARE THQ TEXAS INSTRUMENTS TERADATA TELETECH HOLDINGS

ALLTEL AMAZONCOM AMERICA MOVIL AMKOR TECHNOLOGY AMPHENOL

I have a thing for physics games, and I’ve been known to post the occasional platformer or action game here and there. But Let it Slide is one of the brainiest games I’ve posted to date.

The idea is very simple, and far from original: You get a board with pieces arranged in a particular pattern; you have to slide those around until you get the special piece into its target location.

It’s not even about finding out where the target location is – you can just hover over “dim tiles” and instantly see where you’re supposed to bring the special piece. But getting it there is a whole different story.

There are five tutorial levels, which I strongly recommend you do. Then there are twenty “beginner” levels, but that’s really a misnomer. If those are the beginner levels, I don’t want to know what the intermediate and advanced levels look like!

Every time you finish a level you get a score based on how many clicks it took you – each level has a “par” (the minimum number of clicks it could be completed in), and your performance is compared to that gold standard. Because it’s such a brainy game, getting it right is quite satisfying. I was downright proud of myself when I managed to finish a few levels. All in all, quite recommended, especially if you’ve got a few minutes of quiet. It might actually help you focus better later on.

Let it Slide is an engaging, difficult puzzle game originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 23 Feb 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

DIEBOLD DELL CYPRESS SEMICONDUCTOR ACCENTURE ACER

HEWLETT PACKARD CO HEARTLAND PAYMENT SYSTEMS GOOGLE GOOGLE FORMFACTOR

Continue reading Olympus unveils SZ-31MR camera: 16 megapixels, 24x optical zoom

Olympus unveils SZ-31MR camera: 16 megapixels, 24x optical zoom originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

ZORAN ZIONS BAN YAHOO YAHOO XILINX