BattlePaint is an addictive geometric shooter game

battlepaint
In BattlePaint, you play a cube. In fact, you're not even a cube -- just a square. But boy, are you fast! And you can shoot in all directions. That's important, because there are baddies coming in from all over the place.

The "baddies" are swarms of other squares, in all sorts of pretty colors. They track you all over the screen, and you run around very quickly and just shoot, shoot, and shoot some more. If that doesn't sound very emotionally deep, it's because it isn't. But it's fun!

After you shoot a baddy, it splashes paint as it disappears. You need to skate across this blob of paint and "eat it up" to get points. This game is fast. It clocked in at around 60-70 FPS on my system, and was loads of fun to play. It does tend to insult you when you die, though, but don't be offended -- I don't think it's personal.

BattlePaint is an addictive geometric shooter game originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 09 Mar 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/09/battlepaint-is-an-addictive-geometric-shooter-game/

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Microsoft to Kill the Messenger, Supplant It With Skype

Microsoft will phase out Windows Live Messenger, its consumer instant messaging platform, over the next several months as its users are moved to Skype, the company announced this week. Microsoft hopes to smooth the transition to Skype for Live Messenger users by allowing them to log in to Skype with their Microsoft ID so that contacts in one program will automatically transfer to the other. The move to Skype will be beneficial to Live Messenger users, said Microsoft spokesperson Dani Reese.

Source: http://ectnews.com.feedsportal.com/c/34520/f/632000/s/255790e8/l/0L0Stechnewsworld0N0Crsstory0C765670Bhtml/story01.htm

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Ubuntu 12.10: Unity Just Sort of Grows on You

The recent release of Ubuntu 12.10, aka Quantal Quetzal, is a more palatable version of the open source OS built around the Unity desktop environment. Perhaps I am growing more accustomed to Unity, or maybe Canonical's developers are succeeding in refining the graphical user interface, so it seems less objectionable for me to use. In my view, the switch to the Ubuntu-specific Unity shell has not been Canonical's finest hour. It did succeed in pushing me as a long-time user to other Linux distros. More times than not, when I return to Ubuntu, I run the KDE interface.

Source: http://ectnews.com.feedsportal.com/c/34520/f/632000/s/2554c8c8/l/0L0Stechnewsworld0N0Crsstory0C765560Bhtml/story01.htm

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A week with the iPhone 5 on EE, the UK's first 4G network

A week with the iPhone 5 on EE, the UK's first 4G network

Last week, EE publicly flipped the switch on its 4G network. Launching LTE in London, Bristol, Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield and (parts of) Southampton. EE also plans for an additional five cities before the new year. The new phone network, composed of equal parts T-Mobile and Orange, has other plans -- and they start from £21 SIM-only (starting November 9th) while phone packages begin at £36 per month. For that, the new network offers its customers 500MB of data, plus unlimited calls and texts.

The data plans scale up from there, all the way up to 8GB of monthly data, alongside a system of on-off data bundles. So being an earlier adopter comes at a very specific cost -- are the wonders of a next-generation network worth it? We inserted a fresh EE 4G SIM into an iPhone 5 and now have been using it for over a week, get our full verdict after the break.

Continue reading A week with the iPhone 5 on EE, the UK's first 4G network

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A week with the iPhone 5 on EE, the UK's first 4G network originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Nov 2012 03:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/11/09/a-week-with-the-iphone-5-on-ee-the-uks-first-4g-network/

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Campfire vs. Glassboard vs. HipChat: group chat apps for iPhone shootout!

Campfire vs. Glassboard vs. HipChat: group chat apps for iPhone shootout!

Your iPhone is a great tool for helping you get things done and group chat services are no exception. Whether you want to keep up with work topics and check in with colleagues, or keep the whole family connected at home or on a trip, a good, private social network can be invaluable. Campfire, Glassboard, and HipChat are three popular group chat services that also happen to have iPhone app counterparts. The question is, which one is best for you?

Campfire vs. Glassboard vs. HipChat: User interface & design

Campfire vs. Glassboard vs. HipChat: User interface & design

Campfire's official app is simple enough to navigate through and start using right out of the gate. Upon launching the app you'll be asked to sign into your 37Signals account. Once you've done that you'll be taken to a lobby where you can see all the networks and rooms you currently belong to. Underneath the room title you can see how many people currently occupy it. You can tap into the room you'd like to join and you'll be taken to the chat area.

Inside the main chat area, almost the entire window will be taken up with conversation. Along the bottom you'll find the usual suspects including a place to type your message, send it, and a button to append a photo or video to your message. Basically, if you've ever sent a text or iMessage from your iPhone, you'll be perfectly at home. It's simple but it gets the job done.

campfire for iphone ui

Once inside any room you can tap the info button in the upper right hand corner in order to view more information on the current room. From here you can add a topic and turn in-app notifications on. Underneath that you have the option to leave the room, view who's currently in it, and what files have been recently uploaded. Tapping on any file name will show you the image or file.

You can access Campfire's main settings from the lobby area. Tapping the gear in the upper right hand corner gives you a few more options including if you want Campfire to remember the last room you entered and take you immediately there, enabling or disabling landscape support, and enabling messaging notifications by default. Beyond this, there isn't too much in the way of basic functionality to change. While the native Campfire app doesn't give you a ton of options, it gets the job done and while on the go, it's easy to just pop in and quickly see what's going on.

glassboard for iphone ui

Upon launching Glassboard's app and signing in, you'll notice that your main view combines all your boards (rooms) together. If you prefer views of your boards separately, you can tap on the menu button in the upper left hand corner to pull out the main navigation. From here you'll be able to see all the boards you belong too and settings for them. Tap a board to open it.

Underneath boards on the main menu you've got options to edit and view your own profile, as well as change some in-app settings. Glassboard for iPhone supports quiet hours so if you don't want to be bothered with notifications during certain hours, you can disable them easily within settings one time and Glassboard will abide by it indefinitely.

You'll also be able to add people to boards you manage via the main menu or enter invitation codes to join other's boards. The last option in the main menu allows you to filter only photos and videos people have posted which is nice if you're looking for a specific file that a colleague has posted.

The last option in Glassboard's main menu is for notifications and this does exactly what you'd expect it to do, aggregate all your notifications for all your boards in one place for easy review.

hipchat for iphone ui

Upon launching HipChat for iPhone you'll be presented with a cleanly laid out screen that has two sections - rooms and people. Anyone you've added on HipChat shows up under people while any room you've joined shows up on the top. Along the top you can search for contacts while along the bottom you'll see three tabs - lobby, chats, and settings. These tabs remain static throughout the entire app for easy access.

Tapping into a room will bring up the main chat area. This is where you can see many similarities to Campfire. The chat room is very basic and only consists of conversation content and an area to send your messages. In this case, simplicity is better than too many confusing features.

From the main menu you can also choose to tap on any person's name and send them a personal message outside of a main room. You'll see an icon next to their name showing their status. A mobile phone indicates that they are online from their device while a green bubble means online on a computer and grey means offline.

Tapping on the chats tab in the bottom will show you any conversations and rooms that you currently have active. You can tap into any one of them to be directed to that room or private chat.

The last tab is the settings tab which lets you customize certain aspects of HipChat. Among the things you can customize in settings includes push notifications, sounds and alerts, and your account information. Beyond that, there really isn't too much to customize.

When it comes to user interface and design, HipChat is a nice compromise. It isn't as complicated as Glassboard's sidebar, yet not as bare-bones as Campfire.

Campfire vs. Glassboard vs. HipChat: Message boards, chats, and more

Campfire vs. Glassboard vs. HipChat: Message boards, chats, and more

Campfire utilizes rooms where you can chat with colleagues and co-workers. Once you log in to Campfire you can choose the room you'd like to access via the lobby. Tapping into any one of them will bring you directly into live chat. From here you can upload images and messages.

campfire for iphone features

Campfire doesn't offer private chats between users, so if that's a feature you'd like to have, you'll need to look elsewhere. Campfire for iPhone is as simple as the web service. It is meant to be used for basic chats and image sharing between users, nothing more and nothing less. Users aren't limited to the amount of boards they can be a part of, but outside of basic chat, there isn't too much else that Campfire offers.

That isn't to say 37Signals doesn't have many other product offerings that compliment campfire. Their Basecamp service is a dedicated project management service while Highrise allows you to manage all your business contacts. If you're looking for a suite of apps, then Campfire is a good option but if enhanced chat is your main concern, Campfire isn't the best bet.

glassboard for iphone features

Glassboard works more like a message board than a live chat room. You can choose to view all boards you belong to or you can view them separately. Once inside a board you'll notice that messages appear in a threaded manner. Any message that a colleague has replied to in Glassboard will show up nested underneath the original message.

One thing unique about Glassboard is that you have the ability to like messages. Once you tap into a thread you'll see a star next to it with a count. The count is how many people have already starred that comment. Tapping on it allows you to like it as well. For office productivity, it's irrelevant how much something is "liked", but if you're using Glassboard for a conference or group of friends, it's a great feature.

hipchat for iphone features

HipChat utilizes rooms in the same way Campfire does. On your main screen you'll see a list of rooms and a list of co-workers. Unlike both Campfire and Glassboard, you can chat individually with any of your HipChat contacts outside of rooms. This is a great if you want to discuss sensitive issues, or simply to keep a couple people's personal conversation from swamping everyone else's discussion (notification pollution is a thing, you know?)

There aren't too many options to enable or disable inside of HipChat and like Campfire, it just works once you log in. You can, however, tweak notification settings but you can do that in Glassboard and Campfire as well.

Glassboard is best suited for ad-hoc gatherings like conferences and shows where the social aspects give it a huge advantage. Campfire and HipChat are both better suited for simple work environments, and in that regard, HipChat's private messaging gives it the edge.

Campfire vs. Glassboard vs. HipChat: Push notifications

Campfire vs. Glassboard vs. HipChat: Push notifications

If your group chat needs include push notifications, you can rule out Campfire as it offers no native support. There are workarounds with Prowl but it's probably past what most users would want to fuss with.

Glassboard and HipChat both support push notifications within their official iPhone apps. Both work extremely well so when it comes to push, it's a tie between Glassboard and HipChat.

Campfire vs. Glassboard vs. HipChat: Cross-platform support

Campfire vs. Glassboard vs. HipChat: Cross-platform support

Campfire is a widely known service that has been around for quite some time. That means where are plenty of apps and platforms that support it. First and foremost, it works on the web. There's an iPhone app, of course, but no native iPad app. There are third-party alternatives, however, including Sparks which is optimized for both iPhone and iPad. There are also 3rd party Mac apps like Propane and Flint, if you prefer native over web (and who can blame you?), and 3rd party Android apps such as Campyre.

Glassboard currently offers support for the iPhone, Android, and the web. There aren't currently any native iPad or Mac clients, nor are there 3rd party alternatives.

HipChat's official app offers universal app support for both iPhone and iPad . They also have an Android app, and a native client for both Windows and Mac PCs. You'll need to install Adobe AIR in order to use it but that probably isn't a deal breaker for most [Deal breaker! - Rene].

When it comes to cross-platform support, Campfire is the most widely supported. Not only do they have native versions of their apps on almost every platform, they have a robust 3rd party ecosystem that's filled a lot of gaps. If you need cross-platform options, Campfire offers the most.

Campfire vs. Glassboard vs. HipChat: Pricing

Campfire vs. Glassboard vs. HipChat: Pricing

Campfire, Glassboard, and HipChat are all free downloads from the App Store but the app isn't really what you're paying for -- it's the service itself. So let's take a look at the pricing breakdown for each.

Campfire does offer a free plan but it doesn't give you much. You're limited to 4 users and only 10MB of media store. Their actual plans start at $12 and go all the way up to $99. Here's a breakdown of what each plan gets you:

Glassboard also has free accounts and if you're using it for family, friends, or conferences, it's probably more than enough. Paid accounts are $5 a month per user, or $50 a year, and the board limits are determined by this fee. Here's a comparison as to what free vs premium gets you:

HipChat's plans are board based. Their pricing is $2 per user, per board, per month. You get unlimited storage on each board you pay for. Obviously if you have multiple boards, each will require a membership.

As far as pricing goes, if you're only need something for friends, family, and traveling to tradeshows or conferences, Glassboard's free account is great. If you only have 1 or a limited number of rooms you need access to, HipChat offers the most bang for your board buck.

Campfire vs. Glassboard vs. HipChat: The bottom line

Campfire vs. Glassboard vs. HipChat: The bottom line

Group chat isn't just for offices anymore. Everything from peer networking to family and friends a vying for our personal social attention.

Glassboard has the least cross-platform support of the three apps we tested, and is more of a discussion board than a group chat room. There are businesses being run on Glassboard, but it seems best suited for less formal, more social activities like conferences, trips, events, etc. If Twitter is too public, but you still want to stay in touch with a group large or small, Glassboard is for you.

Campfire has the most support across the most platforms, and if you've got users on iOS, Android, PC, and Mac, you'll find tons of options including third party apps to choose from. 37Signals also has other productivity tools such as Highrise and Basecamp which may be a consideration for some work environments. If you need your chat everywhere, Campfire is for you.

HipChat is the most chatty. While it's cross-platform support isn't as extensive, it does cover most of the major ones, and it offers push notifications as well. Putting it over the top, not only can you chat within rooms but you can chat privately with any HipChat contact as well. If you're looking for a good group and private chat client for your group or office, HipChat is for you.

Campfire - Free - Download Now

Glassboard - Free - Download Now

HipChat - Free - Download Now

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/FqemDQAg7hM/story01.htm

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Holy Sh*t, Apple's Fusion Drive Is Quick

When Apple announced Fusion Drive, we expected it to be quick. But TLDToday has performed some speed tests, comparing a new Mac mini to its predecessor, and the results are pretty amazing. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/XdFQBcc3-XU/holy-shit-apples-fusion-drive-is-quick

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Internet Explorer 9 nears 4% share on Windows 7, IE6 extinction countdown picks up steam

internet explorer 9 ie9
Microsoft has shared some news about the state of its most and least loved Web browsers -- Internet Explorer 9 and 6, respectively. Even with IE9 only recently exiting beta, Microsoft reports that 3.6% of Windows 7 users are now running the new browser (no mention of Vista... what's with that?). The post also reveals that the adoption rate is almost five times what IE8 garnered in the early going.

It's also interesting to note that there are now more than 1,000 sites utilizing Internet Explorer 9's Windows 7 integration features -- like the new desktop notification support we showed you in Hotmail.

But perhaps the best news of all is that Microsoft's IE6countdown.com now has more than 400 partners and is generating nearly two million pageviews per month, helping to lure users away from the woefully out-of-date browser. Can the end come soon enough, DS readers?

Internet Explorer 9 nears 4% share on Windows 7, IE6 extinction countdown picks up steam originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 01 Apr 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/01/internet-explorer-9-nears-4-share-on-windows-7-ie6-extinction/

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Arduino Micro shrinks your favorite DIY platform down to ridiculous proportions

Arduino Micro shrinks your favorite DIY platform down to ridiculous proportions

With the Arduino Leonardo, everyone's favorite hackable microcontroller turned a new page. Now it's time to bring that simplified design and slightly expanded feature set to the rest of the family, including the itty-bitty Arduino Micro. The tiny, embed-friendly board was designed with help from Adafruit Industries, one of the biggest players in the DIY market. At the heart of the Micro is the same 16MHz ATmega32u4 chip that powers the Leonardo, which means all the necessary USB controls are baked into the processor. Obviously, the layout here is different, so you wont be mounting the Micro to any shields, but with 20 digital I/O pins, 12 analog input channels and seven PWM channels, there's plenty of room for wiring up your own expansions. Amazingly it crams all that capability in a package just 48mm long and 18mm wide. The Arduino Micro will be available exclusively through Radio Shack and Adafruit first before becoming more widely available next month. The board is available with headers for €21 (roughly $27) and without headers for €18 (about $23). For more, check out the PR after the break.

Continue reading Arduino Micro shrinks your favorite DIY platform down to ridiculous proportions

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Arduino Micro shrinks your favorite DIY platform down to ridiculous proportions originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Nov 2012 20:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/11/08/arduino-micro-shrinks-your-favorite-diy-platform/

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Microsoft outlines Internet Explorer 10 differences between Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8

Microsoft outlines Internet Explorer 10 differences between Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8, finds they still have common ground

Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 together mark a rare confluence for Microsoft: they represent the first instance of the company's desktop and phone platforms sharing the same browser base, and that has wide-reaching implications for what developers can do. The Redmond team doesn't want anyone plunging headlong into web apps without knowing what to expect, however, and it just reminded us in a blog post that there are still a few off-limits areas for Internet Explorer 10 on the mobile side. Not surprisingly, elements that demand a truly big screen or a windowed interface won't fly -- there's nowhere to drag-and-drop from or open a new window to. A few other aspects are more likely to catch web developers off-guard, such as the lack of in-line video, a handful of touch inputs, ActiveX and the level of file access. The most important common ground stems from simply having a modern rendering engine whose HTML5 and CSS3 support will prevent any rude shocks. There's much more at the source link, although Microsoft and designers may just be happy that any Windows Phone web development is a question of finding those few things that won't work, rather than reinventing the wheel.

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Microsoft outlines Internet Explorer 10 differences between Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Nov 2012 06:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/nacKLYzb2rw/

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Google Chrome now uses SPDY HTTP replacement, halves page load time

SPDY in Google Chrome
We're not entirely sure of the time line here, but it looks like Google has now rolled out the SPDY HTTP replacement to its full bevy of Web services, including Gmail, Docs, and YouTube. If you're currently using Google's Chrome browser you're probably already using SPDY.

We originally reported on SPDY way back in November 2009, when Google introduced it as yet another experiment in making the Web faster, like Go, Native Client and speculative pre-connections. Over the last 18 months, though, SPDY support has found its way into the stable build of Chrome.

SPDY is basically a streamlined and more efficient version of HTTP. At its most basic, SPDY introduces parallel, multiplexed streams over a single TCP connection -- but at the same time, SPDY allows for prioritization, so that vital content (HTML) can be sent before periphery content (JavaScript, video). All in all, the SPDY protocol can halve page load times, which is obviously rather significant.

The best bit, though, is that SPDY is an open-source project. HTTP 1.1 is a lumbering beast that needs to be replaced before low-latency real-time computing really becomes a reality, and SPDY is one of the best options currently on the table. To be honest, we're not sure why SPDY hasn't received more coverage -- it's awesome in every way. At the moment, though, the only way to help speed up SPDY's proliferation, is with an experimental Apache mod.

As far as actually 'trying it out,' your best bet is downloading Chrome, hitting up some Google sites, and then checking chrome://net-internals to see your active SPDY sessions. SPDY is a transparent replacement for HTTP, though, and as such it's rather hard to see its effects. Google's sites definitely feel fast in Chrome, but there are more technologies than just SPDY at work.

Google Chrome now uses SPDY HTTP replacement, halves page load time originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/11/google-chrome-now-uses-spdy-http-replacement-halves-page-load-t/

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