Windows 8 to feature adaptive Aero colorization, get it now on Windows 7

windows 8 aero colorization aura
While we've still yet to see anything truly Earth-shattering, the tandem of Rafael Rivera and Paul Thurrott continues to churn out insight about interesting new features they've discovered in Windows 8 milestone 3. The latest discovery is that Aero in Windows 8 will be able to automatically adapt itself to match your current wallpaper image. It's a bit like what Windows 7 already does with your taskbar icons: if a program alert needs your attention, the icon will glow using the predominant color (e.g. Firefox should glow orange).

And yes, you can already make Windows 7 behave this way if you like. Over at CodePlex, there's a little program called Aura that parks itself in your system tray and automatically adjusts your window borders to compliment your wallpaper images. The effect is quite nice, and you can try it out by minimizing your windows and cycling through your theme's wallpapers (right click on your desktop and choose next desktop background).

Windows 8 to feature adaptive Aero colorization, get it now on Windows 7 originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 07 Apr 2011 07:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/07/windows-8-to-feature-adaptive-aero-colorization-get-it-now-on-w/

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Hello Expense is a simple, reliable expense tracker for Android

helloexpense
A good mobile application is a fine balance between simplicity and functionality. You're using it on the go, so you don't have a lot of time to sit there and fumble with the phone to figure it all out. But you also need it to be powerful enough to let you do whatever it is you're trying to get done.

Hello Expense is one mobile app that gets it right. It's an expense tracker that lets you use your Android-powered phone to quickly log the money you spend and then analyze it and see where it all went.

I recently had the chance to use it in a real-life situation - a road trip that took a few days and involved quite a few expenses. Logging each expense took seconds, and at the end of each day I could get a great overview of how much money I spent on each category so far.

Categories and tags are user-configurable; the app also sports its own number pad to make number entry easy, regardless of what keyboard you're using.

Hello Expense is a simple, reliable expense tracker for Android originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/29/hello-expense-is-a-simple-reliable-expense-tracker-for-android/

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IE9 and Firefox 4 post top marks in Web browser power use comparison

Over on the Internet Explorer Blog, Microsoft has posted results from an extensive comparison of the top five Web browsers. The goal: to determine whether Internet Explorer 9, Firefox 4, Chrome 10, Safari 5, or Opera 11 is able to squeeze the most life out of your laptop's battery.

A baseline was determined with test systems sitting idle, and then browsers were pointed at about:blank, a news site, the HTML5 Galactic demo, and the IE9 fish tank demo. Perhaps unsurprisingly, IE9 came out on top -- though Firefox 4 was a very close second on nearly every test. As you can see, the other browsers didn't necessarily fare quite as well, with Google Chrome, Safari, and Opera all posting significantly worse scores. In Opera 11's case, a laptop battery would last over one hour more with Internet Explorer 9 installed.


But what we'd really like to know is where did Microsoft find the dilithium crystals required to run a Galactic Total Power Consumption test...

IE9 and Firefox 4 post top marks in Web browser power use comparison originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 07:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/30/ie9-and-firefox-4-post-top-marks-in-pc-power-use-comparison/

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Amazon Appstore for Android Test Drive hands on: surprisingly cool, but still US-only

Amazon Appstore for Android Test Drive
When Amazon Appstore for Android launched last week, one of its primary features -- Test Drive -- was disabled just a few minutes after it opened. With no try-before-you-buy, no refund process, and 1-Click purchasing ready to strike at any moment, this caused some problems. Anyway, don't despair: Test Drive is now enabled.

Before you get your hopes up, Test Drive doesn't work with every app. The IMDb app works fine -- you can even watch movie trailers on it! -- but the Angry Birds games are sadly not enabled. Some games work surprisingly well, though, like Bubble Buster. There's very little latency, and the framerate is really rather good. The Test Drive experience is so true to life that you even get ads; how cool is that?

Continue reading Amazon Appstore for Android Test Drive hands on: surprisingly cool, but still US-only

Amazon Appstore for Android Test Drive hands on: surprisingly cool, but still US-only originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/28/amazon-appstore-for-android-test-drive-hands-on-surprisingly-co/

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Gadgeteer book club – Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore

Happy Sunday morning everyone. Since buying the new Amazon Kindle Paperwhite ebook reader (review coming soon), I’ve been toying with the idea of starting a Gadgeteer book club. I’m not sure if you all will have an interest in this sort of thing, but we can consider this an experiment and see if it turns into anything worth continuing.

I love to read but seem to hardly ever make time to do it. When I do make time, I have trouble finding books that excite me enough to drag me into the story. Lucky for me, I found a book that has done that and I wanted to share it with all of you. It’s Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan. I’m only 30% finished with it, but I know if you enjoy visiting The Gadgeteer, you’re the type of person that will also enjoy this book. It combines adventure, mystery, fantasy, a little romance and geekiness into a fast moving story that I can’t seem to put down.  It’s set in San Francisco at a (you guessed it…) 24-hour bookstore. But it’s no ordinary bookstore. It’s more like a library where strange characters come to check out the even stranger books. I really don’t want to give any more of the story. If you’re interested in reading this book and discussing it in a couple of weeks, go to your local bookstore, library or Amazon and grab a copy.  Then we can meet back here in 2 weeks (is that enough time?) and talk about it, suggest other books that we might like to try next, etc.

If you’ve already read this book, please don’t leave spoiler comments. But do let me know what you think of the book club idea  :)

Filed in categories: eBook Readers and Gear, News

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Gadgeteer book club – Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 14, 2012 at 12:07 pm.

Retina MacBook Pro Greenwashing?

gummy residue left over from batteries. Photo: Kyle Wiens / ifixit

Apple’s latest unsustainable design was just greenlighted by the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool registry (EPEAT). And it’s a clear case of greenwashing.

Apple’s Retina MacBook Pro – the least repairable, least recyclable computer I have encountered in more than a decade of disassembling electronics – was just verified Gold, along with four other ultrabooks. This decision demonstrates that the EPEAT standard has been watered down to an alarming degree.

EPEAT is the most popular environmental rating for green electronics. Instead of legislating that manufacturers produce environmentally friendly products, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) tackles the problem indirectly. As the world’s largest purchaser of electronics, the federal government requires at least 95 percent of the products each agency purchases comply with the EPEAT standard. Used by procurement officials in large organizations, EPEAT is designed to encourage manufacturers to create environmentally preferable products.

At best, the interpretation of the EPEAT Gold standard is laughably out of touch. At worst, it means recyclers a decade from now may be faced with a mountain of electronic waste they cannot affordably recycle without custom disassembly fixtures and secret manufacturer information.

Technology undoubtedly makes our lives better. But the social and environmental price of manufacturing electronics is high. If we’re going to pay that price, it’s critical that products last as long as possible. We need strong green electronics standards that encourage long-lasting products; the future of our planet depends on it.

Source: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/10/retina-macbook-pro-greenwashing/

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Don't Preorder Microsoft Surface [Microsoft Surface]

Microsoft's Surface RT tablet is gorgeous. It's innovative. It's without exaggeration the most exciting new gadget to come along in years. And if you buy one today, you're a fool. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/D31-Vq9Gy0w/dont-preorder-microsoft-surface

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Google nabs design patent for left-eyed Google Glass, frees southpaws from tyranny

Google nabs design patent for leftside Google Glass, frees southpaws from tyranny

No more shall lefties wanting Google Glass toil under the oppression of right-handed overlords. Not if Google's newly granted design patent is an indication, at any rate. The filing simply puts the eyepiece on the other side for those who are either naturally left-inclined or just that much opposed to the optical status quo. There's no guarantee Google will be so accommodating when Glass reaches the general public, although we're hopeful: when early adopters are already paying a small fortune to leap in, it wouldn't hurt to produce a batch for left eye use and give the more committed southpaws among us the freedom they've craved since Google I/O.

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Google nabs design patent for left-eyed Google Glass, frees southpaws from tyranny originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Oct 2012 10:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/16/google-nabs-design-patent-for-left-eye-google-glass/

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Acer's Windows 8 Tablet Edges Into iPad Turf

Ramping up for the holiday season, Acer this week announced the Iconia W510 Windows 8 hybrid tablet, just five days after it unveiled the W700 Win 8 tablet PC. The W510 is offered in four versions -- as a standalone tablet PC with 32 or 64 GB of RAM, with a keyboard dock, or as a full-fledged business device running Windows 8 Pro. Prices range from $499 to $799 and the W510 will be available on Nov. 9. "Acer has designed its new Windows 8 tablet PC to serve customers who want to maximize productivity and have a first-rate tablet experience," said Acer spokesperson Kelly Odle.

Source: http://ectnews.com.feedsportal.com/c/34520/f/632000/s/2455928f/l/0L0Stechnewsworld0N0Crsstory0C763480Bhtml/story01.htm

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Move over Survivor, here comes a new reality show for geeks

I don’t know about you guys, but this Fall’s new TV show line up has not impressed me at all. I’ve tried a few new shows like Arrow, Elementary, Revolution, Chicago Fire and The New Normal.  But so far the only one that I’m going to add to my DVR is The New Normal. I used to be a big fan of reality shows like Survivor and Amazing Race, but we cut those out of our list last year. That doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy a good reality show though and now there’s one I definitely want to watch. It’s Bravo’s upcoming docu-series, “Start-Ups: Silicon Valley”, which premiers November 5th at 10 p.m. ET/PT. It follows the lives of 6 entrepreneurs as they try to get their technology businesses off the ground. I’m looking forward to watching. Will you?

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Move over Survivor, here comes a new reality show for geeks originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 13, 2012 at 10:00 am.