Engadget takes a ride on the Faraday Porteur e-bike

Engadget takes Faraday Porteur ebike for a spin

We've watched as Faraday Bicycles' first offering, the Porteur electric bike, went from award-winning concept to a fully-fledged consumer product courtesy of Kickstarter. Recently, company founder Adam Vollmer offered us the chance to ride one, and naturally, we couldn't wait see it for ourselves and put feet to pedals.

First impressions are important, a fact of which the folks at Faraday are clearly aware. The Porteur's white frame, wood fenders, and sea foam green trim pieces and rims provide a pleasing visual counterpart to the leatherwork adorning the seat, frame and handlebars. Add in the yesteryear script of the logo and vermilion detailing work, and it's retro done right -- visually arresting without being gaudy. As is often the case, the coolest bits of the bike reveal themselves upon close inspection. We're fans of the leather pouch (for holding smartphones or other sundries) nestled between the parallel top tubes and chain stay guard embossed with the Faraday name. And, the addition of the company slogan claiming it's "the ultimate electric propelled utility bicycle" along with each bike's production number is a nice touch. But enough about its good looks, how the thing ride?

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Engadget takes a ride on the Faraday Porteur e-bike originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Jul 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/UHk0VjevYRs/

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Speedtest.net overhauled with new look, new features

speedtest
Speedtest.net is pretty much the go-to site for quickly figuring out how fast (or slow) your connection really is and comparing the numbers your ISP boasts with what it actually delivers. And now it's got a new coat of paint and a couple of neat features. In brief:
  • New UI: The map widget is much improved; it actually looks like a map now, and it's easy to see where you are.
  • Smart server selection: If there are several test servers nearby, Speedtest will now ping each to see which has the least latency and use that for the test. You can still specify servers manually, too.
  • User accounts: You can sign up for a free account and aggregate results from several computers/connections.
  • Speed Wave: This new feature lets you add your test results to the results of many other users, and get a nice composite view.
All in all, you get some nice, new functionality and a snazzier interface to boot. Nice!

Speedtest.net overhauled with new look, new features originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 07 Mar 2011 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/07/speedtest-net-overhauled-with-new-look-new-features/

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Windows 8 getting a built-in PDF reader, Metro-style

For what seems like an eternity, Download Squad readers have reacted to news of security exploits targeting Adobe Reader with a common sentiment: why doesn't Microsoft build its own secure PDF reader into Windows? Apparently the Windows 8 team agrees, and they're working away at an application called Modern Reader which is exactly that.

From the handful of screenshots Paul Thurrott has shared, it's clear that Modern Reader has been built with Metro in mind. You can see the Reader back button in the top-left corner of the yellow image and the minimal page navigation bar on the right. We've posted some larger images we managed to scrape from Google's cache after the break.

Thurrott also mentions that Modern Reader is the first program spotted which is built using AppX -- a packaging technology that may allow developers to roll a single build to both Windows 8 desktops and Windows Phone 8 mobile devices.

Continue reading Windows 8 getting a built-in PDF reader, Metro-style

Windows 8 getting a built-in PDF reader, Metro-style originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 04 Apr 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/04/windows-8-getting-a-built-in-pdf-reader-finally/

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Apple presents at Black Hat, expectations get hacked

Apple presents at Black Hat, expectations get hacked

Apple gave their first ever presentation at the Black Hack conference on Thursday, and while it sounds like it didn't live up to the expectations of those unfamiliar with Apple's typical level of community engagement, it did happen. Nicole Perlroth, writing for The New York Times, reports:

[When] hackers and security suits filed out an hour later, most looked bored and deflated. Mr. De Atley had basically done the equivalent of reading aloud a white paper, timed to a PowerPoint deck, before escaping out a side door without answering any questions. Steve Jobs he is not.

I'm not sure what the Steve Jobs reference has to do with anything, frankly. Apple never presented before. Anyone thinking they'd open the kimono and start giving out hugs were setting themselves up for disappointment.

Baby steps. Apple is new to this. Skittish. Approach them slowly. Carefully. And we'll see what happens next year.

Source: The New York Times

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Why Mountain Lion Just Became the Ultimate Cord-Cutting OS

The TV show Eureka on a MacBook and a big-screen TV. Photo: Peter McCollough/Wired

Mountain Lion, the latest version of Apple’s OS X desktop operating system, went public Wednesday to the delight of Mac users everywhere. But while the world fawns over updates to Safari and a number of features cribbed from iOS, most people are skipping over perhaps the most significant update of all: AirPlay Mirroring.

Don’t look now, but Apple just created a formidable cord-cutting platform. The new operating system can change the way we watch video in the living room, and might even compel some users to finally cancel their cable and satellite services. Any video content that’s available for the computer can now be just as easily watched on an HDTV. All you need is a 2011 or newer Mac running Mountain Lion, and a $100 Apple TV.

The new AirPlay mirroring feature should have the Xfinitys and DirecTVs of the world very concerned.

While mobile devices are locked into easily controlled ecosystems, and are reliant on apps for content delivery, the PC is the last platform that Hollywood can’t effectively touch.‪

‬AirPlay Mirroring in Mountain Lion uses the same basic tech found in iOS devices: Your computer wirelessly transmits whatever is playing on your Mac desktop to your Apple TV, which then shoots this mirrored content to your HDTV via an HDMI cable. Display settings are automatically determined by your Mac, so you don’t have to adjust the resolution over and over again, hoping to find the perfect recipe for optimal TV watching.

Once your mirroring set-up is complete, anything you might play on your desktop can be displayed on your big-screen TV — and this is where all that unique, cord-cutting potential comes into play. Sure, you can start playing computer games on the big-screen. And you can also pipe Rdio tunes, or any other music, directly to your TV speakers. But most importantly, you can mirror all those free, streaming desktop services that would otherwise cost money (or not work at all) if streamed directly to a TV.

For example: Hulu’s free, PC-only streaming library is suddenly available on your TV without Hulu’s $8 monthly tax in the form of a Hulu Plus subscription (this tax is imposed on set-top devices like the Xbox 360 and Sony Playstation). And then there’s CBS.com. On the network’s website, you can watch (and now AirPlay mirror) tons of network TV shows. Yes, these shows also appear in the CBS iOS app, but the app doesn’t support AirPlay mirroring. The same holds true for ABC content: It can be mirrored via ABC.com, but not via ABC’s iOS app.

How long will all this streaming desktop content remain free and unfettered? Only time will tell, but the latest evolutions in desktop mirroring could have long-term effects on the delicate relationships between Hollywood content producers, cable and satellite companies, and technology companies like Apple. Currently, desktop computers are somewhat of a bastion for free, streaming content, as evidenced by the Hulu, CBS and ABC policies above. Restrictions are tighter on mobile devices, and this even extends to YouTube, which disables mobile viewing — but not desktop viewing — for user videos that contain copyrighted music content.

But now easy, simple desktop mirroring presents game-changing opportunities for savvy users. Gartner analyst Michael McGuire told Wired, “[Video mirroring] is the longer-term threat. It’s the kind of thing the MVPDs [Multichannel Video Programming Distributors], the Comcasts of the world, dread.”

Indeed, cable and satellite providers should be filled with dread. While mobile devices are locked into easily controlled ecosystems, and are reliant on apps for content delivery, the PC is the last platform that Hollywood can’t effectively touch. Think about it: While the iPhone requires video be encoded as MPEG-4, a Mac (or Windows machine) can play most any video file type available. And with Mountain Lion and an Apple TV, it can shoot this content to a big-screen TV completely wirelessly.

While the ability to attach a computer to a TV is nothing new, it’s usually involved physically attaching a bulky computer to a TV’s VGA or HDMI port — something the average consumer won’t do, if only because it puts the computer in an inaccessible position for general, keyboard-controlled computing. But AirPlay’s wireless data-flow is incredibly easy to set up and use. “Sending video to AirPlay is a no-brainer that will appeal to a lot of people,” McGuire said.

So is the Mountain Lion/Apple TV combo really the killer platform that will invade the living rooms of the nation? For now, probably not. It’s a killer cord-cutting platform, but we think it will remain a tool for only hardcore tech enthusiasts for the immediate future. While Apple is quick to boast that it sold 4 million Apple TVs so far in this fiscal year, the Apple TV is still a hobby for the company. Plus, while Apple computers have a larger market share than they did 10 years ago, Windows is still the dominant desktop platform. And, of course, in order to use AirPlay Mirroring, any Mac needs to have Mountain Lion installed.

That said, where Apple innovates, the industry follows. AirPlay for Mountain Lion is a great method for beaming any desktop content straight to your HDTV, and this includes streaming video from web pages, computer games, and, yes, even illegal videos collected from BitTorrent. And if the greater tech industry takes more bold steps toward changing how video is delivered, the future is going to be rough for cable and satellite providers. Something has to give.

Source: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/07/mountain-lion-cord-cutting/

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Windows 8 welcome screen revealed, looks very Metro

windows 8 welcome screen
It's not really a secret the Microsoft had planned on bringing bits of Windows Phone 7's Metro UI to Windows 8, but we haven't seen a lot of really telling evidence. However, with the Windows 8 milestone 3 build now available to Microsoft Connect partners, it was really just a matter of time before we started to get a peek.

Thanks to Rafael Rivera and Paul Thurrott, we've now had a glimpse at what the Windows 8 welcome screen will look like. As you can see, the typography is very Metro indeed. Within Windows also mentions that the background image is customizable, and we're wondering if it might not pull from your current Windows 8 theme. This particular shot shows the CTRL + ALT + DELETE login option, but we imagine you'll still be able to log in by clicking your account picture tile as well.

Rivera and Thurrott also mention that the tablet version of the welcome screen will allow you to log in by swiping a pattern on the screen -- as you can on current Android devices.

Windows 8 welcome screen revealed, looks very Metro originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 01 Apr 2011 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/01/windows-8-welcome-screen-revealed-looks-very-metro/

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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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Samsung Galaxy S Lightray 4G hides out in the open, heads to MetroPCS

Samsung Galaxy S Lightray 4G hides out in the open, headed to MetroPCS

What's old is apparently new again for MetroPCS subscribers. Thanks to some leaked training materials over on Howard Forums, we have a pretty clear idea of the next Galaxy S device to bow on that budget carrier's lineup -- the Lightray 4G. No, your eyes aren't deceiving you, we've seen this exact phone before at CES 2012 where it was part of Dyle's Mobile TV showcase. And that chassis you see above? It's a mostly unaltered version of Verizon's Droid Charge, although that formerly pointed chin seems to have gotten the Ashlee Simpson treatment. Spec-wise, the 4.3-inch device reportedly packs a Super AMOLED Plus display, 1.3-megapixel front-facing / 8-megapixel rear cameras, 16GB of included microSD storage (what it'll ship with onboard is unknown), HDMI-out and, bizarrely, that aforementioned TV tuner, replete with antenna. No word on when this unofficial fella's set to go legit nor which Google OS treat it'll run, but with a recently surfaced FCC doc and company slides to go off, we're sure to find out sooner rather than later.

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Samsung Galaxy S Lightray 4G hides out in the open, heads to MetroPCS originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Jul 2012 18:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/CG_hdxJ2m_A/

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The Robot Explorer That Will Navigate Jupiter's Liquid Moon [Video]

NASA's Europa Jupiter System Mission, set for 2026, will be the first survey Jupiter's frozen moon. Scientists also plan to explore the moon's liquid oceans, which are buried under 6km of ice. Getting through that will be tough. But once we hit water, Eurpoa's interior will be explored by the most advanced autonomous underwater vehicle ever built. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/zLDvn3uKLWE/the-robot-explorer-that-will-navigate-jupiters-liquid-moon

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