Ask DLS: What's your primary Web browser?

Competition is a good thing, and the browser arena has been a fierce arena for years now. There are at least four "major" browsers each vying for your attention, along with lots of smaller spin-offs (SRWare Iron or Flock, anyone?).

While the browser usage charts we share from time to time show overall browser usage amongst the Web at large, Download Squad readers are not exactly the average bunch in terms of browser use. So today we have one simple question for you:

What's your primary Web browser?

View Poll

Ask DLS: What's your primary Web browser? originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 16 Feb 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/02/16/ask-dls-whats-your-primary-browser/

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iSites overhauled, now lets you publish cloud-based HTML5 iPhone apps in minutes

iSites -- a zero-code cloud-based 'app creator' -- can now generate HTML5 apps that work on iOS devices. With this new feature, dubbed 'InstantApp', you can now design a single app in your browser and publish it natively on Android and iOS, and as an HTML5 iPhone app.

We haven't looked at iSites before, but it shot to fame last year when it launched with native iOS and Android support. Self-publishing Android apps wasn't a problem because Google does very little moderation of the Market, but iSites ran into trouble with its iOS apps. Thousands of people signed up for the service after it was featured on Mashable and TechCrunch, and you can imagine Apple's chagrin as thousands of cookie cutter apps flooded its approval queue.

Genwi, the developer behind iSites, realized something had to be done -- it had to circumvent the App Store approval process. Genwi, of course, turned to HTML5 Web apps -- which can be pinned to the iPhone home screen and which can be shoehorned into almost behaving like native apps.

Read on for our experiences with iSites' new InstantApp HTML5 iOS app creator.

Continue reading iSites overhauled, now lets you publish cloud-based HTML5 iPhone apps in minutes

iSites overhauled, now lets you publish cloud-based HTML5 iPhone apps in minutes originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/30/isites-overhauled-now-lets-you-publish-cloud-based-html5-iphone/

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Libra for Android helps you track your weight using The Hacker's Diet system

libra
I'm getting fat; that's what you see on the screenshot to the right -- my gradual move from chubby to portly. But never mind the numbers, look at the pretty graph!

If you've ever read The Hacker's Diet, this graph should be instantly recognizable. Each point shows the weight for a given day, while the trend line lets you see if you're gaining or losing weight.

When I use my "main" PC, I have a homebrew solution for creating and maintaining this graph. But I've had to find a temporary solution for Android, and Libra is it.

It's a beautifully simple app, very true to the spirit of The Hacker's Diet. You can create a shortcut on your homescreen that brings you right into the data entry screen, so you just tap the shortcut every morning, feed in your weight for the day and hit OK, and then you get to see your progress (or lack thereof) on the graph.

The app remembers the previous day's weigh-in, which makes it easy to enter today's weight (as they're usually not too different). The graph is zoomable and scrollable, and most importantly, you can export the data to CSV so you're not locked into the app.

If you ever need to track your weight using an Android device for any period of time, Libra is one excellent solution.

Libra for Android helps you track your weight using The Hacker's Diet system originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/31/libra-for-android-helps-you-track-your-weight-using-the-hackers/

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Firefox 4 rockets to 5% global usage share, IE9 wallows at 1.5%

Firefox 4 usage share graph
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.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/28/firefox-4-rockets-to-5-global-usage-share-ie9-wallows-at-1-5/

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Mortgage Calculator by Quicken Loans for iPhone review

In the market to buy a house? Mortgage Calculator by Quicken Loans is an iPhone app that includes a purchase payment calculator, a refinance payment calculator, an interest rate calculator, a loan amount calculator, and a mortgage term calculator to help assist you during your stressful hunt.

The purchase payment calculator lets you enter a purchase price, down payment amount, interest rate, term, , and annual taxes and insurance, and calculates the monthly payment.

The refinance payment calculator will calculate your monthly payment given the loan amount, interest rate, term, and annual taxes and insurance.

The interest rate calculator will determine what interest rate you need to get the monthly payment you want on the loan amount and term length you desire.

The loan amount calculator will calculate the value of the loan you can afford given an interest rate, term, and the monthly payment you can afford.

With the mortgage term calculator, you can enter in the loan amount, interest rate, and monthly payment to determine what term length you should choose.

If you make a calculation you want to save, like the one that calculates the monthly payments of that house you really have your eye on, you can save it as a favorite, give it an icon, and even save a photo to it so you remember which house the calculation is associated with.

Remember, this is an app by Quicken Loans, so there is of course a little advertising for the company that includes their current rates and a method of contacting them. This doesn't bother me, though. The calculators are very helpful and it's also nice to at least have an idea of why kind of rates are currently available.

The good

  • Five different calculators: purchase payment, refinance payment, interest rate, loan amount, mortgage term
  • Easy to use
  • Save favorite
  • See current interest rates for Quicken Loans

The bad

  • No complaints

The conclusion

Mortgage Calculator by Quicken Loans is a fantastic app for those shopping for their next home. Personally, I'm not quite yet in the market to purchase a house, but I'm in the dreaming stage and I have been using Mortgage Calculator to determine how big of a loan my husband and I could afford as well as quickly calculate what our house payment would be if we purchased one of the specific homes that are for sale in my area.

Free - Download Now

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/o-VX71Q7if8/story01.htm

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Google bids $900 million for Nortel's patents to protect against litigation trolls

Nortel, once one of the biggest telecoms company in the world but now in the death throes of bankruptcy, has selected Google's $900 million bid for its patent portfolio as the stalking horse bid. This doesn't mean that Google will automatically win Nortel's massive array of telecoms patents, but it does mean that Google is the preferred buyer.

Google, which has a history of lobbying for patent law reform, has been the target of many patent litigation suits. Google's relative infancy means that it has a lot less patents in the vault than big-hitters like Microsoft, Oracle and IBM, and buying Nortel's portfolio of 6,000 patents could provide better protection against patent litigation in the future. It's worth noting that both Apple and RIM have showed interested in the portfolio, too.

Mashable speculates that the patents -- which are nearly all telecoms-related -- will be used to defend against Oracle's attacks on Android's use of Java. We reckon that Google is simply looking to cover its future endeavors in the world of networking. In the absence of patent law reform, and continued threats to net neutrality, owning a bunch of telecoms patents sounds like a very sensible move.

Google bids $900 million for Nortel's patents to protect against litigation trolls originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 04 Apr 2011 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/04/google-bids-900-million-for-nortels-patents-to-protect-from-li/

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Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking: Selected Recipes for iPad review

Julia Child is famous for revolutionizing home cooking in America by bringing us the essential French repertoire of classic dishes and now 32 of her recipes come alive for the first time on the iPad. These 32 recipes are the most often prepared and best-loved dishes from the book Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 1 and include careful explanations of technique, discuss buying the right ingredients (or finding substitutes), and planning ahead. In addition to the recipes, Mastering the Art of French Cooking: Selected Recipes includes colored photos of each finished dish, 30 video clips from The Way to Cook video series, audio pronunciations of the names of French dishes, and more.

The entire app has a very clean, clutter free look that I really like. If you tap the menu banner, it will slide down to reveal 7 different sections: Recipes, Julia, Shop, Videos, Resources, Excerpts, and Grocery List.

The Recipes screen is a horizontal menu of beautiful photos. Above the recipes, you will see various Juila Child quotes, like "The perfect vinaigrette is so easy to make that I see no reason whatsoever for bottled dressings." At the bottom of each photos is a banner that displays the name of the dish, both in French an English, a share button that let's you announce the fact that you are cooking a specific dish from the app to Facebook, a star button to mark the recipe as a favorite, and an audio button to listen to the name of the dish pronounced in French.

Each recipe is nicely displayed with the ingredients needed for each step displayed to the left of each step. The directions are very clearly written and easy to understand. There are also buttons to see the entire ingredients list with the ability to add them to your grocery list, a list of tools needed (like a saucepan), a recipe intro, additional info related to the recipe (like the benefits of using a pressure cooker), and variations of the recipe. At the top of the screen, you'll see links that'll take you to related videos in the app.

The Julia section of the app includes a bunch of photographs of, or related to, Julia Child. Each photograph includes a caption that describes it.

The Shop section of Mastering the Art of French Cooking: Selected Recipes includes the four Juila Child books that are available in the iBook Store. Tapping on the book will take you to the iBook Store.

The Video section includes 30 video clips from Julia Child's The Way to Cook video series. The videos aren't of the highest quality, but that is to be expected considering how old they are. What shouldn't be expected is the poor scrolling that you will experience on the videos page.

The good

  • Nice clean and clutter-free design
  • 32 recipes
  • Beautiful photographs
  • 30 video clips
  • Audio pronunciations of the names of French dishes
  • Grocery lists
  • Photographs of Julia Child

The bad

  • Does not fully support the new iPad's Retina screen, including the icon. All the main in-app graphics are Retina-ized, but some buttons are not. It's ugly.
  • Share button is for Facebook sharing only. Why is it a generic share button? It should be a Facebook button!
  • Poor scrolling on the Videos page

The conclusion

Mastering the Art of French Cooking: Selected Recipes is a great app for anyone interested in Julia Child's recipes and videos. Except for the poor scrolling on the video screen, the app is beautiful and very well made.

In celebration of Julia Child's 100th birthday on August 15, Mastering the Art of French Cooking: Selected Recipes has an introductory price of $2.99.

$2.99 - Download Now

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The Downsides to Apple’s iPad

When Apple’s iPad was launched, there were queues of people waiting to get their hands on one. The revolutionary tablet iPad was going to offer people a new device that was going to change their lives. However, a lot of people shrugged at the idea with clear indifference. Many people announced their disappointment at the fact the iPad could not deliver on it’s promises. The two opposing views show just how divided opinions are about the device.

First we need to take a look at the things that make the iPad a device that really is not worth buying.

 Apple are constantly releasing new versions of the iPad in the very near future, so is it the device we all need to rush out and buy?

 A lot of people have expressed their pure disappointment in the iPad so when it comes to a new tablet PC, the big question on everyone’s lips is ‘will the device be any better’? The fact that questions are being asked is enough to hurt Apple’s sales because it is mostly ‘techies’ who don’t like the iPad. Bad press always puts a large number of people off buying a product.

 With a new upgraded version soon to be released, a lot of people would rather wait for the it to be launced because the device might have a few of the features that Apple did not incorporate into the iPad in the first place and this includes a built-in camera. If it means waiting a few months for a better version of the device, then people would prefer to do this than fork out $500 on a device that lacks some fundamental features that will be outdated very soon by an upgraded version.

On factor that many people find annoying about the iPad is the fact is does not support Flash which is a standard on the web. Flash runs videos, audios as well as games but for one reason or another Apple does not like this application which some people find understandable. Apple prefers a less vulnerable application that’s more stable and harder to hack into. As such the company uses it’s own HTML5.

However, as the majority of websites use Adobe Flash, this can be a little annoying. Users have to visit sites using the iPad’s Safari browser and although this is great, this causes a few problems that can be very annoying.

As mentioned above, there’s no in-built camera either and there’s no guarantee that a newer version will have one either. This is a huge downside of the iPad as people can’t communicate over skype or any other way they might want to.

Multitasking can only be done when running Apple’s native applications, it does run on third party applications. So if users want to multitask the simple answer is they won’t be able to if they are running any application that are not native to Apple.

The conclusion is the iPad is great if you want a sophisticated gadget that has multi-function applications like a multimedia player, a laptop hybrid or that represents a really great toy. However, if you like to be online then you might find you reach a dead end pretty quickly without Flash support and you won’t be able to make a video call on Skype while listening to iTunes.

Source: http://tabletbuzzblog.com/the-downsides-to-apples-ipad/

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