Firefox 4 beta 10 now available, fixes 500 bugs and nears completion

Just a few days after the release of beta 9, there is a new build to sink your teeth into. Beta 10 has no new features -- it simply squashes about 500 bugs, thus improving stability across Windows, Mac and Linux platforms. The fix that halved Firefox's start-up time sadly didn't make it into the new beta build.

If all goes to plan, beta 11 should be released in the next week, with the first release candidate rolling out in early- or mid-February. Firefox 4 final may actually launch before March!

Again, if you haven't played with Firefox 4 yet, now's the time to give it a go. We even have a guide that walks you through each of Firefox 4's new features.

Firefox 4 beta 10 now available, fixes 500 bugs and nears completion originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 26 Jan 2011 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Carve a Virtual Tree This V-Day and Learn to Love the Hippies [IPhone Apps]

Granted, your granny probably reads Country Living magazine, but they've actually created quite a cool $1 app. You know, for Valentine's Day. Choose your tree, knife width and carve and send your love-note digitally. [iTunes via DesignSponge] More »

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Yahoo to enable Google and Facebook sign-in on all its Web properties

The Yahoo Network of Web properties will soon let you sign in with your Facebook or Google credentials. The change will go live tomorrow, January 20, and effectively hammers the death knell for Yahoo's continuing identity crisis.

Yahoo first rolled out a federated OpenID login to Flickr back in October, but Google was the only accepted third-party sign-in. With the upcoming change, you will be able to use Facebook and Google across all of Yahoo's Web properties -- which admittedly, after signing the death warrant of a bunch of its sites, is not a whole lot. Still, it means you'll be able to customize your Yahoo search experience, comment on Flickr photos, and play with the awesome Pipes RSS remixing service, all from the comfort of your Facebook sign-in.

Incidentally, you won't be able to use your Facebook or Google details to log into "desktop or mobile clients," which presumably means Yahoo Instant Messenger.

Yahoo to enable Google and Facebook sign-in on all its Web properties originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 19 Jan 2011 06:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CrunchGear Week In Review: Go With The Floe Edition

Here’s a selection of stories from the past week on CrunchGear: Cloud-Based Storage Coming To PS3 (But For A Premium)? Audi-Designed Carbon Skis: Want So Bad Just In Time For Trenta: Send Your Facebook Friends Starbucks Card eGifts So Why Should You Care About NFC? How The Glif Got Made: From Design To Sales In [...]

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Canalys: Android overtakes Symbian as world's best-selling smartphone platform in Q4 2010

One day somebody will write a book called "The rise and rise of Android" and this moment will be highlighted in bold. Canalys' latest smartphone sales figures show that Android phone makers managed to shift a cool 33.3 million handsets in the last quarter -- more than any other smartphone platform out there, including the previous leader, Symbian, which sold 31 million units. That's a mighty leap from the 20.3 million Android devices the stats agency estimates were sold in Q3 2010. Symbian itself grew from 29.9m in Q3 to 31m in Q4, but Android's pace of expansion has been so rapid as to make that irrelevant.

Continue reading Canalys: Android overtakes Symbian as world's best-selling smartphone platform in Q4 2010

Canalys: Android overtakes Symbian as world's best-selling smartphone platform in Q4 2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Jan 2011 05:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Berzerk Ball is a nerd-flinging Time Waster

What you see in the screenshot above is a geek hurtling through the edge of space, so fast and so high that it looks as though he's re-entering the atmosphere on his way back to earth. That shot, by the way, ended up being around the 30,000' mark.

And yes, that's what you do on Berzerk Ball. The protagonist is a very pretty lady with a very large bat, and her job is to fling geeks as high and far into space as humanly possible.

And when I say "geeks" I mean "a geek", really, because it appears to be the same one over and over again - once he lands, he just starts walking back, muttering inane comments culled from actual blogs along the way.

Basic controls are elementary: You just click the mouse twice - once for controlling the angle, and again for controlling the power of the shot. Once the geek is airborne, you can exert a bit of influence over his trajectory using the left and right arrow keys. That may come in handy, because there are power-ups you can collect along the way, and robots you can land on (who then toss you ever farther on your merry way).

As you get better you can level up and buy different bats and power-ups to fling your geek ever farther. I'm not sure how long this game can stay interesting, but it might keep you amused during a phone call with a particularly irritating nerd.

Berzerk Ball is a nerd-flinging Time Waster originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 25 Jan 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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20-line Firefox fix will half start-up time, hopefully coming to nightly builds tonight

A 20-line patch looks set to cut Firefox's start-up time in half. The fix, which works by preloading Firefox's XUL library, could land in nightly builds as early as tonight. Unfortunately, the speed-up will only affect Windows users.

To be honest, it's a little odd that preloading DLLs hadn't been tried before. Prior to this fix, the XUL DLL was slowly loaded in 32KB bits, which really ground on slower-seeking hard drives. With a little trickery, the patch submitter managed to get Windows to load the DLL in juicier, faster 2MB chunks. The fix should improve load times on every computer, but it will definitely benefit slower computers more.

As far as we can tell, the fix hasn't landed in nightly builds yet. It should be soon, though: Mozilla's VP of Engineering, Mike Shaver, wants to "land this bad boy for Monday's nightlies" -- so keep an eye on Mozilla's public FTP dump tonight.

Incidentally, if you're not using the beta 10 nightly build yet, you should give it a go!

20-line Firefox fix will half start-up time, hopefully coming to nightly builds tonight originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 24 Jan 2011 09:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Daily Crunch: Little Big Tech Edition

Minimalist Turntable Plays Your Records Minimally CHOBICAM1: Super-Tiny Camcorder Weighs 12g RB5X ?Intelligent Robot? From The 80s For Sale On eBay Can You Spot The Lacie Galet USB Drive In This Picture? Segways Pretty Much Banned In UK

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Daily Crunch: Mario Mine Command Edition

Will People Flip Out Over The New THQ Logo? This Is A Felt Test Pattern What Super Mario All-Stars Collector?s Edition Could Have Been Woo! Minecraft Hits 1,000,000 Purchases Atari?s ?Missile Command? Live-Action Film is Moving Forward

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Homebuilt UAV hunts down hydrogen balloons, shoots firework missiles (video)

Augmented reality is swell, don't get us wrong, but it's no substitute for the real thing -- especially when that thing is a badass tricopter equipped with a jury-rigged firework cannon to rain down miniature hell. Swedish R/C enthusiasts built this first-person flying contraption to carry out a single mission -- destroy a series of hydrogen-filled balloons -- which will hopefully be hard-coded into future automatons too. After all, balloons could serve as an excellent distraction when they inevitably come for you. Still, there's no need to worry quite yet, so kick back and enjoy the video above while you contemplate humanity's end.

Homebuilt UAV hunts down hydrogen balloons, shoots firework missiles (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 30 Jan 2011 14:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Facebook temporarily removes developer access to your home address and mobile number

Facebook, after a quiet announcement of the new home address and mobile phone access permissions, has made a quick about-turn. Citing some "useful feedback," Facebook has decided to to make changes "to help ensure you only share this information when you intend to do so."

The feature, which will be re-enabled in a few weeks, will allow Facebook app developers to request both your home address and mobile phone number. The changes being made will hopefully involve a bold, explicit warning in the Request for Permission boxes -- the boxes that you click through to use a new app -- but hopefully there are some better solutions on the table, too.

Ideally, Facebook would give us the option of securing your details permanently, from your Privacy Settings page. There should be a check box that simply says "never give my home address out" -- but that might be a little too hopeful.

Facebook temporarily removes developer access to your home address and mobile number originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 18 Jan 2011 10:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Apps Marketplace adds Education section to entice schools

With Microsoft busily pitching Live@Edu to learning institutions, Google continues to do what it can to make Google Apps an attractive alternative. Yesterday, the company announced the addition of a new Education category to the Google Apps Marketplace, which is designed to "make it easier for schools to have more web apps at their fingertips." Right now, the category includes around two dozen apps, ranging from the Haiku learning management system to BrainPOP's educational movies.

Julia Stiglitz of the Google Apps for Education Team states that this is just the beginning. Google has also announced a pair of webinars to introduce schools to Apps for Education -- to register, head on over to the official announcement.

Google Apps Marketplace adds Education section to entice schools originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 26 Jan 2011 07:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Is It Even Possible to Dislike Lego-ized Ghostbusters Gear? [Lego]

Staring at this Lego-ized version of a Ghostbusters ghost trap brings back memories of being six-years-old and having the toy version. It was so awesome that it made me awesome by association. I'm pretty sure that's when I peaked. More »

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AppSumo Supercharge OS X bundle giveaway

Hopefully you read our review of the AppSumo Supercharge OS X bundle over the weekend. Sam has now been playing with the bundle for a few days -- in fact, the only sound emanating from his padded room in the Download Squad bunker is the gentle, rhythmic chanting of sumo, sumo, sumo -- and at the bargain price of $14, he really can't see a reason to not buy the bundle.

Unless, of course, you win our giveaway! We have 10 copies of the excellent AppSumo Supercharge OS X bundle to give away. You can enter the giveaway by simply leaving a comment. Full terms and conditions follow after the break.

Bear in mind, if you really want the bundle, you only have 36 hours left to buy it. You can still enter the giveaway -- and if you win, you can give your license keys to friends and family!

Continue reading AppSumo Supercharge OS X bundle giveaway

AppSumo Supercharge OS X bundle giveaway originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 17 Jan 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Panasonic adds Sandy Bridge to Let's Note J10, N10, S10 and B10 laptops

You can rest assured that hundreds -- if not trillions -- of new laptops will be rolling off of production lines this quarter with Intel's Sandy Bridge platform inside, and those looking for a little love over in Japan won't have to wait much longer. Panasonic has just updated its Let's Note line with four new Sandy Bridge models: the B10, S10, N10 and J10 have all been blessed with new silicon. The B10 in particular ships with a Core i5-2520M, 4GB of memory, a 15.6-inch 1080p display, HDMI output, Blu-ray drive, SDXC card slot and 802.11b/g/n WiFi. The N10 and S10 are outfitted in similar fashion, while the J10 goes diminutive with a 10.1-inch panel. There's also a higher-end J10Q variant that steps up to a Core i5, 128GB SSD, 2GB of RAM, WiFi, HDMI output, inbuilt WiMAX model and an SDXC slot, with the craziest aspect being the claimed 12 hours of battery life. Hit the links below if you're hungry for pricing clues and ship dates, but it looks as if the whole gang should be out and about by the close of March.

Panasonic adds Sandy Bridge to Let's Note J10, N10, S10 and B10 laptops originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Jan 2011 20:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BlackBerry PlayBook may be able to run Android apps, thanks to Dalvik

When RIM acquired QNX, it was all but certain that the days of Java-powered BlackBerry OSes were drawing to a close. That doesn't mean RIM plans on ditching support for all those legacy BlackBerry apps developed for use in the enterprise, however. Boy Genius Report has received information that RIM intends to support those apps by way of a virtual machine -- and what better Java VM to use than Google's Dalvik (which drives Android)?

In theory, a Dalvik VM running on a BlackBerry device could be capable of running an Android .APK. However, since most apps are closely tied to OS-specific APIs, there's also a very good chance that most Android apps wouldn't do anything noteworthy on future RIM devices. Still, the possibility is an exciting one -- and the ability to handle Android apps would definitely make BlackBerry a bit more enticing to both developers and users.

BlackBerry PlayBook may be able to run Android apps, thanks to Dalvik originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 27 Jan 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ADVANCED SEMICONDUCTOR ENGINEERING ALLIANCE DATA SYSTEMS ALLTEL

Should I Port My Number to Google Voice? [Google Voice]

The one last barrier for you using Google Voice full time—number porting—just got knocked down. But should you use Google Voice? Almost certainly yes. More »

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