Facebook launches unified mobile site, announces 250 million mobile users

Facebook has announced that its two mobile sites -- m.facebook.com and touch.facebook.com -- have been unified, bringing a simpler mobile experience to Facebook users. And there are a lot of those -- a quarter billion, according to Facebook.

Smartphone users won't be losing any functionality because of the consolidation. If your phone supported the enhacned features offered by touch.facebook.com, the new site will automatically flip the switch when you visit.

Rolling the sites together helps simplify things for Facebook's developer team. Now changes can be pushed to a single site instead of two separate sites, which makes it easier to ensure that all mobile users receive a nearly identical experience regardless of the device they're using.

The new Facebook mobile can also check to see if your phone supports geolocation. If it doesn't, you won't be seeing much of Facebook Places -- which obviously relies heavily on geolocation. Images can also be optimized on the fly to keep page performance from suffering on less powerful devices. You can see the three different versions of the share button below, courtesy our friends at TechCrunch.

Facebook launches unified mobile site, announces 250 million mobile users originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 01 Apr 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/01/facebook-launches-unified-mobile-site-announces-250-million-mob/

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Google offers free calls home from Gmail for American military

Google knows how valuable our service men and women are, and how hard it is to be away from home on long tours of duty. The company is giving back where it can, by offering free calls within Gmail to the states for people with a valid .mil email address. It might not seem like much, but you'd understand after getting your first cell phone bill with roaming charges from the eastern mountains of Afghanistan. To take advantage all you have to do is add your military address to your Google account and click a link in the verification email and you're good to go.

Google offers free calls home from Gmail for American military originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Aug 2011 16:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/31/google-offers-free-calls-home-from-gmail-for-american-military/

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Salesforce?s Benioff: ?We Were Born Cloud, Now We?ve Been Reborn Social?

Today, at Salesforce's Dreamforce conference, founder and CEO Marc Benioff took the stage to adress the event's 40,000 attendees. We know Salesforce is bullish on the social enterprise and Benioff kicked his keynote off with this statement about Salesforce: "We're were born cloud, and now we've been reborn Social." Benioff also said that Salesforce has passed a $2 billion annual run rate in revenue. The company is now powering more than 36 billion transactions a day for over 100,000 customers. And Benioff called out Apple's Steve Jobs, who he said led the mobile era.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/DPuBNj8FiZE/

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Mozilla Messaging reintegrates with Labs, unifies focus on Web-based communication

Mozilla Messaging, citing Mozilla's increased focus on Web-borne communications, will be reintegrating with Mozilla Labs.

The Messaging subsidiary was formed in 2008 to focus on Thunderbird, but given Mozilla Labs' current focus on identity and contact management, it now makes sense for the groups to be merged. Thunderbird will be unaffected by the change -- some URLs might change, but that's it -- and presumably Messaging's F1 and Raindrop will thrive in the Labs playground.

What this means for the end user -- for the hundreds of millions of Firefox users -- is that the next big additions will be communication- and messaging-oriented. Contacts and F1 will be almost certainly be baked into Firefox 5 or 6, both of which will be released this year -- and, who knows, there might be something else even more exciting up Mozilla Labs' sleeve!

Mozilla Messaging reintegrates with Labs, unifies focus on Web-based communication originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/05/mozilla-messaging-reintegrates-with-labs-unifies-focus-on-web-b/

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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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ChromeLite: experience the ASCII Web of yesteryear

Have you ever wondered what the Web was like before the Mosaic Web browser? If you were born in the last 20-odd years, or you only discovered your inner geek recently, did you miss out on monochrome monitors and the dial-up BBS era? Well, here's your chance to get a sneak peek at history: grab the ChromeLite extension and marvel as the entire Web is transformed into ASCII characters.

Now, ChromeLite isn't really all that functional. For the most part, it simply strips images and converts text into a monospaced terminal font. There are a few Easter eggs inserted -- such as a fun message at the bottom of YouTube (image after the break) -- and some fun ASCII art, but that's about it. Rather oddly, most JavaScript continues to work -- so you can still enjoy Google Instant Search!

ChromeLite was actually made by Google as an April Fools' joke -- and indeed, an annoying 'you can uninstall this!' message appears at the top of every page -- but we're kind of hoping that Google, or another developer, takes ChromeLite and turns it into a real ASCII browsing extension with configurable settings. If anything, it will provide an easy way to save bandwidth and CPU time.

Continue reading ChromeLite: experience the ASCII Web of yesteryear

ChromeLite: experience the ASCII Web of yesteryear originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 04 Apr 2011 07:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/04/chromelite-experience-the-ascii-web-of-yesteryear/

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New Firefox Nightly and Aurora logos unearthed, and how to enable channel switching

Later today, Firefox will undergo its biggest developmental upheaval ever. Mozilla-central, the source of nightly builds, will be renumbered to version 5 -- and at long last, after years of wallowing around version 1, Mozilla's rendering and layout engine, Gecko, will also have its version number updated to match Firefox.

Shortly thereafter, Firefox's new channel system will be implemented. Firefox 5a2 will be introduced as the first Aurora build, and we should also see a Firefox 6 Nightly build. While we we're not sure where they came from, one Sören Hentzschel seems to have unearthed the new Nightly and Aurora logos (see above), along with new About Firefox dialogs (after the break).

In other news, if you want to take a sneak peek at the new 'channel changing' technology that will be introduced in upcoming Firefox builds, head to about:config and create a new string called app.update.desiredChannel -- the value doesn't matter. Then open Help > About Firefox and you'll be able to switch channel, but it doesn't do anything just yet (image after the break). Here's hoping that Firefox channel switching is smoother than Chrome.

Continue reading New Firefox Nightly and Aurora logos unearthed, and how to enable channel switching

New Firefox Nightly and Aurora logos unearthed, and how to enable channel switching originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 07:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/11/new-firefox-nightly-and-aurora-logos-unearthed-and-how-to-enabl/

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@GOOD Asks: How Would You Define Leadership? The Community Answers

Yesterday on Twitter and Facebook, we asked our friends: How would you define leadership?

This question was tweeted at us by community member @erickaye. Thanks for the great question, Eric!

We pose a question to our Twitter and Facebook faithfuls once a day, so if you’re not yet a @GOOD follower or fan, make sure to sign up and participate in the conversation.

Here's a sampling of responses from our Twitter:

And here is what our Facebook buddies had to say:

Want us to ask the GOOD community something?­ Tweet or Facebook your question to us.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/good/lbvp/~3/R0qM1M6pDYc/

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BlackBerry Protect now available in Europe

BlackBerry Protect, RIM's answer to Apple's Find My iPhone, has just been rolled out to Europe having been previously limited to the US. The app, which can be downloaded from the BlackBerry App World, allows you to locate your BlackBerry should it go missing; or failing that, lets you set a password, lock, or wipe your device remotely, making your data a little bit safer.

You can also use the app to wirelessly backup and restore your device should something go wrong, including all your contacts, calendar and bookmarks. Backups can be run on an ad hoc basis or scheduled for regular operation. BlackBerry Protect can even be used to restore data to a new phone, so it's worth checking out even if you don't intend on using the remote wipe features.

BlackBerry Protect can be downloaded from the BlackBerry App World for free, although a BlackBerry data plan is required.

BlackBerry Protect now available in Europe originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 21 Mar 2011 05:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/21/blackberry-protect-now-available-in-europe/

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Sprint Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch available September 16th for $199.99

Sprint has the pleasure of being the first carrier to debut the Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch. The Sprint version features a 4.52-inch Super AMOLED Plus, 1.2GHz dual-core processors and will be available for $199.99 with a new 2-year contract beginning Sept. 16 in all Sprint Sales channels, including Sprint stores, Web sales and Telesales.

“Sprint is proud to build on the success of the first Galaxy S product, Samsung Epic 4G, with the first U.S. device in the next generation of Samsung’s award-winning Galaxy S lineup, Epic 4G Touch,” said Fared Adib, vice president–Product Development, Sprint. “Epic 4G Touch is a powerful smartphone that delivers vibrant and exciting content at lightning fast speeds. This device is ultra-thin yet ultra-powerful with a screen that rivals anything else in the industry.”

You can also get ahead of the game by pre-ordering the device today at any participating Sprint store with the purchase of a $50 Sprint gift card. That ensures you to be placed on the device waiting list. You check out the full press release from Sprint past the break.

read more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/XBsASY5MWow/sprint-galaxy-s-ii-epic-4g-touch-available-september-16th-19999

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Jailbreak iOS 4.3.1 on OS X or Windows with PwnageTool or Sn0wbreeze

A jailbreak of iOS 4.3.1 is now possible with both PwnageTool on Mac, and Sn0wbreeze on Windows. RedmondPie -- who else? -- has some handy guides that you can follow for all iOS 4.3.1 devices on Windows, for iPhone 4 on OS X, iPad 1 on OS X, iPhone 3GS on OS X, and iPod touch 4G and 3G on OS X.

All iOS 4.3.1 jailbreaks are still tethered, meaning you'll have to jailbreak your device after every reboot. An untethered jailbreak is slated for release sometime in the next week -- but 4.3 was meant to have an untether, too, and that never emerged.

Maybe Apple's updated security mechanisms will finally keep hackers at bay!

Jailbreak iOS 4.3.1 on OS X or Windows with PwnageTool or Sn0wbreeze originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 06:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/28/jailbreak-ios-4-3-1-on-os-x-or-windows-with-pwnagetool-or-sn0wbr/

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Twitter beefs up People search with associated name discovery

Twitter has finally made its people search algorithm a little more useful. It's integrated the ability to search for people using associated terms. For instance searching for 'Tech' might bring up a bunch of tech journalists or publications, where as searching for 'hip hop' will bring up some hip hop artists as suggestions. Previously the Twitter people search would only bring up people with the keyword search term actually in their username.

Twitter has also rolled out an Advanced Search page, which lets you drill down with exact phrase matching, and other conditional searching additions. It'll even let you search using positive, negative, question, and retweet inclusion modifiers, with the best bit being that you can use emoticons to do it. :)

Twitter beefs up People search with associated name discovery originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 05:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/05/twitter-beefs-up-people-search-with-associated-name-discovery/

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Will Static Sites Rise Again with Cloud Services?

Once upon a time, before the word Internet (or cloud) put dollar signs in VC eyes, sites were built with static tools. All a good Webmaster needed was a text editor and a Web server – maybe a few images and blink tags if they were feeling fancy.

These days, most of the Web is powered by dynamic content management systems like WordPress or Drupal. But what if there was another way, a better way, leveraging cloud services like Amazon S3 or GitHub? Werner Vogels has done just that by using S3 and Jekyll.

Sponsor

Amazon S3 should require no introduction here, but an intro to Jekyll may be in order. Jekyll is a Ruby-based site generator that takes a directory of text (in Markdown, Textile or Liquid markup) and spits out a Web site.

Todd Hoff has followed Vogels' journey and answers the question on most people's minds: Why? Aside from the obvious geek angle ("because you can") why would anybody want to go to the trouble of putting together a static site using a bunch of tools rather than just going the standard CMS route? Obviously there's a good reason why the current crop of CMSes rose to prominence in the first place.

There's a couple of answers to that. Hoff notes that static sites are more scalable than dynamic sites. Filesystems are reliable – you don't have problems with database connections when the server only needs to spit out a static file. Not so with databases, says Hoff, which "tend to spike memory, fill up tables, hit slow queries, and have a myriad of other annoying failure modes."

Databases tend to spike memory, fill up tables, hit slow queries, and have a myriad of other annoying failure modes. All that can be skipped in a static site.

If done right, this is also a cheaper way to serve sites. Hosting a few pages on Amazon S3 is cheaper than maintaining a virtual private server or similar to provide WordPress or another CMS.

The downsides? There are plenty. First off, while serving pages is scalable, editing isn't. Hoff notes that editing a static site can be a pain when multiple users are involved. It could be overcome with a sufficiently hackish set of collaborators, but this isn't a solution that you'd want to spring on the marketing department.

Another downside is that you lack comments and other niceties provided by CMSes. However, you can supplement a static site with services like Disqus if necessary. Hoff has a few other ideas about how to get around the lack of features on his post.

Vogels has an interesting approach that might work well for a limited set of sites. It's hard to see it catching on with the same audience that has made the easy install and easy manage CMS options popular, but maybe there's a market for management software that works with S3? What do you think, do static sites have a shot?

Discuss

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/readwriteweb/~3/0sxArU_KUpo/will-static-sites-rise-again-w.php

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LG releases Optimus S Gingerbread source, no sign of the update just yet

LG has released the Kernel source and assorted GPL bits for the Gingerbread build on their Optimus S device.  No reports of anything showing in the LG updater tool just yet, and rumor says mid-September for an OTA.  For now, this just means that our resident Optimus warlords (yes, they have transcended developer status) have some new code to play with and see if they can improve the Gingerbread builds they have had running for the Optimus S for quite a while.  Realistically, there will be a few things here of value for all Optimus developers, who have been forced to use hacks and work arounds for some of the closed-source functionality from LG.  With this new codebase, expect your favorite Gingerbread ROM for the Optimus S to get even better. 

Source: LG; via Android Central forums

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/Ibe4snrJRA0/lg-releases-optimus-s-gingerbread-source-no-sign-update-just-yet

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Apple iAds get an app all to themselves with iAd Gallery for iPhone

Ever thought to yourself: "I wish there was a way that I could just see ads without the rest of this crummy ad-supported app getting in the way"? Well now you can, thanks to Apple's latest and greatest release -- the iAd Gallery app. This magical new app allows you to view all of Apple's current iAd advertising campaigns right on your iPhone:

'Great ads. On-demand. In your pocket. The iAd Gallery is a celebration of advertising, featuring iAd campaigns from some of the world's best brands and their advertising agencies.'

You can even save your favorite ads for later viewing, or pick at random by spinning the 'wheel of iAds.' Unfortunately for Europeans, and anyone outside of the US in fact, Apple's iAd Gallery is only available in the US App Store. So, for our US-based iPhone-wielding readers, head on over to the App Store to get your fill of advertising.

Apple iAds get an app all to themselves with iAd Gallery for iPhone originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 04:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/06/apple-iads-get-an-app-all-to-themselves-with-iad-gallery-for-iph/

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