GNOME 3, after more than two years of development, has been released into the wild. GNOME 3 is not merely the logical successor of GNOME 2: it is an entirely new project, started from scratch, to create a “completely new, modern desktop designed for today’s users and technologies.”

The best way to check out GNOME 3′s new features — and it has lots of new features — is to run a live version of openSUSE or Fedora, or simply head over to the GNOME 3 website and watch the (rather pretty) introductory videos. If you want a synopsis, though, here it is: GNOME 3 looks a lot like Mac OS X, with a healthy dollop of iOSesqueness for good measure, but yet it still somehow retains an underlying feel of Linux.

The overall aesthetic is very simple, very elegant, and despite being slightly out of fashion, there are plenty of rounded corners, too. The main addition, workflow-wise, is the addition of an app-launcher-cum-alt-tab screen, where you can launch apps, or flip through your open windows. For a complete list of the new features and changes, check the GNOME 3 release notes.

Despite GNOME 3 being officially launched, there aren’t actually any releases for existing, stable Linux distros — it’s the live CD/USB images, or Ubuntu users will have to wait for the launch of 11.04 for a GNOME 3 PPA, but it will break Unity in the process. Fedora users will have to wait for for the May 24 release of Fedora 15. Of course, if you’re feeling crazy, you can always build GNOME 3 from source.

GNOME 3 released, ushers in an interesting amalgam of iOS and OS X originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 07 Apr 2011 06:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/07/gnome-3-released-ushers-in-an-interesting-amalgam-of-ios-and-os/

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The crew in Oslo keeps plugging away at Opera 11.10, and the latest snapshot build includes a number of improvements to Opera’s built-in email client — as well as HTML5-related additions.

On the IMAP front, Opera now supports special folders like sent items, spam, and trash. It also better handles duplicate items in Gmail — such as those which appear in all mail and under your custom labels.

Opera 11.10 now partially supports the HTML5 File API as well, which means your favorite Web apps (like Gmail) may soon begin adding Opera to the list of supported browsers.

You can download the latest Opera 11.10 snapshot for Windows, Mac, or Linux from the official release post.

Update: The Opera 11.10 RC is now available, as pointed out by SlashZaku in the comments. Thanks!

Opera 11.10 gets HTML5 File API support, IMAP improvements originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/06/opera-11-10-gets-html5-file-api-support-imap-improvements/

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Sand Trap is one of those games that at first seem too hard to bother with, but when you try to stop playing it you discover you’re hooked.

The goal is to get as much sand as you possibly can out of the maze and into the bucket at the bottom of the screen. You need to rotate your maze every which way to get the sand rolling around it. You then try to direct the sand to one of the exits of the maze, and hopefully into the bucket. It took me several tries to actually get sand into the bucket, but that might be due to the fact that I didn’t even realize the bucket was there at first. Things improved significantly after that.

As you level up, the mazes get more complicated, with moving parts and other things making your life more difficult. Once you manage to get through all these obstacles and get enough sand into your bucket, you can move on.

As I mentioned, this is not an easy game, but it’s highly addictive. The graphics remind me of some long lost game from the 80s, but this just proves that you don’t need super graphics and crazy sound to make a game work. There’s a soothing guitar track playing in the background and that’s it, as far as I could hear, and you can enjoy it just as much with no sound at all.

If you like a fun physics challenge, don’t miss out on this one!

Sand Trap is a fun and difficult physics maze game originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 04 Apr 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/04/sand-trap-is-a-fun-physics-maze-game/

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With the tagline ‘The easiest way to get a girlfriend is to already have one,’ Cloud Girlfriend promises to be a very interesting startup indeed. The brains of the operation, David Fuhriman, speaking to CNET, says it’s all about fulfilling Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. “CloudGirlfriend.com can fulfill Maslow’s higher needs, even though the users know that the interaction is virtual. They will interact with a real person and see real profile images of the girl with whom they interact. This interaction can build confidence and esteem as well as provide real training experiences in navigating a friendship and a relationship.”

Our concern, of course, is that it’s very nearly April 1. We’re also worried by the fact that Fuhriman has a name that sounds ominously like a social subculture that we’ve grown strangely attracted to here in the Download Squad bunker.

Finally, just stop and think about it for a second. Because your cloud girlfriend will be entirely virtual, she could be based anywhere. She could be underage — or overage — or she might be someone who you know in real life. She could even be a relative of yours, and you’d never know.

Let’s not forget this is the Internet we’re talking about, folks. Worst case scenario, she could turn out to be a hairy, male truck driver from Texas. Such as… your dad, perhaps?

Cloud Girlfriend will use a swarm of females to satisfy men originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 06:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/30/cloud-girlfriend-will-use-an-army-of-females-to-please-lonely-me/

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Burrito Bison is a pretty simple game, but if you’re into gummy bears you might find it addictive.

As you may have guessed from the name, you’re a bison (not a burrito, though). In the course of your day-to-day grocery shopping, you’re abducted into a bag of gummy bears, and must now fend for yourself.

At the beginning of each round you launch yourself onto the marching gummy (gummi?) bears, while you’re being watched by a huge crowd of even more gummy bears. Your goal is to keep bouncing on the bears and earn more and more money while you do it. Every time you hit a gummy bear, you lose some momentum. If you hit the floor, you basically lose all of it.

But don’t give up just yet! You have an emergency thrust which you can use to gain some momentum and keep bouncing on those bears. This extra thrust gets refilled as you hit more bears.

There are also special gummy bears that give you extra thrust or extra money. The money comes in handy at the end of each round, when you can shop for cool stuff to make your bison even more effective against those gummy bears.

It’s a fun and colorful game that kept my interest for quite some time, and almost sent me running to the closest store to get some gummy bears!

Burrito Bison is a simple game for gummy bear lovers originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 26 Mar 2011 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/26/burrito-bison-is-a-simple-game-for-gummy-bear-lovers/

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Tired of having to deal with people’s asses being shoved in its face, the Wild Chair has developed a set of spiky quills, like a porcupine, allowing it to finally fight back against aggressive sitters. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/u3decUbpUiU/

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Well, it looks like our fears may actually have some basis in reality: Yahoo Messenger strips FilesTube links from instant messages. It doesn’t tell either party that a URL has been removed from chat — it just deletes it. Poof. FilesTube, in case you were wondering, is one of the largest file hosting meta search engines on the Web — it indexes RapidShare, Megaupload, Mediafire, and many other ‘cyberlocker’ services.

It’s fairly obvious why FilesTube links are being removed — the Censor General at Yahoo is probably one of those perplexed primates who think all uses of BitTorrent are illegal — but this situation poses a far more important question: is Yahoo censoring messages on the client side, or the server side. Does the messenger client itself maintain a list of ‘blacklisted’ words — and if so, why are we not told that FilesTube links are banned? What other words and terms does Yahoo protect us from?

Continue reading Yahoo! Messenger now censors the links you share

Yahoo! Messenger now censors the links you share originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 05:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/30/yahoo-messenger-now-censors-links-raises-serious-privacy-issue/

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It’s no fun recovering from a stroke and relearning to do simple things that were once totally natural. That’s being offset by new video games that refine patients motor skills by having them play games that, for once, actually look fun. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/R4RKxMUbWb0/a-goofy-circus-video-game-is-helping-stroke-victims-recover

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Of course, such a hack isn’t illegal as such — every photo you take with Color is public. With FakeLocation you are simply circumventing Color’s very limited location-oriented security mechanism. It does undermine Color’s usefulness (and uniqueness), though — if nefarious types can sit in their bedroom or basement and eavesdrop on classy dinner parties and wild night club soirees, people might be less inclined to share personal photos with those around them.

Fortunately, both for Color and its users, this is an easy security hole to plug — at least in the short term. The app (or server-side) code simply checks to see if the user has ‘teleported’ an impossibly large distance, without any intermediate steps in between. In the long term, though, Color’s users must be aware that its social graph is completely public. Color’s users must realize that every photo they upload is visible by anyone, from any place.

After the break, just to elucidate a little on Color’s actual business model and ultimate intention, we have two amazing quotes from Bill Nguyen, Color’s founder.

Continue reading Color vulnerable to simple GPS hack, lets you spy on anyone, anywhere

Color vulnerable to simple GPS hack, lets you spy on anyone, anywhere originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 05:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/29/color-vulnerable-to-simple-gps-hack-lets-you-spy-on-anyone-any/

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This week was a busy week! We gave you the inside scoop on how Yahoo ruined the best photo sharing site on the web, All the excitement and drama surrounding the Facebook IPO, the death of unilmited data on Verizon, and a TV news mystery we can’t quite wrap our heads around. Here are our top stories of the week. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/yBnWaxqlSKQ/how-yahoo-killed-flickr-facebook-ipos-macbook-pro-rumors-and-more

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Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2012/05/17/g-project-g-go-portable-wireless-speaker/

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Along with Cloud Player, Amazon also launched Cloud Drive, which is basically just like any other cloud storage digital locker. It’s not particularly feature rich, and there’s no real reason to use it over something like SugarSync or SkyDrive — it does work outside the US, however.

Its primary purpose, as far as we’re concerned, is that it stores your your Cloud Player music in a subdirectory. You get 5GB of Cloud Drive storage for free, and then it’s $1 per gigabyte per year if you need more space.

The Amazon Cloud Player itself will not, to put it bluntly, blow your mind. It works, but it’s very much an early, and possibly rushed, release. Let’s dive in to the Web and Android players for a closer look.

Continue reading Amazon Cloud Player review: functional, not mind blowing, and still US-only

Amazon Cloud Player review: functional, not mind blowing, and still US-only originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/29/amazon-cloud-player-hands-on-review-functional-not-mind-blowin/

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We featured the tethered jailbreak  using RedSn0w and  UltraFixer unlock on iOS 5.1.1 last week, and we mentioned that iOS 5.1.1 untethered jailbreak was not yet available. However, the long wait is over for the untethered exploit – or is it really over?

A couple of weeks ago, pod2g also conducted a poll. He asked public opinions in relation to iOS 5.1.1 untethered jailbreak, whether to release the iOS, 5.1.1 now or wait to save the vulnerabilities on iOS 6. Poll says 64% of voters who took part want the iOS 5.1.1 untethered jailbreak to be released now.

P0dg, the iOS developer recently confirmed that his untethered jailbreak works on iPhone 4 and iPad 3 on iOS 5.1.1 firmware. But the story doesn’t end there, giving as hope for the untethered version, he finally updated his Twitter and mentioned that his jailbreak also worked on iPhone 4S, iPad
and iPad 1.

Apparently, the iOS 5.1.1 untethered jailbreak works fab with the above-mentioned devices, but Pod2g revealed that there were some concerns regarding his jailbreak not working with iPod Touch 3G, hence it might be possible it won’t work with iPhone 3GS.

The hackers have finally made it. However, the official release of the iOS 5.1.1 untethered jailbreak may be presented at the “Hack in the Box Security Conference” (HITBSC) this year that will take place in London Amsterdam from May 21st – May 25th. This means it will few more days before we can download the exploit.

Well, time flees so fast. It won’t take long, and you’ll get to run the exploit on your device. If you’re using A4 devices, you may also want to read a step-by-step tutorial on How To Jailbreak iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 1 on iOS 5.1.1 Using RedSn0w (Tethered). If you’re having problems with the current firmware version, you can check out this Guide To Downgrade iOS 5.1.1 To iOS 5.1/5.0.1/5.0 (A4 Only)

Stay tuned for more updates.

Are you excited for the iOS 5.1.1 untethered jailbreak? Or are you willing to wait for iOS 6 exploit?

[Image credit via Twitter]

This article, Pod2g Confirms iOS 5.1.1 Untethered Jailbreak on iPhone 4S, iPad 2 and iPad 1, was originally published at simonblog.com.

If you play Scrabble (or a scrabble-like game) from time to time, you may want to check out Scrabble Helper. This simple website is a godsend when you’re at a loss for words. Simply enter whatever letters you have, and the word you’d like to connect with. Scrabble helper comes up with a whole bunch of suggestions sorted by score.

The site lets you select one of five dictionaries – Scrabble International/US, Lexulous International/US, and Words With Friends. Some people might say this constitutes cheating — I think if the other side knows you’re doing it, it’s definitely not cheating. And it doesn’t take the challenge out of the game, because implementing Scrabble Helper’s suggestions and deciding which words you’d like to connect with still takes a fair bit of thought.

Very handy, though perhaps not one for the Scrabble puritans in the crowd.

Scrabble Helper helps you improve your Words With Friends gameplay originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 14 Mar 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/14/scrabble-helper-helps-you-improve-your-words-with-friends-gamepl/

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Along with Cloud Player, Amazon also launched Cloud Drive, which is basically just like any other cloud storage digital locker. It’s not particularly feature rich, and there’s no real reason to use it over something like SugarSync or SkyDrive — it does work outside the US, however.

Its primary purpose, as far as we’re concerned, is that it stores your your Cloud Player music in a subdirectory. You get 5GB of Cloud Drive storage for free, and then it’s $1 per gigabyte per year if you need more space.

The Amazon Cloud Player itself will not, to put it bluntly, blow your mind. It works, but it’s very much an early, and possibly rushed, release. Let’s dive in to the Web and Android players for a closer look.

Continue reading Amazon Cloud Player review: functional, not mind blowing, and still US-only

Amazon Cloud Player review: functional, not mind blowing, and still US-only originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/29/amazon-cloud-player-hands-on-review-functional-not-mind-blowin/

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It was bound to happen eventually, every other gadget does it. After debuting in a serious black sheen, the PS Vita is now getting a stylish white shell as well. Sadly, the shiny new pale version will only be available in Hong Kong at first, starting June 28th. There’s no price premium for grabbing the lighter shade of handheld, though, if you want the matching white accessory pack, you’ll have to pre-order. On the plus side, if you pledge now, they’ll toss in the Trooper Pack, Armor Game case, 4GB memory card and (perhaps most importantly) a lint free cloth for free. Check out the PR after the break.

Continue reading Crystal White PS Vita landing in Hong Kong June 28th, overpriced import shops two days later

Crystal White PS Vita landing in Hong Kong June 28th, overpriced import shops two days later originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 May 2012 11:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/BiMGBY1l4Ts/

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Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2012/05/16/droid-razr-maxx-review/

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Auslogics Disk Defrag 3.2 gets smarter, faster originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/11/auslogics-disk-defrag-3-2-gets-smarter-faster/

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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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Source: http://ectnews.com.feedsportal.com/c/34520/f/632000/s/1f627e92/l/0L0Stechnewsworld0N0Crsstory0C751190Bhtml/story01.htm

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