Toyota pulls Cydia theme and ads to appease Apple

Apple asks Toyota to remove jailbreak Cydia theme
In news that will no doubt shake the very bedrock of your belief system, Apple has asked Toyota to remove its Scion theme and its advertising from ModMyi, a Cydia repository. The Scion theme has been available for weeks, but after it received a ton of press in the last couple of days, Apple finally lashed out.

It's not like we should be surprised, considering Apple has claimed in the past that jailbreaking is illegal -- but at the same time, did the Cupertino cronies hear about the ruling that made circumventing DRM, and thus jailbreaking, legal? Anyway, whether Toyota was supporting illegal, legal, or deliciously gray and ambiguous, activity, it doesn't matter: Apple asked Toyota to remove the theme, and Toyota graciously bent over and capitulated.

This story raises a much more interesting topic, though: this is the first time a multinational company has publicly acknowledged and embraced the jailbreak community. Considering jailbreaking is technically legal, and Cydia's creator, Jay Freeman, estimates that up to 9% of OS devices are jailbroken, it simply makes good, commercial sense to target jailbreakers with ads. Toyota was simply trying to make some money, for shame!

As long as Apple continues to throw around its increasingly-expansive mass, the legality of jailbreaking will continue to be inconsequential. It will be interesting to see if another big company dares embrace the jailbreak community after this, too.

Toyota pulls Cydia theme and ads to appease Apple originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 05:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/06/toyota-pulls-ios-jailbreak-theme-and-ads-to-appease-apple/

Janine Harrer Emilia Münchow Claus Rehberg Tobias Leinenbach

ZMP RoboCar ditches driver, creates own map (video)


How does a self-driving car know where it's going? By using a map, of course -- preferably a self-generated one. In yet another video exemplifying breakneck golf-cart-like speeds, the ZMP RoboCar shows us that it doesn't need a driver to know where it's going. At least, not the second time it goes there. After a few minutes with a fleshy friend behind the wheel, the autonomous automobile can safely steer itself around curves, roundabouts, and fountains. It may not be able to keep pace with Google's tire-squealing, automated Prius, but at least we know it can see where it's going.

ZMP RoboCar ditches driver, creates own map (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 May 2011 11:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/B5CntTK2nvQ/

Birte Höß Kerstin Klos Dieter Schreiter Monika Kley

TunerMatic ? A Guitar Tuner for the Super Lazy

Actually, I’m just jealous that they don’t have a version of the TunerMatic Action Tuner for ukuleles! The TunerMatic is a robotic guitar tuner. Just turn it on, place over a tuning knob, pluck a string and it will do the rest of the work. It will loosen and tighten the string till it is [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2011/05/19/tunermatic-a-guitar-tuner-for-the-super-lazy/

Emilia Münchow Claus Rehberg Tobias Leinenbach Olga Kreibich

Daily Crunch: Beuys Zone Edition

The Felt Mouse Airship! This Bulbous Craft Could Launch In 2013 Armor Games Releases Sequel To Crush The Castle, Siege Hero Inventables: For Your Weekend Fun For The High-Tech Naturalist: LeafSnap Identifies Leaves Using Your iPhone?s Camera Thanks For The Dead Scorpion, Acura (Plus A Pulse Smartpen Giveaway!)

Source: http://www.crunchgear.com/2011/05/07/daily-crunch-beuys-zone/

Marion Dallmeyer Hanna Wohlrab Henrik Brenner Karla Reusch

The Week's Best iPad Apps [Apps]

NYPL Biblion: The New York Public Library has a stunning new app that lets you see a ton of essays, pictures, people, etc and information about the 1939-40 World's Fair. It's like a time traveling machine that brings you back to that era. The app is great too (though occasionally over the top), and easy to navigate, with stacks grouped together and galleries that are easily navigable. Free.

More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/PRt0qW5SsQc/the-weeks-best-ipad-apps

Janna Löhnig Gabriela Schnee Rita Imhof Angelika Frey

This Is What Your Brain Looks Like When You Masturbate [Science]

It was only matter of time after the invention of fMRI scanning machines — which track blood flow in the brain — that scientists would start having people pleasure themselves while strapped into one. And so it was that New Scientist writer Kayt Sukel ended up with this delightful scan of her brain at the moment of orgasm. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/kFatYhYtwYc/heres-what-your-brain-looks-like-when-you-masturbate

Rita Imhof Angelika Frey Mika Bernhardt Ingeburg Liebermann

Opera 11.10 gets HTML5 File API support, IMAP improvements

opera 11.10
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/

Nathalie Donnerhacke Anna-Lena Baumgärtel Sabine Kinzler Frieda Falkner

IE9 and Firefox 4 post top marks in Web browser power use comparison

Over on the Internet Explorer Blog, Microsoft has posted results from an extensive comparison of the top five Web browsers. The goal: to determine whether Internet Explorer 9, Firefox 4, Chrome 10, Safari 5, or Opera 11 is able to squeeze the most life out of your laptop's battery.

A baseline was determined with test systems sitting idle, and then browsers were pointed at about:blank, a news site, the HTML5 Galactic demo, and the IE9 fish tank demo. Perhaps unsurprisingly, IE9 came out on top -- though Firefox 4 was a very close second on nearly every test. As you can see, the other browsers didn't necessarily fare quite as well, with Google Chrome, Safari, and Opera all posting significantly worse scores. In Opera 11's case, a laptop battery would last over one hour more with Internet Explorer 9 installed.


But what we'd really like to know is where did Microsoft find the dilithium crystals required to run a Galactic Total Power Consumption test...

IE9 and Firefox 4 post top marks in Web browser power use comparison originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 07:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/30/ie9-and-firefox-4-post-top-marks-in-pc-power-use-comparison/

Johannes Liebl Arne Koller Fiona Brandenburg Franziska Spanier

Jetbus is a retro-tastic physics game, with a bus

jetbus
Once upon a time, there used to be a DOS game with a caveman and a human powered helicopter. The caveman would shuttle around the screen, madly trying to get customers to where they wanted to go.

Jetbus is not that game, but it's obviously inspired by it. You're driving a yellow school bus which has jets. I guess the jet engine takes quite a bit of space inside the bus, because you can only pick up one person at a time.

There are several doors on the screen, each with its own number. As you pick up a person, the status bar at the bottom of the screen shows you which number door you have to take them to.

You must fly your bus carefully, because if it gets bumped around too much, you lose. You earn money on each level, and can visit the garage to buy better jets and damping, power-ups, or even a whole new vehicle.

So while this game isn't made as well as the original that inspired it, it does provide a few minutes of fun. And now, which one of you guys remembers the original and feels like pointing to it in the comments?

Jetbus is a retro-tastic physics game, with a bus originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 15 Feb 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/02/15/jetbus-is-a-retro-tastic-physics-game-with-a-bus/

Sabine Kinzler Frieda Falkner Hans-Joachim Kammann Antonio Fellberg

Modders Make Android Work the Way You Want [Republished]

CyanogenMod is one of the biggest hacks to ever hit the Android mobile platform. It's got an estimated 500,000 users. Many Android programmers use it as a starting point for their own coding projects. And according to the project's founder, a number of Google employees have it installed on their Android devices. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Ku8Z0yTVTnE/modders-make-android-work-the-way-you-want

Maike Beetz Fiona Henschel Joshua Heinlein Markus Wigger