This Spider Is 49 Million Years Old [Video]

Unfortunately, he/she is dead. Very, very dead. But! Clever scientists have been able to bring it to life (sorta) via x-ray scans, which virtually dug the crawler out of its prehistoric amber crypt. The video is eerily silent. [via Hairpin] More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/MyQMGP5jnUY/this-spider-is-49-million-years-old

Hanna Wohlrab Henrik Brenner Karla Reusch Wilhelm Klassen

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/

Elsa Alexander Furtmann Siegrid Holstein Michael Vollmar Robin Jones

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

Firefox Nightly and Aurora logos
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/

Benjamin Schötz Johannes Liebl Arne Koller Fiona Brandenburg

AT&T Embraces the Sideloading of Android Apps [Android]

AT&T finally changed its mind and will let its Android handset owners install apps from unofficial sources. The wireless carrier will roll out an update to the Inspire 4G, Samsung Captivate, HTC Aria and LG Thunder in the next few weeks that will enable the sideloading of any Android app. Atrix 4G owners will have to wait for a maintenance release from Motorola before AT&T can enable sideloading. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/q-NUAkzV9_c/att-embraces-the-sideloading-of-android-apps

Simone Temme Heidemarie Stegmann Annika Schäffer Edgar Betz

Verizon Readies Its First Dual-Core Smartphone, Droid X2

Good news for Verizon customers waiting for powerful hardware: Dual-core is coming to town. Motorola’s Droid X2 smartphone hits stores on May 26, and you’ll be able to pre-order it online beginning May 19. The phone is powered by Nvidia’s Tegra 2 dual-core 1 GHz processor, the powerful chip found in a number of recent [...]

Source: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/05/motorola-droid-x2-verizon/

Moritz Beller Gabriela Prell Sylvia Lösche Steven Walnsch

Quirky?s ?Tether? Keeps Wine Glasses Dishwasher Safe

I gave up on wine glasses years ago, replacing them with free, tough and — most importantly — resealable jam jars. They never tip up, they bounce off even the toughest wooden floor and I can screw on the lid and take my drink with me wherever I may stumble. The sole remaining wine glass [...]

Source: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/05/quirkys-tether-keeps-wine-glasses-dishwasher-safe/

Karla Reusch Wilhelm Klassen Nathalie Füllgraf Janine Harrer

Mercury Web Browser Pro: You Had Me at Tabbed Browsing

Let me cut to the chase with just one sentence: If you use tabbed browsing on your laptop or desktop and miss tabbed browsing on your iPhone or iPad through Apple's built in Safari Web browser, you need to shell out 99 cents and buy iLegendSoft's Mercury Web Browser Pro. If this is the case, you can stop reading this review right now.

Source: http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/72446.html

Markus Wigger Alexander Berner Oliver Büdenbender Christa Eymann

O'Reilly helps Japan, offers entire e-book catalog for 50% off, today only

O'reilly make some of the best computer books in the world. They also sell them as DRM-free e-books in a bunch of formats, including PDFs and Mobi for Kindle.

They usually offer one "Deal of the Day", which is a 50% discount code for a book chosen for that one day. But just for for today, they've created a discount code -- DDJPN -- that gives you a 50% discount on their entire catalog, and they give a part of the proceeds to aid Japan relief efforts.

So far they've raised over $60,000, and the day is still young. So if you've been recently hankering after some nerdy book (or three), now would be a great time to grab one.

O'Reilly helps Japan, offers entire e-book catalog for 50% off, today only originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 22 Mar 2011 14:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/22/oreilly-helps-japan-offers-entire-e-book-catalog-for-50-off/

Gabriela Prell Sylvia Lösche Steven Walnsch Lennart Tonn

Former NSA Genius Apologizes for His Super Spying Software [Blockquote]

Long before 9/11, brilliant NSA crypto-mathematician Bill Binney had developed an algorithm to make sense of the unbelievably massive amounts of data American spies were pulling in—he called it ThinThread. And then it went very, very wrong. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/R0VixWSGHK4/former-nsa-genius-apologizes-for-his-super-spying-software

Emily Trautmann Charlotte Kadelbach Hugo Ruß Edith Hupertz

PSX games now available in the Android Market, if you own an Xperia Play

PlayStation One games on the Android Market
If you're lucky enough to own an Xperia Play -- Sony Ericsson's new Gingerbread-powered smartphone-cum-gamepad -- you can now buy PlayStation (PSX) titles from the Android Market.

There are five titles currently available, all priced at £3.99: Syphon Filter, MediEvil, Cool Boarders 2, Destruction Derby, and Jumping Flash. They don't have an American price yet, but that will surely change once the Xperia Play launches in the States.

Two important questions remain unanswered: How big are these games? The Market descriptions say the games are only 5MB, but that sounds incredibly unlikely -- and more importantly, will it be possible to 'spoof' the Xperia Play and download PSX games onto other Gingerbread-powered phones, like the Nexus S?

In other news, the PlayStation emulator PSX4droid was recently removed from the Android Market. This obviously has nothing to do with today's release of first-party PlayStation games.

PSX games now available in the Android Market, if you own an Xperia Play originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 01 Apr 2011 04:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/01/psx-games-now-available-in-the-android-market/

Kerstin Klos Dieter Schreiter Monika Kley Heidemarie Frick