Windows 8 now available to OEMs via Microsoft Connect

windows 8Select Microsoft Connect partners -- major players like HP -- have been given their first taste of Windows 8. According to various sources, the build string currently sits at 7971.0.110324-1900, which is the third milestone build of the successor to Windows 7.

So far, there haven't been many details revealed about Windows 8. An actual System Restore -- which is being referred to as History Vault -- has been reported, and the feature will allow users and administrators to completely roll back a system to a previous state. A factory reset option is also said to be included.

We've also seen Windows Live integration taking shape on the desktop. It's believed that you'll be able to log in to Windows 8 using your Windows Live credentials, not just a traditional offline Windows username and password.

All that's left now is for a leaked Windows 8 build to show up on a torrent site. Feel free to tip us if you see that happen.

Windows 8 now available to OEMs via Microsoft Connect originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/31/windows-8-now-available-to-oems-via-microsoft-connect/

Nicola Kohnen Laura Ungricht Edith Berner Lea Linden

Hello Expense is a simple, reliable expense tracker for Android

helloexpense
A good mobile application is a fine balance between simplicity and functionality. You're using it on the go, so you don't have a lot of time to sit there and fumble with the phone to figure it all out. But you also need it to be powerful enough to let you do whatever it is you're trying to get done.

Hello Expense is one mobile app that gets it right. It's an expense tracker that lets you use your Android-powered phone to quickly log the money you spend and then analyze it and see where it all went.

I recently had the chance to use it in a real-life situation - a road trip that took a few days and involved quite a few expenses. Logging each expense took seconds, and at the end of each day I could get a great overview of how much money I spent on each category so far.

Categories and tags are user-configurable; the app also sports its own number pad to make number entry easy, regardless of what keyboard you're using.

Hello Expense is a simple, reliable expense tracker for Android originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/29/hello-expense-is-a-simple-reliable-expense-tracker-for-android/

Kevin Fickenscher Amelie Schweizer Elfriede Oltmanns Janine Hillenbrand

T-Mobile's new plans get official: starting at $60 for unlimited everything, throttling included

T-Mobile's just gone official with the new unlimited plans we caught wind of a few days ago, and while they are truly unlimited by numbers, they're not completely unlimited in functionality. The plans cost $79.99 for Even More customers (buy a subsidized device on contract) and $59.99 for Even More Plus subscribers (bring your own phone commitment-free). Either way this gets you unlimited data, domestic calling, and domestic messaging, with a $5 surcharge for BlackBerry users. Unlike Sprint's similar offering, once you pass the 2GB bandwidth mark, "data speeds will be reduced for the remainder of that bill cycle," essentially informing users that throttling will most certainly take place. In all, we're pleased to see the compromise T-Mo's put in place for data (whereas most other carriers are simply axing the unlimited option altogether), and we hope some of the competition takes heed. It does sound like a pretty sweet deal for those of you not grandfathered in on unlimited data plans. Still, for those of you interested, we suggest getting a jump on, as the (potentially leaked) press release reveals that these plans might only be available for a limited time.

Continue reading T-Mobile's new plans get official: starting at $60 for unlimited everything, throttling included

T-Mobile's new plans get official: starting at $60 for unlimited everything, throttling included originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Apr 2011 18:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/xp-rLo7zEgw/

Johannes Liebl Arne Koller Fiona Brandenburg Franziska Spanier

Intel teases 32nm Cloverview tablet processor, 22nm Ivy Bridge CPU

It hasn't even been a week since Intel rolled out Oak Trail, and it's already teasing us with yet another tablet-ready chip called Cloverview. What's more, we're also seeing unofficial details emerging for its next generation Ivy Bridge CPU. Starting from the top: PC World is reporting that Intel's Doug Davis introduced the Atom-based Cloverview at the firm's Developer Forum in Beijing Tuesday, touting its 32nm architecture and low power consumption. Meanwhile a set of rather convincing slides are showing off the 22nm stylings of Sandy Bridge's successor, Ivy Bridge. From the look of things, the CPU will support DirectX 11 graphics, USB 3.0, and 1600MHz DDR3 memory -- its desktop platform has been christened Maho Bay. Ivy Bridge is reportedly expected to arrive in the first half of 2012, but we're still waiting on Cloverview's ETA. Isn't silicon fun?

Intel teases 32nm Cloverview tablet processor, 22nm Ivy Bridge CPU originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Apr 2011 15:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourcePCWorld, DonanimHaber  | Email this | Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/12/intel-teases-32nm-cloverview-tablet-processor-22nm-ivy-bridge-c/

Siegrid Holstein Michael Vollmar Robin Jones Ingeburg Otte

Farragomate is a social fridge magnet game where you make up sentences

farragomate
You know those fridge magnet kits composed of a whole bunch of words? The ones you put all over your fridge door and then try to arrange into all sorts of juvenile and/or amusing sentences. Well, Farragomate is the social, webby version of that very same pastime.

You get to play with a bunch of random strangers in real-time, and make up sentences out of a pre-set collection of words, including some fairly naughty ones, and all players' nicknames. As you can imagine, some of the results are not child-friendly.

There are ten rounds to a game. Once a round is done, players get to vote for their favorite sentence from that round. You can't vote for your own creation, of course. There's in-game chat, too.

I think the vocabulary could be made a bit more eclectic, but even as it is, it's a nice way to spend a few minutes and meet random strangers on the Internet (always a thrilling experience).

Farragomate is a social fridge magnet game where you make up sentences originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 25 Feb 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/02/25/farragomate-is-a-social-game-where-you-make-up-sentences/

Moritz Beller Gabriela Prell Sylvia Lösche Steven Walnsch

Balance is a challenging mouse-based physics game

balance
Years of computer use have taught us that the mouse cursor is "above" the windows. It doesn't push anything around; at least not without you clicking anything.

Balance takes that ingrained bit of knowledge and cancels it out. Suddenly your cursor (a blue dot) is solid - and if it touches the blue block, it pushes it around.

Your job is to use your cursor to nudge the blue block over to the orange block. You will have to push it, lift it and even flip it on its side, and then balance it. It's a very tricky game - one I wouldn't recommend tackling with a laptop trackpad.

Still, if you have a mouse and a hankering for a little physics gameplay, this is a cute little game. I like how the blue block never stops smiling, it makes me feel better about the world.

Balance is a challenging mouse-based physics game originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 10 Mar 2011 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/10/balance-is-a-challenging-mouse-based-physics-game/

Claus Rehberg Tobias Leinenbach Olga Kreibich Nathalie Donnerhacke

Audi's A3 e-tron gearing up for 2013, should hit 90 miles per charge

You may live your life a quarter-mile at a time, but let's face it -- you still care about the environment. To that end, you've patiently awaited Audi's hybrid Spyder, even with the company playing coy about electric vehicles in general. Its latest tease is a far cry from the aforesaid ghost, but the A3 e-tron -- an entry-level Sportback begging to be modified -- is certainly sexy in its own right. Not exactly Fast and Furious material, given that it needs 11 seconds to reach 60mph and tops out at 90mph, but still -- a pair of lithium-ion batteries should give it 90-mile range per nine-hour charge. We'd take the Roadster S' 165-mile ride if given the choice, but we'll confess to confessing as much prior to consulting our practical side. No hard word on availability or pricing -- the company likely wants it on the streets by 2013, but don't go changing your name to Vin Battery just yet. Or Vin Anything, for that matter.

Audi's A3 e-tron gearing up for 2013, should hit 90 miles per charge originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Apr 2011 06:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/wEVzMSAL8jQ/

Angelika Frey Mika Bernhardt Ingeburg Liebermann Elsa Alexander Furtmann

HTC?s New Android Phone to Offer Netflix-Like Video Service

HTC revealed its latest high-end Android smartphone offering, the Sensation 4G, on Tuesday. Along with the phone, the Taiwanese electronics manufacturer is also debuting its new mobile media rental-and-purchase service, HTC Watch. The Sensation will debut in Europe in mid-May alongside HTC’s tablet offering, the Flyer, and in Britain, Germany and other European markets in June. [...]

Source: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/04/htc-sensation-dual-core-4g/

Siegrid Holstein Michael Vollmar Robin Jones Ingeburg Otte

Facebook Comments, Now On Over 50K Sites, Get More Social With Latest Upgrade

Facebook Comments, which people either love or hate, have just been amped up by Facebook, to increase the ever elusive "user engagement," which just means get moretraffic. We've been using Facebook Comments for just about a month, and I am personally thrilled at the improved quality of discussion, despite being bothered by annoyances like not being able to edit into comments.

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

Carola Auer Luca Liebe Finja Kerkhoff Sascha Dörr

Auslogics Disk Defrag 3.2 gets smarter, faster

auslogics defrag
Auslogics Disk Defrag has been part of my system maintenance toolkit for quite some time. With the release of version 3.2, it's now even better at tidying up and optimizing your system's hard disk drives. In addition to a cleaner, easier-to-use interface, Disk Defrag 3.2 offers improved single file and folder defragging, better processing of multiple disks, a simplified scheduling screen, and more informative tool tips. Auslogics has also fine-tuned the program's defragmentation and file consolidation algorithms.

For laptop users, there's a new option to lock the program if your system is running on battery power -- so scheduled operations don't kick in and drain your power source at an inopportune moment. If you happen to have an SSD installed in your PC, you can head to the Disk Defrag options and exclude it from scanning (many think that defragmenting an SSD is a very bad idea).

Auslogics Disk Defrag is a free download and works with most versions of Windows.

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/

Moritz Beller Gabriela Prell Sylvia Lösche Steven Walnsch