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Latest Gear Live Videos
New (and free) Zune HD games now available
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Hot Deals, Microsoft, Portable Audio / Video, Software, Video Games,
Following up on the promise of more free games for the Zune HD, Microsoft has released six new titles that are now available for your downloading pleasure. We’ve got a blurb on each game here, but we’ve gotta just say, after playing with PGR Ferrari Edition, we are thankful for that Tegra processor that the Zune HD is packing. Sure, it’s no App Store equivalent, but hey, it’s free content that is actually more fun than a flashlight or tip calculator:
- Audiosurf Tilt: Audiosurf creates a rollercoaster ride from any song. Choose any song from your music collection and watch Audiosurf turn it into a unique roller coaster track for you to ride. The song you choose determines the shape, the speed, and the mood of each track. Tilt your Zune like a steering wheel to collect colored blocks and avoid speedbumps. Unlock more than 30 designs, each with its own special theme and color palette.
- Checkers: Enjoy the classic game of Checkers in a beautiful outdoor park setting. Play against the computer or against a friend.
- Lucky Lanes Bowling: Bowl in different game modes: exhibition, blackjack, golf. Play in five different bowling alleys with unique themes, all with the swipe of a finger. Choose from twenty different bowlers and twenty two different ball styles. You can play against the computer or play with up to four friends.
- Piano: Play your own tune, or play along with your favorite music on this electronic piano.
- Project Gotham Racing: Ferrari Edition: Tear through the streets of London, Tokyo, and New York in the Ferrari of your choice using multi touch controls and the built in accelerometer.
- Vans Sk8: Pool Service: From the Admiral to the old abandoned rec center pool, Bucky Lasek and Omar Hassan know a good bowl to skate. Hit the pools and put these Vans skaters to the test with all the tricks in their bag and achieve hero status once you unlock their pro model skateboards.
According to Microsoft, the Facebook and Twitter apps are still being worked on, but are still on track for Zune HD as well.
Gallery: New (and free) Zune HD games now available
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Apple just released the second big update to Snow Leopard with Mac OS X 10.6.2. You can fire up Software Update right now to grab the good, which on my system looks to be about 500 MB in size. Here is a look at some of the fixes
- an issue that might cause your system to logout unexpectedly
- a graphics distortion in Safari Top Sites
- Spotlight search results not showing Exchange contacts
- a problem that prevented authenticating as an administrative user
- issues when using NTFS and WebDAV file servers
- the reliability of menu extras
- an issue with the 4-finger swipe gesture
- an issue that causes Mail to quit unexpectedly when setting up an Exchange server
- Address Book becoming unresponsive when editing
- a problem adding images to contacts in Address Book
- an issue that prevented opening files downloaded from the Internet
- Safari plug-in reliability
- general reliability improvements for iWork, iLife, Aperture, Final Cut Studio, MobileMe, and iDisk
- an issue that caused data to be deleted when using a guest account
There’s a lot there, and that’s without mention of the rumored killing of Intel Atom support in 10.6.2 as well. If you are running OS X on a Hackintosh, you may want to wait and see how this plays out. As for the rest of you, get to downloading!
Gallery: Mac OS X 10.6.2 now available
Google Chrome 4.0 Includes Bookmark Sync
Posted by Dan Hughes Categories: Google, Internet, Software, Videos,
Google announced Monday that its Chrome browser’s 4th version has gone Beta. Most important feature in my eyes: Bookmark syncing.
Back when I was an Firefox fanboy, Delicious’ method of syncing bookmarks was magic to me, and was the epitome of the internet experience. When Chrome was released, its speed sang to me, and I willingly sacrificed my bookmark sync to Chrome’s seductive quickload times. Now, Google makes everything magical again as Google announced Monday that its Chrome browser’s 4th version has gone Beta, including with it Bookmark Sync.
According to the announcement, XMPP is used to keep your browser in touch with your Google Account, which will keep track and sync down your bookmarks.
In a side note: Google also claims to have increased performance by a brain-spanking 30%!
Read More 
| Google Chrome Blog
Gallery: Google Chrome 4.0 Includes Bookmark Sync
Video: Google Maps Navigation feature walkthrough
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Smartphones, Google, GPS, Handhelds, Software,
One of the nicest features in Android 2.0 is Google Maps Navigation. In a nutshell, it’s Google Maps with turn-by-turn GPS navigation, and voice guidance. Google has put together a video that introduces Google Maps Navigation, which we’ve embedded above, but there are some of the features that stand out to us:
- Live traffic: Since Google Maps can show you traffic info, it’s obviously built-in to Google Maps Navigation, at no extra cost.
- Routes always current: When you search for directions, Google Maps Navigation searches the cloud, and gives you the best current route based on the most recent data
- Layers: You can overlay different types on data over your maps, like restaurants, gas stations, and more.
- Live street view: This is just awesome. You can use the Google Street View feature to get a fantastic visual of your surroundings while driving
- FREE!: Google Maps Navigation is free. That includes the GPS, the live traffic data, and the always updated maps. That is a big deal.
The first handset to ship with Android 2.0, and thusly Google Maps Navigation, will be the Motorola Droid.
Gallery: Video: Google Maps Navigation feature walkthrough
Google has released a video that shows off all the new Android 2.0 features. Of course, Android 2.0 is what powers the Motorola Droid. A few of the highlights:
- Android 2.0 can pull in contacts from multiple sources, and supports two-way syncing. There is a new feature called Quick Contact, that shows you just about every way you can possibly contact someone when you tap their user icon.
- Apps will now be able to turn on Bluetooth to set up connections with other devices
- Android 2.0 supports multiple screen resolutions. In the video, we see an application running at 800x480 and 854x480, as an example
Definitely some good stuff here. Color us excited.
Gallery: Video: A look at Android 2.0
Windows 7 launch imminent! Order your copy now for delivery tomorrow
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Hot Deals, Microsoft, PC / Laptop, Software,
It’s the eve of the Windows 7 launch, and if you haven’t heard, it’s pretty great. So great, in fact, that this is the first version of Windows that we are recommending people upgrade to on day one. We are that impressed. In a nutshell, Windows 7 is what Vista should have been back in 2007.
You can order Windows 7 today from Amazon, and they’ll have it on your doorstep tomorrow:
You can purchase the upgrade version of WIndows 7 if you are currently running Windows XP or Windows Vista. Anything earlier, and you’ll need to buy the full version.
Gallery: Windows 7 launch imminent! Order your copy now for delivery tomorrow
Major Snow Leopard bug causing massive data loss
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: PC / Laptop, Software,
All you Snow Leopard users, take heed: if you have the Guest account enabled, you’ll wanna remove it until Apple fixes the latest bug that’s been found, if you don’t want to lose your data. In a nutshell, what’s happening is that if you attempt to log into the Guest account, and the system hangs, it could lead to mass deletion of all user files on the primary account. That means everything. So you reboot to clear out the frozen system, log in to the main account, and files have vanished. Yeah, that’s pretty bad, and worse, Apple has yet to acknowledge it and issue any sort of statement to users on how to avoid this until they release a patch.
To be safe, we recommend simply disabling the Guest account on all your Macs that happen to be running Snow Leopard until a fix is released. Seriously, better safe than sorry.
Read More | Neowin
Gallery: Major Snow Leopard bug causing massive data loss
iPhone OS 3.1.2 now available
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Smartphones, Handhelds, Software,
Apple has just released iPhone OS 3.1.2. According to Apple, the update contains bug fixes and improvements, including:
- Resolves sporadic issue that may cause an iPhone to not wake from sleep
- Fixes an issue that may interrupt cell network services until the phone is hard-rebooted
- Fixes a big that would cause an occasional crash during video streaming
If you’ve got an iPhone, iPhone 3G, or iPhone 3GS, go ahead and update. Of course, if you are jailbroken, you’ll want to wait until a jailbreak tool for 3.1.2 is available.
Gallery: iPhone OS 3.1.2 now available
Hey, all you Palm Pre owners out there, it’s update time, as webOS 1.2 has just been released. What’s new in the software? Quite a bit, according to Palm:
For starters, we’ve beefed up Palm Synergy to include LinkedIn contact syncing. Info from LinkedIn profiles (like job titles) will now appear in your Palm Pre contacts. The new update also facilitates links across more different flavors of IM contacts. Business-oriented webOS 1.2 customers will also appreciate support for heterogeneous EAS policies (for workplaces with a mix of end-users in which some accounts support EAS policies and others don’t).
And we heard your feedback on a number of topics loud and clear:
- We know you love email—and you’ll really love the ability to filter the emails in the current folder just by typing a search term.
- You asked for the ability to download files in the browser—and now you’ve got it.
- Music fans will be glad to hear that the Amazon MP3 Store can now download songs from either WiFi or WAN.
- You can now tap a phone number in a calendar note to dial it (so you can get to the joy of music-on-hold for your conference calls even faster!).
- Pause a podcast and, by default, you’ll pick up where you left off when you unpause.
- Web pages and emails are now cut-and-paste-able.
You can download the webOS 1.2.0 update right now. Let us know how it goes!
Gallery: Palm webOS 1.2 now available
iTunes 9.0.1 now available, much more stable
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Music, Software,
Apple released iTunes 9.0.1 yesterday, and normally, they squash some bugs that some people experience. Here is a look at the changes in the latest release, which comes just a couple of weeks after the iTunes 9 release:
- Resolves issues browsing the iTunes Store.
- Addresses a performance issue where iTunes may become unresponsive.
- Fixes a problem where iTunes may unexpectedly quit.
- Fixes a problem syncing Podcasts in playlists to iPod or iPhone.
- Fixes a problem sorting albums with multiple discs.
- Addresses an issue with the Zoom button not switching to Mini Player.
- Improves application syncing for iPod touch and iPhone.
- Genius is now automatically updated to show Genius Mixes.
We must say, iTunes 9 feels more responsive, and works more “as it should,” or as expected. Hit up Software Update to grab it.
