Today seems to be ‘rights for all!’ day, or something. It’s quite easy to get rights and privileges mixed up, which is the only explanation for the results of the BBC World Service survey: four in five people believe that Internet access is a fundamental right. Like the right to marry, or freedom [...]]]> Filed under: Internet

Today seems to be ‘rights for all!’ day, or something. It’s quite easy to get rights and privileges mixed up, which is the only explanation for the results of the BBC World Service survey: four in five people believe that Internet access is a fundamental right. Like the right to marry, or freedom of speech, Internet access should be chiselled into our constitution.

The BBC survey also has some other interesting findings: unsurprisingly, Nigerians and South Koreans believe the Internet should not be regulated by the government under any circumstances — while in the UK, 55% believe that some regulation is necessary. The urge towards nationwide unregulated Internet access was strongest in South Korea, where 96% of those surveyed think Internet access is a fundamental right (Starcraft junkies!) — while in Japan, Russia and Mexico, 75% said they ‘could not cope without Internet access’.

I wasn’t going to react, but then I also heard the news that Vegans are about to be protected by the Equality Bill here in the United Kingdom. Basically, just like religion, Veganism is being classified as a ‘belief’. Cool huh? Anyway, that got me thinking about rights — inalienable, from-birth, thou-shalt-prise-from-my-cold-dead-hands rights. Is Internet access really something that we should expect, without taxation, without anything in return? We’re not talking about ‘world peace’ or some kind of intangible: we’re talking about a network that is actively expanded and maintained.

‘A fundamental right’ is too strong a term. Breathing air is a human right, but Internet access? Speaking your mind to those that are near you is one thing, but the right to rant like a headless chicken into the infinite ever-reverberating space of the Internet? I don’t buy it.

We fair humans of Earth believe Internet access to be a fundamental human right originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s still a bit rough around the edges at this point, but the new beta bookmarking extension from Delicious is a big improvement over its last offering.

In case you hadn’t seen the last version, it was pretty much identical to using Delicious via a bookmarklet — and not very exciting. The new [...]]]> Filed under: Google, Browsers

It’s still a bit rough around the edges at this point, but the new beta bookmarking extension from Delicious is a big improvement over its last offering.

In case you hadn’t seen the last version, it was pretty much identical to using Delicious via a bookmarklet — and not very exciting. The new release, however, is a much more solid effort. Your Delicious bookmarks are now synced to Chrome and available via your bookmarks toolbar, and they’re also searchable from Chrome’s Omnibar.

In your browser actions area you’ll find the tag button. Click it, enter any details you need, and then fire off the new link to your Delicious bookmarks.

Now, when they call this beta, it’s really beta. Don’t sync your bookmarks more than once, or you’ll end up with duplicates. New sites you add via the tag button? They might not necessarily get added — and the ‘loading’ overlay on the menu doesn’t disappear.

It’s a good start, and a sign that Delicious is going to offer up something on par with their Firefox extension some time soon — but I’d recommend waiting for a version with a little more polish.

A quick tour of the extension is available from Delicious here, and you can read a bit more about it on their official blog post.

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Delicious lands in Google Chrome Extension Gallery - it’s official, and very beta originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With Palm’s webOS App Catalog finally starting to roll out paid applications around the world, EA Mobile and Palm seem to be enticing folks to start using the App Catalog with a trio of free games. Unfortunately, in order to nab the three downloads — Need for Speed Underground, Monopoly [...]]]> Filed under: Palm, Freeware, Mobile Minute

With Palm’s webOS App Catalog finally starting to roll out paid applications around the world, EA Mobile and Palm seem to be enticing folks to start using the App Catalog with a trio of free games. Unfortunately, in order to nab the three downloads — Need for Speed Underground, Monopoly and The Sims 3 — you’ll need to be in the UK or Ireland.

If you’re one of the folks with a Palm Pre in your pocket and looking for a couple of games to burn some time with, head on over to the App Catalog, and download them before the end of the month when the promotion ends.

Mobile Minute: Free EA games for UK and Ireland Palm Pre users! originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Five meters are available: power, volume, disk, CPU, and memory. The meters are very [...]]]> Filed under: Utilities, Windows

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Add volume and battery meters (and more!) to your Windows 7 superbar originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There are a number of email plugins that look to give you contextual information about the person you’re communicating with. The first one I tried (and arguably the best I’ve seen) is Xobni, an Outlook plugin.

There’s now a similar plugin available for Gmail users called Rapportive. Rapportive [...]]]> Filed under: E-mail, Google, Mozilla, Freeware, Social Software, Browsers

There are a number of email plugins that look to give you contextual information about the person you’re communicating with. The first one I tried (and arguably the best I’ve seen) is Xobni, an Outlook plugin.

There’s now a similar plugin available for Gmail users called Rapportive. Rapportive replaces the ads you normally see in the right-hand sidebar with a profile of the person you’re emailing with that is automatically generated by searching online services for your correspondent’s email address. Rapportive is only available to users that are using either Firefox or Chrome as their browser, since Firefox and Chrome have a plugin architecture.

The information Rapportive provides is interesting, and it searches a surprising number of online services. But I can’t help but think that they’re putting themselves on shaky ground by choosing to replace the ads in Gmail; I doubt Google could easily block this behavior technologically, but if Rapportive gets too popular I don’t doubt that Google’s lawyers might be able to block it, permanently.

In the mean time, if you’re looking for a clever way to get more information about the people you correspond with the side-effect of blocking ads in your Gmail, have a look at Rapportive.

[via ReadWriteWeb]

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Rapportive replaces Gmail ads with useful social information originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gamers almost universally groaned when Ubisoft announced a new DRM scheme that requires its latest games, including Assassin’s Creed 2 and SIlent Hunter 5, to be connected to the Ubisoft servers to function. Everyone wondered, “What happens when the servers fail?” Well, we found out over the weekend, when — surprise! — [...]]]> Filed under: Games, Windows

Gamers almost universally groaned when Ubisoft announced a new DRM scheme that requires its latest games, including Assassin’s Creed 2 and SIlent Hunter 5, to be connected to the Ubisoft servers to function. Everyone wondered, “What happens when the servers fail?” Well, we found out over the weekend, when — surprise! — the servers temporarily went down, rendering legitimately-purchased copies of Ubisoft’s latest games temporarily unplayable.

Ubisoft’s initial excuse was that their games are too popular, and the overwhelming server loads apparently caused the downtime. Today, they reversed course and admitted that a DDoS attack had taken down the servers. Despite the fact that such an attack could happen again at any time, locking legitimate customers out, Ubi is sticking to its guns on the new DRM scheme for now. I hope that they take steps to secure their servers against another DDoS attack in the short term, and make a long term plan to drop this crazy DRM scheme altogether.

[via Joystiq]

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Ubisoft’s DRM servers fail, while gamers say “We told you so!” originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While its users might be swapping bits that are less than legit, the crew behind LimeWire knows that securing their network isn’t an optional thing — it’s a duty. They’ve stepped up to the plate on that front, announcing that they have licensed AVG’s Antivirus SDK and will be bolting on the [...]]]> Filed under: Security, P2P

While its users might be swapping bits that are less than legit, the crew behind LimeWire knows that securing their network isn’t an optional thing — it’s a duty. They’ve stepped up to the plate on that front, announcing that they have licensed AVG’s Antivirus SDK and will be bolting on the uber-popular antivirus and antispyware to their P2P client.

According to an upcoming press release, “LimeWire Pro users will see the ‘Protected by AVG’ assurance whenever a downloaded file is safely scanned and cleaned.” It’s great to see a developer taking a proactive approach. Plenty of P2P users don’t understand the risks associated with what they’re downloading, so I appreciate LimeWire doing something to mitigate that risk.

The added protection will, however, only be available on LimeWire’s pro version. It’s a logical move since they likely need to cover licensing fees, but it also means that users of the free version (just about every desktop I service for a customer) will need to take care of things themselves (of course, plenty of free antivirus programs like Avast 5 provide protection for peer-to-peer connections like those used by LimeWire).

Jason Herskowitz, VP Product Management for LimeWire, states “LimeWire is committed to providing peer-to-peer’s best user experience and we are vigilant about user security.” He continues, “We are always looking for ways to improve, and with AVG’s seamless integration into LimeWire, we will be providing users with peer-to-peer’s most secure technology.”

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LimeWire teams up with AVG to secure their file sharing client originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Since you last saw an edition of Chrome Corner, we’ve done some re-thinking about what it should be. Instead of trying to force together a weekly update when there’s sometimes just not enough news to justify doing it, the Corner will now crop up whenever the crew at Download Squad has a [...]]]> Filed under: Google, Browsers

Since you last saw an edition of Chrome Corner, we’ve done some re-thinking about what it should be. Instead of trying to force together a weekly update when there’s sometimes just not enough news to justify doing it, the Corner will now crop up whenever the crew at Download Squad has a nice haul of of Chrome-y goodness to post about.

Today’s topic: syncing across multiple computers!

Google Chrome can sync your bookmarks, but what about all the other bits and pieces that you want available on all your machines? Passwords? Form data? Notes?

The Extension Gallery has plenty of awesome options that can help you keep all your Google Chrome installs marching in step — read about eight useful ones after the break!

Passwords and form data: LastPass, RoboForm
Apart from not having the same set of bookmarks available on every machine I use, nothing irks me quite as much as having to recall and re-enter all my passwords manually. LastPass and RoboForm both handle the task admirably, and they have other benefits as well. LastPass, for example, includes a strong password generator which makes creating hard-to-crack passwords easy.

Both extensions can also auto-fill form data for you with your pre-entered information (name, address, phone number, etc.).

Tabs and Sessions: TabSync, FreshStart
FreshStart is a fantastic session manager and synchronizer (which I wrote about before), with the ability to restore sessions from machine to machine. It’s also great at recovering from crashes. TabSync is more minimalistic in its approach. Set it up to auto-sync or press the button to do things manually, and your current window’s tabs are locked in so you can restore them again later.

Notepad: Chrome Notes
Opera has a handy, built-in notepad that I’ve gotten quite used to on version 10.50. Chrome, of course, doesn’t include one — but Chrome Notes fills in nicely. It’s very basic, but it’ll let you keep

Text Snippets: ChromeCuts
Got some text you want within easy reach all the time like signatures, email addresses, or canned responses like ‘That’s what she said’? ChromeCuts is for you. Click the icon to drop down your menu of stored snippets and copy them to the clipboard with a click. Sync support is now built in: set your Cuts up on a single computer and then access them anywhere!

Bookmarks: Built in, XMarks, Chromelicious
This one, of course, Google has tucked into Chrome’s utility belt. Built-in bookmark syncing is fast and reliable and it won’t chew up the additional RAM an extension will.

If you already use another bookmarking service, however, an extension is the way to go. XMarks users can grab the official extension, while I recommend Delicious users grab Chromelicious — it’s much more fully-featured than the official version.

* * *
If you’re a developer, the Chrome bsync class sure looks simple enough to utilize. Got an extension which uses it to sync data across machines? Share it with us in the comments, or email me — lee(at)downloadsquad(dot)com!

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Chrome Corner: extensions to keep Google Chrome in sync on multiple computers originally appeared on Download Squad on Sun, 07 Mar 2010 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Did you know that the Xbox 360 is just a PC in a box? Sure, the inputs are different and you generally attach it to a TV — but still, internally, it’s PC hardware. You can even use the controllers with your PC if you like! The Xbox doesn’t run Windows though; [...]]]> Filed under: Developer, Games

Did you know that the Xbox 360 is just a PC in a box? Sure, the inputs are different and you generally attach it to a TV — but still, internally, it’s PC hardware. You can even use the controllers with your PC if you like! The Xbox doesn’t run Windows though; and despite its name, Windows Phone 7 isn’t anything like the Windows you’ll find on your PC. It’s a similar situation with Apple devices: the desktop machines use standard PC hardware, but the iPhone, iPad and iPod all use ‘phone-like’ integrated hardware.

Still with me? Basically: your desktop computer, console, phone and music player are all computers, but built and managed in very different ways. Interoperability between devices is usually via a communication standard such as USB, Firewire or Ethernet — their operating systems are just too dissimilar to communicate in any other way. It would be like using a keyboard with your toaster. But Microsoft has just changed that; that’s why the video you see in Jay’s story is so damn impressive. It’s the same game, the same code, compiled to run on three different Microsoft devices. It’s integration or hardware feature creep — GPS, a stopwatch, calculator and mobile phone — but for software.

Apple, with its locked-down, isolated sandbox is in trouble. Do game developers have any reason to continue working on games for the iPhone or iPad now that Microsoft is offering so much more?
Not only is this a huge boon for developers — all they have to do is write different code for the device’s inputs — it’s also massive for gamers. You can be playing a platform game on your Xbox, save it, and continue playing on your mobile phone on the way to work. Now, given Microsoft’s renewed focus on cloud computing, imagine saving your game to the cloud — head over to your friend’s house and continue playing on their Xbox. Or their PC, if they don’t have an Xbox.

Can Apple really see themselves competing, with a minuscule desktop market share and 25% of the smartphone sector? Steve Jobs has announced Apple’s intent to move into mobile gaming, but can you really see developers siding with the iPhone when Windows Phone 7 is just around the corner? The iPhone has an installed base of about 9 million users in the USA — would you like to guess at the combined figures of Windows and Xbox?

Interoperability and cross-platform applications are really cool. You hear that, Apple? Whatever happened to the ‘unified architecture’ of the desktop Macs?

Finally, like the gouging rusty handle of a spoon that seals the deal, is the crusty monstrosity of Apple’s iTunes App Store; dog-slow approvals and draconian rules on what constitutes acceptable content. Have you seen Xbox Live and its hippy easy-lovin’ Marketplace? Can you begin to imagine the joy of buying a game there, and being able to play it on your PC, console and phone?

Microsoft has already broken the gaming ice, they’re no longer the new guys of the gaming industry — and boy did it cost them a lot with the loss-leading original Xbox — and now with Windows Phone 7, I think the iPhone has just lost any chance of its continued existence as a gaming platform.

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Microsoft set to destroy Apple in every games market originally appeared on Download Squad on Sun, 07 Mar 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Holy synchronicity, Batman! Microsoft is preparing to offer games that can be played across Windows, WIndows Phone AND Xbox. That’s right: one game, three systems. It doesn’t matter that the input method for each platform is different; you’ll be able to play these games by keyboard, controller, or accelerometer. [...]]]> Filed under: Games, Windows, Windows Mobile, Microsoft

Holy synchronicity, Batman! Microsoft is preparing to offer games that can be played across Windows, WIndows Phone AND Xbox. That’s right: one game, three systems. It doesn’t matter that the input method for each platform is different; you’ll be able to play these games by keyboard, controller, or accelerometer. My little gamer heart just grew three sizes!

Even cooler, your game data will sync amongst your collection of MS devices, allowing you to save a game on your desktop machine or Xbox and then take it on the road using your Windows Phone. Our sister site, Engadget, reported on Microsoft’s demo of one of these new cross-platform games, saying it was developed in Visual Studio, and the three versions of the game share 90% identical code.

Any company competing against Microsoft and Xbox Live in the casual gaming arena is quaking in its boots right about now …

Check out the demo video after the jump.

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Microsoft to release cross-platform games on Windows, Windows Phone 7, and Xbox originally appeared on Download Squad on Sun, 07 Mar 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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