Verizon launching LTE on December 5th, two transforming 4G USB modems hitch a wild ride

Sure, Verizon's holding a press conference tomorrow, but unless they've got a secret LTE smartphone or tablet (we can only hope) we've got a fairly good idea what the company will say. We're hearing Verizon will flip the switch on its LTE network on December 5th, unveil a pair of hot new USB modems to take advantage of those supposedly stellar speeds, and launch the SIM cards required to make LTE function in the first place. The gadgets include the LG VL600 thumbstick we've seen before, but also this marvelous-looking Pantech UML290 key, which has not only a slick swiveling case but also a dual-jointed USB port beneath. We doubt we're going to have any trouble getting this one plugged into even the slimmest of port-abhorring slimline computing machines. See where one of the SIM cards goes in the gallery below.

Update: The populace has spoken, and "sexy" is no more. Shall we call them "transforming" modems, then? They most certainly are.

Gallery: Verizon LTE announce and modem leak

[Thanks, Anonymous and JT]

Verizon launching LTE on December 5th, two transforming 4G USB modems hitch a wild ride originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Nov 2010 20:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After A Four Year Run, Firefox Is No Longer The Top Browser On TechCrunch ? Chrome Is

It has finally happened. It took a little longer than anticipated, but Chrome has now passed Firefox as the browser most often used to visit TechCrunch. For the month of November, Chrome is number one for the first time, edging out Firefox 27.80 percent to 27.67 percent. Back in early September, on Chrome's second birthday, we noted that Google's browser had been making huge gains over the past couple of years and was only about 3 percent away from passing longtime leader (again, in terms of browsing traffic to TechCrunch) Firefox. The quickly progressing Firefox 4 beta likely slowed Chrome's march to the top a bit, but it couldn't fully hold it back. Now the question is: can Chrome hang on?

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Ask a VC: Nic Brisbourne Defends London?s Entrepreneurial Honor

Oh, Nic Brisbourne. Unlike most VCs who come on Ask a VC who are used to my rude, outspoken American ways, Brisbourne is British and therefore incredibly polite. As this interview goes on he gets more visibly uncomfortable until the end when he brings up Spotify, and I just go a little pit-bull on him. But social graces aside, we have a fascinating chat about the investing scene in London and Europe generally. We discuss when an entrepreneur should stay in London, when they should move to the Valley, whether funding activity is picking up as it is in much of the rest of the world and the beauty of lifestyle businesses. Enjoy.

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Firefox Friday: a round-up of this week's Firefox releases and news

Filed under: Mozilla, Browsers

Stop! Stop your Friday afternoon it's-only-two-hours-until-weekend procrastination! Focus on this tab for just a moment because I have a lot to tell you. We've covered so much Firefox news this week that you can't possibly have read it all. You need this round-up like you need a Friday beer.

Enough waffling... let's rock.

Firefox 4 Beta 7 has been released for Windows, Mac and Linux

Almost two months late, Mozilla finally squeezed out the first feature-complete Firefox 4 Beta. Beyond the fact that FF4 has a staggering number of new features, it's not clear why the browser is slipping so behind schedule. Still, if everything goes to plan, we should see three more beta releases followed by a release candidate around February or March.

If you haven't yet tried out Firefox 4, now's the time to take it for a spin. There are still plenty of rough edges, but my guide should walk you through most of the cool new features. Most importantly, thanks to the inclusion of a suped-up JavaScript engine in this new build, you'll quickly notice that FF4 is now as fast as Google Chrome.

Make pages load 20% faster in Firefox

It turns out, with just the flick of a few about:config flags, that you can make Firefox a whole lot faster. Your browser cache, which stores all of your downloaded images, Flash elements and CSS files, usually resides on your hard drive. Your hard drive is pretty fast, but you can definitely feel the crunch if you like to multitask and switch between tabs regularly. If you move your browser cache into RAM, performance can be increased by a significant margin.

There was some concern from Download Squad readers that RAM-only cache might somehow decrease performance of your browser -- but that really shouldn't be the case. It might be a little slower the first time you load a site, but subsequent hits should be a lot faster.

Mozilla Labs F1 is an example of how social sharing should be done

This week saw the release of RockMelt (the 'Facebook browser') and then just a couple of days later, Mozilla followed suit with F1. They're both very different approaches to the same problem: social sharing. When you visit a cool site or watch a funny video, almost everyone wants to share it. Some sites have great built-in mechanisms (like YouTube's AutoShare), but most resort to a clusterfu 'kitchen sink' of sharing buttons. Click here to share on Twitter! Click here to share on Facebook!

RockMelt gets around this by populating a sidebar with your Facebook friends. It takes just two clicks to share a page with a friend -- and then you can use the sexy built-in Facebook Chat client to discuss it some more! The only problem is, you have to download a custom Chromium-based browser to use it.

Mozilla takes a much more minimal approach: just hit a button and you're given the option of sharing the current page on Twitter, Facebook or Gmail. F1 works with Firefox 3 and 4, and you ought to give it a go.

Firefox is now six years old

It feels like only yesterday that Phoenix arose from the ashes as... a fox. Yes, Firefox used to be called Phoenix, and then Firebird, and then finally settled on the name Firefox in time for the 1.0 release in 2004. The browser might still have been called Phoenix if it wasn't for a trademark issues with Phoenix Technologies. I'm brutally honest, I'm still not sure why the animal of choice changed from bird to fox -- but after a long, hard look at the photo on the right, can I really complain?

Finally, let's not forget that Firefox is still a baby compared to Opera and Internet Explorer. Opera is very nearly 14 years old, and Internet Explorer is a positively geriatric 15!

* * *
If you love that femme fox above, check out the Firefox Costumes photo album on Facebook. It's hard to choose a favorite, but I'd probably pick this one.

Firefox Friday: a round-up of this week's Firefox releases and news originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 12 Nov 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hands-on video review of Office for Windows Phone 7

Filed under: Windows Mobile, Microsoft

If you weren't aware, it's impossible to take screenshots with Windows Phone 7. Perhaps once it's rooted we'll be able to -- but until then, screenshotting apps for reviews is laborious -- you have to take a photo of the screen -- and the quality is inevitably low.

So, looking for an alternative, I decided to do a video review of Office for Windows Phone 7. It's about 10 minutes long, and the video quality is excellent. You should be able to clearly see the text on the screen, and the audio commentary should be informative (and perhaps even funny).

In the video I step through the three key features of Office for WP7: OneNote (and its integration with SkyDrive); Word and Excel (viewing and editing); and SharePoint integration (though I sadly couldn't get it to work). OneNote definitely stands out as one of WP7's killer features, especially when combined with SkyDrive synchronization. Word and Excel, which lack the ability to sync, seem rather useless in comparison -- but still, being able to view Word and Excel documents on the move is surely a good thing.

The video review is after the break.


[Note: if you have a subwoofer you might want to turn it down; there's some annoying bass 'thumps' in the video. They won't be there next time, I promise!]

Hands-on video review of Office for Windows Phone 7 originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 16 Nov 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Chrome OS launch won't happen this year

Filed under: OS Updates, Google

Last month, it looked like Google Chrome OS was still on track for a Q4 2010 release -- as originally promised by Google when it announced the project. Back in June, VP of Product Management Sundar Pichai told Reuters that it was going to arrive earlier than expected. That didn't happen.

Later, our cohorts at TechCrunch got wind of a potential release this week -- but a comment by Eric Schmidt at the Web 2.0 Summit seems to have doused the flames. According to Schmidt, Chrome OS will launch "in the next few months." That, of course, means no Christmastime Chromebooks, and it makes launching in time for CES seem unlikely as well, since that's just seven weeks off.

[via The Register]

Chrome OS launch won't happen this year originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 16 Nov 2010 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wooden iPhone 4 Backs: Tackily Awesome, or Awesomely Tacky? [Iphone4]

When we first screwed on Material6's wooden iPhone 4 replacement backplates, we weren't sure what to think. Would we get looks of envy? Looks of scorn? Were they just straight up ugly? A few weeks later, we're in love. More »

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All the Black Friday 2010 Deals Right Now [Black Friday]

Black Friday is just a week away meaning, you've got 7 days to plan out your battle strategy. Here's an early peek everybody'll be pushing, so you can prioritize starting...now. More »

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Rage HD review (iPhone)

The iOS App Store might already have its fair share of addictive and compelling games on offer, but when John Carmack comes calling with his latest megatextured shoot-em-up, you've got to sit up and pay attention. Rage HD: Mutant Bash TV isn't so much a full-fledged game in its own right as it is a teaser for the forthcoming Rage FPS for the PC, and yet even in its pretty limited running time, it managed to woo and thrill us with its visceral gameplay and arresting visuals. It's easily the best-looking game we've yet seen on a mobile device and provides a fine demonstration of just how far Apple's hardware -- on the iPhone 4, iPad, and fourth-gen iPod touch -- can be pushed when some appropriately adroit hands are at the graphical controls. But, of course, games are supposed to be fun to play, not just to look at, so why not join us after the break to see how well Rage HD handles its mutant-bashing duties?

Gallery: Rage HD screenshots

Continue reading Rage HD review (iPhone)

Rage HD review (iPhone) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Nov 2010 14:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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