Friday, September 2, 2011

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Volvo and Siemens team up to build better electric engines

Siemens electric motor
Electric cars are finally starting to make a dent in the market, but they've got a long way to go before you'll find one in every driveway. Thankfully companies like Volvo and Siemens are working hard to improve EV technology and grant Mother Earth a bit of a reprieve from our pollutant-spewing rides. The two manufacturers are collaborating on vehicles equipped with electric drive motors, in particular Siemens's C30 DRIVe. Tests will begin later this year, with 200 vehicles set to be delivered in late 2012 for evaluation under "real-life conditions." Check out the PR after the break.

Continue reading Volvo and Siemens team up to build better electric engines

Volvo and Siemens team up to build better electric engines originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Sep 2011 23:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Firefox 4 rockets to 5% global usage share, IE9 wallows at 1.5%

Firefox 4 usage share graph
Using some early numbers from both StatCounter and Net Applications, Mozilla's noisiest hominid, Asa Dotzler, has illustrated Firefox 4's meteoric rise to around 5% of Web browser global usage share. Internet Explorer 9, which launched two weeks ago, seems to be enjoying a much more casual stroll in the park with just 1.5% of the global Web usage share.

Interestingly, we can see IE9 dipping between March 20 and 21, just before the 'Important' Windows Update rolled out. It's hard to say whether IE9 is only growing because of the installed-by-default Windows Update, but that small dip definitely sticks out -- did excitement peter out? Did people download IE9, try it out, and summarily uninstall it? Perhaps, given their close proximity, the stats show an attention shift from Microsoft to Mozilla?

Numbers-wise, if the bottom left corner of the graph shows 2.3 million downloads for IE9, we can guesstimate that that it has now been downloaded 5 million times. Firefox is clocking in at 37 million downloads after five days of public availability.

We wonder whether Microsoft knew its release schedule would coincide so closely with Firefox 4. Internet Explorer 9 -- a great browser by almost every metric -- was never going to do well against anything emanating from the maws of Mozilla. The main thing, though, is that Microsoft has now shown that it's serious when it comes to the Open Web. If Internet Explorer 10 is good, and 11 and 12, then we might finally see it compete with the zealous Mozillan horde.

Firefox 4 rockets to 5% global usage share, IE9 wallows at 1.5% originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 05:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung Galaxy Note hands-on (video)


How excited is Samsung about the new Galaxy Note? The company is convinced that the device heralds a whole new space for the industry, something in between the smartphone and the tablet. And what's the space called? The Note, of course. At 5.3 inches, the thing does feel a lot more like a cell phone than a tablet -- albeit a really large one. It's still reasonably portable, certainly more so than the also recently announced Galaxy Tab 7.7, but the added screen real estate might not be worth the extra pocket space for those who don't use their portable devices to watch movies.

Interestingly, the major application here actually seems to be enterprise users. While Android 2.3 isn't particularly known for being a great business OS, the ability to scribble notes with the stylus, the "S Pen," harkens back to the old PDAs and will likely appeal to users sick of typing with their fingers. That said, we had some difficulty mastering the pen in the short time that we spent with it. Despite Samsung's insistence on the thing's accuracy, the stylus was quite slippery on the device's glossy screen, and we had a lot of difficulty being precise for simple drawings -- as you can see in the scribble above.

All in all, it's hard to envision the Note as a whole new space, and it remains to be seen whether the S Pen can indeed give the aged stylus new life. Check on our hands-on video after the break and see for yourself.

Continue reading Samsung Galaxy Note hands-on (video)

Samsung Galaxy Note hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Sep 2011 07:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Creative keeps stabbing at the MP3 market, reveals bantam ZEN X-Fi3

Another IFA, another minuscule ZEN X-Fi media player. And somehow, they manage to get less and less impressive with each passing year. This go 'round, we're looking at the ZEN X-Fi3, equipped with a 2-inch LCD, 8/16GB of internal storage, Bluetooth 2.1, a built-in microphone / FM radio / speaker and a battery that should last up to 20 hours when playing back audio alone. As with prior ZEN units, this one also supports a multitude of file formats (FLAC, AAC, MP3, WMA, Audible, etc.), and for those kosher with watching Alf reruns on a thumb-sized panel, MPEG-4 / WMV9 / DivX video files are also capable of being played back. This guy's slated to ship at the end of October across Europe, but with $99.99 (8GB) / $139.99 (16GB) price tags, we're guessing most are bound to just collect dust. For shame.

Continue reading Creative keeps stabbing at the MP3 market, reveals bantam ZEN X-Fi3

Creative keeps stabbing at the MP3 market, reveals bantam ZEN X-Fi3 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Sep 2011 08:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft releases sexy Bing app for iPad

It's still a bit odd seeing Microsoft deliver apps for Apple's mobile platform. And it's even stranger still to see one as sexy as the new Bing app for iPad, which brings a slick, immersive search experience to Apple's tablet.

Just as a regular search on bing.com will, the Bing app for iPad tailors the results it displays based on what you're searching for. There are loads of custom views, covering everything from movies and maps to weather and shopping. The app also offers a heads-up display of currently trending searches, complete with related images, which is an iPad-exclusive feature.

Navigation is a breeze thanks to multitouch controls, allowing users to flick or swipe through results. And while the development team refers to the app as "touch and decide," Bing Voice Search is also built in -- making it easy to start a query without using the iPad's on-screen keyboard.

The Bing app for iPad is available for download now from the App Store.

Microsoft releases sexy Bing app for iPad originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 07 Apr 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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OmmWriter brings its clean, calm writing interface to Windows

ommwriter
I have a thing for full-screen text editing. I use WriteMonkey for my creative writing needs, and VIM in a full-screen PuTTY session for my Web development work. That being the case, I'm all over the monospace, dark-background, focused editing scene.

OmmWriter attempts to take that aesthetic and make it somehow more spiritual, with three picturesque backgrounds and ambient background audio tracks (there are seven of each in the paid version).

I'm of two minds about this app. On the one hand, yes, it's beautiful. But if you want music as a background to your writing, why not pick your own soundtrack with Winamp or Foobar2000 running in the background?

OmmWriter also offers three keyboard-clicking sounds, which are kind of nice. None of these features are groundbreaking, really. OmmWriter could be seen as a way to gently ease into the world of distraction-free writing -- in case something like WriteMonkey's dark background is just too oppressive for you.

After the fold you can see a video showcasing several of OmmWriter's features and creative soundscapes.

Continue reading OmmWriter brings its clean, calm writing interface to Windows

OmmWriter brings its clean, calm writing interface to Windows originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 01 Apr 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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