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HTML5 MP3 player lets you listen to your music library inside your browser

While this slick little HTML5 audio player might not pack all of the features of your favorite desktop media application, it's still a very cool demonstration of what a Web app can do with access to local resources -- like MP3 and OGG files.

Just fire up http://antimatter15.github.com/player/player.html in your HTML5-compatible browser and browse to the topmost folder in your music library. The app will quickly build an index of all your tunes and let you start listening right inside your Web browser. Click on the filter library text, and you can enter a search string -- results load as you type.

There's a volume control, shuffle mode, play/pause control, and you can click and drag to skip forward or rewind during playback. As OMG! Ubuntu points out, you can even save the app to your hard drive and run it offline, which is pretty darn cool.

Not all browsers are equal when it comes to HTML5 implementation, of course. We found that Chrome worked the best, and Firefox was OK. It's also worth noting that this music player comes from the same developer that created one of our favorite restartless Firefox 4 add-ons, drag2up.

HTML5 MP3 player lets you listen to your music library inside your browser originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/30/html5-mp3-player-lets-you-listen-to-your-music-library-inside-yo/

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Toyota pulls Cydia theme and ads to appease Apple

In news that will no doubt shake the very bedrock of your belief system, Apple has asked Toyota to remove its Scion theme and its advertising from ModMyi, a Cydia repository. The Scion theme has been available for weeks, but after it received a ton of press in the last couple of days, Apple finally lashed out.

It's not like we should be surprised, considering Apple has claimed in the past that jailbreaking is illegal -- but at the same time, did the Cupertino cronies hear about the ruling that made circumventing DRM, and thus jailbreaking, legal? Anyway, whether Toyota was supporting illegal, legal, or deliciously gray and ambiguous, activity, it doesn't matter: Apple asked Toyota to remove the theme, and Toyota graciously bent over and capitulated.

This story raises a much more interesting topic, though: this is the first time a multinational company has publicly acknowledged and embraced the jailbreak community. Considering jailbreaking is technically legal, and Cydia's creator, Jay Freeman, estimates that up to 9% of OS devices are jailbroken, it simply makes good, commercial sense to target jailbreakers with ads. Toyota was simply trying to make some money, for shame!

As long as Apple continues to throw around its increasingly-expansive mass, the legality of jailbreaking will continue to be inconsequential. It will be interesting to see if another big company dares embrace the jailbreak community after this, too.

Toyota pulls Cydia theme and ads to appease Apple originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 05:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/06/toyota-pulls-ios-jailbreak-theme-and-ads-to-appease-apple/

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How would you change Samsung's Droid Charge?

Skipped over the Thunderbolt, did you? If you were waiting for that other LTE phone to come your way, Samsung's Droid Charge may have been the one that caught your eye. For those who settled on it, we're interested in knowing how things have been going. How's that Super AMOLED Plus panel treating you... outdoors? Is the LTE radio smashing your battery life? Are the Android tweaks to your liking? Still feel it was worth the price premium at launch? There's no doubt that the Charge is one of favorites on Big Red right now, but that's not to say it doesn't have its quirks. Speaking of which -- it's about high time you tossed in a few opinions of your own in comments below.

How would you change Samsung's Droid Charge? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Aug 2011 22:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/28/how-would-you-change-samsungs-droid-charge/

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Refresh Roundup: week of August 22, 2011

Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging to get updated. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it's easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don't escape without notice, we've gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery from the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!

Official Android Updates

• Motorola's Photon 4G was the recipient of a minor over-the-air firmware revamp that offers improvements to responsiveness and voice calls, and offers more bug fixes and other enhancements. [via PhoneArena]
• Want another bug fix update? The HTC EVO 3D is the next contestant, rolling out its second OTA refresh in as many weeks. This time it appears that a new "Corporate 4G" widget and a new radio have been added. [via AndroidCentral]
• Gingerbread 2.3.4 is now rolling out to Bell's Motorola Atrix 4G OTA. [via MobileSyrup]
• Now that its official Gingerbread support page has gone live, Verizon's Motorola Droid 2 will likely be receiving Android 2.3 in the very near future. [via AndroidCentral]
• Sasktel's HTC Incredible S is now the beneficiary of Android 2.3.3 in an OTA install. [via MobileSyrup]

Unofficial Android updates / custom ROMs / misc hackery

• Remember that Gingerbread update the HTC Droid Incredible was supposed to get? The official version's been leaked out and is awaiting your download. Just remember the follow the directions and back up your device before proceeding. [via AndroidPolice]
• Speaking of leaked versions of Gingerbread, the Droid 2 Global has one now. More info can be found here. [via Droid-Life]
• The Motorola Droid 3's been successfully rooted. As it turns out, there may be a couple different methods to do so, so check out the link to learn how to do it. [via XDA and AndroidCentral]
• An official build of Android 2.3.4 for the Samsung Captivate has been leaked to XDA. [via Phandroid]

Other platforms

• The Nokia N8 was recently blessed with Symbian Anna, but a few camera-related upgrades were left out. No need to fear, as an "experimental" update is now being offered, which adds continuous auto-focus and tweaks the UI to allow for faster access to the camera -- among other improvements. Due to a config error, a boost up to 30fps was accidentally left out, but a fix should be forthcoming. Check out the change log here. [via ZOMGitsCJ]
• Given last week's news about webOS, we were concerned the newly-launched Pre3 would be DOA, with no promise of future updates. HP's proving this isn't the case, however, as the device got a minor update that brought the phone's help center live and fixed a few bugs along the way. [via PreCentral and PhoneArena]
• Research in Motion released an upgrade to its Tablet OS for the BlackBerry PlayBook. Unfortunately, it's not the 2.0 version we saw leaked screenshots of earlier this week, but it still brings a nice feature to the tablet: differential updates. This means that in future OS refreshes, only the affected sections will be changed. In addition, the new version, dubbed 1.0.7.2942, will improve WiFi connectivity via WEP and enhancements to BlackBerry Bridge. [via RIM]
• WP7Mod showed a video of the HTC HD2 booting up with Windows Phone Mango's RTM build installed. We've been told that it's almost ready for any daring souls interested in a new challenge for their Windows Mobile device. [via WMPowerUser]

Refresh Roundup: week of August 22, 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Aug 2011 09:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/28/refresh-roundup-week-of-august-22-2011/

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Mobile Miscellany: week of August 22, 2011

This week was packed with news on the mobile front, so it was easy to miss a few stories here and there. Here's some of the other stuff that happened in the wide world of wireless for the week of August 15, 2011:

Phone Releases

• Fido launched the Samsung Galaxy Q, also known as the Gravity Smart in the US, on Thursday. [via MobileSyrup]
• The BlackBerry Curve 9360 can already be purchased on Telus for $50 with a three-year contract, and the Torch 9860 will be available on August 30th. [via IntoMobile and CrackBerry]
• SouthernLINC Wireless announced the immediate availability of the Motorola Titanium, offered for $150 with a two-year commitment.
• T-Mobile released the Samsung Gravity TXT, a basic messaging phone that's on sale for $10. [via UnwiredView]
• Cricket has begun offering a new messaging phone called the Samsung Comment, which offers a full QWERTY keyboard, stereo bluetooth, a microSD slot and 1.3MP camera. It can be had for $90 with no commitment required. [via PhoneScoop]

Other news

• The government of South Korea, in reaction to Google's planned acquisition of Motorola, now intends to form a consortium of local companies that will work together in building a brand new mobile operating system. [via IntoMobile]
• Randall Milch, Chief Counsel for Verizon, is so frustrated with the patent wars going on that this week he filed an appeal to President Obama, asking for him to provide assistance in the matter. [via PhoneScoop]
• The Motorola PRO is expected to debut in the UK in mid-September, though pre-orders are already taking place at select authorized resellers. [via UnwiredView]
• Leaked posters indicate the BlackBerry Torch 9850 will be offered by Verizon and screenshots show the same phone going to US Cellular, though we're still unsure of the release date or pricing. [via CrackBerry(1) and (2)]
• Last week we reported on the rumored Sony Ericsson Nozumi, a smartphone that will likely feature a 1.4GHz single-core Qualcomm S2 CPU, Adreno 205 GPU, and 4.3-inch display with 1280 x 720 resolution. At the time, it was assumed to be only selling in Japan; however, there's a good possibility the Nozumi will end up available globally instead. [via XperiaBlog]
• Pantech's LTE phone on Verizon may actually end up being called the Breakout (rather than the "Apache"), according to a leaked screenshot. When released, it'll feature a 1GHz CPU with 512MB of RAM, dual cameras, and will be preloaded with Gingerbread. Not much to write home about at this stage in the game, considering these are incredibly similar to the specs of the LG Revolution. However, it would be the first 4G phone on Big Red that has a 4-inch display. [via AndroidCentral]
• T-Mobile may be planning to throw a data pay-per-use feature onto any smartphone that currently has its internet access blocked. If this happens, it will affect current customers as well as new ones. [via TmoNews]
• Dish has petitioned the FCC for permission to use 40MHz of allocated spectrum to begin building out an LTE-Advanced network. [via PhoneScoop]

Mobile Miscellany: week of August 22, 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Aug 2011 09:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/27/mobile-miscellany-week-of-august-22-2011/

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iOS 4.3 to be released today, and will allow up to five Personal Hotspot connections?

Rather than waiting until March 11 and the release of iPad 2, it looks like iOS 4.3 might be made available at 10am Pacific Time today according to BGR's sources.

The Golden Master was released only five days ago, but if no hard blocking bugs were found by Apple's slew of slavering developers, an early release isn't unusual -- and the sooner Apple gets iOS 4.3 into the hands of millions of consumers, the sooner any remaining bugs will be uncovered.

In other news, BGR is also reporting that the Personal Hotspot feature will allow five devices to share your device's 3G connection via Wi-Fi. The number of devices can still be reduced by the carrier, however -- if AT&T or Verizon (or Vodafone, or Orange...) want a maximum of three devices sharing a connection, then that's all you'll get.

Presumably, jailbreaking will re-open any carrier-closed slots, however.

iOS 4.3 to be released today, and will allow up to five Personal Hotspot connections? originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 08 Mar 2011 08:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/08/ios-4-3-to-be-released-today-and-will-allow-up-to-five-personal-hotspot/

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HealthTech FAIL: Lessons For Entrepreneurs From Health Startups Gone Awry

Healthtech is an ever-growing sector, but from the $1 billion pool VCs poured into startups over the last year, health companies only received about 3 percent of that total. Not many healthtech startups have been able to secure those big venture rounds; however, last week, I highlighted one healthtech company that seems to be doing it right: Zocdoc, which raised a $50 million round from DST earlier this month, and offered a few takeaways for startups looking to learn from Zocdoc's experience. (Check out the post here. As the aforementioned venture numbers from Rip's post show, many startups really haven't demonstrated the same wisdom Zocdoc has shown, which has led to an increasing number of healthtech failures over the last few years. One recent study in particular highlights this phenomena. After interviewing 110 digital health entrepreneurs, RockHealth recently released the findings of a study demonstrating the disconnect between the companies that are actually getting funding and the many that have come up empty. This disconnect sheds light onto why so many healthtech companies have failed to make an impact, or have had to undergo significant pivots in order to survive. Herein you'll find some of the top causes of healthtech startup failure.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/XA8lowyYbz0/

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New Firefox Nightly and Aurora logos unearthed, and how to enable channel switching

Later today, Firefox will undergo its biggest developmental upheaval ever. Mozilla-central, the source of nightly builds, will be renumbered to version 5 -- and at long last, after years of wallowing around version 1, Mozilla's rendering and layout engine, Gecko, will also have its version number updated to match Firefox.

Shortly thereafter, Firefox's new channel system will be implemented. Firefox 5a2 will be introduced as the first Aurora build, and we should also see a Firefox 6 Nightly build. While we we're not sure where they came from, one Sören Hentzschel seems to have unearthed the new Nightly and Aurora logos (see above), along with new About Firefox dialogs (after the break).

In other news, if you want to take a sneak peek at the new 'channel changing' technology that will be introduced in upcoming Firefox builds, head to about:config and create a new string called app.update.desiredChannel -- the value doesn't matter. Then open Help > About Firefox and you'll be able to switch channel, but it doesn't do anything just yet (image after the break). Here's hoping that Firefox channel switching is smoother than Chrome.

Continue reading New Firefox Nightly and Aurora logos unearthed, and how to enable channel switching

New Firefox Nightly and Aurora logos unearthed, and how to enable channel switching originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 07:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/11/new-firefox-nightly-and-aurora-logos-unearthed-and-how-to-enabl/

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The Long Hard Road To The Edge

A Year In The Life Of An Entrepeneur 1. July 2010: Ready: Set: Delaware, the state with the lowest highest point. David Argentar, a biochemist by training and bioinformaticist by trade, has launched a startup. Of sorts. Well - more of a hobby, he'd be the first to admit. He has no business plan, no investors, no employees. All he really has, in fact, is an idea and a pending patent. And as everyone is eager to tell you these days, ideas are a dime a dozen, and patents are practically a scam. It gets worse. Much. His idea is hardware. A new kind of solar concentrator, to be exact, made mostly of water. His first version was too heavy; but he thinks his redesign could conceivably, in his wildest dreams, drive down the cost of solar power by quite a lot. But?come on, now, really?a hardware startup? With only one founder? Hardware is hard. It allows for no binary abstractions, no digitized purity to protect you from the real world. It is the real world, in all in its vicious and unforgiving glory, perpetually at the mercy of a hundred unexpected environmental factors. And almost by definition it is incredibly expensive to develop. I should know: I myself have a degree in electrical engineering - but I fled to the warm embrace of software as soon as I graduated. Hardware was much too temperamental for me. Argentar, fortunately, is made of sterner stuff. Good thing, too. Over the next year he's going to need everything he's got.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/U7ARiGJr1t8/

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IE9 and Firefox 4 post top marks in Web browser power use comparison

Over on the Internet Explorer Blog, Microsoft has posted results from an extensive comparison of the top five Web browsers. The goal: to determine whether Internet Explorer 9, Firefox 4, Chrome 10, Safari 5, or Opera 11 is able to squeeze the most life out of your laptop's battery.

A baseline was determined with test systems sitting idle, and then browsers were pointed at about:blank, a news site, the HTML5 Galactic demo, and the IE9 fish tank demo. Perhaps unsurprisingly, IE9 came out on top -- though Firefox 4 was a very close second on nearly every test. As you can see, the other browsers didn't necessarily fare quite as well, with Google Chrome, Safari, and Opera all posting significantly worse scores. In Opera 11's case, a laptop battery would last over one hour more with Internet Explorer 9 installed.

But what we'd really like to know is where did Microsoft find the dilithium crystals required to run a Galactic Total Power Consumption test...

IE9 and Firefox 4 post top marks in Web browser power use comparison originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 07:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/30/ie9-and-firefox-4-post-top-marks-in-pc-power-use-comparison/

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