AppId is over the quota
by Lee Mathews on April 7, 2011 at 04:00 PM
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. Tags: apps, bing, ios, ipad, microsoft, mobile, search, tablet
Recently, Google has been busy beefing up Latitude to make it more competitive with other location apps -- and more fun to use. Location history was added recently, iOS users can post check-ins via Latitude, and now Google has begun rolling out location-based deals which are tied to the service. 
Tags: apps, Mac, moom, moom for mac, MoomForMac, OSX, productivity, utilities, window management, window move, window size, window zooming, WindowManagement, WindowMove, WindowSize, WindowZooming
Having the right programs and hardware to keep the information on your display safe from prying eyes is never a bad idea, and new software from Oculis Labs offers a very interesting take on how to do just that. It's called PrivateEye, and it utilizes facial recognition to automatically pixelate the contents of your display when you look away. 
Microsoft's Business Unit, the Mac software arm of the Redmond-based software giant, is set to release its first Service Pack for Office 2011 for Mac. Just like most updates of this nature, SP1 will address a myriad of bugs, and roll in most of the hotfixes that came before it into one, easy to install package. 
We're not entirely sure of the time line here, but it looks like Google has now rolled out the SPDY HTTP replacement to its full bevy of Web services, including Gmail, Docs, and YouTube. If you're currently using Google's Chrome browser you're probably already using SPDY.
GNOME 3, after more than two years of development, has been released into the wild. GNOME 3 is not merely the logical successor of GNOME 2: it is an entirely new project, started from scratch, to create a "completely new, modern desktop designed for today's users and technologies." 
It's taken months of confused looks, but Google's finally seen the light. Hotpot, which has been a universally scorned moniker for a service that just about everyone called Places, is now simply lumped in with Places. 
While we've still yet to see anything truly Earth-shattering, the tandem of Rafael Rivera and Paul Thurrott continues to churn out insight about interesting new features they've discovered in Windows 8 milestone 3. The latest discovery is that Aero in Windows 8 will be able to automatically adapt itself to match your current wallpaper image. It's a bit like what Windows 7 already does with your taskbar icons: if a program alert needs your attention, the icon will glow using the predominant color (e.g. Firefox should glow orange). 
Auslogics Disk Defrag has been part of my system maintenance toolkit for quite some time. With the release of version 3.2, it's now even better at tidying up and optimizing your system's hard disk drives. In addition to a cleaner, easier-to-use interface, Disk Defrag 3.2 offers improved single file and folder defragging, better processing of multiple disks, a simplified scheduling screen, and more informative tool tips. Auslogics has also fine-tuned the program's defragmentation and file consolidation algorithms. 
A few moments ago, version 2 of the Banshee music player for Linux was released, bringing with it a whole slew of new features, and the addition of an official -- but alpha-quality -- Windows build. The Mac OS X build of version 2 is due later today. 
The crew in Oslo keeps plugging away at Opera 11.10, and the latest snapshot build includes a number of improvements to Opera's built-in email client -- as well as HTML5-related additions. 
Have you ever thought your Facebook status updates lacked finesse? Ever regretted saying that to the whole of Facebook about 30 seconds after hitting send? Ever wished you had your own personal Leonard Nimoy to proof read your mind-dumps before you make a fool of yourself? Yes, me too, and now you can! 
The Gmail team has been busy behind the scenes of late addressing a plentiful supply of little niggles. First up on the chopping block is the annoying (or amazing, depending on how you look at it) auto-save contacts feature, which has been the bane of many-a-contact neat-freak (myself included) since its inception. Now Google has finally added an option to turn off the auto-save contacts feature. It's available in the 'General' tab of Gmail settings going forward, and should please anyone who syncs their phone contacts with Gmail contacts. 
Just recently, the Opera 11.10 release candidate was made available for download. It brought a handful of important feature additions -- like HTML5 File API support and IMAP enhancements -- and loads of bugfixes. Nestled in amongst the other details in the Opera team's announcement is one more interesting tidbit: Opera 11.10 offers improved battery optimizations. 
Kindlebility is a bookmarklet that can send any Web page you're viewing to your Kindle. Kindlebility will format the websites so that viewing them on the Kindle isn't a pain. Once you've set it up (more on that in a moment), Kindlebility only requires one click to use -- and the pages arrive on your Kindle in seconds. 
Mozilla's Engineering Project Manager, Christian Legnitto, has detailed the release schedule for Firefox 5, 6 and 7. If all goes to plan, Firefox 6.0a1 will be released next week, April 12, and Firefox 7.0a1 in the middle of May. The final build of Firefox 5 should be released on June 21, exactly three months after the release of Firefox 4. 
Wladimir Palant, developer of the most popular add-on in the world, Adblock Plus, is also an active contributor to the Planet Mozilla blog community. Over the last few days, in response to Mozilla's new name and shame list of slow add-ons, Palant has been investigating whether Mozilla's testing methods are actually accurate. 
Zoho has offered an iOS app for a while now -- at least for the iPhone and iPod touch. Those of you who have been wanting to use the Zoho app on your iPad were out of luck, but that's no longer the case. 
Bing's new HTML5-and-CSS3-enhanced search interface, which was first demonstrated back in September 2010 to showcase the power of IE9, has started to roll out. 
Angry Birds is one franchise that sure gives new meaning to the word cross-platform. Angry Birds Rio, the latest installment in the bird-slinging series from Rovio Mobile, is now available in Nokia's Ovi Store, ready to fly to your Symbian device. Angry Birds Rio has so far been spotted on iOS, Android, and webOS. 
A while back, we told you about AVG's new LiveKive service, a new cloud synchronization and backup tool which appears to have been named after a vat in which mash is made during the brewing process. But enough about AVG's odd choice of monikers -- LiveKive has launched and is now ready to accept your files into the AVG cloud. 
Now that Windows 8 images have begun leaking out, it's only a matter of time until developers start releasing mods for Windows 7 which mimic upcoming features. Over at Into Windows, they've spotted one such mod already. 
LinkedIn, the 'professional' social network, has finally launched an Android app. The app has previously been available in beta for a while. The final version includes support for messages, as well as a new Reconnect button, which suggests people you may know based on your profile and current connections. LinkedIn for Android obviously has all the features you'd expect, making it easy to connect with fellow LinkedIn users from your smartphone. 
Not content with limiting its dominance in streaming uploaded videos, YouTube is now ready to take on competitors like Justin.TV and Ustream. The new YouTube Live service is being rolled out to select YouTube partners and will enable real-time broadcasting. In its official announcement, Google states that "The goal is to provide thousands of partners with the capability to live stream from their channels in the months ahead." 
Anyone who relies on a carrier unlock to use their iPhone on another GSM carrier, can now take the iOS 4.3.1 plunge thanks to ultrasn0w 1.2.1. The iPhone Dev-Team have worked their magic to make ultrasn0w functional once again for the iPhone 4 (GSM), 3GS and 3G, and to correct a signal bar issue for anyone maintaining an older baseband but not using an unlock. 
The developer of iCab Mobile, a feature-rich alternative to the Safari Web browser on iPad and iPhone, has been ordered by Apple to remove its ability to download and install JavaScript modules. 
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. 
Version 5.3 of Skype for Windows has just been released, with the main emphasis of the new release being improved call quality, and the quality of video received by mobile Skype users. Presumably one party of the video call must be using Skype for Windows 5.3, though. 
It's official, folks! CyanogenMod 7 is now deemed stable enough to be called, well, stable. The ROM is available now for your flashing pleasure on over 30 devices -- including some tablets. Don't worry, it doesn't disappoint; I've been using it through the development process for months and it's well worth the wait. 
Well, here we are. More than four years after launching, Switched and DownloadSquad are unfortunately being closed. I've been thrilled to work at these two sites that have expanded tech coverage beyond the usual gadgets and social networks to cooking, culture, design, art and more. It's been humbling to work with these incredibly dedicated and talented teams of writers, and it would have been impossible to do it without them.
The SeaMonkey Project has released SeaMonkey 2.1 Beta 3, a version that makes a lot of new functionality available to a wide audience for the first time. A lot of stuff has been added and tweaked since SeaMonkey 2.1 Beta 2 hit the streets back in February, and we're now one step closer to the final release of version 2.1 of the integrated Internet app suite. 
Rejoice! No longer will you have to fork over $700 for a Photoshop CS5 license! Adobe has unveiled a new subscription scheme where you can rent the entire Creative Suite, or individual packages, by the month, or for an entire year. 
When TweetDeck landed in the Chrome Web Store, it seemed like an indication that it might eventually evolve into a pure HTML5 Web app. Now it looks as though that's exactly what's going to happen, with TweetDeck announcing that a new, not-just-for-Chrome Web client is ready for beta testing. 
Windows 8 images continue to leak onto the Internet, despite Microsoft's wallpaper-based pleas to those with access to the early releases. Today's installment courtesy CNBeta shows the upcoming Windows App Store, which will likely feature prominently in Windows 8. 
The Google I/O conference, a gathering of developers from across the globe to San Francisco's Moscone Center, sold out in under an hour. In an effort to encompass as many people as clearly want to join in with the conference, Google is going to stream the keynotes, sessions and Developer Sandbox, live via the Google I/O website. This is in addition to the already planned I/O Extended viewing parties that Google and others are hosting around the world. 
Okay, I know what you're thinking: chocolate on Download Squad? That's right! That's because Chocomize is one of the nerdiest ways to get chocolate online: it's a website where you customize your own bar using a multi-step process. 
Google has removed Grooveshark from the Android Market. The move, which comes many months after Apple kicked the music app from its App Store, has to do with (what else?) accusations from several top music labels that Grooveshark violates copyright law.