Kindle for Android updated with integrated store, zoom, move to SD and more

kindle
Our good friends over at Engadget report that a new version of Kindle for Android is now out. Here's what's new:
  • The volume buttons can now be used to turn pages. This isn't touted as a major change, but it's actually very handy.
  • There's an in-app store just like on the 'real' Kindle. It's very mobile friendly, and offers books and subscriptions for newspapers and magazines. Just what you'd expect, basically.
  • SD card support: The app can now be moved to SD with no hackery involved.
  • Chapter titles are now shown on the status bar. That's actually the top part of the status bar; not all books have this enabled, as the screenshot to the right of Food Rules shows, due to their small size, but further testing with larger books such as Seth Godin's Linchpin did work.
  • Other updates: Social network sharing, graphics zoom, and bug fixes.
All in all, a worthy update. You can find the QR after the jump.

Continue reading Kindle for Android updated with integrated store, zoom, move to SD and more

Kindle for Android updated with integrated store, zoom, move to SD and more originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 17 Dec 2010 08:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2010/12/17/kindle-for-android-updated-with-integrated-store-zoom-move-to/

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Britney Spears To Hit Studio With Max Martin, Dr. Luke This Week

'I'm pretty sure it's a smash,' Spears' manager tweets about song for her upcoming album.
By Jocelyn Vena


Britney Spears
Photo: Christopher Polk/ Getty Images

For those wondering what the deal is with Britney Spears' next album, her manager, Adam Leber, tweeted an update about the princess of pop's musical endeavors as she works on the follow-up to 2008's Circus.

"Brit is recording a big big BIG new song on Friday with #MaxMartin & @TheDrLuke. I'm pretty sure it's a smash!" he wrote. Leber recently said that the album would sound "progressive" and that ''it'll be a departure from what you've heard" in the past.

Dr. Luke retweeted Leber's message, as well as this update for all the Britney fans out there: "Please continue to wait 4 Britney's new song!!!!" Luke worked with Spears on her "Circus" track for her last album.

As for Martin, he and Spears have a long history of making music together, having worked on "3," "... Baby One More Time" and "If U Seek Amy."

"She's such an icon, I don't want to let anyone down," Dr. Luke recently shared about working with Britney, who is expected to release music sometime in early 2011. "But most importantly, I want to make good music ... I'm excited to be co-executive producing with Max Martin, the person who kind of invented Britney, and to make good music. And she's such an amazing vehicle to getting that music out to a lot of people in every country."

Spears has also hit the studio with producer Danja, who worked on her song "Gimme More." He explained, "I'm definitely gonna do my part and try to make it hard-hitting, up-tempo, high-energy. That's what I think we need and that's what I'm gonna shoot for."

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1651811/20101109/spears_britney.jhtml

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Knoword is a fun way to test and improve your vocabulary

knoword
Think you have a good vocabulary? If that's true, Knoword lets you show it off... or find out that maybe it isn't as great as you thought. Knoword is a fast dictionary game. You'll be shown a definition along with the first letter of the word and you need to figure out what the word is. Once you type the word (correctly, mind you - spelling matters), you get points and get the next word.

Initially you have 60 seconds to figure out the correct response; with each word you find correctly, you receive additional time. When you find several words in a row, you get a "Word Streak" badge. If the game has you completely stumped, you can always skip a word. This also requires a bit of quick thinking, because skipping a word results in a small point penalty. On the other hand, the clock is ticking... so is this word on the tip of your tongue, or should you skip it and go on to the next?

You can also open an account and have your game results saved. If you're good enough, you may end up somewhere in the player rankings.

Knoword is a fun way to test and improve your vocabulary originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 17 Dec 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2010/12/17/knoword-is-a-fun-way-to-test-and-improve-your-vocabulary/

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Britney Spears' Producer Opens Up About Her New Album

'She is actually damn professional,' Shellback says in radio interview.
By Jocelyn Vena


Britney Spears
Photo: Eric Charbonneau/ Le Studio/ Wireimage

Britney Spears fans are gearing up for the release of the singer's new music in 2011. With the album due out in March, and a single expected to drop before then, details are slowly emerging about the music and what it was like to work with Spears on the follow-up to 2008's Circus.

"Right now we are preparing for Britney's upcoming album, which will be released in March. Some other things too, but the main focus is the album," Swedish producer Shellback said in a recent radio interview. "It works in many different ways [when you work with Britney]. You can make something absolutely new, or take a beat that's three years old and come up with a good sound."

Shellback, who worked with Pink on "Raise Your Glass," collaborated with Dr. Luke and Max Martin on music for Spears. The producers are donating a guitar they used on the album to charity.

"[Britney]'s actually damn professional. You read a lot on the Internet that Britney is not singing and mimes, but she is actually damn professional," Shellback said. "She's done it since she was 16. And just rhythmic way, she is f---ing awesome! And you do not have to go through and talk about the rhythms and stuff that you sometimes have to do. She's very easy in the studio."

Spears has shared her excitement about the new album with fans via her Twitter page. "I'm almost done with my new album and it will be coming out this March," she wrote. "I AM IN L-O-V-E WITH IT!"

Are you excited for Britney's new album? Tell us in the comments below!

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1654749/20101221/spears_britney.jhtml

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Away put your map! Star Wars voices for TomTom

A GPS navicomputer can be a powerful ally when eating up highway miles in your beat-up old freighter.  But the stock voices can get a bit stale.  Oh dear!  Spice it up with Star Wars voices for TomTom.  The strikingly spot-on voices can be downloaded directly to your TomTom device via home desktop software.  Listen [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2010/12/28/away-put-your-map-star-wars-voices-for-tomtom/

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Kodachrome film is seriously at the end of its life -- again

Kodachrome film is iconic enough that there have now been several 'goodbye, Kodachrome' news stories, and we just couldn't resist one more. This time, our tale is of Dwayne's Photo in Parsons, Kansas (which we've had occasion to reference once before), a film processing store which has the distinction of being the final place to accept Kodachrome for development. The problem? The store has been flooded with packages of undeveloped film from all over the world as the window for its processing comes to an end. It turns out that having that distinction will get you hundreds of rolls of film a day, and Dwayne's Photo said that it would not process any films that arrived after Thursday. Yes, that was yesterday, though the mail is undoubtedly still arriving.

Kodachrome film is seriously at the end of its life -- again originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Dec 2010 13:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/ruW243P_j0g/

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Michael Jackson Doctor To Claim Singer Killed Himself

Prosecutor thinks Dr. Conrad Murray's lawyers will say Jackson self-administered lethal dose of propofol.
By Gil Kaufman


Michael Jackson
Photo: Sony/ AEG

More than 19 months after Michael Jackson's shocking death at the age of 50, the only person charged in the case, the singer's former personal physician Dr. Conrad Murray, is due in court next week. And, according to a Reuters report, Murray's lawyers plan to defend Murray against a charge of involuntary manslaughter by claiming that the pop icon killed himself when he self-administered a large dose of propofol, a surgical anesthetic Jackson used as a sleep aid to combat chronic insomnia.

Murray has pleaded not guilty to a felony charge of involuntary manslaughter and has admitted to giving Jackson propofol. Murray's lawyers have said the physician did not administer any drugs that "should have" caused Jackson's death. The investigation into his death was lengthy, lasting more than eight months, after which Los Angeles prosecutors charged that Murray gave the King of Pop a lethal combination of propofol and other painkillers and sedatives in the hours before the singer was found dead in his rented Los Angeles mansion on June 25, 2009. Murray faces up to four years in prison if convicted.

Reuters reported that in a Wednesday court session to discuss evidence in the case against Murray, Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney David Walgren said he thinks that the doctor's attorneys appear to be preparing a defense claiming that Jackson self-administered the lethal dose while Murray was out of the room.

Murray's attorney would not respond to questions about Walgren's statements. Murray's trial is slated to begin on January 4 with a preliminary hearing that will determine if there is enough evidence to proceed to a full trial. Prosecutors and defense attorneys said they expect the preliminary hearing to take around two weeks.

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1655106/20101230/jackson_michael.jhtml

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Facebook Photos, now with facial recognition auto-tagging

Facebook Photos facial recognition
Facebook, in a continuing drive to upgrade the most popular portion of its site, will roll out facial recognition auto-tagging of photos in the next few weeks -- if you live in the US, anyway.

Now, when you upload photos, Facebook will compare the faces in the photos with the faces of your friends. If a match is found, you'll be prompted with a suggested tag. If Facebook can't identify a person, it will ask you to enter their name, which will presumably help with identification in the future. If you upload a batch of photos of the same person -- say, from a wedding or birthday party -- Facebook will group those photos together and suggest a tag, making tagging a one- or two-click affair.

With a shocking grasp of foresight, Facebook is going to let you opt out of the auto-tagging process, too! If you don't want your face to be recognized in other people's uploads, hop over to Privacy Settings > Customize Settings, and deselect "Suggest photos of me to friends." [This option doesn't seem to be visible yet, but that could be because I'm in the UK -- or because the roll-out hasn't begun.]

There's no mention of whether you'll be able to auto-tag old photo albums, but I suspect it will be possible.

Facebook Photos, now with facial recognition auto-tagging originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 16 Dec 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2010/12/16/facebook-photos-now-with-facial-recognition-auto-tagging/

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New Led Zeppelin On The Way? Jason Bonham Hints At 'Jam' Sessions With Jimmy Page -- But Not Robert Plant

Drummer admits he doesn't know what will come of 'new material.'
By Chris Harris


Jason Bonham
Photo: Larry Marano/ Getty Images

On Friday morning, mere hours before he was due to take the stage with classic rockers Foreigner at Detroit's GM Renaissance Center, drummer Jason Bonham — the son of late Led Zeppelin kitman John Bonham — told Jim Johnson and Lynne Woodison of local rock station 94.7 WCSX that he'd be an ex-member of Foreigner as of September 1. But that's not the only thing he said.

Much to the delight of Led Zeppelin fans everywhere, Bonham revealed that he's been meeting up with Led Zep guitarist Jimmy Page and bassist John Paul Jones in recent months and that they've been "trying to do some new material and writing."

It was the first time since Led Zeppelin announced they would re-form for a single performance (which happened late last year at London's O2 Arena, in honor of the late Ahmet Ertegün, who signed the band to Atlantic Records in 1969) that anyone connected to the band has confirmed publicly that new music could be on the horizon for the iconic rockers. While the bandmembers have stopped short of definitively ruling out such a reunion, singer Robert Plant insisted in the wake of last year's show that he intended to focus on promoting and touring behind his critically lauded album with bluegrass artist Alison Krauss, Raising Sand.

Not that Bonham knows what — if anything — will happen with the new material he's been working on with Page (who collaborated with pop singer Leona Lewis on an uneven version of Zep's "Whole Lotta Love" at the Olympic closing ceremonies in Beijing on Sunday night) and Jones. He said he just shows up and takes his seat behind the kit.

"I've been over [to England] a couple of times," Bonham said. "I've been working with Jimmy and John Paul and trying to do ... some new material and some writing. I don't know what it will be, but it will be something. At the moment, all I know is I have the great pleasure to go and jam with the two guys and start work on some material. When I get there, I never ask any questions. If I get a phone call to go and play, I enjoy every moment of it. Whatever it ends up as, to ever get a chance to jam with two people like that, it is a phenomenal thing for me. It's my life. It's what I've dreamed about doing."

He said it's still too early to tell what will become of these "jam" sessions, but admitted that the "possibility of doing something is in the cards. I really felt it was in the cards from the moment we walked offstage at the O2." Bonham also explained that, before there could be a Led Zep LP, "lots of politics [would need to] get ironed out," but added that recording with Zep is "something I've always wanted to do."

Bonham noticeably didn't mention frontman Plant's name during the discussion. A spokesperson for Page's management had no comment on the matter, and a spokesperson for Jones' management could not be reached by press time.

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1593468/20080825/led_zeppelin.jhtml

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