Many Android devices ship with a default home screen launcher that, frankly, kind of sucks. The good news? You can install a new launcher offering better shortcuts, more home screens, and extra configuration options. Here’s the lowdown on the most popular options.
We recently discussed how to streamline your Android home screen and how to install a new home screen launcher. While I personally recommended LauncherPro, many of you noted that you're big fans of other launchers, and rightfully so—there are a few really good ones out there. Today, we'll go through the most popular three, noting each one's special features so you can decide which one's right for you.
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Although it’s only just been revealed and won’t actually go on sale for four long weeks, Apple’s new hockey puck is far from the only media streamer on the market — and with Sony’s Netbox and the Boxee Box on the way, the sub-$200 set-top box market is exploding with options. So let’s line up the revised Apple TV against the (post-price cut) Roku HD-XR, Popbox, and even an LG Blu-ray player in the same price range and see what you’re actually getting — and more importantly, getting access to — on each device. Oh, and there’s some choice words from Roku after the break.
Update: You asked for them, so we added the PS3, Xbox 360 & WDTV Live as well, after the break.
Unhearit uses a fight-fire-with-fire approach to getting annoying songs out of your head by barraging you with new and catchy tunes.
Visit Unhearit, click the New Song button, and Unhearit kicks out a catchy tune. We were dubious about its ability to crank out catchy song after catchy song but after repeatedly clicking the New Song button we realized that each new song was catchy enough to make us forget about the prior tune. The repertoire of the tool is impressive too, in the course of our testing we heard the Super Mario Bros theme song, got Rick Rolled, and heard some excellent music from a 40 year span.
On top of just spinning up new songs for you Unhearit includes quick sharing via popular social networks and the ability to download the new songs you discover via the service. Have a favorite tool for getting a pesky song out of your head? Let’s hear about it in the comments.
On the lookout for graphics that look good at any size, or some specialized font images? Google’s search bots just started indexing SVG files, so you can find them on any site they’re available (and wherever webmasters haven’t blocked Google). You can find your scalable vector graphics with a filetype:svg search. [Google Webmaster Central via SearchEngine Land]
filetype:svg
Windows/Mac/Linux/Apple TV: The popular XBMC media center application just released the first beta of its next big update, codenamed Dharma. The biggest feature improvement in the update: The XBMC crew have developed a robust add-on system that makes it easy to install new add-ons and automatically updates plugins and skins so you’re always running the latest and greatest version of your add-ons. The update also features hardware acceleration for supported graphics cards, unencrypted Blu-ray playback (meaning you still may want to use this method to play your encrypted Blu-ray discs), and more (which you can check out on the release milestone page). Thanks sneakily1! [XBMC Blog]
You’ve heard of this Love Plus thing, right? This Nintendo DS-based “dating simulator” is apparently a big deal in Japan, giving Otaku the opportunity to chat up (and kiss) girls the only way they know how: on a hand-held game console, with a stylus. To promote the latest version of the game (Love Plus +), Konami has developed an Augmented Reality iPhone app that players can take to the coastal city of Atami, allowing them to interact with their virtual girlfriends at any of thirteen romantic spots. One can even book a room at the Ohnoya hotel which, according to Discovery News, offers futon beds and a “barcode panel that allows the men to visualize their girlfriends in a flattering summer kimono.” Over 2,000 virtual lotharios visited the resort town during the campaign, which began on July 10 and ends today. Check out the trailer for the game (in Japanese, which doesn’t diminish the enjoyment for our English readers one bit) after the break.
Continue reading Resort uses augmented reality to pair virtual girls with actual nerds
We’re surrounded by gadgets that demand our attention, constantly fragmenting our ability to properly focus on the task at hand. Living with technology doesn’t mean we have to live with an addiction, however. Here’s how to beat tech burnout.
Image by Wallpaper-9
When new people come to my apartment there’s usually a point in the visit where they stop and ask, “wait, how many screens do you have?” That’s when it’s time to play Guess How Many Screens Adam Has. We play by the Price is Right rules and everyone is always afraid of guessing too high. They never do. There are always more they haven’t considered. Aside from being pretty ridiculous, being surrounded by so much technology poses a problem. How do you stay focused when there are so many things that are designed for you to interact with them?
Most of us aren’t going to choose extreme tech minimalism and toss our heap of electronics. Instead, let’s first take a look at why tech burnout, addiction, and other tech-plus-human issues occur. Then we’ll figure out how to avoid the problem altogether.
Notorious file sharing website The Pirate Bay is a long-standing enemy of the movie industry, but one Swedish filmmaker has plans to create a documentary called TPB AFK about the three founders of the site, and their reactions to being found guilty of being accessory to crime against copyright law and fined about $3.6 million.
Make no mistake, we’re unabashed Eneloop rechargeable battery fanboys around here. How could we not be given our mobile lifestyle and obsessive need to keep all our toys juiced. As such, we’re stoked by the announcement of a pair of Sanyo power packs: the Eneloop Mobile Booster (model KBC-L2BS) and Eneloop Stick Booster (KBC-D1BS). The Mobile Booster is a rechargeable slab of lithium-ion with a pair of built-in USB terminals (and microUSB adapter) capable of pushing a relatively hefty 1 Amp charge for about 2 hours (or 500mA for 4 hours if charging two device) to gear that requires that kind of suck… like the iPad. The battery pack can then be recharged over AC or a USB connection on your PC. The highly portable Stick Booster, meanwhile, ships with a pair of AA Eneloops — so when the electrons cease to flow you can just swap out the dead batteries for a pair of fresh rechargeables. The Stick Booster is also an official Nintendo licensee so you can be sure that it’ll charge your DSLite, DSi, or DSi LL (no mention of the 3DS). Look for these to ship October 21st in Japan.
No matter the size of your website, commenters tend to be a smaller subset of your audience. But they’re also often among your most loyal readers who are the most engaged. Wouldn’t it be great to know something about those people? That’s what Disqus is trying to nail with a new Analytics offering.
While it’s still in its early stages, the key to Disqus Analytics is that it’s very simple to use and pull meaningful data from. You’ll not only be able to see who your most loyal commenters are, you’ll be able to see the topics that are clearly the most important when it comes to engagement with your audience. And you can get data about which posts or people are most often “liked” and which login method your commenters are using to leave comments on various types of posts.
As some of you have noticed, we just turned on Disqus comments a few days ago. So far, the system is excellent. That on top of more community management should hopefully keep the trolls at bay. We’ll see. With these analytics though, at the very least we’ll know something about the trolls.
