Cheap, Plastic-Filled Furniture Makes It Easier for Fire to Destroy Our Homes [Plastic]

Today, more and more furniture is made using plastic-based materials, which burns drastically faster than the interior decor of yore, sucking all the oxygen out of a room at a faster clip, and making it harder to evacuate people. It's a serious problem that's making firefighters completely reconsider how they put fires out. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/zvNChKvQw4k/cheap-plastic+filled-furniture-makes-it-easier-for-fire-to-destroy-our-homes

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Windows 8 to feature adaptive Aero colorization, get it now on Windows 7

windows 8 aero colorization aura
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).

And yes, you can already make Windows 7 behave this way if you like. Over at CodePlex, there's a little program called Aura that parks itself in your system tray and automatically adjusts your window borders to compliment your wallpaper images. The effect is quite nice, and you can try it out by minimizing your windows and cycling through your theme's wallpapers (right click on your desktop and choose next desktop background).

Windows 8 to feature adaptive Aero colorization, get it now on Windows 7 originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 07 Apr 2011 07:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/07/windows-8-to-feature-adaptive-aero-colorization-get-it-now-on-w/

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New software uses facial recognition to defend against prying eyes

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.

If you step away from your system and someone else decides to sit down and poke around, PrivateEye will present a confusing jumble of garbled text. It'll even notify you if someone tries to peek over your shoulder -- and display a picture of your peeping Tom, throw up an alert, or sound an alarm.

Check out the video embed after the break, and share your thoughts in the comments!

Continue reading New software uses facial recognition to defend against prying eyes

New software uses facial recognition to defend against prying eyes originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 07 Apr 2011 13:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/07/new-software-uses-facial-recognition-to-defend-against-prying-ey/

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Amazon Cloud Player review: functional, not mind blowing, and still US-only

Amazon Android Cloud Player appIt's hard to believe: our world-spanning network, our Internet, which is the cornerstone of free speech and free society -- which, on a good day, is capable of causing populist revolutions -- is still crippled by banal geolocation restrictions. We are, of course, talking about Amazon's two latest offerings, both of which are only available in the United States. Last week it was the excellent Android Appstore for Android, and today it's the Amazon Cloud Player for Web and Android.

Along with Cloud Player, Amazon also launched Cloud Drive, which is basically just like any other cloud storage digital locker. It's not particularly feature rich, and there's no real reason to use it over something like SugarSync or SkyDrive -- it does work outside the US, however.

Its primary purpose, as far as we're concerned, is that it stores your your Cloud Player music in a subdirectory. You get 5GB of Cloud Drive storage for free, and then it's $1 per gigabyte per year if you need more space.

The Amazon Cloud Player itself will not, to put it bluntly, blow your mind. It works, but it's very much an early, and possibly rushed, release. Let's dive in to the Web and Android players for a closer look.

Continue reading Amazon Cloud Player review: functional, not mind blowing, and still US-only

Amazon Cloud Player review: functional, not mind blowing, and still US-only originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/29/amazon-cloud-player-hands-on-review-functional-not-mind-blowin/

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Researchers Remotely Hijack Drones on the Cheap

Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have demonstrated that a civilian drone can be hijacked by spoofing its GPS signals. The news comes as the United States Federal Aviation Authority prepares to integrate drones into the country's national airspace system. This task is mandated by the FAA Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2012, signed into law by President Barack Obama in February.

Source: http://ectnews.com.feedsportal.com/c/34520/f/632000/s/20edd520/l/0L0Stechnewsworld0N0Crsstory0C755250Bhtml/story01.htm

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Making Raindrop Glare Disappear Using Smart Headlights [Automobiles]

You're driving down a twisting mountain road at night and all of a sudden the storm clouds open. Whatever you do with your headlights you can barely see more than a couple of feet. Fortunately, that's all set to change thanks to a team of scientists who can make the reflections from the rain disappear. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/JD_OGsW_v5k/making-raindrop-glare-disappear-using-smart-headlights

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Internet Explorer 9 nears 4% share on Windows 7, IE6 extinction countdown picks up steam

internet explorer 9 ie9
Microsoft has shared some news about the state of its most and least loved Web browsers -- Internet Explorer 9 and 6, respectively. Even with IE9 only recently exiting beta, Microsoft reports that 3.6% of Windows 7 users are now running the new browser (no mention of Vista... what's with that?). The post also reveals that the adoption rate is almost five times what IE8 garnered in the early going.

It's also interesting to note that there are now more than 1,000 sites utilizing Internet Explorer 9's Windows 7 integration features -- like the new desktop notification support we showed you in Hotmail.

But perhaps the best news of all is that Microsoft's IE6countdown.com now has more than 400 partners and is generating nearly two million pageviews per month, helping to lure users away from the woefully out-of-date browser. Can the end come soon enough, DS readers?

Internet Explorer 9 nears 4% share on Windows 7, IE6 extinction countdown picks up steam originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 01 Apr 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/01/internet-explorer-9-nears-4-share-on-windows-7-ie6-extinction/

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Words With Friends for Android updated, promises "smoother game experience"

wordswithfriends
As several of you noted in the comments to our post asking for cross-platform iOS/Android games, Words With Friends for Android does not provide the smoothest gaming experience... and that's being rather charitable.

You might be happy to hear that a couple of days ago Zynga released an update which promises to solve many of the Android-specific issues, such as notifications not popping up.

Sadly, installing the update is not a smooth experience; you have to manually uninstall the previous version, and then go to the Android Market and install it. What's nice is that it doesn't lose your saved games - this screenshot shows a game I've started before the update and continued after updating.

How's the new update working out for you? Let us know in the comments!

Words With Friends for Android updated, promises "smoother game experience" originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 04 Mar 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/04/words-with-friends-for-android-updated-promises-smoother-game/

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Ice Cream Sandwich consumed by one in ten Android devices

Ice Cream Sandwich consumed by one in ten Android handsets

The latest Dashboard numbers for Google's Android operating system have been released. The verdict? One in ten devices is leveraging Ice Cream Sandwich as their mobile OS of choice. The numbers, which are current as of July 2nd, put Gingerbread (Android 2.3) in first place with a 64-percent install base; followed by Froyo (Android 2.2) with 17.3-percent and ICS with 10.6-percent. Jelly Bean (Android 4.1), announced just last week at Google's IO Developer Conference, was not included in this instance of the report (as it is not officially available yet). Hit the source link to view all the stats, and feel free to let us know what Android codebase your handset is rocking via the comments.

Ice Cream Sandwich consumed by one in ten Android devices originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Jul 2012 07:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/rs6SX4pckCk/

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