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Monthly Archives: January 2011
‘Robot’ marks its 90th anniversary as a word
It’s not often we mark the anniversary of a single word around here, but this one’s particularly close to our cold, electronic hearts — it was ninety years ago today that the word “robot” was introduced to the public in Karel Capek’s play “R.U.R.” (Rossum’s Universal Robots), which first premiered in Prague in its original Czech language in 1921, and came to New York a year later in English. As Gearlog notes, however, Capek actually gives credit for the origin of the word to his brother Josef, who suggested the term “roboti” that he derived from the Czech word “robota,” which literally means “serf labor,” and can refer to drudgery or hard work. Of course, robots themselves have evolved quite a bit over those ninety years, and — given the pace of development as of late — we’re a bit hesitant to guess what things might be like when the 100th anniversary of the word comes around.
‘Robot’ marks its 90th anniversary as a word originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Jan 2011 22:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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GoSmart Clip Smartphone Steering Wheel Mount Review
When I first learned about the GoSmart Clip a few months ago, I thought it was a great idea for putting your smartphone’s display right in the center of your steering wheel, for easy viewing. They sent me one to review and now that I’ve had a chance to actually use it, here’s what I [...]
Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2011/01/23/gosmart-clip-smartphone-steering-wheel-mount-review/
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Ubuntu 11.04 switches to LibreOffice in latest daily builds
Back in September 2010, when Google, Novell and others announced the LibreOffice fork of OpenOffice, Canonical frontman Mark Shuttleworth said “The Ubuntu Project will be pleased to ship LibreOffice from The Document Foundation in future releases.” In recent 11.04 Natty Narwhal daily builds, the change has finally taken place.
Download yourself a new Ubuntu 11.04 daily build .ISO, and you’ll have LibreOffice installed from the get-go — no PPA required. Natty is currently in the early stages, of course, so expect a few bumps in the road if you decide to take it for a test drive.
Ubuntu 11.04 switches to LibreOffice in latest daily builds originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 20 Jan 2011 09:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Open a new instance of an existing application in Windows 7
This week, we’re running a series of keyboard tips and tricks that help you make the most of Windows 7. To see the previous tips, check our Tips index.
Earlier this week, I’ve shown you how to activate specific windows using their numbers. As you may recall, hitting Win+Number runs the application for that spot on the taskbar, or switches to it if it’s already running. But what if it’s already running and you want to run a new instace? Well, it turns out that’s possible by hitting Win+Shift+number! This sequence would run the program for that taskbar spot again, even if it’s already running. And if you like using the mouse, you can get the same result by middle-clicking the application’s icon.
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Hands-on: Gentle Alarm for Android is a beautiful way to wake up
When I listed Gentle Alarm as one of my top Android apps, I promised a more in-depth review — and here it is! Here are the key features of the app that’s been (successfully!) waking me up every morning for the past several weeks.
Profiles
One of the best concepts in Gentle Alarm is that not all alarms are exactly alike. The Profiles screen lets you set up individual alarm “types”. As you can see, each profile has its own complete set of options: You can select whether or not you’d like to have a pre-alarm (more on these later), the duration of the alarm, the initial and final volume, the alarm tone (or MP3 tune), and more.
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Songbird app for Android goes beta, we go hands-on
Using Songbird on your desktop or laptop to listen to your cavernous collection of digital music? Good news — the Songbird team has been working in “super seekrit” (their words, not ours) on bringing you a pocket-sized version for your Android device. Even better, they’ve announced the availability of the first public beta of Songbird for Android — and we took it for a spin.
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Open a new instance of an existing application in Windows 7
This week, we’re running a series of keyboard tips and tricks that help you make the most of Windows 7. To see the previous tips, check our Tips index.
Earlier this week, I’ve shown you how to activate specific windows using their numbers. As you may recall, hitting Win+Number runs the application for that spot on the taskbar, or switches to it if it’s already running. But what if it’s already running and you want to run a new instace? Well, it turns out that’s possible by hitting Win+Shift+number! This sequence would run the program for that taskbar spot again, even if it’s already running. And if you like using the mouse, you can get the same result by middle-clicking the application’s icon.
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Jive?s CEO Throws Down the Hammer on Competitors, Plans 2011 IPO (TCTV)
Enterprise software isn’t as sexy a topic as the iPhone or consumer apps. So why do I love to cover it? The fights. While most consumer Internet companies view their market as a warm and fuzzy place where there can be multiple winners, in enterprise software it’s a slug fest. Companies are competing head-to-head for deals and customers want as few software vendors as possible. That means scrappy founders who love to joust– especially those trained in the school of His Royal Highness of Jousting, Oracle’s Larry Ellison. In this second segment of our sit down with Jive’s Tony Zingale, he throws down on competitors like Yammer and Salesforce and explains why he loves his competitors’ freemium model, saying “They’re the best lead gen source we have, because the moment anyone gets serious they call Jive.”(By the way, if a named competitor would like to come on TCTV and have your say, you’ve got our number.) Only an enterprise software exec would say someone calling his sales force “ex-Mercury sons-of-bitches” was “flattering.”
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/qJD8y7LtF0o/
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CCleaner Network Edition now available to help admins keep their PCs tidy
CCleaner is one of our favorite utilties, and it’s a great way to keep computers free of unwanted temporary files and registry clutter both at home and at the office. It does, however, lack certain features which LAN administrators demand — like a management console and an easy, network-wide deployment process.
Recently, however, Piriform began testing CCleaner Network Edition, which was designed to meet an admin’s needs. The new app allows you to remotely initiate scans and manage your entire network’s cleaning rules and settings from a single computer. You can also scan an entire workgroup — or all your machines — at once. One-click deployment is built in as well, making it easy to push CCleaner NE to your workstations.
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Woman tries, fails to smuggle 44 iPhones into Israel
Sigh. We don’t know whether to congratulate the enterprising spirit of this venture or to bemoan the sad state of a world where a 60-something-year old lady feels compelled to turn into an iPhone smuggler. Either way, Israel’s Ben-Gurion International Airport has given us a pretty good reason for the use of full body scanners, which revealed the woman in question was strapped with 44 iPhone 4s all around her body. Dressed in traditional Georgian attire, the lady had some struggles walking around, which raised suspicion and got the officials to run her through the machines. Guess this gives us a whole new definition to the phrase “stocking stuffer,” eh?
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