So, you're a ball. A Tarzan Ball, to be precise. You've earned the nickname thanks to your astonishing ability to shoot out a lengthy 'vine' (I hope it's a vine) at objects, and then pull yourself towards those objects.

That's a handy ability to have, especially since you've got no legs, no arms, and no other means of transportation. In Tarzan Ball, the rope is everything. But you don't just swing around the screen aimlessly - that wouldn't be much of a game now, would it?

Instead, your goal in life is to collect "targets". Each level has one of these "targets" hidden away somewhere on the screen, usually behind some kind of barrier. Once you navigate close enough to the target, you can shoot your rope at it and just reel it in. That's when you pass the level.

You can't die in this game, but it can still be very frustrating. It's actually one of the tougher games I've posted recently. Still, if you enjoy physics games, this one is quite nicely made.

[This is actually the sequel to IQ Ball, which we covered last year! -Ed]

Tarzan Ball is a tricky hook-and-pull physics game originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 18:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/02/21/tarzan-ball-is-a-tricky-hook-and-pull-physics-game/

METHODE ELECTRONICS MENTOR GRAPHICS IMS HEALTH IMATION IKON OFFICE SOLUTIONS

If you have an artistic temperament, but you weren't blessed with steady hands or an eye for color, Konstruct might be the app for you. Not only does the iPhone app let you produce generative art using words, warbles and whistles, but it also uses augmented reality to bring your artistic creation to life.

To get started, you first need to print out the Konstruct marker and place it wherever you'd like to create your AR sculpture -- it could be on your living room wall, or on the floor of your bathroom, it doesn't matter. Open the app, point your iPhone at the marker, and start making some noises! Once you're done, you can save your creation, or simply wipe the slate clean and start again.

The volume of your voice affects the size of the shapes that are drawn on the screen, and you can move your head around to alter the path of your 'brush' -- but to change the shape of your brush or modify the color palette you have to use a menu. Without knowledge of the app's internal workings, it's hard to say what the actual difference between whistling, talking and singing is -- and judging by the developer's affinity for whistling in the demo video (after the break), the app probably doesn't perform that much analysis on your input.

Still, Konstruct is just a prototype! A later version could do away with menus and rely entirely on the location, tonality, quality and amplitude of your voice -- and judging by the the words of the developer, James Alliban, there is definitely more in store for Konstruct: "The idea of transforming entire cities into user generated virtual art galleries really appeals to me. I see Konstruct as an early prototype that will hopefully be realised in this form in the future."

Download Konstruct for free from the App Store (iPhone 3GS and 4 only)

[Thanks to Richard for the tip!]

Continue reading Konstruct for iOS creates generative augmented reality art with your voice

Konstruct for iOS creates generative augmented reality art with your voice originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/05/konstruct-for-ios-creates-generative-augmented-reality-art-with/

PEROT SYSTEMS PALM OSI SYSTEMS ORACLE OPENWAVE SYSTEMS

HP has become the first major OEM to deliver support for Google Cloud Print in retail-boxed printers. In an official release, HP announced that its ePrint-enabled printers are now fully Cloud Print compatible. Just sign in to your Google account, pick your HP ePrint device, and you're ready to fire off a print job from anywhere you've got Internet access. Well, as long as your app supports Cloud Print as well -- like Gmail and Google Docs, for example.

We're curious, though -- how many of you are still printing? Like our pals at Engadget, our printers have been mostly gathering dust for the last few years.

Google Cloud Print comes to HP ePrint printers originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 01 Apr 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/01/google-cloud-print-comes-to-hp-eprint-printers/

TECHNITROL TAKETWO INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE SYNTEL SYNTAXBRILLIAN SYNOPSYS

Apple has switched on Find My Mac, a feature from the upcoming iCloud service which lets careless or unlucky Mac owners track down their computers. Currently in beta, for testing by OS X Lion developers, Find My Mac works a lot like the iOS app Find My iPhone. Instead of using GPS to work out where [...]

Source: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/08/find-my-mac-switched-on-for-developers/

MEMC ELECTRONIC MATERIALS MICROSOFT MILLICOM INTL CELLULAR MOBILE TELESYSTEMS NANYA TECHNOLOGY

What's a good way to impress your friends? With a robot boom box that responds to your every hand movement, that's how. Meet Qbo, TheCorpora's open-source Linux robot who we've gotten to know over the years, even through his awkward phase. Nowadays, this full grown cutie has stereoscopic "eyes" and a face-identifying system that's capable of learning, recognizing faces, and responding. With his new hand gesture recognition skills, Qbo will start playing music the moment you hold up a fist. Putting your hand out in a "halt" position stops the song and pointing left or right jumps to different tracks in your playlist. Giving Qbo the peace sign increases the volume (yeah, seriously!), while pointing the peace sign down tells him to take it down a few notches. The ultimate party mate and wing man is even so kind as to announce the name and title of the track. The video after the break best explains what hanging with this fellow is like, but if you're keen on textual explanations, just imagine yourself awkwardly doing the robot to control your stereo. Go on, we won't look.

Continue reading Qbo music player robot responds to hand gestures, challenges DJ Roomba to a dance-off (video)

Qbo music player robot responds to hand gestures, challenges DJ Roomba to a dance-off (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Aug 2011 06:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/04/qbo-music-player-robot-responds-to-hand-gestures-challenges-dj/

INGRAM MICRO INFORMATICA INFOCUS ZORAN ZIONS BAN

A good mobile application is a fine balance between simplicity and functionality. You're using it on the go, so you don't have a lot of time to sit there and fumble with the phone to figure it all out. But you also need it to be powerful enough to let you do whatever it is you're trying to get done.

Hello Expense is one mobile app that gets it right. It's an expense tracker that lets you use your Android-powered phone to quickly log the money you spend and then analyze it and see where it all went.

I recently had the chance to use it in a real-life situation - a road trip that took a few days and involved quite a few expenses. Logging each expense took seconds, and at the end of each day I could get a great overview of how much money I spent on each category so far.

Categories and tags are user-configurable; the app also sports its own number pad to make number entry easy, regardless of what keyboard you're using.

Hello Expense is a simple, reliable expense tracker for Android originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/29/hello-expense-is-a-simple-reliable-expense-tracker-for-android/

NATIONAL SEMICONDUCTOR NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS MOTOROLA MOODYS MISCROSOFT OFFICE

Apple may still be staying out of the fray, but it looks like we now have a full-on back and forth between Google and Microsoft, following the former's blog post yesterday that alleged a "hostile, organized campaign" against Android on the part of Microsoft, Apple, Oracle and others. The latest word comes once again from Google's SVP and Chief Legal Officer, David Drummond, who has updated his original post with a response to what he calls Microsoft's "false gotcha." As you'll recall from late yesterday, Microsoft brought up the fact that it had offered Google the opportunity to bid jointly with it on the Novell patents, and that Google turned it down. According to Drummond, however, such a joint acquisition would have "eliminated any protection these patents could offer to Android against attacks from Microsoft and its bidding partners," and that it "didn't fall for it." He further goes on to note that the Justice Department's eventual intervention in the acquisition -- which required the winning group to provide a license to the open source community -- only backed up Google's case, and reaffirmed its original point that its "competitors are waging a patent war on Android and working together to keep us from getting patents that would help balance the scales." Still no response from Microsoft on that, but we'd recommend staying tuned.

Update: Well, once again, Frank Shaw, lead corporate communications for Microsoft, has taken to Twitter to tell Redmond's side of the story. In several tweets he reiterates that Google rebuffed Microsoft's offer to tag team the patent-bidding process and claims that El Goog wanted Novell's IP all to itself -- so that it could sue others instead of using the portfolio to reduce patent-liability for all. We don't know if that was Google's true intention, but we do enjoy seeing these two tech titans duke it out in a public forum. Keep it up, guys.

Google addresses Microsoft's 'patent attack' response, says it didn't fall for its offer (update: Microsoft responds, again) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Aug 2011 16:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/Xayn0oaArJM/

LAWSON SOFTWARE LAND SOFTWARE LAM RESEARCH L1 IDENTITY SOLUTIONS KINGSTON TECHNOLOGY COMPANY

When ICE identifies a site that is violating copyright and/or intellectual property laws, it obtains a warrant from a United States court granting it the authority to seize the URL. At that point, ICE takes down the streams and throws up an intimidating warning that is overlaid on a red background with the word "SEIZED" written over and over. Case closed. But it's not that simple.

Source: http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/73005.html

ASML HOLDING ASUSTEK COMPUTER ATandT AUTODESK AUTOMATIC DATA PROCESSING

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.

If you're in the U.S., you can now score local savings at participating merchants by checking in with Latitude. Google will also be offering "status deals," which users can unlock by visiting a particular merchant on a regular basis. Mashable notes three status levels: regular, VIP, and guru -- though partners can apparently customize those titles if they choose.

Right now deals are available from merchants like American Eagle Outfitters, Arby's, Finish Line, Macy's, Quiznos, and RadioShack.

Google Latitude check-in deals now available across the US originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 08 Apr 2011 08:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/08/google-latitude-check-in-deals-now-available-across-the-us/

EARTHLINK DST SYSTEMS DISCOVER FINANCIAL SERVICES DIODES INORATED DIEBOLD

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.

We've covered Chocomize before in our holiday gift guide, so when they reached out to us offering to do a giveaway, we really couldn't resist.

Chocomize is giving away ten gift certificates, each worth $50, for you to create your own customized chocolate. They sent us some pictures of their recent creations, which you can find in the gallery below.

Regardless of the giveaway, you can use the discount code switched to get 10% off any Chocomize order. The code is valid through April 20th - just in time for Easter!

To participate, simply leave a comment. Fine print is after the jump.

Continue reading Chocomize personalized chocolate: giveaway and discount code

Chocomize personalized chocolate: giveaway and discount code originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/06/giveaway-and-discount-code-chocomize-personalized-chocolate/

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