Mitoza is a fun, freaky Web toy with an artistic look

mitoza
While not a game per se, I found Mitoza intriguing enough to spend quite some time with it. You start off with a seed, and are then presented with two choices: you can either click a flower pot, or click a cute little birdie.

If you click the flower pot, a flower pot appears and the seed is planted inside. You're then presented with two further choices -- a water can or a bottle of fertilizer. Each choice you make causes your creation to morph, and presents you with two other choices.

There's no winning or losing, really. Each "game" usually lasts around four or five choices, at which point the plant/animal dies in some creative (but not too gruesome) way. At this point you instantly start over with a new seed.

The graphics are captivating; the whole thing has a cinematic feel to it, with a bit of artificial camera shake added for style.

All in all, it's a fun, peaceful way to spend a few minutes, and it might even make you think a little bit while you're at it.

Mitoza is a fun, freaky Web toy with an artistic look originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/28/mitoza-is-a-fun-freaky-web-toy-with-an-artistic-look/

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Kaleidoscope 2 for Mac lets you quickly, powerfully find and merge differences in text, code, and images

Kaleidoscope 2 from Black Pixel lets you take code, text, images, and even folders and quickly, clearly see the differences between multiple versions. While that sounds simple in theory, it's not. Making differential data make sense, doing it in a way that's useful and actionable, and packaging it in an app built for people who build apps, well, that requires some serious kung-fu.

Sofa created the first version of Kaleidoscope and later, after they were acquired by Facebook, they sold it to Black Pixel. With a long history of contract work, making some of the best apps you'll never know they made, Black Pixel wanted to start shipping software of their own. Kaleidoscope 2 is their first.

  • Listen to Black Pixel's Michael Jurewitz (Jury) talk about Kaleidoscope 2, and the challenges of making and selling developer tools, in episode 3 of the Debug podcast.
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Getting started with Kaleidoscope 2 is lightning fast. You can open, save, and close files, sure. But you can also drag bits of text and images directly into the app, or onto the Dock icon, or simply paste from the clipboard and just get right to work.

I'll admit right now, Kaleidoscope 2 is a tough app for me to review. It's above my weight class. If you've ever played around in iMovie or GarageBand and then launched Final Cut Pro or Logic, or if you've ever been dropped into the middle of Halo or Call of Duty for the first time, you'll know what I mean. I'm not a developer, but Kaleidoscope 2 makes me wish I was. There's so much there that I can only poke around at, glimpse the edges of, and hit up my developer and designer friends about. However, there's also more than enough for a relative lightweight like me.

I write a lot of reviews in BBEdit, and sometimes, especially for the big device reviews, I accrue multiple versions. Sometimes I like parts of one and parts of another, or multiple others. Sometimes just a turn of phrase. Sometimes just the structure of a paragraph or section. Trying to manually integrate that stuff is a pain in the ass. Trying to do it in something like Word is a pain in the soul. Doing it in Kaleidoscope 2 is breeze. I wish I'd had something like Kaleidoscope when I wrote my first novel, and I'll be counting on it when I finally get around to writing the next one.

For text, you get support for TXT and HTML, and can extract text from RTF and DOC. There's two-way and three-way merge, and you can see added, deleted, and changed text in block, fluid, or unified layout, and quickly step through changes.

I don't get to do a lot of design anymore, but we have a design department here at Mobile Nations and we have a few big projects going on at the moment. We also have our daily content, and the photography and image work that goes with it. The ability to quickly, visually compare everything from differences between wireframes and renders from the design department -- yes, busted, you did change that! -- to how a hero shot looks with proper white balance and tonal range -- yes, dagnabit, I did have to fix it! -- is triumphantly satisfying.

For images, you get support for JPG, PNG, TIF, PNG, and most other common formats, in RGB, CMYK, and LAB, with alpha, in one-up, two-up, split, and difference layouts.

For folders, you get support for any number, with filters, safe bulk copying, and auto-refresh so what you're looking at always reflects what's actually there.

And it's not just about the deltas. Kaleidoscope supports code reviews as well. Doug Russell wrote about the KSReview feature on the Black Pixel blog:

KSReview compares all of the work done on a feature branch since it diverged from master (or from another branch you specify) while filtering out any other activity from that branch that might otherwise get in your way. We use this ourselves every day and we think it is a fantastic way to do code reviews.

Again, I won't pretend to grok all the fancy stuff you can do from there, like integration with Subversion, Git, Mercurial, Bazaar, and Perforce, so your source isn't only controlled, but clean and sane, or the complex conflict resolutions and levels of folder comparison ninjary you can get into, but it looks beyond useful.

Developer tools, even comparison tools in general, are for a highly select, often very difficult to impress audience. The first comparison they want to make is between the new tool and whatever they're currently, comfortably doing (or not doing, as the case may be.) They're a hard sell. However, for this same audience, time is absolutely worth more than money. Anything that smooths a workflow and shaves precious seconds off a process, or simply gets a project out of the weeds just a little bit faster, is invaluable. Even if it's not needed every day, it can be a life-saver when it is.

That's why I think Black Pixel's first app will also be their first hit.

Kaleidoscope 2 requires OS X 10.7.3 and is available both on the Mac App Store and directly from Black Pixel on the web. If you buy the MAS version and later decide you'd really prefer the non-Sandboxed, slightly more developer-centric version from Black Pixel, you can download and unlock it simply by running it on the same machine on which you've previously run the MAS version. That's a fantastic, and extremely customer-friendly feature from Black Pixel, and one that I hope other developers steal immediately.

If you've been looking for a tool like this, or if you've used Kaleidoscope in its previous incarnation, Kaleidoscope 2 is currently available at 50% off -- $34.99 until January 30. There's a lot more information available on their website, and also a 15-day trial available so you can make sure like it before you buy it.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/q_vZG_Utnbc/story01.htm

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Google Talk Guru answers questions via your IM app

google talk guru answersBots -- like the kind which automate IRC rooms and Google Wave -- are a good thing to know about. There are plenty of useful bots worth knowing about, too, including the Google Talk Guru.

Just add guru@googlelabs.com to your GTalk buddies, and you can start firing off questions. Lifehacker suggests that the same types of queries supported by Google SMS will work, though we didn't have any luck getting a response out of the Guru with phrases like "score detroit red wings" or "sushi R3N 1Y1."

Still, Guru does answer a good variety of questions and it works right within your favorite IM app. It's well worth adding to your friend list, especially for getting answers on the go on your mobile device of choice.

Google Talk Guru answers questions via your IM app originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/30/google-talk-guru-answers-questions-via-your-im-app/

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Bing Revamps Its Social Search With 5x More Content From Your Facebook Friends, Now Includes Status Updates, Links & Comments

BingMicrosoft just announced a major update to Bing's social search results. Just like Facebook is now integrating Bing deeper into its search tools, Microsoft is adding more Facebook content to Bing, too. In total, Microsoft says, "five times more of your friends' content on Facebook is now searchable in the sidebar." In addition to the photos you could already see in previous versions, Bing now also shows status updates, shared links and comments from your friends.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/W4LKED_ZM4Y/

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O'Reilly helps Japan, offers entire e-book catalog for 50% off, today only

O'reilly make some of the best computer books in the world. They also sell them as DRM-free e-books in a bunch of formats, including PDFs and Mobi for Kindle.

They usually offer one "Deal of the Day", which is a 50% discount code for a book chosen for that one day. But just for for today, they've created a discount code -- DDJPN -- that gives you a 50% discount on their entire catalog, and they give a part of the proceeds to aid Japan relief efforts.

So far they've raised over $60,000, and the day is still young. So if you've been recently hankering after some nerdy book (or three), now would be a great time to grab one.

O'Reilly helps Japan, offers entire e-book catalog for 50% off, today only originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 22 Mar 2011 14:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/22/oreilly-helps-japan-offers-entire-e-book-catalog-for-50-off/

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Robot fish glides out of Michigan State University, tells you if the water is clean

Robot fish glides out of Michigan State University, tells you if the water is clean

Autonomous fish might make great leaders, but it turns out that robot flippers are a huge drain on battery life. Not a problem for Xiaobo Tan -- he and a group of Michigan State University scientists have built a robotic fish that glides through the water. Tan says the machine, dubbed Grace (Gliding Robot ACE), swims too , but the constant flipper movement can kill the battery in just a few hours. "This is why we integrated both locomotion modes," he explained. "Such integration allows the robot to adapt to different environments, from shallow streams to deep lakes." Grace is designed to scour lakes and rivers for data to help cleaning efforts, and older prototypes have successfully found traces of crude oil in once spoiled riverbeds. The redesigned robot looks more like an airplane than a fish, but it's hard to argue with results -- the team says Grace should be able to glide through the water almost indefinitely. Check out the team's press release after the break.

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Deal of the Day: Incipio DualPro SHINE Hard Shell Case for Galaxy Note 2

Deal of the Day The Jan. 16 ShopAndroid.com Deal of the Day is the Incipio DualPro SHINE Hard Shell Case for Samsung Galaxy Note 2. This hybrid style case protects your device with a shock absorbing inner layer of silicone layered with an acrylic outer shell featuring a brushed aluminum look. There's access to the camera, ports and buttons of the device -- and doesn't effect reception inside the case. Color options include black, gray, white and pink cores.

The Incipio DualPro SHINE Hard Shell Case is available for just $20.00, 43% off today only. Backed by our 60-day return policy and fast shipping!

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/R1XNNt4BHQM/story01.htm

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Color vulnerable to simple GPS hack, lets you spy on anyone, anywhere

Color, the $41-million-in-funding location-oriented photo sharing startup, is susceptible to simple GPS spoofing. With nothing more than a jailbroken iPad or iPhone, you can use FakeLocation to trick Color into thinking you're somewhere else. Within seconds you can be browsing photos that were snapped thousands of miles away. With a little digging, you can pore through photos not intended for your eyes.

Of course, such a hack isn't illegal as such -- every photo you take with Color is public. With FakeLocation you are simply circumventing Color's very limited location-oriented security mechanism. It does undermine Color's usefulness (and uniqueness), though -- if nefarious types can sit in their bedroom or basement and eavesdrop on classy dinner parties and wild night club soirees, people might be less inclined to share personal photos with those around them.

Fortunately, both for Color and its users, this is an easy security hole to plug -- at least in the short term. The app (or server-side) code simply checks to see if the user has 'teleported' an impossibly large distance, without any intermediate steps in between. In the long term, though, Color's users must be aware that its social graph is completely public. Color's users must realize that every photo they upload is visible by anyone, from any place.

After the break, just to elucidate a little on Color's actual business model and ultimate intention, we have two amazing quotes from Bill Nguyen, Color's founder.

Continue reading Color vulnerable to simple GPS hack, lets you spy on anyone, anywhere

Color vulnerable to simple GPS hack, lets you spy on anyone, anywhere originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 05:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/29/color-vulnerable-to-simple-gps-hack-lets-you-spy-on-anyone-any/

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Skype 5.3 for Windows released, improves mobile video call quality

Version 5.3 of Skype for Windows has just been released, with the main emphasis of the new release being improved call quality, and the quality of video received by mobile Skype users. Presumably one party of the video call must be using Skype for Windows 5.3, though.

Beyond improved call quality, not much has changed. You can now see your friends' presence icons when contact cards are collapsed, and the topic editing button is now always visible on the conversation header. For a complete list of changes, hit up the Skype Garage blog.

Download Skype 5.3 for Windows

Skype 5.3 for Windows released, improves mobile video call quality originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 07 Apr 2011 12:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/07/skype-5-3-for-windows-released-improves-mobile-video-call-quali/

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The Daily Roundup for 01.16.2013

DNP The Daily RoundUp

You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

Continue reading The Daily Roundup for 01.16.2013

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/16/the-daily-roundup-for-01-16-2013/

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