The Daily Roundup for 12.13.2012

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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.

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

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Google introducing confirmed clicks into all mobile advertising banners

Android Central

Mobile ads are sometimes really, really annoying, but they serve a purpose -- devs got to get paid. However, perhaps the most frustrating  thing of all is when you accidentally tap on an ad banner, soon finding yourself nowhere near the app you were in. Google is putting an end to that today, with the announcement that confirmed clicks are to be implemented into all in-app image advertising banners on smartphones. 

It's incredibly simple, but sure to delight users around the globe. From their research, Google has deduced that the biggest majority of accidental clicks occur around the outer edges of the banners. So, going forward, taps in these areas will prompt a confirmation button to appear before heading out to any related websites. Google claims it will be good for the companies that are buying advertising, as they will be getting valuable clicks for their money instead of a number of people who didn't really care much for the advertised product or service. 

And, of course, it's fantastic news for us, the end user. People still get paid, and we lose a big source of frustration. 

Source: Google Mobile Ads Blog

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

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HTML5 MP3 player lets you listen to your music library inside your browser

html5 browser mp3 audio player
While this slick little HTML5 audio player might not pack all of the features of your favorite desktop media application, it's still a very cool demonstration of what a Web app can do with access to local resources -- like MP3 and OGG files.

Just fire up http://antimatter15.github.com/player/player.html in your HTML5-compatible browser and browse to the topmost folder in your music library. The app will quickly build an index of all your tunes and let you start listening right inside your Web browser. Click on the filter library text, and you can enter a search string -- results load as you type.

There's a volume control, shuffle mode, play/pause control, and you can click and drag to skip forward or rewind during playback. As OMG! Ubuntu points out, you can even save the app to your hard drive and run it offline, which is pretty darn cool.

Not all browsers are equal when it comes to HTML5 implementation, of course. We found that Chrome worked the best, and Firefox was OK. It's also worth noting that this music player comes from the same developer that created one of our favorite restartless Firefox 4 add-ons, drag2up.

HTML5 MP3 player lets you listen to your music library inside your browser originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/30/html5-mp3-player-lets-you-listen-to-your-music-library-inside-yo/

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Zen Coding high-speed HTML shorthand plug-in updated

zencoding
Zen Coding made quite a splash when we first covered it almost a year ago. For those who aren't familiar, Zen is a fantastic form of shorthand for quickly hand-coding HTML. And today, a new version is out!

Here are some of the goodies version 0.7 brings to the party:

  • Text nodes: Writing something like a[href=/]{Click here} now works, and puts "Click here" within the link.
  • New actions added: Increment/decrement number under cursor, evaluate math expressions, and more.
  • Wrap with Abbreviation was upgraded.
There are several other improvements but they're all rather technical. If you use Zen Coding (or are intrigued by the concept) go ahead and read the release notes for this new version.

Zen Coding has official implementations for a ton of editors, including TextMate, Apatana, Coda, E2, Komodo, Notepad++, PSPad, and more. It also has unofficial builds for Vim, UltraEdit, Visual Studio and more.

If you want to play with Zen Coding without installing it, you can use the online demo to see some of its magic in action.

Zen Coding high-speed HTML shorthand plug-in updated originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 15 Mar 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/15/zen-coding-high-speed-html-shorthand-plug-in-updated/

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Facebook finally releases a native Android app

Facebook for Android

After what seems like an eternity of dealing with a sluggish web view Facebook app on Android, the social media behemoth is finally releasing a new and improved version written in native code. Everyone got their hopes up when an improved, native app came to iOS a few months ago -- but the status of the Android version was still "coming soon."

The new version will drastically improve performance in critical areas such as load/resume times, navigating the timeline and loading of photo albums. Because much of the computation is now happening quickly on the device, there's no more waiting. Facebook's main descriptor when talking about the update is "fast," and keep stressing that this is a complete rebuilding of the app.

The update is now live in the Play Store at the link above. We're just getting through the features initially here and things are looking good. This one is definitely going to be a worth-while update for any Facebook users out there.

Source: Facebook; (2)

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/SEUEREKZa-o/story01.htm

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Samsung strategy chief: our devices need to work better together

Samsung strategy chief our devices need to work better together

When Samsung is currently ruling the roost in mobile technology, you'd think the company's Chief Strategy Officer would exhibit some (possibly deserved) bluster. Not so: the executive in question, Young Sohn, tells the MIT Technology Review that Samsung has a long way to go before its products work in perfect harmony. While he's proud of the hardware in isolation, he believes a truly unified ecosystem is "really critical" in the long term. He sees Apple as ahead in this area, although he's arguing for an open approach instead of keeping everything in-house like they do in Cupertino. Partly to that end, the recently hired CSO is based in Menlo Park, not Seoul -- a step that should spot valuable technology early on and coordinate with San Francisco Bay Area startups that are big on the cloud, mobile platforms and other areas that compliment Samsung's plans. We don't know how long it will take before our Galaxy S III is in effortless sync with a similarly-branded TV, but it's good to know their mutual creator won't be resting on its laurels.

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Via: The Verge

Source: MIT Technology Review

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/EhgKw4u68a8/

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Samsung Exec Admits To Using Apple Products, Calls iDevice Ecosystem ?Sticky?

Screen Shot 2012-12-13 at 11.36.53 AMThe MIT Technology Review sat down with Samsung's Chief Strategy Officer Young Sohn, who admitted that Apple devices are hard to beat when it comes to a connected ecosystem. In fact, the man in charge of Samsung's overall innovation across technologies admitted to actually using a Mac, iPad and iPhone as his personal devices. "At work I?m using Samsung devices; Apple at home, mainly because all of my systems and files are done that way. That?s sticky, you know?"

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/9bby33hJylw/

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When the Lights Go Out, Social Nets Can Be More Than Friends

A notable behavioral shift has occurred in the United States over the last few years. Communication methods have changed. One transformation is that people are less dependent on the classic voice telephone call -- landline or mobile -- and rely more on textual communications like those provided through social networks.

Source: http://ectnews.com.feedsportal.com/c/34520/f/632000/s/267c3d8b/l/0L0Stechnewsworld0N0Crsstory0C768150Bhtml/story01.htm

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Drobo's new 5N is a speedy $600 NAS for when you need files, stat

Drobo

Tragically, we only learned about Drobo's new 5N after we'd hired a warehouse the size of an aircraft hanger to store our latest, 12 million page novel. If you want to avoid our mistake, then the company's latest NAS might end your own storage woes. The new hardware is part of the same family as the 5D and Drobo Mini, except this one ditches the Thunderbolt connection in favor of a single gigabit-ethernet port. Inside, there's space for five 3.5-inch drives, giving you a maximum capacity of 20TB. An mSATA slot for an SSD drive will let you make use of Drobo's "data-aware tiering" feature, which gives applications like Adobe Lightroom and iTunes faster access to your NAS-stored files. The base model will set you back $600 and will be available in "mid December," which we impatiently hope is a euphemism for "tomorrow."

Continue reading Drobo's new 5N is a speedy $600 NAS for when you need files, stat

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Source: Drobo

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/zRTUPCAtRZ0/

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