The Songbird team has released a significant update to their feature-packed media player today. Among the new additions: sync support for several HTC and Nokia handsets (as well as the Blackberry Storm) and sync support on OS X (Mac users will need to download the MSC add-on).
While Songbird is no longer providing official [...]
The Songbird team has released a significant update to their feature-packed media player today. Among the new additions: sync support for several HTC and Nokia handsets (as well as the Blackberry Storm) and sync support on OS X (Mac users will need to download the MSC add-on).
While Songbird is no longer providing official builds for Linux users, contributed builds of Songbird for Linux are still available for download.
Songbird’s service pane has also been given a facelift, bringing a more polixhed look to the left-hand side of the player’s main window.
The official Twitter for iPhone app has updated, and with the latest update it became a universal app, meaning it has native iPhone and iPad versions. While the iPhone version continues to incrementally improve, it’s the iPad version that is really remarkable.
It took me a little while to get used to it, because the user interface is fairly busy. But you get a heck of a lot of bang for your buck with all that busy-ness. While most Twitter apps on the iPad work best in portrait mode, and Twitter for iPad works fine that way, it really seems optimized for use in landscape mode.
Loren Brichter — who created Tweetie which was then purchased by Twitter and became the official Twitter iPhone app — has continued his revolutionary approach to interface design on the iPad version. Your list of tweets acts as a sort of launching point, and tapping on a tweet opens a pane from the right that gives you either more information about the tweeter, the conversation if that particular tweet is in response to something, or the webpage of any link that is contained in the tweet. Basically, it tries to show you the most relevant information that can be pulled out of any given tweet when you tap on it. It’s nothing short of brilliant.
I really only have one beef with Twitter for iPad. It’s a bit awkward to clear the right pane once you’re done with a given tweet. It stays off to the right out of the way, but still provides visual clutter that annoys me. Tapping a different list and then back to your timeline clears it, but it should be more simple than that.
Otherwise, Loren has really knocked another one out of the park with Twitter for iPad.
Another day, another CSS3 playground. Are you excited yet? Wait for it – this one has wood paneling for a background! (That’s classy!) Even though it’s not exactly the first tool of its kind (or the second, … or the tenth), CSS 3.0 Maker is pretty handy and comprehensive, so I decided it was worth covering. Let me quickly sum it up:
I like:
I don’t like:
Our sister site, Engadget, has done some laudable reporting on the Droid X “self-destruct” controversy I covered yesterday. The Droid X was rumored to brick itself if a user modified the bootloader, but Engadget asked Motorola about those rumors and found out they’re only half-true. Yes, the eFuse chip in the Droid X will “protect users” by forcing the phone into recovery mode, but it won’t brick it.
Once your phone is in recovery mode, you can fix it by reinstalling an approved, untampered version of the software. So, the rumors that the phone was difficult to mod were absolutely true, but the rumors that a hardware fix from Motorola would be required to get your phone working again were wrong. No bricking here, people.
The next step, of course, is for Droid modders who want to hack different wrappers for the OS (like HTC Sense, or Froyo) onto their Droid Xs to figure out a way around the bootloader protection on the phone. I suspect it’s only a matter of time.
Not everyone who wants to root his or her Android phone is interested in doing things the hard way (like me, for example — if I had an Android phone, of course). Want to make things easy on yourself? Download unrevoked and let it do the heavy lifting for you!
The tool provides simple rooting for five HTC Android phones: the Incredible, Desire, Aria, Hero, and Evo.
Windows users: you’ll need to first load the included HBoot drivers — Linux and Mac users won’t. You’ll also need to make sure that no other programs are trying to access your device via USB (like HTC Sync or DoubleTwist, for example).
Because Download Squad is always* super-relevant and topical when it comes to sports coverage, here’s another app that lets you show your virtual support for your favorite World Cup team. Fun Booth 2 is like a souped-up version of the Photo Booth app for Mac, and it now includes all kinds of World Cup props that you can add to your photos.
Adding team-colored beanies, jerseys, and more to your pics is Fun Booth’s trendiest feature, but it’s got other tricks that make it worth a look even after the World Cup. Fun Booth has a library of other props, and it uses facial recognition to make them fit your photo perfectly. It also lets you drag and drop your own props or draw on your photos. There are even some limited photo editing capabilities, like adjusting brightness/contrast and saturation. The full version of Fun Booth 2 is US $19.99, but there’s also a free trial edition that you can download to see if it’s something you want to keep around.
*for very, very small values of “always.”