Those benevolent armchair philanthropist Redditors are at it again! Four days ago a ‘self’ post extolling the potential virtues of a Backup Day exploded with 2500 upvotes and 1000 comments — and now World Backup Day 2011 is actually happening.

On March 31, as part of the global data-saving initiative, you are encouraged to back up all of your cherished photos and videos, and important documents. If you’ve ever had a hard disk fail, and not had a backup to fall back on, you’ll know that it’s a bit like losing a sizable fragment of your soul. If you’ve never backed up your important files — or if you only back up sporadically — do it on World Backup Day!

It’s not hard to back up your data, either. A 2TB drive costs only a fistful of dollars, and it takes just a few minutes to set SyncToy for Windows, or Time Machine for Mac, to mirror your data every night. If you prefer a cloud-based solution, there’s always SugarSync and Dropbox. Finally, don’t forget that Bundlelytic has a charity giveaway for three excellent data-backup-and-recovery tools — $160 of software for only $25, and 100% of the proceeds to go the Japanese Red Cross.

For even more backup options, for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, check our list of 13 great backup programs.

March 31 is World Backup Day 2011 originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 07:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/28/march-31-is-world-backup-day-2011/

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Will Smith delivered the slap heard ’round Russia after a reporter tried to kiss him — sparking a huge debate: did Will overreact or was he justified? Someone in the newsroom thinks he should have punched the guy!Plus, Clint Eastwood’s wife and…

Source: http://www.tmz.com/2012/05/18/tmz-live-will-smith-mark-zuckerberg-facebook-ipo-american-idol-donna-summer-kim-kardashian-kanye-west/

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HTC gave us a quick session to play around with its latest handset, the Desire C. No, it’s not part of the consolidated One series, nor is the company revealing precisely what that “C” stands for — heaven forfend it’s “cheap.” While a humble 320 x 480 touchscreen and 600MHz processor might not set many smartphone obsessives’ hearts a’ racing, it still manages to eke out a HTC Sense-skinned Android 4.0 UI — no mere feat, in our opinion. A 5-megapixel camera and expandable microSD slot are some other welcome specifications and it’s all wrapped up in an attractive matte finish — you can take your pick form black and white in the UK. Catch our quick video run-through of the sub-$300 handset right after the break.

Continue reading HTC Desire C hands-on (video)

HTC Desire C hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 May 2012 10:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/18/htc-desire-c-hands-on-video/

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Using some early numbers from both StatCounter and Net Applications, Mozilla’s noisiest hominid, Asa Dotzler, has illustrated Firefox 4′s meteoric rise to around 5% of Web browser global usage share. Internet Explorer 9, which launched two weeks ago, seems to be enjoying a much more casual stroll in the park with just 1.5% of the global Web usage share.

Interestingly, we can see IE9 dipping between March 20 and 21, just before the ‘Important’ Windows Update rolled out. It’s hard to say whether IE9 is only growing because of the installed-by-default Windows Update, but that small dip definitely sticks out — did excitement peter out? Did people download IE9, try it out, and summarily uninstall it? Perhaps, given their close proximity, the stats show an attention shift from Microsoft to Mozilla?

Numbers-wise, if the bottom left corner of the graph shows 2.3 million downloads for IE9, we can guesstimate that that it has now been downloaded 5 million times. Firefox is clocking in at 37 million downloads after five days of public availability.

We wonder whether Microsoft knew its release schedule would coincide so closely with Firefox 4. Internet Explorer 9 — a great browser by almost every metric — was never going to do well against anything emanating from the maws of Mozilla. The main thing, though, is that Microsoft has now shown that it’s serious when it comes to the Open Web. If Internet Explorer 10 is good, and 11 and 12, then we might finally see it compete with the zealous Mozillan horde.

Firefox 4 rockets to 5% global usage share, IE9 wallows at 1.5% originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 05:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/28/firefox-4-rockets-to-5-global-usage-share-ie9-wallows-at-1-5/

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Researchers have developed a robotic arm that has enabled a paralyzed woman to drink a cup of coffee — by directly controlling it with her mind. The development has raised the question of whether this approach could perhaps restore some mobility to similarly affected people in the future.

Source: http://ectnews.com.feedsportal.com/c/34520/f/632000/s/1f74e513/l/0L0Stechnewsworld0N0Crsstory0C751460Bhtml/story01.htm

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At the end of last year, an Administrative Law Judge issued an initial ruling that Motorola’s mobile devices infringe a bit of Microsoft’s IP. Now, the Commission has affirmed that decision and issued an exclusion order to ban Moto’s offending devices from importation into the US. In case you weren’t aware, the four patent claims at issue generally cover technology for scheduling meetings over email using a mobile device. So, unless Motorola removes the feature, pays for a license or whips up a workaround Microsoft’s patent in short order, its inbound RAZRs, Droid 4s, Bionics and other offending handsets will be stuck in customs alongside HTC’s One X and EVO 4G LTE — that is, unless Obama steps in to save the day during the prescribed presidential review period. Microsoft, naturally, is quite pleased with this development and has issued a statement:

Microsoft sued Motorola in the ITC only after Motorola chose to refuse Microsoft’s efforts to renew a patent license for well over a year. We’re pleased the full Commission agreed that Motorola has infringed Microsoft’s intellectual property, and we hope that now Motorola will be willing to join the vast majority of Android device makers selling phones in the US by taking a license to our patents.

– David Howard, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel Microsoft

We’ve reached out to Motorola for comment on the matter as well, so stay tuned to see what it has to say.

Update: Motorola has issued an understandably somber statement on the ruling:

Microsoft started its ITC investigation asserting 9 patents against Motorola Mobility. Although we are disappointed by the Commission’s ruling that certain Motorola Mobility products violated one patent, we look forward to reading the full opinion to understand its reasoning. Motorola Mobility will not experience any impact in the near term, as the Commission’s ruling is subject to a $0.33/per unit bond during the 60 day Presidential review period. We will explore all options including appeal.

ITC bans Motorola mobile devices for infringing Microsoft patent (updated: MMI responds) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 May 2012 17:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/18/itc-bans-motorola-mobile-devices-for-infringing-microsoft-patent/

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Shot Shot Pirate is very satisfying, because each level is short and to the point. You know what you have to do and you just do it.

As you may have gathered from the name, you’re cast in the role of a pirate. Your goal is to shoot at a diamond and make it fall off a tower of bricks. The height of the tower changes as you progress through the levels. It’s not enough to just make the diamond fall off the tower of bricks – it has to fall below a certain line (drawn on the screen) for the level to be completed.

There are also different kinds of bricks, with some heavier than others, and different kinds of ammo. You only get a certain amount of ammo for each level, and when it’s gone, you lose. But don’t worry! If you don’t make it on the first try, it’s very easy to restart the level and just give it another shot (or three).

All in all it’s a cute game. I’ve seen similar games with better graphics and music, but the game delivers on its main promise – a few minutes of pure time wasting!

Shot Shot Pirate is a fun, simple physics game originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/02/24/shot-shot-pirate-is-a-fun-simple-physics-game/

Hiroshi Aoyama Shuhei Aoyama Andre Luc Appietto Robin Appleyard Junya Arai Toshiyuki Arakaki Fernando Aranda Takeishi Araoka Adrian Araujo Gilbert Argo

I’m looking for a replacement for my laptop. It’s not broken, just since starting this working-online thing, I’ve become feeble. I need something light to carry around with me. I’d be more than happy to just leave it all up to my phone, but there’s only so much typing I can do on such a tiny screen. I’m in serious need of something now. And that one company’s tablet looks great, but isn’t it just a little pricey? Yeah. That’s right. I’m cheap. It’s OK. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Oyhy-ae72Ow/this-hp-touchpad-is-your-fire+sale+reborn-deal-of-the-day

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Okay, see that snaking line coming in from the right on the screenshot? That’s you. And see those large round circles? Those are supposedly grapefruits, only they won’t sit still – they keep moving up and down and cutting across your path. And if you touch one, you die!

That’s what you have to deal with in Line Grapefruit. But that’s not all – you’re also on a time limit. In fact, you have a very limited amount of time to make it through the “path” (for lack of a better word). You need to snake your way through the winding trail without touching anything. The good news is that a grapefruit only kills you if it touches the end of the line – once you’ve made it past the grapefruit, nothing happens if it crosses the path you’ve made.

This is not an easy game, but it’s quite unique – I can’t recall seeing another game quite like it.

Line Grapefruit is a tricky Flash “path” game originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 01 Apr 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/01/line-grapefruit-is-a-tricky-flash-path-game/

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Blah Blah Blah

• Artist: Ke$ha
• Label: RCA
• Director: Brendan Malloy
• Album: Hips and Makers

Source:

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