The Android Developers Blog just posted an announcement that the Market has undergone a few, fairly remarkable, changes that will both please and probably tick off most of us.

With a focus on improving discoverability and merchandising, we’ve introduced a new carousel on the home and category screens. Users can quickly flip through the carousel to view promoted applications and immediately go to the download page for the application they want. Developers have been very active in creating great Widgets and Live Wallpapers. To make it easier for users to find their favorites, we’re introducing two new categories for Widgets and Live Wallpapers. Applications that include Widgets and Wallpapers will be automatically added to those new categories. We’ll also be adding more categories for popular applications and games in the weeks ahead. In addition, the app details page now includes Related content, which makes it easier for users to quickly find apps of similar interest.

A new .apk file size limit has just been implemented, the new cap is 50MB this is to “better support richer games.” Also on tap is support for “device targeting” to best fit end users and their respective displays and densities. Which is a must have feature now that Android has a large window for variable screen sizes.

They also decided to reduce the refund window to a measly 15 minutes. Their justification for this was “most users who request a refund do so within minutes of purchase”. Yikes! No more buying now and waiting until later to try out your purchase.

All Phandroids running Android 1.6 or higher should see the update for the client within the next two weeks.

Update:
For those of you who want the new Market now, Android Police is hosting the .apk via multiupload. We suggest reading the post before diving in as there is some warnings about custom ROMs and the lack of testing, specifically those of you running CM.

This is one of those “we’re only sharing the information, not suggesting you go and install it without regard to the risks”.

[Android Developers Blog]

View full post on Android Phone Fans

Link shortening service Bit.ly has unveiled a new link bundling feature that allows you to group multiple links — up to 100 — on a single page and share that page with your friends with a single short URL.

If you’ve been looking for a way to share more than one link at a time with your Twitter followers — perhaps links to both sides of an argument, a collection of your favorite restaurants in New York, or collected coverage of some major, earth-shattering news event — a Bit.ly bundle fits the bill.

Link-shortening services such as Bit.ly have seen an explosion in popularity in the past few years thanks to the steady growth of Twitter, Facebook and other services which limit posts to bite-sized bursts of 140 to 420 characters. Bit.ly remains a powerful link-shortening service with over four billion unique URLs shortened. The company also offers some stand-out features like stat-tracking for each link, automatic QR Code generation, some open APIs and support for popular social web technologies like OAuth.

Now that you can wrap multiple links inside a single Bit.ly URL, it becomes even easier to squeeze more info into a single tweet.

If you’re thinking that a page of links would be pretty boring, well, Bit.ly seems to have had the same thought. The company has integrated media previews of images and videos, as well as any titles, descriptions and notes you want to add to your links.

Bit.ly bundles can also function as a group collaborating tool, your friends can comment on your bundles and even build their own based on your starting points. It also makes Bit.ly a more valuable service, rather than just a middleman of necessity standing between a URL and Twitter.

See Also:

• Bit.ly Pro Makes it Dead Simple to Create Your Own URL Shortener
• Twitter Plans to Launch its Own URL Shortener
• Bit.ly Is a Big Deal URL Shortener

View full post on Webmonkey

Image by Peavey

Peavey has arrived a little late to the iPhone practice amp market, but they have come up a very strong entry. AmpKit is an iOS application, compatible with the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. The AmpKit Link is sold separately and is an adapter that allows you to connect your guitar and headphones up to your iOS device. Their marketing department hooked me up with a free AmpKit Link and download code and I’m very glad that they did.

I also have IK Media’s Amplitube and iRig and will give a few comparisons throughout this article.

The Link is a pretty simple device. A little bigger than the iRig, and it requires batteries, but it is still small. The cord plugs into your iPhone, and even has a narrow collar that fits the first gen iPhones. I had to modify the iRig to make it fit in my phone.

The batteries in the Link drive a circuit that virtually eliminates feedback. Peavey claims compatibility with any recording, processing, or tuning app. I tested it with a free guitar tuner, and Amplitube with great results. The Link gave Amplitube a nice boost and took care of the feedback issues at extremely high gains.

AmpKit is the star of the show though. While its graphics aren’t extremely detailed, the interface is very intuitive and it only took me a few minutes to figure the basic out.

AmpKit Lite and AmpKit + are available from the iTunes store for free, and $20 respectively. The + version includes four amps, six cabinets, two mics and ten pedals. More amps, pedals, and mics are available starting at $3 and going up to $6 or so.

The two amps that I spent the most time with were the Peavey ValveKing, and the Colonel Vintage. The Colonel is modeled after a Marshal JTM45 and sounds every bit as clean and warm as it should. The ValveKing includes both a clean and a high gain lead channel. Both channels performed as expected with the lead really cranking out the sound. It easily got uncomfortable with my headphones.

I played around with all of the pedals, but settled on a simple setup with the Noise Gate, Elevenizer and the Distortoise. They performed very well and I was surprised how hard I could push the distortion and still sound good with my headphones. For general practice I’ll probably just stick with the Noise Gate and ValveKing on the lead channel. That provided plenty of volume and a nice warm tone.

As a test I plugged in the un-powered iRig in place of the Link and was immediately punished with a lot of unwanted feedback. Turning the gain down on the amp and pedals eliminated the feedback but with a significant loss in tone and distortion. I spent some time switching back and forth between AmpKit and Amplitube with the different adapters and believe that AmpKit has a slight advantage in sound and the Link having the upper hand because of its feedback circuit.

AmpKit performed very well on my aged processor. The app launches quickly, every tap produces a quick response and I didn’t notice any latency in processing, even with five or six pedals chained together. Amplitube was a bit sluggish in the UI, but rarely showed latency with the effects.

A feature that is (so far) unique to AmpKit is the ability to record yourself. It lays down both a clean and effects track. You can then “re-amp” your track and change up the amp and effects. This lets you quickly lay down a track and worry about the pedals later. You can also import backing tracks to play along with.

A handy chromatic tuner, metronome and extensive and very useful help system round out the features.

Overall I like it, and I am hoping that a new gadget will get me to practice the guitar more.

Wired: Extremely intuitive user interface, plenty of amps and pedals, great sound, recording capability and active gain and feedback control in hardware.

Tired: The guitar jack feels a little cheap when plugging in and it requires batteries for the active feedback control.

Links:
Chuck Lawton’s Review of IK Media’s Amplitube for iOS
AmpKit Link on Amazon ($20)
AmpKit on iTunes ($20)
iRig on Amazon ($40)
Amplitube LE on iTunes ($3)

View full post on GeekDad

R&D Spending And Profitability: What’s The Link?
Return on research capital , can help investors measure how much profit R&D spending actually generates.

Read more on Investopedia via Yahoo! Finance

HTC’s Youtube channel posted a new overview video of the upcoming HTC Desire HD.  If you watch the video, one thing you will notice is the introduction of the HTC Media Link Adapter.  The HTC Media Link Adapter acts as a DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) receiver.

As the HTC Desire HD is a DLNA compliant device, it allows you to stream your phone’s media content to the wonders of your large screen TV.  I’m not sure if this is new or not, but it’s the first I’ve heard of it.

Following in the footsteps of Samsung, HTC is now providing Dolby Mobile and SRS Surround Sound for the Desire HD when you have your headset connected.  If you’ve tried this on the Samsung Galaxy S, you’ll know that it’s really pretty cool and gives an amazing media experience.

Anyway, enough of my yapping.  All this information is in the video for you to watch instead.  Click on the video below to check out the latest and greatest features of the HTC Desire HD.

Let’s hope they come out with a US version of the HTC Desire HD. Current rumors and FCC filings indicate that it only has UK band support. Also, keep an eye out for more information from Alex Smith as he works his way though the features of the leaked HTC Desire HD ROM on his HTC HD2.

Source: HTC YouTube Channel

View full post on AndroidSPIN | Your No.1 source for Everything Android.

The good folks at Schlage let us know that they have now lowered the subscription fee for Schlage LiNK Home Management System. The price of the monthly service has been dropped to $8.99 and in celebration of the new fee, we are giving away 3 Schlage LiNK Starter Kits for CrackBerry readers. The starter kit includes a Schlage wireless keypad lever, Schlage bridge and Schlage light module. Features of the Schlage system include:

• Remotely grant access to your home from your Blackberry
  
• Receive text message or email alerts when codes are entered at the lock
  
• Easily add, delete, and change user codes
  
• See all activity in the 90 day event log!
  
• Add additional Z-Wave devices such as Schlage light modules or the Trane Remote Energy Management Thermostat for additional control
  

Schlage also offers an annual subscription plan for the Schlage LiNK Home Management System. For an annual fee of $99.00, users receive 12 months of service for the price of 11. All new users (monthly & annual subscribers) will also receive 2 free months of service to familiarize themselves with the Schlage LiNK Home Management System. For more information on the Schalge LiNK system, check out our review or Schlage.com.

Contest: Leave a comment on this post telling us why you can’t live without a Schlage LiNK Home Management System. We’ll be giving away 3 starter kits for the best comments. Contest ends this Sunday at midnight PDT. Please only leave one comment.

• More information on the Schalge LiNK system >>

CrackBerry.com‘s feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. Schlage lowers subscription fee Schlage LiNK home management systems – 3 starter kits up for grabs!

View full post on CrackBerry.com blogs

You know the problem with living inside a house? Throwing wireless signals through brick walls is mighty tricky. What you need is either cardboard walls or a WiFi booster then, right?

Well, I’ve got to say that I’m not entirely convinced.

I live in a house in Bath that was built at the turn of last century and as such is built of pretty solid rock. With my cheapo Virgin Media router in the front of my house I get practically no signal in my bedroom, so Galaxy Link’s booster should be the answer.

Unfortunately my cheapo D-Link router has antennae you can’t replace so that was a write-off straight away. But that wasn’t the booster’s fault, so I tried a different router that came with removable antennae.

This new, less-cheapo router meant I now had decent signal in my bedroom. However, there were spots where it wasn’t so good, so hopefully the booster would help there, I thought.

Except it didn’t. No boost, no extra li’l bit of signal, no nuffin’. At £36 it’s not going to break the bank if your router is a bit poo and you’re after a boost. But it’s not chump change either.

So the fact that it did nothing in my stone house would seriously annoy my wallet gland. If you did have cardboard walls then the 5dBi signal gain might help, but then how many beggars in carboard boxes are that fussed about their wireless network?

Related Links

• TechRadar Reviews Guarantee
• Read more networking reviews

View full post on TechRadar: All PC & Mac feeds

Image: GameWright Games

I really enjoy finding new games to play with my kids that don’t take a while to learn and that everyone can enjoy. Once you’ve played Candyland for the tenth time, you’re pretty much done with it for life.

Can You See What I See? Bingo Link is a great game for playing with your kids, or for your kids to play together. It’s based on the Can You See What I See? series of books by Walter Wick. The books are “Pictures Puzzles to Search and Solve,” and are very similar to I Spy books. Each one has a theme such as Once Upon a Time or On a Scary Scary Night. The style of images carries over into the game.

The rules of Bingo Link are simple. You take turns calling out which space to cover by saying something like, “Can you see a frog?” Everyone then takes a hexagonal game piece and covers that space. The first person to create a path from one side of the board to the opposite side is the winner. It doesn’t take too long to play each round, so you can play multiple rounds per sitting. I have found that it’s best to play with at least three people, since having more people taking turns to call out the next move adds another level of complexity.

Unlike regular Bingo, a small amount of strategy is involved, but who wins also depends heavily on luck. This puts kids and adults on virtually the same level playing field. The game is intended for those age 6 and up, but I think it would also be fine to play with kids as young as 3, if they have the patience and skill to identify the images.

My family’s overall reaction to this game was good. My husband thought it was “not bad, a good kid game, and better than Candyland.” My nine year old daughter said, “I think it’s fun. Sometimes it’s sort of hard to find the picture.” My six year old son seemed to like it. He “thought it was interesting.” The more we played it, though, the more the kids enjoyed it. Hunting for the pictures went from hard to fun.

Bingo Link probably isn’t a game that you’d want to play every week, but it’s fast and easy to learn, and great to play in mixed groups. It would also be a great game to play with your grandparents. It’s also perfect for those times when the kids just want to play a game with you and you only have ten minutes to spare. There’s no set up, very little clean up.

Can You See What I See? Bingo Link is made by GameWright and is currently available on Amazon for $15.99.

Wired: Fun for kids or for multi-age groups. Boards and pieces are nice to hold.

Tired: It’s a simple concept that will tire for grownups after a while. It’s hard to hold the board so that no one else can see it but also so that the pieces don’t fall out.

Note: I received a copy of this game to review.

View full post on GeekDad

Struggling to find a site or string together the magic set of key words that helped you locate that perfect recipe for waffle batter the other day? If you only have access to your Android handset or iPhone you can now pull up your previous history of any searches performed while signed into your Google account. The new History link will bring you to a page detailing your searches and results, and if you performed the search on a computer you even get thumbnail views of results to help you easily recognize the most helpful sites. Mobile searches are marked with a cell phone icon.

The feature only works if you have enabled saved search history, which you can toggle on and off by navigating through the Settings link. With searches already saved, you can edit and delete entries and even star your most used or best searches for quick access. It probably won’t change the way you browse and search on your phone, but you will be glad the feature exists when you just can’t figure out how to duplicate previously successful searches.

[via Google Mobile Blog]

View full post on Android Phone Fans

You can’t fault Iomega’s new ScreenPlay TV Link Director Edition media streamer for versatility.

It can handle pretty much any video format you can throw at it, including MPEG 1, 2 and 4, WMV, AVI and FLV. It’s DivX-certified, and unlike last year’s ScreenPlay Pro HD, it supports the H.264 standard as used by the iPod. It can handle HD video up to 1080p, and supports a wide range of audio and image formats too.

It also lets you access online media such as Youtube, Flickr and SHOUTcast internet radio, and even run torrent downloads.

Unlike Iomega’s ScreenPlay Director HD, the TV Link model doesn’t have an internal hard drive. Instead you can connect a USB flash or hard drive to one of the device’s three USB ports, or stream media over your local network (UPnP and DLNA are supported).

Streaming is through Ethernet or Wi-Fi, which requires a separate adaptor. Unfortunately, it has to be Iomega’s own ScreenPlay Director 802.11n.

ScreenPlay TV Link streamed our videos with ease. The interface is intuitive and easy to navigate, but lacks panache and flexibility. It doesn’t display album art as you pick through your tunes, and list options are limited to alphabetical order. It can be slow to respond to your inputs too.

One day, someone will release a media streamer with the finesse of Apple TV and the versatility of Iomega’s ScreenPlay TV Link or Western Digital’s WDTV. Until then, this is as good as any.

Related Links

• TechRadar Reviews Guarantee
• Read more media streaming device reviews

View full post on TechRadar: All PC & Mac feeds

Google TV is aiming to redefine the television viewing experience, so the way this experience is controlled has to be both familiar yet progressive. A remote with a full-blown QWERTY keyboard will be one option for accessing and searching content through Google TV, but passing around a keyboard isn’t exactly what people are used to in the living room. Enter Harmony Link,  Logitech’s contribution to providing an awesome control experience on Google TV and their companion box.

Harmony Link is a technology that allows the Google TV box to communicate with all of your other home entertainment devices by turning various signals into infrared commands. But where are the control signals coming from? Well that would be your iPhone or Android device. Along with the Harmony Link technology, Logitech will offer it’s remote control app free to smartphone users.

This app is up to par with Logitech’s biggest and baddest Harmony remotes, so now you not only already have the most powerful remote possible in your pocket, but you have a remote that can be constantly updated with new device schemes so it will always be able to control all of your home entertainment gear. You can even have multiple phones operating as remotes at the same time. No more hogging up the TV time (for good or for bad), and if you lose this one in the sofa cushions at least it has built-in GPS…

But say you don’t like Logitech’s remote app? They have made the Harmony Link platform open, so some great third party remote options are sure to follow. The technology is pretty cool to say the least. Google TV won’t be available until the fall, and who knows how it will catch on with the general public, but we can only hope that at least the “smartphone as a remote” concept sticks.

View full post on Android Phone Fans

The Pantech Link is a light, stylish phone for budget-minded texters.

View full post on Macworld