Slimfady

(I am working a morning shift at a cafe. We are serving breakfast. A little boy and his mother enter the cafe.)

Me: “So, what will it be?”

Child: “I WISH TO DEVOUR THE UNBORN.”

(There is a sudden silence and everyone turns to look. The mother looks very embarrassed.)

Mother: “Eggs… he would like some eggs…”

It can be pretty challenging to shop for beef if you don't know the difference between a shoulder blade steak and a center ranch steak. The difference in cost, size, and preferred cooking method can throw off even the best home cook. Thankfully this handy chart makes sure you're always prepared when buying and cooking beef. More »

OK. Google Treasure Maps was funny. Gmail Blue? We'll play along. Google Nose was nothing to sniff at.

But now we have Google Wallet ATM, and we're starting to count the hours until April 2.

Even some of the most ardent fans of HBO's Game of Thrones can kind it difficult to keep track of the thoroughly dense plot brought over from George R. R. Martin's series A Song of Ice and Fire. If you're looking for a bit of a refresher in preparation for this weekend's return to Westeros for season three, Slate's nine-minute recap of the series may serve you well. The plot is ungraciously stormed through in the breathlessly narrated play-by-play video, but you'll likely be glad you watched it when you sit down for the first episode of season three on Sunday night at 9PM ET. Needless to say, the video will make quick work of any surprises in the excellent series, and if you've yet to start watching Game of Thrones we wouldn't recommend...

Continue reading…

This weekend, you can become Agent 47 for a bargain price of $9.99. Hitman Absolution is 75% off through Monday at 10AM Pacific, as a Steam Weekend Deal. Agent 10 doesn't have quite the same cache.

If you prefer, the Xbox version is also downloadable at a discount: it's $19.99 through Games on Demand.

Hitman Absolution for $10 as Steam weekend deal originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 28 Mar 2013 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung (005930) is still the world's leader in smartphone, tablet and PC shipments, but two recent big-name product launches are helping Apple (AAPL) quickly close the gap. IDC's latest data on "smart connected device" shipments — that is, total shipments for PCs, tablets and smartphones — show that Apple accounted for 20.3% of all shipments in the fourth quarter of 2012, just below Samsung's 21.2% share of total shipments. IDC says that Apple's surge resulted from a "combination of Apple's iPhone 5 and iPad mini," which shouldn't be surprising given that most reports have shown both are selling very well. The big question is how long Apple will keep pace with Samsung once the company releases the Galaxy S 4 next month, especially since Samsung has reportedly set a lofty goal of selling 100 million units of its new flagship smartphone.

While the offline models are less comprehensive than their online equivalents, they are perfect for translating in a pinch when you are traveling abroad with poor reception or without mobile data access.

So go out and explore another language or another culture without worrying about Internet access. There’s a whole world offline out there.

Posted by Minqi Jiang, Associate Product Manager

Update: A press release confirms Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain is coming to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Update 2: Contrary to what Kojima said during the GDC panel today, Konami has confirmed with Joystiq that Ground Zeroes and Phantom Pain are indeed separate games from Metal Gear Solid V.

As many suspected, The Phantom Pain is in fact a new Metal Gear game. It is Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, Kojima Productions head Hideo Kojima revealed during a GDC panel today. Kojima told the audience that Metal Gear Solid 5 is made up of both Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain, and the influences of both could clearly be seen in the trailer.

The game stars a Snake who has been in a coma for 9 years. Its opening section will be familiar to anyone who's seen the Phantom Pain trailer, as Snake wakes up in a hospital and must escape an unknown enemy. He's accompanied by a man with a bandaged face and a voice that sounds very much like Kiefer Sutherland. Naturally, it's pretty hard for Snake to stand up after 9 years of lying down, so most of his escape (and the GDC demonstration) is spent crawling on the floor.

Hallucinations seem to play a role in the game, as Snake spies a woman with a resemblance to Psycho Mantis mystically floating up an empty elevator shaft. The hallway is then engulfed in flame, and Snake and his new friend are accosted by a huge, intimidating man ... who soon spontaneously combusts and disappears. Whether these scenes are real or merely hallucination isn't quite clear.

The hospital section serves as a tutorial, after which the game proper begins. Today's demonstration was running on PC.

The Phantom Pain was revealed during the 2012 Spike Video Game Awards, with many immediately speculating that it was related to Metal Gear.

Continue reading The Phantom Pain is Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain [update 2: separate games]

The Phantom Pain is Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain [update 2: separate games] originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 27 Mar 2013 14:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rather than describe the intricate detail with which Kojima Productions' Fox Engine renders Big Boss dragging himself around on the floor, you can just see for yourself.

You'll also hear the surprise Kiefer Sutherland voice work and Garbage soundtrack behind the GDC trailer for Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain.

Update: Konami has not yet confirmed if this is Kiefer Sutherland we're hearing in the trailer, or if it's the best Kiefer Sutherland impersonator we've ever heard.

Update 2: Contrary to what Kojima said during the GDC panel today, Konami has confirmed with Joystiq that Ground Zeroes and Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain are indeed separate games.

Gallery: Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain (GDC 2013)

The Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain trailer [update 2: separate games] originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 27 Mar 2013 14:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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For years now, Google has offered its Google Maps Engine to enterprises that want to visualize their custom geospacial data. Starting today, anybody will be able to use a subset of this functionality, thanks to the launch of Google Maps Engine Lite (beta). This new tool, Google says, will allow any mapping enthusiast to “create and share robust custom maps using this powerful, easy-to-use tool.”

Maps Engine Lite allows users to upload small spreadsheets with locations and visualize them on a map. They can also compare up to three different data sets for, the company stresses, non-businesses purposes.

These custom maps can have multiple layers, and users who don’t have spreadsheets to upload can also manually draw lines, mark specific areas and set place markers. Google offers a total of nine base maps, including its usual satellite and terrain maps, as well as styles that emphasize city boundaries, political boundaries and highways. Maps Engine Lite also offers about 150 different icons that can be used to mark specific places.

To help new users get started, Google also published a tutorial that offers a few sample data sets and a step-by-step guide to publishing a custom map.

Google says it will still offer My Maps, its earlier custom mapping tool, for the time being and My Maps users can import their maps into the new Maps Engine Lite. Over time, however, Google product manager Beth Liebert writes in today’s announcement, My Maps will be “incorporated into Google Maps Engine Lite.”

For now, Google is officially labeling Maps Engine Lite as a beta, and it’ll only be available in English for the time being.

Short of a few seconds of homebrewed animations here and there, we've never seen Calvin and Hobbes animated. That's fine—Bill Watterson's panels are more lifelike than a kabillion hours of most shows—but seeing it done right is enough to make your eyes fall out from happiness.

The Calvin & Hobbes GIFs Tumblr has been around since last July, when it got some coverage around the web, but it's new to us and we assume new to some of you too and just too wonderful to not tell everyone about. Creator Eric Linn, who creates the GIFs using Photoshop, After Effects, and his boxed set of books, told the Daily Dot he still worries about whether or not Watterson approves.

One of the most remarkable things about Calvin and Hobbes' legacy is that it's never been licensed out (to the everlasting credit of Bill Watterson, the wonderful old codger). He was always worried they'd "contradict the message." But it's hard to imagine anyone finding much fault with these.

Maybe it's just because I can't stand there never being any more, but these and the other awesome Calvin and Hobbes Photoshop projects out there are just concentrated nostalgia and whimsy missiles. You can see the rest of the GIFs (animated a bit more smoothly) at the Tumblr. [Calvin and Hobbes GIFs via Daily Dot]

Every accountant I know swears by the powers of Excel. But not every accountant can harness that power as beautifully as Cary Walkin, an accountant from Canada. Walkin made a full RPG game inside Excel. As in you can use Excel to actually have fun.

The game, called Arena.Xlsm, can be downloaded here. It works with Excel 2007 and 2010 but hasn't been tested with Excel 2013 (it should work though). Unfortunately, like all things wonderful about Excel, Arena.Xlsm won't work on the Mac version of Excel. Gameplay includes:

• Random enemies: Over 2000 possible enemies with different AI abilities.
• Random items: 39 item modifiers result in over 1000 possible item combinations and attributes.
• An interesting story with 4 different endings depending on how the player has played the game.
  8 boss encounters, each with their own tactics.
• 4 pre-programmed arenas followed by procedurally generated arenas. Each play-through has its own challenges.
• 31 Spells. There are many different strategies for success.
• 15 Unique items. Unique items have special properties and can only drop from specific enemies.
• 36 Achievements.
• This is all in a Microsoft Excel workbook.

• It's like someone took the games we all used to play on TI-83s to a whole 'nother level. And maybe gives the rest of us a reason to use Excel! [Cary Walkin via BoingBoing]

Saudi Arabia might pull the plug on a number of popular messenger applications such as Viber, Skype and WhatsApp. The trouble with instant messaging apps is that they can't be censored and that's not what the House of Saud likes to hear.

read more

A student at the University of Georgia allegedly breaks into another woman's house and takes over her laptop. Purely for social purposes. [Read more]

Now that Google Keep is officially out in the wild, how does Google's note-taking and syncing service compare with longtime favorite Evernote?

From the moment Google Keep was accidentally leaked, it looked like Google was building an Evernote clone. In the wake of the official release, its name, announcement video and aspects of the user interface all evoke a certain Evernote-like quality.

I spent some time over the past few days comparing the latest Evernote mobile app and web app with Google Keep on the web and on Android

Here's what we found:

Basic Features

Evernote and Google Keep are both services that let users create and store audio notes or voice-to-text dictated notes, memos, checklists and images. Both offer up a way to seamlessly sync this data with the web — and in the case of Evernote — other clients.

Yes, Google Reader is going away, and yes, there are great alternatives. However, if you're tired of web services shutting down on you, why not take matters into your own hands? Tiny Tiny RSS is a free, open-source syncing RSS platform with more features than Google Reader ever had, and it can't get shut down. Here's how to install it and set it up.

What You'll Get

Setting up Tiny Tiny RSS requires a little patience, but it's deceptively easy. I had my instance set up and web-accessible within a few hours, and I spent a few more tweaking all of the settings and options just the way I wanted them. At the end of the day you'll have a web page that you can visit at any time, on any device, to read all of the latest articles from the blogs you subscribe to. Tiny Tiny RSS supports filters and labels, so you can organize those feeds into categories, filter out the stories you don't want, and organize them so you read the interesting things first. You can also score feeds, so the blogs you like the most float to the top. There are more features than we have time to get into, but you can read more about them here.

Tiny Tiny RSS also has an Android app (sorry, no iOS app), a mobile-friendly web interface, a Chrome extension, and more third-party supported apps. There's even an XBMC client if you want to read your feeds on the big screen.

There are some things you won't get with Tiny Tiny RSS that Google Reader offers, though. For example, you won't get such a broad array of third party apps and clients. Sadly, Tiny Tiny RSS can't be used with your favorite desktop or mobile feed reader like Reeder or NewsRob. Plus, it's definitely harder to set up than just importing all of your feeds to Feedly. Even so, if you want ultimate control over your news reading, and you want something that'll never shut down on you, Tiny Tiny RSS Is worth setting up.

What You'll Need

Installing Tiny Tiny RSS isn't difficult, but you'll definitely need a few things before you begin:

• A web host that supports PHP and MySQL. I used Dreamhost, since they have Linux web servers, they support PHP and have it installed already, and make setting up MySQL databases a one-click affair. Alternatively, if you don't want to use a web host, you can install Tiny Tiny RSS on a Linux computer you have at home. It's a bit more complicated, and you'll need to install PHP and MySQL on your own, but it's not too hard. We're going to focus on web servers in this how-to, so check out Linux.com's how-to guide here if you want to use your own Linux server.
• A URL for remote access. You may want to buy a domain name so you can just type "www.myrssreader.com" in your browser to get to your Tiny Tiny RSS instance. If you already own a domain (and most of you do), it's easier (and cheaper) to just use a sub-domain of a URL you already own. For example, I used "reader.novawerks.net" for my Tiny Tiny RSS installation. Dreamhost had it up in minutes and it didn't cost me anything.
• The latest version of Tiny Tiny RSS to install. The archive you download will include all of the files you need to install the application and set up the database.
• Your exported Google Reader subscriptions. Here's our step-by-step guide to exporting your Reader data. You'll need the subscriptions.xml file that you get after using Google Takeout.

Tiny Tiny RSS was meant to be installed on Linux computers that you have complete control over, like a Linux box in your house. Since most people don't have their own Linux web server, we're going to walk you through installing it on a web hosting company's servers—which we won't have complete control over. The developer behind TTRSS says that using this kind of hosting isn't supported. I think that's silly, and I'm willing to bet that this is a matter of support and personal preference, not functionality. Basically, if you use something like Dreamhost, you won't be able to get any help from the developer if something goes wrong. If you want that support and control, you'll need to use a dedicated Linux server as described above.

Step One: Prep Your Web Server and Create Your Database

Like I mentioned above, I used my web hosting company (Dreamhost) for this, so PHP was already installed, and creating the MySQL database for TTRSS was easy. Most web hosts have similar features, and will give you a web interface to create databases and users. If not, you'll have to use the command line. With that in mind, follow the corresponding instructions below:

Via the web interface: Check with your hosting provider to make sure that they meet the prerequisites. Odds are they'll make it easy for you and you can skip forward to step two. In most cases, once you've logged in to your host's management page, there's a wizard that will help you create a MySQL database and create its first user at the same time. Name the database and user whatever you want. Give the user a strong password to keep it secure. You can see how I did it with Dreamhost (using some example names) in the image to the right.

Via the command line: If your host doesn't offer one-click tools or a GUI to create a MySQL database (or you prefer the command line), it's not too difficult to do at the command line. Use your favorite terminal app (I use PuTTY in Windows and iTerm on the Mac) to connect to your web host (Open the tool and type slogin yourusername@mydomain.com. You'll be prompted for your password. Your username and password here are created through your web host, so check with them if you're not sure how to connect.) To create the database, type:

mysql -u root -p -h mysqlhost.mydomain.com CREATE DATABASE ttrssdb

In this example, your database is called "ttrssdb," and you should replace mysqlhost.mydomain.com in the above command for the name of the host where your SQL database will live. In my case, I had a separate hostname for my SQL database, but if you're running everything on the same system, you can omit -h mysqlhost.mydomain.com from the command to create the database on your local host.

To create the database user, type:

mysql -u root -p -h mysqlhost.mydomain.com GRANT alter,create,delete,drop,insert,update,select ON ttrssdb.* TO ttrssdbusername IDENTIFIED BY strongpassword

Again, change the fields in italics to what you want them to be, and omit the -h mysqlhost.mydomain.com if you're setting this all up on the same computer.

Step Two: Install Tiny Tiny RSS and Set Up the Database

Once your server is prepped, now all we have to do is install and configure Tiny Tiny RSS on it. First, download the latest version of TTRSS from the developer's site. It'll come as a tarball (a .tar.gz file), so make sure you have an app like 7-Zip (Windows, Free), The Unarchiver (OS X, Free), or PeaZip (Linux, Free) ready if you want to use an app to unpack it.

Once you've unpacked the archive, look in the "schema" folder for the database schema (that is, the file that will build and organize TTRSS's database) that corresponds to the database software you're using. The ttrss_schema_pgsql.sql file is for PostgreSQL, and the ttrss_schema_mysql.sql file is for MySQL. You can import the schema either via command line or using the GUI for your database software. My host offers both command line access and PHPMyAdmin to manage my database.

Via the web interface: First, go to the URL for your database. In this case, it's "mysqlhost.mydomain.com," and log in with the username and password you created earlier. Click the "import" tab at the top of the page, and then browse to the schema file you want to import (ttrss_schema_mysql.sql). PHPMyAdmin should detect the file format automatically. Click "Go," and wait for the import to complete.

Via the command line: The first time I imported the schema, it timed out on me, so I was worried it didn't import correctly. I decided to double-check by re-importing it via the command line. To do this, type:

mysql -u ttrssdbusername -D ttrssdb -p -h mysqlhost.mydomain.com < schema/ttrss_schema_mysql.sql

You'll be prompted for the password for that user account, but assuming you're in the directory you've created for Tiny Tiny RSS, the schema will be imported after a moment or two.

At this point, Tiny Tiny RSS is installed, your database is up and running, and you've imported your schema. The only thing left to do now is to connect Tiny Tiny RSS to your database and tweak some of the application settings.

Step Three: Connect Tiny Tiny RSS to Your Database

Go back to your Tiny Tiny RSS folder and find the config.php-dist file in the root directory. Make a copy of it, rename it config.php, and open it with your favorite text editor, whether in the command line (pico, vi, emacs, whatever) or by downloading it and opening it with something like Notepad++. If you edit it on the desktop, just make sure to re-upload it with the proper name so your changes take effect.

The fields at the top of the file are the most important, and the ones you need to change in order for TTRSS to find and log in to your database server. Review the entire file though, just to make sure none of the options are things you want to toggle. We'll tweak some of the additional settings later, but here are the basics, using the example names we've been using so far:

define('DB_TYPE', "mysql"); // or mysql
define('DB_HOST', "mysqlhost.mydomain.com");
define('DB_USER', "ttrssdbusername");
define('DB_NAME', "ttrssdb");
define('DB_PASS', "strongpassword");
//define('DB_PORT', '5432'); // when neeeded, PG-only

Unless your SQL database is on a server using a non-standard port, you probably won't need to define the DB_PORT. If you're running everything on the same system, leave DB_HOST blank or as "localhost." Of course, you should have your own usernames, domain names, and passwords to fill in here, but you get the gist.

Next, scroll down to the basic settings:

define('SELF_URL_PATH', 'http://yourserver/tt-rss/');

The SELF_URL_PATH is the domain where TTRSS is currently installed. If you installed it at http://yourdomain.com/ttrss, fill that in. If you set up a domain and installed TTRSS at its root, just type in the name of the domain, like http://myttrssdomainname.com/. If you're installing everything on the a server at home, this is where you'll put in your Dynamic DNS URL. There are more to set up, but these are the ones required to connect TTRSS to your database successfully. Now we're ready to log in for the first time.

Step Four: Log In and Import Your Feeds

If you've set everything up correctly, you should be able to go to http://yourdomain.com/ttrss or http://myttrssdomainname.com/ and see a login screen. Congratulations! The default credentials are "admin" and "password," so once you're logged in, the first thing you should do is change the password. Click the Actions menu at the top-right corner of the screen and select Preferences. You should see Personal Data/Authentication near the top of the screen. Click that and you'll see the password change screen. Give yourself a nice strong password and save it.

Next, let's import your feeds. If you haven't exported your subscriptions from Google Reader, now's the time to do it. Check out our step-by-step to get your data out of Google Reader, and once you have your subscriptions.xml file, here's how to import it to TTRSS:

1. Click the Actions menu at the top right corner of the screen and select Preferences.
2. Click the Feeds tab, and look for the "OPML" option near the bottom of the screen. Click it to open that frame.
3. Click Choose File to browse your hard drive for your subscriptions.xml file. Select it, and click OK.
4. Click the Import My OPML button to begin your feed import. If you have a lot of subscriptions (especially if some of them are defunct or now dead) this may take a while. Grab some coffee.

When your import is complete, click the Exit Preferences button in the upper right to go back to the main view. Even if your import seems like it's errored out (this happened to me a couple of times,) it probably imported your feeds okay anyway. You should see all of the subscriptions TTRSS imported in the sidebar, organized the same way they were at Google Reader—if you had folders, they should have come over with you. If you want to edit, rename, color-code, or re-categorize a feed, it's easy—just click to select it in the sidebar, and click the Actions menu to see all available options for it.

To add new feeds, click the Actions menu and select Subscribe to Feed. If the feed you want to subscribe to requires a login and password, check the "This feed requires authentication" box and you'll see fields to enter your credentials. If some of your feeds were imported with errors, or they're dead and TTRSS can't resolve them, highlight them on the left sidebar, then click Actions and Unsubscribe to remove them from your list.

Step Five: Tell Tiny Tiny RSS to Update Feeds and Update Itself Automatically

Now its time for a few advanced tweaks that will make your experience a little better. Here's how to make TTRSS update your feeds without doing it manually and how to get automatic updates to the application when the developer releases them:

Make TTRSS Update Your Feeds Without Help

By default, Tiny Tiny RSS only updates feeds when you double-click on them. If you want them to update automatically, you have a few options. You can either tell Tiny Tiny RSS to update quietly in the background while you're using the site and reading other feeds (and you can always update manually by double-clicking a feed name,) or you can run a background process on your linux server that will keep your database up to date even when you're not using the webapp.

The latter is the most foolproof method, but most web hosts aren't about to let you run a background process all the time, even when you're not logged in. However, if you're running TTRSS on your own linux box, check out the Updating Feeds page in the Tiny Tiny RSS Wiki for more information on how to set this up.

I opted for the former method, partially because I'm using a shared host, but also because it's just easier to set up. Open up your config.php file in a text editor, and scroll down "SIMPLE_UPDATE_MODE" and change its flag from "false" to "true." This will make TTRSS update your feeds for you every 30 minutes (by default, you can change this in the Preferences) as long as you're logged in. Set it as a pinned tab, and you'll never have a problem.

Get Application Updates Automatically

When I started playing with Tiny Tiny RSS, I was using version 1.7.3. The night after I got everything set up the way I wanted it, the developer released version 1.7.5. There is a built-in updater in TTRSS, but you have to turn it on first. Go back to your config.php file, and look for this field near the bottom of the file:

define('PLUGINS', 'auth_remote, auth_internal, note');

Change it to look like this:

define('PLUGINS', 'auth_remote, auth_internal, note, updater');

This enables the updater plugin (I have no idea why it isn't enabled by default) and opens up a new option in the Preferences menu called "Update Tiny Tiny RSS." Click it to check for updates, or to download and install an update if one is available. Again, this tweak works best if you're running TTRSS on your own server or an instance you control. I had trouble with it and wound up updating manually anyway (more on that here), so your mileage may vary using it.

Grab the Tiny Tiny RSS Android Client for On The Go Reading

Tiny Tiny RSS is well suited for mobile browsers, but it's not perfect. If you'd like to take your subscriptions on the go, download the Tiny Tiny RSS client for Android. It takes a few seconds on the settings page to set it up to work with your TTRSS installation (type in your URL, your username, your password, and customize the settings the way you like) and in moments you'll be reading your feeds on your Android phone.

The app has settings for HTTPS if your instance is running via SSL, and you can tell it to download feed icons and categories if you want to browse your feeds the same way you would on the web. You can tweak the article text size, enable full-screen mode for easy reading, and more. There are even a few themes to choose from. The Android app is free for seven days—after that you'll need to shell out $1.99 for the unlock key either via Google Play or in-app purchase.

Additional Reading

While this guide walks you through setting up a fully-functional Tiny Tiny RSS instance and importing your feeds, it's still just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to all of the features and options available in the app. Want a daily digest of your subscriptions and all your unread stories? TTRSS can send you one (if you enable it in the preferences and enter your SMTP server settings in your config.php file). Want to float interesting articles to the top? You can score feeds so the ones you enjoy reading appear at the top of your list. You can even completely tweak the layout and design with custom CSS. Dive into the app settings and explore!

For more information, additional reading, or if you run into trouble and need some help, check out these links:

• Tiny Tiny RSS Forums
• Tiny Tiny RSS Google+ Community
• Tiny Tiny RSS Frequently Asked Questions
• Weekend Project: Replacing Google Reader with Tiny Tiny RSS
• Get TTRSS Notifications in Growl (OS X) or libnotify (Linux)
• XBMC Addon: Tiny Tiny RSS Reader Client
• Tiny Tiny RSS Notifier for Google Chrome

Since Tiny Tiny RSS is free and open source, you could even create additional users for your friends and share your install and let everyone import their own subscriptions, and use it without any fear that it'll shut down on you. In fact, we've already seen a number of people send us their own version of "the next Google Reader/the best replacement for Google Reader," which is really just a skinned instance of Tiny Tiny RSS (so look out for that, too, especially if someone's charging money for it!)

If you do plan to build an instance for your friends, or you want something more reliable, grab a dedicated server or a VPS to install and run Tiny Tiny RSS on. Even better, consider carving out a little space on Amazon Web Services' free tier and setting it up there—it's an ideal cloud-based, affordable option whether you want to use it on your own, or you want to open the doors to your friends and build a Google Reader replacement for you all to use. You can let someone else manage the back-end, and as long as you keep it alive, you'll have a true Google Reader replacement that's leaps and bounds better than the original. Bonus: You control it, and it'll never go away unless you want it to.

Less than two years after the CyanogenMod founder was scooped up by Samsung to improve Android's veneer, Steve Kondik has decided to depart for greener pastures. In a Google Plus posting, the software engineer shared his mostly positive impressions for Samsung's Galaxy S 4, casually mentioning that he'd departed the Korean behemoth's embrace. The one thing that came in for a bashing was TouchWiz's updated UI, that he says "feels like it has been sent back a few years in time to the Froyo days." Responding to a comment, Mr. Kondik said that nothing in particular had prompted his departure beyond a desire to "do something new," but given the man's pedigree, we can only assume it'll be somehow related to the little green droid that could.

[Image credit: Erica Joy]

Filed under: Mobile, Samsung

Comments

Via: Android Police

Source: Steve Kondik (Google Plus)

أعلنت وزارة التجارة ومحامي شركة آبل في السعودية في جريدة أم القرى بتاريخ ١٥ مارس  عن تسجيل علامة آبل التجارية في السعودية بأشكالها المختلفة كعلامة مسجلة لا يمكن إستخدامها تجارياً دون أخذ التصريح من الشركة.

هذا التسجيل يعطي إنطباعاً عن تغيرات جديدة قادمة لآبل في السعودية، وقد يكون أول المؤشرات الرسمية لإفتتاح مكتب لشركة آبل في المملكة كما ذكرنا سابقاً.

هذا الإعلان يأتي إمتداداً للعديد من التغييرات التي حصلت في الفترة الماضية كإفتتاح مكتب أبوظبي الممثل للشركة، وتغيرات الموزعين والوكلاء في السعودية والخليج بشكل عام.

الصورة عبر بندر النقيثان من تويتر

Here’s to hoping the UI looks a little something like this concept

It’s a rumor we’ve heard before. Google isn’t content with Glass being the only form or wearable Google technology and will soon introduce another piece of jewlery, an Android powered smartwatch. Back in October of last year, we saw a patent filed by Goog’s from back in 2011 giving us a clear look at their plans for a smartwatch. More than a simple “smartwatch,” the patent filing showed a device similar to Glass with a mounted camera and even a clear flip cover for displaying augmented reality type information in the real world. Pretty much like Glass, but on your wrist.

Tonight, The Financial Times is confirming Google’s plans to release a smartwatch, this coming from their own inside source familiar with the matter. Other than that, we know little more other than this is not the same smartwatch Samsung recently mentioned in their plans to beat Apple to the punch (it’s been rumored that Apple will announce their own smartwatch in a few months time).

When it comes to Google’s smartwatch, don’t let that their patent filing get your hopes too high. Right now, everything is still hearsay and it’s entirely possible many of the ambitious augmented reality features in the watch were scrapped in favor of Glass. Whatever they’re working on, it’s big enough for Google to call in the big guns. They’ve recently recruited the once Apple fanboy Guy Kawasaki to help with their smartphone division, while Andy Rub tackles bigger fish in their X Labs.

We expect to learn more during this year’s Google I/O in May. You may remember last year saw the debute of Glass, and maybe this fabled smartwatch will have have Sergey Brin making yet another dramatic entrance. Anyone excited? For those that would have felt self conscious with Glass on their heads, will a smartwatch make the next best alternative?

An early build of Microsoft's rumored Windows Blue OS has started popping up on file sharing sites, bringing with it some minor tweaks to the Windows experience.

You'll come away disappointed if you were hoping for a radical departure from Windows 8. In fact, it's probably better to think of this as a Windows 8 service pack than a new OS. You'll be able to choose from some new Live Tile arrangements and color schemes, as well as a Snap View for running two apps side by side. The most noteworthy addition is the built-in Internet Explorer 11 browser, but it's not yet clear what changes are present.

If you want to try installing it yourself, the leak is referred to as "Build 9364," and it's making the rounds on most file sharing sites. Otherwise, you can find a ton of screenshots on the French Polish Winforum site linked below.

Dyskusja o Windows Blue | Winforum.eu

The coming of the Hyperkin RetroN 3 marked the end of doing a rain dance while blowing into your childhood SNES. And now Hyperkin is so excited about expanding compatibility that they're skipping ahead and calling their next console RetroN 5.

Five because the RetroN 5 will support NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, Famicom and Game Boy Advanced cartridges, though it's also kind of seven because Game Boy Color and original Game Boy games will be good to go, too. Hyperkin is looking at a July release and a price under $100, which will include two universal bluetooth controllers. The console will also have two controller ports for each system. NES and Famicom use the same ports, and the SNES controllers will double for Game Boy games. RetroN5 will also have HDMI connectivity and upscale games to 720p.

Hyperkin may look into reverse engineering newer systems like Playstation and N64, but the patents on those systems haven't expired yet. And you'll be up all night as it is playing on the RetroN 5. [Slashdot]

finofilipino:

Los gatos de Juego de Tronos.

HBO's hit series Game of Thrones likes to take its time. From the very beginning, the series has excelled at the slow burn: methodically pitting one character against another, layering betrayal atop betrayal, and finishing each of its two seasons in shocking fashion. Of course, there's also a healthy mix of blood, sex, and dragon fire along the way. If the premiere episode of the program's third season is any indication, it isn't straying too far from that successful combination — and according to the minds behind the show, some of the most satisfying payoffs yet are in store.

Last night HBO and AllThingsD hosted a screening of the episode, followed by a Q&A with author George R.R. Martin as well as executive producers D.B. Weiss and...

Continue reading…

Is this our first look at Google Babble? According to an anonymous tipster, yes. If anything, the screenshots presented above are a pretty appealing mockup of what we might eventually see from Google’s rumored unified chat service. The app looks like a much more refined version of the Google+ messenger for Android with features like image sharing and even voting streamlined.

A pop-out menu gives quick access to certain Google services (for sharing files, events, location, etc.), and it looks like you will be able to pop directly into a video hangout by tapping the button at the top of the chat panel. It looks like a pretty great solution. Could we see it as a keystone feature of Android 5.0 (Key Lime Pie)?

What do you guys think? The real deal or a clever mockup? We would take it, either way.

[Thanks, anonymous!]

Our user base recently grew 15x (and counting), and this changed everything. In a week we have gone from a personal project ran by three friends to a personal project ran by three friends with about 150,000 users.

Thank you everyone for your kind words, support, critique and active participation!

We are doing everything to bring things back to normal again, and we need your support.

We pay lots of attention to user requests, so we could not ignore the one where you had been asking for a way to donate us money.

We have been looking for a good way to accept donations, and we found Flattr. It is a simple way to manage your micro donations. You can either donate us fixed amount of money, or press the “flattr” button, and then your monthly budget would be distributed it among us and other projects you donated to during a month.

If you feel like donating a significant sum or you find flattr inconvenient, drop us a note (hello@theoldreader.com), we will figure something out.

If it’s a stretch, please don’t feel obligated to send us anything. We will use the money to expand our server infrastructure, which will help us to refresh feeds more often, process import queue more quickly, and even might even allow us to get more external resources to implement new features sooner.

Thank you everyone for your support. Every single contribution is an enormous help for us.

The Old Reader team.

(photo by rossomakha)

Android: Google Keep is a new app that seeks to save whatever you're currently thinking about so you don't have to remember. Although not the first app to try and solve this problem, Google's integrated Keep directly into Drive to make it easier to use.

Keep organizes everything in a colorful tile interface. Each one shows you a preview of each note, whether it's a photo, a to-do list, a single task, a saved webpage or whatever else. You can organize each to re-prioritize as needed, and you can add new notes with your voice. A Keep widget on your home screen can make adding notes really simple and straightforward. You can even add new items through the web via Google Drive (indirectly at the moment, but directly in the coming weeks). It's kind of like their version of Springpad (or a combination of Evernote and Pinterist).

Keep is available now for free on the Play Store, so go check it out.

Google Keep (Free) | Google Play Store via Google Official Blog

When I heard Google was planning to kill Google Reader as part of a “spring cleaning exercise,” I was appalled. Google had decided to disband the team of paperboys that delivered me the news every morning. While RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is years past its heyday, it had become a wonderful and efficient way to read news untarnished by the social networking age. It was my firehose of headlines, straight from the source.

And Google Reader is a lot more than an RSS client. It syncs news feeds between different apps, and makes sure you can always pick up right where you left off. It’s also simple and free, which means it drove most competitors out of the market long ago. Once Reader dies July 1st, we’ll be left with apps that don’t rely on its backend to sync your feeds — which isn't very many apps. Various denizens of the internet and companies like Digg have volunteered to create new backends of their own, but for now, picking an RSS client you can trust means you’ll need one that doesn’t rely on Google Reader.

“Hearing that Google Reader is shutting down is like hearing that your favorite old bookstore is closing,” writes The New Yorker’s Joshua Rothman. So what are all the “absurdly ambitious readers” to do?

Sticky TOC engaged! Do not remove this!

Feedly

Feedly

The best overall reader

Feedly appears to be the heir apparent to Google Reader’s throne, a modern take on RSS that blends some of the niceties of Flipboard (like a “magazine view”) with useful Reader features like keyboard shortcuts and tags. But its biggest advantage may be that it’s the only RSS application that also has excellent and free companion mobile apps. In a world without the ubiquitous Google Reader API, building your own mobile apps is the only way to make sure you can pick up where you left off — in this way, Feedly is the only real Google Reader alternative.

Feedly lets you divide up your feeds into folders, and even pick a preferred view for each folder — "headlines," "mosaic," "timeline," and more — which helps separate your news feeds from your photography feeds. Feedly is also generally the best-looking reader I tested, but if you aren’t happy with its white / gray / green color scheme, you can change the app’s theme to a variety of other colors. Feedly provides sharing options outside the usual gambit of social networks, like the ability to send articles to Evernote, Instapaper, and Pocket, plus an internal “Saved” folder. Feedly’s well ahead of the game in the mobile department, boasting very respectable apps for iPhone, iPad, and Android — which sync read status with Feedly on the web.

Feedly is the complete package. It’s not the minimalistic, omnipresent glory that is Google Reader, but it’s close, and in some ways exceeds Reader’s capabilities. Feedly pulls in your Reader subscriptions remarkably fast, and if the company’s upcoming Normandy API (a Google Reader API clone) can come through, we might even be in for cool new ways to interact with RSS. While it’s worrisome that Feedly is free — since we’ve all been screwed by a free app before — a Pro version is apparently on the way.

Also check out: another great web-based and lightweight alternative is The Old Reader, except it has no mobile apps to sync with, and has an epic wait list to import your OPML feed into the service. There’s also BlogLovin, which turns your RSS feed into a Tumbler-esque photo stream.

In some ways Feedly exceeds Reader's capabilities Newsblur

Newsblur

The best service for power users

Newsblur is far from the best-looking RSS client, but it’s lightning fast at pulling in updates, which makes it the obvious choice for news hounds. The service refreshes your feeds every minute, which feels a lot faster than the delay we've come to expect from Google Reader. Newsblur is also one of the only services that lets you nest folders inside folders, giving you freedom to organize your feeds any way you’d like. (Quite the accomplishment for a "one man shop.")There are also some nice UX tricks in Newsblur, like how the ‘o’ key automatically opens articles in a background tab.

Newsblur revives some of Reader's adored social components

Newsblur features a few other bells and whistles, like the ability to view the original “web view” of whichever article you’re reading, “intelligence classifiers” that let you train the app to prioritize certain kinds of stories for you, and familiar Google Reader keyboard shortcuts like ‘j’ and ‘k.’ It even aims to revive some of Reader's original social elements, letting you follow friends and see what stories they've marked as interesting. It's a nice addition, but something that's clearly not entirely fleshed out quite yet.

Newsblur has iOS and Android apps that sync "Saved Stories," but while they’ve shown signs of improvement recently, they still suffer from performance issues (especially on Android). Newsblur is great for hardcore RSS users, but isn’t a sure bet for anyone else — in large part because it costs $2 / month to subscribe to more than 64 feeds. And for now, that's your only option. Newsblur has temporarily halted all free account sign-ups.

NetNewsWire

NetNewsWire

Still The best app for Mac

NetNewsWire is the grandfather of Mac RSS readers, having launched all the way back in 2002. It’s powered by your computer instead of an army of servers in the cloud, which means it’s a bit slower than a web client. It’s also not as slick as Reeder, another Mac fan favorite, but it also doesn’t require a Google Reader account to get up and running.

NetNewsWire is easy to use, but visually outdated. It was acquired by developer Black Pixel almost two years ago and is "still in development", yet it still doesn’t tie in to common services like Pocket, Facebook, and Evernote. NetNewsWire’s iPhone and iPad apps also seem to have disappeared from the App Store. On the plus side, the app's reliable at refreshing feeds, and includes a search bar to mine your feeds for keywords. It's the most well-rounded local RSS client for Mac.

Also check out: another couple of Mac-only RSS clients called Vienna and Leaf. Vienna is open-source, fast, and even ties into new sharing options like Buffer. Leaf, on the other hand, makes reading an RSS feed just like reading a stream of tweets.

The road ahead

The road ahead

For RSS app developers, there has been no real reason to create your own backend since Google did it all for you. But today, in the face of certain extinction, many apps like Reeder (Mac), Press (Android), and NextGen Reader (Windows 8) are being forced to come up with their own solutions, or to wait for someone else to create a public solution for them.

While it looks certain that some solutions are already in sight, the transition may not be easy. Fortunately, apps like Feedly have emerged as a viable option, both because it works well on multiple platforms, and because its creating a back end of its own. We’re hoping that some of our favorite apps will tie into whatever new services launch in the next few months to replace Google Reader as a service, and not just as a client.

And now that Google’s free option is gone, a market is bound to spring up to address the need for RSS clients, no matter how niche the market. That’s the good news. So far, Press is Android’s RSS front-runner, a design-centric news reader that’s fast and tastefully designed. The app lets you organize feeds by category, star items for later, and even long press an article to “Mark All Below As Read” — a handy trick. Press developer TwentyFive Squares recently announced that it will migrate to a new backend syncing solution before Google Reader shuts down.

Now that Google’s free option is gone, a market is bound to spring up to address the need for RSS clients

Mac, iPhone, and iPad favorite Reeder will also adopt a new backend of some kind. While Reeder’s update schedule is a bit erratic, its innovative swipe-to-read to read user interface has inspired a generation of apps, and still makes it one of the best in its category. Reeder also has support for more than a dozen ways to share stuff you’re reading, including old favorites like Pinboard. “Don’t worry, Reeder won’t die with Google Reader,” tweeted creator Silvio Rizzi.

Even if a third party can't come up with a decent RSS API, it's good to know that some options like Feedly and Newsblur are available to satiate the desires of those hungry for headlines instead of the casual "digital magazines" like Flipboard or Pulse. And now that Google doesn't have the market cornered, a lively new ecosystem of both apps and APIs should arise.

Hitler finds out Google Reader is shutting down