Apple added a new wrinkle to its hobby overnight, as AppleInsider reports the Genius recommendation feature added in iTunes 8 now offers up suggestions for movies and TV shows. The new Apple TV feature appears to have been switched on from the back end servers with no firmware update, displaying the new Genius option under Movies and TV Netflix-style as shown above. We're not sure you really needed anyone else telling you it's definitely time to check out The Wire or Breaking Bad, but with competitors like Google already taking aim at improving content discovery and recommendations it's a logical next step for whatever Apple's living room ambitions ultimately become.

Apple TV gets into video discovery, adds movie and TV show Genius Recommendations originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Feb 2012 06:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/04/apple-tv-gets-into-video-discovery-adds-movie-and-tv-show-geniu/

SONUS NETWORKS SONIC AUTOMOTIVE SKYWORKS SOLUTIONS

Space-shooters are usually a fairly fiery affair, with many types of guns, weapon upgrades, power-ups and more. Dodge does away with all of that, while keeping the very essence of a space shooter: Dark background, fast action, and stuff blowing up all over the place.

Your vector-looking spacecraft is the fastest thing on the screen, most of the time. And as the header implies, you have absolutely no weapons; you can't get any, either. All you have is agility and maneuverability.

Your opponents shoot heat-seeking missiles at you; the missiles lock on and start tracking you. The trick is to dodge the missiles while putting them in the path of one of your enemies, thus letting them have a taste of their own medicine.

There are three types of enemies, at least in the first few levels: "simple" spaceships which fire slow projectiles, "tanks" which seem to be more serious and take more hits to destroy, and "circles." The circles simply explode, spewing twenty or thirty very fast projectiles. This sounds dangerous, but is actually great once you learn to use them; they are very destructive for tanks, and can even blow up other circles.

The soundtrack is very techno, but it meshes very well with this type of game. Intense fun!

Dodge is a space-shooter in which you have no weapons originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 01 Mar 2011 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/01/dodge-is-a-space-shooter-in-which-you-have-no-weapons/

AMKOR TECHNOLOGY AMPHENOL ANIXTER INTERNATIONAL

Scammers never miss an opportunity to scam, and while Twitter, forums, and email have long been subject to disgusting "test & keep new iPhone/iPad/whatever" spam, it looks like the iPhone 5 version has taken to SMS. That's right, not only are they content to waste your time and attention, they're now also wasting your text message totals.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/mq6H5sDW1ow/story01.htm

FEI COMPANY FAIRCHILD SEMICONDUCTOR INTERNATIONAL FAIR ISAAC

Yahoo unveils app search page for Android and iOS, because we need it originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/03/yahoo-unveils-app-search-page-for-android-and-ios-because-we-ne/

LEVEL 3 COMMUNICATIONS LAWSON SOFTWARE LAND SOFTWARE

A new potentially life-bearing "super-Earth" has been discovered orbiting a relatively nearby star. Described as the "best candidate" for supporting liquid water -- and therefore life -- the planet (GJ 667Cc) is believed to be about 4.5 times the size of Earth. The parent star (GJ 667C) is 22 light years away, and this is the second potentially Earth-like rock scientists have discovered orbiting the M-class dwarf. With a 28.15 day cycle, it's calculated to receive 90 percent as much light as Earth, and much of that is infrared (meaning the actual energy delivered is about equal) -- crucially hinting at similar temperatures and favorable conditions. Not enough is known about the atmosphere right now to fully nail the water prospects, but it's still our best hope of discovering life as we (don't) know it yet.

Continue reading New super-Earth detected, 'best candidate' for supporting life

New super-Earth detected, 'best candidate' for supporting life originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/gHa7I_0pQ5E/

ARIAN SEMICONDUCTOR EQUIPMENT ARROW ELECTRONICS ASML HOLDING

We’ve told you before about Kidz Gear volume-limiting headphones designed for kids, and now we have the Kidz Gear Volume Limit Headphones for Apple Products to tell you about.  These headphones are designed to fit children’s smaller heads, and they have the KidZControl Volume Limiting Technology that keeps sound pressure levels between 80dB ? 90dB [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2012/02/02/kidz-gear-volume-limit-headphones-for-apple-devices/

MICROSOFT MICROSEMI MICROS SYSTEMS

I'm getting fat; that's what you see on the screenshot to the right -- my gradual move from chubby to portly. But never mind the numbers, look at the pretty graph!

If you've ever read The Hacker's Diet, this graph should be instantly recognizable. Each point shows the weight for a given day, while the trend line lets you see if you're gaining or losing weight.

When I use my "main" PC, I have a homebrew solution for creating and maintaining this graph. But I've had to find a temporary solution for Android, and Libra is it.

It's a beautifully simple app, very true to the spirit of The Hacker's Diet. You can create a shortcut on your homescreen that brings you right into the data entry screen, so you just tap the shortcut every morning, feed in your weight for the day and hit OK, and then you get to see your progress (or lack thereof) on the graph.

The app remembers the previous day's weigh-in, which makes it easy to enter today's weight (as they're usually not too different). The graph is zoomable and scrollable, and most importantly, you can export the data to CSV so you're not locked into the app.

If you ever need to track your weight using an Android device for any period of time, Libra is one excellent solution.

Libra for Android helps you track your weight using The Hacker's Diet system originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/31/libra-for-android-helps-you-track-your-weight-using-the-hackers/

METHODE ELECTRONICS MENTOR GRAPHICS IMS HEALTH

There's an old saying that eternal love lasts for two years. Apparently, that also applies to Peek's bare bones email and Twitter devices, which launched in 2008 and 2009 respectively. We've received emails from users anxious that their handsets -- all running on T-Mo's network -- stopped working on January 30th, despite them having paid up to $299 for "lifelong service." Although at least some users received emails about this, we've just had confirmation from Peek's CEO, Amol Sarva, that the products really are being abandoned. By way of justification, he told us that they're "seriously old" and have reached their end of life, with only a "handful of users" left in the US. He adds that anyone who bought the $299 one-off bundle still eked out 28 months of service, whereas paying the monthly $19.95 subscription plus extra for the device would have added up to much more. As to why the service is being killed, perhaps we should have taken the hint back in July, because now the company is all about software-only cloud services rather than handsets. Here's some more detail from Sarva himself:

"Unfortunately we cannot maintain the network forever for a few users, so that end time has come. The networks are changing standards, protocols etc and the old units are now end of life. We have lots going with rapid adoption of our software by phone brands around the world, so Peek is flat out building for a number of platforms that our OEM customers are deploying like Android and Mediatek. We are not offering a Peek-made device to replace these old ones."

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Peek killing off US email and Twitter devices after 'lifelong service' originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Feb 2012 07:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/XjlFtLyN5n8/

SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY SCIENTIFIC GAMES SANDISK

Pinch of salt time. As mobile manufacturers polish up those final test models ready for us to pore over in just a few weeks, someone's possibly jumped the gun. What you're looking at here are apparently benchmarks from the Galaxy S II Plus -- yep, another incremental step-up for an existing Samsung device. According to the results, the phone will carry the same resolution screen of the original (800 x 480), but will purportedly be the first device to carry a dual-core 1.5GHz Exynos processor -- placing it just ahead of even the Galaxy Note. Unfortunately, the benchmark read-out also lists Android 2.3.4 for the phone -- a little old (and unlikely) when we're seeing version 2.3.7 if not a leap to Ice Cream Sandwich. Benchmark results featuring a Galaxy Nexus with a 2GHz processor (possibly overclocked) has also got us all kinds of suspicious. We'll be keeping our eyes on this one.

Continue reading Is this the Samsung Galaxy S II Plus? Leaked benchmarks suggest new 1.5GHz dual-core Exynos processor

Is this the Samsung Galaxy S II Plus? Leaked benchmarks suggest new 1.5GHz dual-core Exynos processor originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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

LINEAR TECHNOLOGY LEXMARK INTERNATIONAL LEVEL 3 COMMUNICATIONS

Apple iDevice rumor-mongering is so much better when pictures are involved. And today that's what we've got: Photographic "proof" of core features inside Apple's upcoming iPad 3.

Source: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/02/photos-ipad-3-specs/

MANHATTAN ASSOCIATES LSI LINEAR TECHNOLOGY