Eolas v. Everyone you've ever heard of

Filed under: Business, Developer, Web services, Adobe, Google, Microsoft, web 2.0

Tireless patent troll Intellectual Property holder Eolas has filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas against, well.. nearly everyone. The issue at hand deals with two patents in Eolas' possession -- the first of which was the subject of a successful lawsuit against Microsoft back in 2004.

The second patent, what Eolas refers to as "a continuation of the '906 patent" claims to hold as the sole intellectual property of Eolas, "fully-interactive embedded applications [...] through the use of plug-in and AJAX (asynchronous JavaScript and XML) web development techniques." The second patent is so far untested in court -- and ostensibly covers more popular websites than you can shake a knock-off Louis Vuitton handbag at.

I haven't had time to delve into the language of the patent, but this reeks of utter nonsense to me so far. In my layman's oppinion, Eolas may have made a crucial mistake however, taking aim at so many large targets at once -- with one untested patent, and another which Microsoft already came rather close to beating.

Take the leap to read the whole extortion demand press release, and see the enormous list of publicly traded web firms included.

Continue reading Eolas v. Everyone you've ever heard of

Eolas v. Everyone you've ever heard of originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 06 Oct 2009 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tweetie for iPhone hits 2.0

Filed under: Web services, iPhone, web 2.0, Microblogging

We've covered iPhone Twitter clients to death here on Download Squad, but we simply couldn't help but post about Tweetie 2.0 which launched just yesterday. If you're not familiar with Tweetie - which won an Apple Design Award earlier in the year for version 1 - it's often touted as the best Twitter client for the iPhone platform, and this new version raises the bar in terms of features and experience.

There's a tonne of new features (and an all-new underlying core to the application) - so here's just a few of my favourites that I've noticed:

• Searching within timelines - super-handy if you're trying to find that tweet without having to scroll back through your Twitter history
• Swipe-to-refresh - if you're at the top of the list of tweets, Tweetie allows you to swipe up and hold momentarily to refresh without tapping a refresh button. It's a really smart touch (though, assumes that you've read all the updates that are in front of you).
• More integration with location services and image services - If a tweet contains GPS data, or an image from the likes to Twitpic, Tweetie shows you a small preview of the information below the tweet.
• Multiple-draft support - version 2.0 allows you to save multiple drafts for posting later, and also allows you to post all drafts, whether a tweet or direct message, with one tap.
• More services - There's built-in links to the likes of Favrd, Favstar.fm and many other Twitter mashups when you're browsing user profiles.

Tweetie 2.0 also heads into uncharted territory by being the first iPhone app to have a paid upgrade. Whilst this has caused much bickering from certain "celebrities", given that a copy of Tweetie 2.0 is just $2.99 for all users it's not going to break the bank. You can pick up your copy on the App Store.

Tweetie for iPhone hits 2.0 originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 10 Oct 2009 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Surprise! Google Wave (unofficially) works on iPhone and Android!

Filed under: Web services, Google, Social Software, iPhone, web 2.0, Mobile, Android

After playing with Google Wave for about a week, I found myself wishing I could check my waves on the go. How is this thing going to replace email in the future if I have to be at my computer to use it? Well, it turns out that Wave does work on at least two mobile platforms: the iPhone and Google Android. Although the mobile versions of these browsers aren't technically supported - so you'll have to click through a warning to use it - the fact that they're built on WebKit means it's more or less Wave-ready.

There's even a mobile-optimized site for Wave, similar in design to mobile Gmail. Although there's no official Wave iPhone app, you can add Wave to your home screen on the iPhone for convenient access. Obviously, some of Wave's features won't work in the mobile version - dragging and dropping images, for example - but for basic reading and adding to conversations, it's fine. Preparing a decent mobile web version of Wave is certainly one alternative to going through Apple's app store approval process, especially after the infamous Google Voice rejection.

[via TechCrunch]

Surprise! Google Wave (unofficially) works on iPhone and Android! originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 14 Oct 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bad guys now launching attacks through hacked Facebook apps

Filed under: Security, Social Software, web 2.0

Social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook can already be dangerous places. Things like short links and bogus messages from friends with compromised accounts put unsuspecting and under-prepared users at risk.

Now, AVG's security researchers have discovered a new threat on Facebook. For the first time, they've found hacked Facebook apps. According to AVG, the apps are being used to launch drive-by attacks which target vulnerabilities in Adobe Reader and Adobe Flash. AVG reports finding seven hacked apps, but they admit there could well be more.

First things first: if you're not running up to date versions of either of those, download them right now. Here's the link to Flash and here's one for Reader. Using anything but the most current version could leave you open to attack.

The attack works like this. Visit the Facebook page for any of the hacked apps and click to install. Instead of the normal process, the page will try to push a poisoned PDF document to your machine. Once open, the infected PDF infects your system with a bogus antivirus application - which are often notoriously difficult to remove.

I've mentioned fake antivirus programs like these before on Download Squad. If you've been infected, you can try the tools listed on this post to clean up your system.

To keep from getting infected in the first place, make sure you:

• have a good antivirus program installed and that it is fully updated
• update browser plugins like Java, Flash, and Adobe Reader as soon as you are prompted to do so
• install any critical Windows updates that are available
• check comments on new apps before you install - others may have already been infected and left a post on the wall!

Bad guys now launching attacks through hacked Facebook apps originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Facebook revamps Groups feature, makes it more like Profiles and Pages

Filed under: Social Software, web 2.0

With all of the redesigning to focus Facebook on your News Feed, one classic Facebook feature got lost in the shuffle. What happened to Groups? Facebook must have noticed that Groups had become virtually useless, because they've just taken some steps to upgrade the feature back to first-class citizen status. Groups now have walls, just like Profiles and Pages, and group activity now has a place in the News Feed.

Although Groups now look extremely to Pages, they still serve two distinct purposes. Pages are for broadcasting information one-way to fans, and Groups are for interaction amongst members. The new discussions tab on each group's page emphasizes the collaborative aspect of Groups. It's nice to see a great feature back from the dead, and doing a lot more than cluttering up your profile.

[via AppScout]

Facebook revamps Groups feature, makes it more like Profiles and Pages originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Waver, a cross-platform Google Wave application for your desktop

Filed under: Google, Social Software, web 2.0

There's Tweetdeck for your Tweets, Seesmic for your Facebook stalking -- and now Waver for your Waves!

Waver is simply an Adobe AIR application that hooks into your Google Wave account. From there, you can create new waves, or update existing ones.

Adobe's Javascript implementation seems to do surprisingly well, rendering Waves as quickly or quicker than Google's own V8 -- though this could be due to the fact that Waver uses the cut-down iPhone UI output from Google Wave. Also, a lot of the UI seems to actually be, er, missing. And a lot of the shortcuts don't seem to work yet.

Try as I might, I could not get Waver to look like their sample picture -- perhaps it's because I'm running Windows 7 instead of OS X?

But let's not forget the most important thing here: in this case, Waver is merely rendering Google Wave using WebKit -- the same engine powering Chrome, Safari, and several other web browsers.

Is it really worth installing AIR and running a separate application to access your Wave account? Why not just open another tab in Chrome?

[via Life Rocks 2.0]

Waver, a cross-platform Google Wave application for your desktop originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Reader now sorts your feeds "by magic"

Filed under: Productivity, Web services, Google, Social Software, web 2.0

Google has made a couple of big improvements to Google Reader, aimed at helping you easily sift through all those RSS feeds to get to the stories you'll find most relevant. One set of new features focuses on finding relevant content that you weren't already aware of, and another feature sorts the stuff you're already subscribed to.

In the sidebar, you'll notice a new "recommended sources" list. These are sites Google Reader thinks you'll like, based on your browsing habits -- if you've opted-in to let Google track those -- and your reading habits in Reader itself. You'll also see a Popular Items section from around the web, showing you some well-read and potentially relevant posts from sites you're not subscribed to.

In addition to these ways of finding new feeds to read, Google Reader can now sort your existing items "by magic," bringing the most relevant articles to the top of your list. To make this happen, go to the settings dropdown for one of your feeds or folders and choose "sort by magic." The magic is actually an algorithm that takes into account what you read and share in Reader, and it seems to work pretty well. I'm not a frequent Google Reader user, and even my relatively untrained recommendations were interesting. If you share and like items on a regular basis, yours will likely be even better.

[via Mashable]

Google Reader now sorts your feeds "by magic" originally appeared on Download Squad on Sun, 25 Oct 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google's Social Search is now live

Filed under: Google, Social Software, Search, web 2.0

Last week, at the Web2.0 Expo, Google demoed a new Social Search feature that delivers targeted search results based on your social circle. Now, this feature is available in Google Labs, so anyone with a Google account can try it out. When social search gives you "results from your social circle," who does it mean? Google looks at your Gmail chat buddies and contacts, as well as your Twitter and FriendFeed buddies and your Google Reader subscriptions to find relevant results. So far, it doesn't seem like Social Search is for everyone, but you should definitely give it a look if you're a social networking junkie.

Social Search results show you which of your connections a particular result came from, and how you're connected to that person. For example, I searched for Download Squad, and found a blog post from fellow Squadder Nik Fletcher, who I follow on Twitter. Results aren't limited to direct connections, though, Social Search also finds more obscure stuff, like your friends-of-friends on Flickr. It's clearly still a work in progress, but right now it's great for finding blog posts by people you know, and keeping up with your friends across the various networks they're signed up for.

Google's Social Search is now live originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CeeVee makes creating your resume easier

Filed under: Utilities, Web services, web 2.0

I hate making resumes.

If you're like me, you'll probably appreciate any tool that helps make creating a resume easier. Ceevee is just such a tool.

Ceevee is an online resume builder that allows you to fill in specific fields, and it spits out a very nicely designed resume for publication on the web or print. You have a choice of three themes, which are all essentially the same but with different typefaces.

Modern (the default) uses a sans-serif font, Classic uses a serif font, and Plain Text uses a monospaced font, though it still has formatting.

Once you've created your CeeVee, you can share it on your website by embedding code that will also show a CeeVee icon. If you make it public, you can also share your CeeVee using Twitter and Facebook.

[via WebWorkerDaily]

CeeVee makes creating your resume easier originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Digg's homepage will display trending stories for user voting

Filed under: Social Software, web 2.0

How can a Digg story make the front page without making the front page? Digg is about to show you, by placing some highly-active stories on the homepage for 10 minutes at a time before they have enough diggs to be there. By putting these trending stories up front, Digg intends to have a higher volume of users digg or bury them, as a sort of filter to decide what belongs on that coveted high-traffic front page.

"Activity," in terms of getting a story to trend, doesn't just mean diggs. It also means comments, favorites and shares. Because these trends will be gone in 10 minutes if they don't survive the voting process, Digg has started a Twitter account to announce new trends and give more users a change to vote on them. Stories will only show basic information, to cut down on bias in the voting.

Let's have a little vote of our own: do you think putting Digg trends on the homepage is a good idea?

View Poll

Digg's homepage will display trending stories for user voting originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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