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Firefox 31 is out now with a search bar on new tabs, better developer tools, and more

Jul22
by on July 22, 2014 at 3:30 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider

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Mozilla shipped a new version of its Firefox browser today, giving desktop (Windows, Mac and Linux) and mobile (Android) users alike a small selection of new consumer-facing features to explore. On desktop, the most notable change is a search field on the new tab page. It’s fairly explanatory, giving you the ability to start a new query without mousing over to the search bar at the top of the screen. Furthermore, Firefox for Windows will now handle .ogg and .pdf files in the browser, if you haven’t already set a specific application to open them by default. The Android update,…

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Amazon Wallet app lets you store and redeem gift cards from an Android device or Fire Phone

Jul22
by on July 22, 2014 at 2:40 pm
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web, Product Launches

Amazon has quietly released Amazon Wallet, a new Android and Fire Phone app that lets you store and organize your gift, reward and loyalty cards. The app is in beta at the moment, but you can still use it to scan cards, check balances and redeem offers in-store. As TechCrunch stresses though, the app doesn’t support mobile payments or credit and debit cards. In this regard Google Wallet is still the better service, although it probably won’t be long before Amazon adds similar functionality. Endorsing purchases and offers from physical store might seem an odd move by Amazon, given its empire…

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Google’s ‘Little Box Challenge’ to shrink a power inverter is now open for submissions

Jul22
by on July 22, 2014 at 2:33 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Google, Insider

solar
Google is looking to reward engineers and budding innovators for coming up with a more compact solution for transforming energy garnered from renewable sources into something usable in your home. The internet giant first announced the initiative back in May, but now it’s full steam ahead as Google has finally opened it for submissions. As things stand, the typical power inverter for solar or wind power is roughly the size of a picnic cooler, as Google notes, but it’s looking for clever people to shrink this down to the size of a tablet, roughly a tenth of its current size….

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Realm is a refreshing, open-source mobile database product for iOS developers

Jul22
by on July 22, 2014 at 2:14 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Design & Dev, Product Launches

realm
If you’re a mobile developer you’ve probably, at one point, had to work with databases to store your app data on a device. Surprisingly, your choice in databases is limited, with SQLite being the most commonly used. It’s surprising because despite the many new databases that have been created over the past decade, none have been focussed on mobile. Bring on Realm: “a mobile database that runs directly inside phones, tablets or wearables.” Realm is an open-source library that mobile developers can integrate into their app to store and query data. Data is queried from Realm’s internal storage engine (not…

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NVIDIA unveils its gamer-focused Shield Tablet with a separate controller and Twitch integration

Jul22
by on July 22, 2014 at 2:05 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Gadgets, Product Launches

Screen Shot 2014-07-22 at 14.52.31
NVIDIA’s portable Shield gaming console was a niche device that failed to resonate with players. Undeterred, the company is back with a successor called the Shield tablet, which swaps the quirky controller and display hybrid for a more familiar slate and separate gamepad setup. Running on a Tegra K1 chipset, the Shield tablet boasts an 8-inch, full HD display and a stylus. It runs on Android and comes with 16GB or 32 GB of internal storage, which can be expanded by up to 128 GB with a microSD card. Similar to the original Shield, the new Shield tablet supports NVIDIA’s GameStream technology…

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