How to Use Incognito Windows in Chrome


May 24th, 2012 by Dan Howley, LAPTOP Staff Writer  

We all visit websites that we wouldn’t necessarily want anyone else knowing about. And while deleting your browsing history will ensure that no one sees the sites you’ve visited under Chrome’s history manager, it’s much easier to simply ensure that no traces of your browsing experience ever appear on your computer. That’s where Chrome’s incognito windows come in.

With incognito windows, you can safely peruse the web without the fear of having all of your information saved to your computer.

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Motorola Mobility Devices Infringe Microsoft Patent, Munich Court Finds


May 24th, 2012 by Brad Chacos, LAPTOP Contributor  

It’s hard to single out winners and losers in the ongoing patent wars ravaging the technology landscape, but the flow of battle seems to have turned against Motorola Mobility. Earlier this week, the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled that the company infringed on a Microsoft patent and ordered an import ban on Motorola smartphones that utilized the technology in question; today, PCMag reports that a Munich court found Motorola guilty of infringing yet another Microsoft patent — one that will be difficult to work around without extensive engineering tricks.

The infringed patent in the Munich case covers “communicating multi-part messages between cellular devices using a standardized interface.” Noted patent blogger Florian Mueller describes the difficulty of developing a software fix to replace the infringing technology on his FOSS Patents website:

Android apps that make use of Android’s messaging layer would have to be rewritten, and some functionality that Android used to provide to app developers would have to be implemented by the affected applications themselves.

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Zombies Lurch Their Way Through New York City to Promote New Zynga Game


May 24th, 2012 by Michael A. Prospero, LAPTOP Reviews Editor  

As a way of promoting its new game “Zombie Swipeout,” Zynga unleashed a horde of zombies on the unsuspecting citizens of New York and San Francisco. We sent out a brave photographer on the rainy streets of Manhattan, who managed to capture a number of photos before succumbing to the undead. 

“Zombie Swipeout” is a mobile social game whose players compete against friends to kill as many zombies as possible in weekly tournaments. The game is a sequel to “ZombieSmash!” where players must guide Joey, the lone survivor from that title, to safety. The game will be released in the coming weeks for Android and iOS. 

We caught up with the zombies, who were handing out “blood pops” (hibiscus mint-flavored lollipops) to victims onlookers, but they will be making their way up to Columbus Circle by 1:30 pm. 


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GameFly Sets Sights on Nvidia’s TegraZone with Android GameStore


May 24th, 2012 by Dan Howley, LAPTOP Staff Writer  

Online game rental service GameFly has announced plans to launch an Android specific game store to compete with Nvidia’s TegraZone. According to Shacknews, the aptly named, GameStore, which GameFly says is expected to launch this fall, will be modeled after the Game of the Day feature included in the company’s iOS app.

The app would provide Android users with daily deals on Android games. GameStore’s biggest competition will be Nvidia’s Android-specific TegraZone game store, which provides users with access to games optimized for Nvidia’s Tegra 3 processor.

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Office fans rejoice – a mobile edition of Microsoft’s venerable productivity suite may finally appear on Android and iOS devices this fall. According to the Boy Genius Report, sources at Microsoft say that the full Office suite will launch for Android and iOS in November.

What’s more, sources say, the version of Office they saw running on an iPad looks virtually identical to a rumored version first reported by the Daily in February. At that time, Microsoft quickly denounced the rumors as unfounded speculation. Now, according to PC World, Microsoft has declined to comment — indicating that perhaps the rumors have more than a spark of truth.

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AT&T Validates Nvidia Icera Modem, Tegra 3 LTE Phones One Step Closer


May 24th, 2012 by Dan Howley, LAPTOP Staff Writer  

Since Nvidia first debuted its Tegra 3 processor, we’ve been salivating over the thought of dropping one of those quad-core goliaths into a lightning fast 4G LTE-enabled smartphone. Imagine how many LOLcats images we could download in a minute! But unfortunately, to this point, no Tegra 3 smartphone has managed to successfully integrate a 4G LTE modem.

But that may soon change. Nvidia announced today that its Icera 410 LTE multimode data modem has passed AT&T’s LTE validation process. That’s important because Nvidia has already proven that the Icera modem and its Tegra processors can play nice with the ZTE Mimosa X, which debuted at Mobile World Congress back in February. 

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Eyes on With “The Tree I See” Interactive Storybook


May 24th, 2012 by Molly Klinefelter, LAPTOP Editorial Assistant  

Ordinary children’s books, watch out. “The Tree I See” is an interactive storybook that shows how much further the learning and engagement aspects of children’s literature can go in tablet format. The app for iPad has a target age range of two to eight, and mixes classic narrative with moving scenes and interactive elements to truly bring the story to life. 100 percent of net proceeds right now are going to Autism Speaks.

After downloading the app, you’re taken to the Start screen, which has the title, author, illustration and a Start button. An acorn button in the top right of the screen opens a top navigation bar, where you can skip pages throughout the book. Leaf arrows let you go to the next page or return to the previous. Page-turn times average about two seconds.

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We’re All Geeks Now


May 24th, 2012 by Sean Captain, TechNewsDaily Managing Editor  

If an obsession with technology is a sign of geekdom, then most of us are geeks, whether we admit it or not.

In honor of “Geek Pride Day” this Friday, May 25 (the anniversary of the original “Star Wars” premiere), IT recruiter firm Modis published the results of a new survey on geeky attitudes in the U.S. (It conducted a similar survey last year.)

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ConnecteDevice Unveils the Cookoo Connected Watch


May 23rd, 2012 by David Eitelbach  

If you’re the proud owner of a sleek but somewhat large smartphone like the HTC One X, you know that digging into your pants pocket to check if you’ve received a text message or an email can be a pain. Thankfully, the folks at ConnecteDevice understand your suffering, and have built a simple but stylish Bluetooth-powered watch designed to let you know when you’ve received a new notification, even when your phone is out of sight. Although the Cookoo is still in the process of being crowd-funded through Kickstarter, ConnecteDevice has released some details of their forthcoming connected watch.

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HP Announces Plan to Layoff 27,000 Workers Along With Weak Quarterly Report


May 23rd, 2012 by Brad Chacos, LAPTOP Contributor  

Meg Whitman

Hewlett-Packard’s quarterly numbers are in and the doom-and-gloom rumors surrounding the company over the past weeks have all turned out to be true. Profits took a nose dive in the second quarter and HP has announced a plan to cut 27,000 workers – about 8 percent of the total staff — by the end of fiscal year 2014 using a mixture of layoffs and early retirement offerings. That’s a hair less than the 30,000 to 35,000 jobs that were widely expected to be slashed, but it’s nevertheless the largest workforce reduction in the company’s history.

The numbers tell the tale: HP’s net income fell to $1.6 billion, a whopping 31 percent decline compared to last year’s second quarter earnings. Revenue took a much smaller hit, but it’s still down 3 percent over the past year. HP hopes to save around $3 billion a year from the labor reduction.

It’s been a rough year or so for HP, which spent most of 2011 floundering in drama revolving around the on-again-off-again almost-sale of its consumer-facing Personal Systems Group. The current woes may just have more to do with the soft PC market, however, as Dell recently announced similarly dismal results. HP plans on turning the brunt of its attention away from the poorly performing hardware market and focusing instead on cloud, big data and security.

HP released a pair of press releases with all the nitty gritty financial details:

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