Filed under: Audio, Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Freeware

Over the last year we've seen a lot of companies race to come out with iPhone-specific versions of their applications. But FlyCast is moving in the other direction. The company makes a mobile application for iPhone and BlackBerry users which provides easy access to hundreds of internet audio streams including music, news, entertainment, and tech podcasts. Now FlyCast also has a desktop client based on Adobe AIR, which means it can run on Mac, Windows, and Linux computers.

The FlyCast Desktop Player appears to be a direct port of the iPhone software. It would have been nice if the company had spent a few minutes coming up with a new design so that you didn't feel like you were playing with an iPod while flipping channels. But the application works as you'd expect, making it easy to find internet audio streams in a number of different categories.

[via Zatz Not Funny]

FlyCast mobile radio app comes to the PC originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: E-mail, Google

It appears that Google is starting to roll out a new feature that allows some users to choose themes for Gmail. Google has provided a set of themes that change the look of the iGoogle personalized homepage for a while now, but this is the first time we've seen official themes for Gmail.

The new option shows up in the Gmail settings menu, to the right of the Labs option. If you don't see a Themes tab in your settings, you're not crazy. Google has a tendency to roll out new features in phases, with some users getting the update before others.

Ashish Mohta at TechnoSpot is already seeing the new themes, and uploaded the images you see above. If you can't access the new themes yet, you might want to check out Gmail Redesigned, an unofficial theme that changes the appearance of Gmail when viewed in Firefox.

Google starts rolling out Gmail themes originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Microsoft, Yahoo!

If it seems like every few days we're checking to see if Microsoft plans to buy Yahoo!, it's because we are. Earlier this year, Microsoft offered to buy the search company for $33 a share, but Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang said that bid undervalued the company. After a little back and forth, Microsoft walked away.

Flash forward half a year, and Yahoo! stock is trading at around the $10 mark, Yang has announced plans to step down as CEO, and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says the company still isn't interested in buying Yahoo!. Ballmer says Microsoft is still interested in pursuing a deal with Yahoo! to leverage the company's search technology. But that's not too surprising, since Ballmer's been saying that for months.

Does this mean that we won't see two of the largest companies in the software and internet space join forces? No, not really. Ballmer could just be negotiating or waiting for Yahoo! stock to drop low enough that he can pick up the company with nothing but spare change found in his couch cushions. But it is interesting to know that the departure of Yahoo!'s CEO seems to have no bearing on Ballmer's position.

Yang or no Yang, Microsoft still doesn't want to buy Yahoo! (Anymore) originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 14:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Games, Internet, Time-Wasters

If you're the sort of person who can spend all day playing casual web games instead of getting any work done, I'd advise you to stop reading this post. Like now. Come back to it this weekend. Seriously.

OK, for the rest of you, the guys behind the insanely addictive Desktop Tower Defense game we told you about last year are back. This time they have a new web site and company called the Casual Collective that's choc full of similarly addictive games.

The games include an updated version of Desktop Tower Defense, which supports multiplayer mode, a run and jump game called Buggle Stars, a real-time strategy game called Minions, and 5 other games. In other words, you could easily spend an hour on each and ruin your entire workday. Or make it better...

[via GigaOm]

Casual Collective: Time Wasters from Dekstop Tower Defense makers originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Windows, Social Software, Beta, Search

Xobni is a plugin for Outlook that adds advanced search and social functions to the email client. When we last looked at Xobni, the service indexed your email messages and created personal profiles for each of your contacts by automatically extracing phone numbers and loking users up on LinkedIn. Now Xobni has rolled out an update that adds integration with Skype, Facebook, Hoovers, and Yahoo! Mail.

Here's how it works. You can search for email using the Xobni sidebar. When you click on a message, Xobni will pull up information about the sender, including information from Facebook, LinkedIn, and Hoovers. If your contact's Skype profile or phone number are available, you can also initiate a call with the click of a button.

In addition to searching your Outlook mail, you can also have Xobni index your Yahoo! Mail, although in order to reply to messages you'll need to login to the Yahoo! Mail web interface.

Xobni brings Skype, Facebook, Yahoo! integration to Outlook originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

During my morning browsing today I came across Statbrain - a web service that "uses different resources on the web combined with mathematical and statistical methods to estimate how many visits a website has."

I hate to break it to you, fellas, but you need to re-work your math ever-so-slightly.

According to Statbrain, things don't look good for us: Download Squad's estimation was less than ten visits per day. That's a pretty poor showing for a site in the top 6,000 according to Alexa. Better still, the list of similar sites returned a slew of gibberish domains including a pair of NSFW Blogspot blogs.

Yet somehow Statbrain was apparently worthy of a mention in the list of "Cool Websites" from a fairly well-known blog whose RSS feed I read regularly. I may miss the mark from time to time with my recommendations, but please call the Spanish Inquisition on me if I ever sing the praises of a failure like Statbrain.

If you're looking for a tool like this, check out Quarkbase instead - it actually provides some useful information and stats.

Statbrain.com : traffic estimates for those with no brain originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Internet, Security, Utilities, Windows, Microsoft

Microsoft announced yesterday that Live OneCare, its anti-virus/malware application, will be put to rest on June 30, 2009. A replacement offering is slated for release around the same time.

Currently codenamed Morro, the new program will be completely free. Microsoft's aim is to "[..]focus on getting the majority of consumers the essential protection they need by providing comprehensive, real-time anti-malware protection, covering such threats as viruses, spyware, rootkits, trojans, and other emerging threats, in a single, focused solution."

That's a fairly altruistic mission statement. Even though Microsoft has received plenty of praise for apps like SteadyState and Live Writer, the public still doesn't perceive Microsoft as a company that gives away good software for free.

And then there's last month's software report by NPD, which showed Live OneCare actually outselling McAffee Virusscan. It's done fairly well in terms of sales, so why change now?

The move makes sense in at least one way: protecting their own OS from malicious applications. Work never stops when it comes to finding exploitable weaknesses in Windows. If the new product is widely adopted and works at least as well as other free protection offerings (like Avast, AVG, Avira, Comodo), Windows might appear a bit more secure.

For full details, visit the Live OneCare team blog.

[ via BetaNews ]

Microsoft to replace Live OneCare with free alternative originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 10:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Fun, Internet, web 2.0

Since Twitter decided to take care of the frequent outages that used to plague its servers, I've actually started using it here and there. It's a nice service, and definitely has useful applications. You've only got to look as far as sites like NowPublic and Twubble to see how the API can be put to good use.

However, there are a mountain of applications feeding off it and they're not all contenders for Best in Show. These five definitely are, but only if it's a show dedicated to sucking at Twitter API use.

Twitemperature
Finally, a service that can tell you how hot or cold you are on Twitter. Does anyone actually need this? I suppose there are people that think Twitter is like a web 2.0 popularity contest, but can't you look at your follower total and figure this out yourself?

I'd also like to know how their script works. Their "hottest" tweeter has 55 followers. The crowd has spoken, and 55 < hot. Also, his level of hotness is referred to as "volcanic" and features a picture of a guy holding Tabasco - arguably one of the least-hot hot sauces you can buy.

And no, I'm not just bitter because I'm only a few degrees above freezing.

Continue reading Five awful sites built on the Twitter API

Five awful sites built on the Twitter API originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Utilities, Macintosh, Browsers

If you're a Mac user, you'll probably have noticed OS X's default browser behavior. You choose a default browser, and links from all your other applications are automatically opened in it. But what if you want more control? An app called Choosy lets you pick a browser for each individual link.

You mean every time you click a link in one of your applications, you have to choose a browser? This sounds like it could be a pain, but Choosy can choose a browser for you automatically. It lets you set its behavior based on favorite browsers, or just which browsers you have open.

In any situation where you haven't specified a browser, Choosy will prompt you with a neat little panel that looks like the app picker that pops up when you hit Apple-Tab in OS X. It's an extra click, but at least you know your link will open in the correct browser.

Choosy app chooses browsers (in OS X) originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments