Impressive List Of U.S. Investors Drops $180 Million Into Chinese Startup Incubator

Kai-Fu Lee has a fairly unique perspective on the tech industry, having spent years in high roles at Apple, Microsoft, and Google. Lee spent six years as VP of Apple's Interactive Media Group, before moving on to be chosen as the guy to forge first Microsoft's and then Google's inroads into China. Then, in mid-2009, Lee left Google (where the former professor and computer scientist had been involved with Google.cn and beyond for over four years) amidst the growing criticism in Western media of China's Internet policy, specifically in regards to the Golden Shield, or the Great Firewall of China, as it is fondly known. Lee bowed out of Google seemingly at just the right time to turn his focus from the behemoths to the little guys, founding Innovation Works, an early-stage incubator for Chinese startups. Since 2009 the incubator has been solely focused on investing in and coaching young entrepreneurs in the Chinese market, and today the incubator announced that it has raised $180 million to create the so-called "Innovation Works Development Fund" (IWDF). The fund is the first dollar-based fund raised by the company to be focused on Chinese Internet startups.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/vSiVjtA--wA/

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Dyson's Newest Vac Stuffs All Its Guts in a Beautiful Sphere [Vacuums]

A Dyson vacuum is almost as much a design-lust object as an appliance, and the new DC41 Animal (cool name for a vacuum!) only pushes that rep. Where'd all those weird hoses go? Hidden with minimalist magics. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/z28prgj1lL4/dysons-newest-vac-stuffs-all-its-guts-in-a-beautiful-sphere

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Balance is a challenging mouse-based physics game

Years of computer use have taught us that the mouse cursor is "above" the windows. It doesn't push anything around; at least not without you clicking anything.

Balance takes that ingrained bit of knowledge and cancels it out. Suddenly your cursor (a blue dot) is solid - and if it touches the blue block, it pushes it around.

Your job is to use your cursor to nudge the blue block over to the orange block. You will have to push it, lift it and even flip it on its side, and then balance it. It's a very tricky game - one I wouldn't recommend tackling with a laptop trackpad.

Still, if you have a mouse and a hankering for a little physics gameplay, this is a cute little game. I like how the blue block never stops smiling, it makes me feel better about the world.

Balance is a challenging mouse-based physics game originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 10 Mar 2011 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/10/balance-is-a-challenging-mouse-based-physics-game/

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Tasty Planet is a fun flash game where you eat everything in sight

So this professor comes up with a new toilet cleaner that works by "eating" the dirt; or so he thinks. That's how the plot starts for Tasty Planet. You play the role of the toilet cleaner, but you're not really a toilet cleaner after all -- you're a blob of gray goo that can eat anything that's smaller than yourself.

As you chomp away, you grow -- and as you grow, you can eat bigger and bigger stuff. The first level pits you against microscopic particles; by the time I stopped playing, I got all the way to eating cats and dogs. I know that sounds disturbing, but it's a really cute game, and there's no gore or anything like that.

Supposedly you keep growing and growing until you're able to eat whole planets (hence the name). The challenge factor comes when you realize you can't touch any critter larger than yourself - you'll get "bitten" and become smaller. In the beginning you're so small, that a single touch can kill you. Later on, you're big enough that touching larger animals doesn't kill you on the spot, but it does reduce your size. Each level is timed, so if you're not large enough by the time your clock runs out, you need to start again. As long as you don't touch the larger animals, you should be fine.

All in all, a fun, addictive little game. It's available for iOS, too.

Tasty Planet is a fun flash game where you eat everything in sight originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 08 Mar 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/08/tasty-planet-is-a-fun-flash-game-where-you-eat-everything-in-sight/

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Sony Vaio S line gets mild refresh with second-gen Core CPUs

That slinky 13.3-inch Sony Vaio S is getting itself something of a refresh. Not much is changing about the sub-four-pound notebook -- you're looking at the same 4GB of RAM and superb battery life, even on the base models. The folks at Sony are simply giving the line something of a brain transplant, swapping in Intel's latest Core processors (that's Sandy Bridge for those of you in the dark). You'll still have your choice of i3s, i5s and i7s, but now they'll run a little bit faster and a little bit longer. The slightly refreshed models will land on October 2 and no change in price has been announced. Check out the PR after the break.

Continue reading Sony Vaio S line gets mild refresh with second-gen Core CPUs

Sony Vaio S line gets mild refresh with second-gen Core CPUs originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Aug 2011 10:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/31/sony-vaio-s-line-gets-mild-refresh-with-second-gen-core-cpus/

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Toshiba Thrive coming to Europe as the AT100

The Toshiba Thrive has been available stateside for almost two months, and now it seems the Japanese manufacturer is about to let Euros in on the action, too. The chunky Honeycomb tablet has appeared on Toshiba Europe's products website sporting the name AT100-100. There are no references to the Thrive branding specifically, but the specs are an exact match, as is the product image.

If the idea of a larger Android tablet with full USB, SD card and MMC support has your interest piqued, then be sure to read our full review of the American version to find out more.

Source: Toshiba EU; via: Eurodroid

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/lq7m_3BkrZw/toshiba-thrive-coming-europe-at100

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T-Mobile May Roll Out In-Home Signal Boosters For Cancelling Customers [T-Mobile]

If you've your T-mobile coverage at home is spotty at best, don't cancel your service just yet. If you wait until Wednesday, September 7th, T-Mo might just give you a free in-home signal booster to get you to stay. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/HzNSaXLV2Ws/t+mobile-may-roll-out-in+home-signal-boosters-for-cancelling-customers

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How a Lab Extracts Brains from NFL Players in the Name of Science [Sports]

It's been coming into the spotlight more recently but NFL players have been dealing with brain injuries since the sport was first played. Combine the endless hard hits with the bigger, faster, stronger athletes and brains that weren't meant to be jiggled like that? Serious problems. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/uetPIWy1j8M/how-a-lab-extracts-brains-from-nfl-players-in-the-name-of-science

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Auslogics Disk Defrag 3.2 gets smarter, faster

Auslogics Disk Defrag has been part of my system maintenance toolkit for quite some time. With the release of version 3.2, it's now even better at tidying up and optimizing your system's hard disk drives. In addition to a cleaner, easier-to-use interface, Disk Defrag 3.2 offers improved single file and folder defragging, better processing of multiple disks, a simplified scheduling screen, and more informative tool tips. Auslogics has also fine-tuned the program's defragmentation and file consolidation algorithms.

For laptop users, there's a new option to lock the program if your system is running on battery power -- so scheduled operations don't kick in and drain your power source at an inopportune moment. If you happen to have an SSD installed in your PC, you can head to the Disk Defrag options and exclude it from scanning (many think that defragmenting an SSD is a very bad idea).

Auslogics Disk Defrag is a free download and works with most versions of Windows.

Auslogics Disk Defrag 3.2 gets smarter, faster originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/11/auslogics-disk-defrag-3-2-gets-smarter-faster/

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Sharp Galapagos A01SH tablet goes on sale in Japan from $1, comes with a catch

Sharp's 7-inch tablet running Android 3.2? Yeah, it's taking its sweet time arriving stateside, though our friends in Japan can get the Galapagos A01SH now for a starting price of... $1 (¥100). There's more than a little fine print, of course, which states you have to sign up with an ISP to score that deal -- a curious promotion given that this is a WiFi-only slate (carriers will bundle it with a portable hotspot). Those who like their tabs no strings attached can scoop one up for ¥44,800 ($583). As for those of you mumbling something about how we need another Tegra 2-powered Android tablet like we need a hole in the head, remember that this remains one of a handful of 7-inchers running Android 3.2 -- a space currently occupied by the Acer Iconia Tab A100, ViewSonic ViewPad 7x and forthcoming Huawei MediaPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7. So if you're dead-set on a 7-inch tab, like Honeycomb and are lucky enough to be wandering the streets of Nippon, have at it, folks.

Sharp Galapagos A01SH tablet goes on sale in Japan from $1, comes with a catch originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Aug 2011 10:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/30/sharp-galapagos-a01sh-tablet-goes-on-sale-in-japan-from-1-come/

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9 Pieces of Scrap Electronics Repurposed as Art

You may look at an old computer and see a pile of junk. Joe Dragt sees canvases and sculpture.

Source: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/08/scrap-electronics-as-art/

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Words With Friends for Android updated, promises "smoother game experience"

As several of you noted in the comments to our post asking for cross-platform iOS/Android games, Words With Friends for Android does not provide the smoothest gaming experience... and that's being rather charitable.

You might be happy to hear that a couple of days ago Zynga released an update which promises to solve many of the Android-specific issues, such as notifications not popping up.

Sadly, installing the update is not a smooth experience; you have to manually uninstall the previous version, and then go to the Android Market and install it. What's nice is that it doesn't lose your saved games - this screenshot shows a game I've started before the update and continued after updating.

How's the new update working out for you? Let us know in the comments!

Words With Friends for Android updated, promises "smoother game experience" originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 04 Mar 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/04/words-with-friends-for-android-updated-promises-smoother-game/

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UK Supermarket Sainsbury?s Offers iPad-Ready Shopping Carts

UK supermarket chain Sainsbury’s is trialling a new shopping cart with a built-in iPad dock and speakers. I’ll let you consider that for a moment. Imagine hordes of marauding shoppers barging through the aisles, staring at their tablets’ screens and pumping out a mixed cacophony of tinny tunes. If you are imagining hell right now, [...]

Source: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/08/uk-supermarket-sainsburys-offers-ipad-ready-shopping-carts/

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Carrying out renovations? Don't leave your unoccupied property uninsured. http://tinyurl.com/3g366hg

Install the Windows Phone 7 NoDo update regardless of your carrier

Some of you who own Windows Phone 7 devices are still waiting for your pre-NoDo preparation update -- never mind NoDo itself. A few workarounds have been posted, but unfortunately they didn't work unless your carrier had completed testing and was ready to schedule the update.

Now, however, the Chevron WP7 team's Chris Walshie has delivered a handy little utility that will allow you to update any Windows Phone 7 device -- regardless of your carrier.

1. Download and install the Windows Phone Support Tool (x86 or x64) and the ChevronWP7 Updater (x86 or x64)
2. Launch ChevronWP7 Updater and select your language. If your language isn't listed, stop and do not update.
3. If were running WP7 build 7004 (you can verify in Zune) then run the updater twice.

Once the process completes, you should be able to copy and paste to your heart's content. Let's just hope all this update foolishness gets sorted out before we're supposed to receive Mango.

Install the Windows Phone 7 NoDo update regardless of your carrier originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 04 Apr 2011 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/04/install-the-windows-phone-7-nodo-update-regardless-of-your-carri/

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Save your tabs and Panorama tab groups in Firefox 4

When Firefox 4's tab grouping tool, Panorama, had its keyboard shortcut changed to the finger-breaking combo of Ctrl+Shift+E, we thought Panorama would get dropped before FF4's final release -- but, thankfully, it made the cut!

If you've used Firefox 4 and Panorama, you might have noticed that Mozilla's new browser doesn't always save your tab groupings when you close the browser -- a bit of a pain, if you spend a long time setting up the perfect groups! This is tied into the removal of the 'Save and Quit' dialog box -- and enabling Panorama tab group saving is just a matter of re-enabling the Save and Quit dialog.

Open a new tab and head to about:config. Click through the warning and type 'quit' into the filter box. Double click browser.showQuitWarning to change its value to true (see image after the break). That's it -- now you'll have the option of saving your tabs, and thus tab groups, when you close Firefox.

For more tech tips, visit our tips index.

Continue reading Save your tabs and Panorama tab groups in Firefox 4

Save your tabs and Panorama tab groups in Firefox 4 originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 04 Apr 2011 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/04/save-your-tabs-and-panorama-tab-groups-in-firefox-4/

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Isis: AT&T, Verizon, And T-Mobile?s $100 Million Gamble In Mobile Payments

NFC will be ubiquitous one day, but we still have quite a ways to go. Unlike other smartphone features, this requires adoption on a huge scale from just about everyone, which will definitely take a while. But we are getting closer. While Sprint fiddles with its Google Wallet, Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile have reportedly made plans to invest upwards of $100 million in their joint-venture mobile payments network, Isis. Anyone else smell the competition simmering?

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/z6NQkKr05oE/

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Nobody Has Any Idea What the Hell This Mysterious Crashed Drone Is [Airplanes]

An (allegedly) American drone just crashed in Pakistan. That's not altogether surprising—we fly drones over them all the time to hunt militants. But this one's different. It's tiny. And, uh, it's shaped like a bird. What is it? More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/PCzlO7JIOes/nobody-has-any-idea-what-the-hell-this-mysterious-crashed-drone-is

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