The latest version of connection-tethering app PdaNet masks its tether from your phone service provider, just as major carriers move to block tethered connections that bypass their services and hide unapproved tethering apps from the Android marketplace when viewed over certain carriers' networks. Released on April 30, the major feature update in PdaNet 3.0 (download for Windows x86 | x64 | Mac | Android) is the tethering mask. Additionally, publisher June Fabrics Technologies noted unspecific performance and connection quality improvements.

In addition to supporting wired USB tethering, PdaNet 3.0 also includes support for Bluetooth DUN tethers, and offers an SMS agent from which you can receive and respond to text messages from the computer that's tethered to your phone.

PdaNet has supported installing the Android app on your phone when running your computer-based installer since at least the middle of 2010. To run the tether mask or the SMS agent, right-click on the desktop system tray icon and choose Settings. Then mouse over Hide Tether Usage, and select Level I. The SMS agent is available from the main system tray icon menu.

PdaNet comes with a 30-day trial, after which it prevents secure connections via https but otherwise remains unencumbered. The full version costs $19.00.

Some of the nation's biggest wireless carriers are trying to put the kibosh on free apps that let Google Android users use their smartphones as modems without paying the carriers' extra fee.

Several blogs have reported in recent days that free Android phone tethering apps that are typically found in the Android Market are not available for Android phones on AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and T-Mobile USA.

Sprint customers apparently are still able to access many of these tethering apps from the Android Market.

Reports first surfaced from the blog DroidLife that the free tethering app Wireless Tether could not be downloaded onto AT&T and Verizon Wireless handsets.

AT&T and Verizon representatives declined to comment, and said that Google chooses which apps are in the Android Market. Neither company would comment on whether they asked Google to remove the Wireless Tether app or any other free tethering app from the Android Market.

A Google spokesman told Fierce Wireless that it is not blocking the app. Instead it's simply making it unavailable for download on certain carrier networks at the request of those carriers. If an application is in direct violation of the terms and conditions of a usage contract, a carrier can request Google make the app unavailable, the spokesman told Fierce Wireless.

In essence, the apps are still on the Google Market, but they are just not visible to users on certain carrier networks. Apps are only hidden from view if they are in direct violation of the carrier's terms of service.

But that doesn't mean that AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and T-Mobile customers can't get access to these apps. Any app can still be side-loaded onto the device. So if the developer distributes the application file in a way other than the Android Market (say, just as a download from a Web site) a user can install that on his device.

AT&T has recently made a big push to ensure that people pay to use its smartphones as wireless modems. AT&T has been sending e-mails warning users who are tethering their phones without paying the extra fee. AT&T charges $20 extra per month for the tethering feature. Customers who tether are given 4GB of data to use during the month. Customers who exceed that limit are charged $10 a gigabyte thereafter.

T-Mobile USA charges $15 a month in addition to a smartphone data plan for 5GB worth of data per month. And Verizon Wireless charges its smartphone customers $20 a month on top of its $30 smartphone data fee to use up to 2GB of data per month.

Originally posted at Signal Strength

What happens when you give a giant octopus the power to destroy nearly anything?

Wrap your tentacles around the new $1.99 iOS game Destructopus, a '90s throwback arcade side-scroller from Glitchsoft that unleashes a Destructopus hell-bent on rescuing the world.

Why would something so evil-looking want to save the globe? According to the lore, the deep-sea Destructopus is actually peaceful, despite having a vile visage. After being accidentally awoken by "greedy industrialists" during a century-long slumber, the big, bad cephalopod comes ashore to right what's wrong. Fueled by an appetite to rid the world of pollution and reverse the course of a dying world, this "green" monster slowly works his way through cities to destroy corporations and save trapped endangered animals.

When I first played Destructopus on the iPhone 4, I put it down after a couple of minutes. I thought the game looked great and had a sense of polish, but it didn't really engage me. I'm sure I'm not the first one to download and play a game, then go on to delete it after the first few minutes. The controls felt awkwardly placed at the lower left side of the screen, and sometimes I hit buildings and they didn't explode when they were supposed to (it didn't happen too often). After a couple of hours, I tried the game again. Things got progressively better as I went through the levels and more attacks and perks became available.

I hate to admit it, but dying also kept me interested. I think for a game to be successful, it has to make you think it's easy to advance while also keeping you challenged by hindering your progress based on performance. The first two levels are barely challenging and don't represent the difficulty found in later levels. Once I played through some levels, the game took a different turn. As I slowly slithered down the road, helicopters assaulted me constantly, and I had a new option to shoot energy beams from my Destructopus to destroy the flying nuisances. The longer you play, the more strategy is required. I also liked the fact that if you kept attacking things, a multiplier would increase with each successful hit.

I found some other nice touches, like a shop to purchase power-ups and extra abilities. These let you dodge attacks more efficiently, acquire flame breath, tougher armor, improved aim, extra health, and other improved weaponry. With these add-ons, which you can earn by collecting points, your Destructopus can be truly devastating and survive some of the later levels.

What's next for Destructopus? An iPad version will eventually slide down the road, according to a rep from Glitchsoft. I inquired about Retina Display support, and while it's not supported on the first version, it is a strong possibility. The reason the developer didn't include it initially is because it wants the game to fall under the 20MB over-the-air App Store download limit imposed by Apple.

Destructopus is very fun, original, and carries an admirable message. However, I wouldn't mind shooting a laser beam at the price tag to drop it down a dollar.

Originally posted at Crave

Today, Electronic Arts announced an agreement to acquire Firemint, the maker of several hit games on mobile platforms.

The news comes on the heels of EA's acquisition of Mobile Post Production, a cross-platform development studio that ports games for smartphones.

"The Firemint team is remarkable for its critical and commercial success," Barry Cottle, executive vice president and general manger of EA Interactive, said in a statement. "The added technical expertise of MPP, combined with the creative talent of Firemint and our EAi studio teams, fuels EA's leadership in delivering top-selling, high-quality games across mobile phones and smartphones, tablets, and future digital interactive entertainment platforms."

Of the thousands of games that flooded the gates of the iTunes App Store in its early days, Firemint was one of the first development companies to hold solid positions on the Paid Apps most popular list. Its most notable hit games, Flight Control and the Real Racing franchise for both iPhone and iPad, have been popular mainstays in the Top 100 Apps lists since their release. Firemint's gone on to add other platforms to its repertoire, including Google's Android and Microsoft's Windows Phone 7.

The deal between EA and Firemint is expected to close within four weeks. Financial details were not disclosed.

Originally posted at News - Gaming and Culture

We had only been in Buenos Aires for a few hours last month when my wife and I realized that our Spanish-English dictionary and Latin America phrasebook were still sitting on a bookshelf back at home. "Not cool," my wife said simply.

So I made a trip to El Ateneo, one of the biggest and certainly most beautiful bookstores south of the Panama Canal and picked up the only paperback dictionary in the house--a thick, clunky volume with a neon orange cover meant for speakers of Mexican Spanish, which is quite different from the Argentine dialect.

After a few times stopping in the middle of a crowd to pull out the big, glowing book, I became worried that I might inadvertently start directing traffic; I quickly retired the dead-tree translation method and started looking for a less conspicuous, digital solution. I found three top contenders, each with their own pros and cons. Here's the rundown.

Solution 1--Kindle loaded with Merriam-Webster's Spanish-English Translation Dictionary:
PROS: For a long trip abroad, it's tough to beat an Amazon Kindle. Bring as many books as you want without worrying about weight and track down whatever info you need without schlepping across Avenida Santa Fe to El Ateneo. The search feature on the Merriam-Webster edition of the translation dictionary is especially efficient, making it easy to track down the right word.

Unlike translation apps, going the digital-dictionary route also more often gives multiple word or phrase possibilities, providing more accurate translations. My Kindle saw heavy use in Argentina's restaurants, stores, and anywhere else where I had a little space and time to get the translation down, including the successful purchase of just the right jacket when early autumn conditions in the Andes proved to be a little more chilly than we bargained for.

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CONS: The Kindle isn't that much less conspicuous than my bright orange paper dictionary. While I felt comfortable pulling it out in most parts of cosmopolitan Buenos Aires, I probably wouldn't feel secure taking it out of the hotel room in Nairobi and many other international locales for fear of being an easy mark. I could barely fit it in my pants pocket--and at 6-feet, 3-inches I'm not a small guy--and certainly not without looking a bit dorky (yes, go ahead, make your "Is that a Kindle in your pocket or..." joke). Also, don't forget to buy both the Spanish-to-English and English-to-Spanish dictionaries. Merriam-Webster splits them up in to two separate purchases on the Kindle store.

Solution 2--Google Translate for Android
PROS: Probably the mostly widely known and used of the many translation apps out there, there's a lot to like here. Voice input and text-to-speech are among the best available, and Google Translate's database of more than 50 languages is the engine for most other translation apps, at least on the Android Market.

CONS: I downloaded Google Translate to my Droid 2 from the Market over the hotel Wi-Fi and assumed all my linguistic challenges would be taken care of for the duration of my stay in South America, but the moment I stepped out of the building, the app was rendered useless. With no CDMA network available for thousands of miles, and Google Translate requiring a 3G connection to access its database, I was back to square one. Even if I had a global phone on me, international roaming data rates still would have sent me looking for another option, and many day trips outside the city would have left me without data access, even with a GSM phone.

Solution 3--Jibbigo
PROS: After Google failed to deliver, I turned to a handful of apps with offline translation database access. The first few were lackluster, wonky, or had too few words in their database, and then I found Jibbigo. Available for Android and iOS for free, you pay to download each pair of languages that you need to work in ($5 for English and Spanish, $28 for Japanese and English, for example). It quickly became my go-to tool for translating on the fly to augment my gringo Spanish.

When a bus full of Argentines on a glacier tour grilled me on America's economic situation and President Obama, I feverishly swiped some key words into Jibbigo to help convey the on-the-ground view from the Estados Unidos with great success. I was thrilled, but the Argentines seemed bummed to hear that we still had fewer living in poverty stateside than in Argentina.

CONS: I found Jibbigo's speech recognition to be more or less useless. Even the slightest cafe chatter or distant subway rumble seemed to throw it off completely (when the victory marches through the streets for the local soccer team started, forget about it), and there was rarely a time when translation was needed in a quiet room.

While its database had more of the words I needed to know than the other apps I tried, it did come up empty every now and then, sending me back to the Kindle dictionary.

All in all, Google Translate might outperform Jibbigo and the Kindle under ideal situations, but that's not the way travel usually goes. I find Jibbigo the most versatile tool, whether ordering yet another unbelievable Argentine variation on the delectable dulce de leche; attempting to figure out why what appears to be a chocolate bathroom ("baño de chocolate") is on a fro-yo menu; or trying to communicate my "claustrophobia" to our tour guide for local caves.

Originally posted at Crave

Xobni, the popular and highly rated plugin for Microsoft Outlook has today announced the Xobni Gadget Platform and Store, which offers apps that add on to your add-on. With close to 20 big-name partners, including Dropbox, Evernote, Google Translate, Salesforce, LinkedIn, and so on, Xobni hopes to boost your productivity by souping up your Outlook inbox to yet another level.

To give you an idea of some of the platform's possibilities, the Evernote gadget puts the popular note-taking service's functionality into the Xobni sidebar. With it, you can view and take personal notes on a contact right from your inbox. It could be a hugely convenient tool for those who don't want to interrupt their e-mail workflow by firing up another program.

While Outlook end users are sure to be excited by the new menu of power-ups available, the news also has huge implications on developers, since the platform is based on the OpenSocial API. In fact, it's the first desktop-based OpenSocial container. "This platform also gives developers an easy way to reach hundreds of millions of Outlook users, while using the same code for Gmail," said Jeff Bonforte, Xobni CEO.

This not only opens up a whole new market for developers, it also lets enterprises create private gadgets for their specific workflows and e-mail needs, which could make many lives a lot easier.

Xobni Gadget Store offers both free and paid gadgets ($9.99/year with 30 day free trial). You can also find Xobni as an extension for Gmail (still in beta) as well as Xobni on Blackberry. The company has announced plans to release for iPhone and Android within the next few months.

Google has released Chrome Canary for Mac OS X (download), bringing the bleeding-edge version of the browser beyond just Windows.

Canaries, I learned on a tour this year of a Welsh coal mine, were used all the way until the 1980s to detect when something was wrong with the air supply; canaries would get agitated when there wasn't enough oxygen. Chrome Canary is a rapidly changing release with the very latest features designed to catch problems before they reach the broader audiences of the Chrome developer, beta, and stable channels.

"The Mac version of Google Chrome Canary...automatically updates more frequently than the Dev channel, and does not undergo any manual testing before each release. Because we expect it to be unstable and, at times, unusable, you can run it concurrently with a Dev, Beta, or Stable version of Google Chrome," said programmer Mark Mentovai in a blog post last night.

He also said there are hundreds of thousands of people using the Windows version of Chrome Canary, which debuted in July. Canary's bookmarks, stored passwords, and more can be synchronized with other versions of Chrome, but it can't be set as the default browser.

The move to faster browser development is under way. Chrome began it, and Firefox is now on a similar schedule with multiple releases. Today, Opera Software released an alpha version of Opera 11.50 that moves faster, if not necessarily as fast as Chrome and Firefox. Even Microsoft's Internet Explorer has picked up the pace, with release of a pared-down Platform Preview version of IE10 just a month after the final release of IE9.

Originally posted at Deep Tech

A significant update to the Opera browser's Speed Dial feature launched today in Opera 11.50 alpha (download), along with Opera Next, which includes a mechanism that makes it easier for Opera fans to automatically download under-construction builds of the browser. Opera Next will install separately and alongside the "stable" release of Opera, sporting a silver Opera logo much like Google Chrome Canary is visually distinct from the other versions of Chrome with its all-yellow icon.

The new version of Speed Dial introduces support for Speed Dial-specific extensions. Originally developed by Opera, and now in use in one form or another by Safari, Chrome, and Internet Explorer, Speed Dial collects your more frequently visited and most recently visited Web sites into a grid layout. The Norwegian browser maker expects developers to use the new extension support to add new functions to the feature, such as collating images from the Web, or real-time updates to social-networking sites, news sites, and the weather. The company said in a blog post announcing the feature that Speed Dial extensions will be available in the extensions catalog alongside other browser extensions, and will install in the same way.

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The new release paths available in Opera Next don't exactly replicate the tight release schedules that Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox now have, but Opera spokesman Thomas Ford did tell CNET in an e-mail that Opera is "moving faster," adding, "The Opera Next 'channel' if you will, does makes releases easier to get. You can auto-update to either alpha-beta-final, or you could subscribe to all the snapshots."

Using an option in opera:config, people who download Opera Next will be able to switch off the "snapshot" build at will, which is the least stable but most frequently updated build available. All updates, whether snapshot, alpha, beta, or final, will automatically update when the browser starts.

Browser developers unabashedly borrow development ideas from each other, but the news from Mozilla and now Opera that they will be pursuing release schedules closer to those of Google Chrome's six-week path has less precedent. Even Internet Explorer, formerly on a two-year release plan, has seen the benefits of faster major updates and is expected to push out major updates every year, give or take a few months.