Industry news

Among the tweaks found in the iOS 4.2 software for the iPad, which became available to developers on Wednesday, is a return of the volume silencer switch.

Not the hardware, mind you, which remains the same. It's just that the screen orientation lock, which currently keeps the iPad from reorienting itself based on how you're holding it when switched on, is now a volume mute switch, CNET has learned. This is the same functionality found on every iteration of the iPhone, though not on the iPod Touch or the iPad, which would simply raise of lower the … Read more

The next point release of Apple's iOS has been made available to developers along with a pre-release version of the Mac OS X operating system that includes the upcoming AirPrint feature.

iOS 4.2, which replaces version 3.2.2 of Apple's mobile operating system, was announced and demonstrated by Apple at its September music event. It's notable in that it will finally bring multitasking, folders, Game Center, AirPlay, and an overhauled version of the built-in e-mail client to iPad users--all features iPhone and iPod Touch users have had since late June.

This version of 4.2 … Read more

After two months of waiting, Android users will be getting the first batch of OpenFeint-enabled games this week.

Among some of the notable launch titles will be Half Brick Studios' Fruit Ninja, MiniSquadron by Supermono, and Must.Eat.Birds by Mediatonic--all of which will feature the same version of the company's social-gaming platform offered on Apple's iOS.

OpenFeint, which can be found in many of the top games on the iOS platform, offers game developers a way to add things like achievements, in-game currency, and intra-network messaging to their titles. More recent versions also add things like cloud-based … Read more

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey's latest project, Square, which plugs into mobile devices and allows users to process payments, is getting bigger.

During an interview with VentureBeat's founder Matt Marshall as part of this year's Demo Fall conference here, Dorsey explained that the company was now producing some 10,000 scanner units a day, which allow Square users with a smartphone and the Square software (which is free) to run credit card payments from just about anywhere.

Dorsey compared the speed of Square's rollout, which was put on hold in late-June while the company … Read more

Using Google's vast resources in ways that company did not intend is not a new thing, though rarely is it done right. A new service from the Philippines called Insync falls into that small category, while still managing to play by the rules.

Insync does one thing and does it well, which is to use your Google account as a storage locker. This in itself is not that big of a deal since Google has offered general file storage within Google Docs since January. What Insync does that's so special is turn that storage into a local folder … Read more

A new service called Live Matrix, which comes out of private beta Monday morning, is attempting to solve the very large problem of organizing live events from all around the Web into one place.

These are not just Web events though--things like Apple event live blogs, online sales, or streamed concerts--but TV programs, auctions, and sporting events too.

In the same way TV listings work, users can cycle through upcoming events by "channel." These are broken down by genres like sports, entertainment, news, and shopping. Users are also able to create their own channels by "following" … Read more

Personal internet archiving service Evernote is taking a new approach to expanding its user base and bookmarking functionality with a tool for publishers and blog owners called Site Memory. In short, it lets users save Web content for reading later, while helping to promote some of the most heavily saved content with Evernote users at large.

Blogs that add the new Site Memory button to their posts (or any page for that matter) let users bookmark and save that content to their Evernote account. Akin to Web bookmarking services like Instapaper and Read it Later, this lets them absorb the … Read more

Google on Wednesday introduced a faster version of its search engine called Google Instant that begins displaying results as soon as users type in queries.

According to the company, the feature shaves off 2 to 5 seconds from user searches since it brings up results nearly as fast as it does for its auto-suggest feature. In fact, it will automatically do a search for the top auto-suggestion before a user has even selected it.

Google estimates that if all its users switch over to the instant interface, it will amount to a savings of 11 hours of searching per second. … Read more

Responding to user feedback following social news site Digg.com's large-scale redesign earlier this week, founder and interim CEO Kevin Rose posted on his personal blog that numerous changes and high-level bug fixes are on the way.

During the move, a number of changes dramatically altered the way users now find stories, as well as where promoted stories end up being seen. And from the looks of things, it appears that many of these tweaks created bugs, or caused longtime users to scratch their heads. "Our top priority is to stabilize the site," Rose said. "Then … Read more