http://www.osnews.com Exploring the Future of Computing en-us Copyright 2001-2013, David Adams Thu, 23 May 2013 17:06:01 GMT http://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gif http://www.osnews.com http://osnews.com/story/27061/Xbox_One_hardware_analysis_comparison_to_PlayStation_4 http://osnews.com/story/27061/Xbox_One_hardware_analysis_comparison_to_PlayStation_4 "Sony gave the PS4 50% more raw shader performance, plain and simple (768 SPs @ 800MHz vs. 1152 SPs & 800MHz). Unlike last generation, you don't need to be some sort of Jedi to extract the PS4's potential here. The Xbox One and PS4 architectures are quite similar, Sony just has more hardware under the hood. We’ll have to wait and see how this hardware delta gets exposed in games over time, but the gap is definitely there. The funny thing about game consoles is that it’s usually the lowest common denominator that determines the bulk of the experience across all platforms. On the plus side, the Xbox One should enjoy better power/thermal characteristics compared to the PlayStation 4. Even compared to the Xbox 360 we should see improvement in many use cases thanks to modern power management techniques." AnandTech does its usual in-depth thing. Wed, 22 May 2013 22:23:28 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Games http://osnews.com/story/27060/HTC_in_disarray http://osnews.com/story/27060/HTC_in_disarray "The Verge has learned that HTC's Chief Product Officer, Kouji Kodera, left the company last week. Kodera was responsible for HTC's overall product strategy, which makes the departure especially notable on the heels of the global launch of the make-or-break One. It's not just Kodera. In the past three-odd months, HTC has lost a number of employees in rapid succession." I really hope HTC pulls it together. Wed, 22 May 2013 13:38:28 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) PDAs, Cellphones, Wireless http://osnews.com/story/27059/Debian_GNU_Hurd_2013_released http://osnews.com/story/27059/Debian_GNU_Hurd_2013_released "It is with huge pleasure that the Debian GNU/Hurd team announces the release of Debian GNU/Hurd 2013. This is a snapshot of Debian 'sid' at the time of the Debian 'wheezy' release (May 2013), so it is mostly based on the same sources. It is not an official Debian release, but it is an official Debian GNU/Hurd port release." Important note: 75% of Debian packages are supported bu Debian GNU/Hurd. Impressive. Wed, 22 May 2013 13:30:12 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Debian and its clones http://osnews.com/story/27058/Goodbye_Lotus_1-2-3 http://osnews.com/story/27058/Goodbye_Lotus_1-2-3 "The first killer app was VisiCalc. This early spreadsheet turned the Apple II from a hobbyist toy to a business computer. VisiCalc came with room for improvement, though. In addition, a new architecture and operating system, the Intel-based IBM PC and MS-DOS, also needed a spreadsheet to be taken seriously. That spreadsheet, released in early 1983, would be Lotus 1-2-3, and it would change the world. It became the PC's killer app, and the world would never be the same. On May 14, IBM quietly announced the end of the road for 1-2-3, along with Lotus Organizer and the Lotus SmartSuite office suite. Lotus 1-2-3's day is done." Impressive 30 year run. Tue, 21 May 2013 22:06:53 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Features, Office http://osnews.com/story/27057/Tim_Cook_testifies_for_Congress_about_tax_avoidance http://osnews.com/story/27057/Tim_Cook_testifies_for_Congress_about_tax_avoidance "There's a disconnect between how Apple CEO Tim Cook sees his company's tax strategies and how some members of the US Senate view it. That became clearer than ever today after Cook and two other Apple executives testified before Congress, explaining why they're holding most of their international income in Irish subsidiaries like Apple Operations International, which declare no tax residency anywhere in the world. AOI hasn't filed a tax return anywhere in the world for the last five years, yet it earned $30 billion in income from 2009 to 2012, according to a Senate report released yesterday." Just because something is legal, doesn't mean it's just. Apple, Google, Microsoft, and many more - these companies might not be breaking any laws, but it's obvious to anyone that what they are doing is scummy. Tue, 21 May 2013 21:45:58 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Legal http://osnews.com/story/27056/Xbox_One_forces_gamers_to_pay_for_games_borrowed_from_friends http://osnews.com/story/27056/Xbox_One_forces_gamers_to_pay_for_games_borrowed_from_friends At an event earlier today, Microsoft unveiled the next Xbox - the third model, but confusingly named Xbox One. The big focus was TV, integrated Kinect, and all the other stuff we all expected to be forced down our throats. I think it took them 25 minutes to actually come to what should be the core of the story: gaming. Nothing groundbreaking in the gaming department, except for how Microsoft intends to handle the used games market and borrowing games from friends: pay up, buddy! Tue, 21 May 2013 21:38:59 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Games http://osnews.com/story/27055/Opera_14_for_Android_released http://osnews.com/story/27055/Opera_14_for_Android_released The new WebKit Opera for Android has been released. "Opera 14 for Android is built on top of Chromium 26, with a total overhaul of the UI in native code, making it fit well with the latest Android design guidelines. Go get the build from Google Play or point your browser to m.opera.com, and give it a spin!" Tue, 21 May 2013 15:53:54 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Opera Software http://osnews.com/story/27054/A_sneak_peek_into_Windows_OS_with_Leap_Motion http://osnews.com/story/27054/A_sneak_peek_into_Windows_OS_with_Leap_Motion The Verge pointed me to a blog post by Leap Motion - which reveals how their Kinect-like motion control works with Windows 8. "From the second you plug in your Leap Motion Controller, you'll be able to browse the web and interact with your computer just by moving your hands and fingers in the air. With Leap Motion technology and Windows, you can do everything that's possible with multi-touch inputs - without actually touching anything. This also means that existing applications in Windows 7 and 8 will respond to your natural hand and finger movements. Soon, we'll show you how Leap Motion will work with Mac OS X." Quite cool. Mon, 20 May 2013 22:43:50 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Windows http://osnews.com/story/27053/Interview_Marc_Dillon_of_Jolla http://osnews.com/story/27053/Interview_Marc_Dillon_of_Jolla PocketNow interviews Marc Dillon, and there's an interesting note about why Jolla is keeping the display properties under wraps: "We're leaving some of those details out because we do understand that there are a lot of really big players in the market and they tend to take certain components in the market and dominate them. We created the ability to actually be able to run Sailfish on multiple hardware displays and be able to swap components, so this is part of the demand and supply planning phase. We are committed to this industrial design which is a 4.5-inch display, an 8 megapixel camera on the back and a front-facing camera at the front, and the exact specs of the display we'll provide when we're close to delivery." Something you rarely hear anything about. Mon, 20 May 2013 21:50:39 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) PDAs, Cellphones, Wireless http://osnews.com/story/27052/Jolla_unveils_first_Sailfish_smartphone http://osnews.com/story/27052/Jolla_unveils_first_Sailfish_smartphone The day has finally come! Jolla has finally announced the launch device for its Sailfish operating system - and by god this is a looker. It's decidedly different from other phones out there, but it has good specifications and carries a relatively reasonably price tag - EUR 399, and it's up for pre-order today, shipping in the fourth quarter of this year. Mon, 20 May 2013 11:29:42 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) PDAs, Cellphones, Wireless http://osnews.com/story/27051/NeXTstation_Turbo_Color_booting_MacOS_System_7_1 http://osnews.com/story/27051/NeXTstation_Turbo_Color_booting_MacOS_System_7_1 "This is my NeXTstation Turbo Color booting the Mac System 7.1 Operating System using a hardware add-on called 'Daydream'. The Daydream has a Mac ROM and a few custom ICs in it and hooked up to the NeXTs DSP port. Turns your NeXT into a full fledged 68k powered Mac." So cool. Sun, 19 May 2013 23:15:47 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Apple http://osnews.com/story/27050/NetBSD_6_1_released http://osnews.com/story/27050/NetBSD_6_1_released "The NetBSD Project is pleased to announce NetBSD 6.1, the first feature update of the NetBSD 6 release branch. It represents a selected subset of fixes deemed important for security or stability reasons, as well as new features and enhancements. Please note that all fixes in the prior security/bugfix updates (NetBSD 6.0.1 and 6.0.2) are also in 6.1." Sun, 19 May 2013 23:11:45 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) NetBSD http://osnews.com/story/27049/Why_Google_gets_so_much_credit http://osnews.com/story/27049/Why_Google_gets_so_much_credit Why does Google get so much credit in the technology industry? Why, despite the company's many obvious failings, do many geeks and enthusiasts still hold a somewhat positive view on the all-knowing technology giant? A specific talk at Google I/O this week provides the answer. Read more on this exclusive OSNews article... Sat, 18 May 2013 21:33:08 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Google http://osnews.com/story/27048/EA_Sports_developer_calls_Wii_U_crap_ http://osnews.com/story/27048/EA_Sports_developer_calls_Wii_U_crap_ "At the end of a week in which Electronic Arts confirmed it wasn't developing a thing for the Wii U, one of the software engineers in EA Sports' Canada studio, in a series of since-deleted tweets, disparaged the console as 'crap' and suggested Nintendo should give up on hardware altogether. 'The Wii U is crap. Less powerful than an Xbox 360. Poor online/store. Weird tablet', tweeted Bob Summerwill, listed as a senior software engineer at EA Canada, in a reply to a tweet posting a link about EA's no-Wii U news. 'Nintendo are walking dead at this point'." The Wii U is turning into the 21st century's Virtual Boy. Sat, 18 May 2013 21:06:19 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Games http://osnews.com/story/27047/NixOS http://osnews.com/story/27047/NixOS "In NixOS, the entire operating system - the kernel, applications, system packages, configuration files, and so on - is built by the Nix package manager from a description in a purely functional build language. The fact that it's purely functional essentially means that building a new configuration cannot overwrite previous configurations. Most of the other features follow from this." Interesting approach. A Linux distribution, sure, but with some very refreshing ideas about system configuration. Sat, 18 May 2013 07:37:42 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Linux