Linked by Rahul on Thu 26th Feb 2009 07:59 UTC
As seen in this TechFlash article, Microsoft has launched a patent suit against TomTom, a seller of (Linux-based) navigation devices. "It's believed to be the first time Microsoft has filed a patent suit over Linux, after claiming for years that elements of the open-source operating system violate its patents. However, Microsoft says open-source software is not the intended focal point of the action." The lawsuit focusses on several navigation techniques, and includes a few patents related to Linux. LWN lists the individual patents in question.
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RE[2]: Ridicuilous patent
by 3rdalbum on Sat 28th Feb 2009 09:24
in reply to "RE: Ridicuilous patent"
Member since:2008-05-26
My understanding is that GPS units download new data from the PC, when you connect them to your PC. Urgent updates to maps might be pushed out via the PC, but usually you have to purchase new maps each year and they don't cost much less than a basic GPS unit anyway.
Up-to-the-minute traffic information, on models that support it, is sent "underneath" a regular FM radio station's signal, much like teletext is sent along with a TV station's signal. There is no two-way communication, only one-way.
The units themselves find their location by use of the satellites, but AFAIK they do not download maps or extra data from them. Unless GPS units in America are much more advanced than what we get in Australia.
Features
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 02/09/10 19:06 UTC, submitted by diegocg
And there we are, the KDE team has released KDE Software Compilation 4.4, formerly known as, well, KDE. Major new features include social networking and online collaboration integration, the new netbook interface, the KAuth authentication framework, and a lot more.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 02/09/10 16:18 UTC
Notebooks with dual GPUs have been shipping for a while now, but switching between the fancy discrete GPU and the low-power integrated one hasn't exactly been painless. Today, NVIDIA introduced a technology called Optimus, which makes the switching process automatic and transparent. In Windows, that is.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 02/08/10 23:55 UTC
The past few weeks or so, there's been a lot of interest in a supposed battery status report bug in Windows 7. After installing Windows 7, some users reported seeing "consider replacing your battery"-warnings in systems that appeared to be operating just fine on Windows XP or Vista. After extensive research, Steven Sinofsky has now explained on the Engineering 7 blog that the fault is not with Windows 7 - it really, really is your battery.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 02/08/10 21:38 UTC
Developed by industrial designer Barton Smith, the Stream Adaptive Computer System is an interesting take on making computing easier and more adaptable to suit the user's current needs. Today, he also unveiled the operating system and user interface that would run on Stream. It's... Amazing.
Linked by David Adams on 02/08/10 19:29 UTC
We've been working on an "OSNews version 5" upgrade for several months, and with several months to go, we decided to make some incremental changes to OSNews on the existing codebase. The major change, as you probably already noticed, is that we've removed the "Page1/Page2" tabs and instead have OSNews stories with original content and commentary in one column, and news, items on OS-related topics gleaned from other sources in the other. Read on for more details on the changes we've implemented.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 02/08/10 13:23 UTC, submitted by kragil
You may remember that back in November last year, I wrote about the lack of a decent Paint.NET-like application for Linux (or, more specifically, for Gtk+ distributions, since Qt has Krita). As it turns out, this compelled Novell employee Jonathan Pobst to code a Paint.NET clone in Gtk+ using Cairo. Version 0.1 is here, and it's remarkably advanced for something so young.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 02/07/10 19:11 UTC
Later this month, Microsoft will most likely unveil
Linked by Kroc Camen on 02/05/10 23:28 UTC
A quick round up of various web-related news items. First up, a new open source product entitled the "Highgate media suite" will bring OGG video decoding to Silverlight. Microsoft have just joined the SVG working group (arguably 10 years late, but it's better than nothing). Adobe promise significant improvements in Flash 10.1, including Core Animation rendering on OS X and lowered CPU usage. Finally, CoperLicht--a WebGL JavaScript 3D engine (Quake in JS will be here one day)
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 02/05/10 22:24 UTC
In a way, it's kind of sad. The old media squealing and squirming, trying pathetically to hold on to a time that has long been lost to the sands of... Well, time. Jeff Zucker, President and CEO of NBC, made such a pathetic attempt before a US Congress committee yesterday, claiming Boxee stole Hulu's content.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 02/04/10 23:41 UTC
Finally something we can work with. While both the iPad and the Joo Joo are technically still vapourware, people have at least had the opportunity to play with the former, while the latter remained somewhat illusive. Now that the device has been set to ship at the end of this month, Ars Technica finally had some time to play with the Joo Joo and talk to Fusion Garage's CEO, Chandra Rathakrishnan. There's good news, and there's (potentially) bad news.
Member since:
2005-12-02
Wireless access is how TomTom and most GPS systems work. They get updated information from the satellites, which also happen to be on the internet. The latest maps and such are then downloaded from the servers they reside on and update the device. TomTom devices tend to update often, which is why they work so well.