Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 24th Oct 2012 23:09 UTC
"The Surface is a nice tablet. The design and aesthetic are pleasing, the feel in the hands, particularly of the kickstand and magnetic cover connection is excellent. But is it worth buying on the day of release?" After these three reviews, I still want a Surface RT. As much as I think Metro - and especially its applications - has a long way to go, I feel like I should reward the fact that Microsoft dares to be different. Too bad Microsoft doesn't want me to buy one.
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RE[5]: I'm desiring one, too
by Alfman on Fri 26th Oct 2012 02:44
in reply to "RE[4]: I'm desiring one, too"
Member since:2011-01-28
bornagaineguin,
That's a good point, I don't really know much about the x86 port of android. I was actually using "android" as an umbrella term for all android flavors including cyanogenmod, which is what I'd want to install, but never less you are right about android-x86.
Their website didn't answer many of my basic questions: Will it run all off the shelf (ARM) android applications? I certainly don't want to be limited to a handful of apps which have been ported back to x86. It needs to be able to run the ARM packages found in the app store with good performance. However my experience with the android emulation tools used for development under x86 linux has been extremely poor even on a high end machine.
If you've had any actual experience with the android-x86 port, I'd love to hear back!
RE[6]: I'm desiring one, too
by bornagainenguin on Fri 26th Oct 2012 03:38
in reply to "RE[5]: I'm desiring one, too"
Member since:2005-08-07
Alfman replied...
Their website didn't answer many of my basic questions: Will it run all off the shelf (ARM) android applications? I certainly don't want to be limited to a handful of apps which have been ported back to x86. It needs to be able to run the ARM packages found in the app store with good performance. However my experience with the android emulation tools used for development under x86 linux has been extremely poor even on a high end machine.
If you've had any actual experience with the android-x86 port, I'd love to hear back!
If you've had any actual experience with the android-x86 port, I'd love to hear back!
Well the website needs work. A lot of the activity takes place on the email list and doesn't get shown on the site.
I've used it on my eeepc before and can't remember having any issues with the apps not running--but it's been a while.I remember being more annoyed with the way certain games rotated the screen (Game Dev Story) making game play all but impossible. I'd just bought the game and at that time was addicted beyond belief and all reason.
I recall being able to simply install most apps though. It could be that I sideloaded any apps that were marked incompatible and moved on--like I said, it's been awhile. If you have specific needs for certain apps, the best advice I can give you is to simply download the ISO that best matches your testing hardware, use the live-cd functionality and test out those apps to see if they'll work.
IMHO it's best to throw out any preconcieved notions of emulated performance because Android-x86 is nothing like the emulators you may have used in the past.
--bornagainpenguin
Features
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/13/13 14:35 UTC
The third and final WWDC product I want to talk about is - of course - OS X 10.9 Mavericks. While iOS 7 was clearly the focus of this year's WWDC, its venerable desktop counterpart certainly wasn't left behind. Apple announced OS X 10.9 Mavericks, the first OS X release not to carry the name of a big cat.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/11/13 17:07 UTC
We already talked about iOS 7 yesterday (after a night of sleep, it's only looking worse and worse - look at this, for Fiona's sake!), so now it's time to talk about the downright stunning and belly flutters-inducing new Mac Pro. As former owner and huge, huge, huge fan of the PowerMac G4 Cube - I haven't been this excited about an Apple product since, well, I would say the iMac G4. This is the Apple I used to love.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/10/13 23:13 UTC
Apple held its big keynote event thing at WWDC earlier this evening, but since I was away with friends I've had to read up on it later in the evening. The company announced iOS 7, OS X 10.9 Mavericks, and they gave a preview of the new Mac Pro. Especially the Mac Pro impressed me, and while iOS 7's new Holo/Metro-inspired theme looks messy and garish to me, I do commend Apple for finally breaking the mold. This news item will focus on iOS 7 - I'll dive into the Mac Pro and OS X 10.9 tomorrow (it's late here now).
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/08/13 14:57 UTC
And yes, the PRISM scandal is far, far from over. More and more information keeps leaking out, and the more gets out, the worse it gets. The companies involved have sent out official statements - often by mouth of their CEOs - and what's interesting is that not only are these official statements eerily similar to each other, using the same terms clearly designed by lawyers, they also directly contradict new reports from The New York Times. So, who is lying?
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/07/13 11:40 UTC
This story is getting bigger and bigger. Even though most Americans probably already knew, it is now official: the United States government, through its National Security Agency, is collecting the communications and data of all American citizens, and of non-Americans using American services, through a wide collaboration with the large companies in technology, like Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and so on. Interestingly enough, the NSA itself, as well as the US government, have repeatedly and firmly denied this massive spying on Americans and non-Americans took place at all.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/04/13 12:45 UTC
Ah, patents - the never-ending scourge of the technology industry. Whether wielded by companies who don't actually make any products, or large corporations who abuse them because they can't compete in the market place or because they're simply jerks, they do the industry a huge disservice and are simply plain dangerous. According to The Wall Street Journal (circumvention link), president Obama is about to take several executive actions to address patent trolls - which may seem like a good idea, but I am very worried that all this will do is strengthen the positions of notorious patent system abusers such as Apple and Microsoft.
Linked by nfeske on 05/31/13 10:12 UTC
With version 13.05, the developers of the Genode OS Framework take measures to ensure that Genode continues to scale well with a growing number of users and the steadily broadening platform coverage. Further highlights are the improved SoC support for Exynos 5, OMAP4, Raspberry Pi, i.MX, and new components for realizing headless systems.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/29/13 16:59 UTC
At the D11 conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook once again took the stage to be interviewed by Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher. While most of the interview can be replicated by picking and reading 10 random Apple fanblog stories - there were still a number of very interesting things that warrant some closer scrutiny.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 17:26 UTC
So, the Xbox One disaster continues. Microsoft's policy for dealing with the used games market has reportedly leaked - and it's a clear and direct attack to destroy the used games market. Prices for used games will be set at the retail value of a new game, and retailers have to hook into Microsoft's computer systems and comply with Microsoft's terms and conditions.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 21:38 UTC
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!More Features »
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2005-08-07
Alfman posted...
That's only the case for desktop apps, but people are obviously buying a tablet in the first place because they want to use it as a *tablet*. Otherwise they would just get a laptop. Being able to do both with one device is a nice value-added feature, but it doesn't excuse the walled garden on tablet applications.
[...]
I kind of want an ARM device anyways to be able to dual boot android and have one device running both, but we know MS is banning that as well.
I'm the last guy recommending people buy into Windows 8, but that's not entirely accurate.
See: http://www.android-x86.org/
Granted it doesn't work 100% on all hardware yet and you have to futz with grub to dualboot, but it is possible to run both on the ACER unlike on the Surface tablet. Plus should you decide to tire of Windows 8, you could always wipe it and install Linux on it...
--bornagainpenguin