"Perhaps most likely to raise some eyebrows is that Ubuntu 13.04 will let users purchase music or apps directly from the desktop Dash, without having to open a browser or a separate client." That's going to go down well.
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Member since:2011-02-11
I see a big problem. Mostly when you open the dash you'll be looking for local files and apps, even if you are a frequent buyer of for example amazon downloads (and a guess is that most Ubuntu users aren't). So sending all queries to canonical's servers and downloading the results will just waste data traffic and battery 99% of the time.
Hopefully you can still just apt-get purge unity-lens-shopping in 13.04.
Member since:2007-09-22
Member since:2010-05-03
A widely accepted maxim is,"Knowledge is Power!".
Logically then, all "Knowledge collected specific to/about you is power over you!".
When one guards their privacy they deny others the ability to exert power over them.
All advertising/interactive functions that are based upon an individual's usage history are an affront to any notions of privacy and their long term socio-political affects will be dire as time passes.
At what specific point does the science of Madison Avenue/Google/Apple/Microsoft advertising become so fine grained through the constant and consistent surveillance of users, over time, that their algorithms become so utterly sophisticated that advertising moves from the realm of informational inducements to buy some product or service, to ads so compelling due to insider information that they become outrageous, out and out "Mind Rape!"?
All this in the hands of a very select few individuals. Combine this with a plethora of other perpetual, commercial and governmental databases and we'll have an "Authoritarian, Scientific Tyranny!" for our's and our children's futures.
Ads-based revenue models do not absolutely require user tracking to be effective. Generic, contextually based ads (i.e. Car wax ads in automotive enthusiasts venues etc..), are safe and non intrusive because they don't need to track an individual's activities to be effective. They aren't currently as profitable as the "Evil!" (tracking) alternatives but they're socially acceptable and nearly privacy/freedom neutral.
"Freedom will not, can not, survive (outlive) privacy! They are inseparable!".
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!
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.
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.
OSNews is a sponsor of this year's O'Reilly OSCON in Portland, Oregon, USA. A lucky OSNews reader will win a free three-day pass, including two tutorials days. To win the pass, post a comment on this story saying something about Open Source Software or OSCON. We'll pick a winner at random next week. If you don't have an OSNews account, you may email us your entry. Part of the conference is the 9th annual Open Source Awards, and today the 16th is the deadline for nominations. If you'd like to nominate an outstanding open source contributor, do it here. Read on for more information about OSCON. Update: The 20% discount code for OSNews readers is "OSN."
"Windows is indeed slower than other operating systems in many scenarios, and the gap is worsening." That's one way to start an insider explanation of why Windows' performance isn't up to snuff. Written by someone who actually contributes code to the Windows NT kernel, the comment on Hacker News, later deleted but reposted with permission on Marc Bevand's blog, paints a very dreary picture of the state of Windows development. The root issue? Think of how Linux is developed, and you'll know the answer.
This is one of those news items that's fun to write, fun to read, fun to comment on, and where no one will be able to say anything unkind. It's all just one big ball of awesome fluffiness. TuneTracker, the BeOS radio automation software, has just released something very special: TuneTracker System 5, the first version designed entirely and specifically for Haiku. In fact, it actually includes Haiku in the software package. Better yet, TuneTracker also unveiled several system-in-a-box products - which have Haiku and TuneTracker pre-installed.
Exactly twenty years ago, a document was published that played a huge role in establishing the web as we know it today. Twenty years later, and this simple and straightforward document is proof of an irrefutable fact: while closed technologies can change markets, open technologies can change the world.Oh multitasking. That staple of computing that got thrown out the window with many modern smartphones. We got some rudimentary thing in its place - but even as multitasking on phone and tablets improves, its user-visible side remains cumbersome. Windows 8 has a neat implementation, and now it's time Android follows in it footsteps.They're here! Whether that excites you or not remains to be seen, but the Galaxy S4, which will most likely become the best selling Android smartphone of the year by a huge margin, has been reviewed by all the major sites, and there's lots of interesting conclusions in there - although I think most of you will get the gist.Nokia has posted its quarterly results for the first quarter of 2013, and just like the quarters that came before, there's not a whole lot of good news in there. The rise in Lumia sales still can't even dream of making up for the sales drop in Symbian phones, and when broken down in versions, the sales figures for Windows Phone 8 Lumias in particular are very disappointing. In North America, Nokia is getting slaughtered.
Member since:
2005-07-12
Presumably it can be easily disabled? I don't really have a problem with this, as long as there is some transparency in how paid results are selected and presented.