OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing - Page 1207

Sony PSP 2.0 Update Released; New Web Browser Out and About

Eugenia Loli 2005-07-27 Games 29 Comments

Sony announced that version 2.0 of the PSP system software will be available for download today. The user agent is "Mozilla/4.0 (PSP (PlayStation Portable); 2.00)" (in contrast to the older hacked web browser's "SCEJ PSP BROWSER 0102pspNavigator"). If you can upload a picture of the new PSP web browser rendering the HTML version of OSNews, please post a link below.

Vector Linux 5.1 Standard Released

Submitted by Vector 2005-07-27 Linux 23 Comments

After three months of testing via two beta releases and two release candidates Vector Linux has released version 5.1 of its Slackware-derived operating system. This release is an important milestone as there is now a working dependency package management system inside a Slack-based distro.

Smartphones Up, Handhelds Down Globally in Q2 2005

Eugenia Loli 2005-07-26 Wireless 21 Comments

The global market for smart mobile devices continued its rise in Q2 2005 according to estimates released by research firm Canalys. Nokia once again saw its smart phone shipments increase at more than twice the average market rate. Palm still leads the handheld segment, with 31% market share, but its handheld shipments declined 32% year on year, resulting in a 1% unit decline overall. Handheld shipments fell in most regions, with North America down by 36%, while Latin America and Asia Pacific fell 12% and 21% respectively.

FreeBSD Ported to XBox

Thom Holwerda 2005-07-26 FreeBSD 43 Comments

FreeBSD has been ported to the XBox. "Over the last 2 weeks, I have been working on a port of FreeBSD for the XBox. The port is fully functional. The framebuffer is fully supported, same goes for sound and USB devices (such as an USB keyboard). Only ethernet is missing, currently." The FreeBSD on XBox website is here, downloads included.

Miguel de Icaza on Mono

Thom Holwerda 2005-07-26 Mono 48 Comments

Mono is an open-source implementation of Microsoft's .NET for Linux and other operating systems. In this article, Tim Anderson interviews project leader Miguel de Icaza. Why is Mono now partnering with Mainsoft to ease migration to J2EE?

Intel Hands Off BIOS Successor to Trade Group

Submitted by jeanmarc 2005-07-26 Intel 24 Comments

The Extensible Firmware Interface, which could speed the boot-up process for PCs, has been handed over to a group that will promote and standardize it.

Windows Vista Beta 1 Due Tomorrow

Thom Holwerda 2005-07-26 Windows 48 Comments

Beta 1 of Windows Vista, formerly known as Longhorn, will be released coming wednesday. The download will be available to beta testers an hour after the official announcement.

Two Million Solaris 10 Licenses in 6 Months

Thom Holwerda 2005-07-26 Solaris 34 Comments

Sun Microsystems has distributed more than two million registered licenses for the Solaris 10 Operating System since the software became available on January 31st. These numbers, coupled with a record number of visitors to the Sun website during the last six months, highlight the incredible demand for the freely available operating system.

Microsoft Lowers the Boom on Illegal Windows Copies

Thom Holwerda 2005-07-26 Windows 82 Comments

Microsoft is tightening the noose for those people running illegal or pirated copies of its Windows XP/2000 software on their systems. Starting Tuesday, it will be mandatory for users of this Windows software to certify that their software is a genuine and legal copy before they will be able to receive any updates except security patches.

Apple Unveils Faster iBooks, Mini Macs

Thom Holwerda 2005-07-26 Apple 132 Comments

Apple has updated the iBook/Mini product lines, increasing standard RAM to 512MB on all models. Contrary to many rumors, the new iBooks do not sport widescreen. All iBooks and two of the now three Mac Minis contain AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth. My take: Not a word on better harddrives in the Mini Macs, which is something I personally hoped for.

Boot Fedora Linux Faster

Submitted by improvedsource 2005-07-26 Fedora Core 34 Comments

Everyone wants a quick boot time, from the beginner user to the advanced user, this is a issue that bothers us all. As Linux has advanced it has increasingly become slower to boot. So I decided to look into reducing the time it takes to boot my current setup, which is Fedora 4. In doing so I was able to reduce the boot time of my Fedora 4 installation to less than 25 seconds.

Epiphany Followup

Submitted by j-s-h 2005-07-26 Gnome 10 Comments

This recent article on Epiphany has garnered many comments, both on FootNotes and OSNews. This followup article addresses some concerns that have been raised about Epiphany.

BSD Divert Sockets for Linux 2.6 Kernels Released

Submitted by Anonymous 2005-07-26 Linux 11 Comments

The first release of BSD divert sockets for Linux 2.6 kernels has been completed and may be downloaded here.

Preview of KDE 3.5

Submitted by Ben Jao Ming 2005-07-26 KDE 194 Comments

A blog entry by Jure Repinc tells us about some of the new features in KDE 3.5 which according to this schedule isn't quite finished yet. Amongs other things, there will be a Storage Media Notification dialog and some more eye candy in Kicker.

How to Get the Longhorn Beta 1 Invitation

Submitted by Varg Vikernes 2005-07-26 Humor 19 Comments

A Microsoft customer was so eager to get a beta of Longhorn that he FedEx'ed two pounds of inscribed chocolate to one of Microsoft's test managers. Yes, he did get the invitation and the chocolate was sent to the Longhorn shiproom for everyone to enjoy.

Running Windows with No Services

Submitted by Varg Vikernes 2005-07-26 Windows 26 Comments

Dave Solomon of Sysinternals was experimenting about how many services are necessary for at least basic funtionality of Windows. What he discovered, however is that Windows can be perfectly used for almost all basic use, such as web browsing or running aplications, without any services running. In his article he explains how to achieve this. Apparently even Microsoft's own vice president of the Core Operating Systems Division was surprised about this.

History of the iPod

Submitted by Saad 2005-07-26 Multimedia, AV 12 Comments

The iPod, more than any other single product from Apple, has changed the company and the world. Before its introduction MP3 players were the realm of small companies with limited budgets and no content. After the iPod the entire industry has evolved and grown to the point where the largest computer companies in the world have major interests in the digital music industry. Read the history of the iPod at Braeburn.

Konfabulator is Now Free

Submitted by Matthew Smith 2005-07-26 In the News 20 Comments

Konfabulator, the application whose concept was "borrowed" for the Mac OS X Tiger Dashboard system (and yes, we know that Konfabulator itself was inspired by many other apps, including Apple's Desktop Accessories), has been acquired by Yahoo and is now available for free. Download it from their website.

FreeBSD Developer Seeks Sponsorship

Submitted by Matthew Grooms 2005-07-26 FreeBSD 24 Comments

Network stack developer Andre Opperman appeals to the FreeBSD community to support three months of full time work. The primary focus will be to optimize the IP network stack and estimates a potential perfomance increase of 40-50%.

Virtual Private Asterisk

Submitted by Da Beave 2005-07-26 General Development 5 Comments

If you're interested in PBX systems or Virtual Private Servers, there's an interesting article on using Virtual Private Servers to secure and even run multiple instances of Asterisk (open source PBX software) on one machine. It's like running a small telco in a box!