A Chinese no-name Galaxy S4 knock-off allegedly comes pre-loaded with spyware:

The news comes from a security firm, so take it with a grain of salt, but still - this is exactly the kind of stuff legitimate Chinese manufacturers really do not want.

Linux kernel 3.15 has been released. This release resumes much faster in systems with hard disks, it adds support for cross-renaming two files atomically, it adds new fallocate(2) modes that allow to remove the range of a file or set it to zero, it adds a new file locking API, the memory management adapts better to working set size changes, it improves FUSE write performance, it adds support for the LZ4 algorithm in the zram memory compressor, it allows to load 64-bit kernels from 32-bit EFI firmware, it adds support for x86 AVX-512 vector instructions; it also adds new drivers; and many other small improvements. Here's the full list of changes.

Very detailed, and a fun read.

These are the secret patents Microsoft's patent mafia uses as a club to beat other companies into paying protection money.

Google I/O is going to be very, very interesting.

HFS+ is a weird vestigial pre-OS X leftover that, for some reason, Apple just does not replace. Apple tends to be relentless when it comes to moving on from past code, but HFS+ just refuses to die. As John Siracusa, long-time critic of HFS+, stated way back in 2011:

Three years later, and still nothing, and with Yosemite also shipping with HFS+, it'll take another 1-2 years before we possibly see a new, modern, non-crappy filesystem for OS X. Decades from now, books will be written about this saga.

Remember this? Turns out there was more to this rumour than we thought. As Steven Troughton-Smith notes (and yes, you can trust him):

With Apple pushing developers to use Auto Layout as hard as they can, we can pretty much assume that yes, multiwindow is coming to iOS. Note, though, that this is not a Windows 8 or Samsung or whatever feature - multiwindow is as old as the graphical user interface itself. It will be a great addition to future iOS releases, and I can't wait until Android implements multiwindow as well.

It's a holiday in The Netherlands today, so I'm a bit late with this, but Jolla has released another Sailfish update today, and it's a big one. The headline feature of the new update is that it enables the phone's 4G support for all countries. So, if you have 4G, your Jolla phone will now use it. The hardware was obviously available from the beginning, but it was never enabled until now.

Aside from 4G, this update packs a whole lot more - most importantly, it fixes a major annoyance with the Sailfish browser. The browser did not keep its tab contents in memory, so each time you switched to a tab, the page had to be reloaded. This has now been addressed, and tabs stay in memory properly.

These are just two of the many, many improvements, new features, and bug fixes in this update. Us Sailfish users know where to get it.

This site calls itself 'the biggest free abandonware downloads collection in the universe'. No idea if that's true or not, but all I can say is that I spent a lot - a lot - of time today browsing through the incredibly extensive collection of old operating systems. From an alpha release of Windows 1.0 to NEXTSTEP, this site has it all.

Great for emulators.

The technology establishment's biggest threat comes from the east.

Something else I've noticed: is it just me, or does Apple use a different theme on-stage during a keynote than what actually ships in the beta right now? The transparency and colours pop way more during the keynote than while using the beta. Odd.

Android's biggest weakness is the horrible upgrade situation. Where iOS and Windows Phone users are generally always running the latest version, Android users generally have to settle for whatever version the likes of Samsung and HTC bothered to release for their device. This is a horrible situation for developers and user alike, and, in my view, should be Google's number one priority.

Unless, of course, you're running a custom ROM. This morning my Find 5 greeted me with an update notification, but that's normal - I get a new OmniROM OTA delta update every morning. This time, however, something was different: the version number clearly stated this update would bump my Find 5 from Android 4.4.2 to 4.4.3. As it turns out, the OmniROM team is already pushing 4.4.3 to all the devices it officially supports (52 phones and tablets).

A mere three days after Google pushed 4.4.3 to AOSP.

This is just one of the many, many reasons you should be running a custom ROM. Aside form the fact that a proper custom ROM is lighter and cleaner than the crappy OEM ROMs, they are also more secure because they tend to be up-to-date. In addition, warranty is not an issue because, at least in the EU, rooting and custom ROMs do not void your warranty.

As an aside - the fact that a single person, Xplodwild, can make sure Android 4.4.3 runs on 52 devices within a matter of days of the code becoming available is all the proof you need (in case you still needed it) that carriers and OEMs are simply incredibly incompetent at doing their job. Sure, they have to provide warranty and service so some form of delay is understandable because they require more testing, but the way they refuse to update most, if not all, of their devices in a timely manner or even at all should be a crime.

Interesting and detailed review of the OnePlus One by AndroidCentral, but this paragraph stood out to me:

In my view, it's exactly this lack of "design flair and features" that sets it apart from the competition. There's no fake leather, no fake metal backplate, nu buttons on the back, no super-sized gimmicky protruding camera sensors, useless fingerprint scanners, double camera sensors, heart rate monitors, flair guns, flamethrowers, fishing poles, and god knows what else the established players shove into and onto phones these days.

It's a minimalist device focused almost entirely on a smartphone's most important aspect - its display. And it's exactly this minimalism that makes it stand our from the pack.

That being said, with Palm OS being old and dead, the only way to experience it is to get your hands on a real device on eBay or its local equivalent in your country of residence. If you go down this route - which I strongly advise everyone to at least look into - try and go for the ultimate Palm device, the Palm T|X. It's the most advanced PDA Palm ever built, and you can pry mine from my cold, dead hands.

Sadly, not everyone has the disposable income, time, will, desire, or any combination thereof, to go out and buy real hardware just to play with a dead operating system and all the hardships that come with it. Since I still want to spread the word of Palm OS, I've been looking into an alternative - namely, the Palm OS Simulator.