OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

BioWare co-founders leave their company

Thom Holwerda 2012-09-18 Games 18 Comments

From the BioWare blog: "Today, BioWare co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk have announced they are retiring from BioWare." Dragon Age II may have been an abomination of a game, and Mass Effect 2 had some considerable issues as well, but that doesn't negate the fact that BioWare has created some of the best games in history. Thanks, guys, for hundreds and hundreds of hours of great gaming, and good luck with any future projects.

RIM to pay Microsoft protection money for exFAT patents

Thom Holwerda 2012-09-18 Wireless 69 Comments

Microsoft and RIM have announced that RIM has licensed Redmond's exFAT patents. The press release contains a ridiculous amount of hyperbole nonsense, and if you translate it into regular people speak, it basically comes down to RIM paying Microsoft protection money for stupid nonsensical software patents. Ridiculous articles like like this make it seem as if we're talking about patents on major technological breakthroughs, but don't be fooled: this is because for some inexplicable reason, we're using crappy FAT for SD cards.

Asus Windows 8 tablets prices leaked: $599-1299

Thom Holwerda 2012-09-18 Windows 46 Comments

"Asus has a trio of Windows 8 tablets on deck for the holidays, but the pricing is so high - $599 to $1299 for a hybrid - that it's going to be nearly impossible to compete in the marketplace. We were leaked Asus' holiday roadmap and the slide below tells the tale." If this is for real, Windows 8 is screwed in the tablet space. Nobody is going to buy a Windows tablet at prices higher than the iPad.

Office 2013 pricing revealed

Thom Holwerda 2012-09-17 Microsoft 29 Comments

Microsoft Office 2013 has received its pricetags. Home and Student - Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote - is $140, while Home and Business, which adds Outlook into the mix, is $220. Professional jumps to a whopping $400, but adds Access and Publisher. For $100 per year, you can get the subscription version, which can be installed on up to 5 PCs (both Windows and OS X PCs). In related news, Microsoft still thinks it's 2001.

Kirby Ferguson on patents, copyright, and Apple

Thom Holwerda 2012-09-17 Legal 13 Comments

"Nothing is original, says Kirby Ferguson, creator of Everything is a Remix. From Bob Dylan to Steve Jobs, he says our most celebrated creators borrow, steal and transform. Kirby Ferguson explores creativity in a world where 'everything is a remix'." In 9 minutes and 42 seconds, Ferguson explains in plain English why patent and copyright law is fundamentally broken.

Visopsys: one man’s vision to build an operating system

Submitted by Andy McLaughlin 2012-09-17 OS News 46 Comments

"Visopsys (VISual OPerating SYStem) is an alternative operating system for PC-compatible computers, developed almost exclusively by one person, Andy McLaughlin, since its inception in 1997. Andy is a 30-something programmer from Canada, who, via Boston and San Jose ended up in London, UK, where he spends much of his spare time developing Visopsys. We had the great fortune to catch up with Andy via email and ask him questions about Visopsys, why he started the project in the first place, and where is it going in the future."

Google stops Acer from shipping incompatible Android device

Thom Holwerda 2012-09-16 Google 121 Comments

There's a bit of a story going on between Google, Acer, and Alibaba, a Chinese mobile operating system vendor. Acer wanted to ship a device with Alibaba's operating system, but Google asked them not to, and Acer complied. The reason is that Acer is a member of the Open Handset Alliance, which prohibits the promotion of non-standard Android implementations - exactly what Alibaba is shipping. On top of that, Alibaba's application store hosts pirated Android applications, including ones from Google.

Intel will not support Linux on its Clover Trail processors

Thom Holwerda 2012-09-14 Intel 176 Comments

You'd think this sort of stuff belonged to the past - but no. Apparently, Microsoft is afraid of Android on its Windows 8 tablets, because Intel has just announced that it will provide no support for Linux on its clover Trail processors. Supposedly, this chip is "designed for Windows 8". What?

HP CEO: we have to offer a smartphone

Thom Holwerda 2012-09-14 Wireless 25 Comments

"'We are working on this,' Ms. Whitman told Fox Business Network in an interview. 'We have to ultimately offer a smartphone because in many countries of the world that would be your first computing device... We are a computing company.'" On the same day the Pre 2 a reader is loaning me arrives in the mail. This is just cruel. Update: "HP Bender Android smartphone appears in benchmark details". Eh.

Submitted by MOS6510 2012-09-14 Java 34 Comments

"As a typical Java developer I never monitored the memory usage of my application apart from following typical best practices like closing the connections, streams etc. Recently we were struck with few issues in our JBoss servers that I had to dig in to the memory management."

Apple’s iPhone: the untold story

Submitted by yoni 2012-09-13 Apple 16 Comments

"Apple is one of the most secretive companies on the planet, so the Apple-Samsung trial was fascinating in that it lifted the veil of secrecy that typically shrouds Apple's operations. From marketing budgets to photos of never-before-seen iPhone prototypes, the evidence introduced at trial gave the world an unprecedented glimpse into the inner workings of Apple." Lots of stuff we already knew, but Yoni Heisler ties it all together nicely.

J2ObjC: a Java to iOS Objective-C translator from Google

Thom Holwerda 2012-09-13 General Development 28 Comments

"We are proud to announce the open source release of J2ObjC, a Google-authored translator that converts Java source code into Objective-C source for iPhone/iPad applications. J2ObjC enables Java code to be part of an iOS application's build, as no editing of the generated files is necessary. The goal is to write an application's non-UI code (such as data access, or application logic) in Java, which can then be shared by Android apps, web apps (using GWT), and iOS." Huh.

Guest post by R_T_F_M 2012-09-13 FreeBSD 43 Comments

"For the past several years we've been working towards migrating from GCC to Clang/LLVM as our default compiler. We intend to ship FreeBSD 10.0 with Clang as the default compiler on i386 and amd64 platforms. To this end, we will make WITH_CLANG_IS_CC the default on i386 and amd64 platforms on November 4th."

Submitted by MOS6510 2012-09-13 Mozilla, Gecko 65 Comments

"Over the past year and a half I've been spending more and more of my time working with Mozilla's latest project, Firefox OS. During that time I've fallen in love with the project and what it stands for, in ways that I've never experienced with a technology platform before." I'm not convinced just yet. I hope it succeeds, but I just doubt it actually will.

Wozniak hates the Apple vs. Samsung verdict

Thom Holwerda 2012-09-13 Legal 17 Comments

About the Apple vs. Samsung jury verdict: "I hate it," Wozniak told Bloomberg, "I don't think the decision of California will hold. And I don't agree with it - very small things I don't really call that innovative. I wish everybody would just agree to exchange all the patents and everybody can build the best forms they want to use everybody's technologies." From the mouth of a real inventor and engineer.

Apple releases iOS 6 golden master to developers

Thom Holwerda 2012-09-12 Apple 22 Comments

"Apple has just released the final Golden Master build of iOS 6 to developers. Although a public version won't be available for existing users until September 19th, developers can use the final version to test against iOS apps in preparation for the new iPhone 5." Developers, get cracking. You don't want your applications to show black bars on the iPhone 5, right?

Guest post by nej_simon 2012-09-12 Wireless 8 Comments

A video demonstrating the multitasking gestures of BlackBerry 10 has surfaced. The UI looks like a combination of PlayBook OS and Nokia's ill-fated MeeGo operating system. However, CrackBerry notes "... consider the video shows as being dated for June, yet is only appearing now in September. Something tells me someone sat on this until it was possibly no longer really relevant and therefore, may not matter all that much if people see it now."

Apple announces iPhone 5

Thom Holwerda 2012-09-12 Apple 89 Comments

As expected, Apple announced its new iPhone tonight, dubbed the iPhone 5. The rumours and leaks nailed it, with the most prominent feature being the move from 3.5" to 4" (1136x640). Due to the way iOS handles resolutions, applications need to be adapted for this new display, and if they are not, they will be letterboxed (black bars). It has a faster processor, better camera, LTE, and several other improvements, while the. As always, Apple does it right: shipping 21 September in the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore - the rest of the world will follow later.

‘Rift’ within Apple over skeuomorphism fetish

Thom Holwerda 2012-09-11 Apple 44 Comments

Ah, skeuomorphism - my favourite punching bag. Austin Carr has spoken to former Apple designers and people within the company, and they're all confirming there's a rift within Cupertino between people who want to move away from skeuomorphism, and people who want to retain it as much as possible, and even want to expand it. Since I've long hoped for Apple to ditch this "visual masturbation", as one former Apple designer calls it, I'm happy to learn not the entire company supports skeuomorphism.

Guest post by fran 2012-09-11 Hardware 13 Comments

"Bill Moggridge, the London-born industrial designer credited with creating the first laptop computer,died on Saturday aged 69 after a battle with cancer. Moggridge is best known as the creator of the GRiD Compass, a device which introduced many of the design traits used in modern laptops, including the hinged case, the flat display and the low-profile keyboard. Moggridge said that when he tested the device prototype in 1981, it was the first time he had used a computer."