Okay, so this is entirely new to me. Sparrow is was an email client for Mac OS X and iOS (and Windows), which brought a decent Gmail experience to these platforms - as opposed to Apple's own not-so-good Gmail support and Google's Gmail iOS application which, well, is just a webpage. Google has now acquired Sparrow, and basically all hell has broken loose, to the point of Rian van der Merwe writing that 'we' lost "faith in a philosophy that we thought was a sustainable way to ensure a healthy future for independent software development, where most innovation happens".

The AROS distribution Icaros Desktop has made its next step towards compatibility with legacy Amiga workbench applications, including an entire AROS enviroment compiled for the classic Amiga platform, which is almost binary compatible with the original Amiga OS 3.1 (and its extensions). When the user needs an old program, he or she only has to fire up the AROS M68K environment and run the application. The Amiga virtual machine can optionally be set to run at startup like a system service.

"Back in May of this year, Internet security firm Bitdefender launched an app and service designed to help iOS users get a grip on what the apps installed on their mobile devices may be up to. The app tells owners of iOS devices which applications may be accessing more information than they need, and identifies potentially 'misbehaving' apps, giving users an inside look at all the information app developers can gather about a user. Seems legit, right? Apple doesn't think so. Or at least they have an issue with something behind the app that sparked them to pull it from the App Store this week." That seems odd. Why would they do such a thing? "Interestingly, Bitdefender did share some data that they gathered based on Clueful's analysis of more than 65,000 popular iOS apps so far: 42.5 percent of apps do not encrypt users' personal data, even when accessed via public Wi-Fi; 41.4 percent of apps were shown to track a user's location unbeknownst to them; almost one in five of the apps analyzed can access a user's entire Address Book, with some even sending user information to the cloud without notification." Oh, right. Informing users their data is wholly unsafe? Not on Apple's watch!

"Google today announced financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2012. 'Google standalone had a strong quarter with 21% year-on-year revenue growth, and we launched a bunch of exciting new products at I/O - in particular the Nexus 7 tablet, which has received rave reviews,' said Larry Page, CEO of Google, 'This quarter is also special because Motorola is now part of the Google family, and we're excited about the potential to build great devices for users.'"

"Mozilla is creating a new kind of mobile operating system that is aligned with standards-based Web technologies. The platform, called Firefox OS, consists of the Gecko HTML rendering engine, a thin hardware enablement layer built on the Linux kernel, and a user interface layer called Gaia that is implemented entirely in HTML and JavaScript. The project was first announced in 2011 with the codename Boot2Gecko. It has matured considerably since then and is expected to arrive on handsets next year. Developers who want to get a head start will be pleased to learn that Mozilla has started producing daily builds of a B2G test environment that runs on conventional desktop computers."

Nokia just posted its quarterly results - including shipped devices - and it's not looking good. Massive losses, sales dropping, and no growth in Lumia sales in the US. The company is losing money hand-over-fist, and with Windows Phone 8 still months away, the company warns the next quarter will be just as bad.

I don't really know which part to quote here, but I urge you to read Trevor Dickinson's latest blog entry. Trevor is one of the driving forces behind the AmigaONE X1000, and a major Amiga enthusiast with an extensive collection of machines and loads of experience. His post covers all sorts of various stuff from the Amiga world, and definitely worth a read. He's also the person behind the delicious sock cake. Also, the OSNews title here is terrible. Sorry.

The moment Microsoft announced it would lock other browsers out of being installed on Windows RT, we all knew regulatory bodies the world over were wringing their hands. Today, this has been confirmed: in the wake of an investigation into Microsoft not complying with the existing antitrust rulings regarding browser choice, the EU has also announced it's investigating Windows 8 x86 and Windows 8 RT (ARM).

"A judge in Britain is forcing Apple to publicly acknowledge that Samsung didn't copy the iPad, according to a report by Bloomberg. A judge has ordered Apple to post a notice on its website and in British newspapers highlighting a recent ruling that Samsung didn't copy the iPad. Apple must leave that notice up on its website for the next six months." Apple can still appeal this decision, but I'm hoping it'll be denied. This is just too hilarious not to go through.

So, Office 2013 is a desktop application with a new look (which I personally happen to like, ridiculous 'streaming' installation notwithstanding). Then there's OneNote MX - the first Metro Office application. It uses a rather interesting contextual radial menu to get things done - quite fascinating. It's in the Windows Store starting now. I've been playing with it for a bit, and I must say, there's a huge chance I'll be writing my OSNews articles in OneNote MX from now on; the ability to have multiple different text areas and pictures like in a real-world note/clipbook is very, very useful. Nice that it syncs across devices, too. Be sure to take a look - this is an indication of a possible future Metro Office.

"The truth is that this is the first post of the Valve Linux blog. This blog is where you can find the latest information from Valve about our Linux development efforts. Avoid the rumors and speculations that multiply on the Web. Instead, come to the source - a blog where people who are interested in Linux and open source game development can get the latest information on Valve's efforts in this arena. In this initial post, we'll introduce the team (and a bit of its history) and then give you a snapshot of what we're currently doing." Steam, Source, and Left 4 Dead 2 coming to Linux. We know why.

"When we began planning how touch and new types of PCs might work on Windows 8, we recognized the need to provide an effective method for text entry on tablets and other touch screen PCs. Since Windows XP SP1, which had Tablet PC features built in, Windows has included a touchable on-screen keyboard. But those features were designed as extensions to the desktop experience. For Windows 8, we set out to improve on that model and introduce text input support that meets people's needs, matches our design principles, and works well with the form factors we see today and expect to see in the future." If it's even 50% as good as the windows Phone 7 keyboard, they've got a winner. Still haven't found a touch keyboard that even comes close to WP7's keyboard.

Like Ubuntu's Unity interface? Great. If not, you can easily change it to look and act like Ubuntu used to. This tutorial shows how.

"Jolla has signed a Sales and Distribution agreement with D.Phone Group, the largest mobile phones retail chain in China. Together the companies have a shared target to reach significant sales volumes in China's 150 million smartphone market. The agreement is such that D.Phone will start sales and distribution of Jolla smartphones in China, utilising D.Phone's vast network of over 2000 retail stores to reach the Chinese consumers." Wow.