Motorola wins Xbox, Windows 7 ban in Germany over H264 patents

"Motorola Mobility has been granted an injunction against the distribution of key Microsoft products in Germany. The sales ban covers the Xbox 360 games console, Windows 7 system software, Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player. It follows a ruling that Microsoft had infringed two patents necessary to offer H.264 video coding and playback." But... But... The MPEG-LA, Apple, and Microsoft have been lying to us all this time about the safety of using H264 over WebM, with their supporters blindly parroting the party line? This surprises me greatly and deeply, and I dare say I have not seen this coming at all. Not at all. No sir. Not at all.

Apple rejecting applications that use Dropbox

Apple is rejecting applications that use Dropbox because if the user of such an application does not have the actual Dropbox application installed, he is presented with a Dropbox login form through Safari, which happens to also show a sign-up link, and after clicking on that sign-up link, users could potentially run into one of the paid Dropbox options. Application developers and users surprised by this may need to read about the frog and the scorpion.

Android ported to C#

Wow. "One crazy idea that the team had at that dinner was to translate Android's source code to C#. Android would benefit from C# performance features like structures, P/Invoke, real generics and our more mature runtime. We decided it was crazy enough to try. So we started a small skunkworks project with the goal of doing a machine translation of Android from Java to C#. We called this project XobotOS." Most of Android's layouts and controls are now in C#. The small benchmark is stunning, but as much as I admire the work, I'm wondering that this like going from bad to worse - from Oracle's Java to Microsoft's C#.

US piracy watch list: ‘stop being poor’

The US Trade Representative has released its Special 301 Report again, the document the US government uses to mafia poor countries (and Canada) into enacting stricter IP laws. "Perhaps the most shameful inclusion in this year's report are a series of countries whose primarily fault is being poor. Moreover, with repeated complaints against countries seeking to ensure adequate access to medicines for their citizens or access to books in schools, this year's report hits a new low. It demonstrates the failure of the enforcement agenda and stands as an embarrassment for one of the world's richest countries to prioritize its IP rights over human and economic rights in the developing world." Infuriating. And people wonder why I consider the current IP legislation and lobby entirely unethical and strictly evil.

Tizen 1.0 Larkspur SDK, source code release

"Today we are excited to announce Tizen 1.0 Larkspur, including the addition of new complimentary components, as well as source code that focuses on enhancing stability and performance. We believe that these updates and new offerings improve the experience for developers. We are also continuing to work on improvements and additions, and we will be doing frequent updates to the SDK and source code. There are a few additional components that we plan to add in the coming weeks, and we will continue to fix bugs and add additional features."

Facebook launches organ donor feature

"Starting today, users in the United States and UK will be able to add that they're organ donors to their Timelines, and if they're not organ donors, they can find links to official organ donation registries and instantly enroll." A commendable effort, but for some reason, I find it quite creepy, too. What if you leave your Facebook open and someone enlists you? On a related note - if you're not registered as a donor yet, please consider doing so. It might save someone's life.

Microsoft details improvements to Windows Phone Marketplace

Microsoft has detailed some of its new policies to improve the Windows Phone Marketplace, and this one, about possibly sexual content, stood out to me: "We think the right solution is (a) to be transparent about what's acceptable and (b) to show the right merchandise to the right customer in the right place. Our content policies are clearly spelled out: we don't allow apps containing 'sexually suggestive or provocative' images or content. What we do permit is the kind of content you occasionally see on prime-time TV or the pages of a magazine's swimsuit issue." This is one of my major issues with application stores: American values are archaic and puritan compared to where I'm from, but the application stores we use are still subject to them. I wonder if two kissing men are considered to be "sexually suggestive", "provocative", "racy", or "inappropriate" by American standards.

LG takes step back from Windows Phone

"Ballmer's visit takes place shortly after LG Electronics' executive said during an earnings conference session last week that the company is planning to focus on smartphones running on Google's Android mobile operating system. The executive also said LG is taking a step back from Windows phones powered by Microsoft's platform, adding that it will 'continue research and development efforts' on Windows Phones." Anyone surprised by this should have their peepers checked.

Java Creator: “Google totally slimed Sun”

Java creator James Gosling: "Just because Sun didn't have patent suits in our genetic code doesn't mean we didn't feel wronged. While I have differences with Oracle, in this case they are in the right. Google totally slimed Sun. We were all really disturbed, even Jonathan: he just decided to put on a happy face and tried to turn lemons into lemonade, which annoyed a lot of folks at Sun." Ouch. Also, doesn't jive with Schwartz' comments - might be illustrative of how bad things really were at the once great Sun.

The Pirate Bay must be blocked by UK ISPs, court rules

"File-sharing site The Pirate Bay must be blocked by UK internet service providers, the High Court has ruled. The Swedish website hosts links to download mostly-pirated free music and video. Sky, Everything Everywhere, TalkTalk, O2 and Virgin Media must all prevent their users from accessing the site." Because, as we all know, protecting failing and outdated business models is more important than upholding stodgy old and annoying concepts like 'freedom of speech'. Repeat after me: we live in the free world, not China. Maybe if we say it often enough, we'll start believing it.

B&N spins off Nook business, Microsoft to invest $300 million

Barnes & Noble is spinning off its Nook e-reader business into a new company - which will be a cooperation with Microsoft. Redmond will invest $300 million into the new company, and on top of that, the two companies have settled the patent litigation, which was part of Microsoft's string of mafia practices against Android vendors. I have a sneaking suspicion this will be the end of the line for the Android-based Nook e-readers and tablets. Get 'm while supplies last.

Quasar: a window manager for iPad

"I've been developing a new tweak for iPads called Quasar. Quasar is a tweak that allows you to run your apps in windows in your iPad. Just like in a window-based operating system, you can resize, move, close or full-screen windows." This is really, really cool - and quite useful, too, especially for iPhone-only applications. It's in the Cydia Store for $9.99.

Haiku to get x86_64 port through GSoC

"During the coding period, I will first work on the boot loader. I intend to modify the existing x86 boot loader so that it is capable of loading both a 32-bit Haiku kernel and a 64-bit one. Once this is done, I will work on implementing the x86_64 architecture functionality in the kernel. Finally, I will port modules and drivers to the 64-bit kernel. Should I have time, I will also begin work on porting userland." Heck. Yes.

How Apple sidesteps billions in taxes

"Apple, the world's most profitable technology company, doesn't design iPhones here. It doesn't run AppleCare customer service from this city. And it doesn't manufacture MacBooks or iPads anywhere nearby. Yet, with a handful of employees in a small office here in Reno, Apple has done something central to its corporate strategy: it has avoided millions of dollars in taxes in California and 20 other states." Sure, this is all legal for companies to do (and Apple obviously isn't alone) but it does show you how much sense of morality companies have. Answer: none. But hey, it's legal, and the law is never wrong, right?

Xfce 4.10 released

"Today, after 1 year and 4 months of work, we are pleased to announce the release of the Xfce desktop 4.10, a new stable version that supersedes Xfce 4.8. In the 4.10 cycle we mainly focused on polishing the desktop and improving the user experience in various ways." A detailed overview of the changes compared to Xfce 4.8 and Xfce 4.10 preview releases can be found in the ChangeLogs. Xfce 4.10 will make its way to your distribution of choice, but of course, you can always download it and build it yourself.

The dawn of Haiku OS

"Ultimately, Haiku represents a different way of viewing your personal computer. If you think that software shouldn't be riddled with bugs and incompatibilities and inefficiencies, if you hate being forced to swap out your hardware and software every few years because 'upgrades' have rendered them obsolete, and if you find that the idea of using an operating system that's fast, responsive, and simple is refreshingly novel and appealing, then maybe, just maybe, Haiku is for you." What fascinates me the most is that Haiku's not working on a tablet version. How delightfully quaint.

New York Times: Microsoft tried to get Facebook to buy Bing

"Over a year ago, Microsoft executives sent out feelers to Facebook to see if the company would be interested in acquiring Bing, though the overture was not officially sanctioned by Steven A. Ballmer, chief executive of Microsoft, one of these people said. Mr. Zuckerberg declined, saying Facebook had too much else to concentrate on. Dawn Beauparlant, a spokeswoman for Microsoft, declined to comment, as did Ashley Zandy, a spokeswoman for Facebook." Seems Facebook is smart.