German Pirate Party overtakes Greens, survey by Forsa shows

In the News 11 Comments
"Germany's upstart Pirate Party has overtaken the Greens to become the third strongest political grouping in the country, according to a new poll. The survey by Forsa for broadcaster RTL showed support for the Pirates, whose platform is based on internet freedom and more direct participation in politics, pushing up to 13 percent and outstripping the Greens for the first time." Not surprising. I have lots of close friends in Germany (especially in the former DDR), and for obvious reasons, I've noticed they tend to have a very firm grasp of concepts like privacy and government spying. The bit about six parties being a lot and troublesome for coalition building made me smile.
Read More

No more releases for Linux 2.4

Linux 6 Comments
"On the Linux kernel mailing list, Willy Tarreau has announced that there will be no more releases for version 2.4 of the Linux kernel. Tarreau, who is responsible for maintaining the Linux 2.4 kernel, said that 'few people' still use this version. According to him, these users are better served by a central Git repository that collects bug fixes and that he has now created such a repository for them." I remember when 2.4.0 was released... Proper USB support! Them were the days.
Read More

Sony sees record $6.4 billion net loss, to take tax hit

In the News 26 Comments
"Sony forecast a record $6.4 billion net loss for the business year just ended, double earlier forecasts and a fourth straight year of losses, inflated by writing off deferred tax assets in the United States." Cry me river, Sony. You wasted my favourite format of all time (MiniDisc), so I consider this proof there might actually be a god after all - and she really likes doling out karma.
Read More

Wozniak fears patent war fallout

Legal 39 Comments
"The man who co-founded Apple - the world's most valuable company - in the garage of Steve Jobs' parents, fears the torrent of intellectual property lawsuits being filed by companies such as Apple, Samsung, Google, HTC and Nokia could prevent future entrepreneurs from treading a path to technology fortune." Well, mr Wozniak, you are, technically, still an Apple employee. Shouldn't be too hard for you to get an audience with mr Cook.
Read More

A faster Android emulator with better hardware support

Google 8 Comments
"The Android emulator is a key tool for Android developers in building and testing their apps. As the power and diversity of Android devices has grown quickly, it's been hard for the emulator keep pace. Today we're thrilled to announce several significant improvements to the emulator, including a dramatic performance upgrade and support for a broader range of hardware features, notably sensors and multi-finger input." That sound you're hearing is the collective Android developer base shouting 'about damn time!'.
Read More

Competition is king: why Nokia and Microsoft are the perfect match

Wireless 71 Comments
"Windows Phone is fighting an uphill battle. Microsoft still has work to do in terms of user experience and the big hardware partners like HTC and Samsung are starting to lose interest and putting in only token efforts. But Nokia is keeping the platform in the conversation. We're not willing to consign Windows Phone to the same level of hopelessness as the open-source webOS or the out-to-pasture BB OS precisely because Nokia is too big and too active a partner." Having a big partner is by no means a guarantee. Microsoft is doing whatever it can - both legal and should-not-be-legal - to get people to buy Windows Phone, and it isn't working. A brand only gets you so far - you need a compelling product, too, and as much as I like Windows Phone, it's just not there yet compared to iOS and Android.
Read More

RIM to remove sideloading feature from PlayBook

Wireless 20 Comments
RIM has announced it's going to remove the PlayBook's ability to sideload applications. The company claims it's to prevent the piracy problems in the "chaotic cesspool of Android Market". However, the company provided no evidence, studies, or whatever to back up their claims. Considering the state of RIM's business, I'd say the company has bigger fish to fry, but alas. At this point, I'm just hoping they don't do a BeOS, but open the QNX code before they go belly-up.
Read More

Reports: Flashback trojan has infected over half a million Macs

macOS 35 Comments
We don't normally report on security issues, especially not when they occur on Mac OS X. So far, the security issues on the Mac can barely be labelled as such, and really don't deserve a lot of attention. Now, however, it would appear we're looking at the first successful widespread malware infection on Mac OS X. Not a bad track record for an eleven year old operating system, by the way.
Read More

CPU DB: recording microprocessor history

Hardware No Comments
"This article CPU DB (cpudb.stanford.edu), an open and extensible database collected by Stanford's VLSI (very large-scale integration) Research Group over several generations of processors (and students). We gathered information on commercial processors from 17 manufacturers and placed it in CPU DB, which now contains data on 790 processors spanning the past 40 years. In addition, we provide a methodology to separate the effect of technology scaling from improvements on other frontiers (e.g., architecture and software), allowing the comparison of machines built in different technologies."
Read More

Major textbook publishers sue open-education textbook start-up

Legal 53 Comments
Rage-inducing and despicable. As The Chronicle of Higher Education reports, three major textbook publishers, Pearson, Cengage Learning, and Macmillan Higher Education, are suing a small startup company that produces open and free alternative textbooks. This startup, Boundless Learning, builds textbooks using creative commons licensed and otherwise freely available material - and this poses a threat to the three large textbook publishers. So, what do you do when you feel threatened? Well, file a copyright infringement lawsuit, of course.
Read More

Ferdinand A. Porsche, designer of the 911, dies at 76

In the News 30 Comments
"Ferdinand A. Porsche, who designed the original Porsche 911, the snazzy, powerful sports car that became the lasting signature of the German automobile company founded by his grandfather and later run by his father, died on Thursday in Salzburg, Austria. He was 76." I believe only Italians can design beautiful cars (I mean, game over, kids), but there's no denying that the 911 is a true icon. Cars technically don't have a place on OSNews, but Ferdinand Porsche's passing cannot go by unmentioned.
Read More