Episode 40: Indehoekwaardeklappenvallen.

Everything we know is being turned on its head. It's a brave new future. Or maybe we've woken up in 1994 again. Windows and Office on a different architecture? Tablets galore? My head is spinning. Let me just dial into my favourite BBS and rant about how I like things how they are. (N.B. the title is a Dutch phrase "In de hoek waar de klappen vallen", meaning "in the corner where the punches hit", relevant to our discussion of Intel and PS3 being completely caught out)

No GPL Apps for Apple’s App Store

Some people swore to me that just because the free-software General Public License (GPL) clashes with the Apple App Store's Terms of Service (ToS), didn't mean that Apple would actually pull down GPLed apps. Well, Apple just did. Remi Denis-Courmont, a Linux developer of the popular VLC media player, has just announced that Apple had pulled the popular GPLed VLC media player from its App Store.

Sony: We Will Fix PS3 Crack

Sony has responded to the recent cracking of the Playstation3, and the company claism that they can fix the issue - which ought to be impossible considering the scope of the hack. "We are aware of this, and are currently looking into it," Sony said, "We will fix the issues through network updates, but because this is a security issue, we are not able to provide you with any more details."

Alternative to the “200 Lines Kernel Patch that Does Wonders”

"Phoronix recently published an article regarding a ~200 lines Linux Kernel patch that improves responsiveness under system strain. Well, Lennart Poettering, a RedHat developer replied to Linus Torvalds on a maling list with an alternative to this patch that does the same thing yet all you have to do is run 2 commands and paste 4 lines in your ~/.bashrc file. I know it sounds unbelievable, but apparently someone even ran some tests which prove that Lennart's solution works."

AMD Releases Radeon HD 6000 Series Open Source Support

"On the same day that we learn VIA's Linux support is basically dead and after a troubling week for Intel with regards to open-source graphics support for their new Sandy Bridge CPUs, Advanced Micro Devices has come forward and released open-source graphics driver support for their AMD Radeon HD 6000 series of graphics cards."

Amazon To Launch ‘Amazon Appstore for Android’

Amazon is preparing to open an Android app store to compete with Google's Android Market, and has launched a beta portal where developers can submit applications for Android-based smartphones. The applications will be sold on the Amazon Appstore for Android, which the company expects to launch later this year, according to information on Amazon's developer portal. Users will be able to shop for applications from their PCs or from their smartphones, and pay with their existing Amazon account.

Apple Formally Declares Enterprise Intentions

After years of mixed signals, Apple has apparently opened the kimono on its enterprise intentions, announcing a "Mac in the Enterprise" campaign to help large businesses integrate Macs, iPhones, and iPads into their IT ecosystems, InfoWorld reports. "Apple's Mac focus here is particularly striking, unlike that on the iPhone, which has already made obvious inroads in the enterprise market thanks to Apple's delivery of business-class management capabilities. By contrast, the Mac's presence in the business world has been remarkably understated - despite the fact that the Mac population therein reportedly doubled between 2006 and 2008 and looks to grow even more this year."

Mac OS X 10.6.6 Updates Security, Introduces App Store

"Apple today released Mac OS X 10.6.6 which which increases the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac. What's also very important in this release is the introduction of the long-awaited Mac App Store with more than 1,000 free and paid apps. The Mac App Store offers apps in a variety of categories. Users can browse new and noteworthy apps, find out what’s hot, see staff favorites, search categories and look up top charts for paid and free apps, as well as user ratings and reviews." Anyone else bothered by the incredibly shoddy user interface? What the heck is up with the entirely messed up placement of the titlebar widgets? If you ever needed proof the Mac OS X team has become a ghost town thanks to iOS, this is it.

Microsoft Announces Windows NT, Office for ARM

And this is part two of the story: Microsoft has just confirmed the next version of Windows NT (referring to it as NT for clarity's sake) will be available for ARM - or more specifically, SoCs from NVIDIA, Qualcomm, and Texas Instruments. Also announced today at CES is Microsoft Office for ARM. Both Windows NT and Microsoft Office were shown running on ARM during a press conference for the fact at CES in Las Vegas.

NVIDIA Announces ARM CPU for Desktop, Server, HPC

Just - just hold on a second. This is big: NVIDIA, maker of graphics accelerator chips, has just announced, during its keynote at CES, that it is developing a high-performance ARM-based processor together with ARM, targeted squarely at the desktop, server, and even high-performance computing markets. That Windows on ARM thing? NVIDIA referenced it multiple times! Update: Boom, and we have a press release. "NVIDIA announced today that it plans to build high-performance ARM based CPU cores, designed to support future products ranging from personal computers and servers to workstations and supercomputers. Known under the internal codename 'Project Denver', this initiative features an NVIDIA CPU running the ARM instruction set, which will be fully integrated on the same chip as the NVIDIA GPU."

First Custom Firmware for Playstation 3 Working

All the recent hackery news regarding the Playstation 3 has culminated in the inevitable: the first custom firmware for the Playstation 3. KaKaRoTo, its creator, did not release his custom firmware; in fact, he released the tools so you can modify your own Playstation 3's firmware update package. The feature set is extremely limited - but that's kind of the point. He left most of it untouched, and refuses to implement anything related to piracy.