Ext4 Filesystem Hits Android, No Need to fear Data Loss

"Google's new Nexus S smartphone is the first Android device to use the Ext4 filesystem. The company published a statement on the official Android developer blog earlier this month to discuss how adoption of Ext4 on Android will impact third-party application developers. In a follow-up post last week, Ext4 developer Ted T'so commented on the transition and offered some further clarification regarding concerns about fsync data loss issues, which he says pose minimal risk on Android due to the higher level of quality assurance testing."

Logitech Denies Google Asked for Suspension Google TV

Logitech International SA Monday denied Google Inc. had asked the Swiss electronics firm to suspend production of television set-top boxes until the U.S. Internet giant irons out software problems. "Suggestions that production of the Logitech Revue companion box might need to be halted to address software issues are unfounded. As those familiar with the product know, it is not necessary for Logitech to make changes to the companion box to accommodate future enhancements to Google TV," Logitech spokeswoman Nancy Morrison said in a statement to Dow Jones Newswires. Logitech was addressing a report in trade publication Digitimes that Logitech is delaying shipments through January.

Codezero Embedded Hypervisor Toolkit v0.4 Released

"Available in this release is a prebuilt hypervisor toolkit for userspace application development. The release contains a prebuilt hypervisor project for creating userspace applications, Versatile Express/quad core Cortex-A9 QEMU emulation environment, and Insight/GDB debugger and full documentation for software development. Note, this release contains an installer for easier installation of tools. The purpose of the toolkit releases are to provide a simple and smooth application development experience on top of Codezero Embedded Hypervisor."

VLC for Android Coming Soon

"The team behind the popular open-source video player VLC is busy working on an Android app, which could be released in early 2011. Lead VLC developer Jean-Baptiste Kempf told me on Thursday that it will be 'a matter of weeks' until the release of the first VLC app for Android-based mobile devices."

Android 3, Possibly in March

In a story about an upcoming tablet from MSI launching in March, the Taiwanese website Digitimes might just have spilled the beans about the approximate launch date of Android 3. The tablet mentioned will ship in March-April next year with Android 3. Android 3 will be optimised for tablets and some big name companies, including Motorola and Lenovo, were holding back on these tablets until the version 3 release. On Techradar, Google's Andy Rubin already showed off an Android 3 prototype tablet from Motorola that gave some clues as to what Android 3 might be capable of. This includes easier navigation requiring absolutely no physical buttons, as well as 3D processing power. Android 3 is also said to have a redesigned UI, support for higher resolution 1280x760 displays and has a strict minimum hardware requirement of a 1Ghz CPU, 512 RAM and a minimum display size of 3.5".

Merry Christmas, and Two OSNews Asks Items!

First of all: the entire OSNews team would like to wish you a very merry Christmas. Even if you're not religious, there's always porn on the internet, right? Anywho, these wishes are a bit tardy, but that's because I've been fighting a battle with my computer the past few days trying to find a way to record Minecraft footage so I could make a Christmas wish from inside my creations - a losing battle, so it would seem. So, for Christmas, I have two OSNews Asks items for you to ponder. First, help me record Minecraft footage. Second, and this is of more practical use to myself and probably others as well, help me to set up an automatic backup solution that backs up the contents of one folder on an external hard drive to another external drive.

Oracle VM VirtualBox 4.0 Released

Oracle VM VirtualBox enables desktop or laptop computers to run multiple operating systems simultaneously, and supports a variety of host operating systems, including Windows, Mac OS X, most popular flavors of Linux (including Oracle Linux), and Oracle Solaris. Version 4.0 delivers increased capacity and throughput to handle greater workloads, enhanced virtual appliance capabilities, and significant usability improvements. Support for the latest in virtual hardware, including chipsets supporting PCI Express, further extends the value delivered to customers, partners and developers.

Microsoft Research: a Year of Accomplishment

"From its inception in 1991, Microsoft Research has hewed to a remarkably unwavering mission. Its tenets are threefold: to invest in basic research to advance the state of the art in computer science, to transfer technologies into Microsoft products when appropriate, and to collaborate openly with the scientific community. The year 2010 has not varied from this established, successful tradition. But unlike 1991, when Microsoft Research was in its nascent stage, the organization is now fully mature, has grown into a worldwide presence, and has gained eminence as that modern-day rarity: an industrial research unit dedicated to pursuing pure research, in dozens of areas, that is helping to transform the future. Such a track record, naturally, has its own rewards. It's little surprise, then, that a review of Microsoft Research's 2010 highlights are bookended by a pair of illustrious awards, with others - including the biggest - sprinkled throughout the year."

Porting Gutenprint-based Printer Drivers to Haiku

Gutenprint is a suite of printer drivers that can be used with UNIX and Linux print spooling systems, such as CUPS (Common UNIX Printing System), lpr, LPRng, and others. Gutenprint currently supports over 700 printer models. Gutenprint was recently ported to Haiku, both increasing its printing capabilities, as well as extending its supported printer models. This article describes Gutenprint and the effort to port it to Haiku.

ScorchOS 0.1 Released

A new version of ScorchOS has been released. ScorchOS (formerly known as ApolloOS) is still in the pre-alpha stage but aims soon to provide a minimal GUI-based operating environment which others can improve, extend and learn from. Don't expect to be using your latest productivity tools on it however for a good long while! This is a hobbyist operating kernel based on bkerndev and inspired by the MikeOS project. At the moment it shows the next step you can take with the kind of tutorials you may find on osdev.org.

Samsung’s Bada 2.0 To Get Ad Framework, Multitasking

"A developer event in South Korea appears to have yielded the first details on what Bada 2.0 will bring when it launches next year, and needless to say, it adds a bunch of smartphone-worthy stuff to the mix: an honest-to-goodness ad framework of some sort, better support for apps that use web technologies, multitasking, NFC capabilities, and an brand new SDK that'll support Mac and Linux."

Net Neutrality Rules Approved by Divided FCC

"A divided Federal Communications Commission has approved new rules meant to prohibit broadband companies from interfering with Internet traffic flowing to their customers. The 3-2 vote Tuesday marks a major victory for FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, who has spent more than a year trying to craft a compromise. The FCC's three Democrats voted to pass the rules, while the two Republicans opposed them, calling them unnecessary regulation. The new rules are likely to face intense scrutiny on Capitol Hill once Republicans take over the House. Meanwhile, public interest groups decried the regulations as too weak, particularly for wireless systems."

Debian 6.0 Squeeze To Have Completely Free Linux Kernel

The Debian project will release the new stable version of debian - Debian 6.0 "Squeeze" - with a completely free Linux kernel. Binary-only firmware and other non-free kernel components will only be available via the non-free repositories and the project is actively encouraging vendors that have not done so already to release their firmware in a form compatible with the Debian Free Software Guidelines.

Oracle Takes on Microsoft, Google with Cloud Office

"Oracle on Wednesday announced the availability of Cloud Office 1.0, a Web-based productivity suite that is set to give online applications from Microsoft and Google a fresh dose of competition. Cloud Office is integrated with the on-premises Oracle Open Office, of which version 3.3 was also announced Wednesday. Like Open Office, Cloud Office is based on ODF (Open Document Format). It provides a set of spreadsheet, text and presentation applications and is compatible with Microsoft Office, according to Oracle."