ChibiOS/RT 2.0.6 has been released. This new stable release fixes some minor bugs in the 2.0.x branch and brings performance improvements in the threads creation benchmark.
This efficient embedded RTOS supports multiple architectures like ARM7, ARM Cortex-M0, ARM Cortex-M3, MegaAVR, MSP430, Power Architecture, STM8 and others. A matrix of all the implemented features is available here.
ChibiOS/RT is licensed under the GPL with a linking exception allowing commercial applications.

Remember those crazy people who said the PlayBook didn't exist? Well, RIM demoed its PlayBook live on stage today at the Adobe Air Max conference. Why this conference? Well, the entire user interface of the PlayBook and the QNX-based operating system it runs is written in Adobe AIR - and AIR is also the developer framework for third party applications.

Windows 8 isn't expected to be released until the end of 2012 and "new feature" details is still officially non-existent, but some of these recent rumours began to bear more weight since a slide was "officially leaked" on Microsoft-journal.spaces.live.com/blog. This slide although has since been removed, but it can however still be seen on lmsfkitchen.

Being the brains behind Microsoft has made Bill Gates the wealthiest guy in the world. So he can pretty much afford to buy his kids any gadgets they want. However, Apple devices are banned in the Gates’ house. This is surprisingly not a rule set by Bill Gates. Melinda Gates has made it very clear in an interview with The New York Times that she does not allow Apple hardware in the house. If the kids want an iPod they’ll have to settle for a Zune instead.

"Windows 7 might be a massive commercial success and an undeniably rock solid piece of software, but Microsoft is apparently unwilling to rest on those soft and cozy laurels. Asked about the riskiest product bet the Redmond crew is currently developing, its fearless leader Steve Ballmer took no time in answering 'the next release of Windows'." Also of note in this same video interview thing: Ballmer states that Silverlight is now pretty much strictly a client, non-cross platform thing, while explicitly stating that when it comes to doing something universal, "the world's gone HTML5".

"The good news, however, is that the FreeBSD Foundation is willing to finance a developer to work on bringing kernel mode-setting and Graphics Execution Manager support over to the FreeBSD kernel."

My husband stopped trusting me with his PS3 after I burned three Netflix PS3 software disks (a known problem), so he asked me to get my Netflix kick with another device (that was before the disk-less PS3 solution). So I bought the $99 Roku XD|S, the highest Roku model, a Linux-based video streaming TV device.

"There, I said it. Microsoft has been bombarding the media with claims about how much better IE9 is than all the other browsers, more HTML5 and CSS3 compliant than any other browser that ever existing and ever will. It's the only browser that passes all the tests they made up. And, Microsoft has finally implemented the CSS3 selectors that were implemented by other browsers back in, what? 2003? Because Microsoft has updated IE to support CSS3 selectors and rounded corners, they want us to believe that somehow IE9 magically supports the whole slew of CSS3 visual styling. I'm afraid it doesn't. As a matter of fact, IE9's support for CSS3 visual styling is so poor that the results are shocking."

HP has finally officially unveiled its Slate 500 tablet, a tablet which was supposed to be the Frankenfruity but ended up cancelled, and then resurrected as a corporate thing with a digitiser for text input. Yeah yeah, it looks like pretty decent hardware, but please put some ARM stuff in there, put webOS on it, and then we'll talk, HP. Until then - toodles!

There's been a bunch of Windows Phone 7 reviews out there, and most of them come to the same conclusion: great piece of software for a 1.0 release, but it does miss a few vital features. The Ars Technica review, as usual very in-depth, highlights one particular aspect of the platform that speaks to me: Windows Phone 7 has a sense of humour.

Look at you Windows 7! One year old and making everybody forget Vista was ever born. To mark the occasion, we highlight Windows 7 rollout lessons learned in CIO.com stories featuring BMW, Continental Airlines and more.

It's a rather unclear time over at Nokia in Espoo (Finland!), with people coming and going, and changes in development strategy. The latest one is, I think, a good one: Nokia has stated it will commit fully to Qt as the sole application development framework for both Symbian and MeeGo.

"The London Stock Exchange has said its new Linux-based system is delivering world record networking speed, with 126 microsecond trading times. The news comes ahead a major Linux-based switchover in twelve days, during which the open source system will replace Microsoft .Net technology on the group’s main stock exchange. The LSE had long been criticised on speed and reliability, grappling with trading speeds of several hundred microseconds. The record breaking times were measured on the LSE’s Turquoise smaller dark pool trading venue, where trades are conducted anonymously. That network switched over to Linux from Cinnober technology two weeks ago. Speed is crucial as more firms trade automatically at lightning speed, using advanced algorithms."

"Ubuntu 10.10, codenamed Maverick Meerkat, emerged from its burrow this month with some important changes. One of the most significant changes in Ubuntu 10.10 is the introduction of Unity, a totally new netbook environment that has some promising design characteristics. Although Unity is an impressive offering, it has some kinks that need to be worked out before it will be ready for mainstream adoption. In this review, we will take a close look at 10.10's changes, with a focus on how these changes impact the Ubuntu user experience. Unity's scope and significance for Ubuntu make it an especially important part of this release, so we decided to devote a considerable portion of the review to exploring its features."