OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

New Chrome, Internet Explorer 9 Test Releases

Thom Holwerda 2010-05-05 Internet 46 Comments

H264 or no, the rest of the world pretty much continues to spin, which also means new iterations of the programs central to this whole debate: browsers. While Google released an ambitious new Chrome beta release, Microsoft shipped the second platform preview release for Internet Explorer 9.

Politics of Open Source Conference

Submitted by Michelle Sagan Goncalves 2010-05-05 Legal 5 Comments

The Journal of Information Technology and Politics will host JITP 2010: Politics of Open Source on May 6 & 7, 2010 at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The conference will also stream live via the conference website. The Politics of Open Source is an interdisciplinary conference that examines the politics associated with the Free/Libre and Open Source Software Movement. The conference features two keynote lectures. The first is by Eric von Hippel, Professor and Head of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School. Dr. Von Hippel's keynote, "Democratizing Innovation" will discuss the development and impact of democratized innovation systems.

Microsoft To Kill Off Support Newsgroups

Thom Holwerda 2010-05-05 Microsoft 11 Comments

"Beginning in June 2010, Microsoft will begin closing newsgroups and migrating users to Microsoft forums that include Microsoft Answers, TechNet and MSDN. This move will centralize content, make it easier for contributors to retain their influence, reduce redundancies and make content easier to find. Overall, forums offer a better spam management platform that will improve customer satisfaction by encouraging a healthy discussion space."

Ceph: a Linux Petabyte-scale Distributed File System

Thom Holwerda 2010-05-05 Linux 2 Comments

A recent addition to Linux's impressive selection of file systems is Ceph, a distributed file system that incorporates replication and fault tolerance while maintaining POSIX compatibility. Explore the architecture of Ceph and learn how it provides fault tolerance and simplifies the management of massive amounts of data.

Kin Available Tomorrow, But Pricing May Hamper Adoption

Thom Holwerda 2010-05-05 Microsoft 2 Comments

"Microsoft's Kin One and Two will be available to prospective buyers within days, though the pricing and data plans seem to fall in an awkward spot for a device the companies are targeting at teens. Microsoft announced Wednesday that the two devices would be available on Verizon Wireless' website as of May 6 and show up in stores on May 13. After a $100 mail-in rebate and a new two-year contract with Verizon, the Kin One will cost $49.99 and the Two will cost $99.99."

Windows Phone 7 Based on Windows Embedded Compact 7

Thom Holwerda 2010-05-04 Windows 14 Comments

Wait, news on an actual operating system? What, no H264 news? It's not even Apple-related? Yes, you're not the only one who's cynical. Anyway, we always assumed that Windows Phone 7 would be built on top of Windows Embedded CE 6.0, but as it turns out, that's not entirely accurate - it actually uses the next version of Windows CE: Windows Embedded Compact 7. No information has been made available about this new version as of yet. Update: And here's an article on how the rumour mill suggests the future of Microsoft's mobile strategy includes replacing Windows Embedded Compact with... Windows NT. Yeppers.

HTML5 Apps

Thom Holwerda 2010-05-04 Wireless 44 Comments

Discussions of Apple's strict control over the app store often do not mention that you can deploy cross platform apps using web applications. HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS should allow you to create compelling, applications without having to distribute through Apple. "I am convinced that the HTML5 app route is the best one for a fat slice of the non-game iPhone apps currently out there, especially those that are simple and face stiff competition. Increased interoperability will help them more than a relative lack of eye candy will hinder them. The problem is convincing clients of that."

Intel Shows off First Light Peak Laptop

Thom Holwerda 2010-05-04 Intel 7 Comments

"Intel has provided the first hands-on demonstration of a laptop running its Light Peak technology, at the company's inaugural European research showcase here in Brussels. Light Peak is an optical interconnect that can transfer data at 10Gbits/sec in both directions. Intel hopes Light Peak will one day replace the host of other PC interconnects, including USB, DisplayPort and HDMI. The demonstration laptop was sending two separate HD video streams to a nearby television screen, without any visible lag."

‘Is H264 a Legal Minefield for Video Pros?’

Thom Holwerda 2010-05-04 Legal 15 Comments

CNet investigates whether H264's licensing is really a legal minefield. John Gruber, proponent of H264, concludes from the article, which uses the MPEG-LA and several legal experts as sources, that no, it is not a legal minefield. He's probably been reading a different article than I did, though, because even the legal experts have trouble understanding the licensing structure. Heck, even the MPEG-LA's head of licensing's language is remarkably unclear and broad. So, is it a legal minefield? Most certainly - this article does nothing to quell the worries.

Novell, Red Hat Fend off Software Patent Claim

Thom Holwerda 2010-05-04 Legal 40 Comments

All the way back in 2007 (The Year Gilmore Girls ended), a company called IP Innovation sued Red Hat and Novell over a patent related to the concept of virtual desktops. It seems like common sense hasn't been drained entirely from the US justice system, since yesterday, the courts declared said patent invalid.

Submitted by PLan 2010-05-03 Apple 63 Comments

Well, this is interesting, and, I must say, rather surprising: the New York Post is reporting that the US Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission are looking into launching an antitrust probe into Apple's policies. You'd expect this to be about iTunes, but that's just the thing: it's about the Adobe-Apple spat. Update: Since I'm not familiar with the entire US media landscape, I was unaware the New York Post is considered less than reputable. Still, Reuters has confirmed the Post's report, so maybe it's true after all.

Shuttleworth Unveils ‘Windicators’

Thom Holwerda 2010-05-03 Ubuntu 81 Comments

Remember how Mark Shuttleworth justified moving the window titlebar widgets to the left by claiming the space freed up on the right side could now be used for something else? On his blog, Shuttleworth unveiled what, exactly, Ubuntu's plans are: window indicators, or 'windicators'. In a nutshell, it comes down to having a tray area in every window.

Microsoft Attempts To Defend Its H264 Position, Fails

Thom Holwerda 2010-05-03 Multimedia, AV 72 Comments

Are you guys sick of the H264 debate already? Yes? Too bad, because we've got more. Microsoft's decision late last week to restrict Internet Explorer 9 to H264 was met with a rather immense amount of criticism, so the company decided to publish a new blog post responding to some of that criticism. While Microsoft makes a few good points, the overall feeling is still that of 'fear, uncertainty, and doubt'.

KDevelop 4.0 Released

Submitted by Andreas Andersen 2010-05-03 KDE 44 Comments

"The KDevelop team is proud and happy to announce that KDevelop 4.0 is finally available as stable release. KDevelop comes with lots of innovative features, even though many features from the 3.5 series were dropped due to a nearly complete rewrite. In particular the developers have focused on building an excellent C++ IDE instead of trying to integrate lots of languages and features halfheartedly. Of course KDevelop 4 also builds an excellent basis for other languages, the best proof for that is the PHP plugin that is released alongside KDevelop 4.0. KDevelop 4.0 has an excellent C++ code understanding engine, which allows the IDE to understand your code better than you do, and which is then used to assist you by releasing you from tiresome tasks."

Latest Windows Phone 7 CTP Includes Office, Dialler

Thom Holwerda 2010-05-02 Windows 16 Comments

So, what's up with Windows Phone 7? Luckily for us, we're not left in the dark, since Microsoft regularly posts updated developer tools and emulator images for us to download. The latest release includes the new Microsoft Office functionality and integration, and after a little magic to unlock this functionality within the emulator image, you'll find Microsoft has taken an interesting approach to Office on the phone.

BumpTop Acquired by Google

Thom Holwerda 2010-05-02 Google 15 Comments

BumpTop, that physics-based 3D desktop thing, has been acquired by Google. "Today, we have a big announcement to make: we're excited to announce that we've been acquired by Google! This means that BumpTop (for both Windows and Mac) will no longer be available for sale. Additionally, no updates to the products are planned." No word on what Google's plans are.

Episode 36: That Was the Week That Was

Kroc 2010-05-02 Podcasts 18 Comments

Whew, what a week. In a week of threats, patents and doom and gloom, we are joined by Tess again to discuss desktop computing. Is it going the way of the dodo, or will it turn into something else? (what with all this mobile-computing hype) Also discussed is the ongoing H264 minefield that THREATENS TO DESTROY US ALL *ahem* before meandering off to something more positive: HP buys Palm; assuring us that there is good in this world.

Guest post by Neolander 2010-05-02 Rumors 48 Comments

When computers--evolutive machines which may be reprogrammed at will--became widely available, it generated a well-deserved buzz. Some (scientists, banks, insurance companies) felt like they were dreaming, others (like some SF writers) rather thought of it as a nightmare. Today, like it or not, they're everywhere However, part of the individual-oriented computers are going rather far from the original programmable machine model. They rather look like usual tools, with a fixed use. Their customizable internals are only accessible to the people who engineered them. Is there no market anymore for general-purpose personal programmable machines, able to do about anything? I'll try to answer this question, taking into account two major trends in the personal computing market : touchscreen-powered devices and cloud computing.

Why Our Civilization’s Video Art and Culture is Threatened by the MPEG-LA

Eugenia Loli 2010-05-01 Legal 153 Comments

We've all heard how the h.264 is rolled over on patents and royalties. Even with these facts, I kept supporting the best-performing "delivery" codec in the market, which is h.264. "Let the best win", I kept thinking. But it wasn't until very recently when I was made aware that the problem is way deeper. No, my friends. It's not just a matter of just "picking Theora" to export a video to Youtube and be clear of any litigation. MPEG-LA's trick runs way deeper! The people at MPEG-LA have made sure that from the moment we use a camera or camcorder to shoot an mpeg2 (e.g. HDV cams) or h.264 video (e.g. digicams, HD dSLRs, AVCHD cams), we owe them royalties, even if the final video distributed was not encoded using their codecs! Let me show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.

UPDATE: Engadget just wrote a reply to this article. The article says that you don't need an extra license to shoot commercial video with h.264 cameras, but I wonder why the license says otherwise, and Engadget's "quotes" of user/filmmaker indemnification by MPEG-LA are anonymous...

UPDATE 2: Engadget's editor replied to me. So according to him, the quotes are not anonymous, but organization-wide on purpose. If that's the case, I guess this concludes that. And I can take them on their word from now on.

UPDATE 3: And regarding royalties (as opposed to just licensing), one more reply by Engadget's editor.

A Statement Regarding OSNews’ Bias

Kroc 2010-05-01 OS News 69 Comments

Hello all. Over time we have had every imaginable claim of bias levied against us. We are routinely called pro-Apple, anti-Apple as well as pro-Microsoft and anti-Microsoft (even within the same discussion thread!). OSNews is an editorial site where the content is selected by a core team of volunteers who either write up news articles themselves, or take links or submissions from users on the site. Read More for the full statement.