Archive

If you're an owner of a netbook or other hardware containing an Intel Poulsbo / GMA 500, the Linux 2.6.39 kernel should be rather exciting. Entering the Linux kernel's staging tree is an initial open-source driver for this notorious Intel graphics processor derived from Imagination Technologies' PowerVR SGX graphics core.

PC-BSD 8.2 has been released. As the name suggests, this version's based on FreeBSD 8.2-RELEASE, and includes KDE 4.5.5, as well as various other bugxes and updates.

Google has released a new set of tools for the WebP Image format. The release includes a completely rewritten encoder with improved image quality. Also available is a Windows Imaging Component providing WebP import to any application that supports WIC such as Microsoft Office 2010. There is a side-by-side comparison between the new encoder, the old encoder and JPEG here.

Apple today released a developer preview of Mac OS X Lion, available to Mac Developer Program members through the Mac App Store today, and the final version of Lion will ship to customers this summer. Mac OS X Lion which features Mission Control, an new view of everything running on your Mac; Launchpad, a new home for all your Mac apps; full screen apps that use the entire Mac display; and new Multi-Touch gestures. Lion also includes the Mac App Store, a place to discover, install and automatically update Mac apps.

"Gnome Shell 2.91.90 was released yesterday getting some fine adjustments according to the release announcement: 'This release just about concludes user interface changes anticipated before GNOME 3.0. The only significant change we expect after this release is to add a native network indicator based on NetworkManager 0.9.' Gnome Shell 2.91.90 brings new automatic workspaces, removed minimize and maximize buttons from window titlebars, a PolicyKit authentication agent and more."

The FreeBSD Release Engineering Team is pleased to announce the availability of FreeBSD 8.2-RELEASE. This is the third release from the 8-STABLE branch which improves on the functionality of FreeBSD 8.1 and introduces some new features. For more information, see the 8.2-RELEASE announcement, and the 7.4-RELEASE announcement, ehch has also been released.

A new variant of spyware "Spy.Felxispy" on Symbian devices causing privacy leakage has recently been captured by the National Computer Virus Emergency Response Centre of China. According to NetQin Mobile, there are more than a dozen variants of the spyware since the first was spotted, and the latest has affected 150,000+ devices. Once installed, the spyware will turn on the Conference Call feature of the device without users' awareness. When users are making phone calls, the spyware automatically adds itself to the call to monitor the conversation.

A first alpha version of a Qt implementation for the Android mobile operating system has been announced by Romanian software developer Bogdan Vatra. Since Nokia in co-operation with Microsoft have announced that it does not intend to develop a Windows Phone variant of the GUI framework, Qt for Android represents the only remaining route/platfrom to providing mobile phone apps developed using Qt.

Late last year Australia's biggest telco Telstra was sharply criticised for using GPL'd code in several of its new products - but not publicly distributing changes it made to the code when doing so. However, it looks as though the company has now come clean, publishing a source code CD of the files changed in its development effort and acknowledging the GPL and Lesser GPL. It's good to see companies responding to the open source community this way and engaging - makes a change from the past!

"Over the last few months we have been hard at work getting Native Client ready to support the new Pepper plug-in interface. Native Client is an open source technology that allows you to build web applications that seamlessly and safely execute native compiled code inside the browser. Today, we've reached an important milestone in our efforts to make Native Client modules as portable and secure as JavaScript, by making available a first release of the revamped Native Client .In the coming months we will be adding APIs for 3D graphics, local file storage, WebSockets, peer-to-peer networking, and more. We'll also be working on Dynamic Shared Objects (DSOs), a feature that will eventually allow us to provide Application Binary Interface (ABI) stability."

"AT&T chief Randall Stephenson in an event at Mobile World Congress on Tuesday called for a system that let users keep app ownership across platforms . He argued it was frustrating that buying an app on one platform didn't give you the rights to the app on another. He saw solutions such as the Wholesale Applications Community (WAC) or HTML5 as being better models, although few phones actually support WAC or use HTML5 in a major way for apps."

Syllable now has its first separate REBOL binding (screenshot on Syllable Desktop). The project created a binding with the popular cURL library, which is included in Syllable as its networking library. Documentation and downloads for Syllable, Linux and Windows are available here. The binding will be demonstrated at the upcoming REBOL & Boron conference.

"Samsung Electronics has announced the bada 2.0 smartphone platform with support for near field communication (NFC), HTML5, the Wholesale Applications Community, multitasking and voice recognition. According to Samsung, bada 2.0 also comes with a new and improved software development kit (SDK) that opens up the platform to more developers working across different PC operating systems."

"Intel Corp. said the MeeGo mobile operating system developed with Nokia has a future even after the Finnish handset maker's decision to use Microsoft Corp.'s software in some devices.Meego will be used in tablets this year, the CEO said. It will also be used in mobile phones and in embedded devices in the automotive industry , he said."