Thom Holwerda Archive

RIM to pay Microsoft protection money for exFAT patents

Thom Holwerda 2012-09-18 Wireless 69 Comments

Microsoft and RIM have announced that RIM has licensed Redmond's exFAT patents. The press release contains a ridiculous amount of hyperbole nonsense, and if you translate it into regular people speak, it basically comes down to RIM paying Microsoft protection money for stupid nonsensical software patents. Ridiculous articles like like this make it seem as if we're talking about patents on major technological breakthroughs, but don't be fooled: this is because for some inexplicable reason, we're using crappy FAT for SD cards.

Asus Windows 8 tablets prices leaked: $599-1299

Thom Holwerda 2012-09-18 Windows 46 Comments

"Asus has a trio of Windows 8 tablets on deck for the holidays, but the pricing is so high - $599 to $1299 for a hybrid - that it's going to be nearly impossible to compete in the marketplace. We were leaked Asus' holiday roadmap and the slide below tells the tale." If this is for real, Windows 8 is screwed in the tablet space. Nobody is going to buy a Windows tablet at prices higher than the iPad.

Office 2013 pricing revealed

Thom Holwerda 2012-09-17 Microsoft 29 Comments

Microsoft Office 2013 has received its pricetags. Home and Student - Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote - is $140, while Home and Business, which adds Outlook into the mix, is $220. Professional jumps to a whopping $400, but adds Access and Publisher. For $100 per year, you can get the subscription version, which can be installed on up to 5 PCs (both Windows and OS X PCs). In related news, Microsoft still thinks it's 2001.

Kirby Ferguson on patents, copyright, and Apple

Thom Holwerda 2012-09-17 Legal 13 Comments

"Nothing is original, says Kirby Ferguson, creator of Everything is a Remix. From Bob Dylan to Steve Jobs, he says our most celebrated creators borrow, steal and transform. Kirby Ferguson explores creativity in a world where 'everything is a remix'." In 9 minutes and 42 seconds, Ferguson explains in plain English why patent and copyright law is fundamentally broken.

Visopsys: one man’s vision to build an operating system

Submitted by Andy McLaughlin 2012-09-17 OS News 46 Comments

"Visopsys (VISual OPerating SYStem) is an alternative operating system for PC-compatible computers, developed almost exclusively by one person, Andy McLaughlin, since its inception in 1997. Andy is a 30-something programmer from Canada, who, via Boston and San Jose ended up in London, UK, where he spends much of his spare time developing Visopsys. We had the great fortune to catch up with Andy via email and ask him questions about Visopsys, why he started the project in the first place, and where is it going in the future."

Google stops Acer from shipping incompatible Android device

Thom Holwerda 2012-09-16 Google 121 Comments

There's a bit of a story going on between Google, Acer, and Alibaba, a Chinese mobile operating system vendor. Acer wanted to ship a device with Alibaba's operating system, but Google asked them not to, and Acer complied. The reason is that Acer is a member of the Open Handset Alliance, which prohibits the promotion of non-standard Android implementations - exactly what Alibaba is shipping. On top of that, Alibaba's application store hosts pirated Android applications, including ones from Google.

Intel will not support Linux on its Clover Trail processors

Thom Holwerda 2012-09-14 Intel 176 Comments

You'd think this sort of stuff belonged to the past - but no. Apparently, Microsoft is afraid of Android on its Windows 8 tablets, because Intel has just announced that it will provide no support for Linux on its clover Trail processors. Supposedly, this chip is "designed for Windows 8". What?

HP CEO: we have to offer a smartphone

Thom Holwerda 2012-09-14 Wireless 25 Comments

"'We are working on this,' Ms. Whitman told Fox Business Network in an interview. 'We have to ultimately offer a smartphone because in many countries of the world that would be your first computing device... We are a computing company.'" On the same day the Pre 2 a reader is loaning me arrives in the mail. This is just cruel. Update: "HP Bender Android smartphone appears in benchmark details". Eh.

Submitted by MOS6510 2012-09-14 Java 34 Comments

"As a typical Java developer I never monitored the memory usage of my application apart from following typical best practices like closing the connections, streams etc. Recently we were struck with few issues in our JBoss servers that I had to dig in to the memory management."

Apple’s iPhone: the untold story

Submitted by yoni 2012-09-13 Apple 16 Comments

"Apple is one of the most secretive companies on the planet, so the Apple-Samsung trial was fascinating in that it lifted the veil of secrecy that typically shrouds Apple's operations. From marketing budgets to photos of never-before-seen iPhone prototypes, the evidence introduced at trial gave the world an unprecedented glimpse into the inner workings of Apple." Lots of stuff we already knew, but Yoni Heisler ties it all together nicely.

J2ObjC: a Java to iOS Objective-C translator from Google

Thom Holwerda 2012-09-13 General Development 28 Comments

"We are proud to announce the open source release of J2ObjC, a Google-authored translator that converts Java source code into Objective-C source for iPhone/iPad applications. J2ObjC enables Java code to be part of an iOS application's build, as no editing of the generated files is necessary. The goal is to write an application's non-UI code (such as data access, or application logic) in Java, which can then be shared by Android apps, web apps (using GWT), and iOS." Huh.

Submitted by MOS6510 2012-09-13 Mozilla, Gecko 65 Comments

"Over the past year and a half I've been spending more and more of my time working with Mozilla's latest project, Firefox OS. During that time I've fallen in love with the project and what it stands for, in ways that I've never experienced with a technology platform before." I'm not convinced just yet. I hope it succeeds, but I just doubt it actually will.

Wozniak hates the Apple vs. Samsung verdict

Thom Holwerda 2012-09-13 Legal 17 Comments

About the Apple vs. Samsung jury verdict: "I hate it," Wozniak told Bloomberg, "I don't think the decision of California will hold. And I don't agree with it - very small things I don't really call that innovative. I wish everybody would just agree to exchange all the patents and everybody can build the best forms they want to use everybody's technologies." From the mouth of a real inventor and engineer.

Apple releases iOS 6 golden master to developers

Thom Holwerda 2012-09-12 Apple 22 Comments

"Apple has just released the final Golden Master build of iOS 6 to developers. Although a public version won't be available for existing users until September 19th, developers can use the final version to test against iOS apps in preparation for the new iPhone 5." Developers, get cracking. You don't want your applications to show black bars on the iPhone 5, right?

Apple announces iPhone 5

Thom Holwerda 2012-09-12 Apple 89 Comments

As expected, Apple announced its new iPhone tonight, dubbed the iPhone 5. The rumours and leaks nailed it, with the most prominent feature being the move from 3.5" to 4" (1136x640). Due to the way iOS handles resolutions, applications need to be adapted for this new display, and if they are not, they will be letterboxed (black bars). It has a faster processor, better camera, LTE, and several other improvements, while the. As always, Apple does it right: shipping 21 September in the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore - the rest of the world will follow later.

‘Rift’ within Apple over skeuomorphism fetish

Thom Holwerda 2012-09-11 Apple 44 Comments

Ah, skeuomorphism - my favourite punching bag. Austin Carr has spoken to former Apple designers and people within the company, and they're all confirming there's a rift within Cupertino between people who want to move away from skeuomorphism, and people who want to retain it as much as possible, and even want to expand it. Since I've long hoped for Apple to ditch this "visual masturbation", as one former Apple designer calls it, I'm happy to learn not the entire company supports skeuomorphism.

Submitted by MOS6510 2012-09-10 Google 9 Comments

"Google calls itself one of the world's largest hardware makers. For the past 10 years, the web giant has designed much of the gear driving the massive data centers that underpin its web empire, but it treats the particulars of this hardware operation as the most important of trade secrets. That's why the Pluto Switch is so intriguing." It's easy to forget large web companies like Google actually design and build their own hardware.

Submitted by MOS6510 2012-09-10 Apple 81 Comments

Written by Scott Cleland: "With so many fanboys spinning Silicon Valley history, it's sometimes easy to forget about the real chain of events that led to the ongoing Apple-Google thermonuclear war, how the romance turned to hate. This timeline presents an interesting case about why, despite patents and prior art, Steve Jobs had plenty of personal reasons to despise Schmidt, Page, and Brin." Cleland has a very, very good point; quite coherent and well-reasoned... That is, if you haven't got a single shred of historical sense and completely and utterly ignore the 30-odd years of mobile computing development that preceded our current crop of smartphones. It's hard not to be reminded of how certain groups of people dismiss millions of years of fossil records because this record inconveniences their argument. In any case, a comment on the article answered the question properly: "Jobs was a businessman. He was angry he was losing money. Simple."

Valve brings Steam to your TV today

Thom Holwerda 2012-09-10 Games 11 Comments

"Today, Valve will launch the beta of Big Picture mode, a version of Steam designed for your television. That's right. The de facto central hub of PC gaming is now designed to run while you're lounging in your living room - and with a controller, no less. I've tried out Big Picture. It's sleek, intuitive, and groundbreaking in several ways." We've talked about this before. If there's one company that can upend consoles, it's Valve. Everything is falling into place, and I wouldn't be surprised if this - what is essentially the software for the 'Steambox' - will have a tremendous effect on the games industry. Looks great, too.

Submitted by MOS6510 2012-09-10 Wireless 21 Comments

"The rise of the tablet has heralded changes big and small across the tech ecosystem, from a booming market for cloud storage to the fall of Flash. If the computing industry was a stagnant pond in late 2009, the introduction of tablets a few months later was less akin to a pebble flicked from the shore and more like a boulder hurled from 10 feet up. The ripples have been widespread and lasting." Simple question: if an ordinary user used her laptop to check Facebook, the news, and read a few blogs, and now uses a tablet to do the exact same thing - how much has really changed? Are any of the things mentioned in this article - the rise of HTML5, streaming video, and internet storage - really the result of tablets?