Monthly Archive:: February 2011

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop: “Nokia, Our Platform Is Burning”

Speaking of Nokia - Engadget got their hands on what is supposedly an internal memo sent to Nokia employees by the company's new CEO. It's... Brutal. As in, brutally honest. There's no sugar-coating here, no unicorns, no glitter. "Nokia, our platform is burning." Update: Android is probably out of the question. Will it be Windows Phone 7, after all? Damn; Palm tonight, Nokia Friday - what a week for mobile! Update: The "Communities Dominate Brands" blog published an in-depth analysis of the memo, which claims with sound arguments that it might well be a hoax.

Kyocera Pimps Dual-Screen Android Smartphone

"Sprint wants you to believe that two screens are better than one. Its new Android-powered smartphone, the Echo, will feature two touchscreen surfaces in a hinged design. Made by Japanese electronics manufacturer Kyocera, the phone’s dual 3.5-inch WVGA screens can be operated independent of one another or combine in 'tablet mode' to add up to a single 4.7-inch integrated display (albeit one with a hinge in the middle)."

Alien Dalvik Brings Android Apps to Other Platforms

Remember last week, when we talked about the rumours that Research In Motion might bring Android application compatibility to its new QNX-based mobile operating system? Well, while the following news seems to have nothing to do with RIM, it does show it's possible to bring Android application compatibility to other platforms. Myriad has announced Alien Dalvik, which allows Android applications to run on other platforms at comparable speed.

Increasing Adoption of Open Source Software

"A recent survey by Gartner found that more than half of organizations surveyed have adopted open source software (OSS) solutions as part of their IT strategy. Nearly one-third of respondents cited benefits of flexibility, increased innovation, shorter development times and faster procurement processes as reasons for adopting OSS solutions. However, the survey revealed that only one-third of responding organizations had a formal OSS policy in place."

WikiLeaks, Revolution, and the Lost Cojones of American Journalism

"So why do all these American reporters, who know quite well that they get praise and money for doing what Assange has done, stand in a silence that can only be called cowardly, while a fellow publisher faces threats of extradition, banning, prosecution for spying - which can incur the death penalty - and calls for his assassination? U.S. journalism's business model is collapsing; the people who should be out in front defending Assange are facing cut salaries or unemployment because of the medium that Assange represents. These journalists are not willing to concede that Assange is, of course, a publisher, rather than some sort of hybrid terrorist blogger, because of their self-interested prejudices against a medium in which they are not the gatekeepers." Great article - focussing on the US, but just as applicable in the rest of the world (except the great nation of Iceland, obviously). The internet could very well become the single most important 'invention' in human history. We must stand guard against our governments getting their filthy, inefficient, censoring, controlling, and damaging hands on it.

Android 2.4 See in April, May Keep Phones, Tablets Divided

"Google may be planning to keep Android 2 and 3 segregated in a long-term split of the platform, according to a ViewSonic source on Monday. The 2.4 update, once thought to be called Ice Cream, is now said to be a continuation of Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) that would simply add backwards compatibility for dual-core apps on single-core phones. Ice Cream, Pocket-lint heard, should be Android 3.1 and would keep the two apart in features and the interface."

Pyxis 2 ‘Operating Environment’ for NETMF Released

We have a new operating system! Well, no - we have a new operating environment, since it's technically not an operating system. Pyxis 2 is an operating environment written in C# on the .NET Micro Framework. The goal of the project is to make it easier for developers to develop robust NETMF applications, while providing users with a common environment to launch applications in. It is open source (Apache 2.0).

Hobby OS-deving 2: Setting Goals and Expectations

So you have taken the test and you think you are ready to get started with OS development? At this point, many OS-deving hobbyists are tempted to go looking for a simple step-by-step tutorial which would guide them into making a binary boot, do some text I/O, and other "simple" stuff. The implicit plan is more or less as follow: any time they'll think about something which in their opinion would be cool to implement, they'll implement it. Gradually, feature after feature, their OS would supposedly build up, slowly getting superior to anything out there. This is, in my opinion, not the best way to get somewhere (if getting somewhere is your goal). In this article, I'll try to explain why, and what you should be doing at this stage instead in my opinion.

Piracy Increases Anime DVD Sales, Study Concludes

Piracy hurts the content industry. This has been the common line of thought in the piracy and copyright debate for years now, and even though study after study highlight that this is simply not the case - or at least, not as clear-cut a case - the content industry and its avid fans continue to spread this party line. Well, yet another study, this time from the Japanese government, has concluded that piracy actually increases anime DVD sales.

Nokia Takes MeeGo Theme Code Offline; Preparing Custom UI?

"Nokia has temporarily closed the MeeGo-themed branch of its Qt Quick components project. Hartz says that moving behind closed doors is a temporary measure and that the code will be published as soon as the developers are permitted to do so. Although the situation is a little bit frustrating for developers, it's arguably an extremely positive sign that Nokia is getting close to finally delivering a MeeGo product."