Monthly Archive:: May 2011

Lodsys Proceeds to Sue iOS Application Developers

Submitted by john 2011-05-31 Legal 50 Comments

Well, I have to say this: Lodsys got some balls. After Apple threatening them with legal action, Lodsys has gone on the offensive, and has proceeded to sue third party iOS application developers. While Lodsys had first given developers 21 days to negotiate an agreement, due to Apple's legal threats, the company has now moved its litigation timing to an earlier date.

Acer CEO: Windows 8 Tablet Requirements ‘Troublesome’

Thom Holwerda 2011-05-31 Windows 50 Comments

As you all know, Microsoft is hard at work making sure Windows 8 runs well on tablets, including a completely new, Windows Phone 7-like Metro user interface. Another similarity between Windows 8 and Windows Phone 7, apparently, is that Microsoft will be controlling the hardware experience rather tightly. This all comes from Acer CEO J. T. Wang.

Apple To Announce iCloud, iOS 5 Coming Monday

Thom Holwerda 2011-05-31 Apple 25 Comments

"Apple CEO Steve Jobs and a team of Apple executives will kick off the company's annual Worldwide Developers Conference with a keynote address on Monday, June 6 at 10:00 a.m. At the keynote, Apple will unveil its next generation software - Lion, the eighth major release of Mac OS X; iOS 5, the next version of Apple's advanced mobile operating system which powers the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch; and iCloud, Apple's upcoming cloud services offering." Right-o.

The Sins of Ubuntu

Guest post by Howard Fosdick 2011-05-30 Ubuntu 131 Comments

Canonical Ltd., the company behind Ubuntu Linux, estimates that the product has over 12 million users worldwide. And why not? Ubuntu is free and it runs more than ten thousand applications. It has a vibrant user community, websites covering everything you might ever need to know, good tutorials, a paid support option, and more. Yet I often hear friends and co-workers casually criticize Ubuntu. Perhaps this the price of success. Or is it? In this article I'll analyze common criticisms and try to sort fact from fiction.

Google Pulls Emulators From the Android Market

Submitted by sawboss 2011-05-30 Google 27 Comments

Over the weekend, Yong Zhang (yongzh), developer of emulators for old gaming systems on Android, has seen his developer revoked and all applications removed from the Android Market. While locally installed applications remain on user's device this time, they obviously cannot be updated or reinstalled by users who have legally purchased them. No warning or explanation has been sent, but the app and account removal is most likely the result of a complaint from one of the companies who own the right to those systems, as a complaint from Sega last month resulted in a couple of emulators getting removed already.

Linux Kernel 3.0 Announced to No Fan Fare

Kroc 2011-05-30 Linux 55 Comments

Well this makes a change. Linus Torvalds has announced that the next version of the Linux Kernel release is to be '3.0'. "I decided to just bite the bullet, and call the next version 3.0. It will get released close enough to the 20-year mark, which is excuse enough for me, although honestly, the real reason is just that I can no longer comfortably count as high as 40."

Microsoft Earns More from Android than Windows Phone 7

Submitted by teigetje 2011-05-29 Microsoft 79 Comments

It turns out that a lot of people haven't been paying attention. Over the weekend, a story about how Microsoft is earning more from HTC's Android devices than from its own Windows Phone 7 sales spread all across the web, with surprised reactions everywhere. Anyone who has been paying attention to Microsoft's recent patent trolling regarding Android could've seen this coming.

Apple v. Samsung Gettin’ Good

Submitted by John 2011-05-29 Legal 33 Comments

In order to not overwhelm OSNews with even more legal news, I didn't report on the recent developments in Apple v. Samsung until we had some more stuff to consolidate. Well, since the goings been getting good lately there, let's talk about it. Samsung was ordered to hand over a slew of unreleased products and materials to Apple, and now, Samsung, for its part, has demanded that Apple hands over the iPhone 5 and iPad 3 to Samsung. If they exist. This is gettin' good.

New Red Programming Language Gets Syllable Backend

Guest post by Kaj-de-Vos 2011-05-29 Syllable, AtheOS 11 Comments

There's a new REBOL like programming language in town. It's called Red, it's BSD licensed and contrary to REBOL and Boron, Red is a compiled language. The Syllable project is proud to announce that Red programs now run on Syllable Desktop. Here is a screenshot from a demo program. Syllable is the third Red target platform, after Windows and Linux.

The OS-periment: RPC-Based Daemon Model Goes ‘RC’

Neolander 2011-05-29 OS News 92 Comments

It's funny how trying to have a consistent system design makes you constantly jump from one area of the designed OS to another. I initially just tried to implement interrupt handling, and now I'm cleaning up the design of an RPC-based daemon model, which will be used to implement interrupt handlers, along with most other system services. Anyway, now that I get to something I'm personally satisfied with, I wanted to ask everyone who's interested to check that design and tell me if anything in it sounds like a bad idea to them in the short or long run. That's because this is a core part of this OS' design, and I'm really not interested in core design mistakes emerging in a few years if I can fix them now. Many thanks in advance.

PayPal Sues Google over Wallet Service

Submitted by sawboss 2011-05-27 Legal 33 Comments

Ding ding ding ding - I think we have a record here. Launched yesterday, Google Wallet has already attracted a lawsuit. While patent lawsuits are teh shizzle these days, this lawsuit is a little different, so sadly I can't trot out my usual 'software patents bad' lines (aww). PayPal has sued Google over its Wallet service, claiming that one key former PayPal executive who accepted a job at Google took trade secrets with him.

How to Install Google’s Chrome OS

Submitted by sjvn 2011-05-27 OS News 8 Comments

You don't need a Chromebook to try Google's Linux-based Chrome OS. Here's how to give it a try today.

Could You Live Without Blocking Calls?

Neolander 2011-05-27 General Development 58 Comments

After having an interesting discussion with Brendan on the topic of deadlocks in threaded and asynchronous event handling systems (see the comments on this blog post), I just had something to ask to the developers on OSnews: could you live without blocking API calls? Could you work with APIs where lengthy tasks like writing to a file, sending a signal, doing network I/O, etc is done in a nonblocking fashion, with only callbacks as a mechanism to return results and notify your software when an operation is done?

HTC Officially Stops Locking Bootloaders

Thom Holwerda 2011-05-27 Wireless 27 Comments

Well, this is some good news on this fine morning. After Sony Ericsson announcing official support for bootloader unlocking on their Android phones, HTC has just stepped it up a notch: the company's CEO (no less) has announced on Facebook that going forward, HTC will no longer lock down any of their phones' bootloaders.

KDE Ships First 4.7 Beta

Submitted by poundsmack 2011-05-26 KDE 54 Comments

"KDE has released a first beta of the upcoming 4.7 release of the Plasma Desktop and Netbook workspaces, the KDE Applications and the KDE Frameworks, which is planned for July 27, 2011. With API, dependency and feature freezes in place, the KDE team's focus is now on fixing bugs and further polishing new and old functionality."

Amazon Launches Mac Software, Game Download Store

Thom Holwerda 2011-05-26 macOS 4 Comments

It seems that the fight between Amazon and Apple has just entered into a new phase. The two companies are already in the world's silliest tussle over the trademark for the term 'app store', and now Amazon has kicked it up a notch by launching a competitor to the Mac App Store. While not nearly as large as the Mac App Store, it contains a number of big-name titles which are not available through Apple's offering - such as Microsoft Office.

Pay with your Phone with Google Wallet

Thom Holwerda 2011-05-26 Google 2 Comments

"Just as expected, Google unveiled its wireless payment system and its new Groupon-like deals site at a press event in New York on Thursday. Called Google Wallet and Google Offers, the two features can operate either separately or together to make it easier to pay for things in person and get deals while shopping."

Nokia Symbian Support to Continue Well Into 2016

Guest post by JCinSpain 2011-05-26 Wireless 3 Comments

On a recent recent visit to Beijing, Anna Shipley of Nokia Conversations - China, caught up with Stephen Elop for a short interview. In the interview, Elop illiterates once again the importance of the partnership with Microsoft, their new strategy, roll out, renewal and challenges faced ahead - in his own words "Nokia has to move forward faster and more aggressively now, than we have ever done before because of the competition". He talks about the importance of creating a great environment for developers of applications so that they can be effective, especially with the new Windows platform on Nokia devices. He also mentions that investment in Symbian will continue with support and updates way into 2016, with new apps, customer service and all of the elements that Symbian customers are currently experiencing.

Native x86 Android Runtime: Android Applications on Windows

Submitted by poundsmack 2011-05-26 General Development No Comments

"A startup called BlueStacks has developed an Android runtime environment for the Windows operating system. It will enable users to run Android applications alongside conventional Windows software on Microsoft's operating system. The technology impressed some major investors who have supplied $7.6 million in Series A funding so that BlueStacks can turn its software into a business."

Net Neutrality To Be Added to Dutch Telecommunications Act

Thom Holwerda 2011-05-26 Internet 20 Comments

A few weeks ago, we talked about Dutch mobile phone carriers planning to charge for the use of different kinds of application, such as Skype, WhatsApp, and so on. They would check people's data traffic using deep packet inspection, and charge accordingly. This led to a massive outrage here in this glorified swamp - and this outrage has had its effect.

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