Monthly Archive:: September 2011

Dutch Public Broadcasting Company Investigates WebM Viability

Thom Holwerda 2011-09-30 Multimedia, AV 35 Comments

So, anyone remember WebM? A reader emailed me about a pilot study (in English!) performed by a collaboration between the NPO (the Dutch version of the BBC, basically) and TNO (the largest research institution in The Netherlands, often employed by our government) into the viability of using WebM and associated tools instead of H.264 and associated tools, including the perceived quality of VP8. The outcome of the pilot shouldn't surprise anyone - the toolchain needs work, WebM itself isn't there yet, but the future looks bright.

MikeOS 4.2 Released

Guest post by M-Saunders 2011-09-30 OS News 22 Comments

Looking to write your own operating system? MikeOS, an open source teaching project with detailed documentation, has just reached a new release. Version 4.2 includes new programs (a memory editor, calculator, and ASCII art designer), file management in the CLI, and improvements to the text editor. If you want to start completely from scratch, try this guide first.

Sony Ericsson Supports Independent Developers

Submitted by kragil 2011-09-30 Wireless 16 Comments

"In developer forums worldwide, there is a huge activity and engagement in the open Android ecosystem. And we also know there are a lot of independent developers out there who are creating their own custom ROMs or modifying the kernel. The Sony Ericsson Developer program is following this community with great interest, and even though Sony Ericsson is not supporting all the activities by independent developers, we recognize that custom ROMs are a part of the Android ecosystem. We therefore decided to assist a group of developers called 'FreeXperia'. The overall open developer community is important to Sony Ericsson, and we hope to learn from it, and share knowledge ourselves." On top of that, as far as I know, Soney Ericsson has not yet caved to Microsoft's extortion campaign, and they haven't been sued by either Microsoft or Apple either. All this combined makes them an excellent choice for those of us who don't want support slime ball practices of Microsoft and Apple. Then again - Sony.

Linux has Only 10 Great Desktop Apps

Submitted by lucas_maximus 2011-09-29 Linux 305 Comments

Linux is struggling on the desktop because it only has a small number of "great" apps, according to the Gnome co-creator. Miguel de Icaza, co-creator of the Gnome desktop, told tech journalist Tim Anderson at the recent Windows 8 Build conference "When you count how many great desktop apps there are on Linux, you can probably name 10," de Icaza said, according to a post on Anderson's IT Writing blog. "You work really hard, you can probably name 20. We've managed to p*** off developers every step of the way, breaking APIs all the time."

RIM Bailing on Playbook (Or Not)

David Adams 2011-09-29 Wireless 2 Comments

Collins Stewart analyst John Vinh made the claims in a note to investors Thursday morning, citing anonymous sources at RIM’s manufacturing partner Quanta. . . A RIM spokesperson dismissed Vinh's report and supplied BGR with an official statement.

Amazon’s Kindle Fire Silk Browser

Thom Holwerda 2011-09-29 Internet 41 Comments

Other than the low price (only $199?!) and the fact that Google is getting absolutely nothing out of Amazon's use of Android, I couldn't really bring myself to caring too much about the Kindle Fire (Apple and/or Microsoft patent lawsuit in 3... 2... 1), but there is one aspect that intrigued me - Amazon's beefing up of what at its core is Opera Mini.

Tizen: the Latest Mobile Linux Announced

Submitted by fran 2011-09-29 Linux 23 Comments

"Intel and Samsung are now confirmed to be working under the umbrella of the Linux Foundation, and with the cooperation of the Limo Foundation, on 'Tizen', a new mobile operating system based on Linux. Various rumours about the parties' future plans for MeeGo and merging of plans have been in circulation, but the announcement of a new operating system was unexpected. The Tizen operating system will combine components of MeeGo and Limo with an emphasis on supporting HTML5-based applications and WAC (Wholesale Applications Community) distribution and APIs. WAC is the product of a number of mobile companies who have developed a uniform platform for mobile widgets and applications based on W3C standards."

GNOME 3.2 Released

Submitted by Hiev 2011-09-29 Gnome 31 Comments

GNOME 3.2 has been released. It's basically a collection of relatively small updates, improvements, and bug fixes. As whole, it's a pretty big upgrade, but there's nothing really that stands out to me - probably because I don't use GNOME3 myself so I really have no idea where it's lacking (if at all). Any GNOME3 users care to shine a light on this one?

How Adobe Flash Lost Its Way

Guest post by snydeq 2011-09-29 Editorial 9 Comments

Despite early successes on the Web, the latter years of Flash have been a tale of missed opportunities, writes Fatal Exception's Neil McAllister. 'The bigger picture is that major platform vendors are increasingly encouraging developers to create rich applications not to be delivered via the browser, but as native, platform-based apps. That's long been the case on iOS and other smartphone platforms, and now it's starting to be the norm on Windows. Each step of the way, Adobe is getting left behind,' McAllister writes. 'Perhaps Adobe's biggest problem, however, is that it's something of a relic as developer-oriented vendors go. How many people have access to the Flash runtime is almost a moot point, because Adobe doesn't make any money from the runtime directly; it gives it away for free. Adobe makes its money from selling developer tools. Given the rich supply of free, open source developer tools available today, vendors like that are few and far between. Remember Borland? Or Watcom?'

Microsoft, Samsung Sign Patent Licensing Agreement

Thom Holwerda 2011-09-28 Wireless 114 Comments

This is the biggest one yet. Microsoft's professional extortion campaign - the third side of the same triangle it shares with Apple and Oracle - has finally hit Samsung. The two companies have signed a patent licensing agreement concerning Samsung's use of Android, in which a rumoured fee of $15 (!) per device will flow from Seoul to Redmond. Not entirely coincidentally, that's about the price of a Windows Phone 7 license.

Windows Phone 7.5 Mango Released

Thom Holwerda 2011-09-27 Windows 31 Comments

Starting today, Microsoft is pushing out the first major update to its Windows Phone operating system, to 98% of Windows Phone users (the other two will just have to wait). It's loaded with changes and improvement, and this time around, the rollout process appears to be pretty smooth. Another nice touch: Mango beta users (right here) will get the update to the final version like everybody else - you won't have to downgrade to NoDo as previously stated.

Mozilla Firefox 7.0 Released

Submitted by lemur2 2011-09-27 Mozilla, Gecko 110 Comments

Mozilla has released Firefox 7. Unlike releases of Firefox 5 and Firefox 6 which were relatively minor upgrades to the browser, Firefox 7 includes a number of significant improvements, most important of which is probably the drastically reduced memory usage.

MySQL.com Hacked to Serve Malware

Submitted by HAL2001 2011-09-26 Privacy, Security 67 Comments

Well, this is embarrassing. MySQL.com has been hacked (fixed by now), and was turned into a platform serving malware to unsuspecting visitors. The criminals did this by injecting a script which redirected visitors to a website which uses the BlackHole exploit pack, which probes the browser used and serves up an appropriate exploit. Computer security blogger Brian Krebs saw root access to MySQL.com being offered for $3000 only a few days ago.

Gtk+ 3.2 Released

Thom Holwerda 2011-09-26 GTK+ 30 Comments

The latest version of GTk+, version 3.2, has been released. While this new release contains many smaller, less invasive changes, it also has experimental support for two very important new features. First, the ability to run Gtk+ applications inside a browser using HTML5. Second, initial support for the Wayland display server.

Samsung v. Apple: FRAND Hearing in The Netherlands

Thom Holwerda 2011-09-26 Legal 43 Comments

So, the hearing about the supposed FRAND status of the three 3G patents Samsung is asserting against Apple in The Netherlands is under way. Samsung is currently pleading, and they claim that Apple has wilfully and systematically infringed these patents. They further state that Apple has refused to license the patents since the introduction of the iPhone 3G, even though Samsung offered licenses. As usual, WebWereld's Andreas Udo de Haes is covering the proceeding live on Twitter (in English). Update: Samsung offered two FRAND license options (per-patent and as a package deal). Apple declined. Apple also refused to sign an NDA, delaying negotiations (all according to Samsung, of course). Update II: Apple retort: we only buy chips from Intel, and they have a license. Second, Apple claims Samsung didn't demand a license until 2010. Update III: Massive Apple fail: lawyer reveals the percentage Samsung is demanding for its patents - this is highly confidential information. Update IV: If Apple can convince the judge of this one... Ouch!

Samsung Seeks Dutch Ban on Apple Smartphones, Tablets

Thom Holwerda 2011-09-23 Legal 43 Comments

"Samsung made comments early Friday about going on the offensive with its ongoing patent dispute with Apple, and it appears to be putting its money (and its lawyers) where its mouth is. The Korean company just filed a complaint with The Hague, seeking a ban on all sales of Apple's smartphones and tablets due to alleged infringement of four of its wireless mobile technology patents. Dutch site Webwereld.nl has the details of the new complaint filed with The Hague, which relates specifically to 3G mobile networking technologies, as well as technologies governing the transfer rate of data to mobile devices over a cellular network. Samsung's complaint covers Apple itself, as well as five other private companies that manage Apple's sales and distribution channels in the Netherlands." I'll be following the Twitter feeds from The Hague closely coming Monday when the meeting about possible FRAND licensing takes place. Let's hope Samsung manages to pull an injunction out of all this.

Introducing .NET Framework 4.5

Submitted by twitterfire 2011-09-23 .NET 24 Comments

"Last week at the BUILD conference, we had the pleasure of announcing the next version of the .NET Framework and releasing a developer preview at the same time. We have so many new things in .NET 4.5 to discuss with our developer community - we're excited to have this opportunity to begin a discussion about each of them."

Microsoft Responds to Secure Boot Story, Doesn’t Address Issue

Submitted by kragil 2011-09-23 Windows 187 Comments

The story about how secure boot for Windows 8, part of UEFI, will hinder the use of non-signed binaries and operating systems, like Linux, has registered at Redmond as well. The company posted about it on the Building Windows 8 blog - but didn't take any of the worries away. In fact, Red Hat's Matthew Garrett, who originally broke this story, has some more information - worst of which is that Red Hat has received confirmation from hardware vendors that some of them will not allow you to disable secure boot.

Adobe Tricks Users into Downloading, Installing Google Chrome

Thom Holwerda 2011-09-23 Internet 57 Comments

It might be common, but that doesn't mean I'm not allowed to wail against it - especially since I was not familiar with this particular case. As it turns out, several of Adobe products' download pages have opt-out checkboxes to also install Google Chrome. This was spyware-like behaviour when Apple did it with Safari and the iPhone Configuration Utility, and it is still spyware-like behaviour when Adobe and Google do it with Chrome.

Whitman Expected to Be Named at HP

Thom Holwerda 2011-09-22 In the News 21 Comments

"Meg Whitman, eBay's former chief executive, will likely be named to lead Hewlett-Packard after markets close on Thursday, according to a person familiar with board decisions. The decision to replace Leo Apotheker, the company's chief executive, after only 11 months on the job is all but made, lacking only a final vote, said the person, who is not authorized to speak for the board. While Mr. Apotheker is going, his strategy, including consideration of spinning off H.P.'s personal computer business from other parts of the company, will remain in place."

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