Monthly Archive:: February 2012

Motorola’s ICS schedule highlights Android’s biggest weakness

Thom Holwerda 2012-02-15 Google 80 Comments

Forget patent trolling - Android's biggest weakness, and most daunting obstacle to overcome, is its complete and utter lack of updates. Motorola has detailed its upgrade plans for Ice Cream Sandwich - and it ain't good. If the company Google just bought can't even update its phones properly, what can we expect from the rest?

Why could you close the Windows 95 Start button?

Thom Holwerda 2012-02-15 Windows 34 Comments

Raymond Chen's The Old New Thing - one of the best Windows blogs on the web - has a very interesting item up about a certain bit of behaviour in Windows 95 I was unaware of. Basically, there's a neat little trick where you can close and move the Start button. It wasn't a feature, but a bug.

Yet another menubar might land In Ubuntu 12.04

Submitted by Anonymous 2012-02-14 Ubuntu 51 Comments

It looks like a new "locally integrated menu" will make it into Unity, starting with version 5.6.0. There's basically no information about the new locally integrated menubar, except for two bug reports which link to some custom Unity, Compiz, Metacity and Light Themes branches so to see "LIM" in action, I've compiled all these branches and here's the result. The "locally integrated menubar" can be displayed on the panel (for maximized windows) as well as in the window decoration (unmaximized windows). But it's not displayed on both in the same time.

Samsung doesn’t think Apple can compete in the TV market

David Adams 2012-02-14 Apple 58 Comments

Today Samsung AV product lead Chris Moseley had comments about Apple's rumored entrance into the television marketplace that sound eerily similar to that which Palm CEO Ed Colligan's said a few years back about how Apple's ability to simply walk into this market and figure it out like they had managed to do after years of research.

Guest post by snydeq 2012-02-14 Graphics 11 Comments

What your interface communicates to users can be just as important as what your software does, writes Fatal Exception's Neil McAllister in discussing the latest edition of the 'Microsoft Manual of Style,' a style guide aimed at designers and developers who create Microsoft software, as well as those who write about it. 'The gist of much of Microsoft's advice is that a user's relationship with computer software is a unique one, and it's important to craft the language of software UIs accordingly,' McAllister writes. 'Occasionally, Microsoft's recommendations verge on the absurd. For example, you might not think it necessary to admonish developers to "not use slang that may be considered profane or derogatory, such as 'pimp' or 'bitch,'" but apparently it is.'

Hit men, click whores, and paid apologists: the Silicon Cesspool

Thom Holwerda 2012-02-14 In the News 15 Comments

"It's tough being a journalist, especially if you're covering technology and living in Silicon Valley, because it seems as if everyone around you is getting fabulously rich while you're stuck in a job that will never, ever make you wealthy. What's worse is that all these people who are getting rich don't seem to be any brighter than you are and in fact many of them don't seem very bright at all. So of course you get jealous. And then you start thinking maybe you could find a way to cash in on this gold rush. But how do you make gobs of money when your only marketable skill involves writing blog posts?" Absolutely brilliant down to the last letter. Coincidentally, I hold no shares, interests, or anything, in any company whatsoever. I'm a freelance translator by day. Not that anyone cares, but hey, full disclosure and all.

‘Cancel or allow’ overload

Thom Holwerda 2012-02-13 Privacy, Security 17 Comments

"A hybrid solution that takes the best parts of iOS's one-by-one acceptance and Android's expressed and obvious intents seems like a proper model here. In fact, Apple has many of the pieces in place elsewhere." This is a big issue. Nor Android's model (just list a bunch of confusing permissions), nor Apple's model (individual modal dialogs for each permission) is particularly workable - I doubt regular users check them on Android before installing an application, and in the case of iOS, Apple didn't think it was necessary to secure the address book, so every application has access to it without alerting users. Justin Williams proposes a hybrid solution.

Wayland: beyond X

Thom Holwerda 2012-02-13 Wayland 30 Comments

"Although current discussion of the Linux desktop tends to focus on the disharmony around Unity and the GNOME shell, the true revolution on the desktop is taking place out of sight of users. The Wayland display server is expected to reach version 1.0 later this year, and is seen by many as the long term replacement for the X Window System, with real potential to improve and transform the performance of the desktop for Linux users."

Mozilla plans Windows 8 Metro integration for Firefox

Thom Holwerda 2012-02-13 Mozilla, Gecko 7 Comments

Mozilla has announced plans to integrate its Firefox web browser with Metro for Windows 8 - including Gecko. "Windows 8 contains two application environments, 'Classic' and 'Metro'. Classic is very similar to the Windows 7 environment at this time, it requires a simple evolution of the current Firefox Windows product. Metro is an entirely new environment and requires a new Firefox front end and system integration points. The feature goal here is a new Gecko based browser built for and integrated with the Metro environment. Firefox on Metro, like all other Metro apps will be full screen, focused on touch interactions, and connected to the rest of the Metro environment through Windows 8 contracts." I haven't checked - does Microsoft allow different rendering engines?

Sony CEO: Vita OS designed to be used on smartphones, tablets

Thom Holwerda 2012-02-13 Wireless 37 Comments

It's pretty clear Samsung is keeping Bada/Tizen around as a possible future escape clause in case Android and/or Google goes nuts. Sony doesn't have an alternative to Android - which it may need soon, since its Android smartphones and tablets aren't doing particularly well. As such, Sony's new CEO Kazuo Hirai has hinted that the operating system of the Playstation Vita may make its way to smartphones and tablets.

EU approves Google-Motorola Mobility acquisition

Thom Holwerda 2012-02-13 In the News 95 Comments

The first big hurdle has been taken by Google and Motorola Mobility. The European Union has given the green light for Google to proceed with its acquisition of Motorola Mobility. The EU will, however, monitor the deal and its outcome for potential patent abuse. Update: And there we go, the US DoJ has approved the deal as well. Update II: The just-linked DoJ report also approves the Nortel patent sale to Apple, Microsoft, and RIM. I'm hoping for lots of fireworks here so the patent system blows up in Google's, Microsoft's and Apple's faces, so we can point and laugh about all the money they wasted.

A new approach to GNOME application design

Thom Holwerda 2012-02-12 Gnome 71 Comments

"One of the things that the GNOME design crew have been focusing on recently is creating a new approach to application design for GNOME 3. We want GNOME applications to be thoroughly modern, and we want them to be attractive and a delight to use. That means that we have to do application design differently to how we've done it in the past."

FTL Launcher for Android: Fast, Basic

Thom Holwerda 2012-02-11 Wireless 34 Comments

Ever since my Android review, I've been looking for a different launcher for my Galaxy SII. I wanted something closer to the stock Android launcher to replace TouchWiz, without actually having to install CyanogenMod (I'm waiting for the ICS-based version 9 before taking that plunge). I finally found one I'm happy with: the extremely basic and light FTL (Faster Than Light) Launcher.

Wayland, Weston 0.85.0 released

Thom Holwerda 2012-02-10 Wayland 106 Comments

"This is the first real release of Wayland and Weston. Wayland is the protocol and IPC mechanism while Weston is the reference compositor implementation. The 0.85 branch in both repositories is going to be protocol and interface stable. We have a series of protocol changes on the table before 1.0 but this branch marks a stable point before we jump into that." Change is coming to the Linux world. And yes, I get the irony of using this particular icon, but it's the closest I could find.

Germany refuses to sign ACTA amid protests

Thom Holwerda 2012-02-10 Internet 8 Comments

Well, this is good news. "Germany will not sign an international anti-piracy treaty, despite having already agreed to it in principal, government sources in Berlin said Friday, February 10." with Germany on the side of reason - for now - we're a huge step closer to stopping ACTA.

Microsoft, Google, Apple talk FRAND patent license fees

Thom Holwerda 2012-02-10 Legal 21 Comments

"Microsoft today issued a brief statement promising to make 'essential patents' available to competitors at fair and reasonable licensing rates, and promised not to sue companies making products that infringe these patents. The actual patents themselves weren't disclosed, but Microsoft joins both Google and Apple in making recent statements on so-called fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory licensing terms. Such licensing terms designate certain patents as essential to complying with industry standards, making them available for licensing at (supposedly) lower-than-usual rates." This industry is dysfunctional.

‘I have a bad feeling about this’

Thom Holwerda 2012-02-10 In the News 28 Comments

"Like any space opera, the story of information technology is a very simple one. It is played out in a myriad of different ways by a revolving cast of characters, but it always has its loveable heroes, its predictably nefarious villains, innocent civilians to be saved, and bumbling bureaucrats that aren't inherently evil, but begin every story aiding the forces of darkness out of a misplaced belief they are preserving law and order in their corner of the galaxy." He might use Star Wars as an analogy (I strongly dislike Star Wars - Trekkie here), but it sums up very well how I feel about computing today.

Submitted by moondevil 2012-02-10 Windows 87 Comments

As you all know, Windows 8 will be the first release of Windows NT which supports the ARM architecture. Microsoft hasn't been particularly forthcoming about this new Windows variant, but that's changing today. The company has posted a long and in-depth blog post about Windows 8 on ARM.

European independent Apple resellers on verge of Bankruptcy

Thom Holwerda 2012-02-09 Apple 50 Comments

Way back in 2005, only a few months after I joined the OSNews team, I interviewed Wim Schermer, founder and then-owner of the largest chain of Apple "Premium Reseller" stores in The Netherlands, MacSupport (now iCentre). In fact, Wim Schermer was the first Dutchman to buy a Macintosh - the original Macintosh, that is - in The Netherlands, and went on to start his Apple reseller business in 1988. While the interview covered many aspects, one thing always stuck with me: Schermer was concerned about what would happen to his business if Apple were to open an official Apple Store in The Netherlands. Seven years later, his concerns are becoming reality.

Engineers boost computer processor performance by over 20%

Thom Holwerda 2012-02-08 Hardware 13 Comments

"Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new technique that allows graphics processing units and central processing units on a single chip to collaborate - boosting processor performance by an average of more than 20 percent."