Monthly Archive:: June 2012

Nexus 7: is this Google’s new Nexus tablet?

Thom Holwerda 2012-06-25 Google 20 Comments

Gizmodo Australia claims to have a training document which details the rumoured Google Nexus tablet. It's built by Asus, 7", 1280x800, 1.3Ghz Tegra 3 processor, 1GB of RAM, GeForce '12-core' GPU (whatever the heck that means). The 8GB variant will be $199, the 16GB one $299. It looks quite decent, and will run Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. Interestingly, the document also states that going forward, Google will take care of Android updates directly - however, it's not made clear if that's for this device only, or for all Android devices. The "going forward" bit would suggest all devices, but as much as I hope so, it seems unlikely.

How technology companies are forced to become politically connected

Submitted by Charles Pascali 2012-06-25 OS News 6 Comments

"If you want to get involved in business," Sen. Orrin Hatch warned technology companies at a conference in 2000, "you should get involved in politics." Hatch was referring to the shortcomings of then-software king Microsoft, which he had spent most of the previous decade harassing from his perch as Judiciary Committee chairman. The message was clear: If you become successful, you must hire lobbyists, you must start a political action committee, and you must donate to politicians. Otherwise Washington will make your life very difficult.

Submitted by Adurbe 2012-06-25 In the News 30 Comments

The BBC reports on a Turing scholar's recent claims that by today's standard of evidence, there's reason to doubt the commonly-held belief that the famed computing pioneer committed suicide in response to government persecution over his homosexuality. To be clear, he does not claim to have disproved the suicide theory -- only that the cyanide poisoning that killed Turing could well have been an accident caused by his careless at-home experimentation with dangerous chemicals.

Guest post by snydeq 2012-06-25 General Development No Comments

From the car to the living room, technologies and markets are fast evolving to offer possibilities for programming pioneers. "The smartphone has proven that a marketplace for delivering code can appear seemingly out of nowhere, and developers would have another choice for showcasing their wares. To help you get a jump on these promising platforms, we did a little digging in what might seem to be unlikely places. In many cases, raw APIs are already well-established, ready for apps to exploit them. Scratch the surface, and you'll get an idea of the potential of porting your wares beyond the smartphone/PC paradigm. You can bet the manufacturers of these products are interested in establishing their own app ecology."

Hands-on or hands-off?

Thom Holwerda 2012-06-25 Microsoft 23 Comments

I'm very thankful for Danny Sullivan writing this article, because it touches upon a subject I've increasingly been frustrated with: the inflation of the term 'hands-on'. Hands-on used to mean that a journalist, blogger, or reviewer got to properly use a device to get some sort of first impression, usually guided by some words from the manufacturer. These days, however, it seems as if even merely getting a glance at a device is regarded as a 'hands-on'.

With tablet, Microsoft takes aim at hardware missteps

Thom Holwerda 2012-06-25 Microsoft 42 Comments

The New York Times further fans the flames of the emerging uneasiness between Microsoft and its hardware partners. As the paper reports, Microsoft decided it needed to get into the hardware game (with Surface) after the utter failure of HP's Slate 500 Windows 7 tablet. "Microsoft worked with other hardware partners to devise products that would be competitive with the iPad, but it ran into disagreements over designs and prices. 'Faith had been lost' at Microsoft in its hardware partners, including by Steven Sinofsky, the powerful president of Microsoft's Windows division, according to former Microsoft executive." The biggest news is not Surface itself. It's the changing industry it represents. Microsoft failed to deliver capable smartphone/tablet software, which pissed off OEMs, who, in turn, turned to Android (and webOS for HP) - which in turn pissed off Microsoft, leading to Surface. Had Microsoft gotten its act together sooner, we'd have had far better OEM products.

What happened to Turing’s thinking machines?

Eugenia Loli 2012-06-23 Hardware 52 Comments

Artificial intelligence is still a long way from delivering the human intelligence in robot form that has long been common in science fiction.

Microsoft’s developer problem

Thom Holwerda 2012-06-23 Windows 114 Comments

Two links to Marco Arment within a few days? Well, if you make good points: "Many Windows developers were upset that iOS development had to be done on a Mac, but it didn't hurt Apple: the most important developers for iOS apps were already using Macs. But the success of Windows 8 and Windows Phone in the consumer space requires many of those consumer-product developers, now entrenched in the Apple ecosystem, to care so much about Windows development that they want to use Windows to develop for it. How likely is that?" As usual a bit too Apple-centric (he implies - as explicit as possible while still being implicit - that only iOS developers can create great applications), but his point still stands. Judging by the abysmal quality of Microsoft's own Metro applications (Mail, Video, Music, People, IE10, etc.), even Microsoft doesn't know how to create great Metro applications.

AnandTech reviews MacBook Pro with retina display

Thom Holwerda 2012-06-23 Apple 22 Comments

The only review that matters - as detailed and in-depth as ever. "I'm giving the MacBook Pro with Retina Display our bronze Editor's Choice award. Making it the first Mac to ever receive one. It would have been a silver had the software story been even stronger (iWork, Mountain Lion, Office and Photoshop being ready at launch would have been a feat worth rewarding). And it would have been a gold had Apple been able to deliver all of that but without sacrificing end-user upgradability." The device has performance issues which Mountain Lion will address (to a degree), but for the rest, AnandTech's review details - without being pro or anti-anything - just how good this new MBP really is. As a sidenote, Windows 8 on the retina display further confirms the classic desktop is dead to Microsoft: it still can't handle high-DPI displays properly. With the desktop going the way of the dodo, why would the company make it so?

UEFI Secure Boot and Ubuntu

Thom Holwerda 2012-06-22 Ubuntu 55 Comments

After Fedora, Ubuntu has now also announced how it's going to handle the nonsense called "Secure" Boot. The gist: they'll use the same key as Fedora, but they claim they can't use GRUB2. "In the event that a manufacturer makes a mistake and delivers a locked-down system with a GRUB 2 image signed by the Ubuntu key, we have not been able to find legal guidance that we wouldn't then be required by the terms of the GPLv3 to disclose our private key in order that users can install a modified boot loader. At that point our certificates would of course be revoked and everyone would end up worse off." So, they're going to use the more liberally licensed efilinux loader from Intel. Only the bootloader will be signed; the kernel will not.

Submitted by Beta 2012-06-22 Haiku 14 Comments

"Since my last blog entry I have mostly completed the implementation of the AWT/Java2D port. It is still in need of a lot of testing, but it is stable enough to run a lot of Swing apps out of the box." Pretty cool for Haiku. I wonder what the use is - besides Minecraft - but alas.

Predicting the next Mac desktops

Thom Holwerda 2012-06-22 Apple 19 Comments

"Why did Apple just release new MacBook Airs, MacBook Pros, and a Retina MacBook Pro, but no new iMacs or Mac Pros? And why are the iMacs probably being updated this year while the Mac Pro update won't happen for 12-18 months? As usual, I have some guesses." Good points.

iPad: creating vs. consuming

Thom Holwerda 2012-06-22 Apple 36 Comments

I had written an entire article on the debate about whether or not the iPad is a pure consumption device, but realised I could summarise the entire debate into a single sentence: it's the difference between 'suitable' and 'ideal'. You can ride a unicycle from Amsterdam to Paris, but that doesn't mean it's better than just taking the car or the Thalys.

Plug a WP7 device into a Windows 8 PC: nothing happens

Thom Holwerda 2012-06-22 Windows 32 Comments

This intrigued me. I decided to see what would happen if you plug a Windows Phone 7.5 device - my HTC HD7 in this case - into a Windows 8 machine (the release preview). The answer? Nothing happens. If you combine Microsoft's prime desktop operating system and prime mobile offering, nothing happens. No dialogs, no sync options, no check for updates, no backups, no audio/video transfer, not even a mount or a dialog to download Zune. They've got only a few months to address this.

Using xmonad to transition kids from CLI to GUI

Thom Holwerda 2012-06-21 Wayland 21 Comments

John Goerzen, Debian/GNU Linux developer, transitions his kids from bash to xmonad: "I'd been debating how to introduce GUIs for a very long time. It has not escaped my attention that children that used Commodores or TRS-80s or DOS knew a lot more about how their computers worked, on average, than those of the same age that use Windows or MacOS. I didn't want our boys to skip an entire phase of learning how their technology works." I decided long ago that my kids - if I ever have them, I'm undecided and way too young - will learn computing the way I learned it: with a CLI. I never realised an xmonad setup would form a good transition phase into GUIs.

Android 4.1 Jelly Bean confirmed

Thom Holwerda 2012-06-21 Google 38 Comments

Through the Google Play Store, the next version of Android has been confirmed: Android 4.1, Jelly Bean. I'm hoping for just a single new feature: something to address the update mess. I don't care how, as long as they do something.

Google launches Endangered Languages Project

Thom Holwerda 2012-06-21 Google 82 Comments

While I sometimes see Dutch as an endangered language, reality is that with nearly 30 million speakers worldwide, we're actually doing pretty well. Sadly, this can't be said for the 3000 truly endangered languages of the world - nearly half of the world's total number of languages is on the verge of extinction, and with it, large amounts of human culture are in danger of disappearing forever. In collaboration with several universities and language institutions, Google has launched the Endangered Languages Project to document these languages - textually, visually, and auditorially.

Oracle accepts $0 in damages from Google

Thom Holwerda 2012-06-21 Legal 18 Comments

"Oracle has agreed to accept zero dollars worth of damages from Google, three weeks after losing the major portions of the case in which Oracle accused Google of violating Java patents and copyrights in Android." From six billion to zero. It's not like Ellison needs the money. Pretty place.

Microsoft unveils Windows Phone 8

Thom Holwerda 2012-06-20 Windows 93 Comments

So, Windows Phone 7.5. I love it - warts and all. It has its issues, but it's so distinctive and fun it's pretty hard to not like it. So, for me, those three other people, and that cow, Microsoft today announced Windows Phone 8. It brings lots of cool new features, is built upon the Windows NT kernel and shares much of its lower levels with Windows 8, and oh, not a single current Windows Phone 7 device will be upgraded to it.

Submitted by rohan_p 2012-06-20 Amiga & AROS 60 Comments

"Icaros Desktop is an effort to build a modern Amiga-compatible operating system for standard x86 hardware. It's a distribution built atop AROS, which is an open source effort to create a system compatible at the API level with the AmigaOS 3.x series. I recently had a chat to the creator of Icaros, Paolo Besser, about the creation of the OS and why Amiga continues to inspire people today."