News tracker
 
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OSNews - Exploring the Future of computing.
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Wednesday - September 8th | | 0:00 | | Sony Steps up Fight Against PS3 Jailbreaking
| | 4 hits |
| I've often harped on Apple for its policy regarding jailbreaking, but of course, Apple isn't the only company engaging in such practices. We already talked about Motorola, and now, we have Sony - already a company with a checkered past when it comes to consumer rights. As it turns out, Sony don't want you jailbreaking your their Playstation 3. |
| 0:00 | | *Cloud Computing: The Invisible Revolution*
| | 3 hits |
| I attended VM World last week, and as you might imagine, it was 'cloud computing' this and 'cloud computing' that the whole time. The hype factor for the cloud is in overdrive right now. But is it warranted? A lot of people, even tech-oriented ones, outside of the data center sysadmin types, wonder what all the hype is about. I've come to believe that cloud computing is major computing revolution, but for most computing users, it's an invisible one. Read more on this exclusive OSNews article... |
Tuesday - September 7th | | 22:30 | | HP Files Suit Against Former Chief
| | 2 hits |
| 'It took Hewlett-Packard less than a day to file a lawsuit against its former chief executive, Mark V. Hurd, over his decision to join its rival and partner Oracle as a co-president. H.P. filed its lawsuit on Tuesday in the Superior Court of California in Santa Clara, claiming that Mr. Hurd had breached his contract with the company. The lawsuit said that Mr. Hurd could use his intimate knowledge of H.P. and its trade secrets to aid Oracle and harm H.P. The two companies compete in the market for computer servers, storage systems and business software.' |
| 20:30 | | Internet Explorer 9 UI Video Leaked
| | 3 hits |
| We already know quite a few details about Internet Explorer 9, Microsoft's upcoming attempt to retain - or grow - its market share in the browser world. Standards and speed are the main focus of IE9, and if a video of the upcoming beta release is anything to go by, they're doing pretty well. Just... Did they just manage to make the interface even less appealing? |
| 20:00 | | Bricscad V10 for Linux Released
| | 3 hits |
| Finally Bricsys has released the official version of Bricscad V10 for Linux. Linux users now have very capable desktop CAD software able to handle the DWG file format. From Bricscad website: 'Bricsys is the first to release a .dwg based CAD software for Linux users. Bricsys NV, the developer of Bricscad, announced today that Bricscad V10 for Linux is now available. Bricscad V10 is the first .dwg based CAD platform available for the Linux Operating System. Bricscad V10, the leading alternative CAD platform for the .dwg file format, continues to offer freedom of choice to the CAD and Engineering community.' |
| 12:30 | | *How New Art Can End the Copyright Wars*
| | 4 hits |
| Every so often we publish here at OSNews articles about copyright, about the war of the 'old media' establishment against everyone else. Many, myself included, have argued that the way to get out of this mess -- short of changing the law -- is to have more artists release their work under a Creative Commons license. However, after a few years it became obvious to me that CC would never be able to change the industry all by itself. Offering a Free license, and having 30,000 albums released under it, was still not enough. Until the Summer of 2009, that is. Read more on this exclusive OSNews article... |
| 0:00 | | *How to Secure Windows*
| | 10 hits |
| In previous OS News articles, I've
claimed that mature computers up to ten years old can be
refurbished and made useful. My last article
identified and evaluated
different ways to refurbish these
computers.
One approach is to keep the existing Windows install and clean it
up. This has the advantage of retaining the Windows license and
software, the
installed
applications, and the existing drivers. But it
takes some work. In this article we'll see what this entails. Read more on this exclusive OSNews article... |
Monday - September 6th | | 19:00 | | After the Patent Troll, Enter the Copyright Troll
| | 3 hits |
| We've all heard of patent trolls who buy up patents without using them to make any products. Their only goal is to seek out possible infringers and sue them, making money via the justice system. It was only a matter of time, but we've now got something new: copyright trolls. |
Sunday - September 5th | | 21:00 | | How to Use KDE Plasma Activities
| | 5 hits |
| 'When activities were introduced into KDE 4, they did not make much sense in isolation. In addition to having virtual desktops, there were activities, which the user could create and configure to have different wallpapers and different widgets. Much of the virtual desktop functionality of KDE 3 was absent and not directly connected to Plasma activities. With the release of KDE 4.5, Plasma has reached a much higher level of maturity, and activities can now be integrated with virtual desktops, dual monitor screens, and with the Dashboard feature.' |
Saturday - September 4th | | 21:00 | | *Game Review: Mafia 2*
| | 9 hits |
| I pay the cab driver, pick up my suitcase, and step outside. The background's filled with the notes from Dean Martin's rendition of 'Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!', and as I walk away from the cab the sounds of the city drive away the memories from the war, back in Sicily. It's February 8, 1945, Empire Bay, and the war is drawing to a close. Welcome to Mafia II. Read more on this exclusive OSNews article... |
| 1:00 | | Stack & Tile Project Reworked
| | 7 hits |
| Clemens Zeidler, one of the spearheads for the Stack & Tile implementation on Haiku, has let the Haiku development mailing list know that a new and improved (and refactored) version of the feature has been committed to the Haiku source tree. This new version is no longer a hack into Haiku's app server itself, but is it's own decorator, in Haiku/Be parlance. |
| 0:00 | | Duke Nukem Forever Returns, Will Really Be Released in 2011
| | 7 hits |
| We don't do a whole lot of gaming news (a few reviews every now and then, just for my own personal fun), but in this case, I'd like to make an exception. Iconic and legendary, Duke Nukem is going to really really really return to the main stage of gaming. Borderlands developer Gearbox has announced that Duke Nukem Forever will be released early next year, for both consoles and PC. A playable demo is now being trotted around PAX. Instant update: VIDEO! VIDEO! |
Friday - September 3rd | | 18:30 | | iTunes 10: Snappier Performance, Questionable UI Choices
| | 4 hits |
| 'By now, most iTunes users have already downloaded and installed iTunes 10. We've already given you the low-down on the biggest addition to the new version of iTunes - the Ping social network - but we also wanted to give our impressions on two 'improvements' promised in the release notes: look-and-feel and performance. While we agree that iTunes is 'faster and more responsive', we're not sold on the revised user interface.' Vertical window titlebar widgets? Can't we just take this thing 'round back and put a bullet between its eyes? We'd be doing everyone a favour. |
| 17:00 | | Ping: Why Bother?
| | 2 hits |
| Ping would have been a great thing for Apple to have done about 3-4 years ago, but at this point, the Social Networking thing has pretty much played itself out, picked it's winners, and we've all moved on. Apple went to all the trouble to make a deal with a golf company, and all we got was a third rate social network? First of all, in what is probably just a temporary setback, Ping is choked with spam, but more importantly, it's just a sucky social network. |
| 1:30 | | Apple Violated Facebook's Terms of Service
| | 8 hits |
| Well, this is an interesting double standard. Remember Apple's reaction to Palm trying to tap into iTunes? They were pretty pissed, right? Well, it seems that in Apple's world, it's not okay to access their services unauthorised, but when Apple needs to do the same to someone else's services, it's suddenly not a problem. As it turns out, Apple violated Facebook's terms of service, knowingly, and willingly. |
| 1:00 | | Chrome Celebrates Second Birthday with Sixth Release
| | 8 hits |
| 'Google is celebrating Chrome's second birthday by releasing a new stable version of its rapidly evolving browser, offering a slightly simpler user interface, an automatic form filler, and the ability to synchronize extensions and form data across machines.' |
| 0:00 | | Samsung Unveils Galaxy Tab
| | 6 hits |
| The iPad pretty much has the tablet market all to itself at this point, since no serious competitor has yet been released. We've been teased to death with the first real competitor, a device from Samsung called the Galaxy Tab. It has been officially unveiled today, and it indeed looks like the first serious competition to the iPad. It runs Android, naturally. |
Thursday - September 2nd | | 0:00 | | Windows Phone 7: Done
| | 11 hits |
| It's been only a mere six months since its first unveiling, but Microsoft has already announced that Windows Phone 7 has been released to manufacturing. This means device makers can start tuning the software to their hardware, leaving plenty of time to release devices before the holiday season. |
Wednesday - September 1st | | 22:30 | | Commodore USA Threatens OSNews with Legal Action
| | 8 hits |
| Well, this was rather unexpected. As it turns out, Commodore USA's CEO Barry Altman isn't particularly pleased about the article I wrote earlier today in which I placed a considerable amount of scepticism with regards to Commodore USA and its business (and website). He (not his lawyer) sent us a threatening email demanding we take down the article, post a new correction article, the whole shebang. The entire email - as an image, you'll want the original formatting - after the break. Our reply? We refer you to the reply given in the case of Arkell v. Pressdram. |
| 21:30 | | Apple Shows iOS 4.1, 4.2
| | 9 hits |
| A whole lot of Apple news of course, but we've never really done music players or streaming devices, so let's skip the barrage of new iPods and the new Apple TV (streaming-only? Fail). The real meat is of course iOS 4.1 and 4.2, both of which were detailed during today's press event. |
| 16:30 | | Patent Troll or Not, Paul Allen Finds a Friend in Steve Wozn..
| | 5 hits |
| Well, this is kind of funny. Steve Wozniak, still an Apple employee, has defended Paul Allen and patent trolls in general. 'I'm not at all against the idea of patent trolls cause I've had friends who just got forced into bankruptcy by bigger people who had more money and could have a lawsuit against them, forced them to be their own lawyers, and in the end, sometimes they're victorious. But it's a real hard way to do it. So if you're going to have a patent and say 'It's worth some money, I'll sell it', well, even if Paul Allen makes a fortune off of it, I think he had the insights to recognize which patents were valuable.' Apple is one of the companies Allen is suing. |
| 15:00 | | Commodore Gets Rights to Amiga, Hyperion Takes Legal Action
| | 8 hits |
| Just when you thought the Amiga world was finally getting its act together, finally making things a little less obtuse for outsiders, this happens. So, we have the AmigaOne X1000 coming up, a brand-new PowerPC computer, running the real deal - AmigaOS 4. In the meantime, Commodore USA - the one with the sketchy website - has apparently secured rights to the Amiga hardware brand, and is planning to release Amiga-branded computers running AROS. In the meantime, Hyperion, the Belgium company behind AmigaOS, who is working with A-eon on the AmigaOne X1000, claims this is a clear violation of the settlement between them and Amiga Inc., and has notified its US lawyers. |
| 0:30 | | Autodesk Reintroduces Its AutoCAD Design Software for Macs
| | 4 hits |
| 'When it comes to Apple products, the iPad and the iPhone get all the headlines. But in recent years, the company's Macintosh line of computers has enjoyed a remarkable revival that has been vital to Apple's emergence as the most valued technology company on Wall Street. In the latest sign of that comeback, Autodesk plans to announce on Tuesday that it is bringing its flagship AutoCAD design and engineering software to the Mac for the first time in nearly two decades.' |
| 0:30 | | Obama Administration: Piracy Is Theft
| | 4 hits |
| Despite doing what I think are some great things for the American people, the Obama administration has a dark side. Joe Biden and many others on staff come straight from the RIAA camp, and it shows. Today, the Obama administration disregarded every US law relating to theft and copyright by stating that piracy is 'flat, unadulterated theft'. |
| 0:30 | | KDE Software Compilation 4.5.1 Released
| | 6 hits |
| 'KDE has released a series of updates to the Plasma Desktop and Netbook workspaces, the KDE Applications and the KDE Platform. This update is the first in a series of stabilization updates to 4.5.0, coming every month, as if delivered by a cronjob. 4.5.1 brings bugfixes and translation updates on top of KDE SC 4.5.0.' |
Tuesday - August 31st | | 22:30 | | Palm Details webOS 2.0, Releases Beta SDK
| | 5 hits |
| Highly innovative but remarkably illusive - that's how I describe the webOS. The operating system never made its way to The Netherlands, and as such, I never got to try it. Now that Palm is part of HP, development on webOS continues, and the company has just detailed what's coming for developers in version 2.0. |
| 1:00 | | *"Apple Is Not Fighting Jailbreaking": Wait, What?*
| | 11 hits |
| Since interesting news that I'm actually knowledgeable about is still a little hard to come by, I have to work a little harder. This is something interesting to discuss: John Gruber, rather famous Apple blogger, is now arguing that Apple is in fact not fighting the jailbreaking community. Wait, what? Read more on this exclusive OSNews article... |
| 0:30 | | Fennec Alpha for Android Too Slow, But Add-ons, Sync Impress
| | 7 hits |
| 'Mozilla has announced a new alpha release of its Fennec mobile browser for Android and the Nokia N900. Fennec offers support for add-ons and has tight integration with Firefox Sync, a browser synchronization service that was formerly called Weave. The support for Firefox Sync is arguably Fennec's killer feature, especially because Mozilla is planing to include the synchronization features out-of-the-box in Firefox 4. Users will be able to have access to the their bookmarks, browsing history, and tabs across all of their computers and supported mobile devices.' |
| 0:00 | | Intel Again Seeks to Use Acquisitions to Expand in Wireless
| | 6 hits |
| 'Intel Corp.'s $1.4 billion acquisition of Infineon Technologies AG's wireless unit marks another step by the chip maker to expand in the wireless device market, an area where it has struggled in the past. Intel's need to push further into wireless was highlighted Friday by the company's surprising warning that third-quarter revenue would fall short of its previous expectations because of weaker-than-expected demand for consumer PCs. Smartphones and other mobile devices have long been a faster-growing segment than the PC market.' |
Monday - August 30th | | 23:30 | | AMD To Phase Out ATI Brand
| | 4 hits |
| I remember a time when you bought ATI instead of NVIDIA, much the same way you still buy AMD instead of Intel. As we all know, AMD bought ATI, further confirming the implicit relationship between the two that already existed anyway. Now, though, the relationship comes to an end, since AMD has confirmed the ATI brand will be phased out. |
| 17:30 | | Judge Rules Fusion Garage, TechCrunch Were Partners
| | 3 hits |
| Remember that other tablet, which came out right around the same time the iPad was released? Yeah, the joojoo, by Fusion Garage. During its development, it was known as the CrunchPad, and emerged out of some form of collaboration between Michael Arrington's TechCrunch and Chandrasekhar Rathakrisnan's Fusion Garage. Things went sour between the two, and eventually, Fusion Garage released the joojoo on its own. Consequently, Arrington sued, and we've got the first major court decision. |
| 0:00 | | Lenovo To Enter Console Market
| | 5 hits |
| 'Chinese PC maker Lenovo will go head-to-head with the big boys in the video game console market, looking to snatch away market share from the likes of Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony. On Aug 9, a team of some 40 Lenovo software engineers was spun off from the Lenovo Group to develop and market the 'Ebox', a platform similar to Microsoft's Kinect for Xbox 360.' |
Sunday - August 29th | | 22:46 | | Google Withdraws from JavaOne
| | 4 hits |
| Well, this is about as surprising as Fiona Apple being awesome in every possible way. Google has announced that it has withdrawn itself from JavaOne, an annual conference on, well, Java. The cited reason? Oracle suing Google over Android's use of Java, of course. |
| 17:00 | | The First Digital Camera
| | 9 hits |
| I don't think you'll find many people left in our western world who prefer an old-fashioned regular camera over a digital one. While I can still appreciate the charm of fiddling with actual film and the thrill of finding out what your photos looked like all developed, digital photography is easier in just about every possible way. Thanks to The New York Times, I found a story from 2007 on the Kodak blog, detailing the ceation of the very first digital camera. In 1975. An old story, but fascinating nonetheless. |
Saturday - August 28th | | 0:30 | | Paul Allen Files Patent Suit Against Apple, Google, Others
| | 8 hits |
| Most of us here are not particularly big fans of the concept of patents. Most of us are aware of the significance of patents, we just believe the system has gone out of control and needs a serious kick in the butt. Well, it turns out not even the richest people on this earth are immune to the call of the patent troll. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has filed a massive patent lawsuit, using broad and vague patents to sue just about any big name in the business - from Apple to Google. |
Friday - August 27th | | 21:30 | | FCC Illustrates Its Inability to Govern the Web
| | 6 hits |
| When Google and Verizon unveiled their joint net neutrality policy proposal, in which the FCC would play a central role in governing the internet, I mentioned how the the FCC might not be the kind of institution you'd want to hand over control to over your pornography life line (also known as the internet). Over the past few days, the FCC pretty much reiterated just why they are no the right people to govern the web. |
| 2:00 | | Commodore USA Announces the PC64: Atom in a C64 Case
| | 13 hits |
| I'm not really sure what to do with this. I mean, I know how popular the Commodore 64 was and still is, and how significant a machine it really was. So, when Commodore USA sends out a press release that it has acquired the rights to produce an exact replica case of the C64 (but with Intel Atom innards), I knew a lot of people would like this. At the same time, Commodore USA's website always seemed a little... Sketchy to me. |
| 1:30 | | IBM's Million Dollar CPU Is the Fastest in the World
| | 13 hits |
| At the Hot Chips 2010 conference, IBM announced their upcoming z196 CPU, which is really, really fast. How fast? Fastest chip in the world fast. Intended for Z-series mainframe computers, the Z196 has a clock speed of 5.2GHz. Measuring just 512 square millimeters, the Z196 is fabricated on 45nm PD SOI technology, and on its surface contains almost one and a half billion transistors. My... Processor is bigger than yours. |
| 1:30 | | OpenSolaris Board Quits En Masse
| | 12 hits |
| The OpenSolaris governing board fell on its collective sword Monday and resigned en masse after Oracle continued to ignore its ultimatum to appoint a liaison guy to work with it on the future of the open source project. The move was anticlimactic to say the least. Oracle last week leaked an internal e-mail into the wild effectively saying OpenSolaris is dead. The news of the mass resignation, coupled with Oracle suing Google claiming Android infringes on its Java patents, had Adobe's director of open source and standards David McAllister casting Oracle as the New Microsoft and saying 'the axis of evil has shifted south about 850 miles or so'. |
Thursday - August 26th | | 15:30 | | MPEG-LA Makes Free Internet Video Royalty Free Perpetually
| | 4 hits |
| We haven't talked about this one for a while, but now there's news from the MPEg-LA camp. The MPEG-LA, known patent troll and chief supplier of FUD for well over ten years, is apparently feeling the pressure from Google's WebM project, and has done a complete 180. While promising earlier this year not to charge royalties for internet video that is free to end users until the end of 2015, they've now extended this promise to eternity. This may sound like a big deal, but it changes nothing - H264 is still a legal minefield even lawyers and the MPEG-LA itself have trouble understanding. |
| 1:00 | | 2010's Best Open Source Software
| | 8 hits |
| The InfoWorld Test Center rounds up of the past year in open source, highlighting the best open source offerings in several software categories: 'The word 'best' here can mean many things. It is sometimes equivalent to 'most promising', 'most surprising', 'most subversive', 'most unnerving', 'most opportune', 'most happening', or some weird, inchoate mixture of them all. The one thing it always means is 'most useful' - to developers, IT administrators, and users on a business network.' From enterprise apps, to app dev tools, to platforms and middleware, to networking software, the list is expansive, including 39 hybrid license and community offerings. |
| 0:30 | | *Should Daemons Just Be Frontends to the OS Auditing System?..
| | 6 hits |
| I came across a news entry at Phoronix about a new init replacement, systemd, and curiously started a read into the surprisingly heavy matter. Systemd is by no means as simple as upstart. It does far more things far more straight and in more detail. The differences are so significant that they enforce quite different configuration strategies. One can argue for both, depending on the goal to reach. However, that's not what I want to write about. After having read what systemd is capable of, and how it does it, I began to put the existence of all system daemons - in their today's forms - in question. Read more on this exclusive OSNews article... |
| 0:30 | | NAB Responds to Concerns Regarding Mandated FM Chips
| | 7 hits |
| A couple of days ago we talked about how the RIAA and NAB are planning on asking US Congress to mandate FM radio chips inside every cell phone. This plan was met with some ridicule, so the NAB decided to write a blog post addressing the critics. Most of the post is overshadowed by an overdose of America's favourite national pastime: WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE. 9/11! |
| 0:30 | | Google Adds Voice to Gmail; US, Canada Only
| | 7 hits |
| 'Gmail voice and video chat makes it easy to stay in touch with friends and family using your computer's microphone and speakers. But until now, this required both people to be at their computers, signed into Gmail at the same time. Given that most of us don't spend all day in front of our computers, we thought, 'wouldn't it be nice if you could call people directly on their phones?' Starting today, you can call any phone right from Gmail.' |
Wednesday - August 25th | | 21:30 | | Firefox 4.0 Beta 4 Introduces Panorama
| | 11 hits |
| Today, Mozilla released the fourth beta of Firefox 4.0. After a period of what I would call stagnation, the Mozilla team are back on track with delivering interesting UI concepts. They were sensible enough to copy Chrome's excellent tabs-on-top UI, but have now also added something called Panorama, a new and very interesting way of managing your open tabs. |
| 0:30 | | AMD Announces 8-Core Bulldozer CPU
| | 10 hits |
| 'You can't say that AMD is ever boring. The company says its next-generation Bulldozer CPU core will take a unique approach to computing that goes beyond Hyper-Threading, which some believe could offer phenomenal performance.' |
| 0:30 | | An Experimental Chip From Intel that Can Move 50Gbps
| | 7 hits |
| 'Intel Corporation announced an important advance in the quest to use light beams to replace the use of electrons to carry data in and around computers. The company has developed a research prototype representing the world's first silicon-based optical data connection with integrated lasers. The link can move data over longer distances and many times faster than today's copper technology; up to 50 gigabits of data per second. This is the equivalent of an entire HD movie being transmitted each second.' |
Tuesday - August 24th | | 20:30 | | Windows 95 Turns 15
| | 5 hits |
| In what has surprised me greatly, nobody has submitted anything to us regarding this day in the history of computing. Sure, memories of her may not be fond, and with the magical unicorn power of hindsight you'd rather forget you ever dated her so intensely, but she served a purpose. She led a revolution that changed the world forever, and while you may have hoped for a more charismatic leader, I think it's unfair not to honour the fact that she turned 15 today. |
| 18:00 | | Motorola Goes Legal Against Custom Droid X Froyo Build
| | 6 hits |
| Upgrading all those countless Android devices to version 2.2, or Froyo, hasn't exactly been an easy task for many device makers and carriers. Between flat-out denying devices from Froyoness and already having Froyo updates sent out, Motorola has pretty much lost it. Where companies are incompetent, the geeks that roam the 'net seek to provide solace. What do you do, then, as a company? Why, you threaten your loyal customers with legal action, of course. |
| 17:00 | | Motorola's Goes Legal Against Custom Droid X Froyo Build
| | 5 hits |
| Upgrading all those countless Android devices to version 2.2, or Froyo, hasn't exactly been an easy task for many device makers and carriers. Between flat-out denying devices from Froyoness and already having Froyo updates sent out, Motorola has pretty much lost it. Where companies are incompetent, the geeks that roam the 'net seek to provide solace. What do you do, then, as a company? Why, you threaten your loyal customers with legal action, of course. |
