Monthly Archive:: April 2011

I couldn't get into it yesterday, but today is a new day, and I've got my coffee ready. So, let's dive into reviews of RIM's new toy, the PlayBook. Since my overall opinion on the whole tablet thing can be best summarised as 'meh', my interest regarding the PlayBook focusses mostly on its QNX operating system. As a long-time fan and even regular user of this wonderful piece of technology 'back in the day', I'm interested in what the reviews have to say about it.

Ever since iPhoneOS (now iOS) has been released, there's an old fight going on about how multitasking should work on personal computers, and more specially what should happen to applications which are put in the background. Some advocate that they should be dipped in virtual liquid nitrogen and stop doing anything, like on iOS, which others advocate that they should continue to run in the background, like on desktop OSs. What about putting a little more flexibility in there?

"Google got off to a mixed start under its new chief executive, co-founder Larry Page, as first-quarter revenue increased 27 percent while profit fell short of analyst expectations. Google reported that net income in the quarter rose 17 percent to $2.3 billion, or $7.04 cents a share, from $1.96 billion, or $6.06 a share in the year-ago quarter. The company said revenue climbed to $8.58 billion from $6.77 billion. Google’s adjusted income of $8.08 was just below the expectations of Wall Street analysts. They had forecast $8.11 cents a share on that basis, according to a survey of analysts by Thomson Reuters."

A major win has been scored in Europe against the content industry and several governments who are trying to impose censorship on the internet through ISPs. The European Court of Justice, the highest court in Europe, gave a preliminary opinion which states that no ISP can be forced to filter the internet, especially not enforce copyright.

It looks like Microsoft's "shhh... let's not leak our hard work" plea to Windows 8 testers has fallen on deaf ears, as an early development milestone of Windows 8 was leaked in the wild. The shots are remarkably boring, since it looks exactly like Windows 7. Duh.

Wait, is this for real? The company that striketh console jailbreakers with smite and other things that sound Biblical now actually launches a site specifically for unlocking its Android phones? Yes, Sony Ericsson just launched a website where owners of the company's latest Android phones can go to to unlock their devices. It's unreal - but a very welcome move, and hopefully a sign of things to come for other companies.

Intel is establishing a joint innovation center with Tencent, one of China's largest Internet firms, to develop products and services around the chip maker's MeeGo mobile operating system and devices using its Atom processors. The new partnership could help Intel to promote MeeGo in China, along with its Atom-based microprocessors.

The long-rumoured Symbian update, called Anna, has finally been made official by Nokia today, bringing with it a new browser, new icons, an on-screen portrait qwerty keyboard, and more. The Finnish Windows Phone OEM (sorry) also launched two new Symbian phones today.

"San Francisco–Red Hat is the strongest Linux company in the world when it comes to servers, but it has almost no presence on the desktop. That will be changing in 2012 with the reintroduction of a Simple Protocol for Independent Computing Environments-based virtual desktop infrastructure."

"Microsoft's Windows App Store screenshots appear to have leaked for the first time on Monday. The screenshots show Microsoft's new application store for Windows. The store appears to be running in Windows 7, hinting that the software giant may also be planning to offer its app store for legacy versions of Windows."

Well, it seems like Sony vs. George Hotz has ended pretty much without a bang. Sony announced on its Playstation blog that the two parties have settled the case. Under the settlement, Hotz agrees to a permanent injunction fo his jailbreaking hack, but admits to no wrong-doing. A wise and, dare I say it, mature end to the lawsuit.

Should I be sad or relieved? Groklaw, the website that played a central role in the SCO vs. sanity case, has just announced it will close up shop on May 16 of this year. Groklaw's place in history has been secured, surely, but in recent years, the site became more and more like a relic from the past, clearly stuck in the everyone vs. Microsoft mindset of the late '90s and early 2000s. Even in today's announcement post, Groklaw shows that its time has indeed come.

Mozilla announced on Monday that it will reabsorb Mozilla Messaging and integrate it into Mozilla Labs, a team within Mozilla that incubates experimental projects.

Well, this is fascinating. ASUS hasn't even released its Eee Pad Transformer yet, but it's already put up for download the source code to the Linux kernel used in the Android Honeycomb operating system the machine runs. In other words, Google isn't withholding anything it is not allowed to withhold. As said by many - storm, teacup, meet. Go here, select download, select Android.