I love the Nexus 10, it’s a fantastic Android tablet and the Jellybean-based AOKP Rom I’m running on it is swee-eet.
But I’m also a bit of a penguin-lover. Not a full-on “I only run Linux” person, I’ve got plenty of love for my Windows boxes too, and I wouldn’t turn my nose up at an iPad. But I’ve got a special place in my heart for Ubuntu for its ability to breathe life into older kit (through variant distros such as Xubuntu) and one of my daily drivers is running Linux Mint 14 very nicely.
So the question is, will I …
I love the Nexus 10, it’s a fantastic Android tablet and the Jellybean-based AOKP Rom I’m running on it is swee-eet.
But I’m also a bit of a penguin-lover. Not a full-on “I only run Linux” person, I’ve got plenty of love for my Windows boxes too, and I wouldn’t turn my nose up at an iPad. But I’ve got a special place in my heart for Ubuntu for its ability to breathe life into older kit (through variant distros such as Xubuntu) and one of my daily drivers is running Linux Mint 14 very nicely.
So the question is, will I jump on the Ubuntu boat when they release their Tablet version tomorrow (if rumours are to be believed)? Apparently the Developer Preview will be available from Feb 21st.
Watch Ubuntu’s head bod Mark Shuttleworth bang on about how sexy it’s going to be:
That does look pretty sexy.
JavaFX 8 brings 3D to your apps – Early Access Beta
The good chaps at fxexperience are showing off an early demo of the soon-to-be-available 3D capabilities in Java 8′s JavaFX framework.
The good news is that if you fancy having a dabble, you too can download Java 8 EA b77 (including 3D).
Looking forward to seeing some interesting implementations with this technology…
The good chaps at fxexperience are showing off an early demo of the soon-to-be-available 3D capabilities in Java 8′s JavaFX framework.
The good news is that if you fancy having a dabble, you too can download Java 8 EA b77 (including 3D).
Looking forward to seeing some interesting implementations with this technology…
iOS 6.1.2 on its way
Rumour has it that Apple are going to be pushing out some fixes to iOS 6.1.1 following reports that some users have been experiencing bugs.
Key issues the touted 6.1.2 update will fix include the iPhone 4s apparently experiencing increased battery drain; a security flaw which allows someone to bypass the passcode and access voicemails; and iOS devices not synching with Exchange Server.
German blog ifun reckons the patch will go live from 20 Feb so keep checking for updates if you’re having issues with 6.1.1 on your Apple device.
Rumour has it that Apple are going to be pushing out some fixes to iOS 6.1.1 following reports that some users have been experiencing bugs.
Key issues the touted 6.1.2 update will fix include the iPhone 4s apparently experiencing increased battery drain; a security flaw which allows someone to bypass the passcode and access voicemails; and iOS devices not synching with Exchange Server.
German blog ifun reckons the patch will go live from 20 Feb so keep checking for updates if you’re having issues with 6.1.1 on your Apple device.
Bored of money? Meet the Vertu Ti…
Vertu Ti – an elite-calibre Android Smartphone aimed at the sort of person who could probably afford to employ someone specifically to carry it around for them. According to Vertu, “The 3.7-inch sapphire crystal screen is the largest ever crafted by Vertu”. Apparently the screen glass is “virtually scratchproof, it has been tested to be four times stronger than other smartphones.”
If you had a spare £6500, would you buy 11 unlocked Galaxy Note 2′s?
Or maybe a second-hand Subaru Impreza STI tuned to 360hp?
…Or maybe even a garage?
What you really want is a Vertu Ti smartphone.
It’s an elite-calibre gadget aimed at the sort of person who could probably afford to employ someone specifically to carry it around for them.
According to Vertu, “The 3.7-inch sapphire crystal screen is the largest ever crafted by Vertu”.
Apparently the screen glass is “virtually scratchproof, it has been tested to be four times stronger than other smartphones.” …while the case is constructed and hand-finished in “Grade 5 Titanium”…sounds ideal for supermodel types who don’t want to ruin their personal communication device while vehemently getting their point across.
Pay attention Bond:
- Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 @ 1.7GHz
- 1GB RAM
- 64GB of on-board storage
- 8MP rear camera, 1.3MP front-facing camera
- Bang & Olufsen soundsystem
- Android 4.0
- Military-grade laser
- Hidden flap for gold sovereigns
- Travel razor and authentic passport printer
A battle won in the war against the software patent trolls
Patent troll hires biggest law firms in the US in attempt to extract revenue from every on-line retailer (Amazon and Gap already settled for an estimated $60 million) – eventually loses “the mother of all patent battles”.
“Screw them. Seriously, screw them.” Lee Cheng, Newegg Chief Legal Officer.
Patent troll hires biggest law firms in the US in attempt to extract revenue from every on-line retailer (Amazon and Gap already settled for an estimated $60 million) – eventually loses “the mother of all patent battles”.
“Screw them. Seriously, screw them.” Lee Cheng, Newegg Chief Legal Officer.
Anyone active anywhere in the field of software development will surely have strong feelings on the ongoing legal battles that I firmly believe are hindering innovation and siphoning away vast amounts of money away from true innovators to cynical manipulators of the US legal and patent systems.
Whilst I believe strongly that those who are creating new products, concepts and methods in any area of human endeavour should be protected from the unscrupulous exploitation of those methods by others, the process of fair protection of original ideas should not be subverted for gain or to damage competitors in an open market.
In this particular case an organisation called Soverain claimed to hold patents that effectively covered the use of ‘shopping-cart’ technology and felt it had a justifiable case to claim damages due to patent infringement right across the retail sector.
A number of large retailers (including Amazon and Gap) had already settled out-of-court with Soverain. A recent course case led to Soverain being awarded damages from Avon and Victoria’s Secret of over $18 million plus a significant ongoing royalty from every future ‘shopping cart’ transaction.
The online retailer Newegg was the last man standing…
The organisation had already lost a case to Soverain (to the tune of $2.5 million) but decided to appeal. This appeal was on the basis that the judge for the original trial had not allowed the defence to put the argument to the jury that Soverain patents were in fact invalid.
On the basis of an advertisment for a “Electronic Shopping Mall” by Compuserve from the early 1980s (significantly pre-dating the Soverain’s patents) this view was supported by the jury and the case was thrown out.
This ruling also nullified the previous rulings against Avon and Victoria’s Secret.
I’d like to believe that this principled, successful stand by Newegg against the patent troll bullies (and finally a sensible, rational decision made by an East Texas court on this subject) is a major step towards a fairer industry.
Interview with Newegg Chief Legal Officer at Ars Technica.
I’ll be raising a glass to Newegg next time there’s a bottle open – hope you join me!
Scribbled by Ian
Touchy-feely tablet at CES 2013
BBC’s Dave Lee interviews a representative from Tactus who demonstrates “what they believe to be the World’s first tactile touchscreen”. It looks pretty awesome:
Looking forward to seeing how this technology progresses…
Scribbled by Tom
BBC’s Dave Lee interviews a representative from Tactus who demonstrates “what they believe to be the World’s first tactile touchscreen”. It looks pretty awesome:
Looking forward to seeing how this technology progresses…
Scribbled by Tom
Do Robots play with electronic LEGO? Mindstorm EV3
Lego have unveiled their third generation programmable robotics platform at CES this week.
My kids are fortunately approaching the point where I can justifiably buy “Technical Lego” and pretend to myself it’s mainly for them, so I’m VERY excited about this new platform.
Snake Robot with IR sensor and 'intelligent brick'
It’s been nearly 25 years since I last built up my Car Chassis (8860), Bulldozer (856) and others; but the memories are still strong. So far in my parental life we’ve ploughed through Duplo, Police, Star Wars and Harry Potter Lego kits but these have …
Lego have unveiled their third generation programmable robotics platform at CES this week.
My kids are fortunately approaching the point where I can justifiably buy “Technical Lego” and pretend to myself it’s mainly for them, so I’m VERY excited about this new platform.
It’s been nearly 25 years since I last built up my Car Chassis (8860), Bulldozer (856) and others; but the memories are still strong. So far in my parental life we’ve ploughed through Duplo, Police, Star Wars and Harry Potter Lego kits but these have not slaked my thirst for some plastic limited-slip differential action…
The new platform is properly space-age. Previous incarnations of the Lego robotic platform allowed PCs to control the constructions using a simple programming interface, EV3 takes this one step beyond in providing programmable ‘intelligent bricks’ that are built into the construction – this can be programmed directly without using an external device, it can store programs created on a PC or similar device or allow direct remote control.
The ‘intelligent bricks’ are built around an ARM9 processor running Linux with 16MB of flash memory and 64MB of RAM, SD expansion slot, Infra Red sensor and USB, Ethernet and Wireless connectivity.
As before multiple ‘bricks’ can be combined to offer a more sophisticated level of control and behaviour; EXT allows four ‘bricks’ to be daisy-chained; one more than the previous platform.
Another exciting area is that Mindstorm EV3 has support for both iOS and Android devices via Bluetooth connectivity.
There are suggestions that the product will ship from Q3 2013 for a basic price of $399. Early Christmas present for the Framework office perhaps?
Scribbled by Ian
Ubuntu Phone OS is getting closer…
The Ubuntu bods have just made an announcement about their latest mobile project – Ubuntu: the Phone OS.
Ubuntu is one of the most popular Linux distributions, with a relatively large user base and a mature ecosystem.
Canonical, the chaps behind Ubuntu, have been eyeing the mobile market for a while now, with overtures in partnership with the likes of Motorola to bring smartphones and desktop computing together (“WebTop” hasn’t really exploded yet but I reckon it’s only a matter of time before people expect to be able to plug monitors, mice and keyboards into their phones).
The Ubuntu bods have just made an announcement about their latest mobile project – Ubuntu: the Phone OS.
While it’s still early days, the tech specs are being bandied about the interent, and essentially Ubuntu will ride somewhat on the coat tails of that other Linux-based OS, Android, by borrowing drivers and suchlike in order to reach current hardware compatibility. Canonical have said though that they won’t be using a Virtual Machine like Android’s Dalvik VM, but allowing code to run directly on the hardware which could potentially give an extra kick of speed.
While Android apps won’t natively run on Ubuntu for Phones, word is that it should be relatively painless to create for existing Linux software using QML which could give the new phone platform a huge wealth of apps, right out the gates.
I’m certainly looking forward to giving this a whirl once flashable ROMs appear, and it will be very interesting to see which phone manufacturors partner up with Canonical to produce brand new handsets designed to make the most of Ubuntu’s capabilities.
Scribbled by Tom
NumPy users – stoke the inferno with Blaze!
Continuum Analytics has announced its commitment to the next generation of Python’s widely used array library, Numpy, with a new platform called Blaze.
Continuum Analytics has announced its commitment to the next generation of Python’s widely used array library, Numpy.
The new project, “Blaze”, aims to address problems in large data analytics using a combination of Numba and Blaze in its Python stack, together forming a distributed platform for computation and storage.
According to Contiuum’s blog, Blaze aims to extend the structural properties of NumPy arrays to to a wider variety of table and array-like structures that support commonly requested features such missing values, type heterogeneity, and labeled arrays.
Scribbled by Tom
Cyanogenmod 10.1 nightly now available for Nexus 10 (Android 4.2.1)
Smug Proud owners of the fantastically sexy Nexus 10 rejoice, the Cyanogenmod team have made available a pretty usable nightly build of CM10.1 for the N10.
So if like me you get itchy fingers if you haven’t flashed a new ROM in the last 24 hours, go grab it. Don’t forget to back up your current ROM before flashing a new one, and do be aware that your warranty will probably be …
Smug Proud owners of the fantastically sexy Nexus 10 rejoice, the Cyanogenmod team have made available a pretty usable nightly build of CM10.1 for the N10.
So if like me you get itchy fingers if you haven’t flashed a new ROM in the last 24 hours, go grab it. Don’t forget to back up your current ROM before flashing a new one, and do be aware that your warranty will probably be toast as soon as you muck with your custom Recovery and all that jazz.
Flash on!
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