GNU/Linux at Google: Android, ChromeOS, Chromebooks, and Chrome News
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-03-18 18:24:00 UTC
- Modified: 2014-03-18 18:24:00 UTC
Android Gaming
Do we really need another Android console? Apparently so, as evidence suggests that Asus is jumping on that very bandwagon, possibly looking to score where a few of the current solutions have failed to hit. The device will be called Game Box, and the specs have appeared on AnTuTu while the controller struts its stuff all over the Bluetooth Special Interest Group website.
Ouya was the first to show the world that Android can be easily taken out from mobiles and tablets and put into a dedicated gaming console, which in turn opened up quite a lot of games waiting to be played, already available on the Play Store. Although Ouya didn’t perform as it expected to, other players in the field took note of the action.
Android TV
It will be controlled with an Android smartphone.
In this hands-on mini review, we take a quick look at the Ugoos UT2, a TV-centric mini-PC based on a 1.6GHz quad-core RK3188 SoC, and running Android 4.2.2.
Android Wearables
Google has plans to release an Android developer software development kit (SDK) in the next two weeks specifically designed for wearable devices. Sundar Pichai, Google’s SVP of Android, Apps and Chrome, shared at SXSW that the search giant will lay out a “vision for developers of how we see this market working” as part of the SDK.
Google has plans to release an Android developer software development kit (SDK) in the next two weeks specifically designed for wearable devices. Sundar Pichai, Google’s SVP of Android, Apps and Chrome, shared at SXSW that the search giant will lay out a “vision for developers of how we see this market working” as part of the SDK.
Android/Chromecast Software
We have just published the overview of the libraries and modules that various developers use in they Android mobile phone applications.
Android in Cars
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He reminded the audience of Volkswagon's recent talks with Google, with Audi in particular committing to working with the firm on in-car technology based on Android. But he said that he wanted to see more collaboration from technology firms in other countries. "It would no doubt be a good thing if German and European IT companies would put themselves forward as partners too," he said.
Laptops and Android
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Google is the one not keen on the idea of a dual-boot Windows-Android tablet-laptop, according to a fresh report from Asia and a CNET source.
CyanogenMod
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OnePlus, the upstart making a CyanogenMod-powered phone, has revealed a few details about the device that the company says will be cheaper and better than big brand phones and definitely won't include a heart-rate monitor.
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Koushik Dutta, the famed developer of CyanogenMOD has added DLNA support to his AllCast Android app. Ever since Google opened Chromcast to 3rd party developers Koush is on roll. He has, in fact, been toying with Chromecast the day it was released and created some stir in the free software community when Google changed the preview APIs for Chromecast which broke his app.
Statistics
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Android tablet sales jumped to 120.9 million in 2013 to snag a global market share of 61.9 percent, up from sales of 53.3 million and a 45.8 percent share in 2012. Over the same time, iPad sales grew to 70.4 million from 61.4 million. But Apple's share of the tablet market dropped to 36 percent from 52.8 percent.
Tablets
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HP has added a 7.85ââ¬Â³ unit to compliment its line-up of 7ââ¬Â³ and 8ââ¬Â³ tablets. The HP 8 1401 is a quad-core tablet that runs Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. “It’s got responsiveness that delivers entertainment where you want it. Sleek and smart with technology you can trust, the HP 8 is big on performance, slim in style, and small on price,” claims the company.
Google/Chrome OS/Chromebook
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Phoronix is reporting that running Windows applications in Chrome OS via Wine seems very unlikely to happen. And it got me wondering about how many people really want to run Windows applications in Chrome OS
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As usual, Mobile World Congress was packed with cool new SoCs, most of which are destined for Android phones and tablets. Some will see wider usage in the broader world of embedded Linux and Android devices.The big news was the invasion of 64-bit ARMv8 and x86 SoCs, including Qualcomm's Snapdragon 615 and Intel's Atom Z34xx. The ARM models are built on the ARMv8 Cortex-A53 design. Eventually, we'll see the -A53 used in Big.Little hybrids along with the similarly 64-bit, server-class Cortex-A57.
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Beast is fine. It’s old, but still kicking. It boots. It edits. It searches. It networks. Beast’s CPU is way over-sized for what I do and I do a lot. 99% of the time it idles. Every few weeks I open it up to full throttle to build the next Linux-3.10.x kernel, but what’s the rush? If it took twice or thrice as long I would still be happy.
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The Samsung Chromebook 2 11.6-inch and Chromebook 2 13.3-inch models are the company’s latest additions to its line of Chromebook computers. And they are powered by the Exynos 5 Octa processor.
Chrome Security
At Google, there continue to be big cash bounties available for talented hackers. We've reported before on the bug bounty program that Google has been running for several years now, focused on rewarding hackers and security researchers with cash for discovering meaningful bugs in the Chrome browser. The company just participated in the annual Pwnium and Pwn2own events, where hackers and researchers are challenged to uncover bugs in browsers, and Google has already patched a number of significant bugs that were uncovered.
Google officials said this week that the company will reward developers of Chrome packaged apps by letting them give users free trials and in-app purchases, marking an expansion of Google's focus on fostering a robust ecosystem of applications. The company is also going to allow developers of browser extensions to charge for them for the first time. The Google Developers Blog makes clear that the company is very focused on monetization options for app creators, which has been a key point of focus for Apple as it has sought to attract iOS app developers.
Chrome Aura/GTK/Graphics
We aim to launch the Aura graphics stack on Linux in M35. Aura is a cross-platform graphics system, and the Aura frontend will replace the current GTK+ frontend.
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Due to notorious Linux graphics drivers, Google developers working on Chrome/Chromium aren't looking to enable hardware video acceleration by default anytime soon. The problem ultimately comes down to poor Linux graphics drivers.
Chrome Voice
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According to a post on the official Google Chrome Blog, the search and mobile OS giant has added a new version to the latest beta of the desktop-oriented Chrome Browser. The company calls it “Hands-Free Google Voice Search,” which, as the name implies, allows you to perform a search query simply by speaking up and activating the feature with a spoken command.
Ballnux Android (Microsoft-Taxed)
The large 5.9-inch phone expands to some big Asian markets like Indonesia and Singapore, but LG Electronics still won't commit to North American or European sales.
Samsung’s Galaxy devices could have a built-in security error that could allow for “remote access to data,” claim the developers of Replicant–an Android OS based on CyanogenMod. The security flaw discovered in certain Samsung Galaxy phones and tablets allows for access “to read, write, and delete files on the phone’s storage.”
On Wednesday, the Free Software Foundation reported that a back door was found in the Samsung Galaxy.
Misc.
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The new $189 "Privacy Phone" comes with VPN, 128-bit encryption, and other tricks aimed at keeping you safe and anonymous.
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Rich Miner strolls the halls of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, pausing every few minutes to check out the latest gadgets on display. As one of the co-founders of Android, he is walking through a world that has been all but conquered by the operating system he helped create. Now, as a general partner at Google Ventures, he’s tasked with finding and investing the search giant’s billions in the next big thing.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- Another Slew of Fake Articles About 'Linux' and 'Security' From Brittany Day at linuxsecurity.com (Spamfarm/Slopfarm)
- linuxsecurity.com is basically a pariah and parasite. It lessens the incentive to write real articles about "Linux" by generating fake ones to outrank the originals.
- IBM: Many Thousands of Layoffs in 2025
- If 2025 is expected to be the same, then perhaps about 20,000 IBM workers will no longer be there
- Google: Your Only Option is Google YouTube (Coming Soon: Mandatory DRM and Attestation?)
- Digital Restrictions (DRM) to follow? Only for "approved" (attestation) browsers?
- The Munich-Based EPO is Still Using a Platform That Promotes the Far Right and Rehabilitates Nazism
- Active Twitter account
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- Links 30/01/2025: Fentanylware (TikTok) Causes Deaths, FBI Seizes Domains
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 30/01/2025: Action vs Inaction, Gopherholes, and More
- Links for the day
- Links 30/01/2025: Microsoft Wants Convicted Felon to Give Fentanylware (TikTok) to It (After Making a Phonecall Asking for That in 2019), "Moving Away From Google's Ecosystem"
- Links for the day
- Jack M. Germain (LinuxInsider) Seems to Have Turned to LLM Slop, Graphics Slop, and B2B SPAM
- LinuxInsider is barely active anymore
- Links 30/01/2025: Amazon Layoffs and DeepSeek Panic
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 30/01/2025: Chaos Reigns, E-mail, Searching
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, January 29, 2025
- IRC logs for Wednesday, January 29, 2025
- Mastodon Was Always Biased (Just Like Twitter After Abandoning Chronological and Neutral Timelines in Order to Become More Like Facebook)
- So bury-brigading and click-farming control what people see
- Certificate Authority Let's Encrypt Falls to Only 0.4% of the Total in Geminispace
- Geminispace does not need to outsource trust
- Links 29/01/2025: Dismantling Public Health in the US, Air Busan Plane Up in Flames (South Korea's Air Disasters Streak)
- Links for the day
- Announcements and Administrivia
- This week we're going out for two days in a row to celebrate an achievement that's very respectable
- Gemini Links 29/01/2025: Japan, GTD, and More
- Links for the day
- Sir, Yes, Sir. The Life of EPO Patent Examiners.
- If working for the EPO makes it harder to sleep at night, take action
- How the EPO Pressures Staff Into Minting More Monopolies (Patents), Even Illegal Ones That Harm Europe and Ultimately Dismantle the Rule of Law
- insights into the pressure examiners are under
- LLM Slop Machines Are Not a Win for "Open Source" and If They Get Cheaper, It's Even Worse
- If some program that claims to be "Open Source" pollutes the Web with fake articles (Microsoft SPAM and fake "Linux" articles), whose win is it?
- Links 29/01/2025: Data Privacy Day and Growing Tensions in Europe
- Links for the day
- Nazi Twitter (aka "X") Became a Troll Site That Lets People Buy a Blue Tick While Its Boss Actively Promotes Neonazi Politicians
- the intellectual level of people who infest the Web through "Twitter" or "X"
- This is Why They're So Afraid of Richard Stallman (He Tells People the Correct History)
- Then they post about it to Microsoft's LinkedIn
- Richard Stallman Speech in Bengaluru, "Silicon Valley of India"
- 62 years have passed since his "young nerd" days and he's still at it
- Claim: Facebook Deletes Posts of IBM Red Hat Critics
- As always, follow the money (advertisers)
- Links 29/01/2025: Climate Crisis and "It’s time for the Xbox to fade away" (Microsoft Lose)
- Links for the day
- Links 29/01/2025: Buying Groceries During a Trade War, Political 'Retro'
- Links for the day
- More Illegal Patents at the EPO, Legality of Granted European Patents No Longer Matters to the Office
- breaking the law for profit
- Network Improvements Tomorrow
- "Network maintenance" down in London
- Sharing is Caring (But Advocating Copyleft Makes You a "Target")
- GPLv3 does not close all the loopholes which the "Affero" helps close
- Articles About Free Speech at Facebook
- 'Facebook vs Linux' story is now receiving a lot more media coverage
- We Were Right About stallmansupport.org Making an Error by Joining Social Control Media. mastodon.social Suspends stallmansupport.org.
- From what we can guess, accounts can be banned by some oversensitive admin or a mob of users ("bury brigades")
- "Latest Technology News" in BetaNews Still LLM Slop and SPAM Composed by LLMs (It's Basically a Spamfarm Disguised as a News Site)
- Only a fool would visit BetaNews in search of actual news
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, January 28, 2025
- IRC logs for Tuesday, January 28, 2025
- The EPO's Corruption, If It Remains Untackled, Helps the Far Right and Enemies of European Unity/Solidarity
- Do not negotiate with evil
- The Web, Including Wikipedia, Gets Filled With Lies About Bill Gates, Added by Bill Gates and His PR Team
- Of course Wikipedia is funded by Gates
- Facebook Banning Linux Sites (or People Who Link to Linux Sites) is Another Symptom of the Web's Demise
- The state of media on the Web is really bad; Social Control Media amplifies the badness, as Facebook serves to show
- Gemini Links 29/01/2025: Neovim Telescope and Writing Less
- Links for the day
- Links 28/01/2025: Chaffbot as Commodity Fad, New Import Restrictions in Thailand
- Links for the day
- Links 28/01/2025: "Against Social [Control] Media", "Smart" Buses' Ticketing System Cracked
- Links for the day
- [Video] Richard Matthew Stallman (RMS) in India, Talking About Proprietary Software's Dangers Only Yesterday
- WebM file
- Gemini Links 28/01/2025: Thinking About Not Much, Computing Fatigue, the Curse of JavaScript
- Links for the day
- "SuccessFactors" (SAP) Stunts at the EPO Used to Break Laws and Constitutions, Staff Tricked Into Harming Themselves
- Ongoing corruption and lawlessness became the norm; Europe's second-largest institution (EPO) along with the largest institution (EU) has its very own Minsk
- The GNU Manifesto Turns 40 in a Few Weeks
- The FSF turns 40 later this year, too
- Continued Support and Momentum at the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
- "This helps protect our community."
- Another Talk by Richard Stallman Tomorrow, This Time in Bengaluru
- This means that in January 2025 he is giving at least 5 public talks
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Monday, January 27, 2025
- IRC logs for Monday, January 27, 2025