01.27.14
Posted in FUD, GNU/Linux, Google at 5:33 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: An overview of some very recent FUD against Android — something that has become extremely common because Android is the world’s leading platform
WE HAVE NEVER been short on Android FUD. We have covered Android FUD for as long as the platform existed, including Ballmer’s disgusting words that spread to the press as soon as Android was first announced (he called it just some words on paper, or something to that effect). Windows insecurity firm Symantec has played a role in some later FUD and it wasn’t alone. Even this weekend we found it claiming [1] — quite arrogantly — that Android is at risk. And why? Because Windows is a security joke, with or without the NSA back doors it is gladly providing. Muktware used an appropriate headline: “New malware uses Windows to infect Android devices” (hence, don’t use Windows, but Android is not to blame here). As the press continues to note in recent days, Android may increasingly replace Windows even on the desktop [2], so Windows insecurity firms must be worried.
What other FUD have we got? Well, a Bill Gates-funded publication continues to slam Google and Android [3], mysteriously never accusing Windows and Microsoft of much worse things (like tax evasion, security issues, high costs, lock-in, etc.) and it’s probably no coincidence. We are not going to feed the FUD; instead we’ll just say that this same publication often quotes and cites a Microsoft lobbyist, not noting his affiliation, in order to boost Android FUD. We gave numerous examples before and also directly challenged the authors. There is a similar flavour of FUD in another Android-hostile publication [4] and numerous other reports that make Android look bad for simply doing the right thing [5,6]. Similar FUD portrays Android as bloated [7] and not secure [8], so we find ourselves having to rely on excellent news sites like Muktware for real coverage [9] of Andorid, not bait and trolling (for hits).
Android is becoming the world’s only dominant platform, replacing Windows in the process. It makes Android an attractive target for FUD, so watch out and be sceptical of Android-hostile coverage. Gather the pertinent facts and decide whether it’s just sensationalism, hypocrisy (like blaming Android for what every other operating system is guilty of) or lobbying for antitrust/competition purposes (labelling Android distribution illegal, anti-competitive, expensive, incompetent and so on). A lot of very large companies really want Android to fail. █
Related/contextual items from the news:
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As it continues to gain popularity among consumers and developers alike, malware authors now seem to have shifted their target to Android in a not-so-common manner. According to security firm Symantec, a trojan, dubbed Trojan.Droidpak, tries to install mobile banking malware on Android devices via a Windows machine.
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Determine where best to free up space. Take a look at the Pictures and Videos space used in particular. Look for the numerical value next to the descriptive label. Video and images, unlike music, often don’t need to be stored on the device and can be moved. HD video is a major memory hog. Photographs and music are other forms of media that take up a lot of space.
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US surveillance and the end of support for Windows XP played into its creation.
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It features the same 6.5mm-thick waterproof casing, 8-megapixel camera, Android 4.2 Jelly Bean OS, Snapdragon 800 processor clocked at 2.3GHz, 2GB of RAM and a 3000mAh battery as found on the regular Xperia Z Ultra.
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Posted in Apple, Google, Patents, Samsung at 5:02 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Samsung is still playing with software patents and it is now turning Android devices into restrictions devices, similar to Apple’s
APPLE ‘news’ sites are trying to elude the fact that Android is a real headache to Apple. Here is gross spin from pro-Apple sites along with a report from a former Microsoft booster (who worked for a pro-Microsoft site). One pro-Apple site says that “Apple’s smartphone marketshare continues to ease downward despite record sales for the company’s latest handsets, while rival Samsung’s share of the Android ecosystem is being squeezed in key markets, according to new analysis covering the fourth quarter of 2013.”
Samsung is not Android. Pro-Apple sites are desperate for some positive angle for Apple and negative for Android.
Samsung, as we noted in 2007, began supporting Microsoft’s patent assault on Linux and was one of the first companies (for embedded devices at least) to do so. We spent years drawing attention to this problem and here we are 7 years later with Samsung as some kind of “champion” thanks to Android. Samsung — like LG — is not championing Android, it is helping Microsoft assert ‘ownership’ and hence it is endorsing extortion.
This morning we came to discover that Samsung is boosting patents again, this time with Google. To quote the Head of Samsung’s Intellectual Property Center (notice the propagandistic terms): “This agreement with Google is highly significant for the technology industry…Samsung and Google are showing the rest of the industry that there is more to gain from cooperating than engaging in unnecessary patent disputes.”
This is nonsense. We don’t need this kind of public endorsement of patents, with or without so-called “peace” (only for large patent holders, such as IBM and Microsoft, or even Apple and Microsoft).
There are also technical and practical reasons to avoid Samsung, never mind the patent policy. Samsung is hoping to conquer the Android market with lots of new devices, not just phones [1], and based on reports such as [2,3], Samsung is now doing exactly what Apple has done, making devices jails for their users and taking control over people’s devices. This is bad and one way to say “no” to this behaviour is to avoid, as a matter of principle, anything from Samsung. █
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Samsung has revealed plans to expand its smartphone and tablet portfolio in 2014. At the company’s conference, Executive Director Hyunjoon Kim announced that Samsung will first “create a new tablet category” that will be aimed at businesses with a high-end, “high-resolution,” large screen tablet around 20-inches. He added that the company will produce many variants by modifying their Galaxy Tab series.
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A number of users are claiming that the Galaxy Note 3 KitKat update breaks compatibility with some third-party accessories. The accessories affected are unofficial versions of Samsung’s S-View Flip Cover, a case with a window over the top half of the screen. A working S-View cover will turn the screen on and trigger a special display that shows the time and notifications through its window. In the previous update, Android 4.3, unofficial S-View covers could trigger this special display mode as well, but after the update to 4.4, the phone will only recognize Samsung-made products.
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01.26.14
Posted in Free/Libre Software, Google, Patents at 1:11 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: A quick overview of patent news that’s relevant to FOSS and FOSS backers
THE SCOTUS, which has historically been useless for improving patent policy (it was serving the agenda of the USPTO, which served corporations), finally did something useful [1]. It made it harder to use patents offensively. We no longer cover patent news like we used to, but the impact on Linux is very much clear now that a notorious patent aggressor gains thousands of patents by acquisition. Fortunately this aggressor is an Android/Linux backer, just like Palm, whose patents (for the most part) it took in one fell swoop [1, 2].
“It’s one of those cases where public opinion is ignored and the will of few super-wealthy individuals guides national and/or international policy.”In other news, patent trolls now target the server side too (with software patents of course), but Google has just put one to rest. “A patent-holding company called Beneficial Innovations has been suing over patents related to online gaming and online advertising since 2006,” says this report [2], but the litigation against Google comes to an end. This is good news.
Given more time, we shall be looking again at patents more closely, not only when they affect Android/Linux and FOSS backers. Generally speaking, software patents hurt all of us, except few oligarchs and patent lawyers. FOSS is not unique here; proprietary software developers are suffering from software patents as well. It’s one of those cases where public opinion is ignored and the will of few super-wealthy individuals guides national and/or international policy. █
Related/contextual items from the news:
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The top U.S. Court has upheld that the burden of proof of infringement in a lawsuit rests with a patent holder—not the accused infringer. That holds true even when the parties had previously entered into a licensing deal. The ruling came in the Medtronic, Inc. v. Mirowski Family Ventures case.
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A patent-holding company called Beneficial Innovations has been suing over patents related to online gaming and online advertising since 2006. Media companies have been one of its favorite targets, and it claims its patents are foundational technology for targeted advertising.
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01.17.14
Posted in GNU/Linux, Google, Patents at 10:26 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Society needs to welcome a new breed of telephony that strictly resists surveillance and also antagonises patent bureaucracy
SINCE the middle of 2007 we have warned that South Korean giant LG was paying Microsoft for Linux or at least legitimising the claim/blackmail. This affected LG’s Linux-powered phones at the time (probably because of FAT) and later this extended to WebOS (after LG acquisition) and to Android [1] (very surveillance-friendly, courtesy of Google).
Right now the Android market is dominated by the other South Korean giant, called Samsung, which also controls Tizen these days. Tizen is covered in the news this week [2] and also named as an alternative to Android [3]. Tizen assembled inside it many Linux-based consortia for phones after they had sort of collapsed onto one another (LiPS, LiMo, Moblin, MeeGo, etc.), so this is truly a cause for concern. Samsung — like LG — plays by Microsoft’s rules (of extortion) on patents.
Jolla’s Sailfish OS [4], Mozilla’s Firefox OS, and Ubuntu’s mobile OS (whatever they choose to call it this time and whenever they choose to release it after massive changes in expected time of arrival [5,6], vapourware [7], and an attempt to lure in developers based on the vapourware [8]) are some of the existing hopes we have left. There is also the KDE-led Plasma-oriented effort, among other smaller initiatives that use Linux and sometimes GNU (nobody would use Windows because it’s technically inferior and is in bed with the NSA).
Many other entities can easily start their own companies that develop mobile phones based on Linux and Free software [9]. It just requires capital. The folks behind anonymous E-mail services are not the only ones who now promote their phone based on claim of NSA resistance (today it’s revealed that the NSA hoards SMS messages by the billions). There’s also Aral Balkan’s effort (recently-released video above). The main barrier here is lack of patents, but they should snub those patents and perhaps join OIN.
We really need alternative to Android as Replicant is not enough at this stage. It also mimics a deficient effort, merely trying to amend it with limited resources. █
Related/contextual items from the news:
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Tizen is designed to be a low-cost, highly configurable OS that will make portable devices available to a wider range of consumers. Its developers hope to create an alternative mobile ecosystem to break the stranglehold of the big phone companies. Tizen’s promise is to let carriers maintain a competitive edge by producing devices tailored to a particular user base.
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The open source offering called Tizen, based on the Linux operating system, is expected to be installed on telephones sold from the end of March, NTT Docomo spokesman Jun Otori told AFP.
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Jolla was formed in late 2011 from a number of former Nokia Engineers who had been working on a number of Linux-based operating systems and handsets (including the Nokia N9). Just over two years later, their first handset (the self-titled Jolla) shipped with their Sailfish OS. I’ve been using the Jolla handset since mid-December, and it’s time to look at the handset in some more detail.
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Commercial smartphones running the mobile version of the Ubuntu Linux distro probably won’t be available through carriers until 2015 at the earliest, a Canonical spokesman has revealed.
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Although we expected to see the Meizu MX3 running Ubuntu during this year’s CES, that hasn’t happened. Instead, we’ve learned that Canonical is working with multiple vendors to launch Ubuntu smartphones later in the year.
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The Ubuntu Linux team hopes to expand the open source operating system’s application stack by drawing on community contributions of smartphone and tablet apps.
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01.15.14
Posted in GNU/Linux, Google, Microsoft, Security, Windows at 5:54 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Mozilla raises an important point by alluding to the fact that non-free (proprietary) software should be assumed to have back doors
SECURITY and privacy require freedom and control (by the user) from bottom to top, starting from the bootloader (NSA backdoors in bootloaders are now rumoured [1]). A British blogger in ZDNet, one whom UEFI Forum tried to silence or appease less than a couple of years back (as they did with other UEFI critics), continues to criticise UEFI, the Microsoft (notoriously strong NSA ally) promoted and Intel (as in intelligence) managed back doors-friendly BIOS replacement (UEFI facilitates remote bricking of computers, over the Internet).
Several months ago Tor was compromised through Firefox on Microsoft Windows. Firefox itself did not have back doors, but Windows has plenty of back doors (this month Microsoft already revealed several [2], which the NSA already knows about) and Mozilla’s own platform uses Linux, not Windows.
Yesterday there were quite a few headlines quoting Mozilla’s Brendan Eich, CTO and SVP of Engineering, for his warning about back doors [3-5], which are destroying any notion of information security in proprietary software [6].
With Mozilla diverging away from Windows (Firefox OS brings back memories of Netscape [7]) and signing major deals to bring this Linux-powered operating system to a lot of devices (not just phones [8-12]) we can hope that the whole stack, from bottom to top (hardware, operating system, applications) will be void of back doors. Let’s wish Mozilla good luck. Chrome, which has just had another major release [13,14] is proprietary (never mind the Chromium marketing) and it cannot be seen as a back doors-free substitute to Firefox and Firefox OS (the same goes for Chrome OS). As for Android, recall what company is behind it. There are already reports (in corporate press) about it being remotely hijacked by the FBI. Ubuntu, Tizen, and Sailfish OS (Jolla) might be other decent options, but we don’t know enough about them, at least not yet. WebOS is controlled by a very surveillance-happy company (LG), so we can assume, as the name suggests, that it transmits personal data over the Web/Internet. █
Related/contextual items from the news:
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Recent revelations about NSA hardware and firmware backdoors gives all the evidence that those who believe BadBIOS Trojans exist need to see. The spying technology has arrived. The only question is if the BadBIOS incident truly happened.
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Brendan Eich is the chief technology officer of the Mozilla Foundation, the non-profit behind the Firefox web browser. Among many other things, he oversees the Firefox security team — the software engineers who work to steel the browser against online attacks from hackers, phishers, and other miscreants — and that team is about to get bigger. Much, much bigger.
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Andreas Gal, Mozilla’s vice president of mobile and R&D, and Brendan Eich, CTO and SVP of Engineering, have updated Gal’s blog with a long entry about how Firefox users can trust Mozilla when it comes to government backdoors and user privacy.
In the blog, they point out that due to laws in the U.S. and elsewhere, Web surfers must interact with Internet services knowing full well that even though cloud service companies want to protect user privacy, eventually one day those companies will be required to comply with laws. The government may acquire information that seems to violate privacy and could even force surveillance. Even more, the government can do so while enforcing gag orders on the service, leaving the consumer unaware.
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Mozilla CTO Brendan Eich has cautioned netizens not to blindly trust software vendors, arguing that only open-source software can be assured to be free from government-mandated surveillance code.
“Every major browser today is distributed by an organization within reach of surveillance laws,” Eich wrote in a joint blog post with Mozilla research and development VP Andreas Gal on Saturday.
Under those laws, Eich argued, governments could compel software companies to include surveillance code in their products. Worse, the vendors may not be able to admit to the public that such code exists when asked, because of gag orders.
The Mozilla man argued that open-source software can help alleviate this risk because customers have the opportunity to review its source code and spot any potential backdoors.
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It seems that the very tools we use to secure our networks represent the greatest insider threat of all
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Back in the days before the release of Windows 95, just as the public was discovering the Internet as an alternative to private networks such as Prodigy and CompuServe, Netscape was the bomb. In those days, Microsoft didn’t supply any method for surfing the Internet, so people visited their local Egghead store, or other software outlets, to buy a shrink wrapped version of Netscape on floppy disks, which opened up a whole new world to computer users.
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ASM.js is the subset of JavaScript that is aimed for performance, easy to optimize, and is suitable for EmScripten to target in its converting of C/C++ code through LLVM and into this optimized JavaScript. EmScripten itself has been an incredibly interesting project.
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Google Chrome 32 features new tab indicators for sound / webcam / casting, automatic blocking of known malware files, a number of new apps and extension APIs, and numerous “under the hood” changes that promise to provide better stability and performance.
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01.10.14
Posted in GNU/Linux, Google, Hardware at 9:18 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Major desktop chipmakers (Intel and AMD) as well as desktop OEMs (HP and Acer) turn to Android for desktops
THE PREVIOUS post explained how Chromebooks/Chrome OS make the long-dreamed-of goal of GNU/Linux on many desktops a reality. But several years ago Google explained how Chrome OS and Android are connected. In short, the main distinguisher is the screen or input methods (size, interface, etc.); Android is now overseen by the Chrome OS manager. The assumption at the time was that Android should target mobile/small devices, whereas the other should target systems like notebooks/laptops. Convergence of those two was not ruled out.
Well, it sure seems like Android and its apps pool are growing so mature and vast that there is now temptation to put Android on the desktop. It’s not a dumb idea anymore because the interfaces are rich (multiple virtual desktops, heavy apps with many hooks for hardware [1,2], extensive hardware support for peripherals) and security is earning reputation [3]. It’s not just about cost [4]. Android rose to dominance [5] owing to technical advantages which in due course made it preferable for heavier hardware like Intel motherboards [6] and cars [7].
HP [8], AMD [9], Intel [10] and Acer [11] now champion a fascinating new trend by demonstrating a strategy for Android on the desktop. Exciting times! █
Related/contextual items from the news:
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Google now has access to a tremendous cache of data and it can use that data in any number of ways to make money as part of its advertising model or separate from it.
The free OS opened up this tremendous opportunity for Google, one they might not have even realized at the time, thinking only they needed to get into mobile any way they can.
And today, with all that data, they have a tremendous market advantage if they can figure out how to monetize it. All because they gave away their phone OS for nothing.
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With Android landing on all-in-one computers and Windows extending its reach deeper into the mobile world, the platform world is tightening into three key teams: iOS and OS X, Windows, and Android.
Chrome OS, BlackBerry, and the other minor players have derivative unit volume, and can therefore be discounted in our larger image of the market.
To compare those three groups yields an irksome, yet interesting, picture. Gartner recently released a set of statistics and prognostications along those operating system niches, stacking the groups against one another. The fine folks over at Redmond Magazine did us the favor of graphing the results.
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The DreamTab is an edutainment collaboration between Fuhu, developers of the popular Nabi line of Android kids tablets, and both Intel and DreamWorks Animation. Designed for ages 5-7, the tablets will be available in 8- and 12-inch versions with full HD IPS resolution, and will ship with 16GB or 32GB of flash storage.
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Targeting the business community HP has unveiled the Slate 21 Pro AiO (All-in-One) desktop running on Android 4.3 at CES 2014. The desktop is aimed to find use in office, education and kiosk environments. Given that most businesses run Windows applications, the system will be capable of running these too.
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Intel didn’t make a big deal of it at its CES press conference, but the chip giant announced that, with the help its OEM partners, the company will soon release PCs that run both Android and Windows 8.1 at the same time. They weren’t the only ones with dual operating systems. AMD announced that with its partner BlueStacks, it will bring the complete Android experience to Windows- based tablets, 2-in-1s, notebooks and desktops.
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The $1,099 monitor packs in a quad-core processor and a 2,560×1,440 touch screen.
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Posted in GNU/Linux, Google at 8:09 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Chrome OS is starting to occupy a significant segment of the market long sought by GNU/Linux proponents
GOOGLE’S distribution of GNU/Linux rose to power in 2013. It is not so freedom-respecting, but it is a distro without a doubt. Christmas was a sign of strength for Chrome OS [1], which is becoming a major threat to both Apple and Microsoft [2] (some people buy Chromebooks just to install their favourite GNU/Linux distribution on them [3]). As quite a few schools turn to Chrome OS [4,5] it seems like major OEMs follow the trend and make Chromebooks [6-13] (CES 2014 gave many examples). It hurts Apple, not just Microsoft [14], because “Chromebook is giving Macbook a run for its money” [15] (just as Android did to iPhone and iPad). Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols calls Chromebook “The Windows killer” [16], citing numbers from Christmas [17], and reviews of GNU/Linux in 2013 focus a great deal on Chromebooks [18-20]. Looking ahead at this year (2014), CNET says that “[a]s Chromebooks catch on, 2014 promises more models” [21] and Carla, formerly the editor of Linux Today, says “Linux Wins the Desktop in 2014″ [22].
Isn’t it funny that given all that we still have trashy tabloids like ZDNet calling GNU/Linux a failure on the desktop, trying to resurrect this myth [23]? (rebuttal in [24])
One source says that Chrome OS “accounted for 21% of all laptop sales last year.” [25] Another says “Chromebooks surge at business in 2013″ [26], so who is to say GNU/Linux failed on the desktop? People who say this are dishonest. They usually rely on the bogus claim that Chrome OS is not GNU/Linux when it fact it is. This distribution may not please everyone (especially the freedom-conscious), but that doesn’t make the truth of the matter any less true. Chrome OS/Chromebooks increasingly get recommended as an alternative to Windows XP [27], which is not surprising. Later this year many Windows XP users (who are left with no security patches) are likely to turn to GNU/Linux, not later versions of Windows (Vista or later, with all the nasty anti-features of Vista inherited). Using Microsoft-friendly data sources, some Microsoft-friendly news sources try to distract from this trend [28], perhaps realising the businesses, schools etc. are going to turn to GNU/Linux, eschewing proprietary software and selecting FOSS rather than the train wreck which is Vista 8. █
Related/contextual items from the news:
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GNU/Linux as itself and as Chrome OS is growing and Android/Linux is taking off like a rocket. It looks as if many could not wait for Christmas to buy something shiny and new.
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Here on OStatic, some readers have written in saying that they are buying Chromebooks simply to put their favorite Linux distros on the low cost devices. In other cases, there are lots of young people being introduced to Chromebooks and getting a taste of cloud-centric computing, storage and applications. Chromebooks are here to stay, but they are not crushing the overall portable computer market.
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Synnex is set to empower Google Chromebook resellers supporting North America K-12 schools and commercial customers. The strategic Google-Synnex relationship will help resellers to deploy and centrally manage fleets of Chromebooks within schools and vertical market settings. The move comes only a few weeks after the search giant further enhanced its Google Apps partner program for resellers.
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HP and Lenovo announced new Android all-in-one (AiO) PCs — the Slate21 Pro and N308 — while LG unveiled the Chromebase, the first AiO to run Chrome OS.
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Lenovo is reportedly planning to release a set of new Chromebooks this year. Jay Parker, president for Lenovo’s North American operations, told CNET at CES that “multiple Chromebook models” would see release by summer 2014, at various price points and configurations.
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Most of the new Chromebooks have the same display resolution, capabilities, and price. The Toshiba Chromebook’s 13.3 inch display fits in between the 11 inch HP, Acer, and Samsung and 14 inch HP models. Unfortunately, the display resolution remains the same at 1366 x 768, which is the one thing that really bothers me about this generation device.
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The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) comes but once a year and can be regarded as Christmas for nerds the world over. This year, the show runs from January 7th to the 10th and we thought it best to give a preview of what to expect from the usual crowd pleasers. Throughout the years, CES has been a place where the most crazy of ideas and the wildest of dreams came to fruition. Before we move on to our predictions however, let us spend a moment reflecting on what transpired at 2013′s CES.
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Buoyed by itsrecent success in the notebook sector, Acer has released another version of its best selling C720 series. The C720P-2600 bears similar specifications to the original C720P, but this time, she’s an all white beauty. The new colour scheme coupled with the sleek design of its older brothers will sure make it a hit in the months to come.
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Acer, which is rapidly gaining popularity among hardware manufacturers, is placing some heavy bets on open source operating systems. The company now has a whopping nine computers based on Google’s Chrome OS, including an update to its popular C7 Chromebook. Acer’s latest Chromebook, the C720P-2600 (shown), has an 11.6-inch touchscreen and features Intel’s dual-core Celeron 2955U chip based on the cutting-edge Haswell architecture. At $299.99, the system will be available in January, and will be shown at the Consumer Electronics Show.
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It seems Chromebooks were selling like hot cakes in 2013. The cheap, cloud-driven computers were flying off the shelves, but who those sales hurt is subject to debate.
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I’ve been a believer in Chromebooks for a long time. Now, everyone else is getting the religion.
NPD, a retail market analysis company, reports that sales of Chromebooks exploded from zilch in 2012 to more than 20% of the U.S. PC market in 2013. This helped push overall notebook PC growth up by 28.9%.
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2013 was a most interesting year in Linux all around. Most folks will cite the advancements in the gaming arena and in embedded and mobile devices. But 2013 was a great year in Linux distributions. The desktops and associated wars calmed down, some tricky technology got wrestled into submission, and stability seemed to be everyone’s watchword. Lots of folks are reminiscing about the year, so let’s take a look.
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Desktop hosted applications are no longer the only choice. Customers increasingly were happy with the applications and network access available from handheld devices and didn’t feel the need to also use a Windows-powered device. After all, Web-based tools, such as Web applications, email, collaborative software, and search, can be easily done from a lower cost device. An expensive laptop or desktop may not be needed at all.
Is this how Linux and Unix will win over the mighty Windows? If the current trends are considered, the answer appears to be yes.
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I’ve run into these Negative Ned stories about Linux failing on the desktop before, and they always seem fixated on the market share of Windows. I reject that kind of thinking as it was never necessary for Linux to “beat Windows” on the desktop to be successful.
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On Friday, CNET’s Brooke Crothers reported that Chromebooks, those nifty laptops running Google’s Chrome OS that let the cloud do the heavy lifting, accounted for 21% of all laptop sales last year. As impressive as that may be, the numbers get even better when Android tablets are added to the mix. According to market research company NPD Group, January to November saw 1.76 million Chromebooks and Android tablets sold, up from only 400,000 during all of 2012.
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If that isn’t proof enough of Chromebooks’ rise in popularity, Amazon said Thursday that among laptops, the Samsung Chromebook, Asus Transformer Book, and Acer Chromebook were “holiday best sellers.”
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Linux’s open source price tag may be attractive, and there are other benefits besides cost. For a start, Linux is less of a resource hog than other platforms, and it works well on older hardware, especially compared to Windows.
Linux is also highly customizable, and users can choose from a multitude of desktop environments, such as KDE and GNOME. Going down the Linux route is however likely to involve a steep learning curve for non-techie users, who’ll also have to sort out apps and drivers for legacy peripherals (or replace them with Linux-compatible equivalents).
Then there’s support. It may be a non-issue if you manage to find replacement apps and drivers for peripherals. This said, almost that everything you’re ever likely to need to know about whatever flavour of Linux you decide on can be found online, but once again isn’t a terribly user friendly experience for Linux novices.
Another alternative is Chrome OS. Developed by Google, Chrome OS is web-centric operating system, which means that the browser becomes the operating system. Because of this there’s far fewer security issues than with Windows as Chrome OS doesn’t run locally installed software so there’s little to exploit.
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01.06.14
Posted in GNU/Linux, Google, Microsoft, Virtualisation at 12:27 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: As GNU and Linux make it big in various platforms (especially for mobile devices) Microsoft is again trying to make itself a parasitic adjunct, neither invited nor wanted
Now that Android is truly dominant, Microsoft is trying to pretend that the only party one needs to pay to (for Android) is Microsoft. It’s the same thing Microsoft did to Novell and others. There might not be payments, but even pretense of payments is rather infuriating. It is a huge injustice which shows that we need to ostracise Microsoft.
GNU/Linux is quickly transforming into a market leader and the platform to catch up with. Microsoft is desperately trying to get a grip on Linux or “court Linux-based workloads with a new driver package that enables support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux/CentOS 5.5 and 5.6.” Having totally destroyed Linux at Nokia [1,2] (Nokia was a leading Linux contributor), Microsoft now uses its Novell moles to put code inside Linux, enabling dependence on proprietary software from Microsoft [3].
It is not hard to see why Microsoft resorted to this strategy of hijacking Nokia (alienating some other OEMs). Microsoft wants to control the hardware companies (like Dell) because with disasters like Vista 8 they just no longer pre-install (or rent) much of Windows [4]. Hyper-V is like a Trojan horse strategy and a Plan B, not just for servers. Microsoft is trying to dual-boot Windows along with Android devices right now. Nobody needs or wants it, but with enough moles it can become a reality.
Phones with GNU/Linux are coming (e.g. Ubuntu phones [5]), signaling a trend [6]. Even platforms which Microsoft tried to kill are coming back [7], notably WebOS (with Microsoft tax) and Tizen [8] (derived from MeeGo), not to mention Firefox OS [9,10] and Jolla’s Sailfish OS. Microsoft will try to impose inclusion of Windows (we see this in the press these days), but we must reject it and work hard against it. “I once preached peaceful coexistence with Windows,” Be’s CEO Jean-Louis Gassée once wrote. “You may laugh at my expense — I deserve it.”█
Related/contextual items from the news:
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The company stops allowing developers to submit new applications or updates for the mobile operating systems.
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When I started this ‘Bloodbath’ intense focus on the upcoming smartphone wars four years ago, I said the wars would bring a lot of change. Back in 2009 the world’s largest smartphone makers were very well known brands of the handset tech space such as Nokia, Blackberry, Palm, Motorola, HTC and SonyEricsson, with the upstart Apple iPhone having appeared only two years earlier. No Chinese smartphone maker was ranked in the Top 10. What happened has been dramatic, indeed the most volatile period of any global industry. Motorola and Palm died early and were sold. Ericsson quit the races leaving the partnership to Sony. Nokia was sold late last year. Blackberry is on the ropes and HTC is not faring much better. Four Chinese vendors have already crashed into the Top 10 (Huawei, Lenovo, ZTE and Yulong/Coolpad) with a fifth, Xiaomi likely to enter the Top 10 early in 2014.
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Two articles caught my attention this week and both of them came from The Verge. Both stories came out within 2 days of each other. In that they both dealt with Microsoft talking about or actually reversing previous decisions about Windows 8, I had to wonder if this was Microsoft damage control at work. It would seem so.
It’s not just me. A lot of my friends in IT think the Windows 8 release was a disaster. Microsoft was seen as telling the computing public, “You will accept our new Windows and you will like it.”
Uh, no they won’t.
Early sales figures were far more than disappointing for the folks at Redmond. So disappointing in fact, that the company made public at least some intentions of making amends to their customers.
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There’s no such thing as a saturated market — not at least for gadgets. And in the world of gadgets, there’s one field that happens to be a hot battlefield: MOBILE OPERATING SYSTEMS.
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Samsung’s first Tizen phone reportedly will debut at Mobile World Congress Feb. 23, and will reach consumers in Europe and Japan in the second half of 2014.
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LinuxGizmos is reporting that a new phone is coming this year that will let you run Android and Firefox OS with an x86 chip.
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