48754705
submission
jbernardo writes:
Afflicted by still lower than expected sales of Windows Phones, this time, Nokia drops a hosting service for projects, projects.developer.nokia.com. Registered developers received an email starting with the following paragraph:
"With some sadness we announce that the Nokia Developer Projects service (https://projects.developer.nokia.com) will be discontinued in the following months (due to ongoing trend of low activity and increasing costs). Please backup any project data you wish to save as soon as possible (ideally within the next few weeks). After the service has been stopped all unsaved data will be lost!"
The email then goes on to detail on how to use git, mercurial or subversion to pull project data. It seems the news are still only distributed by email, no mention as of now (2013-07-18 11h30 GMT+2) on the Nokia developers site itself.
Particularly interesting is the "ongoing trend" line. It implies that, as feared, the situation keeps getting worse for Nokia, despite all optimism projected by upper management.
43451713
submission
jbernardo writes:
Seems like everyone's favourite rootkit company has been caught copying at least one of KDE's Oxygen icons. Should the KDE developers and designers sue Sony for all its worth?
40517765
submission
jbernardo writes:
After all the indie, multi-platform (including 4 for android) and DRM free releases, the latest Humble Bundle release is a polemic one. It features non-indie games, it is Windows only, and the games are saddled with DRM. There is already a very vocal discussion on the Humble Bundle Google+ thread, but it seems it is selling well.
39633855
submission
jbernardo writes:
Nokia has put in deep freeze its free developer program, the launchpad. Now, in the Developer Programs page, one can only see a pitch for a paid "Nokia Premium Developer Program", and below, in the Nokia Developer Pro and Developer Launchpad box, there is a text merely stating that Nokia are not currently accepting new applications for Nokia Developer Launchpad and Nokia Developer Pro programs. With most (if not all) Launchpad memberships already expired, seems like Nokia no longer is interested in the developer community, which once was one of the mainstays of its domination of the smartphone market. Of course, that domination was destroyed by Elop and its "burning platforms" memo, together with the failed bet on windows phone 7, so maybe giving up on developers would also be expectable.
36911039
submission
jbernardo writes:
There seems to be an interesting side-effect of the flawed jury verdict of last Friday — Samsung sales have surged. Even with the approach of the launch of Apple's new shinny, the Galaxy SIII is sold out in many stores, and there is a measurable increase in sales, according to Trip Chowdhry, the managing director of equity research at Global Equities Research, cited in Forbes.
Maybe Apple really managed to convince its customers that Samsung phones are equivalent or better, so they are being overcharged? Or is it a rush to buy the currently best smartphone in the market in case there is an injunction on its sale in the US any time soon?
30977973
submission
jbernardo writes:
Do you know those trays used to load sims into devices? It seems like a logic extension of the DVD trays of the old days, right? You'd think that such a design wouldn't be patentable, but remember, the USPTO is there to make money and approve patents of obvious stuff. And right now they've awarded this one to Apple, your favorite filer of patents on obvious stuff!
3933165
submission
jbernardo writes:
Foxmarks, a browser bookmarks and passwords sync utility, seems to be heading fast to be another "social" something. In their blog entry announcing the new features, there are already some voices expressing consternation at the added bloat and privacy problems the new features will add. One has already been added to foxmarks — suggested tagging of bookmarks. Others will be added over time, such as "smarter searches", "site info", and, if the survey they sent to users is any indication, "smart" bookmark handling (based on aggregated results from foxmarks users) are on the works.
Another example of feature creep or something you'll really use? For me, it is time to start searching for another alternative, as it was when google browser sync was discontinued.
117657
submission
jbernardo writes:
http://news.linux.com/news/07/03/28/1439246.shtml? tid=41 — the new GPLv3 draft is out, and is discussed in linux.com. There seems to be a Novell specific "get out of jail" card in the patent provisions, though...
