Comment Re:This is supposed to be the *WAY* they do their (Score 1) 392
But undoubtedly not bigger than Beyonce. Nothing is.
Comment Sounds like Cable's arg. against Municipal Fiber (Score 4, Funny) 542
I'm becoming increasingly suspicious that the Grand Ayatollah runs my ISP...
Submission + - Google Sells Motorola Mobility to Lenovo for $2.91 Billion (blogspot.com)
_0x783czar writes: Google today announced that they will be selling Motorola Mobility to Lenovo for the sum of 2.91 Billion USD. Google says that the move should allow the company to receive the attention and focus it deserves to thrive.
From the article: '...the smartphone market is super competitive, and to thrive it helps to be all-in when it comes to making mobile devices. It’s why we believe that Motorola will be better served by Lenovo—which has a rapidly growing smartphone business and is the largest (and fastest-growing) PC manufacturer in the world. This move will enable Google to devote our energy to driving innovation across the Android ecosystem, for the benefit of smartphone users everywhere.'
Google however was quick to add that this does not signal a move away from their other hardware projects.
Additionally "Google will retain the vast majority of Motorola’s patents" which they hope to continue using to stabilize the android ecosystem.
The deal has yet to be approved by either the U.S. or China.
From the article: '...the smartphone market is super competitive, and to thrive it helps to be all-in when it comes to making mobile devices. It’s why we believe that Motorola will be better served by Lenovo—which has a rapidly growing smartphone business and is the largest (and fastest-growing) PC manufacturer in the world. This move will enable Google to devote our energy to driving innovation across the Android ecosystem, for the benefit of smartphone users everywhere.'
Google however was quick to add that this does not signal a move away from their other hardware projects.
Additionally "Google will retain the vast majority of Motorola’s patents" which they hope to continue using to stabilize the android ecosystem.
The deal has yet to be approved by either the U.S. or China.
Submission + - South Korean Court Rules That Phone Bloatware Must Be Deletable (zdnet.com) 1
_0x783czar writes: Starting this april, South Korea will require all phone vendors to allow pre-installed bloatware to be uninstalled. That's right, they will be able to get rid of all that pesky software without having to root their phones.
According to press release by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning: "The move aims to rectify an abnormal practice that causes inconvenience to smartphone users and causes unfair competition among industry players." They hope this will also increase the users' data storage and battery life.
From the article: "Under the new guidelines, telcos are required to make most of their pre-installed apps deletable except for four necessary items related to Wi-Fi connectivity, near-field communication (NFC), the customer service center and the app store."
It'd be nice if similar legislation where passed in the US and elsewhere.
According to press release by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning: "The move aims to rectify an abnormal practice that causes inconvenience to smartphone users and causes unfair competition among industry players." They hope this will also increase the users' data storage and battery life.
From the article: "Under the new guidelines, telcos are required to make most of their pre-installed apps deletable except for four necessary items related to Wi-Fi connectivity, near-field communication (NFC), the customer service center and the app store."
It'd be nice if similar legislation where passed in the US and elsewhere.
Submission + - Google Fiber launches in Provo -- and here's what it feels like (foxnews.com)
Velcroman1 writes: I’ve seen the future. It’s called gigabit Internet by Google Fiber, and it just launched in my hometown of Provo, Utah, the second of three scheduled cities to get speeds that are 100 times faster than the rest of America. “What good is really fast Internet if the content stays the same?” you may ask yourself. I certainly did, before testing the service. Besides, my “high speed” Internet from Comcast seemed fast enough, enabling my household to stream HD videos, load web pages quickly, and connect multiple devices as needed, largely without hiccup. I was wrong. Using gigabit Internet, even in its infancy, opened my eyes to speed and reminded me of why I love the Internet.
Submission + - How Microsoft can save itself in the mobile world (networkworld.com)
smaxp writes: Microsoft continues to pursue its fatal attraction to proprietary mobile devices, much like Michael Douglas pursued Glen Close in the 1987 movie Fatal Attraction.
Submission + - Apple continues Mac's 30th birthday celebrations with special window displays (9to5mac.com)
SlideModel writes: Apple will be distributing free t-shirts showing '3' followed by the Apple logo '3' and a 'Happy birthday, Mac' message apparently for Mac's 30th birthday celebration. Tip: Go to your local Apple store and if you see the window displays the celebratory LED showing '3' followed by the Apple logo '3', you may send photos to https://twitter.com/9to5mac
Submission + - FSF's Richard Stallman Calls LLVM A "Terrible Setback" (phoronix.com) 2
An anonymous reader writes: Richard Stallman has called LLVM a terrible setback in a new mailing list exchange over GCC vs. Clang. LLVM continues to be widely used and grow in popularity for different uses, but its under a BSD-style license rather than the GPL. RMS wrote, "For GCC to be replaced by another technically superior compiler that defended freedom equally well would cause me some personal regret, but I would rejoice for the community's advance. The existence of LLVM is a terrible setback for our community precisely because it is not copylefted and can be used as the basis for nonfree compilers — so that all contribution to LLVM directly helps proprietary software as much as it helps us. "
Submission + - The UK's porn filter is blocking the latest League of Legends update (gamasutra.com)
davecb writes: Courtesy of Gamasutra, we see the UK's so-called "porn" filter is blocking game updates. As well, of course, as filtering such unimportant things as political and sexual-health sites
Submission + - The Mac at 30: Original Reviews of Early Mac Models
snydeq writes: 30 years ago today Apple debuted the Macintosh, an iconic computer that among other things cost Steve Jobs his job. InfoWorld offers a retrospective of all the original reviews of the early Macintosh models, including the Macintosh ('will be compared to other machines not only in terms of its features but also in the light of the lavish claims and promises made by Apple co-founder Steven Jobs'), the Mac SE ('contains some radical changes, including room for a second internal drive and even a fan'), the Mac IIx ('a chorus of yawns'), and the Mac Portable ('you may develop a bad case of the wannas for this lovable [16-lb.] luggable'). Plus insights on the Macintosh II's prospects from Bill Gates: 'If you look at a product like Mac Word III on that full-page display, it's pretty awesome. ... But the corporate buyer is never going to be a strong point for Apple.'
Comment A whistle blower, blows the whistle on himself (Score 1) 860
This is so meta.
Comment April Fools (Score 1) 1
Look at the calendar, it's:
April Fools
Submission + - 3D Printer of Firearms Arrested. Domain Names Seized (defensedistributed.com)
schwit1 writes: defensedistributed.com and defcad.org were seized today by the DOJ as part of a larger operation that also saw the arrest of unnamed individuals associated with the company. The charges are extensive and include violating weapons export laws, money laundering and copyright violations.
GNOME 3.8 Released Featuring New "Classic" Mode 267
Hot on the heels of the Gtk+ 3.8 release comes GNOME 3.8. There are a few general UI improvements, but the highlight for many is the new Classic mode that replaces fallback. Instead of using code based on the old GNOME panel, Classic emulates the feel of GNOME 2 through Shell extensions (just like Linux Mint's Cinnamon interface). From the release notes: "Classic mode is a new feature for those people who prefer a more traditional desktop experience. Built entirely from GNOME 3 technologies, it adds a number of features such as an application menu, a places menu and a window switcher along the bottom of the screen. Each of these features can be used individually or in combination with other GNOME extensions."
Google Pledges Not To Sue Any Open Source Projects Using Their Patents 153
sfcrazy writes "Google has announced the Open Patent Non-Assertion (OPN) Pledge. In the pledge Google says that they will not sue any user, distributor, or developer of Open Source software on specified patents, unless first attacked. Under this pledge, Google is starting off with 10 patents relating to MapReduce, a computing model for processing large data sets first developed at Google. Google says that over time they intend to expand the set of Google's patents covered by the pledge to other technologies."
This is in addition to the Open Invention Network, and their general work toward reforming the patent system. The patents covered in the OPN will be free to use in Free/Open Source software for the life of the patent, even if Google should transfer ownership to another party. Read the text of the pledge. It appears that interaction with non-copyleft licenses (MIT/BSD/Apache) is a bit weird: if you create a non-free fork it appears you are no longer covered under the pledge.
