20690114
submission
iluvcapra writes:
Google, in its continuing struggle to provide phone carriers (if not its end users) with an open platform, is now banning tethering apps from the Android market. These apps haven't disappeared and can still be sideloaded, insofar as your carrier doesn't lock this functionality or snoop on your packets.
20032472
submission
iluvcapra writes:
It would appear that now that Android has achieved a commanding share of the smartphone market, openness for the sake of openness is no longer a driving priority. Ashley Vance and Peter Burroughs report for Bloomberg on the latest phase of Google's consolidation of the Android platform:Over the last couple of months Google has reached out to the major carriers and device makers backing its mobile operating system with a message: There will be no more willy-nilly tweaks to the software. No more partnerships formed outside of Google's purview. From now on, companies hoping to receive early access to Google's most up-to-date software will need approval of their plans. And they will seek that approval from Andy Rubin, the head of Google's Android group.
19912254
submission
iluvcapra writes:
BusinessWeek reports that Google will not be releasing the source code for Android Honeycomb "for the forseeable future." Android lead Andy Rubin is quoted, stating that if Google were to release the source for Honeycomb, Google would be unable to prevent it from being installed on mobile phones and "and creating a really bad user experience."
4320741
submission
iluvcapra writes:
For those of you waiting vainly to get an iPhone that works with Verizon's service in the US (you know who you are, we won't make you admit it here), there comes this interesting story in BusinessWeekVerizon Wireless is warming to the idea of an Apple (AAPL) partnership. Verizon Wireless is in talks with Apple to distribute two new iPhone-like devices, BusinessWeek has learned. Apple has created prototypes of the devices, and discussions reaching back a half-year have involved Apple CEO Steve Jobs, according to two people familiar with the matter.
One device is a smaller, less expensive calling device described by a person who has seen it as an "iPhone lite." The other is a media pad that would let users listen to music, view photos, and watch high-definition videos, the person says. It would place calls over a Wi-Fi connection.
3512029
submission
iluvcapra writes:
In a remarkable provision of Peter Orzag's instructions for implementing the American Recovery and Re-Investment Act, the Office of Management and Budget has instructed all government units responsible for disbursing stimulus money to provide its weekly reports, communications and block grant information on an RSS feed. From the memo(PDF):For each of the near term reporting requirements (major communications, formula block grant
allocations, weekly reports) agencies are required to provide a feed (preferred: Atom 1.0,
acceptable: RSS) of the information so that content can be delivered via subscription. Note that
the required information can be supplied in the feed or the feed can point to a file at the agency
using the convention noted below. If an agency is immediately unable to publish feeds, the
agency should post each near term information flow (major communications, formula block
grant allocations, weekly reports) to a URL directory convention suggested below: ...
1726569
submission
iluvcapra writes:
Apple has open-sourced AutoZone, the garbage collector used in Mac OS X Leopard's Objective-C runtime, under the Apache v2 License. Despite its current use case in Objective-C, the engine itself is implemented in C and C++ and is described as "a fairly generic scanning, conservative, generational, multi-threaded, language agnostic, collector."
438732
submission
iluvcapra writes:
NORAD Tracks Santa 2007, NORAD's perennial mission of tracking the progress of Santa's sleigh as he makes his yearly sortie, has gone Web 2.0 this year, including a Google Maps mashup showing Santa's current position on Earth (at time of submission, Keetmanshoop, Namibia), a KML link to let you track Santa on Google Earth, and plots and keyhole imagery on youtube.
My only question: When Santa crosses into the ADIZ, what does he set his squawk to?
264249
submission
iluvcapra writes:
AT&T has announced that it will no longer by itemizing individual network accesses on its bills. This practice had lead to some humorous situations and a lot of wasted paper, causing even casual iPhone users to receive 20 or 30 page bills with long lists of data downloads (all, of course, covered under their plan).
256403
submission
iluvcapra writes:
Yesterday before a three-judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, the US government argued that two class action lawsuits against the government and AT&T should be dismissed, because to litigate them in open court would cause the revelation of state secrets. The lawsuits allege that the government has installed a vast system of electronic surveillance gear at internet gateways along the US west coast to monitor all internet traffic, and that this information is monitored without a warrant, even when both endpoints are domestic. The panel was extremely skeptical of the governments argument:
"Is it the government's position that when the country is engaged in a war, that the power of the executive when it comes to wiretapping is unchecked?" asked 83-year-old Judge Harry Pregerson, one of the court's staunchest liberals, of a Bush administration lawyer. "The king can do no wrong, is that what it comes down to?"
The government was unwilling to even provide a sworn affadavit that the eavesdropping was only of foreign correspondence. If the 9th Circuit allows the lawsuits to proceed, the government will appeal to the US Supreme Court.
