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Communications

Google Announces "Open Phone" Coalition, No gPhone [Updated] 225

Posted by CmdrTaco from the well-isn't-that-special dept.
Ponca City, We Love You writes "USA Today has an advance story on Google's plans to announce a new operating system, geared specifically for cellphones with partners that include Sprint, Motorola, Samsung and Japanese wireless giant NTT DoCoMo. Although details won't be released until later today the new G-system will be based on Linux overlaid with Java and Google hopes to have a branded device ready for worldwide shipment by spring. Mobile Web browsing is notoriously slow and Google plans to change that by providing easy access to the Internet at PC-type speeds. Google plans to basically give away the software developer tools, used by programmers to write new applications. "If you're a developer, you'll be able to develop (applications) for the new Google Phone very quickly," said Morgan Gillis of the LiMo Foundation. AT&T and Verizon Wireless are noticeably absent from the coalition not wanting to support a device that favors Google over other providers. Sprint, the No. 3 carrier, supports the coalition, but it hasn't formally agreed to make the Google Phone available to its 54 million subscribers." Update 1727 GMT by SM: It's official, Google is releasing the mobile "Android" OS in place of the Google branded mobile phone that many expected.
Programming

Submission + - Elastic tabstops can now be used with spaces

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Remember elastic tabstops? Well, it seems that they've just been added to Gedit along with the ability to import and export files which use spaces to align columns. To see a screencast of it in action or download it, visit nickgravgaard.com/elastictabstops/#gedit

Now that this can inter-operate with the code standard I use at work (4 spaces) I just have to get Gedit running on my Windows machine...

Feed Optimus Maximus gets price and date (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Displays, Peripherals

After some OLED display supply issues and a few setbacks, it looks like Lebedev and company have finally settled on a launch date and price for the king of keyboard, the Optimus Maximus. Hold your breath, it'll be due late November (the 30th, to be specific) for $1536 US ("Shakespeare's birthday"). Bad news, we know, but the worst news is still to come: only 200 keyboards per month for November and December, and 400 keyboards are scheduled to be made next January. (On second thought, at over $1500 apiece, maybe that's not so few keyboards.) Ok, exhale, it's going to be alright.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Operating Systems

Submission + - macbookinux: the first Mac specialized penguin

Submitted by
aiop631
aiop631 writes: "A new project is under way to develop a Linux distribution designed especially for Macbooks: MacBook Linux. This distributions will have advanced Linux technologies built-in like Compiz, OpenOffice and KOffice for office tools, development tools like GCC and Java, and server technologies like Apache and Bind to turn your machine into a server. A powerful package management system similar to that of OS X will be available (yes, no dependency hell). The first stable release date is aimed for later this summer. This is part of a broader project to develop a Linux distribution family for Intel-powered Macs — that is, 3 Linux distributions specialized for MacBooks, MacBook Pros and Mac Pros."
Portables (Apple)

Submission + - Australian MacBook bursts into flames

Submitted by
Currawong
Currawong writes: "MacTalk Australia reports that one of its users has had their MacBook burst into flames, awaking in the middle of the night to find the MacBook, along with some magazines adjacent to where the MacBook was sitting, alight. His housemate stated that, "she heard it hissing like a steam valve, then smoke started pouring out of it and a couple of seconds later, a very large flash fire started." The owner stated that available charge in the battery of the 11 month old MacBook had become suddenly poor in the 3 weeks leading up to the fire, the day of the fire almost completely failing to work properly at all. Apple last year issued a recall of over 1 million batteries after issues with Sony manufactured batteries caught fire in Dell laptops. Since contacting Apple Australia, they have offered to replace the MacBook with a MacBook Pro and possibly compensate the owner for the damage caused, once they have determined the cause of the fire."
Portables (Apple)

Submission + - Another Macbook Fire

Submitted by dsgfh
dsgfh writes: Unfortunately for apple, another Macbook has gone up in flames over the weekend. Apparently not part of the original battery recall, the machine in question was in standby mode on a bookcase, plugged in to charge when it ignited at 3 in the morning. http://www.betanews.com/article/Apple_MacBook_Fire _Poses_New_Safety_Questions/1173715199 BTW... where's the Fire Breathing Batteries topic when I submit a story?
Portables (Apple)

Submission + - MacBook Battery fire, this time in Australia

Submitted by
Currawong
Currawong writes: "On MacTalk Australia, one of our users has had his MacBook's battery explode, telling us the frightening story of his girlfriend waking him in a panic at 3am after seeing his MacBook spontaneously catch fire in their kitchen. "[She]..said she heard it hissing like a steam valve, then smoke started pouring out of it and a couple of seconds later, a very large flash fire started. I'm sure you have read about these and seen the dell video. This is what happened to my macbook." We're now awaiting the response from Apple Australia to the owner, as it's the first time we know of they've had to deal with this issue."

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