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Submission + - Sub-$100 Android 4.0 Tablet Coming Soon (itworld.com)

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jfruhlinger
jfruhlinger writes: "One of the reasons the iPad has stayed at the top of the tablet heap for so long is that — in contrast with the story of the Mac and PC 25 years ago — the iPad has remained competitive with its rivals on price. That may be starting to change, with cheaper tablets like the Amazon Fire coming to market. And now, the sub-$100 Novo7 is on sale in China, sporting Android 4.0. It promises to arrive in the U.S. for a similar price point soon."
Android

Submission + - Android And The GPL: Lawyer Continues Crusade (itworld.com) 1

Submitted by
jfruhlinger
jfruhlinger writes: "Edward Naughton has been insisting for months that Android violates the GPL because Google created a new set of Linux kernel headers that it hasn't released the source code for, despite the fact that it incorporates open source code. While numerous commentators, including those who helped write the kernel headers, claimed this code isn't copyrightable, Naughton in persisting in his crusade, saying that the questions need to be resolved in court for the good of the open source movement."
Android

Submission + - B&N Releases Nook Tablet To Rival Amazon Fire (itworld.com)

Submitted by
jfruhlinger
jfruhlinger writes: "It looks like there's competition in the low-cost media tablet space — and that Barnes & Noble is determined not to go the way of Borders. Barnes & Noble today announced the Nook Tablet, an Android-based tablet with better specs than the Kindle Fire (though it's also $50 pricier). The Nook Tablet will allow Hulu and Netflix streaming and sideloading of content, but won't have access to the general-purpose Android App Store."
Android

Submission + - Ballmer Slams Android As 'Cheap,' Overcomplicated (itworld.com) 1

Submitted by
jfruhlinger
jfruhlinger writes: "On the day Android Ice Cream Sandwich was released, Steve Ballmer livened up the Web 2.0 conference by lobbing potshots at Google's mobile OS, calling it the choice of "cheap" phones and claiming "the biggest advantage we have over Android is that you don’t need to be a computer scientist to use a Windows Phone.""
Android

Submission + - EU: Android 2.3 (Not 3.0) Violates Apple Patents (itworld.com)

Submitted by
jfruhlinger
jfruhlinger writes: "A Dutch court came to some interesting conclusions in the Apple-Samsung patent case raging there. The court rejected claims that Samsung stole intellectual copyrights, or that it slavishly copied Apple's iPad and iPhone. It did decide that Android 2.3 violated an Apple photo management patent — but said that Samsung could get around this simply by upgrading its phones to Android 3.0."
Android

Submission + - FSF Uses Android FUD To Push GPL3 (itworld.com)

Submitted by
jfruhlinger
jfruhlinger writes: "We've already seen claims from Edward Naughton and Florian Mueller that most Android distributors are in violation of the GPL — claims that the open source community has for the most part rejected. Therefore it's disheartening to see that the FSF is using this line of reasoning to push the GPL v3 over the supposedly more troublesome GPL v2. The FSF's press release on the subject emphasizes "worries" without bringing up a specific concrete case of infringement — a classic FUD technique."
Android

Submission + - Does Android Violate The GPL? Not So Fast (itworld.com)

Submitted by
jfruhlinger
jfruhlinger writes: "Patent gadfly Florian Mueller's latest post has made a fairly bold claim: that virtually all Android licensees are violating the GPL because of their failure to redistribute the code, and have thus lost their rights to redistribute Android. Mueller here is mostly promoting ideas put across by patent lawyer Edward J. Naughton. But others in the community are skeptical of the claims. Software Freedom Conservancy head Bradley Kuhn says he's never heard from Naughton. "Don't you think if he was really worried about getting a GPL or LGPL violation resolved, he'd contact the guy in the world most known for doing GPL enforcement and see if I could help?""
Android

Submission + - Google Killing Accounts, Leaving Androids Orphaned (itworld.com) 2

Submitted by
jfruhlinger
jfruhlinger writes: "As we've heard in cases of pseudonym-users in Google+, or in the case of Dylan Marcheschi that went viral last week, Google can kill your account at any time — and since Google is keen on tying your account to its entire range of services, that means you could lose data stored everywhere from Gmail to Picasa. Blogger Dan Tynan examined one particular aspect of this problem — namely, the plight of someone who's been Google-executed and who uses an Android phone."
Android

Submission + - Did Google Knowingly Violate Java Patents? (itworld.com)

Submitted by
jfruhlinger
jfruhlinger writes: "Opponents of software patenting have been rather heartened by recent developments in the Oracle-Google lawsuit, which have seemed to indicate that Oracle's patent case is weakening. But now the judge in the case has some sharp questions for Google, given that Google tried to negotiate with Sun over the patents in question before going on to develop Android without them."
Android

Submission + - Why No War Over MS's Android Patent Shakedown? (itworld.com)

Submitted by
jfruhlinger
jfruhlinger writes: "When challenged directly by Oracle over Android intellectually property, Google has proven itself a feisty opponent. So why is it sitting back and letting Microsoft shake down OEMs over its claims to own patents that Android infringes? A disheartened Tom Henderson thinks it's because Microsoft has been smart to go after the vendors rather than poke at Google directly. Still, he wonders when Google will get into the fight."
Android

Submission + - Is Android Linux? (itworld.com)

Submitted by
jfruhlinger
jfruhlinger writes: "The relationship between Linux and Android is on a technical level not hard to grasp — there's a shared kernel, but the application and interface layers are quite different. But, as Brian Proffitt points out, there are differences of philosophy and of community — which hasn't stopped Adobe from touting its Andoid dev tools as proof of its devotion to Linux."
Android

Submission + - Are Third-Party Android Vendors Violating The GPL? (itworld.com)

Submitted by
jfruhlinger
jfruhlinger writes: "Google's refusal to not release Honeycomb source code is kosher because the code in question is released under the Apache license. But the kernel at the heart of Android is GPL'd, which means that code must be released. Google has actually been a good citizen in this regard — but many third-party Android vendors, not so much. While Asus has released their code, there are a host of comanies that seem to have not done so, and Matthew Garrett is maintaining a list."
Android

Submission + - Who's Behind The Google-Linux License Ruckus? (itworld.com)

Submitted by
jfruhlinger
jfruhlinger writes: "Yesterday, news broke that Android might have a Linux copyright problem, which would be big trouble for Google, already locked in an IP struggle with Oracle over the mobile platform. Blogger Brian Proffitt looks deeper into the alleged violations. He notes that, while it's possible that Google's on shaky ground, the motivations behind the news release are murky: the lawyer who outlined the violation is an ex-Microsoft hand, and the news was widely propogated by gadfly Florian Mueller, who's tangled with Google over patent issues in the past. Moreover, the alleged violations are in header files, and it's not clear that those are copyrightable; if they are, no actual copyright holders have come forward to complain."
Android

Submission + - Can Android Without Dalvik Avoid Oracle's Wrath?? (itworld.com)

Submitted by
jfruhlinger
jfruhlinger writes: "Despite the fact that Oracle is suing Google over claims that Android violates Java IP, Android is roaring ahead in the marketplace. Still, some groups are wondering if they can implement Android without incurring Oracle's current or future wrath by avoiding the Dalvik VM. A project called IcedRobot aims to create a GNU-compatible version of Android, and rumors abound that RIM is planning on putting a OpenJDK-version of Android on its upcoming PlayBook tablets."
Android

Submission + - Motorola Adopting 3 Laws Of Robotics For Android (itworld.com)

Submitted by jfruhlinger
jfruhlinger writes: Android's popularity is growing, but its lack of enterprise security features is making IT departments pull their hair out. Two of the biggest Android vendors, Motorola and Samsung, aren't waiting for Google, but are building their own security functionality into the devices they sell. Motorola's version is apparently based on Asimov's Three Laws or Robotics, though the order is tweaked: The device must protect the user, protect itself, and obey the user, in that order.

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