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Posts Tagged ‘open source’

Google Chrome OS gets detailed [Video]

By Chris Davies on Thursday, Nov 19th 2009 1 Comment

As expected, Google have released launch details about the Google Chrome OS platform, though there is no beta release today nor any netbooks actually running the OS to announce. The company intend Chrome OS to boot almost instantaneously, similar to a TV experience, and in fact it currently loads in just seven seconds; system stability and security is also paramount, with an encrypted user-data section, self-healing OS and complete cloud storage for files. While there’s no beta available today, Google is making the source code available for developers to download, compile and install.

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Video overviews after the cut

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Archos look to boost Android MID apps with €1 dev deal

By Chris Davies on Friday, Nov 13th 2009 No Comments

While we’ve been waiting for integrated 3G and carrier subsidies to bring the cost of the Archos 5 Android Internet Tablet down, if you’ve some developer skills and some time to kill there’s another way to get a cheap deal. Archos have announced a deal whereby developers can – eventually – get an Archos 5 for just €1; all they need to do is whip up an app for the 5-inch touchscreen MID.

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Google Chrome OS release in next 7 days?

By Chris Davies on Friday, Nov 13th 2009 No Comments

Google Chrome OS, the search giant's web-centric platform for notebooks, netbooks and Smartbooks, is tipped to be arriving sometime within the next seven days. According to TechCrunch's sources, the release of the new OS - which was announced back in July - is imminent, though there's also talk of patchy driver support.

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Spotify for Nokia N900 [Video]

By Chris Davies on Monday, Oct 26th 2009 No Comments

Nokia’s N900 is already enticing developers, but right now there’s not the same compelling catalog of applications as you might find, say, in the iPhone’s App Store. Happily that just leaves room for Maemo coders to fill with their own apps, such as a homebrew open-source Spotify application.

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Video demo after the cut

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HTC release Hero kernel source code: modders rub hands with glee

By Chris Davies on Thursday, Oct 22nd 2009 No Comments

HTC have quietly answered many Android developer’s prayers, and pushed out the kernel source code for the Hero smartphone. Available to download now – though admittedly of little use to most of us – it opens up the potential for much more modification of the Hero with custom ROMs.

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Android 2.0 detailed: Exchange & Facebook, simple YouTube uploads, more

By Chris Davies on Friday, Oct 16th 2009 No Comments

android 2 0 screenshots 1 Android 1.6 is only just rolling out to users of specific smartphones, but already we’re getting particularly excited about what’s set to occur in OS 2.0. The Boy Genius Report are doing nothing to minimize that excitement, either, with a photoset and run-through of just what’s going on in the latest 2.0 builds. Android 2.0 brings with it not only native Exchange support and a fresh – dare we say it “grown up” – new UI, but native Facebook integration, a unified email inbox and new Maps app.

Google have also obviously been working on streamlining usability, too, with more functional desktop widgets that step beyond mere shortcuts. You’ll be able to trigger a YouTube upload in literally two taps, from recording through titling and describing footage then squirting it off to the video sharing site, direct from the homescreen. Meanwhile, while there’s no multitouch support in either the browser or the new, layer-toting Google Maps app, there is double-tap to zoom.

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monome turned into DIY low-res Twitter display [Video]

By Chris Davies on Friday, Oct 16th 2009 No Comments

In an ideal world someone would read this and send me a monome of my own to play with, but the button-encrusted control surfaces are in short supply (and not too cheap). Since controlling music isn’t the sole use of a monome, but still the task most people connect them with, some owners are pushing forward their DIY projects showing that a monome can be pretty much anything you have the imagination for: here, Robert Böhnke repurposes his as a low-res Twitter display.

Video demo after the cut

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Android arriving on Creative Zii EGG next week

By Chris Davies on Friday, Oct 16th 2009 No Comments

Creative’s Zii EGG developer unit has been on sale for some time now, but it’s taken the company a little time to deliver the promised Android update. However, according to a Twitter message from the Zii team, ZiiLABS will be releasing the Android installer “next week”.

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Nokia N900 video unboxing

By Chris Davies on Monday, Oct 12th 2009 7 Comments

The Nokia N900 was the stand-out device from Nokia World back in September, and we’ve been tracking the Maemo 5 smartphone ever since. Imagine our surprise, then, when a pre-release N900 dropped onto the SlashGear test bench today; the hardware is final, so the 5-megapixel autofocus Carl Zeiss camera is onboard, together with HSPA, WiFi b/g, a 3.5-inch 800 x 480 touchscreen and slide-out QWERTY keyboard, and you can check out our video unboxing and gallery after the cut.

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Nokia port Qt to Maemo 5, promise N900 compatibility [Video]

By Chris Davies on Friday, Oct 9th 2009 No Comments

Nokia have already been pretty upfront about their intentions with the cross-platform Qt framework and Maemo, but the company has just pushed out an official Qt port to Maemo 5 in the form of a “technology preview” release. Contrary to earlier news that Qt wouldn’t play nicely with Maemo 5, the OS which the Nokia N900 will run, but only Maemo 6 (expected in late 2010), the Qt port “is designed specifically to work within the Maemo 5 environment”.

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