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‘open source’ Stories

Google challenges Lodsys but Android faces legal firestorm over source sluggishness

Chris Davies, Aug 15th 2011 Discuss [1]

Google has further waded into the ongoing mobile patent saga, joining Apple in calling for re-examination of IP it argues should never have been granted in the first place. "We’ve asked the US Patent Office to reexamine two Lodsys patents that we believe should never have been issued" the search giant's general counsel Kent Walker told Wired, referring to the same company targeting iOS developers over what it alleges is misuse of in-app payments systems. However, there are also fresh reports that poor handling of source code release by OEMs using Android have, in fact, left them in violation of the GPL v.2 open-source license, and have as a result lost their Linux distribution rights. Read The Full Story

Android “openness” a myth say researchers

Chris Davies, Aug 4th 2011 Discuss [26]

Android‘s much-vaunted “open source” credentials do not mean the OS is “open”, researchers have suggested, finding that Google’s platform is actually severely lacking in comparison to other open-source software. Google’s refusal to release a public roadmap, unilinear development decisions and “closed contributions process model” all leave it behind rivals like MeeGo and Symbian, VisionMobile concludes, with Android’s success being attributed more to Google’s deep pockets and a general fear of Apple dominance than anything else.

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Qbo open-source robot gives autonomy demo, warts & all [Video]

Chris Davies, Jul 5th 2011 Discuss [1]

We've been tracking the Qbo open-source robot for over a year now, as creator TheCorpora aims to turn it into the Ford Model T of experimental robotics. Now there's a new video of the Qbo in action, with the endearing 'bot reacting autonomously to users by virtue of its computer vision algorithms, rather than using simple proximity sensors like, say, a robot vacuum cleaner. Read The Full Story

Google WebRTC browser voice/video chat released to take on Skype and FaceTime

Chris Davies, Jun 1st 2011 Discuss [7]

Google has released a developer preview of WebRTC, its open real-time voice and video chat system that uses HTML and JavaScript to put video and audio conferencing into the browser. Billed as an easy way for developers to add video/voice chat to their products, with no royalties and little in the way of technical hurdles, WebRTC has ambitions to usurp platforms like Microsoft-owned Skype and Apple FaceTime as the open alternative. Read The Full Story

MeeGo 1.2 released for phones, tablets, netbooks & in-car kit

Chris Davies, May 20th 2011 Discuss [1]

MeeGo 1.2 has been released, with support for Intel Atom and ARMv7 based devices including phones, tablets, netbooks and in-vehicle systems. The updated OS includes broad telephony and connectivity support, such as HSPA+, WiFi/Bluetooth/USB tethering and VPN, along with various sensor and haptic feedback APIs. Read The Full Story

$5m Google fine over Linux patent suit as clouds gather around Android momentum

Chris Davies, Apr 22nd 2011 Discuss [4]

Google has become the first victim of a Linux patent infringement case, fined $5m by a Texas court and facing potential legal repercussions that could significantly impact Android development. The suit, filed by Bedrock Computer Technologies, alleged Google - as well as various other big-name companies, including Amazon, Softlayer, PayPal, AOL and Yahoo! - had infringed a patent covering "methods and apparatus for information storage and retrieval using a hashing technique with external chaining and on-the-fly removal of expired data." Read The Full Story

Facebook Announces Open Compute Project

Samia Perkins, Apr 7th 2011 Discuss [3]

Facebook announced the Open Compute Project today on Facebook live, hoping to share the innovations the company developed at its Prineville, Oregon data center. We watched the company's press event today at its Palo Alto headquarters, in which CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained that Facebook's new features have necessitated a more efficient data system. So Facebook has built a new system from the ground up, and they are now opening it up, making the server and data center designs and schematics freely available. Read The Full Story

Columns

Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt: Rubin’s Android Fudge

Chris Davies, Apr 7th 2011 Discuss [6]

“I think I’m having a Gene Amdahl moment” Andy Rubin opened his Android openness piece with, referring to the ex-IBM engineer’s notorious “fear, uncertainty and doubt” quote that has matured into a catch-all term shorthand for using disinformation to build doubt around your competitors. To be fair there’s plenty of confusion to go around: claims attributed to OHA partners that Google was prioritizing only those who would kow-tow to its UI demands, attempting to block devices that switched out its own search for that of Microsoft’s Bing, and limiting code access to a cabal of favorites.

Serious allegations when you’ve built your platform on the promise of open access and flexibility. As we pointed out last week, there are several good reasons why Google would benefit from clamping down – at least a little – in the name of anti-fragmentation, but Rubin is keen to validate Android’s free-spirited ethos. Nonetheless, there are holes where we’d like to see facts.

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Android still open insists Google’s Andy Rubin; Anti-fragmentation rumors are FUD

Chris Davies, Apr 7th 2011 Discuss [5]

Google's Andy Rubin has stepped up to address concerns over Android fragmentation and rumors that the search giant is clamping down on modifications to the open-source OS. Challenging reports last week that Google had embarked on a new, stricter policy toward manufacturers altering Android, giving priority to those companies who left the OS in its untampered state, Rubin insisted that there was no "one size fits all" solution and that the delay in releasing the Android 3.0 Honeycomb source code "does not represent a change in strategy." Read The Full Story

Android Ice Cream to pull Google TV, phone & tablet strands into one

Chris Davies, Apr 4th 2011 Discuss [4]

Google's apparent Android Ice Cream intentions may be broader than a bowl of the cold stuff, according to the latest rumors. In fact, the search giant is tipped to merge the AOSP of not only Android 2.3 Gingerbread and 3.0 Honeycomb, says GTVSource's tipster, but Google TV as well, creating one single project for all three code bases. And, so the source continues, it'll all be announced at Google I/O 2011 in May. Read The Full Story

Qbo open-source robot no longer naked

Chris Davies, Mar 9th 2011 Discuss [0]

It's been a while since we've seen movement from the Qbo open-source robot project; last we heard, the tubby little 'bot had been fully spec'd up and the company was hard at work on speech recognition and a custom Ubuntu OS. Now the company has taken delivery of a whole heap of final chassis molds, ready to clad the naked Qbo you can see waiting patiently for its new outfit. Read The Full Story