Apple has made its Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC) open-source, the company's codec for compressing audio files without losing data - and hence music fidelity - along the way. Introduced to OS X back in 2004, and now supported on Macs, in iTunes, on iPods, iPhones and iPads, ALAC is also used in AirPlay on the AirPort Express.
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‘open source’ Stories
Apple Lossless Audio Codec goes Open-Source
MeeGo morphs into Tizen as Intel and Samsung take charge
Confusion around MeeGo continues, with the news that the open-source platform is to transition into Tizen, a new, similarly open-source OS targeting smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, netbooks and ICE systems. Hosted by The Linux Foundation and with development powered by Intel, Samsung and the MeeGo team itself - which promises that MeeGo users and developers should have a relatively easy time of it, shifting across to Tizen – the new platform is expected to be released in Q1 2012 in both OS and SDK form.
Android favorites: Early code for Google obedience
Details on Google’s so-called “lead device concept” have emerged as part of the Oracle case evidence the search giant hoped to withhold, outlining a potential policy of granting early access to hardware partners that toe the line. “Give early access to the software to partners who build and distribute devices to our specification” the internal presentation FOSSPatents dug through suggests, under the section in which Google examines ways it can benefit from a freely-distributed OS. “Do not develop in the open” is another strategy, “instead, make source code available after innovation is complete.”
Google challenges Lodsys but Android faces legal firestorm over source sluggishness
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.
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Android “openness” a myth say researchers
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.
Qbo robot gets cloud-based crowdsourced object ID system [Video]
Open-source robot Qbo continues to make its way to autonomy, with a new video demo showing the Linux-based DIY 'bot capable of learning to recognize people and objects. Developers The Corpora have also previewed a cloud-based object learning system, which will allow Qbo units to crowdshare the data and thus recognize local objects initially identified by other Qbo 'bots elsewhere in the world.
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Qbo open-source robot gives autonomy demo, warts & all [Video]
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.
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Google WebRTC browser voice/video chat released to take on Skype and FaceTime
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.
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MeeGo 1.2 released for phones, tablets, netbooks & in-car kit
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.
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$5m Google fine over Linux patent suit as clouds gather around Android momentum
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."
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Facebook Announces Open Compute Project
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.
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Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt: Rubin’s Android Fudge
“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.
REVIEWS
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