MOBODOJO » Technology News

Shocking Revelation: No More Palm OS

Tyler Regas — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 07:41:10 +0000

Ok, maybe I’m being a little too sarcastic, but Ed Colligan, CEO of Palm Inc., has announced that Palm will no longer produce any products based on the Palm OS. This all went down at a recent investor conference. The general idea, according to Colligan, is that Palm will focus on a small number of innovative products which run webOS and continue to support WinMo devices for enterprise. Apparently this means that the recently delayed Palm Treo Pro which runs WinMo will be released after all.

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MacFUSE 2.0 Hits The Shelves

Tyler Regas — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 06:58:47 +0000

I’m not going to claim that I fully understand exactly what MacFUSE is supposed to offer. Here’s a snippet from the FAQ which you may grok, “MacFUSE is software that allows you to write arbitrary file systems as user-space programs.” Hunh? There is one thing it does which I get through and through. MacFUSE allows you to access all kinds of file systems. Simply put, this means you can read and write NTFS, ext2, and ZFS file systems on your Mac (Mac OS X can already read and write to FAT32 volumes up to 32GB). Apparently, it can do quite a bit more. If someone is willing to explain file systems like YouTubeFS, LoggedFS, GmailFS, WikipediaFS, and about a million others I’m listening!

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Maemo 5 SDK Now Available

Tyler Regas — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 21:00:57 +0000

If, like me, you are a fan of Nokia’s Internet Tablet line (the IT770, N800, and N810 Wi-Fi and WiMax editions) then you may be interested to learn that Maemo.org has announced the availability of the Maemo 5 SDK. Be aware, however, that Maemo 5 represents two known significant shifts and one possible wicked addition. The two significant shifts are that a) current Maemo software will no longer work on Maemo 5 devices and b) the final actual release OS will not run on hardware which does not run an OMAP3 processor. This means that your 770s, 800s, and 810s will not get a complete or real version of Maemo 5.

The wicked addition, however, may just make up for it. Word is that the new hardware will very likely feature a 3G radio. Since there’s already a WiMAX version of the N810 out, this means that our beloved devices might just come with a SIM slot. Woot. Other positive news is that there will be discreet video hardware in place with 3D acceleration. I just hope they can that god-awful thumbboard from the N810. Its hard as hell to push keys and there’s not enough feedback. LinuxDevices has a nice piece on this. Here’s a link to Maemo.org, as well.

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Google Offering Unlocked HTC G1 For Devs

Tyler Regas — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 07:03:14 +0000

Google has announced that they are now offering an unlocked and unattached version of the HTC G1 Android phone to developers through their website. The reason I’m only showing you the back of the unit is because that’s the only physical difference it has with the ones available via T-Mobile. After you pony up the US$25 required to register as a developer, you can then cough up another US$399 for the handset itself. The unit is designed for development and not regular use, so you’ll have to provide your own SIM card.

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AMD And Its Bobcat/Conesus/Congo Mess

Tyler Regas — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:29:25 +0000

I used to have a great deal more patience for certain things when I was younger. Now that I’m moving into my pre-”crotchety” (such a dramatically unpleasant term, really) phase I’m not so willing to sit around and ready unecessarily technical blatherings from some young pup. To sum it all up, AMD has apparently dumped the “Bobcat” codename but chooses to deny it, or so says El Reg. Instead they have a ridiculously complex series of codenames coming out, all of which are very annoying in comparison to Intel’s nice and clean “Atom” line. If you would like to end the day with a dark cloud over your head, go hear and read.

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Seagate Moving To SSD In 2009

Tyler Regas — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 03:50:19 +0000

Seagate has announced that it will start shifting its drive line to SSD (Solid-state Drive) in 2009. They will start with the corporate markets and then move to consumers. Seagate certainly isn’t the first to start making this move and its not the last, but it may be one of the more significant players in the hard drive space. Only time will tell.

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Debian Gets On Neo FreeRunner

Tyler Regas — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 23:43:57 +0000

Debian has announced that they have created a version of their popular variant of a Linux-based operating system for the Neo FreeRunner. The Neo FreeRunner is the first fully open source phone. Even the physical case designs are available to anyone who wants a crack at it. Debian claims that this now means that there are 20,000 apps now for the FreeRunner. I have to say that I have some doubts that GIMP will work well on the little handset, but I could be wrong. Otherwise, nice work, folks!

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Windows 3.11 Getting Flushed

Tyler Regas — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:34:55 +0000

Bad news, embedded system developers. Microsoft has announced that Windows 3.11, also known as Windows for Workgroups, will no longer be offering the powerful and capable 16-bit operating system which runs on top of MS-DOS (as well as a handful of other advanced Disk Operating Systems) for licensing to embedded systems developers after November 1st of 2008. That’s this year, folks! Yikes!!

The simple reality is that Real-time versions of Linux and other RTOS have been driving Windows 3.11 out of the market, and Microsoft just saw the writing on the wall. Now embedded developers will be stuck with the ridiculously bloated and resource intensive Windows 95 and have to delve into the often nasty and unpredictable world of bit twunking. Egads!

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Google Cracks Lid On Android

Tyler Regas — Fri, 30 May 2008 06:28:41 +0000

If the iPhone just isn’t for you, then Google has an option, and its called Android. No, its not a robot, its a mobile handset OS. Now, before you follow the link, know that the people over at Android Community are stark, raving mad. Yes, they’re lunatics and then some. They have six videos and at least 50 images of Android in action, an event Google set up. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. If you’re ready, here’s the link.

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Apple Releases iPhone SDK Beta 6

Tyler Regas — Fri, 30 May 2008 06:20:32 +0000

Wanna make apps for the iPhone? So do a lot of people. Its easy to do, if you can code. Just hop on over to Apple’s Developer Connection, get a free account, and download the SDK. Just be aware that all development needs to happen on a Mac OS X-capable machine. Oh, and if you don’t have an iPhone to test on, there’s a conveniently provided emulator. Nice, eh?