If you’re an Android junkie looking for a little Froyo love, today is a big day. At the Droid X event, Google’s Andy Rubin just announced that the Froyo source has finally been finalized and released to the masses — HTC, Moto, normal commoners like you and I…everyone.
Of course, now we start another waiting game as carriers have to put Froyo through their own tests. Rooted Android users will benefit sooner however, as turnaround on a new Android version usually sees a fairly stable ROM out within a day or two and rock solid ROM a few days thereafter.
Not much longer folks…
Every 15-20 years, we see a “retro wave” wash over society. Whether it be clothing, ideologies, or business models, old becoming new isn’t too uncommon. For one crafty modder, BenB, the whole “old is new” again was taken to a completely different level.
I bring you the Morse Code Keyboard…
We rag on Ubisoft pretty hard here. But it isn’t without merit. Ubi’s blind love for customer slaying DRM is disgusting and shameful. All the while Ubi goes on proclaiming how great it is for consumers and how much we love it….right. Blizzard on the other hand understands customers (and Ubi’s customers no less) as the company has come forward stating that they will be taking a different approach…
As the war rages on between the pros and cons of physical vs. digital game distribution, no clear winner has yet emerged. There’s a good reason for that — used games. With the control and ability to charge for every little aspect, game publishers are looking at DRM and the digital revolution to revitalize there sagging sales and “stop piracy”. Not to mention, since people already trade used games via file-sharing, any legal variant is essentially hopeless. And of course, greed clouds their decisions unfortunately. And if there’s a chance for corporate tight wads to wring us for more money, believe me, they’ll find it. And find it they did…
Oh sweet heavenly almighty power above. Can we have actually have our cake and eat it too? If Myriad, the clever minds behind Delvik Turbo, have their way, sugar highs and full stomachs will soon be coming to Android users. The core of Android is a special form of Java called Delvik. Delvik Turbo is an optimized form of said code. According to the claims of Myriad, the optimization is good for up to a 3x boost in the general speed of Android as well as dramatically increased battery life.
I’m dying to know more about this tweaked code. Things such as can it be implemented in current Android OS flavors? How hard is it to implement it? Will it cause any incompatibilities with current Android software/apps? And of course, how much actual battery life will we see gained? All important things that we probably won’t hear until the company makes some announcements at MWC. Stay tuned…
IntoMobile > Unwired
- December 17, 2009 8:10 am
Unmanned aircraft are one of the greatest tools the US Military currently has in their arsenal. The humanless aircraft are able to go into remote regions and zones that would otherwise be too dangerous or inhospitable for human engagement. The only human interaction with the aircraft comes by way of a guy sitting behind a little TV screen controlling a few buttons and joystiqs. Easy. Safe. Simple.
The data captured by these drones is as one would expect, highly classified as the usual missions for these bodiless wonders often consist of spying with an ultimate focus on be covert. Not being physically seen is good and all, but this is the 21st century. The world is becoming increasingly digital, opening up new doors for all kinds of bad guys and attack methods.
With that said, would it shock or surprise you to know that the US Military is having feeds from unmanned aircraft “hijacked”? According to the WSJ, insurgents abroad are basically pointing their satellites up into the sky and using a widely available $25 piece of software (aka: network snooper) to hone in and download the drone/unmanned aircraft’s video feeds sailing through the wireless airwaves. Naturally, this presents a fundamental national security problem. What good is sneaking up on the enemy with a drone if the enemy can see exactly where it’s going?
The question that comes to my mind first and foremost: Why is the US Military of all people using unencrypted video feeds in such a volatile area? You’d think given the insurgents insatiable appetite to blow us all away would make the US Military a tad more careful with these sorts of things. Any admission of this story whether an actual admission or flat out denial will never mean anything. Regardless, if they are in fact running drones around the world with any link in the system unencrypted, we’ll never know. It will ultimately be labeled a “false rumor” for all eternity as the military will deny deny deny.
Scary stuff.
CrunchGear
[Image Source]
It seems HTC is looking to make good on Android’s open roots. While certain manufacturers try everything in their power (and epic fail it everytime) to stop the public from tweaking the code as they see fit, HTC is taking a more friendly “let’s be friends” approach. Such a partnership will make happy developers whom will intern make happy users. It’s a nice fluffy bunny hugging circle. So far, the few manufacturers who have really tweaked Android such as HTC with Sense, Motorola with BLUR, and Sony with Rachel have done an amazing job. I can’t wait to see what a colony of nerds can come up with.
The Hero/Android Kernel, as well as many other Kernels can be found at developer.htc.com/. Hack away!
Ubergizmo
For the general population, browsers and the differences in between themselves are hardly a care. As long as they can get online, read their articles and pay their bills, the general population is a happy population. Therein lies the problem. While many things can continue on positively for years with the mentality of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, technology and the internet are not like that — not in the slightest. Case in point, a disproportionate amount of internet users are still using IE6, a browser that is now 9 years old! If you’re looking for a conversion into human years, 9 years in the technology world is way past dead in the human world (give or take a year or two).
The point is, IE6 is god awful though has stuck around due to a majority of users not knowing any better as well as IT departments either too lazy or too understaffed to upgrade/debug new problems. While it may run incredibly fast on older PC’s, web designers and pretty much anyone else that works in, with, or around websites knows just how much of a burden designing and coding a website for IE6 compatibility can be. Thankfully, to help you the end user remember these little things and to teach those less knowledgeable on the subject, I have joined the IE6 No More movement.
By embedding the code from the IE6 No More site, any user who comes here with IE6 will be presented with an unobtrusive banner at the very top alerting them to the ticking time bomb they are toying with while suggesting 4 other much more capable browsers eager to be called yours: Firefox 3.5, IE8, Safari 4, and Google Chrome 2.0. While it may not seem like much, converting users once PC at a time is all it takes. Again, while it may not mean much of anything for end users, web designers and website admins such as myself are always doing things 2, 3, 4 or more extra times just to make sure IE6 gets support.
The buck stops here folks. It’s time to welcome 2009 with open arms. If you are a website designer, website admin, or are simply tired of catering to an old and busted browser such as IE, stop on by the IE6 No More website, insert the code in your desired language, email your name, website, and website logo to the site, and enjoy some free publicity all for a good cause.
Source: Mashable
