Archive for: development
- January 21, 2011 11:34 am
It’s a bad day to be a Google and avid Android distributor (such as your typical cellular carrier), as tech patent aficionado Florian Mueller, has found some rather startling finds whilst trudging through mountains of Android source code. In relation to the ongoing Oracle/Google lawsuit involving Android and it’s apparent patent infringement of Java, Mueller has found 37 Android source files contain blatantly stolen code from Oracle as they are labeled with:
PROPRIETARY / CONFIDENTIAL” and “DO NOT DISTRIBUTE” by Oracle / Sun
Google obviously already knows the code is there. The carriers and other distributors of Android devices, however, aren’t likely to be all that thrilled. Let us not forget that Motorola and HTC have already been hit with patent infringement lawsuits for some of Android’s (and Google’s) little Java-copying issue. Looks like Google’s defense just got a much heavier load to pull…
Geohot is Sony’s new best enemy thanks to his efforts in giving back functionality to end users that Sony has stripped away. But it appears that while Sony whittles away at his finances and self image, a new friendship is being born. An “entrepreneur on loan” to Microsoft, @BrandonWatson, sent Geohot a tweet stating that the Windows Phone 7 development team would give him a Windows Phone 7 dev phone if he contacted the group via email — a bold, but much needed move by Microsoft. By offering a helping hand (however big or small) to a very prominent developer, especially a developer in the middle of a legal battle because of his “open” nature, Microsoft is giving Windows Phone 7′s brand image a much needed boost in the developer support department.
We don’t know if Geohot took up Watson on his offer, though the hacker did voice interest on his own Twitter account in recent weeks of purchasing a Windows Phone 7 device out of pocket. Either way, it’s a fresh change of events considering Apple and Sony’s current views on the matter.
The web was up in arms yesterday over a statement on an updated Apple Developer Documentation detailing how Java on OS X would be deprecated (read: outdated, with the ceasing of updates) moving forward. Naturally, with countless Java-based programs already deployed for OS X, the associated Java-developers were concerned. Almost instantaneously, rumors started circulating as to the cause of the decision, with reasonings ranging from keeping Java apps out of the new Mac store to Apple just being Apple.
But a clearer picture is forming. A concerned developer, Scott Fraser, from Portico Systems fired off an email to Steve Jobs concerning the issue at hand, to which Steve replied with the following:
“Sun (now Oracle) supplies Java for all other platforms,” Jobs replied. “They have their own release schedules, which are almost always different than ours, so the Java we ship is always a version behind. This may not be the best way to do it
Fair enough. It sounds harmless. Are your nerves calmed, or do you have conspiracy theories still flinging around in your cranium?
For the full email, check out Scott Fraser’s Flickr account.
- September 9, 2010 9:18 am
Apple certianly knows how to grab headlines. First it was for banning 3rd party tools for iPhone development purposes. At the time of the announcement, it was an obvious attack against Adobe and their CS5 Flash tools that could then be ported over to iPhone-specific code. Adobe has since abandoned development of said tool. But fast forward a month and a half and we now have Apple back tracking on those rules.
Their is one small thing that still needs to be followed, however. Third party tools must not create apps which require downloading 3rd party code. Seems simple enough, doesn’t it? There will certainly be all kinds of rekindled controversy and discussion on the whole iOS development issue in the coming weeks as consumers (that care) and developers alike respond in what I’d call…surprise. Are you…surprised?
The bigger question is how Adobe will respond. Will they restart development on iOS development tools, or has that ship already sailed?
It’s a simple question with a not so simple answer. For the last few years, online video has exploded. With that explosion is the need for a high quality format that can compress all of those bits to the smallest possible sizes while retaining the most pristine quality. So far, h.264 has been the crowd favorite. But in the coming years (near coming years), the free price tag on h.264 will go away as it is a proprietary format. What then?
Time and time again we have seen Apple employ utter incompetence, double standards, and plain stupidity when it comes to accept/reject decisions within their approval process. They’ve received their fair share of criticism and at times, warranted a few pats on the back along the way. Sadly, incompetence still runs wild as the recent rejection (and eventually approved) of Pulitzer prize winner Mark Fiore’s comic satire app showed us. But more disturbing than simple incompetence and stupidity is the effect that Apple’s problems have on the technological market as a whole.
Being a BlackBerry user is both rewarding and painful. One one hand, you have one of the best platforms for messaging — whatever type it is — and rock solid stability. However, on the other hand you have a platform that let’s face it, in the consumer age is falling behind faster and faster with each passing day. Just look at the BlackBerry browser — it’s a joke. RIM might as well not even include it for consumer oriented BlackBerries because it’s so slow, renders for crap, and is all around terrible. The BlackBerry platform as a whole needs some dramatic revelation.
And that is precisely why Skyfire for BlackBerry is no more. *Gasps!* Yes, that browser that was shown off a couple months back was quite a looker even in it’s beta stage. It easily beat the pants off the stock BB browser and was promising enough from early previews to even unseat Opera Mini and Bolt. But again, that may not ever be.
According to the Skyfire team, because of the unrefined and frankly, outdated BlackBerry platform when compared to more modern mobile OS’s such as Android, Windows Phone 7, and the iPhone, the BlackBerry is lacking. The biggest culprit as highlighted by the Skyfire team is the inconsistence, scattered nature of BlackBerry API’s and the downright laughable Java machine that is present.
With all of this new found time on their hands, what will the Skyfire team do to pass the team? Work on their Android port of course! Good news for Android users, not so much for Berry users. Looks like the only saving grace BlackBerry aficionados have now is waiting for RIM to rollout that webkit-based browser they’ve been so feverishly busy on.
Any of the aforementioned geeks and/or camps care to weigh in?
IntoMobile > Skyfire
WinMo and Windows Phone users hoping for a little mobile Firefox love thanks to the exceptionally good looking (and performing) “Fennec” will be utterly depressed to the point of no return this morning to learn that the mobile Firefox team has canceled any and all work on the mobile Microsoft build. They chalk it up to Microsoft’s new development rules going into Windows Phone 7, namely the restriction on apps running in native code, instead requiring managed code through the likes of Silverlight and XNA. This small blurb appeared on the WinMo Fennec team’s blog:
While we think Windows Phone 7 looks interesting and has the potential to do well in the market, Microsoft has unfortunately decided to close off development to native applications. Because of this, we won’t be able to provide Firefox for Windows Phone 7 at this time. Given that Microsoft is staking their future in mobile on Windows Mobile 7 (not 6.5) and because we don’t know if or when Microsoft will release a native development kit, we are putting our Windows Mobile development on hold.
So, ya. It pretty much sucks. In theory they could still build for WinMo. But with Windows Phone 7 being light years ahead of WinMo in every way, why bother? It isn’t so much the Fennec team’s fault I guess. I’m not a software developer so I have no idea the ramifications/limitations/benefits of Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 requirements. All I know is that the mobile browser scene for WinMo/Windows Phone just became a little less exciting.
How are you feeling?
Unwired
- February 23, 2010 1:28 pm
If you’re still using IE 6 on your own terms, turn of the computer now. For the rest of you being forced by “the man”, you have my sympathies. IE 6 is the poster child for living well past your prime. Thankfully YouTube and Google are coming around and realizing that at some point, the madness has to stop. For IE 6 related madness, March 13th is the end of all days according to a fairly invasive new banner/page that is displayed when visiting the video hub on said browser.
Ok, maybe not “end of all” days as you’ll still be able to go to YouTube via IE 6 and fill your eye balls with all kinds of motion picture goodness. “End of most days” seems more appropriate.
Any visits after March 13th made on IE 6 will still result in a rather normal video watching experience. It’s just that any new and spiffy features that get added after the fact probably won’t work on IE 6. It’s just too…well, old.
It’s ok though. While you move on to a new favorite browser, IE 6 will live on within the locked confines of stubborn/stagnant/lazy corporations and dark, dingy basements of technologically incompetent people alike. Anyone want to admit they’re still using IE 6…for any reason?
ArsTechnica
