Archive for: os
Finally: Windows 7 is about to do (or already done) what Vista should have done several years ago — overtake Windows XP in total market share. According to the latest StatCounter metrics (pictured above) Windows 7 has finally edged out Windows XP in market share. The 10-year veteran continues its decent into the realms of locked IT cabinets and recycle bins as Microsoft’s latest and greatest finally woos people over, unlike their previous attempt with Vista. Overall, it’s pretty joyous and simultaneously sad that a 10-year old OS is finally being unseated from its reign at the top.
The next big test: Consumer adoption of Windows 8 vs. Windows 7.
Android rooters will be pleased to know that CyanogenMod 7.0 has finally hit stable/release status. The announcement comes after several months of beta after beta and continuous testing. Updates over the previous 6.x versions include a new core built off of the latest Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread release and many other new features meticulously detailed in the official changelog. Despite an increasing amount of ROM developers jumping into the game, Cyanogenmod remains one of the top go-to choices for Android users in search of good, clean custom ROMs.
If you give CyanogenMod 7.0 a try, be sure to let us know how it goes for ya!
The often forgotten other open source mobile operating system, MeeGo, just received some fresh support by way of a source code release in the form of an SDK. The MeeGo team hopes that in releasing said code in a more digestible format that developers will more readily accept the MeeGo platform. Thus far, however, few hardware manufacturers have jumped on board the MeeGo train. Instead, the likes of Google and Apple have mostly dominated the smartphone/tablet market that MeeGo is designed for. But perhaps a little developer love will help move things along, no?
In recent days we’ve seen a lot of back and forth commentary as to whether the Windows Phone 7 NoDo update utilities are actually harmful to future updates. Developer of ChevronWP7.Updater, Chris Walsh has maintained that his utility isn’t flawed. Naysayers have said that it has the potential to prevent future updates from happening. And today, Microsoft weighed in on the issue with their own official commentary. As one would assume, Microsoft’s stance is that NoDo utilities that forcefully and unofficially update phones can cause issues down the road up to and including updated devices from receiving future, official updates from Microsoft and carriers.
Of course, the debate could go on for days on end with people both for and against such tools. Taking a trip through various Windows Phone 7 forums will find plenty of users that have updated without any hassle whatsoever and then even received official upgrade notifications afterwards.
In short: if you’re paranoid or not the most technologically literate, wait. The way we see it is that if a future issue does crop up, the active dev/hacker community will find a way to fix it. They already “fix” phones unnecessarily gimped by manufacturers and carriers for monetary purposes. Why not this?
If you weren’t a fan of Microsoft’s move to the “Ribbon” for navigational purposes in the latest versions of Microsoft Office 2007/2010, you’re going to have a hard time adjusting to Windows 8 if a fresh leak of images are indeed real. In the image above, one can see the revamped left navigation pain and top navigation area where the main toolbar currently resides. Though in anti-ribbon readers’ defense, there appears to be options to revert back to a more traditional pre-Windows 8 menubar type of layout.
So far from what we’ve seen, Windows 8 is looking to be a lot less revolutionary than once claimed and more evolutionary. Though keep in mind Windows 8 isn’t set to hit the market until 2012 at the earliest so there’s still plenty of time for things to change. Hop on past the break for a few more screenshots…
Android’s openness is both it’s greatest strength and weakness. While it’s awesome that consumers can pretty much do whatever they want with Google’s hard work, it also means carriers and smartphone manufacturers can as well. And as history has shown us, those outside entities are rarely “on the mark” or have consumers’ best interests in mind when customizing Android to their liking. And as the Android vs. everyone else debate has raged on in recent times, the word “fragmentation” has continuously reappeared. That could all be ending very soon however, according to a new article by BusinessWeek.
Google is apparently tired of the constant media buzz around Android’s fragmentation and lack of consistency across multiple vendors. As such, new rules are being required. Specifically, new partnerships outside of Google’s reach and other 3rd party tweaks much be approved by Google’s head of Andorid, Andy Rubin. Of course, manufacturers and carriers don’t have to play ball. But if they don’t, they risk being alienated by Google as they will restrict access to the latest and greatest Android code to offenders of their new rules — this all according to various sources from Facebook, LG, Samsung, Toshiba, and several more. Google is getting extremely stringent.
On one hand, that’s very bad for the platform that built its incredible success on openness and no barriers. But for a platform that is constantly splintered with each new OS release, it can also be good. Either way, things have escalated to government investigation levels as it is being reported that the U.S. Justice Department and European Union aere being dispatched to determine if any anti-trust claims are indeed true.
Is Google stepping on dangerous ground?
If you aren’t the type to follow Pwn2own and the various trickery that the contest caters to, you should. It is there that some of the world’s most talented hackers crack their way into the gadgets we love and use every day, ultimately making our lives (and gadgets) safer and more secure. However, part of that added safety is dependent on the hardware manufacturers and mobile OS developers actually implementing fixes for said hacks in a timely manner. With that said, RIM’s response to the recently exploited BlackBerry browser on OS version 6 is hardly reassuring — they recommend you completely disable Javascript to stay safe. Seeing as how countless web forms, login forms, and general web browsing overall requires some level of Javascript, this pretty much ruins your whole mobile browsing experience. Add in the fact that RIM isn’t the fastest with OS upgrades/updates (and carriers are even slower to approve and push out said updates) and you’ve got a problem brewing for BlackBerry users.
RIM has the ability to push upgrades OTA themselves. Seeing as how this would be a relatively small update, now more than ever RIM should take advantage of the included feature to keep BlackBerry users’ mobile browsing experiences up to par. BlackBerry users: Thoughts?
Even though Nokia is dead set on putting Symbian out to pasture and move on with their new WP7 beauty, scores of Symbian users not yet sold on WP7 or unable/unwilling to upgrade means Nokia will still have to support them too. And Nokia’s Benelux product manager, Marc Driessen, has some new and exciting news for that very crowd pertaining to Symbian S^3/4 — a revamped UI.
S^4 was shelved several months back, but the refreshed UI has been ported down to S^3. As far as looks go, it’s still very 2004ish, but honestly it is much better than the current paint Symbian users make do with. Overall, new icons, widgets, pull down notification shades, and plenty of other small tweaks are baked into this new update.
As of now, Nokia hasn’t and won’t provide specifics as to when we’ll see this revamped S^x released or what devices will receive said update. Nokia users, it is what you’ve hoped and dreamed for, or are you focused on the future with WP7?
WebOS hasn’t really taken off in popularity as some other mobile alternatives have to date. But as we see it, that’s mainly because of a lack of exciting hardware or worthwhile hardware updates thus far. Now that Leo Apotheker is at the helm, however, things are quickly turning around. Take for example a claim made by Apotheker today, stating that every HP PC will be able to run the webOS experience by next year. This is but one bold claim made by a man who’s already far surpassed his rather useless predecessor, Mark Hurd, in a mere fraction of the time.
HP has a media event set for March 14th in which we’ll learn a good deal more about HP’s upcoming plans. Check back soon…
