gadget news

Lenovo Tuesday, announced the ThinkPad X carbon 1 Touch, the optimized version of Windows 8 X 1 carbon Ultrabook, he made his debut in August for the 20th anniversary of your ThinkPad.

The ThinkPad X 1 carbon has a 14 inch touch screen Touch, weighs 3.4 pounds and has a thickness of 20.8 mm. As the non-touchscreen version, it includes a face-tracking optimized 720 p camera Lync, fingerprint scanner, a battery of eight hours and option 3 G mobile broadband.

Windows 8 and the Multitouch display of ten fingers up the price $ 200 on the ThinkPad X 1 carbon non-touch, and 64-bit of Windows 8's basic configuration is $1,499.99. The basic model with Windows 8 Pro starts at $1,669.99. As usual, the two basic models can be configured to the needs of the users.

Windows 8 model features an Intel Core i5-3427U Processor (3 m Cache, up to 2. 80 GHz) with 4 GB of SDRAM and a 128 GB SSD. Windows 8 Pro model is equipped with an Intel Core i7-3667U Processor (4 M Cache, up to 3.20 GHz) and 8 GB memory SDRAM. Storage base in this model is the same, with a 128 GB SSD.

With this generation of Windows, users are required to accept the screens touch effect had on the design of the operating system, even though they do not necessarily play in their workflow. This particular family of PC has a funny side effect as well: it has three simultaneous input methods.

Lenovo had portable multi-touch for over three years, but these were generally in the convertible tablet form factor, i.e. the offset input method that the device was developed in its various modes. With this generation of touch ultrabooks, however, the TrackPoint thumb stick, trackpad and touchscreen are all available to the user at the same time.

The ThinkPad X 1 carbon is available now and is scheduled for December 21.

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Real Networks Inc. published 16 RealPlayer, the latest edition of its unique media player.

And the addition of wholesale this time is the RealDownloader redrawn, and in particular the new video bookmarking system.

The idea is simple. If you're watching a movie and be aware that you will not have time to see it all, hover your mouse on the playback area, click on the link "Bookmark this video" when it appears.

Everything that you add in this way and then appears in a "Web Vidéos" section in the left pane (as well as Facebook videos introduced in the latest version), as part of your library, and you can return later for them with a single click. That works for us, even though it's a shame that marked a bookmark videos do not appear to be visible in a search the library regularly.

And the other news in this version is that toolbar Mode is now available in the free reader. So if you're tired of all chrome and more minimum reading experience, click View > toolbar Mode (or press F8). The player will shrink to size, then your reading and other essential controls are reduced to a toolbar at the bottom of the screen.

During this time, RealPlayer Plus 16 has been extended with a vacuum cleaner, a tool to help eliminate duplicate songs, find album art and general cleaning of your library. And the PlayPack extends the capabilities of the program by adding support for many types of files and codecs (MPEG-4, H.264, VP8 and DivX5, as well as the MKV, AVI, Xvid, WebM and DivX, Xvid, DivX4).

16-RealPlayer is likely to win new converts, then, but enthusiasts will find much to appreciate, and downloads are now available for Windows XP-8.

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Tuesday, Twitter released a summary of the most important moments shared by users in less than 140 characters throughout the year. Entitled "year 2012 on Twitter", it gives an overview of what matters most to users of the social network: best tweets filled with meaning, trends, and new members, such as the Pope.

"Four years" are what the president of the United States Barack Obama has tweeted after he was recently re-elected. The three famous words received nearly 300,000 Favorites and retweets more than 816,000 since 7 November, claiming first place in the Tweets or 2012. However, it should be noted that the social network a little exaggerated when it comes to the number of favourites, which is less than the 300,000 ++ what he said. Of course, the president do so little time, but why rush it?

The second message is retweeted most of the year, according to "RIP pop artist Justin Bieber Avalanna. Tweet I love you "with more than 220 000 retweets. He also collected more than 100 favorites. He wrote the message after one of its younger fans from brain cancer.

But Twitter overcompensates, once again, the number of retweets Kouichi Yamadera message shared earlier this year in June. "Year 2012 on Twitter" claims 68 000, while social network count is off by a couple dozen. That said, his tweet is become more retweeted message of the Japan the year so far.

At a time when the eyes of the people on the Olympic Games in London, the event has raised 150 million tweets. Generated closing ceremony more than 116 000 messages per minute and victory in the sprint 200 metres Usain Bolt caused the greatest conversation focused on the Olympic Games in London with 80,000 tweets per minute.

Sandy hurricane is one of the most important events at the end of 2012, and it has had a major impact on Twitter as well.  Users share more than 20 million of related messages between October 27 and November 1 in New York City blackouts resulting in the use of the mobile device is expected to double in the past two days.

Other important events include the elections, the MTV Video Music Awards, the Super Bowl (Yes, the Patriots still lost), football championship Euro 2012 (soccer for those on the left side of the pond), the UEFA Champions League semi-final and the obsession of the 'Summer Wars', a Japanese animated film.

In the box "only on Twitter", moments that came to life on the social network, the curiosity rover made an appearance after Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA live-tweeted March down. The space also made an entry after astronauts share live images of the International Space Station.

When James Cameron hit shallow known to mankind, the bottom of the Mariana Trench found in the Pacific ocean, it has automatically qualified as the first man to tweet 35 755 metres or 10 916 m below sea level. It will probably hold that record for a period of time, unless someone else finds its deepest place Tweet from.

Other notable mentions include camera pool Olympics, the last voyage of the space shuttle Endeavour, the news of the pregnancy of the Duchess of Cambridge, tweets about the 1989 fall of the Berlin wall, rivals live-tweeting of a Nascar car, football legend Pelé answering questions of fan and the friendly conversation between Boxing's long date with Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield.

Twitter is known for its trending topics and summary 2012 social network does not disappoint. In the tags of the year (hash) as family guy, #nfl, #tcot (conversatives top on Twitter), #nowplaying (for sharing favorite music), rick ross, think like a man, at & t, ihop and #syria were the most popular trends on the social network.

Recently, the Pope joined Twitter, using a personal account, but that of another list of 'New voices' important new members?

The 2012 elections in the United States were very discussed on Twitter reaching more than 320,000 tweets per minute and obviously completely generated the impact to users. It is not surprising that French president Nicolas Sarkozy or UK Prime Minister David Cameron joined the Twitterer class this year.

Remarkable new members include some TV personalities such as Patrick Stewart, Ben Affleck, Ewan McGregor and Jeremy Clarkson, musical artists such as Neil Young, Adele, Ringo Starr and PSY, among others, such as Pelé, Princess Khaliya and Melinda Gates, each representative of sports, from religion and to "do good".

But what can most important for users of Twitter is the category of your year on Twitter. It provides a representation of the way subjects were used in tweets throughout 2012 displayed as circles of different sizes, depending on the number of retweets. It also gives a rough feedback on what is popular among followers.

The "Golden Tweet" category even once an appearance, but this time for individual users, and there is also the "Golden Follower". It is represented by the user than you or me more in 2012.

So, how was your 'year on Twitter?

Photo: AHMAD FAIZAL YAHYA / Shutterstock.com

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The first tablet produced by Microsoft, Surface RT, for the attention of the public for a number of reasons. While some clients have found to be a winner, there is a debate on the actual sales figures. Much of this controversy has raged around decision its limit the availability of online store from Microsoft and a few brick and mortar by Microsoft through the United States stores

But Microsoft is no longer going to have limited availability as an excuse for the limited sales. In an announcement earlier today, the company said it plans to open the valves to get its product on the market, selling more than its own retail stores.

Citing public demand, general manager of Microsoft Surface Panos Panay said that "the reaction of the public to the Surface has been exciting to see. We have increased production and expand the way in which the customers can interact with, experience and purchase Surface."

The company added that its plan was to extend the presence of retail Surface after the first year, but demand has hit that up considerably. The announcement was unable to specify the locations of sales at retail, but said the United States and the Australia.

That said, I noticed earlier today that the Surface RT has been selling on Amazon, although it seems that it is only sold by third-party retailers rather than directly by Amazon.

What was intriguing about today's announcement has been the admission by Microsoft that its holiday pop-up stores is maybe not so temporary - "company will extend from all these sites in the new year. These stores will be in stores of brick and mortar permanent or specialized stores. »

The question left open to debate after all of that is-is it that asks so high that Microsoft had to increase availability or were they dragging while the company considers it necessary to increase its pressure?

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When Marissa Mayer took over the reins at Yahoo, it was largely expected that Yahoo Mail would be one of the first services to be revamped. Despite still being hugely popular, it lags behind Gmail in terms of features and has, for a long time, felt rather neglected.

Well, the good news if you’re a Yahoo Mail diehard, is the service has undergone some major changes. Improvements include a redesign made with speed in mind. An easier to navigate, more intuitive and less distracting inbox will apparently allow users to get through their emails much quicker. Recognising the importance of mobile devices, finally, Yahoo is also rolling out new Yahoo Mail apps for Windows 8, iPhone/iPod touch and Android.

Announcing the changes today, Marissa Mayer said: "Email is the ultimate daily habit. It’s often the first thing we check in the morning and the last thing before going to bed. Why? Because it’s one of the simplest and most basic forms of communication. And since it’s such an important part of our daily lives, we’re making a few improvements to Yahoo Mail. You’ve told us loud and clear that you want fewer distractions when it comes to email. You want to quickly login, communicate, and get on with your day. And we’ve listened. Starting today, the new Yahoo Mail is fast, easy and available anywhere you go".

The new service is being rolled out now, and existing users should expect to receive the upgrade at some point over the next couple of days.

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Microsoft might want all users of Windows 8 to use its new tiled interface, but if you really don't like it, or it's the one thing that's preventing you from switching to the new OS full time, there's a clever hack which will disable it for good -- or until you want to switch back, at least.

Ex7ForW8, or "Explorer 7 for Windows 8", is a wrapper created by a developer named Tihiy which basically allows Windows 7's explorer.exe to run on the new OS. Once installed and activated it will take users straight to the Windows 7 desktop upon boot up, and when I say "straight to" I mean it. The new UI doesn't load at all. The wrapper doesn't modify any system files or system protected registry entries, and you can switch back to the Windows 8 UI at any time.

Ex7ForW8 lets you enjoy all the benefits of the new OS -- faster boot up times, better security, SkyDrive integration and so on -- and new Explorer features, such as the ribbon interface, and enhanced file copying/moving are all still available. Only the Start screen formerly known as Metro is missing. And because the tool loads the Windows 7 shell, you'll get the Start button and Start menu back.

Of course disabling the Start screen also disables any Windows apps you might have installed, but you'd expect that, right?

I've actually been using this tool since the latest version was released in the middle of November, and so far I've experienced no problems at all. I miss the multi-monitor taskbars, but that's a small price to pay. I really like the new Windows hybrid the app creates, and the fact I can quickly switch between the Windows 7 and Windows 8 shells via the Start menu means I can still use the Windows 8 interface and access my apps whenever I need to.

The tool is very easy to install, you just run the  Ex7ForW8_setup.exe file and follow the instructions. You will need to have a Windows 7 installation disc or files on hand though.

Removing the app afterwards (should you choose to) is just a matter of uninstalling it via Programs and Features.

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It is no secret that Microsoft sees its Xbox platform as more than just a game console. He wants the device to act as our living rooms digital hub, and today the company is another step in that direction, announcing more than 40 new entertainment applications.

Larry Hryb's Xbox Live, AKA Major Nelson, released the news this morning that "more than 40 new partners global entertainment [are] coming on Xbox LIVE, including this week the launch of new applications."

The new applications are not only for the United States, but for several different markets around the world, including the United Kingdom, Canada and Germany. There were some big names in the ad, such as MTV, Napster, PBS and Vimeo. Complete list of 43 apps and the country, they will be available, can be found in the position of Hryb.

Microsoft has recently implemented its Xbox Smartglass app for iOS and Android and SkyDrive has added to the console this morning. With these developments, and the multitude of new entertainment options, the company really took another giant step to become the best set top boxes on the market, without exception.

Spread dates were provided in the announcement, Hryb said that the apps will launch "by spring 2013. It is now enough to push non-players in the ecosystem?

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The team Google Drive Tuesday, announced a new extension for Chrome called "Save to drive," which connects the activity browser directly in the user Google Reader cloud storage account and eliminates the need for third-party extensions provide functionality.

Before today's release, an extension from the prestigious MIT under the name "save to disk" is available. Now, Google has borrowed the name and made available in the Chrome Web Store. The search giant takes the concept much further however.

You can right-click on an image or a link to save the file to your Google Reader account and this extension implements a drive icon to the top in your menu bar. Clicking on it will have an overview of the entire web page. The experience can be a little strange the first time try you it. When we tested it, our browser is apparently out of control, so erratic scrolling to the bottom of the page on its own.

Once this is done, a prompt to choose a folder in which to save the file is displayed. The first time you will need to 'access' for the extension to access your account Google Drive. At this time there any web page will be saved as a.PNG file.

According to Josh Hudgins, Google Drive Product Manager, "there are also some new ways to work with images that you store already in the drive." You can now zoom by scrolling or by using the new 'fit to page' and 100% buttons. "And if you have something to say about a specific portion of an image, you can select a region and adds a comment."

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Little more than three months ago, Samsung introduced the Galaxy Note II, running Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean. Shortly afterwards Google issued a minor update to its OS, Android 4.1.2, and starting today you can get it for Samsung’s popular green droid device.

On Nexus-branded hardware, Android 4.1.2 only delivered minor changes. For the Galaxy Note II, however, Samsung has apparently introduced more significant benefits. The most noteworthy features include a higher number of notification toggles, swipe gestures using the built-in keyboard, a new lockscreen effect and a customizable notification panel.

Other additions include the ability to disable Multi View and the brightness slider in the notification panel, a new Group Cast app, and a change in color for the status bar from gray to black.

The roll out is currently on-going, and as a result it will take some time to reach all supported markets. At the time of writing this article Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean, build number JZO54K, is available for the international Galaxy Note II (codename "N7100") in Poland and the LTE variant (codename "N7105") in Sweden.

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It's tough to make an impact in the Windows browser market. And no-one knows that better than Maxthon; after almost ten years, the program is still struggling to reach one percent market share.

The developers are nothing if not persistent, though, and Maxthon’s latest incarnation, now renamed Maxthon Cloud Browser, has just been released. Will this deliver the long-awaited breakthrough? We’re not sure, but it’s definitely an interesting attempt.

As you’ll have figured out from the name, Maxthon Cloud Browser is all about its new cloud features, which allow you to easily share files and data across its various supported devices and platforms (there are currently Windows, Mac, iPhone and Android phone versions, with tablet variants “coming soon”).

This starts with Cloud Push, which supports sending web content (text, images, links) and tabs to the cloud. Once you’ve set up a free Maxthon Passport account, anyway. Right-click an image, say, or a link, click “Cloud Push to…”, select “My Cloud” or choose one of your devices and your data will be synced accordingly.

Cloud Downloads, meanwhile, can copy your downloads to the cloud. And, as a result, Maxthon’s Download Manager has gained an extra tab. As with other browsers, “Local” shows you the list of files you’ve downloaded to the current device, but “My Cloud” now provides easy access to the files you’ve grabbed elsewhere.

Cloud Tabs automatically synchronizes your browser tabs, so you can end an online session on one device and carry on, exactly where you left off, on another.

And more generally, it’s easy to synchronize bookmarks across all your Maxthon installations (although you could also do this with the previous version).

Our first impressions are that this all works as advertised, with maybe just one or two minor glitches (the online Help still refers to Maxthon 3 as we write, for instance).

And if it’s not enough then of course Maxthon Cloud Browser still has the lengthy feature list it’s built up over the past few years. Like the two rendering engines, for instance (Trident and Webkit); mouse gesture support; Magic Fill saves and recalls your user logons; Ad Hunter blocks popups and ads; Source Sniffer helps download embedded videos, pictures and other content from a page; and there’s “Do Not Track” support, easy text note syncing, phishing protection and more.

While all this sounds great, there are a few problems in real life. These components don’t always deliver what you might expect, for instance; Ad Hunter regularly failed to block ads in our tests, and Source Sniffer wasn’t great at downloading videos, either.

And the sheer volume of built-in functions means Maxthon Cloud Browser has a very busy interface, too. There are a host of buttons, options and settings pages to explore, and if you’re new to the program it’ll take quite some time to figure out where everything is.

If you’re already a committed fan of another browser, then, there’s probably not enough here to win you over. Install a few extensions, subscribe to a web service or two, and you’ll have much the same functionality with far less of a learning curve.

But if you’d prefer a more powerful browser – and are willing to invest the time in learning how it works – then there is plenty to like about Maxthon Cloud Browser, particularly with its new cloud tools, and you may well want to give it a try.

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The original story was not very newsworthy at face value. An obscure, hard-to-pronounce city in Germany announced that its experiments with one time open source wonder OpenOffice had gone sour and they wanted their Microsoft Office back. Freiburg's city council released a draft resolution recently that covered numerous IT problems, but the one which raised more than a few eyebrows happened to be their frank disappointment with OpenOffice.

Among other things, the resolution had some pointed words about their OpenOffice experiences since 2007:

"In the specific case of the use of OpenOffice, the hopes and expectations of the year 2007 are not fulfilled... Therefore, a new Microsoft Office license is essential for effective operations."

In an attempt to save costs and try an alternative to Office, the city council voted in 2007 to allow for a side-by-side installation of Office 2000 (for backwards compatibility sake) and OpenOffice 3.2.1. Some of the hopes that the council had included an assumption that development of the suite would continue as presumed and offer new features and fixes. Those hopes fell flat after numerous years of trying to "wait it out" and see what happened. As their resolution accurately described:

"The divergence of the development community (LibreOffice on one hand Apache Office on the other) is crippling for the development for OpenOffice."

Of course, the open source community (especially Germany's own) have been up in arms ever since, calling this a smear of their efforts at large by nitpicking various aspects of this story. Yes, it is true that OpenOffice is currently at version 3.4.1 so the council is working on an out-of-date build. And yes, LibreOffice happens to be a (slightly) better alternative to the all but doomed core OpenOffice suite.

But I don't think either point really changes the fact that OpenOffice and LibreOffice are still slow; have too many document conversion shortcomings; and are honestly too bloated to be considered speed demons next to Office 2010 or 2013.

I'm not here to make a big stink about OpenOffice alone. It's quite well known that the suite doesn't win any speed or conversion crowns. And I know very well that there are numerous examples of great open source software, many of which I use all the time. VLC Media Player, Chromium, WordPress, just to name a few. But for all the good examples, there are still the longstanding mediocre ones plaguing the software landscape: Firefox, Thunderbird, ClamWin Antivirus, and the list goes on.

The shining stars of open source notwithstanding, what's the core issue with the majority of open source software and its community?

I have to be fair here. Just so the fact-finders don't go berserk on me, let's make it fully clear that Microsoft's Office suite has been around in some form for about 22 years now. In contrast, OpenOffice has only been on the map for about 10 years (some say the suite's previous life as StarOffice tacks another 15 years onto its life, but let's give them the benefit of the doubt.) But does this relatively short life give the suite a continual excuse for working just as poorly overall as it did back in v3.2.1 (which Freiburg, Germany just dumped)?

Let's be honest with ourselves. Making broad comparisons between the core OpenOffice suite and its cousin LibreOffice is like having a deep debate about the qualities of two similarly sub-par vehicles. Sure, each one will get you from point A to B. And if all you're looking for is just to "get there" then there's not much disagreement we can have in that respect.

But the office suite debate has a lot more at stake. A platform as integral to the everyday life of so many people, like members of a city council, has to perform to a certain level of expectations. From poor file conversion fidelity to consistent sluggishness, the complaints of the Freiburg city council aren't that shocking if you've used the OpenOffice suite yourself. I admit that my company FireLogic happens to recommend LibreOffice in cases where budget is a concern - but I never make any promises of the suite as a full replacement of Microsoft Office.

Some readers of the technology news website NeoWin used this story as an opportunity to sound off on their own thoughts surrounding OpenOffice (and its shortcomings) at large. A user by the name of javagreen says:

"I'm a Windows *and* Linux user, and OpenOffice/LibreOffice don't come anywhere within a 1,000 foot radius of Microsoft Office. Different leagues altogether."

Fellow user Yogurtmaster didn't have a much better opinion of the alternative suite LibreOffice:

"LibreOffice is just as bad. They need to throw the entire thing away and start with code from today and build it into the future that makes sense, their UI is horrible and the compatibility that they have with Microsoft documents is horrible. The worst project in my opinion in open source."

And one user, norseman, provides some common sense advice for when Office alternatives make sense:

"OpenOffice and LibreOffice are fine for people that don't work with many other people or collaborate with the real world. If you are a student or a professional that wants to get published or do any real work, you're using Microsoft Office, pure and simple."

Not to join in on the chorus here, but my own experiences have similar misgivings about both of the two main Office alternatives. After 10 years of primetime development, and a 15 year backstory before that as StarOffice, how can OpenOffice/LibreOffice have made such relatively little progress in this fair amount of time?

I'm not just blowing hot air here - I gave both alternative platforms a try at various points in time but could never make the switch. I've honestly dumped likely three or four times as many hours into using Google Docs instead of Office compared to any time I've devoted to OpenOffice, mostly due to the same issues others gripe about.

I'm not tied to Office or Google Docs by any means, but they just work. They are fast, efficient, and compatible with most things I need to share with those I communicate with. The combination of the two got me through college and my professional life thus far. Their interfaces are relatively elegant and appeasing to the eye. I don't have to hunt through long 1990's dropdown menus to find what I need (usually through guessing, as OpenOffice has its own intricacies in item placement.) So why can't OpenOffice and LibreOffice get their acts together?

Are hardcore beliefs in 'technical purity' really more important than coming together to present a formidable challenge to Microsoft? For all the bad rap that Microsoft gets for its market position, it does have a quality product to offer with Office. A few users on the same NeoWin article happened to speak up in support of their thoughts on Office as a quality suite.

Primexx had this to say about the Ribbon UI:

"What MS did with the ribbon - surfacing some great but hard to find features - makes MSO a h*ll of a lot easier to use. That means less time wrestling with the program and more time working on the actual thing you're doing."

And another user, 68k, happens to agree:

"The ribbon makes a HUGE difference. It's pure genius in UI design."

While Microsoft and Google are introducing new features into Office and Google Docs at record paces, the open source community is struggling to merely keep up with the times. Even with its newfound forefront status, LibreOffice has not made any huge leaps in the past two years since its inception. Office document support is still pitiful at best; support for long complex formulas is buggy; and the developers think that having a "quickstarter" load on Windows startup is still more important than cleaning up an aging, clogged code base.

The city council that prompted this uproar surrounding OpenOffice claimed that file conversion fidelity from Office was one of the biggest problems they had with the suite. I've personally experienced similar issues with the suite, so I decided to give this argument a valid, up-to-date test based on what the open source community recommended to Freiburg: just install the latest LibreOffice.

I did exactly that (with LibreOffice 3.6.4), and tested multiple different documents both from my own collection and from online repositories to see if my results would be any different then past usage. On some documents, LibreOffice did better than others. In most cases, it had a tough time giving me 1:1 copies of what I had in Office. Google Docs generally did as good or better than LibreOffice, and in some instances such as this, it beat LibreOffice in conversion quality by a long shot:

So, is the community just blowing hot air when it comes to having qualms with file fidelity? As far as I can tell, serious problems still exist, as shown above from my own Windows 8 laptop. Google Docs clearly had little problem opening the document, and in all but one or two spots in this complex equation-filled file, Google Docs gave me a near replica of what Word 2013 showed.

I personally think the open source community behind LibreOffice and OpenOffice should take the experiences of Freiburg to heart and use this as a lesson that average people merely want functionality, not infighting and bickering about standards and code purity. There are relatively few governments giving open source the kind of love that Freiburg did, and if this bad reputation streak continues, fewer local and regional entities will be considering these suites anytime soon.

Say what you wish about Office, Windows, and even rival Apple's OS X for that matter - but they have a few things in common which open source alternatives simply cannot attest to. These products are all backed by solid development communities from their respective 'capitalist' backers, and continue to evolve at a rapid pace.

Microsoft introduced the Ribbon UI in Office 2007 and has fine-tuned it to a large extent for the newest Office 2013 release. Similarly, Windows Vista reinvented the desktop experience back in 2006 and by 2012 we already have the monumental shift in Windows 8. In the same amount of time, what can the community behind OpenOffice or LibreOffice claim? From everything I can gather, their biggest achievements surround the importing of Office OpenXML files and numerous pages of bug fixes. And in reality, all of this effort has only produced suites that are only marginally better than what they were years ago.

Isn't open source a community built on developers that believe in a higher purpose than their counterparts at paid software vendors? Isn't the "love of the product" much more altruistic and deep-rooted in a commitment to quality, openness, and transparency in secure code writing? Why do these very aspects of open source seem to instead foster a continual feeling of stagnancy and petty arguing?

John Dvorak penned a pretty spot-on article back in 2007 titled "What's Wrong with Open Source Software?" that shed some light on why open source is anything but a guarantee of quality, speedy development. He correctly pointed out:

"How many open-source projects have you seen in which the code gets leaner and meaner rather than fatter and fatter? With all the great coders out there, how many projects include coding features and how many include coding optimization?"

John goes on to make comparisons of the Linux coding community to those he calls the "Mac aficionados" in how they both collectively despise the greater of all evils, aka Microsoft. But more importantly, he accurately pinpoints that most open source projects tend to drag on for an eternity unless they are guided by strong one-man leaders.

However, even those strong-armed leaders aren't always the best at keeping the ship sailing down a solid course. It happens to be quite ironic that Linux's famous brainchild Linus Torvalds verbally assaulted graphics giant nVidia this past summer for their supposed inability to properly support the Linux community. I wonder how many in competing development circles have similar thoughts about the relative lack of consistent progress from the Linux community, likewise.

As John Dvorak sarcastically put it towards the end of his op/ed:

So because nobody [in open source] is making any money, and because it's done for the Utopian oneness, there will be no complaining. If you complain, then you suck!

I guess in a nutshell, he sums it up fairly well. Here's hoping that the open source community can learn from their money-making corporate counterparts and harness the power that open development theoretically should provide. Until then, I'm sticking with Office 2013 and Google Docs on my Windows 8 laptop, thank you.

Photo: chasmer/Shutterstock

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Just days after Instagram said it would no longer allow the micro-blogging site to display its photos, Twitter has responded by giving users the ability to apply colored filters to pictures they upload.

There are eight Aviary-powered filters to choose from -- Vignette, Black & White, Warm, Cool, Vintage, Cinematic, Happy, and Gritty. A grid view shows how each of the filters will affect your image, and you can tap any of the choices and then scroll left or right to view the alternatives.

Users are able to pinch to zoom in and change the focus, and crop an image. A magic wand function automatically enhances shots.

Making the announcement, Twitter’s Senior Designer Coleen Baik said: "Every day, millions of people come to Twitter to connect with the things they care about and find out what’s happening around the world. As one of the most compelling forms of self-expression, photos have long been an important part of these experiences. Starting today, you’ll be able to edit and refine your photos, right from Twitter."

The photo editing features are available in the new iPhone and Android apps which are rolling out now.

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Intel-owned security software company McAfee on Monday released a major update to its McAfee Mobile Security product, featuring a new interface and a new app privacy feature called App Lock.

Though many mobile security suites focus on protecting private information from being stolen and misused, much of the information that is available within apps is left totally unprotected from prying eyes.

When someone logs into Facebook on a public workstation or a friend's computer and they forget to log out, it is usually an invitation for other people to post embarrassing or ridiculous messages on that person's profile. If your mobile device is unprotected, someone could simply pick up your smartphone or tablet and do the same thing without even needing access to your login credentials. What's worse, some shopping apps store credit card information for one-click purchases without additional security.

With App Lock, Android users can demand additional PIN-based authentication for apps such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Gmail, and many others.

In addition to App Lock, McAfee Mobile Security still contains the previously available features such as secure browsing, device lockdown and remote wipe, remote backup and restore, locate and track, call and SMS filter, and uninstall protection.

McAfee Mobile Security costs $29.99 for a one-year subscription, and can be downloaded immediately in Google Play.

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There have always been programs around to hide what you’re doing on a PC, and perhaps unsurprisingly they don’t have the best of names. The assumption seems to be that they’re only ever used by people who don’t want everyone else to know they’re looking at porn, say, or playing games when they should be working. But of course the reality is a little more complicated than that.

What if you’re shopping for birthday presents and the lucky recipient-to-be comes in, say? Or maybe you don’t want a work colleague to see you’re browsing a mental health website? There are all kinds of reasons why you might want to maintain your PC privacy, and SmokeScreen is a simple free tool which promises to help.

The program offers two ways to try and hide what you’re doing at any moment. By default it will minimize all your windows. But if leaving an empty desktop looks suspicious, then you can also have it display a grab of your desktop taken at some earlier time, packed with innocent applications (your browser waiting at Google, an Explorer window somewhere else, maybe Calculator in a corner, whatever it might be). If a passer-by watches you for any length of time then there will be problems, as you can’t type or do anything on this screen (it’s just a grab), but if they just give you a passing glance then everything should be fine.

And the other decision you’ll have to make here is how you want to activate the program. You can move your mouse to the edge of the screen, for instance (left, right, top or bottom: you choose), or one of the corners. And SmokeScreen can also be launched by scrolling the mouse wheel, click the middle mouse button, or clicking both the left and right mouse buttons.

Which option is best? It all depends on how you use your PC normally, but setting all this up is at least straightforward. Launch SmokeScreen from its system tray icon, and you choose how you want to hide the program and your preferred activation method by clicking a box or two. Click OK, and as soon as you enable the program (another right-click option) it’s ready to go.

Does it work? Partly. Taking a screen grab was easy (the program can do it for you). And displaying it really was as simple as, say, moving the mouse over the left edge of our screen (far less suspicious than making some panicked Alt+Tab or Win+M keypress whenever someone comes into the room).

Resource use is minimal, too, with SmokeScreen requiring less than 7MB RAM on our test PC.

But there were also significant problems. We found the program would continually activate whenever we typed an apostrophe, for instance. Apparently you’re supposed to be able to activate it by pressing the tilde key (~), but for some odd keyboard mapping issue this became an apostrophe for us. Either way, it’s going to be extremely annoying if you’re typing a lot while SmokeScreen is enabled.

And, for some reason, once we’d activated SmokeScreen once, it refused to work again until we’d closed and restarted it (other than by typing an apostrophe).

These aren’t necessarily fatal problems. We see SmokeScreen as a “just in case” tool which you’d hope to activate only very rarely, anyway (if you’re firing it up every few minutes then people may notice the decoy desktop never changes). And if you just want to use it to hide your browsing, say, you may not be typing enough to worry about accidental activations.

SmokeScreen would be significantly improved if these issues were resolved, though, so we hope the developer will address them in future editions.

Photo: Piotr Krzeslak/Shutterstock

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The Walking Dead is now on its mid-season break, but if you’re missing the show already then you could turn to Zombie Shooter, a free game which provides all the opportunities for walker-slaughtering you’re ever likely to need.

Okay, it’s true, you won’t get quite the character development here that you do in the show (or, indeed, any at all). The game’s plot, such as it is, it rather more basic: essentially you’re just running around a secret research lab, slaughtering zombies, picking up weapons, ammo and health packs, and trying to figure out what’s going on.

And as you can see from the screen grab, the graphics are fairly basic, too. Zombie Slaughter is a straightforward top-down isometric affair, and if we discovered it was actually written 15 years ago, that wouldn’t be too much of a surprise.

Still, this simplicity also has many advantages. The program will install and deliver good frame rates almost anywhere, for instance (it runs on anything from Windows 95 upwards). There’s no need to learn some lengthy back story before you get started. And you’ll probably figure out the core controls without ever checking any documentation, as they’re mostly just what you’d expect: point with the mouse, move with the cursor keys, fire with the left mouse button, and choose a weapon with one of the number keys.

And there are plenty of supporting extras here, too. So you get multiple game modes from a quick “kill everything you can see” to a longer campaign option. And there are all kinds of bonus weapons you can purchase between levels to upgrade your armory and try to ensure your survival.

If you prefer your games to be a little more mentally challenging then the program may not keep you amused for too long. And even we began to get a little bored in some sections of the game, where essentially all you have to do is hold down the left mouse button and wait until you’ve destroyed everything in sight.

Ultimately, though, Zombie Shooter’s hassle-free nature makes it an easy game to like. There’s no manual to read, no lengthy cut scenes to watch, no complex settings to master: everything works more or less as you’d expect, and it’s the kind of game where you can just jump in for a few minutes, whenever you feel the need for a little old-style zombie annihilation.

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Apple’s replacement for Google Maps isn’t the most reliable of mapping apps, especially outside of the United States. The first time I used it, requesting directions to Blackpool on the north-west coast of England, it sent me to the south coast, some 248 miles the wrong way. Of course, I didn’t actually make that journey, but had I been visiting from outside of the United Kingdom, and knew no better, I would have been in for a very nasty surprise if I’d followed the app’s directions. But at least I wouldn’t have been misdirected into a potentially life threatening situation, unlike some motorists in Australia.

Victoria police have been forced to issue a warning after Apple Maps routed a number of motorists off the beaten track and into the middle of a national park with no water supply and where temperatures can reach up to 46 degrees.

According to the warning: "Local Police have been called to assist distressed motorists who have become stranded within the Murray-Sunset National Park after following directions on their Apple iPhones. Tests on the mapping system by police confirm the mapping systems lists Mildura in the middle of the Murray Sunset National Park, approximately 70km away from the actual location of Mildura".

Some of the motorists were reportedly stranded for up to a day with no food or water and have "walked long distances through dangerous terrain to get phone reception".

The police say they have contacted Apple on the matter, but that anyone travelling to Mildura or other locations within Victoria "should rely on other forms of mapping until this matter is rectified".

To be fair, anyone travelling anywhere, should just rely on other forms of mapping -- it's safest all round.

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Microsoft has announced the availability of a SkyDrive app for Xbox 360 consoles, giving users the ability to display content stored in the cloud service on any connected TV or monitor.

The Xbox 360 is designed as a content consuming device, and the SkyDrive experience on the console reflects this. According to the software giant, the app focuses on photo and video sharing, as well as playing slide shows, with no mention of productivity. It's fair to assume that Microsoft plans to keep the content editing features for newer devices running Windows Phone or Windows 8/RT.

The SkyDrive app also supports Kinect voice controls and gestures, as well as controller and remote input. Using the former, users are able to view content on the Xbox 360 simply by dictating commands. The feature is currently only available for a limited number of languages,.

The SkyDrive app for the Xbox 360 will be available to download directly from the gaming console starting from 10AM PST today.

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Google on Monday announced it will offer the Samsung Series 5 Chromebook to educators for a special price of just $99 until December 21 through a partnership with public education nonprofit Donors Choose.

Full-time public educators can go to the DonorsChoose site, fill out a three-question questionnaire and project request for up to 30 Chromebooks, and then begin collecting donations to receive the computer hardware, management, and support. Typically, each Chromebook costs $249.

Back in October, BetaNews contributor Derrick Wlodarz examined the pros and cons of Surface, iPad, and Chromebooks in K-12 Education.

One of the main advantages to a Chromebook deployment the simplicity of management: "Just as the Surface potentially affords a school district simple management through Active Directory, Google's Chromebook takes this same notion and simplifies it a few degrees. Whereas a traditional IT department usually controls policies through Active Directory, a fleet of Chromebooks can be controlled by people with little technical background like teachers or even school execs. That's because the core management responsibilities for Chromebooks are easily manipulated within the familiar cloud-based Google Apps Control Panel," he said.

Indeed, simplicity of management is the last word in this Donors Choose campaign. Google says "You can control a whole set of Chromebooks from just your browser screen with the optional management console. Let’s say you want to set your class website as the home page when students login. You can do that. Let’s say you want to block certain websites. You can do that. Maybe you want to install GoAnimate so all your kids can make holiday videos. You can do that too. All from a web-based management console."

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On Monday, Research In Motion unveiled the stable version of the company's messaging app for BlackBerryOS, simply titled BlackBerry Messenger 7. Among the newly introduced features, the most noteworthy addition is the ability to perform calls via Wi-Fi.

Wi-Fi calling works in parallel with existing functionality and as a result it can be used, for instance, while sending messages. To enable the feature users have to select the corresponding icon in the chat/messaging window. BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) 7 also implements an upgrade notification functionality, which is designed to inform users of available updates that can be downloaded straight from the app.

There is also BBID synchronization that links the contacts, groups and BBM profile, as well as 16 new emoticons onboard the latest version. According to RIM the app is available for BlackBerry 6 OS and higher, but there are plans to extend support to the older BlackBerry 5 OS.

BlackBerry Messenger 7 is available to download from BlackBerry App World. At the time of writing this article the latest version wasn't available on the app store, but according to RIM it should be there within 24 hours.

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I'm the generation rules for AndCooper to complete over the next two days.  Given that some basic tasks such as compiling and integrating indirectly with task reports etc will work on tsk Thursday and reports generation rules.

Feels kinda weird in the logic to support versions of Android Sdk 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5 and 4.0.  But it's how fast things are moving.

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Issue 965 in the Bug DB Android shows at the end in the comments a parameter Proguard that you use when you include the 3rd party jars and obfuscation with Proguard for Android apps. For that to work, you must Proguad 4.4 beta and you turn off optimizations of Judas in the Proguard configuration settings.  If a third-party jar is scrambled using an obfuscator with optimization of Judas, that it will fail in Android DVM.

SDK 1.0 forward we could not use the obfuscation because we didn't have a peephole turn obfuscators to deal with the difference between Java virtual machine bytecode Verifier and the DVM, now we do. ProGuard, however, had the feature disabled from version 4 to approximately 4.3 due to conflicts with other Java virtual machines (was optimization, IE the pephole out-not the swtich itself). Is just one of the many details I had to go by and anlayze so that the AndCooper build tool has some effectiveness for developers.

Once again use the obfuscation and otimizers with Android 1.0 to Andorid 1.5, you must use 4.4 Proguard. Beta and disable optimizations of Judas. or any earlier as optimization of Judas is not enabled in previous versions of 4.4, IE version 4.0 to version 4.3.

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You would get theLog4j syntax and features and you would be albe to included Andorid Instrumental testing integration. Hmm lead developer started hacking up MicroLog for Android, maybe I should just take two days and hack it up rest of the way.

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Also remember that we now run mutliple emulators via the AVDs so its somewhat important and of course everyone wants the ability to test against different SDK versions and hardware setups which can be accomplished by using AVDs. Than of course do an emulator_list.properties usng the same concepts and than a set of multiple emualtor launch/install tasks.

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is being renamed to HomeZ and I should have some more demo videos this week. From a marketing perspective it made sense to have the name indicate the feature set of the application in some manner. Why the Motorola symbols in it?

Actually it started out as sort of inside joke/play at Motorola because some stuff is just plain weird. Now I keep it in there for good luck as a good luck charm.

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I started HomeZ because I wanted to explore several concepts at once. I wanted to explore other dock uset nterfaces for the home screen. But more importantly I wanted to see how we could incoporate OEM branding into the HomeScreen without hitting the user over the head with it. Obviously in the above example that development screen with the Moto Logo could have some livefolders and what are called aliases on that as shortcuts. This way when the user flings a page they are remided of the brand by the thumbnail popup and would choose that page if needing to update serivces and etc.

We could even make use of that middle bottom panel which wil be a delete zone by putting the OEM logo there.

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Recently, we talked about Android on Netbooks. Of the reasosn why am I particularly on the release of AndCooper Android application Build system which is whether to support multiple modes of development in the development of java such as perhaps google gears and etc let me explain.

Microsoft's approach for netbooks was oh to run native applications on the operating system processor and mobiel mobiel.  This is not the Android strategy.  The Android strategy is cloud with a base, or in other words the java applications so that java hybrid applications where the cloud is accessible via google gears or etc. even in offline mode access the google gears stuff downloaded to access the thatyo and cahgne fo example google docs.

A hybrid mobile application say a RIA with offline access such as Google is nto nee dthe same gear real requirement heavy watch them a desktop Microsoft Office application has and is therefore perfect for the netBook model where the netbook is funded by mobile operators that want high cusotmers mobile broadband.

However, Google Gears in webView not Andorid application is not the only case of use. How about these applications webview Well, yes webvie access to Google Gears is turned off, but have you considered the power of the GWT compiler? View this presentation, you can use the GWT compiler as the optimizer code css/js to display Web applications.

Motorola and other manufacturers have not seen it yet, because I have been quite about it that I needed a construction tool developed a way to provide the analysis of code connected while I could develop webview two demos a GWT withoutusing and the other using GWT for its glory of demonstration. Because one cannot predict what changes in the workflow will provide the next agile methods for hybrid Android apps webview webkit AndCooper so that it focuses on display Web applications has a bone analysis code deeper than its flexible enough that you can use it to prove the value of a new approach of dev that you would have the statistics through code Analysis and etc to prove the new approach.

I wonder what happens when the WebView OEM sales Android applications can be optimized using the GWT compiler?

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Once gain, I have moved my blogging to Mobilebytes, change your bookmarks to:

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OK to drive some people nuts really freaking including Motorola. Android Hacker Quiz:

1. True or false. To obtain the exact profile of the emulator data or ADP you must run it in debug mode.  Answer: False, under debug the emulator or the device performs a slower auditor. Thus, to get profile data you modify a file given to increase the number of times that the file traces.txt is wrapped on (default is 4 and this is not enough as logcat is written to the screen or a file in k 64-bit) and change the stdio output to the traces.txt file to get the full logcat in these files. Reboot the device and grab these sets of files traces.txt.

2. The Dalvik check be toggled on the emulator and the chocies are fast, portable, and debug.  When you are testing a new device that you do not have what is more accurate or closer to the actual device performance? Answer: Mobile phone as the fast Dalvik auditor is optimized for current hardware not the future device that you are trying to obtain profiling data. While choosing laptop auditor result worse performance compared to the young number will be closer to the real device before you have more accurate data on performance.

See all the new things that are exposed to the construction of a new system of generation such as AndCooper?

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One of the challenges of development of the AndCooper of Android application development tool is IDE and ANT interactions. For example, to asy you a typical construction system based on ANT. How many of these ant taskdef libraries you have to put in your Ant IDE path parameter?

If you guess all you would be a little wrong and would have a generation that in would not work as expected. In the case AndCooper its 12 including the taskdef ant from the Android SDK libraries. The idea is once AndCooper is installed, you can point your java IDE configuration generator to use the AndCooper of build scripts like java for the project generator so that you develop the code the IDE uses AndCooper to build the project in increments and generate reports of data into a single company code analysis to facilitate the development process.

So, its essential that I get Ant taskdef libraries put on the path of the correct IDE Ant so the AndCooper user can go right into the code with AndCooper development. The chance is that every IDE appears to accept that you must load the same subset of libraries on the classpath from Ant IDE taskdef.

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With the increase in daily interest of RIM, Sony Ericsson, Nokia and Motorola I should probably available my thesis to the need for the build system AndCooper on the Android Java Applications.  At some point the complexitiy of Java SE on mobile and the need for more loops of feedback between the members of this team the need for a more powerful generation system.

The challenge is to find a way to limit the build script changes so that you have a powerful workflow system in which you can edit the project workflow without breaking the complex build system scripts. AndCooper becomes your engineer build system without the expense of having such a person in the development team.

How can we do this?  Any time you are developing Java Android apps you always produce an artifact. If it is a test of the quality assurance report, the task of compiling and debugging tasks are still performed. Thus, our workflow system may rely on these artifacts. For example, I could use the definition of artifact of the antlion project to define the system of entry-point-tasks build into something like apk-production, apk-debug-emulator, apk-debug-adp-device, jar-build-lib and etc.

It becomes a little easier to modify the workflow you just edit the artifact. Of course, there are a few other little tricks.

For example, you can map a copy of logcat output in the file traces.txt. Why do it? Remember, profiling commands only trigger a 64-KB buffer output at a time.  Thus, if we take the advantage of knowing that the traces.txt file is rotated and go and edit certain files to allow mapping stdio output to automatically arrive and the file traces.txt be made more than 4 that we can correspond to the top of the graphic display of information traces.txt with our declaration information log, which eliminates the need for an Appender gall on the side of the log.

Thus, we have not only an artifact of the apk in the workflow to process, we also have this set of files as objects to be treated traces.txt. And its sub-artifact in the task of building of the point of entry until the beginning of AndCooper artifact would be task apk-debug-emulator or apk-debug-adp.

Some other tips are to have the person reported qa tasks run only if something is there and use something like the qalab as framework to raise the reports together into one complete package of hub-report of the information.

This kind of pleasure to build the AndCooper tool.

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OEMs face very special challenges with Android.  A set of challenges relates. Let me explain.

If you are browsing users and Android device consumer reports you see some models because there are reported issues that are directly attributed to the quality of the code and using the code metircs in an agile way qa feedback loop. Although Goolge and OHA have worked hard on the set of Eclipse ADT tools plugin, ADT is not to the point where you have clicked through qa metrics of the code, but with easy access for developers of Android applications.

So with the first season of Christmas with 8 million Android devices in the hands of consumers that threat we need a stop-gap tool that helps application developers Android easy access to these loops qa code application code quality metrics os changes to reflect the device and the stability of the OS. Part of the reasoning for starting a build system project AndCooper Android, it's that I've seen the need for OEMs to lead this charge to the developer code easily accessible QA metrics to improve the stability of the application.

That renewed emphasis on the stability of the application and has direct effects on the impression of stability of the Android operating system with the OEM customers. I really believe that Motorola could lead this set of challenges. The question is how to convince an OEM that they should lead in this way? Challenge an interesting, certainly.

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Basically, the idea of the AndCooper Android Application building system tool Java was that you rate this tool in your project folder and because you can point your IDE to use the build script as you would for any on automatically java generator have a somewhat automatic generation tool configuration DC that would generate a code analysis Reports that could be used as feedbackas you code.

Because the developer would have improved access to the analysis in a quality of feedback loop code, Android Application improves the stability and therefore has a directly measurable improvement in the happiness of the user and etc.. The fix is not to try things like Xradar, Sonar or Qalabs to see one that would fit like the one to merge all the analytical reports of the COE to a resonable reporting hub but to obtain stakeholder feedback.

Without direct feedback from some stakeholders in the OEM community, that I should guess that implementation decisions should be made and guess how to make it flexible enough to meet all stakeholders in development workshop only one to the level of the OEM shop that develops applications to be packaged on the Android device.

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CallIZ

HomeZ(it used to be called Zyle)

HazNewZ

Xspot(Yes the Loopt Clone)

Weatheze

ZoteZad

ZileZanger

Obviously both the HomeScreen replacement, HomeZ, and the FileManager, ZileZanger, have handset OEM implications. Maybe that is why SonyEricsson is competing with Motorola in reading this site mupliple times daily and an obvious other area as well. Personally, I have a soft spot for Motorola in that for several years I have 'lived' somewhat close to their HQ.

The other 17 Android Applications are in different areas with some being Android Desktop Widgets using the new AppWidget API.

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on the wordpress blog/CMS platform. since I am able to post sample code easier with wordpress and etc I would like  to see my OEM blog readers at my new site of Android Code and Development blogging. Hopefully, I will see yoru readership there.  Hopefully, at some point PLanetAndorid changes their blogroll links and feed crawing to include and craw my new Android development Blog.

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Late today, you wil find coverage of the first version of AndCooper 0.1, the Android apps Ant build tool, based on the MobileBytes blog. Details of the place where to download, features supported in 0.1 and 0.2 plans will be disclosed.

Waiting for the download of presentations 2009 Google IO Android on Youtube, I expect to download some examples of Code Android and discussions analysis on my MobileBytes blog to show the challenges of optimizing the Androdi code to develop applications.

I have all my blogs to MobileBytes blog, but will remind everyone to change their links and bookmarks for another week or two.

For those who still use Roller (Jrolller). Rick Ross and crew Dzone is hard the work hardening solution blogging wordpress usable on the dzone network blogging.  I do not know the registration for wordpress blogs powered by Dzone occur shortly.

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Point One, T-Mobile sold 1 million G1 deivces in 6 months which is the exact same period thay Apple took to sell theie2G iPhone devices which means it beat streat expectations. which directly answers the how many G1's were sold without giving ground. Second, how many 2G iPhones did consumers hold  onto as the counter point thrown out there by, I think by  MA,

Third, Andorid OS is directly related to other Gogoel products through its ease of connecting to cloud APIs and other Google APIs. Wise the  F up when you appear on Gillmor gang that you are handed an unique marketing opportunity and bring your effing A Game! the which is better debate is not handled by open  versus closed because that is what everyone in 2nd place resorrts to.

However, open does in fact bring more effective user features due to the implementation differences by being open. Its the difference between a clsoed activity stream such as MySpace or facebook and a soemewhat open public activity stream such as twitter. This is not college where you may have splet through summer classes in Calculus due to overbooked classes yet still passed with A- in Calculus due to still doing the class homework and retaking the in-class quizes.

You actually have to care enough to think intelligently about doign some ground prepapration work to bring your A Game.  Google bring your effing A Game. Considering that the selling point to developers is that inclusion set of Google Cloud APIs included in the Android  SDk and devices it might be wise to finally bring your effing A Game. Okay, rant off.

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As many of you know Android tools Maven Ant versions have only updated for the 1.0 SDK and signs on when they can be updated to SDK 1.5. Android is different because we have almost full J2se on mobile instead of limited j2me. This requries a little more qa and code analysis, reporting and etc. so at least ot move Agile Expressway in the development

I found something that may be useful, its called Glean. Basically its a set of ANT scripts that run the code of reporting and analysis tools with a pretty groovy dashboard. It was a nice way to extend so that I could customize that Android development. I could re - use my own Android ANT build scripts and use these lessons to extend Glean for Android.

The particular hole I see at the monent is code coverage. That will have to wait for a tool that team Android (Google and OHA) are currently working on it.

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Something very interesting.  Some of us have been exposed to such as j2me virtual labs where you able to test using unit testing, mock objects, and etc. on multiple devices. Usually, you have to learn a new API and etc.

Due to the way that the unit test framework, mocks and etc. has been incorporated into the Android OS, you get the power of the virtual labs concept by writing just the specific scripting system.  Yes, system construction of AndCooper scripts is written like that.

I wonder how much Android OS device OEM such as Motorola have captured that its kinda like the non-obvious side of application development.

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A new Build system for the community Androdi to develop Android Applications is to be a developer with the first version of loan production released 6 days today. Its AndCooper called with a slight dedication to this first Mobile cave call Martin Cooper placed several decades ago.

Features:

-Quality reporting and analysis code merged into a standard report is displayed.

-Dashboard view web reports

-Use your favorite IDE

ASF - 2 licenses

-In the form of Apache Ant

-good call emulator using the new AVDs

-test instrument including emma hooks

Should be interesting.

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It is stronger for passing the Google ADT plugins to a build system full this small Benchmark of the Dalvik VM on Java project:

Google Dev Phone 1 (528 MHz - MSM7201A)
@Sieve: 464
@Loop: 551
@Logic: 394
@String: 491
@Float: 336
@Method: 397
@Overall: 433
Fact sheet:
http://en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_phone

P905i (Dalvik VM on JBlend Java)
@Sieve: 6
@Loop: 3
@Logic: 26
@String: 85
@Float: 3
@Method: 6
@Overall: 9

For those who have not read before compass sales faster high speed. Not only slow speed but also notice that there are no have in the Dalvik on benchmark Android data. This means that Dalvik VM optimized double conversion battery based transfer instructions to register to the base. Thus, a large part of the strategy of optimization of old J2ME which were the basis of dupon eliminating transfer instructions by modifying the structure of the code will not work.

So we need ways to collect some data on the code, so that we can determine some new optimization strategies because the platform Dalvik JIT is still far away at the moment. Well, unless there is today an announcement that I do not know about. Thus, it is one of the main drives for the AndCooper project.

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I started covering the tool AndCooper to build internal coding to the MobileBytes blog. In the first part, I cover how I detect the SDK version and adjust the location of the SDK and API add-on tools. If you have not set your feed reader, everything now is blog at MobileBytes and animal feed:

http://mobilebytes.WordPress.com/feed/

AndCooper 0.1 release and release notes end published today at MobileBytes blog.

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Motorola's first Android devices are coming to ..wait for it..it validates 2 of my predictions..Verizon! According to this BGR post, the device is called Calgary.

So we have Android devices coming to USA $2, USA #3 and USA #4 mobile operators in terms of number of subscribers in q2, q3, and q4 of 2009.  It is goinjg to get real interesting.

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It seems with new reports of media based on Andoroid this summer Android OS 2.0 has flash support. the meaning is in fact a little more subtle. Performance wise and other wise you will not see Adobe AIR applications on Android devices to date and you will not see Adobe AIR on Android applications until the web widgets w3c are probably supported. However, through flash video applications get a huge boost.

This means a type or class of applications RIA Mobile as Web layout, will become the default replacement for Adobe AIR applications on Android. Need more qa metric of the code in the development environment provided by the current Eclipse ADT plugin. This is why that we're not on the AndCooper to assemble at this time. This week is the first stable release.

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Some professional/commerical stuff is coming up so I had to modify some things to get a basic set-up and tools so that  I could do this in a more agile way. I will also be posting some utility classes that I have developed by building on others previous explorations. For example, a logger utlity class to better filter LogCat stuff and etc.

As far as the Android articles, some are outlined and I am just waiting on some things to be in-place so that I can put them up and that should  happen between now and next weekend. I kept the Android Build simpe in certain ways so that I coudl use it to get a teaching/tutorial article out of it and thus it will not be integrated with Ivy or Maven as of yet.

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First, a lot of Mobile Operators in the USA depend upon directed data services, directed in that something like video casting services earns good data revenue due to its direct marketing through partnerships with video media. For example Verizon Wireless has VCast.

How many know that the PacketVideo did the engineering work for the operating system libs/frameworks that enable vcast on multiple mobile operating systems?  In 2007 this is why Packet Video becoming an OHA member was such a big delaas OpenCore is the open source framework to make that happen on Android.  Being able to do video in Andrioid SDK 1.5 indicates that OpenCore is full support is close to finalization in the Andorid SDK.

While consumer LBS/GPS is still a future 'Apple-on-the-tree' to be plucked as far as amount of revenue for mobile operators mobile video such as Verizon's vcast is here and now data service revenue that is a sellable data service that sells the handsets. Since OpenCore is now finalizing up in the Andorid SDK via both SDK 1.5 and beyond its just a matterr of time for one USA Mobile Operator past T-Mobile to gear up to deploying Android.

 A simple search of indeed.com shows that Verizon is hiring poelep with Android skills and knowledge actually listed in the job ads. Spirnt is also hiring at their KS dev center some Android skilled people for their dev program. In other words the Sprint and Verizson announcements are imminent! There are no comperative job ads for AT and T in hiring Android skilled people at AT and T dev centers.

Now which would you rather do believe the un-informed bullshit in that Huff post or actually deal with reality? In other words that bet you placed in Android in becoming an Android developer  is about to pay off. Ignore the BS and prepare yourelf to take advantage when the Verizon and Sprint Andorid announcements come this year.

For those that like to follow along I usually post my links to raw data and analysis through my friendfeed account which is now set to post those links to my twitter account.  You can find links to both profiles at the right side bar on this blog.

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That means now to sell the Android device to the mobile carrier or operator the degree and choices in Mobile Web Sergvice Applications across both consumer and business is now more important in selling that specific device. T-Mobile's data trends in the US indicate for G1 that they experienced a 4-fold increase in data service use and revenue specifically mobile web use and GPS.

That should indicate in the next feew months a rapid demand of those Andorid Developers with both WebKit WebView experience and GPS application experience as each handset OEM such as Motoroal finalizes their Mobile Web Services and LBS Application stacks for their Android devices.

This also implies that we should start seeing significant ramp=up of both Android Developer Groups organized by Geographic location and Android  BarCamps this summer. It should be an interesting summer for Android Application Developers.

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New Android Application building tool is almost finished.  over the next few days the main version of finish cycle, mission reports and reports dashboard. I expect to set up on Google Code for the community.

I have yet to find a project name. The tool is independent of the IDE and thus you will be able to use no mater if you are using Eclipse, NetBeans, XCode or etc.

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 http://mobilebytes.wordpress.com/

 You will find coverage of the AndCooper Android Dev tool there.

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I finished the first alpha version of application AndCooper Android system to build its characteristics are:

-Supports the WebView applications including javascript javadocs, using jslint javascript code analysis and etc.

-Analysis reports met code set by the framework of qalab

-Support for compiling librariers jar Android same build Framework

-Support of obfuscation and optimization code through integration with proguard framework

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C'est par exemple le cas de Cr?ateur de Sonneries, propos? gratuitement pour tous les Windows Phone 8 Nokia, qui permet ? l'utilisateur de cr?er ses sonneries personalis?es ? partir des musiques que contient son Windows Phone. Tr?s simple et tr?s ?pur? au niveau de l'interface ce titre rempli n?anmoins parfaitement son r?le en permettant de cr?er tr?s facilement et tr?s rapidement ses sonneries. Bravo une nouvelle fois ? Nokia pour cette efficacit? qui rend ses Windows Phone encore meilleurs qu'est d?j? Windows Phone.


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