Category: Computers, Science & Technology

Could the impossible happen? Will Microsoft EVER release Windows to Open Source? I gotta say, I don’t think so.

Open-source Windows? The unthinkable is already happening, says Microsoft

PC World – By: Mark Hachman – “However unlikely a future in which Microsoft makes Windows open source may sound, Microsoft has already taken considerable strides in that direction.

But instead of allowing developers to make changes to Windows and other products, it’s Microsoft’s fingers at the keyboard.

According to Microsoft Technical Fellow Mark Russinovich, a future that includes an open-source Windows could happen. ‘It’s definitely possible,’ Russinovich reportedly told an audience at the ChefCon conference in Santa Clara this week. ‘It’s a new Microsoft.’

‘Every conversation you can imagine about what should we do with our software—open versus not-open versus services—has happened,’ Russinovich added.

Why this matters: Saturday marks Microsoft’s 40th anniversary. Just a few years ago, such a statement by Russinovich would have been anathema to Microsoft—and if Bill Gates were still at the CEO’s desk, it might have resulted in a letter of termination. But this is the new Microsoft, forced into a spirit of cooperation and collaboration by increasing pressure on the PC and on its business model. This is still pie-in-the-sky stuff—but science fiction can become reality. Just ask Dick Tracy’s watch.

You can’t just toss away $4 billion per quarter

An open-source Windows would be unlikely in the near term, however. That would require Microsoft to expose its reams of code to public view, theoretically allowing developers to create their own proprietary, incompatible forks of Windows. That’s an absolute example, of course—Microsoft could decide to open the code to certain components within the OS—perhaps what will turn into the ‘legacy’ browser, Internet Explorer. But open-sourcing Windows—and perhaps make it free to use—would also require Microsoft to give up a large chunk of the $4 billion or so a quarter it collectively receives from Windows, Windows Phone, and Office licenses.

As Wired points out, Microsoft has agreed to provide OEMs a free copy of Windows for devices with displays under 8 inches. And it’s far more open to running open-source products on top of its Azure cloud services than it was.”

Will ARC lead to one OS for all?

Google’s ARC Beta runs Android apps on Chrome OS, Windows, Mac, and Linux

Ars Technica – By: Ron Amadeo – “In September, Google launched ARC—the “App Runtime for Chrome,”—a project that allowed Android apps to run on Chrome OS. A few days later, a hack revealed the project’s full potential: it enabled ARC on every “desktop” version of Chrome, meaning you could unofficially run Android apps on Chrome OS, Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. ARC made Android apps run on nearly every computing platform (save iOS).

ARC is an early beta though so Google has kept the project’s reach very limited—only a handful of apps have been ported to ARC, which have all been the result of close collaborations between Google and the app developer. Now though, Google is taking two big steps forward with the latest developer preview: it’s allowing any developer to run their app on ARC via a new Chrome app packager, and it’s allowing ARC to run on any desktop OS with a Chrome browser.

ARC runs Windows, Mac, Linux, and Chrome OS thanks to Native Client (abbreviated “NaCL”). NaCL is a Chrome sandboxing technology that allows Chrome apps and plugins to run at “near native” speeds, taking full advantage of the system’s CPU and GPU. Native Client turns Chrome into a development platform, write to it, and it’ll run on all desktop Chrome browsers. Google ported a full Android stack to Native Client, allowing Android apps to run on most major OSes.

With the original ARC release, there was no official process to getting an Android app running on the Chrome platform (other than working with Google). Now Google has released the adorably-named ARC Welder, a Chrome app which will convert any Android app into an ARC-powered Chrome app. It’s mainly for developers to package up an APK and submit it to the Chrome Web Store, but anyone can package and launch an APK from the app directly.

Since anyone can get an app up and running, we decided to take a look at just what ARC was like with certain apps. It turns out ARC is based on Android 4.4 and runs Dalvik VM, not the faster Android Run Time (ART) that debuted in Android 5.0.

A lot of standalone apps, like Twitter, work perfectly, while many stop working because ARC is not a smartphone and is missing a lot of what makes Android Android. Which brings us to the next big improvement:

ARC gets serious with Google Play Services

September’s unofficial hack allowed us to explore a few limitations of the Android Runtime for Chrome. The biggest missing puzzle piece were all of the Google Play components, which weren’t supported on the early version. This made ARC less like “Google’s Android” and more like an unsupported AOSP fork. Any app that used Google Play Services for OAuth logins, Maps, in-app purchases, cloud-to-device messaging, Play Games support, or any of the myriad of other features listed above would simply crash.

With this new release, ARC includes Google Play Services, potentially opening up compatibility for many apps that depend on Google’s proprietary ecosystem APIs. It’s not the full list of APIs from Play Services, though, only a handful: OAuth2, Google Cloud Messaging , Google+ sign-in, Maps, Location, and Ads. Developers have to specifically enable Play Services on ARC with ARC-specific metadata, too, so end users can’t go too crazy with other people’s apps.

While those five APIs are pretty common and will certainly help compatibility, ARC is still missing a big chunk of Play Services, which will stop some apps from working. The biggest missing piece seems to be the Play Store’s in-app purchasing, which isn’t in the API list. The Chrome Web Store supports in app purchasing, but it would require custom code from the app developer.

We can’t explore the full potential of Play Services on ARC, because it’s up to the app developer to add special metadata to the app to enable ARC’s special version of Play Services.

Write once, run anywhere?

So calling all developers: You can now (probably, maybe) run your Android apps on just about anything—Android, Chrome OS, Windows, Mac, and Linux—provided you fiddle with the ARC Welder and submit your app to the Chrome Web Store.

The App Runtime for Chrome and Native Client are hugely important projects because they potentially allow Google to push a “universal binary” strategy on developers. “Write your app for Android, and we’ll make it run on almost every popular OS! (other than iOS)” Google Play Services support is a major improvement for ARC and signals just how ambitious this project is. Some day it will be a great sales pitch to convince developers to write for Android first, which gives them apps on all these desktop OSes for free.

For now though, the project is just a developer preview. The next steps are to bring in the rest of the Play Services APIs, which will no doubt happen over the coming months. Google will also needs to do something about the Chrome Web Store, which isn’t nearly as popular, feature rich, or mature as the Play Store. Will they merge some day? Google already displays Chrome apps in the Google Play Store for Education.”

I know, I have 1 gig fiber to my house, but if 1 is good, 2 is better!

Comcast Takes On Google With 2Gbps Internet Service

PCMag – By: Chloe Albanesius – “There’s been a lot of talk about Google’s 1Gbps ‘gigabit’ Internet service, but Comcast said today that it is planning a 2Gbps service, beginning in Atlanta.

Comcast Gigabit Pro is a fiber-to-the-home service that ‘will be offered broadly across the Atlanta metro area’ starting next month, the cable giant said today.

The goal, Comcast said, is to make it available to about 18 million homes by the end of the year.

Pricing details were not released; Google Fiber will set you back about $70 per month for gigabit Internet service alone. As Ars Technica noted, Comcast’s existing 505Mbps residential speed tier costs $399.95 per month, but Comcast told Ars that Gigabit Pro will not be that pricey and 505 customers will get a bump to 2Gbps.

‘Our approach is to offer the most comprehensive rollout of multi-gigabit service to the most homes as quickly as possible, not just to certain neighborhoods,’ said Doug Guthrie, senior vice president of Comcast Cable’s South Region, a dig at Google’s city-by-city rollout. ‘We already provide the fastest speeds to the most homes and businesses in Atlanta, and access to Gigabit Pro will give our customers all the broadband capacity they need to stay ahead of future technologies and innovations.’

Comcast already has a fiber infrastructure for its business-level Internet service (145,000 route miles), which promises up to 10Gbps for its 1.5 million customers. As a result, Gigabit Pro ‘will be available to any home within close proximity of Comcast’s fiber network,’ provided they pay an installation fee.

That includes SunTrust Park, home of the Atlanta Braves. Last month, Comcast inked a deal with the team to provide Internet access there in exchange for a Comcast-branded office tower that will house an innovation lab. Comcast will wire up buildings in the vicinity, which includes residential units.

Google, meanwhile, recently announced plans to launch Google Fiber in Salt Lake City, while AT&T is expanding its gigabit Internet offering into Apple’s hometown of Cupertino.”

I know, right?!? Hooray for ubiquitous WiFi! And, solar-powered planes… geek out alert!

Facebook’s solar-powered planes will provide Wi-Fi to the ‘burbs

Ars Technica – By: Casey Johnston – “Facebook revealed a new research lab on Thursday that will develop “aerospace and communication technologies” to bring Internet access to areas that have not yet been networked. One of the Connectivity Lab’s projects includes a plane that can remain in the air for months at a time, broadcasting Wi-Fi to regions below.

The plane technology comes from Ascenta, a UK company that specializes in high-altitude long-range aircraft. On Thursday, Facebook announced its acquisition of the company for $20 million. The planes would be solar-powered and would fly over suburban areas at an altitude of 20 kilometers, above where commercial airlines fly.

For more remote areas, like mountain ranges, Facebook and Connectivity Labs hope to put up satellites that not only cover the area with network access but talk between each other via free-space optical communication using infrared laser beams.

The project bears some similarity to Google’s Project Loon, which uses untethered balloons flying in the stratosphere to broadcast Internet connections. The balloons create a mesh network at the same altitude that Facebook’s solar planes would occupy and provide 3G speeds. Project Loon is still in the experimental stages, but the company anticipates that it could be deployed for use in military communications or in disaster areas.”

They rasied 1 million dollars in 40 minutes, a new record! People must really want this watch!

Pebble Time Set New Kickstarter Records

I4U News – By: Luigi Lugmayr – “A new Pebble Smartwatch has been revealed on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2015. Pebble offered the new color smartwatch Pebble Time again as a Kickstarter project and it reached the modest funding goal in no time. Now the campaign is over and Pebble raised over $20 million from about 78,000 supporters. Pebble broke the record of fastest project to raise $1 million (49 minutes). Pebble also became the most-funded campaign in Kickstarter’s history after receiving more than $13.3 million in pledges after the first week.

‘We cannot thank the Pebble community enough for their monumental support. We continue to listen to and be inspired by the backers who believed in us and supported our vision from day one,’ said Eric Migicovsky, Pebble CEO according to CNN.

Pebble released a steel version of the Pebble Time soon after the original Pebble Time got unveiled. Pebble will now be spending the coming months hard at work polishing every last detail of Pebble Time and Pebble Time Steel, finishing Pebble timeline, and ramping up the production process.

While the numbers sound impressive they are not in the bigger picture. The Apple Watch sales numbers will just make the 78,000 customers for the Pebble Time look like nothing. Apple is expected to sell millions of Apple Watches in the first wave when the first Apple smartwatch goes on sale in April.

About Pebble Time

The new Pebble Time is a color e-paper smartwatch that offers up to 7 days of battery and a new timeline interface that highlights what’s important in the wearer’s day. The new color e-paper display has a high contrast and always-on, perfect for displaying incoming notifications and the watch face. Compared with display technology like LCD or OLED, power consumption is minimized, enabling Pebble Time to achieve a battery life of up to 7 days.

Pebble Time’s new microphone lets users send voice replies to incoming notifications or take short voice notes. Pebble used the latest technology to maintain water resistance so consumers can swim or surf with Pebble Time. It is not water proof to the degree that it can be completely immersed in water.

Sending voice replies works with most major Android apps including SMS, Hangouts, Gmail, Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp and hundreds more. For iOS users, voice replies are currently limited to Gmail notifications. Pebble is working to enable voice replies for more apps.

Pebble Time is 20% thinner than the original Pebble at just 9.5mm. Its ergonomic, curved design fits comfortably on either wrist and slides easily under dress shirts.

Pebble Time is much better looking than the current Pebble. The lens is crafted from scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass with a bezel made of stainless steel. Like our previous watches, it’s water resistant – perfect for a run in the rain, water-balloon battle or a swim.

Pebble has also evolved the smartwatch user interface. The base concept is a timeline. notifications, news, reminders and events are laid out chronologically instead of being trapped inside separate apps. With one click, see what’s coming up next. Your timeline connects to calendars, alarms, and apps, organizing all kinds of relevant information along with quick actions. Similarly, recall the past.”

Microsoft is like the Borg… you will be assimilated! If you are an interesting, small company!

Microsoft acquires LiveLoop

India Today – “Microsoft has been on a sort of a race to acquire start-ups in the recent past. Its latest acquisition is LiveLoop. LiveLoop is a program which aids in converting PowerPoint presentations into a URL format. With this, anyone can check the URL, and PowerPoint need not be downloaded on the machine. As a result of the acquisition, the program will be closing down on April 24. Microsoft is known to remove traces of the acquired team’s work after acquisition.

Using this technology, Microsoft might be hoping to make it easier to access PowerPoint online in the coming days. Although there is already a PowerPoint client available online, it is not that user-friendly.

Microsoft has not revealed the amount it shelled out to acquire LiveLoop. This move comes after it had acquired the calendar app Sunrise for $100 million and e-mail client Acompli at a price of $200 million recently. Under the new CEO Satya Nadella, Microsoft has become more open to making low-cost acquisitions, and not necessarily big names.”

Would you like a version of LibreOffice that would be available via the web, like Office 365 from Microsoft? Well, it is coming!

SecureDrop 0.3, LibreOffice Online, and more news

Open Source News – By: Scott Nesbitt – “If you’re looking for a free and open source alternative to Google Drive or Microsoft Office Online, you’d have a hard time finding it. While there are services like Framasoft and Sandstorm, they’re collections of disparate applications that don’t work all that well together.

Two companies, IceWarp and Collabora, are coming together to bring the popular open source LibreOffice productivity suite online. The online version, called LibreOffice Online, ‘is intended to guarantee complete document cross-compatibility with the desktop version of LibreOffice,’ according to InfoWorld.

There’s currently no release date for LibreOffice Online. The first releases won’t pack all of the features and functions of the desktop version. According to Collabra, the online edition will only have “a subset of the features available in LibreOffice desktop versions.” But if IceWarp and Collabra succeed, this could be big for LibreOffice.”

Chromebook users get a Google Now update, and, it seems to be popular.

Chromebook Devices Get Google Now update

Voice Chronicle – By: Seth Charlton – “Android users have the access of Google Now for a while now and even though it may have not picked up as anticipated, users are utilizing it. It is being used by those Android users who would probably be searching a program capitalizing on full Android integration as well as all things which Google will bring by connecting the application through one interface.

Chromebook users will be next set of people to have access to the software as Google is planning to roll out the Google Now launcher for the Chrome OS Beta Channel. The update will result in Chromebook users getting access to Google Now app launcher.

Google community manager for Chrome, Ernest Cabrera, stated that the new launcher is amazing to begin fresh activities on Chrome OS such as launching apps or performing Google search.

He added that its simple, fast and aids in getting things done. Cabrera added they have increased search for helping to find what one is searching for in a quick way along with putting the apps being used most often to one’s fingertips as well as bring power of Google Now to the Chromebook.

If one is an Android fan and one does not know Google Now still, one can know that it tracks activity using other Google software and also formulates what one may require for the future. If one puts a location in the calendar for meeting, Google Now would remind a person when its time to go depending on the time it would be taking to drive there. One doesn’t even need to set a calendar reminder.

Google Now can also keep a person updated on many things such as News that one may be interested in especially using an Android-powered device.”

I love my 17 inch MacBook Pro, but I use Parallels rather than Boot Camp. But, this is still a bummer for those that do!

Latest Apple MacBooks Will Not Have Windows 7 Boot Camp Support

Tech times – By: Judy Mottl – “Apple MacBook lovers likely won’t be loving the latest news regarding the impending revamped 13-inch MacBook Pro or how it impacts MacBook Air. Apple is eliminating Boot Camp support for installing Windows 7 on the two laptops.

The move means MacBook Pro and MacBook Air owners will either have to upgrade to Windows 8, hang tough until the arrival of Windows 10, which is due to arrive sometime in the second half of this year, or tap third-party virtualization software.

The Apple support page, which doesn’t offer insight or an explanation of the move, does provide very easy to follow instructions on installing Windows on the Mac using Boot Camp. It does advise laptop owners to use the software update option to ensure that OS X and the laptop’s firmware are up to date. Boot Camp, which is Apple’s tool for installing Windows, will work with Windows 8 and later versions.

The 2014 MacBook Air and 2014 MacBook Pro are the only Apple notebooks that will now be supporting Windows 7. Yet, the OS can be used on newer MacBooks if virtualization technology, such as Vmware Fusion and Parallels, is used.

The news isn’t likely good, given that many consumers have stuck with Windows 7, and even Windows XP, which Microsoft doesn’t even support any longer, given the headaches that came with Windows 8 and even Windows 8.1. Many consumers did not like Microsoft’s new tile desktop design and new user interface changes. However, holding onto an old OS — Windows 7 debuted in 2009, after all — isn’t a good thing either, given compatibility issues with new apps and new system requirements on hardware. Yet, Windows 7 is the most relied on Microsoft OS at this point.

It is extremely likely there will be a huge Windows migration move by consumers and even enterprises when Windows 10 arrives, as it promises to bring back many interface elements Windows users liked. Microsoft has said it will provide a free upgrade to Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 users when it launches Windows 10.

For now, those who jumped on the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display or the two options (11-inch and 13-inch) MacBook Air laptops have a decision to make regarding use of a Windows OS.”