October 9, 2012
by sjvn01
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Landscape mode comes to Nexus 7

Some people—such as ZDNet’s own Jason Perlow—really, really hated that the popular Android-powered Nexus 7 locked its home screen into portrait mode. Well, if you’re with Jason, worry no more! A new Android update , 4.1.2, is even now coming your way that will let you set your default home display to landscape or portrait.

In other Nexus 7 news, besides the 10.1-inch Nexus 10 news, it seems that there will be a small update coming for the Nexus 7. In a discussion about this release, Queru wrote, “There’s a new revision coming indeed with a different power management chip. It’s functionally identical to the existing one, but requires a new driver and bootloader that weren’t part of 4.1.1.”

As Google usually does, the Android update is being slowly rolled out rather than be pushed to everyone all at once. Can’t stand to wait? Well, you can try going to Setting/About tablet/System updates/Check now and hope for the best. Me? I’m still clicking.

Landscape mode comes to Nexus 7. More >

October 9, 2012
by sjvn01
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Ubuntu Linux: Donationware?

First things first. Ubuntu Linux is still free for anyone to use. That said, Canonical, it’s parent company, will be happy to accept any financial donations you might care to make as well.

Today’s announcement on the Canonical blog by Steve George, the company’s VP of Communications and Products that Canonical was “making it easier for people to financially contribute to Ubuntu if they want to. By introducing a ‘contribute’ screen as part of the desktop download process, people can choose to financially support different aspects of Canonical’s work: from gaming and apps, developing the desktop, phone and tablet, to co-ordination of upstreams or supporting Ubuntu flavours,” caught me by surprise.

As George had said earlier in the very same blog “Canonical and the Ubuntu community have established a solid position for Ubuntu in the worlds of desktop, server and now cloud computing.” Ubuntu Linux may not be the most popular of all Linux distributions—Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) wins the gold medal in business and the Ubuntu-variant Linux Mint seems to have more fans these days—but it’s still very popular.

Desktop Ubuntu may not be doing as well as founder and primary owner Mark Shuttleworth would like.

Ubuntu Linux: Donationware? More >

October 7, 2012
by sjvn01
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One Linux for all ARM systems

ARM processors and Linux have been married for years. You name an ARM-based device—smartphones, Raspberry Pi, tablets—and you’ll find Linux running beside it. It’s not been a happy marriage though. For every ARM system on a chip (SoC) there had to be a different Linux spin. With the forthcoming Linux 3.7 kernel we’re on our way to seeing all ARM processors working with a single Linux kernel.

The problem has always been that while the ARM processor family itself has stayed unified, every vendor’s SoC supports its peripherals in different ways. On x86 PCs we’ve always had the BIOS, and more recently the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) to provide a common application programming interface (API) for the Linux kernel to hook into. With ARM SoCs, you couldn’t even count on something as generic as General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO) using the same APIs and working the same.

Over the years, as new ARM SoCs and end-user devices have flooded the market, this has really ticked off low-level ARM developers. They ended up having to reinvent the wheel with almost every new chip and device to come down the highway. The higher-level Linux developers were even less happy.

On March 18, 2011, Linus Torvalds had had enough. He wrote, “Gaah. Guys, this whole ARM thing is a f**king pain in the ass.”

One Linux for all ARM systems. More >

October 5, 2012
by sjvn01
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Will a Chromebook be your next PC?

Sure, you could keep using Windows, although Windows 8 looks worse every time you look at it; or you could buy a Mac for big bucks; or you could buy a Samsung Series 5 550 Chromebook starting at $449 and have a great Linux-based desktop that you already know how to use.

What’s that? It’s Linux and that’s so complicated. Oh please. Get into the 21st century, Linux is easy enough for grandpa and grandma to use. And, besides if you know how to use the Chrome Web browser–you do know how to use a Web browser right?–then you already know how to use Chrome OS and a Chromebook. If you really want to have the full Linux shell command experience, you can have that too, but it’s purely optional.

Will a Chromebook be your next PC? More >

October 3, 2012
by sjvn01
0 comments

Five great Android tablets you can buy today instead of waiting for the iPad Mini

I like iPads. I own one and often use it. That said, I never cared for its size; Apple’s locked-in, proprietary software ecosystem; and lately Apple’s iOS updates have been including a lot of sloppy mistakes. So it is that more often than not I’ve been using a variety of 7″ Android-powered tablets instead of my iPad. And, you know what? Just because it seems almost certain there will soon be an iPad Mini, I don’t see any reason to be rushing out to buy one.

Why not? From the top: Price. Whatever Apple ends up charging for the Mini, it’s a safe bet it’s going to be more than the 7″ Android tablets. Apple’s never been anyone’s idea of an affordable brand.

Next, I really don’t appreciate Apple’s Big Brother approach to third-party software. For example, the reason you can’t watch most Website videos on an iPad is that Steve Jobs decided he didn’t want Adobe Flash on iDevices. I also really don’t like Apple’s patent lawsuit happy ways.

Last, and to the point, over the last few months, Android and its hardware vendors have finally gotten their tablet act together. In 2010, Android tablets weren’t competitive at all with the mark one iPad. In 2011, the Barnes & Nobles’ Nook Color, while still primarily an e-reader, became a reasonable Android tablet. In late 2011, the small, 7″ Android tablet took off with the introduction of Amazon’s Kindle Fire. Then, as far as I’m concerned, the first Android tablet came along that was actually better than an iPad: the Nexus 7.

Five great Android tablets you can buy today instead of waiting for the iPad Mini. More >

October 2, 2012
by sjvn01
0 comments

A new Apple iOS Wi-Fi problem has popped up while others remain unfixed

Some Apple iPhone and iPad users are facing a major new problem with Wi-Fi/cellular data use while others are still dealing with earlier, unresolved iOS 6 Wi-Fi problems.

The latest annoyance is a real pain-in-the-rump. It turns out that while some of you have been watching videos, playing a game, whatever, on what you thought was a Wi-Fi network, you were actually running up your giant 3G data bill. Apple hasn’t commented on this, but on September 30th, Apple quietly released a bug fix for the problem for its Verizon customers.

In it, Apple states. “This carrier settings update resolves an issue in which, under certain circumstances, iPhone 5 may use Verizon cellular data while the phone is connected to a Wi-Fi network.” Users are loudly saying that is not just a problem with iPhone 5 or Verizon. Instead, they blame iOS 6.

A new Apple iOS Wi-Fi problem has popped up while others remain unfixed. More >

Practical Technology

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