Practical Technology

for practical people.

March 13, 2013
by sjvn01
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Andy Rubin, Android’s founder, leaves project

In a surprising move, Google CEO Larry Page said that Andy Rubin, founder of Android and Google’s Android chief, has decided it was “time to hand over the reins and start a new chapter at Google. Sundar Pichai will lead Android as well as Chrome.

Google, which acquired Android in 2005, made it the heart of its mobile operating system movement. By May 2010, under Rubin’s direction, Android phones had become the best selling phone operating system in the U.S. Today, according to Gartner, Android dominates the mobile market with almost 70% of global devices.

Andy Rubin, Android’s founder, leaves project. More >

March 13, 2013
by sjvn01
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Ubuntu, Shuttleworth & rolling releases

Canonical, Ubuntu Linux’s parent company, has an ambitious plan with a short time-frame: One operating system for computers, smartphones, tablets and TVs by early 2014. One problem with this is how do you get there fast enough and one answer, rolling releases, has got developers upset. Now, Canonical and Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth has a new proposal on how to handle rolling releases.

Ubuntu, Shuttleworth & rolling releases. More >

March 12, 2013
by sjvn01
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Will the cloud replace the PC?

Some people are still stuck in the idea that the cloud is just so much vapor. While they’re still sneering at the very idea of a cloud, others have moved on to the next logical step: That cloud-based computing will replace the PC.

As Jason Perlow, Senior Technology Editor at ZDNet and Microsoft Technology Solution Professional, recently put it, “It seems some of you find the cloud … threatening. And that you’ll move to the cloud kicking and screaming, holding your personal computer and your local data with your gritty nails dug into your laptops, external drives, and NAS appliances, tearing at them with whatever last lingering bit of life force you have left in you before you’ll accept the inevitable.”

And what is inevitable?; According to Perlow it’s that “The cloud is coming for you whether you like it or not. The cloud cannot be stopped. Your data and user experience will be assimilated

It’s not just Perlow. Gartner predicted last year that the cloud will replace the PC as the center of users’ digital lives by 2014. Certainly the vendors are betting on this.

That was the vision Steve Jobs had in mind for Apple’s iCloud. Google’s Chrome OS, and its associated Chromebooks, is all about making the cloud the center of the computing experience. And even Microsoft is getting into the act with more advanced online services such as Office 365.

So, will most of us be doing our computing on the cloud in 2014? I don’t think so.

Will the cloud replace the PC? More >

March 11, 2013
by sjvn01
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Five ways to save Windows 8

Can the Windows 8 operating system be saved? In all seriousness, Microsoft should be asking itself this question.

The numbers don’t lie. Windows 8’s market acceptance is continuing to fall behind Microsoft’s last desktop operating system failure, Vista. Asus, which had been a big Windows 8 booster, is now reporting poor sales and Samsung has decided not to bother with launching a Windows 8 tablet in the lucrative German market.

Simply chopping prices drastically for Windows 8 and Office 2013 for mini-tablets isn’t going to cut it. Neither Windows 8 nor its close relatives, Windows RT and Windows Phone 8, even appear on NetApplication’s mobile and tablet usage reports for February 2013. Nor, do I think discount prices on Windows 8 for PCs would help much. There are also lots of cheap Windows 8 PCs and they’re not selling well.

So what can Microsoft do to give Windows 8 a shot? Here are my proposals.

Five ways to save Windows 8. More >

March 11, 2013
by sjvn01
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Ubuntu Linux developer squabbles go public

Ubuntu, the popular Linux distribution, like all Linux and open-source projects, has had its share of internal battles over the project’s directions over the years. Recently, though, Mark Shuttleworth, founder of both the operating system and its sponsoring company, Canonical, has taken the latest squabbles public in his blog.

It all began when Rick Spencer, Canonical’s Ubuntu engineering director, proposed on the Ubuntu developer mailing list that, since Canonical is porting Ubuntu to smartphones in the coming months, “Ubuntu should drop non-LTS [long-term support] releases and move to a rolling release plus LTS releases right now”.

In a rolling release, major changes and improvements are released to users as soon as possible. As Spencer proposed it, new releases would come out monthly. The advantage is that users get best-of-breed modifications very quickly. Spencer then proceeded to make the case for this change. This wasn’t the first time that rolling releases had been proposed for Ubuntu.

Ubuntu Linux developer squabbles go public. More >

March 8, 2013
by sjvn01
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Linux triumphant: Chrome OS resists cracking attempts

The Chrome web browser on Windows is breakable, but its little brother, the Linux-based Chrome OS, proved to be essentially uncrackable at the CanSecWest conference in Vancouver, Canada,

Linux triumphant: Chrome OS resists cracking attempts. More >