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Application development news, tools, and how-tos for programmers

Java creator unhappy with Oracle trial outcome

Posted May 24, 2012 - 10:01 am

Most observers are applauding Google its successes in the Oracle v. Google case... but not everyone is thrilled about it.
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Mobile malware trick: Give users real apps, plus infection on the side

Posted May 23, 2012 - 1:29 pm

Unlike in most other malware markets, malware writers aiming at Android have always had a strong profit motive. Now they're going even more capitalist -- delivering the value they promised by wrapping good code in malware rather than just pretending
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When an Android upgrade goes nowhere but down

Posted May 21, 2012 - 11:52 am

I once had two friends who were fairly happy with their Droid X Android phones. But after I showed them how to grab an official, over-the-air upgrade to Android 2.3, or “Gingerbread,” they were much less happy with their phones, with Android in general, and almost certainly with me.
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ICANN domains .MIA; OpenNIC:Be a .pirate

Posted May 17, 2012 - 10:45 am

In 2008 ICANN announced it would add between dozens or millions of top-level domains to expand the virtual space available online.This week it again delayed the application deadline, again. OTOH, alternative registrar OpenNIC register as a .pirate (or anything else) for free.
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How Apple is breaking free of Google's Maps (and maybe Google, entirely)

Posted May 11, 2012 - 11:33 am

It’s no secret that Apple and Google have the kind of relationship that touring bands have with Ticketmaster: an aspiring artist with a thinly veiled contempt for the company that has all the right connections.
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Fedora Project is naming names

Posted May 9, 2012 - 11:11 am

The Fedora Project is still trying to clarify its process of naming major releases, a process that has been met with calls for revision within the Fedora community.
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Why Android developers aren't getting paid

Posted May 7, 2012 - 10:53 am

Even as Android still continues to be the disruptive story in mobile marketshare, some industry analysts are continuing to point out the popular open source platforms biggest weakness: monetization.
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LibreOffice fires shots across OpenOffice bow

Posted April 27, 2012 - 10:13 am

LibreOffice has had a very successful time after its fork from the OpenOffice.org project last year, and Michael Meeks wants you to know it.
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The hidden ways mobile sites and free games are killing your battery

Posted April 23, 2012 - 9:38 am

You know that streaming music over 3G draws a lot of smartphone energy. But inefficient CSS, image file choices, and geo-locating advertisements are hogging your battery in less overt ways, according to recent studies.
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How to grab a screenshot from iPhone, Android, and nearly any other smartphone

Posted April 20, 2012 - 10:49 am

Let’s review the best ways you can grab a screenshot from an iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, or Windows Phone. Or even a WebOS phone, if you're feeling esoteric.
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Is Canonical in ISV trouble?

Posted April 20, 2012 - 10:32 am

Canonical is calling for more app developers again. Is this an area where they are weak?
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Microsoft to power data center from sewage, landfills

Posted April 19, 2012 - 12:12 pm

Microsoft, which has been trying to innovate in data-center design as it has expanded to support wider cloud-based sale of its software, is planning a modular data center built on landfills or sewage plants that runs on fuel cells fueled by naturally produced methane.
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Morning countdown: Java loses its crown

Posted April 12, 2012 - 8:00 am

Plus: Texts carry just as much affection as love letters
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Open source: Code still matters

Posted April 11, 2012 - 10:50 am

A census of OpenStack code contributions set off discussions (some heated) on the value of code contributions.
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Legit introduces alternate Git workflow

Posted April 9, 2012 - 12:10 pm

Git rocks the distributed development world, but can be difficult to master. One new tool may change that.
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Cruel April Fool prank plasters adorableness all over your AdBlock

Posted April 2, 2012 - 4:21 pm

An April Fool's prank backfired on the developer of AdBlock in a positive way. Replacing ads with cute-cat pics was so popular some people want to keep the prank version. So AdBlock gets a new product, CatBlock, which will cost you $10 a month and an anti-nausea prescription.
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Lab accident could lead to roll-up smartphone screens

Posted March 30, 2012 - 12:27 pm

OLED displays could be lighter, brighter and less power-hungry than LEDs, but have been too expensive and too short-lived to be practical. That might change after two Ph.D. candidates realized a cleaning solvent had a revolutionary effect on the OLEDs they were building.
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Robot chimp: Teaching apes to talk and humans to run

Posted March 29, 2012 - 6:18 pm

Ken Schweller's combination computer science/non-profit primatology project may look like prep for a real-life Planet of the Apes, but it's serious science dressed up in enough wack to get computer-science students, bonobos and (hopefully) donors interested in great ape research.
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Khelihos P2P botnet rises from dead a third time

Posted March 28, 2012 - 1:42 pm

An alliance of security companies took down the 110,000-member Khelihos botnet this week by cracking its encryption, ending Khelihos II, The Sequel. The virus has already revived and begun to spread, as it did after Microsoft shut the original down last September,
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Sonatype not out to slam open source

Posted March 28, 2012 - 12:01 pm

A recent whitepaper from Sonatype and Aspect Security appears to be shoving FUD around about open source software. Turns out, that may not be the case.
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Nokia's unbelievably cool, unbelievably bad idea: the phone-ringing vibrating tattoo

Posted March 21, 2012 - 3:18 pm

Nokia has applied for a patent on magnetic ink that vibrates when the owner's phone rings. Incredibly cool in some ways, it's also one of the worst ideas in personal tech in a long time. Even fans don't like Nokia enough to want it under their skin for the rest of their lives.
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Counter-trend: Air Force shoots down high-tech UAV in favor of ancient U-2

Posted March 19, 2012 - 1:39 pm

The highly touted, highly expensive Global Hawk was to replace legendary U-2 as America's No. 1 spy plane. It killed its own chances with maintenance requirements that made it a hanger queen, poor image-gathering with its own sensors and difficulty getting it to carry the U-2's.
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How InfoChimps plans to fill the gap in the big data market

Posted March 19, 2012 - 9:03 am

InfoChimps has lots of strategic data to sell, but its true ambition is in helping companies manage and understand their own growing Big Data sets.
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People are too honest to snoop through your lost phone, right? Symantec study says 'HAH'

Posted March 12, 2012 - 3:19 pm

70 million cell phones are lost per year, many with critically sensitive corporate data on them. How honest are the people who find them? Symantec "lost" 50 phones with fake private data on them. Almost everyone snooped a little, half snooped a lot and a lot tried to use apps and information to get a look at the smartphone "owner's" social network and financial records.
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Microsoft preps universal translator easier to carry than in Dr. Who or Star Trek

Posted March 12, 2012 - 2:19 pm

Microsoft Research shows off software designed to translate voices and text from real- and virtual-world sources without losing speaker's voice. If it works, Google Translate will have [nothing nada, rien, ingenting, ei mitaan, niente, Ничего] on Microsoft
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