Historically, Android is usually open-sourced via the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) a few days or weeks after the code is finalized. While this departure from the norm won’t affect OEMs like HTC and Motorola that have access to internal builds of Android, small-time developers will likely have to wait months before rolling their own distributions.
As to why Google is holding back Honeycomb, its reasons are actually rather rational. Honeycomb, while originally intended to run on all mobile form factors, is only ready for deployment on tablets. “To make our schedule to ship the tablet, we made some design tradeoffs,” says Andy Rubin, the head of Google’s Android group. “We didn’t want to think about what it would take for the same software to run on phones. It would have required a lot of additional resources and extended our schedule beyond what we thought was reasonable. So we took a shortcut.”
In other words, Google wants to prevent OEMs and homebrew developers like Cyanogen from rolling their own smartphone versions of Honeycomb — it doesn’t want to see the same bitter-tasting tabletified bastardization that occurred with Android 2.1 and 2.2 last year.
Our all-new, all awesome podcast devoted to the latest and greatest iPhone and iPad apps and accessories returns tonight! What, you had something else planned? Pfft!
Need to take the edge off those winter blues? Perhaps Corning’s, somewhat saccharine, vision of our technological future will be just the soporific tonic. Unsurprisingly, the Gorilla Glass maker sees a future where pretty much everything is a transparent touchscreen. While many of these ideas clearly appeal to our tech sensibilities, others are still very much high, high, up in the cloudy mists of concept land. Sure, a few of these ideas are starting to materialize back here in the present day, like large multi-touch panels, smart windows and of course communication displays, but for much of the rest, we’ll just have to sit and wait. Or not.
Normally updates are meant to better your OS, delivering necessary tweaks and performance improvements. But this latest batch out of Cupertino’s managed to do just the opposite for users running the Lion 10.7.3 package, as it’s caused many applications to force crash and bewildered users to restore Time Machine backups. Well, now the hordes clinging to Snow Leopard can join in the commiseration, as forums begin to flood with reports of failed Rosetta compatibility. That software, essential for PowerPC programs to run on Apple’s preferred Intel chipset, has been rendered useless by a just released security fix, prompting one community member to craft a DIY patch. While, Apple is reportedly working on a cure-all for these rampant woes, we’d caution any who haven’t taken the plunge to sit this one out for a bit.
Update: Good news for those of you on Lion that haven’t updated, as Apple’s pulled the 10.7.3 delta update (responsible for borked installs), leaving those who haven’t taken the plunge to try the larger (and non-problematic) combo one. Unfortunately for users of Snow Leopard, though, the troublesome security update lives on, so until Cupertino rectifies (and we update), sound off on how the temporary fix is treating you in the comments below.
Sad news to report this Friday. Steve Appleton, the CEO and Chairman of Micron, died this morning in an airplane crash shortly after takeoff from the Boise, Idaho airport. He was the only one aboard, and was piloting a fixed wing, single engine kit aircraft. Appleton started working at Micron in 1983 shortly after graduating from Boise State University, first working the production line and eventually rising through the ranks to become the company’s COO in 1991. He took the reins of Micron in 1994. The plane crash wasn’t Appleton’s first. In 2004, he and a flying partner walked away from an accident, having sustained only scrapes and bruises. He later commented on his life’s passions, which included aircraft aerobatics, “I’m very fortunate, lucky to be able to experience the kinds of things that I do. If my life were to end tomorrow, I’ve had a full life.” Steve Appleton leaves behind a wife and four children. Comments from Micron’s Board of Directors, as well as Boise’s mayor, Dave Bieter, can be found after the break.
This is it iMore nation, your last chance to enter our big Jawbone JAMBOX and a $200 iTunes gift card giveaways. If you haven’t already, you really need to run — not walk — and enter now. It’s super easy to do, just friend iMore on Facebook and subscribe to iMore on YouTube and you’re in.
MIUI is not the ROM for everyone, we get that. But for those that do enjoy using it, things just got a little better — Xiaomi has decided to release the source code changes and is in the process of open-sourcing the project. As of the time of this writing, you'll find the core patches to things like the framework and the make files as well as code for the file explorer, notes app, compass app, and sound recorder at MiCode's github pages. An official sounding announcement on the MIUI Android blog says to expect code for more applications in the "very near future". Hooray!
MIUI is more than just a custom ROM. Xiaomi builds and releases phones in China running the heavily customized version of Android, and through the hard work of their development team and independent developers, the builds have been modified to work with many phones we're familiar with here in the rest of the world. It's a big change from the stock look and feel of Android, and some say it has a very Apple-esque vibe about it. Have a look at a review of MIUI for the Nexus S and see what we're talking about. This is a far cry from a developer adding in a few custom tweaks to the AOSP — we're talking a very big rewrite much like HTC, Motorola, Samsung and LG do with their custom builds of Android. The difference is that MIUI has now decided to share with everyone.
Building MIUI isn't going to be something that most of us will do. But your favorite ROM developers, especially those that work with MIUI for various devices already, now have a whole new toolbox at their disposal. Look for more, and better, builds of MIUI to come from this, as well as some features and options from MIUI to make their way into more customs ROMs everywhere. Good news all around.
We’ve all thought it, but never dared think it could be true: what if Microsoft, Yahoo, and AOL actively monitor our instant messenger chats? What if mentions of ‘bomb’ and ‘underage’ are tracked and sent to law enforcement agencies? What if chat providers don’t agree with the things we say, or the links we share, and filter or censor the content of our transmitted messages?
Well, it looks like our fears may actually have some basis in reality: Yahoo Messenger strips FilesTube links from instant messages. It doesn’t tell either party that a URL has been removed from chat — it just deletes it. Poof. FilesTube, in case you were wondering, is one of the largest file hosting meta search engines on the Web — it indexes RapidShare, Megaupload, Mediafire, and many other ‘cyberlocker’ services.
It’s fairly obvious why FilesTube links are being removed — the Censor General at Yahoo is probably one of those perplexed primates who think all uses of BitTorrent are illegal — but this situation poses a far more important question: is Yahoo censoring messages on the client side, or the server side. Does the messenger client itself maintain a list of ‘blacklisted’ words — and if so, why are we not told that FilesTube links are banned? What other words and terms does Yahoo protect us from?
2011: the year Smartphones supplanted computers, at least according to the bundle of spreadsheets that just arrived from Canalys Research. Vendors shipped (shipped, not sold) 488 million of the devices, compared to 414.6 million “PCs,” which erroneously includes Tablet PCs of all shapes and sizes. Looking at Smartphones exclusively (IDC’s numbers from yesterday concerned all mobile handsets), Apple remains king of the hill having shipped 93.1million iPhones. Samsung is close behind, with 91.9 million and Nokia is kicking along in third with 19.6 million. For all of the doomsaying around RIM, it’s nestled in fourth, although Canalys chose not to include its numbers. Framing the research as “PCs versus Smartphones” isn’t the wisest, given the fragmentation and hybridization prevalent in the market today. Drilling down into those numbers, we learn that 63.2 million tablets were pushed out last year, cannibalizing netbook shipments (dropping 34.5 percent in a year), but desktop and laptop movements remained relatively stable. We’ve included the full report and the most relevant table of data for your perusal and insight (hint: there’s no points for saying netbooks are on the way out).
Usually, when passwords and personal information are exposed, it’s because someone hacked a company’s not-so-secure system. Motorola, however, managed to put people’s info at risk without such malfeasance when it failed to wipe the memory of a batch of refurbished Xooms. The tablets in question were sold by Woot.com between October and December of last year, and Moto is claiming that it made the mistake on only small number of slates. Of course, we don’t know exactly how many Xooms were shipped with previous owners’ data onboard, but we do know that the company is actively attempting to make amends. Moto’s offering two years of Experian identification protection services to those whose info was exposed and owners of affected Xooms are getting a little something too. Just send the device back to Motorola on the company’s dime — where it’ll be properly reset and sent back to you, along with a $100 American Express gift card for your efforts. Wondering if you’re among the unlucky? Hit the PR after the break for more info, and those with Wooted Xooms can plug in their slate’s serial number at the source link below to find out for sure.
We’ve all thought it, but never dared think it could be true: what if Microsoft, Yahoo, and AOL actively monitor our instant messenger chats? What if mentions of ‘bomb’ and ‘underage’ are tracked and sent to law enforcement agencies? What if chat providers don’t agree with the things we say, or the links we share, and filter or censor the content of our transmitted messages?
