Hasta La Gadget!

It has been a busy couple days, and we’ve seen a lot so far at Google‘s I/O event, including quite a bit of Glass news. Earlier today, the Internet giant held a Voiding your Warranty session detailing the process of putting Ubuntu on Glass, showing the process with a screencast from the device beneath the Terminal. The process isn’t terribly involved, but does take a few steps for those willing to risk messing something up and rendering Glass effectively bricked.

It’s not likely anyone would want to run Ubuntu on Glass as a full-time deal, but seeing it done and knowing it is possible is certainly intriguing. The process involves using Launcher, Notepad, and Settings via adb, along with some apps like Complete Linux Installer and Android Terminal Emulator. Likewise, a Bluetooth keyboard and trackpad will need to be paired to the device. Taking it a step further, the bootloader can be unlocked after this and the device flashed with a different image, providing root access.

If such a prospect is making you excited and you’re not a current Explorer edition owner, don’t get your hopes too high. The folks over at Geek report that, during the session, employees suggested the version set to hit shelves in the coming months won’t make the process this easy, and that the ease with which current owners can achieve such things is to foster as much development progress as possible.

Other Glass information that has surfaced at the event includes word from Sergey Brin that Glass will receive a software update in the future that brings stabilization to the wearable’s camera, helping combat the shakiness/unsteadiness issue that results from a head-mounted camera. No details about how that will be accomplished were provided, but we’re guessing it’ll involve the device’s various sensors and gyroscopes to offer digital stabilization.

Earlier today it was announced that Glass will be getting more apps, including ones for Facebook, Twitter, and Evernote. The design aspects of the device were also covered today via a talk by Glass’s lead industrial designer Isabelle Olsson, who showed off one of the original prototypes in all its bulky, heavy strangeness.

SOURCE: Engadget

Google Glass installed with Ubuntu in warranty-voiding demonstration is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Emblaze’s long-canceled First Else may never come back in its original form, but to our surprise, its futuristic Splay interface has finally been ported to Android! Released as a free beta by the same company, this fan-shaped launcher offers a similar single-hand experience that the ALP device once promised to deliver.

The UI’s main menu has four categories: Phone (call log, contacts and profiles), Diary (email, calendar and messaging), Media (music, video, photos, camera and file manager) and Apps (with seven customizable shortcuts). Upon laying your right thumb onto any of these, a sub-menu expands and you can go one level deeper by dragging your thumb to the left of your desired sub-category, and then let go to toggle the item. Similarly, dragging to the right takes you back to the previous menu, or you can drag to a blank area and let go to jump back to the main menu. All of this is accompanied by slick graphics like before, thanks to the good work by Israeli design house Sugapusher back in the day.

The only downside of this release is that some of the features need serious refining. For instance, the Music Player sub-menu fails to filter out ringtones, and the Video Player sub-menu only managed to load the latest few clips taken with the phone’s camera. We’d also like to see integration with other apps, obviously, but this simple beta will do for now. Check out our hands-on video after the break, and head over to Google Play to grab the free Splay launcher.

Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile

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Via: AddictiveTips

Source: Google Play

Linus Torvalds has pulled the big red lever marked Version 3.9, unleashing the latest Linux kernel onto the world and at the same time bringing some good news for Chromebook tinkerers. The update builds on the Chromebook Pixel tweak we saw back in February by adding support for components in “Chrome laptops sold by many companies” — with the changelog specifically mentioning the x86-powered Samsung Series 5, Acer C7, HP Pavilion 14 as well as support for the Pixel’s touchscreen, all of which should make it easier to run your preferred distro in place of Chrome OS on those machines. Other general improvements include better support for Intel power-saving features, the ability to use an SSD as a hard drive cache as well as KVM visualization for users with ARM-powered gear. Just make sure there’s no NVIDIA hardware inside any of those boxes — you know it makes Linus cranky.

Filed under: Software

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Via: PC World

Source: Gmane

Leisure Suit Larry has been expected to make his triumphant return to the current generation of gaming thanks to its successful Kickstarter campaign. Leisure Suit Larry HD has been said to launch this May, and today we’re hearing an official launch date for the upcoming title.

Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded is expected to be released on May 31, according to Replay Games CEO Paul Trowe when speaking with Shacknews. “We should be in beta this week,” Trowe said. “We need to get all the bugs and game freezes out of the way, and maybe do pick-up lines with the actors that may have been missed. We’ll get the game to about 7,500 of our Kickstarter backers for the beta test, and they’ll also be testing foreign language versions as well.” (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Saints Row 4 Pre-Order Bonuses Are Filled With American Patriotism, Darksiders 3 Not Planned To Be Released In 2012,

The BeagleBone might be just the piece of kit for the DIY set itching to boot Linux in 10 seconds, but the freshly unveiled BeagleBone Black packs an even greater punch — and the same speedy start times — at just half the price of its predecessor. The $45 credit card-sized package totes a 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor, 3D graphics accelerator, a pair of PRU 32-bit RISC CPUs, 2GB of built-in storage, a microSD slot and 512MB of RAM. Connectivity-wise, the canine-themed board carries support for USB, Ethernet, micro-HDMI and two 46 pin headers. Those pining for hardware flexibility can make use of the platform’s existing “cape” hardware add-ons. Though it ships from Texas Instruments with Angstrom Linux on board, it’s also tuned to support Android and Ubuntu, and arrives pre-loaded with the Cloud9 IDE. BeagleBone Black is already up for grabs in limited quantities, but it’s expected to ship en masse by the end of May. Hit the second source link to start ordering, or head past the break for a video tour of the pint-sized computer.

Filed under: Misc

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Source: BeagleBoard, Texas Instruments