While most of its energy is focused on the XO-4 Touch, the One Laptop Per Child project is swinging into full gear for software, too. The project team has just posted an OS 12.1.0 update that sweetens the Sugar for at least present-day XO units. As of this latest revamp, text-to-speech is woven into the interface and vocalizes any selectable text — a big help for students that are more comfortable speaking their language than reading it. USB video output has been given its own lift through support for more ubiquitous DisplayLink adapters. If you’re looking for the majority of changes, however, they’re under-the-hood tweaks to bring the OLPC architecture up to snuff. Upgrades to GTK3+ and GNOME 3.4 help, but we’re primarily noticing a shift from Mozilla’s web engine to WebKit for browsing: although the OLPC crew may have been forced to swap code because of Mozilla’s policies on third-party apps, it’s promising a much faster and more Sugar-tinged web experience as part of the switch. While they’re not the same as getting an XO-3 tablet, the upgrades found at the source link are big enough that classrooms (and the occasional individual) will be glad they held on to that early XO model.
The software running HP’s now cult-classic TouchPad tablet as well as a range of smartphones has been released as Open webOS beta today. This beta release of the software will have developers able to access it using an Apache 2.0 license, and the development will commence immediately for 3rd party users looking to bring the system back to life after an ill-fated run over the past few years ended with HP cutting off their mobile hardware lineup.
This code is bringing (in beta) a set of 54 components making 450,000 lines of code, and all the elements you’ve seen of the desktop build released to Ubuntu are included of course as well. Developers will be glad to find a collection of 3rd party Enyo apps supported here on the packages System Manager as well as the ones you’d expect from the basic set of apps included on the mobile device build.
HP’s servers will be bursting at the seams with this lovely offering starting today – if you don’t see it, wait a bit longer. You’ll be grabbing such lovely bits as “build-desktop” and “core-apps” never before legally distributed to the public. Grab em all and report back to tell everyone how much awesome developing fun you’re having!
Also check the timeline below for more information on webOS as it’s made its path towards the open environment it’s about to be in now. HP is working with the community to keep webOS an operating system worth working with, and we’re excited to see it continue to expand. Also see our webOS tag portal and HP tag to keep up to date with both groups in the very near future too – exciting things are bubbling up!
If you’re a Linux user squarely in the Gnome desktop camp and sneer with disdain at the mention of Unity, there’s good news — your preferred flavor is coming, uncontaminated, to Ubuntu. Though “GNOMEBuntu” was originally floated as a name for the new environment, that idea was apparently kiboshed by the Gnome Foundation, leaving “GNOBuntu” and “Gnubuntu” as possible monikers, according to Mutkware. Neither Unity, nor cloud service Ubuntu One will be included in the distro, but you’ll find a library of apps pre-installed, including the Epiphany browser and Rhythmbox music player. Customized settings will let you further tweak the purity level to suit your zeal — so, if you’re thinking about grabbing the upcoming alpha, check the source for more info.
Linux gamers are really just having the time of their lives right now. They’ve been embraced by indie game devs, by Valve, Epic and the increasingly popular Unity 3D. And, some of these properties aren’t quite ready for the big show yet, you can get a taste of what to expect from Unity 4 thanks to a pair of playable demos that have hit the web. AngryBots and Unitroids are both available as standalone executables for your open-source desktop. They’re not complete games, but they at least serve as practical demos of the progress being made in porting the gaming engine. They’ve both got their quirks at the moment, but it’s hard not to get excited about the prospect of plummeting through AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! for the Awesome on your Quantal PC. Hit up the source for download links.
If Ubuntu is your OS of choice, you’ve already been enjoying so-called lenses to help you search through your music, videos, apps and documents. So why not a search filter for photos? Why not indeed, said the folks at Canonical. The dev team has just updated the operating system (version 12.10) with a Photo Lens that lets you search your pics by name, tag or EXIF data. What’s more, in addition to searching photos stored locally, you can pull in pictures stored on sites like Facebook and Flickr, because who knows how many of your cameraphone photos bypassed your computer and went straight to the web?
A Holy Grail of Linux gaming has been an Unreal Engine 3 port. Getting one for the OS would unlock a world of games that has been the province of, well, just about any other mainstream platform. Thanks to Google preserving Flash on Linux through Chrome, that dream is alive in at least a rudimentary form. Experimenters at the Phoronix forums have found that Chrome 21 has support for the Stage 3D hardware acceleration needed to drive Epic Games’ Flash conversion of UE3. Tell Chrome to enable support as well as ignore a graphics chip blacklist, and suddenly you’re running Epic Citadel from your Linux install. When we say “running,” however, we’re taking a slight amount of poetic license. Performance isn’t that hot, and certain configurations might not show the medieval architecture in all its glory. We’ve confirmed with Epic that it works, but it’s still firm on the stance that there’s no plans for official UE3 support on Linux “at this time.” It’s still promising enough that maybe, just maybe, gamers can embrace an open-source platform without having to give up the games they love.
The Linux Foundation’s been racking up big-name brands since its early days, and one of the latest is mostly everyone’s favorite rapid-blogging service, otherwise more commonly known as Twitter. Following in the steps of chip-maker NVIDIA and that Platinum-leveled Samsung, the Blue Bird recently announced it’ll be joining the open-source association come next week, with the official revelation set to take place in a few days at the LinuxCon North American gathering in California. Twitter’s Manager of Open Source, Chris Aniszczyk, says that by doing so “we can support an organization that is important to us and collaborate with a community that is advancing Linux as fast as we are improving Twitter.” Needless to say, this is a win-win situation for all parties involved.
With the Humble Bundle game pack running for its third majorly successful run, it’s a more than welcome bit of news that we get to let you know: they’ve added more games! This Humble Bundle for Android #3 now has four new games that you’re going to absolutely flip over! You’ll be getting Anomaly: Warzone Earth, Osmos, EDGE, and World of Goo, each of them well worth the purchase even if you don’t jump in on this event. Humble Bundle, for those of you unfamiliar, is a deal in which you get several cross-platform pieces of software that work on Android, OS X, iOS, and Windows all for a pay what you want price – and part of it goes to charity, too!
This update to the third Humble Bundle also brings on news that they’ve reached over 80,000 purchases and grossed over $500,000 in sales in just one week – that’s major! For those of you that participated in the first ever Humble Bundle for Android, you’ll remember the following four games as having participated in that deal as well – they’re back! Have a peek at how Humble Bundle makes the case for each of these awesome apps:
Anomaly: Warzone Earth Anomaly is an intense reversal of the tower defense formula, with players managing a convoy’s path through various war torn environments. Careful planning of powerups, unit composition, and more will make or break your journey. Anomaly: Warzone Earth has rocked gamers on Windows, Linux, OS X, and iOS, and is available once more to challenge the tactics of Linux and Android gamers in high-definition.
Osmos In Osmos, you play an amoeba-esque creature (called a “mote”) in a world with a few basic rules: you absorb smaller things, and bigger things absorb you. The catch? The amoeba propels forward by shooting out bits of itself, so move with care! Different game modes introduce opposing AI motes, gravity, and other twists, and a chilled out soundtrack provides the perfect mood for floating your way to cellular domination.
EDGE EDGE is a casual puzzle-platformer that challenges you to roll your cube through over 100 levels. The innovative level design and “edge hangtime” mechanic will test your planning and reflexes. Nothing can quite describe the satisfying noise of rolling your cube to victory and securing a speedy finish.
World of Goo This critically acclaimed puzzler challenges you to build dramatic and innovative structures using goo balls. The somewhat sentient globs create rigid planks upon being placed in proximity to other goo balls, and with your help, they can escape! World of Goo is an indie classic, and the Android iteration gives the game a perfect new form factor for experiencing the magic of goo.
You can pick up your own Humble Bundle 3 at the Humble Bundle homepage and make sure you get the game Osmos no matter what. It’s so amazingly beautiful that we’ve simply got to suggest that you get it one way or another. And if and when you do make this Humble Bundle yours, make sure you press the switches for charity and the developers up high – make it count!
This summer HP has brought on a beast of a business machine in the Z1 all-in-one Workstation, complete with an upgradable set of innards and all-in-one style. The display is a massive LED-backlit 27-inch IPS panel at 2560 x 1440 pixel resolution and inside you’ve got several configurations available straight from HP, each of them landing in at right around $2,700 USD in the end. You’ll be working with an Intel Core i3 processor, Windows 7 or Linux, and the whole machine is easier to modify than your sub sandwich – fabulous for the tech-friendly business owner.
Setup
This beast is heavier than you’ll ever want to wish to carry at a back-breaking 21.32 kg (47 lbs). You’ve got a beast of a display up on two different hinges, this allowing you to adjust both the angle and the height at which the display sits. Once you’ve got it where you want it, you’ll probably want to leave it alone, though, as the weight of this conglomeration of metal, plastic, and glass is not the easiest thing to move around.
The monitor sits on its two hinges mightily, both of them making sure that this heaving beast does not move even the slightest bit once its set in place. In addition to being able to set this computer up with its “traditional display” setup (on the stand it comes attached to) you can mount it to the wall with industry standard VESA mounts. This unit utilizes a 100×100 VESA mount pattern, making it easy to set up with 3rd party display gear.
HP has done an amazing job of making sure this computer both looks and feels fabulous with a black and silver metal setup both on front and back. While most workstation-aimed computers are made to sit out of the way or under a desk, this all-in-one unit looks great from all sides. The one odd point that appears off as far as aesthetics go is the power cord port which sits under the display – it feels like HP went so far to keep the front and the back clean that they nudged that rather unsightly cord to the underside.
Connectivity
That said, the rest of the computer is indeed rather clean looking. You’ve got your power button up top on the right, a system activity LED below that right near the eject button for your optical drive. The optical drive is always a Slot Load 8X SuperMulti DVDRW no matter what configuration you pick up, and it sits right above a 4-in-1 Media Card Reader as well. Next on the right is a standard Firewire 1394a port above two USB 3.0 ports and ports for Audio in and out. Each of these buttons and ports are super easy to access.
What’s not so easy to access – and perhaps rightfully so – are the ports below the monitor. This collection of ports includes the power port (as mentioned above), one standard DisplayPort in/out, digital audio via a S/PDIF port, audio in/out and subwoofer out, and a set of four more USB 2.0 ports. There’s also a hidden USB 2.0 port under the hood which HP has used up with a dongle that connects with a couple of packaged accessories: keyboard and a mouse – both of which are relatively high quality.
Software
You can work on this system with Windows 7 or HP provided Linux, the Linux builds including drivers from 32 and 64-bit OS versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5 Workstation, RHEL 6 Workstation, and 64-bit SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) 11 for your convenience. For Windows 7 you’ll either get 32-bit or 64-bit Genuine Windows 7 Professional installed right out of the box.
With a computer that’s made to be updated in the hardware universe for years into the future, you’ll also want to be sure you’ve got the software to back it up as well. Windows 8 will of course be able to be loaded here, and with HP Performance Advisor included in the out-of-box experience, you’ll have HP’s own software wizard to help out out along the way as you continue to optimize your system towards its constant full potential.
This machine also includes HP Remote Graphics Software, (loaded standard with every new-age HP workstation,) an environment which allows you to access your setup remotely from other machines connected to the web with ease. Just as it was with each of the other HP workstations we’ve tested over the past year or so, this machine plays nicely with a vast array of machines outside its build – Directory Mode allow you to access workstations throughout your office, RGS functionality works with pixels (as opposed to data) to expand your workspace to a wide variety of 3rd party monitors automatically, and the whole RGS suite works on both Windows and Linux.
This device also comes with ISV certification so you know its up to snuff according to the Independent Software Vendor set of tests – standard stuff! Along those same lines is the fact that this machine is Energy Star certified with 90% efficient power supplies, and each HP Z1 comes with a warranty that includes limited 3-year parts, 3-year labor and 3-year onsite service extendable up to 5 years with HP Care Pack Services – business friendly indeed!
System – Hewlett-Packard HP Z1 Workstation
Manufacturer
Hewlett Packard
Product Type
Desktop
Operating System
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (64-bit)
Motherboard
Hewlett-Packard 3561h
Processor
Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E31280 @ 3.50GHz
Processor ID
GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 42 Stepping 7
Processor Frequency
3.49 GHz
Processors
1
Threads
8
Cores
4
L1 Instruction Cache
32.0 KB
L1 Data Cache
32.0 KB
L2 Cache
256 KB
L3 Cache
8.00 MB
Memory
16.0 GB DDR3 SDRAM 666MHz
FSB
99.8 MHz
BIOS
Hewlett-Packard J52 v01.04
Above and below you’ll see some additional components listed as well as our standard Geekbench benchmark results. This machine does extremely well for itself, both in benchmarks and in practice with everyday light and heavyweight tasks like video processing. And again, you can switch essentially every piece out and make it more powerful as you deem necessary.
Benchmark Score – Hewlett-Packard HP Z1 Workstation
Section
Description
Score
Total Score
Windows x86 (64-bit) – Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (64-bit)
Integer
Processor integer performance
12316
15079
Floating Point
Processor floating point performance
23630
Memory
Memory performance
8518
Stream
Memory bandwidth performance
7951
Versatility
This machine is fabulous in its ability to be modified. Push the display down horizontal and lift the face up like the hood of a car and poof! Like magic, you’ve got a vast array of plug-n-play pieces at your fingertips. You can change out essentially anything under the hood at your leisure, and several expansion slots and bays are available for your DIY modifications. You’ve got one internal 3.5-inch bay OR 2x 2.5-inch bays, one MXM expansion slot for graphics (requiring NVIDIA custom cards, you may want to note) the base model uses Intel integrated graphics, but Quadro 500M, 1000M, 3000M and 4000M graphics cards are optional. You’ve also got 3 miniPCIe full-length expansion slots as well.
Four zones separate this device’s insides, with the 400w power supply, Quadro graphics card, CPU, and memory sitting behind fans and panels. Your power supply, hard drive chassis, and DVD/Blu-ray drive are easily removable, of course, and up to four 8GB full-sized memory DIMMs can be added as well.
Everything under the hood is able to be clipped in and out with ease using the simple to understand green arrows and hard-plastic holds. The hands-on video earlier in this review shows how simple it is to switch components in and out. Business owners pay attention here: upgrading your whole office will be so easy that you won’t need to hire Nick Burns to do it – for real!
Wrap-Up
This computer is a fabulous choice for an office in need of massive displays and Windows 7 (or Windows 8 later this year). You’ve got a perfectly solid build, HP has made the entire structure out of high-end components, and you’ll be able to modify this beast to your liking well into the future. As long as you’re not planning on lifting this monster up and lugging it around on a regular basis, you’ll be glad this was your business-oriented Windows choice for your next-generation standard workstation situation.
Video editors, web designers, graphic designers, and those working with massive files on the whole will find this machine quite satisfying.
Have a peek below at additional HP Z-series hands-on, review, and news posts we’ve published over the past two years, all the way back to the official launch of the series at an event we attended with HP!
We love a tasty mélange of gadgets, and that’s just what photographer / hacker David Hunt has served up with a Raspberry Pi board inserted into his DSLR’s battery grip. He used the handle for power, while exposing the Pi’s USB, network and video ports for easy on-camera access, and so far he’s managed to transmit images via WiFi and ethernet. But the Raspbian Linux OS opens up a world of potential DIY accessories, like wireless tethered shooting (with the addition of a WiFi dongle), cheap USB instant backup, storage, remote control from anywhere in the world and an intervalometer for timelapse photography. That’s just for starters — with the credit card sized board now in so many hands, the permutations are endless.
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