Hasta La Gadget!

If you’re rich in buddies, but poor in cloud storage space, Canonical will let you turn those relations into megabytes with its new Ubuntu One referrals program. If you didn’t want to pay before, you could get up to 5GB of storage, with an upgrade to 20GB available for $30 per year. Now, you can use the new link on the service’s web dash to tell your contacts all about it via Twitter, Facebook or email. For each one that signs up, you’ll get an extra 500MB, gratis, as will your newly clouded pal. However, if you’re thinking you can leverage that fat Twitter list into terrabytes of offsite storage joy, think again — the limit is 40 invites, or 20GB. Still, that’s that’s not bad compared to the competition and other referral programs, so check the source to see how to start.

Filed under: Internet, Software

Canonical launches Ubuntu One referrals program, lets you earn cloud storage one friend at a time originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Aug 2012 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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That the GNOME devs planned to package their distro of Linux is hardly a secret, but we haven’t heard too many details. Now Allan Day, one of the interface and UX designers, has explained not just the goals, but the reasoning behind the move. The foundation has realized a number of things, chief amongst them is that the move towards tablets and smartphones means GNOME needs to become more finger-friendly if it hopes to survive. That doesn’t mean that the desktop environment is looking to take on iOS and Android necessarily. GNOME OS is going to be aimed at developers, with the goal stabilizing its associated SDKs and APIs, while refining the user experience. That means not just UI tweaks, but rewritten core apps and a “new model for accessing content.” For more details about the Linux stalwart’s efforts to maintain relevancy in the face of a quickly evolving market (and the loss of Ubuntu to its in-house Unity UI) hit up the source.

Filed under: Software

GNOME OS plans detailed: desktops and tablets and smartphones, oh my! originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Aug 2012 20:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Raspberry Pi is already considered a hacker’s paradise. However, that assumes that owners have all the software they need to start in the first place. Adafruit wants to give the process a little nudge through its Raspberry Pi Educational Linux Distro. The software includes a customized distribution of Raspbian, Occidentalis, that either turns on or optimizes SSHD access, Bonjour networking, WiFi adapter support and other hack-friendly tools. The build further rolls in Hexxeh’s firmware and a big, pre-built 4GB SD card image. Before you start frantically clicking the download link, be aware that the “educational” title doesn’t refer to a neophyte’s playground — Adafruit still assumes you know enough about Linux and Raspberry Pi units to be productive (or dangerous). Anyone who was already intrigued by the Raspberry Pi by itself, though, might appreciate what happens when it’s tossed into a fruit salad.

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Software

Adafruit launches Raspberry Pi Educational Linux Distro, hastens our hacking originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Aug 2012 19:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The godfather of Linux, Linus Torvalds, may think that NVIDIA is “the worst,” but Valve respectfully disagrees. The company has been working closely with the manufacturer, as well as AMD and Intel, to boost performance of its hardware under the open source OS. The developer clearly has an interest in getting the best from those companies as it works to port Left 4 Dead 2 and Steam to Linux. That close partnership is already bearing impressive fruit as Valve claims its co-op zombie shooter now performs better on Ubuntu than it does under Windows 7 using a GeForce GTX 680. The first Open GL Linux version managed a measly six frames per second, while the Direct X powered Microsoft one was topping 270. Only a few months later, and Left 4 Dead 2 is hitting 315fps on the 32-bit version of Precise Pangolin, outperforming even the Open GL Windows port which sits at 305fps. Of course, it’s relatively well established that Ubuntu has lower overhead and running Direct X only compounds the issue, though, its unparalleled driver support can’t be denied. While it’s not completely fair to compare performance on a 32-bit OS to a 64-bit one, Valve is proving that gaming on Linux need not be some proof-of-concept exercise. Linus can flip NVIDIA the bird all he wants but, through its work with Valve, it may be doing more to bring Linux to the mainstream than anyone previously has.

Filed under: Gaming

Valve says NVIDIA’s the best, Steam and Left 4 Dead for Linux coming along nicely originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Aug 2012 15:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Always-outspoken Gabe Newell, the big cheese at Valve, made quite a few interesting statements at this year’s Casual Connect conference, including the quote above. Gabe believes Microsoft’s impending update will drive manufacturers away from the OS and he reiterated Valve’s plan to make the entire Steam catalog available on Linux as a “hedging strategy.” During the onstage discussion, he also weighed in on the longevity of touch input, which he estimates at a decade, the possibility of tongue control and the future of wearable computers. Other classic quotes include “the next version of Photoshop should look like a free-to-play game,” which Adobe apparently didn’t quite understand — and frankly, neither do we.

Filed under: Gaming, Software

CE-Oh no he didn’t!: Valve’s Gabe Newell says ‘Windows 8 is a catastrophe for everyone’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Jul 2012 08:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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