Hasta La Gadget!

“The [story behind the history of Home] was about making an experience that flows through friends and people. We saw three ways that we could do this. One, we could go and build an operating system. Second, we could dig into Android deeply in order to see how we could we fundamentally change / fork Android to make it different. Or, we could build an app to make it different.” Those were the words just spoken by Cory Ondrejka — the director of mobile engineering at Facebook — here at D: Dive Into Mobile in NYC. This, in fact, confirms that Facebook not only gave thought to actually crafting its own operating system in order to usher Facebook Home into the world, but moved forward with prototypes.

Host Kara Swisher asked the duo how far along things actually got, to which Ondrejka replied: “The OS path was the least fleshed-out of the paths. Mark [Zuckerberg] talked on launch day that he wanted to build something for everyone. It’s hard to get to the type of scale that’s necessary for us [when building an OS]. We wanted Home in front of hundreds of millions of people — even a successful OS would only give that experience to a few of them.”

The two continued to talk about Facebook’s internal shift into mobile. At this point, the company has broken down most every wall between desktop and mobile, and Home is the first major product to ship under this new scenario. “You can see the engines throttling up,” Schroepfer said, speaking of how fast updates will soon be coming to iOS, Android and beyond. In fact, he confirmed that the first major update to Home was coming “during the second week of May,” while international users will start to get Home access on select Android phones today. And, while Facebookers have been testing Home on tablets, it wants to truly nail the experience on phones first before pushing it elsewhere.

Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, Facebook

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It’s not like we didn’t have ample warning, so by now anyone wanting to try out the new Ubuntu smartphone OS should have gotten hold of a Galaxy Nexus to be their test device. Still don’t have one? Then you’ll be pleased to know that a Nexus 4 will actually serve just as well, and you have six days to get equipped. The Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview will be made public on February 21st alongside the open source code and all the tools necessary to flash those two devices.

The official aim is to help devs and enthusiasts learn the platform and start building software for it, whether for core functions or for when a full third-party app store eventually goes live. The bigger picture is that, by the time Ubuntu 13.10 launches in October, an app written in this platform’s Qt/QML lingo should be able to run on any Ubuntu device — whether it be a PC, TV, tablet or smartphone — with no porting required. Rest assured that we have a couple of Nexii at the ready and we fully intend to give this newcomer a thorough hazing / write-up as soon as possible.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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Ready for your quarterly dose of Windows 8 sales figures? After hearing that some 40 million licenses had been sold through last November, the company’s CFO and CMO for Windows Tammi Reller announced here at CES that Microsoft has sold 60 million Windows 8 licenses to date. According to her, that number includes “sell in to OEMs for new PCs,” but she didn’t clarify whether or not it includes blockbuster deals like the $617 million one it recently landed with the US Army, Air Force and DISA. Reller also noted that the numbers are “roughly in line with where we would have been with Windows 7.” Moving 20 million of anything over a single holiday season is pretty impressive, and we’ll be keeping an ear out for more details should they emerge.

Update: Microsoft also announced that “since the opening of the Windows Store the number of apps has quadrupled and it passed the 100 million app download mark – just two months after general availability.”

Filed under: Software, Microsoft

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Source: ZDNet, Windows Blog

Google issued an update this week for the developer edition of Chrome OS, which adds extended display support via HDMI or VGA. Chromebooks packing A15 and Intel Celeron processors are said to fit the bill, while older machines such as the Cr-48 may experience a few hangups. The Dev Channel update also brings a newer version of Flash and Intelligent Window positioning, which automatically organizes your content displayed. If you’d like to go hands-on with these new features before they make their official debut, you’ll need to switch your Chromebook over to the Developer Channel. This can be done by toggling: Menu, Settings, Help, More Info and then selecting the Dev Channel option. However, if patience is your strong suit and you prefer to wait for a certified stable release, at least you now know what lies ahead.

Filed under: Laptops, Software, Google

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Via: Liliputing

Source: Google

The Raspberry Pi received a RAM boost recently, but it certainly won’t need it to run the latest officially supported operating system — RISC OS. A far cry from Linux variants the naked board is used to, RISC OS was developed in the late eighties by the same boffins who designed the first ARM processor. Fittingly, it’s also related to the OS found on the BBC Micro, a computer that shared the Raspberry Pi’s educational vision. Don’t expect much from the simple OS, but it will run extremely fast given the Pi’s hardware is practically futuristic compared with the computers it was intended for. The simplicity does mean, however, that it’s much easier to get right into the system and start tinkering. It was formerly a closed-source OS, so luckily, there are a bunch of Programmers’ Reference Manuals (PRMs) available to kick-start your next project. Whether you are totally new to RISC OS, or excited to dive in for nostalgia’s sake, head to the source link for everything you’ll need.

Filed under: Desktops, Misc, Software

RISC OS lands on the Raspberry Pi, relives the glory days originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Nov 2012 08:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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