Hasta La Gadget!

If we’re being honest (and trust us, we’re being honest), Pranav Mistry’s Sixth Sense contraption has always baffled us. It’s kind of like Sony’s Rolly. It looks cool, it sounds rad, but we’re fairly certain only 2.49 people actually know and fully comprehend how it works. That said, we’re more than jazzed about the possibility of having wearable gesture interfaces gracing every human we come into contact with, and rather than attempting to make his invention “comply with some kind of corporate policy,” he’s purportedly aiming to release the source code into the wild in order to let “people make their own systems.” Nice guy, huh? All told, the Sixth Sense can be built for around $350 (plus oodles of unpaid time off), and we’re pretty certain that a few talented DIYers can get this thing whipped into shape far quicker than Mega Corp X. So, how’s about a release date for that code?

[Via AboutProjectors]

Filed under: Displays, Wearables

Sixth Sense creator to release code, wearable gesture interface becomes a reality for all originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 07 Nov 2009 10:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A LITTLE BACKGROUND

Think of the about-to-be-released N900 as atonement for past sins committed by Nokia. The disaster that is Symbian, the anemic-ness of the Ovi store, the conspicuous lack of CDMA devices all seem, well, not so horrible after playing with this Linux based, open source, unlocked internet tablet. Nokia recently gave us a not-so-finished version of the N900 to play with. Here’s what we think after tinkering with it for a week. Bonus: We’ve got video too!

MAEMO NUMBER 5

The N900 flaunts the Maemo 5 operating system. A mostly (80%) open source Linux build, it’s certainly more usable than any version of Symbian. First off it’s a multitasking powerhouse — we loved the fact that you could stream tunes from a website like Hype Machine then open up another webpage, snap a picture or access twitter without interrupting the music flow. Programs are represented by widgets, which can be moved around different screens with relative ease and apps can be easily downloaded from the sparse Ovi store.

SCREEN SAVER

The N900 has a 3.5-inch resistive touch screen. Most resistive screens we’ve encountered thus far tend to be slow and unresponsive. The N900’s isn’t. Although it comes with a stylus, you largely don’t need it — actions like text typing and web browsing can be done with just a finger. Zooming in and out is done without a pinch, literally. When you want to enlarge something on screen, take your finger (or better yet, the stylus) and make a small clockwise circle. Making a counter clockwise circle zooms out.

PHONE HOME

Almost like an afterthought, the N900 functions as an unlocked cell phone. We popped in SIMs from AT&T and T-Mobile and the N900 made calls without much interference or static. Don’t have a SIM? No prob. There’s VoIP and Skype integration too.

SHOOTER MCGAVIN

The N900’s camera has a Carl Zeiss lens, protected by a plastic slide, and a bright Xenon flash. Pictures are generally noise free and clear while the included photo editing software rivals that of most cell phones.

FENNEC FAIL

Mozilla’s mobile browser, Flock Fennec is sadly nowhere to be found on this device. No big deal — a custom made Mozilla browser is included for all your Intertubing needs. There’ s support for Adobe Flash 9.4 plus an RSS reader as well.

LIMITED POWER

Battery life isn’t exactly Methuselah-like. Our unit conked out after a day of hard use (read: constant web surfing, making calls, shooting pictures) but we expect slightly better power management from the production device.

A DELICIOUS WRAP

The N900 will start shipping around the end of November and will cost $650. We’ll have a full review on the finished hardware before then. So far the N900 shows a great deal of promise — Nokia is definitely doing the right thing when it comes to an open platform and a lack of Symbian. Now if only they could get a carrier to subsidize the device and help bring the cost down a little bit.

See Also:

• Nokia’s Linux Based N900 Finally Official
• Nokia Ovi App Store Faces Turbulent Start
• Nokia Reveals Netbook Pricing, Introduces New Handsets

(Photos by Jon Snyder for Wired.com)

Amiga owners are a loyal bunch. And they have to be — stuck with a machine frozen in time (even if OS 5 was claimed to be “better than OS X”) and little in the way of support, the manner in which they’ve stubbornly stuck with the platform over the years can only be described as a labor of love. If you’ve been wondering what all the fuss is about but no longer have a PowerPC-based Amiga system handy, the MorphOS Dev Team has just announced that its latest — MorphOS 2.4 — now supports Mac mini G4 machines. Available now, you can either hit the read link to download for yourself, or wait until the upcoming Amiga user group meeting in Bad Bramstedt, Germany. You know, whatever you find more convenient. As for us, we’re going to go play a game of Ooops Up! for old time’s sake.

[Thanks, Antti Jarvinen]

Filed under: Desktops

MorphOS for Amiga adds Mac mini support, someone in Europe is delighted originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Oct 2009 06:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With current operating systems, as the number of cores increases efficiency decreases. Microsoft Research has just announced an experimental OS, called Barrelfish, that they’re developing in conjunction with ETH Zurich, in the hopes that they’ll learn how to buck that trend — both with current and future hardware. Building upon lessons learned with projects including Midori and Singularity, Barrelfish eschews share memory schemes in favor of message passing and a kind of database that shuttles information between cores. Heady stuff, for sure — but just the kind of thing that sets off our Geek Alarms. If you can’t wait to check this one out for yourself, hit the read link for the first release snapshot, in all its Open Source glory. The rest of us will probably remain content waiting to see how this new-found knowledge will trickle down to Windows 7 users in the future.

[Via DailyTech]

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Microsoft unveils Barrelfish multi-core optimized OS originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Sep 2009 19:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Android is an open platform, but watch out: It includes a lot of proprietary apps, including Google’s.

A popular Android hacker found out the hard way when he received a cease-and-desist letter from Google for his latest modification of the Android OS. Steve Kondik, also known as “Cyanogen”, has been distributing a version of the Android firmware that includes multitouch and other capabilities not included in the base version. Google took exception to his inclusion of code owned by the search giant and sent him a cease-and-desist letter demanding that he stop distributing it.

Kondik’s story created an uproar within the Android community and raised questions about how much the Android OS relied on closed-source applications for its functionality. That’s because the base of the platform is indeed open source, but without the applications that run on top of it, it’s not very useful to consumers.

However, the controversy has sparked constructive discussions about the future of Android, and has even motivated Google to extend a helping hand to independent developers.

In 2007, Google, along with 47 other companies, formed the Open Handset Alliance to oversee the first free, open mobile platform to accelerate innovation in the mobile ecosystem. The Android Open-Source Project became the platform of OHA, allowing enthusiast developers to freely contribute and improve the mobile experience for others.

Google stated Kondik was illegally distributing closed-source applications within his revamped Android OS.  These closed-source applications include Gmail, Maps, gTalk, YouTube, Market, Contact Sync and other essential services — what many people, perhaps naively, may consider to be the heart of the OS.

Google’s legal action most likely stemmed from the latest CyanogenMOD update, which included Google’s not-yet-released upgrade to the Android Market. An excerpt from a statement on the official Android Developer blog clarified the line between Android and Google’s proprietary applications:

“These apps are Google’s way of benefiting from Android in the same way that any other developer can, but the apps are not part of the Android platform itself,” Google’s Dan Morrill said on the company’s developer blog.

The situation even irked an engineer within Google, Jean Baptiste Queru, who tweeted, “To my Apple, Microsoft and Palm buddies: are you hiring to work on mobile stuff?”

However, Queru later moved the discussion in a more constructive direction, tweeting a link to a Google Group post where he calls on the Android community to help improve Android, asking “Who’s with me?”

The Android engineers at Google are now making available previously unreleased components — makefiles and configuration files — that will give independent developers the ability to create Android releases in the same manner that Google does, but without using Google’s proprietary apps. These engineers are working with volunteers from the community and have already begun working on alternatives to the proprietary Google applications.  Meanwhile, other developers have formed a new group, the Open Android Alliance and they, too, are working on building alternatives to Google’s applications.

Eventually, these tools should allow developers to create working versions of Android that work “out of the box,” something that is currently very difficult to do.

According to Kondik’s latest blog post, he is working around the setback by building a backup tool that will let users of vanilla Android distributions save a copy of their existing applications.

Then, after installing Kondik’s Cyanogen mod, they can restore their apps and continue using them — without having downloaded them from Kondik’s site.

“There are lots of things we can do as end-users and modders, though, without violating anyone’s rights. Most importantly, we are entitled to back up our software,” Kondik wrote.

Photo credit: Andareed/Wikicommons