Hasta La Gadget!

You’d think a company like Nokia could just finance whatever it wanted, but just to be safe, it’s signing a loan agreement with the European Investment Bank (EIB) to the tune of €500 million ($623.9 million). Why the sudden need for cash? According to Reuters, the five-year loan will be used in part to “finance software research and development (R&D) projects Nokia is undertaking during 2009-2011 to make Symbian-based smartphones more competitive.” More specifically, those R&D activities will “also benefit the work of the Symbian Foundation and its development of open-source software for mobile devices.” Sadly, that’s absolutely it for details, but we get the idea we’ll be hearing more about this soon. We hear you can accomplish some pretty wild goals with a half billion Euros.

Filed under: Cellphones

Nokia signs €500 million loan for Symbian R&D originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Feb 2009 09:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It hasn’t been a year since Cuba lifted the ban on PCs for the majority of its citizens, and now it looks like ou neighbor to the south has been giving some serious thought to the implications of open source operating systems. To this end, the nation has recently announced Nova — its own Linux variant — at a conference on technological sovereignty in Havana. Not only does the nation see reliance on Microsoft Windows a security threat, but the U.S. trade embargo makes it virtually impossible for folks on the island to get the software legally. According to Hector Rodriguez of Cuba’s University of Information Sciences, about twenty percent of machines in Cuba are using Linux — a number he would like to see climb as high as fifty percent in five years. “The free software movement,” he says, “is closer to the ideology of the Cuban people, above all for the independence and sovereignty.” Be sure to check out the video of this latest weapon in the battle against U.S. software hegemony after the break (music by Jaco Pastorius and The Weather Report).

Continue reading Cuba launches its own Linux variant, Fidel reportedly cool with it

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Cuba launches its own Linux variant, Fidel reportedly cool with it originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Feb 2009 15:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Missed out on the whole Boy Scout or Girl Scout merit badge thing as a kid? Never fear: You can now wear your geek pride on your sleeve, thanks to Nerd Merit Badges.

The first badge in the series—and the only one available so far—features the Open Source design pictured here. But take note: before you can wear it, you must “make an accepted commit to any open source project.”

Nerd Merit Badges are fully embroidered, 1.5″ in diameter, and backed with Velcro for easy application to “your jacket, your backpack, or the lid of your overclocked, battle-scarred laptop.” Each one costs $3.99 plus $1 for shipping and handling, and if you like you can sign up to be notified via e-mail when the next badge is released.

Geeks of the world, unite!

[via Murketing]