Android: not-so-open open source

Google has just come through a searching examination of its claims to ownership of the Android mobile operating system, with one of the most aggressive tech companies in the US, Oracle, having gained nothing from a trial by jury.

Google was accused of both copyright infringement and patent violation; the former claim was upheld but the jury was unclear whether the unauthorised use could be covered by fair use or not. The patent violation charges did not stick.
What was noticeable during the trial, which ran for more than a month, was the fact that most tech journalism outlets appeared to be on Google's side.
(The US appears to permit an amazing amount of comment on an ongoing case, something that would surely be frowned upon by an Australian judge, but not a peep was heard from the astute Judge William Alsup who was in charge of the Oracle-Google case.)
Why is this so? It is because Google is still perceived as the company that, as it claims in its manifesto, does no evil? Or is it because Android is being touted as an open system?
How open is Android in reality? The system now runs on more than 300 million smartphones and tablets, made by all sorts of companies. It primarily targets the ARM platform, according to Christopher Neugebauer, a young Tasmanian developer, who presented a talk on Android to the island's LUG a couple of months ago.
Android has a Linux kernel at its core. "There's the kernel itself which talks to your hardware; there's a C library (in the case of Android, it's called 'Bionic' (most Linux distros use Glibc, from the GNU Project) which provides a useful interface to the kernel; and then there's the user space. The difference is that the userspace is an entirely custom one developed by the Android project, so it doesn't, for example, include X11 for drawing GUIs, but instead it uses its own custom layer," he says.
The Linux kernel, of course, is released under the GNU General Public Licence which says that any changes made to the code have to be released whenever the changed version is distributed. But when it comes to the other elements of Android, things do become a little murkier.
"There are only two licences at play in the source distribution of Android - the GNU GPLv2 (for the Linux kernel) and the Apache licence (for the Android userspace)," says Neugebauer. "There are also some other BSD-style licenses for libraries that are used in Android, but not developed by Google, but these don't matter as much, as simply providing a copyright message and warranty disclaimer is sufficient to distribute these.
"This situation is probably the single simplest licensing arrangement for a Linux distribution that I'm aware of. Consider a traditional Linux distribution - GPLv2 for the Kernel, LGPL for the C library, the Apache licence for a web server, GPL v3 for GNOME... the list goes on. The point is that most Linux distributions distribute software under many disparate licences, and these have existed with minimal fuss for a very long time.
"For Android, it's simple: everything except the kernel is there under the Apache licence."
"The biggest issue with licensing in the past has been the release of cheap Chinese tablets which haven't complied with their obligations for publishing kernel source under the GPL; (Kernel developer) Matthew Garrett did a lot of work back in 2010 on this subject."

HTC One S Snapdragon processor downgraded in some markets

The chronic shortage of Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processors means that HTC has been forced to fit the One S handset with an older chipset in some territories.
The Taiwanese has confirmed that the previous generation S3 processor occupy new handsets in the Asia-Pacific region (save South Korea and Japan) and in some European countries.
US and UK users aren't affected by the shortage, which has already delayed handsets like the Asus PadFone.
HTC says it will mark the One S devices featuring the S3 and the S4 so customers know which version they're receiving.

Pure processing power

In terms of pure processing power, the dual-core Snapdragon S3 is actually faster, clocked at 1.7GHz as opposed to 1.5Ghz on the Snapdragon S4.
However, the newer chip brings faster Adreno 320 graphics for gaming, supports 4G LTE connectivity and is kinder on battery life than the S3.
It is thought that the Samsung Galaxy S3 will, for its US incarnation, also boast the S3 chipset, rather than the quad-core version launched in the UK, because of the 4G LTE support.

Diablo 3 real money auction house “expected” to go live in Europe this Friday

 

Get your Euros, Pounds and Rubles ready, folks. Diablo 3′s real money auction house will finally go live this Friday according to an in-game notification spotted by Eurogamer. The US real money auction house launched last night with minimum bids set at $1.25 and a maximum set at $250. Blizzard take $1 for every sale and a 15% cut when you cash out auction house earnings, expect similar rules for the European auction house.

It’ll be interesting to see what effect the cash auction has has on player habits, and the gold auction house. If you discover a truly incredible item, why float it on the gold auction house when you could stand to make some money form it in the cash auction house? Will the potential for profit make high level loot drops more dramatic, or will we end up in a situation where you can buy a new wardrobe for a fiver that’ll completely outshine anything you find in the game world? We’ll have to wait and see how the prices settle.
The real money auction house has been delayed several times recently amid the Error 37 controversy, legal problems in Korea and as PCGamesN report, a period of downtime in Asia recently to investigate reports of item duping. It’s been a difficulty launch for Blizzard so far, but errors with the cash auction house could directly mess with people’s money, making any future errors that much more serious. What do you think about the real money auction house?

Brasa OS 0.9 Released, Based on Debian Linux

Marcelo Marchi Negreira informed Softpedia about the release of Brasa OS 0.9, an open source operating system based on the Debian Linux distribution.

Brasa OS comes with a huge software repository and a lightweight graphical interface, providing superior performance.

"All additional packages are downloaded and compiled. [...] After installation users will have a simple system with a graphical interface, where they can install other packages, all with apt-build."

"If a package does not have the source code available, you can install the binaries, no optimized build, with the apt-get install command." said Marcelo Marchi Negreira in the official homepage.
Highlights of Brasa OS 0.9:
 
 · New customized artwork;
· New wallpaper manager: Nitrogen;
· Added Netbook installer;
· Added support for the Canon Lide 110 scanner;
· Overall improvements and bug fixes.

The following applications were updated in Brasa OS 0.9: Asunder, Audacity, BleachBit, Bluetooth, Boinc, Brasero, Calibre, Cheese, ClamAV, Conky-std, Docker, Fatrat, File-Roller, Adobe Flash Player, GIMP, GParted, hardinfo, ISO Master, KeepassX, Network-Manager, NTP, OpenOffice.org, PlayOnLinux, Privoxy, Shotwell, Shutter, Snort, Sun Java 6 Runtime Environment, Tint2, Tomboy, Tor, Unace, Unetbootin, Unrar, VLC Media Player, XSane, XScreensaver, and Wine.

Detailed installation instructions for both desktop computers and netbooks is provided by the developer on the Brasa OS homepage.

Brasa OS 0.9 is distributed as Live CD ISO images for both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures. It is supported in Português and English languages.


About Brasa OS

Brasa OS is a Debian GNU/Linux based open source distribution designed to deliver a stable, fast and yet easy to use operating system, providing the basic tools necessary to customize it as you wish.

Being one of the fastest Linux distributions in the world, as the developer of Brasa OS says, it is a revolutionary operating system created to allow users to install packages for custom building, with the simple apt-build command.

Downloads:
Brasa OS V 0.9 - 32 bit - 10.728 KB
Brasa OS V 0.9 - 64 bits - 11.112 KB

Krater SKIDROW

S K I D R O W
the leading force

proudly presents
Krater (c) Fatshark

13-06-2012....Release Date <-> Protection...................Steam
RPG..............Game Type <-> Disk(s)......................1 DVD

RELEASE NOTES

Krater is a squad based roleplaying game set in a colorful
post-apocalyptic world. It combines the combat mechanics of action-rpgs
with the top-down view of the classic old-school RPG and RTS games

The game brings you far into the future of a post-apocalyptic Sweden
Once home to IKEA, Vikings and Minecraft, today its primitive
inhabitants scavenge the broken overgrown world for technological
artifacts

At the rim of an impact site known as the Krater, three factions vie
for control over the wound opening up into the world below. Consisting
of an endless series of caves and tunnels filled with old world
treasures and perils, the Underside stretches into the depths of the
fallen Swedish civilization

You arrive at the Krater with your team of freelancers to take part in
the goldrush where people come back rich or don t come back at all

Features:

Unlimited Adventure - no matter how deep you crawl, there is always
more to explore in an open game world where randomized dungeons and
events are combined with more than 60 thoroughly designed locations and
200+ quests in order to create a vast gaming experience. Locations
range from small settlements with a handful of struggling inhabitants
to large urban areas like Solside City, a sprawling regional HUB where
you'll find all sorts of NPCs and services

Uniquely Persistent Characters - watch your team of odd personalities
evolve as they level up and gain new abilities, stat increases and
equipment, but also

Face the Consequences - your characters must cope with the dangers of
Krater - if not they will face the threat of permanent injuries or
even death

Craft Everything - from items, weapons, and gear to the abilities and
powers of your characters, you can craft it all with an extensive
crafting system

Co-op - Seamless blending of coop and singleplayer - use your
characters to explore an open-ended game world in single player
either by following the main story campaign or just free-roaming the
Krater (or a mix of both). You can at any time have your team join
up with a friend to take on one of the challenging co-op dungeons
All the loot earned and progress made is kept regardless of game
mode. And yes, your grinding efforts will be kept for the coming PvP
expansion as well!

Living title - the game comes from a long test phase with weekly
updates of the Steam build that has improved gameplay, added content
or new features. This will continue even after release and you can
expect free expansions that add or expand on game mechanics, locations
player characters and enemies

Visual appearance: The game uses the DX11 API (but it also support
DX10 hardware) to be able to use beautiful and varied environment and
character art. The enemy units are not all simple texture variations on
the same model, but sport unique meshes, animation sets and effects to
a large extent

INSTALL NOTES

1. Unpack the release
2. Mount or burn image
3. Install
4. Copy everything from the SKIDROW folder into the game installation
5. Play the game
6. Support the companies, which software you actually enjoy!

T-Mobile Galaxy S2 with Android 4.0 is the first with IPv6 support

Last night, T-Mobile and Samsung pushed out the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update to the Samsung Galaxy S2. Aside from bringing in all the new features of Android 4.0, it also turns it into a fully IPv6 capable device.
With the Android 4.0 update, the Galaxy S2 from T-Mobile becomes the first branded phone to support T-Mobile’s new IPv6 network for HSPA+ (and eventually LTE). While the unlocked Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus from Samsung both offer IPv6 support with Android 4.0, they are not officially T-Mobile devices (though the company does offer some support for them).
If you have a Samsung Galaxy S2 from T-Mobile and are running it on T-Mobile’s network, you can easily turn it on. By going into Settings, tap “More…” under the Wireless and Network category, tap “Mobile networks,” then “Access Point Names,” then tap on the item for T-Mobile’s network. It should be called “T-Mobile US.” This will bring up a list of options to configure the APN. Scroll down until you see “APN protocol” and tap that. Select “IPv6.” Press the menu key and tap “Save.” After that, restart the phone and you should have IPv6 access on the cellular data network.
To switch back to IPv4, just repeat the process above and select “IPv4” instead of “IPv6.”
Note that if you use this phone with AT&T and try to configure an AT&T APN for IPv6, it will not work. AT&T has not deployed IPv6 for subscribers to use on the mobile network.
Detailed instructions with screenshots are available and more information about the IPv6 network is available at the IPv6 user trial website.
Read more about last week’s World IPv6 Launch Day and the impending IPocalypse, and how The Pirate Bay is dodging the feds with IPv6