Nokia’s Great Software Cleansing scrubs off everything since the ’90s
Nokia took an axe to much of its non-Windows software capacity today, leaving all but a core team working on S40, company insiders say. Among the 10,000 casualties officially announced are teams working on Meltemi, Qt and QML. The team imported via the Smarterphone acquisition will work on S40, we understand.
Engineers were locked out of their source code management systems and wikis before the announcements were made this morning. Read more...
iPhone denies existence of Gibraltar, other bits of British empire
The iPhone will not accept that people live in Gibraltar, a reader has pointed out to us, highlighting that the phone will not acknowledge this as a possibility when users are entering country names in their address book.
Android phones let users type in country names manually when adding addresses to contacts, while iPhones require you to choose from a list of Apple-selected countries of the world. And in the Apple universe, Gibraltar is not on the map. Read more...
Windows Metro Maoist cadres reach desktop, pound it flat
The revolutionary dogma of Metro is sweeping through the old Windows desktop, too, a new leak of Window 8 confirms. The leaked build, newer than the public release of a fortnight ago, abandons the 3D design elements introduced into Windows in 1990 for a resolutely two-dimensional world. The 'legacy' desktop in Windows 8 is denuded of anything that takes advantage of human depth perception, such as window shadows, gradients or sculpted controls. It's a flat, flat world. Read more...
Windows RT tablet built by Microsoft to be unveiled Monday
Microsoft will unveil a tablet computer running on Windows RT and manufactured by Microsoft on Monday at a Los Angeles event, according to entertainment website TheWrap.com.
Windows RT machines are designed to run on ARM chips, as opposed to a more traditional X86 chip that will be used in Windows 8 tablets said to be coming in the fourth quarter of 2012. ARM is a chip specification that is widely used in smartphones, and Nvidia and several other ARM chip makers are expected to build Windows RT machines.
TheWrap said it learned that the Los Angeles event, at an unnamed venue, will be an unveiling of a Windows RT tablet built by Microsoft from "an individual with knowledge of the company." Read more...
Honeynet Project tackles USB-carried malware like Flame
A nonprofit security research group is building technology to trap malware spread from PC to PC via USB storage drives, the method used to infect computers with the Flame cyber-espionage malware.
The Honeynet Project launched the effort Thursday, saying it was necessary to combat increasing use of portable drives in spreading malicious programs. Malcontents or criminals within an organization often use such methods to compromise closed networks that are not accessible through the Internet.
In the case of Flame, the malware created a folder that could not be seen by a Windows PC, hiding the application and its payload of stolen documents from the user, experts say. This opened up the possibility that people unknowingly carried Flame from PC to PC.
Discovered in May by Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab, Flame, a so-called super Trojan aimed at Middle Eastern governments, is believed to be the most sophisticated malware to date Read more...
Applicasa expands server-side mobile app dev service to Android
Applicasa, which offers a server-side mobile application development service, is expanding its Web-based technology this week to include the Google Android platform.
The service enables native developers to build cloud-connected back ends for Android and Apple's iOS platform without having to write server code. Server-side mobile applications can use back-end data and leverage cloud-based features such as push notifications, geolocation, and shopping carts. A drag-and-drop interface is offered for database creation and queries, with server-side back ends developed in 10 minutes, Applicasa said. Read more...
Kaiser, Apollo Group vouch for private cloud
Whether deployed behind the firewall or given its own designated space on a public cloud, a private cloud can maintain a company's control over data and offer quick provisioning and cost savings, panelists explained at a cloud conference this week.
Officials from the Apollo Group, which does a lot of systems work with the University of Phoenix, and Kaiser Permanente detailed their private cloud endeavors Thursday at the Cloud Leadership Forum conference in Santa Clara. Read more...