Android Jelly Bean won’t get Flash Player
As part of the slow death of Adobe's Flash Player, the company has announced it won't be making a certified version for Android's new 4.1 OS – aka Jelly Bean.
Adobe said on its blog that it won't be developing Flash for Android 4.1. The software company said it will also start taking steps to phase the player out of the Google Play Store by limiting access to updates to just those folks who already have it on their mobes. Read more...
Microsoft silently kills silent, automatic Skype install via Updates
Microsoft has pulled the plug on a Windows update that snuck Skype onto business PCs.
Corporate admins got a nasty surprise on Wednesday when Skype 5.9 was automatically and silently installed on work machines via Windows Server Update Service (WSUS) - including PCs that did not have the voice chat software previously installed.
IT bods on this microsoft.com forum complained of hundreds of computers infected by the update and scrambled to remove the VoIP client centrally from PCs. Read more...
Google hands over control of Google Web Toolkit to steering committee
Google is yielding control of its GWT (Google Web Toolkit) for browser application development to a multiparty steering committee, a Google official said on Friday. The company also introduced a release candidate of GWT 2.5, featuring compiler optimizations.
With the GWT steering committee, Google goes from being a gatekeeper to a peer among equals, with the committee controlling the road map of GWT. "It will no longer be Google as a dictator," said Ray Cromwell, Google tech lead for GWT. He will serve as committee chairperson for the time being. Other companies represented on the committee include Vaadin, Sencha, and Red Hat, and other members include GWT advocates Thomas Broyer, Christian Goudreau, and Daniel Kurka. "We have to be responsive, and we have to think more about what other people [support]," in GWT, Cromwell said at the Google IO conference in San Francisco. Read more...
ERP vendors Syspro, Unit4 launch app stores
The app store model popularized by Apple is gaining further adoption in the world of ERP (enterprise-resource-planning) software, with new stores announced this week by Syspro and Unit4.
Syspro's app store, which was announced on Friday, will be available "shortly" and will eventually feature thousands of applications, the company said in a statement. Publishers can provide their offerings on the store for no charge, receive a one-time payment, "or protect intellectual property through Syspro's licensing model," it added.
About 90 percent of Syspro's sales come through channel partners, and the bulk of those thousands of applications will likely be generated through them, according to ERP analyst Cindy Jutras of the consulting firm Mint Jutras. The company's software features an architecture that allows the creation of added functionality "from the outside in as a component, without touching the source code," she said. Read more...
Kaspersky detects more APT attacks targeting Macs
Kaspersky Labs has detected a new wave of Mac OS X APT (advanced persistent threat) attacks, marking the second time this year the security company has presented evidence that the Apple platform is susceptible to such threats.
This particular attack is aimed at Uyghur activists -- but that's no reason for other Mac users to be complacent. "With Macs growing in popularity and their increased adoption by high-profile targets, we expect the number of Mac OS X APT attacks will also grow," cautioned Costin Raiu, a Kaspersky Lab Expert. Read more...