cat /khk/log/info

Finally paid android apps are coming to HK

2010-10-03T20:29:00.000+08:00

Hello,

We're writing to inform you about some changes to Android Market that require your attention.

Effective today, developers from 20 additional countries (Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland and Taiwan) can now sell paid apps on Android Market. Over the next 2 weeks, users from 18 new countries (Argentina, Brazil, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Israel, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Sweden, and Taiwan) will be able to purchase paid apps from Android Market.

Please see the related post at Android Developer Blog here:
http://android-developers.blogspot.com/

We encourage you to visit the Android Market developer console at http://market.android.com/publish to make the necessary adjustments.

Thanks, and we look forward to continue working with you on Android Market.

Sincerely,
The Android Market Team

Google, Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043

Why is Android users turning away

2010-09-19T12:37:00.000+08:00

Was talking to my friend, who is another Android user, and realized that he is unhappy with his current device. So I've asked him to list down few points what makes him turn to others.

Desmond: HTC Magic 32A (Singapore)

Pulled towards iPhone or Blackberry

Push
1 Performance dropping even with < 20 apps installed
2 Browser doesn't work for SSL pages
3 Flashing of ROM is not straight forward, lots of steps and talk about SPL and Backup ROM and the actual ROM and you cannot get the Backup ROM in w/o modifying the SPL which needs rooting - Chicken and Egg problem
4 Messaging application starts lagging after maybe 1 day after reboot, letters don't come up instantly after typing -> Lag
5 Video app is slow and cannot resume playing has the circle loading icon still placed in the centre of the video
6 Lag of 3.5 mm jack
7 Slow startup for camera
8 1 Miss call always shows as 2 missed calls
9 YouTube apps works on and off, displaying the same video can work at times and yet show cannot be displayed.

and 10 Messaging goes to Email when pressed 4 out of 10 times
11 Have to press Back button 5 times just to go back to messaging main screen

RAID Size Calculator

2010-09-02T00:40:00.000+08:00

Had just written a small Android app that does a simple task of calculating the usable size of different RAID types. Supports RAID 0, 1, 5, 6 and 10. Download it from market by following this QRcode.

Google Chrome 4.0 Beta for Linux Arrives

2009-12-12T00:31:00.000+08:00

Just in time for holidays, the wonderful developers at Google announced a few minutes ago that the Chrome browser for Linux is finally in a beta state and has been added on the official Chrome website for download! The actual version is Google Chrome 4.0.249.30 and it comes with binary packages for Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora and openSUSE operating systems. Both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures are supported at this time, as well as a preinstalled repository (at least on the Ubuntu platform) for easy updates.

Just like the popular Windows version, Google Chrome Beta for Linux is extremely fast, stable, extensible and last but not least, very secure! Did we forgot to mention that it has support for HTML5? Yes, that's right... it has! Moreover, the new Google Chrome will work very well on both GNOME and KDE desktop environments.

Linux Softpedia on Google Chrome 4 Beta - Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) 64-bit

You can grab the new beta version of Google Chrome for the aforementioned Linux systems by accessing the download page at the end of the article or by going to its official website. Whichever method you choose, please remember that you need to uninstall any existing package of the Google Chrome web browser before installing this new version.

Google Chrome is a revolutionary web browser that makes surfing the Internet more efficient and ergonomic by placing modules on each new opened tab. Instead of showing a blank page, Google Chrome offers you eight thumbnails, displaying the most visited websites, a history search bar and even the last ten closed tabs. Another breathtaking feature of Google Chrome is its amazing speed, from the moment you open it until it is closed.

The Google Chrome interface is simple and clean, allowing websites to benefit from the increased screen space. The tab bar is placed on top of the multi-functional main address bar. Why multi-functional? Because you can not only direct Chrome to a certain address, but also perform history or Internet searches.

Download Google Chrome 4.0.249.30 Beta right now from Softpedia. Oh, and don't forget to check out our brand new Google Chrome Extensions category for the latest add-on!

Fedora Switching From CVS To Git

2009-12-12T00:29:00.001+08:00

Posted by Michael Larabel on December 09, 2009

Package source control for Fedora has relied upon CVS since the inception of this Red Hat Linux distribution, but it's soon going to switch over to using Git instead. At the FUDCon event this week in Toronto, Red Hat's Jesse Keating has laid out these plans to stop using CVS and switch over to Git for its benefits: distributed management, it's faster than CVS, better patch management, and many upstream projects using this revision control system.

To ease in this transition, Jesse will be creating a helper script to conceal some of the complexities of Git while designing this script around the needs of Fedora and its contributors. The time-line for transitioning from CVS to Git for its source is that it will go live shortly after the release of Fedora 13, but could be delayed until after Fedora 14. Either way though, Red Hat should have Fedora's source running on Git in 2010.

More information on this move can be found in this blog post by Jesse Keating where he also links to his FUDCon slides on the topic.

Google Chrome for Mac and Linux: They're Here

2009-12-11T00:24:00.000+08:00

The wait's been long, sometimes hard, but it's finally here: The first Chrome beta for Mac and Linux. It's missing all kinds of stuff, like a bookmark manager. But damn if it isn't fast. Oh, the fun don't stop there.
Alsooooo, the Chrome Extensions page is now open, so you can easily grab add-ons for the latest Chrome beta on Windows, just like Firefox. (So excited for these to take off.)
Finally, Google Bookmark Sync is also live—it stores your bookmarks in your Google account, so you can access them on any computer, though for now, Chrome's the only browser getting the seamless syncing love. [Google, Google via SAI, Lifehacker]

Send an email to matt buchanan, the author of this post, at matt@gizmodo.com.

Are we ready for the cloud? ... and Google Chrome OS?

2009-11-22T17:20:00.000+08:00

After watching some videos of Chrome OS on youtube, I started to wonder, how much impact will Google's Chrome OS bring and are we ready to move on to the cloud? I do agree the benefits of cloud computing and believe this will be the future trend. But in the first place, who is going to make the first move? With cloud services rising, how many organizations will make use of these services?

Let's take Chrome OS as an example. It's slick, lightweight, fast, etc, but it depends heavily on an internet connection, which means that you, most probably, got to have an unlimited mobile data plan before you can make full use of it. Okay, now let's assume that data plan is going to be very cheap that its not a matter to you. Next question is security. Since most of us use our laptops for work, mostly. How many will put their daily work on Google, or use Google Docs for their office documents? Yes, I hate organizations that still stick to using Micro$oft office for documents/spreadsheets/presentations. However, it may be against the organization's policy for employees to put documents on the public cloud, as almost all of them contains sensitive or confidential data. It depends greatly on how much trust that organization is willing to give Google.

During my days in college, I often make use of Google Docs for writing lab and project reports. I find that its very convenient and collaboration support is very useful when you are working on the reports with few other teammates. However, after entering the working industry, I've realized many organizations are hesitant to moving data onto cloud.

So, this comes to my mind that if we can build an private cloud in an organization, and custom made Chrome OS so that it will automatically connects to the organization's private cloud. All documents data are kept at the organization's own cloud, managed by their own IT departments. By this, the organization can also prevents their information leak since Google Chrome OS is not going to have an hard disk, which means sensitive documents cannot be downloaded and stored offline. Will this way make it a better and easier way to adapt to cloud?

Chrome OS is Here: Some Assembly Required

2009-11-21T16:54:00.000+08:00

Google finally unveiled its Chrome OS today in one of the most widely covered announcements since Apple released something iPod-ish. Eager users are able to get their hands on the source but like a kid on Christmas, those toys need quite a bit of assembly before they’ll be any fun at all.
The disappointment levels must have been pretty high today when Google announced that the actual Chrome OS wouldn’t be debuting until “late 2010,” and only on specific hardware. Of course, that’s the official release. Judging by the level of interest, unofficial builds of Chrome OS should be popping up all over the place long before Christmas 2010.

[Read this from: http://www.linux-mag.com/cache/7620/1.html]

openSUSE 11.2 Released!

2009-11-12T23:42:00.002+08:00

The openSUSE Project is pleased to announce the release of openSUSE 11.2. openSUSE 11.2 includes new versions of GNOME, KDE, OpenOffice.org, Firefox, the Linux kernel, and many, many more updates and improvements. In 11.2 you’ll find more than 1,000 open source desktop applications. openSUSE also includes a full suite of server software and a rich selection of open source development tools.
You can find a bevy of screenshots and more on the openSUSE wiki, and a lengthy list of packages and version numbers on DistroWatch.
Let’s take a look at some of the more interesting features of openSUSE 11.2!

openSUSE Desktop

As always, openSUSE provides everything you need to get started with Linux on the desktop.
openSUSE 11.2 includes KDE 4.3 as the “default” desktop. If you install from DVD without changing anything, you’ll have the KDE desktop by default. However, we still provide GNOME as an equal choice, and Xfce and other window managers as alternative desktops too!
KDE 4.3 is a major update to the KDE platform. It includes improved networking support, and work to make Firefox and OpenOffice.org better integrated with the KDE enviroment. The openSUSE Project also worked closely with the KDE Project on theming and branding to provide a look and feel that meshes both projects nicely.
You’ll also find plenty of GNOME greatness in openSUSE 11.2 as well. GNOME 2.28, the latest release of the popular GNOME desktop, is included with 11.2. This release includes a brand new theme, improved software update application, improvements in GNOME’s Webcam and video application, and many other enhancements and improvements to prepare the GNOME platform for GNOME 3.0 in 2010.
OpenOffice.org 3.1 is a complete office productivity suite compatible with Microsoft Office. This release includes improvements in change tracking and collaboration in Writer, and major improvements to the drawing application.
Social networking gets a boost in 11.2 with the addition of GNOME and KDE microblogging clients that handle multiple social network sites, Gwibber, and Choqok.
With openSUSE 11.2, you have the ability to install GNOME or KDE live media from USB, and numerous improvements to make openSUSE 11.2 much better on netbooks.

Under the Hood

The desktop improvements are the most noticeable, but there’s plenty going on under the hood as well in openSUSE 11.2.
Storage improvements include the ability to encrypt the entire hard disk, for users concerned about data security. Users can also take advantage of the next generation of filesystems for Linux with Ext4 or btrfs. In case you’d like to learn more about the new kernel features you can go at KernelNewbies.org and have a look at the “cool stuff” part.
Want to manage remote openSUSE servers with a Web interface? That day is coming soon! openSUSE 11.2 users can install the first technology preview of WebYaST: a Web-based remote administration tool for openSUSE systems.
Finally, you can upgrade in-place using Zypper! Though it’s been possible to do an upgrade in place for some time, with caution, it’s finally a “recommended” method of upgrade with openSUSE 11.2. For users who want to move from 11.1 to 11.2 using “zypper dup,” see Andreas Jaeger’s post on Lizards about the process. It’s quick, it’s easy, and almost competely painless.

Linux for Education

The openSUSE Build Service provides thousands of applications as 1-click packages to enhance your experience on openSUSE 11.2. The openSUSE Education Community provides hundreds of Educational applications suitable for students of all ages, parents, teachers and IT administrators of educational institutions via the Build Service.
The 11.2 release will be followed closely by a very special spin, Li-f-e: Linux for Education. Li-f-e contains GNOME, KDE as well the the award-winning Sugar learning environment for children. With packages from the Packman repository, Li-f-e provides everything required to get rich multimedia experience too.

Media and Download

openSUSE is now available for immediate download! You have several choices of installation media and live CDs (which are also installable).

openSUSE 11.2 Installable DVD 32-bit
openSUSE 11.2 Installable DVD 64-bit
openSUSE 11.2 GNOME 32-bit Live CD
openSUSE 11.2 GNOME 64-bit Live CD
openSUSE 11.2 KDE 32-bit Live CD
openSUSE 11.2 KDE 64-bit Live CD

Booting openSUSE 11.2 from a USB key: get one of the Live CDs available above, and can copy it to a USB key with the following command:

dd if=image.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M

Replace “image.iso” with the name of the ISO image that you have downloaded, and replace “sdX” with the actual device name of your USB drive. Be careful! This will erase the target device, so make sure you have the correct device name and have any vital data backed up!

We want to hear from you!

The openSUSE Project has many channels of communication! Whether you prefer forums, email, or IRC, there are plenty of ways to communicate about openSUSE.

The official openSUSE forums.
Mailing Lists: be sure to sign up for the mailing lists that fit your interests!
IRC: #opensuse on irc.freenode.net and other channels.
Jabber, usenet, and more.

To keep up to date with openSUSE, be sure to keep an eye on openSUSE News and watch Planet SUSE for blog posts from the openSUSE community. We also update the @opensuse account on Twitter and Identi.ca regularly with news about the project.
Want to help the openSUSE Project? To get involved with openSUSE see the How to Participate page on the openSUSE wiki. We can use lots of different skills to help the project, so feel free to jump in!

Thanks!

openSUSE 11.2 represents the combined effort of hundreds of developers who participate in openSUSE, and thousands of developers in upstream projects that are shipped in openSUSE. The contributors, inside and outside the openSUSE Project, should be proud of this release, and they deserve a major “thank you” for all of the hard work and care that have gone into 11.2.
When we say “contributor,” we don’t mean only developers and packagers. This includes translators, openSUSE Ambassadors, the openSUSE Board, and the users who help power our forums and support users who are taking their first steps into Linux.
We are confident that openSUSE 11.2 is the best openSUSE release yet, and that it will help to encourage the use of Linux everywhere! We hope that you have a lot of fun while you use openSUSE 11.2!

Final openSUSE 11.2 Release Candidate Available

2009-10-31T01:29:00.000+08:00

This is it folks! We’re almost there for openSUSE 11.2. Time to grab the final 11.2 release candidate and shake out any remaining bugs to get the lizard ready for release. This release includes an updated kernel, Samba, Firefox, and more.
This release should be almost ready for the gold master stamp, but there’s still time to shake out remaining bugs. This release should not be deployed on production systems, but should be ready for early adopters and contributors who want to help with testing and development of 11.2.

Changes Since openSUSE 11.2 RC 1
Release Candidate 2 includes a few new packages, and several of the “most annoying bugs” in RC 1 have been fixed for this release. New packages include:

Linux kernel 2.6.31.5
SeaMonkey 2.0
Firefox 3.5.4
Samba 3.4.2
xorg-x11-server 1.6.5

A more complete list can be found on the wiki and an updated list of Factory packages can be found on DistroWatch.
11.2 is looking fantastic. Want screenshots? We’ve got ‘em! Check out the shots here, and/or add your own.

Most Annoying Bugs
As this is a release candidate, we’re still shaking the release out for major bugs. However, at this point in the cycle, we’re almost ready to call 11.2 RC 2 production ready. We do know of one bug worth noting, however: The Net ISO images will call the factory repository. The URL for repositories needs to be changed from /factory/repo/oss to /factory-snapshot/repo/oss manually.
You can find more on adding repositories on the openSUSE wiki.
If any major new bugs do crop up, they will be listed on the openSUSE wiki.

Testing! Testing! Testing!
As you can see, 11.2 RC2 does have a few bugs that we know about — but there may be more lurking somewhere in the release that haven’t been found yet. If you want to make sure 11.2 final is free of Most Annoying Bugs, we’ll need your help finding, reporting, and fixing those hidden bugs.
To learn more about testing openSUSE, visit the Testing pages on the openSUSE wiki. To follow the testing and development process, we suggest that you subscribe to the openSUSE-Factory mailing list, and join the #openSUSE-Factory channel on Freenode to discuss openSUSE development.

Get Release Candidate 2 Today!
What are you waiting for? Grab the milestone release today! Downloads are available at software.opensuse.org/developer/ now.
Note, if you need to try the live CD on a machine with no CD-ROM drive, you can copy it to a USB key with the following command:
dd if=image.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M
Replace “image.iso” with the name of the ISO image that you have downloaded, and replace “sdX” with the actual device name of your USB drive. Be careful! This will erase the target device, so make sure you have the correct device name and have any vital data backed up!
The final release for 11.2 is scheduled to be released on November 12, 2009. See the detailed roadmap on the on the wiki.
We’re at the home stretch. A big thanks to all the contributors who have participated in the 11.2 cycle. Without you, we’d have no openSUSE.

Android 2.0 support officially added to SDK

2009-10-28T01:22:00.000+08:00

Google's gone ahead and uncorked the bubbly to celebrate the launch of Android 2.0 "Eclair" today ahead of Verizon's big reveal tomorrow, bundling its announcements into two very important sections: SDK support, meaning devs can go ahead and start targeting the new bits, and a comprehensive list of changes in the latest version. Here are the major changes us lay folk are going to care about:

Support for multiple Google and Exchange accounts
Third-party "sync adapters" allow apps to tie in to the phone's sync services
Quick contact menus for fast access to specific key pieces of contact information
Unified email inbox (yes!)
SMS and MMS search
Text message auto-delete after a user-defined thread size is reached
Significantly improved camera controls with white balance, macro, effects, and more
Improved keyboard layout, dictionary, and algorithm based on multi-touch support
Double-tap zoom in browser, support for HTML5
Bluetooth 2.1 support with addition of OPP and PBAP profiles
"Better" graphics hardware acceleration

Needless to say, we're extremely excited about the changes Google's made here -- and on top of the Droid, we can only hope this action is coming to legacy devices on the double. We'll find out soon enough (hopefully).

[Via MobileTechWorld]

Read - SDK support announcement
Read - Android 2.0 changes

Android 2.0 First Look: Fresh Face, Sick Speed

2009-10-17T11:54:00.000+08:00

While Android 1.6 is still writhing around in amniotic fluid, BGR had the nerve to publish shots of version 2.0 "Eclair," which doesn't even have a formal due date yet. They look great. Sorry, 1.6: I'm already over you.
You're best off trudging through the entire gallery here, since BGR has annotated every little shot with accompanying (and sometimes subtle) changes. That said, here are some of the highlights (keep in mind that some of these could be subtle features of Donut, or handset manufacturer add-ons—for all we know, this is Motodroid):

• The whole system feels much faster, especially the browser. Apparently it renders about as fast as the 3GS's, though part of that could be down to the hardware (What is it, BG?)
• The browser also gets double-tap-to-zoom (some current ROMs already come with this)
• Facebook friends are integrated right into the contacts system
• Voice control has been scattered through the whole system, and even gets its own dedicated dashboard
• There's an upgraded version of Google Maps, with layer support
• Native MS Exchange support
• A unified email inbox, for joining multiple accounts
• A YouTube homescreen widget, which enables two-click uploads
• A "Car Home" app offers larger shortcuts for functions you might need while driving, as well as easy access to voice control
There are plenty more little here-and-there adjustments, lots of which seem like they're not quite finished. In any case, the earliest we can expect to see this on a phone is when Motorola's barely-not-mythical Sholes decides to materialize in store, which could be as soon as Christmas. More shots at [BGR]

Android 2.0 given a once-over, makes 1.6 look a little dated

2009-10-17T11:43:00.002+08:00

Many Android-powered devices around the globe haven't even been granted an official Donut update yet, but 2.0 (Eclair, if you like) is already well on its way to completion, and Boy Genius Report has a rather extensive gallery of shots of the latest and greatest code in action. The biggest disappointment might be that the browser seems to be little more than a minor bump from the one that's shipping in 1.6 -- though it's a boatload faster, which is a start -- and the good news is that pretty much everything throughout the platform appears to have been rethought and refined. The skin looks more modern, new UI elements like graphical balloon-shaped submenus are a welcome touch, and features like integrated Facebook synchronization risk putting MOTOBLUR back on its heels. Look, T-Mobile, we appreciate the quick 1.6 rollout, but can we go ahead and get this pushed out stat while you're at it? Check a shot of the new Contacts pop-up menu after the break.

openSUSE 11.2 on its way to become final – Release candidate available!

2009-10-16T09:17:00.002+08:00

As the first release candidate for openSUSE 11.2, it should be almost ready for final release. However, there still are a few remaining known issues and the purpose of the release candidate is to discover any major issues before 11.2 final. It may not be suitable for production systems, but is ready for contributors who want to help with testing and development for 11.2.

What’s new in openSUSE 11.2?

The new version includes latest versions of all kind of software and delivers:

Live version upgrade. No need to stop working while upgrading from openSUSE 11.1 to openSUSE 11.2
Support for several social networks like Facebook, Twitter and identi.ca
Running openSUSE from an USB stick (especially for that we ask you for testing)
For more new stuff check this wiki page

Changes Since openSUSE 11.2 Milestone 8

Release Candidate 1 includes a few new packages, and several of the “most annoying bugs” in milestone 8 have been fixed for this release. New packages include:

Linux kernel 2.6.31.3
GNOME 2.28
PulseAudio 0.9.19
Evolution 2.28
Qt 4.5.3
SeaMonkey 2.0 RC 1

A more complete list can be found on the wiki and an updated list of Factory packages can be found on DistroWatch.

11.2 is looking fantastic. Want screenshots? We’ve got ‘em! Check out the shots here, and/or add your own.

Most Annoying Bugs

As this is a release candidate, 11.2 RC1 does contain a few bugs that we know about, but should not stand between courageous contributors and release testing. The most annoying known bugs in 11.2 RC 1 are:

Bug 545753: GNOME icon is only partially visible during Desktop selection on DVD installer.
Bug 544079: sonar: gdm panel contains GtkComboBox that is unreadable.
Bug 546359: Messages “not a regular file or has tail and normal blocks” on console during boot caused by preload bug.
Bug 546838: “soft” lockup on shutdown in qemu
Bug 540482: Restart fails to restart computer
Bug 543468: all repos are lost on update

You can track the Most Annoying Bugs on the wiki along with 11.2 development.

Testing! Testing! Testing!

As you can see, 11.2 RC1 does have a few bugs that we know about — but there may be more lurking somewhere in the release that haven’t been found yet. If you want to make sure 11.2 final is free of Most Annoying Bugs, we’ll need your help finding, reporting, and fixing those hidden bugs.

To learn more about testing openSUSE, visit the Testing pages on the openSUSE wiki. To follow the testing and development process, we suggest that you subscribe to the openSUSE-Factory mailing list, and join the #openSUSE-Factory channel on Freenode to discuss openSUSE development.

Get Release Candidate 1 Today!

What are you waiting for? Grab the milestone release today! Downloads are available at software.opensuse.org/developer/ now.

Note, if you need to try the live CD on a machine with no CD-ROM drive, you can copy it to a USB key with the following command:

dd if=image.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M

The next and final release candidate is scheduled to be released on October 29, 2009. See the detailed roadmap on the on the wiki.

2009-10-15T23:45:00.004+08:00

We’re well on the way to openSUSE 11.2! Today we’re happy to announce the first release candidate for openSUSE 11.2. This release includes quite a few bugfixes and several updates, including GNOME 2.28 final, Linux 2.6.31.3, and many others.

As the first release candidate for openSUSE 11.2, it should be almost ready for final release. However, there still are a few remaining known issues and the purpose of the release candidate is to discover any major issues before 11.2 final. It may not be suitable for production systems, but is ready for contributors who want to help with testing and development for 11.2.

What’s new in openSUSE 11.2?

The new version includes latest versions of all kind of software and delivers:

* Live version upgrade. No need to stop working while upgrading from openSUSE 11.1 to openSUSE 11.2
* Support for several social networks like Facebook, Twitter and identi.ca
* Running openSUSE from an USB stick (especially for that we ask you for testing)
* For more new stuff check this wiki page

Changes Since openSUSE 11.2 Milestone 8

Release Candidate 1 includes a few new packages, and several of the “most annoying bugs” in milestone 8 have been fixed for this release. New packages include:

* Linux kernel 2.6.31.3
* GNOME 2.28
* PulseAudio 0.9.19
* Evolution 2.28
* Qt 4.5.3
* SeaMonkey 2.0 RC 1

A more complete list can be found on the wiki and an updated list of Factory packages can be found on DistroWatch.

11.2 is looking fantastic. Want screenshots? We’ve got ‘em! Check out the shots here, and/or add your own.

Most Annoying Bugs

As this is a release candidate, 11.2 RC1 does contain a few bugs that we know about, but should not stand between courageous contributors and release testing. The most annoying known bugs in 11.2 RC 1 are:

* Bug 545753: GNOME icon is only partially visible during Desktop selection on DVD installer.
* Bug 544079: sonar: gdm panel contains GtkComboBox that is unreadable.
* Bug 546359: Messages “not a regular file or has tail and normal blocks” on console during boot caused by preload bug.
* Bug 546838: “soft” lockup on shutdown in qemu
* Bug 540482: Restart fails to restart computer
* Bug 543468: all repos are lost on update

You can track the Most Annoying Bugs on the wiki along with 11.2 development.

Testing! Testing! Testing!

As you can see, 11.2 RC1 does have a few bugs that we know about — but there may be more lurking somewhere in the release that haven’t been found yet. If you want to make sure 11.2 final is free of Most Annoying Bugs, we’ll need your help finding, reporting, and fixing those hidden bugs.

To learn more about testing openSUSE, visit the Testing pages on the openSUSE wiki. To follow the testing and development process, we suggest that you subscribe to the openSUSE-Factory mailing list, and join the #openSUSE-Factory channel on Freenode to discuss openSUSE development.

Get Release Candidate 1 Today!

What are you waiting for? Grab the milestone release today! Downloads are available at software.opensuse.org/developer/ now.

Note, if you need to try the live CD on a machine with no CD-ROM drive, you can copy it to a USB key with the following command:

dd if=image.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M

Replace “image.iso” with the name of the ISO image that you have downloaded, and replace “sdX” with the actual device name of your USB drive. Be careful! This will erase the target device, so make sure you have the correct device name and have any vital data backed up!

The next and final release candidate is scheduled to be released on October 29, 2009. See the detailed roadmap on the on the wiki.

Fun with Linux commands

2009-10-11T12:01:00.000+08:00

Ah, so this is the reason why people don't consider Linux user friendly.

HTC Dragon Android device surfaces in firmware build, could pack 1GHz processor

2009-10-06T14:56:00.002+08:00

This one's about as early as it gets, but what you're looking at above is purported to be a screenshot of a firmware build for a hereto unheard of Android device called the HTC Dragon. Now, that's interesting enough in and of itself, but the real kicker is that the phone is said to pack a 1GHz processor (most likely Snapdragon), which should help make HTC's Sense UI snappier than ever -- the rumored 800 x 480 display certainly doesn't hurt things either. Not much more to go on than that, unfortunately, but you can check out a few more exciting screenshots at the link below.

[Via HTCPedia]

Google Android 1.6 update available for ADP

2009-10-02T05:45:00.000+08:00

The latest Linux based Android smartphone OS from Google appeared for HTC phones. HTC made the 1.6 version (codename "Donut") available for their Android Dev Phone.

Version 1.6 contains many improvements like higher screen resolutions then 320x480, battery monitoring & a new version of the online-shop "Android Market."

Also a new "Quick Search Bar" is available for the Homescreen & now you can do more with voice commands, like search commands for the Google search engine.

Currently this Android 1.6 version is only available for the developer smartphone from HTC, the "Android Dev Phone." Soon 1.6 will be available for the other Android smartphones from HTC.

Head over here for more info at the developer site of HTC.

Install VMware Workstation 6.5.3 on openSUSE 11.2

2009-09-19T01:06:00.001+08:00

Finally, I've managed to get VMware Workstation to be installed and configured properly on openSUSE Milestone 7. There has been a problem when compiling the modules, the installer keeps complains that the kernel headers version does not match the running kernel. No matter how you direct the installer to the correct path, it just won't accept the headers.

So, I decided to look through the directory where VMware is installed (/usr/lib/vmware) and found the module sources. Then I go on to compile the modules manually and then copy them to the kernel modules directory. And of course, VMware Workstation can be started normally.

So this are the procedures:

First create a temp directory to hold the module sources.

mkdir -p /tmp/vmware-root/modules

Change to that directory and untar all the modules from vmware directory.

cd /tmp/vmware-root/modules
tar -xvf /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmblock.tar
tar -xvf /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmci.tar
tar -xvf /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmmon.tar
tar -xvf /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vmnet.tar
tar -xvf /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vsock.tar

Then compile them one by one.

make -C /tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmblock-only auto-build SUPPORT_SMP=1 HEADER_DIR=/lib/modules/2.6.31-rc9-7-desktop/build/include CC=/usr/bin/gcc GREP=/usr/bin/make IS_GCC_3=no VMCCVER=4.4

make -C /tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmci-only auto-build SUPPORT_SMP=1 HEADER_DIR=/lib/modules/2.6.31-rc9-7-desktop/build/include CC=/usr/bin/gcc GREP=/usr/bin/make IS_GCC_3=no VMCCVER=4.4

make -C /tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmmon-only auto-build SUPPORT_SMP=1 HEADER_DIR=/lib/modules/2.6.31-rc9-7-desktop/build/include CC=/usr/bin/gcc GREP=/usr/bin/make IS_GCC_3=no VMCCVER=4.4

make -C /tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmnet-only auto-build SUPPORT_SMP=1 HEADER_DIR=/lib/modules/2.6.31-rc9-7-desktop/build/include CC=/usr/bin/gcc GREP=/usr/bin/make IS_GCC_3=no VMCCVER=4.4

make -C /tmp/vmware-root/modules/vsock-only auto-build SUPPORT_SMP=1 HEADER_DIR=/lib/modules/2.6.31-rc9-7-desktop/build/include CC=/usr/bin/gcc GREP=/usr/bin/make IS_GCC_3=no VMCCVER=4.4

Copy them to the kernel modules directory and create symlinks

cp /tmp/vmware-root/modules/*.o /usr/lib/`uname -r`/misc/
ln -s /usr/lib/`uname -r`/misc/vmblock.o vmblock.ko
ln -s /usr/lib/`uname -r`/misc/vmci.o vmci.ko
ln -s /usr/lib/`uname -r`/misc/vmmon.o vmmon.ko
ln -s /usr/lib/`uname -r`/misc/vmnet.o vmnet.ko
ln -s /usr/lib/`uname -r`/misc/vsock.o vsock.ko

Re-probe all modules

depmod -a

How-To: Hack Your Android G1 Phone

2009-09-18T00:28:00.000+08:00

maximumpc.com — While the G1 might leave a lot to be desired out of the box, power users who aren't afraid to take matters into their own hands have the ability to significantly enhance the handset's capabilities. On the following pages, we're going to show you how to hack your G1 the easy way so you can do things with it that other G1 owners only wish they could

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/howto/howto_hack_your_android_g1_phone

2009-09-18T00:16:00.000+08:00

T3 got an exclusive review on the Motorola Cliq—in Europe, Dext—and they seem quite impressed. They go as far as saying it's a "new dawn" for Motorola. Here are the basic points:

The good

• Motoblur: Motorola's combination of user interface and social service seems to be the winner. They say the widgets that allow you to customize the home screen are useful and quick, always updating live. For example, there is a messaging widget show the latest mails or texts right on the home screen, as they come in. The news widget collects information from several RSS at the same time.
• "Happenings": It is the most interesting widget-connects to social networking sites and puts all status updates together in one single feed. It's not without problems, though, as it shows the updates from all your Facebook friends. You know, all the 457 you really don't know at all.
• Contact book: Apparently, the address books collects information—addresses, emails, phones, photos, status, birthdays, dates, events—from all your contacts, adding the latest info from the social sites you are connected to. This sounds rather cool, as it seems you won't have to update your contact book ever again.

The bad

• The hardware quality: It doesn't seem very good, according to them. Apart from the boring design, the touchscreen is "occasionally hit-and-miss," and the phone feels cheap. The 320x480 screen quality is good, however.
• QWERTY Keyboard: The physical keyboard isn't good. Bad layout, and not enough spring keep them going back to the virtual one, which is accurate and feels good.

Conclusion

Despite the bad points, Katherine seems happy with the Motorola Cliq, saying it's a "rock-solid" performer, extremely customizable, fast, and great for social networkers. Go read her full review at T3. [T3]

Android 1.6 SDK is here

2009-09-16T09:32:00.000+08:00

I am happy to let you know that Android 1.6 SDK is available for download. Android 1.6, which is based on the donut branch from the Android Open Source Project, introduces a number of new features and technologies. With support for CDMA and additional screen sizes, your apps can be deployed on even more mobile networks and devices. You will have access to new technologies, including framework-level support for additional screen resolutions, like QVGA and WVGA, new telephony APIs to support CDMA, gesture APIs, a text-to-speech engine, and the ability to integrate with Quick Search Box. What's new in Android 1.6 provides a more complete overview of this platform update.
The Android 1.6 SDK requires a new version of Android Development Tools (ADT). The SDK also includes a new tool that enables you to download updates and additional components, such as new add-ons or platforms.
You can expect to see devices running Android 1.6 as early as October. As with previous platform updates, applications written for older versions of Android will continue to run on devices with Android 1.6. Please test your existing apps on the Android 1.6 SDK to make sure they run as expected.
Over the next several weeks, we will publish a series of blog posts to help you get ready for the new developer technologies in Android 1.6. The following topics, and more, will be covered: how to adapt your applications to support different screen sizes, integrating with Quick Search Box, building gestures into your apps, and using the text-to-speech engine.
If you are interested to see some highlights of Android 1.6, check out the video below.

openSUSE 11.2 Milestone 7 released!

2009-09-15T00:34:00.000+08:00

The openSUSE Project is happy to announce that the openSUSE 11.2 Milestone 7 (M7) is available for download. This release includes GNOME 2.28 beta 2, KDE 4.3.1, RPM 4.7.1, and much more.

This is a Milestone Release, one of several that lead up to the 11.2 final release in November. It may not be suitable for production systems, but is ready for contributors who want to help with testing and development for 11.2. This release is of “beta” quality, and would have been labeled a beta in past openSUSE development cycles.

Changes Since openSUSE 11.2 Milestone 6

Milestone 7 includes an initial version of the YaST2 installer theme, new KDE theming, is built with RPM 4.7.1, and adds the “–download-only” option for several Zypper commands. And, of course, it includes many updated packages:

* Linux kernel 2.6.31-rc9
* Valgrind 3.5
* Samba 3.4.0
* Evolution 2.27.91
* OpenOffice.org 3.1.1 RC 1
* Gwibber 1.2

A more complete list can be found on the wiki and an updated list of Factory packages can be found on DistroWatch.

11.2 is looking fantastic. Want screenshots? We’ve got ‘em! Check out the shots here, and/or add your own.

Most Annoying Bugs

As this is a milestone release, 11.2 M7 does contain a few bugs that we know about, but should not stand between courageous contributors and release testing. The big bugs in 11.2 M7 are:

* grub and bootsplash still use 11.1 artwork
* Bug 537343: GNOME live system asks for root password to mount
* Bug 537470: GNOME YaST Control Center cannot be started

You can track the Most Annoying Bugs on the wiki along with 11.2 development.

Testing! Testing! Testing!

As you can see, 11.2 M7 does have a few bugs that we know about — but there may be more lurking somewhere in the release that haven’t been found yet. If you want to make sure 11.2 final is free of Most Annoying Bugs, we’ll need your help finding, reporting, and fixing those hidden bugs.

To learn more about testing openSUSE, visit the Testing pages on the openSUSE wiki. To follow the testing and development process, we suggest that you subscribe to the openSUSE-Factory mailing list, and join the #openSUSE-Factory channel on Freenode to discuss openSUSE development.

Get Milestone 7 Today!

What are you waiting for? Grab the milestone release today! Downloads are available at software.opensuse.org/developer/ now.

Note, if you need to try the live CD on a machine with no CD-ROM drive, you can copy it to a USB key with the following command:

dd if=image.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M

Replace “image.iso” with the name of the ISO image that you have downloaded, and replace “sdX” with the actual device name of your USB drive. Be careful! This will erase the target device, so make sure you have the correct device name and have any vital data backed up!

The next milestone is scheduled to be released on October 1, 2009. A reminder: only one more milestone release is planned for 11.2, followed by two release candidate (RC) releases. See the detailed roadmap on the on the wiki.

Video: Motorola CLIQ gets demoed in detail

2009-09-13T00:49:00.001+08:00

CLIQs are pretty hard to come by in the wake of Motorola's big announcement today, but we flagged down an all-too-nice rep who showed off the phone's major talking points. Though it's got the same old Qualcomm MSM7201a beating in its chest that we've found in countless other Android and WinMo phones -- not anything thoroughly modern like Snapdragon -- we're feeling cautiously optimistic that MOTOBLUR is snappier in day-to-day use than HTC's competing Sense. The built-in widgets Motorola is supplying look top-notch with a ton of spit and polish (seemingly without sacrificing speed or usability), so all told, we think Moto's been really cranking this year baking this platform to a golden crisp. Follow the break for the epic demo, and pay special attention to the white model when the rep pulls it out -- the back was supposed to be stylized Morse code that reads "I love Friday nights," but apparently they ran out of space, so it's now just random dots on a cover. At least it still looks cool, though, and that's the important thing.

2009-09-13T00:46:00.000+08:00

At last, Motorola got a top class operating system for its smartphones: Their new Motorola Cliq uses Google's Android, packing 3G, slide-out QWERTY keyboard, GPS, 5 megapixel camera, and a new social networking-oriended user interface/service called Motoblur.

Software features

The Motorola Cliq—which is exclusive to T-Mobile—has the usual Android features, but it adds its own software and services, grouping it all under its own user interface. The whole thingamajig is called Motoblur.

Motoblur logs into all your different networks and accounts, from mail to Twitter to Facebook to anything in between, serving you the content in a single feed, on the phone's front page. Widgets pop up on the main screen, allowing you to respond to messages and updates with one click. It will be included in future Motorola Android-based smartphones. Here's a summary of features:

• Customizable home screen with Happenings, Status and Messaging widgets deliver status posts and more
• Customizable RSS news widgets keeps you up to date
• Messaging with Facebook, MySpace and Twitter Direct Messaging
• Address book synchs personal and work contacts, and connected social networks
• Caller ID shows caller's name, number, status and profile pic
• Photosharing in MySpace, Photobucket, Picasa, Facebook

And if your cellphone gets stolen, you can automatically restore everything in a new phone—while remotely wiping all the information from the missing one.

Motorola Cliq Gallery

Hardware features

The 320x480-pixel 3.1-inch screen Motorola Cliq has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard with a D-pad. You know, for games. It also has a 5 megapixel camera, with autofocus and 24 and 30 frames per second video recording. They have included a 3.5mm headphone jack, as well as the usual 3G connectivity, and the obligatory integrated GPS with turn-by-turn directions.

Surprisingly, however, it doesn't seem to have Wi-Fi connectivity. On the wireless department, apart from the 3G, it only has 2.0+EDR stereo Bluetooth. Bad, Motorola, bad! That's not the only uh-oh point: It comes only with a 2GB MicroSD card as its only form of storage. Of course, you can always expand it to 32GB on your own. Maybe this will make it cheaper than the competition, but we don't know yet, as pricing has not been disclosed yet.

But don't fret: It may not have Wi-Fi or internal storage, but it will come in two colors for the holiday season, winter white and titanium. Internationally, the Motorola Cliq will be called the Moto Dext. Here I will call it Moto Lulu, just because I want to. [Motorola Cliq]

T-Mobile USA Unveils the Motorola CLIQ With MOTOBLUR
First Android™-Powered Device from Motorola Puts Social Networking Center Stage

SAN FRANCISCO - Sept. 10, 2009 - T-Mobile USA, Inc. today announced the upcoming availability of the Motorola CLIQ™ with MOTOBLUR™, the first Android-powered device from Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) and the first device to feature the innovative MOTOBLUR solution. The CLIQ will be available exclusively in the U.S. from T-Mobile later this fall.

Developed by Motorola, MOTOBLUR is an innovative solution that manages and integrates communications – from work e-mail to social networking activity – on your CLIQ. Updates to contacts, posts, messages, photos and more are streamed together and synced from sources including Facebook®, Twitter™, MySpace®, Gmail™, and work and personal e-mail. MOTOBLUR automatically delivers these updates to the home screenin easy-to-view streams so there is no need to open and close different mobile applications to keep up with the latest content. A 3G-capable smartphone featuring a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and a full touch-screen display, the CLIQ is designed to keep the conversation moving, enabling fast messaging on the fly and easy navigation through MOTOBLUR's streams and widgets.

Cole Brodman, chief technology and innovation officer with T-Mobile USA, jointly unveiled CLIQ with MOTOBLUR today with Sanjay Jha, co-CEO of Motorola and CEO of Motorola Mobile Devices, at GigaOM'sMobilize 09 conference.

"T-Mobile's highly social and always-connected customers have a natural affinity for mobile social networking, and we're excited to feature the Motorola CLIQ with MOTOBLUR prominently in what's shaping up to be our most innovative holiday product lineup ever," Brodman said. "The CLIQ lives up to Motorola's tradition of great design and quality, and to our history of working together to create products that enhance the lives and the relationships of our customers."

Jha said, "We're pleased to announce our first Android-powered device in partnership with T-Mobile USA. Motorola CLIQ with MOTOBLUR differentiates the Android experience for consumers by being the onlysmartphone that automatically syncs conversations, contacts and content, and delivers a solution that's instinctive, social and smart."

The CLIQ expands T-Mobile's compelling lineup of Android devices and underscores T-Mobile's commitment to the open, highly customizable platform that gives developers and manufacturers the opportunity to create truly unique experiences. This continued first-mover advantage with Android lets T-Mobile customers have access to incredible innovation in the Android Market™.

The CLIQ delivers a reliable mobile Web experience by harnessing the power and speed of T-Mobile's 3G network and Wi-Fi. Additional CLIQ features include a 3.1-inch HVGA touch-screen display, a 5 megapixel auto focus camera with video capture and playback at 24 frames per second, a 3.5mm headset jack, a music player with pre-loaded Amazon MP3 store application, Shazam, iMeem Mobile, and a pre-installed 2GBmicroSD memory card with support for up to 32 GB of removable memory.

CLIQ also features multitasking capabilities and one-touch access to the Google™ mobile services millions use every day, including Google Search™ by voice, Google Maps™ with Street View, YouTube™ and Picasa™. Easy access to both personal and corporate e-mail, calendars, and contacts is supported by Exchange Server and Gmail. E-mail and contacts are also supported by Yahoo!, Windows Live Hotmail, and other POP3 and IMAP e-mail services. It also combines instant messaging support for Google Talk™, as well as AOL®, Yahoo! Messenger® and Windows Live Messenger.

T-Mobile's 3G network is currently available in 200 cities nationwide and covers more than 150 million people. By the end of 2009, T-Mobile USA expects its 3G network to be available to approximately 200 million people across the U.S.

Linux 2.6.31 released!

2009-09-12T12:19:00.000+08:00

Linux 2.6.31 has finally been released. The list of new features includes USB 3.0 support, a equivalent of FUSE for character devices that can be used for proxying OSS sound through ALSA, memory management changes that improve interactivity in desktops, ATI Radeon KMS support, Intel's Wireless Multicomm 3200 support, readahead improvements, a tool for using hardware performance counters, a memory checker and a memory leak detector, btrfs improvements, support for IEEE 802.15.4, IPv4 over Firewire and other improvements.

openSUSE 11.1 KDE4 Reloaded with Online Updates and KDE 4.3.1

2009-09-12T00:39:00.001+08:00

Although openSUSE 11.2 is still two months away updated openSUSE 11.1 KDE4 Reloaded images previewing some changes are available now. They are respins of openSUSE 11.1 including KDE 4.3.1, Firefox 3.5 and all the online updates which have been released for openSUSE 11.1.

These installable Live-CDs are useful for people who want to test out KDE 4.3 and users who are doing new installs and want the most recent openSUSE updates straight out of the box, saving a lot of installation time. New in this version is that the images can be also dumped to a USB stick and booted from there.

See the KDE 4.3 announcement for more information on the improvements and new features in KDE 4.3.

Compared to openSUSE 11.1 KDE4 desktop, the images include the latest KDE4 version of applications like Amarok, Digikam, KNetworkManager and the new Qt4-based YaST Control Center. Some additional applications like Choqok, Kompare, Marble and Okteta could be added thanks to a more efficient compression algorithm.

A Note of Caution

Please note that this is not an “official” openSUSE release, and has not undergone the same kind of testing that stable releases receive.

Facebook on Android: Finally an official app?

2009-09-12T00:31:00.002+08:00

The very much anticipated Facebook app for Android has finally been launched, after 3 major versions for iPhone. I've just downloaded it but haven't got to test it yet. This is a "feature light" release, meaning that you don't expect all/any advanced features from the 3.0 iPhone app to be available. Basically it will provide the news/notifications updates, the ability to post status updates and upload photos to Facebook. Hope more features will come added in the future releases.

openSUSE 11.2 Milestone 6 Released

2009-08-25T23:26:00.000+08:00

The openSUSE Project is happy to announce that the openSUSE 11.2 Milestone 6 (M6) is available for download. This release includes new packages on the GNOME and KDE live CDs, Python 3.1, and Linux kernel 2.6.31-rc6.

This is a Milestone Release, one of several that lead up to the 11.2 final release in November. It may not be suitable for production systems, but is ready for contributors who want to help with testing and development for 11.2.

Changes Since openSUSE 11.2 Milestone 5

Milestone 6 includes new packages on the KDE live CD (Choqok, KNode, Kompare, KSystemlog, Okteta and more) and Transmission is now on the GNOME live CD. This release includes Python 3.1, PackageKit 0.5.1, and a number of updated packages, including:

Linux kernel 2.6.31-rc6
Firefox 3.5.2
GIMP 2.6.7
GNOME 2.28 Beta
Konversation 1.2 Alpha 6
OpenOffice.org 3.1.1 Beta 2
VirtualBox 3.0.4
Wine 1.1.27

A more complete list can be found on the wiki and an updated list of Factory packages can be found on DistroWatch.

11.2 is looking fantastic. Want screenshots? We’ve got ‘em! Check out the shots here, and/or add your own.

Most Annoying Bugs

As this is a milestone release, 11.2 M6 does contain a few bugs that we know about, but should not stand between courageous contributors and release testing. The big bugs in 11.2 M6 are:

Evolution not on the GNOME live CDs.
Second stage of live CD installation runs in text-mode.
Calling “Install Software” from start menus of both KDE and GNOME fails, work-around: start module over YaST Control Center.
Downloads/updates with aria/metalink support will fail, work-around: “export ZYPP_ARIA2C=0″.

You can track the Most Annoying Bugs on the wiki along with 11.2 development.

Testing! Testing! Testing!

As you can see, 11.2 M6 does have a few bugs that we know about — but there may be more lurking somewhere in the release that haven’t been found yet. If you want to make sure 11.2 final is free of Most Annoying Bugs, we’ll need your help finding, reporting, and fixing those hidden bugs.

Get Milestone 6 Today!

What are you waiting for? Grab the milestone release today! Downloads are available at software.opensuse.org/developer/ now.

Note, if you need to try the live DVD on a machine with no CD-ROM drive, you can copy it to a USB key with the following command:

dd if=image.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M

The next milestone is scheduled to be released on September 10. A reminder: only two more milestone releases are planned for 11.2, followed by two release candidate (RC) releases. See the detailed roadmap on the on the wiki.

Exchange ActiveSync on your G1/ADP!

2009-08-22T13:30:00.002+08:00

At first I was thinking to build an app on my own to access my company's Exchange. I went out to searching for APIs and some free Apps on Android Market, and trying to figure out how can the app be built. Then this morning was chatting with my friend, who just got a HTC Magic. And we were discussing on the Exchange Activesync app that comes with Magic, named "Work Mail". So I tried googling on that, and stumbled onto some forum which gives me a link to download the APK.

I downloaded the APK, installed to my ADP, launched the app and entered the login details, and Work Mail is synchronizing with my company's Exchange.

Thanks to the guys at xda-developer, now I can have access to my company's mail without using OWA from browser.

http://www.nexeo.net/?p=93

openSUSE to default to KDE

2009-08-21T12:21:00.002+08:00

Finally openSUSE is moving a step closer back to KDE. However this does not means that GNOME will be compromised or given up. Refer to email sent to opensuse-project, KDE will be selected by default during the installation, that's all! Nothing further.

10 reasons Linux should be your netbook operating system

2009-08-14T12:43:00.000+08:00

Some users believe that Windows is the best netbook OS. But others - such as Jack Wallen - think Linux is a much better fit. Check out his reasons and see if you agree.

Google gives search a 'Caffeine' boost

2009-08-12T16:49:00.001+08:00

Google is set to let users try out an upgraded search technology, code-named Caffeine, that its engineers have been developing for the past several months.

read the official blog post for more.

OpenSUSE Users Wish Return of KDE - Me Too!!

2009-08-06T23:49:00.001+08:00

Aug 04, 2009

Up to Novell's takeover of the Suse Linux AG, KDE was without doubt the preferred default for the German distribution. Now openSUSE users are increasingly demanding the return of KDE as default desktop.

Using the openSUSE Feature Tracking System, (openFATE), members of the openSUSE community and openSUSE users can register their wishes regarding the next version of openSUSE and right now, what they want is KDE. Frank Karlitschek, newly elected board member by KDE, has now officially lodged the request.

The reasons for KDE as default are obvious: according to an openSUSE survey, around two-thirds of its users work with KDE as desktop. Also, openSUSE developers are traditionally strongly connected with KDE and SUSE has always had the reputation of being the best KDE distro. When Novell proposed Gnome as default for the Enterprise products, the negative echo in the community was loud and today this weak compromise still exists, with Gnome top of the list but with no desktop preselected.

That the situation, especially for new members, presents a considerable obstacle, and it's clear other distributions could easily do without making the selection, openSUSE should reinstate KDE as default and keep Gnome as the option, demands Karlitschek.

The discussion surrounding the default desktop, which could lead to an ungainly argument between Novell (Gnome advocates) and the community (KDE fans), has been joined by KDE developer Sebastian Kuegler. In his blog, Kuegler calls upon Novell to clarify their position and to end the biased status of Gnome (with an explanation from KDE developer Lubos Lunak). He ends his blog with these words:

"The numbers are clear, KDE is the preferred desktop of the openSUSE community. There is a formal request to reflect that in the installation process. Novell, and those with decision-making powers in the openSUSE team now have the opportunity to prove that features.opensuse.org is not just a lip-service, that the community does control the direction of openSUSE."

(Marcel Hilzinger)

KDE 4.3.0 Caizen Release Announcement

2009-08-06T15:44:00.001+08:00

KDE 4.3 (Codename: "Caizen") Delivers Incremental Innovations to the Free Desktop Users and Software Developers

4 August, 2009. The KDE Community today announces the immediate availability of "Caizen", (a.k.a KDE 4.3), bringing many improvements to the user experience and development platform. KDE 4.3 continues to refine the unique features brought in previous releases while bringing new innovations. With the 4.2 release aimed at the majority of end users, KDE 4.3 offers a more stable and complete product for the home and small office.

The KDE community has fixed over 10,000 bugs and implemented almost 2,000 feature requests in the last 6 months. Close to 63,000 changes were checked in by a little under 700 contributors. Read on for an overview of the changes in the KDE 4.3 Desktop Workspace, Application Suites and the KDE 4.3 Development Platform.

Ready to Rumble: openSUSE 11.2 Milestone 4 Released

2009-07-28T00:02:00.000+08:00

Looking for some summer fun? Try the latest milestone release for openSUSE 11.2! Milestone 4 is hot off the openSUSE Build Service and ready for your testing pleasure.This release includes updates to KDE, GNOME, NetworkManager, Samba, YaST, and many other updated packages.

Changes Since openSUSE 11.2 Milestone 3

Lots of changes since the M3 release! The live CDs can now be deployed using USB sticks — which is particularly important for netbook computers without CD or DVD drives. The live CDs now contain mc, and the KDE live CDs include YaKuake. And YaST has a new Qt-based Control Center. Other updates and changes:

Linux kernel 2.6.30.2
CUPS 1.3.10
NetworkManager 0.7.1
Samba 3.4.0
Firefox 3.5
KDE 4.3 RC1
Qt 4.5.2
Qt Creator 1.2
Seamonkey 2.0a3
VirtualBox 3.0 beta 2

A more complete list can be found on the wiki and an updated list of Factory packages can be found on DistroWatch.

11.2 is looking fantastic. Want screenshots? We’ve got ‘em! Check out the shots here, and/or add your own.

Most Annoying Bugs

As this is a milestone release, 11.2 m4 does contain a few bugs that we know about, but should not stand between courageous contributors and release testing. The big bugs in 11.2 M4 are:

Bug #525243: Booting the live CDs in VirtualBox, you’ll get 800×600 resolution at start, no matter what was selected at boot.
Bug #522025: X does not display properly in VirtualBox initially. This can be worked around by switching to a virtual console (Ctrl+F1) and then switching back to X (Ctrl+F7).
Bug #525094: Some packages are missing from KDE live CDs, including plasma-addons and OpenOffice_org-kde4.
Bug #496505: Live-CDs will not boot from USB if system has a CD-ROM drive.
Bug #515529: During installation, an empty error box is shown during the bootloader config, but it does install properly.

You can track the Most Annoying Bugs on the wiki along with 11.2 development.

Testing! Testing! Testing!

As you can see, 11.2 M4 does have a few annoying bugs that we know about — but there may be more lurking somewhere in the release that haven’t been found yet. If you want to make sure 11.2 final is free of Most Annoying Bugs, we’ll need your help finding, reporting, and fixing those hidden bugs.

Holger Sickenberg has put out a call for testing team members. If you’re interested in doing some heavy testing on openSUSE, check out Holger’s announcement.

Get Milestone 4 Today!

What are you waiting for? Grab the milestone release today! Downloads are available at software.opensuse.org/developer/ right now.

Android Donut Out: Full Multitouch, Universal Search, Automated Backups AND Better Performance

2009-07-26T23:39:00.000+08:00

Google's dropped new code for Android Donut and it sounds too good to be true. People at XDA Developers are reporting it has system-wide multitouch, universal search, text-to-speech, automated backups, a new camera app, and somehow, supposedly better performance.

Also intriguing is CDMA support--as in the kind of network that Sprint runs--adding on to Sprint's Dan Hesse remark that Android is coming to Sprint this year and rumors that it'll be Hero. You can see a lot of the new Donut features in action here, like universal search, in this video from the Google I/O conference.

Folks at XDA are working on a build that'll run on the Dream (G1), though it works in the emulator right now. [XDA Developers, Images via XDA's cyanogen, Thanks Will!]

Android 1.5 SDK Release 3 is available

2009-07-18T19:17:00.001+08:00

Yes, the 3 release for Android 1.5 SDK is out already. I've just downloaded the SDK, but recently really too busy to do anything with this.

A Linux security story

2009-07-18T18:55:00.001+08:00

There's no such thing as perfect security. There are no programs that give you absolute software security. After all, security is a process, not a product. Linux's security process, though, is outstanding, which is one reason why it has great security. Here's an example.

On July 16th, a security programmer named Brad Spengler, who designs an open-source network and server security program called grsecurity revealed on the full disclosures security mailing list that there was a security hole in the 2.6.30 Linux kernel.

The short version of this vulnerability, according to the SANS Internet Storm Center goes like this: "The vulnerable code is located in the net/tun implementation. Basically, what happens here is that the developer initialized a variable to a certain value that can be NULL. The developer correctly checked the value of this new variable couple of lines later and, if it is 0 (NULL), he just returns back an error. "

But, and from a technical standpoint this is where it gets interesting. The programmer's code that does this looks innocent. It only after the gcc "compiler takes this into its hands, while optimizing the code, the compiler will see that the variable has already been assigned and will actually remove the if block (the check if tun is NULL) completely from the resulting compiled code. In other words, the compiler will introduce the vulnerability to the binary code, which didn't exist in the source code. This will cause the kernel to try to read/write data from 0x00000000, which the attacker can map to userland - and this finally pwns the box."

Scary isn't it? You see, because it's working at such a low level, this vulnerability can be used to dodge around SELinux (Security Enhanced Linux), AppArmor and other Linux security programs. Well, actually, it's not very scary at all.

First, to crack a computer with this, you already need to have a high level of access to a Linux computer to be able to use the developer tools. Next, you need to deliberately compile a program from source code with the exploit already written in it.

This is not like Windows where the only mistake you need to make is to click on the wrong URL or open an e-mail attachment and your computer is instantly infected with malware or enrolled in a botnet. You really almost need to try to break into your Linux computer to hack it with this method.

But, it's probably not going to work anyway. You see, a similar exploit, and potentially far more dangerous one, using PulseAudio, a popular Linux and Windows audio server, was already explored and, this is the important part, fixed, in June.

So, if you're using the latest version of the Linux kernel, Linux 2.6.31-rc3, you should be fine and dandy.

The point of all this, however, isn't in the technical details. It's that in open source, problems are publicly discovered and publicly fixed. Firefox 3.5, for example, had a major security hole revealed on Monday, and Firefox 3.5.1 fixed it on Friday.

Microsoft also had a major security hole in Internet Explorer revealed on Monday, and there's no patch in sight. But, that's nothing. Windows and other Microsoft programs have security holes that are months, years old, and there's still not a fix in sight for some of them. At least, late last year, Microsoft fixed one hole that had been around for--I kid you not--seven years. And, let's not forget that MyDoom, malware which first showed up in 2004, was being used on Windows PCs to launch DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks last week.

The simple truth is that all open-source software, is much more secure than its proprietary brothers, because it's very nature makes finding and quickly fixing security holes so much faster. If Microsoft was really serious about securing its software, it wouldn't have Patch Tuesdays, it would open up its code so the junk could be weeded out. That, however, will never happen. So, for now, and forever, FOSS (free and open-source software) will remain the security champion.

Link to article.

Firefox 3.5.1 released

2009-07-17T15:08:00.002+08:00

I was browsing on Firefox at work and suddenly this notification pops up saying that Firefox 3.5.1 update is available. So I updated.

Firefox 3.5.1 fixes the following issues:

Several security issues.
Several stability issues.
An issue that was making Firefox take a long time to load on some Windows systems. (I don't use Windows... except on my office desktop)

Please see the complete list of changes in this version. You may also be interested int he Firefox 3.5 release notes for a list of changes in the previous version.

SimCity-like, isometric map of Hong Kong

2009-07-15T23:29:00.003+08:00

Definitely some very clever people had made this map. Its ultra-detailed and fully resembles Hong Kong. Not only it looks beautiful, but also give people a very close view. Its definitely useful! Great job!

Sony Ericsson Rachael UI video leaks out, Kiki comes for the ride

2009-07-14T19:35:00.002+08:00

We've been on pins and needles waiting for more info about the Snapdragon-powered Sony Ericsson Rachael ever since we spotted those early images over the weekend, and while the latest pics are still just potentially fan-made renders, it's the accompanying UI video that we're freaking out over today. Just like HTC's layered the Sense UI over Android on the Hero, the Rachael looks to have a polished custom Sony Ericsson interface over its Android build, and we're definitely digging the vibe -- especially the unified messaging interface that displays Facebook, Twitter, email, SMS, and calls all from one screen. It's pretty slick stuff -- let's just hope it's real, and shipping soon. There's also a couple more renders of the funky rear-display Kiki featurephone, but until we figure how SE intends for humans to actually use it, we're focused on Rachael. Renders and video after the break.

Read - Rachael and Kiki pics
Read - Rachael UI video

Is Google Chrome OS a treat to M$ Windoze?

2009-07-09T22:47:00.003+08:00

Google is developing an open source OS targeting netbooks which suppose to be released in this year. Will it be able to affect M$ Windoze market share and force M$ to do something with their OSes?

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html

First look: Firefox 3.5 released, ready to "upgrade" the Web

2009-07-04T19:13:00.001+08:00

Mozilla has officially released Firefox 3.5, the next major version of its popular open source Web browser. Ars takes a close look at the new version and evaluates its enhancements. Support for HTML 5 video and other important emerging Web standards make this one of the most significant Firefox releases ever.

Full article here.

New HTC Hero ROM leaked, Flash 10 already chugging along on a few lucky G1s

2009-07-03T23:45:00.000+08:00

Step aside, JAC Hero, there's a new firmware in town. Fatal1ty (that Fatal1ty?) and nk02 have not only managed to obtain the HTC Hero's new (and almost final) Sense UI-infused firmware, but have spruced it up for consumption by HTC Magic / Dream users. There's naturally a bit of glitchiness -- apparently WiFi and Bluetooth don't work at the moment, and the camera is all funkified, but the real treat here is the first implementation of Flash 10 on Android, even if it is a bit "laggy" on the RAM-starved G1. The widgets are also on display, and other than Flash the general experience is apparently pretty snappy. Naturally, the xda-dev folks won't be leaving well enough alone, and we should be seeing refined versions of this and future Hero firmwares leading up to and after the release of the actual device.

[Via xda-developers forum; thanks Jeremy W., screenshot by johnnylicious]

HTC Hero Android Phone Hands-On (With Video)

2009-06-25T14:29:00.008+08:00

The full review with photos and videos is over here.

Google Offers Updated Maps Features Through Android Market

2009-06-20T13:03:00.003+08:00

Google has updated their Maps application for Android with several new features, including voice search, public transit and walking directions and a beefed-up latitude. They had pushed the updates to Android Market, just download the Google Maps application from market to update.

Fedora 11 Singapore Launch Event Report

2009-06-19T13:56:00.001+08:00

This is a more detailed report done by Roy.

http://www.royong.com/showpost.php?p=5298&postcount=2

Finally back online officially

2009-06-19T13:54:00.001+08:00

Finally get my 18Mbps ADSL broadband today. I'm back online :)

Moving to Hong Kong

2009-06-14T22:23:00.000+08:00

I am moving back to Hong Kong tomorrow, finally.

Fedora 11 Launch Party in Singapore

2009-06-11T00:29:00.011+08:00

Went for the F11 launch event this evening. Quite surprised by the amount of people turned up.

this is Harish starting off the event

and Roy showing us some common desktop functionalities

then Eugene talking on virtualization

finally Jason sharing with us some desktop customization and running Windows games on WINE

of cos not forgetting the food after all the talking

and the typical Singaporean act hahaha

Installing Google Chrome on Fedora 11

2009-06-08T14:40:00.005+08:00

I have just installed the unstable/pre-alpha/development build of Google Chrome on my Fedora 11 system. The install is very straight forward. Just need to download the deb from the Chromium developer channel page and extract the deb file. Yes it is a deb file and not rpm. We just need to extract the data.tar.gz from the deb file. Then extract the contents of data.tar.gz into the root directory (/) and not (/root). As I am running the 64bit version of F11, there are some 32bit libraries missing for Chrome.


# yum install GConf2.i586 alsa-lib.i586 
# yum install alsa-lib-devel.i586
# yum install libcanberra-gtk2.i586
# yum install PackageKit-gtk-module.i586
# yum install bug-buddy.i586
# yum install gtk-nodoka-engine.i586

And this is a screenshot of Chrome running

Google launches Chrome for Mac, Linux - with a caveat

2009-06-06T22:03:00.001+08:00

Google late Thursday released developer-only versions of its Chrome browser for Mac and Linux, making good on a nine-month-old promise that it would eventually add those editions to the Windows version that debuted last September.

The Mac and Linux versions are rough and unstable, warned Google. "We have early developer channel versions of Google Chrome for Mac OS X and Linux, but whatever you do, please DON'T DOWNLOAD THEM!" said Mike Smith and Karen Grunberg, a pair of Chrome product managers, in an entry to a Google blog. "Unless of course you are a developer or take great pleasure in incomplete, unpredictable, and potentially crashing software."

Both the Mac and Linux editions can be downloaded from Google's site.

Implementing timer on Android

2009-05-31T22:33:00.011+08:00

We can always use the Timer and TimerTask class from java.util to achieve our aim, but using a Timer introduces a new thread into the application, which is not a very good choice for mobile applications. In Android, we can make use of the android.os.Handler class to implement a timer. The piece of code below shows a very simple implementation of a counting time display with TextView.

CountingTime.java

package com.khk.countingtime;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.os.Handle;
import android.widget.TextView;

public class CountingTime extends Activity {
    private TextView timeView;
    private int hour = 0;
    private int min = 0;
    private int sec = 0;
    String mTimeFormat = "%02d:%02d:%02d";
    final private Handle mHandler = new Handler();
    Runnable mUpdateTime = new Runnable() {
        public void run() { updateTimeView(); }
    };

    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        timeView = new TextView(this);
        timeView.setText(String.format(mTimeFormat, hour, min, sec);
        setContentView(timeView);
        mHandler.postDelay(mUpdateTime, 1000);
    }

    public void updateTimeView() {
        sec += 1;
        if(sec >= 60) {
            sec = 0;
            min += 1;
            if (min >= 60) {
                min = 0;
                hour += 1;
            }
        }
        timeView.setText(String.format(mTimeFormat, hour, min, sec);
        mHandler.postDelay(mUpdateTime, 1000);
    }
}

Fedora 11 Release Party

2009-05-31T20:06:00.001+08:00

FEDORA
``````
EXPERIENCE THE FUTURE OF LINUX TECHNOLOGY
20 Second Boot up! Advanced Hardware Compatibility!
Innovative Virtualized Environments for Gaming!

Mark your calendar on 10 June 2009 for the debut of Fedora 11, an innovative Linux-based operating system,
built by the community for the community, all in the name of Collaboration!

Experience the Wonders of Linux technology.....Be Part of this Milestone in Open Source history.

Free 'Live' CDs will be distributed. You can copy and share them freely with your friends and family.

Date: 10 June 2009 (Wednesday)
Venue: FTSE Room, Capital Tower, 9th Floor
168 Robinson Road, Singapore 068912
Map: http://www.streetdirectory.com/asia_travel/travel/travel_id_1183/travel_site_3039/

Agenda
6:15pm Registration
6:30pm Welcome Address
6:35pm Introduction to Fedora Ambassadors in Singapore
6:40pm Fedora 11 – Great Benefits, Cool Features
7:15pm Q&A session
7:30pm Networking
8:00pm End

To RSVP, contact Fiona at 62739956 or email fedora_launch@circusmax.com

For more information on Fedora, please visit:
http://fedoraproject.org/

Adding 谷歌拼音輸入法 (Google Pinyin IME) to ADP1

2009-05-30T21:53:00.008+08:00

The firmware image of cupcake for ADP1 does not come with Google Pinyin IME. To add the IME, we need to download the android source code and compile from it. However, in the default repo that we download, the IME is not included. So there's need to modify the manifest file. After checking out the repo, in the directory, there is a hidden directory named .repo and the manifest file is stored inside. Open up the file .repo/manifest.xml and add the following line to it.


<project path="packages/inputmethods/PinyinIME" name="platform/packages/inputmethods/PinyinIME" />

Then compile the source code by issuing the make command at the project root. It takes quite awhile to compile the whole project. Once that is done, connect the phone through USB. We need to get our hands a little dirty with adb.

Remount the /system volume with read-write permission and allow write access to /sare ystem/lib


adb shell
$ su
# mount -o remount,rw -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system
# chmod 777 /system/lib
# exit
$ exit

Then we push the libjni_pinyinime.so over. The libjni_pinyinime.so file is located at <project_directory>/out/target/product/generic/system/lib/libjni_pinyinime.so


adb push out/target/product/generic/system/lib/libjni_pinyinime.so /system/lib/libjni_pinyinime.so

Next we install the PinyinIME.apk package. It is located at <project_directory>/out/target/product/generic/system/app/PinyinIME.apk


adb install out/target/product/generic/system/app/PinyinIME.apk

And finally a reboot will finish the process, before rebooting its best to ensure the files are fully copied and also to change back the access permission for /system/lib.


adb shell
$ sync
$ su
# chmod 755 /system/lib
# reboot

Now you can access the IME by enabling it in Settings -> Locale & Text

openSUSE 11.2 Milestone 2 - Released

2009-05-30T21:49:00.000+08:00

From en.opensuse.org:

The openSUSE Project is happy to announce the second milestone release for openSUSE 11.2 is ready for download. This release includes Firefox 3.5 beta 4, KDE 4.3 beta 1, GNOME 2.26, and hundreds of other updates from Milestone 1.

This is a Milestone Release, which means that it may not be suitable for production systems. This is one in a series of releases leading to the official openSUSE 11.2 release, scheduled for November 2009.

Screenshots of the 11.2 Milestone 2 release are available on the wiki.
Changes Since openSUSE 11.2 Milestone 1

A lot has changed since the 11.1 M1 release, with many packages being updated for 11.2. Some of the major changes in this release include:
» The distribution is built with GCC 4.4
» M2 uses the 2.6.30rc6 kernel
» Live CDs include The GIMP
» Default filesystem is Ext4
» Firefox 3.5 beta 4
» GNOME 2.26 packages and some preview packages from GNOME 2.27.1
» KDE 4.3 beta 1
» OpenOffice.org 3.1
» VirtualBox 2.2.2

See the openSUSE Wiki for additional changes in 11.2 Milestone 2. You can see the latest packages in Factory on DistroWatch, which tracks 203 major packages.

Getting Milestone 2

The latest development versions are available from http://software.opensuse.org/developer/. Choose from x86 or x86-64 install DVDs or the KDE and GNOME Live CDs.
Testing

Help us make openSUSE 11.2 the best release yet! Please run the release through your usual routine, and let us know about any bugs or other issues that you find. Remember that this is a milestone release, and is not suitable for use on production systems.

Though many openSUSE users can and do use the Factory distribution and/or testing releases for day-to-day work we want to stress that it’s entirely possible that you will encounter serious bugs. See openSUSE.org/Testing for more information on Testing. To follow the testing and development process, we suggest that you subscribe to the openSUSE-Factory mailing list, and join the #openSUSE-Factory channel on Freenode to discuss openSUSE development.

Android Developer Challenge 2

2009-05-30T16:58:00.003+08:00

Thinking of participating in this ADC2 for fun, since the apps submitted must not be published anywhere before so at least we won't be fighting with those well developed apps. Anyway, I don't have any idea yet about what app to write, anyone going to give me some suggestions?

Eligibility

The ADC 2 contest is open only to applications that have not been published -- whether through Android market, a public web site, or any other means. An application that has already been made available to the public (at the time of judging) is ineligible, regardless whether it is free or sold commercially. Additionally, applications that were entered in the ADC 1 contest are ineligible for the ADC 2 contest, regardless whether they were winning apps. Similarly, updated versions of applications entered in the ADC 1 contest are ineligible for ADC 2.

When you enter an application in the ADC 2, we will make it available to all contest judges for free, exclusively for the purposes of judging. If you intend to sell your application after the conclusion of the contest, you may submit a "trial" version of the application for judging. We recommend that your trial version include full functionality, but with a timed expiration, rather than including limited functionality with no expiration. Judges will evaluate your application based only on the functionality accessible to them, so it makes sense to provide the fullest range of capabilities possible in your contest app.

Teams and business entities may enter applications in the contest, but each team or entity must designate a single developer entity who will be responsible for uploading the application. Should the application be selected as a contest winner, all payments will be sent to the developer entity only. Further division of funds is the responsibility of the team leader or business entity representative.

All submitted applications must run on Android 1.5 and be in English.

Fedora 11 release date slips to June 9th

2009-05-30T16:51:00.002+08:00

By Sean Michael Kerner on May 28, 2009 1:40 PM

From the 'better late than never' files:

Fedora Linux 11 was originally scheduled to be out this week (May 26th), but that got bumped to June 2nd and now is being pushed back another week to June 9th.

Fedora staffer Jesse Keating noted that there was a late bug discovered in anaconda storage that is triggering the push back.

"The change is important but invasive enough to require re-validating our storage tests," Keating wrote in a mailing list posting. "We were already late in producing the Release Candidate and there is not enough time to produce another one and validate it in time for next Tuesday's release date. Therefore we have decided to enact another week long slip of the release."

In the meantime, Fedora will push out a second release candidate and make sure it is validated ahead of June 9th.

"As much as we regret slipping, we also wish to avoid easily trigger-able bugs in our release, particularly in software that cannot be fixed with a 0-day update," Keating wrote.

Personally, I think this is a very responsible move. I know that many times with Fedora (and other Linux distros too) there is often a huge list of updates within the same day of an official release, making new releases a very painful and unstable experience. Ensuring that the release is a solid as possible - especially in core elements - is good thing.

There are lots of new items in Fedora 11 to look forward too including full ext4 by default, faster boot times, DeviceKit and other features that will make this new release something to look forward too (when finally released).

The link reference to this blog entry is here.

Flashing the Android Dev Phone 1

2009-05-29T20:50:00.004+08:00

Ok, the phone is fully charged. So I powered it on and the first thing it ask for is to sign in my Google account. This phone only has the APN settings for T-Mobile in US, but I am using Starhub here in SG. Went online to look for the APN settings and setup the data connection. Very quickly the phone is pushing my emails to me, omg my data plan is not unlimited. Played around with the settings, disable background data usage, changed the brightness, setup wifi etc. Then of course is to upgrade the firmware to the latest version 1.5 aka cupcake.

I believe everyone has seen enough of the shots of cupcake. So I just like to post up here the shot when its applying the update.

can see the log output

and the firmware is upgraded to 1.5
the firmware image is using kernel 2.6.27

Welcome my new little toy

2009-05-29T13:26:00.000+08:00

The arrival of my new toy marks the start of this blog. After a long wait for 1 month, it finally arrives. And this new toy is the Android Dev Phone 1. It was shipped from USA.

Here I'll post up a few shots of the package and the phone itself. The phone is now charging in my room. It takes 3 hours for the battery to be fully charged. So some patience before I can start playing with it.

the UPS box

the box for ADP1 is actually so small

and the phone inside the box

the contents inside (phone, USB cable, charger, battery and earpiece)

front view

back view, with the very nice ADP1 only pattern on the battery cover

with the screen slide out showing the keypad