Archive

Orb Network's media server software has been around for years; in fact, Orb and TVersity are the grandparents of current media-everywhere apps. However, this is the first time Orb has officially been available in an app for Android phones. Orb functions by grabbing indexed media content from your ...

The task of ripping files from CDs is fast becoming old hat -- that is, unless you have a collection of plastic discs you want to put onto your smartphone or portable music player. In that case, you will find Asunder to be an indispensable tool. Asunder is a graphical audio CD ripper and encoder f...

Google's recent plan to buy Motorola Mobility has the potential for reshaping the entire Android landscape. If it wins regulatory approval for the purchase, Google may only have a short time span to connect its marketing strategy. When and if this happens, it could further fracture the open source A...

My quest for a secure file deletion app started by accident. But it resulted in my finding a solid solution with Wipe. My approach to making sure nobody harvests sensitive data from my cast-away aging equipment is to never give it away. Instead, I yank the hard drive from the computer's innards and ...

"Strike while the iron is hot" -- and the usual suspects have made Android licensing a hot issue. However, the title of the FSF article, "Android GPLv2 termination worries -- one more reason to upgrade to GPLv3," gives the game away. This is about politics, not licensing. About pushing a specific ...

Where did this "you are permanently barred from distributing" stuff originate? In digging around, I found a post titled "A Practical Guide to GPL Compliance" at the Software Freedom Law Center dated August 26, 2008, written by the team of Bradley M. Kuhn, Aaron Williamson and Karen M. Sandler. It st...

One of the most essential computer maintenance tasks is pruning outdated and orphaned files from the deep, dark dungeons within the Linux filing system. These disconnected scraps and bits are endemic to the file structure in any operating system, Linux included. Weeding the Linux software garden is ...

The Mozilla Foundation is enhancing the tablet version of its Firefox browser. It's leveraging Android Honeycomb but retaining familiar visual elements of Firefox such as the signature big back button and distinctive tab shape, according to a blog post by Ian Barlow, who works on Mozilla's mobile us...

Linux users are blessed with a collection of file encryption tools. But chances are, whatever application you use for that task lacks the efficiency, speed and functionality of TrueCrypt. TrueCrypt does what any file encryption application is supposed to: It locks down access to your data so no one ...

There may be life yet for the seemingly defunct HP TouchPad. The company has discontinued its development of all webOS devices, leading retailers to drastically mark down prices on the TouchPads they have in stock. Some buyers have been able to score one for as little as $100 -- that's $400 off the ...

Sure, we all know that making regular file backups is an essential survival task for frustration-free computing. But backing up data and backing up computer systemfiles are not entirely the same things. Doing one without the other is like having an uninterrupted power supply that's not connected. Fo...

If you had the option to pick your own price for a computer game that only runs on your Linux rig, would you pay to play? Not if you are a typical Linux gamer. At least, that's the popular perception of fans of free and open source software. Linux is available freely. So why pay for a game -- or any...

Android device users spend more time on their apps than on the mobile Web, and the top 10 apps account for 43 percent of that time, according to Nielsen. When the top 50 Android apps are considered, they account for 61 percent of the time Android device users spend on apps. That means the rest of th...

I started out looking for a handy disk partitioning tool to repair a colleague's ailing computer. I ended up finding a toolbox full of very handy repair and system maintenance apps. As a bonus, I got all of this packed into a nifty specialized Linux distro called "PartedMagic" that boots into RAM fr...

The initial response to Google's surprise announcement on Monday that it had inked a deal to acquire Motorola Mobility for US$12.5 billion was that it was a move largely to protect itself from the increasing patent attacks against Android. That could be why all five major manufacturers of Android de...