IT-Code-News: IT News HeadLines (Ars Technica) 30/04/2010

Friday, April 30, 2010

IT News HeadLines (Ars Technica) 30/04/2010

Hands-on: Mozilla's foxy Fennec prerelease build for Android

Mozilla has released an early pre-alpha preview of its mobile Fennec browser for Google's Linux-based Android operating system. It will run on Android 2.x smartphones, including the Nexus One. We conducted some hands-on testing to see how it compares with Android's native browser.

We took a look at how Mozilla is porting its browser to Android several months ago when the project was still at a very early stage of development. Mozilla is leveraging Android's Native Development Kit (NDK) to bring its Gecko rendering engine to the platform. Using JNI, the Gecko renderer is embedded in a thin Java layer through which input events are relayed to the Gecko engine.

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Poll Technica: Steve Jobs' letter on Flash

Steve Jobs has taken a break from his iPad e-mailing spree to post another long, open letter to Apple's website, this time about Flash. The letter goes into detail as to why Apple chooses not to allow Adobe's Flash technology on the iPhone and iPad, claiming that the decision isn't as business-driven as Adobe would like to believe.

Jobs' opening remark is about Flash's openness, or lack thereof. "While Adobe’s Flash products are widely available, this does not mean they are open, since they are controlled entirely by Adobe and available only from Adobe," writes Jobs. He acknowledges that Apple has closed products as well—namely the iPhone, iPod, and iPad—but that the company believes that all standards on the Web should be open. Naturally, this leads into Apple's support of HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript, not to mention Apple's support for the open source WebKit.

Jobs also believes that Flash isn't quite as dominant on the Web as Adobe claims, noting that "almost all" video that is available in Flash is also available in H.264. YouTube is among the most successful apps on the iPhone OS, Jobs points out, and there are numerous other apps that support video streaming available for the iPad (Netflix, ABC, NPR, New York Times, and more). Again, Jobs makes the concession that iPhone OS users won't be able to play Flash games, but says that there are plenty of other games on the App Store. (Someone let me know when there's a version of Winterbells for iPhone.)

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Activision and Bungie ink surprising 10-year publishing deal

This news certainly wasn't expected: Activision and Bungie have announced a worldwide, ten-year publishing deal that will bring Bungie's games to... well, we don't know yet. From the wording of the release, however, it's clear that the developer's days creating Xbox 360 exclusives are over.

In case you're worried about Bungie based on recent events, it looks like the studio will remain in control of its upcoming titles. "Activision will have exclusive, worldwide rights to publish and distribute all future Bungie games based on the new intellectual property on multiple platforms and devices," the release explains. "Bungie remains an independent company and will continue to own their intellectual property. Additional terms of the agreement were not disclosed."

Bungie split from Microsoft in 2007, with Halo Reach being the last game the developer created in that franchise before 343 Industries takes over development of the Halo property. According to the NPD Group, the Halo series has generated over $1.5 billion in revenue. Bungie states that the deal has been in the works for nine months.

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Nokia Qt SDK beta has adorable mobile simulators

Nokia is developing a new Qt SDK that will simplify the development of cross-platform mobile applications. A beta release, which was made available this week, includes the Qt Creator integrated development environment (IDE), comprehensive Qt reference documentation, and mobile simulators that make it possible to see how a Qt application will look and feel on MeeGo or Symbian.

The bundled Qt Creator is a prerelease of version 2.0, which has some really nifty new features such as a visual editor for Qt's new declarative user interface language (QML). The new version of the IDE allows application developers to select which mobile platforms they want to target and makes it easy to launch an application in the mobile device simulator.

I tested the SDK myself and ran one of my own Qt applications in the simulator to see what it would look like on Symbian. Yes, you can finally ditch Carbide and build Symbian applications in a modern environment with a modern toolkit. It's an impressive advancement for Nokia's mobile development tooling. The beta is available for download from Nokia's Web site.

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The Peregrine: like The Power Glove for PCs, only useful

It has been a while since a glove has been used as a video game controller. In fact, the last time I personally used one, I was eight and had convinced my parents to buy me a Nintendo Power Glove. Now, Iron Will Innovations has released The Peregrine, a glove that takes the place of a keyboard for your PC games. We spent some time with one, and can confidently say that it's a cool device that hardcore gamers will love, but we're not entirely convinced it's something you'll need to buy to enjoy games to their fullest.

The glove itself is relatively comfortable, having been constructed from a neoprene-like fabric. There are five contact points per finger, except on the pinky where there are three. In order to activate a contact point, you have to touch them with either the tip or the flat of the thumb, or you can touch a tip to the palm of your hand (though this option makes it impossible to use the contact points on the sides of the fingers).

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Phones, tablets, netbooks: taking stock of the HP/Palm deal

Palm's search for an acquirer is over, and instead of an existing handset maker looking for an OS, the company was bought by a PC maker looking to get into handsets. HP, which has been trying for years to break into the smartphone market with its ill-fated iPaq line, has acquired Palm for $1.2 billion, and on a conference call Wednesday afternoon with the press the computer maker wanted to make one thing very clear: yes, there will be a webOS tablet.

In the HP Slate, Palm has a tablet design, but it just doesn't have a tablet OS. As everyone who has ever used any version of Windows on a touchscreen can tell you, Microsoft's desktop OS is not designed with a finger (or stylus) in mind. No, a touchscreen computing experience requires a touch-based interface, and it requires applications to be designed for touch from the ground up. As long as HP was stuck with Windows 7 on its Slate product, the Slate was just not very interesting.

But webOS offers a few unique possibilities, depending on which direction HP goes with it (and it could go multiple directions at once). Here's how the options break down.

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Quantum Key distribution: faster and more meh than ever

I know that I don't have a reputation for publishing high impact fundamental physics papers, but all the same, sometimes I really pity graduate students who end up with some projects. A little while ago, Toshiba's Cambridge laboratory reported the world's fastest quantum key distribution. An important technological achievement, but when you read the paper, you can't help feel for the poor sod who got landed with that job.

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Violence as pornography: ESA on why games are speech

The Supreme Court will rule on a California law that would fine businesses that sold "violent" video games to customers under a certain age. This sort of law has been attempted before, and in the past it has always been struck down in the courts as unconstitutional. In fact, this very law was struck down after it was signed by Governor Schwarzenegger, who vowed to appeal that decision all the way to the highest court. So here we are.

Ars Technica spoke with Rich Taylor, the Entertainment Software Association's Senior VP of Communications & Industry Affairs, to find out why this law would be unconstitutional, and why it would set a chilling precedent for film, music, and publishing. "There is no reason to think this would be restricted to the video and computer game industry—that's what the initial law targets," he told Ars. "These things have a way of establishing a slippery slope and bleeding into others as well who depend on the first amendment for their right to express and entertain."

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US approves its first offshore wind farm at Cape Cod

Earlier today, the the Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, announced that the US' first offshore wind project had gotten the go-ahead from his department. The planned deployment, called Cape Wind, had sparked local opposition due to its siting, on a shoal in between Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha's Vinyard. In a nod to to its opponents, the size of the project will be scaled back slightly, but it still remains substantial: at full capacity, it would produce over 450MW of power.

As ocean breezes tend to be more frequent and steady than those on land, offshore wind installments generally have a higher output than nearby sites on land. Along the East Coast, the US has enormous wind resources in close proximity to major population centers. Despite this potential, the US has badly lagged other nations in developing offshore sites, even as the technology and expertise involved have advanced.

Cape Wind has provided a textbook case of why a potentially appealing project can hit the shoals before it's built on them. Wealthy landowners complained the project would destroy their views, local fisherman that it would cause problems with their catch, and a Native American tribe argued that it would interfere with their religious ceremonies.

In response, Interior has cut the total number of turbines by nearly a quarter, and made cosmetic changes that will decrease their visual impact. Salazar also issued a detailed description of why it was going ahead despite the issues identified during the project's review. Even so, it's almost certain that one of the aggrieved parties will now sue over the approval, so it's not clear when the construction will actually start.

The controversy highlights an unfortunate trend when it comes to renewable power projects. The energy that's harvested, for the most part, is diffuse. In order to capture enough for it to be useful, the corresponding wind and solar installations have to be large, meaning a physically substantial installation on what is typically an undeveloped bit of landscape. As a result, many groups that would otherwise support the overall goal—reducing the impact of fossil fuel use—end up in opposition. The result: promising technologies like offshore wind and concentrating solar end up in court, rather than in the field.

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Hands-on with Wii Classic Controller Pro: fingerprinty!

So we were sent a Wii Classic Controller Pro, the $20 update to the first-generation Classic Controller for the Nintendo Wii. Does it look more "pro" to you?

The controller is laid out very similarly to the first Classic Controller, with the exception of the fins coming down from the bottom of the controller. These fins are thinner than they look in pictures, and they take some getting used to. The idea here is to give the player a better grip than the SNES-style original, but in practice they never seemed to be positioned where we'd like them.

The black controller is also glossy, which means it looks like a mess of fingerprints within seconds of being taken out of its box. It also looks goofy as hell hooked into all my white Wiimotes. You can buy a white version of the controller for the same price if you're into a matching home theater set up.

As nice as the controller is, it never really seemed to fit perfectly in my hand. The Z-button is now placed behind the L and R buttons, giving you two triggers on each side, much like a Dual Shock 3. This also took a little while to get used to. For some odd reason it always felt as if it was going to fall out of my hands.

If you already have a Classic Controller, there isn't much reason to upgrade to the Pro. If you don't, however, head to your local game store and try them both out before making your purchase. More choice is never a bad thing.

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Developers apparently love .NET, hate MFC, Ruby on Rails

A survey of software developers to learn their opinions of development frameworks has revealed that Microsoft's .NET is much loved, and Ruby On Rails ranks near the bottom in developer satisfaction. Microsoft's ancient MFC framework was deemed to be the worst of the bunch.

The survey, by Evans Data Corporation, surveyed developers to ask their opinions of 12 frameworks. They were asked to rate the frameworks on a range of features such as ease of use, extensibility, and simplicity.

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Apple rumored to launch iPhone at WWDC, but we're not so sure

WWDC 2010 is set to take place the second week of June, and the June 7 keynote is the most likely time that Apple will announce the fourth-generation iPhone hardware. Unnamed sources speaking to Mashable claim that Apple now plans to put the new device on sale immediately following its announcement at the keynote. However, we're not so sure that would be a wise move.

The first iPhone was announced at Macworld Expo in January 2007 and went on sale the following June. Subsequent iPhone models were announced during WWDC, then went on sale several weeks later in late June or early July. Supposedly, AT&T has barred retail employees from taking vacations during June—a practice the company employed for previous iPhone launches—and earlier rumors suggested a launch on or around June 22. (If I were a betting man, I'd put money on June 25 or July 9.)

Mashable's sources indicate Apple may forgo the usual wait, however, and launch it the week of WWDC. The reasoning seems to be that the leak of details of the upcoming hardware revision may have forced Apple's hand somewhat, and the company may want to push up the release to generate extra buzz.

Even if that were a good reason to accelerate the launch—which it isn't—we don't believe that Apple would leave developers with no time to update apps to take advantage of the new iPhone OS 4.0 or fourth-gen hardware capabilities. There's still so much that Apple hasn't revealed about the new OS, and developers will likely want to get hands-on time with Apple engineers before incorporating new features like background multitasking. Even Gizmodo's disassembly of a prototype device hasn't necessarily revealed everything about the hardware. Despite the leak, Apple may yet have more surprises in store.

If there is a kernel of truth to this rumor, we believe that Apple may announce preorders for the new iPhone at WWDC, just as it did during the launch of the iPad. The fourth-gen iPhone was still in prototype form earlier this month, though it is believed to be very close to the final form. If the updated hardware is as impressive as we expect, Apple will need all the time it can get to ramp up production to fulfill demand.

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Forget the exaflood—get ready for the "exacloud"!

Bret Swanson, the man who coined the term "exaflood," is back in the coining business this week. (An "exaflood" refers to the exabytes of data surging through the Internet's routers.) Forget the exaflood—it has apparently evaporated back into the atmosphere, only to reemerge as the next next big thing: the exacloud!

In a filing with the FCC (PDF) this week, Swanson got positively giddy with his prognostications. Apparently, the Internet as we know is about to change:

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HP buys Palm for $1.2 billion, rescues webOS

The answer to all that "who will buy Palm?" speculation came sooner than expected, and it came from a somewhat surprising source: HP. The two companies announced Wednesday that they have come to a definitive agreement for HP to buy Palm for about $5.70 per share of Palm common stock, for a total value of about $1.2 billion.

HP was not at the top of the list of expected suitors when news broke that Palm was putting itself up for sale earlier this month. At that time, many Palm watchers thought that HTC, Nokia, or Lenovo might be a better fit. Still, Palm's webOS was likely what attracted HP to the company. HP plans to jump into the tablet market soon with the Slate, and webOS could make for a helpful partner in crime when it comes to battling the iPad.

Indeed, HP says that Palm's operating system is an "ideal platform" that will help expand HP's mobile efforts. "And, Palm possesses significant IP assets and has a highly skilled team," said HP's Vice President of the Personal Systems Group, Todd Bradley. "The smartphone market is large, profitable and rapidly growing, and companies that can provide an integrated device and experience command a higher share. Advances in mobility are offering significant opportunities, and HP intends to be a leader in this market."

As it turns out, Bradley previously played the role of CEO at Palm, so he may indeed have some insights as to how the two companies can combine forces and make a bigger splash in the mobile market. At the very least, HP has the resources that Palm didn't have in order to keep the innovative webOS going, and that will likely bring a sigh of relief to Palm fans everywhere.

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Why a calendar company wants to take over The Pirate Bay

Hans Pandeya, the man who last year said he was buying The Pirate Bay, is back in the news—and he's still claiming that The Pirate Bay deal will go through. To make that happen, he has purchased control of a US shell company with $946 in cash on hand and a business plan that involves selling ad-supported wall calendars around the Seattle area. If your brain doesn't hurt yet, keep reading: it will soon enough.

Pandeya was the character behind Swedish-based Global Gaming Factory X. In the summer of 2009, GGF announced plans to turn the site legitimate after buying it for SKr60 million (about $8.2 million). Between June 30 and October 1, the situation deteriorated dramatically—the Swedish government ended up seizing a pair of Pandeya's apartments and other assets, and the money to buy The Pirate Bay never materialized.

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Illinois' teen sexting bill aims to educate, not criminalize

Illinois is moving forward with legislation that would educate (and punish) teenagers who forward around nude images of their peers, but not treat them as sex offenders. The bill, which has moved to Governor Pat Quinn's desk for signature, aims to take a more modern and realistic approach to teens making stupid decisions, though the door is still open for harsher punishments if needed.

Under the Illinois proposal, teens who send racy images to just each other would not be punished—only those who decide to widely distribute those images (usually as part of an attempt to blackmail or embarrass the sender). Those found guilty of sending the texts would be subject to juvenile court supervision, but wouldn't get labeled a sex offender for possessing an image of a minor, as would be appropriate under current Illinois law.

Illinois isn't the only state looking to change up its punishments for teens caught in a sexting mess. Last month, we covered legislation from Connecticut, Florida, and several other states that are considering new legislation that would treat kids more like kids. Sexting is "stupid behavior that young people will regret for years to come, but it shouldn't be treated as child pornography," Florida state senator Dave Aronberg said at the time.

Illinois officials are hoping that the new approach cuts down on teens' sexting behavior through education. Chicago-based senator Ira Silverstein told the Chicago Tribune, however, that harsher steps might be necessary if the behavior continues.

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Microsoft releases slew of stability-oriented Windows fixes

In addition to the security bulletins posted on this month's Patch Tuesday, Microsoft last night released a slew of nonsecurity updates for Windows. The most important update is another stability and reliability update for Windows 7 32-bit, Windows 7 64-bit, Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit, and Windows Server 2008 R2 Itanium. Microsoft regularly releases Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 stability and reliability updates, and this one builds on those that preceded it, adding the following fixes:

Windows Explorer crashes and then restarts when you access a third-party Control Panel item.
You cannot connect to an instance of SQL Server Analysis Services from an application in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2 after you install Office Live Add-in 1.4 or Windows Live ID Sign-in Assistant 6.5.
Windows Explorer may stop responding for 30 seconds when a file or a directory is created or renamed after certain applications are installed.
The Welcome screen may be displayed for 30 seconds when you try to log on to a computer if you set the desktop background to a solid color.
You are not warned when you delete more than 1000 files at the same time. Then, the files are deleted permanently and are not moved to the Recycle Bin.

The second update is for those who install Microsoft Office 2010 and need to have certain fonts replaced with newer versions. Some font files are not updated and the user sees an "Error 1907" message. This issue occurs because many font files in Windows Vista and in Windows Server 2008 are marked as system-protected files and cannot be changed or deleted. The fix is available for Windows Vista 32-bit, Windows Vista 64-bit, Windows Server 2008 32-bit, Windows Server 2008 62-bit, and Windows Server 2008 Itanium.

The third update is for computers with BitLocker enabled that intermittently stop responding during shutdown and do not turn off completely. This problem does not occur if BitLocker is enabled on a data drive, but disabled on the system drive. The fix is available for 32-bit, 64-bit, and Itanium versions of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. However, you'll have to request it for these two operating systems as Microsoft is still working on rolling it into Service Pack 1.

The fourth update enables Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0/7.5 handlers that are mapped to a "*." request path to handle requests whose URLs do not end with a period. The fix is available for Windows Vista 32-bit, Windows Vista 64-bit, Windows Server 2008 32-bit, Windows Server 2008 64-bit, Windows Server 2008 Itanium, Windows 7 32-bit, Windows 7 64-bit, Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit, and Windows Server 2008 R2 Itanium.

The last update is for Windows Installer (MSI) 4.5. If the user tries to use an embedded chainer to add multiple packages to an MSI package with custom actions, the installation process hangs. The fix is available for Windows XP 32-bit as well as 32-bit, 64-bit, and Itanium versions of Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. However, you'll have to request it for these two operating systems as Microsoft is still working on rolling it into Service Pack 3.

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Apple may expand iPhone voice search with Siri acquisition

Apple could be planning to expand its voice command capabilities on the iPhone thanks to the pending acquisition of Siri, which makes an iPhone app that lets users perform Web searches by voice command. News that the company was acquired first appeared in an FTC premerger notification (PDF) and was confirmed by Silicon Alley Insider and others.

For those who have already played around with Google's search app for the iPhone, Siri's voice search capabilities will appear quite similar, but it goes further than just showing search results. With the app running, users can speak what they're looking for ("What movies are playing nearby?" or "Make a reservation at Francesca Forno for two people at 6pm"). The app will then determine what service you need—a basic list of search results, a Yelp review page, a reservation through OpenTable, etc.—and list out your options along with maps and other data.

If Apple chooses to integrate Siri's technology into the iPhone OS, Google's Voice Search app would be redundant for many users—after all, if the OS can do it, why bother downloading an extra app that does less? That's probably the point. Considering that Apple may still have a Google Maps replacement in the wings, it certainly seems as if the company is making more of an effort to separate itself from Google, though both Apple and Google publicly insist that their relationship is still strong.

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Piracy problems? Music industry grew in 13 markets in 2009

Here's a surprise: recording industry revenues actually grew in 13 major world markets in 2009. Australia, Mexico, South Korea, Sweden, the UK, and Brazil were all among the countries that saw revenue increases, and the global music business says this proves the need for tougher anti-piracy laws.

"South Korea and Sweden in particular saw striking returns to growth," said global recording industry trade group IFPI, "showing how an improved legal environment can help impact on legitimate music sales."

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HTC avoids two-front patent war with Microsoft pact

Microsoft has announced that it has signed a patent agreement with mobile phone manufacturer HTC for the sale of Android-equipped devices. Neither company disclosed the terms of the deal or even the patents that Microsoft agreed to license; Microsoft merely said that it would receive royalties from HTC and that it would expand HTC's "long-standing business relationship" with the company.

"We have a responsibility to our customers, partners, and shareholders to ensure that competitors do not free ride on our innovations," Microsoft IP deputy general counsel Horacio Gutierrez said in a statement. "We have also consistently taken a proactive approach to licensing to resolve IP infringement by other companies, and have been talking with several device manufacturers to address our concerns relative to the Android mobile platform."

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Much slower travel couldn't contain influenza even in 1889

Influenza viruses can spread quickly, and many of the public health measures that have been taken in recent years have focused on limiting the viruses' transmission through quarantine-style methods. But new data shows the approach may not be very effective. When studying the 1889 "Russian" influenza pandemic, scientists found that the virus was able to spread rapidly across the ocean despite the limited travel of that era.

The way the word "pandemic" seems to be thrown around, you wouldn't know it's fairly rare for an illness to achieve that designation. Since the early 18th century, there have only been 11 viruses that qualify for "pandemic" status, including the most recent spread of the OSIV/H1N1 virus. Only a handful of these pandemics haven been studied, including the 1957, 1968, and 1918 flus. Scientists knew the so-called Russian pandemic of 1889 could be important, but were only recently able to get good data on it, through sources like those that tracked the spread of influenza among various European armies.

There were surprising similarities between the 1889 pandemic data and that of the heavily studied 1918 pandemic. In 1889, the virus spread from Russia through Europe and over to North America over the course of only four months, and had an infection rate similar to the 1918 pandemic, with about two new hosts per sick person. However, the mortality rate from the flu in 1889 was only a tenth of that in 1918.

Scientists also realized that, despite much slower travel in the 19th century, the flu was able to spread almost as quickly as it can today, suggesting that there is a trade-off related to how quickly people move around. Someone carrying the virus can infect fewer people in many places, or many people in fewer places; either way, the virus spreads at more or less the same rate.

This supports mathematical models that show that restricting air travel and similar tactics do little to stop flu spread; if the 19th century flu could do without aircraft, so could the 21st century version. To contain influenza, researchers suggest that we would do better to tailor our methods to the population profile of individual cities, rather than trying to lock them down.

PNAS, 2010. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1000886107 (About DOIs).

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