TouchDroid Project Dies, But Work Continues on Touchpad Android Port
The TouchDroid project, which was created just weeks ago in the wake of HP's Touchpad liquidation sale, has already disbanded. The project's discontinuation stems not from technical problems but because of accusations of code theft by the CyanogenMod team, which has also been working to bring Android to HP's defunct tablet.
After the TouchDroid team posted a video showing off the Touchpad running a touch-enabled install of Android 2.3, the CyanogenMod team accused TouchDroid team members of stealing code from the CyanogenMod port and passing it off as their own. In the end, the TouchDroid team gave the CyanogenMod team credit for its work, posted a dump of what they had done up to that point and declared that the team was "no longer actively working on a port" of Android to the Touchpad.
Meanwhile, the CyanogenMod team's work continues, and appears to be going well - at this writing, the only major component that doesn't appear to be functioning in their port is wi-fi, and at this rate I'd expect that to be fixed soon. In the meantime, you can read the Android Police report for a full description of the chat transcripts, forum posts, and tweets through which this drama unfolded.
Source: Android Police
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Windows 8 Features Vastly Improved Boot Times
Windows 8 news continues to trickle from the Building Windows 8 blog at a steady clip: today, Gabe Aul detailed changes to the Windows 8 boot process that promise to drastically reduce startup times.
The team wanted to come up with a startup method that would deliver the benefits of a cold boot (a "fresh session" at startup, no power usage when off) while reducing the amount of time that it takes to load the operating system from disk to RAM.
To accomplish this, Microsoft has combined aspects of a traditional Windows shutdown with system hibernation, which saves the contents of your RAM to disk and then restores it to RAM at next boot. While a Windows shutdown currently closes all user programs (the "user session") and then all system services and processes (the "kernel session") completely before powering off, Windows 8 closes the user session and saves the rest of your RAM's content to disk. The kernel session can then be restored to RAM quickly at next boot - this is more speedy than traditional hibernation both because there's less data to restore to RAM from the disk (just the kernel session, as opposed to the kernel session and the user session), and because restoring hibernation files is a fully multithreaded process in Windows 8. If the feature works as well as it does in the Microsoft demo video, it is indeed quite impressive.
Microsoft notes that drivers are still initialized during this startup process, which means that driver and system updates should no longer require a "full" reboot of the system (something Microsoft has been promising since the Longhorn days). However, for those of you more comfortable with a traditional "full" shutdown, there are command line options to toggle the new feature on and off ("powercfg /hibernate off" which has the unfortunate side-effect of completely disabling hibernation), and also to initiate one-time full shutdowns ("shutdown /s /full").
According to Microsoft, these improvements should benefit users with SSDs and HDDs alike, and will be especially noticeable when paired with systems supporting UEFI, the BIOS replacement that is slowly being adopted by most major PC manufacturers and motherboard makers. For full details, as always, you can check out the very detailed post on the Building Windows 8 blog.
Source: Building Windows 8 Blog
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Sony VAIO S Series: All Day Consumer Computing
You asked for it, you got it: in house, a review of Sony's longstanding 13.3" road warrior S series. It's light, has a matte screen, switchable graphics, a mainstream Sandy Bridge processor, and the potential to last all day (and then some) on the battery. From the outside, at least, the Sony VAIO S looks like a winner at nearly any level. But did Sony cut any corners to get the VAIO S' price down, or should it be on any traveller's short list?
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Intel Not Selling MeeGo, Says Manager
Responding to this week's rumors that Samsung might be looking to acquire MeeGo, the Linux-based mobile operating system introduced by Intel and Nokia, Intel's Systems Software Division manager Doug Fisher stated that the company remains "committed" to the OS, though he followed that by saying that he could "only comment on what's happening today."
MeeGo, which has user interfaces for netbooks, tablets, and smartphones among other things, was originally introduced in February of 2010 by Intel and Nokia, and was intended to be a merging of Intel's Moblin and Nokia's Maemo operating systems. However, since Nokia struck up a partnership with Microsoft to use Windows Phone 7 on its handsets, the OS has stuggled to find a home.
Rumors stated that Samsung was looking to buy MeeGo for a variety of reasons - to integrate with its existing Bada operating system, to compete against Android and Windows Phone 7, or just to shore up the company's patent portfolio. Fisher's statement refutes these rumors, at least for now.
Of course, there is often a disconnect between what companies say and what they later do. If Intel continues to have trouble getting MeeGo adopted by its partners, you can bet that the OS could yet be discontinued or sold.
Source: PCWorld
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Metro Detroit Receives Two New EV Charging Stations; Will Have 16 Total by Mid Sept.
The two new stations in Ferndale were provided in part by General Motors, DTE Energy and Metro Detroit communities, and are only compatible with the Nissan Leaf and the Chevrolet Volt
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One Worker Catches the Blame for Power Outage in Southwest U.S., Mexico
APS Spokesman Damon Gross added that there appeared to be two failures in this situation: a human failure and a system failure -- and both will be addressed
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New App Can ID Complete Stranger's Facebook and Social Security No.
Google and Carnegie Mellon University have created a system capable of alarming invasions of privacy
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9/9/2011 Daily Hardware Reviews
DailyTech's roundup of hardware reviews from around the web for Friday
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Apple Crushes Samsung in German Court, Galaxy Tab 10.1 Ban is Complete
Apple is only company that can make minimalist rectangular tablet designs in Germany
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Former Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz: Yahoo “F***ed Me Over"
Carol Bartz doesn't hold back in punches when it comes to her removal from the CEO post at Yahoo
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UPDATE: Zagat is the Latest Company Sucked Into Google's Empire
Zagat Survey will now find a home in Google's local services
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The "Father of E-Books" Dies at Age 64
Michael S. Hart is gone, but his work lives on
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Verizon Releases Droid Bionic by Motorola for $299.99
Droid Bionic is available exclusively to Verizon customers starting today
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Microsoft Milks More Patent Licensing Dollars Out of Android Manufacturers
Acer, Viewsonic agree to pay Microsoft's toll
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Sony Xperia Play 4G Heads to AT&T on September 18
Gaming focused smartphone will have AT&T exclusives for $49.99
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