Open source

35 'Open source' stories May 2011 - July 2014

MindRDR demonstrates how thought alone could control Google Glass [Video]

Ben Lovejoy Jul 10 2014 - 5:53 am PT

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It sounds like a pretty cool idea right there, but for those with medical conditions that don’t allow them to control Glass by voice or touch – such as those with locked-in syndrome – this could change their lives.

Engadget reports that UK company This Place has created the MindRDR app to enable a Glass user who’s also wearing a head-mounted EEG sensor to take a photo and upload it to Facebook or Twitter by pure thought control.

It’s essentially a proof of concept at this stage, with only one form of measurement: concentration.

MindRDR shows up as a thin white line on Glass’s screen, which moves upwards the more the user concentrates. Once that line reaches the very top, it snaps a picture of whatever you want – you simply need to repeat the process to upload the image to a social network …

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Google increases commitment to defending open-source software projects from patent trolls

Ben Lovejoy Dec 18 2013 - 5:04 am PT

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Photo: reuters.com

Google’s Open Source Blog advises that Google has moved from an associate to a full board member of the Open Invention Network, an organisation designed to cross-licence Linux patents to reduce the risk of being sued by patent trolls.

Open-source software like Linux has spurred huge innovation in cloud computing, the mobile web, and the Internet in general. Linux now powers nearly all the world’s supercomputers, runs the International Space Station, and forms the core of Android. But as open source has proliferated, so have the threats against it, particularly using patents. That’s why we’re expanding our participation in Open Invention Network (OIN), becoming the organization’s first new full board member since 2007.

Companies that join the network are guaranteed protection from being sued by other members, provided that they make the same promise. Google will now sit alongside IBM, NEC, Novell, Philips, Red Hat and Sony on the board.

Google’s former head of patents, Michelle Lee, was recently named as the new interim head of the US Patent & Trademark Office, promising faster processing of applications and ‘higher quality’ patents – diplomatic language for greater barriers to patent trolls.

Google increases bug bounties up to fivefold after paying out $2M to date

Ben Lovejoy Aug 13 2013 - 4:11 am PT

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Google is increasing the bounty it pays to security researchers who discover and report bugs in Chromium by up to 500 percent after announcing that it has paid out a combined total of $2M in bug bounties across Chromium and Google-owned websites in just three years.

Today, the Chromium program is raising reward levels significantly. In a nutshell, bugs previously rewarded at the $1,000 level will now be considered for reward at up to $5,000. In many cases, this will be a 5x increase in reward level! We’ll issue higher rewards for bugs we believe present a more significant threat to user safety, and when the researcher provides an accurate analysis of exploitability and severity. We will continue to pay previously announced bonuses on top, such as those for providing a patch or finding an issue in a critical piece of open source software.

This follows earlier similar increases for reporting website vulnerabilities back in June.

Although the sums of money offered for reporting vulnerabilities are substantially lower than could be made by selling the info on the black market to those who would use it for nefarious reasons, the thinking behind bug bounties is it encourages those who would never dream of misusing the info to file prompt reports. Many large tech companies offer bug bounties, with Microsoft – a long-time hold-out – joining in a month ago.

Google reminds us that a free and open Internet needs some celebrating and support

Seth Weintraub Jul 3 2012 - 4:15 pm PT

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YzD33Zb1MI&feature=youtu.be]

Google supports the Declaration of Internet Freedom:

Celebrate freedom. Support a free and open Internet.
More than any time in history, more people in more places have the ability to make their voices heard.
Just as we celebrate freedom, we need to celebrate the tools that support freedom.
Add your voice in support of a free and open Internet.

Happy 4th.
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HP webOS Enyo team is going Google

Seth Weintraub May 24 2012 - 8:59 pm PT

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The Verge:

The HP team responsible for Enyo — webOS’s HTML5-based application framework that debuted on the TouchPad — will be leaving the company and starting at Google shortly, The Verge has learned. What this means for the future of Open webOS is unclear; Enyo and the developers supporting it are central to HP’s open source strategy for the operating system going forward, and it’s hard to say whether this move will have any effect on the planned late 2012 release for version 1.0.

It is pretty clear that webOS is over. With similar roots in Linux, the team could probably do some good with Google’s Android and Chrome products.

Samsung-backed Tizen OS running Android apps thanks to OpenMobile, spotted on Galaxy S II [Video]

Jordan Kahn May 15 2012 - 10:06 am PT

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=cxY9q_4mmIY#!]

In the video above, you are seeing the Tizen operating system. It is an open source project backed by Intel and Samsung, which runs Android apps thanks to a little help from OpenMobile. The video above comes from The Handheld Blog (via GigaOM). Tizen, which Samsung now plans to merge with its Bada platform, just launched version 1.0 this month and it recently received support from Sprint. In the demo video below, we see what might be our first look at the Tizen platform running on an Android device; although, the integration with OpenMobile to run Android apps is not an official feature of the OS yet.

GigaOM suggested Samsung could buy OpenMobile outright to integrate the technology and enable the roughly 400,000 existing Android apps to run on the up-and-coming platform. Go past the break for a the video of Tizen running on a Samsung Galaxy SII HD from the recent Tizen Developer Conference in San Francisco (via Engadget).

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Samsung Open Sources Galaxy Tab 2 ICS software

Jake Smith May 4 2012 - 4:40 am PT

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Samsung announced some less-important news last night, compared to the announcements made earlier yesterday. However, this might be exciting for the developer community: Samsung has open-sourced the code that runs both the 7-inch and 10-inch Galaxy Tab 2 models. Samsung posted the code over at its open source page.

With the open source code, developers can now put their own spin on the version of Ice Cream Sandwich that Samsung makes available on the Tab 2. The Tab 2 does not feature an outright version of Android 4.0, because it has Samsung’s custom TouchWiz UI layer on-top. TouchWiz adds various UI enhancements and apps to ICS, some of which are actually pretty useful.

Do you think you are up for a little code tinkering? Try it! You can check out the model numbers for the Tab 2 after the break.

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HP open sourcing webOS, planning new tablets for 2013

Jordan Kahn Dec 9 2011 - 3:14 pm PT

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As you can see from the internal email sent to HP employees by CEO Meg Whitman below (via TechCrunch), webOS is officially alive and well and on its way to open source land. Last we heard HP was soon going to come to a solid decision on the fate of webOS and rumors started flying about the company even being open to Android. However, today’s confirmation from Whitman most likely means the company hopes webOS will be picked up by vendors looking for an alternative to Google’s OS. There’s no mention of new hardware in the letter, but The Verge sat down with Whitman and board member Marc Andreessen who say there will indeed be new HP webOS tablets by 2013:

Will HP be creating any new webOS hardware?

The answer to that is yes but what I can’t tell you is whether that will be in 2012 or not. But we will use webOS in new hardware, but it’s just going to take us a little longer to reorganize the team in a quite different direction than we’ve been taking it in the past.

Are we talking printers? Or tablets and phones?

In the near term what I would imagine – and this could change, in full disclosure – is I would think tablets, I do not believe we will be in the smartphone business again.

Here’s Whitman’s full letter to HP Employees:

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Google Chrome to gain WebRTC and gamepad support in 2012

Jake Smith Nov 26 2011 - 10:04 am PT

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Speaking at a conference in Liverpool (via Develop), Google’s Paul Kinlan revealed a few of the company’s plans in regards to making more additions to Chrome in 2012. The changes he outlined include the browser supporting plug-and-play gamepads, a cool feature that would give gamers a better way to game through Google+ games. Kinland also said the browser would be receiving the open source WebRTC platform.

Google is to add plug-and-play gamepad, webcam and microphone support to its Chrome web browser early next year, Google’s Paul Kinlan has revealed.

Speaking at Develop Liverpool, Kinlan also claimed that the search engine giant would be adding open source video and voice chat application WebRTC to its web browser.

Both additions would allow Google to offer more cloud and gaming services. We’re sure these are the first changes of many for the year of 2012.

Earn up to $1500 porting Android to the HP TouchPad

Jake Smith Aug 22 2011 - 5:09 pm PT

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Did you land your hands on the HP TouchPad this weekend, and not satisfied with WebOS? We understand the WebOS part of things, but the TouchPad could actually be considered a pretty nice piece of hardware..if it’s running the right stuff. While we mentioned an Android port was in the works this morning, the folks over at HacknMod are holding a little contest to see who can successfully do the port first. Total prize money tops $1500.

The basic Android port is going for $450, Wi-Fi is going for $350, both audio and camera are going up for $300, and lastly, MultiTouch is going for $100. Devs, that’s $1500!

If you think your dev skills are up to the challenge you can get started by posting your first bit of code into GitHub (full directions here). Note, all code developed for this project must be licensed under open-source. May the best coder win!
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Andy Rubin gets the Danger Band back together for Android hardware

Seth Weintraub May 11 2011 - 5:56 pm PT

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Over at Fortune, I profiled the the two new guys presenting at Google I/O on Android yesterday. It turns out that Matt Hershensen and Joe Brit aren’t actually new (though they are new at Google) in the smartphone scene. They actually founded Danger with Andy Rubin and were working at Microsoft (which bought Danger) less than a year ago.

At Google, they’ve been charged with starting up the Android hardware division which is putting together reference designs for the new accessory interfaces that will be built with the ADK.

Here’s their 2004 talk on founding Danger:

http://ecorner.stanford.edu/swf/player-ec.swf
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