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Ubuntu's announcement about inclusion of ZFS support in upcoming 16.04 LTS started an important discussion in opensource community: the license incompatibility between GPL and CDDL licenses may be an issue. Being a copyleft license, GPL requires that all works that are derived from GPL-licensed work are also distributed under terms of GPL. CDDL, the license of ZFS code, is also a copyleft license, and as such requires CDDL-licensed work be distributed "only under the terms of [CDDL]." Although Ubuntu's ZFS code comes from OpenZFS project, Oracle is still one of the major copyright holders of the code base, and it does not seem likely to relicense its assets under GPL any time soon.Dustin Kirkland of Ubuntu, the author of the announcement, explained Canonical's position, albeit light on details: The CDDL cannot apply to the Linux kernel because zfs.ko is a self-contained file system module -- the kernel itself is quite obviously not a derivative work of this new file system. And zfs.ko, as a self-contained file system module, is clearly not a derivative work of the Linux kernel but rather quite obviously a derivative work of OpenZFS and OpenSolaris. Equivalent exceptions have existed for many years, for various other stand alone, self-contained, non-GPL kernel modules.Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC), a non-profit with self-assigned mission of carrying on a crusade against GPL violations, quickly pointed out that the "obvious" conclusions of Canonical are not really all that obvious:[I]f ZFS were statically linked with Linux and shipped as a single work, few would argue it was not a "work based on the Program" under GPLv2. And, if we believe there is no legal difference when we change that linking from static to dynamic, we conclude easily that binary distribution of ZFS plus Linux - even with ZFS in a .ko file - constitutes distribution of a combined work.Another non-profit organization - Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) - provides yet another opinion on the matter. Eben Moglen points out that CDDL permits distribution of binaries under other licenses, so in case of Linux module GPL's requirements in case of binary module may be fullfilled by distributing it under GPL. Admittedly, this does not solve the issue of the license incompatibility of the code bases. The proposed solution is basically to ignore the wording of GPL's viral clause:In this specific sense, then, the conduct which falls outside the words of GPLv2 falls within the "equity of the license," or its "spirit." As all Western legal systems have known since Aristotle, literal interpretation of any legal material will sometimes produce unintended unjust results, which can and should be corrected by the invocation of "equity." This present issue is evidently an example in which the tension between literal and equitable interpretation is raised, and it is the consensus of the kernel copyright holders' intention which determines which mode of interpretation is to be employed.The issue of GPL compatibility and kernel modules' licensing arised before. For example, Linus Torvalds already noted that kernel modules are in "gray area" when it comes to the issue of derived worked. Using an example of Andrew filesystem he stated that external code base that was designed on different system and only required minimal porting effort due to interface similarities, in his opinion, was not a derived work of Linux. Even more appropriate example is Nvidia's infamous proprietary Linux driver, which interfaces the kernel via specially-crafted module that abstracts away Linux kernel implementation details, so that Nvidia's binary blob may still considered to be a self-contained work targetting module's interface, not the interfaces of Linux. This driver is widely used and generally tolerated by distributions.The differences in these two positions reveal the two conflicting opinions on Linux copyright situation. SFLC is more concerned about the ability of opensource ecosystem to survive in face of fanatic GPL enforcement: their statements goes into painful details about difficulties that projects with permissive licenses are facing when they need to maintain the ports of their code in GPLed projects. If stictly enforced, GPL could hinder such projects to the point when whole ecosystem comes to net loss. Such situation could be particularly painful in cases like this, when the goals of GPL are met, but the legal mechanism that was chosen by opensource Foundation prevents both Linux and OpenZFS from cross-polination.But on the other hand, making such excuses would open gates for projects that don't really contribute to the opensource, but only use it to their own benefit. While proponents of permissive licenses (myself included) don't find anything wrong with such outcome, GPL was specifically designed to prevent it, and that is why it is one of the most popular opensource licenses out there. Obviously, every concession weakens the position of those seeking GPL enforcement, including SFC, whose mission right now is endangered by both SFLC's and Canonical's views on ZFS integration into Linux. Being a self-styled GPL crusader with several battles already fought, SFC knows that the ZFS inclusion in Ubuntu may come at a price of legal actions lost, and potentially tolanted hackers driven out of opensource by frustration and disappointment.There is another interesting angle to this situation: by now it is common knowledge that Sun Microsystems specifically designed CDDL to be incompatible with GPL, so that ZFS, while being opensource, could not be included with Linux. Shipping ZFS with Ubuntu would defeat this tactics and potentially remove motivation for such unfortunate choice of license for companies like Sun or Oracle, to benefit of all involved sides.And yet another thing to consider: some (most?) jurisdictions explicitly require sticking with literal meanings of laws and contracts. This means that even if SFLC's position is defendable in United States, it might be dismissed in other parts of the world, giving Linux copyright holders ability to sue Canonical over copyright infringement. Given that Oracle holds copyright in both Linux and OpenZFS, and that it already demonstrated willingness to take legal actions against opensource projects, Canonical might still be under significant risk.At any rate, the outcome of this discussion, if any, have potential to settle a long-standing issue in opensource community, and to make legal implications of using GPL more transparent and clear.

HoloLens is fully untethered and self-contained. It's the only device that enables holographic computing natively with no markers, no external cameras, no wires, no phone required, and no connection to a PC needed. And it's a Windows 10 device - the interface is familiar, and connected by the power of a unified ecosystem of Windows devices.The device consists of multiple environment understanding sensors and it's powered by a custom-built Microsoft Holographic Processing Unit (HPU) and an Intel 32-bit architecture. The HPU is custom silicon that allows HoloLens to understand gestures and gaze while mapping the world all around you, all in real time.Microsoft today announced that the Microsoft HoloLens Development Edition will start shipping on 30 March, at $3000 a piece. They also offer a look at the hardware powering HoloLens.

The Raspberry Pi is turning four today, and in celebration of this, they've now released the Raspberry Pi 3 - which packs a serious performance punch, at the same low price point.In celebration of our fourth birthday, we thought it would be fun to release something new. Accordingly, Raspberry Pi 3 is now on sale for $35 (the same price as the existing Raspberry Pi 2), featuring:A 1.2GHz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU (~10x the performance of Raspberry Pi 1)Integrated 802.11n wireless LAN and Bluetooth 4.1Complete compatibility with Raspberry Pi 1 and 2All the previous Raspberry Pi boards will remain available, as long as the demand for them remains. In addition, over the course of the coming months, the userland of Raspbian will be moved to 64 bit.

No matter how its console business is doing, Nintendo has always been able to lean on healthy portable system sales to prop up its finances. With the Wii U continuing to severely underperform sales expectations, though, it looks like the Nintendo 3DS is failing to pick up the slack as its predecessors once did.Nintendo's going to need a better strategy. Maybe the past 15 years of rehashing the same Mario, Zelda, and Metroid games is finally catching up to them.

The case between Apple and the US government keeps generating a lot of responses, but if there's one thing you really need to see, it's ABC's 30-minute interview with Tim Cook about the matter. It's no secret around here that I am not a particular fan of either Apple (or any other company for that matter) or Tim Cook, but I am genuinely impressed by Cook's spirit, insistence, and conviction displayed in this interview.Meanwhile, Microsoft has firmly and clearly sided with Apple, stating the company will file an amicus brief next week. During a congressional hearing today, Microsoft president and chief legal officer Brad Smith pulled out an adding machine from 1912, to drive the point home how old the law is that the FBI is relying upon."We do not believe that courts should seek to resolve issues of 21st Century technology with a law that was written in the era of the adding machine," Smith said.I still think Apple will eventually lose this whole thing, but hearing Tim Cook say they will take it all the way to the Supreme Court at least reassures me he is willing to take it all the way.

The primary weapon manufacturers wield to keep consumers running for the dumpster rather than the screwdriver is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Passed in 1998, its purpose was to bring copyright law into the digital era. Among other things, this law makes it illegal for owners and unauthorized repair people to break technical locks over copyrighted content, including software. Fixers have been fighting for exemptions to the DMCA, and in October 2015 the United States Copyright Office finally adopted a new set, making it legal to unlock carrier-activated phones, tablets, wearables, and mobile hotspots. Owners can also jailbreak phones, tablets, and smart TVs, and modify the software on 3D printers, cars, tractors, and heavy equipment. Nevertheless, software in many electronics, including game consoles, is still protected by the DMCA. At-home modifications or repairs can constitute a copyright violation. At the least, it will void a device's warranty, but it potentially carries up to a $1,000,000 fine and 10 years in prison, and numerous researchers, hobbyists, and companies have been taken to court.Isn't the future fun?

If you're like me, you might have opened up your Windows 10 laptop today only to see a giant ad for Square Enix's Rise of the Tomb Raider plastered across your login screen. This is the work of the "Windows Spotlight" feature in your Personalization settings, and thankfully, you can turn it off for good.Isn't the future fun?

As part of this commitment I am pleased to announce today that Microsoft has signed an agreement to acquire Xamarin, a leading platform provider for mobile app development.In conjunction with Visual Studio, Xamarin provides a rich mobile development offering that enables developers to build mobile apps using C# and deliver fully native mobile app experiences to all major devices - including iOS, Android, and Windows. Xamarin's approach enables developers to take advantage of the productivity and power of .NET to build mobile apps, and to use C# to write to the full set of native APIs and mobile capabilities provided by each device platform. This enables developers to easily share common app code across their iOS, Android and Windows apps while still delivering fully native experiences for each of the platforms. Xamarin's unique solution has fueled amazing growth for more than four years.

The Aqua Fish is following Jolla's "traditional" design which was found on the Jolla smartphone.The phone sports a namely modest but practically beastly (according to my testings), Quadcore 1.3Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon 212 (don't let the 200-series name fool you. We'll get to that in a moment!), 2GB od DDR3 RAM, 16GB of expandable storage, 5" HD IPS display panel with a resolution of 1280x720, a 2500mAh battery and dual-SIM support, all packaged in a neat package of black and orange plastic.This looks a lot like the phone Jolla should've made halfway 2014 as a successor to the original Jolla phone instead of that silly tablet most of us are still waiting on and that nearly tanked the company. Sadly, this one will only be available in India for now, and there's no word on further availability.I'm glad there's 3rd party interest in Sailfish OS, but I'm afraid the window's already closed on this one.

If there's one thing tech enthusiasts love more than an underdog, it's an underdog with high specs. The Meizu Pro 5 Ubuntu Edition is just such a device. It's powered by the same 14nm Samsung Exynos processor as the flagship Galaxy S6. It has a 21-megapixel camera with laser-assisted phase-detect autofocus and a Hi-Fi audio chip from ESS. Clad in an aluminum unibody shell and sporting an AMOLED display, it's as modern and good looking as any smartphone out here at Mobile World Congress. But it runs Ubuntu, and that makes it too much of an underdog.With non-iOS and non-Android smartphone operating systems dropping like flies left and right, it's commendable that Canonical is still trying with Ubuntu. Too bad that even on such powerful hardware, and after years of development and promises, Ubuntu is still slow and cumbersome on smartphones.

As mods, 3rd party applications that were previously isolated can now take advantage of platform APIs to implement unique experiences directly within Cyanogen OS. Users can install a variety of mods to extend the functionality of their devices. For example, through Cyanogen's partnership with Microsoft, a user can install the Skype mod directly into their dialer to add VoIP calling functionality or they can install the Cortana personal assistant mod to power features like voice-activated selfies.Cyanogen OS, which isn't CyanogenMod, is introducing MODs, that plug into Cyanogen OS and CyanogenMod. At this point, they are intentionally muddying the waters, right? This is the system Microsoft is using to integrate its services into Android, and now, everybody can use them. The wording here is a bit strange, though, because one of the core strengths of Android is that applications are not isolated, unlike on iOS, where every application looks, feels, and functions like an island.It's all pretty nifty, and all made possible because of two things: first, Android in and of itself is incredibly extensible, and it contains a ton of APIs for these sorts of things. A lot of this integration can be achieved simply by installing applications from Google Play. Second, it's made possible because Android is open source, so that Cyanogen can make a few changes and claim they're taking Android away from big, bad Google who is giving them Android in the first place, and without whom Cyanogen wouldn't exist, or wouldn't continue to exist.In any case, let's see if other 3rd parties are going to adopt this. It seems like Android as-is is extensible enough, so I don't see much life in this for most developers and users.

Following the letter from Tim Cook, Apple has now published a set of questions and answers regarding the case of the FBI demanding, via a court order, that Apple create a backdoor into iOS for the FBI to use. Overall, I find the questions and answers a strong showing by Apple, but two parts really stood out to me.First, the FBI is apparently a little bit incompetent.One of the strongest suggestions we offered was that they pair the phone to a previously joined network, which would allow them to back up the phone and get the data they are now asking for. Unfortunately, we learned that while the attacker's iPhone was in FBI custody the Apple ID password associated with the phone was changed. Changing this password meant the phone could no longer access iCloud services.This is incredibly cringe-worthy. The agency now asking to weaken the security and harm the rights of all iOS users, is the same agency who made beginner mistakes such as this one. If you are a true cynical, which I am, you might think the FBI changed the password on purpose in order to force this case.The second part that really stood out to me is also by far the weakest part: Apple seems to be contradicting itself regarding the question whether or not it unlocked iPhones for law enforcement in the past.Has Apple unlocked iPhones for law enforcement in the past?No.We regularly receive law enforcement requests for information about our customers and their Apple devices. In fact, we have a dedicated team that responds to these requests 24/7. We also provide guidelines on our website for law enforcement agencies so they know exactly what we are able to access and what legal authority we need to see before we can help them.For devices running the iPhone operating systems prior to iOS 8 and under a lawful court order, we have extracted data from an iPhone.Emphasis mine.So, did Apple unlock iPhones in the past, or not? This is a pretty glaring contradiction, and it makes me feel uneasy about Apple's motives and past and present roles in this case. As with any corporation, of course, Apple is beholden to its shareholders, and if this stance starts to lead to political - and thus, financial - headwinds, shareholders will pipe up, forcing Apple to give in. This contradiction only strengthens this fear for me.

Over the weekend, news broke that Linux Mint's servers were compromised, and ISO images were replaced by compromised versions with a backdoor. Everything was made public, and int responded in the only way they could: disclosure, site taken down.Sadly, it turns out that Linux Mint has somewhat of a bad name when it comes to security.To conclude, I do not think that the Mint developers deliver professional work. Their distribution is more a crude hack of existing Debian-based distributions. They make fundamental mistakes and put their users at risk, both in the sense of data security as well as licensing issues.I would therefore highly discourage anyone using Linux Mint until Mint developers have changed their fundamental philosophy and resolved these issues.Let's hope this issue raises a number of red flags for the Mint team so they can start to take steps to better the situation.

Over the weekend, news broke that Linux Mint's servers were compromised, and ISO images were replaced by compromised versions with a backdoor. Everything was made public, and int responded in the only way they could: disclosure, site taken down.Sadly, it turns out that Linux Mint has somewhat of a bad name when it comes to security.To conclude, I do not think that the Mint developers deliver professional work. Their distribution is more a crude hack of existing Debian-based distributions. They make fundamental mistakes and put their users at risk, both in the sense of data security as well as licensing issues.I would therefore highly discourage anyone using Linux Mint until Mint developers have changed their fundamental philosophy and resolved these issues.Let's hope this issue raises a number of red flags for the Mint team so they can start to take steps to better the situation.

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial) is only a few short weeks away, and with it comes one of the most exciting new features Linux has seen in a very long time... ZFS -- baked directly into Ubuntu - supported by Canonical.A very welcome addition.

Both Samsung and LG announced their new flagship phones for the year, and lo and behold, there's actually something interesting to discuss. First, let's get the new Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge out of the way: even though they look very similar to the S6 and S6 Edge, Samsung has brought back a few things that many here will like: water resistance, and a microSD card slot. In addition, Samsung has revolutionised the smartphone industry by making the S7 and S7 edge slightly thicker to fit a much, much bigger battery and to reduce the camera hump.The new LG G5 is more interesting. The phone is, of course, kitted with all the latest processors and RAM and whatever, but at the bottom of the device, there's a slot that you can use to snap on all kinds of additional hardware.Two of these new accessories plug directly into the LG G5's bottom. A small key on the side of the phone pops open its lower section, which can be pulled out along with the battery, then the battery is fitted into the next module and that straps back into the phone. The whole process sounds finicky, but there's nothing flimsy about the way LG has constructed either the phone, its battery, or the extras, so everything can be done quickly and forcefully. And yes, it really does feel like loading a fresh clip into your gun.If this reminds you of Handspring's Springboard, you're not alone. As with virtually everything in mobile today - everything can be traced right back to Palm.In any event, as much as I personally always like these kinds of experiments, the problem is that generally, nobody ever builds anything worthwhile for it. These expansion slots always tend to kind of fizzle out, with few actually, really good accessories to ever be released. Which, in turn, raises the question of why you would invest in it in the first pace.That being said, let's give it a year or so and see what LG and possible third parties are going to do with this. I like the G5 overall, and the expansion slot is a fun and gutsy move (the fact that it is tells you a lot about the state of the industry, sadly).As always, be careful with these phones if you care about running the latest Android: flagships or no, updates for these things will be messy.

Both Samsung and LG announced their new flagship phones for the year, and lo and behold, there's actually something interesting to discuss. First, let's get the new Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge out of the way: even though they look very similar to the S6 and S6 Edge, Samsung has brought back a few things that many here will like: water resistance, and a microSD card slot. In addition, Samsung has revolutionised the smartphone industry by making the S7 and S7 edge slightly thicker to fit a much, much bigger battery and to reduce the camera hump.The new LG G5 is more interesting. The phone is, of course, kitted with all the latest processors and RAM and whatever, but at the bottom of the device, there's a slot that you can use to snap on all kinds of additional hardware.Two of these new accessories plug directly into the LG G5's bottom. A small key on the side of the phone pops open its lower section, which can be pulled out along with the battery, then the battery is fitted into the next module and that straps back into the phone. The whole process sounds finicky, but there's nothing flimsy about the way LG has constructed either the phone, its battery, or the extras, so everything can be done quickly and forcefully. And yes, it really does feel like loading a fresh clip into your gun.If this reminds you of Handspring's Springboard, you're not alone. As with virtually everything in mobile today - everything can be traced right back to Palm.In any event, as much as I personally always like these kinds of experiments, the problem is that generally, nobody ever builds anything worthwhile for it. These expansion slots always tend to kind of fizzle out, with few actually, really good accessories to ever be released. Which, in turn, raises the question of why you would invest in it in the first pace.That being said, let's give it a year or so and see what LG and possible third parties are going to do with this. I like the G5 overall, and the expansion slot is a fun and gutsy move (the fact that it is tells you a lot about the state of the industry, sadly).As always, be careful with these phones if you care about running the latest Android: flagships or no, updates for these things will be messy.

A mutex is a common type of lock used to serialize concurrent access by multiplethreads to shared resources. While support for POSIX mutexes in the QNX NeutrinoRealtime OS dates back to the early days of the system, this area of the codehas seen considerable changes in the last couple of years. Read more on this exclusive OSNews article...

Earlier today, a federal judge ordered Apple to comply with the FBI's request for technical assistance in the recovery of the San Bernadino gunmen's iPhone 5C. Since then, many have argued whether these requests from the FBI are technically feasible given the support for strong encryption on iOS devices. Based on my initial reading of the request and my knowledge of the iOS platform, I believe all of the FBI's requests are technically feasible.A look at the technical aspects involved.

The FBI has won a court order demanding Apple help the bureau in accessing the data on the iPhone 5c of one of the San Bernadino gunmen.The judge ruled Tuesday that the Cupertino-based company had to provide "reasonable technical assistance" to the government in recovering data from the iPhone 5c, including bypassing the auto-erase function and allowing investigators to submit an unlimited number of passwords in their attempts to unlock the phone. Apple has five days to respond to the court if it believes that compliance would be "unreasonably burdensome."In response, Apple's CEO Tim Cook has published an open letter opposing the court order.We have great respect for the professionals at the FBI, and we believe their intentions are good. Up to this point, we have done everything that is both within our power and within the law to help them. But now the U.S. government has asked us for something we simply do not have, and something we consider too dangerous to create. They have asked us to build a backdoor to the iPhone.Specifically, the FBI wants us to make a new version of the iPhone operating system, circumventing several important security features, and install it on an iPhone recovered during the investigation. In the wrong hands, this software - which does not exist today - would have the potential to unlock any iPhone in someone's physical possession.The FBI may use different words to describe this tool, but make no mistake: Building a version of iOS that bypasses security in this way would undeniably create a backdoor. And while the government may argue that its use would be limited to this case, there is no way to guarantee such control.It should come as no surprise that I strongly, deeply, and vehemently agree with Tim Cook, and I applaud the company for trying to fight this court order every step of the way. It would be great if other technology companies - Microsoft, Google, whatever - publicly join Apple in trying to fight this court order. Strength in numbers.That being said, it will be in vain. Apple - and thus, all of us - will lose this war. They might win this particular battle, but they won't win all the battles to come. All it takes is for one important country to demand a backdoor and Apple caving - due to financial pressure, sales stops, etc. - for the whole house of cards to come tumbling down.This is a hard fight, that we will lose. Get ready.

Nearly ten years ago the ReactOS Project released version 0.3.0. Today we are proud to announce the formal release of version 0.4.0. A great deal of work has gone into making this release happen and as we look back it is remarkable to consider how far the project has come since that release a decade ago. This release is both a celebration of and a testament to everything that the ReactOS team and community has achieved together. Thank you to all of you for having stood by the project for this long and we hope rewarding journey. For those of you chomping at the bit to check out the release, go to the download page to get it now.This is a huge release, and highlighting just a few new features - such as wireless networking, USB support, sound support, etc., etc., - would be a disservice to all the other stuff they worked on.

After initially thinking this would be great for people who want to do some of the stuff usually done on PC without the expense, now I'm not so sure who it suits. It fits only very simple work, ideally just in the browser or in Google apps; it's not enjoyable or smooth enough for leisure time use; for viewing content you'd be better off with a set-top box; and you can just plain forget playing games on it.The Remix Mini has its appeals and uses only for pretty basic work. But as it is, here and now, it's not the post-Windows solution that some of us are looking for.I applaud what Jide is trying to do, but at this point, with Google having openly stated they are working on bringing Android to the desktop, and giving it proper multi-window and all other features that come with it, I see little to no reason to invest too much into these products.

Khronos launched the Vulkan 1.0 specification on February 16th, 2016 and Khronos members released Vulkan drivers and SDKs on the same day. Below you will find everything you need to come up to speed on Vulkan and to forge ahead and explore whether Vulkan is right for your engine or application.

Microsoft has announced the Lumia 650, and there's already a review of the thing.This is such a shame, as this would have been a great Windows phone if only it had a decent processor inside it. Battery life was very respectable at 11h 36m in our continuous video playback test with the screen brightness set to 170cd/m2, and its screen and build quality are practically second to none in its price range. However, when it's so crippled by its bad choice of chipset, the Lumia 650 just can't measure up to its infinitely superior predecessor. If you're looking for a cheap Windows handset, the Lumia 640 is still your best choice, as you can now pick one up for £120 SIM-free or £90 on pre-pay. The only silver lining is that this could be the basis for a great mid-range Windows phone just around the corner.I have no idea what Microsoft is doing with Windows Phone at this point. Nobody wants an underperforming Windows Phone device, and those that buy one without being aware of the bad chipset will just feel bitten.Either give Windows Phone the proper love and attention it so badly needs in both software and hardware, or just kill it with dignity. What Microsoft is and has been doing to Windows Phone is a travesty.

Tails (The amnesic incognito live system) is a live OS based on Debian GNU/Linux which aims at preserving the user's privacy and anonymity by using the Internet anonymously and circumventing censorship. Installed on a USB device, it is configured to leave no trace on the computer you are using unless asked explicitly.As of today, the people the most needy for digital security are not computer experts. Being able to get started easily with a new tool is critical to its adoption, and even more in high-risk and stressful environments. That's why we wanted to make it faster, simpler, and more secure to install Tails for new users.One of the components of Tails, the Tails Installer is now in Debian thanks to the Debian Privacy Tools Maintainers Team.On a related note, Tails 2.0.1 was released a few days ago as well.

A team of scientists announced on Thursday that they had heard and recorded the sound of two black holes colliding a billion light-years away, a fleeting chirp that fulfilled the last prediction of Einsteinâs general theory of relativity.That faint rising tone, physicists say, is the first direct evidence of gravitational waves, the ripples in the fabric of space-time that Einstein predicted a century ago. (Listen to it here.) It completes his vision of a universe in which space and time are interwoven and dynamic, able to stretch, shrink and jiggle. And it is a ringing confirmation of the nature of black holes, the bottomless gravitational pits from which not even light can escape, which were the most foreboding (and unwelcome) part of his theory.More generally, it means that a century of innovation, testing, questioning and plain hard work after Einstein imagined it on paper, scientists have finally tapped into the deepest register of physical reality, where the weirdest and wildest implications of Einsteinâs universe become manifest.The entirety of today I've been in awe over just how far science has come. The idea of measuring a ripple in spacetime at 1/100,000 of a nanometer, about the width of an atomic nucleus, using lasers and mirrors - I don't know, it's just awe-inspiring what we, as humans, can do when we get together in the name of science, instead of fighting each other over endless strings of pointlessness.

Microsoft has tried a variety of different Start menus over the years, but the Windows 10 version is the best combination of the modern ideas the company has attempted and the classic menu. The Start menu is iconic, and it's the identity of Windows. As long as Microsoft doesn't have any crazy ideas, it's probably here to stay for many, many more years.Twenty years is a long time for any software, so let's take a look at how exactly the Start menu, and by extension, Windows itself, has changed since Windows 95.I am still a huge fan of the original Start menu as it existed in Windows 95 through 2000 (and as an option in XP): a simple, straightforward menu that you could organise yourself. It may not have been very pretty or user-friendly (we've all run into those people who never organised their Start menu), but for me personally, it was really, really great.I'm really not a fan of the thing we have now in Windows 10, where you can't even do any organisation, and the "All apps" button just gives you an endless alphabetical list of crap. Search obviously helps a little bit here, but applications' Start menu folders often contain other useful tools that you might not know the name of.In any event, it's definitely an iconic piece of UI.

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX) are introducing a bill today to effectively override bad state-level encryption bills. The ENCRYPT Act of 2016, or by its longer name, the Ensuring National Constitutional Rights of Your Private Telecommunications Act, would preempt state and local government encryption laws. The two men said today they are "deeply concerned" that varying bills surrounding encryption would endanger the country as well as the competitiveness of American companies. The argument is that it wouldn't be easy or even feasible to tailor phone encryption capabilities for specific states.We're going to need a lot of these laws - all over the world.

Community mapping applications come in all shapes and sizes. There are apps to help drivers avoid speed traps, maneuver around traffic jams, and find cheap gas. And now there's one that helps people avoid being pulled from their car by the Ershad - Iran's morals police.Anonymous developers in Iran recently released an Android app that is intended to help young Iranians share intelligence about Ershad checkpoints. Called "Gershad," the app depends on crowdsourced reports from users to help others avoid being stopped, harassed, or even possibly beaten or arrested for failing to adhere to the Ershad interpretations of Islamic morality.Fascinating what technology can do for people.

But in bounding after large screens, phone makers seemed to ignore the usability issues that accompany them. Small studies have shown before that 4.3 inches is about as big as a phone can get before people start struggling to use it. The time to operate the phone slows down significantly because one-hand use is awkward - and that's for average men's hands. Assuming a normal distribution, for half of men and most women, a phone bigger than 4.3 inches - like the current smallest iPhone - is too big.The increasing size of smartphones is one of the big mysteries of the technology world. The mystery lies not in phones getting larger - a lot of people prefer it - but in smaller phones, which a lot of people also prefer, disappearing, or being treated as second-class citizens.Such an odd development.

Major desktop browsers push automatic security updates directly to users on a regular basis, so most users don't have to worry about security updates. But Linux users are dependent on their distributions to release updates. Apple fixed over 100 vulnerabilities in WebKit last year, so getting updates out to users is critical.This is the story of how that process has gone wrong for WebKit.

I've often predicted the current crop of smartwatches - be they Wear or the Apple Watch - are designed to end up in drawers, forgotten, unloved. However, I had no idea that even Marco Arment would eventually realise the same thing.Shortly before Christmas, I accidentally found the first mechanical watch that infected my mind so much that I actually wanted - quite badly - to own it. I had many doubts: Would I look ridiculous wearing it? Would I hate setting or winding it? Would I miss notifications, activity tracking, and weather on my watch? Would I wear it briefly but then run back to my Apple Watch and let the mechanical rot in a drawer?Nope.Well worth a read. Turns out that even an ardent Apple fan's smartwatch ends up in a drawer, replaced by a real watch.

The latest FreeBSD Quarterly Status Report is out.Efforts to bring our BSD high standards to new architectures continue, with impressive work on arm64 leading to its promotion to Tier-2 status and a flurry of work bringing up the new RISC-V hardware architecture. Software architecture is also under active development, including system startup and service management. A handful of potential init system replacements are mentioned in this report: launchd, relaunchd, and nosh. Architectural changes originating both from academic research (multipath TCP) and from the realities of industry (sendfile(2) improvements) are also under way. It is heartening to see how FreeBSD provides a welcoming platform for contributions from both research and industry.Everything you need to know to be up to date with FreeBSD.

Evidence has been mounting over the last few days and it looks like it's finally happening: Android 6.0 for Wear is starting to roll out. Googler Wayne Piekarski just announced on his Google+ feed that OTAs have begun and should continue over the next few weeks.An official blog post by Google lists some of the new features we can expect in the new firmware, including: newly navigation gestures, audio support on speaker-equipped watches, and expanded support for messaging clients.The update itself seems a bit 'eh', but the interesting thing here is that all Android Wear devices will be getting this update to Marshmallow, even the first generation Wear smartwatches.Goes to show that Google does, in fact, know how to do this - now they just need to apply this to phones and tablets.

I'm pleased to announce that Microsoft has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire SwiftKey, whose highly rated, highly engaging software keyboard and SDK powers more than 300 million Android and iOS devices. In this cloud-first, mobile-first world, SwiftKey's technology aligns with our vision for more personal computing experiences that anticipate our needs versus responding to our commands, and directly supports our ambition to reinvent productivity by leveraging the intelligent cloud. SwiftKey estimates that its users have saved nearly 10 trillion keystrokes, across 100 languages, saving more than 100,000 years in combined typing time. Those are impressive results for an app that launched initially on Android in 2010 and arrived on iOS less than two years ago.The 'saved nearly 10 trillion keystrokes' thing sent shivers down my spine.

Two very interesting articles about Android's future that are strongly related. First, Vlad Savov wonders why Android OEMs continue to make Android phones when there's little to no profit to be gained.If there's no money in it, why would a company continue to be an Android OEM today? Ideally, every mobile OEM would like a bottom line that looks like Samsung's, but no others have achieved it. It's not even certain that Samsung Mobile will sustain its profitability, with industry analysts describing its present Herculean efforts as "running to stand still." So how do others bridge the cognitive dissonance between the desired outcome and the perpetual failure to achieve it?It's no secret that Android OEMs are facing hard times, and since there are no alternatives people are willing to buy, they really don't have anywhere to go... Except exit the smartphone business.Interestingly enough, that's where the second article, from Ars Technica, comes into play.A report from The Information (subscription required) states that Google wants to take "greater control" over the design and building of Nexus phones. Currently, a Nexus device is a co-branded partnership between Google's Android team and an OEM, but this report says Google wants to move to a more "Apple-like" approach.The report says that in the future, "hardware makers will be much more like order-takers, similar to the way contract manufacturers like Hon Hai (Foxconn) follow Apple's directions for producing the iPhone." Apple designs its phones, SoC, and other parts and then ships the plans off to third-party factories to have them built.I'm sure Google is looking at the massive profits Apple is raking in with its iPhone, as well as the tight control Apple gets to exert over its hardware, and thinking to itself: why aren't we doing this? Looking at the complete failure of OEMs to properly update phones, I can't do anything but strongly applaud Google taking the Nexus program closer to its chest, and build true Google phones.

When we talk about laptops still being popular and important, we tend to talk about things like the precision of the mouse and the power and flexibility of a desktop operating system. We talk about all the things they can do better than a phone or a tablet. We talk about more. But it's worth talking about the power of technology that strives to do less - much less. The thousand dollars I spent on a Pixel didn't buy my mom crazy extensibility, or the ability to run powerful apps like Photoshop or Excel. It didn't even buy her that much storage. But it did buy her a beautiful, well-designed product. And most importantly, it bought her focus, and the ability to spend her time using her computer instead of trying to learn how to use it.That's a lesson I think Steve Jobs would have liked very much.There's something happening with Chromebooks that seems to take place much outside of the sphere of the technology press - in schools now, but once kids have them, they'll find their way elsewhere. We may indeed be entering a post-PC world, but it's not based on tablets.It's Chromebooks.

The Turing Phone, a fancy Android phone promising to be extra secure and which sports an unusual casing and design, has just announced that it's switching from Android... To Sailfish OS.Many of you have asked numerous times through our Facebook fan page as well as emailed us about our OS development. We can now confirm that TRI has chosen to drop Android and use Jolla's Sailfish OS. Sailfish OS is now running perfectly on the Turing Phone and we have started the final OS software testing phase.Sailfish OS runs exceptionally fast on the Turing. You will not have to worry about performance issues with Turing's Snapdragon 801 because Sailfish OS has been optimized to run fast on your Turing Phone. The Turing Phone will still be able to run Android Apps on the Sailfish OS without issue. An Android application store will be available for you to download your favorite apps.This seems like an... Odd choice, to say the least. The device's preorders have been filled months ago, so users expecting a fancy Android phone will now be getting a Sailfish phone. And while I applaud the idea of more non-establishment phones and operating systems, it seems a bit dishonest (is that too strong a word?) to shift platforms on products already sold on the promise of a different platform.On top of that, Sailfish is, by no means, in any way, shape, or form, or by any stretch of the imagination, a full-on replacement for Android. The operating system itself is unfinished, often unstable, lacks any form of applications more serious than crappy puzzle games, and the Android compatibility is slow and buggy, at best. I'm not so sure Turing buyers who're expecting Android will turn out to be thrilled with Sailfish.That being said, it's a little bright spot for the very much troubled Jolla, and that's something we can all be happy about.

After the EU's highest courts rejected the standing safe habour agreement between the EU and the US, the two superpowers had to come up with a new one. They just did:The EU-US Privacy Shield reflects the requirements set out by the European Court of Justice in its ruling on 6 October 2015, which declared the old Safe Harbour framework invalid. The new arrangement will provide stronger obligations on companies in the U.S. to protect the personal data of Europeans and stronger monitoring and enforcement by the U.S. Department of Commerce and Federal Trade Commission (FTC), including through increased cooperation with European Data Protection Authorities. The new arrangement includes commitments by the U.S. that possibilities under U.S. law for public authorities to access personal data transferred under the new arrangement will be subject to clear conditions, limitations and oversight, preventing generalised access. Europeans will have the possibility to raise any enquiry or complaint in this context with a dedicated new Ombudsperson.I'm assuming the new agreement is incredibly complex and full of intricate legalese, so we'll have to wait until the agreement is ever tested in courts or otherwise comes under scrutiny from independent experts before we can reach an conclusions about its effectiveness.

Public service announcement: as announced October last year, Windows 10 is now a recommended upgrade in Windows Update, meaning the installation will automatically start.As announced last October, the free Windows 10 update has been promoted from an "optional" update to being a "recommended" one. This means that with the default Windows Update settings, the new operating system will be downloaded automatically, and its installer will be started.The operating system will not actually install itself unattended; Microsoft says that users will be able to reject the upgrade or reschedule it for a time that's more convenient. The company has also described a variety of registry settings that suppress the upgrade.Windows 10 will be the most popular Windows version of all time! Just look at all those people upgrading!

Speaking with The Economic Times of India, Damian Tay (Senior Director for Product Management, BlackBerry Asia Pacific) described the new Priv as "essentially our transition to [the] Android ecosystem. As we secure Android, over a period of time, we would not have two platforms, and may have only Android as a platform [for smartphones]. But for now, we have BB10 and Android platforms for our smartphones."If those comments somehow left you in any doubts about the company's intentions, Tay continued: "The future is really Android. We went for Android essentially for its app ecosystem. In addition, all the enterprise solutions that we have been doing have been cross-platform for a long time now. So it's a natural progression towards Android."Just in case you thought BB10 had a future.

NayuOS is an ongoing project at Nexedi: We are mainly using Chromebooks for our daily development work and wanted to have more customizable, secure and privacy-compliant devices - not running any proprietary software, because we love Free Software. A few experiments later NayuOS - our free alternative to Chrome OS - was born. NayuOS is currently on a good enough way to meeting most of our needs, so we decided to spread the word and share what we have done so far.

The Debian project is pleased to announce the third update of its stable distribution Debian 8 (codename jessie). This update mainly adds corrections for security problems to the stable release, along with a few adjustments for serious problems. Security advisories were published separately and are referenced where applicable.

In that spirit, we now have answers for those of you who have been waiting for the next Jolla Tablet update - thanks again for your patience. As already stated in our New Year's post, we plan to ship an additional small batch of Jolla Tablets to early Indiegogo backers. And, for the rest of our backers, we now have a refund process in place.They're shipping 540 tablets - no, that's not a typo - to early backers, of which I am one, but whether or not I'll actually be one of the 'lucky' 540, I don't know yet. Otherwise, it'll be the refund program. I'm glad they're offering this program, because the whole ordeal has been quite the letdown.

Windows Phone started off life as a promising alternative to Android and iOS five years ago. Microsoft positioned its range of Windows Phone 7 handsets as the true third mobile ecosystem, but it's time to admit it has failed. If a lack of devices from phone makers and even Microsoft itself wasn't enough evidence, the final nail in the coffin hit today. Microsoft only sold 4.5 million Lumia devices in the recent quarter, compared to 10.5 million at the same time last year. That's a massive 57 percent drop. Even a 57 percent increase wouldn't be enough to save Windows Phone right now.I remember being attacked in the comments for claiming Windows Phone was actually not doing as well as some claimed it was, and predicting its inevitable demise - years and years ago.Vindication.

Panic, one of the most respected OS X/iOS developer houses, published their yearly report, this time covering 2015, obviously. This paragraph is intriguing:iOS Revenue. I brought this up last year and we still haven't licked it. We had a change of heart - well, an experimental change of heart - and reduced the price of our iOS apps in 2015 to normalize them at $9.99 or less, thinking that was the upper limit and/or sweet spot for iOS app pricing. But it didn't have a meaningful impact on sales.More and more I'm beginning to think we simply made the wrong type of apps for iOS - we made professional tools that aren't really "in demand" on that platform - and that price isn't our problem, but interest is.This obviously ties into the previous news item, and Panic hits the nail on the head. They are, of course, specifically talking about iOS, but the same applies to competing platforms like Android: nobody wants to do anything even remotely resembling serious work on a "post-PC" device, regardless of platform. Both Apple and Google are really trying to posit their platforms for work (iPad Pro, Pixel C), but just as Microsoft is having a hard time scaling Windows down for consumption, Apple and Google are having trouble scaling their operating systems up for work.It is no surprise, then, that Panic's upcoming great project for 2016 isn't a big new application... But a videogame.

We're continuing our streak of Apple news, diving into the only review of the iPad Pro that really matters: the one from AnandTech.Overall, the iPad Pro is an incredibly good tablet. Iâve always liked the idea of a tablet, but for the most part I've been deeply dissatisfied with the implementations of tablets. With the iPad Air 2 review I really emphasized how a proper keyboard and a good stylus would really make the user experience much more compelling, and with the iPad Pro we're finally starting to see movement towards the tablet that I've always wanted. The iPad Pro is arguably the first tablet that I personally want to even consider buying. It isnât perfect by any means, and there is still a lot of work to be done - seemingly fitting for a first-generation Apple device - but for the first time in a long time it feels like the broader tablet market is advancing once again. If you want a proper tablet that can replace pencil and paper with a keyboard for extended typing sessions, I have no problem recommending the iPad Pro. If you're hoping for a laptop that can also double as a tablet, I suspect that the Surface Pro 4 will remain the right choice for you.In the end, the success of the iPad pro is pretty much a given. It's a bigger iPad, and there are enough people in the world who'd love a bigger version of their Netflix machine. However, whether or not the iPad Pro lives up to its moniker - i.e., it becomes a tool tons of people rely on for their work - remains to be seen. After the first few days or maybe even a few weeks of excitement, I remain convinced artists will go back to their Cintiqs and Photoshops, journalists writing "can it replace a laptop?"-articles will go back to their MacBook Airs, and everybody else didn't even look up from their smartphone.

Good morning everyone! Experiencing problems with Safari on iOS and OS X today? Is Safari crashing when you tap the address bar? You're not alone. Apple is experiencing a major issue with Safari today, causing the browser to reliably crash on all iOS devices, and Safari on OS X seems to suffer from UI problems and other issues. This one's big, and seems to affect all iOS and OS X devices in the world (!).The culprit seems to be Safari's search suggestions implementation. Something seems to be wrong server-side, and it's causing the search session code to raise an exception, after which the application doesn't know what to do. Tapping the URL field in Safari will cause Safari on iOS to crash immediately, while Safari on OS X suffers from other issues. If you are not currently experiencing this problem on iOS, that's because caching is saving you for now. If you switch airplane mode on and off on your iOS devices, these caches are reset, and the problem will appear.From what I can gather - which means, from what iOS developers I talk to can gather, because I, myself, am an idiot - this is a huge problem, affecting all iOS and OS X devices. On my iPhone, the Safari crash is 100% reproducible, and any tap on the address field crashes Safari. I can't type in any URL. A temporary workaround is to disable "Include search engine suggestions", but a permanent fix most likely has to come from Apple itself. Even then, said hypothetical fix might take a while to actually fix the problem.

Apple just posted its Q1 2016 financial report, where it posted record revenues and profits once again. But the more interesting thing might be what it's predicting for next quarter, where the company expects to report between $50 and $53 billion in revenue. That would put it below the $58 billion it reported in Q2 2015 and would mark the first year-over-year decline in revenue for the company in years.The slight decrease can likely be attributed to falling iPhone sales, which have been predicted for some time now. In Q1, Apple reported sales of 74.7 million iPhones, which is just barely better than the 74.5 million it did in the same quarter last year. Apple did not say how many it expects to sell in Q2, but analysts have predicted declines as high as 25 percent. During the investor call following today's report, CEO Tim Cook admitted that "iPhone sales will decline in the [second] quarter," but he noted that the company doesn't expect them to fall as much as outside estimates have said.iPad sales continue to plummet, by 21% to 16.1 million. So far, it seems like the iPad Pro hasn't made much of a dent. Apple isn't releasing sales numbers for the Apple Watch, so it's hard to say anything meaningful about that one.That being said, Apple's numbers are still every bit as staggering as they've been for a while now, and we all knew the increase in iPhone sales would stall eventually. With as much cash stashed in tax havens as Apple has, there's really very little to worry about regarding Apple's continued existence, but stock traders see this differently - they're not interested in past results, they're only interested in growth. And right now, the iPhone is pretty much the one big pillar responsible for virtually all of Apple's growth, and if that one starts to stall, Wall Street folk will get nervous.

Death and taxes. You can't escape them. But corporations can and do.It's common knowledge by now that big multinational companies exploit the inconsistencies between national tax regimes to secure the lowest possible tax rate for their profits. This is legal and deeply frustrating. In the wake of a popular backlash against profit-shifting practices, the UK government has begun to take some remedial actions. At the end of last week, Google agreed to pay the UK treasurer £130 million ($185 million) in back taxes, covering the period since 2005, and to also pay higher taxes in the future. UK Chancellor George Osborne hailed it as a "major success." The numbers disagree.Obviously, Apple isn't the only one dodging taxes through shady deals. We haven't forgotten about you, Google.