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This story is being previewed exclusively on Apple News until Tuesday, September 22nd. Please check this page again at that time.To view this story in the Apple News app on your iOS 9 device, follow this link.This is the future Apple so desperately wants: total control.

Let's talk ad-blocking.With the arrival of iOS 9, ad-blocking is coming to mobile in a big way, and it's causing a lot of talk all over the web. It is highlighting the internal struggle some feel about the practice, but also the hypocrisy of some of its staunchest proponents. So far, it seems like the real 'bloodbath' isn't taking place where people thought it would be - namely, publishers - but among personalities. Read more on this exclusive OSNews article...

According to recent reports, some versions of Xcode used by developers in China have been compromised and are being used to inject tracking codes in iOS apps without developer knowledge. Unaware of the injection, those developers then released their compromised iOS apps to the App Store which were then later approved by Apple. At the time of writing this post, the compromised apps are still available in the App store (link is external). Any user who has installed and launched these compromised apps will be a victim of these tracking codes.This is a significant compromise of Apple's app store. Apple notoriously manually reviews all app submissions and, in comparison to Android stores, has been relatively malware-free. This is the most widespread and significant spread of malware in the history of the Apple app store, anywhere in the world.This thing is huge. Among the affected applications is WeChat, which is used by 500 million people and installed on probably every Chinese iPhone. Here's another article with more details, but it's from a security software peddler, so get your salt.

Interestingly, the entirety of Google's codebase - from search and maps to YouTube and Google Docs - resides in a monolithic source code repository available to and used by 95% of Google engineers, or about 25,000 users to be exact."Without being able to prove it," a Google engineering manager said, "I'd guess that this is probably the largest single repository in use anywhere in the world."All told, Google's services comprise 2 billion lines of code which, taken together, weigh in at 86 terabytes.Fascinating.

It's no secret that BlackBerry is developing its own Android-powered smartphone. Thanks to numerous renders, images and leaked specifications, we already have a pretty good idea as to what the phone might look like. In case you needed more proof, we've just obtained some new hands-on photos of the unannounced BlackBerry Venice, showing off the device's chassis, sliding keyboard and some software features.I still can't believe it looks like we're finally going to get the keyboard slider that we deserve. I'm almost too afraid posting about it will jinx it.

Interim OS is a radical new operating system with a focus on minimalism. It steals conceptually from Lisp machines (language-based kernel) and Plan 9 (everything is a file system). It boots to a JITting Lisp-like REPL and offers the programmer/user the system's resources as filesystems.

Today is iOS 9 release day - which means that most likely, most of you have already upgraded. The Ars review concludes:Last year we said that iOS 8 felt like the second half of the iOS 7 update, the one that completed the transition between iOS' skeuomorphic era and our current reality, where the lines between "mobile device" and "computer" blur a little more every day. iOS 9 takes that foundation and builds on top of it without radically altering things, much in the same way that iOS 6 built on top of the advancements in iOS 4 and iOS 5.It was a smaller release, and as a result, testing the final build of iOS 9 was frankly kind of a relief.

John Gruber, on Apple's incredible power over the web:As a side note, I think this is more or less what is happening, whether the web community likes it or not, because this largely seems to describe Safari/WebKit's approach to moving forward - and Safari, because of iOS in particular - effectively gives Apple veto power over new web technologies. Apple can't stop Google from adding new features to Chrome/Blink, but Apple can keep any such features from being something web developers can rely upon as being widely available. That implicit veto power is what drove this summer's "Safari is the New IE" drama.What could possibly go wrong. Meanwhile, John Gruber, on his site's about page:Web standards are important, and Daring Fireball adheres to them.OK.

Microsoft has confirmed that Windows 10 is being downloaded to computers whether or not users have opted in.An INQUIRER reader pointed out to us that, despite not having 'reserved' a copy of Windows 10, he had found that the ~BT folder, which has been the home of images of the new operating system since before rollout began, had appeared on his system. He had no plans to upgrade and had not put in a reservation request.I'm sure this is somehow my fault.

Why are there apps on the iOS that I can't delete even though I never use them? Why does Apple insist that I keep Tips and Stocks on my iPhone when I'd like nothing more than to delete them? For Cook the question seems a familiar one. "This is a more complex issue than it first appears," he says. "There are some apps that are linked to something else on the iPhone. If they were to be removed they might cause issues elsewhere on the phone. There are other apps that aren't like that. So over time, I think with the ones that aren't like that, we'll figure out a way [for you to remove them]. ... It's not that we want to suck up your real estate; we're not motivated to do that. We want you to be happy. So I recognize that some people want to do this, and it's something we're looking at."Great news for iOS users - it seems like soon we'll finally be able to remove all the crapware Apple's been stuffing your iPhone with.As for the other applications he's referring to, such as mail, the browser, and so on - don't expect any changes to how you cannot set your own browser or mail client as default. The reason is simple: there's going to be a whole lot of Google iPhones out there the day Apple does allow you to change default applications. And we wouldn't want consumers to use what they actually want to use, now would we?Perish the thought.

The truth is a little less exciting, with Google inviting manufacturers to participate in legally binding agreements that ensured Google search sat atop everything in exchange for access to the Play Store, but the end result isn't all that different. Microsoft could make its own phone without access to the Google Play Store, but that usually ends poorly for everyone involved. In order to have their apps and services installed on something running Google-powered Android, Microsoft needed to go the long way and offer compelling apps that users would want to install and use instead of the pre-loaded Google counterparts.You may not be aware of it, but Microsoft is surprisingly close to making this a reality.They are, indeed. There's a reason Microsoft's applications on Android are way, way better than those for Windows Phone or Windows 10: Microsoft Android is their plan B for when they do eventually end Windows Phone.

Despite being a devoted Microsoft and Windows fan since age five, my first four smartphones were the first four iPhones (1, 3G, 3GS, 4). I don't think I need to explain how amazing the first iPhone was compared with the competition at the time. However, after four generations of it I was bored. What was exciting me was what I was seeing coming out of Redmond in the form of Windows Phone 7.[...]Here I am almost four years and three handsets down the road and today I made the decision to leave the platform and return to iPhone. It's basically been death by 1,000 cuts...I went along with Windows Phone 7.x - heck, I imported an HTC HD7 from the US to The Netherlands on release day (it eventually took Microsoft like 18 months to launch in The Netherlands). I also went along with Windows Phone 8.And I, too, am done. Bitten too many times by Windows Phone's "just wait for the next version". No more.

Yesterday's New York Times carried a story entitled "Apple and other tech companies tangle with U.S. over data access". It's a vague headline that manages to obscure the real thrust of the story, which is that according to reporters at the Times, Apple has not been forced to backdoor their popular encrypted iMessage system. This flies in the face of some rumors to the contrary.While there's not much new information in here, people on Twitter seem to have some renewed interest in how iMessage works; whether Apple could backdoor it if they wanted to; and whether the courts could force them to. The answers to those questions are respectively: "very well", "absolutely", and "do I look like a national security lawyer?"As the article states, it all comes down to trust.

McMaster revealed that Cyanogen is working with Microsoft to deeply integrate Cortana into the next version of Cyanogen OS. This is key to catapulting Cyanogen into the mass market, he asserts: Cortana is currently available as an app on Android, but in order for it to make a real difference, it needs to be able to be integrated at the OS level so that its full potential can be leveraged.So, they're really pushing ahead with integrating Microsoft services into every part of Cyanogen OS. I wonder at what point peddling these Microsoft services is going to somehow make CyanogenMod (the other side of the Cyanogen coin) worse.In case you haven't figured it out by now: Cyanogen is aiming to get acquired. They're not in it to build a long-lasting company and deep ties with customers; they're in it to get acquired for a lot of money and bail. As a user, I wouldn't bet on this horse.

What's missing from the reactions is the obvious acknowledgment that Jobs was not only talking about using a stylus with an entirely different product - the 3.5-inch iPhone 1 - but he was referring to both styluses and screens that have been blown out of the water by newer technology.If you see someone bringing up Jobs' stylus remarks in relation to the iPad Pro, they blew it.

No argument here: Jony Ive has produced some of the best industrial design in the history of consumer products. He's done it by cutting out all the extraneous parts. By eliminating edges, by smoothing and streamlining.But what works beautifully for hardware does not work for software.iOS feels like it's following a trend called "flat" without really understanding what that means. The examples given in this article are telling - especially since there are enough examples of "flat" design that work just fine and do not have these problems; see Material Design, for instance, which, while flat, makes a lot of use of planes and depth and still makes it very clear what is clickable and what isn't (mostly).

The problem for Microsoft is everything is down the road. The promise of Universal apps? Coming soon. The promise of ported apps through Bridges from Android, iOS, Win32 and web apps? On the way. New exciting Windows Phone hardware? Just around the corner! A stable and mature OS that can compete with Android and iOS and even surpass them? It's almost here!I talked about this before, and this pattern is really, really frustrating.

It's been a long wait, but SailfishOS 2.0 has been released - only for early access users right now, but since everyone can be an early access user, that's a moot point. SailfishOS 2.0 overhaul the entire user interface to supposedly make it simpler. Another major change is under the hood - the operating system is now ready for different screen sizes, since the Jolla tablet can ship any moment now.You can simply swipe left or right between Home and Events, like in a carousel. The App Grid is quickly accessible from anywhere in the UI just by swiping over the bottom edge - you don't need to go to the Home screen if you want to open a new app.Events is now richer and smarter by comprising a weather widget with an option to display five-day weather forecast, a calendar widget, as well as grouped and enhanced notification handling. Now you are able to see and do more with your notifications directly in Events, whether they are from native apps or Android apps.We also added a lot of other enhancements like redesigned App covers for Gallery, Notes, and Camera apps, added many new animations, and made improvements for existing apps like Jolla Store, Calendar, Camera. Just to mention a few.The update is installing on my Jolla right now, so I don't have much to add for now. I'll most likely add the SailfishOS 2.0 phone experience to my Jolla tablet review.

Atari 8-bit fans have long hankered after a GUI similar to GEOS on the Commodore 64. Diamond GOS went some way to addressing this deficiency, and since then there have been several creditable attempts at implementing a GUI OS on the A8. Now there's another one in the pipeline: an as yet unnamed project which aims to bring a pre-emptive multi-tasking graphical operating system to the 8-bit Atari.Impressive.

Apple held its usual September event tonight, and it unveiled three major new products: a new Apple TV, the iPad Pro, and the iPhone 6S/6S Plus. The new Apple TV is effectively the old Apple TV, but with Siri, applications, and a funny-looking remote. It looks fun to use, but it's nothing revolutionary and most likely won't change the TV landscape as much as Apple wants it to.Apple also made a big fuss about gaming on the new Apple TV, but since applications cannot be larger than 200 MB, don't expect much from this. Then again, Apple showed off a 100% Wii Sports rip-off as the big new thing in gaming, so I'm betting on Apple still not really having a clue about gaming.The iPad Pro, on the other hand, is literally Surface. Like, there are no ifs and buts - it's literally an iPad Surface. It's got a 12.9" display, a crazy-fast processor and graphics chip, a foldable, Surface-like keyboard cover, and a stylus/pen for ink. It, of course, makes great use of the new Aero Snap and Windows 8.x multiwindow features introduced with iOS 9. The base model is fairly cheap, but much like the Surface, once you add the keyboard cover and pen, prices go up substantially.Speaking of the pen, Apple drapes it in all sorts of annoying Apple-isms, but it does actually look fairly advanced - closer to top-of-the-line Wacom stuff; this isn't the stylus that came with your Palm device. It'll be great for artists, but much like the Surface's pen, I just don't see a use for it any other application. Lastly, Apple unveiled the iPhone 6S and the 6S Plus, and it's got some really, really cool stuff. The Force Touch and Taptic engine stuff from Apple's latest trackpads and the Apple Watch is built right in, now dubbed 3D Touch (...eh), and it's used to add a number of new interactions into iOS on the 6S. You can gently press on, say, an e-mail, and it'll show you a quick preview, or press a bit harder and open it fully. This also works for application icons, where it'll open a menu with often-used actions for that application.Think of it as Quick Look for applications. It will be open to developers, so you can expect all kinds of cross-application functionality, which is really welcome on a mobile platforms so heavily focussed on apps-as-islands. I really like this new feature, and I can't wait to start using it (I'm buying the iPhone 6S early October).And, unimportant to most but I just want to mention it: it comes in an awesome new colour that I'm totally going for. And, as always, it'll have a faster processor, a better camera, and so on - all the usual things you can expect from a new flagship.

Dillon's visibility and personal passion for Sailfish has, at times, made him feel like the de facto face of the entire Sailfish project - eclipsing the other co-founders with his call-to-arms conviction and punkish demands for a more human technology, for software to have a heart, for developers to champion difference and care about consumers whose tastes are unlike the mainstream. Sailfish's small pond certainly rippled with the energy of such a vivid personality.So on one level it's a huge surprise to hear he's left Jolla, the company he quit former employer Nokia to help co-found all the way back in 2011.So, not only did Jolla split into a separate software and a separate hardware company (never a good sign), now its co-founder and frontman has left the, uh, ship as well.You don't need a lot of brain cells to figure this one out.

The subject of process management, supervision and init(8) for Unix-like systems is one plagued by a large degree of ahistoricity and "pop culture" explanations. This leads to a lot of confusion and misunderstanding surrounding feature sets and how one formulates the problems surrounding reliable process management on Unix in general, making it a ripe topic for demagogues of all persuasions.[...]The purpose of this article is to set the record straight on the history of attempts to create "modern" init systems, where we define "modern" somewhat broadly as anything that tries to improve the classical BSD and System V styles of initialization and service management.

Today The Information reports that Google is making plans to get a version of Google Play back into China and that it's willing to work within Chinese censorship law to do it. The company "will follow local laws and block apps that the government deems objectionable" in the interest of regaining control over its own operating system. Google also wants to help Chinese developers distribute their apps outside of China and help international developers sell their apps within China.Everything's for sale.

Welcome to Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces, a free online operating systems book! The book is centered around three conceptual pieces that are fundamental to operating systems: virtualization, concurrency, and persistence. In understanding the conceptual, you will also learn the practical, including how an operating system does things like schedule the CPU, manage memory, and store files persistently. Lots of fun stuff!

Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine hits theaters, iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, and on demand systems today, and it's already provoking a wide range of reviews and discussion. In March, our own Bryan Bishop called it an "unflinching look at the emotional shrapnel people took when they were part of Jobsâ life," and that focus sets it apart from the growing body of work that celebrates Jobs' accomplishments in business and technology while glossing over the depth of his character.I spoke with Gibney earlier this week about the movie, what he'd learned while making it, and the future of Apple.I've seen it. "Steve Jobs: The Man In The Machine" is amazing. What a beautiful testament to a brilliant, but flawed man. This documentary is anything but anti-Apple (as some claim). By painting this complete a picture of Jobs, it's as pro-Apple as it could possibly get - and it's glorious for it. When it hits upon Apple's best days - the original iMac, iBook, PowerMac G4, the Cube, the iMac G4 - I nearly lost it. That is the Apple I still love.I've never felt I understood him and Apple as much as I do now.

OOSMOS stands for Object-Oriented State Machine Operating System. It is a new type of operating system where the fundamental contextual unit is the object, not the thread as it is in traditional operating systems.Because there are no threads, there are no thread stacks, so OOSMOS is ideal for use in memory constrained environments where a traditional thread-based operating system is not a viable option.

ZTE is quietly becoming a force in the U.S. by selling good enough phones at low prices - smaller prepaid smartphones for $30, basic phones with QWERTY keyboards for about the same, and so on. The Chinese company's products are among the cheap phones of choice at three of the big four U.S. carriers. (Verizon doesn't carry them.) ZTE claimed about 8 percent of America's smartphone market in the second quarter of this year, says researcher IDC, up from 4.2 percent in the first quarter of 2014. That ranks the company fourth among smartphone makers overall, behind Apple, Samsung, and LG. "We came from nowhere, and now we are a solid force," says Lixin Cheng, head of ZTE's U.S. operations.For many people, their phone isn't a status symbol, or it's just something they don't care about at all - as long as it makes calls and pulls some light duty, they're happy. I really dislike how these phones and its users tend to be portrayed in the media - almost as if these people are stupid, silly, or dumb for not wanting the latest iPhone or Galaxy phone. Elitist nonsense.

For the past few years, we've been in a relatively healthy balance when it comes to our smartphones. Both Apple and Google provided us with relatively decent platforms that were pretty straightforward to use, provided us with interesting and useful functionality, and at mostly decent price points. In return, we accepted a certain amount of lock-in, a certain lack of control over our devices and the software platforms running on them. I felt comfortable with this trade-off, whether I was using an iPhone or an Android phone at the time.Recently, however, I've been feeling like this balance in iOS and Android is tipping - and not in the right direction. The users' interests have taken a decided backseat to corporate interests, and the user experiences of the two platforms in question have, consequently, suffered, and I see little in the future to counteract this development Read more on this exclusive OSNews article...

Like I said, it's Android week in the technology world right now, but I'm not going to write a new post for every Android phone being thrown onto the world stage to be forgotten in a week. Instead, I'm going to focus on a few that I think are particularly interesting, and I'm going to start with Sony. The company has unveiled its Xperia Z5 line and it has to be said - the Z5 Compact, the Z5, and the Z5 Premium are absolutely gorgeous.In terms of essential specs, the three Z5s are pretty similar. (The main differences are size, materials, and screen resolution.) Thereâs the same Snapdragon 810 64-bit processor powering each of them, with both the Z5 and Z5 Premium sporting 3GB of RAM while the smaller Compact gets 2GB. All three devices are dust-tight and waterproof with capless micro USB ports, offer up to 32GB of internal memory (expandable up to 200GB with microSD cards), and have enough battery to last for up two days' use, says Sony.The Z5 Premium is a monster of a phone - it has a 4K display, which equates to 3840x2160 pixels and a ppi of 806. Pure insanity. Sony claims all three phones - even the Premium - get 2 days of use on a single charge. They look fantastic, but for some reason, nobody seems to buy Sony smartphones.Moving on, Lenovo unveiled a bunch of smartphones, and I think one of them might be of interest to many of you.The Vibe P1 and P1m slot in underneath the S1 just slightly, and they're all about simple features and battery life. The Vibe P1 is an all-metal affair, with a 5.5-inch 1080p display, Snapdragon 615 processor, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, 13MP rear camera and an absolutely huge 5000 mAh battery. That battery enables reverse charging of other devices over USB, and sports quick charging capabilities.That's a positively huge battery, and should enable some major battery life.Lastly, there's a new company - lead by former Apple CEO John Sculley - who also unveiled two brand new Android smartphones. The company's called Obi, and their first two phones are the SF1 and SJ1.5. I'll be honest here - I want these phones' babies. They look fun, quirky, and different, and represent a welcome change from the boring, metallic, cold, hospital-esque stuff we get from other phone makers. They got decent specs, too.That being said, it's a startup - big name co-founder or no - and there's no information on availability and pricing yet, so for all I know, they're never going to be heard from again. Also, as with all the phones mentioned in this post, they're not running stock Android, so don't expect timely updates.Still, these are some interesting phones.

I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I'm actually a very tiny, tiny little bit 'excited' about Samsung's (...eh) new smartwatch, the Gear S2. It looks pretty decent, seems to have a better input method than laggy touch (Wear) or a finicky jog dial nobody uses (Apple Watch), and the software - that's Tizen, so an alternative operating system! Right? Right? - looks nice, and seems to work well too.The impressive things with the Gear S2 don't end with its new design: Samsung's actually figured out a really smart interaction model for smartwatches that I'm shocked no one else has done yet. There's the touchscreen, yes, just like most other smartwatches, and the Gear S2 has a couple buttons on its side for home and back. But its real trick is in the rotating bezel, which lets you quickly and easily scroll through lists, apps, watch faces, and whatever else you might be looking at on the screen. It's more predictable and intuitive than the Apple Watch's Digital Crown and is a joy to use.I can't believe that upon first inspection, this Gear S2 actually seems like a really well-designed and well-thought out product, considering we're dealing with Samsung here. This thing still isn't watch enough for my personal taste, but there's no denying that Samsung seems to have done a decent job here.I hope I get to play with one soon.

There's a technology conference going on - IFA - and there's lots and lots of Android-related news. First, a lot of Android Wear smartwatches - including the brand new Moto 360.If you were hoping for a radically different design from Motorola this year, you're barking up the wrong tree. As we saw in the leaks, Motorola has kept the imperfect circle design from the original Moto 360 and added lugs on the top and bottom instead of hiding the strap connectors inside the casing itself. This change makes it significantly easier to swap out the strap with whatever you want, but also makes more room in the casing for things like a beefier battery. The single button on the side of the watch has moved to the 2 o'clock position, making it significantly easier to reach for and use. Curiously, this button now has the Motorola M emblazoned across it.Other new Wear watches are the Huawei Watch and the Asus ZenWatch 2. There's really not much to say here - they all have the exact same software as the current (or now 'previous', I guess) crop of Wear devices, so if you weren't impressed then, you won't be impressed now.If you're looking for something different, I suggest you read the next item I'm about to post.

The best class I took in college was on the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. Until that point, I had avoided philosophy of language as simply being too esoteric and hermetic to be of use. David Pears, a prodigious yet modest and approachable figure visiting from Oxford, changed my mind. In large part because of Pears' instruction, Wittgenstein's philosophy has been directly relevant to my thinking about computer science, artificial intelligence, and cognitive science. When other scholars were thinking that language and thought could be reduced to a universal, logical language, Wittgenstein turned the matter to practical questions and raised incredibly inconvenient questions that gained traction in artificial intelligence in the 1970s, 40 years after he was working on them.Great article. I found this paragraph especially interesting:Here's one example. The French equivalents for here and there are ici and là respectively. But if I point to a pen and say, "The pen is here," the French equivalent is not "Le stylo est ici," but "Le stylo est là." In French, là is always used to refer to a specific place or position, while in English here or there can both work. This rule is so obscure I never learned it in French classes, but obviously all native speakers learn it because no one ever uses it differently. It could just as easily be the other way round, but it's not. The situation is not arbitrary, but the way in which language carves up the interaction between mind and world varies in such a way that French speakers recognize certain practices as right or wrong in a different way than English speakers do. This may seem a trivial point, until you have to program a computer to translate "I pointed to Paris on the map and said, 'She is here.' " into French - at which point it becomes a nightmare. (If you are a translator, on the other hand, this is great news.)Aside from the obvious fact that I can relate to the remark about translators, the author touches upon something that I benefit from every day. I always feel that being multilingual (just Dutch, English, German, some French, and a basic grasp of ancient Greek and Latin - relatively limited when compared to true multilinguals) makes it easier for me to express myself. Being able to use words, concepts, ideas, structures, and conventions from foreign languages and incorporate them into my Dutch - even if only in my inner monologue - allows me to describe objects, concepts, and situations in a more fine-grained, and therefore, more accurate manner (accurate to my perception, which does not mean "more correct" in more absolute terms).I appreciate how ridiculously pretentious this sounds, but I do firmly believe this is true: being able to understand, read, write, and speak multiple language makes me better at language.I'm no programmer - something I like to repeat as often as I can to make sure everyone knows where I'm coming from on the subject of programming - but I get the idea that programming is not very different in that regard. That is, being able to program in multiple programming languages will make you better at programming, and not just in the sense that you will be useful in more situations (you can find a job both as a Java and an Objective-C programmer, for instance), but also in the sense that knowledge and experience in programming language Abc will give you new and different insights into programming language Xyz, allowing you to use a certain language in more unconventional ways that people with knowledge of fewer languages might not.As much as language is an expression of culture, a programming language is an expression of how a computer works. Both contain within them invaluable knowledge that cannot be easily expressed in other languages - and as such, they are invaluable in preserving knowledge, both culturally and digitally.

Nextbit, a company founded by former Android engineers from Google, HTC, and others, has unveiled its first smartphone. The Robin has a pretty unique and fun design, but the major selling point - they claim - is that the phone intelligently manages its limited storage by offloading lesser-used or unused stuff (content and applications) to the internet. An interesting strategy in the current climate of privacy wariness - especially since these more boutique Android phones tend to be for technologically inclined users, who will be more aware of these issues. One also has to wonder how well this will work and how reliable it'll be, considering the company's young age.As for specifications:Speaking of hardware, the Robin is a uniquely designed mid-range Android phone. Nextbit tapped former HTC designer Scott Croyle as its head of design in 2014, and set out to make a phone that stands out among the sea of similar looking phones. The result is a device that's starkly rectangular, but with circular details throughout. The Robin's all-plastic chassis houses a 5.2-inch, 1080p display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor, 3GB of RAM, a 2,680mAh battery, and 13-megapixel camera. Unique additions include a USB Type-C charging port and fingerprint scanner embedded into the side-mounted power button. The Robin is completely carrier and bootloader unlocked and is compatible with AT&T and T-Mobile LTE.Decidedly midrange for a phone that's on Kickstarter right now and will (supposedly) ship in January.

The web and tech journalists were all afire yesterday. A major new innovation? A brand new software release? Nope - Google has a new logo. Yeah. That's the hard-hitting tech news deserving of totally unbiased and very unpredictable hot takes.There was actually real Google news too - the company made some changes to how search is displayed on mobile.With mobile devices in mind, we've also made some changes to our search results page to help you more easily find what you need and dive into diverse content such as images, videos, news stories and more - by simply swiping and tapping.

Microsoft, Google, Mozilla, Cisco, Intel, Netflix, and Amazon today launched a new consortium, the Alliance for Open Media. The group plans to develop next-generation media formats - including audio and still images, but with video as the top priority - and deliver them as royalty-free open source, suitable for both commercial and noncommercial content.The problem is that the supposed next-generation codec, HVEC, is going to be a lot more expensive, whereas other initiatives, such as Google's VP9/VP10, would surely face patent trolling from the other major players. By coming together like this, all these players can have a say, without fear of them suing each other. That being said, smaller players will still want to sue, but at least the united front should make that a little harder.And, unsurprisingly, one major player is not part of this new initiative. I guess they didn't like the open and royalty-free part.

The Genode project announced the version 15.08 of their OS framework. The most prominent topics of the current release are the use of Genode as day-to-day operating system by their developers and the added ability to run Genode-based systems on top of the Muen separation kernel.Where monolithic kernel architectures represent one extreme with respect to kernel complexity, separation kernels mark the opposite end. The code complexity of monolithic OS kernels such as Linux is usually counted in terms of millions of lines of code. In stark contrast, modern microkernels such as NOVA and seL4 are comprised of only ten thousand lines of code. Separation kernels go even a step further by reducing the code complexity to only a few thousand lines of code. How is that possible? The answer lies in the scope of functionality addressed by the different types of kernels. The high complexity of monolithic kernels stems from the fact that all major OS functionalities are considered as being in the scope of the kernel. In particular, device drivers and protocol stacks account for most of the code in such kernels. Microkernels disregard such functionalities from the scope of the kernel by moving them to user-level components. The kernel solely retains the functionality that is fundamentally needed to enable those components to work and collaborate. In order to accommodate a wide range of workloads, microkernels typically provide interfaces to user land that enable the dynamic management of low-level resources such as memory, devices, and processing time. Genode's designated role is to supplement microkernels with a scalable and secure user-level OS architecture. In contrast to microkernels, separation kernels disregard dynamic resource management from their scope. All physical resources are statically assigned to a fixed set of partitions at system-integration time and remain unchanged over the lifetime of the system. The flexibility of microkernels is traded for the benefit of further complexity reduction. Their low complexity of just a few thousand lines of code make separation kernels appealing for high-assurance computing. On the other hand, their static nature imposes limitations on their application areas.Muen as a representative of separation kernels is special in two ways. First, whereas most separation kernels are proprietary software solutions, Muen is an open-source project. Second, the kernel is implemented in the safe SPARK programming language, which is able to formally verify the absence of implementation bugs such as buffer overflows, integer-range violations, and exceptions. Thanks to the close collaboration between the Muen developers and the Genode community, the assurance of the Muen separation kernel can now be combined with the rich component infrastructure provided by Genode. From Genode's perspective, Muen is another architecture for their custom base-hw kernel. In fact, with Genode on Muen, a microkernel-based system is running within the static boundaries of one Muen partition. This way, the component isolation enforced by the base-hw kernel and the static isolation boundaries enforced by Muen form two lines of defense for protecting security-critical system functions from untrusted code sandboxed within a Genode subsystem.The second major theme of the current release is the use of Genode as the day-to-day operating system by its developers. Since the beginning of June, one of the core developers is exclusively working with a Genode/NOVA-based system. The key element is VirtualBox with its powerful guest-host integration features. It allows for an evolutionary transition from Linux-centric work flows to the use of native Genode applications. Network connectivity is provided by the Intel wireless stack ported from the Linux kernel. File-system access is based on NetBSD's rump kernels. For using command-line based GNU software directly on Genode, the Noux runtime environment comes in handy. The daily use of Genode as general-purpose OS motivated many recent developments, ranging from the management of kernel memory in NOVA, over new system monitoring facilities, SMP guest support in VirtualBox, to user-facing improvements of the GUI stack. These and many more topics are covered by the comprehensive release documentation.

This new release - one of the final 1.x released before 2.0 and the tablet hit, I suppose - integrates a whole bunch of options and settings related to the Android application support into the Sailfish settings applications, such as stopping/restarting Alien Dalvik, blocking Android applications from accessing your Sailfish contacts, allowing Android applications to keep running properly in the background, and so on.There's more, so be sure to update.

I have been using Windows 10 off and on since October of 2014, and as the operating system on my main computer since January 22nd of this year. I honestly could not see me moving back to an older version ever. The improvements to Windows 10 are both dramatic and subtle, and the improvements keep occurring even this shortly after launch. Better for the desktop, better for the tablet, and a platform than runs on practically any computer system. Windows 10 is here, and Microsoft has made a bold statement with it. It is the return of the old, plus the addition of the new, all in a package that works very well on a huge variety of devices.Just be sure to ignore all the crappy Metro applications, and you'll be fine with Windows 10.

That's right: beginning today, a select set of Android Wear smartwatches (and all future watches) will work with the iPhone. The app should be rolling out worldwide soon. Itâs been a long time coming - and it means that Google will be challenging the Apple Watch on its home turf. Those Android Wear watches will be both cheaper and more varied than the Apple Watch - just like Android itself.Despite Google's claims to the contrary, though, older Wear devices seem to work just fine - reports are coming in for the Moto 360 and LG G Watch also working with the iPhone application just fine.

Some very smart people I've been talking to suggest that, by building a platform, Apple is generating leverage that it can use to great effect in these negotiations. A mid-market breakout box offering is one thing, but a huge, rumbling platform with an upward trajectory of living-room dominating apps and third-party content is another beast. If, obviously if, Apple is successful with the Apple TV, it could be in a position to dominate content in a way that no other 'smart' TV platform has before it.If Apple did indeed 'delay' the Apple TV from being released at WWDC, then it probably had a reason. And, if my sources are correct, that reason could well be polish, polish, polish. The experience of using it is said to blow away the types of junky smart TV interfaces we've had to deal with so far. This is the first real Apple TV product.If you see another annoying settopbox, they blew it.

This hit the news yesterday.Microsoft released Windows 10 four weeks ago today, and now the company is providing a fresh update on its upgrade figures. 14 million machines had been upgraded to Windows 10 within 24 hours of the operating system release last month, and that figure has now risen to more than 75 million in just four weeks.As somebody who uses Windows every day, and who upgraded to Windows 10 a few weeks before it was released, let me make a statement about all the positive Windows 10 reviews that not everyone is going to like. There are only two reasons Windows 10 is getting positive reviews. First, because it's free. This one's a given. Second, and more importantly: Windows 10 is getting positive reviews because none of the reviewers have forced themselves to use nothing but Metro applications.Here's the cold and harsh truth as I see it: despite all the promises, Metro applications are still complete and utter garbage. Let me explain why. Read more on this exclusive OSNews article...

While Google remains committed to industry-wide adoption of HTTPS, there isn't always full compliance on third party ad networks and custom creative code served via our systems. To ensure ads continue to serve on iOS9 devices for developers transitioning to HTTPS, the recommended short term fix is to add an exception that allows HTTP requests to succeed and non-secure content to load successfully.Confirmed: Google wants me to switch to iOS.Disgusting.

Jordan Hubbard spoke recently at the Bay Area FreeBSD Users Group to discuss NextBSD, a "spork" of FreeBSD. He "covers why mach ports are extremely useful in some cases and no UNIX IPC primitive is an adequate substitute." There's a video of the BAFUG talk and copies of the original slide deck that goes into some detail about NextBSD.

This year's Galaxy Note 5 is an outstanding device - combining power with grace, and utility with handsome looks - but it also has a pretty major design flaw. The phone's stylus can be inserted into its silo in both orientations, which is a change from previous S Pen designs, and one of those orientations can result in permanent damage to the Note's functionality. If you are unfortunate enough to slide your S Pen in the wrong way, you'll have a hard time unjamming it from the slot (though eventually you should be able to pry it away), but more importantly, you might disable the Note's stylus detection feature. It's a big problem that can result from a very small mistake. Samsung has now issued a response, and well, the answer is that you should read and adhere to the manual.Grab the pitchforks everyone, we got ourselves 'nother -gate!I can't believe they shipped this thing with this design flaw, especially since it's so easy to fix: just make the 'wrong' end of the stylus a little bit wider so you can't stick it in the wrong way et voilà, problem fixed.Samsung's response is silly. They should've said "we're replacing all Note 5 styluses with a newer model that can't be inserted the wrong way around, and all damaged devices will be replaced free of charge".And done.

Today the Contiki team announced the release of Contiki 3.0, the latest version of the open source IoT operating system! The 3.0 release is a huge step up from the 2.x branch and brings support for new and exciting hardware, a set of new network protocols, a bunch of improvements in the low-power mesh networking protocols, along with a large number of general stability improvements.

This release of Plasma brings many nice touches for our users such as much improved high DPI support, KRunner auto-completion and many new beautiful Breeze icons. It also lays the ground for the future with a tech preview of Wayland session available. We're shipping a few new components such as an Audio Volume Plasma Widget, monitor calibration tool and the User Manager tool comes out beta.There's a video too.

Over the last few days I've been testing an experimental content blocker called Crystal, which promises to speed up browsing on iOS. I've been particularly impressed by the results and taken aback by how much removing trackers, ads and other scripts makes a difference over a cellular connection.The content blocker is a major selling point for iOS, in my opinion. On Android, this will always be a hack - third party tools, root, that sort of thing - and never properly integrated into the operating system, even though it should be.Good move by Apple, and together with a lack of a decent Android headset out right now, it's pushing me towards an iPhone when my contract renewal is up in October.

The level of Windows 10 paranoia reached new heights this week when reports suggested that Microsoft would wipe torrents and pirated software from people's hard drives. Nonsense, of course, but all the recent privacy concerns were enough to have the operating system banned from several torrent trackers.Another creepy story here. Windows 10's privacy is turning into a headache for Microsoft. It won't be long now until prime time and daytime news shows start picking this stuff up, and blow it out of proportion - deserved or no.

Ever since I wrote on Thursday about the Ashley Madison hack and resulting reactions and consequences, I've heard from dozens of people who used the site. They offer a remarkably wide range of reasons for having done so. I'm posting below one email I received that I find particularly illuminating, which I very lightly edited to correct a few obvious typographical errors.It gets even worse than this email. There are gay men and women in countries where being gay is punishable by death, who were using this site to meet other gay men and women, in secret. This hack will out them, possibly leading to their death.This hack and spreading of private information is just as bad as any other, similar hacks. Despicable as it is, cheating is not a crime, and even if it were, do we really want to live in a world with mob justice? And yes, the parent company in this particular case isn't exactly of clear conscience, but that's no reason to throw its users under the bus - or have them murdered by barbaric, mediaeval governments.I know a lot of people like the world to be black and white, because it's simple, easy to understand, and doesn't strain the brain. Sadly for them, that's not how the world works.

What went unannounced was that most of the original team that built Now had departed, many of them just before I/O, according to multiple sources. Some had grown frustrated that the product, born within Android, was shuttered into search inside of Google, they said. And Sundar Pichai, Google's SVP and incoming CEO, did not prioritize the product as much as Page.The exits reveal the hiccups Google has incubating new products that reach across multiple units of the tech giant. They also expose some key traits of Pichai's leadership style - and some of the many hurdles he has ahead as he marshals Googleâs core business.