10/05, 11:25pm
Palm spurs open-source apps, web downloads
Palm at a special event tonight staked out its differences with Apple by making key changes to its developer program. The smartphone developer is one of the first after Google to foster open development and said it will dismiss its usual $99 app submission fee for any developer whose webOS apps are open-source. Back end data on app downloads and other sales info will also be available to all developers on request.
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04/27, 6:50pm
Apple sued over DMCA test
Apple is in the middle of a new lawsuit that could test the limits of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The lawsuit was filed jointly by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and attorneys representing OdioWorks, the company that runs Bluwiki, a technology forum website that hosted iPodhash, which discussed use of open-source iPod technology. The lawsuit comes in response to Apple's demands that the iPodhash forum be closed because it violated the DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions.
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12/01, 11:25pm
OXtender beta launched
Open-Xchange is now previewing an iSync connector for its open-source groupware suite, the OXtender for Mac OS X. The beta software allows Mac users to access Open-Xchange servers and groupware e-mail, appointments, documents, contacts and tasks through standard Mac OS X applications like Mail, iCal and Address Book. Using OXtender, groupware data can be accessed and edited within OS X applications, despite the actual data being on a central server and available to users on multiple platforms.
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09/02, 1:10am
Google Chrome browser
Google this weekend accidentaly leaked details -- via an online comic book -- on its upcoming cross-platform open-source browser: Google Chrome -- which it claims will deliver a streamlined and improved interface along with performance improvements and security enhancements; the new browser is based on both Apple's Webkit, the core of the Safari browser, and Firefox, the rapidly growing alternative browser, but will square off against Microsoft's Internet Explorer, which dominates the internet, but continues to play catch up with security flaws and compatibility. The beta version of Google Chrome, only for for PCs initially, is expected to ship on Tuesday in more than 100 countries, while Mac and Linux versions are in development.
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08/05, 1:40pm
UNIX GUI updated
Code by Kevin has announced PortAuthority 2.6, an update to its graphical user-interface software for the MacPorts command-line tool for UNIX. MacPorts is an open-source community project that uses the Mac OS X command line, X-11 and Aqua software to bring UNIX to everyday users -- by providing a GUI for users seeking a simple interface over the command line complexity of MacPorts. Utilizing an approach featuring windows, menus and icons, PortAuthority works inside the MacPorts infrastructure, allowing users to update, install and search for specific MacPorts programs.
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06/26, 9:15am
OpenOSX Grass 6.3.0
Coinciding with its seventh birthday, OpenOSX this week released its latest version of OpenOSX Grass 6.3.0. OpenOSX Grass is based on the longstanding open-source GRASS project (Geographic Resources Analysis Support System), a geographical information system that combines 'raster, vector and geo-spacial processing engines into a unified software suite... allowing for the processing of satellite and aerial imagery into presentation graphics and maps'.
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05/10, 7:40pm
Google offers Visigami
Google's Mac Team has released Visigami, an image search application and screen-saver. The open-source application, available under Apache license, can search from three different image sources, including Google Images, Picasa, and Flickr. From within the application, users can specify any image search query and images matching the search will start animating on the screen. According to the documentation, there are multiple ways of animating the images: fan, carousel, and grid as well as a few different camera views: fixed, autopan, and mouse pan. The screen-saver uses the same settings that were setup by the application, but the team says it is easier to tweak the settings in the application than to run the screen-saver. In addition, users also have the ability to use sliders to adjust settings such as display speed and zoom.
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05/09, 6:40pm
OpenOffice.org 3.0 beta
The OpenOffice.org Community this week released a public beta release of OpenOffice.org 3.0, the open-source productivity suite for Mac OS X as well as Windows and Linux. The beta release will be the first to run on Mac OS X without X11, but is primarily designed to allow a broad user base to test and evaluate the next major version of OpenOffice.org: it is not recommended for production use, according to notes on the project. Version 3.0b brings a new "Start Centre", fresh-looking icons, and a new zoom control in the status bar. Updated spreadsheet features include improved calculations with a new solver component; support for spreadsheet collaboration through workbook sharing; and an increase to 1024 columns per sheet.
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04/29, 11:55pm
Pooch 1.7.6 uses Open MPI
Dauger Research has released version 1.7.6 of Pooch (Parallel OperatiOn and Control Heuristic application) and Pooch Pro clustering software. The clustering technology now taps Open MPI, an open-source MPI implementation found Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" and formed through a partnership between academia, research, and the industry. Pooch merges a modern graphical user interface with supercomputer-compatible parallel computing. Version 1.7.6 connects to Open MPI built into Leopard via a pair of software modules, enabling Pooch to communicate with Open MPI so its daemons can launch the MPI application. Pooch can then identify and track Open MPI's execution, which is only available in the latest Mac OS X 10.5; it is the seventh MPI implementation Pooch supports.
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02/20, 5:25pm
HandBrake 0.9.2
A new version of the DVD ripping tool, HandBrake v0.9.2, has been released. HandBrake is open-source utility that converts DVDs into the MPEG-4 format. The new release incorporates many major and exciting changes—including full support for the AppleTV Take 2 and the latest iPhone/iPod Touch firmware. This release is only compatible with Mac OS X Leopard 10.5. Also included is support for Dolby Digital 5.1 (AC3) sound in MP4 files, providing a better DVD experience on the AppleTV and in Perian. Other new features include multi-track audio support for Apple devices and iPhone-compatible anamorphic video at its full size.
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01/25, 11:30am
Apple circumvents DTrace
Some open source developers are upset with Apple for "undermining" a key piece of open source software called DTrace in Mac OS X. Apple's introduction of a feature that allows programs like iTunes to disable tracing as well as other debugging tools is causing serious problems for open source developers, effectively rendering useless other parts of DTrace in unanticipated ways -- such as causing unrelated probes to fail while anti-tracing flags are running.
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