Samsung Note 7 ...no

I have been thinking that sometime early in 2017 I might buy a new smartphone. I was thinking maybe will finally buy a Samsung Note. But, no, they have lost me.

It's that curved screen:
http://www.phonearena.com/news/Steepest-edge-curve-7000-series-alloy-dual-color-do-you-like-the-Note-7-design-story_id83888



The S-Pen on a flat screen makes sense. The curved edges are just a sales gimmick, bling. Distracting and totally useless.

A Samsung fanperson is trying to say that critics of the curved screen are "just flat wrong":
http://www.sammobile.com/2016/08/01/its-all-about-perspective-critics-of-the-curved-galaxy-note-7-are-just-flat-wrong/

...but the article does not present any justification at all to support why the edge is a good thing for the Note. Nothing at all.

Tags: general

Maru OS open sourced

Maru OS is Debian Linux on a smartphone:

http://maruos.com/

The good news is that the developer has decided to open source it.

It doesn't reinvent the wheel like Ubuntu Phone. It seems, this is two different operating systems running simultaneously, Android and Debian Linux.

So you can't have a Debian application running in the phone screen.

Actually, I think this is alright, in fact very good. A phone OS and a desktop OS are such different beasts, trying to dumb down the latter to work in a small touch screen, as Canonical, Microsoft and others have been doing, may not be the best way to go. Leave them separate.

Of course, there are equivalent apps for Android and Linux, so if you edit a .doc word processing file in Linux, there are apps in Android to also edit it.

What I would like to see in Maru OS is just how much sharing there is between Android and Debian Linux. Like clipboard for example. Or, send an SMS from Debian desktop.

Tags: general

New site barryk.org

For a very long time, I have been with Hostgator. My account has primary domain puppylinux.com, with addon domains bkhome.org, goosee.com, barryk.org.

I wanted to change the primary domain name, as I plan to give away puppylinux.com (and puppylinux.org), probably to Mick Amadio (01micko).

However, it is rather complicated to do, and I need to redesign my site layout drastically. So, I decided to start a new account with Hostgator.
This time, the primary domain is barryk.org

I created a .htaccess file to redirect bkhome.org to barryk.org, as the latter is now my preferred domain name.

puppylinux.com is still pointing to the old Hostgator site.

goosee.com seems to be in limbo right now. puppylinux.com, puppylinux.org and goosee.com are registered with domain registrar netregistry.com.au, and I have moved, or rather attempted to move, goosee.com to another registrar (omnis.com).

Had a lot of trouble with Netregistry, the EPP code, which is the authorisation code required to perform the transfer, turned out to be wrong, and they gave me another one.
Despite my domain being unlocked, they required me to submit an online application, which they took days to respond to, and then only when I phoned them.

Anyway, when I had the supposedly correct EPP code, the transfer to Omnis took place, with advice that it could take up to 5 days.

Read more...

NetSurf 3.4 will have Javascript

NetSurf is a very small open-source multi-platform web browser.

It has been under development for many years, and I have liked it, except that it lacks Javascript support. This is the one thing that made it unsuitable as the primary browser in Puppy Linux, or Quirky.

However, that may be about to change:
http://vincentsanders.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/i-am-not-number-i-am-free-man.html

Tags: general

2TB USB3 hard drive

I have a nifty little 1TB USB3 drive that I purchased, um, how long ago? Ah, January 2014:
http://bkhome.org/news/201401/new-1tb-usb3-hard-drive.html

Unfortunately, for sometime now it has been chock-full, also the drive on my laptop, I have been resorting to deleting stuff, which I don't like to do.

Decided it is time to invest in another external drive. I saw this for sale, 2TB USB3, AU$108 on sale:
http://www.harveynorman.com.au/samsung-m3-2tb-portable-hard-drive-black.html

Product PDF:
http://samsunghdd.seagate.com/

Works great!

Read more...

Windows 10 Continuum

Canonical called it "convergence" and have been beavering away for the last couple of years, reinventing the wheel.

Google and Apple don't seem to have embraced the concept, however Microsoft has. Their name for it is Continuum, and it could be what will cement Windows 10 as a major phone alternative.

Especially now that there is actual hardware, a dock for the new Lumia 950 phones:
http://www.slashgear.com/microsoft-display-dock-hands-on-continuum-could-be-huge-06408536/

However, it does seem to be severely restricted in the desktop UI side of things. Apparently, only one app can run at a time, and there are a very small number of compatible apps.

Google are getting Android apps to run in Chrome OS, which is also a work-in-progress. So That is something, not the convergence concept though.

Remix OS brings a true desktop experience to Android, see my previous post:
http://bkhome.org/news/201510/remix-mini-pc-at-trade-show.html

...true multitasking, the full desktop experience, running just about all Android apps.

But, Remix does not implement the convergence concept either, only potentially so. All we know from JIDE are hints that they are seriously thinking about it.

I notice that the Remix Mini PC will be shipping with Office (or so it seems), so MS is getting their foot in the door with Remix.
Probably a wise move from JIDE, to cooperate with MS.

2016 is going to be interesting!

Tags: general

Remix mini PC at trade show

Puppy Forum member don570 discovered this link.

Here is one of the founders of JIDE being interviewed, showing off the new Remix OS 2.0 and the mini-PC:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNAHH3EpO_w

They are expecting to ship to Kickstarter backers (that includes me) by end of this month.

Tags: general

Android M course has arrived

Rob Percival has announced that his new Android M developer course is ready:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/908213631/the-complete-android-m-developer-course-with-andro

I pledged for that, so intend to get stuck into it very soon.

JIDE, the guys developing Remix OS, and the Remix Mini PC, that I also pledged for, have posted some guidelines on creating Android apps that are RemixOS-friendly:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jidetech/remix-mini-the-worlds-first-true-android-pc/posts/1371897

Tags: general