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Ballmer Joins List of Android Skeptics, Questions Google's Strategy

Paul Lilly — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:38:24 -0600

Google's open-source Android platform may not have revolutionized the mobile industry just yet, but it has spurred some interesting comments among top level execs. Two weeks ago, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse said that the current iteration of Android isn't "good enough to put the Sprint brand name on it," and taking it a step further, Microsoft's Steve Ballmer says he sees the move as being finanically unsound for Google.

"They can hire smart guys, hire a lot of people, blah dee blah dee blah, but you know they start out way behind, in a certain sense," Ballmer said while speaking at Telstra's annual investment day.

Ballmer went on to say that he doesn't understand Google's strategy, criticizing a product launch launch "that has no revenue model." But the potshots didn't end there. Ballmer further indicated that "Google doesn't exactly bubble to the top of the list of competitors we've got going in mobile." Oh snap!

Is Ballmer underestimating the potential of Google's Android platform? Hit the jump and give us your thoughts.

Top Freeware Tools to Tweak Your PC!

David Murphy — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 13:30:00 -0500

There's a lot of stuff that goes on underneath the hood of your operating system. For the majority of you that are running a Windows OS, trying to figure out how all the bits and pieces work together is like popping the hood and wondering how you can make your car run faster. But you don't have to be a guru just to make the most out of your everyday computing experience. A number of developers have created programs to ease, and even automate, the innermost workings of Windows.

Click the jump to check out the four (free) programs we've found that will let you take ultimate control over your operating system!

As Promised, Google Releases Android Code as Open Source for Tinkering

Andy Salisbury — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 14:27:07 -0500

Coders, start your engines. The long awaited release of the Android source code has come to an end, thanks to the Android Open Source Project. The announcement, which was made just yesterday, hopes to potentially influence the future of mobile devices as a whole. Pretty ambitious!

“Even if you're not planning to ship a mobile device any time soon, Android has a lot to offer,” writes Dave Bort (are they out of license plates in the gift shop?) on Androiod’s blog, “Interested in working on a speech-recognition library? Looking to do some research on virtual machines? Need an out-of-the-box embedded Linux solution? All of these pieces are available, right now, as part of the Android Open Source Project, along with graphics libraries, media codecs, and some of the best development tools I've ever worked with.” He continues to encourage anyone with a great idea for a new feature to simply add it. Given the nature of the open source project, anyone can influence Android.

Some big ups have to go out to Google on this one, making Andrioid perhaps one of the easiest development tools to acquire. Considering it’s free to license and now the entire source code is available to anyone that wants it, perhaps their dream of world domination is only a few developers away.

Beyond Ultramon: Free Software Solutions for Multiple Monitors

Alex Castle — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 09:30:00 -0500

With most modern graphics cards offering two monitor connections, and LCD displays getting cheaper and cheaper, dual-monitor setups are moving out of the realm of the computer elite and into the mainstream.

However, Windows’ built-in multi-monitor support is a little lacking. You get some extra screen space, sure, but that’s about it. If you want any more out of your two screens, you need dual-monitor software. For years, UltraMon has been the app-of-choice for enhancing your multi-monitor experience, but is it all the software that’s out there? It’s not, and in this article, we’ll explore the free alternatives to UltraMon, and see how they measure up.

The Five Free Adventure Games You Should be Playing Right Now

David Murphy — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 09:00:00 -0500

Get your fedora hat, gas up your Weird Edsel, and practice avoiding all sorts of untimely deaths, because we're about to take you on a whirlwind tour of some of the most fun freeware adventure games you can find. It feels like there's never a shortage of freeware adventure titles on the ol' Internet. But it's definitely a little tricker to dial down and find the games that are worth playing--especially in the adventure genre, where the first three to five minutes of gameplay can greatly affect your interest in going through the rest of a game's storyline.

We've hand-picked five adventure games that you need to slap on to your hard drive this instant. Check out our comprehensive list, including details and screenshots, after the jump!

Open Office 3.0 Launch Crashes Website

Paul Lilly — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 09:53:23 -0500

The open source productivity suite Open Office 3.0 moved from beta form into a final release on Monday but was ill prepared for the demand that would follow. Enough users flocked to OpenOffice.org to crash the website, and two days later the site still remains semi-operational. The main page - the only one that's functioning - is adorned with several download links and the following message:

"Apologies - our website is struggling to cope with the unprecedented demand for the new release 3.0 of OpenOffice.org. The technical teams are trying to come up with a solution. Thank you for your patience."

The free alternative (retail version runs $70 and includes technical support and intellectual property indemnification) to Microsoft's Office suite is now more compatible with Office, including letting users immediately read documents saved in the .docx, .xlsx, or .pptx formats.

Have you kicked the tires on Open Office 3.0 yet? Hit the jump and give us your impression.

How To: Control a PC and Mac with One Keyboard and Mouse

Alex Castle — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:00:17 -0500

We at Maximum PC remember a time, long ago, when having a dual-monitor setup was enough to establish some pretty serious nerd cred. These days, however, everyone and their grandma are playing World of Warcraft and checking their email at the same time on their two screens. So what’s a guy got to do to stand out from the pack? Here’s one idea: run two computers in tandem.

Synergy is a free, open source program that allows you two control two or more computers with a single keyboard and mouse. The linked computers behave as though they were simply different monitors in a traditional multi-monitor, single-computer setup. That is to say, if you drag the mouse off the left side of the right monitor, it appears on the left monitor, directing all keystrokes to that box. More impressively, Synergy synchronizes the two computers’ clipboards and even their screensavers.

Linux Updates – New Kernel and New Wallpapers!

Justin Kerr — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 14:57:54 -0500

Linus Tovalds the proverbial godfather of Linux announced the official release of a new kernel on Friday bringing it up to version 2.6.27. The new version adds both ath9k wireless drivers from Atheros, and a new gspca driver which will drastically increase the number of webcams supported by the OS out of box. Some of the changes such as “function tracing framework” and “memory-mapped IO’s” are mostly for developers, but this isn’t all that was included. The performance improvements to the Ext4 file system are rumored to be substantial and a new file system called UBIFS was implemented for flash storage devices. Perhaps the most significant change however from 2.6.26 (only 3 months ago) was in the scalability of the OS. Support for up to 4096 processors now works out of box and I for one would like to try out the system they were testing this feature with. A full log of the changes has been released and you can read either the translated or developer editions for more information. Oh and did we mention that Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) received some pretty impressive looking new wallpapers?

Hit the jump to check them out for yourself.