Toorox 01.2010 Goes 64-bit

Jörn Lindau announced yesterday (December 6th) the new and improved Toorox 01.2010 Gentoo-based distribution, bringing the first 64-bit version of the Toorox operating system. Toorox 01.2010 comes with bleeding-edge packages, such as Linux kernel 2.6.32 and KDE Software Compilation 4.3.4. The installer was updated to create a separate partition for /home, and the boot loader can now be installed on a floppy disk or a single partition.

"With the beginning of this new year it's time for a new release. Many people asked me whether there is a 64-bit version, too? Now I can say: Yes, it is! [...] I would like to thank Johannes for the second download-mirror!" – Jörn Lindau said in the official release announcement.

Moreover, there is now support for mobile UMTS connections, powered by the umtsmon application located under Systemconfig -> Mobile Broadband. Necessary packages to support pptp-vpn connections were installed and they can be configured via the Networkmanager and the NetworkManager Applet (nm-applet). KFTPgrabber has been replaced by the GTK-based gFTP application, as the default FTP client; and the Mixxx audio mixer utility has been added (available under Starter -> Party-DJ).

Highlights of Toorox 01.2010:

· Support for 64-bit architecture;
· Linux kernel 2.6.32-gentoo;
· KDE SC 4.3.4;
· Installer improvements;
· Support for UMTS connections;
· Support for pptp-vpn connections;
· gFTP replaces KFTPgrabber, as the main FTP client;
· Added Mixxx, audio mixer tool (digital DJ system).

About Toorox:

Toorox is a Genoo-based Linux Live DVD, thus it can run without touching existing partitions (users still have the option to install it permanently). Toorox can be used for tasks like data backup or secure Internet browsing and also provides Linux newcomers with an intuitive look and feel. Toorox is available for both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures.

Download Toorox 01.2010 right now from Softpedia.

Apple Encourages iPhone Devs to Push iTunes Links to Customers

Using the News and Announcements section for iPhone devs, Apple has confirmed that developers can provide users of an application with an easy way to access other apps directly from their website or marketing campaigns. Devs can create an iTunes link and have customers check out a single app, or their portfolio’s entire collection of apps.

“Drive Customers Directly to Your App on the App Store with iTunes Links,” sounds Apple’s latest update to the iPhone Dev Center’s “News and Announcements” section for iPhone devs. “With iTunes links you can provide your customers with an easy way to access your apps on the App Store directly from your website or marketing campaigns,” Apple reveals to those working with its Software Development Kit.

“Creating an iTunes link is simple and can be made to direct customers to either a single app, all your apps, or to a specific app with your company name specified,” the Mac maker continues to explain. Apple also offers some instructions on how to build their links.

To send customers to a specific application:
http://itunes.com/apps/appname.
To send customers to a list of apps you have on the App Store:
http://itunes.com/apps/developername.
To send customers to a specific app with your company name included in the URL:
http://itunes.com/apps/developername/appname.

Apple also informs developers that, elsewhere on its website, additional instructions for creating easy-to-read links to the App Store for their applications and company can be found. “Be sure to test your URLs before using them in any marketing or other public materials. If there are naming conflicts, continue using the standard itunes.apple.com URLs, which contain a unique numerical identifier within the URL,” Apple says.

A few days back, Apple used the iPhone Dev Center news section to announce the addition of new App Status Indicators to help track binaries submitted in iTunes Connect. These new statuses allegedly give developers a more precise indication of the state of their app when using Application Loader to submit their binary.

Ubuntu Manual Will Be Available with Ubuntu 10.04

Everyone was waiting for this, so... we are proud to announce that the upcoming release of the popular Ubuntu operating system, due for launch in late April this year, will come with a comprehensive manual! The manual is created as we speak and it will be ready to accompany the final release of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. The Ubuntu manual will be designed for beginners in Linux and Ubuntu (of course) and it will contain essential how-tos, guides, basic information about Linux and its components, and everything one needs to know after installing Ubuntu.

"As a beginner user once upon a time, I found myself struggling to find useful and easy to understand documentation in an accessible location. The Official Ubuntu Book is great, but it is expensive. The Pocket Guide by Keir Thomas is informative, but doesn't delve into enough detail in some areas, and is now out of date (written for 8.04/8.10). The Community Docs are excellent, but are not structured and do not follow a consistent writing style. The Ubuntu Help pages inside the Operating System are the best option for newcomers, but are often underused and lack screenshots." – the Ubuntu Manual Team said.


The Ubuntu manual is distributed as a PDF file and it will be revised every 6 months. The manual will be well written (it appears that only in English, but no one stops you to translate it), with a professional appearance and very easy to follow, even by the users that just heard about Linux or Ubuntu. And it is created and maintained by the Ubuntu community!

At the moment, Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) is in an alpha state, with just one release out. The second alpha release is expected next Thursday, January 14th.

We remind everyone that Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) will be a quality and stable release. Canonical plans to make Ubuntu 10.04 LTS a bug-free operating system, with lots of quality improvements to the user interface, installation & boot experience and support for the latest hardware components. Another important goal for the Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) release will be to improve the startup speed to about or less than 10 seconds!

The Lucid Lynx will be the 12th release of the Ubuntu operating system, and the third LTS (Long Term Support) release, supported for 5 years on the server and 3 years on the desktop. Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) will ship on April 29th, 2010.

About Ubuntu:

Ubuntu is a Linux distribution for your desktop or server, with a fast and easy install, regular releases, a tight selection of excellent packages installed by default, every other package you can imagine available from the network, and professional technical support from Canonical Ltd and hundreds of other companies around the world.

AMD Launches Mobility Radeon HD 5000 Series

Sunnyvale, California-based Advanced Micro Devices, one of the world's largest manufacturers of computer processors and graphics processors, announced today the debut of its new line of ATI Mobility Radeon GPUs, bringing DirectX 11 support to mobile users. The chip maker revealed an entire lineup of new mobile GPUs, including the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5800, HD 5700, HD 5600 and ATI Mobility 5400 series. According to the chip maker, these new GPUs will be demonstrated during this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, which has kicked off today.

“Six months ago AMD claimed the title of undisputed technology leader in desktop graphics, and now we also offer powerful mobile graphics processors for notebooks to go with our market leadership in that segment,” said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager, Products Group, AMD. “Once again, AMD changes the game both in terms of performance and experience. AMD innovations now give notebook users full DirectX 11 support, eye-opening ATI Eyefinity technology, superb HD multimedia capabilities, and ATI Stream technology designed to help optimize Windows 7 notebook performance.”

The company's next-generation of mobile GPUs has been designed on TSMC's 40nm manufacturing process and will enable customers to add support for Microsoft's DirectX 11 and OpenCL. In addition, as their desktop counterparts, these GPUs add support for the ATI Eyefinity technology, as well as ATI Stream technology. The new GPUs will be part of the chip maker's upcoming 'Danube' mainstream and 'Nile' ultrathin notebook platforms, scheduled for release in the first half of 2010.

The launch of AMD's new GPUs will spawn a number of new notebook designs, coming from various vendors that will want to provide their customers with the features that have been made available in this next-generation of ATI Mobility Radeon graphics processing units. According to the company, the new GPUs should be on show, at CES 2010.

NVIDIA Offers Sneak Peak at 'Fermi' GeForce GF100

After announcing its new 3D Vision Surround technology, Santa Clara, California-based NVIDIA has decided to provide us with a glimpse of its much-anticipated, next-generation GeForce card, the one that is based on the Fermi architecture that was revealed last year. The graphics chip maker demoed what is currently known as GeForce GF100 or Fermi, the card that is expected to provide users with support for a number of new technologies, including DirectX 11 graphics, a feature that is available with ATI's latest Radeon GPUs.

Intended more as a teaser than an actual demonstration of the card's performance, the demo included a system that combined NVIDIA's up and coming GeForce GF100 graphics card with one of Intel's latest, Core i7 processors. According to reports on the Internet, the card was put through a run of the Unigine DirectX 11 benchmark Heaven. The pictured card is reportedly about 10.5 inches long and features a dual-slot cooler (at launch, the reference design could differ) and was using both 8-pin and 6-pin PCIe power connectors.

As far as details about the card's clock, memory and other technical specifications are concerned, the outfit was very secretive, looking to provide such details when the card will get its official launch. However, there are reports claiming that the card will be featured with support for SLI, PhysX, CUDA, 3D Vision and boast a 384-bit memory interface, with 512 CUDA cores. Unfortunately, at this time, these are only speculations.

NVIDIA has certainly taken its time with the new Fermi-based consumer graphics cards, which is why there is some anticipation regarding the performance these cards can deliver. On the other hand, the delay can only benefit Advanced Micro Devices, which expects TSMC's 40nm yields to improve, enabling more users to take advantage of the features and power built-inside the Radeon HD 5000-series of GPUs.

Motorola BACKFLIP Specs, Hands-On Available

Motorola BACKFLIP is the latest Android-based handset the mobile phone maker unveiled to the world. It comes with the company's MOTOBLUR solution for an enhanced user experience, and it also sports a reverse-flip QWERTY keyboard, a unique form factor for today's market, and is expected to make an appearance on AT&T's network later during the first half of the ongoing year. The BACKFLIP has been spotted into the wild before yet now it is official, and the same applies to its specifications, so we apparently need to have a look at them. At the same time, the guys over at Engadget published a hands-on video with it too, as well as a series of live photos, some of which are available at the bottom of this article.

The new Motorola BACKFLIP which comes to the market with a 3.1-inch touchscreen display that boasts a 320 x 480 pixel resolution and support for 256k colors, runs under the Android 1.5 flavor, though Motorola adds that it is upgradable to Android 2.x, and also includes a 5-megapixel photo snapper with LED flash and auto focus. When it comes to the phone's connectivity options, we can mention WCDMA 850/1900/2100, GSM 850/900/1800/1900, HSDPA 7.2 Mbps (category 7/8), EDGE Class 12 and GPRS Class 12, as well as Wi-Fi (802.11 b,g) Micro USB, Bluetooth 2.0 and a 3.5 mm headphone jack.

The handset sports MMS, SMS, e-mail (POP3/IMAP, e-mail synch, Push Gmail) and IM capabilities, audio player with support for AAC, AAC+, MIDI, MP3, WAV files and video player that supports H.263, H.264, MPEG4 formats (capture/playback/streaming), a full HTML browser, as well as 2GB of internal memory and a microSD memory card slot with support for up to 32GB of additional storage space. BACKFLIP is powered by a 1400 mAh battery that can provide up to 6 hours of talk time or up to 315 hours of standby time, measures 53.00 x 108.00 x 15.30 mm, weighs 133 grams and comes all dressed up in Platinum Silver.

Other features of the new mobile phone from Motorola further include support for a great deal of services, including Google Maps, Google Talk, Gmail, YouTube, or Android Market, as well as for social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. It comes with dedicated keys for Volume control, Camera, Back, Home, Lock, and with a BACKTRACK navigation tool behind screen. According to Engadget, the experience BACKFLIP can deliver is on par with the one coming from CLIQ, yet the new device comes with a tilting display as well that adds a lot to what it can offer.

Nexus One Official, Along with Google's Web Store

Search engine-based company Google officially announced today the launch of Nexus One by HTC, the first handset in the world to sport the Android 2.1 operating system on board. According to the maker, the fresh mobile phone, which sports the latest hardware technology from HTC and the newest software from Google, is being launched so as to exemplify a new way in which consumers can purchase an Android-based device, namely through web store Google hosts.

The Nexus One will come with Android 2.1 on board, which Google says is “a version of the platform's Eclair software,” and which will include Google Maps Navigation, support for multiple Gmail accounts and for Exchange, Quick Contacts for fast switch between communication and social applications, access to the Android Market (with over 18,000 applications), and a phone book that aggregates contacts from multiple sources, including Facebook.

The Nexus One also comes with new functionality and software enhancements, including:
- Enter text without typing.
- Use a voice-enabled keyboard for all text fields: speak a text message, instant message, tweet, Facebook update, or complete an email.
- Tell your phone what you want it to do.
- Search Google, call contacts, or get driving directions by just speaking into your phone.
- Take personalization to the next level.
- Dynamic, interactive, live wallpapers react to the touch of a finger.
- More widgets and five home screen panels allow for further device customization.
- Capture camera-quality pictures and video with your device.
- 5 megapixel camera includes LED flash, auto focus, zoom, white balance and color effects.
- View pictures and Picasa Web Albums in the new 3D Gallery.
- Record Hi-Res MPEG4 video, and then upload to YouTube with one click.
- Read your voicemail messages.
- Get transcribed voicemail with Google Voice integration, without changing your number.

The specifications list of the handset should be something you have already met, yet we'll still note some of the main capabilities of the phone. A Qualcomm Snapdragon 3G QSD8250 1GHz chipset is present on board, coupled with 512MB Flash and 512MB RAM, as well as a 3.7-inch AMOLED touchscreen display that boasts a 480 x 800 pixel (WVGA) resolution, a 5-megapixel photo snapper with auto focus, flash and geo tagging, 32GB of removable storage via microSD card slot, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a 1400 mAh battery that can deliver up to ten hours of talk time or up to 290 hours of standby time.

The web store hosted by Google, through which one can purchase the Nexus One, is available for access here, and is said to be aimed at becoming a place where users will be able to access selected Android phones. The new Nexus One is available for purchase via this channel free of service, yet it also comes through Google's operator partners. For the time being, it seems that the handset will only come to users in the US, priced at $529 free of contract, or starting at $179 with a two-year contract from T-Mobile USA.

However, Google also announced that the fresh device is set to arrive in the near future to Verizon Wireless' airwaves in the US, and that Vodafone would also have it in Europe in the following months. The UK, Singapore, and Hong Kong are the markets where Nexus One can also be ordered in the beginning, yet it will also arrive to other markets in the future, and via a wider range of carriers, Google stated. Not to mention that Nexus One is expected to be followed by other similar devices, so that “consumers will benefit from the ability to match a phone of their choice with the service plan that best meets their needs.”