Articles by Katherine Noyes

Following a spate ofrumors, leaked specifications, and an ad campaign explicitly challenging the iPhone, Verizon and Motorola on Wednesday officially announced Droid, the first smartphone based on Android 2.0 Featuring high-speed Web browsing, voice-activated search, a customizable large screen, plus access to thousands of applications and hundreds...

Free and open source software just got a major boost: The Obama administration announced that it has adopted open source content management system Drupal for the Whitehouse.gov Web site Though it may look much the same to visitors, the newly revamped Web site went live on Saturday with the goal of improving the tools visitors use to engage with Whi...

Part 1 of this two-part series points to some excellent resources for users who are considering a switch to Linux but would like some advice from experts before getting their feet wet With more than 200 Linux distributions currently listed at Linux Online, it's perhaps an understatement to say that newcomers to the field face a broad array of choic...

Less than a month after IBM and Canonical launched a Microsoft-free desktop software suite for computer users in Africa, the companies announced Tuesday that they are now offering a similar solution to U.S. companies as well The cloud- and Linux-based desktop package includes IBM productivity and collaboration software and is designed for use on a ...

There's a pieced-together monster shaking up the campus of Stanford University this fall, and it's named after the legendary, lumbering creature that Halloween nightmares are made of Rather than parts of human corpses, however, this monster was cobbled together from a Texas Instruments system on a chip, off-the-shelf Canon lenses, an imaging chip f...

That there are many compelling reasons to switch to Linux is no longer a matter of much debate Excellent security and low -- or nonexistent -- costs, to name just two, have already persuaded countless organizations and individuals around the globe to eschew the world of end-user license agreements (EULAs) and opt for the freedom and openness of Lin...

Two security flaws recently uncovered in Android 1.5 could have enabled malicious denial of service (DoS) attacks on users of the mobile platform, according to an advisory released last week by oCERT, the Open Source Computer Emergency Response Team The first of the flaws, which affected Android's handling of SMS, could have allowed a malformed mes...

A strategic partnership between Google and Verizon Wireless will yield two new Android phones in the coming weeks, the companies' chiefs jointly announced Tuesday Speaking in a conference call, Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt and Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam said that their first two Android devices will be available by year's end, with ...

Apple's iPhone may have legions of enthusiastic followers, but there's no denying that fans of Google's competing Android platform already have more options Case in point: Samsung and T-Mobile on Monday announced the Samsung Behold II, the latest of many Android handsets to come to market in recent months....

After nearly two years of anticipation, Garmin and AT&T announced Tuesday that the long-awaited Garmin Nuvifone G60 will become available in the United States starting Oct. 4 Billed as "the navigation phone" for its integration of phone capabilities with GPS functionality, the Linux-based device will be sold online and in AT&T stores for US$299, af...

Google sent shock waves through the Android community late last week by launching a cease-and-desist order at well-regarded modder Cyanogen for bundling some of its closed-source applications with his CyanogenMod ROM CyanogenMod is a free, heavily optimized build of Android 1.5r2 that focuses on performance and reliability. Its developer -- Steve K...

Linpus Technologies on Tuesday released Linpus Linux Lite 1.2, a new version of its consumer Linux software based on Moblin version 2 that's been enhanced with improved social networking applications and power management capabilities The first version of the Moblin v2-based technology was released earlier this year. Linpus's Moblin v2 Enhanced Vers...

Amid all the talks, workshops and training sessions now under way at LinuxCon, attendees hoping to get an up-close look at some of the latest open source technologies were not disappointed A wide variety of products are being demonstrated by a diverse set of vendors in the technology showcase at the Linux Foundation's first annual LinuxCon event, w...

When Motorola announced its Android-powered Cliq late last week, it took what many view as a critical step toward regaining its former prominence in the mobile phone arena ...

The current economic recession may be pummeling companies around the globe, but amid all the dire reports and grim statistics littering what can only be compared to a bloody battlefield, one oft-cited exception appears to be still standing tall: free and open source software That's what the common discourse seems to suggest, at least, and there's s...

Part 1 of this two-part feature explores the lessons learned in the early days of launching business ventures in virtual worlds There's no doubt some companies have succeeded in using virtual worlds for branding and interaction with their customers, whether through in-world stores, billboards or other means....

It wasn't long after the launch of Linden Lab's Second Life back in 2003 that companies and organizations around the globe began to sit up and take notice. The prospect of millions of potential customers -- all flocking to the same destination and congregating there -- is enough to whet the appetite of even the most conservative and change-averse organization, after all...

There are clearly more reasons these days than ever before for companies to adopt free and open source software Adopting it they are, too -- in droves, it seems. How else could vendor Red Hat, for example, surpass all expectations with its most recent earnings report?...

With the release of Ubuntu 9.04 last week, it's not too surprising that few other topics got much attention on the Linux blogs in the ensuing days Yes, there was a rather intriguing discussion of porn and piracy over on DaniWeb and LXer; and yes, a moderately active conversation fired up the Slashdot community following Keir Thomas's post about "Go...

Good things come in small packages, as they say, and that's perhaps never been more true than it is today, thanks to the emergence of increasingly diminutive devices equipped with Linux Perhaps most notable of late is the US$99 Marvell SheevaPlug, a wall-wart-sized device that runs Linux on a 1.2-GHz CPU with 512 MB of RAM and 512 MB of flash -- an...