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(Via WebAppers.)

In the official Google blog, they announce the Google Chrome OS, the Google Operation System.

So today, we’re announcing a new project that’s a natural extension of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System. It’s our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be.

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we’re already talking to partners about the project, and we’ll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.

Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.

Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.

Google Chrome OS is a new project, separate from Android. Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems. While there are areas where Google Chrome OS and Android overlap, we believe choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including Google.

Short of battery on the airplane ? Forgotten to charge iPhone last night ? On the site hyperdrive you can now purchase a small battery box which can power your MacBook for up to 32 hours.

What is great about this external box is that you can charge the MacBook/MacBook Pro and the iPhone at the same time. Not only it acts as a power adapter, it charges the internal battery as well.

The smallest size with 60Wh costs $200, the delivery to europe is for $45.

Already heard a lot about it, so today I made my first try of this iPhone game library. Cocos2d iPhone is a port of the Cocos2d python library to Objective-C. A lot of games have used this library, see here: http://www.cocos2d-iphone.com/forum/forum/1

Firstly, you need to set up a standard iPhone project in Xcode. Since Cocos2d iPhone is basically based on OpenGL ES, we don’t need any view container in our application, just choose the “Window-Based Application”. We name the project “FoldCut”.

Next step is to download Cocos2d iPhone from Google Code, the current version is cocos2d-iphone-0.8-beta.tar.gz. Extract the file and add the subdirectory cocos2d to the new project. Make sure that you check the option “Copy items into destination group’s folder (if needed)” before click “Add”. Cocos2d make use the frameworks OpenGLES and Quartz Core internally, so you need to add these two frameworks to the project too : Right click the project -> Add -> Existing Frameworks …

Now you build your project, it should go fine. We didn’t use anything of the library. The build is just to compile the Cocos2D library itself.

When Xcode created the project from the template, it added a MainWindow.xib and uses this NIB to create the main window. For a Cocos2D project we don’t actually need them. So we make some changes in main.m and FoldCut-Info.plist.

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {

    NSAutoreleasePool * pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
    int retVal = UIApplicationMain(argc, argv, nil, @"FoldCutAppDelegate");
    [pool release];
    return retVal;
}

Remove the entry “Main nib file base name”, add a new entry “Status bar is initially hidden” and set it to checked like followed.

Then modify FoldCutAppDelegate.m file to initialize the main window.

- (void)applicationDidFinishLaunching:(UIApplication *)application
{
	// Create a full screen window
	window = [[UIWindow alloc] initWithFrame:[[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds]];

	// Cocos2D Director
	[[Director sharedDirector] setDeviceOrientation:CCDeviceOrientationLandscapeLeft];
	[[Director sharedDirector] attachInWindow:window];

    // Override point for customization after application launch
    [window makeKeyAndVisible];

}

Build and Go, and the Crash ! With the Xcode Debugger, you’ll find somewhere in the framework, an image file “fps_images.png” is loaded and used. This file can be located in directory “cocos2d-iphone-0.8-beta/Resources/Images”, get it and add it to the project. Build and Go again, this time the app should work.

Years ago, I went back home for holidays. In Shanghai International Airport I saw a line of machines as showed in the photo below. That is so called “Mobile Phone Station” where you can find chargers for almost all kinds of mobile phones. For a few yuan you can charge your dying phone for 10 minutes, of course, as you can see, with the annoying advertisements above your head, very loudly.

Starting from 2010 the european consumers will have the standardized micro-USB charge socket on every mobile phone. People will not have to throw away their charger when they buy a new phone and it will be much easier to find the “compatible” charger in the office.

All major players, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, LG, Samsun, NEC have joined to the agreement. Surprised to know that Apple is also on board. Does it mean that the next iPhone will equipped with the micro USB instead of the Apple 30-pin iPod port ? Will Apple redesign iPhone ?

From http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Loyalty-Rewarded.aspx

Finally, the famous wire free charger is now available for the iPhone and iPod touch. The skin is also compatible with the new iPhone 3GS, as well as the original iPhone.

The price for the bundle, the charge pad and the soft case for iPhone is $79.99.

The annual eclipse release has arrived, code name is Galileo. This release includes enhanced support for Mac OS X, new Eclipse is based on Cocoa framework instead of the Carbon API, OpenGL is also supported on Mac.

http://blog.iphone-dev.org/post/126465561/trois-drei-h-rom

The jailbreak works for iPhone (1st generation), iPod touch (1st generation) and the iPhone 3G.