The open-source AMD Linux graphics driver now boasts support for AMD’s next-generation “Hainan” GPU products, a.k.a. the Radeon HD 8800 series…
Phoronix
Open-Source AMD Driver Gets “Hainan” GPU Support
May 14, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Ouya Android game console gets VC-funded, torn down
May 12, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Ouya, the Android-powered game console that began its career as a Kickstarter project, has just received $ 15 million in venture capital funding led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB). For those who haven’t followed Ouya’s wild ride, its Kickstarter project generated a feeding frenzy of $ 8.6 million in pledges, more than 900 percent of [...]
LinuxGizmos.com
Ouya Android game console gets VC-funded, torn down
May 12, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Ouya, the Android-powered game console that began its career as a Kickstarter project, has just received $ 15 million in venture capital funding led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB). For those who haven’t followed Ouya’s wild ride, its Kickstarter project generated a feeding frenzy of $ 8.6 million in pledges, more than 900 percent of its $ 950K goal.
LXer Linux News
Google Gets Ready With VP9 Codec
May 10, 2013 by Leave a Comment
T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S4 gets first update, visual voicemail and ISIS improvements included
May 7, 2013 by Leave a Comment
First update for T-Mobile Galaxy S4 going out over the air and through Kies
The first update for T-Mobile US's Samsung Galaxy S4 is pushing out today over the air and through Samsung's Kies desktop software.
The new software version M919UVUAMDL is a minor update containing "improvements to the visual voicemail app" and "ISIS app improvements," according to T-Mo's support pages. (ISIS being the NFC-based mobile wallet app backed by many U.S. operators.)
There's always a chance some other bug fixes or improvements have been sneaked in behind the scenes, so if you're rocking a T-Mo GS4 then hit the comments and let us know how you're getting on after today's update.
Source: T-Mobile; via: Android Central forums
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Android Central – Android Forums – News – Reviews – Help and Android Wallpapers
Cinnamon 1.8 Gets Its Own Control Center And Screensaver, Easier Spices Installation
May 7, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Cinnamon, the desktop environment used by default in Linux Mint, has reached version 1.8, getting its own Control Center, screensaver and more.
Cinnamon is a GNOME Shell fork which tries to offer the layout and customizability of GNOME 2: by default there’s a panel at the bottom (but optionally, you can also get one on top like in GNOME 2) that supports autohide, it supports applets, a classic system tray and more.
Let’s take a look at what’s new in the latest Cinnamon 1.8!
Cinnamon 1.8 video
Below you can watch a video which presents the most important changes in Cinnamon 1.8:
(direct video link; for more videos, subscribe to our YouTube channel)
Sorry for the fonts in the video, it’s an YouTube bug because the fonts look ok in my original video. The fonts don’t look like that when using Cinnamon.
What’s new in Cinnamon 1.8
Cinnamon 1.8 no longer uses gnome-session for fallback which has advantages such as the ability to restart Cinnamon after a crash or the use of a wrapper which allows Cinnamon to restart itself after potential crashes. This should also fix the issue with Cinnamon not working on some hardware which was actually capable of running it.
Cinnamon 1.8 comes with its own Control Center, so there’s no longer the need to use GNOME Control Center. This is especially useful if you have installed multiple desktop environments: features that are GNOME Shell or Unity specific don’t show up in Cinnamon Control Center, so you should now have a more clean, less confusing settings app.
In Cinnamon Settings you can find all the GNOME settings that also apply to Cinnamon as well as Cinnamon-specific settings such as applets, desklets, theme settings, windows behavior, hot corners setup, panel settings and more:
By default, Cinnamon Control Center displays only some of the system settings and for more advanced settings you must click the “Switch to Advanced Mode” button in the lower left corner.
The Cinnamon Screensaver about which we were telling you a while back, is available by default with Cinnamon 1.8. The screensaver is very simplistic, displaying the date and time on a shaded background and optionally, it can also display an away message:
The new Cinnamon release also introduces “Desklets” (desktop widgets), but since this is a new feature, there are only a few available for now:
The desklets can be set to snap to a desklets grid so they align nicely, with configurable grid width and users can also select if the desklets should use a border, border and header or no decoration at all.
Another interesting new feature in Cinnamon 1.8 is that you can install or update “spices” (which include applets, desklets, themes or extensions) directly from the desktop, via Cinnamon Control Center, so Cinnamon users no longer need to manually download and install them from http://cinnamon.linuxmint.com:
In my test, installing themes didn’t work for some reason, maybe because the available themes aren’t compatible with the latest Cinnamon 1.8 yet, but I was able to successfully install applets and desklets.
And finally, Nemo, the default Cinnamon file manager, has received many improvements since the previous stable release that’s available in Linux Mint 14 (1.1.2), such as:
- buttons in the statusbar to easily hide the sidebar and switch between places and treeview (sidebar);
- option to hide the menu;
- collapsable sidebar categories;
- breadcrumbs;
- Sidebar Disk Indicators: indicators are displayed under each drive, displaying the free/used space;
- various fixes and more.
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| Nemo 1.8 |
See how to install Nemo file manager in Ubuntu.
Other changes:
- Cinnamon now automatically falls back to Software Rendering (previously known as Cinnamon 2D) when the full Cinnamon is not supported – a critical notification is displayed on startup when running Software Rendering – this usually happens because of a problem with the drivers or if the graphics card doesn’t support any acceleration;
- improved hot-corner configuration;
- new coverflow and timeline alt-tab;
- updated default applets, many fixes, etc.
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| Coverflow ATL-TAB style |
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| Timeline ALT-TAB style |
Bumpmaps, a feature that was supposed to be added in Cinnamon 1.8 didn’t make it unfortunately as it’s not yet fully ready.
Install Cinnamon 1.8 in Ubuntu
Cinnamon 1.8 will be available by default in Linux Mint 15 (Cinnamon Edition – RC should be out mid-may) and it should also be available in the “Romeo” repository for Linux Mint 13 and 14 soon.
Ubuntu Precise, Quantal, Raring and Saucy users can install the latest Cinnamon via PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gwendal-lebihan-dev/cinnamon-stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install cinnamonOnce installed, log out and select Cinnamon from the login screen.
For other Linux distributions, see the Cinnamon downloads page.
Web Upd8 – Ubuntu / Linux blog
Samsung GT-P5200 (Galaxy Tab 3 10.1?) Gets the Early Benchmark Treatment, Looks Blazing Fast
May 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment
There might have not been a lot of excitement surrounding Samsung’s first member of the new Galaxy Tab family, the Tab 3 7.0, but there apparently is a much zippier Sammy slate in the works as well. Codenamed GT-P5200, this is most likely going to be known as the Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 and, based on a leaked benchmark, it looks like it has a decent amount of heat beneath its hood.
Specifically, the third-gen 10-incher could be roughly five times faster than its predecessor, the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 (aka GT-P5100). Granted, that second-gen tab was never a powerhouse, having a modest dual-core 1 GHz TI OMAP 4430 chip, but you can imagine 5x its speed is going to be massive.
In fact, we’re yet to see a single Android-based tab score around the 24,000 points mark in AnTuTu, as this big guy (allegedly) did, with even the Nexus 10 choking before hitting 10,000. True, something smells fishy here and we know benchmark results can be easily faked, but why not allow ourselves to dream?
And while we’re in the realm of dreams, we can also hope the 10-inch Galaxy Tab 3 will come packing an 8-core Exynos 5 processor. Actually, scratch that about hopes and dreams, because if this thing can reach 24,000 points in AnTuTu, we don’t know any other chip besides the Exynos 5 capable of such stunning speed.
Moving away from the easily fake-able score, the AnTuTu benchmark reveals this GT-P5200 will come with a CPU clocked at 1.6 GHz and Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. Naturally, the 1.6 GHz clock speed is most likely to be for the four Cortex A15-based cores of the Exynos 5, whereas the other four, based on A7, will probably be clocked at 1.2 GHz.
Oddly, a sub-par display with just 1,280 x 800 pixels resolution is said to be in the cards for the Galaxy Tab 3 10.1, which sounds… how to put this delicately… awful. Horrendous. Appalling. Like building a new Ferrari, with 500 horsepower, but no wheels.
But again, before getting too worked up, there’s no way to know if that benchmark score is legit and if in fact Samsung’s next 10-incher will come packing an Exynos Octa processor.
At the same time, it’s going to be very interesting to see how Samsung is planning to price this thing and when it will be rolling it out given there’s a good chance a high-end Nexus 11 is coming by the end of the year too.
Via [RbMen]
Lord help us: Reddit gets a Google Glass app
May 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment
KVM Virtualization Gets New Features In Linux 3.10
May 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The Linux 3.10 kernel will feature new improvements and features when it comes to KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) virtualization…
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