Nokia announced a plan to acquire the 52% remaining Symbian shares it doesn’t already own and make the platform open source under the Eclipse open source license. Nokia have also announced the creation of the Symbian Foundation, which is an alliance of mobile vendors and application providers that any company can join. This move will definitely challenge Android, the open source operating system of Google. The Symbian is the operating system of Nokia’s smartphones and other mobile phone hardware manufacturers.

All of the major Symbian stakeholders like Sony Ericsson, Siemens, and Panasonic have accepted Nokia’s offer. The three companies represent almost 91% of the Symbian shares. Although Samsung, another Symbian stakeholder has no definitive answer from Nokia’s offer, Nokia expects them to accept its offer.

“This is a significant milestone in our software strategy” said Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, CEO of Nokia. “Symbian is already the leading open platform for mobile devices. Through this acquisition and the establishment of the Symbian Foundation, it will undisputedly be the most attractive platform for mobile innovation. This will drive the development of new and compelling, web-enabled applications to delight a new generation of consumers.”

Read the announcement here

Popularity: 6% [?]

To disable your Windows XP time display, ADD the following Windows XP registry hack:

Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Name: HideClock
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 1

Enjoy!

Popularity: 6% [?]

I was pretty impressed when I read from a news that a linux-powered clarinet playing robot won first place in a major international technology competition for developing a robotically operated, computer-driven clarinet that runs on Linux.

The robot, according to the news was developed over the last eight months and it was able to beat a Dutch developed guitar playing robot to the top gong in the Artemis Orchesta competition.

Read the news here

Popularity: 3% [?]

What makes the Sellgino Dragon Security biometric drive unique from the existing USB drives with built-in security features? Well, it has a biometric-enabled fingerprint sensor that detects the live skin layer while sensors found on other devices scan only the surface of the finger.

By detecting the live layer of the skin, the Dragon Security feature has a higher accuracy rate than others even  if you fail to wash your hands. The device is an XP and Vista plug and play and can store up to 10 fingerprints. The drive’s current capacity is capped at only 2GB.

Characteristic

• Access to “ Double Encryptions Access System Design “
• Strong Security System with “ Live Skin Detection Design “
• Sensitivity Ergonomics Swipe Sensor based on DES 128bits
• Available Life Waterproof as option
• Support to Nand Flash Memory from 128MB to 2GB
• Easy to register 10 fingers with useful GUI
• Firmware up-grade service
• No required driver installation

Specification

• USB Interface: USB 1.1 & 2.0 compatible
• OS: Windows 2000 / XP / 2003server / VISTAR
• Memory Capacity: 128MB/256MB/512MB/1GB/2GB
• Data Speed: 8MB/s (Read), 7MB/s (Write)
• Sensor Pixels: 192 x 16 True Point Pixels @ 500ppi
• Capturing & Swipe Speed: 160frame/sec & < 16cm/sec
• ESD Resistance: IEC 61000-4-2 Level 4 (+/- 15KV;air mode)
• Operating & Storage Temp.: 10℃∼+60℃ / -10℃∼+70℃
• Language: English, Korean, Japanese, Chinese and so on
• Power: USB Bus- Power (DC4.5V∼DC 5.5V)
• Material: Plastic ABS Alloy , Steel , Epoxy
• Dimension: (L)75 x (W)21 x (H)11 mm
• Weigh: Approxi. 13 grams

Popularity: 4% [?]

I know this pic has been going around since last month, but it’s too funny not to post it here. To the person who created this, man, you’re such a geek!

Click the picture for a bigger view.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Yahoo! is now offering two new email domains that will give people the chance to register the e-mail address or Yahoo! ID they’ve always wanted. Starting today, people can register new Yahoo! e-mail address at ymail.com and rocketmail.com.

Yahoo has been offering free email accounts under the yahoo domain since 1997 and has become the number one webmail service in the world with more than 260 million users worldwide. The problem with being around so long and being the most popular free webmail service from a user’s point of view is that many desirable e-mail addresses have already been taken from the yahoo.com domain. With the two new e-mail domain choices, Yahoo! will again make millions of new e-mail addresses available to the online community.

The new email domains will offer the same features as accounts using the Yahoo email domain.

Popularity: 4% [?]