operating systems

Android dominates iOS in 2nd quarter, study finds

Google's Android mobile operating system dominated the U.S. smartphone market last quarter, research firm NPD announced today.

According to NPD, Android was running on 52 percent of all the smartphones sold in the U.S. last quarter, overshadowing iOS, which secured 29 percent market share. BlackBerry OS came in third in the smartphone space with 11 percent share, NPD said. Windows Phone 7, Windows Mobile, and WebOS all trailed with less than 5 percent market share each.

NPD's findings follow a similar report earlier this month from research firm Gartner. That company, which analyzed worldwide smartphone sales, … Read more

HP dropped the ball on WebOS

I'm upset. Really, really upset.

Earlier today, HP dropped the bombshell that it was abandoning WebOS and discontinuing the production of the TouchPad and WebOS phones. True, this doesn't mean that WebOS is completely dead, as HP could sell or license the mobile operating system, but in a competitive market that's dominated by iOS and Android, it would be a hard sell.

What happens to WebOS in the future remains to be seen, but it's still a sad day. What's most upsetting to me is that HP didn't even give it a full go and simply let WebOS die a quiet death. Perhaps I should have seen the signs when then HP CEO Mark Hurd said in June 2010 that the Palm acquisition wasn't about smartphones.

"We didn't buy Palm to be in the smartphone business. And I tell people that, but it doesn't seem to resonate well. We bought it for the IP," said Hurd.

Still, I had hope as HP unveiled the TouchPad, Veer, and Pre 3 in February and talked of bringing WebOS to desktop computers, printers, and other electronics, including appliances and cars. When you consider how much the company talked up WebOS, perhaps you can understand why I feel betrayed and angry right now. … Read more

Windows 8 build locked down to prevent leaks?

Microsoft is reportedly locking down its latest Windows 8 build to prevent unauthorized people from installing it and leaking details about certain features, WinRumors reported yesterday.

Other purported details about the latest Windows 8 build, known as 8064, were revealed earlier this week by WinRumors, which is a Windows enthusiast site, and other sites. The new build is apparently the Windows 8 Developer Preview that Microsoft is likely to unveil at its Build conference next month.

In an attempt to thwart unauthorized users from accessing the new developer build, Microsoft has apparently set up unique product keys that are now … Read more

Gartner: Windows 7 on 42 percent of PCs by year's end

Two years after its official debut, Windows 7 will finally become the leading operating system around the world by the end of 2011, says a report out today from Gartner.

Before the year is over, the current flavor of Windows is expected to show up on 42 percent of all PCs globally. Further, Gartner's latest research shows that 94 percent of all new computers shipped this year will come with Windows 7, leading to almost 635 million new Windows 7 PCs in 2011 alone.

Recent stats from Net Applications found that Windows XP was finally losing some of its … Read more

iCloud gets tested and priced

Skype releases and then pulls its iPad app, Microsoft stops publishing the locations of millions of mobile and Wi-Fi devices, and Apple opens up iCloud.com for testing and reveals pricing for extra storage.

Links from Tuesday's episode of Loaded:

Alibaba OS-powered handset launching this month

Another mobile operating system will be launching in China this month.

Dubbed Aliyun OS, the operating system has been developed by Alibaba division AliCloud. According to the company, the mobile operating system will launch in the Chinese market on the K-Touch Cloud-Smart Phone W700 by the end of this month. Hangzhou, China-based Alibaba did not say exactly when the device will launch or how much it will cost.

AliCloud's operating system revolves around the idea of bringing cloud functionality to the mobile platform. According to the company, Aliyun will feature cloud-based e-mail, Web search, weather updates, and GPS navigation … Read more

Celebrating 30 years of MS-DOS

C:\happy-birthday.exe! MS-DOS, the cornerstone of Microsoft's software empire, is 30 years old today--so let's boot into the command line for a celebration of the OS with the mostest.

On this day in 1981, Microsoft bought what was to become MS-DOS from Seattle Computer Products. SCP has developed the system under the name QDOS. Everybody knows MS-DOS stands for Microsoft Disk Operating System, but that's actually a neat bit of corporate whitewashing from Bill Gates and co.--QDOS originally stood for Quick and Dirty Operating System.

Mozilla building mobile OS to battle Chrome

Mozilla revealed preliminary plans today to take the Gecko engine that drives its Firefox browser and turn it into an open-source operating system that will eventually work on phones and tablets.

Called Boot to Gecko, it is known that the source code will be released to the public "in real-time," wrote Andreas Gal, a Mozilla researcher. Gecko is the rendering engine that powers Firefox and the e-mail client Thunderbird. By contrast, while Google's Android mobile operating system is open source, the main development work on it does not become available until after Google has green-lit its publication--sometimes … Read more

Five things to do before installing Lion

Apple's OS X Lion released today, and for the first time, the only way to grab a copy is through the Mac App Store. While this convenience might encourage you to upgrade immediately (for the price of $29), we've got a short checklist of things you need to do before installing Lion.

1. Check system requirements.Is your system even compatible with Lion? Go to the Apple menu > About the Mac to find out. You'll need:

Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, or Core i5, Core i7, or Xeon Processor 2GB of RAM (aka "Memory&… Read more

Mac OS X Lion pounces

As promised, Apple let Mac OS X Lion out of its cage this morning.

Version 10.7 of the operating system has more than 250 new features, Apple said, but an installation disc isn't one of them: it's available today for $29.99 as a 3.49GB download only.

Apple enjoys pushing the computing industry into the future by dropping technology it deems to be from the past--for example floppy drives missing from the first iMac--and those who want a real-world copy of the OS will have to wait until Apple releases it on a USB thumb drive … Read more