operating

One-third of all Android devices sold in China

China is now the world's largest Android market, market researcher Informa said today.

Informa estimates that about 786 million smartphones will be sold worldwide by the end of the year, up 45 percent compared with 2011. Total Android-based smartphone sales this year will hit 461 million units. One-third of all of the Android devices sold in 2012 were sold in China, making it the world's largest Android market.

That figure becomes all the more staggering when one considers that the United States is in second place with 11 percent of all Android device sales this year.

The fact … Read more

Celebrity hacker gets 10 years prison for e-mail hack

The man targeted in "Operation Hackerazzi" is now behind bars.

Hacker Christopher Chaney was sentenced to 10 years in prison today by U.S. District Judge James Otero, according to the Associated Press. Chaney pled guilty to hacking into dozens of celebrities' e-mail accounts and posting their private information on the Internet. Among his victims were Mila Kunis, Scarlett Johansson, Christina Aguilera, Simone Harouche, and Renee Olstead.

"It's hard to fathom the mindset of a person who would accomplish all of this," Otero said, according to the Associated Press. "These types of crimes are … Read more

Design guru Nielsen: Windows 8 UI 'smothers usability'

User interface design guru Jakob Nielsen is none too pleased with what he's found in Windows 8, which he calls a "misguided" product.

Nielsen, who has spent much of his career analyzing all kinds of user interfaces, including most notably Flash software for Web animation, says that the new Windows 8 user interface "smothers usability with big colorful tiles while hiding needed features."

To arrive at that conclusion, Nielsen brought in 12 "experienced PC users" to try out Windows on both PCs and Surface RT tablets. In that study, Nielsen found that the … Read more

Poll shows tepid interest in Windows 8

A new poll suggests that Windows 8 may be hampered by scant consumer interest.

Microsoft bills Windows 8 -- a world away from the familiar surroundings of Windows 7 -- as a "reimagining" of the PC operating system. It may indeed be that, considering Windows 8's touch capabilities and app ecosphere. But whether consumers will take to the new OS remains to be seen.

A survey of nearly 1,200 U.S. adults by the Associated Press and market researcher GfK found that 52 percent of respondents had not heard of Windows 8 and that 61 percent … Read more

Friday Poll: Will you upgrade to Windows 8?

Microsoft officially launched Windows 8 today, and with it comes a choice for those who use its predecessors: do I stay, or do I go?

My Crave colleague Eric Mack touches on the subject in an opinion piece today titled "The Windows 8 question: To adopt early or not?" Eric owns a perfectly capable Windows 7 laptop and would rather wait for a Surface tablet with Windows 8 Pro to debut before considering new hardware.

Personally, I feel a slight temptation to upgrade to Windows 8. In his review of Microsoft's Surface, CNET Senior Editor Eric Franklin praises Metro -- the primary interface of Windows 8 -- saying it's "innovative, elegant, powerful, and versatile," the last set of words I would use to describe my cluttered Windows 7 desktop. Maybe a new layout would feel like a breath of fresh air. … Read more

Windows 8 is hard! So say 14 'typical users'

A U.K. design firm put Windows 8 under the microscope recently, and users reported some issues with handling the operating system.

The firm in question, Foolproof, had 14 "typical users" try out Windows 8 for the first time to see how they fared using the new-look operating system. This tiny group reportedly consisted of regular Windows users, so they supposedly weren't coming to the Microsoft universe cold.

But Microsoft's new user interface, which largely consists of a series of tiles, ditching the traditional look and feel of Windows, "comes with a huge learning overhead." Foolproof's relatively small number of testers made several observations, including:… Read more

Chrome OS matures, but it's not a Jedi-level operating system yet

Welcome to the Chrome channel. Google's operating system started off in December 2010 as being little more than all Chrome, all the time. Updates made since then have given Chrome OS users better file format support, faster navigation, revised menus, dramatically improved offline abilities, and a traditional-looking desktop.

But if you loathe the Chrome browser, it's still highly unlikely that you'll enjoy this operating system. On the other hand, if you love Chrome, then Chrome OS is a big heaping helping of Chrome with some extra Chrome on the side and more Chrome for dessert.

Like Chrome … Read more

Anonymous: Anti-surveillance protest tomorrow

Anonymous is planning a global protest tomorrow.

In a campaign called Operation Big Brother, the Worldwide Day Of Protest Against Surveillance appears to be plotting action from citizens in over a dozen countries in an organized effort against government use of surveillance systems such as Europe's INDECT and America's Trapwire.

Using a Google Map to pull in and track protesters by location, Operation Big Brother is supposed to visibly demonstrate what's going on during the protest. Yet little is known about how it will be implemented other than the suggestion, "IRL protest (...) unofficial information and defacing.&… Read more

iOS 6 jailbreak gets full, built-in support for Cydia store

A hacking group has updated its iOS jailbreak, Redsn0w, with full support for an unauthorized app store and the ability to re-restore a device to an older version of Apple's mobile operating system.

The updated Redsn0w jailbreak hit the Web yesterday, enabling iOS 6 users to get full access to the third-party application store Cydia. Previously, Redsn0w users were forced to install Cydia manually. Now, they will find the app marketplace -- which includes programs that are not authorized for Apple's official App Store -- built in.

The hacking group, which calls itself the iPhone Dev-Team, announced its iOS 6 jailbreak less than a day after the latest Apple operating system launched … Read more