The low-cost Raspberry Pi Linux computer is set to become available for purchase later this month for $35. The firm behind the budget computer announced on Monday that the first batch of boards will enter manufacturing on February 20th and will be available at the end of the month. The single-board computer is equipped with a 700MHz processor, 256MB of RAM, SD card support and both HDMI and RCA outputs. Despite the low cost and small size — which is roughly equal to a credit card — the Raspberry Pi computer is powerful enough to run games such as Quake III Arena and power 1080p video, however the company intends for the device to be used in schools to teach the basics of computer science. A second Raspberry Pi model with 128MB of RAM will be released for $25 at a later date.

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HP cut its losses last month and announced the company’s webOS mobile operating system would move to an open source model. On Wednesday, HP released a roadmap detailing the open source future of webOS. The company said it expects the software to be fully open-sourced by September, at which point it will be known as Open webOS 1.0. “HP is bringing the innovation of the webOS platform to the open source community,” said Bill Veghte, executive vice president and chief strategy officer at HP. “This is a decisive step toward meeting our goal of accelerating the platform’s development and ensuring that its benefits will be delivered to the entire ecosystem of web applications.” The second-generation Enyo framework, which debuted on the TouchPad, is now available with a bundle of related developer tools, and HP plans to release additional information nearly every month until September. The company also revealed that the mobile operating system will be moving to a standard Linux kernel in the hopes of attracting manufacturers who are experienced with Linux and Android. HP’s press release and roadmap can be found after the break.

HP to Commit webOS to Open Source by Fall 2012

New version of acclaimed Enyo developer tool and source code available now

PALO ALTO, Calif., Jan. 25, 2012 – HP today began executing its plan to deliver an open webOS by committing to a schedule for making the platform’s source code available under an open source license.

The company aims to complete this milestone in its entirety by September.

HP also announced it is releasing version 2.0 of webOS’s innovative developer tool, Enyo. Enyo 2.0 enables developers to write a single application that works across mobile devices and desktop web browsers, from the webOS, iOS and Android platforms to the Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers – and more. The source code for Enyo is available today, giving the open source community immediate access to the acclaimed application framework for webOS.

By contributing webOS to the open source community, HP unleashes the creativity of hardware and software developers to build a new generation of applications and devices.

“HP is bringing the innovation of the webOS platform to the open source community,” said Bill Veghte, executive vice president and chief strategy officer, HP. “This is a decisive step toward meeting our goal of accelerating the platform’s development and ensuring that its benefits will be delivered to the entire ecosystem of web applications.”

The webOS code will be made available under the Apache License, Version 2.0, beginning with the source code for Enyo.

webOS roadmap

Over the first half of the year, HP will make individual elements of webOS source code available – from core applications like Mail and Calendar to its Linux kernel – until the full code base is contributed to the open source community by September.

January: Enyo 2.0 and Enyo source code Apache License, Version 2.0

February: Intended project governance model, QT WebKit extensions, JavaScript core, UI Enyo widgets

March: Linux standard kernel, Graphics extensions EGL, LevelDB, USB extensions

April: Ares 2.0, Enyo 2.1, Node services

July: System manager (“Luna”), System manager bus, Core applications, Enyo 2.2

August: Build release model, Open webOS Beta, Open webOS 1.0

The Raspberry Pi Foundation is preparing to launch a new ultra-affordable Linux-powered computer next month that is the size of a credit card. It’s so affordable, in fact, that it will cost just $25 or $35, depending on how much RAM the buyer requires. In an interview with Edge, Raspberry Pi Foundation head David Braben said, despite the size and low cost, the Raspberry Pi computer is powerful enough to run games such as Quake III Arena and power 1080p video. The company will launch just 10,000 units to developers next month, mostly in the United Kingdom. “At the moment we’re appealing to techy people because we want people to give their time for free, writing software and improving things, porting them from other places, and putting them into the public domain, essentially, so we can use them for education,” Braben said, noting that he hopes to turn the developer board into a consumer-friendly device next year. The Raspberry Pi is equipped with a 700MHz processor, 128MB or 256MB of RAM, support for an SD card, and both HDMI and RCA outputs.

Read [Raspberry Pi Foundation] Read [Edge]

Just-released data from Net Applications shows that Microsoft’s share of the PC operating system market continued its slow decent in October as Apple’s Mac operating system and Linux both showed narrow gains. While Windows is still the overwhelming market leader among desktop operating systems, the platform slid from a 92.44% share in September to a 91.86% share last month. Over the same period, Apple’s Mac OS climbed from 6.45% to 6.94% while Linux inched up from 1.11% in September to 1.19% in October. Microsoft’s share of the computer OS market is expected to continue its slow decent until the second half of 2012, when it is expected to launch its next-generation Windows 8 operating system that marries a full-blown desktop OS with a light-weight mobile platform for tablets and other emerging devices. A chart illustrating October desktop operating system market share data from Net Applications follows below.

Nokia is again developing a proprietary smartphone operating system after announcing this past February that it would abandon both Symbian and MeeGo in favor of Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform. Citing multiple anonymous sources, The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday reported that Nokia’s executive vice president of mobile phones, Mary McDowell, is heading up the project. Code-named “Meltemi,” the new mobile platform is reportedly Linux-based and it is intended for use on low-end smartphones. BGR has independently confirmed the report, and we have learned additional details that paint an exciting new picture of the mobile industry should Nokia’s new OS realize its potential.

Updated with statement from Nokia.

The big question mark that the Journal’s report doesn’t address is what Meltemi — the Greek name for winds across the Aegean Sea from the north in the summer — means for Nokia’s plans with Windows Phone. Nokia’s chief executive Stephen Elop confirmed on multiple occasions that the company plans to offer Microsoft’s new mobile OS on high-end and low-end devices, thus continuing its efforts across all markets.

While the development of a new proprietary operating system has obvious implications for Windows Phone in emerging markets, BGR has learned that Nokia’s plans likely haven’t changed much since the Meltemi project began. Nokia still intends to offer a range of smartphones powered by Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system, and this range includes entry-level, mid-range and high-end smartphones.

Meltemi, a source has informed BGR, is being built to eventually replace Nokia’s Series 40 platform, which currently powers the company’s feature phones. Nokia’s vision is seemingly to build an operating system with capability that reaches well beyond “S40,” but that can function on similar low-cost hardware. This new platform will be fairly capable, but our understanding is that it will not be a full-fledged OS intended to compete with the likes of Android, iOS and Windows Phone.

Nokia will build low-cost Windows Phones to address certain demographics, but Meltemi will allow the cell phone vendor to bring smartphone functionality to emerging markets at rock-bottom prices. The licensing fees, hardware requirements and other costs tied to Windows Phone, we’re told, would never allow Nokia to hit the price points it will achieve with Meltemi — not even with Microsoft’s upcoming stripped down version of Windows Phone dubbed “Tango.”

Nokia is the world’s top cell phone vendor by volume, having sold 461 million mobile phones in 2010 according to recent data from market research firm Gartner. A world where nearly all of those devices are smartphones would see countless new doors open for Nokia and for its hundreds of millions of customers.

UPDATE: Nokia spokesperson Kendra Petrone provided the following statement to BGR via email:

While we don’t comment on future products or technologies, I can say that our Mobile Phones team has a number of exciting projects in the works that will help connect the next billion consumers to the Internet. When it comes to smartphones, as we have said repeatedly, Windows Phone is our smartphone platform of choice. We are confident in our efforts to build a joint ecosystem with Microsoft, and we are aggressively executing that strategy with operators, retailers, developers and other stakeholders.

Amazon launched its new Kindle Cloud Reader service on Wednesday that provides users with access their Kindle library using Chrome or Safari on Mac, PC, Linux and the Chromebook. Kindle Cloud Reader is also optimized for the iPad and offers a caching feature for offline reading. To get started, simply navigate to http://read.amazon.com and install the small required plug-in. We gave the service a quick run this morning and were impressed by how fast it loaded our eBook library. We definitely still prefer the standalone app on the iPad, but we’re sure Amazon created this option as a loophole to get around Apple’s iTunes App Store rules. Don’t use Safari or Chrome? Amazon still has you covered with its Kindle for PC client. Read on for the full press release.

Introducing Kindle Cloud Reader

Read over 950,000 Kindle books in your web browser – no download or installation required

Based on HTML5, Kindle Cloud Reader optimizes for the platform you’re using and automatically stores your latest book locally for offline reading

Instant Books – no waiting for a download, start reading the book immediately, offline or online

SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–(NASDAQ: AMZN) – For over two years, Amazon has been offering a wide selection of free Kindle reading apps that enable customers to “Buy Once, Read Everywhere.” Customers can already read Kindle books on the largest number of the most popular devices and platforms, including Kindles, iPads, iPhones, iPod touches, PCs, Macs, Android phones and tablets, and BlackBerrys. Today, Amazon.com announced Kindle Cloud Reader, its latest Kindle reading application that leverages HTML5 and enables customers to read Kindle books instantly using only their web browser – online or offline – with no downloading or installation required. As with all Kindle apps, Kindle Cloud Reader automatically synchronizes your Kindle library, as well as your last page read, bookmarks, notes, and highlights for all of your Kindle books, no matter how you choose to read them. Kindle Cloud Reader with its integrated touch optimized Kindle Store is available starting today for Safari on iPad, Safari on desktop and Chrome at www.amazon.com/cloudreader.

“We are excited to take this leap forward in our ‘Buy Once, Read Everywhere’ mission and help customers access their library instantly from anywhere”

“We are excited to take this leap forward in our ‘Buy Once, Read Everywhere’ mission and help customers access their library instantly from anywhere,” said Dorothy Nicholls, Director, Amazon Kindle. “We have written the application from the ground up in HTML5, so that customers can also access their content offline directly from their browser. The flexibility of HTML5 allows us to build one application that automatically adapts to the platform you’re using – from Chrome to iOS. To make it easy and seamless to discover new books, we’ve added an integrated, touch optimized store directly into Cloud Reader, allowing customers one click access to a vast selection of books.”

Features of Kindle Cloud Reader include:

• An immersive view of your entire Kindle library, with instant access to all of your books
• Start reading over 950,000 Kindle books instantly within your browser
• An embedded Kindle Store optimized for your web browser makes it seamless to discover new books and start reading them instantly
• New Kindle Store for iPad is built from the ground up for iPad’s touch interface
• Your current book is automatically made available for offline use, and you can choose to save a book for reading offline at any time
• Receive automatic software updates without the need to download new software
• Select any book to start reading, customize the page layout to your desired font size, text color, background color, and more
• View all of the notes, highlights, and bookmarks that you’ve made on other Kindle apps or on Kindle
• Sync your last page read across your Kindle and free Kindle apps so you can always pick up where you left off

Kindle Cloud Reader is available for Safari on iPad, Safari on desktop and Chrome starting today. Kindle Cloud Reader on the iPad is optimized for the size and unique touch interface of iPad. Without even leaving the app, customers can start shopping in the Kindle Store and will find a unique and immersive shopping experience built specifically for iPad’s Safari browser.

Kindle Cloud Reader will be available on additional web browsers, including Internet Explorer, Firefox, the BlackBerry PlayBook browser, and other mobile browsers, in the coming months.

Amazon.com customers can start reading their Kindle books immediately using Kindle Cloud Reader at www.amazon.com/cloudreader.

Microsoft announced on Monday that it has sold 400 million Windows 7 licenses to date, but that hasn’t stopped the tech giant’s share of the global operating system market from sliding. According to market watcher Net Applications’ data for June 2011, Microsoft’s global operating system market share slid to 88.29% as it continued on its slow but steady decline. The second most popular OS in the world was Apple’s OS X, which was up a nominal amount to 5.37% of the global OS market, followed by iOS with 2.63%, Java ME with 1.12% and Linux with 0.95%. Though Android devices continue to sell rapidly, Net Applications placed the OS in the No. 6 spot in June with 0.72% of the global market. Since January of this year, Apple’s OS X and iOS market shares have risen steadily while Windows continues to slide. According to Net Applications’ revised data, Windows’ OS share dropped below 90% in January of this year for the first time since it climbed above the threshold. It had been reported earlier that the OS slid under 90% last November, but Net Applications has since updated its figures to show that Windows held a 90.81% share in November 2010 and a 90.29% share in December. Two charts showcasing Net Applications’ June data follow below.

Mozilla on Tuesday finally issued the new public release version of its wildly popular Web browser, Firefox. Version 5 of Firefox wasn’t met with quite the same fanfare as Firefox 4, but the update is a major one nonetheless. Mozilla bills its new browser as being faster than ever with “even more awesomeness,” and we can’t say we disagree. Firefox 5 has received massive improvements aimed at providing speedier performance, and the UI has been redesigned and improved as well. Firefox’s “do not track” feature also works across mobile and desktop platforms now, and Mozilla has improved support for MathML, HTML 5, XHR, and SMIL as well. Other areas targeted by the new build include CSS animation and JavaScript support, and Mozilla has promised more frequent updates so more new features shouldn’t be far off. According to Net Applications, Mozilla’s Firefox browser was used by 21.71% of the global market in May, second only to Internet Explorer’s 54.27% share. Chrome, Safari and Opera rounded out the top-5 with 12.52%, 7.28% and 2.03%, respectively.

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Operating systems are big business. But just how big you ask? According to research firm Gartner, sales of server and desktop operating systems totalled nearly $30.4 billion in 2010 alone. “As the global economy recovered, worldwide operating system (OS) revenue totaled $30.4 billion in 2010, a 7.8 percent increase from 2009,” explains Gartner. “Among client OSs, Mac OS was the fastest-growing subsegment in 2010 as the unit shipments of Mac desktop/laptop devices saw strong sales, although from a much-smaller basis. Windows client was still the largest client OS segment, with high-single-digit growth, particularly driven by adoption of Windows 7 and the imminent end of life (EOL) of Windows XP.” Oracle saw the largest percentage-growth year-over-year thanks to its acquisition of Sun Microsystems. Analysts are expecting the operating system revenues to continue to rise in 2011.

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In honor of Research In Motion’s upcoming virgin voyage into the mysterious, turbulent waters that are today’s consumer tablet market, we thought we would take a moment to look back fondly at the tablet that started it all. No, not Apple’s iPad… we’re talking about the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet. Ok, so the Nokia 770 didn’t really “start it all,” but it was the first notable effort from a cell phone manufacturer to lack voice capabilities and carry the “tablet” branding. Launched in 2005, the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet featured specs that would make modern tablets hang their heads in shame, including a 4.1-inch resistive touchscreen display, 64MB of RAM, 64MB of ROM, 3 hours of usage time per charge and a rip-roaring 250MHz TI processor. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be — the 770 didn’t sell well at all, and despite a few subsequent attempts, Nokia would end up packing in its Internet Tablet brand and refocusing on phones. Of course, Nokia plans to build new tablets now that they’re trendy and desirable, and hopefully the Finnish company’s upcoming efforts afford a more intuitive experience than its Internet Tablets of old.

BGR’s Throwback Thursday is a weekly series covering our (and your) favorite gadgets, games, and software of yesterday and yesteryear.

Adobe has identified a zero-day exploit in the latest version of Flash Player 10.2 for Windows, Mac, Linux and Android. Using the the security hole, an attacker can potentially run malicious code and even take control of an affected system. While the vulnerability and potential damage to a system are significant, common sense will help users avoid the issue in most cases. The malicious code that takes advantage of this exploit is typically delivered as a Flash file embedded in a Microsoft Word document attached to an email. Most users in this day and age know to avoid such files. Adobe is currently working on a fix for the security hole, though the company has not stated when the fix might become available.

[Via Android Police]

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Sprint was nice enough to shoot us over its brand new Sprint Novatel 3G/4G MiFi, and while we saw it at CES, there’s just nothing like getting one in your hands (or paws) and taking it for a spin. We’re huge fans of Novatel Wireless, and we definitely prefer its MiFi products to USB data sticks or tethering our phones when we need mobile internet — so we’re extremely glad the company introduced a 4G WiMAX version of its popular MiFi device. Our quick impressions: it’s a tad thicker than the original MiFi, though it makes up for that by not only offering 4G speeds, but also by running a stripped down version of Linux that includes a splashy dashboard to monitor signal strength, GPS status, and network connectivity status in real-time. Additionally, we’re absolutely loving the eReader-like display on the MiFi that shows signal, GPS, and connectivity status. It’s extremely valuable and something we’re not sure how we lived without before. As for performance, we’re getting pretty decent speeds at 5Mbps down and 950Kbps up in and around New York City. We haven’t been able to judge battery life in our usage just yet, but it seems to be at least as good as the original MiFI workhouse we use all the time. Make sure to check out the rest of our photos in our gallery!

Mozilla on Tuesday made its latest Web browser available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux computers. Firefox 4 features a redesigned UI, a new panoramic tab manager, improved security and privacy controls, integrated Firefox Sync services, tab grouping, an optimized JavaScript engine designed to improve Web app performance, GPU-accelerated page rendering and plenty more. The new version of Firefox is available for download immediately in numerous languages. Hit the break for a video highlighting Firefox 4′s new features.

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Adobe has issued a security bulletin about a critical security flaw found in Adobe Flash Player affecting the Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Solaris, and Android operating systems. The vulnerability, labeled CVE-2011-0609, “could cause a crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system.” The company reports that exploits are already in the wild — most prevalently attached to Flash (.swf) and Excel (.xls) files. Adobe notes that it is “aware” of exploits for Adobe Reader and Acrobat, but explains that “Adobe Reader X Protected Mode mitigations would prevent an exploit of this kind from executing.” The company has stated that it will issue a patch for its Flash Player sometime during the week of March 21st. Curiously, the company writes, “Because Adobe Reader X Protected Mode would prevent an exploit of this kind from executing, we are currently planning to address this issue in Adobe Reader X for Windows with the next quarterly security update for Adobe Reader, currently scheduled for June 14, 2011.” June? Wow. Now might be a good time to enable Protected Mode on Adobe’s PDF reader.

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Will wonders never cease? The joojoo, a 12-inch Linux-based tablet that was supposedly tied to a tree just last week, will in fact not be put out to pasture as had been reported last week. Instead, Fusion Garage has enlisted the help of reseller partner ASTExC to give the tablet a makeover. Osaka Japan-based ASTEC will up the device’s internal storage to 16GB and then further “customize joojoo for business applications.” Fusion Garage is even on the hunt for more partners to, “utilize alternative operating systems such as Linux and Microsoft Windows in joojoo.” A Windows-powered joojoo? Consider our interest piqued.

Fusion Garage did confirm that the joojoo tablet would no longer be available direct to consumers, however, stating that the option to purchase the device would be removed from the joojoo website on November 19th. The company also confirmed that it is working on new tablets based on a custom Android build, and it is targeting the first half of 2011 for launches. “We are very pleased by the rapidly increasing vertical market interest in joojoo,” Fusion Garage founder and CEO, Chandra Rathakrishnan said in a statement. “Companies such as ASTEC are able to do some very innovative customization of the product and enable joojoo to be used in business applications that go beyond our consumer focus. At the same time, this marks the end of joojoo as a product and a brand for Fusion Garage. We have learned a lot and will carry forward insight gained from joojoo to our new generation of products that we will introduce in the first half of 2011.”

Hit the jump for the full press release.

SINGAPORE–(11/18/10)–Fusion Garage, a designer and developer of touch-screen computing devices, today announced it has expanded distribution channels via a vertical market reseller agreement with Osaka, Japan-based ASTEC Co. Ltd. Through the agreement, ASTEC will customize Fusion Garage’s first generation Internet tablet, joojoo, for corporate applications.  Fusion Garage will upgrade Joojoo’s internal storage capabilities to 16 gigabytes and ASTEC will customize joojoo’s operating system for business applications.  Resellers, such as ASTEC, are expected to utilize alternative operating systems such as Linux and Microsoft Windows in joojoo.

Fusion Garage is also in discussions with other resellers and systems integrators to distribute joojoo in vertical markets such as medical, transportation, logistics and others that take advantage of its 12.1 inch form factor.  The growing interest from vertical market resellers is anticipated to consume the remaining Joojoo inventory by the end of this year. As a result, Joojoo will no longer be available for direct-to-consumer sale via the Fusion Garage website as of November 19 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Standard Time (PST).  Fusion Garage remains committed to its joojoo customers and will continue support the device.  Additional information on customer support will be available in the coming weeks.

Simultaneously, Fusion Garage has announced plans for a next generation product line which will include a new operating system built in part on Google’s Android OS.  The new Fusion Garage products will not be backwardly compatible with joojoo nor will they carry the joojoo brand name.  Those products are expected to reach market in the first half of 2011.

“We are very pleased by the rapidly increasing vertical market interest in joojoo,” said Fusion Garage founder and CEO, Chandra Rathakrishnan.  “Companies such as ASTEC are able to do some very innovative customization of the product and enable joojoo to be used in business applications that go beyond our consumer focus.  At the same time, this marks the end of joojoo as a product and a brand for Fusion Garage.  We have learned a lot and will carry forward insight gained from joojoo to our new generation of products that we will introduce in the first half of 2011.”

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