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LG at work on WebOS-based HDTV, report says

The the slow pendulum swing toward the smart TV is about to hit WebOS.

LG has teamed up with Gram, the organization established by HP to handle the WebOS project, to create a television that will be running on the open-source operating system, according to a new report from WebOS Nation. That blog reports that LG and Gram have been working closely for several months on the project.

The road to Gram has been a long and hard one for HP. In 2010, the company made the ill-advised decision to acquire Palm for $1.2 billion. After a few product … Read more

Five Web sites for businesses to create Passbook passes

Whether you're a small business or an individual who wants to create a pass for Passbook, unless you have a lot of technical knowledge, it's not going to be an easy journey. There are a lot of moving parts that come together to create a pass for Passbook. Certificates, the actual coding of the pass, signing it, distributing and tracking it are just a few of those parts.

Instead of investing countless hours and money into developing a pass, it may be easier to use a service to streamline the process and prevent any headaches you would likely … Read more

Google releases Web site speedup software

As part of its "make the Web fast" effort, Google has released version 1.0 of a module designed to improve the very widely used Apache software that's very widely used to host Web sites.

The Apache Software Foundation's flagship project is Web server software that delivers Web pages to people's browsers when they request it. It can be extended, and Google believes its mod_pagespeed extension for Apache is ready for use, Google said in a blog post.

"Users prefer faster sites and we have seen that faster pages lead to higher user engagement, … Read more

Pulling back from open source hardware, MakerBot angers some adherents

You likely know MakerBot Industries as the poster child for the new era of 3D-printing. You might not know that, until last week, the company and its CEO, Bre Pettis, were considered shining lights in the open-source hardware movement.

Think of open-source hardware, OSHW, as the physical equivalent of open source software. The Open Source Hardware Association, founded just this past March, offers an extended definition for OSHW. Its Statement of Principles sums things up thusly:

Open source hardware is hardware whose design is made publicly available so that anyone can study, modify, distribute, make, and sell the design or … Read more

Rumor Has It: The next next big thing is almost here?

The iPhone 5 should be arriving on millions of doorsteps any moment now (hopefully), so it's time to tally up the scorecards and see how we did. Did we vote that it'd get a bigger screen? How about NFC? Watch the video above and see how we did and how you guys did at home.

Also this week, the next big thing might already be here, but you know what might be coming really soon? The next big thing after the next big thing. What? Also, someone could have a Pandora rival up its sleeves. Bet you can'… Read more

What users are saying about open clouds

Cloud openness, and what "open" means exactly in the context of cloud computing -- whether on-premise or in a public cloud--are hot topics at the CloudOpen conference, which is being held by the Linux Foundation in San Diego this week. CloudOpen is a new event being run in parallel with LinuxCon.

That those on stage and in the audience at this event favor openness is hardly news. Nor is the fact that an open cloud is a challenge that goes beyond open source. During a panel moderated by Red Hat's John Mark Walker, Greg DeKoenigsberg of Eucalyptus … Read more

Forget LinkedIn: Companies turn to GitHub to find tech talent

LinkedIn is so 2011.

In the red-hot market for skilled software engineers, companies looking to make great hires are discovering that relying on traditional services that showcase candidates' work histories -- but not their actual work -- is a great way to miss out on the best available talent.

These days, there's a new game in town -- GitHub, a place where hiring managers and recruiters alike are increasingly turning to find not just the potential employees who look best on paper, but the ones that actively (and publicly) demonstrate their capabilities.

Last month, Andreessen Horowitz, one of the … Read more

The 404 1,106: Where the legend continues (podcast)

We've heard stories about 3D printers being used for both good and evil, but we're not sure how to categorize a company in Japan offering pregnant women a 3D-printed model of their unborn fetuses. Gross. Other stories on today's podcast include a crowdsourced funding site for porn, Amazon accidentally shipping assault rifles, and a sealed first-gen iPhone hitting eBay for $10,000.

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Japanese companies offer a 3D-printed model of your unborn child.

- Offbeatr is the Kickstarter for porn.

- DC resident orders TV on Amazon, gets assault rifle instead.

- Sealed first-gen iPhone hits eBay for $10,000.

Bathroom break video: Olympic nutcracking… Read more

Free-software activists hope for detained engineer's freedom

Computer engineer Bassel Khartabil has dedicated himself to making software free and open for years, and now his friends are asking for his freedom from the Syrian government's detention.

Khartabil was reportedly taken in an ambush on March 15 -- the first anniversary of the Syrian uprising -- during massive arrests. And while it's unclear why Khartabil was detained, activists say the government is known to take people randomly and without reason. It is a scary time, particularly for those who are willing to gather and share information, according to activists.

The 16-month old Syrian crisis has claimed … Read more

Google releases Android 4.1 source code

In a sweet treat for modders and developers, Google has released the source code for Android 4.1, aka Jelly Bean.

The source code for the latest version of Google's mobile operating system was released today as part of the Android Open Source Project, Jean-Baptiste M. "JBQ" Queru, lead engineer on the project, said in a company blog post.

"We recommend that you create new clients, even if you're working in the master branch," Queru said. "It'll make your clients smaller and faster to sync."

In addition, he noted that proprietary … Read more