Can Oracle slip JavaFX on iOS past Apple?

Oracle's efforts to enable developers to run JavaFX software on Apple iOS devices could run afoul of Apple, if Apple's past rejections of Java on iOS are any guide. But a potential showdown could be a ways off, as it remains to be seen exactly how far Oracle goes with its plan and whether the arrangement will actually ruffle any feathers at Apple.

Oracle turned developers' heads last week, demonstrating a JavaFX-based game running on an IOS system at its JavaOne conference in San Francisco. The demonstration coincided with the release of JavaFX 2.0, an update of the Java-based multimedia application platform targeted at a variety of devices and form factors.

In the past, Apple has balked at allowing the JVM (Java Virtual Machine) -- the core technology enabling Java to run on various platforms -- on its devices. But Oracle believes it is being compliant in its efforts to back JavaFX on iOS.

"The way this works is by linking the JVM into the program," says Adam Messinger, vice president at Oracle. "We know of a lot of iOS programs that are built this way with other languages besides Objective-C already today [and that] are being pushed through the [Apple] App Store."

Messinger added, in Oracle's configuration, the setup "looks like a statically linked libc linked into the program and that whole thing is installed on the phone." The combination of JavaFX and iOS has not been discussed with Apple, he says. But Apple has given clearance to run JavaFX on the Macintosh, and it has greenlit Oracle's HTML5 efforts pertaining to iOS. Oracle last week showed its Project Avatar for dynamic rich clients, which has linked HTML5 and Java to iOS.

Oracle's JavaFX-on-iOS plans remain in an early phase, with Oracle using the conference demonstration to gauge interest in supporting JavaFX on devices such as iOS, Android, and Windows 8. Apple did not respond to repeated requests for an interview for this article. But iOS application developer and author Christopher Allen, founder of the iPhoneWebDev developer community, has his doubts that Apple would approve of Oracle's efforts.

"Their basic position is that they don't want the iPhone or ideally any of their platforms to be the least common denominator," Allen says. There has been a concern that interpreted languages will not offer the level of performance Apple wants for its devices, he explains. Also, the company specifically does not want its customers beholden to other company's deadlines and fixes, Allen says: "That's been kind of the problem with Flash."

Adobe is taking a similar tack as Oracle in getting Flash applications on iOS, with the Flash Player also not welcome on iOS devices. Adobe enables Flash applications to run on iOS via the Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR), a superset of Flash Player for running Flash outside of a browser.

Meanwhile, Oracle's JavaFX-on-iOS efforts have been lauded by the Java community.

Microsoft delivers IE 9.0.3 via Windows Update

Microsoft is making available via Windows Update a refreshed version of its Internet Explorer (IE) 9 browser that incorporates a number of recently-released security fixes.

Starting on October 12, he October 2011 Cumulative Security Update (IE 9.0.3) is available on Windows Update. It will be delivered automatically to users who have Automatic Updates turned on. Microsoft is recommending administrators and others who apply manually updates to apply the refresh immediately using the Microsoft Update Service or other management software.

IE 9.0.3 resolves a number of privately reported vulnerabilities in IE 6, 7, 8 and 9, according to an October 12 blog post on the IE Blog.

According to the blog post, “the most severe vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user views a specially crafted Web page using Internet Explorer. An attacker who successfully exploited any of these vulnerabilities could gain the same user rights as the local user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less affected than users who operate with administrative user rights.”

Microsoft labeled the IE security update as “critical for those using IE 9 on Windows clients and “moderate” for those using IE on Windows servers.

Microsoft pushed out similar cumulative updates for IE 9 with IE 9.0.1 in June 2011, and IE 9.0.2 in August 2011.

Microsoft published information on the latest round of IE vulnerabilities the same week that the company launched a marketing campaign for IE 9 that revolved around Microsoft’s own claims that IE 9 is more secure than Chrome or Firefox.

Hosted VoIP - Hosted VoIP: QoS Serves as Traffic Cop for Network Congestion

When downloading and uploading e-mail and websites, and streaming audio and videos, and more, users today demand one thing, and one thing only: speed.

While even the largest broadband connections, which often run voice and/or video and data on the same connection, can become congested, no Internet connection is near-perfect – unless QoS (quality of service) and CoS (class of service) are involved.

Therefore, if your data network lacks proper QoS and CoS, it’s comparable to a minor traffic jam on a highway. And everyone, especially commuters, know it’s not a fun way to spend your morning or evening.

According to hosted VoIP company RealLinx, a network can be seen as a highly congested superhighway during rush hour. While the regular, everyday vehicles stuck on this highway will certainly experience delays, emergency vehicles are able to pass through unrestricted. However, the only way for them to do so successfully is to have “traffic cops” placed on both sides of the congestion.

In this case, your emergency vehicles are the voice and video running through your network. The “traffic cop,” or QoS, provided by a hosted VoIP company like RealLinx, can mitigate the delays faced by these “emergency vehicles” so that they avoid a bombardment of quality issues including stutter, garble, echo, cut-outs, and more.

As opposed to many companies who claim they offer a QoS solution by implementing rules on hardware at a client’s site, which would only be putting a traffic cop on only one side of the traffic jam, RealLinx solves the entire problem by implementing QoS and CoS on both the customer side and the carrier side.

By putting a “traffic cop” on both sides, traffic is properly managed in both directions so when a voice or video packet does end up entering the network from either direction, it instantly designates it as a priority and sends it through while the data packets wait.

So, worst case scenario is you have access to perfectly streamed voice and video, but a delayed e-mail by only a few seconds. And we know a delayed e-mail is not your worst problem.

VoIP Provider Voip-Pal Sets its Sights on India

In an effort to better position its services and products and strengthen its global presence, Voip-Pal announced that it will begin developing a potentially profitable sales channel to India.

Voip-Pal, a broadband VoIP provider of local and long-distance telephone services for next generation devices, first unveiled its Joint Venture Licensing Agreement with two website domains www.RupeeChat.com and www.RupeePhone.com on Aug. 14, 2008.  RupeeChat.com and RupeePhone.com are licensed by Voip-Pal to host its technology on its websites and will operate as an Indian version of PointsPhone.com. Today, with Voip-Pal's current cloud server, softswitch platform and implementing the latest smartphone mobile apps available, Voip-Pal is ready to finish the development of these new sales channels to India, according to company officials.

"India's market potential is huge," said Dennis Chang, president of Voip-Pal, in a statement.  "India is the second largest English speaking country in the world with a potential of almost a billion buyers.  Travelers and Expatriates from India who need to communicate with friends, family and business in India will be our target market.  Development has started with our Indian partners to build a social network site as well as a VoIP calling site to target this market.”

“Although this is a niche market, it represents tremendous revenue potential through a new sales channel for Voip-Pal,” he added. “Through RupeeChat and RupeePhone, we will have an exclusive Indian social and chat network for east and west communication that will rely on Voip-Pal's products and services, thus increasing our revenue potential."

VoIP is still a relatively new to India as prior to 2002 VoIP in any form was banned from India. In April of 2002, the Indian government finally allowed VoIP to enter the country albeit in a limited manner. And, in late 2008, after years of crack down on VoIP and internet telephony, India's telecom regulators began the process of allowing unrestricted internet telephony and VoIP.  

Now, vendors such as Voip-Pal see India as an untapped market and one that is potentially huge. There are an estimated 20 to 25 million Indian immigrants recorded worldwide of which 15 percent live in North America alone.  Indian immigrants generally stay in touch with contacts in their homeland India, and it is this niche market that Voip-Pal will be targeting, according to Voip-Pal.

In other industry news, wholesale VoIP company Alcazar Networks has a whole host of services it can list on its resume including wholesale origination, wholesale termination, local termination, dialer termination and toll free termination; but there is an additional service that the company wants to spread the word about – its CNAM services.

Alcazar Networks, which was founded in 2003, provides a wide range of services and targets companies looking for wholesale origination, wholesale termination, T38 fax compatibility, nationwide e911, CNAM publishing and lookups, directory listings and API based configurations all from one company.

Microsoft and Nokia push Windows Phone porting tool

Microsoft and Nokia are wooing Symbian developers, offering them help in porting applications to Windows Phone ahead of the launch of the Finnish company's first smartphone based on Microsoft's platform.

When Nokia in February announced that Windows Phone would be its primary smartphone OS, the company also made it clear that its existing development environment would not be ported to work with Microsoft's OS. That would just fragment that environment, which would be repeating mistakes of the past, a Nokia spokesman said at the time.

However, to make sure that its old supporters are prepared to start writing apps for Windows Phone, Symbian Qt has been added to the Windows Phone API mapping tool, Nokia said in a blog post on Wednesday.

The mapping tool serves as a translation dictionary between the Windows Phone platform and other mobile OSes. It also helps developers port applications from Apple's iOS and Google's Android. The tool allows developers who are familiar with APIs from other platforms to see the equivalent class, method or notification events inside Windows Phone, according to Nokia.

For developers that have not worked with Windows Phone before, Nokia recommends reading "Windows Phone Guide for Symbian Qt Application Developers," which the company has authored with Microsoft.

Nokia is expected to launch its first Windows Phone or phones at the Nokia World conference on Oct. 26, and start shipping at least one product before the end of the year.

Apple publishes guide on how to set up iCloud

Those of you trying to figure out to how to tap into Apple's iCloud now that the service is officially up and running can turn to the company's setup guide.

The newly released guide explains how to get the online service working on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, as well as on a Mac or PC, a process that apparently can be confusing.

To start off, you'll need to upgrade iTunes to version 10.5 and then upgrade your Apple gadget to iOS 5. The iOS 5 install may itself be the first challenge since some users have bumped into technical problems trying to install Apple's updated mobile OS. An attempt this morning to upgrade my iPod Touch to iOS 5 turned the device into a brick. I had to run a Restore to get all my data back and to update the OS.

Assuming you can get iOS 5 working without any hiccups, the next step is simply to follow a series of onscreen directions that will pop up on your device to set up your iCloud access. After opting in to iCloud, you can choose to back up your device on a daily basis via Wi-Fi.

You can then customize your iCloud settings by selecting which services you want and choose the specific content you wish to back up to the cloud. You can also enable automatic downloads, which means that any music, apps, or books you buy via iTunes are automatically sent to and synced among all of your iOS devices and computers.

Once iCloud is set up on your mobile device, you'll have to get it cooking on your computer.

Mac users need to be running the latest version of OS X Lion (version 10.7.2 or later) to fully interact with all of the features in iCloud. After you've updated Lion, open the iCloud icon that appears in System Preferences, enter your Apple ID, and then choose the iCloud services you want to enable. You can also set up Photo Stream in either iPhoto or Aperture, which can store recent photos in the cloud and then sync them among your mobile devices. Finally, you can turn on automatic downloads to sync your music, apps, and books among your devices.

Windows users must be running either Windows Vista Service Pack 2 or Windows 7 to tap into iCloud. You'll first have to download and install the iCloud Control Panel for Windows. You can then open iCloud from Windows Control Panel, type in your Apple ID, and then check the services you want to enable. As on the Mac, you can turn on automatic downloads to sync certain content.

I ran through through the entire series of steps on my iPod Touch (once it was unbricked) and my Windows 7 PC. Though it wasn't the most user friendly process, it did move forward without anymore glitches, allowing me to set up and customize my access to iCloud.

Apple offers you 5GB of free cloud storage, and you can pay for more by choosing from among three upgrade plans--10GB for $20 a year, 20GB for $40 a year, or 50GB for $100 a year.

CNET Reviews MacFixIt OS X 10.7.2: What it fixed and what it didn't

When OS X Lion was released there were a few outstanding bugs that users noticed and emailed me about or described on the Apple Discussion boards. Initially Apple quickly released the OS X 10.7.1 update to address some of these quickly, but this was mainly to fix immediate compatibility and did not address some prominent issues that users were experiencing.

Since the 10.7.1 release in mid-August, Apple has had several months to address some of the major bugs affecting users that we have covered, so let's see what has been addressed by Apple so far:

1. MacBook Pro black-screen bug (not fixed)
   The issue where mid 2010 MacBook Pro systems crash to a black screen has not been addressed. My suspicion about this problem is that it is hardware-based and will not benefit much from changes to the software, but we will have to wait and see. Apple is aware of it and working on a fix.


2. LDAP authentication vulnerability (fixed)
   A rather significant security hole was found in Lion 10.7.0 and 10.7.1 that allowed LDAP user accounts to change the passwords of other user accounts, and also log into those accounts without any passwords. Apple has addressed this issue, and now passwords can no longer be looked up or changed.


3. Finder Icon reorganization (fixed)
   A number of people found that in Lion their icon organization and settings on the desktop and other windows in Icon view would change randomly, especially after restarting or logging out and logging back in. The problem appears to have been addressed so icons should stay in their proper locations.


4. Poor battery life on laptops (helped)
   With initial versions of Lion, people found battery life on laptop systems was cut to about a quarter or a third of the battery life in Snow Leopard. Apple has significantly increased this for people, so even if battery life is not at its Snow Leopard value, it should be much improved. If you wish to improve your laptop's battery life, read our tips on getting the most out of your battery.


5. Window organization bug (not fixed)
   The rare but annoying problem of windows sometimes getting jumbled together after using Mission Control or other window management features does not appear to have been addressed.


6. TextEdit appending .txt to files (fixed)
   Apple's TextEdit program developed an annoying habit of changing file types to TXT, resulting in frustrations when editing property lists, html files, or other code files. This has been fixed in 10.7.2; the program should now properly observe and handle file-type extensions.


7. Wi-Fi dropout woes (mixed bag)
   Wi-Fi issues seem to always follow OS updates, and for the latest bout of them with Lion the 10.7.2 update has fixed problems for some people, not changed them for others, and introduced new ones for yet others. If you are having Wi-Fi connectivity problems with your OS X system, try the suggestions in our instructions for troubleshooting Wi-Fi autoconnect problems in Lion.


8. Touchy HDMI output (mixed bag)
   Apple has updated its graphics drivers in OS X 10.7.2, and as with the Wi-Fi problems, some people are noticing improvements to HDMI connectivity whereas others are noticing new issues like sound not working properly with HDMI.

'iPad Mini' to take on Kindle Fire?

An industry source who speaks with the Asia-based tabletsupply chain told CNET that chatter is picking up for a 7-inch Apple tablet. Maybe not coincidentally, that's the same size of Amazon's $199 tablet that's will ship on November 15.

Other reports, however, say that "Mini" doesn't necessarily refer to the size but simply the lower price point, possibly the mid-$200 range.

The late Apple CEO Steve Jobs summarily dismissed the notion of a 7-inch tablet during an earnings conference call in October of last year.

"Apple has done extensive user testing and we really understand this stuff...There are clear limits on how close you can place things on a touch screen, which is why we think 10 inch is the minimum screen size to create great tablet apps," Jobs said at the time.

"It's meaningless unless your tablet also includes sandpaper, so that the user can sand down their fingers to around one quarter of their present size," he added.

Jobs' protests notwithstanding, at the time more than a few analysts said Apple was close to bringing out a product.

And the tablet market is changing. Apple may have to change along with it. Smaller 7-inch and 8.9-inch tablets from Samsung, HTC, RIM and others are prevalent now. And if the Kindle Fire approaches the iPad in sales--which analysts say is possible--that would make smaller, cheaper tablets a category that rivals the 10-inch iPad in popularity.

Samsung and Google reschedule Ice Cream Sandwich announcement to October 19

Thanks to a handy little email from Samsung PR we now know the new date and location for the Samsung and Google announcement. The announcement included a picture of an ice cream sandwich so it appears the rumors about a Samsung device running the new Android OS are true. The event will be held in Hong Kong on October 19 at 10AMwhich will be October 18 at 10PM EST thanks to the time difference, and will be live streamed on YouTube.

The original event was to be held this week, but was postponed and Samsung cited the death of Steve Jobs as the reason for the delay. In a teaser video for the event there is a profile image of a device with fairly curved screen, but there isn’t much else that can be learned from the video. We were lucky enough to see a few leaked technical specifications for the phone, and it sounds like an extremely robust device.

There is also a leaked video of Ice Cream Sandwich loaded on a phone, which very possibly is the next Nexus phone. The phone in the video does not have the normal Android buttons and appears to have a curved display. It is hard to tell if the phone’s screen matches the rumored 4.65-inch 1280 x 720-pixel Super AMOLED HD, but the screen doesn’t look small.

The next Nexus phone is rumored to be released in the U.S. exclusively on Verizon, for at least a short time. Of course with the timing of the event coming just after the massive Amazon Verizon phone sale new Verizon users will have to weigh the pros on cons of holding out on getting a Droid Bionic for only a penny prior to hearing about the Nexus phone.

Google to pair Music Beta with MP3 store

Google is said to be planning a launch of an MP3 download service; a counterpart to Apple’s upcoming streaming product and Amazon’s Cloud Drive. The search giant is currently stuck in negotiations with major record labels.

The New York Times was the first to report on the matter, pointing out that Google would most likely be combining the Music Beta product—first launched in May—with the upcoming MP3 store. TheMusic Beta allows users to back up songs remotely and stream on mobile devices; a competitor to Amazon’s Cloud Drive service, as well as Apple’s upcoming iCloud.

Google is hoping to launch the MP3 store service within weeks, perhaps before Apple makesiMatch available later on in the season, but its not clear whether the search company can finalize the deals in time. A Google spokeswoman declined to comment.

Google and Amazon initially went ahead with their locker services without partnerships from music labels. Though locker services were legally absolved of piracy issues a couple months ago in the MP3tunes case, the lack of cooperation from record labels who are wary of piracy issues with remote music storage is not helping Google’s product.

Apple has an edge over Amazon and Google, having secured licenses from the big 4 music companies: Sony Music, Warner Music, Universal Music and EMI. Google wants to offer an efficient and comprehensive service, but according to the WSJ, the runt of the litter, EMI, is the only one close to a deal for catalog licensing with Google. The other three major music companies are continuing with talk s over copyright issues.

Music Beta was launched earlier this year and is currently invitation only. Google’s cloud product is free, compared to the $25 iCloud and $20 Cloud Drive. Users have the ability to upload 20,000 songs, including iTunes music.

Nintendo DS the best-selling game system in U.S. history with 50 million units

Nintendo reports that its DS handheld has sold 50 million units in the US, making it the best-selling system in the country.

In March 2009, Nintendo sold its 100 millionth DS system on a worldwide basis, but today the handheld game system set an impressive record in the United States: it crossed the 50 million marker, making it the best-selling video game system in U.S. history. This means that it has outsold systems like the PlayStation, PlayStation 2, and Nintendo’s own Game Boy line.

“The Nintendo DS forever changed the gaming landscape, and the fact that consumers continue to embrace the platform is a testament to its value and mass appeal,” said Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing.

Nintendo also used its press release to tout recent sales of its Nintendo 3DS. In September, the handheld posted sales of 260,000 units, besting its August total by 10 percent. Amid months of poor sales, Nintendo drastically cut the price of the 3DS by $80 (to $170) in August. Since then, the tide appears to be turning for the system. Recently, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3Dbecame the first 3DS game to sell more than 500,000 copies in the United States. 

Though Microsoft’s Xbox 360 sales exceeded 430,000 units in September, Nintendo didn’t have an all bad month. The Nintendo DS sold 145,000 units and the Wii sold 240,000, bringing Nintendo’s total hardware sales for the month to 647,000. Not bad, but can the 3DS keep up the momentum?