Kev's Development Toolbox: Tech News Feed

First iPad ad online - shown during Oscars coverage last night

Kevin Hooke — 2010-03-08 08:17:29.0

Here's the first iPad TV ad: here

Still not sure if I actually need one. It would make a very smart digital picture frame though that can organize photos rather than just do a non-interactive slideshow.

Is Apple's legal action against HTC a little like Microsoft against SCO?

Kevin Hooke — 2010-03-04 08:30:51.0

I wonder what sparked Apple to start pursuing legal action against HTC for infringing on their iPhone technology related patents? And given that HTC is just one of many companies that are now producing Google Android powered phoned, why HTC in particular? Why not Google themselves, since HTC are using Android on the phones that I'm guessing this is what Apple are concerned with? Why not Motorola, Samsu...

Vista to EOL before XP

Kevin Hooke — 2010-02-26 08:16:18.0

Microsoft will pull the support plug on Vista on April 13, ahead of XP which will live on until July 13 this year.

In a way this is scary news for Vista owners, since this means you have no option but to upgrade to 7 if you want to keep up to date with security patches.

Top 25 most dangerous programming errors

Kevin Hooke — 2010-02-22 07:49:13.0

This list is updated annually as a collaborative effort between CWE and SANS: plenty for us all to learn here

Want to see a JavaFX app that potentially millions of people will be using in the coming weeks?

Kevin Hooke — 2010-02-17 08:06:32.0

The Winter Olympics 2010 website has a JavaFX app on their website for browsing the medals won by each country, and it looks pretty slick. You click on a Country and a fan wheel projects out with details of each of the athletes and the event they're competing in. There's a nice 'Powered by JavaFX' logo in the top right too :-)

Oracle completes acquisition of Sun - websites rebranded as Oracle

Kevin Hooke — 2010-02-03 07:49:21.0

Sometime at the end of last week, Sun websites started appearing with Oracle logos and branding, and *.sun.com websites are now redirecting to *.oracle.com websites.

Everyone has plenty of questions of course, so there's a useful faq here, along with confirmation that JavaOne will still occur this year, but will be rolled into OracleWorld, with ticket options to attend both or one or the ot...

Did Apple underdeliver with the iPad?

Kevin Hooke — 2010-01-28 08:26:14.0

The hype and speculation around what Apple was going to announce yesterday was quite incredible. The realty of it at the end of the day though was that everyone was expecting far more, something far more revolutionary and game changing, and instead we got a giant iPhone that's not even a phone.

I can't help but feel underwhelmed. I was ready with money in my pocket to run out and get one (the first model with WiFi only is available in 2 months, Wifi + 3G in 3 months), but now I've g...

Big day for both Oracle and Apple today (1/27/10)

Kevin Hooke — 2010-01-27 08:06:39.0

Sun will be announcing their plans for Sun & Java going forward at 9am PST today, and Apple are holding their press conference at 10am PST to announce what ever it is they are going to announce.

Based on all the iTable/iSlate/iPad rumors, here's some features that I would like to see:

multifinger gestures
proximity sensing interaction (popup menus as your finger approaches the screen?)
texture/tactile feedback
stream HD output wirelessly over...

Vimeo and YouTube among first to roll out HTML5 video player support

Kevin Hooke — 2010-01-25 08:23:15.0

HTML5 features are coming - the interesting thing is that the video player in HTML5 can be used to replace Flash based video players. Although Flash is used to enhance many websites, I wonder if it's primary/most widespread use is for Flash based video players? Wonder what this is going to do for Flash?

Will Apple's tablet announced next week be called the iPad?

Kevin Hooke — 2010-01-22 08:24:45.0

Up until now most people have been speculating the iSlate or iTablet - the iSlate since Apple registered this name a few years back as a trademark and also registered the islate.com and islate.co.uk domain names through an intermediary back in 2006. The interesting thing is while most articles have been talking about the iSlate or iTablet, last week there was an article on the local Sacramento TV news about the upcoming device an...