Just keeps getting better – the Audacity team has released another update to their popular cross-platform, open source digital audio editing application. The Audacity 1.3.x beta line features a ton of options that aren’t available in the 1.2.x stable versions. For example, it’s much easier to move sound files from one track to another or to split and manipulate audio tracks.

Audacity 1.3.4 beta features a ton of small, but important updates, including:

• A new welcome screen
• Enhanced Windows Shell integration, meaning you should be able to access Audacity from Windows dialogs like “open with.”
• New keyboard commands and shortcuts
• The solo track button actually does what you’d expect and mutes all other tracks
• Metadata editor added for OGG, FLAC, and WAV/AIFF exports

As usual, Audacity 1.3.4 beta is available for Linux and Windows platforms, though for OS X is still 1.3.3 beta. More info here can be found here.

Last month, following the availability of Ubuntu 7.10 “Gutsy Gibbon” was the release of Mythbuntu 7.10. Mythbuntu is an Ubuntu derivative and has been around for less than a year, but they have been making great progress with this MythTV-optimized distribution.

After using Mythbuntu 7.10 extensively, this is the best MythTV distribution we have used. This just isn’t Ubuntu (or rather Xubuntu) with the MythTV packages installed by default and the changed artwork, but the Mythbuntu team has driven real innovation into this distribution. The Mythbuntu Control Center is the most advanced and feature-rich MythTV control area we have ever seen and is certainly a handy utility for any Mythbuntu user. The live front-end was also great and worked very well during our testing. At first we were unsure of all this automation that Mythbuntu provides, after being used to manually configuring MythTV for years and only mild success from other MythTV distributions, but Mythbuntu really hits the head on the nail with Mythbuntu 7.10. If you’re looking to assemble a MythTV setup, Mythbuntu is definitely worth considering.

Review @phoronix

MPlayer is one of the most popular Linux/Unix media player … we all know that, don’t we. Now, thanks to XDA-Developers forum member amitv_17, the porting to Windows Mobile has started.

It’s available HERE, in the official XDA-Devs thread and is, of course, a free download. It seems to be compatible with most WM5 and WM6 Pocket PC’s and Smartphones. For now at least it seems it’s incompatible with pre-WM5 operating systems .

The goods:

1. a HUGE arsenal of codecs and communications protocols already available; in this respect, it’s even better than CorePlayer (which, as of now, doesn’t support RTSP, albeit it will really soon be added)!
2. supports even RealAudio / RealVideo, unlike CorePlayer / TCPMP / ANY other Windows Mobile player (Note that the CoreCodec folks have announced (before the port of MPlayer) that they would never add RealOne support to CorePlayer because it’s a proprietary format).
3. alternative HTTP tunneling with RTSP; working just GREAT with RealAudio streams! In this respect, it’s even better than RealPlayer on Symbian S60v3 FP1 (for example, the one that comes with the Nokia N95), because not even the latter supports HTTP RealOne audio/video streaming, “only” for MPEG4 video streaming (unlike HTC’s own and, in this respect, really incapable Streaming Media on Windows Mobile)
4. supports real (UDP-based) RTSP, which means better bandwidth utilization than with HTTP tunneling. Of course, it also means you must have direct access or a capable Wi-Fi network. This will only later be added to CorePlayer.
5. supports both (most) Pocket PC and MS Smartphone models (unfortunately, WM5+ only)

Given that it’s the first version, pretty much promising.

The bads (for now):

1. HUGE CPU usage when playing back streamed audio! This means it’ll chew through your battery very fast .
2. bad MP3 playback, very sensitive to CPU usage peaks
3. no WMA support (better to have one since this is Windows Mobile platform after all)
4. very-very rudimentary interface
5. problems with streaming MPEG4 videos
6. local (as opposed to streamed) MPEG4 videos do work. They are, however, very choppily played back; CPU usage is pretty bad, too.

So for the mean time the verdict is that it’s certainly nice to welcome Mplayer on Windows Mobile. It’s a far cry away from established media players, particularly video playback-wise, typically considering the raw CPU performance I can get from my TI OMAP 200Mhz (even when o/c to 260-273%) [HTC Artemis] when decoding. For now though I am sticking with TCPMP/Core Player.

Download armv4 version of Mplayer this should run on all devices

Download armv5te version of Mplayer this should run on all omap850+ devices

All-in-all, this is GREAT news and is definitely something to keep an eye on!

BTW, out of curiousity, how many of you use Windows Mobile – PDA’s and/or phones. If not, then which mobile are you using?

E17 enlightenment running the the OpenMoko Neo1973. If you don’t know, Enlightenment is a popular UI for desktop distributions of Linux, and it appears someone was able throw it onto the Neo with impressive results. Practical or not, it is still really cool. BTW, OpenMoko and Android are competitors when it comes to Mobile 2.0.

Open source software (OSS) is not so much the underdog in the IT world, according survey findings announced by Barracuda Networks, a provider of e-mail and Web security appliances. Barracuda polled 288 IT security professionals and found their preferences to be roughly split on the likelihood of deploying OSS versus proprietary software, particularly for applications with similar functionality. The OSS option actually had a small lead in the survey results, with 53 percent expressing a preference for open source versus 47 percent opting for commercial solutions.

The reasons IT professionals favored open source over proprietary software:

• 80% for price
• 57% for availability of code
• 41% for community code reviews

The reasons IT professional favored proprietary software over open source:

• 65% quality of support
• 47% ease of adoption
• 47% automated software updates

Interesting poll, I can certainly see the arguments for both sides, at least consumers now have a viable choice.

I know … it is illegal to run hackintosh macintosh OS X on any other x86/PPC platform other than “Apples” … but then again I did it just for fun and to show coolness (mine and OS X) to friends. But still, ain’t that COOL … I mean running nearly 100% working version of OS X 10.4.10 (even updated it using Apple’s Update Utility) on an AMD Athlon64 based system.

One PC able to run several OS – Linux, Solaris, Windows and now OS X …. that wasn’t possible just few years ago, on a desktop computer and so smoothly, if you know what I mean.

One thing for sure, even though I consider Linux to be my choice of OS, I gotta say that OS X is the best breed that desktop OS has to offer. Now only if I can manage to run Leo on this hardware to have even more fun.

Don’t worry, still sticking with Linux :-p

“While I contemplate the fate of our desktop PC, my wife is chomping at the bit to get back online; I told her she could use my Dell Inspiron notebook. She asked if it also was a Windows XP machine. When I said it was, her reply was prompt and emphatic: “Never mind.” – Admin @TechIQmag

Are you considering an enterprise-wide switch from a Microsoft operating system to Linux? Or are you using Linux already and want to know how your distro stacks up against others? From cost savings to security to interoperability, developers of four leading Linux distros tell, in their own words, why they are best for business use today.

Mark Shuttleworth, founder of the Ubuntu Project, lists his Top Ten Reasons Why Ubuntu Is Best for Enterprise Use, including ease of use and licensing costs.

In Red Hat Enterprise Linux: The Business OS for Flexibility and Value, Red Hat CTO Brian Stevens details why Red Hat 5 is the choice for reducing operating costs and providing a secure, reliable, scalable operating system.

While Novell’s General Manager Roger Levy claims in SUSE Linux Enterprise: The Leading OS for Business Today that the SUSE distro helps customers lower costs, manage complexity and mitigate risk, clearly making it the best operating system for business today.

And Max Spevack, Fedora Project leader, touts the benefits of The Fedora OS: Free, Stable and Customizable.

– cio.com

Android is a newly released software stack for mobile devices from Google that includes an operating system, middleware and key applications. It’s open source and based on the Linux kernel and on version 2.6 for core system services such as security, memory management, process management, network stack, and driver model. The kernel also acts as an abstraction layer between the hardware and the rest of the software stack.

I. Installing and running Android Emulator

To try out the Android emulator, download and unzip the Linux SDK package. The emulator executable is located in the tools subdirectory. Run the emulator executable and Android will boot up. Run ./emulator -help in a terminal to see a list of options. The -skin options lets you select a skin from the tools/lib/images/skins directory.

Optionally, you can add $SDK_ROOT/tools to your path: edit your ~/.bash_profile or ~/.bashrc file. Look for a line that sets the PATH environment variable and add the full path to your $SDK_ROOT/tools to it. If you don’t see a line setting the path, you can add one:

export PATH=${PATH}:

Adding $SDK_ROOT/tools to your path lets you run Android Debug Bridge (adb) and the other command line tools without needing to supply the full path to the tools directory. Note that, if you update your SDK, you should remember to update your PATH settings to point to the new location, if different.

II. Installing and running APK files on Android Emulator

By installing APK-files to an Android device emulator you will be able to test already now all new application which will start to appear soon. When the actual Android-powered devices will appear (approximately beginning of 2008), they must be also compatible with already available till then applications. You do not need Eclipse or Eclipse-plugin the Android Development Tools (ADT), unless you are planning software development for Android, but are not necessary for application evaluation on emulator.

Download and save locally a APK-file which you want to install/evaluate on the emulator. We recommend to save the APK file directly in the $SDK_ROOT/tools directory.

Note: APK probably stands for “Android package”. It’s an application distribution unit in the Android environment. If you are coming from the Windows Mobile world, this of APK as of CAB-files.

Ok, now start the console (”Start -> Run… -> type ‘cmd’” for Windows computers). Type-in the following command: adb install $APK where $APK is the name of the APK file. For example: adb install Snake.apk

If you receive a “path not found” error, then you probably either didn’t add path to the $SDK_ROOT/tools directory to your system PATH settings or the application you are trying to install is not in the $SDK_ROOT/tools directory.

If all went without errors then you should be seeing your newly installed APK on the emulator.

Here is a cool video of Android Emu running on Linux:

Thanks to Android team for the info. For more info head to official page.

P.S.>> Wondering if it will be possible to run it, via flashing (in future), on my HTC Artemis P3300 phone.

Little old stat but still … Distrowatch Weekly Newsletter noted back in it’s 13th August 2007 issue that Asia is fast catching up with the readership of Distrowatch.com website, which roughly translates to a keen interest in keeping in touch with, and downloading, various GNU/Linux and BSD distributions. The following table should shed some light on this development:

Number of visits from Japan were very high even in 2006 but the increase in visits from India over just seven months since then is remarkable. The above four countries(other than Japan) have registered around 50% increase in the same period, India leading the table by a big margin. This is what Distrowatch has to say about it:

“While Japan has been maintaining the top position since the beginning of this web site, it’s interesting to note the dramatic growth of readership in the two most populous countries in the world – China and India. With a handful of exceptions, the number of readers visiting DistroWatch has been on the increase and a total number of Asian-based readers have grown by more than 20% since a year ago.”

Source – Distrowatch