RIM considered the possibility of developing Android smartphones

Thorsten Heins, CEO of RIM, has recently released a very interesting detail: company even considered the possibility of neglecting the BlackBerry operating system and start working with another popular platform, Android.
Finally, the idea was scrapped and instead chose to continue developing its own platform, which probably led to the development of BlackBerry 10, which as has been said lately could be offered to other companies making phones .
Returning to the subject, while Android may have saved enough time to RIM as far as development is concerned, Heins believes that Android is a platform-oriented entertainment, the game already media, and serves to provide the user experience look who use BlackBerry, which implies that the BB platform is "more serious" than that developed by Google .
What do you think would have happened if RIM chose to use Android? For now we will see what happens with the BlackBerry exit 10, and time will tell if the company made the right bet.

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55% of users feel "uncomfortable" if you can not access Facebook

 

A new study says that 55 percent of users feel "uncomfortably or upset" if you can not access their Facebook profile during the day, and more than 60 percent of users surveyed feel compelled to shut down the computer and other mobile devices to have a break.
Social networks have managed to occupy much of the time users spend online. In addition, because mobile devices connection times increase as users can access social networks anytime, anywhere. However, too much time users spend on Facebook or Twitter can bring a number of problems.
A new study by the School of Business at the University of Salford in Manchester (UK)-picked up by the British newspaper The Telegraph, says that 53 percent of respondents who use social networks have changed their behavior and 50 percent believe that change for the worse.
Generally, those who suffered a negative impact of social media say their confidence fell after comparing their achievements with their friends online.
Two thirds of users surveyed say they have found it difficult to sleep after spending time on these sites and a quarter said it has had difficulties in their relationships or their place of work after having had discussions online through social networks.
The study also reveals the addictive power of the Internet, and that 55 percent of users say they feel "uncomfortable or upset" when they can access their Facebook profiles or your email account.
More than 60 percent of people said they felt compelled to put their devices in order to have a break and a third of respondents said even those devices on and off several times a day.
To perform the study, researchers at the University of Salford has made 298 surveys of Internet users.
Related links:
- The Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/9383609/Facebook-and-Twitter-feed-anxiety-study-finds.html).

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Open Source : After Install Operating System

This weekend I finished setting up a fresh triple-boot install on my MSI laptop. With my operating systems ready to go, the time had come to start reinstalling applications. While it wasn't a conscious decision, I noticed that the majority of my apps were Open Source - so I decided to keep the ball rolling.

Even if you haven't just gone through a reformat, these are great applications and well worth installing. If you have, then hopefully this list will provide you with a solid base of programs to get you started with your fresh, new Windows install!

Web Browsers: Chromium, Firefox
They excel at different things, so I install both browsers by default. Chromium is great for all-purpose surfing, while I use Firefox and my favorite extensions to tackle my daily web-based work.

Office: OpenOffice.Org, Sumatra, PDFCreator
For lightweight PDF reading and creation from any Windows app, Sumatra and PDFCreator are solid options. OpenOffice.Org, well, it's the name to beat in open source suites.

Media: Songbird, VLC, Handbrake, DVD Flick
I've been using VLC for ages, and it does everything I need as my video player of choice. Audio duties I leave up to Songbird, which has matured into a fantastic application over the past two years. I use Handbrake to, uh, rip my non-encrypted, personal DVDs. DVD Flick lets me burn said rips back onto a disc.

File Transfer: Free Download Manager, Cabos, eMule
FDM is a very underrated torrent app, and it has plenty of other download-boosting abilities as well. I chose it over Vuze because I need FDM's extras (partial zips, Flash downloading, Rapidshare integration) more than Vuze's additional media-handling chops. Cabos trims Limewire down to the bare minimum for the occasional one-off Gnutella download. As for eMule, I use it to find things that I can't find elsewhere.

Imaging: ZScreen, Inkscape, Gimphoto/GimPad, Flickr Uploadr
If you're comfortable with Photoshop but looking for a free alternative, go with Gimphoto instead of Gimp – the interface is very Adobe-esque. For vector image jobs, Inkscape can't be beat. ZScreen handles my screen captures and Flickr Uploadr, well, it does what it says.

Burning and Backup: Infrarecorder, WinCDEmu, Bonkey, and DirSyncPro
These three apps make short work of mounting disc image files, burning just about anything, syncing folders, and keeping a current copy of your files in a safe location.

Messaging and Social Networking: Pidgin and Spaz
Don't sic Mr. Stallman on me – I know Spaz is built on Adobe Air, but the client itself is open. As for multi-protocol messaging apps, Pidgin is a tough bird to beat.

Maintenance and Utilities: 7zip, Belvedere, Ultra Defrag, Disk Cleaner, TrueCrypt
Lifehacker's Belvedere is a great way to organize your files and folders with minimal effort. Ultra Defrag and Disk Cleaner (and a handful of helpful plugins) keep your hard drive clutter free and performing its best. 7zip waits in your context menu to extract files from (or cram files into) archives of all kinds. For encrypting files, folders, or entire volumes, Truecrypt is fast and reliable.

Desktop Enhancements: RocketDock, Launchy, Virtual Dimension
You don't really need both RocketDock and Launchy. If you prefer eye candy, go with Rocket Dock. If you're a keyboard magician, go with Launchy. I run Virtual Dimension because my forays into Linux have me hooked on the benefits of virtual desktops.

Games: AssaultCube, Enigma, FreeCiv, LexJongg, LinCity, Neverball, Nexuiz, PokerTH, TORCS, Tremulous, WinSudoku, Wormux, Zombies.
Using your computer shouldn't be all work, all the time. Kick back and relax or give you brain a casual workout with these great games. LexJongg puts a slightly technogeek spin on traditional mahjong. FPS fans should check out AssaultCube, Nexuiz, and Tremulous. FreeCiv and LinCity offer OSS takes on two classic PC simulations. TORCS is a solid 3d racing sim which will hopefully soon include online action. Wormux and Zombies are fun turn-based strategy games. WinSudoku and PokerTH - I'll assume you know what those are all about.

There you go - plenty of great OSS to load on your own freshly reinstalled system (or a friend's)! If I missed one of your favorite apps or games, share it in the comments!

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Applications included:
Archivers : 7-Zip, Peazip, TUGzip, IZarc, Universal Extractor, KGB Archiver, Bitser, jZip, FreeArc, Zip Genius
Audio : Audacity, JetAudio Basic, musikCube, Aimp, Clementine, Songbird, foobar2000 ,Mixxx, aTunes, MusicBee, LMSS, Wave Editor
Video: Miro, VLC media player, Mplayer, GOM, Winamp, KMPlayer, SMplayer, Itunes, XMBC Media Center, Media Go, Media Player Classic Home Cinema, Kmplayer, Splayer, QuickTime Player, Miro Video Converter
Chat-IM: Skype ,Windows Live Messenger, Google Talk, Pidgin, ICQ, aMSN, Miranda IM, Yahoo! Messenger 10, Digsby, Trillian, Bitwise IM, Xfire,  Psi-IM, Nimbuzz
Internet: Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, Safari, Maxthon, Avant Browser, Flock, Thunderbird3, Filezila Server, K-Meleon, Lunascape, Tor,FTP Rush, Sea Monkey, XAMPP, Teamviewer, Free Download Manager, YeahReader, RSSOwl, WinSCP, FileZilla, Jdownloader, CometBird, Mozilla Prism, Orbit Downloader, AC Browser Plus Free Edition
CD Burners: CDBurnerXP, ImgBurn, InfraRecorder, DVD Flick (authoring tool), SizeMe (comparation tool), Amok CD/DVD burning, NeroBurning Lite, MagicDisc, Ashampoo Burning Studio 6 Free
P2P-File Sharing: uTorrent, Gnucleus, Cabos, Vuze, BitComet, eMule, DC ++, Frostwire, BitTorrent, qBittorent, Halite, Deluge
Not available from 1.6. Different package is coming. Games: YoFrankie!, Cube 2, SuperTuxKart, Freeciv, World of Padman, Armagetron
Graphic: Blender, Gimp, Paint.NET, IrfanView, PhotoFiltre, Picasa, XnView, Easy Thumbnails, FastStone Image Viewer, Inkscape, GiniPic, IcoFX, Winshot, Pencil, 3Dvia, Photoscape,
Office: OpenOffice, AbiWord, Adobe Reader, Foxit Reader, PDFCreator, PDF-XChange Viewer, Scribus, Libre Office
Text Editors: KomoZer, Freemind, Notepad++, Xe macs, Bluefish, Notepad 2, RJ TextED, ConText
Security: ClamWin, Nmap, Eraser, TrueCrypt, Wireshark, Avast! Home Edition, AVG Free, BitDefender Free Edition, Ad-Aware, Avira AntiVir Personal, Microsoft Security Essentials, Malwarebytes, Sandboxie, WinPatrol Free
Programing: DevC++, Free Pascal, jEdit, Python, Code:Blocks, SharpDevelop
Utilities : CCleaner, FreeComander, ReNamer, Chaos MD5, Rainlendar, Launchy, EasyCleaner, TeraCopy, Screenpresso, WinMD5Free, Synkron, Dropbox, Karen’s Directory Printer, KeePass,Defraggler. LangOver, Speccy, Tabbles, Steam, LotoRSS, VMware Player, Glary utilities,  SafeHouse Explorer, NirLauncher, Slimdrivers, SIW 2010, WordWeb, My Daily readings, PicPick, Jarte, SpaceSniffer, TweakNow PowerPack 2011, Free Disk Usage Analyzer
Runtimes: .Net Framework

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