Software-Programming

Thanks to some smart lawyering or perhaps fears CEO Steve Ballmer will show up unannounced, Microsoft has negotiated envious patent fee payments from nearly all major Android licensees. So there's something fitting about the software giant giving a little something back to Android, by way of an exclusive app -- well for now -- on{X}. Or perhaps it's a Trojan Horse to undo Android phones, chopping up performance or draining battery life. Or maybe Microsoft sees Android users as easy beta testers, considering the more rigorous standards for getting into Apple's App Store than Google Play.

Although the traditional image of a science laboratory typically consists of a room full of test tubes or microscopes, the reality is that computers now play a central role there, just as they do for business and life in general.

Ahead of its official release, Mozilla has uploaded Firefox 13 FINAL to its servers, the latest version of its open-source, cross-platform web browser. Version 13 will be officially unveiled on June 5th, when it should also become available as an update to existing Firefox users. 

Modders, hackers and most importantly, developers, rejoice! Samsung has just let loose the source code for the most popular smartphone of 2012, its new flagship, the Samsung Galaxy S3.

CHIP DESIGNER Nvidia has said its upcoming R302 drivers have attained Microsoft Windows hardware quality labs (WHQL) certification for the Windows 8 operating system.

Nvidia's R302 graphics drivers are set to be launched next week but the firm is keen to point out that they have already passed WHQL testing and are certified for Windows 8. The firm has had Windows 8 drivers for some time, however the R302 release will be supported on the Windows 8 preview release.

Microsoft has issued a rather serious security advisory via TechNet, affecting virtually every currently supported Windows product, and issued a patch to correct the problem. The threat stems from unauthorized Microsoft Certificates being used to spoof content and carry out phishing attacks.

The untethered jailbreak Absinthe v2.0 debuted on Friday with compatibility for almost all devices powered by Apple's A4 and A5 processors running the latest iOS 5.1.1 firmware, and is the first solution to unlock the new iPad.

Announced at the Hack in the Box event in Amsterdam, GreenPois0n Absinthe v2.0 is the result of a collaboration between the Chronic-Dev Team and iPhone Dev Team and gives iDevice users wider access to system features normally prohibited by Apple thus allowing for the download of applications and extensions unavailable in the official App Store.

The hackers have been teasing us for weeks, but today have finally made good on a new jailbreak for iOS 5.1.1, coinciding with Hack in the Box conference taking place today in Amsterdam.

Did you miss out on VLC Player for iOS?

The popular video player port was on the App Store for three months before being removed in January 2011 because Apple’s FairPlay wrapper violated VideoLAN’s licensing agreement.

Fear not, there’s a solution to replace the venerable open-source video player on iOS. GPlayer (free, App Store) supports playback of numerous file formats, including: XVID/DIVX AVI, WMV, RMVB, ASF, H264, MKV, TS, M2TS, and more. You can sync videos via USB or Wi-Fi and it supports TV-out and AirPlay.