Linux

A software engineer based in Sydney, Australia has created a digital guitar controlled by open source software which he hopes will see musicians play electronic music in a live environment. Players control the pitch, speed and volume of notes produced by the Misa Digital Guitar via a 24 'fret' neck and touchscreen interface.  Read More

Linux lovers and Windows haters everywhere are gonna love this! Chinese company Ylmf (an abbreviation for Yulinmufeng, or Rainforest Wind) has released a Linux distribution that's skinned to look exactly like Windows XP. The company has even gone so far as to purchase the XP.com domain, for a reported US$100,000, which currently redirects to their website.  Read More

Interead's COOL-ER e-book reader was designed to be simple, affordable and stylish. Looking very Apple-esque in appearance, the e-reader also weighs less than an average paperback, comes in eight colors, supports all of the major formats and offers eight menu languages. The company says it was an e-reader "designed by readers, for readers". And from next year, COOL-ER readers will also benefit from Wifi and 3G functionality.  Read More

We've long argued that electric motorbikes make sense - low-emissions, quiet operation, instant torque and hardly any maintenance compared with their gas-guzzling cousins. The sluggish reaction of the established industry players to this e-revolution has created an opportunity for names like Brammo, Vectrix and Zero to try their hand, and now a brand that dares to put the words "electric" and "superbike" in the same sentence. Launched last week in Las Vegas, the 130+ mph, GBP25,000 Mavizen TTX02 is based around a KTM RC8 frame, ships with two Agni motors and boasts a hot-swappable battery and drivetrain architecture. Born from, and bred for, the world's first electric GP, the bike is a "laptop on wheels" that runs on the Linux OS, comes with with integrated IP connectivity and a USB based system bus for open source engine management, and although it's not being sold as a street legal machine, TTXGP founder Azhar Hussain says the package can still provide a pathway from the racetrack to the road.  Read More

Adobe claims that Flash content is present on more than 85 percent of the top 100 websites, and that approximately 75 percent of all web-based videos use Flash. In good news for the growing numbers of people accessing the Internet on their mobile phones, Adobe has unveiled its Flash Player 10.1: Full Flash software to bring an integrated Flash experience to browsers on Android, BlackBerry, Symbian, WebOS and Windows Mobile smartphones – but not iPhone.  Read More

After a gestation period of nine months, Google Chrome is about to have a baby. The father (Google) has announced that it is gearing up to launch a new open source, lightweight operating system. Aimed initially at the netbook sector, Google is working with the likes of Acer, Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo to bring the system to market in the second half of 2010.  Read More

Those on the go who like to do it in style will be pleased to hear that HP has added three new models to its popular HP Mini companion PC range. The new editions offer a host of customizable designs and configurations, all in a small package that’s light on weight but heavy on features.  Read More

Rebooting your PC after updating software is one of the more tedious aspects of working on computers. New award-winning software, called Ksplice, however, addresses this by enabling important updates, like security patches, without the need to restart – at this stage – Linux-based computers.  Read More