Location awareness seems be the common thread of the hottest new Android apps, according to an eWeek article. Clint Boulton's story there briefly profiles ten winners of the recent Android Challenge, most of which tap the Android design's GPS device. (more…)

[Updated May 23] — Netflix is offering a $100 set-top box aimed at enabling subscribers to stream movies on demand, using a broadband Internet connection. The player runs Linux, and is supplied by Roku, a California-based company known for its Linux-based PVRs (personal video recorders). (more…)

A Hong Kong-based manufacturer is shipping a Linux-based ultra-mini PC (UMPC) laptop for only $250 ($180 in volume), which appears to give it the lowest price yet for a Linux laptop. Bestlink's Alpha 400 offers a 400MHz CPU and a 7-inch, truecolor display. (more…)

Four companies led by Dutch non-profit NLnet Labs have launched an open source, Linux-compatible DNS (Domain Name System) server. “Unbound,” which is also sponsored by VeriSign, Nominet, and Kirei, claims to offer a validating, recursive, and caching DNS server that is faster than the open source DNS mainstay BIND. (more…)

Wind River will collaborate with Intel on an open source automotive infotainment stack for Intel's Atom processor, it announced. At the Telematics Detroit trade show this week, Wind River also announced plans to offer its second vertical market stack based on Linux — Wind River Linux Platform for Infotainment. (more…)

DeviceVM announced that its quick-booting Splashtop Linux implementation is being pre-installed in ROM (read-only memory) on four new Asus motherboards. Asus says it plans to ship over a million Splashtop-ready motherboards per month, making this one of the largest Linux deployments ever. (more…)

Japanese micro-server specialist Plat'Home is offering an interesting VPN (virtual private network) client pre-installed on its MIPS-based Linux micro-server. SoftEther's PacketiX VPN 2.0 software encodes entire Layer 2 Ethernet frames as HTTPS traffic, allowing remote access to any network protocol without network… (more…)

ExaDigm announced that it is ramping up production on a new line of Linux-based point-of-sale (POS) terminals. The modular, PC-based terminals are based on the NeoMagic MiMagic applications processor, and ship with a Linux software development kit (SDK) says ExaDigm. (more…)

IBM announced a Linux-compatible blade for HPC (high performance computing) applications that is based on a new 65nm version of the Cell processor. The IBM BladeCenter QS22's 3.2GHz IBM PowerXCell 8i processor is touted as offering five times the double-precision performance of the original Cell/B.E. (more…)

rPath is shipping a new version of its Linux distribution for hardware and software appliances, live CDs, and VMware images. rPath Linux 2 offers a smaller footprint than version 1, as well as a more robust system boot, a brandable boot splash, new security features, and an “appliance installer,” says rPath. (more…)

Italy-based KDev has found another use for its tiny, cellular radio-equipped Linux box. In its newest “Easy Guardian” iteration, the Acme FoxBox works as a network monitor that uses ICMP pings, SNMP scans, and text messaging to alert users to network events. (more…)

As has been widely reported, the maintainers of Debian's OpenSSL packages made some errors recently that have potentially compromised the security of any sshd-equipped system used remotely by Debian users. System administrators may wish to purge authorized_key files of public keys generated since 2006 by affected client machines. (more…)

[Updated May 16] — Former Debian project leader Martin Michlmayr has released a “debian-installer” package for devices based on Marvell's Feroceon architecture. Initially supporting the Qnap Systems TS-109 and TS-209 network-attached storage (NAS) devices, the “developer's release” installs a… (more…)

Microsoft has announced an agreement with One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) that will make Windows XP available on the non-profit's low-cost laptops for third-world children. Thank goodness third world children will no longer have to struggle to learn Linux, one tongue-in-cheek commentator observes. (more…)

Nominations are open for the third annual Sourceforge.net Community Choice Awards, with winners to be announced at OSCON 2008 in July. Nominations are accepted for all open source projects, not just SourceForge.net-based projects, and the categories include the intriguing “Most likely to get… (more…)