Linux-powered robots are flocking to Atlanta this week to compete in the Robocup scientific competition. The eleventh annual event has attracted at least two Linux-based designs aiming to replace Sony's Aibo as the de facto hardware platform for standard Robocup league play. (more…)

A small company near Torino, Italy is shipping a tiny ARM9-based processor module designed for use with low-cost carrier boards. Elpa's RD129 comes pre-installed with the latest Linux kernel (currently 2.6.21.5), and is available with a handy development board. (more…)

An Indian outsourcer is touting a Linux-based software reference design aimed at industrial applications requiring cellular connectivity. Larson & Toubro Infotech (L&T Infotech) said it can build MMIs (man-machine interfaces) quickly on top of its Linux-based MMI platform. (more…)

Fewer North American programmers are writing software for Windows, according to Evans Data Corporation (EDC). The market research firm said that about 65 percent of developers targeted Windows client operating systems in 2006, down from 74 percent the year before, and likely to fall another couple of points this year. (more…)

Smartphones will account for 13 percent of Japan's overall handset market in 2010, according to a new report from Research and Markets. Between 2005 and 2010, unit sales of the devices in Japan are forecast to grow at an average annual rate of 78.6 percent. (more…)

A Phillipines-based video capture card vendor has soft-launched a line of Linux-based surveillance DVRs (digital video recorders). Neugent Technologies said its LX8000 SmartDetect DVRs have “built-in object detection video analytics,” enabling them to watch for left, abandoned, missing, or stolen… (more…)

Lineo Solutions is offering an enhanced embedded Linux BSP (board support package) for a MIPS64-based mini-ITX reference board. Lineo said its uLinux ELite BSP CodeSourcery Edition for Toshiba's RBTX4938 single-board computer (SBC) lets users run pre-tested packages and obtain… (more…)

[Updated Jul. 3, 2007] — EmbWise has ported its Linux SDIO stack to a video-oriented Texas Instruments (TI) system-on-chip (SoC) processor. SDIOWorx is now available on royalty-free terms for TI's daVinci DM6446 processor, which targets portable media players, video surveillance… (more…)

Low-cost network computing specialist Devon IT has added a PCMCIA slot and “3G aircard” support to its thin client notebook. Available with the company's own Linux-based “DeTOS” embedded operating system, the SafeBook runs applications from remote servers, via Citrix ICA, Microsoft RDP, or VNC. (more…)

“Bugs happen,” concluded Linus Torvalds after a discussion of Core 2 Duo errata on the Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML) last week. The pragmatic iconoclast defended Intel for handling bugs publicly, in contrast to embedded chip makers that tend to hide chip bugs behind workarounds in their OS ports. (more…)

A board vendor specializing in military and rugged markets is sampling a 2-inch-square ARM9/FPGA processor module designed to plug into a 462-pin CPU-style socket. Advanced Knowledge Associates (AKA), says its LM150 comes with a Linux BSP (board support package) and supports applications requiring custom … (more…)

The FSF (Free Software Foundation) today released GPLv3 (GNU General Public License version 3), the third generation of the world's most popular free software license. However, only about twenty open source projects have adopted the new license so far, notes Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, over at Linux-Watch. (more…)

Freescale has reached volume production on a new SoC (system-on-chip) for video-enabled, drive-equipped devices based on Linux and other embedded OSes. Built on 90nm technology, the i.MX27 adds on-chip video acceleration, more storage interfaces, and a 10/100 Ethernet port to Freescale's popular i.MX21 mobile application processor, built on 130nm technology. (more…)

Intel's Core 2 Duo processor has “serious, exploitable” bugs, claims Open BSD founder Theo de Raadt. Posting on a mailing list, de Raadt further charges that Intel leaves open source operating systems “in the cold” when it comes to providing fixes. (more…)

O'Reilly has just released a collection of essays by 38 pioneering software developers. Beautiful Code: Leading Programmers Explain How They Think, edited by Andy Oram and Greg Wilson, aims to show “how the experts solve near-impossible software development dilemmas.”

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