Development

Xamarin, a company seeking to extend Microsoft's .Net programming technology beyond Microsoft's operating systems, has released a version of its developer tools that can work with the latest iteration of Google's Android operating system.

The company builds Mono, an open-source version of Microsoft's .Net technology for programming in Microsoft's C# language. With the newest version of Mono for Android, C# programmers can produce software that will run natively on both Android 4.0, aka Ice Cream Sandwich, and on Android tablets including Amazon's Kindle Fire and Samsung's Galaxy Tab, Xamarin said yesterday.

The … Read more

There is a rather serious vulnerability in Java version 1.6.0_26 that is apparently being actively pursued by hackers, one that is easy to implement and allows hackers to compromise systems without being detected.

The exploit was found a couple of months ago and was addressed in the latest round of Java updates both from Oracle and from Apple for OS X users; however, many people have not yet updated their systems and hackers are working to take advantage of this flaw on these systems.

The vulnerability allows a maliciously crafted Java applet to run undetected on many browsers … Read more

Android 2.3, aka Gingerbread, has officially taken over half of the Android ecosystem, according to new data.

As of yesterday, Gingerbread's many versions were running on 50.6 percent of all the Android devices in the wild, data published on the Android developers page shows. Android 2.2 (Froyo) trailed with 35.3 percent market share. The only other Android version with notable market share--Android 2.1 (Eclair)--captured 9.6 percent of the space during the 14-day period.

Honeycomb's various flavors, which are running on the majority of Android-based tablets, were only able to nab 2.… Read more

In a recent discussion about the support of OS X 10.5 for its popular Firefox Web browser, Mozilla developers have been considering the removal of support for Leopard.

Leopard is now four years old, and the prediction by the Mozilla development team is that by the time Firefox 13 is released in June of 2012, the number of users running the operating system who would install it will have dropped to less than 10 percent of the Firefox Mac install base. In addition, technical challenges would make continued support for OS X 10.5 an unnecessary burden on Mozilla'… Read more

Running a newly released version of Windows or Mac OS X on a 3-year-old personal computer is an unremarkable feat.

But it's a lot more difficult in the smartphone world, where hardware and software have been changing at a breakneck pace. That's why I recommend watching this brief demonstration of Ice Cream Sandwich, aka Android 4.0, on the first-generation Android phone, the T-Mobile G1 from October 2008.

XDA Developers forum member jcarrz1 posted the video and an alpha version of his OS build yesterday, nine days after Google released the Ice Cream Sandwich source code.

As you may expect, the new OS drags on the comparatively ancient hardware, with slow app launches and long lags between a touch action and the phone's response. But all the ICS apps work.

What doesn't work at this stage, jcarrz1 said: Wi-Fi networking, Bluetooth, and screen rotation. … Read more

Recently VMware released version 4.1 of its Fusion virtualization software for OS X, which in addition to offering a number of bug fixes and speed improvements has lifted its restriction on virtualizing the Client version of Snow Leopard.

In the past, and as is the case with other virtualization options, when you tried to install Snow Leopard or another operating system that is restricted from virtualization by its EULA, Fusion would issue an error message notifying you of this restriction. Now VMware appears to have changed this so its software only requests that you abide by the operating system's EULA, … Read more

In recent years, a software project called jQuery has spread far and wide across the Web, bringing sophisticated user interface features and easing the difficulties of working with multiple browsers.

Now the first version of the software has arrived for the mobile Web, with the release of jQuery Mobile 1.0. The software is prebuilt code to help programmers create Web sites--and even packaged Web apps--using standards such as HTML, JavaScript, and CSS.

The software, whose premier sponsor is Adobe Systems, smooths over differences among many mobile browsers it supports, including those of iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and BlackBerry, as … Read more

One of the latest trojan horse malware attempts on OS X is a bitcoin mining and data stealing bot called "DevilRobber" that uses the system's parallel processing capabilities of systems (the GPU and CPU) to run Bitcoin mining operations to rapidly generate Bitcoins (an experimental digital currency).

All malware is expected to be altered, refined, and otherwise updated, and recently security firm F-Secure has reported it found another variant of the DevilRobber Trojan roaming around pirated software networks.

The original DevilRobber was being distributed in pirated versions of the popular program Graphic Converter, and in similar form … Read more

If there's one thing you can say about the Android developer and hacker community, it's that it moves incredibly fast.

Each time a new smartphone or tablet finds its way into the market, the modders and hackers get to work, trying to root the device. And now, just days two days after its release, the Amazon Kindle Fire has become the latest target.

Gaining root-level access gives users the ability not only to install applications from additional sources, but also it allows for the removal of the standard software. Potentially that means that developers and tech-savvy enthusiasts could … Read more