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Samsung releases Droid Charge source code ahead of phone's launch
This isn't right... this isn't right at all. As a possible tip of the hat to enthusiastic coders, or merely a curious oversight, the source code for Verizon's forthcoming Droid Charge has appeared on Samsung's open source portal. Nothing earth-shattering here (as we've known of this 1GHz LTE handset for a while), but we reckon there's a few industrious readers who will appreciate hacking this Droid's software ahead of launch. So if you count yourself among that bunch, follow the source link and type 'SCH-I510' in the search box -- happy coding!
ASUS releases Eee Pad Transformer source code, physical bits to come later
We're still sitting here playing with our Decepticon and Autobot toys, Jetfire and Starscream continuing their battle for airborne supremacy. It's how we entertain ourselves whilst waiting for ASUS to release its Transformer tablet on the world, but now we can at least get our hands on what makes it tick. The source code for that 10.1-inch tablet with its IPS screen and Honeycomb flavor has just been lobbed up onto the company's site and, with just a few clicks, you can continue its trajectory right onto your storage device of choice -- though you'll need to run it through an unzipper before it can really have any impact. What you do with it after that is up to you, but you're going to have to wait a bit longer before you'll have anywhere to deploy the results of the included makefile.
Mike Bithell conceptualizes a game based on Source Code
Bossa Studios lead designer Mike Bithell, whom you may remember as the creator of the 24-hour project Thomas Was Alone, knows a thing or two about coming up with compelling game concepts. We're not surprised that he recently turned his sights on gameifying one of our favorite movies of 2011 so far: Source Code. On his personal blog, Bithell explained how the film's penchant for Groundhog Day-esque repetition would translate over to a game mechanic, even drawing a handy diagram to illustrate his ideas. Personally, we'd love for his vision to come to fruition, if only to achieve our dream of getting our Gyllenhaal fix in a video game format. We can't just keep playing Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and pretending, you know. It's not healthy.
Man steers R/C car with his hands, not to mention an HTML5-based web app (video)
With the right Arduino board, an R/C race car, a couple paperclips and the MacGyver spirit, we imagine most anyone can hack together a creative remote control these days... but how many can open-source an HTML5 web app that'll do the deed from any tablet, phone or PC? Gaurav Manek crafted just such a thing, and he'll demonstrate it for you on an Apple iPad in the video immediately above. What's more, he's also got a Kinect hack that uses Microsoft depth camera (with Code Laboratories' NUI SDK) to control the very same with the wave of a well-placed hand -- we're already envisioning fisticuffs should he and a lab partner try for some head-to-head racing action. That said, you don't need to wait for an illustrious creator to have all the fun. Why not download his source code at our links below and give it a go yourself?
Google keeping Honeycomb source code on ice, says it's not ready for other devices
Itching to put some sweet, crunchy AOSP Honeycomb on your hardware of choice? You might have quite a wait, as BusinessWeek reports that Google will not release the Android 3.0 source code in the near future, and we just received confirmation of the same. Google forwarded us the following statement, which pretty much says it all: Android 3.0, Honeycomb, was designed from the ground up for devices with larger screen sizes and improves on Android favorites such as widgets, multi-tasking, browsing, notifications and customization. While we're excited to offer these new features to Android tablets, we have more work to do before we can deliver them to other device types including phones. Until then, we've decided not to release Honeycomb to open source. We're committed to providing Android as an open platform across many device types and will publish the source as soon as it's ready.It's fairly clear that the company's motivation here is the same as it's been all along -- Google wants to restrict Android to the devices it was designed for. Though the company long insisted that earlier versions of Android were not for tablets, manufacturers quickly adapted the source code to slates anyhow, and we can imagine the company wasn't thrilled some of the middling results. At that time, Google's only weapon was to deny access to Gmail, Maps and Android Market, which it did liberally (with a few exceptions to the rule) but this time it sounds like it's simply withholding the "entirely for tablet" source code instead of sending cease-and-desist letters out. Another explanation, however, could just be that Honeycomb's not ready for primetime without some OEM help -- last we checked, smartphone support was a far cry from final, and even the finished Motorola Xoom still has a few software kinks to work out. Here's hoping a nice cold bowl of Ice Cream will smooth things over with the open source community before long.
Duncan Jones has high expectations for Warcraft film
Video game adaptations generally make for pretty bad cinema. Whether its Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil, or Tomb Raider, films that originate on a PC or gaming console aren't normally mentioned in the same breath as Citizen Kane or The Godfather. Duncan Jones, director of 2009's indie smash Moon (and the forthcoming Jake Gyllenhaal vehicle Source Code), says that perception could change with Sam Raimi's World of Warcraft adaptation. "I really believe World of Warcraft could be the launch of computer games as good films. And from the little I've read of interviews with him the way he's approaching it makes so much sense," Jones told Badass Digest over the holidays. So why have so many video game adaptations failed to capture audience hearts and minds? Jones posits that it may be due to the fact that few filmmakers understand games or gamers. "I'm very cynical of the number of directors who say they're actual gamers [...] I'm a real gamer and I think there are less real gamers involved in directing only because you have to spend so much time making films that there's no time to be a hardcore gamer," he said.
Director predicts Warcraft film will break video game movie trend
Last week, Badass News posted an article detailing an interview with director Duncan Jones in which the Warcraft movie was one of the main topics of discussion. Jones is the son of David Bowie and director of the impressive science fiction flick Moon, as well as Source Code, another sci-fi title being released later this year. Though the interview reveals nothing about the production of the Warcraft movie, Jones thinks that the film is going to break the ongoing trend of terrible film adaptations of video games. In the article, Jones says he believes it's possible to make a good adaptation -- it just has to be approached properly. "A good game adaptation is where you find the story or the emotional aspect that's at the heart of a computer game and you replicate that on film. It doesn't mean you need to have first person perspective or try and capture the mechanics of a game," he says. Jones thinks the Warcraft film will be the film to break the mold because director Sam Raimi seems to be approaching the film correctly. "From the little I've read of interviews with him, the way he's approaching it makes so much sense. It's what I was talking about – it's not worrying about how the game plays, it's about creating the world of the game and investing the audience in that world." Jones explains that he's a serious gamer himself and is skeptical about other directors who claim the same. He doesn't think most directors have the time to be both hardcore gamers and filmmakers. Jones, on the other hand, says he stays up all night to accommodate his gaming habit and cites titles like Starcraft 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops. He also says he's looking forward to Diablo 3. Jones admits that he's "hugely jealous" of Raimi's getting the chance to direct the Warcraft film; the writer of the article goes so far as to suggest that Jones have a chance at directing it, since Raimi set it aside to work on The Great and Mighty Oz. That's not really quite how Hollywood works, though, so unless Raimi steps down from the project himself, I wouldn't count on his losing the project just yet.
Android 2.3 Gingerbread's source code now available
Want to dig through 2.3 and see what all the fuss is about for yourself? Well, you're in luck, because Gingerbread has just hit the Android Open Source Project's repository, which means you can set up your machine to download the code. It's great news for hardware companies that don't care to get Google's certification to include Android Market access -- but it's also great news for casual and serious hackers alike who are looking to craft some seriously wild, wacky custom ROMs. So, what are you waiting for? Get to it, folks. [Thanks, Mike] Update: Eager coders are being asked to "wait a few hours or a few days" before downloading to balance out the server load -- and while you're likely not interested in doing that, it's probably in your best interest to heed the advice.
Symbian Foundation axing websites on December 17th, source repositories available 'upon request'
We'd heard that the Symbian Foundation would undergo some drastic changes as it transitions to a licensing body, and here's number one -- every official Symbian website will be shuttered on the 17th of next month. That goes for every page from symbian.org down to the Symbian Twitter and Facebook feeds, and the source code itself will be shelved. If you want access to any of it, even the databases of user-generated bug reports, you'll have to ask the Foundation for a hard copy and pay a nominal media and shipping fee after January 31st. We're trying to reach Symbian right now to figure out the full repercussions of this move, but assuming Nokia's promise to keep Symbian open-source still rings true, you might want to start stashing away the repositories and setting up mirrors before the Foundation drops off the face of the web -- and perhaps the Symbian crowdsource community, too.
PSA: Windows Phone 7's third-party apps easy to decompile, native code hooks exposed
We suspect most developers have gathered this since MIX earlier this year -- many of them have been dealing with variations of the problem since the genesis of Microsoft's .NET Framework -- but we thought we'd throw out a note that word's getting around on how easy it is to tear apart applications downloaded from the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace, gain access to their resources, and get a look at their inner workings. Microsoft has been encouraging developers on the desktop to make this tough by using code obfuscation tools -- Dotfuscator, specifically -- for many years, but Dotfuscator's developer has only just released a free version (through March 31 of next year) for WP7, so it's made things tough to secure. In other words: business as usual, and "business as usual" isn't as airtight as your average white-hat dev would like. On a happier note, an enterprising coder by the name of Chris Walsh has fleshed out some hooks into unmanaged (read: native) Windows Phone 7 services. It's not what we'd call a "jailbreak" -- you're not altering the security settings of the device in any way -- you're just taking advantage of undocumented services Microsoft has in place, though it's still very cool. Walsh promises some tutorials on hooking into cool stuff like file system and registry access soon, but he notes that apps using these hooks are still running as managed tasks, meaning they can be slapped around by the kernel (killed, suspended, and so on) just as any other WP7 app can -- and we also doubt you'd be able to get Marketplace approval using this stuff.
Kinect running on OS X
Microsoft recently released its Kinect motion sensor system for the Xbox 360 -- it's a little camera-equipped device that plugs into the game console and lets you control game titles, Wii-style, with just your body in lieu of any actual controllers. Just a few days after release, the hardware was hacked, and now hacker Theo Watson has released an OS X port of libfreenect, a library that allows you to run Kinect's output directly into OS X. You can watch video of it all working right after the break -- he doesn't seem real excited about it (that, or he's tired after putting it together), but it is a cool little setup. It's still a work in progress (the device has only been out for a week or so), and of course this is all unofficial -- Microsoft will never be interested in wanting to hook the Kinect up to anything but one of their Xbox 360 gaming consoles. But we've certainly seen some fun things done with the Wii controllers an Apple devices, so maybe something cool will come out of this hack as well.
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and Return to Castle Wolfenstein source code available
As part of the QuakeCon festivities, id's John Carmack revealed something that should excite the modding community: source code. Authors can now access source code for both Splash Damage's multiplayer-focused Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and 2001's series reboot, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, through id's FTP, which we've linked below. Both games' sources are made available through the GNU General Public License agreement, which states that the code is available for both free and commercial use, so long as the individual using the code credits id Software and doesn't try to claim it as their own. If you want to tinker with either game, check out the convenient Big Download link below. Happy modding!
Froyo code for HTC EVO 4G, Droid Incredible goes open source
You know the drill: if you're rolling custom firmwares for your Android-powered devices, you've got to release the GPL portions of those binaries for all of our prying eyes to see. It's a drill HTC is well-acquainted with at this point, and once again, they've come swooping in with a couple that should pique the particular interest of the North American hacking community: kernel source for the Android 2.2 releases for Verizon's Droid Incredible and Sprint's EVO 4G. Of course, finding a frickin' Droid Incredible is another matter altogether... but hey, at least when you do, you'll have the source for it. Half the battle, right?
Motorola turns Droid X's source code loose -- some of it, anyhow
This might not have a ton of relevance as long as we've got a nearly airtight bootloader lock standing in our way, but we suppose it's a start: Motorola has outed the Droid X's source code, though it's apparently left some key bits out, just as it's entitled to do under the terms of Android's Apache License. Of course, this isn't anything new -- HTC does the same, mainly releasing only stuff that it has to by virtue of the kernel's GPL licensing -- and considering the customizations all these guys are doing, it's not an entirely surprising way to go about it. In other words, don't expect custom firmware to start popping up left and right -- not until our ever-trusty hacking community figures out a way to fully circumvent the eFuse noise.
Apple donates MacPaint source to museum
MacPaint was one of the first big "wows" of the graphical UI. Before the early days of Mac OS, operating systems were strictly text affairs, and creating graphics was done mostly by writing code. But MacPaint helped to change all of that, putting image creation in a graphical user interface (creating standby design ideas like the "marching ants" selection indicator), and allowing those images to be used in other programs and applications. Now, Apple has donated the MacPaint source code to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. Andy Hertzfeld (who writes about the MacPaint code here) is perhaps the one most responsible for the donation -- he hunted down some original floppy disk copies of the app, and then installed it on a networked Lisa computer to obtain the source code, and then came upon the idea of getting it donated to a museum so everyone could see it. After poking around Apple for a few years, he finally talked to Steve Jobs in January of this year, and Jobs fast-tracked the approval process so the donation could happen today. Very cool story, and it's excellent to see a little piece of Apple (and computer) history enshrined in a museum. You can get both the MacPaint and QuickDraw source code right off of the museum's website. [via Clusterflock]
Computer History Museum makes original MacPaint source code available to public
With all the tricky Photoshoppery we do 'round these parts, it's easy to forget that once the only way to get Justin Bieber into a shot with Steve Jobs and Bill Atkinson involved an X-Acto knife and rubber cement. For a peek into that dark and distant time (the 1980s) check out the Computer History Museum website, which has recently posted the source code for both MacPaint 1.3 and the QuickDraw graphics library. It's pretty amazing to consider that software this cutting edge consisted of a single, 5,822 line Apple Pascal file (in conjunction with another whopping 3,583 lines of code in assembly language). If poring over twenty-six year old code isn't your bag, the museum's website also contains an oral history of the development of MacPaint and more. Hit the source link to check it out.
Android 2.2 Froyo source code available today
It's still not hitting the bulk of Nexus Ones as far as we can tell, but for what it's worth, Google has unleashed the source code for Android 2.2 today, which is a solid sign that the code's been bulletproofed to the Open Handset Alliance's satisfaction and is ready for deployment across a number of phones from different manufacturers and carriers. It's still ultimately up to a bunch of gatekeepers in suits to decide when various models will get the upgrade, but this is basically zero day -- so let the countdown begin.
True Games Interactive sues Petroglyph for Mytheon source code
MMORTS Mytheon has hit a development snag: True Games is suing developer Petroglyph, claiming that the company has failed to deliver what was promised -- a working game -- and is preventing True Games from doing so as well by refusing to release the source code. According to the court documents, the original agreement required Petroglyph to deliver a "Gold Master" (ready for distribution) copy of the game by November 15th, 2009 -- a delivery date later amended to February 1st, 2010. In mid-March, Petroglyph stated that a Gold Master version of Mytheon should be ready by the end of March, but additional funding was needed. The publishable copy was not received by the end of March. True Games' complaints can be summed up in a short paragraph from the official document: "The repeated, unreasonable demands by Petroglyph for additional funds and concessions, combined with Petroglyph's apparent unwillingness or inability to deliver the final product, poisoned the working relationship between TGI and Petroglyph, such that the entire multi-million dollar venture is in danger of collapsing." For Petroglyph's part, CEO Chuck Kroegel claims: "It was NEVER conceived to be a full-blown MMO, which costs upwards of $15 million and three to five years to complete. The trend, however, over the last months has been to move this game to the scope of a full-blown MMO." The full court document has all the details.
Second Life script limitations to prejudice against Mono?
In a sense, script memory limitations aren't coming to Second Life; they already exist. What's going on is the process of Linden Lab making those limits predictable, and setting things up in such a way that script memory usage doesn't cause simulator processes to thrash madly (from paging memory to and from disk). There's some interesting side-effects emerging from the overall prototype implementation, however. Mono (and, eventually C# when or if it becomes implemented as a scripting language) look like the losers.
