Jolicloud is one of the best operating systems for Netbooks and now they are making their move to be ready for the tablet wave by adding in touchscreen capability.  At this point it won’t work on all touchscreens but I think it is safe to assume they will be expanding the list of capable devices.  The following is a short video of their new HTML 5 interface on a Samsung NB30.

Check It Out> Jolicloud Blog

Apple in its grandiose announcement today has delivered the most amazing news, giving Apple’s mobile OS a name.  The world is stunned with this, the most original name ever conceived for an operating system!

Yes, that is correct.  The company that names all of their products so they begin with the letter “i” has finally after multiple releases of devices running the OS has decided to name the aforementioned OS.  It took many painstaking months to come up with this amazing name and now we can all be wowed by its magnificence.

Ok so by now you should have figured out that the above paragraphs are extremely sarcastic.  In all seriousness, how can this even be an announcement?  Why couldn’t they have come up with something else at least a little original?  Maybe they should have contacted the team that names their desktop OS to come up with something less lame.

On top of this super crappy name, it is not the first IOS.  Cicsco (which is likely super angry right now) has an operating system called “IOS” that is used on its routers.   Originally called the “Internetwork Operating System“, IOS’s only naming difference is the capitalization of the “i”.

I am not a lawyer and would never try to be, but I suspect that Steve Jobs is going to be getting some calls from lawyers over this one.

Check It Out> IOS

UPDATE:: In looking around it looks like I was not the only one to pick up on the Apple IOS name stealing.  Crunch Gear also has an article on it.

UPDATE #2:: Apparently this time Apple actually asked Cisco first if they could use the iOS name for their OS.  This still doesn’t change the fact that it is a terribly lame name for the operating system.

This week has been pretty interesting with Google saying they will no longer be using the Windows operating system for their corporate machines. Now as of today it was revealed that the new Google Chrome OS will be released this coming fall of 2010.   The first announcement of Google no longer using Windows really took the world by surprise.  However if any of us had thought about it for a second, we would have actually been surprised that Google is still using Windows at all.

Google Android is gaining an amazing amount of traction in the smartphone market but maybe they are looking for even an even bigger audience?  Are they going to “Dog Food” their own desktop version of Chrome OS?  With Android being based on Linux it stands to reason that they would already be moving more towards Linux in general.

I have not been the most approving of Chrome OS as I have used it on and off since it was first leaked and I found it to be basically worthless without an Internet connection.  For things such as netbooks this makes them unusable for even basic tasks.  In places where internet connections are not reliable this just does not make sense.

I am sure that Google has the internet connection part of this nailed down for their corporate offices but maybe this move is part of a much bigger plan.  Maybe this is part of a plan to steal the Linux crown from Ubuntu?  While the average consumer has heard of Linux, the portion that knows about Ubuntu is much smaller.  However what would happen if the almighty Google released a full version of Linux?  It might actually be enough for Linux to show up on a desktop OS pie chart again with more than a micro percentage of the market share.

Thanks to iPhodroid anyone can now install Android onto their iPhone.  It may not be the fastest OS on the phone or even 100% functional but if you are looking to break away from Steve Jobs grip of death you can give it a try.

From Funky Space Monkey:

You will need:

• A jailbroken iPhone 2G or 3G running firmware 3.1.2 ( NOT 3.1.3 )
• The device should be jailbroken with PwnageTool, RedSn0w or Blackra1n. Won’t work with Spirit…
• OpenSSH installed with default password ( alpine )
• Macfuse installed on your Mac
• and of course… iPhodroid

How to:

• Download iPhodroid and extract
• Install Macfuse
• Run iPhodroid and hit run – the process should take around 5 minutes

Check It Out> iPhodroid via Funk Space Monkey via Geek Gadgets

It is a sad day for users of the original Microsoft Xbox and  Xbox Media Center, XMBC on the original Xbox will no longer be supported by its creators.

For those not familiar with it, prior to the Xbox 360 and its many improvements, the Xbox was only usable for video games.  Since the Xbox is at its heart a computer, this made it a high profile target for those wanting to modify the console and make it do things that voided its warranty.  By modifying the console (illegally) users could then load additional applications onto the console, including the Xbox Media Center for playing movies.

The XBMC is still available for Windows, OS X, Linux, and of course the all important Live image.  If you just want to play with it and see what all the fuss is about, the Live image is the way to go.

Mourn with us that this day has finally come and that the Original Xbox is fading away….

Check It Out> XBMC via Engadget