Linux - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Jan

Cool: Use Your Android Tablet To Paint In GIMP, Just Like A Real Graphics Tablet

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Galaxy Note 10.1 (GT-N8000 / N8010 / N8013), News, Samsung

Any self-respecting digital artist these days uses a graphics tablet to pipe pen input into PC applications. The problem is that good graphics tablets like the Wacom Intuos line are pretty spendy. If you've got an Android device lying around and like to use the GIMP image editor on Linux, you've got all you need for a basic graphics tablet setup thanks to a new app.

The XorgTablet app and driver developed by the gimpusers.com team allow you to select your Android tablet as an input device in GIMP. You may be thinking that sounds interesting but limited – after all, graphics tablets are useful because of the pressure sensitivity, and capacitive screens don't have that.

Oct

Samsung Creates F2FS, A New Open Source File System For Flash Storage, Contributes It To Linux

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in News, Samsung

Most of the file systems in use today were designed in an era when rotating discs ruled the world. Well, as things have shifted more toward NAND flash-based storage in mobile devices the problems with older file systems have been more visible. Samsung has just tackled the problem by designing a new file system called F2FS that's geared toward flash storage specifically. What's better, it is open source and has been submitted to the Linux kernel. This makes it perfect for implementation in Android.

This isn't the first time Samsung tried to deploy a new file system. RFS was used on the original Galaxy S phones with catastrophic results.

Aug

Script Kitty Automates Execution Of Scripts On Remote Servers Through SSH, Belongs In Every Admin's Toolbox [Hands-On]

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

Script Kitty has actually been around for a while, but after receiving its 2.0 update last week, it's now a serious contender for one of those must-have apps (at least for anyone with an ssh-enabled server). I downloaded and set it up in a matter of a few minutes (including generating an RSA key for key-based auth and adding said key to a few Linux servers), and now have a stupid easy way of doing certain things very quickly without having to even resort to ConnectBot.

What is Script Kitty?

Here's the gist: if you have repetitive tasks, such as checking available disk space or quickly restarting apache on all your servers, Script Kitty is the app for the job.

May

Samsung The King Of Android With 45.4% Of All Global Shipments In Q1 2012

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Android OS, News, Samsung

IDC's report for the first quarter of 2012 indicates that Google's Android continues to grow its market share to 59%, while Apple's iOS lags in second at 23%. Unsurprisingly Samsung has given the biggest boost to Android, accounting for a whopping 45.4% of all Android smartphone shipments worldwide.

In total 152.3 million smartphones were shipped in the first quarter of 2012, of which 89.9 million were Android-based smartphones (59%), 35.1 million were iOS devices (23%), 10.4 million were Symbian-based phones (6.8)%, followed by BlackBerry, Linux, and Windows Phone 7/Windows Mobile devices.

Compared to the same quarter last year, Android's market share has increased dramatically by 145%, followed by iOS's modest increase of 88.7%.

Apr

Google Drive "Support" Is Coming To Linux, Pray That It Doesn't Involve WINE

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Applications, News

Good news, Penguins! Google is working on a Drive client for your favorite OS!

Google Drive, if you haven't heard, is Google's Dropbox/Google Docs hybrid. It launched yesterday with 5GB of cloud storage and desktop apps for Windows and Mac, but our tuxedoed counterparts were left out in the cold.

The lack of Linux love caused a bit of an uproar on Google+, where #driveforlinux was a trending topic for a good part of the day. Teresa Wu, the Community Manager for Google Docs, took to a G+ thread and gave the happy news:

We're working on Linux support - hang tight!

Apr

Linux Tycoon, "The Nerdiest MMO Ever Conceived," Headed To Android With Online Play

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Games, News

It appears that Linux Tycoon, "the world's premier 'Linux Distribution Building Simulation Game'," will be gaining online play soon, and (more importantly) is officially headed for Android (and iOS).

In a blog post earlier today, Lunduke announced both of these exciting developments, and explained just how the game's new online capabilities will work: the mind behind "the nerdiest MMO ever conceived" will be releasing Linux Tycoon Server, allowing players to run their own "world" for online play separate from the official server, and also allowing for customization of the play experience including gameplay settings and Package lists.

Players on all platforms will be able to join these "worlds," competing globally against other Linux Distros in real-time.

Mar

Linux 3.3 Kernel Begins To Merge With Android, Brings Us Closer To A True Multi-Purpose Smartphone

Posted by John Thompson in Android OS, News

"One Device to rule them all, One Device to find them, One Device to bring them all and finally unconfine them"

Ok so I may have taken a few liberties there, but that's what we all want, right? One device that can do everything that we require of a computer throughout our daily lives. Smartphone by day, desktop by night.

Fortunately, we aren't the only ones who think that this is a great idea; the Ubuntu team has already announced plans to transform your smartphone into a proper computer when it's placed in a docking station, and with the release of Linux 3.3, this just got easier for OEMs to do as well.

Feb

[Updated: Video] Ubuntu For Android Looks To Make Your Smartphone Even Smarter, Bring A Full Desktop Experience To Multi-Core Handsets

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Android OS, News

Imagine carrying a full desktop computer in your pocket. We're not talking about that crippled Webtop crap from Motorola, either. We're talking about a real desktop OS built in to your smartphone. Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, wants to make that happen. Soon.

Ubuntu for Android is something that we've only dreamed about up to this point - one device to rule them all, if you will. In your pocket, it's an Android-powered smartphone. Not just any smartphone, either - it's your smartphone. Pull it out and drop it in a docking station, though, and it becomes a full workstation powered by Ubuntu, complete with monitor and keyboard.

Jan

Make Your GNOME 3 (Linux) Desktop Look Like ICS With 'Ice Cream Shell'

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

When a sexy new interface or theme hits the scene, it's quite common for users to port the look to other forms of technology. We've seen Windows desktops customized to look like Android, Linux desktops made to look like Windows, Android phones that replicate iOS, and every variation in between.

Today, we're going to take a look at a new theme for the GNOME 3 shell in Linux, simply called Ice Cream Shell. As you may have guessed by its name, Ice Cream Shell will give your Linux desktop a very polished ICS look. The shell was created for Ubuntu, but it should work on any version of Linux as long as it's running GNOME 3.

Oct

Popular Physics Game World Of Goo Coming To Android, Dubbed 'GooDroid'

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Games, News

World of Goo, by indie developer 2D Boy, is a highly addictive physics-based puzzle/construction game that has won several design and gaming awards since its release. The basic objective of the game is to get a requisite number of goo balls to a pipe, which represents the exit. The goo balls can be used to make bridges, towers, and other structures to overcome gravity and terrain. Currently, the game is available on a number of platforms, including Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, iOS, and Wii; and earlier today 2D Boy announced that the game would finally be coming to Android tablets and smartphones "soon."