An operating system is a kernel, a supporting cast of programs, and a concept. For certain commercial entities, it’s also a marketing campaign, hype and profit. But, is the Linux operating system just another flavor of the Unix operating system? Yes. But, it’s also much more.

What you, as a business owner, want to know is if Linux is enough like Unix that you can transition from a commercial Unix flavor to Linux with minimum hassle and expense. The answer is yes.

Full Story: PC World

Whose fault is this paradigm shift toward Linux as an accepted data center-capable OS? The adopters, like you, are somewhat to blame. The media takes partial blame for providing “air time” to Linux and associated open source technologies. The big vendors like Citrix, IBM, Oracle and VMware carry much guilt, too. But, the biggest culprits of all, including Linus Torvalds, are the Linux developers. Their vision has put Linux into every large data center in the world.

Full Story: Enterprise Networking Planet

BlackBerry 6, the upcoming OS for Research In Motion’s BlackBerry devices, blows away the notion of the BlackBerry as the ugly, businesslike device you use to check your work email. It was announced in April, but RIM has released a new sneak peek video that shows off the browser, media player interface, and social features of the upcoming BlackBerry OS.

BlackBerry 6 is getting a WebKit browser, a social app-slash-feed-reader called Social Feeds, and an iPhone-esque media player. You can see all of that in the new video, plus a look at BlackBerry Messenger and the new universal search box that lets you find files anywhere on your device.

Full Story: Download Squad

Apple on Monday quietly rolled out the latest version of its mobile operating system, iOS 4 (formerly named iPhone OS 4). The upgrade introduces several key features such as multitasking, a unified inbox for e-mail and the ability to group apps into folders.

The new elements of iOS 4 have been covered thoroughly by Apple and here at Wired.com, so there isn’t much to add. (If you want a nice deep dive, check out Jacqui Cheng’s review of iOS 4 at ArsTechnica.) But we can tell you the new update runs considerably smoother and faster than iPhone OS 3, and overall it’s a fantastic free update.

Will it work on your iDevice? Here’s what you need to know:
iPhone owners

* Original iPhones (2007) cannot run iOS 4 at all. That means you won’t be able to run any apps developed for iOS 4. Bummer.
* iPhone 3G (2008) owners can run iOS 4, but multitasking is not supported.
* iPhone 3GS (2009) and the upcoming iPhone 4 are fully compatible with iOS 4.

iPod Touch owners

* Original iPod Touch (2007) devices cannot run iOS 4.
* Second-generation iPod Touch (2008) devices can run iOS 4, but multitasking is not supported.
* Third-generation iPod Touch (2009 and current) devices fully support iOS4.

iPad owners

* You won’t get iOS 4 until fall.

Full Story: Wired

When Google’s Chrome OS arrives later this year, Dell could be ready to jump on board, according to a report.

Dell’s Amit Midha, president for greater China and South Asia, said the PC company “wants to be one of the leaders” when it comes to adopting new technologies like Google’s Android and Chrome operating systems, according to Reuters on Monday. Dell’s interest in Android is old news, but it has to this point only played around with Chrome OS, stopping short of announcing plans to release a product based on the software.

Midha didn’t exactly announce such plans with his comments, of course, but his words are the strongest suggestion yet that Dell would like to build a Chrome OS netbook. The company is not listed among the official Chrome OS supporters on Google’s Chrome OS pages, which include Dell competitors such as Acer, HP, Lenovo, and Toshiba.

Full Story: ZDNet Asia

Apple has just reached its 10,000th native iPad application, doubling the size of the iPad App Store in just over six weeks. The milestone itself comes just two months after the release of the tablet device, though it’s but a fraction of the total number of applications available for both Apple’s iPad and iPhone: more than 200,000, as of Memorial Day last month.

As well, the company has started accepting contributions for iOS 4-compatible applications—the next iteration of the iPhone and iPad operating system is currently scheduled for a June 21 release, hitting devices but three days before the launch of Apple’s newest product, the iPhone 4.

However, this call to arms comes with a catch: According to TechCrunch, developers of non-iOS-4 applications are allegedly experiencing longer approval times to get their products into Apple’s App Store to begin with.

Full Story: PC Mag

Windows 7 has an issue in the 64-bit edition of the operating system.

Security researchers at Sogeti/ESEC, Christophe Devine and Damien Aumaitre, discovered weaknesses in Direct Memory Access (DMA). An attacker could use those vulnerabilities to get access and take control of the machine, thereby bypassing all security features of the operating system.

Full Story: Info World

Price:  $2.99 -> Free, Version: 1.0.1 (iTunes)

Description:

Explore the wastelands of BioDefense HD in this unique release from Resolution Interactive that will revolutionize strategy games on the iPad platform.

BioDefense HD is a real-time strategy game where you’re defending your base against waves of relentless zombies. Build your defenses well and expand your base into the pitch-black wastelands in the hunt for more resources. Beware of different enemy behavior and adapt your tactics or be overrun in the mayhem.

How long will you survive the zombie outbreak?

Key Features:

- Unique Mix of RTS and TD

- Play endless Survival Mode to unlock more content

- 10 Missions provides fast challenges

- 6 Unique Enemy Types with different behavior

- Large waves of attacking enemies

- Research Tech and upgrade your buildings

- Unlock Missions and Enemy info

- 25 OpenFeint Achievements

- Compete on OpenFeint Leaderboards

[TRANSMISSION START]

Entry 1124. A comet hits earth.

Entry 2345. Debris clouds blocks sunlight.

Entry 3638. Meteors rains down everywhere.

Entry 4563. Toxium is discovered in impact pools.

Entry 5342. Toxium is collected and used as energy source.

Entry 6125. Toxium exposure leads to zombification and mutation.

Entry 7354. Zombie outbreak containment has failed.

Entry 8832. Hostiles detected at base perimeter.

Entry 9002. Connection lost…

[TRANSMISSION END]

=====================================
PRESS REVIEWS (iPhone/iPod Touch)
=====================================

Touch Arcade: “Redefining Survival Gameplay” – “You?ll discover a frantic exercise in survival unlike anything you?ve ever played before”

Appolicious: “An RTS iPhone game that?s tough to put down” – “It hadn?t occurred to me until playing the BioDefense: Zombie Outbreak iPhone game for the first time, but real-time strategy games are perfect as iPhone games”

Pocket Gamer: “BioDefense: Zombie Outbreak remains an engrossing addition to the bulging tower defence genre” – “It emerges feeling simultaneously familiar and new”

CharacterArcade: “The vibrant sprites may get overlooked do to the larger playing area in this TD game, but you’ll be too busy delighting in the massacre of hundreds of zombies to care”

AppSpy: “Striking a balance between simplicity and strategy isn’t easy, but BioDefense is well considered” – “There’s enough fun and replay value for even a hardened tower defense fan to enjoy”

PhoneBlog: “BioDefense: Zombie Outbreak has possibly the most addictive tower defense survival mode I’ve ever played on any mobile platform. You can’t help but love it.”

Appmodo: “Overall, the game is very addicting” – “BioDefense has definitely taken over my favorite game and has been moved to the first page of apps.”

TouchGen: “A great game combining a user friendly interface, precise touch controls, frantic battles and great presentation.” It caters both to the casual RTS gamer, and the hardcore TD fanatic. It gets my total recommendation.”

=====================================
Follow us on Twitter
@ResolutionBlog – Tweets about Promo Codes, etc
@ResolutionNews – Tweets about Press Releases
@ResolutionFeed – Tweets about Game Updates
=====================================

What’s New

- Added OpenFeint Leaderboards
- Added OpenFeint Achievements
- Major Bug Fixes

SAN FRANCISCO — Microsoft and Apple have been trying to get into your living room for years, with a variety of television-oriented products.

Now Google thinks it can succeed where other computer companies have seen only middling success. The company announced a new set-top box platform here Thursday: Google TV will marry television and the web, so users can search and view both TV and web videos with a single click.

Google TV, which is based on Google’s Android operating system, will have access to Flickr, gaming sites such as Club Penguin, and music sites such as Pandora and Rhapsody. It will combine that with a streaming media interface similar to that offered by companies like Boxee and Roku.

“There are three big limitations with the streaming media devices that exist today,” said Rishi Chandra, senior product manager at Google, speaking at the company’s developer conference, Google I/O. “They try to dumb down the web for TV. They are all closed. Many of these devices have to choose between TV and the web.”

Google has formed partnerships with Sony, Logitech and Intel to create hardware that will run this “smart TV” Android platform.

Full Story: Wired

The same hackers who got the Android operating system running in a dual-boot configuration on the first and second generation iPhones are now working on porting the hack to the iPod Touch.

In a new blog post, Linux on the iPhone is reporting that the binaries of the iPod Touch port are coming soon for jailbreakers to play with.

Last night, I brought openiboot for the first-generation iPod touch up to scratch so that it supports all the features the other ports of openiboot support: sound, multitouch and SDIO (for WLAN) are the notable things I had to fix. Earlier today, I figured out how to drive the piezoelectric tweeter on the iPod touch.

Full Story: Cult of Mac

And hackers unlocking the latest Windows Phone 7 emulator are trying to delve into the underlying kernel and understand a range of technical issues such as memory management.

“Microsoft knows that the emulators are typically unlocked by users,” says a PR agency spokeswoman assigned to the Windows Phone group at Microsoft. “That’s why they have been very clear that the emulator is based on early code and is not reflective of the final user experience. Windows Phone 7 is still under development and we don’t have further information to share on new features.”

Full Story: Network World

According to Chia Wing Fei, F-Secure’s senior security response manager, the Mac platform currently does seem to “have a financially interesting enough market share to be exploited”. Devices such as the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch run a stripped-down version of Mac OS X and make use of the Safari browser, he noted in an e-mail.

iPhone sales were credited for the boost in Apple’s second quarter 2010 earnings released last month. Sales of the smartphone was up 131 percent from the same period a year ago, while Mac systems saw a 33-percent jump in units sold.

Reception to Apple’s tablet device has also been warm–Apple reported on May 3 that it sold the first millionth iPad since the device’s debut in early April.

Full Story: ZDNet

The rule would effectively prohibit developers from using third-party code to create iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch apps that can easily be converted into apps for competing platforms including Android, Windows Mobile and Palm’s Web OS. Apple’s new policy also prohibits third-party analytics tools from being inserted into apps, which could make it impossible for competing ad networks to serve advertisements on the iPhone OS. Incidentally, Apple just introduced its own in-app ad platform iAd. This is another point of concern for antitrust authorities, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Not a single source cited in these reports has spoken on the record about the matter, and the FTC and Justice Department declined to comment to us about the state of any such investigation. Both agencies have dealt with technology antitrust issues in the past, and according to the New York Post, which broke the story, they plan to announce an investigation in a matter of days (even though the FTC never announces that it is investigating).

Full Story: Wired