Until Chrome came along, Google's Master Mobile Plan didn't quite add up. Now it does. Chrome -- Google's new superbrowser -- is cream on the top of a new mobile software stack. Let's call it GACL, for Gears, Android and Chrome on Linux. Gears is a way to run Web apps on desktops and store data locally as well as in the cloud. Android is a development framework for Linux-based mobile devices. Chrome is a browser, but not just for pages. Chrome also runs apps. In that respect, it's more than the UI-inside-a-window that all browsers have become. It's essentially an operating system.
Apple hat für iPhone-Programmierer strikte Verschwiegenheitsklauseln vorgesehen: Das so genannte Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA), das mit dem Eintritt ins Entwicklerprogramm des Computerkonzerns anerkannt werden muss, verbietet unter anderem, dass öffentlich über Belange der Arbeit an und mit der Smartphone-Plattform diskutiert wird. Das führt schon seit Monaten zu Kritik: So fehlt es Entwicklern beispielsweise an Austauschmöglichkeiten für Tipps und Tricks rund um die Programmierung des iPhones, und selbst Entwickler-Bücher zum Thema wurden bereits zurückgezogen, weil die Rechtslage so unsicher ist.
You've probably heard that Android is free and open source. But that's not entirely true, and the team behind Replicant wants to change that. Replicant is an independent version of Android that includes no proprietary software whatsoever. But the Replicant team doesn't like the term open source. They prefer the term "free software," because to them, Replicant is all about freedom.
There are many good reasons of using Android without Google Play Services (the Google's proprietary part of Android operating system), mostly to protect its privacy. Google Play Services contain background processes used by Google not only to provide services (e.g., push notifications, acc