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Google cracks down on fragmentation, but does doing so put the Android Open Source Project's openness in jeopardy? First an app store, then a cloud streaming service, and now is Amazon planning an Android-based phone? What podcatching app do you use on your Android phone? We have the answers to all of these questions, plus Antuan tries to name as many popular Android devices as quickly as he can in this week's episode of Android Atlas Weekly with Justin Eckhouse and Antuan Goodwin.

Announced today, Mono for Android widens the scope for mobile developers who use Microsoft's .Net framework--Novell released a similar product, MonoTouch, for Apple iOS devices in 2009. Mono is the open-source implementation of Microsoft's toolset, designed to make it possible to run .Net applications across multiple platforms.

"We developed Mono for Android to give both individual developers and businesses a way of sharing their code across multiple mobile platforms, increasing efficiency and reuse of their C# and .NET expertise across the board," Novell developer platforms chief and Mono project founder Miguel de Icaza said in a … Read more

I had a hard time in middle school. Other kids picked on me, girls ignored me, and many of the friends I'd had in elementary school abandoned me.

Perhaps reading "Be Confident in Who You Are: A Middle School Confidential Graphic Novel" would have helped--if only it had been available back then.

Based on the actual graphic novel of the same name, Be Confident in Who You Are for iPad reads like a nicely illustrated comic book and addresses a number of important tween/teen issues: bullying, body image, problems with friends, peer pressure, and so on.… Read more

Novell will soon cease to exist as its own company.

Shareholders of the former network-software giant voted in favor of Attachment's intent to acquire the company to the tune of $2.2 billion.

At a special investor meeting held yesterday, almost 99 percent of the shares voting approved the takeover, representing a majority of about 66 percent of all of Novell's outstanding stock. Once the merger is completed, Novell shareholders will be able to receive $6.10 in cash for each share of Novell common stock owned.

But the deal is not quite done. Novell said the merger … Read more

When it comes to e-readers these days, most of the action here in the U.S. seems to be concentrated around the Kindle, Nook, and iPad. But every week or so, we'll notice a traffic spike on CNET for an e-reader that isn't from Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Inevitably, this is due to a special discount that some store is running on the product or perhaps even an appearance in a Best Buy circular.

That discount price is usually pretty attractive--and has to be--to compete with the Kindle with Wi-Fi at $139 and the Nook Wi-Fi at $… Read more

The Open Software Initiative and the Free Software Foundation yesterday released a joint statement, urging the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as the German Federal Cartel Office, to investigate the sale of Novell's more than 800 patents as part of its multibillion dollar sale to Attachmate in November.

In December, the OSI sent a position paper to the German Federal Cartel Office. That paper has been updated to name both software groups as the concerned parties and filed with the U.S. Department of Justice.

"Since making that filing, we have been joined by the Free … Read more

The German antitrust authority said today that it is unable to investigate the establishment of a consortium set up to buy hundreds of open-source patents from Novell due to the consortium members withdrawing their application in that country.

Microsoft, Apple, Oracle, and EMC filed a notification with the Bundeskartellamt (Federal Cartel Office) on December 6, telling the competition authority that they intended to unify under the name of CPTN Holdings to buy 882 patents from Novell (not including the company's Unix copyrights). The filing was the first public identification of Microsoft's partners in the venture, which was announced … Read more

One big detail that has been unclear since Attachmate's acquisition of Novell last month has been the destiny of the 882 patents that are set to be handed over to CPTN Holdings LLC--a consortium of technology companies that was organized by Microsoft.

Would Microsoft be getting all those patents, or would it have to share them with the other companies? More importantly--who are the other "technology companies" that make up the group?

While the first question remains unanswered, the second part of the equation is coming into view this morning, with blog FOSS Patents unearthing a merger filing … Read more

Novell today announced that it would continue to be the owner of its copyrights to Unix.

The news comes just two days after Novell announced plans to be acquired by Attachmate as part of a $2.2 billion deal that also involved the sale of some of the company's intellectual property being sold to the Microsoft-organized tech consortium CPTN Holdings.

"Novell will continue to own Novell's Unix copyrights following completion of the merger as a subsidiary of Attachmate," Novell's chief marketing officer, John Dragoon, said on the company's site earlier today.

What remains to … Read more