OStatic

Three years after its last major release, Rockbox 3.0 is now available. This popular app is a great open source solution for replacing the firmwear on many types of portable media players including Sansa, iRiver, Archos, and iPod.

There's been a lot of talk about the gigantic particle accelerator known as the Large Hadron Collider recently. Lots of people were excited about the search for the theoretical Higgs boson. A few were concerned that it would open a black hole and end life as we know it. Most were disappointed when technical issues forced the Collider's early shutdown for repairs. Few people, though, mentioned that part of the multi-billion dollar project relies heavily on Linux.

Unlike NBC's coverage of the 2008 Olympic Games, DIRECTV customers who have the NFL Sunday Ticket SuperFan viewing package can now watch live football games on computers running Linux.

Using a combination of Adobe Air and the open source Flex framework, DIRECTV will stream the Sunday showdowns and also deliver game highlights, statistics, and real-time scores via a desktop app or Web browser.

Open source collaboration platform vendor, MindTouch, announced a partnership this week with SaaS integration company SnapLogic to deliver Deki for CRM to customers who want to enhance the capabilities of customer relationship management (CRM) software like Salesforce.com and SugarCRM.

The next time evidence of a possible health epidemic rears it's ugly head, TriSano, Utah's new infectious disease reporting system, will help spread the word. Developed by the Collaborative Software Initiative, it's a much needed improvement over the current notification method -- the fax machine.

Anxious to go to the Ubuntu Developer Summit in Mountain View, CA this December but lack the funds to get there? Canonical is accepting requests for sponsorship and a lucky few will receive travel, entrance, and accommodations at no cost. It's not a free ride, though. Event organizers will definitely put the winners to work.

LinuxLoop has a look at gorgeous early renditions of some of the artwork under consideration for inclusion in Fedora 10. Though still grounded in its historical blue, these themes are a real departure from the bubbles and hot-air balloons of past releases.

Open source telephony and communications company Fonality announced today it has received $12 million in an additional round of financing. That's good news in light of recent suggestions that investors are beginning to slowly close their wallets on open source companies.

Ultraportable computers are springing up everywhere as mainstream computer hardware vendors like HP scramble to compete with companies like Asus and MSI for market share. From his vantage point as editor-in-chief of Liliputing, a popular Web site devoted to ultraportable computers, Brad Linder gets to watch all the action in this new niche. We caught up with Linder to see why he thinks open source software is crucial to the advancement of ultraportables and where liliputers are going from here.