Obama to meet with privacy, civil liberties board

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama is holding his first meeting with a privacy and civil liberties board Friday as he seeks to make good on his pledge to have a public discussion about secretive government surveillance programs.

Obama has said the little-known Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board will play a key role in that effort. The federal oversight board reviews terrorism programs enacted by the executive branch to ensure that privacy concerns are taken into account.

The president is also tasking the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, to consider declassifying more details about the government's collection of U.S. phone and Internet records. Obama is specifically asking Clapper to review possible declassification of opinions from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which approves the data-mining efforts.

The government has already lifted some of the secrecy surrounding the programs following disclosures earlier this month about their existence by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. But the legal opinions from the highly secretive court remain private.

The privacy board was created in 2004 but has operated fitfully ever since, given congressional infighting and at times, censorship by government lawyers. The board was dormant during Obama's first term and only became fully functional in May, before the NSA programs became public.

The board's chairman, David Medine, said the five-member group has a "broad range of questions" to ask about the NSA's widespread collection programs. The board was given a classified briefing on the programs last week and plans to release a report eventually with recommendations for the government.

___

Follow Julie Pace at on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-meet-privacy-civil-liberties-board-100342780.html

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Afghan peace bid on hold over Kabul-Taliban protocol row

By Amena Bakr

DOHA (Reuters) - A fresh effort to end Afghanistan's 12-year-old war was in limbo on Thursday after a diplomatic spat about the Taliban's new Qatar office delayed preliminary discussions between the United States and the Islamist insurgents.

A meeting between U.S. officials and representatives of the Taliban had been set for Thursday in Qatar but Afghan government anger at the fanfare surrounding the opening of a Taliban office in the Gulf state threw preparations into confusion.

The squabble may set the tone for what could be arduous negotiations to end a conflict that has torn at Afghanistan's stability since the U.S. invasion following the September 11, 2001 al Qaeda attacks on U.S. targets.

Asked when the talks would now take place, a source in Doha said, "There is nothing scheduled that I am aware of."

But the U.S. government said it was confident the U.S.-Taliban talks would soon go forward.

"We anticipate these talks happening in the coming days," said State Department spokesman Jen Psaki, adding that she could not be more specific. James Dobbins, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan "is packed and ready to go with his passport and suitcase," she said.

One logistical complication is a visit by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to Doha on Saturday and Sunday.

Kerry will discuss the Afghan peace talks with the Qatari hosts, senior U.S. officials said, but does not plan to get immersed in any talks himself or meet with Taliban representatives. A major part of his meeting will be devoted to talks on the Syrian civil war.

The opening of the Taliban office was a practical step paving the way for peace talks. But the official-looking protocol surrounding the event raised angry protests in Kabul that the office would develop into a Taliban government-in-exile. A diplomatic scramble ensued to allay the concerns.

Kerry spoke with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday and again on Wednesday in an effort to defuse the controversy.

NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen appeared to side with Karzai by pointing out that alliance leaders at NATO's Chicago summit last year had made clear that the peace process in Afghanistan must be "Afghan-led and Afghan-owned".

"Reconciliation is never an easy process in any part of the world," Rasmussen told reporters in Brussels.

A Taliban flag that had been hoisted at the Taliban office in Qatar on Tuesday had been taken down and lay on the ground on Thursday, although it appeared still attached to a flagpole.

A name plate, inscribed "Political Office of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" had been removed from the outside of the building. But a similar plaque fixed onto a wall inside the building was still there on Thursday morning, witnesses said.

Asked whether the Taliban office had created any optimism about peace efforts, the source replied: "Optimism and pessimism are irrelevant. The most important thing is that we now know the Taliban are ready to talk, and sometimes talk is expensive."

Word of the U.S.-Taliban talks had raised hopes that Karzai's government and the Taliban might enter their first-ever direct negotiations on Afghanistan's future, with Washington acting as a broker and Pakistan as a major outside player.

Waging an insurgency to overthrow Karzai's government and oust foreign troops, the Taliban has until now refused talks with Kabul, calling Karzai and his government puppets of the West. But a senior Afghan official said earlier the Taliban was now willing to consider talks with the government.

"It's hard to talk and fight at the same time," said Marc Grossman, Dobbins' predecessor as the U.S. envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The talks will be "really" difficult, said Grossman, now vice chairman at The Cohen Group consulting firm. He added that he was heartened that the protocol dispute, which he called "the first bump" in the process, was being worked out.

PRISONER SWAP

Pakistan's powerful military played a central role in convincing the Taliban to hold talks with Washington, U.S. and Pakistani officials said, a shift from widely held U.S. and Afghan views that it was obstructing peace in the region.

A prisoner swap is seen as likely to happen as the first confidence-building measure between the two sides, said one Pakistani official, who declined to be named.

But he said there were many likely spoilers in the peace process who would want to maintain the status quo to continue to benefit from the war economy and the present chaotic conditions.

"The opening of a Taliban office and the American readiness to hold talks with the Taliban is a forward movement. What happens next depends on the quality of dialogue and political will of the interlocutors," he said.

Pakistan has been particularly critical of Karzai, seeing him as an obstacle to a peace settlement.

In its talks with the U.S. officials, the Taliban was expected to seek the return of former commanders now held at the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba, as well as the departure of all foreign troops.

The United States wants the return of the only known U.S. prisoner of war from the conflict, Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who is believed to be held by the Taliban.

Psaki, the State Department spokeswoman, reiterated Washington's desire to free Bergdahl and acknowledged that the Taliban are likely to raise their detainees at Guantanamo early in any talks.

"The exchange of detainees is something the Taliban has raised in the past and we certainly expect they will raise it," she said. "We are open to discussing this issue as part of the negotiations."

U.S. President Barack Obama cannot transfer the Taliban detainees from Guantanamo without a written notification to the U.S. Congress, where some lawmakers vigorously oppose that move.

The Doha protocol dispute burst into the open on Wednesday when Karzai said his government would not join U.S. talks with the Taliban and would halt negotiations with Washington on a post-2014 troop pact.

Officials from Karzai's government, angered by the official-sounding name the Taliban chose for its political office in Doha, said the United States had violated assurances it would not give official status to the insurgents.

A statement on Qatar's foreign ministry website late on Wednesday said that the office was called the "Political Bureau for Afghan Taliban in Doha".

The source familiar with the matter said: "The Taliban have to understand that this office isn't an embassy and they are not representing a country."

(Additional reporting by Yara Bayoumy in Dubai, Adrian Croft in Brussels, Lesley Wroughton and Warren Strobel in Washington, and Frank Jack Daniel, Mahreen Zahra-Malik and Matthew Green in Islamabad; Writing by William Maclean; Editing by Philippa Fletcher, Paul Simao and Jim Loney)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-taliban-talks-qatar-not-expected-thursday-source-063921843.html

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How Google hires people - Business Insider

Google likely sees more data than any company on the planet. And that obsession carries through to hiring and management, where every decision and practice is endlessly studied and analyzed.

In an interview with The New York Times' Adam Bryant, Google's Senior Vice President of People Operations Laszlo Bock explains that some of the biggest stalwarts of the hiring and recruiting world, the interview, GPA, and test scores, aren't nearly as important as people think.?

Google doesn't even ask for GPA or test scores from candidates anymore, unless someone's a year or two out of school, because they don't correlate at all with success at the company. Even for new grads, the correlation is slight, the company has found.

Bock?has an excellent explanation about why those metrics don't mean much.

"Academic environments are artificial environments. People who succeed there are sort of finely trained, they?re conditioned to succeed in that environment," he says.

While in school, people are trained to give specific answers, "it's much?more interesting to solve problems where there isn?t an obvious answer," Bock says. "You want people who like figuring out stuff where there is no obvious answer."

As for interviews, many managers, recruiters, and HR staffers think they have a special ability to sniff out talent. They're wrong.?

"Years ago, we did a study to determine whether anyone at?Google?is particularly good at hiring," Bock says. "We looked at tens of thousands of interviews, and everyone who had done the interviews and what they scored the candidate, and how that person ultimately performed in their job. We found zero relationship."

Google also used to be famous for posing impossibly difficult and punishing brain teasers?during interviews. Things like "If the probability of observing a car in 30 minutes on a highway is 0.95, what is the probability of observing a car in 10 minutes (assuming constant default probability)?"

Turns out those questions are"a?complete waste of time," according to Bock. "They don?t predict anything. They serve primarily to make the interviewer feel smart."

The only thing that works are behavioral interviews, Bock says, where there's a consistent set of questions that ask people what they did in specific situations.

Many of the assumptions and practices we have about hiring came about because we didn't have anything better. For decades, the?only (relatively) consistent data point among hires was GPA and test scores. It was an easy way to sort, and because that's the way it was always done, people stuck with it.

We can do better now. And though Google has something of a head start and a lot more data, more and more companies are catching on.?

The best thing about data? It's hard for people to contest. Even when people don't want to believe that they're underperforming, it's hard to dispute years worth of numbers. "For most people, just knowing that information causes them to change their conduct," ?Bock says.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-google-hires-people-2013-6

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Ibrutinib Continues Strong Showing Against Mantle Cell Lymphoma

Newswise ? HOUSTON - In a major international study led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, the targeted therapy ibrutinib continues to show remarkable promise for the treatment of relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma (MCL).

The most recent interim findings of the 18-center Phase 2 study were published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. Previous interim findings were presented in December 2012 at the 54th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition.

Unprecedented results, fewer side effects

?This oral inhibitor of the Bruton's tyrosine kinase in the B-cell receptor pathway is the most important breakthrough to date in the treatment of mantle cell lymphoma,? said Michael Wang, M.D., associate professor in MD Anderson's Departments of Lymphoma and Myeloma and Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy. Wang is lead author of the trial.

?It is an oral drug, taken once a day, and its side effects are not severe. Yet it can achieve more than previous combination chemotherapy approaches. Our results constitute excellent news for our patients and patients around the world.?

The ongoing trial of oral ibrutinib in patients with heavily treated relapsed or refractory MCL has maintained a response rate as high as 70 percent - better than any other single agent ever tested in the challenging disease ? with milder side effects than other treatments.

Targeted approach to dangerous disease

MCL is a rare and aggressive B-cell subtype of non-Hodgkin lymphoma that, according to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, accounts for 6 percent of non-Hodgkin cases. Despite high response rates to initial highly toxic combination-drug chemotherapy, patients often relapse.

The B-cell receptor pathway is critical in B-cell lymphoma, and Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) is an essential component of this pathway. Ibrutinib targets the BTK molecule, causing cell death and decreasing cellular migration and adhesion in malignant B-cells.
In this study, patients were given 560 mg daily ibrutinib in continuous 28-day cycles until disease progressed or side effects became intolerable. To date, 111 patients have participated in the study. Seventy-seven percent had stage 4 disease, and the median number of prior treatments was three.

Ongoing results continue to show promise

In the past six months, ibrutinib has continued to show excellent results. With a median follow-up period of 15 months:

? Overall response rate was 68 percent
? Complete response rate was 21 percent
? Partial response rate 47 percent

Response and complete remission rates improved with longer duration of treatment.

Among the 75 patients who responded, median:

? Response duration was 18 months
? Time to response was two months
? Progression-free survival was 14 months

Most side effects were minor and included diarrhea, fatigue, upper respiratory tract infections, nausea and rash. Grade 3 or higher effects included low white cell blood counts, anemia and diarrhea.

Next steps

Wang believes further investigation of ibrutinib as a first line therapy and in combination with other targeted therapies and traditional cytotoxic agents is essential.

?This drug, which is the safest option we have for MCL, shows unprecedented durable single agent activity,? he said. ?The favorable toxicity profile also implies that ibrutinib provides the opportunity for less intense and more effective regimens. The long-term impact of ibrutinib definitely warrants further clinical testing.?

Pharmacyclics, Inc., which developed ibrutinib, sponsored the clinical trial.

Wang?s co-authors at MD Anderson include Jorge E. Romaguera, M.D., Liang Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., Kate Newberry, Ph.D., and Zhishuo Ou, M.D., Department of Lymphoma and Myeloma; Lei Li, Ph.D., Department of Experimental Radiation Oncology; and Bingliang Fang, Ph.D., Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery.

Other members of the research team include Simon Rule, M.D., Derriford Hospital, Plymouth, United Kingdom; Peter Martin, M.D., Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, New York; Andre Goy, M.D., John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center, Hackensack, NJ; Rebecca Auer, M.D., Ph.D., Barts Health NHS Trust, London, United Kingdom; Brad S. Kahl, M.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison; Wojciech Jurczak, M.D., Ph.D., Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland; Ranjana Advani, M.D., Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, California; Michael E. Williams M.D., University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, Virginia; Jacqueline Barrientos, M.D., Department of Medicine, Hofstra North Shore-LIJ, New Hyde Park, New York; Ewa Chmielowska, M.D., Oddzial Kliniczny Onkologii Centrum Onkologii, Bydgoszcz, Poland; John Radford, M.D., The Christie NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom; Stephan Stilgenbauer, M.D., Universitatsklinikum Ulm, Klinik fur Innere Medizin II, Ulm, Germany; Martin Dreyling, M.D., Klinikum der Universitat Munchen ? Campus Grosshadern, Munich, Germany; Wieslaw Wiktor Jedrzejczak, M.D., Medical University of Warsaw, Poland; Peter Johnson, M.D., Cancer Research UK Centre, University of Southampton, United Kingdom; Stephen E. Spurgeon, M.D., Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, Oregon; Nancy Cheng, M.S., Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas; Jesse McGreivy, M.D., Fong Clow, Sc.D., Joseph Buggy, Ph.D., Betty Chang, Ph.D., Darrin Beaupre, M.D., Ph.D. and Lori A. Kunkel, M.D., Pharmacyclics, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA; and Kristie Blum, M.D., Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbus, Ohio.

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Source: http://www.newswise.com/articles/ibrutinib-continues-strong-showing-against-mantle-cell-lymphoma

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MSSU board approves settlement agreement with fired president

JOPLIN, Mo. ? Bruce Speck, whose contract as president of Missouri Southern State University was terminated last week, will receive the equivalent of a year?s salary as well as housing and health insurance benefits through the end of the year.

Those terms were approved Wednesday by the Board of Governors.

According to the agreement, which also carried Speck?s signature, the university will pay Speck:

? All contract benefits through the end of this month.

? Twelve monthly installments, beginning in July, totaling $185,400, which is the amount of his annual salary.

? His health coverage through December. The agreement also requires the university to make available to Speck?s wife the same health coverage, at her expense, through December.

? A monthly housing allowance of $3,333.33 through December.

? $14,261.53, which represents 160 hours of accrued vacation pay.

The agreement requires Speck to return to the university its leased vehicle as well as other university property such as keys, computers, telephones or credit cards. It also includes a clause that stipulates that Speck may not sue the university.

The board voted unanimously last week to terminate Speck?s contract, which was effective through June 30, 2015. Sherry Buchanan, chairwoman of the board, disclosed the vote earlier this week and said in a statement that the termination was ?by mutual agreement? of the board and Speck.

Ron Mitchell, a Joplin attorney representing the board, said he thinks the agreement is ?amicable? to both parties.

?It was very important that we be fair, that we move forward in a positive fashion, that we not get bogged down with this to the detriment of the future,? Mitchell said after the board?s meeting at his office.

Mitchell said many of the terms of the agreement ? the paying of accrued vacation time and health insurance, for example ? are standard university policy regarding the departure of an employee. The payment of one year?s salary isn?t standard procedure for employees, he said.

?Given the fact that he had two years left on the contract, I think everybody thought that was fair,? he said.

Joy Dworkin, president of the faculty senate, said when contacted by the Globe on Wednesday night that she thinks the settlement is ?going beyond? what is listed in Speck?s contract.

According to his contract, the president would be paid his base salary and health coverage for six additional months in a situation wherein his contract was terminated ?by mutual consent? and initiated by the board. He would not be paid salary or benefits beyond his date of termination in the same situation if he initiated the termination, under the contract.

?I would say that I?m not shocked, but that does seem generous,? Dworkin said of the terms of the settlement. ?I suppose I could say I?m somewhat disappointed that this is an expensive settlement for Missouri Southern, but I feel quite confident that the faculty nevertheless is eager for us to move on to new leadership.?

Speck has been out of his office and unavailable for comment for about three weeks now.

Buchanan has repeatedly declined to comment on his absence. She also has declined to comment on why Speck?s contract was terminated, saying only that it is a personnel matter.

Mitchell said Speck?s last official day as president was Friday, the same day that the board voted to terminate his contract. He said he didn?t know when Speck?s last day on campus was, or why he had been gone.

In Speck?s absence, Mitchell said, the day-to-day operation of the university has fallen to the president?s council, which consists of the university?s four vice presidents and the director of athletics, as well as the leader of the Board of Governors.

What?s next?

AN INTERIM PRESIDENT has not yet been named by the board. The board is to meet at 4 p.m. today in Billingsly Student Center for its regular monthly meeting.

Source: http://www.joplinglobe.com/topstories/x479815988/MSSU-board-approves-settlement-agreement-with-fired-president

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Google invades Siri's turf with iPhone, iPad app

This undated image made available by Google shows "Google Now." Google is trying to upstage Siri, the sometimes droll assistant that answers questions and helps people manage their lives on Apple's iPhone and iPad. The duel begins Monday, April 29, 2013, with the release of a free iPhone and iPad app that features Google Now, a technology that performs many of the same functions as Siri. (AP Photo/Google)

This undated image made available by Google shows "Google Now." Google is trying to upstage Siri, the sometimes droll assistant that answers questions and helps people manage their lives on Apple's iPhone and iPad. The duel begins Monday, April 29, 2013, with the release of a free iPhone and iPad app that features Google Now, a technology that performs many of the same functions as Siri. (AP Photo/Google)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Siri may be feeling a little job insecurity. The sometimes droll assistant that answers questions and helps people manage their lives on Apple's iPhone and iPad is facing competition from an up-and-coming rival made by Google.

The duel began Monday with the release of a free iPhone and iPad app that features Google Now, a technology that performs many of the same functions as Siri.

It's the first time that Google Now has been available on smartphones and tablet computers that aren't running on the latest version of Google's Android software. The technology, which debuted nine months ago, is being included in an upgrade to Google's search application for iOS, the Apple Inc. software that powers the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. It's up to each user to decide whether to activate Google Now within the redesigned Google Search app, which is available through Apple's app store.

Siri tried to dismiss the competitive threat. When asked for an opinion about Google Now, Siri responded: "If it's all the same to you, I'd rather Google later."

Mike Allton, a St. Charles, Mo. resident who has owned an iPhone for four years, could hardly wait to check out Google Now, even if Siri might interpret it as a betrayal.

Siri "is looking a little green with envy," Allton, 36, said with a laugh after he had installed Google's new app. "I love Apple products, but I like to see the competition because it probably will lead to even more improvements. I believe this technology is going to be even more deeply ingrained in our lives a few years from now."

Other iPhone users ?even those who have grown fond of Siri ? welcomed Google Now's arrival to iOS in mostly enthusiastic and sometimes amusing remarks posted on Twitter and Google Plus. One person joked that Google Now is so helpful that the technology prompted him to wash his hands after using the bathroom. The biggest gripe was about the possibility of Google Now's location-tracking features draining a device's battery more quickly.

Google Now's invasion of Siri's turf marks Google Inc.'s latest attempt to lure iPhone and iPad users away from a service that Apple built into its own devices.

Google quickly won over millions of iPhone users in December when it released a mapping application to replace the navigation system that Apple dumped when it redesigned iOS last fall. Apple's maps application proved to be inferior to Google's ousted service. The app's bugs and glitches made Apple the butt of jokes and fueled demand for Google to develop a new option.

Apple has been losing to Google on other fronts in a rapidly growing mobile computing market, an arena that was revolutionized with the iPhone's release in 2007. Smartphones and tablet computers running Google's free Android software have been steadily expanding their market share in recent years, partly because they tend to be less expensive than the iPhone and iPad. At the end of 2012, Android devices held about 69 percent of the smartphone market while iOS held about 19 percent, according to the research firm IDC.

Android's success has been particularly galling for Apple because its late CEO, Steve Jobs. believed Google stole many of its ideas for the software from the iPhone. That led to a series of court battles over alleged patent infringement, including a high-profile trial last year that culminated in Apple winning hundreds of millions in damages from Samsung Electronics, the top seller of Android phones. That dispute is still embroiled in appeals.

The rise of Android also is squeezing Apple's profit margins, and has contributed to a nearly 40 percent drop in the company's stock price since it peaked at $705.07 last September around the time that the iPhone 5 came out.

Android's popularity is good news for Google because the company's services are built into most versions of the operating system. That brings more traffic to Google services, creating more opportunities for the company to sell ads ? the main source of Google's revenue.

Siri is billed by Apple as an "intelligent feature." Since the technology's release in October 2011, Apple has made it a centerpiece of some marketing campaigns that depict Siri and its automated female voice as an endearing and occasionally even pithy companion.

Google believes its Siri counterpart is smarter because Google Now is designed to learn about a user's preferences and then provide helpful information before it's even asked to do so. The technology draws upon information that Google gleans from search requests other interactions with the company's other services. Knowing a person's location also helps Google Now serve up helpful information without being asked.

"This concept of predicting your needs and showing you them at the right time is unique to Google Now," said Baris Gultekin, Google Now's director of product management. "We want computers to do the hard work so our users can focus on what matters to them so they can get on with their lives."

If the technology is working right, Google Now is supposed to do things like automatically tell people what the local weather is like when they awaken to help decide what to wear and provide a report on traffic conditions for the commute to work. During the day, Google Now might provide an update on the score of a user's favorite sports team or a stock quote of a company in a user's investment portfolio. On a Friday evening, Google Now might offer suggestions for movies to see or other weekend events tailored to a user's interests. For international travelers, Google Now might provide currency conversion rates, language translations of common phrases and the time back home.

Most of this automatic information is provided in summaries that Google calls "cards." Like Siri, Google Now also is equipped with voice technology that allows it to respond to questions and interact with users, though it hasn't shown the wit that delights some of Siri's users.

The Google Now app for iOS isn't as comprehensive as the Android app, which only works on devices running on the latest version of Android ? known as "Jelly Bean." Some of the Android features missing from Google Now's iOS app include cards for showing airline boarding passes and movie tickets bought though online vendor Fandango. Both of those options are available on the iOS through Apple's built-in Passbook feature that's designed to be a digital wallet.

Google Now's expansion on to the iOS underscores Google's ambitions for the service. The company, which is based in Mountain View, Calif., views it as a pivotal tool in its effort to peer deeper into its users' brains. In doing so, Google believes it will be able to provide more useful services and also show more relevant ads. For Google Now to become more intuitive, it needs to widen its availability.

"The more you use Google Now, we will have a better chance of understanding what your needs are and providing you with the right information," Gultekin said. "It's a virtuous cycle."

Gultekin declined to discuss whether there are plans to make Google Now apps for mobile devices running on Microsoft's Windows system. He also refused to comment on speculation circulating in technology blogs that a Web version of Google Now will be offered as a replacement for iGoogle, a tool that allows people to encircle the Google search engine with a variety of services suited to their tastes. IGoogle is scheduled to close in November.

___

Online:

http://www.google.com/landing/now/

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-04-29-Google-Apple-Dueling%20Assistants/id-91b0f9ddf3654b37a47ca2fb93afa7d3

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OpenMobile ACL for webOS resurrected on Kickstarter, hopes to bring Android apps to HP Touchpad

The promise of OpenMobile's Application Compatibility Layer is inciting: seamlessly run Android apps on another operating system as if it was meant to be there. Unfortunately for fans of Palm's last hurrah, the project's webOS port died with the HP Touchpad. That won't stop dedicated fans, however -- Phoenix International Communications plans to resurrect webOS ACL. Taking the project to Kickstarter, the team has showed an early build of the project on an HP Touchpad, seamlessly running Android apps in cards alongside native webOS applications. Phoenix hopes that a functional ACL will reduce Touchpad owner's reliance on dual-booting Android, giving them the freedom to enjoy webOS without sacrificing functionality. The team is promising a relatively short development time, thanks to OpenMobile's early work, and hopes to deliver a consumer ready build in July. But first the Kickstarter campaign will need to meet its $35,000 goal. Interested in pitching in? Check out the Kickstarter link at the source.

Filed under: Tablets, HP

Comments

Source: Kickstarter

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