Ever since Jeffrey Lee began work on porting RISC OS to developer boards such as the BeagleBoard and IGEPv2 there's been interest in putting a case around them to make them into proper computers. Both ports are still firmly in progress, so a finished-off A9-style computer isn't likely to appear for some time. That hasn't stopped some hobbyists having a go at making their own. This one looks particularly impressive:
 

 
There are more pics and description here on the ROOL forums. The nutBOX comes hot on the heels of Dave Thomas's lego housing for his IGEPv2 here, first reported on riscos.info.
 
There's still some way to go before the RISC OS OMAP port is stable enough to drive a general purpose computer suitable for everyday use, but in the meantime, plenty of people are having fun with what already exists...
 

RISC OS Open have announced that Castle have given the official seal of approval to RISC OS 5.16, the new version of the shared-source OS. The most prominent feature in this new version is a fix for the much-discussed year 2012 bug, where IYONIX computers would mistakenly read their real-time clock on startup if it's an odd-numbered decade.
 
The new IYONIX pc ROM can be downloaded free of charge from the ROOL site, in either flash programmer or softload form. ROOL advise that the ROM image is believed to work in softload form on all IYONIX versions of RISC OS from 5.10 or later. In flash programmer form, it should work from version 5.07 or later.
 
To avoid any unforseen compatibility issues with third-party software, it's advised to at try out the softload at least once before running the flash programmer tool. Just remember that the using the softload won't fix the year 2012 bug (and can even result in a jump to 2110) - the only way to fix the year 2012 bug is to use the flash programmer.
 
Update: ROOL have now added to the release announcement a human-readable list of the changes that have been made since the last official release (5.14).
 
Links

• ROOL announcement
• Download page, containing both the softload and the flash programmer

 

Last week saw this year's annual Consumer Electronics Show go down in Las Vegas. The world's largest consumer technology tradeshow, it's traditionally a source for many product announcements from the major manufacturers. This year there was a lot of focus on 3D TVs, e-readers, and, most importantly for us, next-generation ARM-powered goodies.

 
 

One of the frustrating things about being a RISC OS user, is its lack of support for commonly-used video formats, other than its own dedicated Replay system.
 
A few attempts have been made to remedy this situation, but, until recently, they have come to nothing.
 
In the mid-1990s, Innovative Media Solutions produced a range of Acorn readers for PC-format, educational CDs, such as Microsoft Dinosaurs and Dorling Kindersley's The Way Things Work. These readers included dedicated versions of ARMovie, which could convert the CD’s AVI files to Replay format on the fly.
 
Unfortunately, the work that IMS had done, did not result in the release of a souped-up version of Replay, which could play all Quicktime and AVI movies, despite the fact that RISCOS Ltd seem to have done some work in this area about five years ago.
 
But now, with the release of the open-source applications, Murnong and FFMpeg, by Chris Martin, things have started to take a turn for the better.
 
Although RISC OS still does not have a proper media player, which can play all the common video formats, we do now have the next best thing - an application that can capture a YouTube video stream as it arrives, and convert it to an MPEG file, which can be played using KinoAmp.
 
 

Happy new year! The votes have been counted and we're pleased to announce the winners of The Icon Bar Awards for 2009. Thanks to everyone who took part and congratulations to all the nominees on the shortlist.
 
And here are the results:

• Best commercial product
  Winner: PostScript 3
  Runner-up: ArtWorks 2.9
• Best non-commercial product
  Winner: NetSurf
  Runner-up: GCC
• Best new development
  Winner: RISC OS Open on BeagleBoard
  Runner-up: Tie between Micro Men & V-Pod!
• Best show
  Winner: Sophie Wilson at Alt Party 2009
  Runner-up: ROUGOL

Read on for more details, including our two Special Awards for significant and lasting contributions to the RISC OS community.
 
 

Thanks for your nominations for the inaugural Icon Bar awards. It's now time for you to choose the winners, so click here to vote! The polls will remain open until the end of the year and the results will be revealed on New Year's Day. The nominees are:
 

Best Commercial Product ArtWorks 2.9 Dual-head ViewFinder LuaFox Organizer 2 PostScript3 drivers RISC OS 6 WebWonder	Best Non-Commercial Product Dave Higton's USB toys DigitalCD 3 Firefox GCC NetSurf StrongEd
Best New Development BBC Four's Micro Men RISC OS Open on BeagleBoard V-Pod Graphics Card	Best Show Acorn World / Retro Reunited MUG Christmas Show ROUGOL Show Sophie Wilson at Alt Party 2009 Wakefield Show

Links
Vote for The Icon Bar Awards 2009
Please note that you must be logged in to vote - please register if you have not already done so.
 

The RISC OS user base has always been a bit schizophrenic. Even in the 90s - the period when the OS had its greatest mainstream success - RISC OS users were a diverse bunch. Most OSes had a clearly defined stereotypical user: Windows was for business-types, Macs for design gurus, Amigas/STs for gamers and Linux/UNIX for developers and academics. RISC OS never had a clear rationale. Many users came from the education sector, others from the scientific community, and a few were home computing enthusiasts.
 

For the past several years Drobe have run their yearly Drobe awards, in which members of the public nominate and vote for the RISC OS products and people who they believe have best served the platform over the course of the year. After a quick check with Drobe foreman Chris Williams to make sure he wasn't planning on running the awards this year, the staff at TIB decided it would be a good idea if we picked up the metaphorical torch and ran the awards ourselves. So, ladies and gentlemen, prepare for the first annual Icon Bar awards!
 
This year there will be four categories open for nomination. Once a suitable number of nominations have been collected, the voting booths will be opened. Then at the end of the year the votes will be tallied and the winner and runner-up for each category will be revealed. The categories for this year are:

• Best commercial product
• Best non-commercial product
• Best new development
• Best RISC OS show/event

Of course, if you want to nominate something that doesn't fit into any of the above categories, feel free to send it in and we'll see what we can do!
 
Update: Thanks for all your suggestions. Voting is now open until the end of the year.