Color is not typically a topic of much discussion on the Linux blogs, but in recent weeks, it’s been drawing a lot of attention. Why, you ask? Simple: Ubuntu recently announced a major change to its longstanding “Human” earthtone-palette theme and branding. “I don’t know whether to call it ‘poo brown’ or ‘dirt brown,’ but either way it is seriously awful,” said Slashdot blogger hairyfeet. The new theme is meant to focus on the concept of “Light,” and it uses primarily hues in the dark purple and orange ranges.

When Apple enabled in-app purchases for iPhone applications, it seemed as though the days of “free” and “paid” versions of any given app were coming to an end. Soon, I thought, everything in the store would start out free as a teaser and then charge for an upgrade. That hasn’t exactly panned out universally, but Vlingo’s new voice application does charge in the way I thought all apps would charge by now. You can download it for free, but getting to the premium features costs $10. Vlingo is a speech-to-text app that can use that text in any of six general ways.

In a move sure to make the grade with cyclists across the United States, Google on Wednesday added bicycle routes to its Google Maps service. Biking directions and extensive bike trail data are now available for the United States through Google Maps, giving cyclists nationwide a way to customize their trips, figure out the most efficient routes, make use of bike lanes and avoid big hills. More than 12,000 miles of trails are now included in biking directions and outlined directly on maps through the service thanks to a partnership with the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy.

With global organizations depending on the sharing of sensitive information to support everything from financial transactions to patient care records, many believe they are relying on secure methods to exchange data with trusted partners. However, there is often a significant and alarming gap between perceived security and real vulnerability. To handle transmission of valuable company data, typical methods that are considered secure include FTP technology, “secure email,” regular email, courier services and the postal service.

Valve one of the largest distributors of online games, has announced that it will make its Steam online gaming service and proprietary gaming engine, Source, available on the Mac. The service, Steamworks for the Mac, comes equipped with Steam Play, a feature that allows play on either a PC or Mac at no additional charge. It also supports Steamworks APIs. The inclusion of WebKit into Steam and of OpenGL into Source gives the company a lot of flexibility, according to John Cook, director of Steam Development.

As the Obama administration grapples with the thorny issue of beefing up the United States’ cybersecurity infrastructure, and as security experts warn of impending cyberwarfare, a debate is raging over how much surveillance is enough. One of the biggest problems about implementing cybersecurity is that it involves a measure of surveillance, and the line between surveillance and snooping is razor thin. Thin enough, in fact, that Einstein 3 has aroused privacy concerns because it can examine the content of email.

It’s not often that Linux Girl is struck speechless by some tidbit of news in the tech world, but every once in a while it happens. Last week, it happened. Amid all the high-level discussion of Internet security at the RSA Conference 2010 in San Francisco, Microsoft’s Scott Charney — who holds the ironic title of “corporate vice president for trustworthy computing” — actually suggested a government tax to help the company improve Windows security.

The new features in Apple’s makeover of its image editing and archiving program Aperture appear to be a hit among photographers, even though the initial release of the application was so flawed an upgrade had to be released within two weeks of its launch. Aperture 3.0 ($199) has more than two hundred new features, including geotagging; face recognition; spot application of editing effects; powerful presets for manipulating an image’s exposure, white balance, highlights and color; and a robust slideshow function.

Although its operating system and apps are so buggy that new vulnerabilities are discovered with frightening regularity, Microsoft now wants Internet users to pony up to cover the cost of cybersecurity. The idea was put forth by Scott Charney, Redmond’s vice president for trustworthy computing, during a speech at the RSA Conference 2010 security convention earlier this week. His argument is that PC users who don’t run antivirus apps or back up their computers or patch their systems regularly are like cigarette smokers who poison other people with second-hand smoke.

We now know when the first iPads will be available for sale in U.S. Apple Stores: April 3rd. We now know what kinds of iPads you’ll be able to buy at that time: the WiFi models only. And we now know when you’ll be able to pre-order your iPad via online delivery or Apple Store pickup: March 12. All of this information came out in a company press release Friday, along with the obligatory Steve Jobs quote saying something about consumers being able to “connect with the apps and content in a more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before.”

“OMG, somebody call the Waaaambulance!” went a comment on last week’s column about South by Southwest. I had prepared myself for reader snark following my “it’s all about me” piece regarding SXSW’s denial of my complimentary press credential request. I was pleasantly surprised: only three comments — and the “waaaambulance” one actually cracked me up. The other two were offended by the facetious reference in my last line to “carpetbagging Yankees.” Derek Jeter has yet to weigh in. What truly surprised me, however, was the strength of a single tweet about the column.

Canonical founder and CEO Mark Shuttleworth, developer of the Ubuntu open source operating system, announced in December that he was stepping aside to develop cloud product design and curry new partners. He named Chief Operating Officer Jane Silber to take his place as CEO. Several weeks ago, Silber announced the hiring of open source industry veteran Matt Asay to fill her old job as COO. Canonical set high performance standards with its commitment for new distro releases for its popular desktop and server editions every six months.

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