Reality Bites
When the iPad was first announced back in January, consumers looked at the device as a possible failure. With a lack of features at launch, like a built-in webcam and flash, many expected the device to be the next Microsoft Origami.
Not many expected the iPad to take off as it did, where…
Earlier today at Google I/O, the company announced that its web browser, Chrome, was now 70 million users strong. That’s a big number, and up more than 100% in the past year. But wait a second, let’s get some perspective. Enter, Mozilla’s Asa Dotzler.
As he points out on his blog this evening, while Chrome may be at 70 million active users, Firefox is at nearly 370 million active users. And while Chrome grew by 40 million users in the past year, Firefox gained over 100 million new users in the same span — yes, more users than Chrome has total. He also made a nice chart to underscore his point.
Earlier this week we asked you if Windows 7 vindicated Microsoft from Vista, in light of a regarded customer satisfaction survey. The result was overwhelmingly positive in favor of Windows 7. Over 78 percent of readers said that they were satisfied, saying that it makes up for their Windows Vista experience. Only about 12 percent of readers found it to be a marginal improvement, and 5 percent said that Vista left a lingering bad taste in their mouth. If you’re barely or not satisfied, try optimizing your experience by checking out our Windows 7 tips and tricks. Even if you are happy with the operating system, check it out to make sure you’re not missing out on all of Windows 7’s nifty little features. More »
At Google I/O this morning, the topic of discussion was mobile; specifically, the Android mobile platform. As of this morning, there are more than 60 consumer devices running on Android, more than 100,000 new activations per day, 50,000 apps in the Android marketplace, and 180,000 registered developers working on apps. Not too shabby.
As the platform continues its rapid growth, Google has announced a number of very significant improvements will be coming to the next version, numbered 2.2 but nicknamed “FroYo,” which address key issues Android has dealt with in the past.
1) Improved Speed — Just as it was rumored, the next version of Android will have a JIT compiler, responsible for a significant (2x-5x) speed boost.
2) Better Enterprise Support — The platform has lagged behind Windows Mobile and BlackBerry in terms of enterprise functionality, but FroYo will include over 20 new enterprise features. These include better Exchange support, with auto-discovery, improved security, and GAL lookup, and new device admin APIs.
3) Cloud-to-Device API — Google services, Chrome extensions, and soon-to-be released Chrome apps will be able to sync with your Android device. If you need directions from Google Maps, it can be sent directly.
4) Tethering — This was also a rumored feature for a few weeks. The feature will be in the “settings” menu, and clicking “portable wi-fi hotspot.”
5) New Browser — The Javascript interpreter in Chrome will be used in FroYo’s native browser, offering a 2x-3x Javascript performance boost. Google’s Vic Gundotra said it will be the fastest mobile browser available.
6) Install apps on SD memory — One of the main problems people had with Android was that you could not install apps on your removable memory card, you were limited to the device’s physical memory, which in some cases was quite limited. In FroYo, apps can be moved to, and launched from, the phone’s SD card.
7) Flash 10.1 and AIR support — This one is not a surprise, as Adobe and Google have both said this would be coming.
8) Web-based Android Market — Without a doubt one of the weakest aspects of consuming apps on the Android Platform was that you were limited to only seeing what was shown on your mobile device’s screen, which in most cases is not very appealing.
9) App auto-updating — When an app you downloaded gets updated, you would get a notification that there was an update available in the Market. You’d have to navigate to the market and click OK three or four times per update just to get it installed. In FroYo, there will be an “Update All” icon, and the ability to check “allow automatic updating” when you download a new app. Apps can be purchased on the Web-based store and synced down to your Android device.
10) Music Sync — Even though it’s got a decent media player, Android devices have never had the music power that iPhone has with its built-in iPod functionality. With FroYo, however, users will be able to sync their local music collection with their Android device and stream wirelessly.
For more than six years, Opportunity has toiled away on the Red Planet — and it shows no signs of slowing down.
As expected, Google just announced Google TV at I/O. There’s four billion TV viewers worldwide, making it the biggest market in the world, and Google’s after it in a big way — it’s a $70 billion ad market in the US alone, after all. According to Google, “video should be consumed on the biggest, best, and brightest screen in your house, and that’s the TV.” The idea is to merge the web and TV without compromising on either the web experience or the video experience, with a focus on discovery and personalization. Of course, since it’s Google, the interface is search-driven, so you can just type in things like “30 Rock” or MSNBC” to find channels and content — including upcoming content to record and content from the internet. Yeah, it’s kind of like the TiVo Premiere’s swivel search, but prettier — and there’s a Hulu logo on the screen, which is extremely intriguing.
Google’s not sharing hardware specs, but we’re told Google TV devices will have WiFi, HDMI, the Intel CE4100 processor, and… some will have an IR blaster to tune your cable or satellite box, which is just sad. (Like, 1997 sad.) The input devices will all have keyboards, and you’ll also be able to use Android devices as a remote, including using voice search to find content and sending content from the phone to the TV. The software is based on Android with Chrome as the browser and full Flash 10.1 support. Since it’s Android, there’s a version of Android Market — any app that doesn’t require phone hardware can run on Google TV. There will also be a Google TV-specific Android SDK launching in “early” 2011, along with the Android Market for Google TV.
As for partners, it’s just as we heard: Sony will launch Sony Internet TVs and Blu-ray players with Google TV in the fall, and Logitech will introduce a set-top box with a Harmony remote and an HD camera for video chat at some point in the future. Dish Network will also launch a Google TV box at some point, while Best Buy will promote the platform as a whole in-store.
Make sure to keep up with the latest from I/O in our liveblog!
Gallery: Google TV turns on at I/O
Google TV turns on at I/O: runs Android and Flash, partnered with Sony, Logitech, and Intel originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 May 2010 12:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
And of course, they have the highest usage rate, according to Admob, and are the number two overall selling smartphone right now. More »
Earlier this week we asked you if Windows 7 vindicated Microsoft from Vista, in light of a regarded customer satisfaction survey. The result was overwhelmingly positive in favor of Windows 7. Over 78 percent of readers said that they were satisfied, saying that it makes up for their Windows Vista experience. About only 12 percent readers of found it to be a marginal improvement, and 5 percent said that Vista left a lingering bad taste in their mouth. If you’re barely or not satisfied, try optimizing your experience by checking out our Windows 7 tips and tricks. Even if you are happy with the operating system, check it out to make sure you’re not missing out on all of Window 7’s nifty little features. More »
DRAMA AT THE HOME OF WINGS AND BOSOMS! A Detroit area Hooters waitress, 20 year-old Cassie Smith, is claiming that she was put on weight probation. As you
We’ve still yet to find a great reason to eschew our tried-and-true mouse / keyboard tandem in favor of using our desktop with just our fingers, but if you know better, Gateway has a new duo it’d sure love for you to check out. The ZX4300 line, which is the lower-end of the two, gets served AMD’s Athlon II X2 CPU, Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit), a 20-inch touchpanel (1,600 x 900 resolution), integrated ATI Radeon HD 4270 graphics, 4GB of DDR3 memory a 640GB hard drive, 8x SuperMulti drive, a bundled wireless keyboard and mouse, inbuilt WiFi, gigabit Ethernet, six USB 2.0 sockets and a pair of five-watt speakers. The Gateway One ZX6900 family sports a 23-inch LCD (1,920 x 1,080), and while the vast majority of the specs mimic the others we’ve mentioned, the Core i3 power plant is a notable reason for paying extra. Speaking of which, the ZX4300-01e is slated to first hit stores next month for $749.99, while the ZX6900-01e lands alongside of it for $1,019.99.
Continue reading Gateway brings ZX4300 and ZX6900 all-in-one touchscreen PCs into a world of fingers
Gateway brings ZX4300 and ZX6900 all-in-one touchscreen PCs into a world of fingers originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 May 2010 10:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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It just landed in the open-source code for Chromium, so expect password syncing to arrive soon in Google Chrome’s Dev Channel. It will likely require a command line switch (--enable-sync-passwords) to activate, and no details yet on whether Chrome will offer a master password to protect your browsing. In the meantime, we recommend LastPass, the secure password solution that works with any browser. [Download Squad] More »
Google Chrome – Clients – WWW – Browsers – Google
A man died Wednesday morning after the car he was in crashed, rolled and burst into flames on Highway 10, near Melville, Sask., RCMP say.
A rounded, plasticky take on the iPad. That’s how Nvidia’s latest Android tablet prototype struck me. It’s pretty nice. But not as nice as the inside. More »
Revision3 might have finally found a star bigger than its own founder Kevin Rose (who co-hosts Revsion3's flagship show Diggnation). The Web video production house just signed magician/comedian Penn Jillette of Penn & Teller for a new show called Penn Point. The first episode will go up on May 24.The format will be a 3 to 7 minute rant by
Microsoft said on Wednesday that it plans to introduce support for the VP8 video codec in Internet Explorer 9. But there’s a catch, the user must have the VP8 codec installed on Windows.
Google announced a developer preview of WebM earlier today. WebM is an open, royalty-free media file format designed…
Google and VMware have teamed up to facilitate the rapid expansion of the lucrative Cloud computing market.
Google’s plan to open-source the VP8 video codec it acquired when it purchased a company called On2 hasn’t exactly been a secret, and the company’s finally made it official today as part of a new format called WebM. The WebM container is based on Matroska, with VP8 video and Ogg Vorbis audio streams packed inside — Google says the format is efficient enough to support playback on lower-power devices like netbooks, tablets, and handhelds, while the encoding profiles are simple enough to limit complexity when you’re trying to create WebM files. WebM is open-sourced and licensed royalty-free under a BSD-style license, so all those H.264 patent licensing concerns shouldn’t be an issue — and as you’d expect, Mozilla is supporting WebM right off the bat, with support in Firefox nightly builds as of today. Chromium nightlies will also support WebM as of today, with Chrome early access builds getting support on May 24 — and Opera is listed as “coming soon.”
Google’s also going to be supporting the format as an option for YouTube playback, so that should drive adoption in a big way — if you’re running these latest Firefox or Chromium nightlies you can actually try it out now. The big question, of course, is whether Apple and Microsoft will roll WebM support into Safari and IE and onto their mobile platforms. We’ll see — Google definitely has the ability to push a format into the mainstream.
Update: Industry support announced at I/O — including Adobe, who’ll be rolling VP8 support into Flash Player. Take note of the hardware partners, though: AMD, ARM, Broadcom, Freescale, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, and TI, among others. Missing in action? Intel.
Update 2: The always-reliable Mary Jo Foley at ZDNet says she’s heard Microsoft will be supporting WebM in IE9. That’s a big deal if it’s true, but we’ll have to wait for confirmation — IE9 isn’t due out for a year, so a lot can change in the meantime. Fingers crossed.
Update 3: Microsoft’s made an official statement on its blog — while the company is “all in” with HTML5, IE9 will only come with H.264 installed be default due to technical and IP concerns. HTML5 / VP8 playback will be supported, but users will have to download and install the codec separately, which doesn’t bode well for widespread adoption. Here’s the money quote:
In its HTML5 support, IE9 will support playback of H.264 video as well as VP8 video when the user has installed a VP8 codec on Windows.
[Thanks, Sean]
Google launches open WebM web video format based on VP8 (update: hardware partners and Microsoft statement) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 May 2010 12:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted by Joe Ashear, User Experience Designer
When I came to Google four years ago, a small group of engineers was putting the finishing touches on a calendar application. A few of us started using it, and I remember thinking, “Wow! It’s so fresh and shiny and new!”
But over time the shiny new Calendar started to feel a little bit old, a little out of step with other Google Apps. So we rolled up our sleeves and we tweaked the layout, we twiddled the colors and we tuned the text…and this week we’re pleased to show off a fresh new look for Google Calendar.
If you use Tasks in Calendar, you'll discover another change: we've removed the old Tasks link. Now to turn Tasks on and off, just click the Tasks calendar in your calendar list. If you only want to see tasks with due dates — the ones above your calendar — you can hide the task list by clicking the tall blue bar that separates the calendar from the task list.
A common chemical found in antibacterial soaps is turning up in lakes and streams and could potentially harm wildlife and human health.
