Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 4th Apr 2011 22:59 UTC
And yes, the stream of controlled Windows 8 leaks continues. This time around, Thurrot and Rivera have published a number of screenshots from Windows 8's brand-new tablet user interface, and surprise surprise, its built on Metro, the same design language that underpins Windows Phone 7. Windows 8 will also include its own PDF reader, Modern Reader, which also happens to be the first application packaged in Microsoft's new AppX format. Update: Long Zheng has some technical details on AppX, including this little tidbit: "The extensive list of properties signifies the comprehensive scope of this system to be the ideal deployment strategy for 'applications', in all essence of the word. In fact, the AppX format is universal enough so it appears to work for everything from native Win32 applications to framework-based applications and even *gasp* web applications. Games are also supported."
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Member since:2007-11-29
Well I'd say I was semi-joking 
Of course it's kinda funny, but honestly, I'd really expect something like that to happen, because it's indeed a threat to Adobe.
On the other hand, I never really understood why they were forced to insert a browser ballot screen. They should be allowed to ship whatever they want, why should they be forced to offer third party browsers at all? I'm an Opera user and I hate IE, but for me it's perfectly fine if they only ship IE with Windows. Even without a ballot screen, Mozilla managed to gain 25% or so marketshare...
Member since:2007-02-17
Well I'd say I was semi-joking Of course it's kinda funny, but honestly, I'd really expect something like that to happen, because it's indeed a threat to Adobe. On the other hand, I never really understood why they were forced to insert a browser ballot screen. They should be allowed to ship whatever they want, why should they be forced to offer third party browsers at all? I'm an Opera user and I hate IE, but for me it's perfectly fine if they only ship IE with Windows. Even without a ballot screen, Mozilla managed to gain 25% or so marketshare...
Of course it's kinda funny, but honestly, I'd really expect something like that to happen, because it's indeed a threat to Adobe. On the other hand, I never really understood why they were forced to insert a browser ballot screen. They should be allowed to ship whatever they want, why should they be forced to offer third party browsers at all? I'm an Opera user and I hate IE, but for me it's perfectly fine if they only ship IE with Windows. Even without a ballot screen, Mozilla managed to gain 25% or so marketshare... It is becase Microsoft were deemed to have an effective monopoly on the desktop operating system, and because Microsoft insist that the browser is an inseperable part of the operating system when clearly it isn't, and finally because Microsoft insist on extending their browser (which is meant to interface to the public-access web) with proprietary, Windows-only extensions such as ActiveX.
Those factors combined had the potential to turn the public-access web into the Windows-only web. That is unacceptable.
IMO opinion the better solution would have been to force Microsoft to make IE compliant with open standards web technologies and to remove extended Windows-only functionality. No matter then if IE was embedded into the OS or not, as Microsoft chose. Instead Microsoft suggested, and the EU fell for, the browser ballot.
Meh. IMO it isn't going to matter in the long run. Because of firefox mainly and more lately mobiles, tablets and handhelds, Windows-only websites are becoming very rare. The prospect of a Windows-only proprietary web is much lower now than it used to be.
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/25/13 0:45 UTC
"So in summary... Google has pulled the plug on support on a protocol they've helped popularize, after years of promising interoperability, for reasons that are dubious at best, and in a way that leaves people who don't jump to the new Hangouts app unable to talk to their contacts without any feedback that their IMs aren't getting through... And they've done that with no warning to anyone. I imagine there's a bunch of people out there wondering where some of their buddies have gone, or why their messages aren't getting responses, because this isn't documented anywhere." Google really messed this up. Such a dick move.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 23:59 UTC
The Tizen Greek Community has some screenshots of a very recent build of Tizen running on a Samsung GT-i8800. It looks wholly unremarkable.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 22:33 UTC
Joint statement to The Next Web from Microsoft and Google: "Microsoft and YouTube are working together to update the new YouTube for Windows Phone app to enable compliance with YouTube's API terms of service, including enabling ads, in the coming weeks. Microsoft will replace the existing YouTube app in Windows Phone Store with the previous version during this time." Good to know these children stopped acting like little pricks. Can we have full Google support in Windows 8 now, please?
Linked by Howard Fosdick on 05/24/13 21:41 UTC
Yahoo is acquiring Tumblr, the microblogging and social networking website, for $1.1 billion USD. Tumblr offers little revenue but lots of eyeballs if Yahoo can monetarize them. Now Yahoo is bidding for Hulu, the streaming video service. After years of ineffective responses while Google, Facebook, and others took large chunks of the online advertising market, Yahoo is fighting back. Can Yahoo reignite the momentum it had at the turn of the century? What do you think?
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 14:44 UTC
"Sources have described iOS 7 as 'black, white, and flat all over'. This refers to the dropping of heavy textures and the addition of several new black and white user interface elements." I couldn't be happier.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 23:22 UTC
"Ilja van Sprundel, a security researcher with IOActive, has discovered a large number of issues in the way various X client libraries handle the responses they receive from servers, and has worked with X.Org's security team to analyze, confirm, and fix these issues."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 22:04 UTC
"Google is facing a new antitrust probe by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission into whether the company is using its leadership in the online display-advertising market to illegally curb competition, people familiar with the matter said." Sucks to be Google today, apparently.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 22:01 UTC
"In the midst of the major press blitz surrounding its annual I/O Conference, Google dropped some unfortunate news about its instant messaging plans. In several places around the web, the company is replacing the existing 'Talk' platform with a new one called 'Hangouts' that sharply diminishes support for the open messaging protocol known as XMPP (or sometimes informally Jabber), and also removes the option to disable the archiving of all chat communications. These changes represent a switch from open protocols to proprietary ones, and a clear step backward for many users." That's why I always say: only suckers trust companies.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 17:52 UTC
"The wave of departures is a sign of internal struggle, but amidst all the bad news, there is a glimmer of hope. According to an anonymous HTC executive cited by WSJ, the crucial HTC One is selling 'pretty good so far'. The executive revealed that HTC sold about five million One units since launch, a performance that is deemed encouraging. However, sales have been limited by the persisting supply issues that still plague the production of the HTC One." Finally some good news for HTC. Five million units amidst supply constraints is very impressive.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/22/13 22:23 UTC
"Sony gave the PS4 50% more raw shader performance, plain and simple (768 SPs @ 800MHz vs. 1152 SPs & 800MHz). Unlike last generation, you don't need to be some sort of Jedi to extract the PS4's potential here. The Xbox One and PS4 architectures are quite similar, Sony just has more hardware under the hood. Weâll have to wait and see how this hardware delta gets exposed in games over time, but the gap is definitely there. The funny thing about game consoles is that itâs usually the lowest common denominator that determines the bulk of the experience across all platforms. On the plus side, the Xbox One should enjoy better power/thermal characteristics compared to the PlayStation 4. Even compared to the Xbox 360 we should see improvement in many use cases thanks to modern power management techniques." AnandTech does its usual in-depth thing.More News »
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Member since:
2011-02-11
I know you're probably joking but in fact Adobe didn't want Microsoft to include support for PDF a while back due to Microsoft's embrace-extend-extinguish-strategy.
So that could have been true if things had turned out differently.