Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sat 5th Jan 2013 14:53 UTC
And so this situation is starting to get ridiculous - and consumers are, as usual, caught in the middle of it all. Google has just blocked Windows Phone devices from accessing Google Maps on their phones. In addition, it also seems Windows Phone users are now restricted to the basic HTML version of the mobile GMail website. While understandable from a defensive perspective - Microsoft's extortion scheme targeting Android device makers and all that - it's still a massive dick move that only hurts consumers. Update: the media attention has worked - Google is backpedalling, and will remove the redirect. "We periodically test Google Maps compatibility with mobile browsers to make sure we deliver the best experience for those users. In our last test, IE mobile still did not offer a good maps experience with no ability to pan or zoom and perform basic map functionality. As a result, we chose to continue to redirect IE mobile users to Google.com where they could at least make local searches. The Firefox mobile browser did offer a somewhat better user experience and that’s why there is no redirect for those users. Recent improvements to IE mobile and Google Maps now deliver a better experience and we are currently working to remove the redirect. We will continue to test Google Maps compatibility with other mobile browsers to ensure the best possible experience for users."
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RE[9]: Glad I would never get a Windows phone.
by Valhalla on Sun 6th Jan 2013 10:55
in reply to "RE[8]: Glad I would never get a Windows phone."
Member since:2006-01-24
While I agree that having one browser engine set the standards for the web is bad, it's certainly not comparable to the IE situation.
Anyone can implement Webkit, for free, that includes Microsoft.
That does not mean I like the idea of Webkit becoming a requisite for a fully functional web experience, particularly as I am not using webkit in my browsing (Firefox).
RE[10]: Glad I would never get a Windows phone.
by lucas_maximus on Sun 6th Jan 2013 11:57
in reply to "RE[9]: Glad I would never get a Windows phone."
Member since:2009-08-18
RE[9]: Glad I would never get a Windows phone.
by UltraZelda64 on Sun 6th Jan 2013 15:26
in reply to "RE[8]: Glad I would never get a Windows phone."
Member since:2006-12-05
Everyone seems to be forgetting that Webkit and Trident are not the only two browser engines out there, and Trident is basically as single-platform as it gets so it's already limited. How about Gecko and Presto? And also the fact that Google has further explained the reasoning, claiming that IE for Windows Phone simply gave a poor experience?
Let's not forget that it's not even all of Trident that was not working... desktop versions of Windows Internet Explorer apparently worked fine, and were therefore unaffected. Perfectly understandable to me, and it comes to me as absolutely no surprise that a Trident-based browser would have trouble rendering something.
Move on. Google has already explained, is working to solve the problem if it hasn't been done already, and all it produced a day of whining. Like I said several times, Microsoft has done far worse themselves with absolutely no good excuse and without turning around over the course of a day.
Edited 2013-01-06 15:41 UTC
RE[10]: Glad I would never get a Windows phone.
by lucas_maximus on Mon 7th Jan 2013 20:45
in reply to "RE[9]: Glad I would never get a Windows phone."
Member since:2009-08-18
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/19/13 23:02 UTC, submitted by M.Onty
"Microsoft has sensationally abandoned its controversial plans to restrict the sharing of XBox One games, and has also removed daily online authentication requirements for its forthcoming console", reports The Guardian. They had no choice. Still a good move.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/19/13 22:28 UTC
"A snippet of code in the Steam digital distribution platform has revealed that Valve may be planning to let users easily share their games with friends in the future. The Verge has verified the code's authenticity, which was originally spotted by a member of the NeoGAF gaming forum; the code references a 'shared game library' and a notification that would alert a user when their games are currently in use by a borrower." This would change the, uh, game.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:33 UTC
Official Apple statement on PRISM and privacy: "Regardless of the circumstances, our Legal team conducts an evaluation of each request and, only if appropriate, we retrieve and deliver the narrowest possible set of information to the authorities. In fact, from time to time when we see inconsistencies or inaccuracies in a request, we will refuse to fulfill it." This is basically Apple re-publishing their earlier statement in a more official manner. You either believe it, or you don't.
Linked by Anonymous on 06/18/13 22:26 UTC
The open source Contiki operating system and its commercial Thingsquare distribution are making strides towards the connected home. According to a Computerworld article, a new LED light bulb manufacturer is putting small computers into their light bulbs. Each computer runs the Contiki OS, which gives each bulb an IP address and allows them to be controlled with a smartphone application. To connect the bulbs to the application, the bulbs use both Wi-Fi and the much lower power IEEE 802.15.4 mesh technology.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:25 UTC
"Google asked the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Tuesday to ease long-standing gag orders over data requests it makes, arguing that the company has a constitutional right to speak about information it's forced to give the government. The legal filing, which cites the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech, is the latest move by the California-based tech giant to protect its reputation in the aftermath of news reports about sweeping National Security Agency surveillance of Internet traffic." Draining the ditch after the cow has drowned in it.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:45 UTC
"I can't find one person who has been using the Nexus 7 for an extended period of time, and hasn't seen a massive downgrade in performance. Just what kind of downgrade are we talking here? I cannot pick up my Nexus 7 without experiencing problems like a lag of ten seconds, or more, just to rotate the display; touches refusing to acknowledged; stuttering notification panel actions; and unresponsive apps." Fully and utterly agreed. My Nexus 7 was blazing-fast and awesome for a few months, and at some point, it just started sucking. Just like that. I've tried loads of ROMs, and nothing helps.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:32 UTC, submitted by poundsmack
A new release of the hobby operating system MenuetOS! The release notes are a bit non-descript, but you'll have to take what you can get: "updates and improvements (picview, httpc, ehci, ...)".
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:58 UTC
"The Internet is one of the most transformative technologies of our lifetimes. But for 2 out of every 3 people on earth, a fast, affordable Internet connection is still out of reach. And this is far from being a solved problem. There are many terrestrial challenges to Internet connectivity - jungles, archipelagos, mountains. There are also major cost challenges. Right now, for example, in most of the countries in the southern hemisphere, the cost of an Internet connection is more than a month's income. Solving these problems isn't simply a question of time: it requires looking at the problem of access from new angles. So today we're unveiling our latest moonshot from Google[x]: balloon-powered Internet access." Insane.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:52 UTC
"MineAssemble is a tiny bootable Minecraft clone written partly in x86 assembly. I made it first and foremost because a university assignment required me to implement a game in assembly for a computer systems course. Because I had never implemented anything more complex than a 'Hello World' bootloader before, I decided I wanted to learn about writing my own kernel code at the same time. Note that the goal of this project was not to write highly efficient hand-optimized assembly code, but rather to have fun and write code that balances readability and speed. This is primarily accomplished by proper commenting and consistent code structuring." Just cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 21:03 UTC
Jon Rubinstein, former CEO of Palm: "Well, I'm not sure I would have sold the company to HP. That's for sure. Talk about a waste. Not that I had any choice because when you sell a company you don't get to decide that. Obviously, the board and shareholders decide that. If we had known they were just going to shut it down and never really give it a chance to flourish, what would have been the point of selling the company? I think the deal we had with Verizon really hurt us, but who knew that at the time? These things are all hindsight."More News »
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Member since:
2005-11-29
Its largely irrelevant if its poetic justice for Microsoft, it is detrimental to the web as a whole.
WebKit is as much as a threat to the web today as Microsoft was with IE back in the day.
And it really isn't WebKit's fault, they are victims of their own success and of the snails pace that the W3C moves at. This only serves to highlight a fundamental deficiency in this design by committee process.
Web developers really, largely, hold no allegiance. They will flock to whatever gives them the maximum coverage.
WebKit has a lot of functionality in vendor prefixed form, and using old implementations of recently updated specs. Again, a by product of the speed at which the W3C works.
Just as web developers naturally started developing for IE instead of for the web, the developers of today are targeting WebKit. On Mobile its defacto.
This normally wouldn't be an issue if the W3C didn't take 20 years for a standard because developers would have reasonably similar functionality across all of their browsers. But it does, and it is.
While Google's intent today may or may not have been malicious (I'll take their word that it was what they figured to be a sensible product decision), it does underscore a need to have a conversation about the state of the web.