The use of Flash technology is nearly universal around the World Wide Web and is used by well-known sites such as Youtube, NVIDIA, Shockwave and many more. However one of the main drawbacks of Flash on smartphones is that it is too resource-intensive and can drain a mobile device’s battery or slow it down.

Recognizing the performance issues, Adobe is utilizing graphical hardware acceleration for the full version of Flash to make it easier for mobile processing demands. Flash 10.1 has a powerful device integration which enables Flash developers to make use of device-specific features such as virtual keyboards, multi-touch gestures as well as accelerometers.

Apple nervous about adobe flash on iPhone
Missing from the line-up is Apple, whose iPhone SDK policies prevent Adobe from running Flash Player on the iPhone. Apple stated Flash is not good enough for its iPhone due to its resource requirements and it also poses a threat to the popular App store as it gives developers the opportunity to bypass Apple’s software development kit and create content with Adobe’s technology instead.

Argument is that iPhone users are becoming less interested in Flash apps on the iPhone as they have plenty of Apple ones to keep them occupied. Additionally, Apple appears to be backing HTML5 for its mobile platform which can provide some Flash-like abilities such as video streaming.

There is also now the Flash Player 10.1 pre-release version available for PCs and netbooks to give developers the chance to assess and give feedback to Adobe regarding compatibility issues and new features. A beta version is expected to be released for Palm WebOS later this year. Public betas for Google Android and Symbian OS are expected to be available early 2010.

Earlier this week, Adobe Labs released its two newest beta test versions of its Flash 10.1 and AIR 2.0 (Adobe Integrated Runtime) technologies. Adobe said the new versions do not just include much-requested features but they also represent a big push into devices beyond the PC, starting with smartphones, and eventually applications that run on every device you use.

It will sit on top of a Linux kernel and will use a new windowing system. It will also have limited driver support therefore Google will only approve installations on a limited number of computers –mostly netbooks – including a number of Eee PCs. The Web will be its application development platform and may become a serious contender to Windows 7 in the netbook computer space.

Previously, Google had fixed the release date stating “The first netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010.”

However thrilling TechCrunch’s news may sound, this isn’t the first time a rumor like this has been started. Just a month ago, numerous sources in China claimed devices running preview builds of Chrome OS would be out in the market as early as November. This was then followed by a series of premature reports of the OS that all turned out to be false information.

Nevertheless, it will be exciting to see how well Chrome competes with Windows 7 and Snow Leopard from Apple only recently released to consumers. But if there is one thing to be learnt in the world of technology, it is to never leave Google out of the loop.

Just don’t get your hopes too high if you are looking forward to having Google’s Chrome OS on your notebook before the month’s end.

]]> http://www.gauson.com/blog/2009/11/19/google%e2%80%99s-chrome-os-released-within-a-week-truth-or-rumor/feed/ 0 http://www.gauson.com/blog/2009/11/18/is-microsoft-a-hare-in-browser-race/ http://www.gauson.com/blog/2009/11/18/is-microsoft-a-hare-in-browser-race/#comments Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:12:47 +0000 G' Blog http://www.gauson.com/?p=321 Continue reading →]]> Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) is the latest edition of the long-running IE browser series by Microsoft. IE8 provides a lot of add-ons (free as well as paid ones) and tabbed browsing which was fully integrated since IE7. Its average start-up time is better than all the other browsers. IE8 comes with cool features called accelerators that allow you to efficiently access your everyday browsing activities like translating or defining words, mapping directions, emailing your friends etc. – all in a single browser window in just a few mouse clicks.

It comes with InPrivate Browsing which is a feature many of the popular browsers have had for a long time before Microsoft included it in the IE8. The feature whereby cookies, history, passwords, objects and form data disappear once the browser is closed. That way you can browse the Net without saving your history on your own PC in case you ever need to shop for that special gift so your family would not accidentally find out or use a shared computer without worry and not leave a trace.

Microsoft also utilizes ‘Web Slices’ technology that takes Internet Explorer one step ahead of Firefox’s ‘Suggested Sites’ feature button. With Web Slices, this will automatically trace sites that may be related to the one you are viewing therefore keeping up with frequently updated sites directly from the Favorites Bar. If a Web Slice is available on a web page, a green Web Slices symbol will appear in the upper-right hand corner of the browser which you can then click to easily subscribe to and add them to the Favorites Bar.

Now what is a web developer without his/her tools? Microsoft claims they have “the most comprehensive developer tools built in” but compared to Firefox’s built-in Javascript console topped with their add-ons, Microsoft still has a long way to go. Sure the IETester “MyDebug” toolbar does have a number of good tools, but that has nothing to do with Microsoft as the toolbar is an entirely separate product. As both a web developer and avid user of all browsers, there is no browser out there better than Firefox in terms of customizability. Needless to say, it would be a long time until someone can beat Firefox in that area.

In the looks department try as it might, Microsoft just cannot seem to compete with the silky shades of Opera, the clear contrasts of Mozilla Firefox, or the smooth, cool and soft-hued graphics of Safari. The need to adapt one’s website to each browser is crucial for website development in the front and back-ends. Nothing worse than it working brilliantly on one browser and then not-so brilliantly on the other top four browsers. As a developer I work with all the browsers to ensure that each one of my websites is fully optimized with the features of every browser. A point to note for developers as well is how browsers fare on the Acid3 test. Compared to Safari 4 (which scored the full 100/100 on the test), all the other browsers were hugely inferior to Safari in their rendering capabilities. Although IE8 tests were poor, the standards built into IE8 are far better than IE7 and IE6.

It is true IE8 does account for a lot of the CSS 2.x standards that are available at the moment, however it also includes many IE-only features that makes it hard to utilize the standards.

Though IE 8 is noticeably faster than its predecessor IE7, according to tests run by Computerworld IE8 was 9.6 times faster using Google’s new Chrome Frame plug-in than IE8 on its own. Computerworld ran the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark suite three times each for IE8 with Chrome Frame, and IE8 without the plug-in, then averaged the scores. This did not make Microsoft a very happy camper in this category. Google’s Chrome Frame allows IE8 to utilize the Chrome’s browser’s WebKit rendering engine and its high-performance V8 JavaScript engine as well, thus making Chrome the fastest out of the top five Windows browsers by comfortable margins.

IE8’s SmartScreen Filter is their latest security feature that protects users against deceptive and malicious websites which can compromise their data, identity and privacy.  To add to that in two studies recently conducted by NSS Labs funded by, wait for it, Microsoft, it was found that IE8 was discovered to be the safest web browser. The studies focused on socially engineered malware and phishing. NSS attributed this to “concerted efforts Microsoft is making in the SmartScreen technology.”

At the end of it all, it still boils down to personal preferences.  More than two-thirds of the world uses IE since it a standard browser with Microsoft’s OS and that does not seem to be changing in the near future. If you are one of them, that’s good news for you. I have to admit IE8 has made a massive leap forward for standards support but I cannot help but wonder how we will see IE8 in a year or two as Microsoft has been playing catch up with most of the other popular browsers for a long time. Though to help get the most out of your web experience, it is recommended that users of any IE version prior to IE8 should either upgrade to IE8 or switch to another browser in order to experience greatly increased speed, reduced security risks and many other benefits. Whichever browser you choose, you are assured a safer, faster and satisfying browsing experience than ever before. Suffice it to say as to which browser experience is the better out of all them that is best left to the users to decide and put a vote to.

After Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), the truth is finally unveiled of what is to come in the following weeks ahead. So what is in store for us then?

In the article posted before the Apple’s WWDC a few days ago, I had mentioned Apple unveiling an ‘entry-level’ iPhone worth $99; however instead of 4GB that was speculated, it is 8GB instead. One question I ask myself is will 8GB be sufficient enough space? Not only will the ‘entry-level’ iPhone have the new iPhone OS 3.0 software packed with a lot of known features but there are also more than 50,000 applications (and rising) available from the Apple iPhone App Store for users.  Seeing as the majority of files or applications are not very large and those that are less than 10MB can be downloaded over cell networks, developers will try to keep their applications under 10MB if possible; so for the moment it looks like 8GB is adequate enough.

The $99 iPhone 3G will be much the same as the old model and will feature a 2 megapixel still image only camera with up to 10 hours of talk time and six hours of WiFi internet browsing.

How will the $99 iPhone 3G fare against other smartphones? As one of the iPhone’s competitors, the Palm Pre smartphone, was released just over a week ago, Apple slashing the price of the iPhone 3G to $99 does not come as a surprise as it now has a smartphone less than half of what the Palm Pre price is, making it among the cheapest – if not the cheapest – smartphone in the market today.

Apple also announced its higher spec iPhone 3GS. The “S” for speed can be attributed to its 600 MHz processor and 256 MB of RAM compared to 412 MHz processor and 128 MB of RAM for the old iPhone 3G thus making it perform basic functions twice as fast as the old iPhone model. The iPhone 3GS will also have features such as better battery lifespan, voice control and built-in digital compass to name a few. Although I would have liked to have seen other features such as an FM radio player or even an expandable memory feature on the iPhone 3GS.

The iPhone 3GS also has a 3 megapixel camera with auto focus, nevertheless I must confess I found the camera upgrade to be mediocre in the least. There are phones like the Nokia N95 which have been around for a while now and medium-tiered Sony Ericsson phones which have 5 megapixels cameras. I certainly hope the optics make up for it.

The new iPhone 3GS supports the voice control by holding down the Home button for a couple of seconds and then commanding your iPhone to dial John. This feature has been around for sometime in most mobile phones or even smart phones.

The iPhone 3GS will come in either a 16GB model for $199 or a 32GB model for $299. The ‘entry-level’ iPhone and iPhone 3GS will be available on June 19 in the United States and July 7 around the world with both having access to more than 50,000 applications from the Apple iPhone App Store.

Not everyone may rush at the chance to get the new iPhones as the original prices ($99, $199 and $299) are only a fraction of peoples’ uncertainty. There is still the overly expensive monthly cost and a two year contract not to mention the fact that existing customers are required to pay upgrade fees to get the new iPhone 3GS.

iPhone 3GS is just better than its previous version, the new improvements are not as dramatic change as those of earlier models. We will just have to wait and see what happens next.

According to a market analyst, the main cost reductions would come from lesser features such as no 3G internet access, a lower resolution camera (less than 2MP with no video), no GPS, and a cheaper data plan (est. $15/month) with a usage cap. It is true that decreasing the monthly bill would hike up iPhone sales but iPhone carriers would not be too happy about that.

In the meanwhile, Apple can add high end upgrades to its iPhone 3G so it will get improvements in screen resolution, a better camera, increase in storage space, more colour choices and better video recording capabilities.

Though the ‘entry level’ iPhone has fewer capabilities, it is expected to perform comparably to the current iPhone. Any major cutbacks in features would not be an iPhone at all. It would be exciting to see what Apple has in store for its smartphones over the course of this year.

Over the years it brought us joy and sorrow from our cared connections. A number of of us could not live without using it, felt like a drug encouraging our unstoppable urge to hook up with our connections.  Sometimes it failed to give relief, no matter how much we used it or how many times we went into rehab to get over its addiction.

It felt great when I received the SMS “I LUV U” but it felt like betrayal a moment later when I got “sry wrong no”.

The fascination of the SMS worked on us even when we couldn’t think of words to describe things or felt slothful to type full words, it truly spoilt us.

We would dearly miss our trusted friend whose untimely death was caused by contracting the new Smartphone virus called the E-mail from its step-brother Twitter which spread uncontrollably not giving us enough time to create any antivirus even when we were using the old fashion Apple iPhone 3G.

So in our parting words we will always cherish and love you and wish you rest in peace…

Design Websites for the Apple iphone

The Apple iPhone is part of a class of mobile phones called smartphones. It has an impressive battery lifespan and allows users to surf the Net even while on the go. Research has shown that the iphone is used nine times more than the next Smartphone which is the Windows mobile.

If you are a web designer like me, you may have started wondering what you can do to improve your website by not only making it look fantastic on PCs and laptops but also on mobiles too. With the iPhone’s display size of 480-by-320-pixel resolution, it takes a little bit more than designing your website to fit a smaller screen size.

Here are a few ideas to keep in mind when building your website:
• You can design web pages for wide-screen and Flash enabled browsers, however check that the important information is easy to see even on a small screen that cannot manage any special applications (such as Ajax, Flash, Javascript, cookies, etc.). Anything more than XHTML Basic will be more than what some mobile phones are able to handle.

• The iPhone automatically scales websites when necessary. Therefore, build web pages that have multiple thin columns instead of pages with one big column. If the content is narrower on a normal web page, the less the Web page will be scaled down to fit into its window.

• Try putting your content on multiple pages to make them easier to read as it can be hard to read huge sections of text on one page on your mobile phone.

• Images on a website often make websites look nicer when seen on a full screen. However, by keeping images small and optimized, users are much happier as they do not need to wait long for the images to be downloaded.

• Keep your links short as they may get annoying after a while if users are often visiting your website and need to type in long URLs.

Hope these tips help. Happy designing!!