Profilactic Mashup - 210cm

Diggs: The New IE9: More HTML5, CSS3, and No Windows XP

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:53:16 GMT

Today, Microsoft released the developer preview of Internet Explorer 9. The preview is bare-bones: after playing around with it, I can tell you that it doesn't have much in terms of user interface. This is more of a proof-of-concept than a web browser. Still, it provides a good glimpse into what we can expect from IE9: a complete reboot.

Diggs: The Quest For Smartphone OS Marketshare (Infographic)

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:34:54 GMT

The battle to dominate the smartphone OS market is heating up, as everyone looks to grab a piece of the pie. Here we outline the shifting landscape among the major players.

Diggs: Amazon Launches Kindle For Mac

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:25:09 GMT

Amazon has launched its Kindle application for MAC. Its a free application on Mac with the help of which one can read more than 450,000 books.

del.icio.us: iPad Templates and Stencils - Emily Chang – Designer

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:11:12 GMT

Diggs: Windows Phone 7 apps have to be approved by Microsoft

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 08:52:00 GMT

We just got out of a meeting with Microsoft's Todd Higgs, who dropped a little bombshell on us: the only official way to get apps on a Windows Phone 7 Series device will be to download them from Windows Phone Marketplace.

Diggs: Platform Preview gives Web developers first taste of IE9

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 08:51:05 GMT

Microsoft has released the Windows Internet Explorer Platform Preview for Web developers to start playing around with Internet Explorer 9. Microsoft is promising to update it approximately every eight weeks with the latest IE9 builds.

Diggs: Report: Facebook Beats Google For Web's Most-Visited Site

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 08:50:13 GMT

It's official -- playing Farmville and tagging friends in photos (and consequently untagging embarrassing photos of yourself from your friends' photos) has become more popular than actually trying to find things on the internet.

Diggs: 7 reasons why the Windows 7 Phone is THE iPhone Killer

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 08:49:28 GMT

Is Microsoft on a come back?

Google Reader: Spotify Consumes More Internet Capacity Than All Of Sweden

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 20:04:41 GMT

Today, during his keynote address at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek had a big revelation: “On certain days, we’re consuming more Internet capacity than Sweden has as a country.”

Ek made the statement when asked why Spotify chose to use a P2P model, rather than centrally store all of its music in one place and stream it from there. Ek noted that if they were to stream from one UK datacenter, they’d consume all the bandwidth. So instead, they leverage the power of the Internet to get their users to help them stream to other users.

Ek also said this was primarily the reason that Spotify is a native application, rather than a web app. P2P streaming is a bit more complicated than streaming from one source on the backend of things, obviously.

When asked why Apple (which of course, runs the largest music store in the world, iTunes) doesn’t use the P2P method, Ek said that was the “million dollar question.” He then speculated that they will move more towards Spotify in terms of being in the cloud (something we’ve written about a few times), and having a subscription model.

Ek noted that Spotify is now in six countries and has over 320,000 paid subscribers. That’s up from 260,000 the last time they mentioned it. Overall, they have some 7 million users now. And yes, that’s largely without the U.S. where the service only exists in a very limited closed beta as the company negotiates with the labels for music rights.

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Spotify

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Google Reader: NPR and WSJ Building iPad-Only Websites

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:32:51 GMT

The Wall Street Journal and National Public Radio (NPR) will be launching custom-built iPad-only websites next month when the new Apple slate computer known as the iPad is made available for sale. Both sites will automatically detect when web surfers arrive via an iPad device and will then show those visitors a special version of the site, customized exclusively for the iPad. How exactly will these sites compare to the web pages regular site visitors see? There's just one difference: they won't feature any Adobe Flash technology.

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NPR's New iPad Site: Entirely Flash Free

According to reports from MediaMemo, NPR is removing all traces of Adobe Flash, which powers its website's media and graphics, from its iPad-only version. Although many news organizations use Flash to display multimedia presentations and audio and video content, NPR in particular was going to be heavily affected by Apple's refusal to support Flash on the new iPad devices. That's because a key feature on NPR's website is its Flash-based audio player, something that's featured on nearly every webpage site-wide.

Kinsey Wilson, senior vice president and general manager of NPR Digital Media, recently told Poynter that their developers decided to work around the problem by implementing an HTML5-based player instead. Wilson also noted that the company has a "launch sponsor" for the iPad-only site, since it won't be able to support web ads, which are often coded in Flash.

WSJ: A Flash-Free Front Page

The Wall Street Journal, a News Corp. property, is also building an iPad-only version of their site - well, actually just an iPad-only front page. Unlike NPR's iPad site, which will be 100% Flash-free, WSJ visitors who follow links deeper into the website will soon discover that not all its page have been converted. Here, they'll run into the soon-to-be-infamous "blue box," the lego-like symbol that appears where a Flash content should have been.

There aren't any demos or mockups of these new websites available, so it's unknown at this time if they're being changed in other ways to accommodate iPad visitors. That is to say, it's unknown if they will be exact replicas of the non-iPad versions but just with the Flash content removed, or if they will perhaps sport an entirely new design.

Start of a New Trend?

With these two leading media companies making this sort of change, it's reasonable to imagine that others will soon follow. And while iPad owners will certainly appreciate the adjustments - that blue lego is such an eyesore, after all - the need for so many custom versions of the same site may become a burden on businesses who need to reach a wide audience.

Today, companies are already tasked with creating a traditional website, a mobile website and sometimes a customized mobile website designed just for iPhone visitors. Now there's the iPad-only website to code for and soon there may be another one, too. Recent news reports state that Amazon is working on a new web browser just for their Kindle e-Reader. Will that be yet another website needing its own custom version?

So Many Versions of the Same Site!

It's bad enough that the mobile application ecosystem itself is so fragmented - developers have several platforms to code for from the iPhone to Android, plus Palm, Windows Mobile - including the new Windows Phone 7 Series, Symbian and Blackberry, to name a few. Now it seems they'll have a number of unique mobile devices to support as well?

The web was supposed to be the one unifying "platform" that works anywhere, on any device, no matter what hardware is used to access it. But thanks to varying screen sizes and differing feature sets (most notably Apple's refusal to allow Flash on their mobile devices), those who want to provide compelling content to all their site visitors will be forced to re-code their site multiple times. Publishers without the resources to do so will have to make a tough choice - remove the unsupported content and the media that makes it slow to load on mobile devices entirely? Or leave it be and risk losing their mobile audience instead? That's a "Sophie's Choice" no one wants to make. Unfortunately, in a down economy where money is tight, that may be just what happens.

Discuss

Google Reader: Google Says There Are Now 30,000 Apps In Android Market

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:03:44 GMT

At the most recent Mobile World Congress, Google CEO Eric Schmidt revealed that the company's partners are now selling over 60,000 Android handsets on a daily basis. With that kind of growth rate, it's no wonder that the size of the Android Market is increasing in its slipstream. While Google doesn't publicly show how many apps there are in Android Market, a Google rep this morning informed me that the store now serves approx. 30,000 apps in total.

del.icio.us: Perforated Snap Case for iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:16:45 GMT

del.icio.us: Gowalla.

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:16:13 GMT

Go out. Go discover. Go share.

del.icio.us: Typography Served

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:11:52 GMT

del.icio.us: Cade Martin Photography

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 12:12:22 GMT

del.icio.us: yay!everyday

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 12:10:04 GMT

Diggs: 40% of Blackberry users willing to trade in for an iPhone

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:01:18 GMT

BlackBerry users tended to have fierce brand loyalty, but the iPhone is apparently changing that. And, while more BlackBerry users are planning to switch to an iPhone, Android-based devices are starting to garner more attention as well.

Diggs: File-Sharing and Link Sites Declared Legal in Spain

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:01:02 GMT

After early calls to shut down a Spanish file-sharing site were dismissed, music group SGAE pinned its hopes on success at the full trial. But, the outcome for them was nothing short of a disaster. The judge declared that both non-commercial file-sharing link sites and non-profit use of P2P networks are legal in Spain.

Diggs: Dead iPad battery? Apple not replacing, just sends new iPad!

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 08:59:58 GMT

Check out the company's opening line: "If your iPad requires service due to the battery's diminished ability to hold an electrical charge, Apple will replace your iPad for a service fee." Hear that? REPLACE. Better back up your iPad data before sending off into the land of no return!

Google Reader: PayPal Launches Revamped iPhone App, Teams With Bump For Phone-Tapping Money Transfers

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 23:20:59 GMT

PayPal has just launched an upgraded iPhone application that adds new features and includes a facelift that’s meant to help instill a greater sense of security. And it also brings with it big news for Bump Technologies, the startup that lets you exchange information simply by tapping smartphones together: Bump is now prominently featured in the PayPal iPhone application as a quick way to initiate transactions. You can download the free app here.

PayPal has offered a free application for the iPhone ever since the App Store launched in mid-2008, and it has gradually been improving over time. Today’s release brings a handful of significant new features. First, it now allows you to send a money request to your contacts (it’s essentially a bill). Second, you can now withdraw money out of your PayPal account and deposit it into your bank account. And there’s the Bump integration, which allows you to exchange money simply by tapping two iPhones together and entering the amount of the transaction — finally, an easy way to collect money from those friends who always seem to be out of cash.

The PayPal app includes a few more minor new features. There’s now an integrated tip calculator and bill splitter, as well as a reminder function that alerts you when you need to send or withdraw money. And the application now integrates the ‘PayPal For Kids’ program, which allows kids and teenagers to access a PayPal sub-account that’s linked to their parent’s.

PayPal’s iPhone app is only one component of the company’s mobile strategy. Last spring it partnered with RIM for the launch of the BlackBerry App World store, and it has also integrated with eBay’s mobile application. iPhone developers can easily integrate PayPal functionality using a PayPal library. And aside from the iPhone app, it offers native PayPal applications for Android and RIM phones as well (the company plans to brings these apps up to speed with the new iPhone release over the next few months).

This is also obviously very big news for Bump, which is still a young startup (the company took part in Y Combinator and was funded by Sequoia last fall). Bump and PayPal declined to disclose the details of the partnership.

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PayPal

Bump Technologies

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