web Archive

  • Google claims Froyo has the world’s fastest mobile browser

    Google claims Froyo has the world’s fastest mobile browser

    Posted on May 20, 2010 | No Comments
    You heard it here first, folks. Google has just come out with the strident claim that the web browser that comes as part of Android 2.2, aka Froyo, is the world's fastest for mobile devices. Google's implemented the V8 JavaScript engine that's already made an appearance in its desktop Chrome browser, and the result has been somewhere in the vicinity of two to three times better JS performance relative to previous Android versions. We'll give this geek cabal bonus points for the double equals sign up top and look forward to putting their bold assertion to the test in the near future.

    It's all going on live right now, so make sure to go hit our I/O liveblog!

    Google claims Froyo has the world's fastest mobile browser originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 May 2010 11:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

    Permalink | Email this | Comments

    Full Story

  • Android 2.2 will invite you to visit ‘Flash-enabled’ sites, rub Apple’s nose in it

    Android 2.2 will invite you to visit ‘Flash-enabled’ sites, rub Apple’s nose in it

    Posted on May 18, 2010 | No Comments
    The battle for minds is well and truly on now, and if there was any doubt that Google and Adobe are cozying up together to take on Apple, let it now be extinguished. TechCrunch is reporting that the latest version of Android -- you know, the one with the 450 percent performance improvement and buttery smooth Flash playback -- will, upon updating, guide you to visit a selection of Flash-enabled websites. Countering Apple's list of iPad-ready (aka Flash-free) websites, this is clearly intended as a showcase of the Adobe software's capabilities. Ironically, a sizable number of the sites on the list are "mobile optimized," meaning you won't be hitting their full desktop versions (which doesn't quite mesh with the idea of "the full web experience"), but it's still likely to cause some consternation over in Cupertino. All we're wondering now is how much Adobe had to pony up to ensnare such a prominent promo position, but things like that don't stay secret for long.

    Android 2.2 will invite you to visit 'Flash-enabled' sites, rub Apple's nose in it originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 May 2010 03:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

    Permalink | Email this | Comments

    Full Story

  • Cellphones purportedly used more now for data, Gossip Girl blasts than calls

    Cellphones purportedly used more now for data, Gossip Girl blasts than calls

    Posted on May 14, 2010 | No Comments
    Ever notice how easy it is to find mobile plans with unlimited minutes these days? Yeah, it's because they're about as valuable as pea coats in the dead of summer. With more and more consumers disconnecting their landlines in favor of using their cellie for everything, the art of communicating via voice is also becoming lost. According to "government and industry data" cited in a New York Times report, the growth in voice minutes used by consumers has "stagnated," with 2009 being the first year ever in which the "amount of data in text, email messages, streaming video, music and other services on mobile devices [in the US] surpassed the amount of voice data in cellphone calls." Dan Hesse, Sprint's head honcho, even chimed in with this nugget: "Originally, talking was the only cellphone application; now it's less than half of the traffic on mobile networks." We also learned that the average length of a mobile call was just 1.81 minutes in 2009, a drop from the 2.27 minutes per call seen in 2008, with many individuals feeling that other communication methods (email, SMS, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) were far less invasive of someone's time, being that they could respond to those messages at their convenience. Of course, on the Upper East Side (where all the richies use Verizon dumbphones, apparently), we get the impression that yakking away about a cornucopia of drama is still the hotness.

    Cellphones purportedly used more now for data, Gossip Girl blasts than calls originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 May 2010 18:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

    Permalink | Email this | Comments

    Full Story

  • Mobile web may beat out mobile apps in the long run

    Mobile web may beat out mobile apps in the long run

    Posted on February 3, 2010 | No Comments
    Taptu, the mobile search solution, has been keeping an eye on the mobile web -- specifically what they're calling the mobile touch web, which I guess is slightly different from the non-touch mobile web -- and has produced a fairly comprehensive report of their findings. Of particular interest is the fact that "there are a higher proportion of shopping and services sites on the mobile touch Web (20%) compared to Apple’s App Store (3.6%)." According to Taptu, this is because "the mobile touch Web provides the opportunity for direct-to-consumer billing."

    Full Story

  • Dolphin browser for Android adds multitouch support on Droid

    Dolphin browser for Android adds multitouch support on Droid

    Posted on November 29, 2009 | No Comments
    We've already seen that the Droid is perfectly capable of implementing multitouch gestures in third-party apps, and the most high-profile (if not the most important, period) implementation of that is in a good web browser where non-stop zooming is a way of life -- especially when browsing sites designed for desktops. Dolphin -- which has been kicking around for a couple months in the Market -- has just added multitouch support on the Droid, which automatically makes it an interesting alternative to Android's mediocre (well, mediocre by WebKit standards, anyhow) built-in fare. Follow the break for a video overview -- or better yet, if you're running Android and you've got a couple fingers to spare, just check it out yourself.

    Continue reading Dolphin browser for Android adds multitouch support on Droid

    Dolphin browser for Android adds multitouch support on Droid originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Sun, 29 Nov 2009 18:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

    Permalink | Email this | Comments

    Full Story

  • Gopher: Content > Presentation

    Gopher: Content > Presentation

    Posted on November 5, 2009 | No Comments
    If you spend any amount of time using the Internet as we know it today, chances are you have suffered some inconvenience from the variety of interpretations of the various "standards" used to create the web. Every web browser renders web pages slightly differently; some Flash content isn't compatible with older versions of Flash (and some versions of Flash aren't supported on some operating systems at all!), etc. If you make your living creating web content, all of those problems may be amplified several times. Doesn't it make you long for a real standard, where content is king, and presentation of said content is the same, regardless of whether you're shopping for shoes or looking for an academic journal? The Gopher protocol, created in the early 1990s, had all that, and it ain't dead yet!

    Full Story

  • Honoring fallen comrades. GeoCities goes down.

    Honoring fallen comrades. GeoCities goes down.

    Posted on October 26, 2009 | No Comments
    Today marks the death of an internet giant. One of the first, one of the best. Oh GeoCities. What would we have done without you? Where would we have put our brightly colored, constantly flashing backgrounds? Who else had rotating .gifs for links and neon green page hit counters? There is no substitute for your plethora of font colors and sizes, for your broken HTML codes and page badges, for your MIDI synth-horns. We will sorely miss your animated "Under Construction" signs we came to know and love.

    Full Story