News (68)

Sun threatened by Microsoft, Apple over patents

Revealing a bit of previously hush-hush history that's relevant today, Sun Microsystems' former chief executive said that both Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Microsoft founder Bill Gates had threatened Sun for infringing their patents. Read more »

Chrome edges out Safari in browser usage

Google's browser has passed Safari in terms of worldwide browser usage -- at least by one measurement. Read more »

Firefox blocks insecure .NET add-on -- awkwardly

Mozilla on Friday disabled a Microsoft plug-in for Firefox called the .NET Framework Assistant because of a security problem -- then scrambled to give people with patched browsers an override option. Read more »

Google tweaks Android UI in version 1.5

Google is planning some noticeable user interface changes to Android 1.5, which is expected to be released at the end of April. Read more »

Safari challenges Chrome on web app speed

Google's latest version of Chrome has claimed the lead in my JavaScript speed tests, but Apple's new Safari 4 beta is the first browser to challenge it on Google's own performance benchmark. Read more »

Yang's departure could open Microsoft door

Jerry Yang's resignation as chief executive of Yahoo opens the door wide for another Microsoft offer, analysts and shareholders said this week. Read more »

Adobe bringing full-fledged Flash to phones

Inspired by a new generation of smartphones, Adobe Systems has begun a new, higher-power effort to spread its Flash technology to mobile devices. Read more »

First Android phone: The details

US carrier T-Mobile and Google overnight detailed the first-ever mobile handset running Google's new Android operating system. Read more »

Google Chrome faster than Firefox, IE, Safari

Google introduced Chrome in part because it wants faster browsing and the richer Web applications that speed will unlock. So how does Chrome actually stack up? Read more »

Google Code reverses open source licence ban

Google has undone an earlier ban on the Mozilla Public License, an option for open source projects hosted at its Google Code site. Read more »

Features (7)

Thanks for giving my pixels back, browser makers

I'd personally like to offer browser makers my gratitude for realising that my screen isn't big enough. Read more »

Trouble in Java Land?

Maybe the debut of JavaFX will be the game changer that Sun hopes for. But the fragmentation in the mobile world won't make it easy. Read more »

Octopiler helps multicore coders

IBM's compiler helps adapt programs to use the Cell chip's nine cores. Read more »

In defence of freedom

The principles are the same, but technology has moved on significantly in the 15 years since the release of GPL 2. Read more »

Q & A with Linus Torvalds

When Linus Torvalds successfully harnessed the talent of thousands of programmers to create Linux, the operating system that arguably suffered most was Sun Microsystems' Solaris. Read more »

Sun bets on free Java tool

Sun Microsystems will release a free version of its Java application server, a move designed to encourage more developers to build programs on the software foundation. Read more »

Patent fight holds up Web standards

The issue over the use of patented technology, which may require royalties being paid, in Web standards is threatening to hold up talks about the future of Web design. Read more »

Video (3)

Why Chrome is catching on

When Google introduced a Web browser earlier this fall, the debut was accompanied by much expectation as well as by much skepticism. But Chrome is starting to win over more converts -- including CNET News' Stephen Shankland, who explains why on today's CNET News Daily Debrief with Charles Cooper. Read more »

Google looks to the cloud

CNET News.com's Charlie Cooper and Stephen Shankland discuss the search giant's cloud strategy and how it affects enterprise computing. Are the next 10 years going to witness a revolutionary technology transition? Read more »

A gaggle of Google I/O predictions

CNET News.com's Kara Tsuboi and Stephen Shankland discuss the upcoming Google I/O conference in San Francisco. Could a second mobile SDK be released? Or maybe the winner of the Android developer contest? Read more »

Blog (26)

Chrome gets bookmark sync with version 4.x

Staff [blogs:syslog] -- Google has issued the first developer preview version of its Chrome browser to reach the version 4.x milestone, a phase that should bring some advanced features in the forthcoming HTML 5 specification for web pages but that for now just sports a cloud-based bookmark synchronisation tool. Read more »

Google launches Chrome theme gallery

Staff [blogs:syslog] -- Google on Tuesday launched a gallery of 29 themes for Google Chrome (requires Google Chrome 3.0 beta for Windows). But Mozilla, while refraining from sniggering, boasted it's now up to 20,000. Read more »

Mozilla Bespin tries taking coding to the cloud

Staff [blogs:syslog] -- Mozilla Labs on Thursday unveiled a new open-source project called Bespin, a web-based programming environment its developers hope will combine the speed and power of desktop-based development with the collaborative benefits of cloud computing. Read more »

Gmail grows up with offline e-mail access

Staff [blogs:syslog] -- Significantly increasing the utility and competitiveness of its web-based e-mail service, Google is enabling an experimental ability to read, write, and search Gmail messages even while not connected to the network. Read more »

Google wards off zombies

Staff [blogs:syslog] -- Google, whose servers constantly crawl the Web, doesn't have anything against spiders. But zombies, well, that's another matter. Read more »

Highlights from the PDC

Staff [blogs:syslog] -- This week we bring you special coverage from the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC). Read more »

Google Earth brings virtual tourism to iPhone

Staff [blogs:syslog] -- Google already has customised some of its websites for display on the iPhone, but now the company also dived headlong onto Apple's highly regarded mobile phone with a full-fledge application, a handheld version of its Google Earth geographical software. Read more »

Yahoo to expose its wiring to developers

Staff [blogs:syslog] -- Phase one came last week, when Yahoo launched its new profiles site. Phase two begins next week, when web developers can start sinking their teeth into Yahoo's attempt to replace its present static design with one that's customisable, application-rich, socially connected, and woven into other parts of the Internet. Read more »

Google App Engine sort of getting Perl support

Staff [blogs:syslog] -- Google programmers are adding support for the Perl programming language to its App Engine service for hosting Web applications, but so far it's not really an official project. Read more »

Google data-sharing gets authentication option

Staff [blogs:syslog] -- Google now supports the open OAuth standard for sharing data through its Google Data interface, a move that could make it easier to tap into information stored at Google property. Read more »

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  • Chris Duckett IE9's H.264 vote killed Ogg

    In a split decision by the judges, the winner of the W3C/WHATWG video codec consensus is H.264, taking home the future of video playback on the internet while loser Ogg goes home with nothing but thoughts of what might have been. Read more »

    -- posted by Chris Duckett

  • Staff Google launches Apps Marketplace

    Google launches and app store, while Mozilla plans to re-write its open-source license. More of this week's news in the Roundup. Read more »

    -- posted by Staff

  • Staff Microsoft showcases new NUIs

    TechFest, Microsoft's internal even took place this week with researchers showcasing some new interfaces the company is working on. Read more »

    -- posted by Staff

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