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That mere fact that I am reading this article indicates that WebP has enough momentum to potentially be useful.

Google is the one that is pushing Webp. They acquired the video compression codecs through their takeover of on2 technologies for $106 million. Duh that they are going to add it in their cloud services.

You are reading that the largest open source web browser says no, which would be a lower hurdle than than trying to get it supported in Internet Explorer (which it won't anytime soon, because WebP in HTML5 is not only a Adobe Flash video replacement, but also a Microsoft Silverlight video replacement). Those two browsers alone mean that over 70% of the web cannot see WebP files in their web browser. That is not momentum.

See: browser support for Motion JPEG 2000, which is an ISO Standard

"Are you telling me that cheap gossip like extra-marital affairs of pro footballers will have to be leaked through wikileaks in the future?"

I'm less concerned about cheating football players and more concerned with overthrowing corrupt governments. Can a corrupt judge in a corrupt government simply say "don't talk about revolution" and Twitter will simply roll over and play dead? How would the Egyptian and Tunisia revolutions gone without the communication that Twitter provided?

Looks like we need a replacement for twitter.

You are so very very WRONG.

Apple has sold 160 million iOS devices and Google reports that there are 100 million Android devices out there. That's over a quarter billion devices running operating systems that a) didn't even exist 4 years ago and b) came to market being compatible with exactly zero existing apps.

I don't recall them officially adding "... well, you can be a little evil if it means a competitive advantage."

Well, not officially. But you can't help but look at some of their behavior and realize that a little evilness doesn't hurt the bottom line.

Unless you root it...

http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/13/how-to-install-netflix-on-most-android-devices/

There's no reason to have to root for netflix.
The guys over at xda-dev hosted the app for all of us, and hacked it so it doesn't require a certain phone to run.
Tested and working on my droid 1

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1076150

Unless you root it...

http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/13/how-to-install-netflix-on-most-android-devices/

... and accept that you're running it on an untested combination of software and hardware with no guarantee as to performance and no support.

Unless you root it...

http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/13/how-to-install-netflix-on-most-android-devices/

Netflix is in the same boat, and no, they can't really afford to lose both of those, thats why they keep approving the updates. http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/15/apple-kindle-netflix-in-app/

This should be an interesting fight. I can amazon taking apple to court because apple is forcing them to price their merchandise a certain way. Amazon could drop the in app purchases. I tend to buy my books online and have them pushed to my devices. But something is going to come to a head. Will apple start demanding a cut when people buy a tent from Amazon? Or a motorcycle from Ebay?
I bet Amazon would love to get a 30% cut from a home purchase off a craigslist app.

Amazon could drop the in app purchases.

Actually they can't -- that's the sticky part of all of this. Apple is mandating that any app that directs you to a website for purchasing ebooks, has to allow purchasing in-app (eg not via the website), and, oh yeah, the e-book price is fixed (by the publisher), at 30% commission for the seller, and Apple takes a 30% cut of revenue.

So... you can't bypass Apple when purchasing, and Apple takes your entire commission from the publisher, leaving you with... all the costs.

That must be the "???" to get to "Profit!"

http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/31/apple-reportedly-blocks-sony-reader-app-could-spell-war-with-kindle/

Nice blind iFan reply. Kinde could be going away too. http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/15/apple-kindle-netflix-in-app/

They have a June 30 deadline to comply. http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/15/apple-kindle-netflix-in-app/

. When that happens will the same people who were arguing that it was the number of apps that mattered switch to some other argument? (Presumably that although iOS has less apps, its apps are better?)

In a free market society, people vote with their dollars. People have voted 17 to 1 that they are more willing to pay for iOS apps than Android apps....

http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/21/861-5-percent-growth-android-puny/

HTML5 relies on the codecs present in the end user's web browser. Browsers included with an operating system support only patented MPEG codecs; other browsers support only Free codecs. Do you expect Google to transcode all uploads between Vorbis and AAC?

"Other browsers" being just Firefox I guess which has zero presence on mobile devices. Yet somehow Amazon's player works on Firefox : "Cloud Player for the web works on IE 8 and above, Firefox 3.5 and above, Chrome, and Safari. There is no Opera support. And Flash is required (but for uploads only)." Admittedly I hadn't really thought about the implementation details but there obviously must be a way.

What about that guy who tweeted that the copters were shaking the windows?
http://eu.techcrunch.com/2011/05/02/heres-the-guy-who-unwittingly-live-tweeted-the-raid-on-bin-laden/

Having a good FOSS alternative is far from simple. It is not there, and a p2p netwrok with video streaming and chatting is not something you can build froma available blocks.

It is even worse than that, even skype (well, the brand owned by ebay) does not fully own the technology behind skype.

Checkout this one: http://eu.techcrunch.com/2011/05/02/heres-the-guy-who-unwittingly-live-tweeted-the-raid-on-bin-laden/

Google assigns you a unique device ID (rather than the "Unique Device ID") to use the location services, but "this number is in no way associated with the device’s IMEI, the user’s name, or other information."

The risk with iPhone is that anyone who gets a hold of your phone can see where you've been -- jealous ex-husbands and whatnot. It is useful to have a cache of recent locations, but storing them for months and years is not necessary or wise. Even if you do return to a place you visited a year ago that is still in your cache, I'm sure the iPhone will requery the service in case the information is stale.

And you opted-in for it to do so.

AOL's billboard on Highway 101 doesn't even promise a great career. Apparently you just have to join them before your boss does. Therefore even a vague estimate of "when hell freezes over" should be good enough to set your timetable for moving there.

http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/11/windows-app-store/

(With all that investment in Microsoft Research, why does Microsoft copy others, particularly Apple, so much???)

Because MS doesn't really innovate. You can't come up with new ideas when you are mostly concerned with catching up to Apple. They had been #1 for so long that it didn't matter if they did something new, as they were the only game in town for many peolpe. Look at the Zune; same basic form factor as the iPod. Same can be said for most of the smart phones out there, that look just like the iPhone. And now with all the tablet stuff going on, people don't realize that Apple made the iPad before the iPhone, but didn't think there was a market for it yet. And true, Apple didn't invent the tablet or smart phone, but they are good at coming up with great implementations.

"Silicon Valley investor Roger McNamee just delivered a fantastic, wide ranging interview on CNBC about the state of tech."

http://www.businessinsider.com/roger-mcnamee-on-cnbc-2011-4#ixzz1JYfHqHse

"We're in a cycle where Windows will become irrelevant. For the first time Windows is below 50% of all internet connected devices, so "we're going to free up $100 billion in revenue over the next few years per year. As Windows goes down, Apple rises, thanks to iPad."

The major player in that space,swoopo, just went bankrupt.

Apparently it was hard to hold on to users.

http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/11/windows-app-store/

(With all that investment in Microsoft Research, why does Microsoft copy others, particularly Apple, so much???)

You think people who copy the Apple App store will work for free?

http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/11/windows-app-store/

(With all that investment in Microsoft Research, why does Microsoft copy others, particularly Apple, so much???)

Apple is a software company

Actually Apple is a mobile device company and views itself as such. Less than 4% of their revenue came from software sales. As a matter of fact, Apple made twice as much on media (iTunes music and videos) as it did on software sales (including apps). The app market is growing but the cash cow that powers apple with nearly 60% of it's revenue is hardware sales of mobile iOS devices: iPod / iPhone / iPad. If you count hardware sales of laptops (another portable device), then you have 75% of their revenue coming from mobile / portable devices.

BREAKING NEWS: Original iPad launches with 2,000 apps.

Shocking, I know, but Apple announced the iPad project in January 2010. They actually gave developers 4 months to prepare for the April launch. Google could have released the SDK months before the Android 3.0 launch (instead of 2 days), but even they admit Android 3.0 isn't fully finished/polished.

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/02/best-ipad-apps-launch/

BREAKING NEWS: Original iPad launches with 2,000 apps.

Shocking, I know, but Apple announced the iPad project in January 2010. They actually gave developers 4 months to prepare for the April launch. Google could have released the SDK months before the Android 3.0 launch (instead of 2 days), but even they admit Android 3.0 isn't fully finished/polished.

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/02/best-ipad-apps-launch/

nice selective criteria there, iOS has greater market share than Android overall

Oh? Not according to Techcrunch. Nice lie there.

Come back when you learn how to read.

nice selective criteria there, iOS has greater market share than Android overall

Oh? Not according to Techcrunch. Nice lie there.

They are making money through Checkout (via Market),

Not Really.....

http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/21/861-5-percent-growth-android-puny/

Last year, they made at most around $3.7 million (30% of 11 million). But even that's high. Google has carrier billing relationships in some places where the carrier got a cut.

Android users don't buy apps.

Overall I'd have to say their marketing is much better than WP7.

It should be.

They've paid half a billion dollars for it. http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/26/microsoft-half-billion-dollars-windows-phone-7/

They largely are. These offers of protection tend to download .EXE's since these fake antivirus companies don't waste time on anything that's non-Windows. In addition, a large majority of Mac users don't bother with Antivirus so they simply ignore these. Last but not least, they tend to be less gullible than Windows users.

http://www.daniweb.com/hardware-and-software/networking/news/218521

http://techcrunch.com/2009/12/10/microsoft-users-gullible-advertising/

Last but not least, these types of attacks tend to be fear driven and Windows users simply have more to fear from Viruses than Mac users at the moment. After years of sustained attacks, they are simply much to jumpy and easily frightened to pass up.

I just do not get it especially when the notion of Android fragmentation is a myth and Google seems to confirm this. I am bewildered.

It's not just about the OS -- it's about the different hardware capabilities, the lack of encryption (that's what's keeping Netflix off), the differing resolution, etc.

Besides, Android users don't buy apps.

http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/21/861-5-percent-growth-android-puny/

I think that was a counterpoint to this line:

Apple allow free apps in their store.

Readability was a free app before it was pulled with the new rules.

Anyway, Readability made a HTML5 app after they got rejected.

http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/09/readability-html5/

They can't be too happy with this news and might be thinking it is intentional to close the HTML5 loophole for subscription apps.

Says Sarver:

For example, some developers display “comment”, “like”, or other terms with tweets instead of “follow, favorite, retweet, reply” - thus changing the core functions of a tweet.

So clearly one of their fears, perhaps for legal reasons, is getting their functions and widgets confused with, say, Facebook's. We all know how often YouTube and Facebook get mentioned in the same breath as Twitter (heed the great prophet Conan) but they are very much separate companies, and if there's even a chance they're stepping on Facebook's or any other's proprietaryGoodness(TM)* with software patents, DMCA, ACTA and such then I'm not sure twttr will want to take it. It also makes me wonder if Amazon.com asked Facebook before they made their own liker.

It all reminds me of, among other things, part of the Games for Windows Technical Requirements, a piece of terminology:

Vibration Gameplay feedback produced by the controller motor. Do not use rumble.

I definitely would not want to step on Nintendo's toes like that.** Last thing I want Mario to do is wear a black suit and hand me a C&D.

*Forgive me; it's what living in a world with a group called "comScore" does to me.

**My username aside, maybe.

Q: How is Adobe going to react to HTML5?
A: I wouldn’t say reacting to HTML5. We see whatever people are using to express themselves. We’re going to make great tooling for HTML5. We’re going to make the best tools in the world for HTML 5.

It’s not about HTML 5 vs Flash. They’re mutually beneficial. The more important question is the freedom of choice on the web.

Even Droid is barely keeping up with iPhones

Android is doing really well against iOS in the US smartphone arena. After months of steady growth they have surpassed RIM for the #1 spot, leaving Apple in third-place.

If you're curious to see how the Android market breaks down by manufacturer, check out the lastest Nielsen report

Correction: The malware was downloaded 260,000 times, not 50,000 as initially reported. source

I doubt your company "had this" last year since it's been fully revamped on March 1st.

Every 2 days, Eric says, we upload as much info as we have in all of history till 2003. That rate of increase will only get faster.

Youtube!

...was also an acquisition!

Obviously this means we should abdicate (forcibly, if necessary) all control over our computing devices to large corporations with a vested interest in denying us the ability to use them as we see fit.

You mean like the carriers who control Android?

The idea that everyone should personally handle backing up their email is insanity. If you're a professional at this stuff, then fine, do it at home as well. But for nearly everyone in the population, gmail is going to be vastly more reliable than any backup scheme they come up with at home.

Backing up your hosted email doesn't mean having to run your own SMTP daemon... I don't see how making a backup of cloud hosted data could be construed as bad advice. It's not hard to use an IMAP client that stores a copy of messages locally, and no matter how bad the user's backups are, Gmail + some local backup is better than Gmail + no local backup.

This isn't the first time Google has lost email and it won't be the last.

"They opted to apply an exceptional hurdle for us to clear in order to continue as a customer,

Apparently, there's nothing exceptional about it; they require every account holder to link their account to a real bank account and permit paypal to access it:

http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/24/paypal-on-cutting-off-courage-to-resist-this-has-nothing-to-do-with-wikileaks/

Manning is a dipshit.

In the materials he was supposed to read when signing for his clearance, he was told how to handle information he believed was improperly classified. He refused to follow procedure or the law that would have gotten the improperly classified information declassified, and chose "glory" or some shit like that, ostensibly at the urging of Julian Assange.

Manning deserves to spend many years in jail, possibly the rest of his life, and if evidence is evolved that his actions caused someone to be identified and killed by the enemy, he deserves the death penalty.

As for PayPal,

http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/24/paypal-on-cutting-off-courage-to-resist-this-has-nothing-to-do-with-wikileaks/

whatever it is, it's not acting politically in this case.

Our country is supposed to represent bad reporting?

http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/24/paypal-on-cutting-off-courage-to-resist-this-has-nothing-to-do-with-wikileaks/

Or maybe a little googling:

http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/24/paypal-on-cutting-off-courage-to-resist-this-has-nothing-to-do-with-wikileaks/

Summary: CTR set their account up incorrectly. PayPal asked them to fix it. CTR refused and lied about the situation to the media.

Since dirt travels faster than explanation, PayPal will always look like dirt to someone who's encountered this botched story.

Wow, you admit that you've never heard of Groupon?
Might want to read up on that.

http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/09/nokia-microsoft/

If something to be revolutionary requires market penetration, the kinect isn't revolutionary because it holds a very small percentage of the market.

Are you kidding me? Do you even read the news? There have been 8-million of the things sold. It holds practically ALL of the market for devices of its kind. You must either be completely ignorant of the situation, or are advocating your position because you don't like the Kinect and/or Microsoft.

Where are the Mac games? Where are the Mac game developers?

AppleTV runs iOS. It has more in common with the iPhone than the Mac. Last time I checked iOS had managed to generate some small interest from game developers.