Two years. Can you believe it’s only been two years since we started browsing the internet faster than a potato can tear through the air? Well, Google can, and it’s certainly not been sitting around during that time, improving Chrome‘s JavaScript performance by a factor of 3, and throwing in a litany of additional features, like tab side-by-side view, themes, auto-translation, and bookmark and preference sync across machines. To celebrate the anniversary, the company’s uploaded version numero 6 to its stable channel, which brings a few more GUI optimizations and some bug fixes to the table. Hardware graphics acceleration isn’t yet included in the public release, but it too shall be joining the party before long.

Chrome is now 2 years old! Google celebrates with release of version 6 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 06:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Chrome Blog  | Email this | Comments
Engadget

WSJ.com: Digits

The iPad app indicates the direction all Twitter-designed apps will be heading, said Leland Rechis, Twitter’s mobile product manager, in an interview at Twitter headquarters on Wednesday. “It’s not about timelines, it’s about consuming information and encouraging exploration.” The iPad app, he added, “is a great place for us to show how important the content is in the tweets.”

Rechis created the app with Loren Brichter, who joined Twitter when it controversially purchased his iPhone Twitter app, Tweetie (which is now Twitter for iPhone, and is actually the same app as the one released tonight, but with different features expressed in the iPad environment).

Twitter for iPad makes use of the device’s touch interface and big-screen real estate by letting users see multiple cascading panels of information. So, for instance, you might click on a person’s twitter handle, open a panel of information about them, then click on one of their tweets, and open another panel that shows the full text of a linked article from the tweet. If users are new or not signed in, the first panel is a scrollable list of recommended users. There are also nice multitouch features, like pinching to see a user’s profile and swiping to see the rest of a thread of a conversation.

At launch, web pages are the only content format fully supported, but Rechis said to expect support for other inline media such as videos. He said Twitter’s mobile group is highly focused on the goal of connecting the Twitter experience to the real world in whatever ways it can. That could be something like location, but it could also be connected to helping a phone or iPad user who’s fiddling with the device on her sofa while watching television.

Twitter for iPad is free, it’s available in all regions, and it should be live tonight. At this point (like other Twitter apps) it does not contain Twitter’s version of advertising (Promoted Tweets).

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):

The App Developer’s Guide to Choosing a Mobile Platform

GigaOM

WSJ.com: Digits

GigaOMGigaOM

Palm/HP has released a beta version of the webOS 2.0 SDK, as well as APIs and a look at a few interface features.

Due out later this year, webOS 2.0, will, according to PreCentral, include these new/improved/re-branded features (as well as most likely many more):

Palm’s multitasking ‘card’ metaphor is getting a refresh with Stacks

Universal Search is getting majorly beefed up with ‘Quick Actions,’ will be opened to developers, and rebranded as Just Type

Apps can have custom Touchstone at-a-glance views with Exhibition

Synergy is opening up to developers

HTML5 and Javascript support is much improved

Hybrid PDK/SDK apps will be fully supported

So “Stacks” will be webOS 2.0’s multi-tasking interface, “Just Type” will be its universal search plus a new “Quick Actions” function that will direct the OS to do tasks, “Synergy” will be will include APIs for devs to create email/contacts/calendar apps, and the new OS will add better HTML5 and JavaScript support. Overall, sounds interesting (especially when you think about it in terms of a HP tablet) and we highly suggest that if you’re really interested you read the entire PreCentral post, which is pretty comprehensive.

Image: PreCentral

Original title and link for this post: webOS 2.0 APIs, beta SDK and features surface

The Next Web

WSJ.com: Digits

After a problem-plagued relaunch of the link-sharing site last week, some Digg users seem to have taken matters into their own hands, and have been voting up — or “digging” — links from competitor Reddit.com as a way of showing their displeasure with the new version of the site. By noon on Monday, nine out of the top 10 links for the previous 24 hours came from Reddit (the only one that didn’t was a sponsored link), and most of them had been voted up over 1,000 times. The revolt even spawned a hashtag on Twitter: #diggrevolt.

Some users have complained that the service has been dominated by content from mainstream publishers, which they say has been obscuring the unique or undiscovered links that Digg fans used to enjoy. According to one estimate, more than half of the site’s top stories have come from just seven sources. Founder and CEO Kevin Rose, who said in a recent blog post that Digg plans to change some of the most heavily-criticized features, said in a message posted to Twitter that the site is working on what he called the “source diversity” part of the site’s ranking algorithm. According to some reports, manual submission of stories to the new version of Digg were also briefly suspended during the day.

In addition to digging Reddit posts, Digg users have also been registering their concerns about the new version of the site by voting up posts that call on founder and CEO Kevin Rose to “do the right thing,” etc. Users of the site have employed similar tactics in the past to express their disapproval, including a campaign in 2007 to protest Digg’s removal of links to a DVD-cracking code. In that case, Rose posted a response saying he’d heard the criticisms and Digg had decided to leave future links to the code up, despite the risk of legal action.

The new Digg does have some prominent supporters, however: Ryan Block, co-founder of the technology-buying community gdgt — which he started with former Engadget founder Peter Rojas — defended the redesign on Twitter, after saying that it was “lame and petty how a subset of bitchy Digg users are hijacking the site.” Block called the relaunch the “most inspired product launch Digg has ever had,” and said that the redesign “realigns interests and does a lot to remove the incentives to game the system.” He also said that Digg had to change because “the model that made Digg popular no longer works… social news has evolved, and so Digg had to evolve with it.” Rose responded by saying: “Thanks for the support, we’re pushing new code like mad – trying to stabilize/add back features/fix bugs.”

That users have been making their case against Digg by voting up Reddit links is fitting, since there’s long been a rivalry between the two sites (although in a recent video interview with Kara Swisher at All Things Digital, the Digg founder denied that Reddit was really a competitor). Reddit fans often argue that their site gets links first, in some cases days before they show up at Digg, and in a controversial post about Digg earlier this year, Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian warned Rose that he (Rose) appeared to be making changes that were designed to meet the needs of its venture capitalist backers rather than users.

Reddit has had its own share of difficulties recently: The site, which was bought by Conde Nast, recently got some heat from its own users after it asked for financial donations and then launched a subscription version. In the latest twist, the site got into a dispute with Conde Nast over marijuana-related ads, which sparked what appeared to be a semi-serious acquisition offer for the link-sharing site from Ben Huh, founder and CEO of the I Can Has Cheezburger empire of humor websites. Ohanian responded to the takeover offer on the weekend with a post on his blog featuring a series of LOLcat photos.

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d): Social Advertising Models Go Back to the Future

Post and thumbnail photos courtesy of Flickr user pixietart

gdgt is backed by True Ventures, a venture capital firm that is an investor in the parent company of this blog, Giga Omni Media. Om Malik, founder of Giga Omni Media, is also a venture partner at True.

GigaOMGigaOM

Motorola’s venerable MING handset revisions were just made official in three Android-toting varieties for China Unicom (model A1680 pictured above left), China Mobile (MT810, pictured center), and China Telecom (XT806, on the right). The TD-SCDMA riding MT810 ships with the Android derived OPhone 2.0 operating system and two touchscreen displays: a 3.2-inch stylus-friendly resistive touchscreen and a second transparent capacitive cover that provides a finger-friendly experience when closed. Other specs include 720 x 480 video capture, 720p video playback, and support for China’s CMMD mobile television spec. China Telecom’s XT806 is built on Android 2.1 with GPS, 720p video capture, and support for both CDMA EVDO and GSM for global wanderings. Finally, China Unicom’s A1680 packs a 3.1-inch AMOLED touchscreen, Chinese WAPI WiFi, 5 megapixel camera, GPS, and Motorola’s sixth-generation SoftStylus handwriting system.

Continue reading Motorola Ming A1680, MT810, and XT806 begin their Android mercy mission in China

Motorola Ming A1680, MT810, and XT806 begin their Android mercy mission in China originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Aug 2010 05:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments
Engadget