Linked List: January 11, 2011

Tuesday, 11 January 2011

Bang.

On Android 2.3’s Web Browser’s Support for HTML5 and Mobile Web Apps ★

Maximiliano Firtman:

The new browser does not support any of the promised and expected features. It seems to be the same browser with some minor core updates, such as support for better exception handling with new object constructors like SyntaxException, EvalError or URIError.

There is still no support for SVG, Animated GIF, Web Sockets or other HTML5 stuff (besides HTML5 compatibility in 2.2). And there is no support for Device Motion, accelerometer, camera or speech support, as promised in Google IO (see video1 — starting at 6:00 — and video2).

Apple’s “closed” iOS web browser has better support for mobile web apps than Google’s “open” Android browser. I’ll bet Google closes that gap eventually, but it’s curious that they haven’t yet.

John Nack: Flash Player 10.2 Video Playback to Be ‘Dramatically More Efficient’ ★

John Nack (a month ago, but relevant today with the news about Chrome dropping native H.264 support):

Good news, though: the new Flash Player 10.2 (download the beta) offers a new, video-playback-optimized mode called Stage Video. Building on top of the GPU acceleration added earlier this year, Stage Video can:

leverage complete hardware acceleration of the video rendering pipeline, from video decoding to scaling/blitting, enabling best-in-class playback performance. Stage Video can dramatically decrease processor usage and enables higher frame rates, reduced memory usage, and greater pixel fidelity and quality.

Color me skeptical, but we’ll see how it works in practice when it’s out of beta.

Tablet vs. Slate vs. iPad ★

MacHoopla on the search frequency for “tablet”, “slate”, and “iPad” over the past year.

(Cf. Marco Arment’s “There Really Isn’t Much of a ‘Tablet’ Market” piece from two weeks ago.)

Moved Mute Switch on CDMA iPhone 4 Means Bumpers, and Many Cases, Won’t Fit ★

Some cases just have a big opening for the volume buttons and mute switch, and should fit fine. But oddly, Apple’s own bumpers won’t fit — they have a very precise opening for the mute switch. I think that’s a good sign that this final design for the CDMA iPhone was completed after the GSM iPhone 4 shipped.

Update: 9 to 5 Mac reports:

[…] an Apple spokesperson told us that Apple will be slightly updating their iPhone 4 case to support the Verizon version’s new control placement too.

Next: CDMA iPad for Verizon ★

Greg Bensinger, Bloomberg:

Verizon will get an embedded chip in the iPad for use on its network, Francis Shammo, chief financial officer of Verizon Communications Inc., the parent of the wireless unit, said today in an interview in New York. iPad users currently need an extra device to connect to Verizon’s network. Shammo declined to say when the change may happen.

This was published by Bloomberg at 2:09pm. My guess is that Shammo got a phone call from Apple about keeping his mouth shut around, oh, 2:10 or so.

Jonathan Geller: ‘Why I’m Switching to the Verizon iPhone: I Need a Phone’ ★

Curiously, AT&T hasn’t retweeted this one yet.

Ryan Singel: ‘Twitter’s Response to WikiLeaks Subpoena Should Be the Industry Standard’ ★

Ryan Singel:

Twitter introduced a new feature last month without telling anyone about it, and the rest of the tech world should take note and come up with its own version of it.

Twitter beta-tested a spine.

Indeed. Bravo.

Google Dropping Support for H.264 in Chrome ★

Mike Jazayeri, Chrome product manager:

We expect even more rapid innovation in the web media platform in the coming year and are focusing our investments in those technologies that are developed and licensed based on open web principles. To that end, we are changing Chrome’s HTML5 <video> support to make it consistent with the codecs already supported by the open Chromium project. Specifically, we are supporting the WebM (VP8) and Theora video codecs, and will consider adding support for other high-quality open codecs in the future. Though H.264 plays an important role in video, as our goal is to enable open innovation, support for the codec will be removed and our resources directed towards completely open codec technologies.

A bold move, to be sure. H.264 is widely used. WebM and Theora aren’t. Perhaps this move will push more publishers toward serving video encoded with WebM. The big problem WebM has versus H.264 is that there are hardware decoders for H.264. This is key for mobile devices. It’s the hardware video decoding that allows mobile devices to get such long battery life and smooth performance for video playback. There’s no way publishers can drop H.264. To support Chrome, they’d have to add WebM-encoded versions of each video.

My bet is that this is just going to push publishers toward forcing Chrome users to use Flash for video playback — and that the video that gets sent to Flash Player will be encoded as H.264. Google can fix this for YouTube on its own, and admittedly, that covers an awful lot of web video. But I think everywhere else, H.264 will continue to dominate, and instead of getting native playback, Chrome users will get playback through Flash. This should be great for Chrome OS laptop battery life.

Update: Here’s a thought. If Google is dropping support for H.264 because their “goal is to enable open innovation”, why don’t they also drop support for closed plugins like Flash Player? As it stands now, Chrome not only supports Flash, it ships with its own embedded copy of Flash. I don’t see how Google keeps Flash but drops H.264 in the name of “openness” without being seen as utter hypocrites.

Are Any Verizon Apps Preinstalled on the Verizon iPhone? (Spoiler: No.) ★

From Verizon’s iPhone FAQ:

Q: Will any Verizon Wireless apps be available on iPhone?

iPhone will have the 3G Mobile Hotspot app pre-installed, and it will also have other popular apps available in the market such as VZ Navigator, and V CAST Media Manager.

Where by “iPhone will have the 3G Mobile Hotspot app pre-installed”, they mean, “You can configure the mobile hotspot using the tethering preferences in the built-in Settings app.” Ars Technica reports:

Apple’s own Phil Schiller assured the press that Verizon would not be loading up the device with crapware, too. “We want the experience to be the same for every iPhone user. So there are no special Verizon Apps preinstalled,” Schiller told Ars. “AT&T offers customers some apps via the App Store. I’ll let Verizon comment if they are working on anything for that.”

I.e., the Verizon iPhone is just another iPhone 4. No logos on the hardware. No preloaded apps from the carrier.

iPhone 4 on Verizon Will Offer Mobile Hotspot Pairing ★

On AT&T, the iPhone only offers tethering for one device over USB or Bluetooth. Verizon’s hotspot feature will support up to 5 Wi-Fi clients.

The crazy thing is, though, Verizon didn’t announce pricing info for iPhone data plans. No word on what standard plans will cost, no word on what tethering will cost.

Engadget’s Live Coverage From Verizon’s iPhone Event ★

Here’s the bottom line, of what was a very brief event:

It’s the same iPhone 4, except it uses CDMA.
It will work better on Verizon than AT&T because Verizon’s network is better.

I’m not saying that’s true. I’m just saying that’s the message from the event.

From the post-announcement Q&A, which included Apple COO Tim Cook:

Q: Why didn’t you go the LTE route?

Tim: Two reasons — the first gen LTE chipsets force design changes we wouldn’t make. And Verizon customers told us they want the iPhone now. I can’t tell you the number of times we’ve been asked ‘when will it work on Verizon.’

Q: Will it be on a one year refresh cycle?

Tim: We don’t comment on that.

Q: Can you address how many you’ll manufacture in the 1st year?

Tim: I’m not going to get into our forecast. I think it’s fair to say that both of us think there’s tremendous opportunity.

Apple: iPhone 4 — Available on Verizon February 10 ★

“Qualified Verizon Wireless customers will also have the exclusive opportunity to pre-order iPhone 4 online on February 3, ahead of general availability.”