Web Apps

Australian Etailer Puts the Screws on IE7 Users
June 15, 2012

Today in international tech news: An Australian online retailer institutes a tax on people using Internet Explorer 7. Also: A nine-year-old in Scotland who had taken to blogging about her school lunches is muzzled -- and then unmuzzled -- by school authorities, maligned manufacturer Foxconn experiences yet another suicide in China, and the UK rejects Julian Assange's request to reopen his extradition appeal.

Google Maps Travels Off-Road, Into the Sky, and Into the Pocket
June 07, 2012

Google unveiled new features to its mapping technology Wednesday, including an offline mobile version of Google Maps and 3D enhancements to Google Earth. The announcement comes just before Apple is expected to drop Google Maps from its built-in mapping application on the iOS platform and pursue advanced mapping development on its own.

Firefox 13 Tweaks Tabs, Home Pages, Speed and Security
June 06, 2012

Mozilla released Firefox 13 Wednesday, which it says is a speedier, safer version of the open source web browser. The newly launched Firefox also boasts a new home page and tab page layout similar to those of competing browsers such as Google's Chrome. Before the upgrade, when Firefox users clicked to open a new tab, they saw simply a blank page.

Customers See Red as QuickBooks Online Flounders
June 01, 2012

Many customers of Intuit's QuickBooks Online are reporting problems with accessing the service for reasons that remain unclear. "I had a problem when I was uploading data from the desktop to QuickBooks Online," Claudia Bolding, owner of accounting software and bookkeeping services company Detailed Office Services, told TechNewsWorld. "It took me three days," she added.

Microsoft Puts Windows 8 Up for Another Round of Show and Tell
June 01, 2012

Microsoft on Thursday unveiled the latest version of its Windows 8 Release Preview in 14 languages. This is the second preview release of the OS. The first, called -- appropriately -- "Windows 8 Consumer Preview," was released in February.

Samsung Hardware Tucks Chrome Into New Niche
May 30, 2012

Samsung has launched two new computers running Google's Chrome OS. The Series 5 550 Chrome OS notebook, referred to as a "Chromebook," is a 12.1-inch laptop. The Samsung Chromebox 3 is a small desktop PC that can connect to a separate keyboard, mouse and monitor, much like Apple's Mac mini.

Yahoo's Axis Strikes Alliance Between Desktop and Mobile
May 24, 2012

Yahoo on Thursday launched Axis, a new mobile browser and plug-in. It lets users begin a search on a desktop and continue on iPhones and iPads, or vice versa. It also offers a faster, smarter search with instant answers and visual previews. Axis is offered both as a standalone mobile browser for iOS devices and as a plug-in for desktop browsers running HTML5.

Who Loves Ya, Linux Baby?
May 21, 2012

If there's anything important in this competitive world, it's the ability to tell one's friends from one's enemies. We here in the Linux blogosphere tend to be pretty good at that, but recently a surprising turn of events left us befuddled. Namely: Mozilla's decision to leave Linux support out of the initial release of its upcoming Web Apps marketplace.

Iran Threatens to Sue Over Google Maps Slap
May 18, 2012

Today in international tech news: Still irked about Google Maps' non-labeling of the Persian Gulf, Iranian state-run media says the country is considering legal action against the search company. In the UK, police implement a system to extract data from mobile devices of detained suspects, while Sky News talks with police about the broadcast of a rape victim's name via a televised Twitter feed.

Windows 8 Browser Brouhaha Draws Regulator Attention
May 15, 2012

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee plans to examine allegations that Microsoft is giving its own Internet Explorer Web browser preferential treatment over competing Web browsers in a version of its upcoming Windows 8 operating system. "This is a preliminary inquiry," said Lynn Becker, communications director for Sen. Herb Kohl. Kohl is a member of the Judiciary Committee.

Mozilla and Google ARMwrestle Microsoft
May 12, 2012

Mozilla and Google are challenging Microsoft's decision to shut out all browsers other than Internet Explorer from Windows 8 devices that use ARM processors. This restricts user choice, reduces competition, chills innovation, and might have antitrust implications, among other bad things, Mozilla general counsel Harvey Anderson asserted.

Is Google Drive Ready to Hit the Road?
April 17, 2012

Cloud-based storage utility Google Drive is set to debut next week. Rumors regarding a Google online storage space have persisted for years, but it's actual release is now just around the corner. The cloud storage system will be available for free, and Google will give new users 5 GB of free space. It will work across Windows, OS X and various mobile platforms.

Yahoo Serves Mojito to Liven Up the Mobile Web Party
April 03, 2012

Yahoo has offered its Mojito application framework to the open source community under the BSD license. Mojito is an MVC JavaScript Web application framework built on release 3 of Yahoo's open source JavaScript Yahoo User Interface Library. MVC is a software architecture that isolates the domain logic from the user interface.

Adobe Squeezes More Security Into - and More Cash Out of - Flash
March 28, 2012

In its ongoing quest to keep Flash relevant in the face of strong competition from HTML5, Adobe on Wednesday announced Flash Player 11.2, featuring a silent updates option to enhance the platform's security. Improving the security of Flash Player through silent updates is critical because more than 99 percent of malware installations succeed by targeting out-of-date software installations, Adobe said.

'BrowserQuest' Shows HTML5 Could Slay Flash
March 28, 2012

The Mozilla Foundation on Wednesday released BrowserQuest, a massively multiplayer online game written in HTML5, JavaScript and other open source languages. "BrowserQuest is a showcase of how open Web technologies like HTML5, JavaScript, CSS and WebSockets can be used to create a multiplayer game that scales up to thousands of users," said Mozilla's Christian Heilmann.

Apple Ready to Go Off the Google Map?
March 08, 2012

Apple's newest version of iPhoto, as shown yesterday during its announcement about the latest iPad, is using maps from OpenStreetMaps instead of Google Maps for its journals and slideshow features. Google Maps is still the default source of data for other areas of iOS, but iPhoto maps are now using information that the company generated by using OpenStreetMaps.

Microsoft Calls Google a Cookie Monster
February 21, 2012

Google is tracking users of the Internet Explorer Web browser without their knowledge, Microsoft has asserted. After news emerged last week that Google had bypassed the privacy settings of Apple's Safari browser, Microsoft researchers began looking into whether the search giant was also playing fast and loose with IE's settings.

Google Caught With Hand In Safari's Cookie Jar
February 17, 2012

Google is one of four online advertising companies that have sneaked around the privacy settings in Apple's Safari Web browser to track user activity, according to research from Stanford University graduate student Jonathan Mayer. All four surreptitiously submitted a Web form and placed trackable cookies in Safari, Mayer's research has found.

Google Pours Chrome Into Android
February 08, 2012

Google has brought its Chrome Web browser to the Android Market. A beta edition of the browser is available from the app shop now for free, but since its operation is restricted to the latest version of the mobile operating system, Ice Cream Sandwich, only about 1 percent of Android's millions of users will be able to take the software for a test drive.

Enterprise Web Apps: The Next Generation
February 08, 2012

When the bright folks at Zeebox, a killer social TV site, decided to build their website, they naturally turned to cloud services because they are a startup and had to use their money wisely. They also turned to the Scala language and open source community because they had very specific scalability and performance needs.