Web Missing in Action
Web Missing in Action is comments about Web features that, due to the Microsoft-induced Deep Freeze on Web Innovation of 2001 to 2006, have never appeared in HTML, JavaScript, CSS or mashups in a standard way. Now that Microsoft is finally making amends in IE9 for not having kept its last century promises to implement […]
Charting the US 2011 Budget
The NYTimes has done something about the US Budget and its huge deficits that is most commendable – it has made the sprawling size and growth of the US Federal Government budget understandable. Not Business Week, not Forbes, not the Wall Street Journal nor any other of the Titans of the Business Press have done […]
War for Developers
This blog has argued that Software Fragementation is occurring with 3 added levels of complexity in client software development: 1)the complexity of as many as a dozen new client OS platforms with new APIs and coding; 2)the added UI complexity of multi-touch screen and Wii/Kinect-like sensor state tracking + control; 3)the complexity of delivering offline […]
Client Software Development – 3 Added Degrees of Complexity
There is no doubt that the classic Computing World is fragmenting. No more the Wintel monopoly as it is losing its 90% market share dominance of the personal computing client scene to upstart Apple iDevices, Android smartphones plus a wave of RIM,Dell, Samsung, Archos and other tablets. The PC, even in laptop form, is no […]
Why Is Steve Jobs Helping Steve Ballmer?
Given that no love has supposedly been lost between them, it is passingly strange that Apple’s Steve Jobs appears to be secretly helping Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer. What? Can’ t ye Editor see that Apple’s Steve Jobs has been applying a whupping to Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer for the past ten years. Just check the new multimedia […]
Sample of HTML5, jQuery, and CMS
The Levolor.ca Natural Woven Blinds page is an example of HTML5 with jQuery in the wild. If you click on the image you will see a lot of the sophisticated HTML5/CSS3 nifty tricks on display. There may be more life in HTML5/CSS3 than ye Keep an Open Eye editors figured. Here are some of the […]
AIR+Flash Retake the Client UI Screen
Adobe is rising because of AIR and Flash. Android, RIM, and all the other major smartphone and tablet players are embracing Flash because it gives them a compelling competitive advantage. Over 85% of websites use some Flash content. But more importantly Flash and AIR apps that run on the PC also run on most other […]
Apple Concedes Multi-touch Screens to Windows PCs
Apple’s announcement today, the new Lion 10.7 Mac OS X with Multi-touch confirmed that as a politician Steve Jobs would be hopeless in the current political climate. Here was Steve Jobs telling his audience that they, Apple, have studied the problem and multi-touch just does not work on vertical screens – so Apple will not […]
How Redmond Can Avoid A Windows Phone 7 Trainwreck
Diverse IT pundits agree on one thing – Windows Phone 7 to be announced on Monday is going to be a train wreck. The only question is how big and how fast. First, eWeek establishes why Windows Phone 7 will be way behind the state of the smartphone art with this ten point presentation. Now […]
Free JavaScript Widget Browser
Adobe has released its best Web Development program since Dreamweaver and its free. Adobe Widget Browser is a library for JavaScript and HTML5 Cross-Platform GUI Widgets. The price of admission is free with registering on Adobe Exchange. The payoff is a way to not only scan prospective Web GUI widgets for use; but to try […]
Online WordPress Theme Generator
With so many good WordPress themes available for free directly from the WordPress site – what is the advantage of an online WordPress theme generator beyond the novelty of it all. Well as it turns out, the way that Yvo Schaap has delivered his WPThemeGenerator proves to be quite useful: The way Yvo has setup […]
RIM Playbook Scores Bigtime
RIM scored very big with its new tablet, the Playbook. But first lets us clarify the biggest play for RIM – buying software developer QNX in the Spring of this year. QNX has been developing UI-based OS for a number of industrial clients and they have a not just a solid but GUI robust OS. […]
IE9 Tests Windows XP Users Loyalty:Update
Microsoft is certainly putting the Windows faithful to another testing. Vista was an excruciating trial; but now this [see screenshot below]. More than 50% of Windows users are on Windows XP and Redmond is ignoring if not insulting them. Now Redmond insists that the issue is that hardware acceleration for IE9 browser is unavailable on […]
PC Market Fragmentation
The PC market is seeing a profound split or forking in the road on how Computing is served to the public. It is heavy-creative versus mobile-utility usage – PCs vs Tablets. Marketwatch catches this trend and its implications for the broad PC markets. The result should see in the next 2-3 years a profound drop […]
Does Microsoft Get Kid Glove Reviews?
Microsoft’s Vista at the outset got kid glove reviews from many of the tech and business sites. See here for a symptom analysis. So PC users had to endure what was a beta-kludge update of Windows at higher costs for nearly two years. And as always is the case with Redmond … just wait until […]
Google TV versus Apple TV
Its becoming abundantly clear that Apple TV and Google TV are two different things. See Gizmodo on AppleTV See TechCrunch on Google TV as delivered by Logitach It is clear that Apple is getting its iTunes rentals more TV and video busoness on a streaming only and rental only business modeland rental business. In contrast, […]
Touch Screens: NYTimes Approved
NYTimes has confirmed what a lot of smartphone and iDevice users have know for ages[in Gadget-speak that is more than a year] – touch screens work very, Very, VERY effectively, thank you. This blog has been saying so for a long time that touch screen plus gestures is the magic UI ingredient which will unleash […]
Linux Wins on the Desktop
Linux is poised to win big market share on the desktop with Google Android Linux. The proof is the spectacular success of Android smartphones in the market place where it has passed Apple in the latest quarterly sales numbers. There is a tidal wave of Android and Chrome Os[ also based on Linux] devices coming […]
Falls PC Hopes
Every year around August early September your Keep an Open Eye editor gets requests from friends and family to make recommendations regarding back to school PC purchases. This year, instead of the usual recommendations, PC Prospects looked different. First, Apple did with the iPad what Microsoft had failed to do with its tablets – deliver […]
HTML5 Hype
HTML is really getting hyped. This site is an example. But here is a very well crafted demo which makes the case. The demo uses exactly 5 statements in HTML5: <!DOCTYPE html> <canvas id=”theapt” width=”100″ height=”100″></canvas> and <audio id=”audio”> Your browser does not support the <code>audio</code> element. </audio> while all of the rest of the […]
Google Android Scales Consumer OS Peak!?
Okay, a slight exaggeration; but the announcement this last Thursday that Google Android [a Linux variant] has won the top spot among smartphone OS may be a precursor of what is to come. This Fall, a wave of Android slates, netbooks, pads and tablets are going to arrive on the scene – and change the […]
HTML5: Implementation Status – Summer 2010
As one peers more closely at HTML5 standards and developments, three conclusions come to the forefront: 1)The revisions in HTML5 are broad and deep – Canvas, SVG, CSS3 and multi-touch gestures will change fundamentally how the Web is visualized, displayed and interacted with . The <audio> and <video> tags plus the Apple vs Adobe tussle will […]
HTML5: Canvas Demo
The following is a demo of the HTML5 <canvas> tag in operation: If you cannot see this nifty demo try any of the following: 1 2 3 or 4. Now some other nifty Canvas demos and references: HTML5 Canvas cheat sheets – very helpful for using <canvas> scripting. BillMalone – detailed example of using canvas […]
Google Outages II
Previously Keep an Open Eye reported persistent Google outages of several minutes. Some readers complained that the provider, Rogers.com in this case, was having DNS problems. Well the latest recurrence of a Google search outage would seem to belie that fact. First, note that the latest Chrome 5.0 browser is being used in all cases […]
Web Enabling Encryption
One of the major security problems is that data on the web often runs naked. This is due to two reasons – 1)the HTTPS protocol can be more difficult and costly to implement and 2)there is a notable performance hit to be taken in most situations. Network World is reporting work done at Stanford University […]
Web Limits
Ye Keep an Open Eye editor just positively relishes what the Web allows – quick confirmation of facts and dips into expert knowledge through Google, Wikipedia, NewScientist, theEconomist, and just browsing the books at Barns and Noble or Amazon websites. But there is a growing word of caution about the effectiveness of the Web that […]
The Kin is Dead, Long Live the Kin
Keep an Open Eye could not find the official announcement, but there were several hundred confirmations that Microsoft’s Kin is dead as a product. The best coverage to be found on the demise of Kin is from Engadget – What Killed the Kin. Here are some of the salient points: It seems that after doing […]
1000th Post at Keep an Open Eye!
The previous Aptana Studio 3 post is our 1000th! Keep an Open Eye would like to pat itself on the back for its coverage of Web and Software Development for the past 5 years. Okay, that done, get on with the Sencha story!
HTML5 DevTools: Aptana Studio 3 beta
Aptana Studio 3 beta is an HTML5 aware development tool. This means it has Intellisense with hinting capabilities for a broad range of HTML5 tags and syntax. In addition Aptana supports CSS3 and is capable of parsing mixed files of CSS, HTML, and JavaScript which are now the rule with Web 2.0, HTML5, PHP, and […]
Apple vs Adobe: Vetting Steve Jobs Flash Assertions
Apple and CEO Steve Jobs have at various time in the past 6 months complained about Adobe Flash performance on both OS4 iDevices [iPhone and iPad] and Mac OS X. This will post will vet those remarks with publicly available benchmarks and other reports. They will be confined to Mac OS X since results of […]
Apple vs Adobe: Are Apple’s MacOS/X Graphics Drivers to Blame
Keep an Open Eye has been following the Apple versus Adobe debate with a bit of a jaundiced eye – wondering how Flash video and all its broad range of applications can run so fast on Windows yet apparently so slow on Macs [and Linux too]. Adobe claims that the latest Flash player 10.1 has […]
iPhone 4 Announcement
For Apple, this means the iDevice closed ecosystem continues along its proprietary path. For Google, fast pace of Android OS revisions has to get into phones – e.g., HTC EVO is one step behind. For Microsoft, they will have to surrender Windows-only development.
Bing Keeps Microsoft in the Game
If anyone had doubts that Microsoft can innovate – take a look at what is coming through the Bing group. Now many would argue that what keeps Microsoft in the game is its Windows + Office monopoly lock and its hordes of cash. But Keep-an-Open-Eye would like to advance the idea that Microsoft is capable […]
Google’s Hybrid Open Model
I have just argued that Google is beating Microsoft because it is adopting a new Hybrid Open Model. But that is not entirely true. Google is actually using the Apache “Open” License that does not require that all code built upon its Open Source has to be returned to the community as Open Source as […]
How Google Beats Microsoft
Everybody and his brother know that Apple and Google are beating Microsoft and its latest yet-to-appear Phone 7 in the mobile market. You don’t need a table, but just in case here is the latest comparative numbers available from Gartner – note the Microsoft market share is for Windows Mobile 6.x and other Microsoft phone […]
iPhone 3Gs $97 at Walmart
Walmart knocked down the prices again – by more than 50% to $97 for an Apple iPhone 3Gs as of last Tuesday. So the gadget press churned out the obvious – Apple was allowing Walmart to clear out the iPhone 3Gs stock for the upcoming iPhone 4 likely to be announced at the Apple Worldwide […]
Declarations of OS Independence
Dell and HP have recently made very strong declarations of OS independence from Microsoft. Take HP first. With the buying of Palm for its webOS and the annoucement by HP that webOS would be used in not only its mobile phones [displacing Microsoft Windows Mobile] but also some of its tablets and notepads including the […]
Turmoil at the Redmond Bigtop
Flash Player 9 or higher is required to view the chartClick here to download Flash Player now View the full MSFT chart at Wikinvest There are large changes at the executive suite of Microsoft [key management J.Allard and Robbie Bach are out] as the Mobile and Internet divisions continue to flounder while Apple and Google […]
Whats in Firefox 4
Firefox 4: fast, powerful and empowering View more presentations from Mike Beltzner. The people at Mozilla who are responsible for Firefox deserve admiration. They were the first organization to take on the IE monopoly effectively in the early 2000 time frame by targeting better standards adherence and strong JavaScript support. True, Opera had been battling […]
Best Open CMS: WordPress vs Joomla vs Drupal
In a previous post, 10 reasons were given for doing your website development in a CMS/Blog. And the most important reasons were that the best blogs are Open Source, free, secure, fast and very popular. The latter point is notable because that means the chance of finding developer talent that knows how to customize an […]
Adobe Responds to Steve Jobs Attacks
Steve Jobs has done some unprecedented trash talking about Flash running on Apple hardware – raising questions about the openness, security, reliability, speed, and battery life of Flash on iPhone OS and Mac hardware and software. In this probing and blunt interveiw with Adobe’s CEO Shantanu Narayen, the Wall Street Journal gets down to the […]
Google Embraces Web Speed
Just after April Fools, Google added speed and response time delivered at a website as part of its page ranking algorithm. The full details can be found here at the Google Webmaster Central site where Google not only explains some of the rationale about using speed in the rankings but also provides a listing of […]
Steve Jobs Explains No Flash
ReadWriteWeb was the first major tech blog off the mark to get the story on Steve Job’s explanation of why he is excluding Flash on the iPlatforms. RWW nicely summarizes the Flash points and then rightly raises the issue of Google’s Android and its support of Flash. RWW asks is Androids more flexible approach to […]
Adobe Officially Says Adios to Apple iPhone, iPad Development
Mike Chambers, product manger for Adobe Flash, made it official today– Adobe would stop developing for Apple’s iPhone platform. See the following commentary: PCWorld – summary of the situation and Adobe’s withdrawal from iPhone, iPad development Mike Chambers blog – Adobe Flash Product manager explains position eloquently Francis X. Cringely – commentary on decision by […]
HTML5 == DHTML5
Web designers will not like it but Web developers will see it as inevitable – the new emerging HTML5 standard is really the recognition that Web 2.0 development trends have taken us to DHTML-Dynamic HTML as the way to design and program Web applications. But DHTML means designers and developers will require solid knowledge not […]
5 HTML5 Motivators
1)This demo of HTML5 powered Quake 2 game will be a motivator for developers to explore what can be done in HTML5 2)The Battle Royale between Adobe and Apple over the suitability of Flash on iPad/iPhone/iPod will drive more users to HTML5. And Google’s second implementation of Google Voice for iPad/iPhone/iPod using HTML5 demos how […]
Dreamweaver CS5 Wishlist vs Just Announced Reality
Well Dreamweaver was launched today and there are 5 new features and 3 enhanced ones. Here is a quick summary of those new features and enhancements. I must admit, the upgrade list to my view is small. Integrated CMS support – new direct link/edit for WordPress, Joomla, Drupal CMS systems CSS inspection – new looks […]
Apple Cuts the RIA Field Down
Apple has cut the RIA field down to one for now – HTML5. With Apple’s iPhone OS4 announcement of what software development tools would be acceptable on the Apple Mobile Lineup, Apple has said NYET, NEIN, NO to Flash in any way shape or form and to Java too. And NON, NOPE, NIX to Microsoft […]
Apple’s Move to a Mobile Monopoly
Apple is moving inexorably to a Mobile Monopoly – it is the Apple mobile line up: iPod, iPhone, iPad, and iGiveUpWhatsNext. The Apple mobile lineup is closed ecosystem in which all plugins, extensions and apps must go through Apple approved software process. And those extensions and apps/plugins must use Apple approved software development tools. Hence […]
Computing Chip Trends: Memresistors
Moore’s Law is not a law but rather an astute observation that has stood the test of time – it has predicted the rate of change in computing power for the past 50 years with uncanny accuracy: Computing power will double in capacity for the same cost every 18-20 months. This “law” is now running […]