Bing for Mobile Embraces HTML5 for Android, iOS

Microsoft has updated its Bing for Mobile app for iPhone and Android, adding some new features and bringing the experience more in line with the experience offered on Windows Phone.

"Today's update uses HTML5 to blend the mobile browse experience with the app experience so you get a consistent and fast mobile search experience," read a Nov. 2 posting on the Bing Community blog, "whether you're using m.bing.com from your browser or the Bing app."

Microsoft's Windows Phone tightly bakes Bing's search engine into the interface, blurring the line between traditional browser-based search and the platform's "Metro" interface. Evidently, Microsoft seems interested in extending aspects of that experience to other smartphone platforms.

"Rather than tightly binding functions into a mobile client, we want to embrace the drive towards exposing our functions via an HTML5 experience," the blog post added. "Using HTML5, our goal is to build a mobile experience that leverages the unique capabilities" of platforms such as camera support and voice search, while "making the functions the apps can provide consistent across the platforms."

In addition, this app update also includes Deals, which the blog describes as "one-stop deal shopping and convenient mobile phone access for local deals from more than 100 deal providers across the United States." It makes Bing's video domain, launched in October on m.bing, available on the iPhone. The Android version of the app offers a combination of real-time transit routing and news. And the Maps/List Split View allows users to synchronize a list, such as directions, into a single view alongside a map.

Microsoft is apparently aiming to release the same experience for Research In Motion's BlackBerry devices at some unnamed point in the future. For the moment, the Android and iOS apps are available on their respective app stores.

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HP plans to hold off on building ARM-based Windows tablets, focus on x86 instead

Whether it's put off by Microsoft's own push into tablets with Surface or just taking a wait-and-see approach, HP has now confirmed that it won't be among those offering ARM-based Windows 8 (or RT) hardware when the OS makes its long-awaited debut later this year. That possibility was first reported by SemiAccurate earlier today and has now been backed up by Bloomberg, which has the official word straight from HP spokesperson Marlene Somsak. She noted that HP will instead be focusing solely on x86-based devices, a decision that she says was "influenced by input from our customers," adding that the "robust and established ecosystem of x86 applications provides the best customer experience at this time and in the immediate future." What's more, Somsak went on to say that HP's first Windows 8 tablet will focus on the business market, which certainly lines up with the leaked device pictured above that surfaced a few months back.

HP plans to hold off on building ARM-based Windows tablets, focus on x86 instead originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jun 2012 13:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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11 Incredible Escape Pods [Design]

Seriously, it's always the slowest ones that go down with the ship/flying aircraft carrier/Death Star. That's why our friends at Oobject have assembled the 11 best ways to bail—and fast. More »

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Visualized: The iPhone five years after launch

In case you somehow missed it, today is an important milestone in technology nostalgia: it's the fifth anniversary of the original iPhone's launch. We'll let you explore the memories of that insane day on your own terms, but ComScore has produced a visual breakdown of just how ownership has grown and shifted over the years. It's not hard to see that adoption has been on an accelerating curve, especially after the 2010 launch of the Retina display-toting iPhone 4: as of this past May, about three quarters of owners have either the iPhone 4 or the iPhone 4S. And the 2007 edition? Only two percent of all iPhone owners are still actively holding on to the aluminum-clad debut model, which suggests most would rather have Siri than reminisce. Whether you're a fan or have since moved on to a competitor, the chart is a reminder of just how far one of Steve Jobs' biggest projects has come.

Visualized: The iPhone five years after launch originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jun 2012 18:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Miss the Google I/O 2012 Day 1 Keynote? Watch it now

If for whatever reason you happened to miss out on the Google I/O 2012 Day 1 Keynote, you can now sit back, relax and take it all in. Google has posted the video to YouTube so you have no reason to not set aside some time and get yourself caught up. You'll get to see Android 4.1 Jelly Bean announced along with the Google Nexus 7 tablet and finally, the Nexus Q.

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Firefox 4 rockets to 5% global usage share, IE9 wallows at 1.5%

Using some early numbers from both StatCounter and Net Applications, Mozilla's noisiest hominid, Asa Dotzler, has illustrated Firefox 4's meteoric rise to around 5% of Web browser global usage share. Internet Explorer 9, which launched two weeks ago, seems to be enjoying a much more casual stroll in the park with just 1.5% of the global Web usage share.

Interestingly, we can see IE9 dipping between March 20 and 21, just before the 'Important' Windows Update rolled out. It's hard to say whether IE9 is only growing because of the installed-by-default Windows Update, but that small dip definitely sticks out -- did excitement peter out? Did people download IE9, try it out, and summarily uninstall it? Perhaps, given their close proximity, the stats show an attention shift from Microsoft to Mozilla?

Numbers-wise, if the bottom left corner of the graph shows 2.3 million downloads for IE9, we can guesstimate that that it has now been downloaded 5 million times. Firefox is clocking in at 37 million downloads after five days of public availability.

We wonder whether Microsoft knew its release schedule would coincide so closely with Firefox 4. Internet Explorer 9 -- a great browser by almost every metric -- was never going to do well against anything emanating from the maws of Mozilla. The main thing, though, is that Microsoft has now shown that it's serious when it comes to the Open Web. If Internet Explorer 10 is good, and 11 and 12, then we might finally see it compete with the zealous Mozillan horde.

Firefox 4 rockets to 5% global usage share, IE9 wallows at 1.5% originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 05:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gladinet maps Amazon Cloud Drive to your Windows desktop

Amazon's recently-introduced Cloud Drive is a great place to store your files online. It offers 5 gigs of totally free space, and U.S. users also get access to the handy Cloud Player app (for Web and Android!) which streams music you upload to your Cloud Drive.

The service could be a little easier to use, however. Until Amazon releases a desktop client, Windows users might want to take another look at Gladinet. The multi-service cloud connector has now added Amazon Cloud Drive support and will let you map a network drive letter to your account with minimal fuss.

Once you've added your credentials to Gladinet, just pick the letter you want to assign to the drive and you're good to go. You can then copy files to and from your Cloud Drive, rename items, and manage folders like you would any local hard drive in your system.

The only downside is that the free version of Gladinet gives you a limited number of cloud interactions. Once you use those up, you'll need to upgrade to the paid version, which costs $49.99. If you work with a number of cloud-based storage providers, however, it could be well worth the price tag.

Gladinet maps Amazon Cloud Drive to your Windows desktop originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 04 Apr 2011 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel-Based Ultrabooks Help Flagging Windows Notebook Sales

Despite the high prices, Ultrabooks are seeing rapid adoption among consumers and helping prop up a Windows notebook market that is seeing sales fall, the NPD Group says. - Ultrabooks, the very light and thin notebooks that Intel championed as alternatives to Apples MacBook, are giving a boost to a struggling Windows laptop market, particularly in the high end, according to market research firm NPD Group.
Ultrabooks now account for 11 percent of sales of Windows noteb...

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Hugo Barra on Nexus 7 first day pre-order numbers: 'It's Big!'

Little more than 24 hours has passed since the official unveiling of the Google Nexus 7, and the subsequent pre-orders becoming available in selected countries around the world. It's pretty much a given that it's bound to be a popular device within the Android community, but, how popular? 

The folks at Business Insider caught up with Hugo Barra last night at a press session at Google I/O, and asked the question a lot of people would be curious to know the answer to. How has the first days pre-sale gone? 

While Barra wouldn't disclose specifics -- hardly surprising -- but he did say they were really, really good. Pressed for a ballpark figure, he simply said, "it's big!" 

So, given Barra's position at Google, you'd be excused for thinking it's just a bit of positive PR. Well, we've some actual cause to believe him. 

Our contacts way up in Canada -- a guy called Chris, you might know him? -- have informed us that the 16GB Nexus 7 is no longer being accepted for pre-order. Seems for that, you now have to sign up to email alerts to let you know when they're available. 

So far, we've not heard any further reports of the pre-sale devices going off sale anywhere else in the world, but that's not to say they won't follow suit soon. If you want one at launch, it's looking like a pretty useful idea to pre-order as soon as you possibly can. 

Source: Business Insider

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OmmWriter brings its clean, calm writing interface to Windows

I have a thing for full-screen text editing. I use WriteMonkey for my creative writing needs, and VIM in a full-screen PuTTY session for my Web development work. That being the case, I'm all over the monospace, dark-background, focused editing scene.

OmmWriter attempts to take that aesthetic and make it somehow more spiritual, with three picturesque backgrounds and ambient background audio tracks (there are seven of each in the paid version).

I'm of two minds about this app. On the one hand, yes, it's beautiful. But if you want music as a background to your writing, why not pick your own soundtrack with Winamp or Foobar2000 running in the background?

OmmWriter also offers three keyboard-clicking sounds, which are kind of nice. None of these features are groundbreaking, really. OmmWriter could be seen as a way to gently ease into the world of distraction-free writing -- in case something like WriteMonkey's dark background is just too oppressive for you.

After the fold you can see a video showcasing several of OmmWriter's features and creative soundscapes.

Continue reading OmmWriter brings its clean, calm writing interface to Windows

OmmWriter brings its clean, calm writing interface to Windows originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 01 Apr 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Chrome now uses SPDY HTTP replacement, halves page load time

We're not entirely sure of the time line here, but it looks like Google has now rolled out the SPDY HTTP replacement to its full bevy of Web services, including Gmail, Docs, and YouTube. If you're currently using Google's Chrome browser you're probably already using SPDY.

We originally reported on SPDY way back in November 2009, when Google introduced it as yet another experiment in making the Web faster, like Go, Native Client and speculative pre-connections. Over the last 18 months, though, SPDY support has found its way into the stable build of Chrome.

SPDY is basically a streamlined and more efficient version of HTTP. At its most basic, SPDY introduces parallel, multiplexed streams over a single TCP connection -- but at the same time, SPDY allows for prioritization, so that vital content (HTML) can be sent before periphery content (JavaScript, video). All in all, the SPDY protocol can halve page load times, which is obviously rather significant.

The best bit, though, is that SPDY is an open-source project. HTTP 1.1 is a lumbering beast that needs to be replaced before low-latency real-time computing really becomes a reality, and SPDY is one of the best options currently on the table. To be honest, we're not sure why SPDY hasn't received more coverage -- it's awesome in every way. At the moment, though, the only way to help speed up SPDY's proliferation, is with an experimental Apache mod.

As far as actually 'trying it out,' your best bet is downloading Chrome, hitting up some Google sites, and then checking chrome://net-internals to see your active SPDY sessions. SPDY is a transparent replacement for HTTP, though, and as such it's rather hard to see its effects. Google's sites definitely feel fast in Chrome, but there are more technologies than just SPDY at work.

Google Chrome now uses SPDY HTTP replacement, halves page load time originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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