Hasta La Gadget!

We can’t say there’s a ton of surprises here, but, if you’re curious to know exactly where Google stands on the whole HTML5 / Flash debate, the company has now laid out its position in a post on its official YouTube API Blog. The short of it is that while Google says it has been “excited” about HTML5 for some time now and that the <video> tag is a “big step forward for open standards,” it says that Flash will continue to play a “critical role in video distribution,” and that it remains the “best platform” for YouTube’s requirements today. Of course, Google also didn’t let slip the opportunity to once again talk up the recently-announced WebM video standard, which it says is the open video format the web has been waiting for. It isn’t saying, however, that it will replace Flash for video, and notes that Adobe itself has committed to supporting VP8, the video codec for WebM. Hit up the link below to read the company’s complete argument for yourself.

Google: HTML5 is good, Flash is the ‘best platform’ for YouTube today, WebM is the future originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Jun 2010 18:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Jolicloud promises touch support in version 1.0, gives a demo now

Jolicloud promises touch support in version 1.0, gives a demo now originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Jun 2010 11:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple has upped the game in its fight against Flash, replacing mere words with action. A new page on Apple.com showcases HTML5 and its many Flash-like capabilities, demonstrating the combined power of plain markup combined with CSS3 and JavaScript running in a browser.

Fire it up on your iPad and play. You’ll see 2D and 3D photo galleries, an amazing typography demo (pictured above), a trailer for the new Tron movie that can be scaled and skewed in real time, along with audio, 360º diagrams and other fancy shenanigans.

It’s pretty spectacular, and at no point will you see the message “Loading…” or have to suffer your computer’s poor fans kicking in to keep things cool.

Although Flash isn’t mentioned by name, it is clear that this is a dig against the Adobe plugin. There is a link at the bottom of every page to Steve Jobs’ “Thoughts on Flash” essay, and the blurb is peppered with digs like “Standards aren’t add-ons to the web. They are the web” and “[C]reate a gallery that doesn’t require a third-party plug-in to render.” Vicious.

Whatever your thoughts on Flash (I hate it, mostly for its non-standard UIs and battery sucking performance), this is a smart move from Apple. Jobs can say all he wants about Flash but the regular, non-techie user won’t care. They just read mis-informed mainstream newspapers and parrot back the articles: “No Flash (Squawk!) No USB. No printing!” Spanish national newspaper El Pais even claimed that the iPad couldn’t display PDFs. Now anybody can point to Apple.com/HTML5 and be done.

There is one irony, though, as pointed out by the esteemed John Brownlee at Cult of Mac. This demo uses open standards, but will only run in Safari. You can modify Firefox to pretend that it is Safari and some parts will work, but we guess this is Apple’s way of saying that Safari is “more open” than other browsers.

HTML5 Showcase [Apple]

When the iPad bandwagon was launched in late January, ABC and Netflix quickly jumped onboard with tailor-made apps, while CBS and others started transitioning their content to HTML5-compliant formats, all in the name of not being left behind by the revolution. As it turns out, however, some content providers will be letting this ride pass them by, at least for the moment. The New York Post today reports that big media heavyweights Time Warner and NBC Universal have turned their noses up at the iPad’s high entry demands and will be sticking to what works:

Sources said several large media companies, including Time Warner and NBC Universal, told Apple they won’t retool their extensive video libraries to accommodate the iPad, arguing that such a reformatting would be expensive and not worth it because Flash dominates the Web.

According to the NYP article, these conglomerates have been emboldened by the forthcoming arrival of competing tablets from the likes of Dell and HP, and will be seeking their fortunes in the mobile space atop Adobe’s winged stallion of web domination that we commonly know as Flash. This is a decision sure to end in tears — we just don’t know who’ll be doing the crying when it all shakes out.

NBC and Time Warner inform Apple they’ll be sticking to Flash, thank you very much originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 May 2010 13:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When Clicker launched last fall it seemed like just another me-too streaming video aggregator, but we’ll have to give it another look after it’s followed up its Boxee integration by showing off the HTML5-built Clicker.tv site at Google I/O today. Designed as a “ten-foot” experience for TV screens it can be perused via mouse and keyboard or just a remote, bringing Clicker’s index of video including network TV, webisodes and web-only content, plus premium sources like Amazon VOD and iTunes. It’s currently in beta, but if leaning back and browsing from the couch is your thing — or on the off chance someone launches a Google TV with Intel processor, support for all those streaming codecs we love and a QWERTY remote from Logitech tomorrow — it could be worth bookmarking.

Clicker.tv brings streaming internet video to your TV’s browser; it has a web browser right? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 May 2010 22:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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