Hasta La Gadget!

We took a look at Mozilla’s mobile OS at the final pre-proper CES event yesterday, and little did we know the official release of its Firefox 18 browser was dropping today. The update adds the new Javascript compiler IonMonkey, which is said to make wep apps “perform up to 25 percent faster.” Mac users who will settle for nothing less than high-res browsing will be happy to know Retina display support has been implemented, as long as you’re on OS X 10.7 or above. Preliminary support for WebRTC has also been added. The upgrade is available now, but if you’re reading this on FF, you’ve probably got it already.

The Android version of the Firefox browser has received a little TLC alongside its computer-based counterpart. The IonMonkey compiler is also new to this version, the Google Now search widget has been integrated, and Mozilla suggests mobile browsing has never been safer. Head to the source link for the release notes for both versions.

Filed under: Internet, Software, Mobile

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Source: Mozilla (1), (2)

What you’re about to see, should you choose to click the source link below, is far from perfect. On the other hand, it’s clearly had a lot of effort and expertise put into it — not only by HTML5-savvy coders, but also by a troupe of performers from the Cirque du Soleil. It’s called Movi.Kanti.Revo, which is a fancy way of saying Move.Sing.Dream, and it involves navigating through an ethereal and slightly laggy landscape using only swaying gestures, your singing voice (mournful sobbing sounds also worked for us) and a bunch of APIs that conveniently fail to work on FireFox, Safari or Internet Explorer. It’s well-suited to those with a mic and webcam, preferably sitting in a open-plan and bully-ridden workplace, and if you don’t like it there’s always Bastion.

Filed under: Internet, Software, Alt

Chrome experiment explores new types of navigation, degrees of embarrassment originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Sep 2012 10:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft has officially announced its proposal to bring plugin-free real time video/audio chatting to web browsers today. They decided to contribute to W3C WebRTC working group, who is working on a universal API for voice/video chat between web browsers. Microsoft’s contribution is labeled as “Customizable, Ubiquitous Real Time Communication over the Web,” or CU-RTC-Web.
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By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Skype boosts Xbox division quarter by 20%, Job listing hints at deep Skype integration for the Xbox,

Microsoft is busy fettling Skype for in-browser use, following Google’s experiments with WebRTC with a contribution of its own to the new standard. WebRTC is a new standard for open, real-time voice and video chat, using HTML and JavaScript to embed audio and video conferencing into the browser; that’s great, Microsoft says, but the current proposal “falls short” of meeting what it believes is demanded of it, and so the company has come up with its own version.

Among those demands are an adherence to “stateless interactions” – i.e. where there’s no obligation from any user’s system to remember the state of another – along with a dynamic reaction to network conditions and interoperability with existing standards. It must also support multiple codecs in case of future changes.

Unfortunately, Microsoft points out, WebRTC in its current form doesn’t meet with all those demands. There is, for instance, no ubiquitous deployability, with the standard today showing “no signs of offering real world interoperability with existing VoIP phones, and mobile phones, from behind firewalls and across routers and instead focuses on video communication between web browsers under ideal conditions.”

It also builds on the legacy of SIP, Microsoft argues, which doesn’t make for a stateless system. Applications would be forced “to resort to trial-and-error and/or browser-specific code” Microsoft says.

The company’s solution is CU-RTC-Web, freshly submitted to the W3 organization, adding a real-time, peer-to-peer transport layer, and building on the existing W3C getUserMedia API – something that Microsoft has already been playing with for integrating video authoring and voice commands to HTML5 apps.

Part of Microsoft’s motivation may well be Outlook.com, a preview of which recently launched to replace Hotmail. Although not currently functional, part of the Outlook.com promise is in-browser Skype support with no local install required.

Microsoft challenges Google’s WebRTC work for in-browser Skype is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Google has been talking up the prospects of integrating WebRTC into Chrome for the past several months. It’s now ready to put theory into practice with a fresh beta of the web browser. The upgrade uses WebRTC to let typical microphones and webcams talk to the browser without using a plugin like Flash or something otherwise so very 2011. Just to embrace this future of direct hardware support ever the more tightly, Google is also building in a gamepad programming interface that lets controllers tap into Chrome without having to rely on Native Client‘s magic. There’s more waiting at the source link, including more direct tie-ins with Cloud Print, so the more adventurous among us can get to chatting (and playing) right away.

Filed under: Peripherals, Internet, Software

New Google Chrome beta lets webcams go plugin-free, video chat gets a lot less Flashy originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Jul 2012 19:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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