Tuesday, February 2, 2010

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Video: Android's New Pinch-To-Zoom Multi-Touch In Action Top
As we noted earlier , Google announced an update today to its Android OS for Nexus One phones that would enable the pinch-to-zoom multi-touch feature for the first time in a few Google apps: Maps, Gallery, and the Web Browser. We’ve just received the update, which is technically firmware 2.1-update1, and have taken a video of the new functionality in action. While some third-party apps have taken advantage of mutli-touch for some time on Android, Google has resisted the feature for its own apps — likely due to an agreement with Apple. But now, all bets appear to be off . Google notes that most users shouldn’t receive the update until the end of the week as they gradually roll it out, so we were apparently lucky. Watch it in action below, and note how it compares to the iPhone’s multi-touch.
 
Where Did Internet Explorer's Browser Share Go? Top
Yesterday, browser market share figures came out from Net Applications, and the big news is how Chrome is moving up the ranks at the expense of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and even Firefox, compared to December.  But you have to look further back to get a sense of what is really happening. The various flavors of Internet Explorer (IE6, IE7, and IE8) together have 62.1 percent market share, down from 68.5 percent last March.  That is a 6.4 percent drop in about a year.  During the same period Chrome went from 1.6 percent share to 5.2 percent.  Firefox and Safari each gained about a percentage point each over the same period to 24.4 percent and 4.5 percent, respectively.  (Although Firefox is a tiny bit down since November, when it peaked at 24.7 percent).  If you add up the gains from those three—Chrome, Firefox, and Safari—that is where most of IE’s share went. But even that doesn’t tell the whole story because if you look at share of individual versions of the different browsers, you can see another dynamic in play.  Namely, a big part of the share shift can also be explained by the uneven rate at which people abandon older browsers like IE6 for newer ones like IE8 or Chrome.  Let’s look at the share shifts just among IE6, IE7, and IE8.  The pitchforks are out for IE6, people hate it and Websites (especially those run by Google ) think the sooner it dies, the better. Even Microsoft wants people to move away from IE6 . IE6’s individual market share has dropped by about 11 points since March, 2009, from 31.4 percent to 20 percent.  Meanwhile, IE8 took almost twice as much share as IE6 lost, it’s up  almost 21 points from almost nothing to 22.4 percent share.  So why did IE show an overall drop?  You can blame poor old IE7, which lost exactly as much as IE8 gained, going from 35.2 percent to 14.5 percent share. But taken alone, IE8 actually gained more than any other browser during the period (up 20.6 percent), followed by Firefox 3.5 (up 17.1 percent).  Chrome’s 5.2 percent share gain was spread across its Windows and Mac versions.  So IE8 is making stronger gains than you might think from simply looking at the overall IE share numbers.  In fact, in January, it finally surpassed IE6 in market share and is now the largest single browser. As IE6 and IE7 continue to dwindle, IE8 needs to capture as much of those legacy users as it can.  With almost 35 percent share left between them, IE8 will no doubt continue to see rapid individual share growth simply by getting people using older versions of IE to upgrade. It helps that IE8 comes pre-installed with the Windows 7 operating system also. But those users are also prime targets for Chrome and Firefox (which is still going through its own transition from 3.0 to 3.5).  Chrome, in particular, has the most to gain here.  It only needs another 5 percent to double its market share, whereas IE8 can win over another 20 percent and still see IE’s overall share go down.  It remains an open question where the overall shares will settle when all of this shakes out over the next year or so.
 
Did Google Just Multi-Punch Apple In The Face? Top
As great as Android phones are getting , there has been one major feature lacking that users have complained about: multi-touch. Yes, some third-party apps have been free to use it on certain devices, but the best Android apps, those made by Google, have all lacked it. Until now . With the Android update announced for Nexus One phones today, Google has enabled multi-touch for its Browser, Gallery, and Maps applications. Specifically, they’ve enabled the popular pinch-to-zoom functionality that iPhone users are fond of. So why did Google wait all this time to implement this obvious feature when its devices have been capable of it since the G1? Well, a report last year (written by me for another publication), cited a source within Google who noted that Apple and Google had a gentleman’s agreement that Android wouldn’t encroach on what Apple believed to be its property, certain multi-touch gestures, like pinch-to-zoom. With Apple and Google now fighting, all bets are apparently off. Android chief Andy Rubin has said that there was no conspiracy about multi-touch, and suggested the Google apps haven’t implemented it simply because he didn’t like the functionality too much. But given that just about every Android user disagrees with him, that statement seems suspicious, at best. And why the change of heart now? And why does it happen to coincide with a time that Apple and Google are clearly at odds with one another? While the two used to be just about as close as two companies can be, sharing two board members, one of whom was Google CEO Eric Schmidt, things have turned sour as the two are increasingly competing in various fields. This led to Schmidt resigning from Apple’s board last year, and since then things have gotten more sour. While the whole Google Voice not being allowed onto the iPhone situation was one thing, Steve Jobs reportedly made recent remarks that Google’s Android team was out to destroy the iPhone (as well as other disparaging remarks about Google). And the battle continues on — those new Chrome OS tablet mock-ups are clearly envisioning multi-touch usage, just like Apple’s new iPad . Apple and Google also apparently used to have a gentleman’s agreement not to poach each others workers, we reported in August . But again, with the situation between the two deteriorating, that is apparently off now as well. And Google may have another reason to be okay with implementing multi-touch now: the Palm Pre. Since its launch last year, webOS (the OS that runs on the Pre and other new Palm devices) has allowed for native multi-touch, including pinch-to-zoom. While Apple has made some thinly veiled threatening comments about protecting their IP, they have so far not sought any legal action against Palm for this. Microsoft’s new Zune device uses similar multi-touch functionality too. Maybe Google now believes that Apple is not going pursue legal action against the use of this, despite their many multi-touch patents. [image: warner brothers pictures]   CrunchBase Information Google Apple Android Nexus One iPhone Information provided by CrunchBase
 
News Corp Earnings Are In: Digital Media Contribution Decreases By $32 Million YOY Top
News Corporation this afternoon announced financial results for the second quarter ended December 31, 2009. Zooming in on the ‘Other’ segment, which houses News Corp’s Digital Media group, things are not looking too bright over there, in contrast to the rest of the business. The business unit, which manages MySpace, IGN Entertainment, as well as the Hulu joint venture with NBC Universal, took a bit of a hit ( again ). The company says earnings contributions from the Digital Media Group decreased by $32 million from a year ago, principally due to lower search and advertising revenue. Unfortunately, those numbers aren’t broken out in more detail. Other than that, News Corp actually performed remarkably well, solidly beating Wall Street’s expectations. News Corp reported net income of $254 million ($0.10 per share) for the last 3 months of 2009, compared to a net loss of $6.4 billion ($2.45 per share) in the second quarter a year ago. In the quarter, total revenue increased by 10% to $8.7 billion as a result of double-digit percentage growth at the majority of business segments (Filmed Entertainment, Television, Cable Network Programming, Newspapers and Information Services and Book Publishing) as compared to the same period a year ago, said News Corp. News Corp Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch said he was pleased with the results: Our strong top-line revenue growth demonstrates that News Corporation is emerging from this recession with renewed vigor and strength.
 
The Nexus One Just Got Multi-Touch Top
Google has just started to deploy an update to the Nexus One that brings a long-desired feature to Android: Multi0touch.  In a blog post announcing the news, Google says that the new update will bring “Pinch-to-zoom functionality” to the Nexus One, which will allow users to pinch-to-zoom in the Android browser, Gallery, and Maps applications. So does this mean that Multi-touch will be coming to all Android phones? Not quite yet.  A Google spokesperson says that multi-touch support is part of the Android 2.0 framework and that its integrated support on the Browser, gallery, and Maps applications will be part of the next Android update.  However, it will be up to carriers and device manufactures to roll the updated software to these devices.   The post also says that Nexus Ones will be receiving some other updated apps.  The new version of Google Maps Navigation will include a ‘night mode’ that automatically changes the screen for optimized night time driving.  And Google Goggles , which lets you search with pictures , will now be included in the default set of applications on the phone.  Finally, 3G connectivity has been improved. You may have to wait a little longer to get your update though — while the over-the-air update will start going out today, Google’s post says some users may not get it until the end of the week. It’s worth pointing out that Android has actually supported Multitouch for some time — the functionality just hasn’t been implemented on most popular Android devices, like the Droid and Nexus One. Some software add-ons have been circling that enable multitouch in the Android browser, but this is the first time Google has baked the feature in.
 
BlockChalk Locates A New Co-Founder From Craigslist (Another Former Delicious Key Architect) Top
It looks like another  Delicious key architect is migrating to the new location-based startup  BlockChalk . The latest is Josh Whiting, who was formerly a lead engineer at Delicious for three and a half years (he was actually one of the first members of the team before they were  acquired by Yahoo ,. we’re told) before he left that role to become a senior engineer for Craigslist. Whiting joins former colleague, Stephen Hood, who was the product lead at Delicious before starting BlockChalk with Dave Baggeroer of Stanford's Institute of Design. Along with his title of co-founder, Whiting will be BlockChalk’s chief engineer. The location space continues to be red hot right now, and BlockChalk has a compelling, yet simple product . It’s a mobile app that lets you adds notes to the real world by pinning them to any location. Hood notes that in the past few weeks alone, they’ve doubled traffic and users, and are now available in 111 countries, 8217 cities, and nearly 13,000 neighborhoods all over the world. Whiting’s engineering expertise will certainly come in handy, as will the local experience he’s picked up with Craigslist for the past year. You can find the BlockChalk iPhone app here in the App Store . Or simply use the mobile web to use it on Android phones (or the iPhone since it’s HTML5-ready). CrunchBase Information BlockChalk delicious Craigslist Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Gameloft Made $25 Million From The App Store Last Year Top
French game developer Gameloft , listed on Euronext Paris, this afternoon shared its 2009 financial results with the world. The video game publisher achieved consolidated sales of €122.0 million – roughly $170 million – for 2009, up 11% compared to 2008. The company also specified ‘iPhone revenue’, which presumably means its income from distribution of its games on both the iPhone and iPod Touch: in 2009, that number jumped 231% YOY to reach €17.6 million (approximately $25 million). Gameloft withdrew from boxed games in January 2009, and says mobile games accounted for 94% of the company’s sales for the whole year. The remaining 6% are related to consoles game sales. Full-year revenues from the mobile game segment grew by 12%, self-reportedly due to the success of the games the company distributes through Apple’s App Store. To demonstrate its growing importance for the company, you need only look at revenue figures for the fourth quarter of 2009: iPhone revenues for the company reached €7 million ($9.75 million), while initial expectations were €4.4 million. Total Q4 2009 sales reached €31.8 million ($44.5 million), which means revenues from the App Store are currently about 22% of the company’s total revenue. Last week, Gameloft CEO Michel Guillemot was quoted as saying that he regards the iPad as massive new opportunity for game developers, and to ’stay tuned’ for upcoming announcements on iPad-specific video games. Gameloft was founded by the Guillemot brothers, founders and owners of video games leader Ubisoft , and has partnership agreements with carriers, handset manufacturers, specialized distributors in over 100 countries. The company employs some 3,500 developers around the world. For a comprehensive list of games developed by Gameloft, head on over to their Wikipedia profile .
 
Twitter Responds To Phishing Attack Top
This morning, Twitter started locking out a subset of users of their accounts, sending them e-mails asking them to change their passwords in order to regain access to the service. The e-mail said those measures were taken due to concerns that their accounts may have been compromised in a phishing attack , and hinted at a third-party service being at fault. We asked Twitter for more information about the attack, and this is the response that they just gave us: As part of Twitter’s ongoing security efforts, we reset passwords for a small number of accounts that we believe may have been compromised offsite. In one case, a number of accounts posted updates indicative of giving their username and password to untrusted third parties. While we’re still investigating and ensuring that the appropriate parties are notified, we do believe that the steps we’ve taken should ensure user safety. Asked how many users were affected, Twitter declined to share details but said the number is ‘very small’. Twitter also said its response is for issues seen from last Wednesday on. Update: asked if Nutshellmail has something to do with this, which has been suggested on other blogs, Twitter says it has not. The company instead referred to multiple "get followers fast" schemes causing trouble for some users. Twitter promises to continue to provide updates and encourages users to read the help pages on what to do if their account is compromised . Note that Twitter has yet to communicate the whole ordeal on its company blog and/or status website , although the account @safety acknowledges the attack and refers to its security measures as a ‘precautionary step’. We’ll keep you posted as we try and obtain more information about these attacks.
 
Apple Demands Removal Of USB Sharing Feature In Stanza iPhone App Top
Like many people, I have the Stanza app installed on my iPhone. Made by Lexycle ( acquired by Amazon last year), Stanza is a free app for iPhone and iPod Touch that serves as a gateway to a library of more than 100,000 ebooks for easy reading on the go. Last night, I was prompted to update the app to a new version (2.1), and as usual I checked what the changes were. The accompanying message was pretty brief: ‘Removed the ability to share books via USB’. I thought it was an odd update but didn’t think much about it, and since I didn’t actually use that feature simply downloaded and installed the new version. Just for your reference: the feature enabled users to transfer books in the ePub or eReader format to their mobile devices using a USB cable . This morning, we got some tips from people who were angry or surprised about Lexcycle removing the USB sharing feature from the Stanza app. I looked up the app in the iTunes Store and saw that the update notice now read ‘Removed the ability to share books via USB as required by Apple’. A glance at the forums on the Lexcycle website revealed that users were quite upset about the removal of the app, with only some suggesting that Apple may have had something to do with it and offering explanations why they would have demanded it. I asked Lexcycle if and why Apple had requested the removal of the feature from the iPhone app via e-mail and swiftly received a short response, saying that Apple had indeed demanded that Lexcycle remove the feature from Stanza. I requested more information but was subsequently told by Lexcycle was strictly ‘forbidden from discussing the specifics of our conversations with Apple on this matter’. I’m sure Apple has good reasons to prevent people from being able to transfer files to iPhone and iPod Touch devices using a USB cable, and I believe this isn’t the first time they’ve asked developers of apps with this or similar features to remove them for new users. That said, I’m not 100% certain which rules were broken here, and since Apple requested Lexcycle not to discuss specifics we’re left guessing why Cupertino had an issue with the USB syncing features. Update: Chris Devor of myPod Apps , which built the iPhone Explorer program Stanza used for USB file transfer, told the LA Times : From an iPhone app development standpoint, you get access to two directories: (1) your app’s sandbox folder and (2) the DCIM directory for access to pictures and such. On a non-jailbroken iPhone, iPhone Explorer can access the DCIM directory, but not the apps sandbox. So we made a subfolder in the DCIM directory a common ground or shared folder for the two programs. At the time we began doing this we figured that we were in the iPhone app development “gray zone” and this was something that Apple hadn’t officially made a stance upon. Once Good Reader topped the charts around the world, it drew a bunch of attention from people and Apple figured we were up to no good. After a series of e-mails back and forth between the iPhone app developers and an Apple correspondent, the conclusion was as follows: (1) the iPhone apps must remove access to the DCIM directory (Apple claims this is in violation of the iPhone App Developer Agreement) (2) the developers should not blame (point the finger at) Apple for being forced to remove access to the folder (hence the lack of explanation from Stanza). Apple’s Michael Jurewitz also weighed in on Twitter , saying: “Simple point of fact — there are no public APIs for an iPhone app to sync via the USB cable”. He lated added that people are free to file an enhancement request. (Via MacWorld ) Naturally, this event adds fuel to the fire for the many observers claiming Apple is far too controlling, and it also seems rather suspicious that they’re targeting an Amazon company in light of the increased competition between the corporations in the ereader/ebook field. But in my mind, this is a small, non-essential feature they took away, and not updating the app to the new version preserves the USB sharing feature for those who deem it to be important enough to raise hell over anyway. Do you think Apple is going too far in placing constraints on iPhone applications, or do you think they’re well within their right to exercise as much control over the whole process as they do? The comment section is all yours.
 

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