Programming

Googlers exultant over launch of Blink browser engine

Today, Google launched Blink, its fork of the WebKit browser engine, and members of Google's Chrome team clearly are excited about their liberation.

With the fork, Google will concentrate its core browser development efforts on Blink, which will gradually diverge from the WebKit project on which it's based. You can read more about the context and history leading to Blink in CNET's coverage, or read the official Blink blog post and Blink FAQ for the party line.

But to get a feel for the emotion involved, check the commentary from the Chrome team members themselves. They're … Read more

Google parts ways with Apple over WebKit, launches Blink

A years-long marriage of convenience that linked Google and Apple browser technologies is ending in divorce.

In a move that Google says will technologically liberate both Chrome and Safari, the company has begun its own offshoot of the WebKit browser engine project called Blink. Initially it uses the same software code base that all WebKit-based browsers share, but over time it will diverge into a totally separate project, Google announced today.

The move marks the end of years of direct WebKit programming cooperation between the two rivals. WebKit is an open-source project, meaning that anyone can use and modify the … Read more

IE11, Windows Blue could support Google's SPDY protocol

Another tantalizing tidbit has emerged from last month's leaked IE11 build: the possibility that the next version of Internet Explorer could support Google's SPDY technology for faster browser-server communications.

It's not working yet, but SPDY "is being implemented," said Rafael Rivera of the Within Windows blog. Paul Thurrot of WinSuperSite also said SPDY is coming.

The SPDY support is at the operating system level, meaning that other software besides just IE11 could take advantage of it, Rivera said.

Microsoft declined to comment on the matter.

Google has rounded up several allies to standardize SPDY technology, … Read more

Google shows interest in ASM.js, Mozilla's plan for fast Web apps

At least some at Google want to embrace a Mozilla-backed project to speed up Web apps written with JavaScript -- even though it competes directly with Google's own Native Client and Dart programming technology.

Mozilla has been working for months on a technology called ASM.js, which it hopes will boost JavaScript performance, especially in combination with a related Mozilla-spawned technology called Emscripten. JavaScript powers Web apps such as Google Docs, and ASM.js is a special "extremely restricted" subset of the programming language that's designed to make it easier for developers to bring existing software … Read more

Google to fix some WebP image format shortcomings

Google is on the cusp of fixing some initial shortcomings of its WebP, an image format it hopes will speed up browsing.

A new version of libwebp, the library that software can use to display and create WebP images, adds support several features, some of which were the subject of criticism when Google announced WebP in 2010:

Metadata handling so people can see camera and exposure information stored in the file with the EXIF and XMP technologies.

ICC (International Color Consortium) color profiles for more accurate color rendering.

Animated WebP images, a new spin on a once-once obscure GIF technology … Read more

Adobe and Apple: Allies and rivals through the ages

When Adobe Systems revealed yesterday that Chief Technology Officer Kevin Lynch is leaving for Apple, it was only the latest example of an unusual combination of alliance and rivalry that has linked the Silicon Valley companies for decades.

Lynch, who came to Adobe via its acquisition of Macromedia in 2005, is notable for leading the company's battle against Apple to spread its Flash Player programming technology to Apple's iPhone and iPad. He lost that battle at Adobe, but evidently managed something more than a frosty detente with Apple.

Apple and Adobe have a long history of both agreement … Read more

Microsoft backs away from Flash ban in IE10

An about-face in Internet Explorer 10 shows Microsoft is not merely backing off from its hostility toward Flash Player, but actually warming up to the Adobe Systems browser plug-in for competitive reasons.

In September 2011, Microsoft declared that browser plug-ins are a relic from the Internet's early days, calling them bad for battery life, security, reliability, and privacy, and said that it would ban them when IE10 was running with Windows 8's Metro user interface, now called the "immersive UI."

But Microsoft gave Flash a reprieve in May 2012 by building a special version of Adobe'… Read more

Microsoft offers Kinect code samples under open source

Microsoft is continuing a push to turn its Kinect motion-sensing game controller into a natural user-interface device for PCs, by sharing samples of the Kinect for Windows code under an open source license.

The idea is to give developers the opportunity to reuse the code and help Microsoft figure out how to improve it, Ben Lower, Kinect for Windows developer community manager, wrote in a blog post last week.

The company has posted 22 samples -- including code for face tracking, its skeletal viewer, and slideshow gestures -- in C#, C++, and Visual Basic. The code is available under an … Read more

Coming to an e-book or car near you: The Web

BARCELONA, Spain--You're used to the Web on your PC. You're getting used to it on your smartphone. So what's next?

Publishing and automobile industry players have just begun spinning up efforts at the World Wide Web Consortium, said W3C Chief Executive Jeff Jaffe in an interview here at Mobile World Congress. So don't be surprised to see proprietary technology for e-book readers and in-dash computer systems slowly disappear in favor of software based on Web technology.

Books are perhaps an obvious area for Web technology, given that in electronic form they're just formatted documents and the Web began its life as a way to share formatted documents. But the two domains have taken years to reach today's level of convergence.

"The Web equals publishing," Jaffe said. "There's really no difference anymore."

Among the inroads Web technology has made into publishing:… Read more