javascript

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

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which we answer questions e-mailed in by our readers.

This week people wrote in with questions about firmware passwords on new Mac systems not resetting with hardware resets, concerns regarding malware in Time Machine backups, trashed files prompting for admin passwords and then being immediately deleted, and the difference between Java and JavaScript with regard to the recent malware threats for OS X. We welcome alternative approaches and views from readers, so if you have any suggestions, post them in the comments!

Question: Firmware password not resetting on a new Mac system MacFixIt reader … Read more

Intel's new chip for smartphones handily beats some of the fastest phones on the market, according to chip review site Anandtech.

Intel's Atom Z2460 "Medfield" delivers "tablet-like scores" on the BrowserMark benchmark, wrote Anand Shimpi. "The Galaxy Nexus running ICS (Ice Cream Sandwich) comes close, but once again Intel expects that on the same OS Medfield should be faster than any of the currently available SoCs (system-on-a-chip)," he said.

Intel announced the Medfield chip Tuesday at CES. The system-on-a-chip will be used in upcoming smartphones--and presumably other devices--from Lenovo and Motorola.

And … Read more

iPhone 4S pre-orders top 1 million units, Yahoo pulls out of its bid for Hulu, and Netflix announces the cancellation of Qwikster in a brief blog post.

Links from Monday's episode of Loaded:

Mozilla programmers have achieved a goal to build a PDF reader out of Web programming technology, the "pixel-perfect" rendering of a particular file.

The file, a research paper on fast execution of JavaScript (PDF), contains formatted text, graphics, tables, and graphical diagrams. With the high-quality rendering, programmers Andreas Gal and Chris Jones declared the pdf.js mature enough to warrant the 0.2 version number yesterday.

The pdf.js project, introduced to the world in June, uses JavaScript and HTML5's Canvas For to process and display the file. Version 0.2 adds a better user interface, support … Read more

Strobe, a start-up focusing on publishing tools that employ a new generation of Web standards, has secured first-round funding.

Chief Executive and co-founder Charles Jolley announced the move today but declined to share exactly how much Hummer-Winblad and O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures bestowed upon his company. The company's technology is based on a project called SproutCore that Jolley has been working on for years, including several while at Apple. Jolley left Apple in July.

SproutCore uses JavaScript and other Web tools to endow Web pages with user interfaces more like what one would expect of a native application. It … Read more

Imagine if you could pray to your computer to stop the beach ball of doom from spinning, the blue screen of death from staring you in the face.

Perhaps someday sooner than we think, such a simple, palm-to-palm gesture might actually serve to trigger a series of operations that would lead to an appropriate fix.

As reported by Engadget and Read, Write, Web, a group of students at MIT's Media Lab has hacked around with Microsoft's Kinect gaming technology, Google's Chrome browser, and Javascript to allow Web surfers to manipulate a browser with nothing more than gestures. … Read more

Apple's Help browser is a central tool that many applications use to present help information. Most of Apple's programs make use of the browser, and people who use iLife, iWork, and Apple's Pro applications may rely on the browser to help them through problems or find desired functions. This centralized approach is useful; however, if a problem occurs it may prevent help information from being seen in all applications that use the browser.

Recently MacFixIt reader Rod ran into a problem where his help viewer stopped showing help content after installing iLife '11, and after spending time … Read more

The game channel of a popular Chinese information and entertainment Web site, Mop.com, has been compromised, leaving the accounts of online gamers vulnerable to theft, security vendor Websense has warned.

In a blog post Monday, Websense said cybercriminals had injected the game site with malicious code by modifying a Javascript file referenced by the site.

Mop.com has more than 50 million registered users and clocks over 200 million pageviews daily, the security company noted, adding that the game site is especially popular with World of Warcraft fans. The site is ranked No. 274 on Alexa's list of … Read more